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rmThank you all for your generosity of housing offers, suggestions, and re-boosting the signal.
Patty is sleeping because of her cold, but I'll wake her soon and we'll have dinner, figure this out, and get back in touch with all of you. We are now housed.
In the meantime, I want to talk about Doctor Who
I've watched the first Eleven episode and the one that just aired. I've not had time to squeeze in the second one yet, but here are my random thinky thoughts.
- Overall, I love it.
- I see echoes of both Nine and Ten in Matt Smith's performance. Especially tonight's episode which you folks outside of the UK haven't seen yet -- there's Nine, loud and clear. And, you know, I think of Ten as "my Doctor" -- he and Jack as awesome ex-boyfriend superheros was always a narrative that hit close to home for me, and I was surprised how deeply moved I was, how much I fucking missed Nine, how much I'd forgotten that he broke my heart first watching Matt Smith's performance tonight.
- There are things I actively don't like, including the "DoctorVision" shit we're treated to in the first episode and the candy rainbow Dalek redesign.
- Amy Pond is AMAZING.
- I'm interested in the degree to which there are tiny echoes of other things in the Whoniverse scattered throughout the two episodes I've seen so far ... Amy Pond mentions "dabbling" and here's a WWII story in which the Doctor has to make a call about an RAF pilot sacrificing himself or not. Here are all sorts of things that have happened in the Whoniverse before happening, not again but not quite right.
Here is a world that echoes both backwards and forwards, which is fundamentally why I watch this show. Because mine does too. Because I felt that way before I ever saw this thing.
But seriously, in addition to the above mentioned - Amy was about to get married; she has red hair. She's Donna. She's this wrong world Donna. And the crack in the wall, it's all about how Rose got lost. And I've been told about the space whale (in the episode I've not seen yet) and the new Daleks from tonight hark back to (god help us all) "Daleks of Manhattan."
IS MOFFATT DOING WHAT I THINK HE'S DOING?
- I am also interested in the degree to which this Doctor Who is explicitly a children's show again, yet I am gripped. The episodes feel both as optimistic as we've seen since the end of "The Doctor Dances" and yet, the potential in the overall arc is HORRIFICALLY dark. It's clear we're working with big mythology here -- the creature that lived in Amy's house in the first episode has the same teeth as the vampire women scene in the trailers and everything is connected ot the crack in the wall, and all of it is going to link in with River Song and the terrible, terrible Weeping Angels.
- This show always makes me so proud of it. This is an indefinable, hard to explain emotion in me, but it's there and solidly, solidly true.
- More than one conversation I've had going into the Eleven episodes, especially after friends had seen them and I hadn't had time was "I want to know what you think, but I also want to know what Jack thinks." I love it, and I'm stamping my feet and squeeing as I watch it. But Jack? Profoundly fucking melancholy for who he was when he was mortal. Something about Ten made that past seem far away. Eleven, makes it seem like it happened five minutes ago. I can't explain, but come on, half of you are here for this sort of fucking crazy anyway.
In the meantime, I want to talk about Doctor Who
I've watched the first Eleven episode and the one that just aired. I've not had time to squeeze in the second one yet, but here are my random thinky thoughts.
- Overall, I love it.
- I see echoes of both Nine and Ten in Matt Smith's performance. Especially tonight's episode which you folks outside of the UK haven't seen yet -- there's Nine, loud and clear. And, you know, I think of Ten as "my Doctor" -- he and Jack as awesome ex-boyfriend superheros was always a narrative that hit close to home for me, and I was surprised how deeply moved I was, how much I fucking missed Nine, how much I'd forgotten that he broke my heart first watching Matt Smith's performance tonight.
- There are things I actively don't like, including the "DoctorVision" shit we're treated to in the first episode and the candy rainbow Dalek redesign.
- Amy Pond is AMAZING.
- I'm interested in the degree to which there are tiny echoes of other things in the Whoniverse scattered throughout the two episodes I've seen so far ... Amy Pond mentions "dabbling" and here's a WWII story in which the Doctor has to make a call about an RAF pilot sacrificing himself or not. Here are all sorts of things that have happened in the Whoniverse before happening, not again but not quite right.
Here is a world that echoes both backwards and forwards, which is fundamentally why I watch this show. Because mine does too. Because I felt that way before I ever saw this thing.
But seriously, in addition to the above mentioned - Amy was about to get married; she has red hair. She's Donna. She's this wrong world Donna. And the crack in the wall, it's all about how Rose got lost. And I've been told about the space whale (in the episode I've not seen yet) and the new Daleks from tonight hark back to (god help us all) "Daleks of Manhattan."
IS MOFFATT DOING WHAT I THINK HE'S DOING?
- I am also interested in the degree to which this Doctor Who is explicitly a children's show again, yet I am gripped. The episodes feel both as optimistic as we've seen since the end of "The Doctor Dances" and yet, the potential in the overall arc is HORRIFICALLY dark. It's clear we're working with big mythology here -- the creature that lived in Amy's house in the first episode has the same teeth as the vampire women scene in the trailers and everything is connected ot the crack in the wall, and all of it is going to link in with River Song and the terrible, terrible Weeping Angels.
- This show always makes me so proud of it. This is an indefinable, hard to explain emotion in me, but it's there and solidly, solidly true.
- More than one conversation I've had going into the Eleven episodes, especially after friends had seen them and I hadn't had time was "I want to know what you think, but I also want to know what Jack thinks." I love it, and I'm stamping my feet and squeeing as I watch it. But Jack? Profoundly fucking melancholy for who he was when he was mortal. Something about Ten made that past seem far away. Eleven, makes it seem like it happened five minutes ago. I can't explain, but come on, half of you are here for this sort of fucking crazy anyway.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 07:27 pm (UTC)Ugh -- I was immediately worried when I saw the first episode that this would become a recurring thing.
Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-17 07:36 pm (UTC)I like the fact that it's more explicitly a kids show, what with everyone being MY AGE!!!! Dude... When I saw the first two eps (DLing the third as we speak) I literally jumped out of my skin! Prisoner Zero (such a blatant reference OMG!) was creepy!
I think Jack would feel like a cradle robber with Eleven, which is possibly how he felt with Rose. Just a thinky thought.
Sorry! Edited for fear that I may have spoiled you for the second episode!
Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-17 07:47 pm (UTC)OH MY GOD THERE'S A SPACE WHALE?
Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-17 07:49 pm (UTC)Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-17 07:50 pm (UTC)I was heard far and wide with my *squee* :)
Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-18 04:47 am (UTC)Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-17 07:56 pm (UTC)Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-17 07:59 pm (UTC)edited comment...
Date: 2010-04-17 08:02 pm (UTC)YES! Watch the second ep ASAP your head will explode I say.
Seriously though, that was silly of me, I was sure you'd seen both one after the other... apologies all around :(
Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-22 06:14 am (UTC)Re: Don't read the original comment!
Date: 2010-04-22 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 07:38 pm (UTC)And now, you've seen Ep 1 and you've got to read Sam's Jack/Eleven story...
There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-17 07:52 pm (UTC)It's talking about myth.
It's talking about how, at bottom, myth is about blood, hunger, and cold.
It's talking about how children, not having yet gained experience at self-deception, know there are fucking invisble bears in the cellar, right?
Pratchett's a children's writer, in many ways. Who is a children's show.
Both of them turn to kids and say, "You're too damn right there are invisible bears in that cellar. Other people pretend there aren't, but those people are stupid. Of course there are invisible bears in the cellar - you've heard them moving about, I've heard them, we've all heard them. And you're right to be scared of them -hey, invisible bears, fucking scary, eh? Only a really, really stupid person wouldn't be scared of those invisible bears in that cellar. But - you know what? Here's this poker. One good whack with that, and the bears are going to run. OK?"
Who and Pratchett exist not to tell children there cannot b invisible bears with big teeth waiting to gobble them up. They exist to tell them that there is always the poker.
Re: There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-17 08:02 pm (UTC)“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” -- G.K. Chesterton
Re: There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-17 08:04 pm (UTC)Re: There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-17 08:07 pm (UTC)yes
and important stuff about what you can use as a poker, and how to talk the bears out of it, if you get the chance
Re: There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-17 08:10 pm (UTC)Re: There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-17 08:23 pm (UTC)Re: There's a line in Terry Pratchett
Date: 2010-04-20 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 08:23 pm (UTC)'Dalek' was definitely the episode where things just clicked for me. "You would have made a good Dalek!" Damn what a line. (Which reminded me of this drabble.) Oh show!
Am too tired to offer any thoughts of my own, except that I seem to be just as fond of the Madman with a Box, as I was of the Lonely God. *happy sigh*
ETA: Actually, re. this latest ep., this just sums it up for me:
Great Amy. Great Eleven. Daleks win.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 10:40 pm (UTC)Sorry, I like this. Particularly after watching the "behind the scenes stuff" on BBC3 immediately after.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 10:50 pm (UTC)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/how-to-survive-the-apocal_n_540940.html
no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-17 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 02:56 am (UTC)I'm glad you are liking it!
I am finding the writing a bit hard to take (lacking in subtlety with an extra helping of anvils and while Matt Smith rocks excellent writing, he does less for me when the writing is not stellar unlike DT who made even "Fear Her" watchable); it feels very sloppily paced to me, but your point about backwards and forwards in time, and repetition but wrong is intriguing.
I just... I want the show to move forward. It seems very stuck right now, and reusing lines and themes hurts when I think about how Ten or Nine said them. I want to see them in him, but I also want to see more. There is more in the world than echoes, and so far that's all I see. Actually, I think what I mean is, I love the echoes, of course I do, but not if that's all there is.
However, the show still has my heart. And I await developements with great interest.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-20 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 06:17 am (UTC)Had similar thoughts about the RAF pilot. In fact, I was wondering a) wtf year it was (did they ever say? Because if it was 1941, then ... *boggles*) and b) whether we might actually know any of said pilots, at least until they all got blown away.
One of the things I liked that Moffat pointed out on one of the Confidentials was that, traditionally, when the Doctor regenerates, he has to convince his companion he's still himself. This time, his companion actually has known the "new" him longer than he has, and that gives her a unique perspective on him. I hadn't thought of it that way, but once pointed out, I could see it, and I think it has helped me buy into him as the Doctor a bit faster than usual after a regeneration. (Working through the classics, I'm still having a hard time buying into Pertwee as the Doctor, for example, not to mention wondering why he's such a fave.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 09:15 am (UTC)It feels like the episodes Douglas Adams wrote. Douglas Adams' spirit is ALIVE in this season. SO much, it makes me want to cry happy tears. The resourcefulness of Eleven, the sheer bluster and bluff and lack of dependence on the Spock to save the day, it's so fucking hardcore Galaxy-jumping, wild-eyed loner old soul awesome sauce. SO FORD PREFECT. And I like that in my Who, I really *really* love it. And it's back. I didn't see it since Four (I haven't seen subsequent old episodes, I have a lot to catch up on). So yeah.
*salutes* You have an inner Jack? I like it. I have an Amazon Village from Xena I hang out at. Meta, way Meta. But I've been doing it for over ten years now, and it just is. *crazy person solidarity fist-bump*
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 09:38 am (UTC)http://amazonrpgs.wikispaces.com/Nacey
(That wiki needs much updating) Those cufflinks sound incredibly awesome. Do you have a big jacket? It would be sad if you didn't have a big jacket.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 04:49 pm (UTC)It didn't come to mind that this is all intentional, but I hope it is (Moffat is a sneaky, sneaky sneak :D). At the time, it reminded me more of reading fic.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-22 06:13 am (UTC)If you manage to get your grubby little paws on the first Doctor, Hartnell does a somewhat spooky, very inhuman, Doctor. It's been *years* since I've seen the ones with the Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and Susan's teachers Barbara and Ian.
The first Doctor didn't seem to care much for humans or Earth, but Barbara and Ian... I'm trying to think how to put this... they opened his heart to appreciating Earth and her people. I think that's it.
The Doctor doesn't seem to care if any of the humans around them live or die, and it's Barbara and Ian who talk him into helping. He comes to care about his human companions.
I so have to go see those first eps of the Doctor again.
Also if you watch the OldWho, remember to shut off your brain sometimes. The writers play fast and loose with the rules of science. (The fourth Doctor is really bad about this.) Sometimes I want to yell, "hey that's not physically possible!" but then I remind myself it's Doctor Who and who expects real science from Doctor Who?