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...namely, registering for my classes.
Naturally I've still got a bunch of other stuff to do, but here, have some time-wasting discussion.
Naturally I've still got a bunch of other stuff to do, but here, have some time-wasting discussion.
I’ve not the time to write seven-page meta on every single Who serial I’ve been watching (though I’ve been dedicating quite a lot of text to “The Impossible Planet”/“The Satan Pit” and Pyramids of Mars), so here be a few quick thoughts on what I’ve been watching thus far. Covers Doctors One through Five and bits of New School.
Things I've yet to do: shower and dress, practice my poem for tonight, work on my English presentation on I don't know what, edit Chapter 1 of "The Memory Always Lies", work on Church On Time fic, possibly get a bit of sleep.
On a non-fannish note, I should really try to branch out into music that is not weird electronica what no one's ever heard of. It makes the construction of fanmixes much harder and one's musical crack habit much more expensive.
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------ Six serials in and I still don’t hate Adric the way I thought I was supposed to. (The fact that I’m generally ignoring the existence of Four to Doomsday helps, I think.) I mean, yeah, Adric’s a bit whiny and a bit needy, and he’s very much the attention-seeker, but he’s also, you know, fifteen-ish. His behavior’s understandable, considering his age and origins, and a bit of my own experience tells that high intelligence does not equal emotional maturity. And considering that he practically adopts the Doctor and Romana as parents, why wouldn’t he be approval-seeking?
I strongly suspect that, like the “companions do nothing but scream” trope and the Brigadier’s efficacy, some of the Adric-hate is the doing of old fanboys who I should have stopped listening to long ago. This also might have something to do with my tendency to see the potential in a character, and fault the material for not living up to that potential, rather than faulting the character him/herself (see: general attitude towards the CSI franchise). Ah well.
A related point: Warrior’s Gate is actually a bit good, and yet I never hear anyone talk about it. Hmm. Also the presence of cloisters in the TARDIS makes no sense whatsoever to me and harks uncomfortably to the TV Movie TARDIS, which I was not fond of no matter what anyone says. But I don’t know if I want to or even am able to argue that point, especially since I’m pretty sure the cloisters are never mentioned again except in the form of the Cloister Bell (which I find equally nonsensical, but whatever).
- Claws of Axos becomes much better once I’ve seen more Three, Jo, Benton, and Yates. It’s still not perfect by a long shot, but at least I can tell where their behavior fits in to their general character continuum. Also, after lots and lots of grainy videos I’m really coming to appreciate the sharpness of the DVD image. :D
- Speaking of Axos (and The Silurians), nobody in television in the seventies apparently knew jack about nuclear power and how it functions. But then, nobody in television today knows jack about nuclear power and how it functions, so this doesn’t really surprise me. Yes, 24, I am looking very strongly at you.
- Sarah Jane is the only companion that Three failed to get in go-go boots. I’ll forgive him since he did get her in a swimsuit, but I believe it is Ten’s solemn duty to rectify his predecessor’s oversight. Get crackin’, Martian boy.
- You know, I was going to make a snide comment about how this series consistently fails to deal with decompression when a character is in outer space (which came to mind during Five’s spacewalk in Four to Doomsday, where he wore only a helmet), and how that’s the one bit of Skience that irks me even though I can deal with most of the others, but apparently a little research tells me that explosive decompression is a myth and someone ejected into space would die primarily of asphyxia. There’s also the risks of deoxygenation of the blood and tissue, lung collapse, ice in the respiratory tract and non-explosive decompression sickness, but not explosive decompression. Huh. Learn something new every day.
Of course, that doesn’t make Five’s spacewalk any more plausible, though you could probably work something out with the respiratory bypass system mentioned in Pyramids of Mars to account for the lack of deoxygenation, unconsciousness, et al. But it makes that scene at the end of “The Satan Pit” a bit less problematic, given that the cabin window was probably open for less than thirty seconds.
- It is ridiculous how in love I am with Evil of the Daleks. I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time with the reconstructions, and while it does suck a bit not to have a visual to go with the audio, the script is just so excellent that I can content myself with listening to the actors speak it.
- While I was very fond of The Deadly Assassin when I first saw it, and I still like it to an extent, the portrayal of Gallifrey really, really seems odd now that I’ve seen things like The War Games and The Three Doctors (the former more than the latter). Considering how afraid the Doctor and the War Chief were of the Time Lords, and how emphatic the other Doctors were that they Were Not Ever Going Back, the sheer ineffectuality of Gallifrey seems off. It would have worked well if we’d never seen Gallifrey before, but as it is, it feels inconsistent.
- I really, really want there to be Third Doctor/Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw fic. With a really, really domme-ish Liz. I don’t know if I’d want to read it. I definitely don’t want to write it. I just…want very badly for it to exist. Someone please tell me I am not alone in this.
- I keep trying to make it through The Time Monster and then getting bored and going to go do something else. I mean, I know it’s got the Master in it and Jo Being Awesome and Benton engaged in Thrilling Heroics and subtext and such, but…I don’t know. It’s just not doing anything for me.
I’m very amused, however, that by Episode 3 the Doctor has already flirted with Dr. Ingram enough that she tells him to call her Ruth. Three, you frilly little slutboi, you. (I maintain that all this flirting is due to emotional damage from that time the Time Lords stole the Doctor’s husband, yes.)
- Castrovalva is made of awesome, if only for the moment where Peter Davison channels Patrick Troughton. Of course, there’s also the Doctor getting hauled around in a box and generally being panicky and confused, and Tegan being all bossy and protective, and secondary characters that I actually like/care about even if their hats are very silly.
Also Ainley!Master is a bit camp but that’s okay. And for some reason the ending, with Castrovalva collapsing around him and the Castrovalvans dragging him back into the wreckage, really freaks me out.
- Sutekh has climbed up there with the Celestial Toymaker, the Vocs, and the War Lord on the list of favorite old-school villains and ones which I would very much like to bring back. This is almost entirely due to his voice, which makes lines that would normally be very kitschy sound good.
- “Human Nature”/“Family of Blood”, “Blink”, and “Utopia” may get all the press and fandom love, but my S3 re-viewings still point to “Gridlock” as one of the high points of the series. The script’s sharp, the far-future Earth culture seems distinctive, there’s a refreshing lack of godhood on the Doctor’s part, and there are Macra. Any shout-out, however passing, to Two’s era is a good thing. I’d say ‘any time the script writers remember there was an old series is a good thing’, but then I start thinking about “School Reunion” again and I get all sulky and irritated.
- Curse of Peladon is to Three/Jo what City of Death is to Four/Romana, in that they spend the entire serial being adorable and playing off one another beautifully and generally making it really difficult for me to think of them in a strictly platonic context. This is the last I’m going to ramble about the Third Doctor era at the moment, really I promise.
- I think one of the reasons I love Doctor Who so much, especially the old school, is that stories like The Mind Robber can exist and make complete sense in the show’s universe. And it can actually be taken seriously, rather than being straight outta the crackpipe. That first episode, with Jamie and Zoe lost in “nowhere” and the Doctor trying not to venture outside, is flat-out chilling.
- I still haven’t seen The War Machines. This bothers me.
Things I've yet to do: shower and dress, practice my poem for tonight, work on my English presentation on I don't know what, edit Chapter 1 of "The Memory Always Lies", work on Church On Time fic, possibly get a bit of sleep.
On a non-fannish note, I should really try to branch out into music that is not weird electronica what no one's ever heard of. It makes the construction of fanmixes much harder and one's musical crack habit much more expensive.
anxious
!
I am the exact same way! Which is why I fell a bit in love with Mel even before Big Finish came around. Because I saw a rather spunky, cheerful woman that was given jack all to do... everyone else saw a shrieky companion and Bonnie Langford the Obnoxious Child Star. Meh.
*huggles Big Finish*
I don't mind Adric at all. He's not in my top five, but I certainly don't hate him. He's actually my sister's favorite companion...
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As for Adric, I find that I really like the dynamic he has with his Doctors, and how his intelligence balances out his adolescent wish for attention/approval. Besides, he's so darn small. It seems mean to pick on him.
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One of the things which made Torchwood's s2 finale so ridiculous was in fact this very problem. OH NOES, A NUCLEAR POWER STATION. OWEN, SAY SOMETHING YOU LOOKED UP ON WIKIPEDIA TO THE AUDIENCE!
Sarah Jane is the only companion that Three failed to get in go-go boots. I’ll forgive him since he did get her in a swimsuit, but I believe it is Ten’s solemn duty to rectify his predecessor’s oversight. Get crackin’, Martian boy.
XD OMG YES
And that's about all I have to say to that. Keep on being fabulous, Old Who.
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And the thing is, Lis Sladen would still look really damn good in go-go boots. :D
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I also love The Time Monster, even though the story takes very ridiculous turns. The characters came through really well in it, and that really did a lot for me. (Pattern? :d)
Gridlock is fucking amazing. I absolutely love it. (I'm not supremely fond of Utopia but for the climax. It's fine, but I was mostly like "Biologically stable humans at the end of the universe? Bullshit, I'm totally wanking this." ...that's one occasion of skience fail that really didn't work for me. Another was in The Armageddon Factor -- which I actually like -- where suddenly Four can't make a proper time loop, wtf.)
WATCH THE WAR MACHINES. OMG.
Sutekh is terrifying and I love his voice and creepy lines.
Curse of Peladon is City of Death, except for Three/Jo. And interesting. City of Death, outside of Four's endearing weirdness, didn't work for me. The story was choppy and lazy, and Four and Romana didn't even spend that much time together. When they did, they were frolicking, and Four frolicking is terrifying and wrong. I thought they were cuter in Destiny of the Daleks.
Ainley!Master is a bit off when it comes to actual plotting mastermind. He doesn't have the graceful sheen I like. However, his line delivery is beautiful; gentle, at ease. I really like that part of him a lot.
Where did you get ahold of a full Evil of the Daleks? I've only gotten ahold of eps 1-4, and I demand your powers.
OMG and the Castrovalva moment where Peter channeled Two made my life. Castrovalva had some very cute moments (and some slightly...deflated bits...), but that was the winnest of them all. And he was spot fucking on. <3
Now, hopefully I can stop editing my massive comment.
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And, see, I can usually deal with a plot being silly if the characters are doing their thing, but for some reason Time Monster just...isn't working. I don't even think I can explain it, because I keep feeling like I should love it. Hmm. Maybe I'll like it more once I hit the end. In fact, I'm sure I will. I'll get right on that, then.
And I can normally handwave fake-science in Doctor Who too, because, come on, I'm watching a show about a shapeshifting alien who travels time and space in a ship shaped like a phone booth, that's already a lot of disbelief being suspended right there. Maybe it's when they almost get it right that I start to notice it; if it's complete bosh I can just go along with it. Case in point: What irritated me more than anything in Four to Doomsday wasn't the suitless spacewalk. It was Five throwing the cricket ball to get to the TARDIS and only starting to move once he caught the thing, when just throwing it would have started him moving - equal and opposite reaction and all that. They almost got it, but...then they didn't. *shrug* Or maybe if it's in service of a script I really like I can deal? I don't know.
...you know, the humans in Utopia never really registered, and now that I think about it they should have. Humans are everywhere in the New series, so I guess I'd come to expect it, but that really doesn't make any sense at all now that I think about it. I ended up liking Utopia because of the interactions between Yana and the Doctor, and because I really loved Chantho. But Gridlock still outranks it.
I...kind of forgot that City of Death had a plot, really. :D It was very late at night when I watched it, so about halfway through I forgot what was going on and just focused on the Doctor and Romana and Julian Glover (of whom I am excessively fond) and went along with it. And while normally I'd agree with you about Four frollicking, for some reason it doesn't bother me here - maybe because by the end of Romana's run, he's reverted back to an argumentative grump.
I still like Curse of Peladon better but shh.The "camp" thing showed up at the very end of Castrovalva for me, when he suddenly started yelling very dramatically for no obvious reason, and again I think that's more a script problem than an acting one. But those scenes with Adric in the web-thinger? Love. He sounded so calm most of the time, but he had this predatory undercurrent to him that I was very fond of. And for some reason I adore "I populated Castrovalva. I will dispose of these creatures as I choose." :D
Where did you get ahold of a full Evil of the Daleks?
I'm afraid I didn't. I've only seen recons of Episodes 1-4; the rest I've only got the photonovel, the fragments available in the DVD extras, and the script for. But oh, that script. I'm still upset that I can't hear the lines being spoken, but the script's a thing of beauty.
< /long reply is long>
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That's because it's David Whitaker. The man writes dialog worthy of the gods. Dude.
One of my top five favorite Doctor Who series ever is "The Crusade", also written by Whitaker. Because ZOMG TEH WRITING. It's gorgeous! *wibble*
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Complete? No, unfortunately. It's a four parter, of which only half exists. Episodes 1 and 3 exist, 2 and 4 don't. However to cushion this there is an audio narrated by William Russell, reconstructions and a excellent novelization written by Whitaker himself. (A extremely Ian/Barbara shippy novelization I might add... God, I love this man. *fangirls Whitaker*)
On DVD? Yep! Both existing eps - as well as the linking narration William Russell did for the VHS release - are on the Lost in Time set. :)
Because I feel like I should see what I can of One before I start moving on to the later Doctors.
How much of One have you seen? I'll happily give recommendations. :)
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At the moment, I've seen very little of One - I've read the script for and seen the surviving episode of The Celestial Toymaker, and out of the complete serials I've seen An Unearthly Child and The Aztecs; I've got War Machines cued up. That's about it, really. *smiles shyly*
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Yay! It's very character-driven, with tons of great dialog and Julian Glover and Jean Marsh being awesome. I think you'll enjoy it. :)
One recs: Hmmm... Dalek Invasion of Earth is an excellent one, one of Terry Nation's better Dalek scripts IMO. That one's on DVD too. Oh, and I must recommend The Romans! Sadly not on DVD, but it's so worth hunting for. Highly entertaining. :D
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*marks down names* I've got The Dalek Invasion of Earth on my Blockbuster queue (I've been meaning to see it anyway), so I'll get to that first, probably. Thank you for the recs!
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There are stories in which I can forget the plot in favor of fun stuff going on, but City of Death was not one of them, because...the stuff masking the lack of story was not that captivating to me. The whole thing just felt lackluster.
I can excuse the overabundance of humans in the new series for the most part (I still don't understand why we can't go somewhere in the universe where they aren't everywhere), but if they're still thriving and constant at the END OF TIME...that was a snapping moment for me. So I explained it to myself in light of I believe Nine's explanation from long ago: all the "humans" were barely genetically human anymore, they were interbred with so many things. The closest thing to being pure genetic human at the end of the universe were the futurekind.
That is my wank, and I'm stickin' to it. *nod*
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And yeah, I'm okay with humans being in historicals and some far-future stories, but I'm starting to crave some Guys In Rubber Suits. I miss them, visible zippers and all.
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Three, you frilly little slutboi, you.
*laughs*
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Actually, if I stare at pictures of a younger Pat and squint really hard, I can kind of see the resemblance, but David still resembles Christopher Walken to me more than anything.
Alpha Centauri is amusing, though, in a squeaky and anxious sort of way.
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Actually, now that I go back and look really hard, David and Pat have similar profiles - I didn't see much resemblance in specific features,
but looking at this picture (http://pics.livejournal.com/bibliophile1887/pic/000crw8g/g27) and this one (http://drwhotht03.110mb.com/3m/d3-3m-008.jpg) together, there's something about the overall shape of the face that stands out.
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And the profiles are definitely similar, even if the features in themselves are not.
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Yay for Gridlock and Two-era references. Other than the Doctor suddenly calling himself by Jamie's name without batting an eye.
I maintain that all this flirting is due to emotional damage from that time the Time Lords stole the Doctor’s husband, yes.
Haha.. So all the Doctor's later random flirtations are just after effects from his traumatizing forced divorce from the certain someone. Well, now it all makes sense. ;)
I love it that Peter Davison is such Troughton fanboy. He so often mentions in interviews how he especially liked Pat's Doctor and how Pat was kind of 'his Doctor', it's so wonderful.
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I keep wishing that the Beeb would see fit to have Evil animated or rotoscoped or something, because it really is one of the best of the Dalek stories that I've seen thus far, and the dialogue's utterly brilliant.
I was a bit conflicted about the Doctor calling himself James McCrimmon. I couldn't figure out if the script writers were just trying to toss in an old-school reference or if he really was using the name out of honor/sentiment. Hmm.
But of course! Why do you think they went on the "Doctor = asexual" agenda in the eighties? He just couldn't deal with being involved with a human again after that kind of loss. :)
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