5x09 Cold Blood (Grading/Discussion) SPOILERS!!!

[Guy Gardener]

If she is still getting married, but to someone else, maybe the really handsome one, and she still made out with him, why didn't the Dopctor go and get the other groom? OR... If she wasn't going to get married to anyone anymore, Rory's other death wouldn't have saved the dynamic duo from the dreamlord and the Doctor wouldn't have had much choice but to submit to having sex with the ginger ape acouple episodes earlier.

 

[Pindar]

This series is bubbling along nicely, another entertaining episode.

Based on some of what I read here I wonder if I am missing out on watching a show I hate to bitch about every week.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^LOL sometimes I share the same thoughts...it's like we're dissecting Smallville or something.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Better than the first half - I do love the lizard-babe army...

I'm in two minds about the loss of Rory, though I feel very sorry for Amy. On one hand, I'm glad to see the back of Arthur Darvill, who I feel is the weak link in the acting stakes. OTOH, I feel a reset coming on that will restore him in the finale - the crack erased him from history, yeah, but that means it erased his death from history. And if the finale is calling back to the opener, then I think what'll happen is Rory will be restored to the night before his wedding, but this time he won't go in the TARDIS.

And then the "what can exlode with such force to blow holes in the continuum?" thing... Oho...

It's nice to have a Silurian story that doesn't end up with them all getting killed.

Anyhow, um, 8/10

 

[HappyDayRiot]

So Ten caused the cracks when he regenerated in the TARDIS. Its all slowly coming together...

for what its worth all signs point towards that.

Nope, Ten didn't cause the crack.

If you looked carefully, the fragment was an exact match to Eleven's new TARDIS. Also, the crack seem to be getting thicker as we get towards the series finale, so I suspect something Eleven is going to do in the future would cause the TARDIS to explode.

Exactly. And it happens on 26th June 2010, over 5 years after Ten regenerated. Nothing to do with him at all, though I can see why some people are thinking along those lines.

I'd say it's just hugely unlikely Moffatt would have the cause of his season's arc be something that happened under the previous showrunner's tenure rather than something he crafted himself.

 

[Cutter John]

Was going to give it good but the finale made it Excellent though how did Lea dye from a taser ?.

For humans, sure. Obviously Silurian physiology doesn't handle massive jolts of electricity to the heart region very well.

What personalities?!? They were cyphers, nothing more. The angry military leader (with familial connections to the soldier us humans just killed, of course), the wise elder, the morally resolute scientist (who's totally fine with VIVISECTION btw, but lets just ignore that this episode). And all played their usual roles in this cliche ridden suckfest.

Damn, what're you so pissed off about?

Compared to the usual 'Die, puny humans!' aliens we normally get on the show, yes, I thought they had tons of personality.

Another awful episode to finish off a very bad two parter.

But at least that whiny prat is dead now and hopefully for good.

But i have got a really bad feeling there's going to be a deus ex machina that's going to resurrect the useless moron.

HEY WATCH IT. Some of us were rather fond of that whiny prat thank you very much.

 

[Cyke101]

What personalities?!? They were cyphers, nothing more. The angry military leader (with familial connections to the soldier us humans just killed, of course), the wise elder, the morally resolute scientist (who's totally fine with VIVISECTION btw, but lets just ignore that this episode). And all played their usual roles in this cliche ridden suckfest.

Damn, what're you so pissed off about?

Compared to the usual 'Die, puny humans!' aliens we normally get on the show, yes, I thought they had tons of personality.

You should've rephrased it: "They had tons of personality... for a Doctor Who episode"

 

[Winterwind]

Gave it a "Good" although Rory's death was not expected and I quite liked the guy. Well, somewhere between "like" and "I feel sorry for the poor bastard so he's got my sympathy".

As for how someone can die from a taser... Jax, I'm guessing you're not big on reading the news.

 

[Jax]

^
I do but I would think a tough thick venomed filled Lizard could handle a few jolts, she didn't hit her that often and they called us weak apes

 

[Winterwind]

Well, she may have had an existing heart condition.

 

[cultcross]

This show seems very keen on using forgetting stuff as a way of not dealing with the consequences of events. So we've killed off Rory, and wiped it from Amy's mind so that she can carry on next week as if nothing had happened. So... what was the point of him existing in the first place again? A totally inconsequential character death with little or no emotional impact at all. And how does Rory never having existed fit with the timeline of the last couple of episodes in which he played a role in the plot, and which needed to happen to get to this point?

 

[Jax]

Well, she may have had an existing heart condition.

Hope she at least had a good dental plan for being head of the army

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

This show seems very keen on using forgetting stuff as a way of not dealing with the consequences of events. So we've killed off Rory, and wiped it from Amy's mind so that she can carry on next week as if nothing had happened. So... what was the point of him existing in the first place again? A totally inconsequential character death with little or no emotional impact at all. And how does Rory never having existed fit with the timeline of the last couple of episodes in which he played a role in the plot, and which needed to happen to get to this point?

We remember him, so does the Doctor, but Amy doesn't. That's the point.

 

[Cyke101]

This show seems very keen on using forgetting stuff as a way of not dealing with the consequences of events. So we've killed off Rory, and wiped it from Amy's mind so that she can carry on next week as if nothing had happened. So... what was the point of him existing in the first place again? A totally inconsequential character death with little or no emotional impact at all. And how does Rory never having existed fit with the timeline of the last couple of episodes in which he played a role in the plot, and which needed to happen to get to this point?

We remember him, so does the Doctor, but Amy doesn't. That's the point.

Also important: the emphasis that the engagement ring got, both at the beginning and the end of the two-parter. We've got to remember that this is a season-long story arc.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

What personalities?!? They were cyphers, nothing more. The angry military leader (with familial connections to the soldier us humans just killed, of course), the wise elder, the morally resolute scientist (who's totally fine with VIVISECTION btw, but lets just ignore that this episode). And all played their usual roles in this cliche ridden suckfest.

Damn, what're you so pissed off about?

Compared to the usual 'Die, puny humans!' aliens we normally get on the show, yes, I thought they had tons of personality.

You should've rephrased it: "They had tons of personality... for a Doctor Who episode"

Heh. Not sure if I agree with that, but heh.

At any rate CJ, you really haven't seen these exact same tropes at least a half dozen times before in different media? What was there that made these characters special?

Also, what about the army of Silurians stepping out of hibernation after how many years and instantly ready to follow Restak(?) in not only killing the humans, but also a defenseless scientist and their wise leader? That would seem to fit your definition of "die puny humans".

 

[DAK]

I have to admit that even though I'd thought that Amy's fixation on the Doctor was unhealthy and that the Doctor probably had ulterior motives for bringing Amy aboard, "Amy's Choice" made it clear that the Doctor does have some romantic feelings for her, and I had been shipping Amy/Doctor a bit. I'm wondering how the erasure of Rory will affect the Doctor/Amy relationship -- and at the same time, I find myself unexpectedly sad, as I found myself simultaneously shipping Amy/Rory (which turned out to be a much sweeter and more organic relationship than I'd thought it would be).

I think the Doctor has to be feeling a ton of guilt over what he's inadvertantly taken from Amy. So many what ifs - if he'd ignored the crack, or made sure they were in the TARDIS before reaching into it, or dragged Rory away from the light before it got to him, or acted a little quicker with the sonic to disable the weapon, etc. The thing about shipping for the Doctor with anybody is you know it will end badly; he can never have a happily ever after with anybody. So 10 years down the road when Amy's left him (as she inevitably will), she'll have nobody to go home to or share her memories of traveling in the TARDIS with. She'll end up like Sara Jane Smith did.

^
I do but I would think a tough thick venomed filled Lizard could handle a few jolts, she didn't hit her that often and they called us weak apes

She could have jolted her many more times than was shown. Plus she held it for a long time; you're only supposed to deliver a quick zap and then stop.

This show seems very keen on using forgetting stuff as a way of not dealing with the consequences of events. So we've killed off Rory, and wiped it from Amy's mind so that she can carry on next week as if nothing had happened. So... what was the point of him existing in the first place again? A totally inconsequential character death with little or no emotional impact at all. And how does Rory never having existed fit with the timeline of the last couple of episodes in which he played a role in the plot, and which needed to happen to get to this point?

It's sure to have an emotional impact on the Doctor. Rory did save him a regeneration by shoving him out of the way of that Silurian weapon. And as I said above, he knows that Amy's lost someone she wanted to spend her life with, even if she doesn't.

 

[JoeZhang]

This show seems very keen on using forgetting stuff as a way of not dealing with the consequences of events. So we've killed off Rory, and wiped it from Amy's mind so that she can carry on next week as if nothing had happened. So... what was the point of him existing in the first place again? A totally inconsequential character death with little or no emotional impact at all. And how does Rory never having existed fit with the timeline of the last couple of episodes in which he played a role in the plot, and which needed to happen to get to this point?

I don't understand how anyone could watch that and come to that conclusion? Why is it difficult to see this is simply another beat in a series long storyline?

Is the modern audience really so mentally slow they need obvious things spelling out to them?

 

[Cutter John]

Having Amy forget seemed reasonable. After all the last time Rory 'died' she promptly killed herself. And the show needs her character to be able to function til at least the finale.

And yes I'm still holding out hope that the crack will spit him back out once the series finale rolls around.

At any rate CJ, you really haven't seen these exact same tropes at least a half dozen times before in different media? What was there that made these characters special?

Also, what about the army of Silurians stepping out of hibernation after how many years and instantly ready to follow Restak(?) in not only killing the humans, but also a defenseless scientist and their wise leader? That would seem to fit your definition of "die puny humans".

I'm not really interested in other mediums here, just DW. Okay, maybe I phrased it wrongly. My point was that since Who came back we haven't seen this sort of internal conflict among the monsters of the week. You've certainly never seen Sontaran, Cybermen, or even Krillitane debating whether what they're doing is right. I mean hell, just having an alien species who isn't totally evil is unusual in iitself.

All I'm saying is I enjoyed them a lot more than the average DW monster.

 

[RevdKathy]

People assuming that the crack was caused by something done by Ten seem to have forgotten that earlier this season saw the creation of big arsed Fischer Price daleks. My money is on them having something to do with the crack.

The other thing I'm very conscious of is the Doctor's statement "It's all about you" to Amy. I suspect we have some sort of timey-wimey backwards thing reminiscent of Bad Wolf, where Amy does something which causes the crack to leak backwards into her own timeline.

There's also the fact that a 'later' or 'alternate' Doctor appears to be crossing his own timeline to ensure that she remembers things. If Amy's ability to remember people after the crack has touched them is what makes their survival possible, "Remember what I said to you when you were 8" (ie. before we started looking at the crack) might be about the Doctor's very existence.

I strongly suspect Rory will be back, or at the very least reinstated into history/memory. What happens when the crack closes?

 

[Photoman15]

You assume 10 regenned in 2005. He left Rose in 2005, flew up and out. To when we don't know. Plus the regen powered TARDIS explosion could have brought the TARDIS up to 2010 then plummet it back to Earth and in time to 7 year old Amy's time.