ideas, Tinker Tailor, and there goes another one...
Right, got to book time off work next week due to funeral finally being scheduled. Great Aunt Bina (my grandma's elder sister - utterly, utterly cool) got pneumonia a couple of weeks ago. She'd been getting that little bit frailer and frailer as the years went by (in her 90s, still getting around by herself but in sheltered housing) and when she got it, everyone went '...okay, chances of survival not very much.' Died sunday and we'd been waiting to hear funeral dates since Susan, who was one of her nieces she was closest to was away. So wake and funeral in Newcastle.
In other news: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is flaily hands and the credits being there so you can finish gawping and going 'wah'. Masterpiece of restraint and acting (not what Oscars call acting, but proper, quiet, tense, drop a pin and everyone jumps). Also brain-breaking period detail. Lots of us (70s/early 80s babies) going 'oh god. I remember that pattern. The bag in the foyer?' '....Our school hall curtains.' 'The grafitti.' 'BEDCOVER.' 'Our nan's was blue.' 'Wimpy's.' 'Breathe, sweetie, deep breaths.' '...So many shades of brown.' Seriously, the set dressing and costuming is an extra character on its own.
There are also tiny, tiny details and wordless scenes - two scenes not in the book, one which just fits perfectly and adds a technically not necessary but HUGE detail for one character, and then the Christmas party flashback, where not a sodding word is spoken but every single relationship is explained. And so many others just... rounded out to an extent that we were going 'SWEET FSM FLAILY HANDS OMG OMG THIS IS JUST ...WAH.' It's not the tv series. People are colder and harder and there's no nostalgic/respectful haze but it's tense and condensed and complex and gripping. Plus Kathy Burke as Connie. (cue everyone going 'happy sigh')
:frowns: How is it there is only ttss_kink set up so far? (thursgood also exists, but that's not been updated since '07. This film has been out five days already, people, and it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy in it. There are SPIES. it is a 99% male cast. Fandom, you fail.
Other fandom stuff: Taz and Jen mentioned they were discussing Torchwood/Narnia last night in the pub after everyone else went home, I went 'that Susan joins Torchwood one?'. and now I suddenly have thoughts of 'Pevensies run a branch of Torchwood.'
Pevensies: able to keep Harkness on a short leash and totally unfazed by his antics. 'Yes, shagging water-dwellers can give you a nasty skin rash sometimes, there's a cream.' 'Well, yes, of course we put them down, Jack, stop being so squeamish.'
Seriously, Susan's recruitment is obvious, Edmund gets seconded from MI5 or 6 or whoever he's working for, Peter drifts into it whilst on leave from the army (Army brass: 'Torchwood want him? Please take him, he scares the shit out of us'), and Susan yanks Lucy out of whichever hospital she's working in because they need a new doctor who won't bat an eye at weird physiology and poisons and can do battle doctoring in their sleep. suspect they end up at Cardiff *anyway*. Jack is on the one hand terribly interested in these pretty young people who give off all the vibes of older than they are, and have a completely different set of values from everyone else in this day and age. On the other hand, just slightly ...scary. And often treat him like a child. Susan the cool diplomat bombshell who's a better sharpshooter with a pistol than the best sniper is with a rifle, Peter the general, little Lucy the healer who really does remind him a bit too much of his ex, and Edmund the spymaster. He'd swear they fell out of the Rift if it wasn't for the fact that they check out completely. All scans show them as this time period, no chronal energy like you get with the Doctor's companions.
In other news: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is flaily hands and the credits being there so you can finish gawping and going 'wah'. Masterpiece of restraint and acting (not what Oscars call acting, but proper, quiet, tense, drop a pin and everyone jumps). Also brain-breaking period detail. Lots of us (70s/early 80s babies) going 'oh god. I remember that pattern. The bag in the foyer?' '....Our school hall curtains.' 'The grafitti.' 'BEDCOVER.' 'Our nan's was blue.' 'Wimpy's.' 'Breathe, sweetie, deep breaths.' '...So many shades of brown.' Seriously, the set dressing and costuming is an extra character on its own.
There are also tiny, tiny details and wordless scenes - two scenes not in the book, one which just fits perfectly and adds a technically not necessary but HUGE detail for one character, and then the Christmas party flashback, where not a sodding word is spoken but every single relationship is explained. And so many others just... rounded out to an extent that we were going 'SWEET FSM FLAILY HANDS OMG OMG THIS IS JUST ...WAH.' It's not the tv series. People are colder and harder and there's no nostalgic/respectful haze but it's tense and condensed and complex and gripping. Plus Kathy Burke as Connie. (cue everyone going 'happy sigh')
:frowns: How is it there is only ttss_kink set up so far? (thursgood also exists, but that's not been updated since '07. This film has been out five days already, people, and it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy in it. There are SPIES. it is a 99% male cast. Fandom, you fail.
Other fandom stuff: Taz and Jen mentioned they were discussing Torchwood/Narnia last night in the pub after everyone else went home, I went 'that Susan joins Torchwood one?'. and now I suddenly have thoughts of 'Pevensies run a branch of Torchwood.'
Pevensies: able to keep Harkness on a short leash and totally unfazed by his antics. 'Yes, shagging water-dwellers can give you a nasty skin rash sometimes, there's a cream.' 'Well, yes, of course we put them down, Jack, stop being so squeamish.'
Seriously, Susan's recruitment is obvious, Edmund gets seconded from MI5 or 6 or whoever he's working for, Peter drifts into it whilst on leave from the army (Army brass: 'Torchwood want him? Please take him, he scares the shit out of us'), and Susan yanks Lucy out of whichever hospital she's working in because they need a new doctor who won't bat an eye at weird physiology and poisons and can do battle doctoring in their sleep. suspect they end up at Cardiff *anyway*. Jack is on the one hand terribly interested in these pretty young people who give off all the vibes of older than they are, and have a completely different set of values from everyone else in this day and age. On the other hand, just slightly ...scary. And often treat him like a child. Susan the cool diplomat bombshell who's a better sharpshooter with a pistol than the best sniper is with a rifle, Peter the general, little Lucy the healer who really does remind him a bit too much of his ex, and Edmund the spymaster. He'd swear they fell out of the Rift if it wasn't for the fact that they check out completely. All scans show them as this time period, no chronal energy like you get with the Doctor's companions.