Saturday 7 November 2015

The Zygon Inversion (time shift)

To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
- Sun Tzu

Or, if you want to be all obvious about it:

It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts.
- Bill Vaughan

Me:  What did you think of that?

Him:  I think the name...  I'm done talking about the names.

Me:  Right.  Did you enjoy it?

Him:  Yeah.

Me:  Did you think it was better than last week's?

Him:  Yeah. 

Me:  It was, wasn't it?  It was a lot better than last week's.  D'you know what else?  I think that... might've been a rewrite.  I think they had to change what that was originally going to be and I think it was rewritten, because there's an awful lot of Steven Moffat in that.  The whole bit with Clara and Zygella?  That's straight from Silence in the Library.

Sea Badger.  See?  Badger.

Him:  Okay.

Me:  And the buttons were from The Beast Below.  In many ways it was like Steven Moffat's greatest hits, but it really played to his strengths.  Rather than this cack-handed political... thing... that last week attempted to do, this was...  It was dialogue-heavy and it gave a chance for Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman-

Him:  Peter Capaldi's speech was great.  It was amazing. 

Me:  It was good, wasn't it?

Him:  And it was... quiet as well.  It was just him.

Me:  Yes, because there was no music.

Him:  Yeah. 

Me:  And it makes it much more powerful when it's quiet, doesn't it?

Him:  Uh huh.

Me:  The fact that they didn't tarnish Harry Sullivan's memory in the end-

Him:  Yeah.

Me:  That he hadn't created a chemical and biological- y'know?  Fair play.

Him:  It wasn't a chemical weapon, it had just been labelled as such to try and keep people away from it.  

Me:  They were very lucky to get away with the start, with a plane being blown up, considering what's been going on in the news this week.  I think they were lucky, probably, that it even went out.  So, any other bits you really liked?
 
Him:  It's your turn to talk, 'cause you've no doubt got a million things to talk about.

Me:  No, that's basically all I've really got to say about it.  I really enjoyed it.  Some of it...  Yeah, I could find...  But there's no point.  As a whole, it was-

Him:  But you like complaining.

Me:  I don't really.  I'd much rather it was good.  I was wondering whether it was going to be a kind of...  Um...  Because each of the stories this season has turned on its head and one of the episodes has been much more dialogue-heavy than the other one, I thought tonight's might've been a bit more like the Davros chat.  Just the Doctor talking to somebody about something, it felt like it might've gone that way, but it didn't in the end.  I don't think Clara's got very long left, to be honest.  Probably a fortnight at most.  In fact, I think it's going to be a fortnight and then she's gonna go.  Seeing as Morpheus is in the next one...  In Sandman, Morpheus is the father of Orpheus, and Orpheus has to descend into the underworld-

Him:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  You've given me all this stuff before.  

Me:  -to get Eurydice.  So that's definitely something that's happening.  The Zygon Inversion gave Jenna Coleman a...  People've been complaining she's been sidelined this season.

Him:  Well, you said that there'd be an episode where-

Me:  It would be Clara-heavy?  Yeah.  But also, I think it's because it's bought them time.  Because Jenna Coleman didn't go, a lot of this series probably had to be rewritten.  It feels as though, probably, this series wouldn't necessarily've had a companion in it.  

Him:  Yeah.

Me:  So...  You'd have had Missy in the first story, then after that one it'd have been... um...  Well, anyone from the base in Under the Lake - they were like companions in that, because people travelled with the Doctor then.  Then it would've been Ashildr...

Him:  Yeah.

Me:  Basically fulfilling the companion role.  And then, at this point, they've caught up-

Him:  Which would explain why she was a recurring character in two episodes in a row.

Me:  Ah!  Yeah.  But...  This is where my whole theory kind of flounders a bit, because that I think, has been pushed in there because Ashildr has to come back and kill Clara.  They had to make the character important enough to do that, and the only way to do that was to stick her whole story together.  Could Osgood've gone with the Doctor?

Him:  Well, they keep setting it up as a potential...

Me:  Well, Clara's managing to do a quite important job and-

Him:  It's not important to her.

Me:  Ha!  Doesn't feel like it, does it?  "Five rounds rapid"?  I think we've got to let that one go.  I do think that was heavily rewritten by Steven Moffat.  I also think that Steven Moffat is, and has always been, head and shoulders, pretty much, over everyone else who writes for the show.   That's why he's able to pull stuff like that out of his hat.  'Cause...  With him getting a writing credit, that's not like last year with the school scenes, where the whole arc was about getting rid of Clara - and then, of course, Jenna Coleman doesn't leave.  It's not...  It's still variations on stuff that he always does.

Him:  Hmm.

Me:  But the stuff he always does isn't bad, so...  That's why he gets away with it.  So, on that bombshell-  Unless you want to make Zygon noises?  I thought the Zygons looked better in this.

Him:  I don't even know how you judge things anymore. 

Me:  Why not?

Him:  I think you usually judge how good the CGI is, based on the writer.

Me:  Ha!  Yeah.  I do.

Him:  Ha!

Me:  And on that bombshell.

No comments: