Remember what the Doormouse said...
Oct. 30th, 2006 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixen"Feed your head...feed your head"
How did the creators of Doctor Who come up with the sound of the TARDIS' engines? 'Cause they're drilling and excavating at the proper hospital across the street, and on my way to work, I had to keep from flipping out because it sounded so very similar (point of fact? If no one sees me again for a while after today, don't worry much ^.^). Just curious.
Speaking of Doctor Who, I finished the second series this weekend. And there's still kind of a lot that needs to settle in my brain about it, especially given as I finished it in a whirlwind marathon of doing nothing else execept watching the series. I haven't sat and done nothing else while watching a marathon in forever. I'm too used to typing on the computer or doing my craft-y stuff. It's really hard to measure time going by without those distractions.
So, first thing I did when I had a mo' after finishing the series was to go read up about it on Wikipedia. It seemed like a good enough spot for jumping into explanations about the history of the series without getting into all the continuity problems upfront or the fan wars about the same. This was extremely helpful and a lot less spoiler-ridden than I was expecting. Probably could have done me some good to read it ahead of watching the whole series, actually. None of it needs to be related here--no one who'd be reading this would know less than I do about it. Just generally helpful stuff, like I usually find on Wikipedia. I was actually surprised the entries were so short for the most part. I've read the stuff you'd find in medical journals on Wikipedia and gotten more to read. Then again, maybe the Wikipedia folk had to freeze the articles to keep the fan wars off their website and over on the many, many fansites where they belong.
Anyway, some impressions:
--I am a total slut for David Tennant, sure, but I'm not really feeling the sense of drama from the second of the new series as I did with the first. It's probably because Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor was really fucking scary at many a time. When Nine got serious, I was really frightened of him. His constant smiling was mad in both senses of the word. The Tenth Doctor is just genially insane most of the time. He's so slight, physically, and nerdy, that, unfortunately, the stereotyped geek keeps him from being all that imposing. His method of reverse psychology and daring other people to not do as he suggests works but it's also a retreat, whereas Nine was not one to back down from much ever. Strangely enough, Ten defines himself upfront as the man who gives "no second chances," and that's not wrong even as he does back down. You can choose not to challenge and still be merciless in victory.
Really, the part where the Tenth Doctor was most frightening was in "School Reunion" where he faced down Giles (I have no idea what monster he was supposed to be--he was Evil Giles, and that's scary enough). "I used to have so much mercy," Ten says, and it's fairly chilling. Because wow, if he doesn't any more...when the Doctor runs out of mercy, genocide happens. Nine, being so close to massacre of the Time Lords and Daleks, had that as perspective, but the curse of living so long seems to be that you move on fairly quickly. And Ten had at that point. FREAKY!
--When it comes down to it, Torchwood is no Bad Wolf.
Bad Wolf was something important and implicit. Torchwood was faux important and explicit. I do actually like that the institute was set up with the idea that the Doctor was still an enemy (it doesn't forget that he's not human, which is the default ignorance of everyone in the series otherwise). If it had somehow been less verbalized in name or dwelt upon, it might have worked better. It doesn't help that I know there's the eponymous spin-off with Captain Jack Harkness and I spent the entire finale wondering where he was at, but still. Torchwood is less interesting and, as such, less unifying. So the whole series really did feel sort of episodic, even as there's the theme of "left behind" for both the Doctor and his companions that runs throughout.
And that, more than the destruction of the Time Lords and the Time War from the first series, is most depressing. Because it breaks down the fourth wall and adds extradiagetic information to the series. Basically, we know that the Companions get shucked off when they lose audience interest or appeal (or, as seems to be the case with Sarah Jane, get their own series). Making that explicit in the show is good dramatic stuff, sure, but it incorporates audience knowledge and spells it out for characters who haven't addressed it in the new series. Mickey, Jackie, sure, they get left behind, but they're not the stand-in or the emotional anchor for the audience--the Companion is. Telling the current Companion, "Hey, you are so dumped eventually," is fucking depressing, yo, because it brings up the sort of sad truth about the nature of Doctor Who--you can watch it for decades, but you might never see the end. That's a good thing, sure, if you want more, but everything ends (or it should, something else discussed within "School Reunion," which might have been my favorite episode for all that it impacts the entire series). Only, you probably will before the show does, and that's just hard to accept. Because you will never know the ultimate end. You will never know what happens to make the Thirteenth Doctor close his eyes and be done. As far as getting the audience to empathize with the Companions, it's a great trick. On the other hand, ouch.
Given my massive Ten-love, too, it hurts to think that he won't be around when (if!) there ever is an ultimate end. Because he can't be. Because in order for the Doctor to come to an end, he has to regenerate three more times. This may be why I couldn't compare Nine and Ten as the same person. I don't see the continuity. I like them both best because they're not the same person. Even though they are the same person. This is very confusing. I'm still working it out.
--Parallel universes and time travel is a cheat.
I just plain don't like that this show even went there. It's a cheat, plain and simple. We need not to do to Rose what we did to Sarah Jane, so we shunt her sideways to another dimension. Because it would be too hard to have her continue to live apart from the Doctor when she doesn't have to and because her connection to him was too hard to break otherwise. Stupid. Not to mention, it sucks for Jackie, even for all that she gets Pete v2.0. We need to have villains come back that we already wiped out--ah ha! Parallel universe! Dear God, why? Why couldn't there just be the Void? The place beyond time, where the Time Lord's can't quite reach (but, like Moya, I bet that the TARDIS can)? Because for the Daleks to hide there worked just fine for me (also, I love the Daleks beating the crap out of the Cybermen because the Cybermen are horrific, sure, but the Daleks are awesome, in both the awful and awe-filling sense). Why, why, why do we have to go to parallel universes? Couldn't they have found another reason for David Tennant to wear old-school 3D glasses for two episodes? I mean, on vaguely any reason at all they got him to use his real accent (!!!) and wear his hair in that ridiculous 50s coif, so anything would have done. I didn't need alternate dimensions as cheap escape from dealing with harsh reality (hello, Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5).
Or the fucking Devil. My God, can that two-parter unexist, please?
--The TARDIS being alive ought to be emphasized in all of the Doctor's advenures. Always.
Part of why the end of the Ninth Doctor's run really broke me down into a mess was not just because of Rose or even the loss of the Ninth Doctor. She was awesome (so was he, ::sniffle::), absolutely, no question, but it's the TARDIS that really killed me. Blon, the Slitheen, and Rose both saw the immaculate grace (GOD, really reading too much TWoP here) within it, touched it, and became something divine (Blon became a potential being, and unspoilt potential is divine; Rose became a God, so literally divine then). Rose rescuing the Doctor from the Daleks is an act of love divine, sure, but I was more moved by the idea that the TARDIS was the one whose love saved him equally or more than it was Rose's love that did.
I'm coming at this series from already being a Scaper, so when Nine mentioned that the TARDIS was alive, I did the obvious jump and immediately thought of Moya (see? Already mentioned her once before this). Moya shelters and protects and loves without question. I defy anyone to say the TARDIS doesn't do the same (the joke about the Doctor stroking the TARDIS and how pseudo-sexual that is adds a bit of intimacy to that all-encompassing love he exudes without ever being physical about it). So, when Rose opened the TARDIS, I got the vibe that it was the TARDIS going back to save its (her? his?) Doctor as being the supreme act of love. Last one in the universe, both of them, but it's more than that. Ten mentions that the TARDIS was grown (TARDIS as argument for or against Intelligent Design: discuss), so it would seem to be more a plant than an animal, but--and again this is my Farscape bias showing--that doesn't mean it's not equally a pet or friend to him. He's the TARDIS' Doctor, and it can't function (literally) without him (and it doesn't want to). Companions, even great ones like Rose, come and go. The immutability of this alive device (stays the same on the outside, changes on the inside, the perfect parallel to the Doctor) makes its love the purest. When (if!) the series comes to an end, the greatest tragedy will be the locking of the TARDIS. Like Pilot without Moya (which is yet another interesting inversion, as, technically, the Doctor is Pilot), the TARDIS can't live without the Doctor. It will lock itself up, the keys given the Companions made useless, and it will be buried, as Nine said it should.
And I will cry for years when (IF!) it does.
Another bit of TV-related news: I tried to watch Deadwood, and I couldn't get into it. I'm sure there's something amazing about the adventures of Old Timey Timothy Olyphant (aside from the obvious reason: he's sexy) and the cursing, ugly cur of the whorehouse owner, but I'm not going to discover it. It's too hard to tell characters apart as is with all the facial hair, and it's not made better by people double-crossing, lying, playing roles etc. Sorry, it's just not happening.
It probably doesn't help that I spent all that day on Doctor Who and then went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D immediately after. Nightmare was great, by the by. I never got to see it on the big screen, so that was a treat. And the 3D effects weren't the popping-out-of-the-screen dizzying stuff you get in the standard made-for-3D fare. More, it was like they added more depth to the picture, so the 3D went backwards more than forwards, and it made it so much more beautiful. I spent the entire time smiling so hard that my mouth ached afterwards. I mean, how could I not? The second the main title started in ("Boys and girls of every age/ wouldn't you like to see something strange?"), I was totally into it. It only got better. Loved it!
How did the creators of Doctor Who come up with the sound of the TARDIS' engines? 'Cause they're drilling and excavating at the proper hospital across the street, and on my way to work, I had to keep from flipping out because it sounded so very similar (point of fact? If no one sees me again for a while after today, don't worry much ^.^). Just curious.
Speaking of Doctor Who, I finished the second series this weekend. And there's still kind of a lot that needs to settle in my brain about it, especially given as I finished it in a whirlwind marathon of doing nothing else execept watching the series. I haven't sat and done nothing else while watching a marathon in forever. I'm too used to typing on the computer or doing my craft-y stuff. It's really hard to measure time going by without those distractions.
So, first thing I did when I had a mo' after finishing the series was to go read up about it on Wikipedia. It seemed like a good enough spot for jumping into explanations about the history of the series without getting into all the continuity problems upfront or the fan wars about the same. This was extremely helpful and a lot less spoiler-ridden than I was expecting. Probably could have done me some good to read it ahead of watching the whole series, actually. None of it needs to be related here--no one who'd be reading this would know less than I do about it. Just generally helpful stuff, like I usually find on Wikipedia. I was actually surprised the entries were so short for the most part. I've read the stuff you'd find in medical journals on Wikipedia and gotten more to read. Then again, maybe the Wikipedia folk had to freeze the articles to keep the fan wars off their website and over on the many, many fansites where they belong.
Anyway, some impressions:
--I am a total slut for David Tennant, sure, but I'm not really feeling the sense of drama from the second of the new series as I did with the first. It's probably because Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor was really fucking scary at many a time. When Nine got serious, I was really frightened of him. His constant smiling was mad in both senses of the word. The Tenth Doctor is just genially insane most of the time. He's so slight, physically, and nerdy, that, unfortunately, the stereotyped geek keeps him from being all that imposing. His method of reverse psychology and daring other people to not do as he suggests works but it's also a retreat, whereas Nine was not one to back down from much ever. Strangely enough, Ten defines himself upfront as the man who gives "no second chances," and that's not wrong even as he does back down. You can choose not to challenge and still be merciless in victory.
Really, the part where the Tenth Doctor was most frightening was in "School Reunion" where he faced down Giles (I have no idea what monster he was supposed to be--he was Evil Giles, and that's scary enough). "I used to have so much mercy," Ten says, and it's fairly chilling. Because wow, if he doesn't any more...when the Doctor runs out of mercy, genocide happens. Nine, being so close to massacre of the Time Lords and Daleks, had that as perspective, but the curse of living so long seems to be that you move on fairly quickly. And Ten had at that point. FREAKY!
--When it comes down to it, Torchwood is no Bad Wolf.
Bad Wolf was something important and implicit. Torchwood was faux important and explicit. I do actually like that the institute was set up with the idea that the Doctor was still an enemy (it doesn't forget that he's not human, which is the default ignorance of everyone in the series otherwise). If it had somehow been less verbalized in name or dwelt upon, it might have worked better. It doesn't help that I know there's the eponymous spin-off with Captain Jack Harkness and I spent the entire finale wondering where he was at, but still. Torchwood is less interesting and, as such, less unifying. So the whole series really did feel sort of episodic, even as there's the theme of "left behind" for both the Doctor and his companions that runs throughout.
And that, more than the destruction of the Time Lords and the Time War from the first series, is most depressing. Because it breaks down the fourth wall and adds extradiagetic information to the series. Basically, we know that the Companions get shucked off when they lose audience interest or appeal (or, as seems to be the case with Sarah Jane, get their own series). Making that explicit in the show is good dramatic stuff, sure, but it incorporates audience knowledge and spells it out for characters who haven't addressed it in the new series. Mickey, Jackie, sure, they get left behind, but they're not the stand-in or the emotional anchor for the audience--the Companion is. Telling the current Companion, "Hey, you are so dumped eventually," is fucking depressing, yo, because it brings up the sort of sad truth about the nature of Doctor Who--you can watch it for decades, but you might never see the end. That's a good thing, sure, if you want more, but everything ends (or it should, something else discussed within "School Reunion," which might have been my favorite episode for all that it impacts the entire series). Only, you probably will before the show does, and that's just hard to accept. Because you will never know the ultimate end. You will never know what happens to make the Thirteenth Doctor close his eyes and be done. As far as getting the audience to empathize with the Companions, it's a great trick. On the other hand, ouch.
Given my massive Ten-love, too, it hurts to think that he won't be around when (if!) there ever is an ultimate end. Because he can't be. Because in order for the Doctor to come to an end, he has to regenerate three more times. This may be why I couldn't compare Nine and Ten as the same person. I don't see the continuity. I like them both best because they're not the same person. Even though they are the same person. This is very confusing. I'm still working it out.
--Parallel universes and time travel is a cheat.
I just plain don't like that this show even went there. It's a cheat, plain and simple. We need not to do to Rose what we did to Sarah Jane, so we shunt her sideways to another dimension. Because it would be too hard to have her continue to live apart from the Doctor when she doesn't have to and because her connection to him was too hard to break otherwise. Stupid. Not to mention, it sucks for Jackie, even for all that she gets Pete v2.0. We need to have villains come back that we already wiped out--ah ha! Parallel universe! Dear God, why? Why couldn't there just be the Void? The place beyond time, where the Time Lord's can't quite reach (but, like Moya, I bet that the TARDIS can)? Because for the Daleks to hide there worked just fine for me (also, I love the Daleks beating the crap out of the Cybermen because the Cybermen are horrific, sure, but the Daleks are awesome, in both the awful and awe-filling sense). Why, why, why do we have to go to parallel universes? Couldn't they have found another reason for David Tennant to wear old-school 3D glasses for two episodes? I mean, on vaguely any reason at all they got him to use his real accent (!!!) and wear his hair in that ridiculous 50s coif, so anything would have done. I didn't need alternate dimensions as cheap escape from dealing with harsh reality (hello, Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5).
Or the fucking Devil. My God, can that two-parter unexist, please?
--The TARDIS being alive ought to be emphasized in all of the Doctor's advenures. Always.
Part of why the end of the Ninth Doctor's run really broke me down into a mess was not just because of Rose or even the loss of the Ninth Doctor. She was awesome (so was he, ::sniffle::), absolutely, no question, but it's the TARDIS that really killed me. Blon, the Slitheen, and Rose both saw the immaculate grace (GOD, really reading too much TWoP here) within it, touched it, and became something divine (Blon became a potential being, and unspoilt potential is divine; Rose became a God, so literally divine then). Rose rescuing the Doctor from the Daleks is an act of love divine, sure, but I was more moved by the idea that the TARDIS was the one whose love saved him equally or more than it was Rose's love that did.
I'm coming at this series from already being a Scaper, so when Nine mentioned that the TARDIS was alive, I did the obvious jump and immediately thought of Moya (see? Already mentioned her once before this). Moya shelters and protects and loves without question. I defy anyone to say the TARDIS doesn't do the same (the joke about the Doctor stroking the TARDIS and how pseudo-sexual that is adds a bit of intimacy to that all-encompassing love he exudes without ever being physical about it). So, when Rose opened the TARDIS, I got the vibe that it was the TARDIS going back to save its (her? his?) Doctor as being the supreme act of love. Last one in the universe, both of them, but it's more than that. Ten mentions that the TARDIS was grown (TARDIS as argument for or against Intelligent Design: discuss), so it would seem to be more a plant than an animal, but--and again this is my Farscape bias showing--that doesn't mean it's not equally a pet or friend to him. He's the TARDIS' Doctor, and it can't function (literally) without him (and it doesn't want to). Companions, even great ones like Rose, come and go. The immutability of this alive device (stays the same on the outside, changes on the inside, the perfect parallel to the Doctor) makes its love the purest. When (if!) the series comes to an end, the greatest tragedy will be the locking of the TARDIS. Like Pilot without Moya (which is yet another interesting inversion, as, technically, the Doctor is Pilot), the TARDIS can't live without the Doctor. It will lock itself up, the keys given the Companions made useless, and it will be buried, as Nine said it should.
And I will cry for years when (IF!) it does.
Another bit of TV-related news: I tried to watch Deadwood, and I couldn't get into it. I'm sure there's something amazing about the adventures of Old Timey Timothy Olyphant (aside from the obvious reason: he's sexy) and the cursing, ugly cur of the whorehouse owner, but I'm not going to discover it. It's too hard to tell characters apart as is with all the facial hair, and it's not made better by people double-crossing, lying, playing roles etc. Sorry, it's just not happening.
It probably doesn't help that I spent all that day on Doctor Who and then went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D immediately after. Nightmare was great, by the by. I never got to see it on the big screen, so that was a treat. And the 3D effects weren't the popping-out-of-the-screen dizzying stuff you get in the standard made-for-3D fare. More, it was like they added more depth to the picture, so the 3D went backwards more than forwards, and it made it so much more beautiful. I spent the entire time smiling so hard that my mouth ached afterwards. I mean, how could I not? The second the main title started in ("Boys and girls of every age/ wouldn't you like to see something strange?"), I was totally into it. It only got better. Loved it!
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Date: 2006-11-03 05:17 pm (UTC)Then again, the show's creator keeps saying no, no, no, it's gone gone gone, and there are no others (not even in the parallel dimensions, which I quite like--Gallifrey as the nodal point between not only times but universes). We'll have to see.