Remember what the Doormouse said...

[trinityvixen]

"Feed your head...feed your head"

How did the creators of Doctor Who come up with the sound of the TARDIS' engines? 'Cause they're drilling and excavating at the proper hospital across the street, and on my way to work, I had to keep from flipping out because it sounded so very similar (point of fact? If no one sees me again for a while after

Comments

[jlc]

Okay, this is going to be a little weird, but excuse my psychadelic rock geekery for a second.

Your mp3 is mistagged. The title of the song you're thinking of is White Rabbit, Go Ask Alice is a Mormon anti-drug propaganda novel which took the line from the song for the title. (Okay, and this too...)

[trinityvixen]

Nope, that's fine. Correct these things 'cause I never know the names of songs. Aside from the really distinctively voiced lead singers of bands, I hardly ever know which is the band playing either.

[bigscary]

From wiki (Tardis):

The distinctive accompanying sound effect - a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise - was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Brian Hodgson. He produced the effect by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The resulting sound was then recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb.

[trinityvixen]

Cool. I love finding out about stuff like this. I should be a sound engineer. Except for, you know, the whole not being an engineer of any ilk.

[bigscary]

Whether you feel it's cheating or not, parallel universes and timelines are an established part of Who.

[trinityvixen]

Yeah, I know, it's still a dramatic cheat, and that's how I've been approaching the series. I am a sci-fi geek and a scientist, but I am not watching this for just those reasons. I need jeopardy and conflict for it to work as an engaging bit of fiction. You can have the AUs and ATs, but to use them to get rid of stuff you can't figure out how to do or that would possibly get ugly? That's Gina killing Cain. That's Hera saving Roslin. Hard sacrifices need to be made, and you can't shy from them and blame the universe and still have emotional impact. In this case, it was still horrible and sad but nowhere near as much as the recognition of no, Rose couldn't stay on forever, even if they both wanted her to, and that eventually the Doctor would ground her and leave her. It makes him look too mean and they weren't having that. That's weak.

[bigscary]

Good grief. The show has only rarely been "about" time travel as a dramatic device (when it has been, it's been really, really awesome, to be fair). It's been about weird things happening, either at home, away, elsewhen, or in other dimensions. They've ALWAYS handwaved time/space dimensionality for the convenience of having aliens raise Nessie from the Thames, or whatever.

And the doctor REALLY hates to abandon companions. I'm not sure on the numbers, but I think the leading cause of companion departure is "death" followed by "stopped traveling to stay in one place and do really cool stuff". (pre-post edit: Checking wiki, it seems I reversed those -- mostly, they stay behind to do something big or important, a few die, and more are taken away from The Doctor by other Time Lords than he abandons (2:1)).

Rose is not saved from abandonment by her alti-dad, but from death. And her final disposition reinforces my belief that the proper Companions to compare Rose to are NOT SJS or Ace, but Susan or Romana

[trinityvixen]

I'd have to investigate more into the history of Companions on the show to know anything about the numbers or anything but I was really only talking about Rose. Rose wasn't abandoned, she was ripped from the Doctor, and this has clearly been done in the past, okay. That doesn't excuse it, though. As real-world complications don't seem to factor into it--the actress wasn't tired of the character, the show makers weren't tired or her, the fans weren't--it just seems like an arbitrary decision to have Rose irretrievably banished.

Sigh, I really should know better than to debate a show I've only seen the latest stuff from...

[ecmyers]

Ugh, I just lost my comments so I have to type this all over again...

There was a hint of the end of His Dark Materials in the last episode of the second season, that I did find touching and sad, but I was also unsatisfied with the whole parallel universe plotline

[trinityvixen]

I really liked "School Reunion," mostly because of Giles and because Sarah Jane is my favorite companion--I've seen most of her episodes, and I liked how that episode tied the new series back to what came before it. Most of all, I was impressed with Tennant's ability to show that history in their reunion, and the sadness at their parting, despite never having met her before. I almost felt the fourth Doctor's connection with her through him.I really liked that counter point to the way Rose greeted him. Because the same thing was going through my brain, as to how funny it was that the Doctor was supposed to have been around forever, but in the real world, Tennant was new, and Billie Piper was the veteran in terms of the series. The veteran distrusts the new. Then you meet up with Sarah Jane and she immediately recognizes him (I think she knew, even when he was pretending not to know her). It probably helps that she knew about his ability to regenerate, but still she's the veteran who believes in the future of the new. And while Ten had

[bigscary]

Because she's Mdm de Pompadour

[trinityvixen]

Yeah, they named it after her, so therefore she's special to them. Why she is so flaming special to the Doctor, I haven't worked out. It just seemed like a one-off ep, mostly, and one that wasn't ultimately important.

I like Rose is why I am mad she's being shunted aside. Her chemistry with Nine and her ability to fake a good Doctor when investigating was really cool. Plus, she was a great grounder for the audience as the self-insert point: we saw all the consequences of her journey, not just the amazingness of what was in store for her.

And I got perfectly that the Doctor outlasts and outlives his Companions, I just disagree in that I don't think that's the tragedy. He's lonely and now actually alone, sure, but he regrets more that his Companions can't be immortal than he regrets his being so, I'd guarantee. Tragedy is measured by loss, and they are what is lost.

[viridian]

You hit on exactly why Time Vortex!Rose makes me cry - it's more the TARDIS's will that wants the Doctor alive than hers, I keep thinking. When she speaks you hear two voices. "I want you safe. My Doctor." -- I've always, always thought that was the TARDIS speaking though her as much as it was her speaking as herself.

And I cry at it every last time.

[trinityvixen]

Ah, I'd forgotten exactly what she said. "My Doctor" is significant, especially given all the parallelism I was going on about with all that. Because to Blon, the Doctor says, "It's the TARDIS--my TARDIS." And the love is scarcely less than when the TARDIS-Rose God says that line. It makes the whole lack of physicality between them at once forever irrelevant and always heartbreaking. Given the Gallifreyan mode of reproduction (if it's still as you said and I read) and the construction of the TARDIS as vessel not as body, there can be only limited physical intimacy between them. I'm not talking about sex (because even the best sex in the universe is nowhere near to the level of love and intimacy the TARDIS and the Doctor enjoy), just interaction. He makes up for it by touching her, caressing her, taking care of her, and being utterly dependant on her (I realize I seem to have lapsed into a heteronormative assumption, but not really--ships are generally treated as female; I'm making no claims on what gender the TARDIS would be if it had