Who's Hugo: Call It A Lifetime Achievement, I Guess
So, Hal & I sat down last night to watch "The Girl in the Fireplace," since it won a Hugo and all.
It was fun. It was sweet. It was especially cool to see a potential partner for the Doctor who had a fair shot at being his equal in talent and intelligence and perception. But if I had to pick a Dr. Who episode to give a Hugo to, that wouldn't be the one. Part of it is that I'm still not fully reconciled with David Tennant as the Doctor. In and of himself I'm sure he's a perfectly fine actor and doing a workmanlike job, and all, but as a follow-on to Christopher Eccleston, he's rather a disappointment. Eccleston has the sort of larger-than-life presence that the role needs to work properly. Tennant just seems weedy and faded and anemic by comparison. Eventually you get used to him, and find he has a certain twee charm of his own, but it's a dim and watercolored afterglow of a brighter original.
Part of it, too, is that "The Girl in the Fireplace" is a chestnut of a story. While not as common as some tropes, the doomed-love-story-in-miniature is an old standard of the genre.
And, on top of it, it's a shaggy dog story.
On the other hand, I think a couple of the Who episodes I would have picked before "The Girl in the Fireplace," were also penned by Steve Taylor Moffat anyhow, so fair enough, I reckon. The right guy got the rocket, if not necessarily for the right ep. A bit like Robert Wilson's Spin, that way. Right guy, wrong book.
It was fun. It was sweet. It was especially cool to see a potential partner for the Doctor who had a fair shot at being his equal in talent and intelligence and perception. But if I had to pick a Dr. Who episode to give a Hugo to, that wouldn't be the one. Part of it is that I'm still not fully reconciled with David Tennant as the Doctor. In and of himself I'm sure he's a perfectly fine actor and doing a workmanlike job, and all, but as a follow-on to Christopher Eccleston, he's rather a disappointment. Eccleston has the sort of larger-than-life presence that the role needs to work properly. Tennant just seems weedy and faded and anemic by comparison. Eventually you get used to him, and find he has a certain twee charm of his own, but it's a dim and watercolored afterglow of a brighter original.
Part of it, too, is that "The Girl in the Fireplace" is a chestnut of a story. While not as common as some tropes, the doomed-love-story-in-miniature is an old standard of the genre.
And, on top of it, it's a shaggy dog story.
On the other hand, I think a couple of the Who episodes I would have picked before "The Girl in the Fireplace," were also penned by Steve Taylor Moffat anyhow, so fair enough, I reckon. The right guy got the rocket, if not necessarily for the right ep. A bit like Robert Wilson's Spin, that way. Right guy, wrong book.