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Part of a review only, I'm afraid - given current circumstances: that is, imminent holiday, packing and associated freneticism.
'The Wedding of River Song' is about history: history as perceived by the makers and viewers of Doctor Who, history perceived through Doctor Who, the history of Doctor Who both within the narrative and as a broadcasting institution, and making history within the narrative of Doctor Who. These views of history act as sides of a prism refracting light from the biographical enigma of the Doctor: the result is colourful, but the definition of the image is misleading and fleeting.
The opening shot of the Gherkin pierced by a railway tunnel mid-structure, surrounded by cars held aloft by Montgolfier-era (or Wizard of Oz?) balloons, does not only introduce the idea of time (here as good as syonymous with history) folded in on itself into one point, but also makes a nod to futurescape conventions from Metropolis to the perhaps more significant BBC TWO ident Zoetrope. If time has collapsed in on itself and become one point, then the passage of time in this world must be an illusion, just like the movement the viewer of a zoetrope perceives. The idea of causality being non-linear, that a sequence or even paradoxical loop of events can be one event and spark diffuse effects which can't necessarily is at the core of Moffat's theory of timey-wimeyness.
The history we see is both Doctor Who-centred and Doctor-centred; the elements are assembled from periods recently visited by the Doctor and which will be familiar to viewers. The inclusion of Simon Callow as Charles Dickens is welcome and continues the sense from 'Closing Time' of an era of Doctor Who completing a circle, commenting on itself as it does so. Otherwise the Doctor's friendship with Winston Churchill is revived with mediaeval Europe and imperial Rome becoming confused with wartime Britain, Churchill ruling from a senate house in Buckingham Palace as Holy Roman Empire, while a Latin-titled newspaper reports on the Wars of the Roses, a naming which is legitimate in a world where everything is an anachronism. As for the visit to 1969, it is represented by the Silence themselves. Among the many absences from the pre-Matt Smith era are the priestesses of Pompeii; but Karen turning up as an eyepatched Amy swathed in red robes would have been just that too self-reflexive.
More, perhaps, later.
'The Wedding of River Song' is about history: history as perceived by the makers and viewers of Doctor Who, history perceived through Doctor Who, the history of Doctor Who both within the narrative and as a broadcasting institution, and making history within the narrative of Doctor Who. These views of history act as sides of a prism refracting light from the biographical enigma of the Doctor: the result is colourful, but the definition of the image is misleading and fleeting.
The opening shot of the Gherkin pierced by a railway tunnel mid-structure, surrounded by cars held aloft by Montgolfier-era (or Wizard of Oz?) balloons, does not only introduce the idea of time (here as good as syonymous with history) folded in on itself into one point, but also makes a nod to futurescape conventions from Metropolis to the perhaps more significant BBC TWO ident Zoetrope. If time has collapsed in on itself and become one point, then the passage of time in this world must be an illusion, just like the movement the viewer of a zoetrope perceives. The idea of causality being non-linear, that a sequence or even paradoxical loop of events can be one event and spark diffuse effects which can't necessarily is at the core of Moffat's theory of timey-wimeyness.
The history we see is both Doctor Who-centred and Doctor-centred; the elements are assembled from periods recently visited by the Doctor and which will be familiar to viewers. The inclusion of Simon Callow as Charles Dickens is welcome and continues the sense from 'Closing Time' of an era of Doctor Who completing a circle, commenting on itself as it does so. Otherwise the Doctor's friendship with Winston Churchill is revived with mediaeval Europe and imperial Rome becoming confused with wartime Britain, Churchill ruling from a senate house in Buckingham Palace as Holy Roman Empire, while a Latin-titled newspaper reports on the Wars of the Roses, a naming which is legitimate in a world where everything is an anachronism. As for the visit to 1969, it is represented by the Silence themselves. Among the many absences from the pre-Matt Smith era are the priestesses of Pompeii; but Karen turning up as an eyepatched Amy swathed in red robes would have been just that too self-reflexive.
More, perhaps, later.
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