(no subject)
Hokay. The first part of this is my thoughts on the third new series of Doctor Who, as made by someone who will be seeing the finale tomorrow. The second part is a long and convoluted ramble on the nature of reviewing that was inspired by an entry on Smart Bitches Trashy Books, several Fandom_Wank posts, and quite a few reaction posts to the season finale (which I have been well and truly spoiled for), and has been kicking about in my forebrain for quite a while.
I also didn’t read it through, so ‘ware some serious incoherencies and jumps in logic.
First off: I liked quite a bit of Season Three. Most of Season Two and Torchwood left me cold, but Season Three was definitely a good season. I liked almost all of the episodes, particularly Gridlock (that scene where everybody flies up? I cried like a tiny child), 42, Blink, Utopia, and The Sound of Drums. There really weren’t any episodes I actively disliked, although I wasn’t terribly fond of the Big Bad in the Lazarus Experiment and I thought the witches were goofier than usual.
The biggest strength of this season was also probably its biggest weakness - the Doctor’s characterisation. The first half was terrific. I loved that the Doctor was still pining for Rose, and that he kept either ignoring or mistreating Martha until she threw a very quiet, controlled tantrum and made him tell her what was up. Finally, I appreciated that the Doctor finally gives her a key and sets up her cell.
I really liked that the Doctor didn’t accept Martha right away. What I thought was happening was that he was beginning to see Martha as Martha, and not as a temporary placeholder or Rose clone.
And then... well, I’m not really sure what happened. Whatever it was, the Doctor turned into a giant flaming hypocrite.
The Ninth Doctor was plenty willing to kill himself a Dalek, and that Ten was willing to save the hybrid but certainly not the regular Daleks; the Doctor killed the Sycorax leader without blinking an eye; and that the Doctor gave the Family a punishment far and away worse than death.
And then he sees Jack again. And Jack seriously pulled the short end of the straw - I get that Jack is a big ol’ abomination unto the Time Vortex and responsible for crash-landing the TARDIS at the end of the galaxy; the only time the Doctor seemed actually genuinely happy to have Jack around was while he was reminiscing about Rose. And while Jack may not be my favourite person in the Whoverse, he waited several hundred years and keeps his true love’s severed hand, which is actually really romantic, so really, Doctor, would at least a faked smile and a hug be too goddamn hard?! He shows more enthusiasm over Professor Yana than his supposed long lost friend.
Worst of all, he keeps working in digs against Torchwood. The nice people over at Torchwood really cosmically suck at their job. They fail left and right, and innocent people get killed. Most of them have only a tenuous grasp of morality, at best, and their fuck-ups have been many and varied. On the other hand, they try. They stick around and do their best, even when it’s killing them emotionally. Take Ianto, for example - the poor bastard watches his beloved girlfriend, for whom he’s sacrificed so much, get shot to death, and he still turns up for work the next day.
Which brings me back to the first time I really thought the Doctor went way out of line: getting rid of Harriet Jones. The beloved hyooooomans responded as best they could, and in a way that makes sense for human conflicts, and the Doctor responds by orchestrating Jones’ downfall in a manner that, at best, is hypocritical and at worst is painfully misogynistic. Jones responded in a way that was fucking logical; a threat like that to the entire planet, especially a planet that doesn’t have spaceships or warp drives or fancy alien technology, could easily wipe out the entire human race. Like Jones said: the Doctor isn’t always around.
So I have high hopes for the finale. Hopefully Martha will be even more awesome than I’ve been reading and the Doctor will be properly appreciative and the earth will be saved and everyone will live happily. Will update tomorrow.
Now. On to my other topic.
First of all, I really do think it’s important to keep Doctor Who from getting too goofy.
The biggest thing about fantasy/SF, and the reason I think a lot of people look down on it, is because you have to make a couple of baseline assumptions before you can actually enjoy a story. That gives the author a lot of leeway; I’ve read SF from the point of view of a spider that involved radically different emotional guidelines. The way the two romantic leads interacted was completely different from how two humans would. The reason the story worked was because the author kept the whole story in that carefully constructed reality.
It’s the same sort of thing with Doctor Who. You have to take it on faith that the Doctor is an alien with a time machine; after that, so long as the universe holds consistency, you’re free.
For instance, I really like a lot of the old Whoverse. However, if I saw the special effects and campy earnestness from, say, Castrovalva - which I loved to bits, and not in the ironic hipster “I like crap” way - in the current series, I would have to wonder what the writers were smoking.
In terms of criticism, I don’t think campy pop culture should be criticism free. This is probably because I spend so much time lurking in comics fandom - if you think Doctor Who is bad, check out Scans_Daily, where everyone can pretty much agree that everything modern that’s not Runaways, early Generation X, or Young Justice is complete rubbish and ought to be burned, burned I say! I’ve seen more bonding over shared hatred than I have over joyful squee.
The other is because I love the characters so much it hurts. I don’t just like watching the Weekly Adventures of the Doctor and Martha, I actively want the very best for them. I want the Doctor to come to his senses and realise how ridiculously awesome Martha is. I want Martha to stop dripping about how much she loves the Doctor, get it together, and knock some sense into him. I want both of them to get past their huge hang-ups about the other and be friends. (And then I want an orgy with Jack in the middle. It would be hot. Please make this happen.) I don’t hate the source material, I just hate that Martha is unhappy and the Doctor is still pining, and I hate that Martha is drooping about looking lovesick and I hate that the Doctor is being insufferable because I am still halfway convinced they are all real and will come crashing into my bedroom and drag me away.
So I’d probably actually read this through and proofread and stuff, but I need to learn All About Lasers and Flow Cytometers for work, and then I have several volumes of Bleach downloaded to squeal over like a loser, so I’m going to get on that instead.
I also didn’t read it through, so ‘ware some serious incoherencies and jumps in logic.
First off: I liked quite a bit of Season Three. Most of Season Two and Torchwood left me cold, but Season Three was definitely a good season. I liked almost all of the episodes, particularly Gridlock (that scene where everybody flies up? I cried like a tiny child), 42, Blink, Utopia, and The Sound of Drums. There really weren’t any episodes I actively disliked, although I wasn’t terribly fond of the Big Bad in the Lazarus Experiment and I thought the witches were goofier than usual.
The biggest strength of this season was also probably its biggest weakness - the Doctor’s characterisation. The first half was terrific. I loved that the Doctor was still pining for Rose, and that he kept either ignoring or mistreating Martha until she threw a very quiet, controlled tantrum and made him tell her what was up. Finally, I appreciated that the Doctor finally gives her a key and sets up her cell.
I really liked that the Doctor didn’t accept Martha right away. What I thought was happening was that he was beginning to see Martha as Martha, and not as a temporary placeholder or Rose clone.
And then... well, I’m not really sure what happened. Whatever it was, the Doctor turned into a giant flaming hypocrite.
The Ninth Doctor was plenty willing to kill himself a Dalek, and that Ten was willing to save the hybrid but certainly not the regular Daleks; the Doctor killed the Sycorax leader without blinking an eye; and that the Doctor gave the Family a punishment far and away worse than death.
And then he sees Jack again. And Jack seriously pulled the short end of the straw - I get that Jack is a big ol’ abomination unto the Time Vortex and responsible for crash-landing the TARDIS at the end of the galaxy; the only time the Doctor seemed actually genuinely happy to have Jack around was while he was reminiscing about Rose. And while Jack may not be my favourite person in the Whoverse, he waited several hundred years and keeps his true love’s severed hand, which is actually really romantic, so really, Doctor, would at least a faked smile and a hug be too goddamn hard?! He shows more enthusiasm over Professor Yana than his supposed long lost friend.
Worst of all, he keeps working in digs against Torchwood. The nice people over at Torchwood really cosmically suck at their job. They fail left and right, and innocent people get killed. Most of them have only a tenuous grasp of morality, at best, and their fuck-ups have been many and varied. On the other hand, they try. They stick around and do their best, even when it’s killing them emotionally. Take Ianto, for example - the poor bastard watches his beloved girlfriend, for whom he’s sacrificed so much, get shot to death, and he still turns up for work the next day.
Which brings me back to the first time I really thought the Doctor went way out of line: getting rid of Harriet Jones. The beloved hyooooomans responded as best they could, and in a way that makes sense for human conflicts, and the Doctor responds by orchestrating Jones’ downfall in a manner that, at best, is hypocritical and at worst is painfully misogynistic. Jones responded in a way that was fucking logical; a threat like that to the entire planet, especially a planet that doesn’t have spaceships or warp drives or fancy alien technology, could easily wipe out the entire human race. Like Jones said: the Doctor isn’t always around.
So I have high hopes for the finale. Hopefully Martha will be even more awesome than I’ve been reading and the Doctor will be properly appreciative and the earth will be saved and everyone will live happily. Will update tomorrow.
Now. On to my other topic.
First of all, I really do think it’s important to keep Doctor Who from getting too goofy.
The biggest thing about fantasy/SF, and the reason I think a lot of people look down on it, is because you have to make a couple of baseline assumptions before you can actually enjoy a story. That gives the author a lot of leeway; I’ve read SF from the point of view of a spider that involved radically different emotional guidelines. The way the two romantic leads interacted was completely different from how two humans would. The reason the story worked was because the author kept the whole story in that carefully constructed reality.
It’s the same sort of thing with Doctor Who. You have to take it on faith that the Doctor is an alien with a time machine; after that, so long as the universe holds consistency, you’re free.
For instance, I really like a lot of the old Whoverse. However, if I saw the special effects and campy earnestness from, say, Castrovalva - which I loved to bits, and not in the ironic hipster “I like crap” way - in the current series, I would have to wonder what the writers were smoking.
In terms of criticism, I don’t think campy pop culture should be criticism free. This is probably because I spend so much time lurking in comics fandom - if you think Doctor Who is bad, check out Scans_Daily, where everyone can pretty much agree that everything modern that’s not Runaways, early Generation X, or Young Justice is complete rubbish and ought to be burned, burned I say! I’ve seen more bonding over shared hatred than I have over joyful squee.
The other is because I love the characters so much it hurts. I don’t just like watching the Weekly Adventures of the Doctor and Martha, I actively want the very best for them. I want the Doctor to come to his senses and realise how ridiculously awesome Martha is. I want Martha to stop dripping about how much she loves the Doctor, get it together, and knock some sense into him. I want both of them to get past their huge hang-ups about the other and be friends. (And then I want an orgy with Jack in the middle. It would be hot. Please make this happen.) I don’t hate the source material, I just hate that Martha is unhappy and the Doctor is still pining, and I hate that Martha is drooping about looking lovesick and I hate that the Doctor is being insufferable because I am still halfway convinced they are all real and will come crashing into my bedroom and drag me away.
So I’d probably actually read this through and proofread and stuff, but I need to learn All About Lasers and Flow Cytometers for work, and then I have several volumes of Bleach downloaded to squeal over like a loser, so I’m going to get on that instead.