sundries - #ashtag, celiac, doctor who

[rm]

Airports are now shut until 1am tomorrow, at the earliest. The Met office is also working to move to give further ahead closing notice, so we can anticipate better, as opposed to viewing this in six hour chunks.

25% of the particles are apparently falling to ground in much of the UK. Whether this is a health risk depends on which agency is talking. The thing about being in the EU is that there are a lot more authorities than in US, and so there are more contradictions, and, more importantly, a greater sense of when people are lying just to maintain order.

The Met office says conditions are getting worse and that we should expect this to go on for days. Our flight is still listed as Wednesday, but since they expect the ash cloud to go on at least that long, honestly, I'm not sure we'll get out before the weekend.

Today we move to a guest room offered by friends of a friend. And if I told you some of the people involved in getting that sorted: a) you wouldn't believe me and b) fuck the epic Internet drama.

I have, of course, been linked to the HuffPo piece on surviving the apocalypse. I've got that last one down, kids. Although as several people noted, this shit is probably all my fault in the first place.

Despite contradictory information from everyone, it seems Patty and I will be able to get some compensation from the airline when this is over. We could actually apply now, but I don't think we should -- I don't want to look like the problem customer until they get us out of here.

Emotionally, I'm sort of all over the place. On one hand, adventure! and I do love it here. And I can more or less work remotely here, although some things are difficult. On the other hand, I hate not having control, I miss our bed, and this is all very frustrating. And it feels harder to deal with, you know, pretty much anything. Which brings us to some non-#ashtag news.

---

Last night I had one of the worst experiences I've ever had with celiac disease in a restaurant, where waiters lied to me about my food. I wound up not getting glutened, because I put my foot down. But when I ask if something has gluten and you tell me it's just stuffed with cheese and then it comes and it looks like it's stuffed with bread so I ask you to double check the correct answers are not:

- to agree to go check and then never return to the table
- to send a different waiter over to point at it and say it's cheese (I'm Sicilian, fuck you)
- to suggest I try it when I say it's not cheese after I've already informed you I have a severe allergy (excuse me, would you like me to need to be hospitalized)
- to leave it on the bill
- to grudgingly take it off the bill and then say it was just chicken and mushrooms -- if that were true (and I really, REALLY don't think it was) why couldn't we have least gotten that answer at the beginning?

Pretty much every meal we've had here has ranged form good to spectacular and I did not need this shit while stranded here because of a volcano. It was extremely upsetting, and made me doubt the legitimacy of my concern. Because they are the restaurant, they must be right. Who am I to not believe them? But there was NO WAY, that food wasn't potentially dangerous, especially after I was lied to whether it was bread or not. It really shook me.

---

Everyone is noticing different, seeminly intentional, arc-specific, echoes from past Doctor Who and Torchwood episodes in the Moffat season so far. Add yours in comments below (BEWARE, spoilers through 5.3) -- I'd like to get a full list, and I know I've tweaked to totally different things than others.

Comments

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

- to suggest I try it when I say it's not cheese after I've already informed you I have a severe allergy

WHAT.

Boy, I bet they'd have been really resentful if they'd had to call an ambulance for you.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

NOt sure how I can helo with the list having seen it only once (hey , I was watching it fannishly! ie enjoying it and my brain dropping flags to check this and that when Iwatched it again!). BUt as you marked this for spoilers I can I LOOOOOVED him telling off the aliens at the end! And the homage to all the various doctors. Perfect.

[zeldajean.livejournal.com]

A few years ago in Key West I was with a friend who has an allergy to peppers. Her reaction is less severe than yours to gluten, but still. After a few experiences of us getting peppers in our appitezers in restaurants near Ft Lauderdale we decided that we would tell any future waitstaff that we were both allergic to peppers. We're sitting at this diner and have both told the server about peppers and she ordered "conch fritters but only if there are no peppers." Fritters arrive, we take a bite, peppers. Wait staff claimed first that only she mentioned the allergy and I ordered them, not true. When we asked for the manager our server said that he was the manager and he wasn't taking them off the bill, we ordered them and we would pay for them. A few more rounds of this and we gave up. We took the fritters and gave them to a street musician, and I paid the bill with a single bill that was over twice the cost of lunch and left zero tip.

This is all to say, I have had a taste of establishments playing fast and loose with food allergies, and it is terrifying. I do not envy you, and I am glad you were not glutened.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. It's seriously unconscionable that they were so incompetent and rude.

To the more enjoyable topic of Doctor Who, here are some of my random and not-very-connected observations thus far.

TEH - People in comas under the control of an alien entity (TEC/TDD); young girl in and out of whose life the Doctor pops (TGitF); crack in reality (any episode of DW involving the Rift, plus all of TW); female (apparent but not really) police officer let's try that again so it looks like what I'm trying to say instead of a rather spectacular bit of fail: woman (who appears to be a police officer even though she really isn't) with too much curiosity for her own good who proceeds to become the female lead (EC); ginger woman puts the Doctor straight repeatedly and may miss her wedding for being in the TARDIS (RB & all of S4); Doctor tells aliens how bad-ass he is and orders them to leave (BW, TCI, and also sort of TND for the past-Doctors montage); Doctor displays spectacular lack of ability to land in the intended time (AoL)

If you've not seen The Beast Below yet, you might want to skip this next bit.

TBB - well, first off: SPACEWHALE (Meat); weird clockwork thingies (TGitF); Doctor is made by companion to look at himself differently when he nearly does something very un-Doctorish (Dalek, sort of, though with vastly different emotional notes hit); reference to T&C and other possibly-canonical interactions with various Queens of England; other than that, I mostly noted a couple of blatant Star Wars homages that alternately annoyed and amused me. And I got over the annoyance by reminding myself that really, R2D2 appears to be a re-purposed Dalek and C3PO a re-purposed Cyberman, so turnabout really is fair play.

/TBB spoilers

Victory of the Daleks (which I've just realized has the same initials as Voyage of the Damned, irrelevant but potentially confusing) - Most notably, Amy has no idea TSP and JE took place, and the Doctor discovers this, so reality has forked or reset someplace (TL, less directly LotTL and even less directly EoD or even KKBB) or else the Doctor's landed in a parallel universe (RotC, AoG/Dd, TL, JE); we're back in WWII (what year?? anyway: TEC/TDD, CJH); Daleks taking advantage of historical human crisis to get humans to do their dirty work for them (DoM); pure versus hybrid Dalek issues (TPotW, DoM, JE); RAF pilot sent off to get himself killed (TPotW, plus Utopia if you stretch it and possibly JE, and from another angle CJH); also, two of the military women reminded me vaguely (in appearance only) of Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd.

There's probably more, and my relief is here, so I'll hit post and add more later if I think of it.

ETA: added a couple of things. The other thing I wanted to say, though, was that it was VotD that made me finally stop rolling my eyes and saying, "Moffat, I had such high hopes! And I really am enjoying this, but why are you recycling so much stuff?" and started wondering instead, "Are you doing this on purpose? And if so ... why?" I can't pinpoint a specific thing that triggered that shift though.

ETA 2: Discovered a stupid typo in one of the ep abbreviations and an extremely badly-worded phrase that I fixed, but since it'd been up awhile, just lined out to correct rather than deleting. Sorry. I'll try to stop cluttering your in-box now.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

The Beast Below - also Paradise Towers, which also featured a very young, red-haired companion.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

I'm also starting to get some Ace flashbacks, but very vague ones.

[evil_plotbunny]

On a classic note:

I have a post here linking The Beast Below to The Ark in Space.

Several people have noted the getting dressed in the hospital thing. (Three and Eight)

Amy like Sarah Jane is an orphan being raised by her aunt and the Doctor didn't come back for either of them.

Colourful Daleks are a throwback to the Peter Cushing movies.

Eleven hitting Dalek with big wrench -> Ace and the baseball bat.

The coatrack is back in the TARDIS.

Rory is a nurse, like Hex in the audios.

And another one for the crack in reality - The Temptation of Sarah Jane from SJA.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

re: Ace and the bat

YES. I couldn't place it..

re Amy/Sarah Jane
Good call.

And I sorta get some Charlie attitude (Big Finish audio) from Amy.

[evil_plotbunny]

Not just attitude, there's some of the time and possibly paradox issues there too.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

..But it's not just me. Good to know. :)

[evil_plotbunny]

Not at all. Also Greg the Bunny ♥

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Adding a few observations from "The Time of Angels."

Hallucinogenic lipstic? So apparently the 51st century is big on neuro-toxic lip products, as in the paralyzing lip gloss from KKBB.

Also, Sacred Bob continuing to communicate via an electronic device. (SitL/FotD)

And I'm sure I'm not the only one whose first thought at River's mention of "something in the belly of that ship that can't ever die" was not "Weeping Angel," despite knowing they were the focus of this ep.

Also, River's apparently an ex-con. As opposed to Jack the con man? Seriously, if Moffat's not doing this stuff on purpose for some thematic purpose, then he's got to be doing it for the simple love of driving us all frickin' nuts.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Huh. Something prompted me to rewatch TGitF tonight. I'd forgotten that started with the Doctor saving Renette from the monster in her bedroom at age 7, being her imaginary friend for years, then coming back to save the day, inviting her to the TARDIS and telling her to pack and he'd be back in a few minutes, only to arrive just after she'd died. Interesting parallels there as well. Also, she calls him "the lonely angel," which I might not have noticed if not for having watched ToA tonight.

If Moffat isn't deliberately creating something out of these echoes and parallels, then it seems there are stories he's just compelled to keep telling, even if the shape of them shifts a bit.

ETA: Oh! And the S.S. Mme. de Pompadour was in the 51st century, which apparently really is River's home era. What is it about the 51st century?

Amy's Choice "echoes"

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Are you still wanting to collect people's thoughts on this stuff here? Because I seem to be the only one doing it, and if I'm annoying you by cluttering your inbox, well, I'd rather not be annoying. Plus, if you've not seen the ep yet, these comments are inherently spoilery, and despite the occasional slip, I really do try to avoid spoiling people. So, if you'd rather I stopped, please just let me know.

For now, on to the thematic echoes for this ep, and the big, glaring one would have to be, "What's the point of you?"

Dear Moffat: If you're not doing this to some purpose, I may have to scream. Loudly. That is all. (Yes, I know he didn't write the ep, but he presumably has something to say about what things are included as part of the shape of the season.)

Once again, I spent much of an ep wondering if I was just seeing things that aren't really there, making something out of nothing, and then here's a direct quote from "End of Days," in a very similar context.

There were some definite resonances to Donna's alternate life in SitL.

The Dream Lord kept reminding me of Bilis Manger. This may be in part because a) I'd caught a spoilery thing on my flist wherein EoD was mentioned and b) I've been rereading The Twilight Streets. Or it may be that something about him flickering about between timelines really did evoke Manger. Even if he did turn out to be a manifestation of the Doctor.

40 minutes before crashing into a sun, albeit a completely impossible one, reminiscent of "42."

Parasitic aliens that keep their hosts alive and healthy - "Reset." Though I suppose that's arguably something any evolutionarily successful parasite would have to do.

There were some things about the village that reminded me visually of "Countrycide," which was topped off by the whole running to hide in the butcher's thing. However, it might just be that the visual stuff has more to do with a common style of rural British architecture that looks very uncommon to my Yankee eyes.

All that said, as much as I enjoyed the ep, I was more than a little aggravated (this may be something of an understatement) that a) Amy was willing to commit suicide, not caring if that was the real world, because she'd lost her man, and b) said man found this romantic/validating/whatever. No, it wasn't the real world, but she explicitly said she didn't know that for sure and didn't care, and that's supposed to be okay.

I'm realizing I didn't add in thoughts about Vampires of Venice. This is largely because I didn't see anywhere near as much of the sort of echoes as have been coming through in other eps, though the encroaching "silence" reminds me both of the planets disappearing at the end of S4 and the "something in the darkness" bit in TWS1.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Just ran across this in an interview with Moffat (only the first ellipsis is mine):

Q: We noticed recurring themes from previous seasons in [the first] episode and in previews for upcoming episodes. ...

A: Theme, by the way, means just an accident ... being caught repeating yourself and making it look like it was on purpose. Basically it's all just monsters, explosions, spaceships and people running around going "wee!" And that is the honest truth. But you come up with the themes. That's good. Make me look clever.

I'm not sure how much we can really take that at face value, but for what it's worth...

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think he's a lying liar who lies.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. That would appear to be part of the job description.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

*snortle*

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

Echoing the Gwen/Amy twist. Crack = Rift. Prisoner Zero, especially with the way the light came out of the crack, reminded me of Mary as she was being beamed to the Sun.

E2 just creeped me out, but in a lovely brilliant way. And, yeah, spacewhale. Nuff said. Plus, well, Muli is the Queen! :)

Do we know if Moff's going to use Jack at all? Or have all the RTD era companions been retired? I got that feeling from the Too Long Death Montage. But since Moff helped devise Jack. I'd not necessarily expect him in the first series of 11 since they avoided him in the first series for 10, but rules are meant to be broken, especially stupid ones.

Spoilers for 3:

Am I the only one who was expecting to see Jack and Rose dancing on an invisible spaceship when they showed Big Ben?

And I was itching for a Jack or a Real!Jack tie-in somewhere.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Moffat has said that he won't use any RTD era stuff unless he can find a good reaosn for it, but has also said (paraphrase, because I can't remember the exact phrasing) that he would be very open to finding a good reason to use Jack.

Oh man, I didn't mean to make that sound so dirty.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

I don't think Jack would mind :)

River Song's RTD era, and she's been mostly Moffat, so that's a good sign. Jack needs to keep moving forward. He can't just be relegated to TW.

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

But Jack LIKES being used...

[electricalgwen.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about the gluten experience. :(

Customer service in the UK is occasionally brilliant, but generally pretty horrible. The customer is definitely not always right. "Computer says no."

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

The kindness of strangers DOES extend to the kindness of strangers you found via the internet. I've never doubted it. Hang in there.

Hooray for unintended adventures, hoorah. BAH.