a ramble on Doctor Who
Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that when you opened your eyes, you were sure it must have been?
Over the summer, I made it a point to catch up with Doctor Who. As you who read my journal on a semi-regular basis, you know that I quit at series 4. Then series 5 came along, and I thought it would be a good, fresh start. Having fallen more or less out of the fandom by then, I only had mild spoilers and vague impressions around LJ and the net as a whole to get opinions from. No more RTD, the Moff at the head, new companions, new everything. It seemed like a win/win situation.
But I had to make it through series 4 first.
You see, there is not much that I tend to be anal about, but one thing that I am is reading, watching, and playing things in order. I can't finish my YGO manga collection without getting the next ones in line. Out of order it makes no sense. If I start a show and miss the first one, or if I miss a few episodes, I will usually end up dropping it. (This happens less often now thanks to on demand and online resources.) If I can't get it in order, then I can't do it. So any suggestions of leaving S4 and the specials behind and jumping right into S5 were out of the question.
Eventually I sloughed through the moderate disaster that was S4, glad to finally breathe the fresh air of the specials. I had, of course, been dying to see The End of Time, but I had not for the previously stated reason. Alas, I had to scrounge these up as best I could, and then actually sit through them, the wildly varying quality: fabulous, disastrous, mildly epic, complete waste of time and energy, relatively speaking.
It had slowly been dawning on me, but there was always hope. But in the end, watching the Doctor stagger in pain into the TARDIS, I understood what Rusty had done to complete his legacy. He had completely dismantled what he had, perhaps actually lovingly, created in order to usher in the new era. No chance of the old staying or returning. A blessing and a curse. We finally were finished (hopefully) with the steady decline in quality of story; we completed the utter and perhaps inevitable breakdown of the Doctor, never to return to those depths again. We watched the final fall of a relatively long-running and generally much-beloved Doctor (friend, love, companion, ally); we watched him be destroyed from the inside out to the point where we could no longer recognize or enjoy him any longer, a sad and pathetic exit for what had become a sad and pathetic shell of a man.
Have you ever seen someone who wasn't really there?
All of the rage, pain, confusion, and exhaustion slowly started to drift out of me. Here was a new man, examining himself for the first time, lamenting his lack of ginger locks, and crashing back down to the planet. It was so familiar. Perhaps, I wondered, worrying, too familiar?
The Eleventh Hour began to tick by. And first I was greeted with one of the coolest little kids I had ever seen on television. The more I heard her speak, the more I dared to hope that this was to be the too sexy, too flirty, annoying, bad, not at all Rose of a companion, Amy Pond. Would she stay so cool as an adult? And if I found a strange, insulting, amusing, vaguely cute in a weird sort of way man in a Santa-prayer-answering box in my yard, would I have ever lived up to this amazing little kid?
Through the episode, I was reminded ever so much of the Doctor before, from the early days, when he was more of a hyperactive child that I had eventually grown to fit into my one tiny Human heart. I blamed this on his still post-regenerative state. Perhaps this is something he'll do every time he regenerates. Quirky, fun, incomprehensible, full of energy with a touch of too much and a smidge of frightening to boot. Perhaps, I hoped against, he would end up being more or less the same, as though from a mold. I did notice, however, minor differences to that one Christmas adventure and the curse of the cat nurses. This new new new Doctor was bolder, brasher, more headstrong and more confident than I had seen in some years indeed. And he wasn't going to take anyone's shit.
This, I decided, was a good thing. The clear differences, even in all the similarities.
In the end, I had been introduced to the still very cool even after growing up Amy, the dorky but oh so minor Rory (who I had been assured I would fall in love with), and the Doctor, introducing himself to the monster of the week and to the audience in a very cool, very effective manner. I was reminded of Iron Man 2 and the reintroduction of Rhodey: yes, hello, here I am; I'm the Doctor; deal with it. I was more than willing to give the Doctor another chance with a fresh new outlook on his impossibly long life.
Although I could not help but smirk: really, Doctor, what is it with you and ginger brides?
Have you ever dreamed of something more real than your own reality?
This was not the charming, smiling, teaish Doctor from before. This man was older, wiser. And yet still so young and vibrant. He was not the Professor--that is Ace's domain, that is a Doctor from years before. He was, however, the Teacher. He did not run around, fix things, and then remember to try and explain what was going on. Nor did he, at least off the bat, feel the need to hold onto Amy's hand. Neither of them felt compelled to be glued to each other at any point. He did not give his companion any easy answers unless there was a need for it, but instead, he taught her how to observe, to look, to act like a scientist. Observe, and draw conclusions from those observations. The prodding was not always gentle guidance, but he rarely treated people as though they were less than. Always the potential to be.
As with any Doctor, I find him difficult to describe. And as always, he is both original and a blend of the past. He has grown and learned and made himself something else, something he can hopefully respect more. He knows where he stands, firmly, and why he stands there, more firmly.
This, too, was a man I could respect, even if I found his reactions to be, at times, over the top. Overcompensating, sometimes, one can tell. For good reason. The past has not been erased, never, but he has attempted to grow around it, not so much past it. He has been hurt, and he has watched the people he trusts do harm, and even a first time offense can seem too much to allow.
One criticism: for the past couple of times, the Doctor has had companions that were completely unique and special, the most important person in the universe, no matter how plain they might have seemed. The trend does need to stop. They are special simply because they are companions. There need not be anything more to them, ever.
This Doctor was also a man like any other. He made mistakes. He had oh so many flaws. And he was good enough to not allow the darkness in him to ruin him and everyone around him. He was not fire and ice and rage; he was not the storm at the heart of the sun; he rarely was an oncoming storm. He was kind, and old, and wise, and lonely. By no means an angel.
Maybe you weren't dreaming after all.
Now, to be quite honest, I'm not sure what the hell all that stuff above was. That was me rambling at about 2 at night before my first day of school, but I clearly can't say everything that needs to be said in such an eloquent and overbearing fashion, so here's a more down to earth geeky giddy bit.
This is the best series since S2. Quite possibly S1. (S1 being the best and everything going downhill one way or another from there.) It also has the most emotional episode (Pandorica Opens) since...a while, anyway. The finale, well, you could tell that the Moff had taken a few lessons in bullshit from Rusty, and I really didn't think it was all that good overall, but still, much better than End of Time or Journey's End. There was only one episode out of the whole lot that I didn't like, and even then, there were things I enjoyed, and that was Amy's god damn Choice.
Now, of everything and everyone in this series, I was assured by multiple sources that I would love Rory. And I apparently was like the majority of the fandoms. He was very forgettable at first. Then he was kind of cute but very out of place, so you felt really bad about his death, but it wasn't like sobbing or anything. And then by the end you just wish you were the one getting married to him. Probably very intentional. He's only a minor character in the first episode, and you sort of get a Rose and Mickey vibe by the end--she left him for the Doctor! Before the wedding! Oh boy. Then when he does come on, he is very much the Mickey. He's the awkward third wheel who isn't familiar with the whole time and space travel yet and so sort of trails in the dust. He's really only there to make sure Amy's safe.
I was, however, on his side when he stood up to the Doctor in the Venice episode. Anyone who stands up to him is cool in my book. So he is a reluctant traveler, very clearly in second place--or so it seems--next to the Raggedy Doctor.
One note: I adore the fuck out of Amy. I think she's pretty much the coolest companion of New Who ever. Like, Martha was really cool, and Amy's just like even a step above that. Even if nobody will have better fashion than Martha. I love how they show her relationships and her feelings. She's terrified of commitment. And it isn't that she loves the Doctor more than Rory. She adores both of her boys. She works best in an open, polyarmorous relationship, and you know what, that's okay. She doesn't have to be Jack's pansexual, and she doesn't have to be Rose's Doctorsexual, and she doesn't have to be Donna's asexual, and she doesn't have to be just one-person-sexual. So to the people that complain about her, you can get right the fuck out.
ANYWAY so yes, Rory. Rory, the boy who waited, and eventually married the girl of his dreams, and was more than happy to join her and the Doctor at long last, not grudgingly at all.
BTW, this is how I feel about Eleven and Rory. I am a loser and suddenly noticed, without even looking for it I swear to god, Doctor/Rory during the Silurian 2-parter. So my shippy triangle goes: Doctor loves Rory, Rory loves Amy, Amy loves both of them. It's rather sad, really.
I also felt that some of the episodes were pretty predictable. Like Amy's Choice. And the purpose of the Pandorica, as in who was supposed to be in there/go in there. :| But then there was stuff like in the angels 2-parter? Holy shit, that wasn't that Eleven, that was one from that last episode that came back, I didn't even, it kind of blew my mind. (Still don't think the Angels are scary, FYI. Much scarier than in Blink for the fact that they actually kill you and don't just send you back in time, but.) Or stuff like Beast Below. So a nice mix of surprise and predict. I mean, who the hell saw Auton!Rory coming? Fucking nobody, that's who.
And River Song is the Rani. I am simply convinced of it. I thought it before, and until I am proved otherwise, I will continue to think it. She is the Rani in Human form with her memories. At this point, anything else would make her feel like a sue.
I love the new console room. I admit that I was extremely hesitant at first. New TARDIS (which is actually just an updated version of One's), new console room that was a mix of oldskool concepts and newskool designs. It made me uneasy. BUT THEN THEY USED THE STAIRS AND CHILLED OUT BELOW AND THE LITTLE FLOOR IS GLASS TO SEE THROUGH AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT MADE ME REALLY HAPPY. I really do think it's a wonderful, fabulous design. I do not think, however, that I will get used to the new sonic screwdriver. Weird, the console room is such a big change in comparison, but--it's green. It's very...odd.
SO PRETTY MUCH MY THOUGHTS ON S5 BOIL DOWN TO: WHY WON'T CHRISTMAS GET HERE FAST ENOUGH SO I CAN START WATCHING DW ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD AGAIN?
Over the summer, I made it a point to catch up with Doctor Who. As you who read my journal on a semi-regular basis, you know that I quit at series 4. Then series 5 came along, and I thought it would be a good, fresh start. Having fallen more or less out of the fandom by then, I only had mild spoilers and vague impressions around LJ and the net as a whole to get opinions from. No more RTD, the Moff at the head, new companions, new everything. It seemed like a win/win situation.
But I had to make it through series 4 first.
You see, there is not much that I tend to be anal about, but one thing that I am is reading, watching, and playing things in order. I can't finish my YGO manga collection without getting the next ones in line. Out of order it makes no sense. If I start a show and miss the first one, or if I miss a few episodes, I will usually end up dropping it. (This happens less often now thanks to on demand and online resources.) If I can't get it in order, then I can't do it. So any suggestions of leaving S4 and the specials behind and jumping right into S5 were out of the question.
Eventually I sloughed through the moderate disaster that was S4, glad to finally breathe the fresh air of the specials. I had, of course, been dying to see The End of Time, but I had not for the previously stated reason. Alas, I had to scrounge these up as best I could, and then actually sit through them, the wildly varying quality: fabulous, disastrous, mildly epic, complete waste of time and energy, relatively speaking.
It had slowly been dawning on me, but there was always hope. But in the end, watching the Doctor stagger in pain into the TARDIS, I understood what Rusty had done to complete his legacy. He had completely dismantled what he had, perhaps actually lovingly, created in order to usher in the new era. No chance of the old staying or returning. A blessing and a curse. We finally were finished (hopefully) with the steady decline in quality of story; we completed the utter and perhaps inevitable breakdown of the Doctor, never to return to those depths again. We watched the final fall of a relatively long-running and generally much-beloved Doctor (friend, love, companion, ally); we watched him be destroyed from the inside out to the point where we could no longer recognize or enjoy him any longer, a sad and pathetic exit for what had become a sad and pathetic shell of a man.
Have you ever seen someone who wasn't really there?
All of the rage, pain, confusion, and exhaustion slowly started to drift out of me. Here was a new man, examining himself for the first time, lamenting his lack of ginger locks, and crashing back down to the planet. It was so familiar. Perhaps, I wondered, worrying, too familiar?
The Eleventh Hour began to tick by. And first I was greeted with one of the coolest little kids I had ever seen on television. The more I heard her speak, the more I dared to hope that this was to be the too sexy, too flirty, annoying, bad, not at all Rose of a companion, Amy Pond. Would she stay so cool as an adult? And if I found a strange, insulting, amusing, vaguely cute in a weird sort of way man in a Santa-prayer-answering box in my yard, would I have ever lived up to this amazing little kid?
Through the episode, I was reminded ever so much of the Doctor before, from the early days, when he was more of a hyperactive child that I had eventually grown to fit into my one tiny Human heart. I blamed this on his still post-regenerative state. Perhaps this is something he'll do every time he regenerates. Quirky, fun, incomprehensible, full of energy with a touch of too much and a smidge of frightening to boot. Perhaps, I hoped against, he would end up being more or less the same, as though from a mold. I did notice, however, minor differences to that one Christmas adventure and the curse of the cat nurses. This new new new Doctor was bolder, brasher, more headstrong and more confident than I had seen in some years indeed. And he wasn't going to take anyone's shit.
This, I decided, was a good thing. The clear differences, even in all the similarities.
In the end, I had been introduced to the still very cool even after growing up Amy, the dorky but oh so minor Rory (who I had been assured I would fall in love with), and the Doctor, introducing himself to the monster of the week and to the audience in a very cool, very effective manner. I was reminded of Iron Man 2 and the reintroduction of Rhodey: yes, hello, here I am; I'm the Doctor; deal with it. I was more than willing to give the Doctor another chance with a fresh new outlook on his impossibly long life.
Although I could not help but smirk: really, Doctor, what is it with you and ginger brides?
Have you ever dreamed of something more real than your own reality?
This was not the charming, smiling, teaish Doctor from before. This man was older, wiser. And yet still so young and vibrant. He was not the Professor--that is Ace's domain, that is a Doctor from years before. He was, however, the Teacher. He did not run around, fix things, and then remember to try and explain what was going on. Nor did he, at least off the bat, feel the need to hold onto Amy's hand. Neither of them felt compelled to be glued to each other at any point. He did not give his companion any easy answers unless there was a need for it, but instead, he taught her how to observe, to look, to act like a scientist. Observe, and draw conclusions from those observations. The prodding was not always gentle guidance, but he rarely treated people as though they were less than. Always the potential to be.
As with any Doctor, I find him difficult to describe. And as always, he is both original and a blend of the past. He has grown and learned and made himself something else, something he can hopefully respect more. He knows where he stands, firmly, and why he stands there, more firmly.
This, too, was a man I could respect, even if I found his reactions to be, at times, over the top. Overcompensating, sometimes, one can tell. For good reason. The past has not been erased, never, but he has attempted to grow around it, not so much past it. He has been hurt, and he has watched the people he trusts do harm, and even a first time offense can seem too much to allow.
One criticism: for the past couple of times, the Doctor has had companions that were completely unique and special, the most important person in the universe, no matter how plain they might have seemed. The trend does need to stop. They are special simply because they are companions. There need not be anything more to them, ever.
This Doctor was also a man like any other. He made mistakes. He had oh so many flaws. And he was good enough to not allow the darkness in him to ruin him and everyone around him. He was not fire and ice and rage; he was not the storm at the heart of the sun; he rarely was an oncoming storm. He was kind, and old, and wise, and lonely. By no means an angel.
Maybe you weren't dreaming after all.
Now, to be quite honest, I'm not sure what the hell all that stuff above was. That was me rambling at about 2 at night before my first day of school, but I clearly can't say everything that needs to be said in such an eloquent and overbearing fashion, so here's a more down to earth geeky giddy bit.
This is the best series since S2. Quite possibly S1. (S1 being the best and everything going downhill one way or another from there.) It also has the most emotional episode (Pandorica Opens) since...a while, anyway. The finale, well, you could tell that the Moff had taken a few lessons in bullshit from Rusty, and I really didn't think it was all that good overall, but still, much better than End of Time or Journey's End. There was only one episode out of the whole lot that I didn't like, and even then, there were things I enjoyed, and that was Amy's god damn Choice.
Now, of everything and everyone in this series, I was assured by multiple sources that I would love Rory. And I apparently was like the majority of the fandoms. He was very forgettable at first. Then he was kind of cute but very out of place, so you felt really bad about his death, but it wasn't like sobbing or anything. And then by the end you just wish you were the one getting married to him. Probably very intentional. He's only a minor character in the first episode, and you sort of get a Rose and Mickey vibe by the end--she left him for the Doctor! Before the wedding! Oh boy. Then when he does come on, he is very much the Mickey. He's the awkward third wheel who isn't familiar with the whole time and space travel yet and so sort of trails in the dust. He's really only there to make sure Amy's safe.
I was, however, on his side when he stood up to the Doctor in the Venice episode. Anyone who stands up to him is cool in my book. So he is a reluctant traveler, very clearly in second place--or so it seems--next to the Raggedy Doctor.
One note: I adore the fuck out of Amy. I think she's pretty much the coolest companion of New Who ever. Like, Martha was really cool, and Amy's just like even a step above that. Even if nobody will have better fashion than Martha. I love how they show her relationships and her feelings. She's terrified of commitment. And it isn't that she loves the Doctor more than Rory. She adores both of her boys. She works best in an open, polyarmorous relationship, and you know what, that's okay. She doesn't have to be Jack's pansexual, and she doesn't have to be Rose's Doctorsexual, and she doesn't have to be Donna's asexual, and she doesn't have to be just one-person-sexual. So to the people that complain about her, you can get right the fuck out.
ANYWAY so yes, Rory. Rory, the boy who waited, and eventually married the girl of his dreams, and was more than happy to join her and the Doctor at long last, not grudgingly at all.
BTW, this is how I feel about Eleven and Rory. I am a loser and suddenly noticed, without even looking for it I swear to god, Doctor/Rory during the Silurian 2-parter. So my shippy triangle goes: Doctor loves Rory, Rory loves Amy, Amy loves both of them. It's rather sad, really.
I also felt that some of the episodes were pretty predictable. Like Amy's Choice. And the purpose of the Pandorica, as in who was supposed to be in there/go in there. :| But then there was stuff like in the angels 2-parter? Holy shit, that wasn't that Eleven, that was one from that last episode that came back, I didn't even, it kind of blew my mind. (Still don't think the Angels are scary, FYI. Much scarier than in Blink for the fact that they actually kill you and don't just send you back in time, but.) Or stuff like Beast Below. So a nice mix of surprise and predict. I mean, who the hell saw Auton!Rory coming? Fucking nobody, that's who.
And River Song is the Rani. I am simply convinced of it. I thought it before, and until I am proved otherwise, I will continue to think it. She is the Rani in Human form with her memories. At this point, anything else would make her feel like a sue.
I love the new console room. I admit that I was extremely hesitant at first. New TARDIS (which is actually just an updated version of One's), new console room that was a mix of oldskool concepts and newskool designs. It made me uneasy. BUT THEN THEY USED THE STAIRS AND CHILLED OUT BELOW AND THE LITTLE FLOOR IS GLASS TO SEE THROUGH AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT MADE ME REALLY HAPPY. I really do think it's a wonderful, fabulous design. I do not think, however, that I will get used to the new sonic screwdriver. Weird, the console room is such a big change in comparison, but--it's green. It's very...odd.
SO PRETTY MUCH MY THOUGHTS ON S5 BOIL DOWN TO: WHY WON'T CHRISTMAS GET HERE FAST ENOUGH SO I CAN START WATCHING DW ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD AGAIN?