And some more

from "All the magic in the world" by Xarybde (@xaryxarybdis), its fantastic and I can very much recommend reading it!

Doctor Who Reviews by a Female Doctor, Season 4, p. 2

The Doctor’s Daughter: This isn’t the worst episode of the reboot, but it might be the most emotionally unsatisfying. Producing a biological relative for the Doctor by putting his hand in a machine for a few seconds undercuts his grief about the loss of his people without really any payoff—his lackluster relationship with his daughter just doesn’t do enough to compensate for the notion that apparently getting Time Lords back into the world is a lot easier than we thought. There are a couple of nice moments in which the Doctor refers to his grief about his Time Lord family, but his sense of loneliness—usually taken very seriously by the show—is undermined more often than it is accentuated here.

           I’m not really sure why Martha is in this episode, as she doesn’t want to be there and there’s very little for her to do. She forms sort of a nice bond with one of the fish creatures, but the Hath are mostly so dull that Martha’s forced to wander around in a weird, personality-less void in which fish with legs stand around breathing. She’s not really missing out on much while she’s a captive of the Hath, as the human civilization is also entirely without interest. There’s a lot of talk about war, and then there’s a brief creation myth, and then one of the humans claims that peace and genocide are the same thing so that the Doctor can yell about violence and Jenny can point out how violent he is. We’ve had an awful lot of this theme (the Doctor thinks he is above violence! but also the Doctor is violent!) in the past couple of episodes, which would be fine if it were going anywhere interesting but it’s basically not. The plot twist—in which it is revealed that the war has been going on for only a matter of days—is genuinely pretty surprising, but it’s so difficult to invest in these characters or this world that it doesn’t mean very much.  

           Jenny herself is likeable enough, but is one of the clearest foray into Mary Sue territory that the show has ever done. She’s born perky, quick-witted, and intensely athletic, and can easily understand other people’s motives and characteristics in spite of having only just sprung into existence. Other talents include asking lots of questions so that we get exposition about stuff that we already know, doing back flips through laser beams, and flirting. The actress (Peter Davison’s daughter and Tennant’s future wife) does as much as she can with the material, and she really does have a very charming screen presence, but the script confines her so thoroughly to the “attractive, physically gifted woman” box that there’s not much for her to work with. Given her origins, it’s not surprising that her connection to the Doctor comes across as forced and artificial, but I just never buy any real emotional connection between them.

           I’m even more annoyed by the “death” of the daughter, as her return to life is weirdly emotionless and doesn’t follow any of what we know about Time Lord regeneration. This non-death also lands us with one of the worst-ever Doctor speeches. Tennant generally does grief and anger very well, but his shouty speech directed at the warring figures comes across as absolutely moronic. The Doctor has a tendency to tell other people what to do, which is somewhat justified by his years of experience in dealing with conflict, but it’s a lot more palatable when it’s tempered by his awareness of his own mistakes and problems. Here, he pretty straightforwardly tells the people of this planet to model their society around their consciousness of how much better than them he is, and it’s just absolutely insufferable. I do think that his claims that he “never would” engage in their destructive behavior are deliberate irony on the part of the show, in the sense that this season does give us fairly consistent reminders that the Doctor is always trying to distance himself from violence without ever quite succeeding. That makes sense of this scene’s role in the larger arc of the season, but it doesn’t explain why the character himself has so little self-awareness or so much willingness to lie to himself that he can bring himself to say nonsense like this.

           Donna is loveable as usual here, and I particularly like her insistence that the Doctor take seriously his connection to his daughter. She also describes the feeling of stepping off the TARDIS onto a new place as being like “swallowing a hamster,” which is pretty fabulous. (I could do without the Doctor sending a mechanical mouse toy to distract a guard because Donna’s “wiles” aren’t enough, though.) She just doesn’t play a large enough role in this story to save it from the cheap emotional foundation; the entire concept of “we need the Doctor to feel feelings, preferably loudly and angrily, let’s put a blonde in” is so tired by this point that it’s difficult to watch. C/C-

The Unicorn and the Wasp: And we’re back to good episodes for a while! This is easy to forget in light of the bigger, flashier episodes to come this season, but it’s very fun. Donna’s having a great time pretending to be a 1920s socialite, and the episode gives both Tate and Tennant a lot of opportunity to demonstrate their marvelous comedic timing. Meeting Agatha Christie at a country house when someone has been murdered is a similar enough idea to “The Unquiet Dead” and “The Shakespeare Code” that they actually have Donna make a joke about it, but it’s a premise worth repeating. I do think that Agatha Christie would have written a much better mystery than this one, as none of the twists are particularly effective and the resolution is moderately entertaining but unremarkable. Still, having a giant wasp attack a bunch of rich white people (aka WASPs) is a good joke, and watching the characters try to figure out what’s going on is fun even in the absence of a compelling mystery.

           Christie herself is generally pretty well-written, but among the major historical figures the show has portrayed, she’s not one of my favorites. Part of the problem is that the actress gets sort of upstaged by some of the other guest stars. The not-yet-famous Felicity Jones is a delight as a jewel thief, but the wonderful Felicity Kendal (one of the stars of the great 1970s comedy The Good Life) steals the show. I don’t think she’s really supposed to, as she’s a fairly minor character whose function is to have a dark secret that informs the mystery, but I find myself watching her rather than Agatha Christie when they’re on screen together. Nonetheless, the idea that the events of this episode are the reason why Christie disappeared for a few days gives it a nice sense of importance, and the revelation that her books are perpetual bestsellers is not quite as moving as the similar moment in “The Unquiet Dead” but is still quite lovely.

           The heart of this story is not the character herself, really, but rather the whimsical adventures that ensue from the Vespiform’s absorption of her writing. A couple of serious moments exist, including Donna’s willingness to kill the Vespiform when the Doctor refuses, but for the most part this episode is all about the comedy. There are silly flashbacks, exaggerated plot twists, and at one point there’s a lengthy comedic bit about the Doctor cleansing poison from his system. There are also lots of accidental references to books that Christie hasn’t written yet, and Donna unsuccessfully tries to get herself into a copyright page. Nothing really remarkable happens here, but it’s just so bubbly and charming that the episode is an absolute joy to watch. A-/B+

Silence in the Library: Even if the story itself had been boring, I would have really enjoyed this episode just for the beautiful, terrifying library in which it takes place. I love libraries, and if I were in charge of the show we’d probably have a library setting about once a season. Happily, this library is home to a compelling story, with a spooky new set of monsters and a marvelous debut for River Song.

           River is definitely the highlight of this two-parter, and Alex Kingston is immediately fantastic as the doomed time-traveler. It’s a bold move to introduce a new character, heavily imply that she’s the Doctor’s wife, suggest that there are lots more adventures with her in the Doctor’s future, and then kill her by the end of the two-episode story. I can’t think of many other characters on the show who have been introduced with quite so much fanfare, and so it’s a testament to Kingston’s performance that the emotional impact of the character exceeds the impressiveness of the plot to which she is attached. She has immediate chemistry with the Doctor, and her distress at having met a version of the Doctor who doesn’t know her unfolds beautifully across the episode. In spite of this distress, though, there’s just such a tremendous sense of enjoyment and energy in everything she does, as if she can’t help relishing the challenge and the adrenaline in spite of everything that’s going wrong. The rest of her crew aren’t quite as interesting, and Miss Evangelista’s brainlessness is a bit overplayed, although I do like the brief friendship she strikes up with Donna. This two-parter is basically about the chemistry between River and the Doctor, though, and even when the supporting cast isn’t quite as good, these two absolutely sparkle.  

           The Vashta Nerada aren’t quite as memorable to me as the Gas Mask Child or the Angels, but they are solidly scary monsters, and the fact that we see the gnawed skeletons that they produce but never see the monsters themselves definitely adds to the effect. The statues with human faces don’t really do much for me, and even when we see Donna’s face at the end of the episode I’m mostly unimpressed. I’m much more interested in the ghostly remnants of consciousness that linger in those the Vashta Nerada have killed—the notion of digitally-saved consciousness is creepy in itself, but hearing Proper Dave and Miss Evangelista continuing to speak even after their deaths is absolutely harrowing. Between the dangers that lie in the shadows and the terror of listening to the dead continue to speak, there are lots of properly terrifying moments.

           The one major problem that I have with this episode is that I don’t really find the computer universe to be particularly interesting. I like the concept of having “saved” people to a computer, but I spend most of the scenes with the little girl and Dr. Moon just waiting to get back to the library. To be fair, the use of her television is pretty cool, as is the fact that she has a picture of a blond woman and a wolf on her wall, but I find the character herself to be pretty irritating. There are enough things that don’t work for me here that I don’t find this story to be quite as compelling as “Blink” or “The Empty Child,” but the gorgeous setting and the terrific introduction of River are enough to make this one of the stronger episodes of the season. A/A-

Forest of the Dead: Unreal universes clearly fascinate Moffat, who will return to this trope a number of times in later episodes. This two-parter is his first foray into a story like this, which gives it a sense of originality that diminishes as we see the concept repeat in subsequent seasons, but I would argue that this fake universe—which becomes more prevalent here than it was in the previous episode—is nowhere near as interesting as the ones that appear later on in episodes like “Last Christmas” and “Extremis” or Simon Nye’s “Amy’s Choice.” It is genuinely sad to see Donna realize that her children aren’t real, and it’s even sadder that she never finds out that her husband in the fake universe was in fact an actual person, but the whole place just says Fake Sci-Fi Universe so blatantly that I never find any interest in it as an alternate reality. It also feels oddly uncreative; I get that the other reality was initially created for Cal’s benefit, and that might explain the domestic focus, but the thoroughly unadventurous world isn’t very exciting and doesn’t seem completely suitable as a happily-ever-after for someone as energetic as Donna. Miss Evangelista, who experienced an error in translation that increased her IQ but also resulted in physical disfigurement, is a striking presence but even she doesn’t really hold my interest. (It’s also unfortunate that the script isn’t as clear as it could be about the relationship between the two changes that she experienced; I don’t think she really says anything that implies a causal relationship between the two, but a slightly vague sentence structure makes it possible to read this as a claim that her decreased attractiveness made possible her increased intelligence, which would definitely have been worth avoiding.)            

Because I don’t really enjoy the world to which Donna and others have been “saved,” this episode only really works for me when we’re in the library itself. Fortunately, there are a number of good scenes in the library and then one absolutely sublime one, as River sacrifices herself so that the Doctor can live to make all of the memories that she’s already had with him. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of writing, acting, and musical underscoring, and River’s death is so moving that it’s difficult to believe that this is only her second episode. I’m not sure what gets to me the most in this scene; it might be River telling the Doctor “you watch us run,” as she thinks of the time together that’s still to come for him, or it might be the Doctor’s acknowledgment that there’s only one reason why he would ever have told her his name, or it might be some of the best music Murray Gold’s ever composed, but in retrospect, I think what makes me saddest is the fact that one of the last things she hears is the Doctor unknowingly saying her mother’s favorite expression. She’s quick to shut down the idea that time can be rewritten in this case, but if you watch this after seeing later seasons, the words allow the spirit of Amy Pond to make a brief, heartbreaking appearance in her daughter’s final moments.

           River’s connection to the Doctor works marvelously well throughout the episode, and the notion that he’s like seeing a photograph of someone from before you knew them gives us a lovely way into her feelings. The Doctor takes an embarrassingly long time to get the connection between books and trees, but he does do some pretty stellar thinking as he figures out what it means to have “saved” all four thousand people. (He figures this out in the middle of Anita trying to have a meaningful last conversation, which isn’t his kindest moment, but it’s still impressive.) The Vashta Nerada and their creepy shadows continue to be very frightening, but the resolution—in which the Doctor intimidates them into leaving everyone alone by telling them to look him up in the library’s books—is not the most satisfying end to the main plot. The final moments, though, in which he “saves” River to the library computer, make for a much stronger conclusion. River is one of the many characters to only sort-of die, and my lack of interest in the computer universe means that I’m not that excited about the continued existence of her consciousness within it. However, the Doctor’s realization of why he gave her his screwdriver and his rush to “save” her is so compellingly done that I’m very moved by the scene in spite of the minor issues that I have with it.

           As in the first part, I don’t find this episode quite as brilliant as some of Moffat’s other early episodes, like “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” and “Blink.” The Vashta Nerada are solid villains, and the library is a gorgeous setting, but this episode is really only sensational to me when River is on screen. Still, even with some pieces that I don’t especially like, this episode contains enough brilliant moments to make it a very strong story overall. A/A-

If I had only known .... Ms. Spar's book provides incredible insights into this commercial industry whose revenues are built on the hopes and dreams of building families. I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Professor Spar speak about her research and insights at a Harvard Business School reunion weekend in 2006 when I was struggling with infertility after our first child and giving up my successful career to support my husband and our family. Ms. Spar's book is an objective assessment of this industry in terms of the key players, its drivers and issues. Very helpful to understand especially if you are dealing with fertility clinics to understand what drives them. I am not big on government regulation in general but the "conception industry" is one where some government oversight could better protect and educate families and those who want to help these families. If I had only known and read Ms. Spar's book before I began our journey, it would have been less heartwrenching. I have consistently recommended this book to my friends and colleagues who are struggling with fertility and considering other means to have children. Our journey ended well as we were blessed with another child -- my verson of "having it all" as an AMA woman ("advanced maternal age" as the doctors labelled me) who waited to have children later in life. Here's to beating the odds and the clock! Go to Amazon

Great distillation of multiple issues This book is an investigation into the various components of child acquisition outside of plain sexual conception by the intended parents. So the book covers adoption, surrogacy, IVF, cloning, and the numerous other technological ways of creating human life. Written as a dispassionate inquiry, the author examines the various issues associated with each method, profiles the historical development of each method, and most importantly, looks at how different localities around the world handle each issue. So the author does a great job of showing evolution over time, and differentation over space. There are numerous tables spread throughout the chapters that provide a lot of numerical data, such as the cost of IVF at different centers in the US. Hence the book also serves as a how-to-guide for would-be parents contemplating adoption, IVF, etc... All in all, a good book with enough science to explain the facts, but simple enough for any college student to read. Go to Amazon

Honey ... you really don't need to sleep with the maid anymore Indeed. We have come a long way since the Book of Genesis. Today, the market would provide Rachel and Jacob a multitude of choices. They could buy some sperm (), eggs () or frozen embryos (). They could lease a womb or opt for in-vitro fertilization (IVF); or better yet, IVF with intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Pretty soon cloning may also be an option, though as of now many of the experiments with sheep and pet cats appear to have gone haywire due to birth defects and premature ageing. `Scientific progress' in the area of assisted reproduction has separated the act of sex from reproduction. In effect, what fertility clinics sell is the process. The components can be sourced from third parties, put together in a laboratory and then transferred to a leased womb through a gestational surrogacy contract. This is probably good - infertile women no longer have to implore their husbands to sleep with the maid. In addition, it has created an upstream market, or one for inputs and components. Presumably this is good too - selling a baby may sound morally reprehensible, but selling sperm or eggs doesn't sound that bad. Sperm is cheap. The average price is about $300. Eggs go for between $2500 and $50000 - the right combination of beauty and brains costs more. What many people find objectionable is that new reproductive technologies provide choice. If people have choice they will exercise it - after all everyone wants the `perfect' baby. Go to Amazon

Fabulously Informative and Unemotional I love this book for what it is. Some other reviers commented on the Stoic nature of the work. They are accurate about that. However, that is why I like it. The book isn't meant to say what's right or wrong or make judgements. The author does raise some ethical and moral questions but makes no attempt to answer them. As someone who has spent some time on the infertility hamster wheel and also has a background in Economics, I found this book fabulous. It is very dense, containing a very informative mix of economics, history and science. It is all about the market for babies. Go to Amazon

Interesting Book I saw this book in the library at school and checked it out. I made some notes on it and then decided it had enough significant information on in vitro etc. that I would buy it. It contains an interesting history of efforts to overcome infertility and then gets into modern Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Interesting book! Go to Amazon

Very Interesting The picture on the cover is creepy but this book is well written and easy to understand. It's amazing and disgusting how much it costs to get help when you can't get pregnant the old fashioned way. If you're looking for a self or planning guide this is not the book for you. If you or your husband is the finance/business type and likes to read, this helsp explain why the doctor assisted pregnancy process is so outrageously expensive. Go to Amazon

Clear-eyed Analysis of the Infertility World Mere markets? The Birth of the Scholarly Page Turner Informative book, but problems in adoption industry overlooked Insightful treatise on a difficult and emotional topic An absolute must read -- a fascinating and well-written argument!!

If I had only known .... Ms. Spar's book provides incredible insights into this commercial industry whose revenues are built on the hopes and dreams of building families. I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Professor Spar speak about her research and insights at a Harvard Business School reunion weekend in 2006 when I was struggling with infertility after our first child and giving up my successful career to support my husband and our family. Ms. Spar's book is an objective assessment of this industry in terms of the key players, its drivers and issues. Very helpful to understand especially if you are dealing with fertility clinics to understand what drives them. I am not big on government regulation in general but the "conception industry" is one where some government oversight could better protect and educate families and those who want to help these families. If I had only known and read Ms. Spar's book before I began our journey, it would have been less heartwrenching. I have consistently recommended this book to my friends and colleagues who are struggling with fertility and considering other means to have children. Our journey ended well as we were blessed with another child -- my verson of "having it all" as an AMA woman ("advanced maternal age" as the doctors labelled me) who waited to have children later in life. Here's to beating the odds and the clock! Go to Amazon

Honey ... you really don't need to sleep with the maid anymore Indeed. We have come a long way since the Book of Genesis. Today, the market would provide Rachel and Jacob a multitude of choices. They could buy some sperm (), eggs () or frozen embryos (). They could lease a womb or opt for in-vitro fertilization (IVF); or better yet, IVF with intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Pretty soon cloning may also be an option, though as of now many of the experiments with sheep and pet cats appear to have gone haywire due to birth defects and premature ageing. `Scientific progress' in the area of assisted reproduction has separated the act of sex from reproduction. In effect, what fertility clinics sell is the process. The components can be sourced from third parties, put together in a laboratory and then transferred to a leased womb through a gestational surrogacy contract. This is probably good - infertile women no longer have to implore their husbands to sleep with the maid. In addition, it has created an upstream market, or one for inputs and components. Presumably this is good too - selling a baby may sound morally reprehensible, but selling sperm or eggs doesn't sound that bad. Sperm is cheap. The average price is about $300. Eggs go for between $2500 and $50000 - the right combination of beauty and brains costs more. What many people find objectionable is that new reproductive technologies provide choice. If people have choice they will exercise it - after all everyone wants the `perfect' baby. Go to Amazon

Great distillation of multiple issues This book is an investigation into the various components of child acquisition outside of plain sexual conception by the intended parents. So the book covers adoption, surrogacy, IVF, cloning, and the numerous other technological ways of creating human life. Written as a dispassionate inquiry, the author examines the various issues associated with each method, profiles the historical development of each method, and most importantly, looks at how different localities around the world handle each issue. So the author does a great job of showing evolution over time, and differentation over space. There are numerous tables spread throughout the chapters that provide a lot of numerical data, such as the cost of IVF at different centers in the US. Hence the book also serves as a how-to-guide for would-be parents contemplating adoption, IVF, etc... All in all, a good book with enough science to explain the facts, but simple enough for any college student to read. Go to Amazon

Interesting Book I saw this book in the library at school and checked it out. I made some notes on it and then decided it had enough significant information on in vitro etc. that I would buy it. It contains an interesting history of efforts to overcome infertility and then gets into modern Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Interesting book! Go to Amazon

Fabulously Informative and Unemotional I love this book for what it is. Some other reviers commented on the Stoic nature of the work. They are accurate about that. However, that is why I like it. The book isn't meant to say what's right or wrong or make judgements. The author does raise some ethical and moral questions but makes no attempt to answer them. As someone who has spent some time on the infertility hamster wheel and also has a background in Economics, I found this book fabulous. It is very dense, containing a very informative mix of economics, history and science. It is all about the market for babies. Go to Amazon

Very Interesting The picture on the cover is creepy but this book is well written and easy to understand. It's amazing and disgusting how much it costs to get help when you can't get pregnant the old fashioned way. If you're looking for a self or planning guide this is not the book for you. If you or your husband is the finance/business type and likes to read, this helsp explain why the doctor assisted pregnancy process is so outrageously expensive. Go to Amazon

Clear-eyed Analysis of the Infertility World Mere markets? The Birth of the Scholarly Page Turner Informative book, but problems in adoption industry overlooked Insightful treatise on a difficult and emotional topic An absolute must read -- a fascinating and well-written argument!!