Well, I'm back.

[rj_anderson]

Had a great weekend, will maybe blog about it when I get the chance. But of course the first thing I did as soon as I had a spare moment was sit down and watch "World War Three".

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I don't much care for Russell T. Davies' writing. He does some nifty little character touches and writes snappy dialogue, but his sense of humour strikes me as rather juvenile and he's weak on plot. Plus, the Slitheen may have been nifty in motion, but close up they were just lame -- their mouths didn't even move in sync with their dialogue, which I found distracting. And, of course, the farting noises. Ha ha. So funny. Only not. And no, Russell, explaining it all scientifically doesn't help.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the b-plot with the Doctor trying to avoid getting tangled up in Rose's "domestic" affairs with her mother and Mickey. And there were some truly delicious moments in both parts of this two-part story -- Jackie slapping the Doctor, the scene where he has to wrestle a toddler for the remote control, the whole "Promise me she'll be safe" exchange and the look on the Doctor's face as he listens to Jackie on the phone, etc. This two-parter marks the first time we've seen a companion -- or the Doctor -- having to come to terms with how the companion's family might feel, and I found that aspect to be very well handled. The bit at the end where the Doctor covers for Mickey's cowardice at his own expense was also touching -- it surprised me that Rose wasn't more upset at the Doctor's seeming harshness, but then he'd just callously manipulated her into coming back to the TARDIS with him, so perhaps she'd already concluded he was having an off day.

Oh, and I also liked Harriet a lot. It was hardly a surprise that she ended up being the next PM, but the predictability didn't make it any less satisfying. I also grinned idiotically about the Doctor making the kid scrub the grafitti off the outside of the TARDIS at the end. But on the whole, I felt that this two-episode story was quite weak -- the weakest since the pilot -- and I'm looking forward to seeing some other writers (Rob Shearman next week! w00t!) tackle the show.

In regard to the preview for next week's episode, all I can say is O_O. Especially this trailer (right-click and save, please!). Everybody else is hyperventilating about shirtless!sweaty!tortured!Doctor!, but personally I'm pumped about the prospect of finally, actually being scared by a Dalek for the first time in my life! I've never really understood what was supposed to be so scary about them, but I do think that this episode might change my mind.

Also, for those who've been watching the show, I heartily recommend a number of gems from taraljc's journal: first, this very fine and well-reasoned essay; and second, one two three splendid fics.

Also, for those new to the show who were wondering where to start, Outpost Gallifrey has just about all the factual information anyone could possibly wish for about the show in its present and past incarnations. There are also the LJ communities doctorwho, new_who and sortofyeah for essays, icons, screencaps, vids, fics, build-your-own-Dalek kits (or cakes!), and just about anything else you could imagine.

And finally, wondertwins_inc created this splendid 9th & Rose mood theme, with a different screencap for every emotion in the LJ book, and I'm loving it. Though I may eventually go back to abates's delightful cybermats mood theme if I find that there are too many others on the same bandwagon...

Comments

[nightwinggl.livejournal.com]

Where did you get that wonderful clip of the Dalek???

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

It isn't mine, I think somebody taped it off the BBC and uploaded it to their server for the enjoyment of all and sundry. Bless 'em.

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

personally I'm pumped about the prospect of finally, actually being scared by a Dalek for the first time in my life! I've never really understood what was supposed to be so scary about them, but I do think that this episode might change my mind.

Amen! I watched that clip, and i'm TERRIFIED of the thing! Here i was looking forward to laughing at more ungainly Dalek action, but it's really scary!

BTW, are you really synesthetic?

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Alas, no. Just a sad wannabe. I'm fascinated by the phenomenon and would love to know what it's like, but have never experienced any form of synaesthesia myself. When I first wrote about it I thought it was just a form of literary metaphor, and wasn't I being clever and inventive afflicting a character with sensory perceptions that actually worked that way? It was almost a year before I learned better...

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

:D It's a fascinating phenomenon (if we want to sound posh, which we do, cause we love sounding posh. we also love speaking of ourselves in the plural, cause we're a crazy girl). I'm a bit synesthetic, i see colors in numbers, and to a lesser extent in letters. It's fun! 7 is orange, by the way ;)

[pet-lunatic.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I see seven as more yellowy-brown. All the days of the week are certain colours, obv., and every letter has its own colour, which means I see every word as a particular colour based on the mix of letters. I also taste smells, but I'd always assumed everyone did that.

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

Doesn't everyone taste smells?

[pet-lunatic.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I think they do, as I said.

It's not quite like that and rather hard to explain, but...anyway :-)

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

I gotcha. My favorite is reading a clock, cause it's always so pretty. 8:08, for instance, all pale blue and white like a summer sky, just heading into evening. 7:53, on the other hand, looks like fire, orange red and yellow.

[pet-lunatic.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's funky. I don't get that - my thing is with letters, not so much with numbers. Cool!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

*cries with hopeless jealousy*

And the cool thing is that no two synaesthetes have the same coloured alphabets/numbers, either. I mean, you might coincidentally get two of them to agree that eight is blue, but if they each used a paint program to choose the exact shade of blue they perceive, it would be different. And then you'd have a bunch of other synaesthetes going "You think eight is blue?! Are you nuts?!"

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

:D my mum and i have had conversations like that. "You think 3 is RED? No way, it's definitely like, olive. Well, more khakhi." "Nun-UH!"

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

I don't associate colors with numbers, but I do associate genders with numbers: I think 2, 4, and 7 are feminine, 3, 5, and 6 are masculine, and 8 is confused about its identity. I don't have associations with any other numbers. It's very strong in my brain/sense, for some reason. It doesn't mean anything, but I get the same kind of, "You think 7 is feminine?! Are you kidding?" from anyone who has similar associations.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I always enjoyed the story of the synaesthete who saw smells as shapes, and commented one Thanksgiving that the turkey didn't have enough "points" on it. Presumably it hadn't been cooked long enough (or perhaps a little too long) or the cook hadn't used the usual amount of spices...

[tybalt-quin.livejournal.com]

Everybody else is hyperventilating about shirtless!sweaty!tortured!Doctor!

I'm not hyperventilating. I'm just slighly asthmatic ... ;)

I'm more stoked about the daleks too (although it was the Cybermen who creeped me out as a kid - I couldn't be scared of a dalek because they had such stupid voices).

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

The Cybermen should have been the creepiest. thing. ever. but the Who budget being what it was, they only ended up looking goofy for the most part. It actually took ST:TNG to figure out how to do the Cybermen right (only, of course, they called them the Borg). And then, of course, it being the Trek franchise, they screwed up everything that had made them scary in the first place by having them acquire emotions and individuality and then be easily restored to their original human forms. Feh.

There was an online flash animation Who story called "Real Time" (IIRC), starring the Sixth Doctor, that did the Cybermen proud, however. Man that thing was creepy. And depressing.

[tybalt-quin.livejournal.com]

:is crushed:

You've just dissed my second greatest childhood fear!

:huggles Darth Vader as number 1 childhood fear:

:sniff:

What made the Cybermen scary for me was the fact that they didn't really say anything. They just advanced on you and tried to kill you. Much more intimidating than the Daleks with they're "We're going to exterminate you. Hold still. Stop running away! No! Not the stairs!!!"

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Aw! *pats consolingly* You're right, I'm a meanie. It's not your fault I never saw the Cybermen until the first run of "Earthshock", and by then I was too old to do anything but go OMG 5THDOC WITH A BIG HONKIN' GUN LOOKS SO MANLY SQUEE!!! (http://www.shillpages.com/dw/book/bk-6b-83.jpg) Which was, ahem, kind of beside the point of the episode. I think.

[lm-jillybean.livejournal.com]

Yeah - RTD is good at the 'moments', but I think a lot of it was also some very skilled acting on the part of Eccleston and Piper.

Tara's a good ficcer, I betaed the 'Ivory and Bone' one - more to read it first than out of any great charity!

I can't say which I'm more excited about
-Naked!Tortured! Doctor *pantdroolwhine*
-Doctor/Rose angst (the advert before Casualty got me)
-The way the Dalek lit up when the Doctor said his name and then the Dalek went The Doctor in a voice that sent chills down my spine and told me that the world was going to end and that the Doctor was in trouble and that there WAS A FRIGGIN DALEK ON TV!!!

Even being the shipper that I am - I think the Dalek's winning

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

*grins* I know the feeling. Angst! UST! Dalek! Ooh, how do I decide?

Fortunately we don't have to decide -- we get all three!

[lm-jillybean.livejournal.com]

"Fortunately we don't have to decide -- we get all three!"

*pant-drool-whine-moan-hidebehindcouch-scream-lostitcompletely -howl-whimper-WHOAH*

Accurate summary of us fangirls I think ^

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! I think you've just described my morning. It was a very Doctor-filled morning, replete with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and our dear Christopher E.

Your icon is totally brilliant, btw. I just watched 'Confidential 4', and i'm so excited for the future of this series.

[lm-jillybean.livejournal.com]

Thanks - it was made by someone (goodness knows who) and I got it from her. I think I might change it soon to one of the icons that say 'Hand Pr0n'

[tundraeternal.livejournal.com]

:D I have a crush on your shippiness.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

Wow...that looked like...a competent Dalek. The bit with it absorbing the bullets into some kind of invisible force shield. Gave me a shiver.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I know! Watching the bullets just dissolve -- and seeing the Dalek's central column rotate to shoot the people behind it as well as the ones in front -- man, that's actually scary! I'm way impressed.

Of course the going-up-stairs bit had been done before (though most people seem to have forgotten "Resurrection of the Daleks" for some reason), but it was neat to see it done in such a menacing way.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

I never got to see Resurrection, but I saw Genesis and I thought that was really impressive. Not because of any Dalek SFX, but because of the whole moral dilemma the Doctor had with how to handle his opportunity to wipe the Daleks out at their nascent stage.

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I find myself wondering if there's some kind of Quantum-Leapish force directing where and how the Doctor ends up where he does. Sometimes he has control, other times he doesn't. It's interesting and it makes him seem less omnipotent/omniscient.

[sarah531.livejournal.com]

I second just about everything in this post. :D

*goes to look at that movie*

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

As I've said before, I'm like: Oh, shirtless Doc--OMGDALEKSQUEE!!

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

You are a bad girl!

I sat down here at about 6.30pm, just to quickly check up on LJ, and I reckon I reached your post at about 7pm; and I started opening all the links in new tabs to take a look at once I'd finished reading your post...

And I've discovered taraljc and whole great bucket loads of fascionating discussion and, and... It's now just gone 10pm and officially Too Late To Phone Anyone (TM).

Poot! =:o{

( =;o} )

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I should feel bad about this, right?

*muses*

Nah, I don't. :)

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Wah, no I don't need another fandom to get obsessed over....

*GIANT VWWWWWOOOOOOP! SOUND AS I GET SUCKED IN*

oh, the shiny

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Whee! Come join the glorious insanity!

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

THERE IS NO WAY IN THE WORLD I'M DOWNLOADING THAT FILE!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Um, yes. You probably wouldn't want to do that. O_O

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

And here I thought I was getting over my phobia...

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

*snuggles you*. thanks for the pimpage!