"Come on, Pond!"
Weekend round-up post. Spoilers ahoy.
No, I have not yet bought my fifty gazillion more icons yet, but it will happen soon, I am sure. I've wanted a la carte icons since FOREVER as you all known from my very vocal opinions on the fact.
Yes, my attempts to learn to play "Life on Mars?" are going quite well, despite the fact I have little rhythm and my piano badly needs tuning. Whatever, it's fun. I shall probably not be recording it to share with you anytime soon as I sound bloody awful, however.
Whoever is directing this season of Ashes to Ashes is directing the fuck out of it and: I HEARTILY APPROVE. Like, honestly, I want to teach a class on elements of film studies with a focus on television, and I want to use this show and Life on Mars as the main texts. Pretty much all the shots that I'm seeing are brilliantly composed, with nothing going to waste. Like this post shows, all about a shot displaying Ray's choices far better than simple exposition would have.
Plot-wise, I suspect that Jim Keats' plan is going to totally backfire and I think that's hilarious. From what I can see, his whole plot is to destroy Gene Hunt by undermining his team's blind devotion; Keats thinks that by bringing out each team member's strengths at the expense of the guv's autocracy he'll cause scales to fall from their eyes and they'll all move on, leaving Gene a broken leader with no one to lead. But I think we know Ray, and Chris, and Shaz, and Guy Who Looks Like A Diseased Sheep, and Viv all better than Keats knows them. They've stuck to Gene for a long time. I suspect what will happen is that they will embrace their strengths and be empowered and all that, and turn it around to be more fiercely loyal to Gene than ever.
He's such an omnipresent two-faced smarmy bastard, and it's interesting to see the roles he takes on, and how bizarrely frequently he's around, especially in contrast to the things that aren't. (Such as the mundanities of Alex's life; I know there is limited time to show things, of course, but we have no evidence that since Alex woke up again in 1983 that she's cooked dinner for herself, done laundry, cleaned the bathroom, bought groceries; does she have any existence beyond the CID tasks she pursues? Does she leap from scene to scene like you do in a dream?) I'm also intensely curious about the meaning of Keats' location -getting stuck in a storage room- and how he needs heaters on all the time for his anemia. Gene ordering stuff to be stored in Keats' office, however, is not so opaque: clearly Gene is putting all the literal and metaphoric obstacles in his way that he can find. :P
Also, repeat of the Bowieflash with Ray at the end- I think everything's breaking down, what with the stars that Alex and Shaz have seen, and the music and darkness around Shaz and Ray (and, I predict, Chris next week.) Something is shaking in this world, and I think pieces are falling off. But who's shaking it, and what is this world?
I also think that it's interesting how "Life on Mars?" is playing at those flashes of black with Shaz and Ray, and I think that Alex has had a version of that herself. If you remember, the song is about a girl who is so disenchanted with her normal life that seems filled with conflict and loneliness/abandonment that she delves into a world of fiction, in films where those characters are more absorbing to her than the real people in her life. In 3.01, when Alex is still in the coma-within-a-coma and browsing DVDs at some shop, she sees a movie poster with everyone from 1982 on it, and Gene in the center. Take a look at the Lawman, beating up the wrong guy; oh man, wonder if he'll ever know he's in the bestselling show, goes part of the chorus, and that's not too far off from describing Gene. When Alex saw that film, it was while she was being told how much the people in CID needed her, and so she came back; similarly, when Shaz and Ray have had these blackout moments, it is while they are being told how much they're needed on the team, and being drawn back into the fold.
Doctor Who continues to entertain.
Let's get this out of the way first so I can get to the good stuff: I can't say I thought a whole hell of a lot of the plot this week. Some Daleks came? And they went away? And there was a bomb that somehow got deactivated because the dude made out of it remembered he had a crush? Even though the Doctor got a mite peeved that the Daleks were there at all, I can't say that anything, really, was accomplished in this episode. It seemed like more of an intro for something much later, presumably some return of the Hunchbacked Power Ranger Daleks. And that's fine, in the strictest sense the "Human Nature" arc primarily set up the fob watch as a holder of Time Lord consciousness so that we could have a believable return of the Master, for example, but those episodes also had an amazing emotional punch that went way above and beyond a plot point setup. "Victory of the Daleks", however, didn't really.
Good, that's over with. Onwards to all the good moments!
I must say I love the aesthetic of the series so far (even though a lot of it has been unrelieved steampunk, which I love as much as the next girl who puts on a corset and goes to steampunk picnics but let's mix it up every once in a while, shall we? please?) because a good deal of it seems like Old Who. The Dalek ship this episode looked like a real ship, but also looked very much like the pie-tin ships on strings that we saw back in the black and white 1963 days of the First Doctor. It's like it lends retroactive legitimacy to the homemade quality of the sixties. When they walked out on the roof over the War Cabinet, I was also struck by how similar it looked to some of the scenes from the seventies, when Three was walking around with the Brig and UNIT.
"There's a blue wire you have to cut, there's always a blue wire! Or a red one."
"...You're really not helping."
Amy, as expected, continues to be adorable and makes me love her. She talked the Dalek-made scientist machine guy out of shooting himself, and then out of blowing up, and the Doctor called her "Amelia!" in exasperation, and as the enlightened of us know, Amelia is the name of fabulous yet slightly mad adventurous women, such as Amelia Peabody or Amelia Earhart. And then Eleven kissed her on the forehead! Cuuuuuute.
Best part was at the end when he said "Come on, Pond." As andi_horton commented, "It's little-boy bragadoccio to his best friend-who-is-a-girl adventuring buddy," and we both agreed that it was very Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole (of Narnia; Silver Chair and Last Battle, specifically) of them. We need an icon of that line, if I might inspire any of you to create such a thing before I am forced to do so myself.
To conclude: DALEKS SERVING TEA, BRB LOLLING FOREVER. DOMESTICATE!!!
No, I have not yet bought my fifty gazillion more icons yet, but it will happen soon, I am sure. I've wanted a la carte icons since FOREVER as you all known from my very vocal opinions on the fact.
Yes, my attempts to learn to play "Life on Mars?" are going quite well, despite the fact I have little rhythm and my piano badly needs tuning. Whatever, it's fun. I shall probably not be recording it to share with you anytime soon as I sound bloody awful, however.
Whoever is directing this season of Ashes to Ashes is directing the fuck out of it and: I HEARTILY APPROVE. Like, honestly, I want to teach a class on elements of film studies with a focus on television, and I want to use this show and Life on Mars as the main texts. Pretty much all the shots that I'm seeing are brilliantly composed, with nothing going to waste. Like this post shows, all about a shot displaying Ray's choices far better than simple exposition would have.
Plot-wise, I suspect that Jim Keats' plan is going to totally backfire and I think that's hilarious. From what I can see, his whole plot is to destroy Gene Hunt by undermining his team's blind devotion; Keats thinks that by bringing out each team member's strengths at the expense of the guv's autocracy he'll cause scales to fall from their eyes and they'll all move on, leaving Gene a broken leader with no one to lead. But I think we know Ray, and Chris, and Shaz, and Guy Who Looks Like A Diseased Sheep, and Viv all better than Keats knows them. They've stuck to Gene for a long time. I suspect what will happen is that they will embrace their strengths and be empowered and all that, and turn it around to be more fiercely loyal to Gene than ever.
He's such an omnipresent two-faced smarmy bastard, and it's interesting to see the roles he takes on, and how bizarrely frequently he's around, especially in contrast to the things that aren't. (Such as the mundanities of Alex's life; I know there is limited time to show things, of course, but we have no evidence that since Alex woke up again in 1983 that she's cooked dinner for herself, done laundry, cleaned the bathroom, bought groceries; does she have any existence beyond the CID tasks she pursues? Does she leap from scene to scene like you do in a dream?) I'm also intensely curious about the meaning of Keats' location -getting stuck in a storage room- and how he needs heaters on all the time for his anemia. Gene ordering stuff to be stored in Keats' office, however, is not so opaque: clearly Gene is putting all the literal and metaphoric obstacles in his way that he can find. :P
Also, repeat of the Bowieflash with Ray at the end- I think everything's breaking down, what with the stars that Alex and Shaz have seen, and the music and darkness around Shaz and Ray (and, I predict, Chris next week.) Something is shaking in this world, and I think pieces are falling off. But who's shaking it, and what is this world?
I also think that it's interesting how "Life on Mars?" is playing at those flashes of black with Shaz and Ray, and I think that Alex has had a version of that herself. If you remember, the song is about a girl who is so disenchanted with her normal life that seems filled with conflict and loneliness/abandonment that she delves into a world of fiction, in films where those characters are more absorbing to her than the real people in her life. In 3.01, when Alex is still in the coma-within-a-coma and browsing DVDs at some shop, she sees a movie poster with everyone from 1982 on it, and Gene in the center. Take a look at the Lawman, beating up the wrong guy; oh man, wonder if he'll ever know he's in the bestselling show, goes part of the chorus, and that's not too far off from describing Gene. When Alex saw that film, it was while she was being told how much the people in CID needed her, and so she came back; similarly, when Shaz and Ray have had these blackout moments, it is while they are being told how much they're needed on the team, and being drawn back into the fold.
Doctor Who continues to entertain.
Let's get this out of the way first so I can get to the good stuff: I can't say I thought a whole hell of a lot of the plot this week. Some Daleks came? And they went away? And there was a bomb that somehow got deactivated because the dude made out of it remembered he had a crush? Even though the Doctor got a mite peeved that the Daleks were there at all, I can't say that anything, really, was accomplished in this episode. It seemed like more of an intro for something much later, presumably some return of the Hunchbacked Power Ranger Daleks. And that's fine, in the strictest sense the "Human Nature" arc primarily set up the fob watch as a holder of Time Lord consciousness so that we could have a believable return of the Master, for example, but those episodes also had an amazing emotional punch that went way above and beyond a plot point setup. "Victory of the Daleks", however, didn't really.
Good, that's over with. Onwards to all the good moments!
I must say I love the aesthetic of the series so far (even though a lot of it has been unrelieved steampunk, which I love as much as the next girl who puts on a corset and goes to steampunk picnics but let's mix it up every once in a while, shall we? please?) because a good deal of it seems like Old Who. The Dalek ship this episode looked like a real ship, but also looked very much like the pie-tin ships on strings that we saw back in the black and white 1963 days of the First Doctor. It's like it lends retroactive legitimacy to the homemade quality of the sixties. When they walked out on the roof over the War Cabinet, I was also struck by how similar it looked to some of the scenes from the seventies, when Three was walking around with the Brig and UNIT.
"There's a blue wire you have to cut, there's always a blue wire! Or a red one."
"...You're really not helping."
Amy, as expected, continues to be adorable and makes me love her. She talked the Dalek-made scientist machine guy out of shooting himself, and then out of blowing up, and the Doctor called her "Amelia!" in exasperation, and as the enlightened of us know, Amelia is the name of fabulous yet slightly mad adventurous women, such as Amelia Peabody or Amelia Earhart. And then Eleven kissed her on the forehead! Cuuuuuute.
Best part was at the end when he said "Come on, Pond." As andi_horton commented, "It's little-boy bragadoccio to his best friend-who-is-a-girl adventuring buddy," and we both agreed that it was very Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole (of Narnia; Silver Chair and Last Battle, specifically) of them. We need an icon of that line, if I might inspire any of you to create such a thing before I am forced to do so myself.
To conclude: DALEKS SERVING TEA, BRB LOLLING FOREVER. DOMESTICATE!!!