russell davies gets my therapy bill for a bad case of honors english flashbacks

[ravenclaw42]

Hi! I'm still alive. It's amazing, I know. I zoned out of humanity there for a while because I briefly skyrocketed from stressed to anxious to hysterical (in terms of internet communities and my writing, anyway). Had to leave the sane people alone so I could calm down. It's very annoying when it happens, but it happens. Much in the way that shit

Comments

[ravenclaw42]

Too true about the mother thing. I hadn't noticed that specifically in Midnight, but you're entirely right. Maybe that was why all the secondary characters seemed so cardboard cut-out to me in Midnight -- the mother really overshadowed everyone else. I was disappointed that the only secondary char I really liked, the mousy assistant Dee Dee, didn't get a chance to bitchslap her professor. (I like to think she did so after the episode was over, though.)

But yes -- RTD has a thing about mothers. Rose, Martha and Donna's mums are all pretty much steamrollers disguised as women, in a way, though Jackie gets much better as she has a longer chance for character development. Their husbands are either missing or useless (though Martha's dad got a bit of redemption) and they can't keep track of their children. Same goes for Midnight -- the mother is the loud, grating one, the father is the sycophant, and the son is drifting away from them both. I had very little sympathy for those three, or for the Professor. Which left the Hostess and Dee Dee to be interesting, and the Hostess didn't do much until the end while Dee Dee never got her chance to retaliate. Sky seemed very interesting but then she spent most of the episode possessed, so. I liked the driver and the mechanic, too, but as soon as the Doctor said "Live a little," you knew they were doomed. XD

I really did enjoy that ep, though. I'm thinking about watching it again just because the acting was phenomenal and the concept is just plain cool and creepy... I'd almost go so far as to say that RTD and Moffat switched traditional roles here with the Library and Midnight. Midnight has more of a "Blink" tone, while the Library 2-parter felt more like arc stuff, the mythology or the "meat" of the show.

Yep, I read someone else's review that said that when absurd scale is taken away, RTD shines. He gets power mad when he writes stuff like finales and Christmas specials where he can throw a lot of huge numbers and vast scope into his script. CGI rarely does anything good for a story, IMO. But his single-set character stuff? Genius.

I'm still wary of the last few episodes. RTD is the biggest Rose fanboy in the world, and that often makes his characterization of her way too... sanctimonious for me. Too perfect, almost holier-than-thou, much like Gwen (though I like Rose better than Gwen, usually). But I retain judgment until I see how he deals with a more "mature" Rose.