beccatoria | Doctor Who: I seriously want to break into tears.

So...yeah. I wanted to break into tears twice this episode. The first time was for good reasons. The second, not so much. Beware the bitter.

I watch it for the first time in ages. And I'm commenting to my boyfriend that...holy shit, this is kind of awesome. Look, it even looks like an abandoned quarry!

Look! It's Jack! And...the Doctor's being an ass to him, but that's par for the course and it's an interesting thing to delve into - the paradox and prejudice and all that time-related jazz.

And there's continuity with Rose and that's also interesting.

And oh, my heart there's Jack quoting Eccleston's doctor because survival is fantastic.

And Cadfael is acting his heart out and it's a brilliantly compelling story even before I knew how it would end. And then there's the pocketwatch (from an episode I missed) and I'm thinking - they can't, they wouldn't, OH MY GOD THEY ARE! - and Cadfael again just pwning with his mad acting skillz. The heartbreak of his story, such a good man, such an amazing guy, the worst thing that could happen to him, being a time lord - and what does that say, subtextually about this whole mess? About the doctor too?

And my boy, who REALLY hasn't been enjoying New Who, is GLUED TO THE SCREEN TOO. And I say, "If this isn't the Master, I shall hate this episode forever. If it is they are REDEEMED IN EVERY WAY!"

AND THEN IT IS THE MASTER!

And, for serious, I want to cry from happiness.

And then, for some reason, he decides that he has to regenerate younger and "stronger" (since when did the Timelords care about that? They're cranky old men!) and I'm thinking, well, okay, even though I'm also mourning the loss of Cadfael.

And then...it's John Simm. And I'm still thinking, well, all right, he's a good actor.

AND THEN:

WHAT THE ALMIGHTY FUCK?!

DAVID TENNANT'S A GOOD ACTOR TOO YOU LAME GITS, AND LOOK AT HOW OBNOXIOUS YOU'VE MADE HIM! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO AND DO THE SAME THING TO JOHN SIMM?!

I mean, seriously! What happened to, oh, EVERY PIECE OF CHARACTERIZATION THE MASTER EVER HAD?!

Where's his unending respect for the Doctor? Where his mustache twirling that DOESN'T DESCEND INTO COMEDY DOCTOR-LIKE THUMBS-UP SARCASM?

Some might say I'm over reacting based on two minutes of footage and the preview for next week. But FOR SERIOUS what else am I supposed to do when they give me EVERYTHING I WANTED FUCKING WRAPPED UP IN AN AMAZINGLY-ACTED CADFAEL SHAPED BOX AND THEN TAKE IT AWAY BY TURNING IT INTO A DUMBASS CLONE OF THE 10TH DOCTOR?!

RTD: Acting "zany" makes you neither likeable, inherently timelordy, a good actor, nor menacing. What it in fact makes you is "zany".

Who here ever thought the fucking MASTER was zany.

Oh god. My heart. It's broken. EVERYTHING I WANTED destroyed by two minutes of footage.

EVERYTHING I WANTED, RUSTY! AND YOU WRECKED IT!

How can someone write something so beautiful and then fuck it up so supremely?

Oh god, I want to break into tears. Tears of utter grief.

I know, television shouldn't affect me so much. But I think a beautiful and utterly wasted opportunity in the middle of a story should. It was so, so squandered.