Subject: Mixed reviews.
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Posted on: 2014-02-05 14:57:00 UTC

There are a lot of moments and pieces I really liked. The Council's reaction shot in the first piece, the whole of the 'Howling' scene, Morgan's quiet 'Fearn can' in 'can't be trusted', and the whole of the 'Master' scene (though I do wonder: does he look like the Twelfth Doctor, or the Doctor's twelfth incarnation, ie the Eleventh?)

The main things I have trouble with are - sorry - the last two, biggest scenes. I'm... very dubious about the Reader's motivations ("I never wanted to be on this Council! I have to do it because I'm the Onyx Monitor!"), and about the total lack of reaction to Morgan shooting a canon character. I did, I admit, like the Reader's explanation for why she's not going to monologue, but the scene as a whole doesn't really work for me.

As for the last one... eh. I do like the sense of complete mayhem - the idea that there's about half a dozen plot threads that we, jumping in mid-loop, have no idea about. But the Doctor is way too stable for being, judging by his first line, immediately post-regeneration. At this point in time, his canonical line is "Do you know how to fly this thing?" - here he seems entirely too calm and composed.

And, um, the Reader got stabbed with a sword. It seems like that would have warranted a bit more attention.

This isn't to say there weren't lines I liked - most of them, in fact, were good and/or funny. But for those two scenes in particular, the plot didn't work for me.

(Terrible idea for the next Continuity Council story, if we decide to do this again ever Guardians preserve us: a closed timeline where the Councillors end up going through multiple regenerations each in order to prevent their timeline coming into existence. I'm not sure how you'd make an environment that hostile - though the Alchemist once managed to get killed twice in 48 hours - but it seems like a story where the time limit is 'we have to finish before we run out of deaths' would be quite interesting)

hS

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