I’ve gotten out of the habit of posting in-depth TV episode reviews, but here’s this, because I wanted to get this out of my system and provide an opportunity for folks to yak about it with me if they so desire.
Spoilers will of course ABOUND behind the cut, and in the comments! Don’t clickie if you haven’t seen “Asylum of the Daleks” yet!
I’ve bitched before about what’s called, in romance novels, the Big Misunderstanding. A lot of the time this comes out of a simple situation where the involved parties just flat out refuse to actually communicate with one another–and I hate that with an abounding passion. And I’m afraid that that’s exactly what we’ve gotten here. Amy has refused to talk to Rory, and has in fact driven him out of their relationship, and I pretty much wanted to punch her as soon as that plot setup started happening. I’ve had a hard time liking this character for a while now, and this did not help.
Nor did it help either to have the big reveal for this be Amy being in fits of angst over OHNOEZ I CAN’T HAVE KIDS. For one thing, again, this is not something you keep from your partner. And it makes no goddamn sense to me whatsoever that, after all these two characters have been through together, after the number of times that Amy has had her feelings for Rory affirmed, that she would pull that shit on him.
For another thing, it makes her yet another female character who’s winding up being motivated by what her womb can and cannot do. And I’m sick of that trope. SICK OF IT. SICK TO DEATH.
For a third thing, there was no warning of this whatsoever. I am aware that there were hints of this dropped in the final episode of “Pond Life”, but given that this was the ONLY hint of this relationship strife, it frankly pisses me off. A relationship rift this huge should have had way, way, WAY more setup than this. A few glimpses in online promotional material don’t cut it.
And really, all of this overshadows the bits of this episode that I liked. I liked the Oswin character a lot and I’m genuinely intrigued as to whether this will be the same character this actress is going to play when she comes on as the official Companion as of the next Christmas episode. I liked the Dalek asylum even if I felt the whole notion of a Dalek Parliament, not to mention a Dalek Prime Minister (since when did the Daleks have a voting democracy?!) was stupid.
But with this whole Amy/Rory subplot, the whole experience was thrown hugely off-kilter for me. Moffat’s had a lot of cred with me, even though I’ve been aware of his problematic treatment of female characters for some time. I’m afraid he’s starting to burn through his remaining cred with me. And that makes me sad. I don’t want to be pissed off by watching Doctor Who. 🙁
