"Smith and Jones" pic recap 3/3
Jul. 15th, 2007 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthI got really talky for the last part of this recap, but there's till plenty of pictures to go with it.
-I’m still troubled by the whole not-regenerating thing.
This is the first evidence of the Doctor’s newly refound death wish, he had no plan for if he would survive it and he didn’t regenerate, he was going to just be dead; and I think he would have been okay with that.
-“Burn with me,” now I need to give some thought to if that has a larger theme this season too.
-Seriously, what is up with his hair, it seems to have taken on a life of its own.
Anyway, this would have been a good time for Martha to be smart on her own and figure out how to stop the MRI machine from overloading. Yes it’s smart to figure out Time Lord CPR, and his life did need to be saved (though the less said on the subject to CPR to bring him back from blood loss the better), but it begins the feeling of her being reliant on the Doctor to save the world.
Yeah, I know I’ve been complaining about them making Martha too smart, but here’s where it counts and I want her to be the hero in her own right. Particularly when it was as simple as unplugging stuff.
-Why did we need to see the Doctor carrying Martha around? It seems quite pointless really.
I kept expecting him to put her on a gurney or something but no he just keep carrying her even though she was unconscious. And I’ve never really thought of him as a very physically strong character so why/how does he do this when there’s very little air to breath and he’s recently suffered a large loss of blood, when it’s not like she can enjoy the sight of raining on the moon anyway.
-Point of order, if all these people were unconscious due to oxygen starvation, they should not all be up real quickly, but I suppose some time could have passed. But then the Doctor usually slips away pretty quickly.
-Okay, random guy looses some companion points by making it sound like he helped the situation by fighting while what he did was act as mediator.
Still, that could be an interesting character, one who wants to be an action hero, or at least seen as one, learning that there are other ways of being awesome. Why am I so fascinated with random guy?
-I guess random guy in Morgenstern then? And his first name is Oliver? And if you’re playing spot the Saxon references, they’re not hard to miss. And I have no idea what emotion Freema’s going for here but she doesn’t convincingly sell whatever it is.
-Here we have all the Jones’ in one scene and all I know about them is background noise.
I think that’s partly intentional, they’re annoying background noise in Martha’s life, but they’re all so flat that I’m continually annoyed. I really do want to know how these people relate to each other, but they’re all just caricatures. Annalise is the worst, but I rather like the theory that the blond in Martha’s world had to be an idiot blond bimbo to shape Martha’s attitude about Rose, that doesn’t excuse the characterization though (and seeing as Martha doesn’t learn Rose was blond until very late in the season even that doesn’t quite work, maybe it was meant to shape things with Joan, who had absolutely nothing else in common with Annalise).
-Also, I wish we had some idea of how long it’s been since Clive and Francine split up, because if it was recently (which is kind of implied) why would he bring his girlfriend who broke up the marriage to the party and not expect a scene? And if it’s been a while how could he not have any idea how Francine would react and well…basically either way why didn’t he expect there might be a scene? I like you well enough later Clive, but right now, not so much.
-Also also, another reason I wish these characters had gotten fleshed out is I get the impression Annalise could be a lot smarter than she’s given credit for/generally appears. She might not be a big picture sort of person (and that could be an act), but she does watch and pay attention to the news, and she seems...far too much a caricature to be real. Now I’m totally retroactively wishing she’d been tied in with the Saxon plot somehow (see here’s the problem with my recaps, they turn into wild theorizing area for things that will never be).
-I think I might remember why I was crushing on Leo when this first aired, he just has no time for his family’s squabbles and he doesn’t care who knows it. That, and he’s cute (hey I defaulted to an adjective besides pretty).
-The Doctor looks awfully pretty if a bit stalkerish.
-I do have to wonder about Martha’s “Why didn’t you tell me not to go to work?”
She thinks about time travel incredibly differently than Rose who started out thinking the past couldn’t be changed once they knew it had happened, and who never thought about what it could do for her (she didn’t think in Father’s Day, she just did). And after all that, Martha thinks he should have told her not to go, which is just…obvious that she doesn’t think it through.
-Strictly prohibited except for cheep tricks…and if your companion/love of your life wants to see the father she never knew.
-The Doctor seems so tired of “It’s bigger on the inside” moments. I mostly like Martha’s reaction to it (on paper, Freema’s acting leaves something to be desired), but the Doctor’s undertone of ‘Just get on with it,’ is what sets the scene apart.
And kudos to David for thinking up mouthing the “It’s bigger on the inside,” part which totally stole the scene.
-Oh Rose.
They were together, that’s really all that needs saying, however you choose to interpret that line, at the least it’s describing them as a team, a together item. The Doctor and Rose, they traveled as a pair.
-The Doctor’s sanitized version of where Rose is now, cleaned up for himself and for Martha.
With her family and happy, fine; he has to believe it, and he can’t tell Martha otherwise, but it does leave Martha with the wrong idea about the state of that relationship.
-“Not that you’re replacing her.”
Trust me Martha, you can’t, don’t try, be awesome in your own way but you can’t take Rose’s place. You can’t be her, you shouldn’t have to be, but I still wanted you to be good. I wish she’d listened, moved out of Rose’s shadow far earlier, because I love Rose, the Doctor loves Rose, and as long as Martha was standing in that shadow, she’ll always be second (or third...), but she didn’t have to be second to anyone.
-“I’d rather be on my own,” is a step up for “I don’t need anyone,” but it’s still not true. He doesn’t want to be on his own, it’s just that what he wants is very specific and very impossible. Still for all his insistence that it’s just one trip, it’s not just that Freema’s name is in the credits that makes it obvious it won’t just be one trip, he’s not good on his own and he does like her. Just, like I said, what he wants and loves is Rose.
-I think Martha’s flirting makes him really uncomfortable and not in the “I’m trying to resonate concrete” way. He really doesn’t want to deal with it, he wants a friend and companion, but is in no way ready to deal with love again, even Martha’s shallow kind.
So he’s glad to believe she’d only go for humans, though I still think he finds another notch to close himself down, because he seemed quite open in the scene outside in a way I don’t think we really see again.
-Martha, you’re the one who tried out saying you only go for humans, don’t try and act put off when he says “Good,” to that.
-And off we go, into the next adventure.
All told, after this episode I wasn’t sure what to make of Martha. I mean, I focused on all the textual and subtextual ways in which Rose was still the one the Doctor loved, and I was never willing to give Martha’s crush on the Doctor even half a chance, but I was willing to give Martha a chance. And here...she was okay. She wasn’t all that interesting a character but I thought they’d go places with her story that they never even got near. I thought once they’d convinced us she was such an awesome companion candidate they’d have the courage to give her a personality that would have faults but be interesting. I figured the reason for giving her a large family was to do things with that story, lots of characters to play with, and interactions that hadn’t been possible with Rose’s small family. I figured this crush subplot was just a way to get her on board and then we’d see her have a real emotional arc of the season not tied to that.
And I’m not sure whose story this is. Martha never really owns the story although it should be hers; it isn’t Rose’s even though her presence is there, because she always remains the heart of the show; it’s not quite the Doctor’s because while we can see into his eyes we don’t really see through them. It’s a bit disconnected and distant somehow, which I suppose is how the Doctor’s feeling so maybe it is his story after all.
I don’t know, but I miss Rose, that never really changes.
I don't know when I'll get to TSC, I really don't, but I wouldn't expect it to be posted before next weekend (it could happen but I wouldn't bet on it).
-I’m still troubled by the whole not-regenerating thing.
This is the first evidence of the Doctor’s newly refound death wish, he had no plan for if he would survive it and he didn’t regenerate, he was going to just be dead; and I think he would have been okay with that.
-“Burn with me,” now I need to give some thought to if that has a larger theme this season too.
-Seriously, what is up with his hair, it seems to have taken on a life of its own.
Anyway, this would have been a good time for Martha to be smart on her own and figure out how to stop the MRI machine from overloading. Yes it’s smart to figure out Time Lord CPR, and his life did need to be saved (though the less said on the subject to CPR to bring him back from blood loss the better), but it begins the feeling of her being reliant on the Doctor to save the world.
Yeah, I know I’ve been complaining about them making Martha too smart, but here’s where it counts and I want her to be the hero in her own right. Particularly when it was as simple as unplugging stuff.
-Why did we need to see the Doctor carrying Martha around? It seems quite pointless really.
I kept expecting him to put her on a gurney or something but no he just keep carrying her even though she was unconscious. And I’ve never really thought of him as a very physically strong character so why/how does he do this when there’s very little air to breath and he’s recently suffered a large loss of blood, when it’s not like she can enjoy the sight of raining on the moon anyway.
-Point of order, if all these people were unconscious due to oxygen starvation, they should not all be up real quickly, but I suppose some time could have passed. But then the Doctor usually slips away pretty quickly.
-Okay, random guy looses some companion points by making it sound like he helped the situation by fighting while what he did was act as mediator.
Still, that could be an interesting character, one who wants to be an action hero, or at least seen as one, learning that there are other ways of being awesome. Why am I so fascinated with random guy?
-I guess random guy in Morgenstern then? And his first name is Oliver? And if you’re playing spot the Saxon references, they’re not hard to miss. And I have no idea what emotion Freema’s going for here but she doesn’t convincingly sell whatever it is.
-Here we have all the Jones’ in one scene and all I know about them is background noise.
I think that’s partly intentional, they’re annoying background noise in Martha’s life, but they’re all so flat that I’m continually annoyed. I really do want to know how these people relate to each other, but they’re all just caricatures. Annalise is the worst, but I rather like the theory that the blond in Martha’s world had to be an idiot blond bimbo to shape Martha’s attitude about Rose, that doesn’t excuse the characterization though (and seeing as Martha doesn’t learn Rose was blond until very late in the season even that doesn’t quite work, maybe it was meant to shape things with Joan, who had absolutely nothing else in common with Annalise).
-Also, I wish we had some idea of how long it’s been since Clive and Francine split up, because if it was recently (which is kind of implied) why would he bring his girlfriend who broke up the marriage to the party and not expect a scene? And if it’s been a while how could he not have any idea how Francine would react and well…basically either way why didn’t he expect there might be a scene? I like you well enough later Clive, but right now, not so much.
-Also also, another reason I wish these characters had gotten fleshed out is I get the impression Annalise could be a lot smarter than she’s given credit for/generally appears. She might not be a big picture sort of person (and that could be an act), but she does watch and pay attention to the news, and she seems...far too much a caricature to be real. Now I’m totally retroactively wishing she’d been tied in with the Saxon plot somehow (see here’s the problem with my recaps, they turn into wild theorizing area for things that will never be).
-I think I might remember why I was crushing on Leo when this first aired, he just has no time for his family’s squabbles and he doesn’t care who knows it. That, and he’s cute (hey I defaulted to an adjective besides pretty).
-The Doctor looks awfully pretty if a bit stalkerish.
-I do have to wonder about Martha’s “Why didn’t you tell me not to go to work?”
She thinks about time travel incredibly differently than Rose who started out thinking the past couldn’t be changed once they knew it had happened, and who never thought about what it could do for her (she didn’t think in Father’s Day, she just did). And after all that, Martha thinks he should have told her not to go, which is just…obvious that she doesn’t think it through.
-Strictly prohibited except for cheep tricks…and if your companion/love of your life wants to see the father she never knew.
-The Doctor seems so tired of “It’s bigger on the inside” moments. I mostly like Martha’s reaction to it (on paper, Freema’s acting leaves something to be desired), but the Doctor’s undertone of ‘Just get on with it,’ is what sets the scene apart.
And kudos to David for thinking up mouthing the “It’s bigger on the inside,” part which totally stole the scene.
-Oh Rose.
They were together, that’s really all that needs saying, however you choose to interpret that line, at the least it’s describing them as a team, a together item. The Doctor and Rose, they traveled as a pair.
-The Doctor’s sanitized version of where Rose is now, cleaned up for himself and for Martha.
With her family and happy, fine; he has to believe it, and he can’t tell Martha otherwise, but it does leave Martha with the wrong idea about the state of that relationship.
-“Not that you’re replacing her.”
Trust me Martha, you can’t, don’t try, be awesome in your own way but you can’t take Rose’s place. You can’t be her, you shouldn’t have to be, but I still wanted you to be good. I wish she’d listened, moved out of Rose’s shadow far earlier, because I love Rose, the Doctor loves Rose, and as long as Martha was standing in that shadow, she’ll always be second (or third...), but she didn’t have to be second to anyone.
-“I’d rather be on my own,” is a step up for “I don’t need anyone,” but it’s still not true. He doesn’t want to be on his own, it’s just that what he wants is very specific and very impossible. Still for all his insistence that it’s just one trip, it’s not just that Freema’s name is in the credits that makes it obvious it won’t just be one trip, he’s not good on his own and he does like her. Just, like I said, what he wants and loves is Rose.
-I think Martha’s flirting makes him really uncomfortable and not in the “I’m trying to resonate concrete” way. He really doesn’t want to deal with it, he wants a friend and companion, but is in no way ready to deal with love again, even Martha’s shallow kind.
So he’s glad to believe she’d only go for humans, though I still think he finds another notch to close himself down, because he seemed quite open in the scene outside in a way I don’t think we really see again.
-Martha, you’re the one who tried out saying you only go for humans, don’t try and act put off when he says “Good,” to that.
-And off we go, into the next adventure.
All told, after this episode I wasn’t sure what to make of Martha. I mean, I focused on all the textual and subtextual ways in which Rose was still the one the Doctor loved, and I was never willing to give Martha’s crush on the Doctor even half a chance, but I was willing to give Martha a chance. And here...she was okay. She wasn’t all that interesting a character but I thought they’d go places with her story that they never even got near. I thought once they’d convinced us she was such an awesome companion candidate they’d have the courage to give her a personality that would have faults but be interesting. I figured the reason for giving her a large family was to do things with that story, lots of characters to play with, and interactions that hadn’t been possible with Rose’s small family. I figured this crush subplot was just a way to get her on board and then we’d see her have a real emotional arc of the season not tied to that.
And I’m not sure whose story this is. Martha never really owns the story although it should be hers; it isn’t Rose’s even though her presence is there, because she always remains the heart of the show; it’s not quite the Doctor’s because while we can see into his eyes we don’t really see through them. It’s a bit disconnected and distant somehow, which I suppose is how the Doctor’s feeling so maybe it is his story after all.
I don’t know, but I miss Rose, that never really changes.
I don't know when I'll get to TSC, I really don't, but I wouldn't expect it to be posted before next weekend (it could happen but I wouldn't bet on it).
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 11:54 pm (UTC)As for him lugging her around, I thought maybe there was some point they were trying to make regarding his physical strength - particularly given his condition at the time - that was going to come up later on.
I didn't know DT had ad-libbed mouthing 'It's bigger on the inside' along with Freema. How brilliant was that? And I think it set up a pretty clear expectation that his relationship with Martha would in almost no way resemble that of his relationship with Rose.
I know that RTD felt they needed to put a lot of extra love and care into crafting the character of Rose since they knew CE was only going to be around for a single series. Quite right too. However, I think they really dropped the ball with Martha and her family. No, the Doctor was never going to have the same level of closeness with her or them as he had with the extended Tyler clan, but the Joneses, including Martha, were woefully underwritten.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-16 10:15 pm (UTC)Hmmm, I suppose there is that, but...causality is not an excuse and I *like* causality. Logic of "I'll survive somehow obviously" just isn't enough for me, and even that i think is hard to assume the Doctor would think.
I thought maybe there was some point they were trying to make regarding his physical strength - particularly given his condition at the time
Again, that could be interesting if it had had a purpose, but honestly, this seemed silly; even if it had been introducing us to his physical strength for later usage 9which so far it hasn't) you know what, I think it would have been better to make that a surprise in a climactic moment when you think he won't have the strength but he does. Carrying Martha around just seemed like they had an image they wanted so they made sure it got in there.
No, the Doctor was never going to have the same level of closeness with her or them as he had with the extended Tyler clan, but the Joneses, including Martha, were woefully underwritten.
Exactly, I'm not asking for the Doctor to be going to Christmas dinners with these folks any time soon, they aren't family the way Jackie and Mickey were, but they could have been more than caricatures, especially when they were going to be trapped in the middle of the big Saxon plot. I wanted to care, but I never really did (I kind of did in SoD during the everyone got captured bits, but that was mainly plot fear).
Oop, there's always one thing I forget to comment on...
Date: 2007-07-16 10:33 pm (UTC)I was still going back and watching the Confidentials and the commentaries at the start of the season, and I know they mentioned that one of those places. That DT thought up the "it's bigger on the inside" parrot and everyone else thought the idea was brilliant so they went with it. He figured the Doctor has been through this enough times before and everyone says the same thing, but like you said it completely underscores the different tone he takes with Martha.
That we never saw Martha wonder why everyone spoke English always bugged me. Yes it would have made them have to repeat another sort of explanation scene, but that's a pretty important bit to explain and therefore worthy of repeating rather than say reusing the "plus one" line. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the Doctor had said "TARDIS acts as a universal translator" and left it at that, the Doctor never volunteered much about how things work, when he did he didn't entirely explain, and Martha tended to just accept whatever explanation she got.
Re: Oop, there's always one thing I forget to comment on...
Date: 2007-07-17 01:15 am (UTC)You want a fun one, hit the podcast for Tooth and Claw. It's a total hoot!
I know that Martha asking about the ship being wood was supposed to be her 'Hey, look, she's clever and observant!' moment, but compared to a physician expressing no curiosity about the neurological implications of the translation mechanism? I'd have more expected the wood question out of someone of Rose's background.