Doctor Who 4xyeahIforgotagainsosueme
May. 31st, 2008 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireI 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!