Doctor Who 4xyeahIforgotagainsosueme
May. 31st, 2008 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I should start this by saying that if I'm slightly incoherent, it's because podcasts are bad for my body clock. Since the age of about 12, I've been setting my body clock by Radio 4, and can tell the time just by what programme's on. So listening to 'The News Quiz' (seriously hilarious - download it just for the bit near the end about the sharks) after Doctor Who completely threw me. According to my internal clock, it's now just gone 7 on a Friday night. These things really mess with my head.
Anyway
[this ended up cut short as my stomach has decided it hates me - I shall just wander round and comment to everyone else tomorrow instead...]
There is not enough squee in the world to express how happy I am that Stephen Moffat is taking over Doctor Who. I was listening to the podcast commentary on "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and the writer of that was saying that the guy just has a twist of the brain that makes him think completely differently to most people. Fortunately for us, the twist makes him an incredibly horror writer.
I should also add that I don't like horror films, because I have an incredibly weak stomach and visuals stay with me and I still have nightmares just from movie posters, let alone the actual thing. But because the horror in Moffat's writing mostly takes place in my own head anyway, I can cope - without the visual, I'm left with the exciting horror feeling, rather than the squicked-out-ness.
But that doesn't mean that Moffat doesn't have an incredible instinct for what will be visually terrifying, if remarkably simple. Making the ordinary into the scary has always been a strength of Doctor Who, and this was no exception. In the interests of full disclosure, I need to add that I still have something of a fear of the dark, and if my husband would let me, I'd sleep with a night-light. Nightmares like me, and my tiger-face night-light was a great comfort during university. Anyway, that means that this episode pretty much pushed every button I had, in terms of fear.
And I loved it. Because at the heart of the fear is the Doctor, and you know that he's going to make everything alright. Still, Moffat does a better job than most of suggesting to me that maybe it won't be, of making me start to think that maybe the Doctor can't fix this. Most of the time, I can see the resolution coming a mile off, but with Moffat, I never know what's going to happen until I get there. And I love it.
I could go through the whole episode and talk about the acting (excellent), the story (mysterious), the set (gorgeous), the tension (unbearable) but what struck me most about this episode was the pacing and structure. It was the perfect mixture of being launched straight into the middle of the story and only learning things gradually as we go along. Each reveal really worked, and I was actually relieved when I realised it was a two-parter, because I was wondering how on earth they were going to resolve everything in time. Yes, two-parters are mean, but at least this had a story that could sustain it.
Finally, since I'm getting tired and rambly I thought Alex Kingston was fantastic, and the whole thing with her was suitably mysterious and suggestive. Does anyone know where I can get a diary like that?
Roll on next Saturday!
Anyway
[this ended up cut short as my stomach has decided it hates me - I shall just wander round and comment to everyone else tomorrow instead...]
There is not enough squee in the world to express how happy I am that Stephen Moffat is taking over Doctor Who. I was listening to the podcast commentary on "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and the writer of that was saying that the guy just has a twist of the brain that makes him think completely differently to most people. Fortunately for us, the twist makes him an incredibly horror writer.
I should also add that I don't like horror films, because I have an incredibly weak stomach and visuals stay with me and I still have nightmares just from movie posters, let alone the actual thing. But because the horror in Moffat's writing mostly takes place in my own head anyway, I can cope - without the visual, I'm left with the exciting horror feeling, rather than the squicked-out-ness.
But that doesn't mean that Moffat doesn't have an incredible instinct for what will be visually terrifying, if remarkably simple. Making the ordinary into the scary has always been a strength of Doctor Who, and this was no exception. In the interests of full disclosure, I need to add that I still have something of a fear of the dark, and if my husband would let me, I'd sleep with a night-light. Nightmares like me, and my tiger-face night-light was a great comfort during university. Anyway, that means that this episode pretty much pushed every button I had, in terms of fear.
And I loved it. Because at the heart of the fear is the Doctor, and you know that he's going to make everything alright. Still, Moffat does a better job than most of suggesting to me that maybe it won't be, of making me start to think that maybe the Doctor can't fix this. Most of the time, I can see the resolution coming a mile off, but with Moffat, I never know what's going to happen until I get there. And I love it.
I could go through the whole episode and talk about the acting (excellent), the story (mysterious), the set (gorgeous), the tension (unbearable) but what struck me most about this episode was the pacing and structure. It was the perfect mixture of being launched straight into the middle of the story and only learning things gradually as we go along. Each reveal really worked, and I was actually relieved when I realised it was a two-parter, because I was wondering how on earth they were going to resolve everything in time. Yes, two-parters are mean, but at least this had a story that could sustain it.
Finally, since I'm getting tired and rambly I thought Alex Kingston was fantastic, and the whole thing with her was suitably mysterious and suggestive. Does anyone know where I can get a diary like that?
Roll on next Saturday!
Yes, two-parters are mean
Date: 2008-05-31 09:15 pm (UTC)Re: Yes, two-parters are mean
Date: 2008-05-31 10:05 pm (UTC)There's going to be a lot of people jumping at shadows this week!
Re: Yes, two-parters are mean
Date: 2008-05-31 10:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 09:54 pm (UTC)Tonight's episode was brilliant. Seriously brilliant. I believe we saw a future companion/love interest for the Doctor, as she obviously knows a lot more about him than any of the new companions (not to mention she knows about Donna, and that there is probably something really bad about to happen for her - damn it, I love Donna)
Tiny little Jack reference (Squareness gun) which always makes me happy.
I could go on, and I can't WAIT for next week to see how the hell they're going to get out of this.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 10:08 pm (UTC)I fear for Donna too, especially since she seemed a little shaky to me at the beginning of this. Catherine Tate does comedy and high emotion very well, but she seemed to be struggling a bit with suspense. Still, minor detail in a great performance.
Is it next Saturday yet?
Also, I'm so very shallow, but how much do I want icons from the episode? *throws arms wide* THIS MUCH!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 10:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 10:14 pm (UTC)Don't worry if you can't - I shall do my usual and go through and save far more icons than I can use, just in case, once people start posting them :D
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 10:35 pm (UTC)( http://pics.livejournal.com/hllangel/pic/0005dkqx )
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 06:24 am (UTC)Oh that's perfect, just what I had in mind - thank you so much!
*bounce*
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-31 10:08 pm (UTC)*hugs weakly back*
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 02:01 am (UTC)Surely Who will start selling the TARDIS!diaries. Surely.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 07:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 07:47 am (UTC)And yes, I really loved the first part of last night's episode, (though I can't remember what it's called either?)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 07:53 am (UTC)BTW (and somewhat randomly) would you give me permission to record one of your stories as an audiofic? I've been re-reading 'Dead Again' and think I could make a decent go at it. No problem if not, but I figure there's no harm in asking :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 08:16 am (UTC)No problem at all, feel free to take anything of mine you'd like to turn into audiofic. You do a great job at it! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 09:17 am (UTC)I really want to know where Donna and the rest of the 4000-odd are. I strongly suspect that they're trapped in the teleport buffer, intact. After all, the machine only needs a model - the robot-things pick any face that they think the watcher will like, so it's not as if the face has been physically transplanted.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 10:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 10:05 am (UTC)I'm worried for Donna, cos River doesn't know her, only by name. Her reaction when she worked out who Donna was made me very worried about Donna's future.
(I've seen a theory, btw, that River is Jack, in female form, which is just cracky and funny and I'd dearly love it to be true)
But overall, win! I can't wait to see what happens next week.
Hope you're feeling better this morning, chicken *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 10:27 am (UTC)(hee, that's an awesome theory - I can haz crackfic? Or at least a story where they meet, because there's bound to be some kind of explosion...)
I'm...well...things go on as usual, unfortunately. Roll on the holiday!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-01 08:40 pm (UTC)The episode was a little bit too much like Blink for me to ADORE it, but I definitely loved it a lot. I'm dying to know why River Song is, I'm thinking a companion from the Doctor's future. Sending the message on the psychic paper makes me think that she's probably not human, since the only other "person" able to communicate like that was the Face of Boe (I think?)
I want a TARDIS diary too! Doctor who has the best props. I'm still lusting after The Journal of Impossible Things from Human Nature! x
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 10:36 am (UTC)Ooh, that's such a good point about the Face of Boe. There are 51st century links and references ahoy in this one, and other references elsewhere this series. Things are definitely getting interesting...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 03:41 am (UTC)Aw. I've been been measuring weekend time by NPR programs since childhood! It was really weird when I figured out I could download This American Life and listen to it anytime, but I still *have* to listen to A Prairie Home Companion live on Saturday evenings when I'm home, otherwise it doesn't feel like Saturday evening.
My new Friday night ritual, though, is making pizza and listening to the BBC News Quiz as soon as the podcast is available. The bit with the sharks and the giraffe was hilarious!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-02 10:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-03 09:01 pm (UTC)One will appear on the shop shelves at the same time as River Song's action figure I expect (so in time for Christmas??) and it will be aimed at 12 year olds... *grumbles*
The News Quiz
It was the one with someone having to borrow Sandi's glasses the other week and the hilarity that ensued cracked me up *G*