is it my fridge? are there aliens in my fridge?

[falling_voices]

Guys, if you haven't read errantcomment's glorious Bridget Jones!Sherlock story yet, don't wait another minute — it's hilarious, and stunningly believable, and has a scrumptious Molly. And, apparently, there's more coming. There are no words for how much I'm looking forward to it.

Secondly, Closing Time. ALL MY FEELINGS, in no sense of order whatsoever.

• I downright cheered at 'Amelia Pond'. 'Amy Williams' had broken my heart in The God Complex, much as I knew that it was part of the Doctor's method to break down Amy's faith in him; but this reunites her character with the fairytale again. (Petrichor! it sounds like the name of a secret spell.)

• OH RIVER. One thing I've really liked about her this season (apart from her character arc, which is getting overdone and boring) is that we've seen River stripped of her smugness and all-encompassing knowledge, so that she feels more human, easier to communicate with. We've seen her shocked and sad and miserable after the Doctor was killed in The Impossible Astronaut; shy and hesitant when she tells Amy and Rory that she's their daughter in A Good Man Goes To War; newly-born and frightened in the TARDIS in Let's Kill Hitler. And now we're seeing her terrified at the thought that she'll have to kill the Doctor. Quite apart from the focus the narrative is giving her this season, which is tedious and sloppy and repetitive and ugh Moffat deal with that please — we do have some interesting character development in those episodes.

• Craig and the Doctor's magnificent chemistry really made the heart of this episode — it's funny as hell, much like The Lodger, but there's also the story of a beautiful friendship, a beautiful relationship between these two men who are absolutely nothing alike and yet bond perfectly over a baby. They snark at each other, make fun of each other, get mistaken for a gay couple (and that was lovely, Val's hearty little 'it's good for a baby to have two daddies who love each other' — I loved that) and they love and rely on each other utterly. I'm especially thinking of this wonderful piece of dialogue:

Craig (leaving for the grocery store): Going off to buy milk, you know what to do with the baby if he cries!
The Doctor (looking suddenly panicked): No...
Craig (shouting, before slamming the door behind him): Me neither!

• the emotional climax, though very very predictable and frankly cliché, still raises a few questions. It's the second episode this season in which a father's love for his child defeats the supernatural threat that would destroy them. It's especially interesting in sight of Amy&Rory's own parenthood, which is pretty much stolen from underneath them: where they never really got to raise Melody (sorry, Moffat, the 'but they grew up with her' bit doesn't convince me at all), and now that she's become River there is not much way for them to be parents to her, the show still insists on showing us parental and filial love, and how it can defeat every obstacle in its way. It's important, I think, to this season's continuity.

• Eleven and Alfie, ohmaaaan. Matt Smith rocked the Stars Speech to hell and back, and Stormageddon, Dark Lord Of All, stole every scene. I love that the Doctor laughs genuinely at Alfie's children books, and air-kisses his baby cheeks to say goodbye, and they have actual conversations because of course the Doctor speaks baby, it wasn't just a throwaway line in A Good Man Goes To War. And when Eleven kisses the baby's fuzzy little head his nose smushes against it a little, which I find the most adorable thing in the show since Ten picked up a kitten way back in Gridlock.

• as for the Doctor's upcoming death, it was a very bittersweet episode, which is why the lightness and childishness of some sequences was so brilliant. Seeing Eleven slowly coming to grips with the knowledge that he'd be gone tomorrow was heartwrenching in a pretty fantastic way. But he steals the blue envelopes from Sophie, whom I wish we'd had more of, and Craig gives him the Stetson, oh yes. And then there's this:

The Doctor (stroking the TARDIS's door with his knuckles): One more trip, old girl.

And I didn't think I'd be crying, not for this episode, not after the We defeated the Cybermen with Love! climax — and then I did, anyway.

(Whatever happens to Eleven and his death in the finale, however Moffat intends to resolve the loose ends — and he'd better tie them up proper — I hope that his actual departure from the show, whenever it is after the 50th anniversary, will come the way Nine's did. Without bucketloads of angst and resignation. I hope he goes laughing.)

Comments

[katty008.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just watched it through to know how it ended. I'm not kidding, by the way. Every single new character dies except for Gwen's mother, daughter, and Rex. EVERYONE. I'm pretty sure Gwen's family only got a free pass because they're relatives, and Rex is special. Turns out there were two giant cracks at opposite ends of the world, and they had to feed each crack mortal blood at the same time to get things back to normal. So Jack went to China and Esther and Rex took a bunch of Jack's blood to Argentina, but because there were people after them they took advantage of the immortality to give Rex a full transfusion of Jack's blood, so they blew up bags of Rex's blood instead of bags of Jack's blood. So they throw a bunch of Jack's blood into the cracks, things are reversed back, and because he is full of Jack's mortal blood Rex becomes full of Jack's immortal blood. In short, Rex is now like Jack.

I wouldn't even mind the crap plots nearly as much so long as new characters bothered to stick around. That's twice now a new season has introduced potential replacements for fallen comrades, only to kill them too.

OH. MY. GOD. THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IS GOING TO BE FUCKING EPIC. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BET THE ODDS ARE THAT SERIES 8 WILL END EPICALLY ON NOVEMBER 23? CAN HAS FOREMAN'S JUNKYARD ON TOTTER'S LANE?