Norwich, crackedness, shiny things and Doctor Who.
I'm in Norwich! Aw. Engand is so pretty. Also? Doctor Who on terrestrial television. More on that later. I must restrain myself.
On the plane, exhausted beyond reason by very little sleep in the last three days, I decided that Oh by Dave Matthews is my Deifenbaker/Fraser song. Until then I hadn't even realised I needed such a song, but there it is. Judge for yourself. The song, I mean, not me, because I was obviously not quite right in the head at the time.
I have the Brokeback Mountain DVD! We - being myself, missrebeccaa, and probably her friends Chris and Norfolkian, who I have at last met in real life - will watch it soon, and I will most likely ramble about it here. Mmm, tragic gay ranch-hands.
Writing: I have done no work on my reel_sga ficathon story, because to placate my accuracy demons I must get my hands on a copy of The African Queen and watch it first before I get anything done. Ditto on Trinityofone's 'Red Shoes' AU, though I have a 700 word head start on that; luckily Becky is a big fan of musicals and already has it on DVD. In addition, I tested my laptop on the plane by writing 1000 words of scary abandoned Rodneyfic. It will probably be monstrous when I'm finished. Spaggel and delurker's request fics are still in what you might call the pre-production stage.
And now, some squee regarding School Reunion.
This was undoubtably the best David Tennant episode yet, though we are only three episodes into the season, and also, the first two were written by Russel T. Davies. Don't get me wrong, I love RTD - the ideas, the arcs, the characterisation, the occasional unobtrusive gayness: it's all good. It's just that when it comes to the actual scripts, he ends up with these messy, anvilicious things full of awful, cringeworthy jokes that are not funny but in fact make you want to stab your otherwise favourite characters in the head. I am of course referring to Tooth And Claw and the running 'We Are Not Amused' gag that wasn't even funny the first time, Jesus Christ, Russel.
But this episode? Oh, this episode was practically flawless, and I can't promise I'll be remotely coherent about this.
As far as I can remember, Sarah Jane was the first human companion not to get her mind wiped when her time as a companion was up; instead, he left her behind in the suburbs with K-9 and all her memories, waiting for him to one day return. I loved this episode because it wasn't all hugs and nostalgia - he took her to the furthest reaches of the universe, showed her incredible things, made her feel like the luckiest human being alive... and then dumped her back in Britain, took off for Gallifrey, and never contacted her again. And she hates him for that almost as much as she loves him for everything else. I love that.
I love that the Doctor here is acknowledged to be a big fuck-up as well as a cool uber-genius. On a very fundamental level, he doesn't get humans, and he doesn't want to, because all the humans he's ever known have or will all die, and he'll go on. And it's very interesting that now it's not just the humans that are frail and mortal - it's the Timelords too. They're all dead, even (presumably) his granddaughter, the first Companion he ever had. Rose initially uses the fact that the Doctor never even mentioned Sarah-Jane as ammunition in their big 'the missus and the ex' catfight (Mickey wins at life, by the way, tin dog equivalent or no), but later she confronts him about it, because it's an important and troubling point. What happens to the people he leaves behind? Does he just erase them from his life and pretend they were never there? And the answer is probably yes, because if there's one thing the Doctor seems to be exceptional at, it's running away. He's like a shark - he has to keep moving forward. He really gets in her face about the whole immortal/mortal bit; as he tells her, she can spend the rest of her life with him, but he can't spend the rest of his life with her. He's immortal, she's not - it's the kind of pretext to doomed romance that's old as the idea of immortals; Tolkein was fascinated with it, used it several times.
Maybe the Doctor never mentions them again, but I doubt he never thinks about them, never misses them all terribly. Except Adric; no-one misses him. The Doctor and Rose have been getting told of continually about their cavalier attitude towards death, and I think it's the Doctor's way of coping rubbing off on Rose. She's seen two Companions come and go, but never seems to think about them. Not that I'm bitter and missing Jack horribly. Or completely impatient for Torchwood to start.
Speaking of Torchwood, I think (probaby in a "naw, duh" fashion) that that is going to be the Bad Wolf of this season. The difference is that we know what Torchwood is from the start, and we're even going to see what happens in its inner workings. What we don't know is what kind of role it's going to play. The original plan, as far as I can tell, was that there was going to be one season of Torchwood and then Jack would be back in his capacity as a Companion. But given the reaction Sarah Jane had to being left behind by the Doctor, what kind of response is Jack going to have to being left for dead on the ravaged Game Station? God, I hope they don't do evil!Jack, because I can't think of a way to do that that wouldn't suck and break my heart.
Anyway, the rest of the episode: all four of us and Tristan watched it, and Chris and I sofa-danced with glee and squee'd until my brother was alternately wincing and glaring at us. Also, when Anthony Stewart Head (wheeeeeeeee!) said, "Soon, you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you will join with me. I promise you." - murmurs of "Don't think slashy thoughts!" circulated round the room. I didn't have the heart to explain that, while I am twelve on the inside, slash doesn't work like that. Well, not always. Okay, it does sometimes, but only when the bunnies absolutely will not leave us alone.
K-9 was amazing, and Becky was prepared to hate the entire episode when he was heroically destroyed but actually screamed with joy when the TARDIS dematerialised before Sarah Jane and he trundled towards her, K-9 Mk IV, and we all got very teary. She's moving on with her life at last, but she won't forget him. She won't even try. And she won't try to recapture the old days either; it's over and done with, finally. She's not like the Doctor, even though she's still his Sarah Jane. (Yes, I got teary. Shut up, you did too.)
I loved Mickey in this. He now rocks! And he's useful! And when he's the butt of jokes, they're funny. Vaccum-packed rats and girlish screaming! I wanted to see his dance. And sarcastic K-9! "We are in a car. We are in a car. We are in a car." "Wait - we're in a car!" Oh, Mickey. And now he gets to be a Companion! Rose doesn't seem happy about that, though; I wonder where that's going?
Overall, I just adored this episode. My favourite scene was the one where Sarah Jane and Rose resolved their differences by mocking the Doctor's weird habits and creepy love for his TARDIS and when he comes into the room they're both giggling uncontrollably and oh. My. God. He looked so frightened and discombobulated, it was adorable. School Reunion was everything I wanted it to be and more.
Now I'm going to go out to the bookshop with Becky and buy Temeraire. I am so full of fannish glee.
ETA: Goddamn! Temeraire is completely sold out. Oh well, that's what the internet is for.
On the plane, exhausted beyond reason by very little sleep in the last three days, I decided that Oh by Dave Matthews is my Deifenbaker/Fraser song. Until then I hadn't even realised I needed such a song, but there it is. Judge for yourself. The song, I mean, not me, because I was obviously not quite right in the head at the time.
I have the Brokeback Mountain DVD! We - being myself, missrebeccaa, and probably her friends Chris and Norfolkian, who I have at last met in real life - will watch it soon, and I will most likely ramble about it here. Mmm, tragic gay ranch-hands.
Writing: I have done no work on my reel_sga ficathon story, because to placate my accuracy demons I must get my hands on a copy of The African Queen and watch it first before I get anything done. Ditto on Trinityofone's 'Red Shoes' AU, though I have a 700 word head start on that; luckily Becky is a big fan of musicals and already has it on DVD. In addition, I tested my laptop on the plane by writing 1000 words of scary abandoned Rodneyfic. It will probably be monstrous when I'm finished. Spaggel and delurker's request fics are still in what you might call the pre-production stage.
And now, some squee regarding School Reunion.
This was undoubtably the best David Tennant episode yet, though we are only three episodes into the season, and also, the first two were written by Russel T. Davies. Don't get me wrong, I love RTD - the ideas, the arcs, the characterisation, the occasional unobtrusive gayness: it's all good. It's just that when it comes to the actual scripts, he ends up with these messy, anvilicious things full of awful, cringeworthy jokes that are not funny but in fact make you want to stab your otherwise favourite characters in the head. I am of course referring to Tooth And Claw and the running 'We Are Not Amused' gag that wasn't even funny the first time, Jesus Christ, Russel.
But this episode? Oh, this episode was practically flawless, and I can't promise I'll be remotely coherent about this.
As far as I can remember, Sarah Jane was the first human companion not to get her mind wiped when her time as a companion was up; instead, he left her behind in the suburbs with K-9 and all her memories, waiting for him to one day return. I loved this episode because it wasn't all hugs and nostalgia - he took her to the furthest reaches of the universe, showed her incredible things, made her feel like the luckiest human being alive... and then dumped her back in Britain, took off for Gallifrey, and never contacted her again. And she hates him for that almost as much as she loves him for everything else. I love that.
I love that the Doctor here is acknowledged to be a big fuck-up as well as a cool uber-genius. On a very fundamental level, he doesn't get humans, and he doesn't want to, because all the humans he's ever known have or will all die, and he'll go on. And it's very interesting that now it's not just the humans that are frail and mortal - it's the Timelords too. They're all dead, even (presumably) his granddaughter, the first Companion he ever had. Rose initially uses the fact that the Doctor never even mentioned Sarah-Jane as ammunition in their big 'the missus and the ex' catfight (Mickey wins at life, by the way, tin dog equivalent or no), but later she confronts him about it, because it's an important and troubling point. What happens to the people he leaves behind? Does he just erase them from his life and pretend they were never there? And the answer is probably yes, because if there's one thing the Doctor seems to be exceptional at, it's running away. He's like a shark - he has to keep moving forward. He really gets in her face about the whole immortal/mortal bit; as he tells her, she can spend the rest of her life with him, but he can't spend the rest of his life with her. He's immortal, she's not - it's the kind of pretext to doomed romance that's old as the idea of immortals; Tolkein was fascinated with it, used it several times.
Maybe the Doctor never mentions them again, but I doubt he never thinks about them, never misses them all terribly. Except Adric; no-one misses him. The Doctor and Rose have been getting told of continually about their cavalier attitude towards death, and I think it's the Doctor's way of coping rubbing off on Rose. She's seen two Companions come and go, but never seems to think about them. Not that I'm bitter and missing Jack horribly. Or completely impatient for Torchwood to start.
Speaking of Torchwood, I think (probaby in a "naw, duh" fashion) that that is going to be the Bad Wolf of this season. The difference is that we know what Torchwood is from the start, and we're even going to see what happens in its inner workings. What we don't know is what kind of role it's going to play. The original plan, as far as I can tell, was that there was going to be one season of Torchwood and then Jack would be back in his capacity as a Companion. But given the reaction Sarah Jane had to being left behind by the Doctor, what kind of response is Jack going to have to being left for dead on the ravaged Game Station? God, I hope they don't do evil!Jack, because I can't think of a way to do that that wouldn't suck and break my heart.
Anyway, the rest of the episode: all four of us and Tristan watched it, and Chris and I sofa-danced with glee and squee'd until my brother was alternately wincing and glaring at us. Also, when Anthony Stewart Head (wheeeeeeeee!) said, "Soon, you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you will join with me. I promise you." - murmurs of "Don't think slashy thoughts!" circulated round the room. I didn't have the heart to explain that, while I am twelve on the inside, slash doesn't work like that. Well, not always. Okay, it does sometimes, but only when the bunnies absolutely will not leave us alone.
K-9 was amazing, and Becky was prepared to hate the entire episode when he was heroically destroyed but actually screamed with joy when the TARDIS dematerialised before Sarah Jane and he trundled towards her, K-9 Mk IV, and we all got very teary. She's moving on with her life at last, but she won't forget him. She won't even try. And she won't try to recapture the old days either; it's over and done with, finally. She's not like the Doctor, even though she's still his Sarah Jane. (Yes, I got teary. Shut up, you did too.)
I loved Mickey in this. He now rocks! And he's useful! And when he's the butt of jokes, they're funny. Vaccum-packed rats and girlish screaming! I wanted to see his dance. And sarcastic K-9! "We are in a car. We are in a car. We are in a car." "Wait - we're in a car!" Oh, Mickey. And now he gets to be a Companion! Rose doesn't seem happy about that, though; I wonder where that's going?
Overall, I just adored this episode. My favourite scene was the one where Sarah Jane and Rose resolved their differences by mocking the Doctor's weird habits and creepy love for his TARDIS and when he comes into the room they're both giggling uncontrollably and oh. My. God. He looked so frightened and discombobulated, it was adorable. School Reunion was everything I wanted it to be and more.
Now I'm going to go out to the bookshop with Becky and buy Temeraire. I am so full of fannish glee.
ETA: Goddamn! Temeraire is completely sold out. Oh well, that's what the internet is for.