SciFi Weekend: Amy’s Choice And Completing Doctor Who’s Season Long Arc

With the finales completed on network television, which dominated recent posts in SciFi Weekend, this is a good time to return to the discussion of Doctor Who. Reviewing the series is even more complicated now that  BBC America has fallen three weeks behind the BBC airings of the show due to skipping Memorial Day weekend in the United States. As usual my comments may include major spoilers on the last episode to air in the United States (in this case Amy’s Choice). I will avoid major spoilers as to events which have not aired yet in the United States but make more general comments on what is upcoming which should not spoil the show for those watching. I will say there are really big things in store as the series long arcs has progressed. Those who want to know nothing as to what is to come might want to turn away.

Amy’s Choice continued the theme from the previous week of Amy deciding that Rory is her true love. As the season progresses Amy Pond has become one of the more significant characters in the history of Doctor Who, which is saying a lot for a show going back to 1963. This  season really is shaping up as Amy’s story, with the crack in time being one aspect of this.

When we look back on this season in the future we will obviously see it as the first year with Steven Moffat as show runner and Matt Smith as the Doctor, but more importantly it will be the story of Amy Pond. This has raised one disturbing thought that after this season’s arc is completed it might be the end of Amy’s story, but hopefully Moffat has more ideas for her for next year.

Amy’s Choice seems to involve two alternative realities. I’m sure most viewers assumed that the future story with Amy being pregnant and the characters being attacked by the Eknodine in the form of elderly humans was the dream. The story was fun, especially if viewed as a satire of many of the elements of a typical Doctor Who monster story, along with forcing Amy to decide that life without Rory was not worth living. As in any love story, complications will come in upcoming episodes which I will not spoil here (and which hopefully be resolved favorably after the Pandorica opens).

The story turned out to be far more complex as both realities were a dream caused by specks of psychic pollen which had fallen into the time rotor and got heated up. The episode ended with the Doctor revealing that the Dream Lord was the dark side of his personality, manifested by the pollen. The Dream Lord is in some ways reminiscent of the Valyard, and there are hints we will see him again.

Throughout the season we have seen references to the long television history of Doctor Who. The episode included this plaque identifying the Tardis as a Type 40 built in 1963 when the series began:

Viewers of the BBC episodes have seen three additional episodes. Following Amy’s Choice is a two-part story, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood. The two-part episode works as both a stand alone story, has important ramifications for future human history, and advances the season long arc.

This week’s episode, Vincent and the Doctor, was perhaps the finest and most important fluff episode in the history of the series. The episode  worked in  images of earlier regenerations of the Doctor while returning to one of the early plans for the series in being an educational show for children (as well as adults). While I have already seen some reviewers who hated it, I found the episode thoroughly enjoyable. This is primarily a stand alone episode but it did refer back just enough to a major event of the previous episode which I will not spoil here.

In previous episodes we have seen how bizarre the Doctor is by human standards including, but not limited to, more than one recent mention that bow ties are cool. Next week in The Lodger the Doctor faces one of his greatest challenges in renting a room and having to blend in as a normal human. The preview shows continuity with this week’s episode including a flier for a Van Gogh exhibit.

This leads to the two-part episode, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang written by Steven Moffat to conclude the season’s arc. A BBC press release for The Pandorica Opens reveals:

The Doctor’s friends unite to send him a terrible warning; the Pandorica – which is said to contain the most feared being in all the cosmos – is opening, as the time travelling drama continues. But what’s inside, and can the Doctor stop it?

Libertarians Right to Object To Characterization of Republicans As Against Government

In several recent speeches, including at Carnegie Mellon University and at The University of Michigan, Barack Obama framed his arguments as a debate over the needs for government actions versus the anti-government Republicans. This is a fair characterization if we are to look at the rhetoric of the Republicans, but not their actual policies. Reason has legitimate reason to complain that the Republicans do not share their libertarian beliefs.

I have pointed out in several previous posts how the Republicans, despite their rhetoric, are really the party of big government. Reason provides some additional arguments to back this up:

Keep in mind, the president is talking specifically here not about libertarian freakazoids who want to privatize their own grandmothers, but about governing Republicans. You know, the gang who, “during the first half of 2001 and all of the 2003-07 period maintained full control of both the White House and Congress,” during which time they “increased total spending by more than 20 percent, an average of 5 percent a year,” jacking up “both nondefense spending and mandatory programs enormously.” How in the hell can you spend so much money on “more tax breaks for the wealthy and fewer rules for corporations”? Which one of those two answers (the only ones the GOP has, remember) best describes No Child Left Behind, Sarbanes-Oxley, or Medicare Part D? If Bush was really all about “fewer rules for corporations,” how was it that he managed to be “the biggest regulator since Nixon“? (And do click on those links, they are filled with things like facts and numbers.)

Republicans promote big government at least as much as the Democrats. The difference is that Republican big government tends to be less competent in areas where we want government. Republican big government tends to stress different priorities such as invading other countries, torture, redistributing wealth to the ultra-wealthy, or imposing the views of the religious right upon others.