Doctor Who Premiere OMFG
First, a non-spoilery review of The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon in gif form:
Yes, I got into Theater 1, which was the theater with the cast live (not screened). I AM NEVER TAKING MY BLUE WRISTBAND OFF.
Now I'm not going to spoil the episodes for you guys, even if you ask because omfg it's better if you go into them non-spoiled, and because the Grand Moff asked us not to (and that tickles my schadenfreude-bone like nothing else). However I'm going to assume you've heard some official things about it (like reading this SFX article) because there are one or two non-plot-relevant rumors I want to address, as well as talking about the book signing on Friday, #DWlinecon, and how I've managed to get absolutely nothing done since Thursday at least.
Sidenote: during the christmas episode, I was distracted when the opening titles came on (I think I was futzing around with my cake of awesome), so I didn't actually get to see Arthur Darvill's name in them. NEGL, seeing them on a big screen made me squee. Sadly, Alex Kingston's name was not in the opening titles. Possibly because she's not a "normal" Companion yet? IDK.
Because I know Barrowman's name wasn't in the opening credits until the s3 finale, and he was technically a full Companion by Boomtown, but not the Main Companion... My theory is that once your name is in the opening credits once, it will always be in the opening credits anytime you guest appear, (End of Time and Rose's two-second cameos in s4 notwithstanding) such as JB, Freema Agyeman, Billie Piper and Liz Sladen all having their names in the opening credits of the s4 finale, (and Freema's in her other s4 episodes). But only the Doctors' and the main Companions' actors get opening credits in their first appearance.
HOLY SHIT, you guys, HOLY SHIT. I can already hear the fandom exploding at the end of the first episode, because the cliffhanger is INTENSE. I may, however, be susceptible to bribes after the 23rd if you'd like to know little details about Day of the Moon.
All in all, I think the second episode was probably better because the first one needed to set up plot points and raises more questions than it answers, if it answers any (like Lost). Though watching the two of them together was almost like watching a Doctor Who movie, except it also ended on a cliffhanger. One that I don't think is going to be addressed again until episode 6, but I have no sources other than my genre-savvyness, so...
My love for River Song continues to grow, and there's a part of me that hopes her story isn't completely finished in this series, so that we'll be able to see her again.
Rumors:
Someone dies - oh yes, that's true. As far as the episodes go, it's permanent, but I personally doubt that Moffat won't find some way to reverse it.
The Gay Agenda is back - maybe. It's not a joke, and it's something that in the RTD-era would be totally expected and probably counted as part of his gay agenda, but as it's Mofftiem now, it's really just a pleasant surprise. One serious mention so far does not a gay agenda make, but it shows that Moffat sees it as part of RL and not just a punchline.
The monsters are scary - fuck yes. Again, I think the Vashta Narada will always be the scariest DW enemy because they are literally undefeatable, but I definitely jumped a few times.
Also, the person who called out "sombrero" when they were talking about future hats Matt Smith/Eleven should wear? Yeah, that was me. 'Sup? (And Moffat responded with lulz!)
#DWLinecon:
Yes, there were people that lined up at 9pm the night before and spent the night on the street, I was not one of them. I was also not one of the lucky bitches who got donuts from the cast. Why? Because I had an 8am chemistry class, so I doubt I would have been able to get up for it if I had spent the night on the street, and I don't know if I would have made it back on time for donuts anyways.
So, I decided to take an hour/90 minute nap after chem and woke to a text from my bff Leora saying she heard the line was huge already. My original plan was to eat brunch and then head over by noon -- HA HA HA HA HA. I decided, fuck my afternoon class, and headed over to the line a little after 10:30.
I do not know exactly how long the line was at that point, because I luckily met up with my friends near the front of the line (they had spent the night) and they regaled me with stories of Arthur calling Matt "Smithers" and donuts, and I was distracted. Apparently they completely cleared out the Dunkin, and I saw a few funny pictures of their EMPTY SHELVES post Doctor Who cast-raid
Odds are, I'm probably going to be universally hated by anyone who reads this that didn't make it in or only made it in to the second or third theater because I took their spot or something. Umm, no. First off, there are plenty of people who saved spots for friends and family, and I'd actually discussed meeting up with my friend in line last week, not knowing that she would be spending the night there. She originally told me that she couldn't give me a definite "yes" to joining the line with her, because she had other people meeting her also, she didn't know how many people would be coming and going, it wasn't only up to her, etc. However, when I saw her Monday morning, I asked her and the group of people she was with if they minded me joining them, and they were fine with it. One of the people in their group (who was supposed to come later) couldn't make it for whatever reason so I was taking his or her place. Also, apparently at random points in the night, fans had been doing unofficial counts to see how many people were already there and how many spots they were holding, so they could tweet/text about it or something, and let others who weren't there yet know. They even said that because of the other person not coming, me joining them wasn't going to fuck up anyone's count.
The sad part is that I was originally going to go and hold spots for my non-Manhattan dwelling friends (because I dorm the closest), which I couldn't do by joining another group. As far as I can tell, if I had done that, we would have been lucky to get into the third theater (assuming they even stayed), and at that point they hadn't even opened up theater #3. Also, I have to ask them, but they gave out wristbands at about 3pm, and I don't know if they would have gotten there in time anyways :(
I didn't take many pictures of the line, but I did walk up and down about half of it to see the various chalk drawings. And apparently, the various nearby residents complained about the noise, which I totally understand if it's the middle of the night or early morning, but not at, like, noon. Seriously, what are you doing living in NYC if a group of people is too loud (but the constant sirens aren't? IDGI). And this wasn't even when the cast was there, which definitely had screaming.
Aside from discussing Doctor Who and taking pictures, my friends and I played various card games and just chilled; I brought a cake. I made some new friends, and so many people were cosplaying. The hipster-ness of the crowd was staggering. At various points in time groups of us would burst into song (lots of Queen and Chameleon Circuit, and the DW theme) and at one point a bunch of us reenacted Fork in the Garbage Disposal. XD So many people had a variation of the Doctor Who theme as their ring tone, that when it would sound you could see a ton of people searching for their cell phones to see if it was theirs.
Around 5:30, I think it was, we started to pack up our stuff and condense the line, and at around 6:20ish, 6:30ish, the cast and The Moff pulled up in this old-style TEAL COLORED CAR with matching fuzzy dice and holy shit we went wild. ("Friday" parodies, I'm working on it.) I was not close enough to the front of the line to get an Alex Kingston signature or good pictures of the car or cast except through a window. SADFAYCE. Of course, my camera is at least 8 years old, so the pictures I took during the panel came out crappy anyways, but they tend to be not as bad outdoors. They finally let us in by 6:50 and gave us all DW hats! And then I died happy.
They cut the Q&A half an hour short because the theater decided to hold an extra 10pm showing (without the after-panel) for people who still didn't get in. Unfortunately, because of that, some of the questions asked were pretty non-spoilery and repetitive but whatever. I managed to get a sunburn on only my right arm, which is weird because I was in the shade for pretty much the whole time, and my right side was facing the building... OH WELL, TOTALLY WORTH IT.
THIS POST IS GETTING HUGE. TL;DR ABOUT THE BOOK SIGNING- Barnes & Noble apparently had a system, but they didn't explain it to anyone so it seemed like they had no idea what they were doing. I had them sign my sketchbook (if you bought the DVD set they would sign it and one other item, so my friend Leora who is amazeballs let me get something of mine signed. (I didn't buy the set because I, A. heard this, and B. wasn't sure if I would be in time to get my stuff signed because I had class at 12:30. (I wouldn't have been). Arthur Darvill actually complemented me on my sketches - he flipped through it looking for a blank page to sign - and he and Matt Smith liked my penguin hat!
I started writing this yesterday, so if at some points I say "yesterday" when referring to Monday, that's why. Also, there are these weird tally marks on my body and I'm not sure why...
Yes, I got into Theater 1, which was the theater with the cast live (not screened). I AM NEVER TAKING MY BLUE WRISTBAND OFF.
Now I'm not going to spoil the episodes for you guys, even if you ask because omfg it's better if you go into them non-spoiled, and because the Grand Moff asked us not to (and that tickles my schadenfreude-bone like nothing else). However I'm going to assume you've heard some official things about it (like reading this SFX article) because there are one or two non-plot-relevant rumors I want to address, as well as talking about the book signing on Friday, #DWlinecon, and how I've managed to get absolutely nothing done since Thursday at least.
Sidenote: during the christmas episode, I was distracted when the opening titles came on (I think I was futzing around with my cake of awesome), so I didn't actually get to see Arthur Darvill's name in them. NEGL, seeing them on a big screen made me squee. Sadly, Alex Kingston's name was not in the opening titles. Possibly because she's not a "normal" Companion yet? IDK.
Because I know Barrowman's name wasn't in the opening credits until the s3 finale, and he was technically a full Companion by Boomtown, but not the Main Companion... My theory is that once your name is in the opening credits once, it will always be in the opening credits anytime you guest appear, (End of Time and Rose's two-second cameos in s4 notwithstanding) such as JB, Freema Agyeman, Billie Piper and Liz Sladen all having their names in the opening credits of the s4 finale, (and Freema's in her other s4 episodes). But only the Doctors' and the main Companions' actors get opening credits in their first appearance.
HOLY SHIT, you guys, HOLY SHIT. I can already hear the fandom exploding at the end of the first episode, because the cliffhanger is INTENSE. I may, however, be susceptible to bribes after the 23rd if you'd like to know little details about Day of the Moon.
All in all, I think the second episode was probably better because the first one needed to set up plot points and raises more questions than it answers, if it answers any (like Lost). Though watching the two of them together was almost like watching a Doctor Who movie, except it also ended on a cliffhanger. One that I don't think is going to be addressed again until episode 6, but I have no sources other than my genre-savvyness, so...
My love for River Song continues to grow, and there's a part of me that hopes her story isn't completely finished in this series, so that we'll be able to see her again.
Rumors:
Someone dies - oh yes, that's true. As far as the episodes go, it's permanent, but I personally doubt that Moffat won't find some way to reverse it.
The Gay Agenda is back - maybe. It's not a joke, and it's something that in the RTD-era would be totally expected and probably counted as part of his gay agenda, but as it's Mofftiem now, it's really just a pleasant surprise. One serious mention so far does not a gay agenda make, but it shows that Moffat sees it as part of RL and not just a punchline.
The monsters are scary - fuck yes. Again, I think the Vashta Narada will always be the scariest DW enemy because they are literally undefeatable, but I definitely jumped a few times.
Also, the person who called out "sombrero" when they were talking about future hats Matt Smith/Eleven should wear? Yeah, that was me. 'Sup? (And Moffat responded with lulz!)
#DWLinecon:
Yes, there were people that lined up at 9pm the night before and spent the night on the street, I was not one of them. I was also not one of the lucky bitches who got donuts from the cast. Why? Because I had an 8am chemistry class, so I doubt I would have been able to get up for it if I had spent the night on the street, and I don't know if I would have made it back on time for donuts anyways.
So, I decided to take an hour/90 minute nap after chem and woke to a text from my bff Leora saying she heard the line was huge already. My original plan was to eat brunch and then head over by noon -- HA HA HA HA HA. I decided, fuck my afternoon class, and headed over to the line a little after 10:30.
I do not know exactly how long the line was at that point, because I luckily met up with my friends near the front of the line (they had spent the night) and they regaled me with stories of Arthur calling Matt "Smithers" and donuts, and I was distracted. Apparently they completely cleared out the Dunkin, and I saw a few funny pictures of their EMPTY SHELVES post Doctor Who cast-raid
Odds are, I'm probably going to be universally hated by anyone who reads this that didn't make it in or only made it in to the second or third theater because I took their spot or something. Umm, no. First off, there are plenty of people who saved spots for friends and family, and I'd actually discussed meeting up with my friend in line last week, not knowing that she would be spending the night there. She originally told me that she couldn't give me a definite "yes" to joining the line with her, because she had other people meeting her also, she didn't know how many people would be coming and going, it wasn't only up to her, etc. However, when I saw her Monday morning, I asked her and the group of people she was with if they minded me joining them, and they were fine with it. One of the people in their group (who was supposed to come later) couldn't make it for whatever reason so I was taking his or her place. Also, apparently at random points in the night, fans had been doing unofficial counts to see how many people were already there and how many spots they were holding, so they could tweet/text about it or something, and let others who weren't there yet know. They even said that because of the other person not coming, me joining them wasn't going to fuck up anyone's count.
The sad part is that I was originally going to go and hold spots for my non-Manhattan dwelling friends (because I dorm the closest), which I couldn't do by joining another group. As far as I can tell, if I had done that, we would have been lucky to get into the third theater (assuming they even stayed), and at that point they hadn't even opened up theater #3. Also, I have to ask them, but they gave out wristbands at about 3pm, and I don't know if they would have gotten there in time anyways :(
I didn't take many pictures of the line, but I did walk up and down about half of it to see the various chalk drawings. And apparently, the various nearby residents complained about the noise, which I totally understand if it's the middle of the night or early morning, but not at, like, noon. Seriously, what are you doing living in NYC if a group of people is too loud (but the constant sirens aren't? IDGI). And this wasn't even when the cast was there, which definitely had screaming.
Aside from discussing Doctor Who and taking pictures, my friends and I played various card games and just chilled; I brought a cake. I made some new friends, and so many people were cosplaying. The hipster-ness of the crowd was staggering. At various points in time groups of us would burst into song (lots of Queen and Chameleon Circuit, and the DW theme) and at one point a bunch of us reenacted Fork in the Garbage Disposal. XD So many people had a variation of the Doctor Who theme as their ring tone, that when it would sound you could see a ton of people searching for their cell phones to see if it was theirs.
Around 5:30, I think it was, we started to pack up our stuff and condense the line, and at around 6:20ish, 6:30ish, the cast and The Moff pulled up in this old-style TEAL COLORED CAR with matching fuzzy dice and holy shit we went wild. ("Friday" parodies, I'm working on it.) I was not close enough to the front of the line to get an Alex Kingston signature or good pictures of the car or cast except through a window. SADFAYCE. Of course, my camera is at least 8 years old, so the pictures I took during the panel came out crappy anyways, but they tend to be not as bad outdoors. They finally let us in by 6:50 and gave us all DW hats! And then I died happy.
They cut the Q&A half an hour short because the theater decided to hold an extra 10pm showing (without the after-panel) for people who still didn't get in. Unfortunately, because of that, some of the questions asked were pretty non-spoilery and repetitive but whatever. I managed to get a sunburn on only my right arm, which is weird because I was in the shade for pretty much the whole time, and my right side was facing the building... OH WELL, TOTALLY WORTH IT.
THIS POST IS GETTING HUGE. TL;DR ABOUT THE BOOK SIGNING- Barnes & Noble apparently had a system, but they didn't explain it to anyone so it seemed like they had no idea what they were doing. I had them sign my sketchbook (if you bought the DVD set they would sign it and one other item, so my friend Leora who is amazeballs let me get something of mine signed. (I didn't buy the set because I, A. heard this, and B. wasn't sure if I would be in time to get my stuff signed because I had class at 12:30. (I wouldn't have been). Arthur Darvill actually complemented me on my sketches - he flipped through it looking for a blank page to sign - and he and Matt Smith liked my penguin hat!
I started writing this yesterday, so if at some points I say "yesterday" when referring to Monday, that's why. Also, there are these weird tally marks on my body and I'm not sure why...