30-Day TV Meme
I may make a big post about Lost, Cold Blood, or both later tonight. In the meantime, here are some days I missed in the 30-Day TV Meme.
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Doctor Who.
The Doctor is my favorite story. He's a story about freedom, about being able to run away from things he doesn't like and go have adventures and matter, and no one can invent consequences big enough to hold him down.
In Doctor Who, the universe is a huge, open place. It's full of life and things to do and see. Exploring it is as easy as looking up at it. It's not just, you know, there's the moon, and like three astronauts ever get to see it, but only if they've spent their lives getting good grades and making the right friends and have absolutely no disabilities or imperfections (besides their grades and friends). The Doctor is this cool guy, and he meets random people of every sort but the kind that get to be in NASA, and they go to places much further and more different than the moon.
Everything that's wrong with the world is right with the Doctor.
Doctor Who has this great advantage over other one-story-per-episode type shows, in that it can use the setting as part of the plot. You can do that with an ongoing plot (Lost, most things set in space or a fantasy world), but because of the TARDIS, the Doctor can go to an interesting, plotty location every week. It gives Doctor Who an opportunity to do stories that would be impossible with Earth-bound shows.
Between the many dozens of people who've written Doctor Who over the years, the tone has been all over the place. The basic formula is still something along the lines of: fun, fun, fun, tiny bit of drama, save the world, fun. Which is, you know, fun. Even on a shallow level, Doctor Who is just awesome.
The Doctor is a scientist, but the action heroes back him up.
Plus, to get a bit political, until RTD came along, the world had two TV shows with an asexual main character. I appreciated that.
Day 05 - A show you hate
This is tough. I usually ignore stupid shows. I've never really had a lot of celebrity- or reality TV-obsessed friends. If someone makes a bad show, it's probably obvious from the previews. If it's not, I probably still won't remember it once I've quit watching.
So while there's probably some other show of even lower quality out there, the show I hate the most is Torchwood. Not so much for being bad, as for being bad and attached to Doctor Who. I don't want to tell people I like Doctor Who, in case they're more familiar with Torchwood. I know Doctor Who is more famous, but for someone who doesn't watch either, it could happen since Torchwood's entire premise is based on attention-whoring. Doctor Who was old news when Torchwood started getting press. I don't know, I just never got over the horror of the announcement of Torchwood. And then I actually saw it, and until then I didn't believe any show could suck that much.
I hate that these uninteresting characters and their tedious, poorly-conceived, Earth-bound stories, all of which are just an excuse to try and be shocking with sex anyway, are now officially part of the world of my favorite show. I hate that they were on Doctor Who at one point.
If RTD wants to grab for more attention, he can make all the horrible shows he wants and I don't care. But he brought my favorite show into it. He tacked it onto Doctor Who. He didn't make Doctor Who. He didn't even bring it back; Doctor Who wasn't dead before RTD showed up. There's nothing that gave him the right to do something like Torchwood.
Now that it's here, it won't go away. I have to share the fandom with people who like this embarrassing, plotless filth. My options are to either never talk about my favorite show with other people who like it, or accept constantly hearing about the Innuendo Squad for years to come. It will always be there, getting thrown together with my show in ficathons and contests, being cited as part of "the whole story" in any discussion about Doctor Who characters, and of course, right there on screen, with either Jack or the name "Torchwood" showing up in about a third of all episodes from RTD's era.
Other bad shows just kind of sound bad, and then I never think about them again. Torchwood is there every day I check my flist.
But Children of Earth was amazing.
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Doctor Who.
The Doctor is my favorite story. He's a story about freedom, about being able to run away from things he doesn't like and go have adventures and matter, and no one can invent consequences big enough to hold him down.
In Doctor Who, the universe is a huge, open place. It's full of life and things to do and see. Exploring it is as easy as looking up at it. It's not just, you know, there's the moon, and like three astronauts ever get to see it, but only if they've spent their lives getting good grades and making the right friends and have absolutely no disabilities or imperfections (besides their grades and friends). The Doctor is this cool guy, and he meets random people of every sort but the kind that get to be in NASA, and they go to places much further and more different than the moon.
Everything that's wrong with the world is right with the Doctor.
Doctor Who has this great advantage over other one-story-per-episode type shows, in that it can use the setting as part of the plot. You can do that with an ongoing plot (Lost, most things set in space or a fantasy world), but because of the TARDIS, the Doctor can go to an interesting, plotty location every week. It gives Doctor Who an opportunity to do stories that would be impossible with Earth-bound shows.
Between the many dozens of people who've written Doctor Who over the years, the tone has been all over the place. The basic formula is still something along the lines of: fun, fun, fun, tiny bit of drama, save the world, fun. Which is, you know, fun. Even on a shallow level, Doctor Who is just awesome.
The Doctor is a scientist, but the action heroes back him up.
Plus, to get a bit political, until RTD came along, the world had two TV shows with an asexual main character. I appreciated that.
Day 05 - A show you hate
This is tough. I usually ignore stupid shows. I've never really had a lot of celebrity- or reality TV-obsessed friends. If someone makes a bad show, it's probably obvious from the previews. If it's not, I probably still won't remember it once I've quit watching.
So while there's probably some other show of even lower quality out there, the show I hate the most is Torchwood. Not so much for being bad, as for being bad and attached to Doctor Who. I don't want to tell people I like Doctor Who, in case they're more familiar with Torchwood. I know Doctor Who is more famous, but for someone who doesn't watch either, it could happen since Torchwood's entire premise is based on attention-whoring. Doctor Who was old news when Torchwood started getting press. I don't know, I just never got over the horror of the announcement of Torchwood. And then I actually saw it, and until then I didn't believe any show could suck that much.
I hate that these uninteresting characters and their tedious, poorly-conceived, Earth-bound stories, all of which are just an excuse to try and be shocking with sex anyway, are now officially part of the world of my favorite show. I hate that they were on Doctor Who at one point.
If RTD wants to grab for more attention, he can make all the horrible shows he wants and I don't care. But he brought my favorite show into it. He tacked it onto Doctor Who. He didn't make Doctor Who. He didn't even bring it back; Doctor Who wasn't dead before RTD showed up. There's nothing that gave him the right to do something like Torchwood.
Now that it's here, it won't go away. I have to share the fandom with people who like this embarrassing, plotless filth. My options are to either never talk about my favorite show with other people who like it, or accept constantly hearing about the Innuendo Squad for years to come. It will always be there, getting thrown together with my show in ficathons and contests, being cited as part of "the whole story" in any discussion about Doctor Who characters, and of course, right there on screen, with either Jack or the name "Torchwood" showing up in about a third of all episodes from RTD's era.
Other bad shows just kind of sound bad, and then I never think about them again. Torchwood is there every day I check my flist.
But Children of Earth was amazing.