Rise of the Bullet Point List
Jan. 24th, 2013 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regndoft- Antiqity studies Day 03: EVERYTHING IS INTENSE BUT SO MUCH FUN. I am simultaneously wondering if this course will seduce me onto the path of archaeology and becoming more and more assured that religious studies is My Thing.
- Most notably, I was reminded today of my love for Egyptian mythology; an old obsession rearing its head again, to be frank (when I was ten I wanted to be either an egyptologist or Sekhmet, Goddess of War - it was a tough choice, okay). I think that makes it even more compelling, actually; being able to revisit something you loved as a child and being able to develop a new understanding of it with age.
- Finished listening to Love and War!
- Overall, I really really enjoyed it. Good worldbuilding, good characterisation, good monsters... everything was good. Alien cultures are good, archaeology is good. EVERYTHING WAS GOOD.
- This being the second audio with Benny I've listened to, I have come to the conclusion that she is fabulous. I am almost relieved there are too many audios with her because I don't have the money anywaythough I do have the New Adventures on my computer....
- Something a bit less good: this is an audio adaptation of a novel, which can be felt in some places. I do think it does it best it can with the time it has, introducing characters and concepts, but some things feel rushed, especially in the second part; it's not something that reduces the quality, but it doesn't enhance it either. There's a certain lack of dimension, I feel, that is easier to convey in prose or even on screen, that doesn't come across properly here.
- Ace's departure is rather rubbish tbh. For one, I did not buy the romantic subplot here, or at least not that it would have such a great impact on Ace that it would be a key factor in her leaving (does it make more sense in the novel? I'm not arguing it couldn't work, it's just incredibly rushed). I do think that the Doctor setting her up as a chess piece in his games is an interesting incentive for her to depart, because it is a problematic key part in their relationship - but in that case it should be for her own sake, not some guy she fell in love with?
And if she was going to leave because of that, having her leave angry and spiteful doesn't feel like the way to do it; Ace is a character with a lot of things to be angry about, but part of her character arc is the Doctor forcing her to deal with that anger and move on from it (sometimes without her consent, which is another can of worms entirely).
(Although, in a way, I suppose there's some kind of symmetry there that sort of works; Ace is a teenager angry with the world when she's introduced, whose trust the Doctor gains... and when she leaves to embrace life after having gained a new understanding of her old world her anger turns towards the Doctor.)
Argh. I don't know. It felt like it could have been good, but it doesn't quite fall into place; never mind the fact that I would have liked a happy and more loving departure for a companion with such a close relationship to the Doctor as Ace had.
- I did love the scenes with Julien and Ace's mother though.
- Not sure what I am listening to next; I've got the rest of the Special Releases (UNIT Dominion, Voyage to Venus and Voyage to the New World), Shada, plus a bunch of Companion Chronicles.
-![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
who_at_50 is doing the Tenth Doctor / UNIT as themes this february (so if you haven't already joined, you should probably do that). Sadly, this means I have no excuse not to write my Liz-Shaw-vs-the-Rani case fic. So I better come up with a plot for that asap. 8'I
- Most notably, I was reminded today of my love for Egyptian mythology; an old obsession rearing its head again, to be frank (when I was ten I wanted to be either an egyptologist or Sekhmet, Goddess of War - it was a tough choice, okay). I think that makes it even more compelling, actually; being able to revisit something you loved as a child and being able to develop a new understanding of it with age.
- Finished listening to Love and War!
- Overall, I really really enjoyed it. Good worldbuilding, good characterisation, good monsters... everything was good. Alien cultures are good, archaeology is good. EVERYTHING WAS GOOD.
- This being the second audio with Benny I've listened to, I have come to the conclusion that she is fabulous. I am almost relieved there are too many audios with her because I don't have the money anyway
- Something a bit less good: this is an audio adaptation of a novel, which can be felt in some places. I do think it does it best it can with the time it has, introducing characters and concepts, but some things feel rushed, especially in the second part; it's not something that reduces the quality, but it doesn't enhance it either. There's a certain lack of dimension, I feel, that is easier to convey in prose or even on screen, that doesn't come across properly here.
- Ace's departure is rather rubbish tbh. For one, I did not buy the romantic subplot here, or at least not that it would have such a great impact on Ace that it would be a key factor in her leaving (does it make more sense in the novel? I'm not arguing it couldn't work, it's just incredibly rushed). I do think that the Doctor setting her up as a chess piece in his games is an interesting incentive for her to depart, because it is a problematic key part in their relationship - but in that case it should be for her own sake, not some guy she fell in love with?
And if she was going to leave because of that, having her leave angry and spiteful doesn't feel like the way to do it; Ace is a character with a lot of things to be angry about, but part of her character arc is the Doctor forcing her to deal with that anger and move on from it (sometimes without her consent, which is another can of worms entirely).
(Although, in a way, I suppose there's some kind of symmetry there that sort of works; Ace is a teenager angry with the world when she's introduced, whose trust the Doctor gains... and when she leaves to embrace life after having gained a new understanding of her old world her anger turns towards the Doctor.)
Argh. I don't know. It felt like it could have been good, but it doesn't quite fall into place; never mind the fact that I would have liked a happy and more loving departure for a companion with such a close relationship to the Doctor as Ace had.
- I did love the scenes with Julien and Ace's mother though.
- Not sure what I am listening to next; I've got the rest of the Special Releases (UNIT Dominion, Voyage to Venus and Voyage to the New World), Shada, plus a bunch of Companion Chronicles.
-
who_at_50 is doing the Tenth Doctor / UNIT as themes this february (so if you haven't already joined, you should probably do that). Sadly, this means I have no excuse not to write my Liz-Shaw-vs-the-Rani case fic. So I better come up with a plot for that asap. 8'I
no subject
Date: 2013-01-25 10:04 pm (UTC)i also got annoyed about the ace departure though. must read the book and find out who is to blame.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-25 10:22 pm (UTC)I was also a bit "... eh?" about the thing about Three having floated around in the vortex for TEN YEARS in Planet of the Spiders, but. That's neither here nor there. But yes, sounds like a plan.