Turn Left at Midnight

[nina_ds]

I've actually managed to be pretty productive this past week. Don't know what's got into me, but it feels rather good.

TV is a vast wasteland at the moment, but notes on the past two episodes of Doctor Who, both of which I thought were better than the last 4 or 5.

Comments

[nina_ds]

I really do know how you feel. I blame S1 for being so awesome that I'm still as invested in a show that has had as many bad ones as this had - there have been some good ones, but not nearly as many as mediocre-to-poor ones. It, of course, doesn't help that DT is so painful as a lead. I can see that S4 in some ways is the weakest, in terms of individual stories, but I love Catherine Tate so much, and she's the one I'm really caring about. She has managed to pull out good scenes from Tennant, and I think Lesley Sharp probably also had something to do with how good he was toward the end of Midnight. I wasn't bowled over by him, it was more "Well, that was plausible", but that's a big step up, IMO. I know he's popular, I know people think he's a great actor...but honestly. I do not see it. He rarely makes me feel anything, and I cry at commercials! I'm not hard to reach!

I did like Turn Left a lot, Billie Piper's weird teeth aside. The one underlying niggle for me (other than Rose isn't quite Rose, and I hope we'll get an explanation for that) is that it demonstrates that the world would be a hellish place without the Doctor. And I don't like him being that important to human civilization. Partly it was because they were touching on all the elements that had happened over the past four series, but it really pointed up that they'd been hanging around Earth too much! So it does feed into the Doctor=Messiah complex they've been going on. There were traces of it in S1, of course, but at least Nine was humble enough to reject it. Gah. This patronizing/paternalistic thing is exactly what put me off about the old series - though it's not treated with the same tone in the early series.

Harriet is supposed to be back next week (with everyone else!). I, too, hope for an apology and reparations; if they make her apologize to the Doctor, I will hurt people. And I heard one other spoiler which sounds positively vomitous regarding the Doctor and Rose, and if they go down that route, I will never forgive RTD. Even if it was in a fanfic, it would bother me, although I have read one fanfic that treads close but manages to give a more reasonable explanation for it than I have any hope of RTD ever offering!

I've saved the post you made the other day to read when I'm done with the current project. It's one of my carrots!

How's your weather there?

[ameretrifle]

Yeah-- I might not be as connected to Donna, but I can tell she's just truly awesome; and I'm very worried for her. If she's leaving, she deserves a proper farewell, and I'm not entirely sure they know what that looks like. Rose left in an accident; Martha left because she couldn't have him; well, Mickey left because they barely liked him anyway and he had a role he could play in that other universe, so that's a step up, but the continued messianic thing worries me. "Messiahs need people dying in their name". And, I don't trust them at all.

He rarely makes me feel anything-- yep, unless maybe you count bland rage. That he makes me feel. But even that might be more by contrast than anything else. ;) I don't know if I'm easily moved myself-- unless you count situation comedies, which can occasionally drive me out of the room sobbing-- but I have a hard time remembering any characters I've hated quite this much. Hated? Sure. Mistrusted thoroughly? Yeah. But not many, and never like, say, the end of FoB. So, I might have an easier time dealing with him if he did just leave me unmoved. Of course, even better would be if I could occasionally connect with him, but, well, baby steps.

I don't like him being that important to human civilization-- totally agree. And more than that, this undoes what, the last two years of his life? Exactly how vital is he to the structure of civilization as we know it? There's no one else who could, given time and desperation, find some way to do his job, just a little? It wouldn't be this dodgy out of context, I think. Out of context it's a nice little fable about how important one person (by which I insist on meaning Donna) can be to the entire world. It's in context that you look askance at the fact that she influenced the whole world because and only because she influenced him.

As to Harriet, I'd settle for them being so busy that they do nothing more than glare at each other and it never comes up. It wouldn't be great, but it would suffice. If she starts apologizing, and he doesn't, well, I suspect we're going to find out whether or not I really have any latent Evil Criminal Mastermind talent in me. They'd better hope I don't. And that other spoiler-- dare I even ask? I don't know if I dare ask.

That post I made the other day-- oh, I don't know if it should be; it's just a bit of silliness. I really need to finish other things so I can post them, damn it. It will happen. Hopefully.

Weather? We're getting into the summer monsoon season-- hot, usually humid, afternoon thunderstorms. My Dad's a letter carrier, so he's got to go out in it every day in what could charitably be described as a tin can. I can't believe those things don't have air conditioning. Damn government contractors. Any better there?