Janelle Monáe lyrics go here.
Apr. 14th, 2013 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regndoftBeen a week since I last updated, which probably means I should have a lot to say here, but I've been listless and depressed for most of it. At least I attended the exam on friday, and hopefully managed to pass... I didn't feel terrible about it, but not particularly well either. But even if I didn't I'm not too worried; I made sure to talk to my teacher about it beforehand.
In Big Finish news, the newly released Library of Alexandria was... really cute. That. That's all I can think of, really. I love that Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor just decided to crash in Alexandria for a couple of months because of Reasons and that apparently Ian is the only one of them to get a job during this time so the other three can go to the theater every day. Yes, it also had some tragic and contemplative moments but it ends on such a light note that overall I was left with the impression of having listened to a really fluffy (and shippy) One era fanfic. Which is a good thing! In this case at least.
But I've also been catching up on the Main Range, so have another batch of quick, non-spoilery reviews (minus the specials, because... there's not that much to say about half-hour episodes that are mostly crack anyway):
Primeval: This was a lot more enjoyable than expected? That is to say, I didn't really have any expectations, good or bad, but I did enjoy it. There's not much in the ways of a plot per se, but somehow it worked for me; the story doesn't stall but it doesn't consist of explosions and action sequences either (hard to do in an audio). The archaic Trakenite culture is rather interesting in its own way, and the villain is... weirdly reminiscent of the Master.
That being said, it's not very memorable either, but a good enough way to waste time.
Spare Parts: I have mixed feelings about this, because on one hand: it is so cool to actually have a proper origin story for the pre-Tenth Planet Cybermen, and the dystopic atmosphere it creates is very effective. It has a very stellar back-drop, good side characters, and a decent plot. But at the same time it... lacks an emotional centre, somehow? This is supposed to be post-Earthshock and we're supposed to believe that the Doctor is upset enough to meddle with history but this is never really discussed? It's like the writer forgot about the main characters, which is a major misstep. And that contributes to the ending, which feels cheap considering we know what happens afterwards anyway.
Still, it's a very compelling vision of the birth of the Cybermen, I can see why it's a classic. And I do wish we could get something like this on the show.
The Church and the Crown: I really love the concept of historicals, but there's always a certain risk of them getting repetitive, because there are only so many tropes that can be used to cause trouble for our heroes, and I feel like this falls into that trap. There's a lot of getting captured and imprisoned and mistaken identities and intrigues, which is all good fun but feels like it's been done before (it has been done before). It's not bad, or a waste of time, but it didn't exactly leave a deep impression. Although it did solidify my love for Erimem, who is fab (can I shipPerimem Peri/Erimem? I think I ship Peri/Erimem).
Flip Flop: THIS IS EVERYTHING MOFFAT WISHES HIS EPISODES COULD BE, I SWEAR TO GOD. Like... the platonic idea of a Moffat episode. This isn't really a good thing, to me, because while I can appreciate the amount of thought that's been put into the story it's way, way too long for two hours. It doesn't feel cheap, unlike Moffat's timey wimey predestination paradoxes, but it feels... a bit mechanical. There's an attempt at writing compelling side characters, but they end up feeling either weirdly farcical or just annoying in their short-sightedness. In the end it's an interesting experiment but a bit of a mess in practise. Also it comes off as awkwardly anti-immigrant (not something I would've pegged Jon Blum and Kate Orman to write based on the two EDAs by them I've read? But that's how it feels, bordering on parody to boot).
Omega: FFFFFFF. I. I LOVE THIS AUDIO SO MUCH. YOU GUYS. IT WAS WRITTEN FOR ME, IT HITS NEARLY EACH AND EVERY ONE OF MY NARRATIVE KINKS. Asdfghjklö. Continuity references, Time Lord history/mythology, the truth of fiction, the changing perception of history, people who make history and how we judge them for it, with a heavy dose of tight storytelling. It's a rare example of a story where everything feels loaded with meaning that comes full circle in the end; and on top of that it seems aware of this and goes meta about it. It's deliberately theatrical and epic, but makes fun of this mythic storytelling at the same time. I'm glad I decided to listen to this in bed, because it demanded my full attention.
The ending... felt a bit off, in a way, but it ties so nicely into the rest of the story thematically I can't really complain. Likewise, I had some reservations about the role of the one female character, but once again something I'm willing to overlook. I'm just really in love with this audio.
Davros: Six is gloriously sassy in this one. Like Omega, it attempts to do some really interesting stuff with our perception of some of the Doctor's greatest villains, but it doesn't really feel like it goes all the way. At two hours and a half it drags on a bit, and in the end I was left feeling a bit... like I wanted more with that amount of build-up. It's still a very good audio though, and Terry Molloy (everyone, actually, but him in particular) just shine.
Tbh I have a lot more (spoilery) thoughts about the themes in Omega and Davros (and Master) that lead into Zagreus, as they are a gold mine for meta. Might re-listen to Master and get some of them out soon.
In more recent Doctor Who news, I got around to watching Cold War this afternoon. It was... okay. Yeah. Not terrible, but pretty bland overall. It's Gatiss, so I hadn't really expected more; I'm very pleased with the way the Ice Warriors were handled, however. More spoilery thoughts behind cut!
- I think what really brings this episode down for me is that it didn't really feel like it had much going for it character-wise; any more meaningful emotional interaction or development were down-prioritised by the claustrophobia-inducing main plot. The only that really stands out is Clara's realisation at what a dangerous life theirs can be, which was nice. But overall, there wasn't much that stood out in the way of characterisation.
- Has Doctor Who ever done a TV story with Russians as villains? I can't really seem to recall any, but I admittedly have some gaps in knowledge about the Troughton era in particular. The only one I can recall is The Curse of Fenric, where the Soviets are definitely good guys (if you can divide the characters in Curse of Fenric into mere "good" and "bad"...) - despite trying to take over a British military base.
Not that I'm complaining, quite the opposite. It's just that the villainous russkies are such stock characters in western media, it's a bit unusual if Who has managed to avoid that trope. Granted, the Cold War setting of this episode wasn't of much consequence.
Also it was nice to be spared the faux-Russian accents.Although I kind of find them very charming in Curse of Fenric, if only because they're so incredibly bad...
- The writing in this feels... lazy. I'm not sure I can put my finger on it without going into details, but it's like... for example, half the crew is killed off before they can contribute anything to the story (what a waste of Tobias Menzies!). Saldak's motivations for trying to nuke the earth are also flimsy, but I'll be getting back to this one.
- MOTHERFUCKING. ICE WARRIORS. NOT-RUINED ICE WARRIORS. See, what I love about the Ice Warriors is that they're a rare example of a recurring monster on the show who are actually allowed to develop their own culture, and evolve as a society. I was worried we were going to get an Ice Warrior for the first time in 40 years and they'd be greeted by a knee-jerk reaction from the Doctor about how monstrous they are - that's exactly what Three did in Curse of Peladon, and he knows better by now.
But, lo and behold, Eleven's reaction is very reasonable; not hostile, but clearly worried because he knows how delicate the situation is, and how insular the Ice Warrior code of honour can be. Saldak, in turn, is written as a person, who is capable of reminiscence and grief. A++, Mark.
- I'm not really upset about the revelation about how they look out of the armour? Ice Warriors are known for being bulky and kind of slow, so equipping them with a lightning-fast and agile organic body is actually a rather interesting concept - especially when Gatiss adds that they consider leaving their armour dishonourable to their characterisation. At the same time, I wasn't really happy about the way Gatiss chose to use these new abilities to make for a horror-esque sequence where crew members are brutally murdered for... no plot reason at all. That time could've been spent fleshing out the characters instead or made for more interesting confrontations.
We also find out that there are female Ice Warriors (and by extension male ones, I guess). Cool. b
- The "honour in mercy" line was better used in Red Dawn (the Doctor totally nicked it from Lord Zzarl).
- Speaking of honour in mercy-- back to the lazy writing point. I really appreciated that Saldak was allowed to be presented as a three-dimensional character, but the entire handling of his character in other respects felt... weird. He's going to "take revenge" on humanity for... what, exactly? They're not responsible for him being under ice for five thousand years. Because they opened fire, and therefore declared war? That's not revenge, that's retaliation. Words have meaning, Mark! The same goes for honour, btw. Surely brutally committing genocide while you're snuggled up in a submarine isn't considered honourable in any culture? Perhaps the PTSD aspect of being under ice for millennia should've been underlined.
- Likewise, the "remember your daughter" aspect in the final confrontation felt... cheap, somehow. Idk, it's just trite and overused, we've seen it before in a thousand places. Otherwise it wasn't bad, although I kept thinking IS THIS WAR MORGAINE? ARE THESE THE WEAPONS YOU WOULD USE?!?!?
TL;DR it was ok imo, but not much more than that. I don't know if watching the classic series has made me spoiled, but 45 minutes just doesn't seem long enough to tell a stellar story, sometimes. I'm mostly happy about my favourite Who monster being handled well. <3
In Big Finish news, the newly released Library of Alexandria was... really cute. That. That's all I can think of, really. I love that Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor just decided to crash in Alexandria for a couple of months because of Reasons and that apparently Ian is the only one of them to get a job during this time so the other three can go to the theater every day. Yes, it also had some tragic and contemplative moments but it ends on such a light note that overall I was left with the impression of having listened to a really fluffy (and shippy) One era fanfic. Which is a good thing! In this case at least.
But I've also been catching up on the Main Range, so have another batch of quick, non-spoilery reviews (minus the specials, because... there's not that much to say about half-hour episodes that are mostly crack anyway):
Primeval: This was a lot more enjoyable than expected? That is to say, I didn't really have any expectations, good or bad, but I did enjoy it. There's not much in the ways of a plot per se, but somehow it worked for me; the story doesn't stall but it doesn't consist of explosions and action sequences either (hard to do in an audio). The archaic Trakenite culture is rather interesting in its own way, and the villain is... weirdly reminiscent of the Master.
That being said, it's not very memorable either, but a good enough way to waste time.
Spare Parts: I have mixed feelings about this, because on one hand: it is so cool to actually have a proper origin story for the pre-Tenth Planet Cybermen, and the dystopic atmosphere it creates is very effective. It has a very stellar back-drop, good side characters, and a decent plot. But at the same time it... lacks an emotional centre, somehow? This is supposed to be post-Earthshock and we're supposed to believe that the Doctor is upset enough to meddle with history but this is never really discussed? It's like the writer forgot about the main characters, which is a major misstep. And that contributes to the ending, which feels cheap considering we know what happens afterwards anyway.
Still, it's a very compelling vision of the birth of the Cybermen, I can see why it's a classic. And I do wish we could get something like this on the show.
The Church and the Crown: I really love the concept of historicals, but there's always a certain risk of them getting repetitive, because there are only so many tropes that can be used to cause trouble for our heroes, and I feel like this falls into that trap. There's a lot of getting captured and imprisoned and mistaken identities and intrigues, which is all good fun but feels like it's been done before (it has been done before). It's not bad, or a waste of time, but it didn't exactly leave a deep impression. Although it did solidify my love for Erimem, who is fab (can I ship
Flip Flop: THIS IS EVERYTHING MOFFAT WISHES HIS EPISODES COULD BE, I SWEAR TO GOD. Like... the platonic idea of a Moffat episode. This isn't really a good thing, to me, because while I can appreciate the amount of thought that's been put into the story it's way, way too long for two hours. It doesn't feel cheap, unlike Moffat's timey wimey predestination paradoxes, but it feels... a bit mechanical. There's an attempt at writing compelling side characters, but they end up feeling either weirdly farcical or just annoying in their short-sightedness. In the end it's an interesting experiment but a bit of a mess in practise. Also it comes off as awkwardly anti-immigrant (not something I would've pegged Jon Blum and Kate Orman to write based on the two EDAs by them I've read? But that's how it feels, bordering on parody to boot).
Omega: FFFFFFF. I. I LOVE THIS AUDIO SO MUCH. YOU GUYS. IT WAS WRITTEN FOR ME, IT HITS NEARLY EACH AND EVERY ONE OF MY NARRATIVE KINKS. Asdfghjklö. Continuity references, Time Lord history/mythology, the truth of fiction, the changing perception of history, people who make history and how we judge them for it, with a heavy dose of tight storytelling. It's a rare example of a story where everything feels loaded with meaning that comes full circle in the end; and on top of that it seems aware of this and goes meta about it. It's deliberately theatrical and epic, but makes fun of this mythic storytelling at the same time. I'm glad I decided to listen to this in bed, because it demanded my full attention.
The ending... felt a bit off, in a way, but it ties so nicely into the rest of the story thematically I can't really complain. Likewise, I had some reservations about the role of the one female character, but once again something I'm willing to overlook. I'm just really in love with this audio.
Davros: Six is gloriously sassy in this one. Like Omega, it attempts to do some really interesting stuff with our perception of some of the Doctor's greatest villains, but it doesn't really feel like it goes all the way. At two hours and a half it drags on a bit, and in the end I was left feeling a bit... like I wanted more with that amount of build-up. It's still a very good audio though, and Terry Molloy (everyone, actually, but him in particular) just shine.
Tbh I have a lot more (spoilery) thoughts about the themes in Omega and Davros (and Master) that lead into Zagreus, as they are a gold mine for meta. Might re-listen to Master and get some of them out soon.
In more recent Doctor Who news, I got around to watching Cold War this afternoon. It was... okay. Yeah. Not terrible, but pretty bland overall. It's Gatiss, so I hadn't really expected more; I'm very pleased with the way the Ice Warriors were handled, however. More spoilery thoughts behind cut!
- I think what really brings this episode down for me is that it didn't really feel like it had much going for it character-wise; any more meaningful emotional interaction or development were down-prioritised by the claustrophobia-inducing main plot. The only that really stands out is Clara's realisation at what a dangerous life theirs can be, which was nice. But overall, there wasn't much that stood out in the way of characterisation.
- Has Doctor Who ever done a TV story with Russians as villains? I can't really seem to recall any, but I admittedly have some gaps in knowledge about the Troughton era in particular. The only one I can recall is The Curse of Fenric, where the Soviets are definitely good guys (if you can divide the characters in Curse of Fenric into mere "good" and "bad"...) - despite trying to take over a British military base.
Not that I'm complaining, quite the opposite. It's just that the villainous russkies are such stock characters in western media, it's a bit unusual if Who has managed to avoid that trope. Granted, the Cold War setting of this episode wasn't of much consequence.
Also it was nice to be spared the faux-Russian accents.
- The writing in this feels... lazy. I'm not sure I can put my finger on it without going into details, but it's like... for example, half the crew is killed off before they can contribute anything to the story (what a waste of Tobias Menzies!). Saldak's motivations for trying to nuke the earth are also flimsy, but I'll be getting back to this one.
- MOTHERFUCKING. ICE WARRIORS. NOT-RUINED ICE WARRIORS. See, what I love about the Ice Warriors is that they're a rare example of a recurring monster on the show who are actually allowed to develop their own culture, and evolve as a society. I was worried we were going to get an Ice Warrior for the first time in 40 years and they'd be greeted by a knee-jerk reaction from the Doctor about how monstrous they are - that's exactly what Three did in Curse of Peladon, and he knows better by now.
But, lo and behold, Eleven's reaction is very reasonable; not hostile, but clearly worried because he knows how delicate the situation is, and how insular the Ice Warrior code of honour can be. Saldak, in turn, is written as a person, who is capable of reminiscence and grief. A++, Mark.
- I'm not really upset about the revelation about how they look out of the armour? Ice Warriors are known for being bulky and kind of slow, so equipping them with a lightning-fast and agile organic body is actually a rather interesting concept - especially when Gatiss adds that they consider leaving their armour dishonourable to their characterisation. At the same time, I wasn't really happy about the way Gatiss chose to use these new abilities to make for a horror-esque sequence where crew members are brutally murdered for... no plot reason at all. That time could've been spent fleshing out the characters instead or made for more interesting confrontations.
We also find out that there are female Ice Warriors (and by extension male ones, I guess). Cool. b
- The "honour in mercy" line was better used in Red Dawn (the Doctor totally nicked it from Lord Zzarl).
- Speaking of honour in mercy-- back to the lazy writing point. I really appreciated that Saldak was allowed to be presented as a three-dimensional character, but the entire handling of his character in other respects felt... weird. He's going to "take revenge" on humanity for... what, exactly? They're not responsible for him being under ice for five thousand years. Because they opened fire, and therefore declared war? That's not revenge, that's retaliation. Words have meaning, Mark! The same goes for honour, btw. Surely brutally committing genocide while you're snuggled up in a submarine isn't considered honourable in any culture? Perhaps the PTSD aspect of being under ice for millennia should've been underlined.
- Likewise, the "remember your daughter" aspect in the final confrontation felt... cheap, somehow. Idk, it's just trite and overused, we've seen it before in a thousand places. Otherwise it wasn't bad, although I kept thinking IS THIS WAR MORGAINE? ARE THESE THE WEAPONS YOU WOULD USE?!?!?
TL;DR it was ok imo, but not much more than that. I don't know if watching the classic series has made me spoiled, but 45 minutes just doesn't seem long enough to tell a stellar story, sometimes. I'm mostly happy about my favourite Who monster being handled well. <3
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 02:21 am (UTC)As for Cold War:
I don't know if watching the classic series has made me spoiled, but 45 minutes just doesn't seem long enough to tell a stellar story, sometimes.
Yes, this, yes. I find the pacing with so much New Who to be a problem lately, I think because 45 minutes really isn't a LOT of time to pack in all the story AND excitement AND character development without either a) making it all feel horribly rushed; or b) having to sacrifice one of the above; or, most alarmingly, c) both. It's a very precise and intricate balancing act that the classic series didn't always get right either, and maybe it's just my preference for what you can do within the scope of, like, a four-part serial, but it really seems like one 45-minute episode goes by so quickly that you have to limit yourself with regard to what you can fit in there. There seems to be a problem where if you allow yourself too long to set up, you wind up with about 30 seconds at the end to resolve everything, which feels as unsatisfying as giving yourself 30 seconds at the beginning to establish everything. It's just... they're really having trouble with balance lately. That said, the conceit of everyone actually speaking Russian and the English accents being down to the TARDIS translation matrix was fine. Given the circumstances, it would have made less sense for them to have bad Russian accents.
(I could have done with more Tobias Menzies getting to do stuff. I like him. Let's have a spinoff series that's just him and David Warner being, I dunno, people?)
All that being said, I can forgive this episode basically everything for a) not ruining the Ice Warriors; and b) having a fair amount of the kind of Eleven and Clara cute I've been hoping for.
(no subject)
From: