I had, yes, but it was a pleasure to watch it again. Clara's leaf (“Take it. You blew into the world on this leaf. Hold tight. It will take you home.”) juxtaposed with Lorna Bucket's / River's (“and we believe if you keep this with you, your child will always come home to you”)...
You can totally buy that they're doing all of this deliberately and loving every moment of it, but then they do something like the Statue of Liberty in The Angels Take Manhattan and I can't help thinking “You really expect us to believe that in the City that Never Sleeps nobody looked up and stopped it in its tracks? And if that didn't occur to them, how sure can I be that I'm not just making up some of this other stuff?” Yes, Philip Sandifer can call it an “endearingly gonzo set piece”, but it feels... clumsy? Like something that you can get caught up in the first time you watch it but shouldn't ever watch or think about again, which given how other bits delightfully transcend the idea of reading too much into things... just feels wrong.
Or take the tragedy of River's childhood. We've got your meta in the Doctor's Final Lesson about how the Ponds respond to people messing up their beloveds' lives (“Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe” / “She is to me!” / “Haha! Welcome back Rory Williams!” (said by Eleven with obvious approval) // “I'm going to pull time apart for you”) and yet the Doctor pretty much says “yep, River's childhood is now doomed” and the Ponds are okay with that? That exchange with Vastra near the end of A Good Man: “Yes, they did, and it's already too late.” / “You're giving up? You never do that.” / “Yeah, and don't you sometimes wish I did!” And that's it? From a purely constructional point of view, it doesn't work for me. He's a Pond with a Time Head, and he's just giving up? And in the episodes after Let's Kill Hitler Amy and Rory are just okay with that?
Yes, so many things, to Promethia's point, point in the same direction, and do so beautiful and subtly and clearly deliberately. But not all the things. And some of the things that don't feel too sloppy to ignore. And that's where it doesn't feel like I'm watching the same show that you and Promethia are watching, although I wish I were. Is it just that you're better at not worrying about the details that don't fit? Or am I missing something?
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You can totally buy that they're doing all of this deliberately and loving every moment of it, but then they do something like the Statue of Liberty in The Angels Take Manhattan and I can't help thinking “You really expect us to believe that in the City that Never Sleeps nobody looked up and stopped it in its tracks? And if that didn't occur to them, how sure can I be that I'm not just making up some of this other stuff?” Yes, Philip Sandifer can call it an “endearingly gonzo set piece”, but it feels... clumsy? Like something that you can get caught up in the first time you watch it but shouldn't ever watch or think about again, which given how other bits delightfully transcend the idea of reading too much into things... just feels wrong.
Or take the tragedy of River's childhood. We've got your meta in the Doctor's Final Lesson about how the Ponds respond to people messing up their beloveds' lives (“Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe” / “She is to me!” / “Haha! Welcome back Rory Williams!” (said by Eleven with obvious approval) // “I'm going to pull time apart for you”) and yet the Doctor pretty much says “yep, River's childhood is now doomed” and the Ponds are okay with that? That exchange with Vastra near the end of A Good Man: “Yes, they did, and it's already too late.” / “You're giving up? You never do that.” / “Yeah, and don't you sometimes wish I did!” And that's it? From a purely constructional point of view, it doesn't work for me. He's a Pond with a Time Head, and he's just giving up? And in the episodes after Let's Kill Hitler Amy and Rory are just okay with that?
Yes, so many things, to Promethia's point, point in the same direction, and do so beautiful and subtly and clearly deliberately. But not all the things. And some of the things that don't feel too sloppy to ignore. And that's where it doesn't feel like I'm watching the same show that you and Promethia are watching, although I wish I were. Is it just that you're better at not worrying about the details that don't fit? Or am I missing something?