The Zenith - Summer's Lease Hath All Too Short a Date

[sensiblecat]

We have reached the zenith. Appropriately, here in the Northern Hemisphere it’s the Summer Solstice - we glory in the light and pick ripe fruit and fire up the barbecue, and relax because exams are nearly over - and it’s lovely, and you’d have to be pretty churlish to point out that it’s all downhill from here, back to shorter daylight hours until

Comments

[mrs_roy]

David conveniently knocking around in the US at the same time Billie is, could get your wish sooner than you think! I'm 100% on board with that!

S5, in my honest opinion, just didnt have anything to suck me in. I hear E12 is pretty action packed, but I wont be rushing out to watch it!

(Also .. go you being inspired but DT! He inspires me in other ways .. *Giggles*)

[epea_pteroenta]

My best friend sang that song last week and it sent shivers down my spine even as I was playing in the band.

I know how you feel about DW. I no longer feel part of the fandom really and I feel better for it. I'm really looking forward to the finale - going to get some friends round, make an occasion of it, but that's because it's something fun and a kind of institution, rather than because I care about it

[toledom]

I wouldn't call "The End of Time" a turkey; at least not in the dimension of "Last of the Timelords" (the worst series finale so far) or "Journey's End". "The End of Time" may have felt unsatisfying but it had many strong redeeming features: Ten choosing to sacrifice himself to save Wilfred, the final exchange between Ten and Wilf, the "It's my honour" line, the last "Allonz-y!" which was going to be the last moment of joy for Ten, and even though I may not have known it then, it sure did feel that way. Then, there was that final farewell to Rose which put Ten back at the beginning; maybe it wasn't enough to mend the wretch that was made at the end of Journey, but at least hinted at a cyclic nature. And knowing that cycles can be broken, I do hope that has to be better than getting to the end of a line with no way back, which was what Journey's End said when it showed Rose choosing to stop struggling and staying with 10.5

[sensiblecat]

Sadly, the comments I was referring to were all on LJ, linked from Who Daily.

BTW, here is another DW critical study, though the price is eye-watering:

http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Ruminations--Peregrinations--and-Regenerations--A-Critical-Approach-to-Doctor-Who1-4438-2084-9.htm

[azalaisdep]

Ahha! thanks for the heads-up on that - one of our ex-academics has a chapter in it (I vaguely knew she was writing for it but had forgotten the details) so have persuaded the Media Studies librarian to buy it, yay!

[canterlevi]

It's such an irony that the very people who accuse Rusty of Mary-Suedom exhibit very similar tendencies themselves. They self-identify with whoever they see loving the Doctor...I am sure I must miss a lot of subtleties about Doctor Who simply because I am not British. And I guess I must finally some clean and admit to my own measure of Mary-Sue-ness in my regard for Donna as she is the one out of the three companions that is most like me - not only physically (heavier, redder, older), but personality-wise (mouthier, insecure, difficulty believing in her own worth). I see that now

[caz963]

I'm enjoying this series - but like I've said before, it's for reasons that are different to before - and I think I'm filling what I've begun referring to (in my head) as "the emotional void" with timey-wimey plotty stuff.

It's a different show, and that's how I have to think of it - it's the only way I can think of it, really. It's still called Doctor Who and still has a central character called "the Doctpr"... and it's still different.

I completely agree with you about the marketing aspect, too (I used to work in media and PR, so it's something that's really jumped out at me). It also seems to me - although I may be wrong - that there's been a LOT more promotion and advertising going on for this series than in the past, yet the viewing figures are around the same. I don't watch a huge amount of telly though, so I could have missed a lot.

his consort has to worthy of him - cleverer, sneakier, more enigmatic.

Well, that's River, right? ;-)

[toledom]

You know, that's something that stroke me very early on. I remember when The Eleventh Hour premiered for the press many commented how very similar it was to the RTD era, and how they expected a more definitive rupture with the past. And I remember seeing the episode and thinking how it couldn't be different. I stand by the fact that heart and romanticism has become inherent to Doctor Who and Moffat hasn't disappointed me in that, however it is much more abstract and fantasized than RTD's more realistic and concrete approach.

[sensiblecat]

The viewing figures are, if anything, a bit on the low side. It will be explained away by saying people are using iPlayer and so forth, but there is still an increasingly desperate feel about the BBC's promotion. How interested are people, honestly, in Confidential filming Matt and Karen in America 13 weeks ago? And it's starting to cause a backlash in the national press - I think journalists, already irritated by the overkill on David Tennant at Christmas, actually resent being expected to promote what they see as a mediocre product.

Even if DW was the best show in the entire history of the universe, I'd be uncomfortable with the lack of variety in the Radio Times coverage. Surely they ought to be coming up with more than one special show? They get enough of our money, for goodness' sake. In fact, the situation I grew up with on TV has now been reversed. Back then we exported quality drama to the USA and imported their game show formats. Not any more.

[toledom]

Personally, I stopped caring about rating figures in series 2. Back then, I remember being disheartened at seeing Tennant's ratings dwindling down and never able to reach the heights of Series 1. Then I went back to Series 1 ratings and realized how a great series finale such as The Parting of the Ways had ratings way lower than Rose. I had to conclude: #1 Ratings come and go, and apart from the usual dump that comes attached to competition from events such as Britain's Got Talent and a World Cup, are really hard to predict. And #2: the highest overnights do not necessarily go hand in hand with the best episodes. And, as far as I know, the lowest for Doctor Who is still stellar.

[tardis_stowaway]

Thanks for this essay. I've definitely been enjoying this series, but it hasn't carried my heart away like RTD's stories could. Moffat has explicitly said that this series is fairy tale-like, and as much as I adore fairy tales they tend to have rather thinly sketched characters. I also wonder how interesting this series will be in rewatch when we already know how the arc plays out and what the clues mean. I can watch the Doctor and Rose giving each other intense looks or the Doctor and Donna snarking off endlessly without it getting old, but you can only wonder how they're going to repair the cracks once. The cynical pandering to marketing needs is irritating, though I admit I hadn't thought of the Stonehenge appearance that way.

[sensiblecat]

I think that when the DVD sales figures come in, it's going to be quite the wake-up call. Because the trouble with thrillers is that once you know the answers, you don't want to re-read the book. It's depth of characterisation that keeps you going back for more. I can't see them shifting a lot of DVD box sets for £79.00 this November.