It's not the height, it's the intensity

[oursin]

And I should be doing a recent reading post, but I'm still too exhausted and out-of-sync. But this irked me enough to generate a probably deceptive surge of energy to post with.

Making my way through the piles of accumulated mail, I came to Focus: the BSFA Magazine for Writers, Autumn 2007 no 51, which included an article on 'How do I stand out on

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

And yet, with every major theme perfectly preserved in miniature. :) Yes - that's exactly the point. Small scale doesn't have to be quotidian - though I sometimes think the quotidian is underestimated!

Your comments on 'Dalek' are interesting; I grew up with a knowledge of Who, so although I also found the sheer intensity of the Doctor's reaction frightening, I suppose I tended more to see it from his point of view than Rose's.† I didn't see his sadism - because you're right, he does gloat in a rather horrible way - as not so much an indication that he was basically the sort of ghastly person who enjoys kicking his enemies when they're down - but an indication of how badly damaged he was by the war, and that he was on some level so frightened of what the Dalek represented, and what its race had made him do, that he could only continue to function by taking refuge in cruelty and refusing to admit any emotional response at all. I think you might find it repays rewatching with your new idea in mind (which I think is quite correct, but I hadn't managed to put together cosnciously - now I want to rewatch the episode, too!)

† I think we're supposed to sympathise with both of them - that Rose's attitude is the more compassionate and natural - but that the Doctor's callousness is (a) covering quite justifiable terror and (b) the result of huge trauma.