Something about poison
I tried to watch "The Poison Sky" or whatever it was called. I'm afraid I didn't meet with much success. I just gave up fifteen minutes in. I knew nothing good could come of it.
First, the revamped theme song. I am not fond of the revamped theme song. Granted, I'm not generally fond of remakes and remixes, but it's brash and loud and actually, rethinking it? Probably absolutely perfect. Then came the first scene, where Donna's mother or other older female relative (didn't have much luck with TSS, either, really) finally showed the sense to break the windshield while the Doctor futzed around with something in the car that any idiot could tell that he could never fix in time and would, at this point, entirely fail to fix the problem when he did. That is, I assume he was trying to stop the car from emitting gas. He could've been checking the alignment, wouldn't have been much less help. I'm not so clever that the Doctor shouldn't be smarter than me, not by a long shot.
Then, as they ran off, another bit of recycling: "You can't go with him! All those bad things keep happening when he's around!" The same logical fallacy they forced on Francine Jones, and it was annoying enough the first time. At least this woman's seen the man more than once, and at least he was associated with chaos both times, so that's a bit of an improvement. Still not enamoured with the logic. It doesn't seem organic to me-- it doesn't seem like what the character is thinking; instead, I'm stuck with base suspicions that the writers are sticking "opposition" opinions into the mouths of characters no one's supposed to care about. And why these are always women... I'm still angry with myself that someone else had to point out to me that there only seem to be three or four types of women on this show... I spent two years majoring in Women's Studies, and I certainly wasn't blinded by fangirl glee; I really should've noticed.
So then Sailor Gallifrey sends Donna off to the TARDIS whilst he goes off to do the Big Important Things Around the Horrible Men With Guns. Seriously, I firmly believe that the Second Amendment refers to militias and should be so interpreted, but sweet Jesus. He's so damned patronizing about it. It makes me want to run to a shooting gallery and take a class just for spite and so I can shoot him, goddamnit. I'm surprised someone had the balls to call him out on the "So, speak for our planet, now, do you?" thing, but for a legitimate point, it was sure dismissed quickly. The whole damn thing had the air of what I believe is referred to politely as a "pissing contest"-- other euphemisms refer more directly to the Freudian notion that it's really about comparing your male genitalia.
So he was going on and on and being horribly patronizing with that voice of his, that particular yowling sort of drawl he uses possibly because he thinks he's got to do something to make the particularly long chunks of dialogue interesting, and I just could not take it any more. Not. Especially as none of the bad things I'd heard about the episode had even happened yet. Apparently there's a nuclear bomb and more patronization and of course he's right and has some "brilliant" plan that revolves around some extremely dubious science (even if the gas will burn out eventually, what's it going to do while it's on fire? I mean, I can't see what dangers burning gas concentrated in every major city on earth could possibly do, but what the hell ever) and I don't think I'm going to do this any more.
My real divorce with DW was pretty much final with TCI. Maybe not irreversible, but that's when it happened, and damn comprehensively. Then I tried to get back into it again, for the sake of the fics, because I liked the fandom and keeping up with new episodes is the easiest way to keep it in your mind, somehow. And also, there was always the possibility that this would end as suddenly as it began-- there would, after all, eventually be an Eleven. But now they've turned the thing over to Moffat, and there will be no regime change. The man may have done TEC/TDD, but he also did GitF and Jekyll, for god's sake, and I don't see the slightest scrap of evidence that he sees anything broken to fix. Not to mention Jekyll was a critically acclaimed narrative train wreck that I just didn't like at all. I suspect nothing's going to change. In the words of the Who, "Meet the new boss...."
And I already know I'm not going to watch the next two episodes. "The Doctor's Daughter"? The mere title proves a project that would have to be handled with great finesse and narrative honesty to be anything more than a particularly disgraceful Mary Sue, and a) these are not qualities the new series has ever evinced before, and b) these are not terms I have seen in others' less-than-glowing reviews. I figure if I get the urge to watch it, I'll lay down and trawl fanfiction.net until it goes away. And "The Unicorn and the Wasp"? A DW farce? To me, that's like saying "alcohol and barbituates": central nervous system depressants taken together whose effects don't just add, they multiply, leading to a real possibility of overdose, coma, or even death. The only flaw in the analogy is that gin and sleeping pills are relatively painless. I can't watch that episode. I could not cope.
So what I think I'll have to do is just give up on it. I'll keep writing, but I think I might just read everyone else's reactions to the episodes, instead of trying to sit through them myself, because all it ever does is make me unhappy, and I'm really very tired of it. I will also be here to offer sympathy when the season finale crashes and burns in a horrible, horrible train wreck (okay, it's theoretically possible it might be fine. It's also theoretically possible I will suddenly find myself in Siberia). I swear to God I won't be smug at all. I just can't even try to believe in them anymore. The carrot they're holding out isn't even real, much less worth the stick. Or, in the other analogy I keep using (for someone who never plays video games, I know far too much about them), the cake? Is a lie. He's gone, and he's never coming back. Not in "canon", anyway.
This leaves me with a lot less to post about. Huh. Guess I'll just have to write more. ^^ Good luck with that...
First, the revamped theme song. I am not fond of the revamped theme song. Granted, I'm not generally fond of remakes and remixes, but it's brash and loud and actually, rethinking it? Probably absolutely perfect. Then came the first scene, where Donna's mother or other older female relative (didn't have much luck with TSS, either, really) finally showed the sense to break the windshield while the Doctor futzed around with something in the car that any idiot could tell that he could never fix in time and would, at this point, entirely fail to fix the problem when he did. That is, I assume he was trying to stop the car from emitting gas. He could've been checking the alignment, wouldn't have been much less help. I'm not so clever that the Doctor shouldn't be smarter than me, not by a long shot.
Then, as they ran off, another bit of recycling: "You can't go with him! All those bad things keep happening when he's around!" The same logical fallacy they forced on Francine Jones, and it was annoying enough the first time. At least this woman's seen the man more than once, and at least he was associated with chaos both times, so that's a bit of an improvement. Still not enamoured with the logic. It doesn't seem organic to me-- it doesn't seem like what the character is thinking; instead, I'm stuck with base suspicions that the writers are sticking "opposition" opinions into the mouths of characters no one's supposed to care about. And why these are always women... I'm still angry with myself that someone else had to point out to me that there only seem to be three or four types of women on this show... I spent two years majoring in Women's Studies, and I certainly wasn't blinded by fangirl glee; I really should've noticed.
So then Sailor Gallifrey sends Donna off to the TARDIS whilst he goes off to do the Big Important Things Around the Horrible Men With Guns. Seriously, I firmly believe that the Second Amendment refers to militias and should be so interpreted, but sweet Jesus. He's so damned patronizing about it. It makes me want to run to a shooting gallery and take a class just for spite and so I can shoot him, goddamnit. I'm surprised someone had the balls to call him out on the "So, speak for our planet, now, do you?" thing, but for a legitimate point, it was sure dismissed quickly. The whole damn thing had the air of what I believe is referred to politely as a "pissing contest"-- other euphemisms refer more directly to the Freudian notion that it's really about comparing your male genitalia.
So he was going on and on and being horribly patronizing with that voice of his, that particular yowling sort of drawl he uses possibly because he thinks he's got to do something to make the particularly long chunks of dialogue interesting, and I just could not take it any more. Not. Especially as none of the bad things I'd heard about the episode had even happened yet. Apparently there's a nuclear bomb and more patronization and of course he's right and has some "brilliant" plan that revolves around some extremely dubious science (even if the gas will burn out eventually, what's it going to do while it's on fire? I mean, I can't see what dangers burning gas concentrated in every major city on earth could possibly do, but what the hell ever) and I don't think I'm going to do this any more.
My real divorce with DW was pretty much final with TCI. Maybe not irreversible, but that's when it happened, and damn comprehensively. Then I tried to get back into it again, for the sake of the fics, because I liked the fandom and keeping up with new episodes is the easiest way to keep it in your mind, somehow. And also, there was always the possibility that this would end as suddenly as it began-- there would, after all, eventually be an Eleven. But now they've turned the thing over to Moffat, and there will be no regime change. The man may have done TEC/TDD, but he also did GitF and Jekyll, for god's sake, and I don't see the slightest scrap of evidence that he sees anything broken to fix. Not to mention Jekyll was a critically acclaimed narrative train wreck that I just didn't like at all. I suspect nothing's going to change. In the words of the Who, "Meet the new boss...."
And I already know I'm not going to watch the next two episodes. "The Doctor's Daughter"? The mere title proves a project that would have to be handled with great finesse and narrative honesty to be anything more than a particularly disgraceful Mary Sue, and a) these are not qualities the new series has ever evinced before, and b) these are not terms I have seen in others' less-than-glowing reviews. I figure if I get the urge to watch it, I'll lay down and trawl fanfiction.net until it goes away. And "The Unicorn and the Wasp"? A DW farce? To me, that's like saying "alcohol and barbituates": central nervous system depressants taken together whose effects don't just add, they multiply, leading to a real possibility of overdose, coma, or even death. The only flaw in the analogy is that gin and sleeping pills are relatively painless. I can't watch that episode. I could not cope.
So what I think I'll have to do is just give up on it. I'll keep writing, but I think I might just read everyone else's reactions to the episodes, instead of trying to sit through them myself, because all it ever does is make me unhappy, and I'm really very tired of it. I will also be here to offer sympathy when the season finale crashes and burns in a horrible, horrible train wreck (okay, it's theoretically possible it might be fine. It's also theoretically possible I will suddenly find myself in Siberia). I swear to God I won't be smug at all. I just can't even try to believe in them anymore. The carrot they're holding out isn't even real, much less worth the stick. Or, in the other analogy I keep using (for someone who never plays video games, I know far too much about them), the cake? Is a lie. He's gone, and he's never coming back. Not in "canon", anyway.
This leaves me with a lot less to post about. Huh. Guess I'll just have to write more. ^^ Good luck with that...