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I am a weak, weak fangirl
So we watched the first two episodes of Dr. Who ...
It's fun! I love how they've captured so much of the feeling of the old show -- the theme music, the Doctor's cheerfully psychotic grins, the utter goofiness of the plots -- but with updated f/x and really snappy writing. As opposed to the sort of unintential hilarity of the old series, this one's got its tongue firmly implanted in cheek. Homicidal mannequins! Ferris Wheels of Doom! The reset button that just happens to be located at the end of a catwalk with spinny fans of death! (Was I the only one who thought of Galaxy Quest during that scene? "We shouldn't have to DO this! It makes NO LOGICAL SENSE! Why is it HERE?") And of course, there's classic Dr. Who Blind Spot Syndrome. (Dr. Who characters are phenomenally easy to sneak up on. My husband and I used to observe with the older series, that you could have a marching band and maracas and still walk up behind someone and clunk them over the head as long as you stayed out of their direct line of sight.)
But what makes it all work is an underlying sense of, well, reality, in the midst of all the goofiness. Rose's working-class life; calling her mom from the end of the world; the tears in the Doctor's eyes when the tree lady (waah! *mourns tree lady*) started talking about his homeworld. There's a feeling of wonder and hope about the series that really reminds me of the classic SF that I used to read as a teenager -- an old-school sort of melancholy beauty and hopefulness.
(Oh, and the second episode was just GORGEOUS! I just want to stare at the lovely shots of Rose bathed in golden light watching the end of the world. They must have blown the BBC special effects budget for a year. *g* I anticipate a couple of upcoming moneysaver episodes in which they travel to planets that look suspiciously like London...)
And since when can a human body withstand temperatures that can incinerate wood? Or are Time Lords that much more resilient than human beings? Okay, now I'm really over-thinking this...
It's fun! I love how they've captured so much of the feeling of the old show -- the theme music, the Doctor's cheerfully psychotic grins, the utter goofiness of the plots -- but with updated f/x and really snappy writing. As opposed to the sort of unintential hilarity of the old series, this one's got its tongue firmly implanted in cheek. Homicidal mannequins! Ferris Wheels of Doom! The reset button that just happens to be located at the end of a catwalk with spinny fans of death! (Was I the only one who thought of Galaxy Quest during that scene? "We shouldn't have to DO this! It makes NO LOGICAL SENSE! Why is it HERE?") And of course, there's classic Dr. Who Blind Spot Syndrome. (Dr. Who characters are phenomenally easy to sneak up on. My husband and I used to observe with the older series, that you could have a marching band and maracas and still walk up behind someone and clunk them over the head as long as you stayed out of their direct line of sight.)
But what makes it all work is an underlying sense of, well, reality, in the midst of all the goofiness. Rose's working-class life; calling her mom from the end of the world; the tears in the Doctor's eyes when the tree lady (waah! *mourns tree lady*) started talking about his homeworld. There's a feeling of wonder and hope about the series that really reminds me of the classic SF that I used to read as a teenager -- an old-school sort of melancholy beauty and hopefulness.
(Oh, and the second episode was just GORGEOUS! I just want to stare at the lovely shots of Rose bathed in golden light watching the end of the world. They must have blown the BBC special effects budget for a year. *g* I anticipate a couple of upcoming moneysaver episodes in which they travel to planets that look suspiciously like London...)
And since when can a human body withstand temperatures that can incinerate wood? Or are Time Lords that much more resilient than human beings? Okay, now I'm really over-thinking this...
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Was I the only one who thought of Galaxy Quest during that scene?
I've seen that ep twice and both times we were screeching at the screen, "It was a badly written episode! Whoever wrote this episode should die!" ^_^
They must have blown the BBC special effects budget for a year.
...actually, yes, I think that was the most expensive ep of the season, iffen I'm correctly recalling the Confidentials (they don't go to many alien worlds, though - that's the one major complaint a lot of fen have...)
The reality, the humanity, is what really makes the series. Well, and the crack. So much clever, well-written crack. But it will break your heart, if you give it a chance (heck, even if you don't it'll sneak up behind you and break it anyway!)
--Also, it does seem to be New Who canon that Time Lords are more resilient than humans when it comes to temperatures (the Doctor can survive a few seconds of -200 C) and energy/radiation damage (he gets struck by lightning a couple times and while it knocks him for a loop it doesn't do any permanent harm...) One of the great things about DW (er, the new show, since I'm only just exploring the old) is that you can overthink to a surprising extent - in between the sheer cracky goodness there is a lot of sense, continuity, etc. Comes from having a show made by crazy fanboys! (creator and producer both are nuts about original Who - and then you get to 2nd season and the show is also starred in by a crazy
to-die-forfanboy, and, wheee~!)no subject
*snort* Yeah. I think I am. You know how sometimes you can feel that it's gonna happen? I can feel it. Which just makes me even more confused about what it is that causes me to flip head-over-heels for something, because you'd think that Supernatural would have hit me that way too ... and yet in that case, it wasn't until "Faith" that I really started falling for it, and I never really flipped for it the way I thought I probably ought to. And I never thought that Dr. Who would be something that I'd like that much -- I mean, I enjoyed the original series, but not in a heavily fannish kind of way.
I suppose part of it is the lure of the unexpected. With SPN, it's pretty obvious from the beginning how the character relationships are going to shake out, and you can see how they'll get there. With Dr. Who, I really had no idea in the first episode how these people were going to relate to each other, and there's this lovely mental click for me when things start tumbling together and suddenly you can see that they're switching from strangers to friends.
admittedly I had no experience with the original series - am getting that now! ^_^
You know, I don't know if I'd WANT to experience the old series for the first time after watching this one! Much of the charm of the original was its utter low-budgetness ... all the props made of cardboard, the plots of the episodes apparently based around props that they found in the dumpsters behind the BBC studios. I mean, it was fun, yes, but it seems like it would be kind of like, I dunno, watching the X-Men movies and then going back and reading the really early comic and thinking, "My God, how did they get THERE from HERE?"
"It was a badly written episode! Whoever wrote this episode should die!" ^_^
Heeeeee~! ^_^
It's always fun when the crack is canon, isn't it? *looks forward to more crack*
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(for that matter I've read most of the very first run of X-men comics - bless Bittorrent! - and loved that cheese too...my tastes are...*ahem* special?)
I can't say why I fell this hard for DW - I enjoyed it very much through the first couple seasons, but somewhere around the end of 2nd season I flipped from 'whee fun' to 'totally scarily obsessed.' (The hugs help. With the Tenth Doctor they average more than a hug an episode!) It's Type A fandom for me, is the one thing; I can't handle fanfic. Though that's in part because the series is strictly gen for me (I like the Doctor as asexual, or practically...)
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I think that camp/cheese/crack is tremendously fun. I have a big soft spot for old superhero comics -- though I recently got my hands on some of the really early Fantastic Four, and the gender roles are so MASSIVELY fucked up that it was almost more squirm-inducing than fun ... and I'm not usually a person who balks at that sort of thing -- but ... a female superhero serving tea to her male teammates in the middle of a FIGHT? And then turning invisible in a battle zone just to play hard to get and make her husband search for her? OMFGWTF;alkdsjfk;eklafjd...
Which of the previous Doctors are you watching? Most of the old episodes I've seen were with Tom Baker, who was THE definitive Dr. Who in my mind, at least up until starting to watch the new series, which of course is uppermost in my thoughts right now. But still ... SCARVES ...
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Eheh...my only experience with Fantastic Four is the movie, and that rather frightened me off the whole franchise! ^^; But yeah, that sounds...eheh...
We're getting a mix of Doctors - I asked for recommendations, and from those we're getting mostly 3rd-4th-5th Doctor. Tom Baker is the definitive for most people, I'd say, so definitely need to see more of him! Even if the watching does make me rather miss the new show (ahhh there just isn't enough of it!!)
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The heyday of my Trekkie days were mostly pre-internet, but yep - TOS and TNG both! My mother was a Trekkie back in the day, and one of my first h/c memories is the family catching an ep on reruns and my mom wanting to watch because it was an ep she remembered as a favorite. I remember watching it and understanding exactly why she liked it - the ep in question being "Amok Time" which really, you can't beat, when it comes to the K/S/M friendshipping! (well, except perhaps "The Empath" which isn't so much an episode as a fanfic that got filmed by mistake XD)
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My love for TOS goes back to a VERY early age -- in fact, some of my very first introductions to h/c were the little scenarios that my sister and I would spin for the characters, back when we were in grade school. I remember adoring the episode where Spock and McCoy got sent back in time to the ice age, at the age of about seven or so, and not really understanding WHY ... just knowing that Spock swearing he wouldn't leave McCoy alone in the storm sent happy little shivers through me.
It's always been Spock and McCoy that really do it for me -- I think I mostly appreciate Kirk as an adjunct to that relationship. Because ... just ... Kirk, not really my thing. Whereas Spock and McCoy both still make me weak-kneed, together or separately. But it's nearly impossible to find fic that focuses just on the two of them, without Kirk being there (not that I mind him; it's just that he's not specifically what I read for).
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The very first tie-in novels - not the series out now but the first run that's long out of print - were penned by fanficcers, from what I know. In particular there was a short story collection that was, as far as I can tell, culled from zines. That book was some of the first 'pure' h/c I ever read. Reading it now, the stories are pretty poorly written by the best fic standards, but I can remember reading this one story and being blown away by the h/c, having never read its like in such concentrated form. (Except maybe the last book of LotR...)
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LOL! Why does that not surprise me...
Written by fanficcers, really? Hee! Even today, I know of a couple of fanficcers who've moved into writing official tie-in books, and I think most of the "official" SGA books are fan-written, which is why I tried a few -- but I still like the unofficial fic best.
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Of course I was thinking of Galaxy Quest! The big huge fanblades over the walkway with the button at the end was such a design from that school of thought; I love it. (I think being able to love things like that, and the Shop Window Dummies of Doom is sort of a requisite for enjoying the show. But if you do like those, you really are set to go!)
Because over-thinking can be fun: they do imply that Time Lords are a fair bit more resilient than humans. There are a couple of other instances where the Doctor brushes off the effects of something that would have killed a human. Though they don't say if it's to do with mind-over-body, or just that Time Lords are a bit more cleverly built... I suspect it's a bit of both.
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Heeeee! I have an alarmingly high tolerance for canon crack. As long as there's at least some attempt to make it work logically, or at least look as if it does, I'm there all the way.
Nice to know I'm not the only one who cracked up at the Galaxy Quest moment! I ... I like to think it was intentional on their part. (Tough to say with BBC sci-fi, though!)
Definitely looking forward to more. Right now I'm kind of glad that it's not really all that many episodes, because as much as I like it already, if there were 5 or 6 American-sized seasons of it, I'd be DOOMED. I'd never get anything done for the rest of the summer. So far, it looks like we're progressing at a slow-ish rate and having time to assimilate the episodes as we go along, rather than mainlining like a crazed addict as I am often wont to do. (But we'll see how the mainlining goes over the next couple of weeks...)
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Yeeeah, don't know how intentional it was, but - hey. Fun! Whatever works, I say. (The producers are all fanboys, so it really wouldn't surprise me if they were thinking of Galaxy Quest as they created that scene.)
Not having that many episodes is good - until the very moment you run out, and then you start spazzing about wanting Christmas. Christmas and April 2008, and it really is a very, very long wait. But - there are other things to pass the time, and when it is time for new episodes again, it will be awesome (and also pretty closely matched to when my regular US shows go on hiatus - very clever, that).
We started out slow over here too, but then my fiancé went away and told me I didn't have to wait for him, and then I kind of mainlined the whole thing in about a week. Oops. Only to re-watch all the eps he hadn't seen when he came back, of course. But I think taking it slow enough that you really get to assimilate the episodes (what a wonderful expression!) is a good thing. The last couple of eps I watched as they aired, and I really did enjoy having the time to do some thinking and speculating and taking it all in.
Anyway - it was great fun to read your reaction post, and I'm looking forward to what you'll think about the rest of it!
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Crackers and cheese, yay! Two of my favorite things! ^_^ And both in abundant supply on British and American TV.
It's actually kind of nice having new episodes staggered out. SGA starts new eps at the end of September, and SPN will be back in September sometime, but I think that's all I have to look forward to -- my interest in Lost has fizzled, and most of the other shows I was watching got canceled. Oh my crack, my crack has forsaken me! Clearly it was time to get hooked on something new.
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I remember watching original Dr Who as a child (ahhh.. the Tom Baker era!) and loving it and being thrilled and scared by it. And I was pleased when they brought it back and I enjoyed the first season and thought it well made and interesting and fun and clever... but my fannish obsession really kicked into play with the second season and beyond... and with season 3 having just finished in the UK, I am SO addicted to this show right now!
I love the worlds and the mythology the new show is creating with beautiful, believable aliens like the tree lady and like Novice Hame and Chantho in more recent seasons and fascinating worlds and places and people. I love the humour and the drama and the sense of underlying melancholy and darkness.
I can't wait for you to see seasons 2 and 3 and see what you think of Tennant's Dr. He is, to me, now the epitome of the Doctor. Just a wonderful, perfectly-pitched combination of enthusiasm, eccentricity, humour, sorrow, power, danger... just.. wow! :D
And certainly in recent seasons, it does seem to be canon that the Dr can withstand a lot more damage than your average human (let's just say that as a whumper *and* a fan of David Tennant, I have *very* much enjoyed season 3!! :D).
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I'm certainly looking forward to more.
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But the new one? OMG! I am totally and completely in love with the Ninth Doctor, from when he grabbed Rose's hand and said, "Run!" And the plastic hand! Conspiracy theorists! And "I have no future, no A-levels, but I did a bronze in gymnastics!" Or words to that effect.
And yes, the tree lady! I cried for her, too. Beautiful sets, and the humanity of it--the gritty reality of it, in spite of the fact that hey, cheesy BBC sci fi! The marriage of the two just floors me. Probably helps that they have their tongues so firmly planted in their cheeks.
Best of all? It gets better! Not all of the episodes, but OMG, there are some incredible eps in first season, some damned good ones in second, and there are episodes in the third season that will blow you away. Er, at least, that blew us away. (They won the Hugo for one of their first season 2-parters, "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances." Deservedly so.)
So yup, total Dr. Who fanatics at this house, total. Welcome to the Dark Side. ;-)
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I know! I think that's what really boggles me about it, that they have the goofy/cheesy feeling to the show AND this incredible sense of wonder and humanity. I know I keep comparing it to old book sci-fi, but damn it, that's what it makes me think of -- Bradbury and Heinlein and Zelazny and those guys, the SF I grew up on, where it could be SO utterly over-the-top and cheesy, and yet it filled you with this feeling of wonder and excitement. So nostalgic!
I remember being highly skeptical about the new series, because I *did* watch the old one and I enjoyed it not despite its utter cheesiness, but because of it. The idea of Doctor Who attempting to be a serious sci-fi series ... I just couldn't see how it could manage not to collapse under an inflated sense of self-importance. So I really appreciate how they're staying true to their corny roots while making the characters compelling and "real" in a way that the old-school characters never really were.
And the last part of season 3 has just caused fandom to explode -- this is the new "show that ate fandom", so I'm looking forward to seeing what all the hubbub is about!
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The ears are a bit distracting, though... you could practically pick up radio signals on those things.
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I've still never seen an entire episode, despite having seen them filming part of season 1 (yes, I saw Billie Piper). I also don't live that far from BBC TV Centre...
It's getting increasingly likely that I will end up watching this show. Still not convinced I'll like it - remember BBC sets and effects don't have the same charm for me - I grew up with them....
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remember BBC sets and effects don't have the same charm for me - I grew up with them....
*snicker* Point!
With some shows, I think there's a certain kind of fangirl inevitability that pulls one into their orbit. If you don't watch it, at the very least, you end up knowing practically everything about it by listening to people talk about it...
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