I dunno -- overall, I liked these two episodes; I seem to be the odd one out on the f-list in that, and in liking Moffat's work in general, but there it is.
Personally, I also like the idea of River Song; I mean, hardcore Doc/Rose shipper that I am, the solid truth is that, outside of ficcy AUs, even if Ten and Rose were to go off into the sunset with each other, she's human and he's not, and eventually he'd be alone again. And to think he never found anyone else to love again, that he spent his entire remaining centuries bereaved and alone (at least in *that* way) would really, *really* suck. So, I'm cool with River in that sense.
What bugged me about her was the "trying too hard" aspect of the story, trying to put all that backstory and emotional weight into a character we've just met, and kind of failing. Also, DT and AK, while both fine actors, just didn't have the screen chemistry that would make me believe in their relationship (now, if River had been played by, say, Sarah Parish, dude, the chemistry would have melted the TV screen and I would have bought it all hook, line and sinker).
Yeah, the Moff's writing of Donna (except at the end in the "all right" conversation) wasn't the greatest at times . . . but I honestly blame a lot of his weaknesses in writing current companions on the oft-stated fact that RTD would never really give him much to work with in terms of background or editing.
From what *both* of them have said, RTD *tried* to keep Moffat in the dark because he didn't want to interfere with genius, that kind of thing. Personally, if I was writing an installment for a series and was left that much to my own devices, *I* would probably do something similar, sidelining as many regulars as possible (to avoid writing them "wrong," screwing up continuity, etc.), putting in more one-shot characters of my own devising to take up the slack, etc.
Now, whether or not I'm being too charitable, we'll find out when we get to see him actually in *charge* of the show, working with continuing characters of his own creation, his own continuity and story/character arcs, etc.
no subject
Personally, I also like the idea of River Song; I mean, hardcore Doc/Rose shipper that I am, the solid truth is that, outside of ficcy AUs, even if Ten and Rose were to go off into the sunset with each other, she's human and he's not, and eventually he'd be alone again. And to think he never found anyone else to love again, that he spent his entire remaining centuries bereaved and alone (at least in *that* way) would really, *really* suck. So, I'm cool with River in that sense.
What bugged me about her was the "trying too hard" aspect of the story, trying to put all that backstory and emotional weight into a character we've just met, and kind of failing. Also, DT and AK, while both fine actors, just didn't have the screen chemistry that would make me believe in their relationship (now, if River had been played by, say, Sarah Parish, dude, the chemistry would have melted the TV screen and I would have bought it all hook, line and sinker).
Yeah, the Moff's writing of Donna (except at the end in the "all right" conversation) wasn't the greatest at times . . . but I honestly blame a lot of his weaknesses in writing current companions on the oft-stated fact that RTD would never really give him much to work with in terms of background or editing.
From what *both* of them have said, RTD *tried* to keep Moffat in the dark because he didn't want to interfere with genius, that kind of thing. Personally, if I was writing an installment for a series and was left that much to my own devices, *I* would probably do something similar, sidelining as many regulars as possible (to avoid writing them "wrong," screwing up continuity, etc.), putting in more one-shot characters of my own devising to take up the slack, etc.
Now, whether or not I'm being too charitable, we'll find out when we get to see him actually in *charge* of the show, working with continuing characters of his own creation, his own continuity and story/character arcs, etc.
Oh, well, tl;dr. :)