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I'm mostly reconciled.
Still not 100% satisfied about Bill, but otherwise, good.
( Spoilers to 'The Doctor Falls' )
Still not 100% satisfied about Bill, but otherwise, good.
( Spoilers to 'The Doctor Falls' )
Okay - Liveblog of Spare Parts (1 of 4)
Jun. 25th, 2017 11:59 pmSince I have to wait an extra day for Amazon Prime to upload new TV eps, I liveblogged Spare Parts on Saturday.
It's easier to embed images on Tumblr, but it's got a terrible filing system, plus it's not as suited to fandom discussion as DW. So I'm gonna tidy/archive my liveblog here. Because Spare Parts is a great story, and I love it. Much more fun reading commentary about why something's interesting, right?
If you don't own it (it's $3 on the BF website,), here’s Spare Parts Streaming on Spotify. You’ll need to register an email/password, but when I registered, they didn’t even make me click a verification email before I could start listening.
Ready? Ready! Here we go.
Live Blog of Doctor Who: SPARE PARTS
Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
( Read More... )
It's easier to embed images on Tumblr, but it's got a terrible filing system, plus it's not as suited to fandom discussion as DW. So I'm gonna tidy/archive my liveblog here. Because Spare Parts is a great story, and I love it. Much more fun reading commentary about why something's interesting, right?
If you don't own it (it's $3 on the BF website,), here’s Spare Parts Streaming on Spotify. You’ll need to register an email/password, but when I registered, they didn’t even make me click a verification email before I could start listening.
Ready? Ready! Here we go.
Live Blog of Doctor Who: SPARE PARTS
Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
( Read More... )ARGH. (World Enough and Time)
Jun. 25th, 2017 09:50 pm So, this is the first season of new Who I've purchased on Amazon Prime, mostly to support Bill (PoC lesbian!) and because I love Gomez and Capaldi. Also, Heaven Sent was amazeballs. This season... love the characters, but I doubt I'd rewatch any eps except the first two.
Back when they let Bill be HAPPY. When she wanted to go to the future, because she wanted to see that people in the future were HAPPY. Which was such a nice fresh start to get Who out of the angst rut it sometimes falls into. But she hasn't had much fun with the Doctor so far, just dudes hitting on her so she has to say "um... lesbian".
But anyway. I listened to and wrote a detailed liveblog on Spare Parts before watching this week's new Who. And I can only say that the EU one licks the TV version hollow, to misquote Tom Baker’s Puddleglum.
I haven't been this annoyed with Who since Twin Dilemma, which is saying a lot. (Well, okay, Minuet in Hell, but that wasn't on TV. Even The Boy That Time Forgot didn't irk me this much.)
Let's see.
( Why I disliked World Enough and Time (spoilers) )
I'm just... tired.Which is a pity, because Capaldi and Gomez finally had me hooked last year, and at the moment I’m having to force myself to keep watching.
Then again, that means more time to listen to great Who stories that very seldom let me down. I've got a backlog to get through, after all!
Back when they let Bill be HAPPY. When she wanted to go to the future, because she wanted to see that people in the future were HAPPY. Which was such a nice fresh start to get Who out of the angst rut it sometimes falls into. But she hasn't had much fun with the Doctor so far, just dudes hitting on her so she has to say "um... lesbian".
But anyway. I listened to and wrote a detailed liveblog on Spare Parts before watching this week's new Who. And I can only say that the EU one licks the TV version hollow, to misquote Tom Baker’s Puddleglum.
I haven't been this annoyed with Who since Twin Dilemma, which is saying a lot. (Well, okay, Minuet in Hell, but that wasn't on TV. Even The Boy That Time Forgot didn't irk me this much.)
Let's see.
( Why I disliked World Enough and Time (spoilers) )I'm just... tired.Which is a pity, because Capaldi and Gomez finally had me hooked last year, and at the moment I’m having to force myself to keep watching.
Then again, that means more time to listen to great Who stories that very seldom let me down. I've got a backlog to get through, after all!
Spare Parts Liveblog / Discussion
Jun. 25th, 2017 12:42 am So I've been liveblogging a re-listen of Spare Parts on Tumblr this evening, all kinds of discussion and thinky thoughts. I hope some people will read and find it interesting.
Obviously, Tumblr is horrible for discussion, but it does make it easier to toss pictures/graphics into Walls of Text. I may bring over the posts to DW, or I may not; it's a lot of work!
As usual, thanks to Amazon Prime, I haven't seen tonight's new Who episode. I'm avoiding browsing Tumblr for the most part to avoid Spoilers. But I've already heard from my fellow Team Five posse that I'm probably not going to like a lot of it (although the Fifth Corsair thinks I will be happy with Missy).
Also? It's what...June 25. I FINALLY have a good idea to submit to this year's Big Finish Short Trips contest.
I shouldn't win, because someone surely wants it more. But I want to submit something.
It's weird; I always want to get them to do the PERFECT Fifth Doctor and Nyssa "Team Nerd" story, the two of them being McGyvers together. And then I can never think of a good story to send them. I'd do Dalek Free Spirit, except it's a sequel to one single audio that they can't guarantee Short Trips listeners have heard, plus I think the contest rules say no canon monsters (since there's often licensing / permission issues).
Obviously, Tumblr is horrible for discussion, but it does make it easier to toss pictures/graphics into Walls of Text. I may bring over the posts to DW, or I may not; it's a lot of work!
As usual, thanks to Amazon Prime, I haven't seen tonight's new Who episode. I'm avoiding browsing Tumblr for the most part to avoid Spoilers. But I've already heard from my fellow Team Five posse that I'm probably not going to like a lot of it (although the Fifth Corsair thinks I will be happy with Missy).
Also? It's what...June 25. I FINALLY have a good idea to submit to this year's Big Finish Short Trips contest.
I shouldn't win, because someone surely wants it more. But I want to submit something.
It's weird; I always want to get them to do the PERFECT Fifth Doctor and Nyssa "Team Nerd" story, the two of them being McGyvers together. And then I can never think of a good story to send them. I'd do Dalek Free Spirit, except it's a sequel to one single audio that they can't guarantee Short Trips listeners have heard, plus I think the contest rules say no canon monsters (since there's often licensing / permission issues).
Missy underused (S10 Spoilers)
Jun. 17th, 2017 07:41 pmTLDR: I think Michelle Gomez is the best Master in years, but series 10 has hobbled what I love about her.
( spoilers up through empress of mars )
ETA: Okay, NOW I've seen Eaters of Light. Which I liked. :)
( Okay, Eaters of Light Addendum )
( spoilers up through empress of mars )ETA: Okay, NOW I've seen Eaters of Light. Which I liked. :)
( Okay, Eaters of Light Addendum )Okay, so, new Who spoilers
Jun. 11th, 2017 12:05 pmI'm a little behind, since my reaction to being spoiled on Tumblr is to put off watching an ep (irrational backwards 'R' us). However, I just watched Lie of the Land.
Having watched the whole Monk trilogy now, here's my stream of consciousness thoughts/reactions, unedited unfiltered because this is Dreamwidth, and I'm writing in my own space (Don't like, don't read).
Extremis - (6/10)
( Thoughts about Extremis... )
Pyramid at the End of the World - (4/10)
Warning: LOTS OF NITPICKING ON THIS ONE.
( Thoughts about The Pyramid at the End of the World... )
The Lie of the Land 7/10
( Thoughts about The Lie of the Land... )
...and after all this, much as I love Capaldi, I still love my classic Who flavors of storytelling more. Ah well. I wish wish wish we'd get some Capadli with Chris Chibnall at the helm, but we're not gonna.
Thank goodness for Big Finish. And the Meddling Monk.
Now, much as I kinda want to see the next spoiler, er, episode, I also want to finish off a classic Who fanfic. It's all written now, but I feel the last few scenes could be even better, stronger, and give readers more of an emotional payoff. Even if I never get as many readers as I would like, because I keep writing sequels to obscure Big Finish episodes, thereby scaring off most potential readers with spoiler warnings. Ah, irony. :D
Having watched the whole Monk trilogy now, here's my stream of consciousness thoughts/reactions, unedited unfiltered because this is Dreamwidth, and I'm writing in my own space (Don't like, don't read).
Extremis - (6/10)
( Thoughts about Extremis... )Pyramid at the End of the World - (4/10)
Warning: LOTS OF NITPICKING ON THIS ONE.
( Thoughts about The Pyramid at the End of the World... )The Lie of the Land 7/10
( Thoughts about The Lie of the Land... )...and after all this, much as I love Capaldi, I still love my classic Who flavors of storytelling more. Ah well. I wish wish wish we'd get some Capadli with Chris Chibnall at the helm, but we're not gonna.
Thank goodness for Big Finish. And the Meddling Monk.
Now, much as I kinda want to see the next spoiler, er, episode, I also want to finish off a classic Who fanfic. It's all written now, but I feel the last few scenes could be even better, stronger, and give readers more of an emotional payoff. Even if I never get as many readers as I would like, because I keep writing sequels to obscure Big Finish episodes, thereby scaring off most potential readers with spoiler warnings. Ah, irony. :D
Email I'm working on to send to Big Finish
Jun. 4th, 2017 09:14 pmTrying to figure out how to word this tactfully, because I love audio Doctor Who so much. It's just one thing they could do better.
( General feedback re:TARDIS team interactions in the Main Range )
( General feedback re:TARDIS team interactions in the Main Range )Okay, let's try this again.
May. 28th, 2017 10:34 pmLet's see if I can enjoy having a classic Who blog again.
So, what have I been doing?
VHSWhovian Reviews now has its own website, vhswhovian.com. For the most part, I'm reviewing audios, but now that Britbox has given us a free, legal option for watching classic Who streaming, who knows: I may start reviewing the show I grew up watching, now with the perspective of middle-aged hindsight.
However, my reviews are falling behind because of fanfiction! One of the recent audios, Alien Heart / Dalek Soul, seized my imagination by dangling some lovely flapping loose ends, and I grabbed them with both hands. Dalek Free Spirit has two chapters posted so far, and its Scrivener file for it has passed 40,000 words despite my being quite ill (severe sinus infections on top of other chronic health issues) for most of the year. I realize that wordcount is nothing for you nano wunderkinds, but I'm old and arthritic and, again: no stamina.
The Coronation of the High Hierophant fic is winding to a close. I've put the Fifth Doctor through the ringer. So I'm juggling two big fics right now.
In the con department, I made it to both Gallifrey One and Regeneration Who, again while rather ill. (I had to miss most of one day of Galli, but I hung on and spent some lovely moments with a few favorites, notably author/director/Dalek operator Barnaby Edwards who wrote one of my favorite Doctor Who stories in any medium, Emerald Tiger.)
I've continued art lessons, although I'm still not as good as I want to be. Portraits are difficult.
I've been enjoying the new season of Who, for the most part, and absolutely ADORE Bill Potts. Thin Ice, The Pilot, Smile: I loved 'em. The most recent arc is frustrating me, but I like Capaldi and Pearl Mackie so much that I am hanging on.
( Why I disliked Pyramid at the End of the World… )
So, what have I been doing?
VHSWhovian Reviews now has its own website, vhswhovian.com. For the most part, I'm reviewing audios, but now that Britbox has given us a free, legal option for watching classic Who streaming, who knows: I may start reviewing the show I grew up watching, now with the perspective of middle-aged hindsight.
However, my reviews are falling behind because of fanfiction! One of the recent audios, Alien Heart / Dalek Soul, seized my imagination by dangling some lovely flapping loose ends, and I grabbed them with both hands. Dalek Free Spirit has two chapters posted so far, and its Scrivener file for it has passed 40,000 words despite my being quite ill (severe sinus infections on top of other chronic health issues) for most of the year. I realize that wordcount is nothing for you nano wunderkinds, but I'm old and arthritic and, again: no stamina.
The Coronation of the High Hierophant fic is winding to a close. I've put the Fifth Doctor through the ringer. So I'm juggling two big fics right now.
In the con department, I made it to both Gallifrey One and Regeneration Who, again while rather ill. (I had to miss most of one day of Galli, but I hung on and spent some lovely moments with a few favorites, notably author/director/Dalek operator Barnaby Edwards who wrote one of my favorite Doctor Who stories in any medium, Emerald Tiger.)
I've continued art lessons, although I'm still not as good as I want to be. Portraits are difficult.
I've been enjoying the new season of Who, for the most part, and absolutely ADORE Bill Potts. Thin Ice, The Pilot, Smile: I loved 'em. The most recent arc is frustrating me, but I like Capaldi and Pearl Mackie so much that I am hanging on.
( Why I disliked Pyramid at the End of the World… )This is me and new Who (and classic Who season 22 through 25):
( Read more... )
Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones"; Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!" "True Humility" by George du Maurier, originally published in Punch, 9 November 1895.
I often experience this weird love-hate dichotomy with new Who, in which I simultaneously enjoy and am aggravated by the exact same thing. So I simultaneously loved and was frustrated by an awful lot of this episode.( Read more... )If a tree falls in a forest...
( SPOILERS TO ENTROPY PLAGUE... )
Welcome! It's been a wild, crazy, lovely, painful year for me, beginning my Big Finish journey in December 2013, rediscovering why Nyssa was one of my favorite characters when I was a girl in 1980, binge-listening to every one of her audio stories in 2014, falling in love all over again with older!Nyssa, making an odyssey to England to put my Team Five novella into her actress' hands, and sharing my 40-year classic Who fandom with a new generation of fans.
So. Let's talk Nyssa. PLEASE. It's been driving me crazy, that I can't discuss Entropy Plague because I don't want to spoil people, yet for me, it's as big a deal as a Doctor regenerating or the Missy reveal.
Clear out now if you want to avoid spoilers. I HAVE THINGS TO SAY.
( SPOILERS TO ENTROPY PLAGUE... )Commentary: "Warriors of the Deep"
Dec. 18th, 2014 10:15 am(originally posted on Tumblr in reaction to a "Warriors of the Deep" gifset)
Poor Five.
It really is true that when the writers got to Five, they said, “Hey, here’s something we haven’t done before:* THIS Doctor is going to be fallible, and he won’t always be able to save the day! That will add to the dramatic suspense!” It was the first wave of Trope Cynicism and Meta that culminated in the dreaded Gritty Realism trope that the hero has to be an asshole and not necessarily likable.
So Five just… keeps losing battles. People. His innocence. Loss and fall from innocence are part of Eight’s arc, but Five is really the first of the lot who had the magic hero ability Pull Rabbit Out of Hat taken away from him.
*I realize that previous Doctors occasonally lost — Katarina, e.g., or the fiasco with the Brigadier blowing up the Silurians against the Doctor’s wishes, or the fall of Atlantis and the mirrorverse — but they were very rare occurrences.
The Face of Evil during the Fourth Doctor’s run had its dramatic oomph largely because it introduced a plot twist nearly UNTHINKABLE at the time: the Doctor had inadvertently screwed up on a previous visit and left a mess behind.
That wouldn’t be much of a shock with Five.
Big Finish took Fallible Five and ran with it. It’s good for drama, but it wrenches my heart. I feel bad for him. Why couldn’t he get Four’s impressive ability to Save the Day with maddening babble and faffing about? By painful degrees, Five’s failures grind down that joyous, curious, eager Doctor we glimpsed in Castrovalva. He tries so hard to help others, often putting his life on the line for them, yet the fabric of things/people he cares deeply about keeps unraveling and slipping through his fingers.
And it just keeps happening. No wonder he holds his emotions close. Peter Davison’s sad eyes seem to show the strain.
