Taking a "Deep Breath"
Here be talk about the Doctor Who Series 8 US/New York City Premiere and World Tour (no spoilers!)
In spite of all the crazy that has been going on in my life (work and personal life has been a roller coaster lately and I think in the case of work, it will continue through the rest of the year), this week has been a pretty good week.
I won a handbag at a work raffle on Thursday -- a leopard clutch which isn't really my style but pretty neat anyway.
There's been a ton of free food (free lunch) at the office thanks to all the businesses promoting their goods and hoping the editorial staff will do a write up.
AND best of all, I somehow managed to snag a pair of tickets to the Doctor Who World Tour premiere event. My +1 was a good friend/former coworker; she was really nice enough to invite me to the Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart panel at the New York Times last year, so I thought I'd return the favor to another big Doctor Who fan.
Apparently, people started queuing up at midnight but I had work and there was a big farewell to-do to attend too so friend and I didn't get to the theater till almost 7pm. (Here's a pic of the badge [awesome souvenir] -- I should've included the ribbon as well since it's themed with the BBC and Who logos as well but I was having a hard time keeping it straight in my hand.) The event was supposed to start at 7:30 but didn't actually begin till around 8:15pm. Chris Hardwick came on stage, did a quick intro and overview and then the lights dimmed and the season premiere began.
The intro sequence was neat (very steampunk!) and I had wondered why it looked so familiar until I read an article about the original concept that was created by a fan and posted on Youtube. Moffatt loved it so much they got in touch and made some minor tweaks and it's now the official open sequence.
It was very cool and the Doctor is growing on me much more quickly than Matt Smith and David Tennant's Doctors did when Ten and Eleven first showed up. There were a fair number of references to previous people, places and events that occurred in past series (I can think of four I quickly caught; there were others that I missed but plenty of fans got based on the gasps, laughter, etc that one could hear). Vastra, Jenny and Strax are as always, pretty delightful. And there was one or two scenes that were pretty surprising since I think none of us in the theater were spoiled beforehand. Oh, and in some scenes, you could see a bit of Ten and Eleven in Peter's Doctor which was nice. I thought the storyline was okay though an audience member remarked in the Q&A that she thought it was a lot scarier than past season premieres and was going to give her nightmares -- I kind of agree about the horror; it was a bit creepy though nowhere near as bad as Blink.
Afterwards was the Q&A with Moffatt, Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. There were about 60 people queued in 2 separate lines waiting to ask questions and I think they managed to answer about a dozen of them. I really disliked how two fans (they were the 2nd and 3rd people to ask questions) asked if the stars could sign their badges. #2 got away with it (Jenna I think wrote a personal message in addition to her signature) and the audience kind of booed #3 when he asked as well (his request was denied since it wouldn't be fair to everyone else). Also #3 goofed when he asked his question, naming Capaldi's first Who role as Julius Caesar. Oops. Peter stood up and pointed him towards the exit a few times, which was pretty hysterical. At least most of the questions weren't so inane.
Also, one person asked about Twelve's catchphrase and Moffatt and Capaldi both said there wasn't one. Chris Hardwick suggested some phrase that the audience didn't like and he was shot down by a chorus of "Kidneys!" from the front rows. Heh. Then Chris mentioned how usually the phrase that sticks is the one the fans eventually gets hung up on during the season.
There's a highlights reel of the panel on the Doctor Who YouTube channel.... which is good since Moffatt mumbled a bit towards the end and I couldn't hear his answer (and Jenna's on the last question) over the noise from the audience.
I'm definitely looking forward to rewatching this again on the 23rd.. I feel like I missed a bit of the dialogue at times so it'll be nice to go back and see it again.
Crosspost: http://autumnia.dreamwidth.org/31961.html
In spite of all the crazy that has been going on in my life (work and personal life has been a roller coaster lately and I think in the case of work, it will continue through the rest of the year), this week has been a pretty good week.
I won a handbag at a work raffle on Thursday -- a leopard clutch which isn't really my style but pretty neat anyway.
There's been a ton of free food (free lunch) at the office thanks to all the businesses promoting their goods and hoping the editorial staff will do a write up.
AND best of all, I somehow managed to snag a pair of tickets to the Doctor Who World Tour premiere event. My +1 was a good friend/former coworker; she was really nice enough to invite me to the Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart panel at the New York Times last year, so I thought I'd return the favor to another big Doctor Who fan.
Apparently, people started queuing up at midnight but I had work and there was a big farewell to-do to attend too so friend and I didn't get to the theater till almost 7pm. (Here's a pic of the badge [awesome souvenir] -- I should've included the ribbon as well since it's themed with the BBC and Who logos as well but I was having a hard time keeping it straight in my hand.) The event was supposed to start at 7:30 but didn't actually begin till around 8:15pm. Chris Hardwick came on stage, did a quick intro and overview and then the lights dimmed and the season premiere began.
The intro sequence was neat (very steampunk!) and I had wondered why it looked so familiar until I read an article about the original concept that was created by a fan and posted on Youtube. Moffatt loved it so much they got in touch and made some minor tweaks and it's now the official open sequence.
It was very cool and the Doctor is growing on me much more quickly than Matt Smith and David Tennant's Doctors did when Ten and Eleven first showed up. There were a fair number of references to previous people, places and events that occurred in past series (I can think of four I quickly caught; there were others that I missed but plenty of fans got based on the gasps, laughter, etc that one could hear). Vastra, Jenny and Strax are as always, pretty delightful. And there was one or two scenes that were pretty surprising since I think none of us in the theater were spoiled beforehand. Oh, and in some scenes, you could see a bit of Ten and Eleven in Peter's Doctor which was nice. I thought the storyline was okay though an audience member remarked in the Q&A that she thought it was a lot scarier than past season premieres and was going to give her nightmares -- I kind of agree about the horror; it was a bit creepy though nowhere near as bad as Blink.
Afterwards was the Q&A with Moffatt, Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. There were about 60 people queued in 2 separate lines waiting to ask questions and I think they managed to answer about a dozen of them. I really disliked how two fans (they were the 2nd and 3rd people to ask questions) asked if the stars could sign their badges. #2 got away with it (Jenna I think wrote a personal message in addition to her signature) and the audience kind of booed #3 when he asked as well (his request was denied since it wouldn't be fair to everyone else). Also #3 goofed when he asked his question, naming Capaldi's first Who role as Julius Caesar. Oops. Peter stood up and pointed him towards the exit a few times, which was pretty hysterical. At least most of the questions weren't so inane.
Also, one person asked about Twelve's catchphrase and Moffatt and Capaldi both said there wasn't one. Chris Hardwick suggested some phrase that the audience didn't like and he was shot down by a chorus of "Kidneys!" from the front rows. Heh. Then Chris mentioned how usually the phrase that sticks is the one the fans eventually gets hung up on during the season.
There's a highlights reel of the panel on the Doctor Who YouTube channel.... which is good since Moffatt mumbled a bit towards the end and I couldn't hear his answer (and Jenna's on the last question) over the noise from the audience.
I'm definitely looking forward to rewatching this again on the 23rd.. I feel like I missed a bit of the dialogue at times so it'll be nice to go back and see it again.
Crosspost: http://autumnia.dreamwidth.org/31961.html