'Day of the Doctor' and 'Princess twilight Sparkle' thoughts: SPOILERS INBOUND! · 10:05pm Nov 24th, 2013
Well, after having an absolutely rotten Saturday, I have finally been able to watch both the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who and the season four premiere of Friendship is Magic. How'd I like them?
These won't be in-depth reviews, mind. Just thoughts and if I liked them or not.
Warning! Unmarked 'spoilers' ahead! You have been warned!
Day of the Doctor
First off, I've been a fan of Who since about... 1985 or so. Maybe earlier. I've been a Transformers fan longer, but not by much. And a Trekkie for not quite so long, but I've got more Trek media/merchandise. My first Doc's technically Tom Baker, as he was the first I saw, but the first serial I saw complete was actually The Chjase. Anyone else see it? That's not a rhetorical question, mind. I've seen every episode from Robot all the way up to Day of the Doctor and numerous serials of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee.
Anyway, after so many rumors and leaks and whatnot, I was in 'hope for best, prepare for worst' mode. And... damn they delivered. Good FREAKING LORD they delivered. I was wary of there only being three Docs, one of them 'new', but they pulled it off. Having Tom Baker at the end... wow. I think within 75 minutes they pulled off a damned miracle. The last day of the Time War. Yes, I wish Ian and Barbara or Susan or Ace could've been there. But in the end... They did a damned good job paying tribute to what came before and laying groundwork for what's to come.
Also, the beginning? Coal Hill School under I. Chesterton? If that's not fanfic fodder I'll eat my reissue Fortress Maximus!
Princess Twilight Sparkle
Ho, boy. I'm gonna be blunt. I didn't like Keep Calm and Flutter On or Magical Mystery Cure. I'm not gonna apologize or get into any long, drawn-out debates about them. I didn't like them. So, this episode?
...
I liked it. A lot. It addressed a TON of concerns about those two episodes. I liked Twilight being unsure in the national-leadership role, but still good with her friends. Great action, nice backstory. It lays some good groundwork for what's to come. I didn't even mind Celestia or Luna being trapped like they were. The Plunder Seeds were from Discord, after all.
Although the potion from Zecora... was bullcrap. It came out of nowhere. It made no sense. It's been called a 'deus ex machina' in other places and I can't disagree with the assessment. I didn't like it.
Also, Discord? You magnificent bastard. :D I can almost... nah. Still can't forgive Keep Calm.
So, eagerly lookingforward to the rest of the season.
Anyway... the question that all... probably none of you are wondering. ;) Will any of this be included in the Hasbroverse?
Probably... no. I've already got an origin for the Elements separate from the Tree of Harmony. Nightmare moon waged war for a year, not a single night. And I have NO intention of having Celestia free Discord after he's imprisoned once more. The Hasbroverse is tagged alternate universe for a reason, after all. And as I wrote in this blog post, I will be trying to avoid the Stations of Canon as much as possible, where applicable.
So, to sum up, I liked it.
At first, I hated the premier due to the fact that they gave up the Elements. I still say they should have used them on the vines, but I can accept that the "Deus Ex Tree" needed them to survive. I still don't like it though, it made me go from accepting Alicorn Twilight to hating Twilight altogether. I still want to know why Peter Capaldi's eyebrows looked so pissed off.
1537370 I think because Moffat said Capaldi's supposed to be a darker Doctor. Maybe it's foreshadowing?
i haven't seen S4 yet but I have seen the 50th... There are somethings that the whole special shows:
1) The Eighth Doctor is well and truly canon, just because he was an American creation doesn't make even less of the Doctor
2) When the solution is obvious not even three Doctors and Doctor themselves out of a wet paperbag
3) Tom Baker is still awesome
As a fan of the new Doctor Who, I also quite enjoyed "Day of the Doctor". There were a few things I didn't like about it though. I thought it was a let down that all we saw was the Bad Wolf Rose and not the actual Rose Tyler. I also didn't like how they basically undid the destruction of Gallifrey since I felt it was like a pivotal moment in the new Doctor's life. And they just made it go away! How they did it though, I feel was quite spectactular with every past regeneration of the Doctor and even Capaldi showing up to do it!
As for "Princess Twilight", I wrote my own in-depth blog on the subject. But I will say this. I also am not a fan of "Keep Calm and Flutter On" and "Magical Mystery Cure". The premiere still left me unconvinced about Twilicorn, while I appreciate that she still seems like the Twilight we all know and love. Yes, Discord is a magnificent bastard, and I loved him in this episode! You bring up a good point though. I don't know if this makes "Keep Calm and Flutter On" worth it.
1537507 Here's the thing I'm wondering though. I'm not familiar with old school Doctor Who so this could be a horrendous question. How does the Fourth Doctor appear to the Eleventh as an old man when the Fourth Doctor wasn't an old man before he regenerated?
1537669
"I like to revisit old faces". He is still the Doctor even if he is post-12/13th
1537669 Time dilation (10 uses that explanation for why 5 looks a lot older when they met in Time Crash, so maybe that's going on here).
But I like the idea that this could be a post 12/13 Doctor better than the above idea, just because
1537721 Oh yeah! That's probably it.
1537669
I got the impression that that wasn't the Doctor at all, just an unrelated Old Man; and his lines were a meta wink at the fandom.
I could have forgiven the potion if Zecora mentioned that Celestia had asked her to make it, instead of making it out that she just so happened to have it. That way, Celestia wanted Twilight to know first hand about things, but never really expected to have to use it so soon.