Stuff! And things!

[nobleplatypus]

I'm at the farmstead for the holiday weekend, and so is Fivey (since the roommate is gone this weekend as well). Fivey and Charlotte are decidedly Not Friends, though I'm sure Charlotte would love to be. She was just way too enthused by the idea of checking him out, to Fivey's dismay, so my room is a dog-free zone.

Charlotte's efforts to befriend Timber have been similarly unsuccessful. She play-bows and does her level best to get him to romp around the yard, but while Timber will bark at her and chase her, he seems to be just generally bewildered with her overall. Someday.

I was able to watch Doctor Who today, so I have thoughts. Mostly critical thoughts, because that's how I roll as far as this show is concerned anymore. (Honestly, I think the only reason I'm keeping up with it is so I'll be up to speed when Moffat leaves and it hopefully improves.)

The part that probably miffed me the most, personally, was the kiss with River. It doesn't make their relationship any less completely fucked up than it was before - if anything, it makes it MORE fucked up because apparently he cares about her, after all. Previously, my head-canon had been that he was pretending to care about her because he had to... I mean, he married her because she was holding the entire universe hostage. And I thought it was pretty dickish of him to use River's feelings for him as a way of manipulating her, but that was what seemed to be happening. So adding genuine affection into the mix just makes it all that much weirder and grosser. The way he treated her was much easier to understand sans actual romance.

(Also, the whole 'he doesn't like goodbyes' thing seems pretty strange given that a) he's already seen her die, and b) since she's saved in the Library, couldn't he technically visit her whenever he wanted? Or just stick her on a thumb drive and plug her into the TARDIS console and have her around forever, if he loves her that much?)

I'm still not sure what I think about Clara. Part of me feels cheated - her character has never been all that well developed, and I'd assumed it was a deliberate choice because the ~mystery~ of her identity was more important than, y'know, her actual identity. But given how she wound up scattered through the Doctor's timeline, there really was no reason for them to not give us more of who she was before she made that choice. Especially because if they'd done that, her choice might make more sense.

I suspect we're supposed to take it as the willing sacrifice of someone who cares about the Doctor, but given how little we know about her relationship with the Doctor (except his willingness to lie to her - we know plenty about that!), I wasn't feeling it. It seemed more like the 'choice' of someone who realizes that they have no choice, thanks to wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. She knows she has to do it, because she's already done it. Why she'd be willing to do it is irrelevant.

Also, retconning Clara into the entire series is a bit much. JFC, Moffat, take a step back.

At least Elementary was freaking amazing. And Warehouse 13 is back!

Comments

[ember-firedrake.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched any of this season following the Ponds' departure (not that I was all that attached to them by the end), but I'm so sad about how much I don't care about the show anymore. I can't even muster the energy to spite-watch it, and I just want the show to capture me like it once did.

Speaking of, I know you've heard some of the Doctor Who audio adventures. Any recommendations? And have you listened to any of Eight's? I'd be happy to offer up stuff from my library in exchange.

Elementary though, that show has filled a void. The respect with which it treats all its secondary characters is so refreshing. And I didn't even mind the romantic aspect of the Irene/Sherlock dynamic because of how well all the other elements were handled.

[nobleplatypus]

It really has taken a dive, hasn't it? The RTD era wasn't perfect, but it was better than this.

Oh gosh, it's been ages since I've listened to DW audio stuff, but I'm starting to get back into it (because man, Big Finish knows what they're doing, at least). The last one I listened to was "Pest Control," because I missed Donna and hey, David Tennant talking for a couple hours is always a good thing. And I liked it! I haven't heard any Eight adventures, but Six and Evelyn are pretty awesome, as I recall.

ELEMENTARYYYYY. YES. I have a lot of love for that show, and I'm so glad it got a second season. I need more Joan Watson on my screen STAT. Also, Alfredo. Also, Ms. Hudson. Also, everyone else.

[ember-firedrake.livejournal.com]

I feel like, with the RTD era, even when the writing was terrible, at least the Doctor still felt like THE DOCTOR at least 90% of the time.

I'll have to check out Big Finish :D Listening to David Tennant talk for a few hours is pretty enticing (main reason I want to find Paul McGann's Eight adventures).

[nobleplatypus]

And the companions were actual people instead of cardboard cutouts. Sigh.

[hukbillgoomba.livejournal.com]

My head-cannon is set to "The ten-to-eleven regeneration was so fucked up that eleven's brain is scrambled and that's why he's so out of whack". I just hope whoever takes over from SM has the sense to pull the Doctor back into the realms of sanity.

It annoys me that SM uses good ratings to justify his poor choices. Fucking "reality" shows get good ratings, it doesn't make them suddenly well written and thought out. ffs

Clara seems to have been designed as the ultimate blank slate companion so that the writers don't have to give any actual thought to what she'd do in situation x, y or z. Because she has no character she can react however they want and so the plot controls her, rather than the other way around. Le sigh.

Also, I hope John Hurt isn't going to be the Doctor that stopped the Time War. PAUL MCGANN'S CROWN WILL BE LOST!! ;_;



Agreed on the sticking around until SM leaves front. The show is 50 years old. It has its ups and downs. It'll go up again after this down. Won't it...? Please...

[nobleplatypus]

It makes me sad, because for a little while, in the beginning, Eleven seemed more stable than Ten. But now... much as Matt Smith's acting impresses me, I feel like Eleven - much like late-season Ten - is someone I wouldn't want to travel with if given the opportunity. All of time and space is nice, but not if I have to put up with a misogynistic dickbag to get there.

We really could have used more time with her before she visited his tomb, I think. If nothing else, it would have given us a reason to assume she really liked him despite a lack of other evidence of that fact. As it is, it's just like... why is she sacrificing so much for a guy she barely knows, all of five minutes after finding out that he's been keeping important information from her?

DAT GIF. *_*

[hukbillgoomba.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I really liked Eleven at first; his awkwardness, insecurity and kid-like wonder were great. But his initial 'shyness' seems to have been replaced with harassment and 'ladish' behaviour which I just don't understand.
Maybe he started off very insecure and unsure, but as more people threw themselves at him (for no discernible reason) he suddenly thinks he's Mr Universe.
Rather like Moffat. His stories were kind of okay at the start, but when people started throwing praise and awards at him, his inner dickishness came out and he refuses to put it back in his pants.

Maybe if we'd had a full 13 episode series with her things would be different. Not that you can't achieve that kind of relationship in 7 episodes, but part of me thinks Moffat needs time. Then again, I get the feeling he forgets what he's doing if there's too much time in which to do things.

IT IS MY CURRENT FAVOURITE GIF!! :D

[nobleplatypus]

He seems less and less like the Doctor and more and more like a mouthpiece for Moffat's grossness, really. :\

Moffat might need time, yeah. Or else the fandom needs time to fill in the gaps with headcanon, at least. He doesn't seem to do emotional stuff all that well, and that's when he actually attempts it instead of deliberately avoiding it.

[hukbillgoomba.livejournal.com]

Given that he's started using captions to announce to the audience that a cliffhanger is happening, maybe he'll eventually resort to just flashing "EMOTIONAL SCENE" on the screen because he can't be bothered to actually develop it.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously annoyed by the repeated attempts to tun the Doctor into a romantic hero. I liked Rose at first, but as they kept trying to 'ship her with Nine then Ten -- in addition to making her the worst sort of Mary Sue -- I was seriously getting turned off. And yeah, Eleven married River, and yes, he does care for her (and others), but romance? Uh, no, no matter how good looking the Doctor is -- and the three Doctors the new era has given us so far are -- his biggest charm is his misanthropy, not carrying on a romantic relationship with someone.

[nobleplatypus]

My attitude to Rose was very similar, especially because while it was clear that she was romantically interested in the Doctor, his interest in her seemed kind of pasted on at the very end. They had a few interactions where it seemed like she was kind of testing the waters and he was trying to put her off with as much kind subtlety as he could... and then suddenly he's almost confession his love to her on a beach? And then being horrible to Martha because he's on the rebound? I really liked Rose as a character, but I hated what she did to the show.

I get the impression that the showrunners think there has to be canonical romantic tension or no one will watch the show, but it's just not true!

A) "Elementary" doesn't have romantic tension between its two leads, and it's doing pretty well for itself.
B) Fans are perfectly happy to manufacture their own ships and mine any given interaction for all the subtext they can get out of it, so there really is no need to pander to them. Working for it is more fun, anyway.
C) If you absolutely MUST cram in some romance, why the hell does the Doctor have to be part of that equation? Just have two companions make eyes at one another while the Doctor indulges in some befuddled background flailing - then you'll have your romance AND you won't be undermining what had been a pretty fundamental aspect of the Doctor's character.

[philosophercat.livejournal.com]

I agree with all the things you've said, especially the points about Clara and River. We know how she saved him in asylum of the daleks, but how did she save him any of the other times? We have no idea... and... "I was born to save the Doctor" is not any better than "I was born to kill the Doctor."

Besides this, 'introducing John Hurt' immediately became a meme. ^_^

[nobleplatypus]

I guess in "The Snowmen," the implication is that she 'saved' him from being a bitter old codger sitting on a cloud for the rest of his life. But yeah, all of the flashbacks into previous eras were so vague that I have no idea what she was supposedly accomplishing. I guess we're meant to believe that the Great Intelligence was throwing wrenches into the works and she was just fishing those wrenches back out?

At least that's a far sight better than the alternative, which is Moffat basically saying, "Every time the Doctor or one of his companions did something clever and awesome and saved the day, it was REALLY Clara who did it, so SUCK IT, anyone who thought there were still aspects of DW I couldn't piddle on to demonstrate my total ownership of the franchise!"