Ramblings (rather pointless)
I fail at posting... I have a tendency to leave something half-written for a week before finally putting it up. So instead of talking about what I saw last week, my pointless ramblings are now on "The Shakespeare Code". And whatever that episode of Torchwood was called. I'm not that great with names.
( Was it SNL, with the 'Lowered Expectations' skit...? )
( Was it SNL, with the 'Lowered Expectations' skit...? )
Genuine modesty is such a refreshing thing. There's a difference between cluelessness, confidence, and smugness. Actually, it's somewhat of a coincidence, but true, that Christopher Eccleston hits exactly the level of confidence and modesty that I love. He knows he's good - he's not clueless - but he doesn't display either false modesty or smugness, and yet when he's complimented directly to his face, he actually blushes! It's just so...sweet. If I hadn't seen it happen a couple of times (and seen a couple of reporters mention it), I wouldn't believe it.
I haven't had a chance to read anything yet, but rest assured, they're in my queue. Skipped to the top, even! I'm trying to write myself right now, so I tend not to read during the early stages so that I'm inspired to create my own to fill the void. It's kind of reverse carrot-and-stick.
To me, that's a major difference in the performances. I've said it before, but CE is an actor; DT is, at best, an entertainer. He doesn't seem to be so smug in real life, but many of his performances are (OMG, if you want a good belly laugh, try out Secret Smile - he is the most unterrifying psychopath I've ever seen). CE is playing a character, a person, a role that is the Doctor; DT is playing an icon (a flat, two-dimensional distillation), not a real character. I can see why people say "Oh, I can see parts of the old Doctors in him," because it's an imitation. CE created his own character, but within that, I could definitely see continuity.
that's how I'd read that, too. Well, not necessarily-- work ethic and cutting up aren't mutually exclusive, not at all, but looking at results--
That's really the point, isn't it? Some actors really can just turn it on, but I'll admit, I've not seen too many who I think are really good who can do that. You don't need all that melodramatic "method" crap to pull it off, but most people need a bit of concentration and quiet. (Hell, I'm just a musician, playing one part of a whole, and I often need that.) This was early on in S2, and I was thinking "Wow, he's really not getting this character at all," and Piper's comment suggested that she wasn't seeing the results. I know she loves him, but I hope she can get some distance and see that he wasn't good for her as an actress. I think Barrowman was able to pull away from him and establish his own strength, to some extent, but he, too, was far better with Eccleston. JB's not an alpha male, no matter how hard he tries. But he's more of an alpha than DT, and it showed in their interaction. It was like he was looking for an anchor, and scrabbling for a purchase on the relationship. DT just always strikes me as very selfish as an actor (with the exception of the beach scene in Doomsday - I point out that I can see it when he does it, which is pretty rare). I thought that in Casanova and Blackpool, and this makes no difference.
I saw your comment on Wendy's drabble last night. I have to say, I felt the same way. I was actually crying (okay, it had been a long, tiring day, with other emotional stresses), but it provoked me to make a fairly angry/depressed post that I almost immediately screened. But you're right; that hurt. It was part of a pattern I kept seeing all day, with people saying that Rose never loved Nine - she only fell in love when he turned into Ten (which drives me batty because I feel like Ten coasted on the back of the relationship she built with Nine, there was no development in S2 - show me development in S2, damn it!); Jack wasn't attracted to him it was just a shocking stunt; CE is old and ugly, etc. God, I find people narrow-minded and blind to body language. It makes me especially want to strangle the little teenyboppers who find it "gross" that Rose might be attracted to a 40-year-old man, but she "fits" with one who's 34? (Not to mention that the character is actually older, so just how shallow are they being?!)
Okay, back to work!
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But, lord, it was a horrifying thought, wasn't it? Nullify the whole of S1... that'd be harrowing even if that weren't the only part of the current show you liked, wouldn't it? Or it ought to be. Thing is, it's what you're saying; people don't just like Ten, they have to like Ten so damn much more, and diminish Nine in the process, and I'd bet anything more than half the fandom wouldn't even have a mixed reaction. Moral ambiguity? Huh? Well, it might stuff the timeline up a bit, meaning Rose technically shouldn't get to meet Ten in the first place, and that would be sad, but other than that, wouldn't it be awesome? *shivers*
Kya. Even as just a daydream, it hurts, doesn't it? And were the character ever to do that-- am I biased? Because I can see Ten being that crazy selfish. If he ever went back to watch her, I could see him actually doing that. Barely even out of character. Ten and "self-restraint" or "basic responsibility" are not concepts that naturally link in my mind. And all of Nine-- all of that season-- dismissed. Happens all the time.
Should you ever happen to read "Canary in the Coal Mine", that's the story I took my Nine in that ficlet from, because it was largely, for me, about Nine's arc, the symmetry of it, how and why it was about relearning how to put the weapon down-- and, though I wouldn't have thought it needed any stating, why it was good and special... And also because I know that Nine wouldn't be afraid to shoot people. *grin* I'm sorry, but that Ten in particular needed shootin'. I may'a been taught liberal values at that University, but Lordy, does Ten bring out the Old South in me. ^~
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I'll admit to catching my breath when I saw it. Of course, I was cheering, too. Not I think Wendy would say anything (she loves Nine, but she also likes Ten quite a lot), but I didn't expect others to love it. Maybe it's just because I have the occasional fantasy about punching Ten's lights out. I've gotten less circumspect about saying so, the more irritating he's become.
But, lord, it was a horrifying thought, wasn't it?
Truly, it was. I can ignore S2+ if I want, but please, please, don't mess with my S1. (I got used to doing this in Due South, where I love the first two seasons and am really not at all happy with the last one.) To negate Nine, IMO, is to do away with the one really beautiful thing they've done since the restart. I really dislike the Rose/Ten relationship (and am nauseated by the part of fandom who think they're the TWU WUV connection; even a little by the ones who think the relationship went forward). And most of all, I think Ten undermines everything Nine was.
I agree, I don't find it OOC of all for him to be that selfish. Even if we can't point to specific instances of him being selfish (which we can - GitF anyone?), his energy is just so selfish. It's all about him. That's just a dealbreaker in any situation for me, someone who cannot get outside his own problems. Poor Nine was bearing the brunt of the Time War, and he still worked hard to get outside his own pain.
Ten is just so adolescent. I got impatient with adolescents when I was 11, so you can imagine how I look upon that!
I still haven't managed to do any reading because I keep wanting to write. Then staring at a blank page. Taking up my needlework to work on my father's birthday present. Going back to the blank page. I have a feeling this isn't going to be a very productive day, but I'm still resisting giving in to read, just because I know it's a lost cause if I do...
I may'a been taught liberal values at that University, but Lordy, does Ten bring out the Old South in me. ^~
Have you ever read Florence King? I suspect you would love it!
Are you from FL originally?
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Except for lapses like that, I think I've gotten better at hiding my longing to punch Ten (and I don't think I should talk about Torchwood). I think a long period of avoiding him helped. It helps that my capacity for not posting things is fairly prodigious.
most of all, I think Ten undermines everything Nine was
*yes*
I got impatient with adolescents when I was 11
God, me too. I can't cite an age, but I remember thinking "I will *never* be like that" after one too many badly-written TV shows...
*grin* I haven't had an overly productive *year*. Well, yeah, it's February. Still. There's a feeling I totally understand.
No, I haven't read Florence King-- my book-reading has dropped rather pathetically since I started college. And discovered the internet. I'd put more of the blame on the latter. And yep, I've lived in Florida all my life. Actually, you could narrow that down to "in the Florida panhandle". Probably three counties. I think my dad's from Alabama (they moved around a lot), but my mother's side of the family is all here. I am, geographically, pretty limited. At least I can find all the major countries on a map... ^^
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I think the main thing I've had to do is realize that despite the fact that Christopher Eccleston can make anything feel more profound than it actually is (it's gonna be interesting to see what he can do with a Stephen Sommers version of GI Joe!), RTD's shows really are pretty flimsy. It's just that I got so used to S1 being much more. And I was more circumspect early on. I may have lost a few friends over "outing" myself as a Ten-h8er, but I got tired of pussyfooting around it. And I know it's not any of the usual excuses with me - the character is obnoxiously written and badly played. I wouldn't like him if I had no one to compare him to. The fact that he comes after a character so rich and an actor so good doesn't help him, but he earned my disgust all on his own, because I expected to like him.
I remember thinking "I will *never* be like that" after one too many badly-written TV shows...
Reminds me of that amusing MadTV spoof "Pretty White Kids with Problems"! :-) Sometimes, I think adolescents should just be locked in a pen and kept away from everyone. Girls can get out when they're 19, boys...maybe 30? Although it's hard to know how they would learn to be people without larger society to learn from, still, there'd be so much less melodrama. I know I was no picnic as a teenager, and I was a good kid (boringly so).
Florence King is worth the read, especially since you really are from the South if you're a panhandler. Southern Ladies and Gentlemen is a series of essays on various "types" one finds in the South and why they act the way they do; there's so much that's really insightful about race, class, gender, and sexuality, plus it's laugh-out-loud funny. (The tale of Miss Royal Montgomery is one of my favourites.) Her autobiography Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady reads like a novel. She's incredibly bawdy and forthright, it's astonishing that she wrote these in the late 1960s. Something happens toward the end of the autobiography that isn't really a surprise in this day and age, but was really rather extraordinary for her to talk about so openly back then.
I'm from deepest, darkest East Texas (just as like Northwestern Louisiana, don't you know). My father's side is Cherokees from an Osage reservation in Oklahoma, and my mother's folks were Welsh bond servants and remittance men who were sharecroppers throughout most of the last two centuries, so we're pretty much the most American mutts you can imagine. However, we've got lots of book-larnin'.
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It was a heck of a letdown. I know it took me a while to get over the backlash. If I have yet.
I know I was no picnic as a teenager, and I was a good kid (boringly so).
Same here...
Ooh, those Florence King books sound intriguing. I am *definitely* going to look those up (library should have them, but with our library, you never know for sure...).
Oh, cool! I wish I knew that much about my family history; it's fairly clear on my mother's side, but I know next to nothing about my father's side. Not the sort of thing my grandparents tend to talk about. Maybe they would if I asked, but I'm really not sure; they've got fantastic denial mechanisms, I think it's how they've lived this long. I have a strong suspicion that thirty seconds later it would be "And how are you doing at school?" ^^
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Well, you now know about as much as I do! I know what you mean about the denial, though. I'm pretty sure about several "dark secrets" that no one's confirmed (duh), but I can figure out from behaviour a few things; and there's a great-grandfather that no one's talking about! I suspect he was black (not uncommon around the reservation), which would make me very happy. White + black + red = totally American. But for some parts of the family, I think it would be less something that they themselves are ashamed of, but that they would be afraid others wouldn't take well.
I hope you find the Florence King. She's quite the storyteller!
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