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alexandraerinIt was draggy during the middle, there were some definite Moffat-isms, but overall I liked it. I find his preference that things be "mythic" makes for more appealing stories than RTD's directive that things be "epic".
I'm not going to do a point by point review of it, but I am going to talk about one aspect of it, and include one surmise and my reasoning behind it behind the cut.
First, I was waaaaaaaaaaaaay more satisfied with the resolution of the Doctor's name subplot than I expected to be. "The Doctor" is the only satisfactory answer that could be given, especially after the huge build up through the end of the season and the 50th anniversary special about how important this name is.
Second, the surmise: Tasha Lem is River Song.
The facts:
So, the question is: could it be more obvious that Tasha is River Song, tired of endless digital life in the library and escaped to roam the universe? I feel like the two most common responses to this will be "Yes, obviously, so obvious that I don't know why you're bothering to make the case" and "I totally didn't see that."
Two weaker but suggestive pieces of supporting evidence:
I'm not going to do a point by point review of it, but I am going to talk about one aspect of it, and include one surmise and my reasoning behind it behind the cut.
First, I was waaaaaaaaaaaaay more satisfied with the resolution of the Doctor's name subplot than I expected to be. "The Doctor" is the only satisfactory answer that could be given, especially after the huge build up through the end of the season and the 50th anniversary special about how important this name is.
Second, the surmise: Tasha Lem is River Song.
The facts:
- Tasha Lem can fly the TARDIS and claims to have always been able to.
- Tasha Lem is the head of Church of the Papal Mainframe.
- Tasha Lem has apparently founded a religion whose strongest mandates seem to be "everybody get naked time", "protect the universe", and "protect the Doctor".
- Tasha Lem has been "fighting the psychopath inside her" (ugh) "all her life".
- Tasha and the Doctor flirt furiously.
- The Doctor provokes Tasha into slapping him in order to snap her out of Dalekanization.
So, the question is: could it be more obvious that Tasha is River Song, tired of endless digital life in the library and escaped to roam the universe? I feel like the two most common responses to this will be "Yes, obviously, so obvious that I don't know why you're bothering to make the case" and "I totally didn't see that."
Two weaker but suggestive pieces of supporting evidence:
- "Lem" spelled backwards is "Mel". I kind of like the idea that River sees the name her mother gave her as her real name, after all this time, with "River Song" being a put-on name to go with a put-on personality.
- The Doctor's response to Clara's line about having "invented a boyfriend" could have been intended to suggest how River got a new body. As much as it can be spun to support my theory, I like this less, because 1) the line interpreted straightforward as the Doctor built himself a "boyfriend" supports a queer Doctor and 2) River doesn't need this phase of her life to be thanks to the Doctor.