jencat | Hello Sweetie :o) (Reply)

(As an aside, before I begin my DW ramblings, I'm seriously curious what kind of blackmail material Mark Sheppard holds over casting agents because the dude crops up in everything. I just watched the pilot ep of White Collar, which already had a serious Leverage vibe, which was then compounded by Mark Sheppard cropping up as the bad guy in that as well... seriously. Everywhere. Firefly, Medium, Bionic Woman, BSG, Dollhouse, Warehouse 13, the two aforementioned...)

Anyhoo.
Stephen Moffatt, obviously, rocks. After last week's absolute mess of an ep, the Moff stepped back in and we got 'Time of the Angels', our double-sequel ep: River Song and the Weeping Angels. All at once. And while it was easier, earlier, to make assumptions about why she knew who Ten was (and therefore why Ten had to have gone met her when he was having his little jaunt before regenerating)... now we get some answers!

So it turns out she didn't know Ten as Ten, ever, before the Library - she does, however, have pics of 'all his faces', which is new, and this ep, as it turns out, is the 'Crash of the Byzantine' incident she read out from the list in her diary in 'Silence in the Library' (and I didn't even nearly pick up on this, so luckily Confidential spelled it out nice and clear). The Doctor still hasn't really met her. We're back at square one, except now he knows who she is. Will be. Could be (as he made a point of mentioning the timeline wasn't fixed, but was that more out of desperation as he hates the thought of it being fixed?).

But it was wonderful watching Matt/Eleven being all squicky and squirmy about being outwitted by.. fate? Causality? (and now the fact I've spent the past week reading Charlie Stross becomes apparent). He was being resigned, which is not something we see very often in any of his incarnations. And more than a little embarassed, which made for constant entertainment.. the unique thing here is that some element of Eleven's character has chemistry with River, obviously, but I'm guessing after this, he won't run into her again significantly until he regenerates again...? Just a feeling. He's too young-looking now; too obviously alien and unmatchable, is Eleven. (Amy's relationship with him has almost immediately involved a ridiculously long-term betrayal of trust and most of her life, so we're avoiding overt romance with Eleven I think. I honestly don't think he'd go gaga for Reinette like Ten did; River is likely as much as we'll get, and that's so absurdly complicated right from the get-go that the poor boy keeps looking oddly bewildered by all these connections he's accidently made)

It's obviously he does absolutely believe what River told him in the Library is true/will be true. That hasn't changed from Ten. And only he knows what she said. River.. kinda knows what was said, considering her future self says it right before she 'dies' (although whether what was said is still true at the point this River is in the game is another matter). Amy, meanwhile, has absolutely no idea what's going on, but is having great fun working it all out, teasing the Doctor mercilessly, bonding with River and hallucinating that she's turning into stone (damn Weeping Angels always spoil the fun!).

It's also apparent that, although River has a record of what all the Doctor's incarnations look like, she seems to have no idea which order they come in.. otherwise, why try to match diaries with Ten when logically he couldn't possibly know who she was? (unless just to truly wind him up?). Time still runs in a straight line for him, even if his timeline is running in zigzags all over hers...

Aaand I just spent half an hour writing a ridiculously involved amount of speculation, and the LJ gremlins just ate the last half of my post... gah! Will have to remember if again tomorrow dammit.. heh. Cliffhanger. Exhausted. Angels. Something about Amy having issues...