quick update and some short thoughts on Doctor Who before I never get to them
I got the news today about my staff member with the brain tumor. Neuroblastoma. Stage 4. Inoperable. Chemo/radiation treatment to commence shortly. Apparently that type of cancer is extremely rare in adults, and has a very poor prognosis (per my powers of google foo).
I told my boss. She went to the toilet and threw up. I informed my staff. They are in shock. Tomorrow I will tell more staff.
The grant I applied for still has not been announced.
The job I applied for is still in process. We're scheduling more meetings. I feel cautiously optimistic.
And then there was A Good Man Goes to War.
Fun to watch in the company of others, and I was genuinely surprised by the ganger!baby. But otherwise, pretty fanwank-y. It was too much like Star Wars, for starters. And though there were some genuine laughs, I just can't swallow this whole premise of the Doctor finding himself the object of a war he knew nothing about as the unintended consequence of things he's done in the past. Plus, I'm just not that enamored by many of the Moffat-era characters to be excited about their return. Though I gotta say it - Victorian Silurian/Human femmeslash FTW. I WANT THAT SPINOFF.
Yet despite that wonderful surprise duo (and their lesbian subtext), there's the homophobia that left me cold. I fear I may have alienated my DWNY friends with the fervor of my reaction, but . . . In RTD's world being queer wasn't out of the ordinary. It just was. In Moffat's world, out proud happy same-sex couples (or LGBT individuals) are so rare they don't even need names because everyone knows who THEY are. And of course one of them "loses his head" so they don't even get to stay a happy couple. I've heard the dig against the Anglican church was an inside joke for Paul Cornell, so at least there's that.
And River Song. Yeah, she's pretty cool. But a part of me does wish she wasn't Amy and Rory's daughter, that she stood in her own right. It gives the whole thing a Twilight-esque paedophelia feel to it, and robs River Song of something of her own identity.
Oh, and I did really really want Amy to give birth to one of The Silence in a scene reminiscent of Alien. For the crack value.
That said, I enjoyed this half-series more than I did the last series. Matt Smith has grown in the role. And while I do think the 11th Doctor is a smarmy prick, he's not completely unwatchable.
I told my boss. She went to the toilet and threw up. I informed my staff. They are in shock. Tomorrow I will tell more staff.
The grant I applied for still has not been announced.
The job I applied for is still in process. We're scheduling more meetings. I feel cautiously optimistic.
And then there was A Good Man Goes to War.
Fun to watch in the company of others, and I was genuinely surprised by the ganger!baby. But otherwise, pretty fanwank-y. It was too much like Star Wars, for starters. And though there were some genuine laughs, I just can't swallow this whole premise of the Doctor finding himself the object of a war he knew nothing about as the unintended consequence of things he's done in the past. Plus, I'm just not that enamored by many of the Moffat-era characters to be excited about their return. Though I gotta say it - Victorian Silurian/Human femmeslash FTW. I WANT THAT SPINOFF.
Yet despite that wonderful surprise duo (and their lesbian subtext), there's the homophobia that left me cold. I fear I may have alienated my DWNY friends with the fervor of my reaction, but . . . In RTD's world being queer wasn't out of the ordinary. It just was. In Moffat's world, out proud happy same-sex couples (or LGBT individuals) are so rare they don't even need names because everyone knows who THEY are. And of course one of them "loses his head" so they don't even get to stay a happy couple. I've heard the dig against the Anglican church was an inside joke for Paul Cornell, so at least there's that.
And River Song. Yeah, she's pretty cool. But a part of me does wish she wasn't Amy and Rory's daughter, that she stood in her own right. It gives the whole thing a Twilight-esque paedophelia feel to it, and robs River Song of something of her own identity.
Oh, and I did really really want Amy to give birth to one of The Silence in a scene reminiscent of Alien. For the crack value.
That said, I enjoyed this half-series more than I did the last series. Matt Smith has grown in the role. And while I do think the 11th Doctor is a smarmy prick, he's not completely unwatchable.