I am home from vacation! It is sad to not be at the beach anymore, but I'm sort of looking forward to going back to work, maybe getting a little more writing done now that Remix has given me a boost.
Speaking of Remix, some anonymous person has remixed my fic The Waiting-Room World from the POV of an original character whom I briefly mentioned, and the result is poignant and beautiful and did everything I should have done with regards to actually fleshing out the future described in The Ark in Space in all its grim, terrifying detail. You should go read it and tell the author how amazing it is.
Second, since I had a minute I thought I'd answer the Five Fannish Things meme. Feel free to ask me more at the original post; indeed I encourage it, because it gives me something to do. You'd love to help me procrastinate, wouldn't you?
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marah_sarie asked me for my Top Five Third Doctor Serials:
1) Inferno. It is very hard to choose a favorite from Season 7 as I love every episode of it like delicious pie (except maybe for that one episode in the middle of The Ambassadors of Death which more or less entirely consists of the bad guy running up some scaffolding), but I must be a boring fanboy on this point and go with Inferno. The main cast all put in a fabulous performance as their alternates (or themselves, as appropriate), the story is intense and relentless, the last couple of episodes are for all intents and purposes a classical zombie apocalypse (except one I can, mysteriously, stand to watch, even the big zombie-fearing sissy that I am), the Doctor gets put through the emotional and physical wringer by the end, the world ends and everyone dies (sort of), and there’s so much left unsaid and undone between the main cast that I could just write post-eps for this episode forever. I may be exaggerating a tiny bit.
Also the entire main cast is really, really sexy in this serial. I’m just saying. Eyepatches do things to a man.
2) The Mind of Evil. a.k.a. “someone went and dug up Terrance Dicks’ Doctor/Master hurt/comfort fanfic, thought it was just swell, and decided to make an episode out of it”, a.k.a. “Josephine Grant is a tiny ninja warrior” a.k.a. “you know, guys, Inferno was really excellent, but I just don’t think we abused the Doctor enough, I mean he was still mostly walking under his own power by the end, maybe we should kick it up a bit next time”, a.k.a. “oh Mister Master, you should not be this unintentionally sympathetic, and you and the Doctor shouldn’t be so damn cute when you’re not trying to kill him”, a.k.a. “UNIT is staffed by competent (and attractive) people with healthy amounts of UST for each other and I feel good trusting them with the planet; you should too”.
Alas there are not many pictures from The Mind of Evil, as it's not out on DVD, probably won't be anytime soon, and I'm far too lazy right now to screencap.
3) Invasion of the Dinosaurs. It was a tough call between this and The Time Warrior for my favorite Three-and-Sarah episode, but Invasion has UNIT and that tipped the scale. And it has UNIT being wonderfully competent too, possibly the most competent they’ve been since The Mind of Evil, with the possible exception of The Green Death. I like it when UNIT does things. And it has quite a lot of the Doctor and the Brigadier’s wonderfully complex relationship and Benton is awesome and punches a general in the nose to protect the Doctor and the Brig. And Sarah is sharp and has a lovely dynamic with the Doctor and generally Figures Things Out. And oh, Mike Yates, I do so wish you hadn’t gone and joined the crazy environmentalists. There’s a lovely group of not-crazy environmentalists back in Wales you could have joined!
Oh, now comes the hard decisions! Do I leave behind the shippy cuteness and inexplicably-amusing-pantslessness-of-David-Troughton of The Curse of Peladon for the shippy cuteness and distracting shoe lust of Carnival of Monsters or the saga of heartbreak and crossdressing that is The Green Death? Do I find the Master more enjoyable when he’s orchestrating the downfall of Earth from a prison or from a vaguely-Trek-esque spaceship? So many burning questions.
4) The Sea Devils. I watched this for the first time with K and S,and it was one of the most amusing two hours of my life, so I’m a bit biased. It’s a genuinely good script all on its own, reworking The Silurians without too much repetition from the earlier serial (though it doesn’t take the moral dilemma nearly as seriously as The Silurians did) and with some magnificent dialogue between the Doctor and the Master. But there’s a lot of little touches that make it my favorite – the Best Swordfight Ever, complete with the Doctor being a shameless sandwich thief in the middle of a swordfight; Jo and the Doctor’s teamwork and teasing; Jo once again being quite competent when she’s given the chance to do something; the Master watching the Clangers and requesting a TV in his prison cell, plus his impatient reactions to Trenchard; the Doctor and the Master Doing Science together and making completely gratuitous physical contact; a jet-ski chase hell yeah; and to top it all off the Hello, Sailor! making-of documentary that finally made me throw in the towel and start shipping the actors on this damn show in addition to the characters. I held out through the Invasion commentary and the Tombwatch documentary and the Ark in Space commentary but it was Hello Sailor that broke me once and for all.
5) The Curse of Peladon. It’s a really, really tough pick between this and Carnival of Monsters, and I like everyone’s outfit way more in Carnival (I like the Doctor’s red jacket better, but the knee-boots he’s wearing in Carnival plus the brown cape kinda make up for it). But Curse of Peladon has Jo thinking up a plan completely on the fly, posing as a princess in order to save her and the Doctor’s skin and acting appropriately regal too. Also she climbs mountains in high heels and shimmies across a ledge over an enormous cliff when she has to escape a room with only one door, because she’s resourceful that way. And – I may as well just own up – the Doctor calls her “princess” and there’s gentle teasing and Jo telling him he’s wrong which I sort of love and she saves him from a ferocious beastie with a lit torch. Even though he didn’t actually need saving, but shh. I’m such a big girl for them, it’s really kind of pathetic.
And that is all I have to say for now. I really should go to bed; work in the morning and all. Good night, flist.
Speaking of Remix, some anonymous person has remixed my fic The Waiting-Room World from the POV of an original character whom I briefly mentioned, and the result is poignant and beautiful and did everything I should have done with regards to actually fleshing out the future described in The Ark in Space in all its grim, terrifying detail. You should go read it and tell the author how amazing it is.
Second, since I had a minute I thought I'd answer the Five Fannish Things meme. Feel free to ask me more at the original post; indeed I encourage it, because it gives me something to do. You'd love to help me procrastinate, wouldn't you?
marah_sarie asked me for my Top Five Third Doctor Serials: 1) Inferno. It is very hard to choose a favorite from Season 7 as I love every episode of it like delicious pie (except maybe for that one episode in the middle of The Ambassadors of Death which more or less entirely consists of the bad guy running up some scaffolding), but I must be a boring fanboy on this point and go with Inferno. The main cast all put in a fabulous performance as their alternates (or themselves, as appropriate), the story is intense and relentless, the last couple of episodes are for all intents and purposes a classical zombie apocalypse (except one I can, mysteriously, stand to watch, even the big zombie-fearing sissy that I am), the Doctor gets put through the emotional and physical wringer by the end, the world ends and everyone dies (sort of), and there’s so much left unsaid and undone between the main cast that I could just write post-eps for this episode forever. I may be exaggerating a tiny bit.
Also the entire main cast is really, really sexy in this serial. I’m just saying. Eyepatches do things to a man.
2) The Mind of Evil. a.k.a. “someone went and dug up Terrance Dicks’ Doctor/Master hurt/comfort fanfic, thought it was just swell, and decided to make an episode out of it”, a.k.a. “Josephine Grant is a tiny ninja warrior” a.k.a. “you know, guys, Inferno was really excellent, but I just don’t think we abused the Doctor enough, I mean he was still mostly walking under his own power by the end, maybe we should kick it up a bit next time”, a.k.a. “oh Mister Master, you should not be this unintentionally sympathetic, and you and the Doctor shouldn’t be so damn cute when you’re not trying to kill him”, a.k.a. “UNIT is staffed by competent (and attractive) people with healthy amounts of UST for each other and I feel good trusting them with the planet; you should too”.
Alas there are not many pictures from The Mind of Evil, as it's not out on DVD, probably won't be anytime soon, and I'm far too lazy right now to screencap.
3) Invasion of the Dinosaurs. It was a tough call between this and The Time Warrior for my favorite Three-and-Sarah episode, but Invasion has UNIT and that tipped the scale. And it has UNIT being wonderfully competent too, possibly the most competent they’ve been since The Mind of Evil, with the possible exception of The Green Death. I like it when UNIT does things. And it has quite a lot of the Doctor and the Brigadier’s wonderfully complex relationship and Benton is awesome and punches a general in the nose to protect the Doctor and the Brig. And Sarah is sharp and has a lovely dynamic with the Doctor and generally Figures Things Out. And oh, Mike Yates, I do so wish you hadn’t gone and joined the crazy environmentalists. There’s a lovely group of not-crazy environmentalists back in Wales you could have joined!
Oh, now comes the hard decisions! Do I leave behind the shippy cuteness and inexplicably-amusing-pantslessness-of-David-Troughton of The Curse of Peladon for the shippy cuteness and distracting shoe lust of Carnival of Monsters or the saga of heartbreak and crossdressing that is The Green Death? Do I find the Master more enjoyable when he’s orchestrating the downfall of Earth from a prison or from a vaguely-Trek-esque spaceship? So many burning questions.
4) The Sea Devils. I watched this for the first time with K and S,and it was one of the most amusing two hours of my life, so I’m a bit biased. It’s a genuinely good script all on its own, reworking The Silurians without too much repetition from the earlier serial (though it doesn’t take the moral dilemma nearly as seriously as The Silurians did) and with some magnificent dialogue between the Doctor and the Master. But there’s a lot of little touches that make it my favorite – the Best Swordfight Ever, complete with the Doctor being a shameless sandwich thief in the middle of a swordfight; Jo and the Doctor’s teamwork and teasing; Jo once again being quite competent when she’s given the chance to do something; the Master watching the Clangers and requesting a TV in his prison cell, plus his impatient reactions to Trenchard; the Doctor and the Master Doing Science together and making completely gratuitous physical contact; a jet-ski chase hell yeah; and to top it all off the Hello, Sailor! making-of documentary that finally made me throw in the towel and start shipping the actors on this damn show in addition to the characters. I held out through the Invasion commentary and the Tombwatch documentary and the Ark in Space commentary but it was Hello Sailor that broke me once and for all.
5) The Curse of Peladon. It’s a really, really tough pick between this and Carnival of Monsters, and I like everyone’s outfit way more in Carnival (I like the Doctor’s red jacket better, but the knee-boots he’s wearing in Carnival plus the brown cape kinda make up for it). But Curse of Peladon has Jo thinking up a plan completely on the fly, posing as a princess in order to save her and the Doctor’s skin and acting appropriately regal too. Also she climbs mountains in high heels and shimmies across a ledge over an enormous cliff when she has to escape a room with only one door, because she’s resourceful that way. And – I may as well just own up – the Doctor calls her “princess” and there’s gentle teasing and Jo telling him he’s wrong which I sort of love and she saves him from a ferocious beastie with a lit torch. Even though he didn’t actually need saving, but shh. I’m such a big girl for them, it’s really kind of pathetic.
And that is all I have to say for now. I really should go to bed; work in the morning and all. Good night, flist.
sleepy
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Meanwhile, I've heard Invasion of the Dinosaurs has the most hilarious special effects ever. But I'm not sure if they meant compared to the rest of the episodes, or were just referring to the show in the general.
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Yay cred for Invasion of the Dinosaurs! It's definitely my favorite of the Three/Sarah stories. I love how it has NOTHING to do with dinosaurs and everyone is so involved and active and Mike's moral dilemma. I LOVE YOU MIKE. I'M GLAD YOU GOT OVER YOUR PSYCHOTIC BREAK. <3
"(though it doesn’t take the moral dilemma nearly as seriously as The Silurians did)"
That's what disappointed me about The Sea Devils, since as you probably already know, I think The Silurians is the peak of Who. I blame the Master for preoccupying him. But it's still a very enjoyable serial on its own right.
OMG I FUCKING LOVE THE CURSE OF PELADON. It's definitely in my favorite Three stories, possibly my top 5 too. Everything about Three and Jo makes me as big a girl as you, and it is the root of my adoration of Ice Warriors.
I need to see this Hello Sailor thing of which you speak; I'd never heard of it. I also have to hear the Ark in Space commentary! OMG! The sheer adoration Tom has for Lis in the Planet of Evil commentary was overwhelming, I can't even imagine the other heights it could go to in the rest of them.
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I blame the Master for preoccupying him.
The Master can be a very distracting fellow. :D But yeah, I like The Sea Devils, but it's a very different story to Silurians and has a way different tone. On its own it's a fine story, but the fact that it follows up on the Silurians means that you notice the absent complexity.
That said, it still has the swordfight.
I really love the Ice Warriors in Curse of Peladon, and it makes me kind of sad that they don't show up after that. One of the most annoying pop-SFF tropes for me is the "villain race" or "villain species", and much as I love Who it falls into that trope way too often. The Ice Warriors aren't a complete subversion (they do, after all, say that their planet has forsaken its warrior culture, implying the monoculture that designates a villain species) but they're at least moving away from that. I'd very much like to see them as allies in the new series. Would it be okay if I wrote fic where Eleven and Amy go meet Ice Warriors even though neither of them has a personality yet? I want to. :/
Everything about Three and Jo makes me as big a girl as you.
It is really kind of stupid how hard I ship them sometimes, but the show keeps giving me stuff like "Name-dropper" and "I should hate to lose you" and the Doctor spiriting Jo off in his time machine instead of letting her go on a date with Mike, so it's not my fault. They obviously wanted me to do it.
Hello Sailor is amazing omg. Let's just say it contains the sentence "I was not going to inflict naked Sea Devils on the children of Britain; it would be immoral and wrong and give them funny ideas". It is not quite as tempting to the RPF dark side for that particular cast as, say, the Green Death or Three Doctors commentary is, but it's definitely up there. And the Ark in Space commentary is adorable; I didn't get a chance to finish it before I went home from school for the summer, but I think there's a bit in there where Tom and Lis have a conversation something like: "I can't remember a thing about this [episode]. Do we get out of this?" "We should; we've got a whole 'nother series after this." "Ah." It made me smile.
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If you want awesome Ice Warrior-ness, the Five/Peri audio Red Dawn is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
Maybe you should wait, but as soon as they have personalities, you should totally jump on that Ice Warrior thing. Hee, I love that technically when you say "Martian," in the Whoniverse that's what you're referring to.
So many docs/commentaries I must see/hear! omg! Right now I just have Tom calling Lis "darling" like fifty thousand times in a two hour span and telling her he was happiest with her.
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There was a rumor a while back that one of the specials was going to feature Ice Warriors. Instead we apparently get Chapter 1 of Companionpalooza. Golly, I can't tell you how excited I am. :P
The Three Doctors commentary is insane. Not only does it have Katy Manning and Nick Courtney (who are both a tiny bit mad in their own charming way), but there's a bit in there where, no lie, Katy is making comments about Jon's bum. And Nick, for his part, just sounds shocked that someone who isn't him is talking about bums. As far as tush-related moments in commentary tracks it loses out to the Mind Robber commentary, I think (wherein Wendy Padbury laughingly admits "I get letters about that shot" (of her clinging to the console)), but I still had to stare at the screen for a minute and wonder if I'd just heard what I thought I'd heard. Oh, show.
Which reminds me: have you seen the Tombwatch feature on the Tomb of the Cybermen DVD? In addition to the usual Patrick Troughton/Frazer Hines suggestiveness Frazer also flirts with Deborah Watling to a *crazy* degree. He also has completely ceased to age since the 1960s, which is slightly unnerving.
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I've already seen him drive Deborah Watling to the point where she starts impotently slapping at him, so I am unsurprised. XD
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Sometimes I have a hard time believing that The Mind of Evil actually exists. It feels so...catered to fannish tastes that I'm baffled it was made before fandom got going. Or that it really wasn't just a really awesome fanfic that got mixed in with the scripts.
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Oh dear god, Centauri. lol Jo and Islyr trying to shut him up.
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I'm just amused that not only is he not wearing trousers, his boots go almost halfway up his thighs. Those are some serious shoes. :D
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I don't think anyone would complain about a "pants-less" David, either. However, I would complain about a trouserless David Tennant, as I mistakenly called him in my comment to
I'm just amused that not only is he not wearing trousers, his boots go almost halfway up his thighs. Those are some serious shoes. :D
I covet those boots like crazy. And his collar, for some reason.