"Evolution of the Daleks" (there was none) and "Adam" (if only I could say the same)
'Kay, think I can cope with the memories now. "Evolution of the Daleks" first. And I know most people like Ten, but just imagine what this ep would be like if you didn't. How many times is he not only in mortal peril, but actively begging the Daleks to shoot him? It's as frustrating as it is fun...
Argh, those first couple minutes; he was *right in front* of the "Dalek human", and he *didn't punch him*. That's when I knew he was going to be absolutely useless. *shakes head* Then, the Dalek attack on Hooverville-- he was right there yelling "Go on and shoot me, then!" To which my only possible response was "Come on! Come on and shoot him already, come on and-- oh, you useless bastards. Where the hell is Dalek pride?! ...Though I must admit, if I were a Dalek and had my choice of Doctors to face? I'd pick Ten."
Leading us into the "I will now explain my plan to you in small words for no discernible reason!" bit of laziness... Here's the start of the high-school science complaints: whoever did that graphic was *not* concerned about even the slightest vestige of realism. If he were that clever, I'd say that's why Ten was going along with it; splice two genomes together like that, and you'd get the DNA equivalent of alphabet soup. Assuming Daleks *have* DNA, which evidently, if they can splice the two together like that, they do... Apparently *every* organism in the universe is built on deoxyribonucleic acid! Who knew? *sigh*
Also, do these people even have the faintest idea what DNA is? Pure Dalek DNA leaves these people looking human but acting like Daleks? WTFH? Also, electrical current can carry DNA! Even though DNA is a molecule and electricity is made up of... I always have to struggle to remember this... oh, yes, ELECTRONS! You useless sods. *headdesk*. Not to mention the other cheap tease there. "Yay, Ten struck by lightning! Your own fault for being useless. Hang on, why's he holding on to the thing like that? They aren't going to pull some crap like him transferring DNA to them, are they? Oh, god, they would..."
And guess what? DNA gives people free will! And "free will" automatically means "not obeying the Daleks"! *Why* couldn't one of those people have used their free will to say "Uh, I'm gonna shoot this twiggy bastard so they don't kill me"? My answer? Because it wasn't free will. First three things that dude said, "Why not?" like it was programmed into him... and while DNA can't be carried by electricity, neural impulses, or, even better, psychic impulses, could be plausibly fudged with the time-honored excuse "Time Lord". It would be simpler; it would make a hell of a lot more sense. It's what they should've done. Since they didn't, I'm going to subvert it and say Ten brainwashed the poor things...
...And there's an issue they missed: last-of-his-species, creating a new hybrid... You could've had something there, him and that temptation to use all this equipment to rebirth a different species than the Daleks... And he did, didn't he? Odd, the timing of their disobedience... not his own species, a species of his own. No wonder he got all shouty when they died.
Ah, that damn theater scene. Dalek Sek in chains, fulfilling his uselessness by throwing himself in front of a gun for the skinny bastard, like everyone else. (Oh, and I hate his blue suit and his hair's always funny.) Summary: the science was crap, the Daleks were useless (but still cute), and Ten, to my vast dismay, kept not getting shot. Useless freaking Daleks. ;)
To the *shudders* Torchwood amnesia episode. I *hate* amnesia episodes. For much the same reason I hate Seinfeld: I don't care what kind of assholes the characters are, I can't watch them going through that kind of pain. I don't know why. I just hate amnesia episodes. So I spent almost the whole damn thing on eggshells...
So, if the thing lives by being remembered, how did it live in the Void? I suppose the whole thing is supposed to be a metaphor for how important memories, or other people, are to us... doesn't work. All it's got *me* thinking about is where the hell I've seen the "alien implants himself in the team making everyone think they've always known him" trick before. I swear it was in at least one series of Star Trek. But where else... *smacks head* Stargate! Stargate SG-1. Served with a twist on Atlantis. Been driving me up the wall.
There's something very disquieting about the notion that changing our memories can change our personalities so completely (I'm looking at you, Tosh...). I should endorse social construction, I know, but... I do believe a few personality characteristics are innate; I'd like to believe there's a part of us that wouldn't change no matter what the circumstances. It's a romantic notion, yeah, but I think I've got a little firmer ground in my constant assertion that memories just don't go away that easy. It's not like a computer disk you can erase, our memory. There's tens and hundreds of associations involved... Gah, television psychology! I knew it stopped before Bandura, that DW ep implied it stopped before Milgram and Zimbardo (hard to believe, that media ho), but why not just look up a little information? It'd increase your chance of actually coming up with an original plot!
Back to my point. These are the studies that have been lumped together and misrepresented into "subliminal messages"-- it's not, in the end, about mind control. You can see things and not even remember that you see them and somehow, still remember. Put a couple of random polygons subliminally in a slideshow, then ask someone to rank a group of them; they'll like the ones they've seen more; which says a) we like what we know and b) sometimes, you don't have to remember something to know it. Look up the split-brain studies. It doesn't mean memories can't be erased, or that it wouldn't change us completely if they were; I'm not crazy enough to try to prove that. But it's a possibility, and why not explore it? I'm pulling crap up two years at a state university and the occasional "Bad Movie Physics" website; it doesn't take a genius, it doesn't take expert consultants. It takes enough concern for the quality of your work to head to Google. A trip to Bad Astronomy probably would've changed The Impossible Planet quite a bit (why was it impossible, again?). Just because it's a kid's show doesn't mean you can't use post-70's science.
I'm using way too many words way too incoherently to say something pretty simple: I hate amnesia episodes. I find them painful. There's other ways to look at the topic. They'd probably be fresher and more interesting. But it doesn't happen, on this show OR DW. You've got such a license, with sci-fi. And you've got three ways to do it: do old things, do old things well with a new twist, or do new things. Two of these ways take some effort, make things interesting. One is getting damned lazy. You can do the matching there: but seriously, what does Torchwood usually do? With the caveat that sex per se doesn't count as a twist. Even if it's gay sex. Yeah, you heard me.
Oh yeah, and while I'm calling RTD out, isn't there something just a little bit odd about Torchwood bisexuality? How come, in each of the two occasions we've seen two women kissing, at least one was an evil alien? Just curious...
In short: I hate amnesia episodes, the Owen/Tosh role reversal was simplistic, pathetic, and painful (though it does, by way of being a pretty exact reversal, show up some of the inadequacies of their characterizations), I hate amnesia episodes, Jack/Gwen is a bad idea on many levels and everyone but the writing staff knows it, I'm really seeing a lot of lazy writing here (like the cliche of the amnesia episode), apparently the DW/TW staff can't concieve of a hero who doesn't have creepy messianic ambitions (gah, that scene), the flashbacks and backstories were lame and pretty damn cliche (boy + abusive mother = Owen, Girl + Math = no friends = Toshiko, repeat for all backstories...), I liked Lesbian/Bi!Toshiko and I miss her, Owen is still a useless twat, and I have this long-standing issue with amnesia episodes, they put me in a great deal of discomfort, does it show?
In the pathetically long time between when I started this post and now, I saw the end of S1 again... And damn it, it was good. *sigh of relief* I was starting to wonder. If I had any sense at all I'd get the DVD... *cheap, cheap person* Next holiday, I think. Graduation should count.
Incidentally, I believe I'm about 3/4 done with a Harriet Jones fic that goes with Anno Domini. How long that last fourth will take to finish, god only knows. *incredibly erratic in such matters* I have a couple other ideas for that world, too, but they're both going to take a lot of care to get done right...
Argh, those first couple minutes; he was *right in front* of the "Dalek human", and he *didn't punch him*. That's when I knew he was going to be absolutely useless. *shakes head* Then, the Dalek attack on Hooverville-- he was right there yelling "Go on and shoot me, then!" To which my only possible response was "Come on! Come on and shoot him already, come on and-- oh, you useless bastards. Where the hell is Dalek pride?! ...Though I must admit, if I were a Dalek and had my choice of Doctors to face? I'd pick Ten."
Leading us into the "I will now explain my plan to you in small words for no discernible reason!" bit of laziness... Here's the start of the high-school science complaints: whoever did that graphic was *not* concerned about even the slightest vestige of realism. If he were that clever, I'd say that's why Ten was going along with it; splice two genomes together like that, and you'd get the DNA equivalent of alphabet soup. Assuming Daleks *have* DNA, which evidently, if they can splice the two together like that, they do... Apparently *every* organism in the universe is built on deoxyribonucleic acid! Who knew? *sigh*
Also, do these people even have the faintest idea what DNA is? Pure Dalek DNA leaves these people looking human but acting like Daleks? WTFH? Also, electrical current can carry DNA! Even though DNA is a molecule and electricity is made up of... I always have to struggle to remember this... oh, yes, ELECTRONS! You useless sods. *headdesk*. Not to mention the other cheap tease there. "Yay, Ten struck by lightning! Your own fault for being useless. Hang on, why's he holding on to the thing like that? They aren't going to pull some crap like him transferring DNA to them, are they? Oh, god, they would..."
And guess what? DNA gives people free will! And "free will" automatically means "not obeying the Daleks"! *Why* couldn't one of those people have used their free will to say "Uh, I'm gonna shoot this twiggy bastard so they don't kill me"? My answer? Because it wasn't free will. First three things that dude said, "Why not?" like it was programmed into him... and while DNA can't be carried by electricity, neural impulses, or, even better, psychic impulses, could be plausibly fudged with the time-honored excuse "Time Lord". It would be simpler; it would make a hell of a lot more sense. It's what they should've done. Since they didn't, I'm going to subvert it and say Ten brainwashed the poor things...
...And there's an issue they missed: last-of-his-species, creating a new hybrid... You could've had something there, him and that temptation to use all this equipment to rebirth a different species than the Daleks... And he did, didn't he? Odd, the timing of their disobedience... not his own species, a species of his own. No wonder he got all shouty when they died.
Ah, that damn theater scene. Dalek Sek in chains, fulfilling his uselessness by throwing himself in front of a gun for the skinny bastard, like everyone else. (Oh, and I hate his blue suit and his hair's always funny.) Summary: the science was crap, the Daleks were useless (but still cute), and Ten, to my vast dismay, kept not getting shot. Useless freaking Daleks. ;)
To the *shudders* Torchwood amnesia episode. I *hate* amnesia episodes. For much the same reason I hate Seinfeld: I don't care what kind of assholes the characters are, I can't watch them going through that kind of pain. I don't know why. I just hate amnesia episodes. So I spent almost the whole damn thing on eggshells...
So, if the thing lives by being remembered, how did it live in the Void? I suppose the whole thing is supposed to be a metaphor for how important memories, or other people, are to us... doesn't work. All it's got *me* thinking about is where the hell I've seen the "alien implants himself in the team making everyone think they've always known him" trick before. I swear it was in at least one series of Star Trek. But where else... *smacks head* Stargate! Stargate SG-1. Served with a twist on Atlantis. Been driving me up the wall.
There's something very disquieting about the notion that changing our memories can change our personalities so completely (I'm looking at you, Tosh...). I should endorse social construction, I know, but... I do believe a few personality characteristics are innate; I'd like to believe there's a part of us that wouldn't change no matter what the circumstances. It's a romantic notion, yeah, but I think I've got a little firmer ground in my constant assertion that memories just don't go away that easy. It's not like a computer disk you can erase, our memory. There's tens and hundreds of associations involved... Gah, television psychology! I knew it stopped before Bandura, that DW ep implied it stopped before Milgram and Zimbardo (hard to believe, that media ho), but why not just look up a little information? It'd increase your chance of actually coming up with an original plot!
Back to my point. These are the studies that have been lumped together and misrepresented into "subliminal messages"-- it's not, in the end, about mind control. You can see things and not even remember that you see them and somehow, still remember. Put a couple of random polygons subliminally in a slideshow, then ask someone to rank a group of them; they'll like the ones they've seen more; which says a) we like what we know and b) sometimes, you don't have to remember something to know it. Look up the split-brain studies. It doesn't mean memories can't be erased, or that it wouldn't change us completely if they were; I'm not crazy enough to try to prove that. But it's a possibility, and why not explore it? I'm pulling crap up two years at a state university and the occasional "Bad Movie Physics" website; it doesn't take a genius, it doesn't take expert consultants. It takes enough concern for the quality of your work to head to Google. A trip to Bad Astronomy probably would've changed The Impossible Planet quite a bit (why was it impossible, again?). Just because it's a kid's show doesn't mean you can't use post-70's science.
I'm using way too many words way too incoherently to say something pretty simple: I hate amnesia episodes. I find them painful. There's other ways to look at the topic. They'd probably be fresher and more interesting. But it doesn't happen, on this show OR DW. You've got such a license, with sci-fi. And you've got three ways to do it: do old things, do old things well with a new twist, or do new things. Two of these ways take some effort, make things interesting. One is getting damned lazy. You can do the matching there: but seriously, what does Torchwood usually do? With the caveat that sex per se doesn't count as a twist. Even if it's gay sex. Yeah, you heard me.
Oh yeah, and while I'm calling RTD out, isn't there something just a little bit odd about Torchwood bisexuality? How come, in each of the two occasions we've seen two women kissing, at least one was an evil alien? Just curious...
In short: I hate amnesia episodes, the Owen/Tosh role reversal was simplistic, pathetic, and painful (though it does, by way of being a pretty exact reversal, show up some of the inadequacies of their characterizations), I hate amnesia episodes, Jack/Gwen is a bad idea on many levels and everyone but the writing staff knows it, I'm really seeing a lot of lazy writing here (like the cliche of the amnesia episode), apparently the DW/TW staff can't concieve of a hero who doesn't have creepy messianic ambitions (gah, that scene), the flashbacks and backstories were lame and pretty damn cliche (boy + abusive mother = Owen, Girl + Math = no friends = Toshiko, repeat for all backstories...), I liked Lesbian/Bi!Toshiko and I miss her, Owen is still a useless twat, and I have this long-standing issue with amnesia episodes, they put me in a great deal of discomfort, does it show?
In the pathetically long time between when I started this post and now, I saw the end of S1 again... And damn it, it was good. *sigh of relief* I was starting to wonder. If I had any sense at all I'd get the DVD... *cheap, cheap person* Next holiday, I think. Graduation should count.
Incidentally, I believe I'm about 3/4 done with a Harriet Jones fic that goes with Anno Domini. How long that last fourth will take to finish, god only knows. *incredibly erratic in such matters* I have a couple other ideas for that world, too, but they're both going to take a lot of care to get done right...