TV Meme Day Six: Favourite Episodes
Day 06: Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
A few points before we begin: We're talking favourite, not best. Thing is, I love all the below episodes, but I wouldn't necessarily place them in the top five best of the series. Secondly, on questions where I'm torn between multiple shows, I've decide to limit myself to four. Thirdly, I have stomach flu at the moment, so there's a mini picspam to go with this day. Here's goes:
The West Wing - Six Meetings Before Lunch (In which CJ does the Jackal, Toby is happy and the President wonders if he could take George Washington in a fight).
Battlestar Galactica - Guess What's Coming to Dinner? (In which Gaeta sings, and Starbuck, Natalie and Roslin get to interact - which is awesome).
Doctor Who - The Fires of Pompeii (In which Donna announces she is the new Barbara Wright and that we should all worship her)
The Thick of It - 3x05 (In which the Government and Opposition hang out at 5Live and there is pandemonium)
Six Meetings Before Lunch
I just love the episodes in which the staff have a normal day at the office, and this is one of the best of those episodes. This one also has some of the most wonderfully iconic speeches, such as Toby's little tempting fate rant and Sam's eduction speech.
A good proportion of this episode is just about debate and the importance of discussion. Josh baulks at the suggestion of paying 1.7 trillion dollars in reparation for slavery, but it's about not shutting down the discussion just because it's a huge number. Sam argues vainly in favour of school vouchers even though though he doesn't believe it, because that's what he does.
There's also a lot of CJ and I always tend to love the CJ-heavy episodes. This episode illustrates just how difficult her job can be, caught as protecting the President's daughter involves dealing with the wrath of the President, and having to tell him 'no'.
Apparently, there's two takes of the Jackal scene. The one shown is Allison Janney doing the Jackal in character, the other one is Allison Janney doing the Jackal as Allison Janney. I really want to see that version.
Guess What's Coming to Dinner?
Where do I start with this episode. Probably with where it ends, with Felix Gaeta singing when he feels phantom pain from the limb he has just lost. Gaeta's Lament holds this episode together. And the song just aches, being something so beautiful coming from so much pain and sorrow.
You know, writing this, I just realised that the cost of the Human-Cylon alliance is Gaeta's leg. Wow, does that come back around.
This episode contains on of my favourite in the whole series - Laura and Natalie addressing the Quorum. It's just such big moment in the show - finally humans and Cylons working together. It's also an amazing scene because there you have Laura Roslin, weakened by cancer, standing right next to Natalie giving a speech about the importance of mortality and the clarity that death brings by giving urgency to life. And Starbuck watching seems to get it. All three have the spectre of death hanging above them.
Then you've got Hera being incredibly creepy, Athena going nuts, Lee being useful, Tigh saving all their collective asses but adding to his existential crisis as a result and one of the best cliffhangers in BSG history as we're left wondering what the frak is going to happen.
The Fires of Pomepii
Before you think it, my love for this episode predates by Peter Capaldi thing by over a year, so that's actually not a factor (but it's certainly a bonus). Really, my love of this episode is because of Donna, and Catherine Tate and the Doctor and Donna, because this episode outlines so well just who Donna is, what she brings to the TARDIS, the way the Doctor and Donna relationship will work and that Catherine Tate is not joking around, she is one of the best (if not the best) actress to travel in the TARDIS. And also, it's a modern day take on The Aztecs, which is one of my favourite classic serials.
This is when Donna's ferocious compassion is on prime display. It was always there through The Runaway Bride and Partners in Crime, but for the first time it's front and centre. There are few moments as heartbreaking as when Donna's crying out people on the street to run of the hills and she stumbles upon the abandoned child who promptly is whisked off to his death (and that scene is also really understated, which is rare in RTD's Who).
It's also when we see just how good Donna is for Ten. She's the best friend who will not let him take it easy, who acts as a balance and yet can be support. And she's his equal. Remember it's not just the Doctor that destroys Pompeii, it's Donna as well. Her putting her hands on that lever with his is one of the greatest companion moments ever.
There's also little things I love, like that in retrospect it's interesting seeing Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan, who will of course, show up later in bigger roles (it also means that if you chuck in some spatial genetic multiplicity and this episode becomes a whole lot darker - you could really argue that the Doctor and Donna's actions here contributed to the 456 showing up on Earth)
3x05
(The Thick of It could really use episode names, it'd make discussing it so much easier)
It is actually really hard to pick one TTOI episode about another, but this one came out top purely because it has the Government and Opposition interact a whole lot more than they usually do - and that makes this episode, as things seems to get a whole lot more crazy than usual (if that's possible) with them all stuck in a radio station together. The coffee throwing incident in particular is one of the best moments.
This also means that a lot of the characters that have never interacted in canon get to interact, such as Phil and Glenn, Terri and Emma, and most awesomely, the audience finally get Malcolm-Stewart face-off.
Link to the meme master list
A few points before we begin: We're talking favourite, not best. Thing is, I love all the below episodes, but I wouldn't necessarily place them in the top five best of the series. Secondly, on questions where I'm torn between multiple shows, I've decide to limit myself to four. Thirdly, I have stomach flu at the moment, so there's a mini picspam to go with this day. Here's goes:
The West Wing - Six Meetings Before Lunch (In which CJ does the Jackal, Toby is happy and the President wonders if he could take George Washington in a fight).
Battlestar Galactica - Guess What's Coming to Dinner? (In which Gaeta sings, and Starbuck, Natalie and Roslin get to interact - which is awesome).
Doctor Who - The Fires of Pompeii (In which Donna announces she is the new Barbara Wright and that we should all worship her)
The Thick of It - 3x05 (In which the Government and Opposition hang out at 5Live and there is pandemonium)
Six Meetings Before Lunch
I just love the episodes in which the staff have a normal day at the office, and this is one of the best of those episodes. This one also has some of the most wonderfully iconic speeches, such as Toby's little tempting fate rant and Sam's eduction speech.
A good proportion of this episode is just about debate and the importance of discussion. Josh baulks at the suggestion of paying 1.7 trillion dollars in reparation for slavery, but it's about not shutting down the discussion just because it's a huge number. Sam argues vainly in favour of school vouchers even though though he doesn't believe it, because that's what he does.
There's also a lot of CJ and I always tend to love the CJ-heavy episodes. This episode illustrates just how difficult her job can be, caught as protecting the President's daughter involves dealing with the wrath of the President, and having to tell him 'no'.
Click to viewApparently, there's two takes of the Jackal scene. The one shown is Allison Janney doing the Jackal in character, the other one is Allison Janney doing the Jackal as Allison Janney. I really want to see that version.
Guess What's Coming to Dinner?
Where do I start with this episode. Probably with where it ends, with Felix Gaeta singing when he feels phantom pain from the limb he has just lost. Gaeta's Lament holds this episode together. And the song just aches, being something so beautiful coming from so much pain and sorrow.
You know, writing this, I just realised that the cost of the Human-Cylon alliance is Gaeta's leg. Wow, does that come back around.
This episode contains on of my favourite in the whole series - Laura and Natalie addressing the Quorum. It's just such big moment in the show - finally humans and Cylons working together. It's also an amazing scene because there you have Laura Roslin, weakened by cancer, standing right next to Natalie giving a speech about the importance of mortality and the clarity that death brings by giving urgency to life. And Starbuck watching seems to get it. All three have the spectre of death hanging above them.
Then you've got Hera being incredibly creepy, Athena going nuts, Lee being useful, Tigh saving all their collective asses but adding to his existential crisis as a result and one of the best cliffhangers in BSG history as we're left wondering what the frak is going to happen.
The Fires of Pomepii
Before you think it, my love for this episode predates by Peter Capaldi thing by over a year, so that's actually not a factor (but it's certainly a bonus). Really, my love of this episode is because of Donna, and Catherine Tate and the Doctor and Donna, because this episode outlines so well just who Donna is, what she brings to the TARDIS, the way the Doctor and Donna relationship will work and that Catherine Tate is not joking around, she is one of the best (if not the best) actress to travel in the TARDIS. And also, it's a modern day take on The Aztecs, which is one of my favourite classic serials.
This is when Donna's ferocious compassion is on prime display. It was always there through The Runaway Bride and Partners in Crime, but for the first time it's front and centre. There are few moments as heartbreaking as when Donna's crying out people on the street to run of the hills and she stumbles upon the abandoned child who promptly is whisked off to his death (and that scene is also really understated, which is rare in RTD's Who).
It's also when we see just how good Donna is for Ten. She's the best friend who will not let him take it easy, who acts as a balance and yet can be support. And she's his equal. Remember it's not just the Doctor that destroys Pompeii, it's Donna as well. Her putting her hands on that lever with his is one of the greatest companion moments ever.
There's also little things I love, like that in retrospect it's interesting seeing Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan, who will of course, show up later in bigger roles (it also means that if you chuck in some spatial genetic multiplicity and this episode becomes a whole lot darker - you could really argue that the Doctor and Donna's actions here contributed to the 456 showing up on Earth)
3x05
(The Thick of It could really use episode names, it'd make discussing it so much easier)
It is actually really hard to pick one TTOI episode about another, but this one came out top purely because it has the Government and Opposition interact a whole lot more than they usually do - and that makes this episode, as things seems to get a whole lot more crazy than usual (if that's possible) with them all stuck in a radio station together. The coffee throwing incident in particular is one of the best moments.
This also means that a lot of the characters that have never interacted in canon get to interact, such as Phil and Glenn, Terri and Emma, and most awesomely, the audience finally get Malcolm-Stewart face-off.
Link to the meme master list