"Marble House" commentary by hollywoodgrrl
Title: Marble House
Vidder: hollywoodgrrl
Fandom: Doctor Who
Link to vid: Here
Warning: Loooooong.
Commentary by: hollywoodgrrl
The idea for Marble House was born out of the most ideal creative situation, I think, which is one vidder being influencing by the work of another. Literally, and this is no joke, I watched obsessive24's Carnivale vid, Jesus for the Jugular, and just fell head over heels with the way Nicky used outside source, specifically the WWII footage. Now I'm not just talking about the editing (which, of course, was beyond perfection), it was more of the way she structured the vid, the way the outside source was so organically woven into the story. The brilliance lies in the fact that Carnivale really does lend itself to this structure as it's set in the 30's, deals with themes of Good vs. Evil, and specifically foreshadows the happenings of WWII and the Atomic Age. Nicky tapped into this and ended up with an incredibly complex vid. So there I was, watching it, and as a vidder it's this kind of art that's literally like a buffet of awesome you just wanna nom till you burst! I came out of that experience tingling with the need to
steal the idea give it a shot myself.
Since WWII was out of the question I racked my brain for something else that could work. At this point it was all a joke really, I felt that I could never come up with something that could work as organically as Nicky's vid. So I made a little joke to one of my roommates about vidding Doctor Who, specifically my favorite episodes "Human Nature/Family of Blood" as they are not only incredibly complex while being self-contained, but they're also set on the eve of the First World War. Now at the same time as this was all brewing in the mind grapes I was putting together a Ten/Martha fanmix (which uh, I still need to post?) and had "Marble House" by The Knife as one of the tracks on the playlist. I had connected the song to the HN/FoB eps already because it has distinct voices for Martha and John Smith as well as this overwhelming feeling of sadness. Aesthetically it feels like you're walking through the school, your footsteps echoing, whistling away your disappointment at how life turned out. It's truly a beautiful song but as it's long and has so many layers I never considered it as anything more than just a mix song. And then one day, walking to the subway on my way to work, I was listening to it and suddenly...it was more than just a mix song. I cracked the structure. How I could use the length and complexity of the song to my advantage. It could actually work!
I started to collect outside source. Got a bunch of WWI docs, pulled clips. Got a bunch of space programs, pulled clips. Had my episodes ready. And then I got scared. My biggest problem whenever I vid is the fear of wasting time and energy on something that could potentially fail. Because I tend to come up with far too many grand ideas that get me all psyched, but I never know if what I dream up is actually plausible. More importantly, I never know if I can make it work. So I tend to pick and choose. And I started to have a feeling that this would be a massive project which would require too much of my time and I'd never have anything else finished and that would drive me crazy. (Srsly. I get mental when I don't get vids finished and posted.) So I kinda put it on the back burner. Moved onto other vids. I always told myself that I'd get back to it because there's no denying it was one of those ideas that you know will amount to something huge. Maybe that's why I never sent back one of the WWI discs (I had that Netflix for nine months I think!) but honestly, I don't think I would have gotten back to it. There was always something else to vid. Something that could be done faster, posted sooner.
It's only because I registered to attend the 2009 Vividcon that I really began to reevaluate this vid. I figured it was worthy of Premieres and could generate discussion, and I wouldn't mind killing myself with such an ambitious project for Vividcon because it's like vidders' Mecca and you wanted to bring your best. So a couple sleepless months later...Marble House was finally born.
Before I really get into it (haha, be prepared for the tl;dr right now) I want to mention the structure of the vid. In its barest form it's structured like an episode of Doctor Who. Meaning the TARDIS arrives at a specific time period, there is an adventure involving the Doctor and his companion, there are baddies, and then the TARDIS leaves. It's cyclical like the Doctor is cyclical, and if you uncoil it you can really see how the beginning and end are mirrors of one another, with the fob watch section being the middle, the belly of the beast if you will.
I. TIME LORD
Technically speaking this is an episodic vid dealing with a two-parter that's practically Doctorless. But ironically I think these are the two eps where you learn most about the Doctor. So it was important to set up his character right away. That's why the first image you see after the title card is of Gallifrey. But then Gallifrey morphs into a black hole which in turn morphs into the Time Vortex. For me these were the first steps in establishing the Doctor's instinct to run. Running is what he does best. He ran away from the Time Vortex when he was a wee Time Lord and then later he ran away from Gallifrey entirely. It was a metaphorical black hole for him when it existed and once he destroyed it, it continues to suck him in. Because no matter how far he runs he can't ever escape his nature. And whether you're human or Time Lord, it's the same for all of us.
The quotes not only bridge the Whoneverse, combine Classic Who with New Who, but they further establish the Doctor's character as this mighty force, something far beyond human comprehension. And the fact that he knows it and likes to show it off.
One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. - ONE
Our lives are different from anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing! - TWO
I'm a Time Lord... I'm not a human being. I walk in eternity. - FOUR
Time reveals everything. - FOUR
There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea is asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace; we've got work
to do! - SEVEN
I went looking for quotes from multiple eras dealing with regeneration, to show a Time Lord's eternity as well as power, and I went for quotes specifically as opposed to sound bites (this was brought up at VVC In-Depth Review) because the quality of the audio as well as the delivery of some of these lines would ruin the dramatic effect. Not only that but I had to break up the space footage with something. It's pretty, yes, but there's fifty seconds of it and you don't have to have A.D.D. for that to test your patience. Text gives the eye something to do while smoothing out all the overlapping "voices" to form one voice. One guy at the center of it all: The Doctor.
It is he who has the power to see the Earth at its birth and the Earth at its death. And "time reveals everything" is the Doctor's last word before heading to our destination of 20th Century Earth because he sees all of time and space and knows it to be true. Again, matching the themes of the episodes, it's as if the Doctor himself knows he can't hide forever, though he tries. But ultimately we will see the real Doctor, the one who hides in the fob watch here, the one who hides beneath the smile everywhere else.
II. THE WAR TO END ALL WARS
So it begins. The TARDIS travels to the past, and as it gets closer and closer to Earth, we start seeing images of war. The two episodes provided a glimpse of Latimer and Hutchinson as soldiers in WWI and I let those images be the gateway into each of the war sections. The section here in the beginning is more of a setup for the general violence. We see shells exploding, flame throwers spitting, the two sides running towards each other, Latimer and Hutchinson struggling in the midst of the explosions. One of the best clips I pulled was of the tank bearing the moniker "BRITANNIA" because it is the ultimate picture of the old British mentality that seeps out of John Smith as it seeps out of the headmaster of the school. War is being taught to the boys as something to look forward to, to prove your honor as men. And it is at the end of the vid, in the second glimpse of WWI, where we realize just how foolish this notion is.
There's death and then there's the glory of the British Empire. Endless soldiers marching into the machine for King and Country. The gif on the left is from Marble House, portraying the section that's one of those meant to be moments. It's my final push from outside source into the episode and it shows a group of soldiers marching in formation, matching the group of boys we see marching in the beginning of "Human Nature." Obviously the symbolism is intentional within the episode, but pairing them side by side I think really hits it home. I used a color transition in each of the war sections as well. Here it's the shot of the flag bursting to color. The British flag as it's taught to mean life and death for these kids.
Now if you notice the gif on the right, that is a section from Jesus for the Jugular. It's hard to tell without the music, but what Nicky did was ramp the speed so that the boys, the Hitler Youth, were marching on beat with her song. My song also has a kick ass beat and it just so happens that the particular transition you see came at a moment where I could play with the speed as well. When I was laying everything out in my head, I knew at that moment that this would be my homage to Nicky. I do love how in both these wars, the soldiers I was portraying and the soldiers Nicky was portraying are enemies, yet the flag means the same thing to them all.
The last thing I had to do before the intro concluded (IKR! We're not even in the real vid yet! Haaa!) was to get rid of the Doctor. He goes to hide. Fob watch, chameleon arch, and the Time Lord is literally ripped out of him. I like how the shot of the Doctor falling into the pit is such an iconic image that it can have so many meanings depending on which context it's presented in. Here it's a very straightforward idea that the Time Lord is disappearing, and the man who opens his eyes is the human, John Smith.
III. MARTHA JONES
♪I cut your nails and comb your hair
I carry you down the stairs
I wanted to see right through from the other side
I wanted to walk a trail with no end in sight
We're finally in the marble house and the first verse is from Martha's perspective. To me the lyrics are distinctly about a woman taking care of a man while harboring disappointment over expectations that were never met. (HOW MARTHA JONES IS THAT?!) So here she is in 1913, working as John Smith's maid, taking racist and sexist comments left and right, all for him. Because the Doctor said it was all up to her, made up his mind for her. And what does Martha do? She steps up and does what she's told like the good little soldier she's being groomed to be. She loves him, yes, and that's what makes it even more horrible really. So in this opening section I wanted to show her taking care of him, loving him, waiting for him, but at the same time never forgetting how it all started. How he flirted his way into her life, asked her to come with him, led her on in so many ways, and ultimately left her not only metaphorically empty handed, but doing the kind of manual labor that is entirely beneath her. She is a medical student, an educated woman brimming with potential. And here she is, stuck in 1913, so out of her time, waiting for him to wake up. (Which is ultimately her theme for the entire season, waiting for the Doctor to wake up and see her.)
♪The moment we believe that we have never met
Another kind of love it's easy to forget
When we are all alone then we do both agree
We have a thing in common this was meant to be
The chorus repeats twice and with each turn I tried to move the story along as much as possible but in a way that applies to the specific character of each previous verse. So in this first chorus, starting at 1:51 and coming right off the Martha section, it's a brief flash of just how Martha ended up where she is, with the fob watch transitioning to the Journal of Impossible Things, to John Smith's interest in Joan Redfern, to the fact that even in this incarnation he doesn't want Martha the way she wants him. While the second chorus, beginning at 2:52 and coming off of John Smith's section, deals primarily with his world shattering as the Family make their move while simultaneously Martha begins to pressure him with information pertaining to the Doctor.
I wanted to end the first chorus with Martha and John separated. She seeks solace in the TARDIS while he casually regards the fob watch in his office. Though there's a perception filter on it, the fact that he picks it up ever so casually means something drew him in. So I wanted him to glimpse the Time Lord hiding inside.
We all have a world of our own terrors to face. - SEVEN
You can't expect perfection, not even from me. - FOUR
And here he is. This is a glimpse of the Doctor that occurs at 2:11-2:15. As soon as John Smith picks up the fob watch the song hits a particularly disturbing synth. It's a gorgeous sound and honestly I want to make love to all the various synth beats in the song, but this one is just so ominous, such a perfect match for the Doctor. So what John Smith looks at is the man he's been dreaming about, staring him right in the eyes, his mirror image.
This is the first time we glimpse the Doctor and what we get are excuses. The two quotes, coming from two different incarnations of the Doctor, actually form a sentence, a defensive one at that. So what John Smith picks up on is a feeling of doubt about his hero who in turn is doubting himself.
But then he puts down the watch and all is forgotten once again.
IV. JOHN SMITH
♪You close my eyes and soothe my ears
You heal my wounds and dry my tears
On the inside of this marble house I grow
And the seeds I sow will grow up prisoners too
The John Smith section I think is the one that comes closest to the heart of what the song is really about. I base this off the official music video which is one of the most frightening things I've ever seen and it's about a loving family of mice! What you end up feeling once you're done watching is this sense of foreboding. That each day for this family could be the last, they are mice trying to live their lives in a world that's much greater than them. So here too you get the same feeling. That John and Joan are very loving, and they could have a family, live their lives together, but the circumstances are bigger than them. They're living in the last days of the British Empire. Even the kiss seems ominous.
Now pertaining to John Smith, I'd like to bring up this theory about fob watched Time Lords. The two examples we've seen so far in canon are human versions of the Doctor and the Master, both occurring in Series 3. Now if the Doctor is the Hero and the Master is the Baddie then why is the Doctor's human version a cowardly pompous prick while the Master's is a sweet old man working to benefit the human race? Isn't it just the simplest way of showing that the human is the spine of the Time Lord? The Time Lord boiled down to his simplest form? Perhaps that's why John Smith doesn't return Martha's love the way the Doctor doesn't return her love, or why he picks up a gun but never fires, instead lets his army of children do the shooting for him?
I say this because I tend to pick up the Doctor's fear of domesticity in the way John comes out of that kiss, especially with the lyric "and the seeds I sow will grow up prisoners too." So among all this emotion perhaps in the back of his mind (where the Time Lord is safely tucked away) there's just a hint of the Doctor's hesitance, because he can't be stuck in the marble house, he needs freedom, he needs to run.
V. AND HE'S WONDERFUL
He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful. - TIM LATIMER
Every time there's a glimpse of the Doctor it's usually through someone. First it's through John Smith and here, in the bridge, it's through Tim Latimer. In "Human Nature," Latimer is drawn to the fob watch and actually nicks it. He opens it briefly, gets a taste of the Time Lord, and even feels that power in the presence of John Smith. But what he actually sees - scary monsters and the Doctor walking around with the Sonic Screwdriver - absolutely does not warrant his iconic speech in "Family of Blood." So with this bridge I wanted to show Latimer looking inside the fob watch, feeling the power of the Time Lord, and coming back for more.
From left to right the gifs are of each instrumental loop in the bridge. The way the editing worked is that I based the structure off of what we saw within the episode. So the first section is what I call MONSTERS. It's all the weird looking aliens and baddies that the Doctor faced, literally lifted from the episode and put on the timeline. Except for the shots of the Toclafane and the Sontaran. I added those specifically because I wanted to show the scope of the Time Lord. That past, present, and future are all his playground.
MONSTERS then lead into VILLAINS. These are human-shaped aliens. Scary fuckers who tested the Doctor in one way or another, ending of course on two different faces of the Master, the Doctor's most formidable opponent. It is that Time Lord face that leads to the third section, THE DOCTOR. Here Latimer witnesses what I think is a far better representation of "fire and ice and rage" than the Doctor with the Sonic. He sees all the incarnations of the Doctor, from One to Ten. It is in this section that I directly homage flummery's Handlebars. Because he not only glimpses the Doctor's power ("I can end the planet in a holocaust") but also his eternity, which would be completely terrifying for a human to witness.
And that is our transition to the final section, COMPANIONS. These are the people who are marked by the Doctor. They're privileged in having the opportunity to travel with him, he is wonderful. He makes them better and they all love him in one way or another. But at the same time no one ends up with a happy ending. They'll willingly sacrifice themselves for him and he'll leave them destroyed in his wake.
I love the way we exit this COMPANIONS section. The symbolism worked particularly well here with the Doctor holding his hand out, bidding you to come with him. But once you agree you're slowly pulled into his world and then you burn.
VI. THE FAMILY
♪Now where's your shoulder
What is it's name
What's your scent
Say it again
Coming off a section where Latimer continuously opens and closes the fob watch, it's very appropriate to pause here for a short interlude and explore the baddies of the episodes. Well, there's not much to say, just the Family being their creepy sniffy selves. But I would like to mention again how this song is a miracle song. I mean look at these lyrics. They're insane! But then only in this vid could they work. (The thing about the scent?! Jesus Christ.) It's like it was written so this vid could exist.
VII. MARTHA AGAIN
♪If it goes faster can you still follow me
It must be safe when it's on TV
Again the crazy lyrics gave me access to play around with what I think became one of my favorite moments of the vid. There's a moment in "Family of Blood" where John Smith is holding the fob watch, contemplating his existence, when suddenly he starts speaking in the Doctor's voice. It lasts only a second and when he breaks free, John Smith is utterly terrified. What we see in the episode is David Tennant briefly switching characters, showing us the external change. But here I saw an opportunity to express the internal struggle. Thanks to that glorious synth I found just the right moment to show the Doctor literally tapping on John Smith's subconscious, and just how terrifying it is to feel such a thing for poor confused Mr. Smith. And the kicker is Martha's reaction. She smiles. Because as horrible as this moment might seem to John Smith, it's probably the best second of Martha's entire stay in 1913.
♪I raise my hands to heaven of curiosity
I don't know what to ask for
What has it got for me?
The others say we're hiding
It's as forward as can be
Some things I do for money
Some things I do for free
These are the lyrics that first peaked my interest as being applicable to Doctor Who, specifically correlating with Martha: "Some things I do for money/ Some things I do for free." Because the story of Martha Jones is a sad and frustrating tale. And in this last section I really wanted to flesh out her transformation. I was always fascinated by the moment in "Family of Blood" where Martha bumps into Latimer on the street and he sees her in her own time, I assume sometime in the 21st Century. As with the fob watch section in the bridge I felt that here was another missed opportunity by the canon to really dig into it. So the moment she bumps into him, Latimer sees the truth about Martha. The transition occurs in the collision, as we flashback to "Smith and Jones" and travel chronologically through the various moments in Martha's time as the Doctor's companion when she was shoved around (literally and metaphorically) and forced to lead when she should have only followed.
The section ends on the darkest of notes. We see Martha's progression, we hear her resolute voice in the lyrics - "Some things I do for money/ Some things I do for free" - and as she salutes so proudly we finally see that she's become nothing more than the Doctor's own straw soldier.
Do you like them, Mr Philips? I made them myself. I'm ever so good at science, sir. Look --(he pulls the arm off the scarecrow)-- molecular fringe animation fashioned in the shape of straw men. My own private army, sir. Ever so good, sir. - BAINES
It's a crude thing to say but every time I see Martha's salute I honestly expect the Doctor to step up and rip her arm right off like Baines ripped the arm off that one brave scarecrow. Because the similarities are sad but true. The Doctor created a soldier out of a girl just as John Smith taught his boys to shoot machine guns, just as Baines animated straw to form the shape of a man, so there would be a body to take the bullets for him. Someone to fight in his place.
And when Martha begs for the Doctor to "save us" she means all the souls who willingly go into battle. All of them, past and present, good and bad.
VIII. THE DOCTOR DANCES
But once the fob watch is opened and the Doctor returns the answer, of course, is no. He looks you in the eye and says it. And he just walks away.
We move away from Earth, from WWI, from the past and the TARDIS bounces along to the future. What the Doctor leaves behind is death and carnage. At 4:46 the second WWI section begins with the desaturation and subsequent destruction of Latimer and Hutchinson. And unlike the events of the episode, here there's no hope for them. While the WWI section in the beginning of the vid established the general conflict, here it's all about the loss of life. Shells tear apart the Earth as they rip apart men. The boys from the school who kept their posts and fired at Baines' straw army are all surely killed. And the soldier carrying his unconscious comrade makes eye contact with us as if to ask, "Why?"
But the Doctor is far from Earth and what is he doing? He's dancing around the TARDIS, happy as can be. I wanted to end the vid on that image of him because it's the douchiest thing I could find. Because the Doctor is not bothered with petty human wars. He has other things on his mind. He can do and see because a Time Lord is so much greater.
I remember seeing Watchmen and being taken by how well the mantra, "Who watches the watchmen?" fits with the Doctor. And how similar the Doctor is to Dr. Manhattan. Besides the obvious name game, the similarity lies in the fact that as the only Watchmen with real powers, Dr. Manhattan becomes disinterested in human matters. He'd rather spend time on Mars making glass castles. So too would the Doctor. He who has so many of his own Time Lordy demons to fight.
Why would he stay when he can run?
Vidder: hollywoodgrrl
Fandom: Doctor Who
Link to vid: Here
Warning: Loooooong.
Commentary by: hollywoodgrrl
The idea for Marble House was born out of the most ideal creative situation, I think, which is one vidder being influencing by the work of another. Literally, and this is no joke, I watched obsessive24's Carnivale vid, Jesus for the Jugular, and just fell head over heels with the way Nicky used outside source, specifically the WWII footage. Now I'm not just talking about the editing (which, of course, was beyond perfection), it was more of the way she structured the vid, the way the outside source was so organically woven into the story. The brilliance lies in the fact that Carnivale really does lend itself to this structure as it's set in the 30's, deals with themes of Good vs. Evil, and specifically foreshadows the happenings of WWII and the Atomic Age. Nicky tapped into this and ended up with an incredibly complex vid. So there I was, watching it, and as a vidder it's this kind of art that's literally like a buffet of awesome you just wanna nom till you burst! I came out of that experience tingling with the need to
steal the idea give it a shot myself.
Since WWII was out of the question I racked my brain for something else that could work. At this point it was all a joke really, I felt that I could never come up with something that could work as organically as Nicky's vid. So I made a little joke to one of my roommates about vidding Doctor Who, specifically my favorite episodes "Human Nature/Family of Blood" as they are not only incredibly complex while being self-contained, but they're also set on the eve of the First World War. Now at the same time as this was all brewing in the mind grapes I was putting together a Ten/Martha fanmix (which uh, I still need to post?) and had "Marble House" by The Knife as one of the tracks on the playlist. I had connected the song to the HN/FoB eps already because it has distinct voices for Martha and John Smith as well as this overwhelming feeling of sadness. Aesthetically it feels like you're walking through the school, your footsteps echoing, whistling away your disappointment at how life turned out. It's truly a beautiful song but as it's long and has so many layers I never considered it as anything more than just a mix song. And then one day, walking to the subway on my way to work, I was listening to it and suddenly...it was more than just a mix song. I cracked the structure. How I could use the length and complexity of the song to my advantage. It could actually work!
I started to collect outside source. Got a bunch of WWI docs, pulled clips. Got a bunch of space programs, pulled clips. Had my episodes ready. And then I got scared. My biggest problem whenever I vid is the fear of wasting time and energy on something that could potentially fail. Because I tend to come up with far too many grand ideas that get me all psyched, but I never know if what I dream up is actually plausible. More importantly, I never know if I can make it work. So I tend to pick and choose. And I started to have a feeling that this would be a massive project which would require too much of my time and I'd never have anything else finished and that would drive me crazy. (Srsly. I get mental when I don't get vids finished and posted.) So I kinda put it on the back burner. Moved onto other vids. I always told myself that I'd get back to it because there's no denying it was one of those ideas that you know will amount to something huge. Maybe that's why I never sent back one of the WWI discs (I had that Netflix for nine months I think!) but honestly, I don't think I would have gotten back to it. There was always something else to vid. Something that could be done faster, posted sooner.
It's only because I registered to attend the 2009 Vividcon that I really began to reevaluate this vid. I figured it was worthy of Premieres and could generate discussion, and I wouldn't mind killing myself with such an ambitious project for Vividcon because it's like vidders' Mecca and you wanted to bring your best. So a couple sleepless months later...Marble House was finally born.
Before I really get into it (haha, be prepared for the tl;dr right now) I want to mention the structure of the vid. In its barest form it's structured like an episode of Doctor Who. Meaning the TARDIS arrives at a specific time period, there is an adventure involving the Doctor and his companion, there are baddies, and then the TARDIS leaves. It's cyclical like the Doctor is cyclical, and if you uncoil it you can really see how the beginning and end are mirrors of one another, with the fob watch section being the middle, the belly of the beast if you will.
I. TIME LORD
Technically speaking this is an episodic vid dealing with a two-parter that's practically Doctorless. But ironically I think these are the two eps where you learn most about the Doctor. So it was important to set up his character right away. That's why the first image you see after the title card is of Gallifrey. But then Gallifrey morphs into a black hole which in turn morphs into the Time Vortex. For me these were the first steps in establishing the Doctor's instinct to run. Running is what he does best. He ran away from the Time Vortex when he was a wee Time Lord and then later he ran away from Gallifrey entirely. It was a metaphorical black hole for him when it existed and once he destroyed it, it continues to suck him in. Because no matter how far he runs he can't ever escape his nature. And whether you're human or Time Lord, it's the same for all of us.
The quotes not only bridge the Whoneverse, combine Classic Who with New Who, but they further establish the Doctor's character as this mighty force, something far beyond human comprehension. And the fact that he knows it and likes to show it off.
One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. - ONE
Our lives are different from anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we're doing! - TWO
I'm a Time Lord... I'm not a human being. I walk in eternity. - FOUR
Time reveals everything. - FOUR
There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea is asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace; we've got work
to do! - SEVEN
I went looking for quotes from multiple eras dealing with regeneration, to show a Time Lord's eternity as well as power, and I went for quotes specifically as opposed to sound bites (this was brought up at VVC In-Depth Review) because the quality of the audio as well as the delivery of some of these lines would ruin the dramatic effect. Not only that but I had to break up the space footage with something. It's pretty, yes, but there's fifty seconds of it and you don't have to have A.D.D. for that to test your patience. Text gives the eye something to do while smoothing out all the overlapping "voices" to form one voice. One guy at the center of it all: The Doctor.
It is he who has the power to see the Earth at its birth and the Earth at its death. And "time reveals everything" is the Doctor's last word before heading to our destination of 20th Century Earth because he sees all of time and space and knows it to be true. Again, matching the themes of the episodes, it's as if the Doctor himself knows he can't hide forever, though he tries. But ultimately we will see the real Doctor, the one who hides in the fob watch here, the one who hides beneath the smile everywhere else.
II. THE WAR TO END ALL WARS
So it begins. The TARDIS travels to the past, and as it gets closer and closer to Earth, we start seeing images of war. The two episodes provided a glimpse of Latimer and Hutchinson as soldiers in WWI and I let those images be the gateway into each of the war sections. The section here in the beginning is more of a setup for the general violence. We see shells exploding, flame throwers spitting, the two sides running towards each other, Latimer and Hutchinson struggling in the midst of the explosions. One of the best clips I pulled was of the tank bearing the moniker "BRITANNIA" because it is the ultimate picture of the old British mentality that seeps out of John Smith as it seeps out of the headmaster of the school. War is being taught to the boys as something to look forward to, to prove your honor as men. And it is at the end of the vid, in the second glimpse of WWI, where we realize just how foolish this notion is.
There's death and then there's the glory of the British Empire. Endless soldiers marching into the machine for King and Country. The gif on the left is from Marble House, portraying the section that's one of those meant to be moments. It's my final push from outside source into the episode and it shows a group of soldiers marching in formation, matching the group of boys we see marching in the beginning of "Human Nature." Obviously the symbolism is intentional within the episode, but pairing them side by side I think really hits it home. I used a color transition in each of the war sections as well. Here it's the shot of the flag bursting to color. The British flag as it's taught to mean life and death for these kids.
Now if you notice the gif on the right, that is a section from Jesus for the Jugular. It's hard to tell without the music, but what Nicky did was ramp the speed so that the boys, the Hitler Youth, were marching on beat with her song. My song also has a kick ass beat and it just so happens that the particular transition you see came at a moment where I could play with the speed as well. When I was laying everything out in my head, I knew at that moment that this would be my homage to Nicky. I do love how in both these wars, the soldiers I was portraying and the soldiers Nicky was portraying are enemies, yet the flag means the same thing to them all.
The last thing I had to do before the intro concluded (IKR! We're not even in the real vid yet! Haaa!) was to get rid of the Doctor. He goes to hide. Fob watch, chameleon arch, and the Time Lord is literally ripped out of him. I like how the shot of the Doctor falling into the pit is such an iconic image that it can have so many meanings depending on which context it's presented in. Here it's a very straightforward idea that the Time Lord is disappearing, and the man who opens his eyes is the human, John Smith.
III. MARTHA JONES
♪I cut your nails and comb your hair
I carry you down the stairs
I wanted to see right through from the other side
I wanted to walk a trail with no end in sight
We're finally in the marble house and the first verse is from Martha's perspective. To me the lyrics are distinctly about a woman taking care of a man while harboring disappointment over expectations that were never met. (HOW MARTHA JONES IS THAT?!) So here she is in 1913, working as John Smith's maid, taking racist and sexist comments left and right, all for him. Because the Doctor said it was all up to her, made up his mind for her. And what does Martha do? She steps up and does what she's told like the good little soldier she's being groomed to be. She loves him, yes, and that's what makes it even more horrible really. So in this opening section I wanted to show her taking care of him, loving him, waiting for him, but at the same time never forgetting how it all started. How he flirted his way into her life, asked her to come with him, led her on in so many ways, and ultimately left her not only metaphorically empty handed, but doing the kind of manual labor that is entirely beneath her. She is a medical student, an educated woman brimming with potential. And here she is, stuck in 1913, so out of her time, waiting for him to wake up. (Which is ultimately her theme for the entire season, waiting for the Doctor to wake up and see her.)
♪The moment we believe that we have never met
Another kind of love it's easy to forget
When we are all alone then we do both agree
We have a thing in common this was meant to be
The chorus repeats twice and with each turn I tried to move the story along as much as possible but in a way that applies to the specific character of each previous verse. So in this first chorus, starting at 1:51 and coming right off the Martha section, it's a brief flash of just how Martha ended up where she is, with the fob watch transitioning to the Journal of Impossible Things, to John Smith's interest in Joan Redfern, to the fact that even in this incarnation he doesn't want Martha the way she wants him. While the second chorus, beginning at 2:52 and coming off of John Smith's section, deals primarily with his world shattering as the Family make their move while simultaneously Martha begins to pressure him with information pertaining to the Doctor.
I wanted to end the first chorus with Martha and John separated. She seeks solace in the TARDIS while he casually regards the fob watch in his office. Though there's a perception filter on it, the fact that he picks it up ever so casually means something drew him in. So I wanted him to glimpse the Time Lord hiding inside.
We all have a world of our own terrors to face. - SEVEN
You can't expect perfection, not even from me. - FOUR
And here he is. This is a glimpse of the Doctor that occurs at 2:11-2:15. As soon as John Smith picks up the fob watch the song hits a particularly disturbing synth. It's a gorgeous sound and honestly I want to make love to all the various synth beats in the song, but this one is just so ominous, such a perfect match for the Doctor. So what John Smith looks at is the man he's been dreaming about, staring him right in the eyes, his mirror image.
This is the first time we glimpse the Doctor and what we get are excuses. The two quotes, coming from two different incarnations of the Doctor, actually form a sentence, a defensive one at that. So what John Smith picks up on is a feeling of doubt about his hero who in turn is doubting himself.
But then he puts down the watch and all is forgotten once again.
IV. JOHN SMITH
♪You close my eyes and soothe my ears
You heal my wounds and dry my tears
On the inside of this marble house I grow
And the seeds I sow will grow up prisoners too
The John Smith section I think is the one that comes closest to the heart of what the song is really about. I base this off the official music video which is one of the most frightening things I've ever seen and it's about a loving family of mice! What you end up feeling once you're done watching is this sense of foreboding. That each day for this family could be the last, they are mice trying to live their lives in a world that's much greater than them. So here too you get the same feeling. That John and Joan are very loving, and they could have a family, live their lives together, but the circumstances are bigger than them. They're living in the last days of the British Empire. Even the kiss seems ominous.
Now pertaining to John Smith, I'd like to bring up this theory about fob watched Time Lords. The two examples we've seen so far in canon are human versions of the Doctor and the Master, both occurring in Series 3. Now if the Doctor is the Hero and the Master is the Baddie then why is the Doctor's human version a cowardly pompous prick while the Master's is a sweet old man working to benefit the human race? Isn't it just the simplest way of showing that the human is the spine of the Time Lord? The Time Lord boiled down to his simplest form? Perhaps that's why John Smith doesn't return Martha's love the way the Doctor doesn't return her love, or why he picks up a gun but never fires, instead lets his army of children do the shooting for him?
I say this because I tend to pick up the Doctor's fear of domesticity in the way John comes out of that kiss, especially with the lyric "and the seeds I sow will grow up prisoners too." So among all this emotion perhaps in the back of his mind (where the Time Lord is safely tucked away) there's just a hint of the Doctor's hesitance, because he can't be stuck in the marble house, he needs freedom, he needs to run.
V. AND HE'S WONDERFUL
He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful. - TIM LATIMER
Every time there's a glimpse of the Doctor it's usually through someone. First it's through John Smith and here, in the bridge, it's through Tim Latimer. In "Human Nature," Latimer is drawn to the fob watch and actually nicks it. He opens it briefly, gets a taste of the Time Lord, and even feels that power in the presence of John Smith. But what he actually sees - scary monsters and the Doctor walking around with the Sonic Screwdriver - absolutely does not warrant his iconic speech in "Family of Blood." So with this bridge I wanted to show Latimer looking inside the fob watch, feeling the power of the Time Lord, and coming back for more.
From left to right the gifs are of each instrumental loop in the bridge. The way the editing worked is that I based the structure off of what we saw within the episode. So the first section is what I call MONSTERS. It's all the weird looking aliens and baddies that the Doctor faced, literally lifted from the episode and put on the timeline. Except for the shots of the Toclafane and the Sontaran. I added those specifically because I wanted to show the scope of the Time Lord. That past, present, and future are all his playground.
MONSTERS then lead into VILLAINS. These are human-shaped aliens. Scary fuckers who tested the Doctor in one way or another, ending of course on two different faces of the Master, the Doctor's most formidable opponent. It is that Time Lord face that leads to the third section, THE DOCTOR. Here Latimer witnesses what I think is a far better representation of "fire and ice and rage" than the Doctor with the Sonic. He sees all the incarnations of the Doctor, from One to Ten. It is in this section that I directly homage flummery's Handlebars. Because he not only glimpses the Doctor's power ("I can end the planet in a holocaust") but also his eternity, which would be completely terrifying for a human to witness.
And that is our transition to the final section, COMPANIONS. These are the people who are marked by the Doctor. They're privileged in having the opportunity to travel with him, he is wonderful. He makes them better and they all love him in one way or another. But at the same time no one ends up with a happy ending. They'll willingly sacrifice themselves for him and he'll leave them destroyed in his wake.
I love the way we exit this COMPANIONS section. The symbolism worked particularly well here with the Doctor holding his hand out, bidding you to come with him. But once you agree you're slowly pulled into his world and then you burn.
VI. THE FAMILY
♪Now where's your shoulder
What is it's name
What's your scent
Say it again
Coming off a section where Latimer continuously opens and closes the fob watch, it's very appropriate to pause here for a short interlude and explore the baddies of the episodes. Well, there's not much to say, just the Family being their creepy sniffy selves. But I would like to mention again how this song is a miracle song. I mean look at these lyrics. They're insane! But then only in this vid could they work. (The thing about the scent?! Jesus Christ.) It's like it was written so this vid could exist.
VII. MARTHA AGAIN
♪If it goes faster can you still follow me
It must be safe when it's on TV
Again the crazy lyrics gave me access to play around with what I think became one of my favorite moments of the vid. There's a moment in "Family of Blood" where John Smith is holding the fob watch, contemplating his existence, when suddenly he starts speaking in the Doctor's voice. It lasts only a second and when he breaks free, John Smith is utterly terrified. What we see in the episode is David Tennant briefly switching characters, showing us the external change. But here I saw an opportunity to express the internal struggle. Thanks to that glorious synth I found just the right moment to show the Doctor literally tapping on John Smith's subconscious, and just how terrifying it is to feel such a thing for poor confused Mr. Smith. And the kicker is Martha's reaction. She smiles. Because as horrible as this moment might seem to John Smith, it's probably the best second of Martha's entire stay in 1913.
♪I raise my hands to heaven of curiosity
I don't know what to ask for
What has it got for me?
The others say we're hiding
It's as forward as can be
Some things I do for money
Some things I do for free
These are the lyrics that first peaked my interest as being applicable to Doctor Who, specifically correlating with Martha: "Some things I do for money/ Some things I do for free." Because the story of Martha Jones is a sad and frustrating tale. And in this last section I really wanted to flesh out her transformation. I was always fascinated by the moment in "Family of Blood" where Martha bumps into Latimer on the street and he sees her in her own time, I assume sometime in the 21st Century. As with the fob watch section in the bridge I felt that here was another missed opportunity by the canon to really dig into it. So the moment she bumps into him, Latimer sees the truth about Martha. The transition occurs in the collision, as we flashback to "Smith and Jones" and travel chronologically through the various moments in Martha's time as the Doctor's companion when she was shoved around (literally and metaphorically) and forced to lead when she should have only followed.
The section ends on the darkest of notes. We see Martha's progression, we hear her resolute voice in the lyrics - "Some things I do for money/ Some things I do for free" - and as she salutes so proudly we finally see that she's become nothing more than the Doctor's own straw soldier.
Do you like them, Mr Philips? I made them myself. I'm ever so good at science, sir. Look --(he pulls the arm off the scarecrow)-- molecular fringe animation fashioned in the shape of straw men. My own private army, sir. Ever so good, sir. - BAINES
It's a crude thing to say but every time I see Martha's salute I honestly expect the Doctor to step up and rip her arm right off like Baines ripped the arm off that one brave scarecrow. Because the similarities are sad but true. The Doctor created a soldier out of a girl just as John Smith taught his boys to shoot machine guns, just as Baines animated straw to form the shape of a man, so there would be a body to take the bullets for him. Someone to fight in his place.
And when Martha begs for the Doctor to "save us" she means all the souls who willingly go into battle. All of them, past and present, good and bad.
VIII. THE DOCTOR DANCES
But once the fob watch is opened and the Doctor returns the answer, of course, is no. He looks you in the eye and says it. And he just walks away.
We move away from Earth, from WWI, from the past and the TARDIS bounces along to the future. What the Doctor leaves behind is death and carnage. At 4:46 the second WWI section begins with the desaturation and subsequent destruction of Latimer and Hutchinson. And unlike the events of the episode, here there's no hope for them. While the WWI section in the beginning of the vid established the general conflict, here it's all about the loss of life. Shells tear apart the Earth as they rip apart men. The boys from the school who kept their posts and fired at Baines' straw army are all surely killed. And the soldier carrying his unconscious comrade makes eye contact with us as if to ask, "Why?"
But the Doctor is far from Earth and what is he doing? He's dancing around the TARDIS, happy as can be. I wanted to end the vid on that image of him because it's the douchiest thing I could find. Because the Doctor is not bothered with petty human wars. He has other things on his mind. He can do and see because a Time Lord is so much greater.
I remember seeing Watchmen and being taken by how well the mantra, "Who watches the watchmen?" fits with the Doctor. And how similar the Doctor is to Dr. Manhattan. Besides the obvious name game, the similarity lies in the fact that as the only Watchmen with real powers, Dr. Manhattan becomes disinterested in human matters. He'd rather spend time on Mars making glass castles. So too would the Doctor. He who has so many of his own Time Lordy demons to fight.
Why would he stay when he can run?