stunt_muppet

So let's have a meme or two to start out the day:

The first one: If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

You guys are amazing. *big hug*

Next one, stolen from many, many people: Ask me a question about one of my stories. It can be absolutely anything in any story. Whatever you ask, I will attempt to answer truthfully.

You may ask about fic I've written, fic I've promised to write, WIPs, anything you'd like.

Since this writing thing doesn't seem to be happening, maybe talking about fic will break the block. Oh, and if the question is "When are you going to finish _______?" The answer is I honestly don't know.

On Monday evening, Daddy and I gathered 'round the couch to watch "Midnight", which I had deliberately skipped when it came out in the UK (because I had plans to watch it with Dad) and missed when it aired in the US.

Non-spoilery reaction: I think this might be my favorite episode of Season 4 so far. I feel bad saying that, because part of the reason I've loved Season 4 so much is Donna, and this episode had no Donna in it, but it really was that good. It was marvelously creepy and claustrophobic and every single actor turned in a great performance.

Really, I could go on and on about how brilliant "Midnight" was. Part of it, I think, is that we never knew exactly what was inside Mrs. Silvestri's head - and neither did the Doctor. More to the point, he couldn't do anything to make it stop; he didn't know how to. This episode left the 'monster' in the dark (as any good horror movie should, really), giving us instead a staring woman repeating everyone's speech. And that repetition...it's so simple, so innocuous in and of itself, but in the context of the episode, it's terrifying.

I love it whenever we (the viewers) realize that something is subtly wrong just before the character does, especially if the character in question doesn't react to it. I love the sense of dread that comes with such a moment, the sudden realization that things are not as safe as they look. A good illustration of what I mean? "The Forest of the Dead", when the Doctor is talking to one of the archeologists without looking at him, and we hear him say, off-camera, "We should leave, Doctor!" And the Doctor doesn't react, but we realize that he said the exact same thing a few seconds ago. The "oh, no" moment, Dad calls it.

And "Midnight" was full of those - my personal favorite being the moment when the Doctor is talking to Mrs. Silvestri and she's repeating his words as he says them, then suddenly speaks a half-second before he does. It's small, it's subtle, and in any other context I might not have noticed it, but it was a brilliant, chilling moment for me.

This episode also gave me a really, truly vulnerable Doctor - vulnerable in the sense I like, in that he's flawed and stubborn and not always right and can't fix everything and sometimes gets in way over his head. We knew he was probably right and that the passengers should listen to him, but they didn't. They had no reason to think he wasn't in some way related to whatever was inside Mrs. Silvestri. Best of all, he couldn't prove he wasn't - and the suspicion and fear this aroused in the other passengers made him more vulnerable than anything else.

That's one of the primary reasons the Doctor needs a companion, though, isn't it? He needs someone who looks more sane - and less suspicious - than he is.

And THE SECONDARY CAST OMG. Everyone was just so, so good. This episode rested on the actors to sell the threat, especially since the only way it was manifested was in their arguing and Mrs. Silvestri's repetitions. And they sold it, beautifully. More to the point, they sold the characters - everyone was believable, even when mob panic started to take over. The most chilling part of the sequence where they're dragging the Doctor to the door is that they're not wrong. They're not bad people. They're just scared, and suspicious, and reacting as such.

And the end? Where nobody remembers the name of the woman who saved all their lives? That moment, right there, was more tragic, and spoke more to the darkness at the core of the series, than any amount of grandstanding about "destroying everything you touch" ever would. And yet, the fact that it was her that saved them - that an ordinary person whom nobody remembers figured out what was going on in the midst of all that panic and took decisive action - was at the same time...uplifting, in a strange and slightly sick way.

Only one thing prevents this from being a perfect episode, really, and that's that the black stewardess sacrifices herself to save the crew from the possessed lesbian, while the white nuclear family lives. Point docked for subtext fail.

Also, I had no idea David Troughton was in this episode, though the Professor looked (and sounded) familiar to me. I shall have to go back and examine his scenes more closely. Which, you know, involves watching the episode again, so that's not precisely a problem.

Closing note: Every time I open my web browser, the little "news stories" section has yet another panicky update on the closure of 400 Starbucks stores, including the most recent story: "List of Closures Released: Is Your Starbucks On The List?"

I find the panic over this frankly hilarious. You know, maybe if we hadn't built them across the street from each other, we wouldn't be having this problem. Just a thought.

And now to werk.