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alexsarll'Silence in the Library' was a Moffat Who story, so obviously it was brilliant. Yes, in some ways he's repeating himself, but so what? They're good tropes. Give them another airing. Getting all metafictional with "Spoilers". The Doctor talking from a TV screen. Turning everyday objects - and everyday phrases, repeated - into sources of utter terror. The dashing, enigmatic, voraciously omnisexual new character. The crossed timelines. On which note...Alex Kingston has lots of adventures with the (implicitly Tenth) Doctor in his future. The same rumours which correctly predicted Moffat's ascension also see Tennant leaving fairly soon, probably after the first of next year's specials, and there's been no whisper of Kingston's return. We also suspect that this season's big story will turn out to be something about time in flux and/or timelines collapsing into each other (was I the only one who expected the psychic paper message to be from Rose?). Now, this leaves the possibility that Kingston's future with the Doctor will turn out just to be lost from time. But I'm left wondering, could they swap out our Doctor for one from a parallel timeline? It would provide a way around the 13 regeneration limit, which they must be thinking about by now. And it would mean he could live happily ever after with Rose. I'm probably wrong here, it just crossed my mind.
When the last night of drinking on the Tube was announced as a possible Event by an associate, I was keen, not least because it intended a keynote of civility. Not even as a protest per se (I see the ban as a regrettable necessity - one of those blunt instrument laws like the age of consent which undoubtedly leads to injustices, but which remains a least worst option while we have neither the social nor technological maturity to enjoin and enforce what should be the one immutable law: Don't Be A Dick). But once other people had the same idea - people for whose character I could not vouch, and whose agendas were not quite the same - I paused. And once it was on the front of both freesheets, that was me out: carnage was inevitable and I didn't want to end up as part of the statistics proving the wrong point. So when I went into town in the afternoon, I had a tot of absinthe* from my hipflask on the bus in, another on the Piccadilly Line home, and said my own quiet farewell. With the bonus that I realised it was so discreet, it could probably still be managed post-ban.
For reasons I can't entirely explain, my usual practice is to build up a big list of potentially interesting acts to check out on Myspace, and then go through them en masse. Maybe it's like heats, to limit how many will get chance to win me over? So anyway, I had one of these runs and lots of them, as usual, were weak. The best thing was probably a rather epic, Iain Sinclair-style new Madness track, but by now you should all know whether or not you like Madness (though if you don't, you've maybe just not heard the right bits). That aside, the highlight was 'Stuck on Repeat' by Little Boots. Which I ought to find as generic as I do much modern electropop by hot girls (this one's ex-Dead Disco), yet somehow I don't. Maybe I'm giving her a pass for naming herself after Caligula? Maybe Hot Chip production helped? Maybe sometimes a song just stands out from its crowd.
(Best Myspace, though, was the new Swimmer One side project. The music did nothing for me, but I love the bio and the name: Sparklegash.
A Grant Morrison first issue is usually a big deal. The first Seven Sisters I read on a bus, spellbound, then went right back to the beginning and started all over again. The first All-Star Superman, I think that was three times. The first Final Crisis I read, shrugged, then read New Avengers 41 which is hardly the best Secret Invasion issue yet, but still made more impression on me. Then nipped in to the British Museum to reacquaint myself with the gods**, then came home reading the penultimate Dan Dare (real Single Manly Tear stuff) and the first issue of Millar's 1985, which is exactly the sort of supers-invade-our-poor-heroless-world stuff Morrison usually does so well. Aside from the indefinable X-factor that's missing, what's wrong with it? Not as much as one might think, let's be clear on that. It's not a *bad* comic. Doubtless people will complain about the Green Lantern Corps stuff, the use of an obscure character like Turpin as a major POV, the Monitor stuff. I don't mind that; I've not read any of the comics they come from, and I could understand it all perfectly in context. Alpha Lanterns are a sort of space FBI. Turpin is a grizzled old cop. Monitors monitor the multiverse. I didn't feel I was being left without information I needed the way I do with a Johns comic. But his stink is still all over this. J'onn's death was a Johns death; no power, no passion, just a cheap way to amp up the scene, just like the way Johns would carelessly kill off great characters like Scarab, Kid Eternity or Wesley Dodds for a bit of colour. But more fundamentally - didn't Grant already do Darkseid-conquers-the-Earth in JLA: Rock of Ages? And so far, I'm not getting anything new here. It could yet improve. I really hope it does.
Grant's latest Batman issue, on the other hand, is brilliant.
France really doesn't make them like this anymore, does it? Why not?
*It was the only hipflask-suitable drink I had in the house. But beyond that, it seemed apt.
**I never formally decided, even to myself, that I wasn't going in while the terracotta army was there. I just somehow never found myself wanting to go in there during that period of time, and I don't really believe in coincidence.
When the last night of drinking on the Tube was announced as a possible Event by an associate, I was keen, not least because it intended a keynote of civility. Not even as a protest per se (I see the ban as a regrettable necessity - one of those blunt instrument laws like the age of consent which undoubtedly leads to injustices, but which remains a least worst option while we have neither the social nor technological maturity to enjoin and enforce what should be the one immutable law: Don't Be A Dick). But once other people had the same idea - people for whose character I could not vouch, and whose agendas were not quite the same - I paused. And once it was on the front of both freesheets, that was me out: carnage was inevitable and I didn't want to end up as part of the statistics proving the wrong point. So when I went into town in the afternoon, I had a tot of absinthe* from my hipflask on the bus in, another on the Piccadilly Line home, and said my own quiet farewell. With the bonus that I realised it was so discreet, it could probably still be managed post-ban.
For reasons I can't entirely explain, my usual practice is to build up a big list of potentially interesting acts to check out on Myspace, and then go through them en masse. Maybe it's like heats, to limit how many will get chance to win me over? So anyway, I had one of these runs and lots of them, as usual, were weak. The best thing was probably a rather epic, Iain Sinclair-style new Madness track, but by now you should all know whether or not you like Madness (though if you don't, you've maybe just not heard the right bits). That aside, the highlight was 'Stuck on Repeat' by Little Boots. Which I ought to find as generic as I do much modern electropop by hot girls (this one's ex-Dead Disco), yet somehow I don't. Maybe I'm giving her a pass for naming herself after Caligula? Maybe Hot Chip production helped? Maybe sometimes a song just stands out from its crowd.
(Best Myspace, though, was the new Swimmer One side project. The music did nothing for me, but I love the bio and the name: Sparklegash.
A Grant Morrison first issue is usually a big deal. The first Seven Sisters I read on a bus, spellbound, then went right back to the beginning and started all over again. The first All-Star Superman, I think that was three times. The first Final Crisis I read, shrugged, then read New Avengers 41 which is hardly the best Secret Invasion issue yet, but still made more impression on me. Then nipped in to the British Museum to reacquaint myself with the gods**, then came home reading the penultimate Dan Dare (real Single Manly Tear stuff) and the first issue of Millar's 1985, which is exactly the sort of supers-invade-our-poor-heroless-world stuff Morrison usually does so well. Aside from the indefinable X-factor that's missing, what's wrong with it? Not as much as one might think, let's be clear on that. It's not a *bad* comic. Doubtless people will complain about the Green Lantern Corps stuff, the use of an obscure character like Turpin as a major POV, the Monitor stuff. I don't mind that; I've not read any of the comics they come from, and I could understand it all perfectly in context. Alpha Lanterns are a sort of space FBI. Turpin is a grizzled old cop. Monitors monitor the multiverse. I didn't feel I was being left without information I needed the way I do with a Johns comic. But his stink is still all over this. J'onn's death was a Johns death; no power, no passion, just a cheap way to amp up the scene, just like the way Johns would carelessly kill off great characters like Scarab, Kid Eternity or Wesley Dodds for a bit of colour. But more fundamentally - didn't Grant already do Darkseid-conquers-the-Earth in JLA: Rock of Ages? And so far, I'm not getting anything new here. It could yet improve. I really hope it does.
Grant's latest Batman issue, on the other hand, is brilliant.
France really doesn't make them like this anymore, does it? Why not?
*It was the only hipflask-suitable drink I had in the house. But beyond that, it seemed apt.
**I never formally decided, even to myself, that I wasn't going in while the terracotta army was there. I just somehow never found myself wanting to go in there during that period of time, and I don't really believe in coincidence.
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Date: 2008-06-01 11:07 am (UTC)As alluded to in my own journal, Turn Left, episode 11, is all about timelines in flux indeed. The difference between pre-Doctor Donna and current Donna, Donna meets Rose, the big phrase at the tone meeting being "Sliding Doors". Stuff to do with war and UNIT and everyone being evacuated to the North (featuring Leeds! mainly as a sop to departing Leodensian Phil Collinson I am sure) and Donna's family and we see the Racnoss again and such. Donna's ordinariness being key - It's A Wonderful Life style, she thinks she's not important, she's just a temp! She's nobody! But she's so much more than that. Etc.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 11:11 am (UTC)'Turn Left' sounds interesting from that, except...the Racnoss?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 11:14 am (UTC)I'm pretty sure the Racnoss isn't back as a proper baddie, we're just going to see what would have happened had Donna not travelled with the Doctor and become who she is today and such - more like the re-filmed "flashbacks" Elton had in L&M of the Autons etc than anything bigger. Sliding Doors. Blah blah. There's something on your back...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 11:17 am (UTC)I'm enjoying this series. I still hate Donna whenever she gets loud and 'comedy' - that was what turned last night from a 10 to a 9 - but I was expecting it to be rotten, and yet so far, uniquely, it's not had a single real stinker. Plus, the arc plot seems to be the best one yet.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 11:25 am (UTC)Hard SF...I don't know. I don't like Greg Egan, but on the other hand there have been times in new Who which have read like Mitchell & Webb's Lazy Scriptwriters were doing SF. That godawful Manhattan story was a key example, but far from alone.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 02:44 pm (UTC)?? Speak!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 10:01 pm (UTC)Alternatively they might factor in some "Last of The Time Lords" thing whereby he can have as many regenerations as he wants.
I'm not sure which way out is worse frankly.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 10:43 pm (UTC)And part of me would love to see The Last Doctor Who Story - the old Gotterdamerung that Cornell or Aaronovitch, I forget, used to talk about as the grand finale. But I realise that would be cheating the future's children.