(who_daily: lj user="errabundus"> finds it A HREF="http://errabundus.livejournal.com/5528.html">not a trainwreck /A>.)

...You know, I'll give him credit. If nothing else, it was Not A Trainwreck.

I saw two speeding trains on the same track. It was going to be bad. It was going to be so astronomically bad that it would make Last of the Time Lords a quiet, happy memory of the good times. There was going to be screeching and flying shrapnel and death, and the trains would never be able to move again. At the last possible moment, however, imperceptibly, they were thrown onto different tracks, still so close that even though bits went flying into the air and damage was sustained, I'm not sure what it was and probably won't be without a detailed rewatch at some point.

( spoilers. You know the drill. )

Altogether, I think I end up coming off rather more snarky and dissatisfied than I actually am. It wasn't a favorite episode, but there were some things I liked and it resolved things I'd given up hope would ever be resolved. I'm not really displeased. I'm excited for season 5 (such as it is), excited for Moffat's turn, and excited for Eleven, whenever he or she decides to grace us with his'er presence!

This was an episode of squee, "GOAL" arms, and hyperactive jigging for me. Since we're entering a period in which I suspect there will be a run on all-caps and exclamation parts, I will do my part to ration these endangered grammatical entities and simply list a few a lot of things that made me happy. (Why don't I have any icons on this account that are excited enough? This clearly needs to be rectified.)

( Spoilers. There are not enough exclamation points in the world for how spoilery this is, so just don't do it. )

I am so glad I wasn't spoiled. On the other hand, I cannot believe I wasn't spoiled. In any case, I am one happy Doctor Who fan right now.

Sam and I finally finished Life on Mars this weekend. I nearly cried-- people clapped? I don't understand that. ( spoilers, probs )

Anyway, I love Life on Mars. It's one of the best shows I've ever seen, and solid from start to finish. Sam and I have vowed to look up more of John Simm's work next year-- he's just such an excellent actor!

I got the first episode of Ashes to Ashes, which is supposed to be the sequel, today. It's awful.

( To summarize my notes: )

Also, '70s music is way better than '80s music. Pfft.

I didn't finish the episode and I have no plans to watch any of the rest. :P I think I need to start rewatching Life on Mars again now.

Just came back from Jesus Christ Superstar. It was... kind of interesting? The production was okay. Most of the singers were kind of middling-- Caiaphas was way out of his depth, both literally and figuratively, although he tried hard to hit his notes. Judas was fine if unremarkable most of the way through, which is perhaps not so good considering he's supposed to be one of the leads. The only moment where he really dipped into bad was when he tried to do his one falsetto part, which was a complete failure. Easily the best, both singing and dancing, was Simon, which was unfortunately a smaller part. Actually, all of the dancing was quite good. They had that going, at least.

I don't think I can entirely blame the production, though, for what I suspect is actually just the script. All the individual scenes and songs are pretty good and have more or less interesting and solid ideas, but I didn't understand how it came together. There seems to be no focus or point to the whole show other than "we thought we should write a rock opera about Jesus." Jesus being a "superstar" somehow doesn't succeed in making a commentary either on Jesus or on stardom, possibly because they're unwilling to push the analogy far enough.

It's possible that they did represent him as relatively human in contrast to how he's usually portrayed, in which case the problem might have been with me-- I decided early on in the play that the only way I was going to be able to engage with it was to think of Jesus as the leader of a hippie movement of a sort. Being Jewish, I don't have any illusions about Jesus to strip away.

I do have an excuse for being up now. Really. You see, we were going to go on a sunrise hike, and sunrise is like 5:00 in the morning this far north, so we needed to meet at 3, and we cancelled due to weather, and so I came back and I just thought I'd check on the progress....

Yeah. Excuse. Really.

Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first.

Issues: Race, gender, sexuality, the whole shebang. You know, just so we don't forget it's actually RTD writing this. I wish he had a PC editor or something. :P

On the whole, though, I think this is the best episode that RTD has ever written. I don't think it passes Silence as the best of the season (that being scarier), but it comes damn near close.

( Spoilers, of course. )

Yeah. So, GOOD. I wish the rest of the season had been a little less ridiculous and a little more like these last three. Here's hoping for the finale? (I'm going to try my damndest to remain unspoiled, even if it means I have to drop off the internet in order to do so!)

Oh, hahaha, by the way, the other issue I had with this episode was the geology. It was very... creative (although I guess sci-fi being creative about geology is new!), and I'd like to go back through and see if it's possible to make any sense of it. As it turns out, I'm a geo major (among other things) and I just finished taking a mineralogy class. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell was up with those spires. Were they supposed to be diamond? Because, um, diamond crystal habit? Is not like that. ...Corundum or beryl, maybe? Even special, magical space-tourmaline?

I arrived on campus for my summer job only to find that housing doesn't open until 5:00 tomorrow. LAMESAUCE. At least I have a mattress to crash on. :/


Sam and I caught up on The Unicorn and a Wasp this weekend when we both happened to be in NYC! I started off hopeful, because this episode actually looked interesting. Ha. HA.


( spoily spoilers )


I was going to write a big, annoyed paragraph about how Catherine Tate is out-acting David Tennant, but that phrase is pretty much what it boils down to. Screeching, flailing, and gurning have their time and place, but he's now completely indistinguishable from the Extras parody 100% of the time. This is kind of a problem for me.



I haven't yet seen the library one, and it might be a couple of days until I do so. Also, I'm up to 2x07 of Life on Mars, but since I can't can't can't watch the finale alone, I'm waiting for Sam to catch up. Eep!

---

* DONNA IS LOVE. Tangentially, this episode had a lot of very attractive women, and I say this as a straight girl. Maybe I just have a thing for the '20s?

Frankly, it's ricoculous, and I don't use that word lightly. The science and/or logic is ridiculous, the plot-holes gaping. In other words, classic Doctor Who. I would like them to make a bit more of an effort-- this is just sloppy. On the other hand, if I wasn't up to this kind of stuff, I wouldn't be a fan of the show. We have gotten a couple of interesting and likable character moments (( MILD SPOILERS )), but by and large they're driven by-- and thus obscured under-- seething piles of bullshit.

Essentially, my reaction to the season so far has been apathy. I watch the episodes, I hold my breath, I laugh my head off, but I'm just not inspired with fannish love when it gets to the end. I stop thinking about it about ninety seconds later.

This is a somewhat understandable rut-- the writing team is running out of sheer "OMG it's Doctor Who!" momentum, and it might well take them the entire season to recover a sense of purpose. However, I'm personally of the opinion that they will especially once they get rid of ***, and if that's the price then I'm willing to take this season at face value.

On the other hand, the next episode is the first one I'm seriously excited for. (Also, notably, the first one which had a trailer that didn't leave me and my watching team going "WHAT. You have got to be shitting me!") It looks an order of magnitude less ridiculous than the last few, although I guess I could always be surprised.

So I spent the entire thing covering my mouth, alternately in yelling "OH NO YOU DIDN'T" and laughing hysterically.

( Doctor Who and the Season of the Companion (wordvomit & spoilers) )

Re: Torchwood... agh. I have capital-'I' Issues with Jack being the same (much less functional) after all that. And I cried. So yeah. Later.

My first ever! I feel like I've been working on this forever. I've gotten so much enjoyment from the mixes I've downloaded, I hope I can return the favor.

Medium: Television
Fandom: Doctor Who
Subject: Master/Romana, during the Time War
Title: Note to Self: Don't Die
Warnings: Mild spoilers for the end of Season 3, I suppose. Some songs have references to sex.
Notes: They were fighting a war. The young president needed something to distract herself from the nightmares. The renegade did what he did best; take advantage... or at least that's what he told himself. Stranger things have happened.



( track list, lyrics, and download links )

I finally got a hold of some of the Eighth Doctor Adventures! They were the only ones my library system seems to have: by some coincidence, the last two in the series, To the Slaughter and The Gallifrey Chronicles.

( mild spoilers )

TORCHWOOD: Yes, it is (still) actually that bad. (In the funnest, "we have Torchwood nights every single Wednesday!" way possible, of course!)

Notes for Episodes 1-6:
( mild spoilers-- and gwen-dislike, if that bothers you )

So overall, Torchwood is still a crappy show but its potential is great when you have a posse to mock it/squee with. This season is somewhat more watchable than last season-- I think they're getting the hang of the proper level of giggly sex jokes and I don't think we'll be seeing another Purple Sex Mist. Woot.

I'm not sure why I ever read Engadget. The articles are never terribly interesting and the comments consistently make me lose faith in humanity. Many times over. And not in a simple 'YouTube comment' kind of way. In a "why do you have to be so negative about every single subject" kind of way, and a "why do you have to insult the author of a two-paragraph linkpost" kind of way, and a "why do you have to waste time taking the shit out of this idiot" kind of way, and a "why does anyone even read this stuff?" kind of way.

So this is the end, baby. Goodbye, and thanks for not terribly much.

I JUST FINISHED SEASON ONE OF LIFE ON MARS.

THIS SHOW. IT IS A MINDFUCK. A PAINFUL, GLORIOUS, UNBELIEVABLE MINDFUCK. LIKE BEING KICKED IN THE STOMACH BY A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, TO NICK A PHRASE. ASJGFNFID.

THE ENDING JUST ABOUT KILLED ME, BECAUSE I DIDN'T REALIZE THERE WAS A SECOND SEASON. OKAY. WOW. YES. THIS SHOW HAS MY SOUL TIED TO THE BEDPOSTS.

( A few scattered & mildly incoherent VERY SPOILERY notes )

Also the BBC is sort of incestuous in terms of writers and actors, because I swear Chris Chibnall has written some episodes of Doctor Who. I need to find out which ones. I think he's one of two writers with similar names who I get mixed up, one of whom writes awful tripe and the other of whom writes The Good Shit. He must be the one with The Good Shit, or my mind is going to be even more blown. (In fact, didn't he write Human Nature/Family of Blood? They had a bit of the same realistic, gritty feel, and the same masterful moral dilemmas.)

ETA: Okay, what? Apparently Chibnall was the one who wrote 42 (which I thought was the lousiest thing ever written until I saw Last of the Time Lords, but I disgress) and was not the writer of HN/FoB, who is Cornell (the one I get Chibnall mixed up with... what? They both start with the same letter!). He also wrote all the lousiest and campiest Torchwood episodes, which include such gems as Countrycide, Cyberwoman (complete with random pterodactyl of death!), and Day One, of the infamous Purple Sex Mist.

I'm not entirely sure what to conclude from this, except perhaps that the man should never be let within a hundred yards of an alien again and needs to keep churning out The Good Shit. Because clearly he can.

People are being calm and cautiously optimistic about the ( WANKTASTIC SPOILER ALERT OF DOOM )

Unexpected Martha! For some reason, I loved the camera doing a full roll. That's classic, right there.

I find it both amusing and adorkable that Ten can even annoy his other incarnations.

I'm going to put "desktop theme" down to a bad translation by the TARDIS. She's too amused distracted to pay a great deal of attention to her metaphors.

The "well, of course I have fans" speech from Five is adorably Doctor-- although it's almost more Four-like than either of them. I haven't seen a great deal of Fifth, but it seemed a little out of character for him to be so blatantly self-admiring (as some of his other incarnations have been... for great win, I assure you).

"Does he still have that rubbish beard?"
"No, no beard this time. ...well, a wife."

BEST. EVER. I honestly couldn't believe that line got through-- I'm used to my country, which is such a raving prude that it cut the Jack's "You too?" line from LotTL. But that's neither here nor there. The important fact is WE SO CALLED THAT CANON OHEMGEE.

On second watch, I noticed Ten doesn't mention that the Master seems to be perma-dead this time. Either to avoid upsetting timelines too much, or because he's seen it all before...?

I actually started being a little scared of the fannishness after Five disappears for the first time. Especially with the "geeky specs" bit, it's hard to tell if that's Tennant or Ten. o.O But seeing as it's a ten-minute skit, I find it hard to care a great deal. So what! It was awesome!

---

Of course, being a dumb fangirl, this eight-minute meeting dumped a load of plotbunnies on my head.

I kind of want to see fanfic where Martha forgets her wallet, does a facepalm, and comes back to grab it. And then they done sex. Bonus points if Martha leaves to travel with Five. For great justice!

I also have a vague idea about "The Two TARDISes," but it hasn't yet crystallized into anything.

As per discussion with meletor_et_al, I'm doubtful House is going to survive past this season. While I know tons of people who will watch week after week just for their dose of snarky!psycho!Laurie (I don't exclude myself from this group), it really doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Unless there is dramatic change (which I am pretty skeptical of, though Mel seems to be holding out hope), House is pretty much a one-trick pony.

And while that's pretty disappointing, I guess that's life. :/ Nothing lasts forever.*

Just for the record, me re: House: I don't know if I actually like him and/or the show (most of the time, I don't), but wherever my feelings are at the exact moment, they're almost always strong. Which seems to be enough to make me watch it if it's on.


* ObDWR: Except perhaps Doctor Who, which has gone from "long running" to "outrageously cult" and which by nature doesn't suffer quite as much from actor fatigue. I'm first to admit that it frequently ventures into the realm of Stupid; it just has a following (and thus, a network) hardened to such stupidity.

This post has really no point or original ideas, only fangirling. Not exactly the height of my blogging capacity....

SPOILERS, of course.

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Quite frankly, I can't imagine what they're planning to do with him. It sounds like the kind of idea that can only result in unadulterated silly, which could either be good or bad. Question: how long is it going to be? Five minutes or a full-length episode? I think how they use the time might be the make-or-break.

Tennant is a fanboy. I can't imagine how Tenth is going to react, though. There will probably be giddy (because it's Tennant), but I have a hard time not seeing some angst there, too. In which case... as someone else said, Fifth should bitchslap him or something.

And of course, I was immaturely amused by how much he has... expanded. Hahaha, Time Lord midlife crisis. Oh, I'm going to hell.

I have avoided thinking much about Doctor Who ever since the travesty of the season finale (my first in fandom; even more disappointing). I begin to understand why people refuse to acknowledge the TVM-- only I think this was honestly worse. The TVM was sort of good-naturedly B. This was viciously, canon-destroyingly D-minus.

Anyway. It would be hard to discuss in detail, since I've tried very hard over the last few weeks to forget I ever saw it. As far as my personal canon is concerned, the Master is still very much alive. Oh, and while I'm being delusional, Lucy is Romana. Yes. Delicious.

If I get a chance, I'm going to try to go back through and watch some older stuff, esp. Key to Time. Yay geekery!


Deathly Hallows was good. Not the greatest book ever written or something like that, but thoroughly enjoyable. ( If it weren't already obvious, what follows is a steaming pile of spoilers. )


That's all I can think of for the moment. Oh, other than I should mention that I have somehow become a raging Doctor/Master shipper. I'm still trying to think of a good way to get him and Nine together without a huge overuse of retcon. (whee!)

Reaction to the Doctor Who episode Utopia. If you haven't seen it, don't click the cut. Seriously. It's a bad idea. You really don't want to be spoiled on this one.

I was terribly confused by the gung-ho reactions to Utopia. Everyone had such high expectations that I didn’t think anything could have lived up to it; and much less this very flawed episode. Yet it seems to be garnering even more positive reactions than Blink and Human Nature/Family of Blood, which actually had things like “plot” and “world building” and “making sense” that we all claim to care about so much.

( Spoilers )

...All in all, damn, a lot happened there.