Retro Nuvian
To the possible dismay of certain "Docnards" of my acquaintance, I've begun re-watching the Eccleston season of Nu Who. (This included watching the one where Gwen blows up for the first time, as I missed it contemporaneously.) I'm through Ep Five now, the conclusion of the Slitheen two-parter. Some thoughts:
1. Yeah, the quality of the stories is a little uneven. Like, my fond memories of the very first episode didn't completely survive contact with the second viewing. It's got some very nice parts, but they also rush some of the human decisions, and the choreography of the climax is almost shockingly dull: you might as well watch early episodes of Heroes again, the staging of the action is so bland.
2. That said, there are truly wonderful bits as early as the second episode - genuine personal tenderness mixed with delightful invention. And that poor Pig!
3. Jackie is a much more sympathetic, textured character, even early on, than I recollected. She's already a better person in the first five episodes than Donna's mother ever gets to become. I'm wondering now if the Wedding Episode will prove to be the one that reduces Jackie to a stupid shrew for a time, rather than the ones before that.
4. Wow, Nine could be an asshole! His version of Timelord Superiority Complex had a sarcastic edge to it that X's didn't. He's not just a dick, by any means. His joys are huge and his generoisities unstinting. And I particularly appreciate the character in light of leighleighla's long-ago (cripes, it really was) LJ essay about post-traumatic stress disorder being the defining issue for the Doctor in that season. But he's callous enough early on, to Jacks and Mickey especially, that you have to think a little less of Rose for choosing to accompany him.
Still, I love watching Eccleston, and yeah, he'll always be my First Doctor.
5. Relatedly, and returning to gaming: DWAITAS stresses the "All Life is Precious, Give Peace a Chance" ethos of the Tennant Years, because DWAITAS is, in the core book, All Ten, All the Time. But as I had forgotten, Nine could be pretty bloodthirsty! Not just with Dalek's either. I mean, yeah, he doesn't set out to kill the Nestene Consciousness, he tries to help the Gelth and he offers to let the Slitheen family leave the Earth unharmed. But he also helps blow up the Gelth, calls in a freaking airstrike on the Slitheen and, really shockingly, in effect executes Lady Cassandra without trial. You don't even need Davros around to argue that the Doctor keeps his own hands clean by having people around to do the dirty work for him: Nine doesn't need proxies. This of course ties into Leigh's point, discussed above: Nine has only just been a soldier in a cataclysmic war. And Eccleston can do deeper, more full-bodied anger (and menace) than Tennant can. It's a good example of the creators playing to the different actors' strengths.
1. Yeah, the quality of the stories is a little uneven. Like, my fond memories of the very first episode didn't completely survive contact with the second viewing. It's got some very nice parts, but they also rush some of the human decisions, and the choreography of the climax is almost shockingly dull: you might as well watch early episodes of Heroes again, the staging of the action is so bland.
2. That said, there are truly wonderful bits as early as the second episode - genuine personal tenderness mixed with delightful invention. And that poor Pig!
3. Jackie is a much more sympathetic, textured character, even early on, than I recollected. She's already a better person in the first five episodes than Donna's mother ever gets to become. I'm wondering now if the Wedding Episode will prove to be the one that reduces Jackie to a stupid shrew for a time, rather than the ones before that.
4. Wow, Nine could be an asshole! His version of Timelord Superiority Complex had a sarcastic edge to it that X's didn't. He's not just a dick, by any means. His joys are huge and his generoisities unstinting. And I particularly appreciate the character in light of leighleighla's long-ago (cripes, it really was) LJ essay about post-traumatic stress disorder being the defining issue for the Doctor in that season. But he's callous enough early on, to Jacks and Mickey especially, that you have to think a little less of Rose for choosing to accompany him.
Still, I love watching Eccleston, and yeah, he'll always be my First Doctor.
5. Relatedly, and returning to gaming: DWAITAS stresses the "All Life is Precious, Give Peace a Chance" ethos of the Tennant Years, because DWAITAS is, in the core book, All Ten, All the Time. But as I had forgotten, Nine could be pretty bloodthirsty! Not just with Dalek's either. I mean, yeah, he doesn't set out to kill the Nestene Consciousness, he tries to help the Gelth and he offers to let the Slitheen family leave the Earth unharmed. But he also helps blow up the Gelth, calls in a freaking airstrike on the Slitheen and, really shockingly, in effect executes Lady Cassandra without trial. You don't even need Davros around to argue that the Doctor keeps his own hands clean by having people around to do the dirty work for him: Nine doesn't need proxies. This of course ties into Leigh's point, discussed above: Nine has only just been a soldier in a cataclysmic war. And Eccleston can do deeper, more full-bodied anger (and menace) than Tennant can. It's a good example of the creators playing to the different actors' strengths.