I cannot even feign nonchalance.
*shrieks*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
*runs around like headless chicken*
*stops for breath*
AH! *gasp* AHH! *gasp* -GH! *waves hands*
Okay. Okay. Okay. Right off the top: JOHN SIMM. I love him so, so much. In fact, I think I'm going to go back and watch him being spectacular all over again. Just, as many have been saying: he has clearly read the Evil Overlord List since we last saw him, and boy does it suit this new, young, bouncy bastard. Oh oh oh! Fucking hell I love him! I hope he sticks around to be the Master for as long as possible.
(And oh my dear baby Jesus, how slashy were those last five minutes? The Master deciding to have a lovely new young body just like the Doctor; the Doctor begging him to stay rather than getting angry even though he knew who it was; the Master telling him to say his name and the Doctor whispering it... um. *twitches* I foresee mucho mucho Doctor/Master slash now, and I'm not entirely sure I disapprove. Though the second I see Doctor/Master BDSM I will stab my eyes out with FORKS, people. Don't tell me it's not going to happen!)
Speaking of BDSM: HIIIIII, JACK!
It really, really squicked me in a very "well played, DT!" way to see the Doctor being such an utter bastard to him. I mean, I literally said it out loud, several times. Just - seeing Jack running towards the TARDIS and pretending it wasn't happening - "You bastard!" Looking at him with total dispassion as he lay temporarily dead on the ground, and then the aversion, the I was busy - "You bastard!" Admitting without a visible trace of guilt that yes, he knew perfectly well that Jack was alive back on Satellite 5, and he left him there because it just... disgusted him? freaked him out? on a really basic level, and he didn't think to examine that or change his mind - "a;lsdfjas;lfkj YOU UTTER, UTTER BASTARD. MARTHA SHOULD DUMP YOUR FAIR-WEATHER ASS." Jack was waiting for him for more that a hundred years! Just - *hands*
Though I loved, loved all the backstory for Jack. Landing in 1869, realising he couldn't die, experiencing it over and over again - and how much do you want to bet that he was experimenting, after a while, going through a crazy little phase of "Can't die, huh? Let's test that theory..." The conversation in the radiation room was just stunning, for both those characters. Jack's initial non-answer when the Doctor asked him - so casually, so bleakly - if he wanted to die, and him not really being able to give an answer beyond, "I don't know," but you get the feeling that even that's a change for the less-suicidal. I really think the Doctor became his point of reference, even in their short time together, his moral compass in every way, and he was really lost without him. I mean, more than a hundred years, immortal and not liking it, and he never decided to just do his own thing? Poor Sarah Jane just pales in comparison, for sheer fucked up dependency on the guy who left them behind.
But the Doctor, man, the Doctor. David Tennant really does an amazing job of making him seem like there are just certain subjects where a door swings shut and he just stops answering with any sincerity, and all his body language turns cold and dismissive - it's like looking at a full-body DO NOT WANT. (Notice how he does it again when Martha tells him about the Professor's watch, where he's basically going "Lalala can't hear you.") randomeliza made a neat little post-ep here which observes that this Doctor doesn't do guilt, because if he did he'd drown in it; I think what he does is avoid the subjects where he knows, absolutely knows he is at the worst fault, and the result is that he acts like a total, callous (could I say this any more? I still love him, I swear) bastard - I believe there is much textual evidence of this, from School Reunion to Family of Blood. Jack is just such a subject, I think, until that scene in the radiation room, where bit by bit the weight comes off and the banter stops being all surface, and by the end, they're okay again. It's a beautiful scene, and mad props to both of them for acting the hell out of it.
I also loved Jack and Martha hitting it off - moar Jack/Martha plz! I loved that she didn't pull any punches, asking the Doctor right out if he just dumps companions whenever he gets bored of them, and then later comparing them to stray dogs - without rancour, I think; Martha's smart, and she knows how alien he really is, even if things like a re-grown hand still blindside her. *g* I love that she and Jack are both a little bitter, but are both being adults about it. Y'know, mostly. Aside from the theraputic bitching, anyway. :D
Derek Jacobi was amazing. Need I say that Derek Jacobi was amazing? He totally was. He made the Professor so small and humble and lovely, and it was so cool to compare him to John Smith, especially at the point of regeneration - both of them reached the crisis point weeping and so sad, stomping all over my heart again. I loved the moment when Martha turned the watch over and saw all the Gallifreyan writing on the back - SO awesome.
Other random awesome bits:
- The tiny blond kid, all alone. I couldn't even tell if it was male or female, but I loved how he/she was all adult and competant and working, rather than a gratuitous cutie-pie. It actually made the fact that the kid's family was dead a lot more poignant, since you had to imagine exactly what had happened to make the kid reach that kind of maturity so fast.
- Okay, there is this thing that Jack and the Doctor do - I noticed it between Jack and Nine, and it made me squee like a mofo, and you can bet your booty I practically glomped the screen when I saw it come back with Ten. The thing is, they work seamlessly together, even when things are really tense between them, tossing things back and forth while arguing or maintaining conversations with completely different people. You can see it all through Parting of the Ways, and I saw it in the Professor's lab when the Doctor was fixing the rocket, with the Doctor giving Jack his coat and Jack tossing him the sonic screwdriver across the room - perfectly in sync, with just a glance. I love it so, and I'm glad it was a deliberate bit of direction and acting and not just my personal fanon. *tiny triumphant squee*
- Jack visiting the Powell Estates in the 90's to check up on Rose. I cannot awww enough.
- I loved insect lady. She was well-realised, in my opinion, with the verbal tics and the abandoned city, and the very excellent makeup. I was very sad when she died.
- The information about what would happen if a Time Lord absorbed the heart of a TARDIS - the vengeful god, as opposed to the lonely one - all ties in really rather beautifully with the Doctor's decision in School Reunion. You remember, how Finch offered to let the Doctor have the power to erase everything bad in the universe, make it all perfect, and Sarah Jane had to remind him that pain and loss were necessary? And The Family of Blood, running away to be kind? There's this whole theme where getting what you wish for is disasterous, and it become the Doctor's revenge against the Family. A Time Lord with all the power of the Bad Wolf could, presumably, do absolutely anything, because they'd have the power and know how to control it. Granted wishes as a kind of vengeance - very clever continuity, there. Well played, RTD!
- The thing with the watch and turning human? Perfect way to bring back Susan. I will be very disappointed if it never happens, really, not least because the Doctor kind of needs something good to happen to him - I keep thinking that he's clinging to his bright-eyed compassion by his fingernails sometimes, and he needs his companions to keep him on the straight and narrow more than ever.
- Have I mentioned John Simm yet? OMG John Simm. I am totally, utterly pwned by him. I love that he's playing it every bit as insane, spectacular and exuberant as the Doctor, and - gyah, oh, oh oh oh how I want to kiss whoever cast him. With tongue. Hello, John Simm! I love you!
That took me three hours to write. Gyah. Must go to bed now.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
*runs around like headless chicken*
*stops for breath*
AH! *gasp* AHH! *gasp* -GH! *waves hands*
Okay. Okay. Okay. Right off the top: JOHN SIMM. I love him so, so much. In fact, I think I'm going to go back and watch him being spectacular all over again. Just, as many have been saying: he has clearly read the Evil Overlord List since we last saw him, and boy does it suit this new, young, bouncy bastard. Oh oh oh! Fucking hell I love him! I hope he sticks around to be the Master for as long as possible.
(And oh my dear baby Jesus, how slashy were those last five minutes? The Master deciding to have a lovely new young body just like the Doctor; the Doctor begging him to stay rather than getting angry even though he knew who it was; the Master telling him to say his name and the Doctor whispering it... um. *twitches* I foresee mucho mucho Doctor/Master slash now, and I'm not entirely sure I disapprove. Though the second I see Doctor/Master BDSM I will stab my eyes out with FORKS, people. Don't tell me it's not going to happen!)
Speaking of BDSM: HIIIIII, JACK!
It really, really squicked me in a very "well played, DT!" way to see the Doctor being such an utter bastard to him. I mean, I literally said it out loud, several times. Just - seeing Jack running towards the TARDIS and pretending it wasn't happening - "You bastard!" Looking at him with total dispassion as he lay temporarily dead on the ground, and then the aversion, the I was busy - "You bastard!" Admitting without a visible trace of guilt that yes, he knew perfectly well that Jack was alive back on Satellite 5, and he left him there because it just... disgusted him? freaked him out? on a really basic level, and he didn't think to examine that or change his mind - "a;lsdfjas;lfkj YOU UTTER, UTTER BASTARD. MARTHA SHOULD DUMP YOUR FAIR-WEATHER ASS." Jack was waiting for him for more that a hundred years! Just - *hands*
Though I loved, loved all the backstory for Jack. Landing in 1869, realising he couldn't die, experiencing it over and over again - and how much do you want to bet that he was experimenting, after a while, going through a crazy little phase of "Can't die, huh? Let's test that theory..." The conversation in the radiation room was just stunning, for both those characters. Jack's initial non-answer when the Doctor asked him - so casually, so bleakly - if he wanted to die, and him not really being able to give an answer beyond, "I don't know," but you get the feeling that even that's a change for the less-suicidal. I really think the Doctor became his point of reference, even in their short time together, his moral compass in every way, and he was really lost without him. I mean, more than a hundred years, immortal and not liking it, and he never decided to just do his own thing? Poor Sarah Jane just pales in comparison, for sheer fucked up dependency on the guy who left them behind.
But the Doctor, man, the Doctor. David Tennant really does an amazing job of making him seem like there are just certain subjects where a door swings shut and he just stops answering with any sincerity, and all his body language turns cold and dismissive - it's like looking at a full-body DO NOT WANT. (Notice how he does it again when Martha tells him about the Professor's watch, where he's basically going "Lalala can't hear you.") randomeliza made a neat little post-ep here which observes that this Doctor doesn't do guilt, because if he did he'd drown in it; I think what he does is avoid the subjects where he knows, absolutely knows he is at the worst fault, and the result is that he acts like a total, callous (could I say this any more? I still love him, I swear) bastard - I believe there is much textual evidence of this, from School Reunion to Family of Blood. Jack is just such a subject, I think, until that scene in the radiation room, where bit by bit the weight comes off and the banter stops being all surface, and by the end, they're okay again. It's a beautiful scene, and mad props to both of them for acting the hell out of it.
I also loved Jack and Martha hitting it off - moar Jack/Martha plz! I loved that she didn't pull any punches, asking the Doctor right out if he just dumps companions whenever he gets bored of them, and then later comparing them to stray dogs - without rancour, I think; Martha's smart, and she knows how alien he really is, even if things like a re-grown hand still blindside her. *g* I love that she and Jack are both a little bitter, but are both being adults about it. Y'know, mostly. Aside from the theraputic bitching, anyway. :D
Derek Jacobi was amazing. Need I say that Derek Jacobi was amazing? He totally was. He made the Professor so small and humble and lovely, and it was so cool to compare him to John Smith, especially at the point of regeneration - both of them reached the crisis point weeping and so sad, stomping all over my heart again. I loved the moment when Martha turned the watch over and saw all the Gallifreyan writing on the back - SO awesome.
Other random awesome bits:
- The tiny blond kid, all alone. I couldn't even tell if it was male or female, but I loved how he/she was all adult and competant and working, rather than a gratuitous cutie-pie. It actually made the fact that the kid's family was dead a lot more poignant, since you had to imagine exactly what had happened to make the kid reach that kind of maturity so fast.
- Okay, there is this thing that Jack and the Doctor do - I noticed it between Jack and Nine, and it made me squee like a mofo, and you can bet your booty I practically glomped the screen when I saw it come back with Ten. The thing is, they work seamlessly together, even when things are really tense between them, tossing things back and forth while arguing or maintaining conversations with completely different people. You can see it all through Parting of the Ways, and I saw it in the Professor's lab when the Doctor was fixing the rocket, with the Doctor giving Jack his coat and Jack tossing him the sonic screwdriver across the room - perfectly in sync, with just a glance. I love it so, and I'm glad it was a deliberate bit of direction and acting and not just my personal fanon. *tiny triumphant squee*
- Jack visiting the Powell Estates in the 90's to check up on Rose. I cannot awww enough.
- I loved insect lady. She was well-realised, in my opinion, with the verbal tics and the abandoned city, and the very excellent makeup. I was very sad when she died.
- The information about what would happen if a Time Lord absorbed the heart of a TARDIS - the vengeful god, as opposed to the lonely one - all ties in really rather beautifully with the Doctor's decision in School Reunion. You remember, how Finch offered to let the Doctor have the power to erase everything bad in the universe, make it all perfect, and Sarah Jane had to remind him that pain and loss were necessary? And The Family of Blood, running away to be kind? There's this whole theme where getting what you wish for is disasterous, and it become the Doctor's revenge against the Family. A Time Lord with all the power of the Bad Wolf could, presumably, do absolutely anything, because they'd have the power and know how to control it. Granted wishes as a kind of vengeance - very clever continuity, there. Well played, RTD!
- The thing with the watch and turning human? Perfect way to bring back Susan. I will be very disappointed if it never happens, really, not least because the Doctor kind of needs something good to happen to him - I keep thinking that he's clinging to his bright-eyed compassion by his fingernails sometimes, and he needs his companions to keep him on the straight and narrow more than ever.
- Have I mentioned John Simm yet? OMG John Simm. I am totally, utterly pwned by him. I love that he's playing it every bit as insane, spectacular and exuberant as the Doctor, and - gyah, oh, oh oh oh how I want to kiss whoever cast him. With tongue. Hello, John Simm! I love you!
That took me three hours to write. Gyah. Must go to bed now.