Doctor Who, of course

[alexsarll]

I hadn't been all that excited about Waters of Mars. I try my best to avoid spoilers, but I'd still encountered enough to make me very, very excited about Tennant's final outings as the Doctor and the Christmas regeneration. Especially after the lacklustre Planet of the Dead, this just seemed like another contractual obligation, a roadbump in the way. Until I saw the last trailer with the Doctor telling the crew of Bowie Base One that he was very sorry, but this was a fixed point, and he had to let them die. Then, suddenly, I was excited. And for two thirds of the episode that was what we seemed to get - and it was wonderful, if deeply stressful. To be honest, I wasn't that concerned about the crew or the soggy zombies after them - good effects and all, but they were there to die. It was the Doctor I felt for, his mingled duty and curiosity, his sorrow at his own powerlessness. Not that I ever felt he was under threat, past one shout of 'Get your suit on, Doctor!' when the water was running in.
And then the bait and switch, and "The Laws of Time are mine and they will obey me", and I'm too staggered to punch the air but oh my life, this is amazing. This is the route to the godhead hinted at from time to time, especially in the Moffat stories (I half-expected Gadget to open the TARDIS door by clicking its manipulators). I always love it when a hero throws off the constraints of mortality and becomes a god, and this was up there with Kal El's 'Mother, Father, I love you, but you were wrong. I am no man. I am Superman."
Except...why has he taken them back to Earth in the same time zone? Why not hide them in the past or the future - I expected it to be somewhere out in the depths of space and time where a great-descendant of Adelaid Brooke could meet the originator of it all, John Wyndham's Outward Urge (a definite influence) meets DC One Million. When Adelaide doesn't feel up to sharing the Doctor's responsibility, why not just nip in, get rid of the body then go get the other two and take them on a long trip? You're not out of control, Doctor. You did the right thing. No need to emote, now go save the Time Lords. And fuck the Ood, they're not all that.
None of which is to deny that I'm now even more psyched up about The End of Time than I was before I got excited about Waters of Mars.

Not the only Who showing at the moment, of course, because there's also The Sarah Jane Adventures. Except, half of this series has been written by the same Phil Ford who collaborated on Waters of Mars, and yet all his teatime stories have all been utter drivel. Yes, you can say 'it's only a kid's show' - and that's precisely what Ford must do, because every one of his stories has been an exercise in dumb 'will this do?', as against fine work by all the other writers. But the worst of the lot was last week's outing, Mona Lisa's Revenge. To spoiler you less than the trailer does: Clyde, the rebellious one of Sarah Jane's kid sidekicks, is suddenly revealed to have always been a gifted artist. So much so that he has won a competition (with some really bad graffiti-style girls-with-guns work) and the class have been invited to see the unveiling of the Mona Lisa, on its first loan outside the Louvre. A loan to a gallery run by a man who was apparently barred from the Louvre for his obsession with the Mona Lisa, so that obviously makes perfect sense. Except, oh noes, the Mona Lisa has come to life! Where she is played by someone who looks nothing like the Mona Lisa, can't act, and has apparently been chosen just because somebody thought it would be jolly funny if for no apparent reason, the Mona Lisa had a Northern accent. Now, all of this is pretty poor in and of itself. But what makes it really special is that the Mona Lisa has already been key to a Doctor Who story. Not some pissy little book or audio or whatever, either, but one of the best stories in the original series' TV history, the Douglas Adams/Tom Baker/Lalla Ward classic City of Death. Ford is writing for a spin-off while either never having seen this story, being too stupid to remember it, or being arrogant enough that he thinks he can go clodhopping all over it for some cheap laughs which don't even come off.
But hey, at least he's not writing the series finale.
Oh, and while we've had occasional updates as to what original kid sidekick Maria has been up to since she moved to America, her dad, nice Alan Jackson, can now be seen as priapic, indolent English professor Matt Beer in Channel 4's so-so new comedy pilot Campus. Which is quite disturbing.

Comments

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

I've not seen it yet, but if the Mona Lisa was a primordial evil trapped in a painting, courtesy of the Doctor, or something (anything?) that would have nicely dovetailed with City of Death I wouldn't have minded. As it is I have a feeling it won't be.

I've not read Outward Urge, but there seemed to be parallels with Alastair Reynolds' Pushing Ice- if Ten had dropped her off 500,000 years in the future they'd have felt even more obvious.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

No, not even vaguely. Not a hint of a tie-in, not even lipservice like the Ice Warriors stuff which provided a (perfectly valid) workaround in Waters without getting in the way at all.

Never read any Reynolds past the blurbs, from which they always looked a bit like I'd seen it all before.

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

I shall watch it and generally be annoyed. Series 3 just hasn't been as good this time round.

You probably have, but then there are no new ideas really are there? Reynolds is an ex-physicist, so while it is soft-SF he doesn't muck about with FTL, most of his novels play around with the Fermi Paradox in some way. If you do end up being interested I'd pick up Revelation Space or one of the standalones first.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

You didn't even like Mad Woman In The Attic or The Wedding? I thought those were up there with the best. But then, the Trickster ones are always good, and ditto Lidster.

I don't have a problem with FTL, being all too aware of how within the past 200 years scientists 'proved' that a steamship could never cross the Atlantic and that the human body would not survive speeds above 30mph.

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

The Trickster episodes are starting to seem a bit same-y. Its not that they're not good, its just that I've seen it before.

I'm not sure that any engineer who actually built steamships believed the scientists who "proved" it couldn't be done. However this time round barring wormholes and other esoterica (which relativity allows) they do seem to have got it right.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

If anything, it was the second one which most felt samey to me - just having the Doctor there this time round changed the game. But yes, if they want to do a fourth they'd be pushing it.

And yes, Brunel quite correctly failed to believe Dionysius Lardner. Similarly, whoever builds the first FTL drive will probably delight in showing Einstein et al to be full of holes. Although even once he's been superseded, he's never going to seem like as much of a prick as Newton does now. I think it's the photo with the tongue that'll save him.

[stu-n.livejournal.com]

More than the photo, there's lots of anecdotal and published evidence to show Einstein wasn't a prick, and lots to show that Newton was.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh, for sure, but I mean in the Greatest Hits version of scientific history which is all most people ever know (if they even know that), it'll be the tongue photo which encapsulates and stands for 'Einstein - quite a dude'.
(My personal favourite is the story where his name is known but his image as yet is not, and he's so bored of giving the talk, and his driver is so familiar with it from sitting in, that one evening they decide to swap. The chauffeur can even answer most of the questions after, because they're usually the same, except he does get one he doesn't know. So he looks ultra-bored, points at the real Einstein and says "That question is so simple, I'm going to let my driver answer it".
I don't even know whether this is apocryphal, but it really doesn't matter, because what's important is that Einstein is someone of whom it *could* be true)

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

Reynolds is the best SF writer currently writing stuff today, I'd say. By some margin.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Really? As a fairly recent convert to the Church of Stross, I'd find that a bold claim even if Iain Banks wasn't still so good when he's wearing his M.

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

I must confess I've not read any Charles Stross and haven't read any Iain M Banks since Excession, but there is no writer whose work I look forward to reading as much as I do Reynolds. Revelation Space and the ensuing series of books following it are excellent, but they take a while to get into and RS has a particularly slow start. I recommend the standalone Chasm City to start with - the opening few chapters of that are breathtaking.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, one of my local libraries seems to have a copy, so I'll give it a go. But you definitely need to get some Stross down you; if it's space opera you want then Singularity Sky, but my favourite is the near-future-to-Singularity series of stories found in Accelerando.

[(Anonymous)]

I disagree with Mr Sarll that there's any explicit contradiction between Mona Lisa's Revenge and City of Death (apart from the fact that the Whoniverse Mona Lisa canonically has "this is a fake" written on the canvas in felt tip pen, but maybe the art establishment is in denial).

Season 3 of Sarah Jane Adventures is blowing away Season 2, as far as I'm concerned. But they could do with a lot fewer Phil Ford scripts, it's true.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I consider it profoundly unlikely that neither the Doctor nor Scaroth of the Buggeroff would have noticed the whole meteor paint/Abomination business. Not that I mind this sort of thing in the service of a good story - I'm not going to get het up about whether or not this is the Doctor's first meeting with Shakespeare in 'Shakespeare Code', say - but in this particular instance it just seems symptomatic of a general lack of care or thought.

[steve586.livejournal.com]

I hadn't been that excited either, which made tonight's offering all the more astonishing. That last 15 minutes totally made up for The Next Doctor and Planet Of The Dead, basically. I love it when a hero goes wrong, and when a hero finds him or herself impotent in the face of a fixed fate. This had both. So stoked for the finale now that I'm concerned that it can't possibly live up to expectation.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

For me, though, Time Lord Victorious wasn't going wrong, it was getting over everything that had been holding him back since the Time Wars, remembering what he was and what he can be. He can handle that responsibility; faced with preserving her family's legacy, Adelaide can't. Awesome. To then have the Doctor visited by Jiminy Ood and crumble too...that was where I became less sure. Still, I always get a perverse thrill out of hearing the Cloister Bell...

Also - Next Doctor had its moments! Though not enough of them, granted.

[steve586.livejournal.com]

It kind of was, but it also felt a bit like him finally cracking. But it's open to interpretation, which is ace. Bodes well for Christmast.

The Cybermassacre in the snow was ace. I think the Cyber-King blinded me to any other positives.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had forgotten about that until you mentioned it. I was happier before. But the pseudo-Doctor, and the interplay between them, some of that stuff I really liked.

As for him 'finally cracking' - surely Nine was the cracked one and Ten is the rehabilitated model? But yeah, I suspect you're right about where RTD is going to take it for his last hurrah. Certainly this leaves us with more food for thought than either of the last two, which makes the scheduling (with such a short gap now as against the ages after those) even more of a puzzle.

[steve586.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that - my bad. Agree that some of the interplay was quite good, and it was nice to see the other 9 Doctors.

Nine was cracked, but Ten has accumulated a whole other world of baggage. I think his reaction to the Bowie Base massacre would actually have made a lot more sense coming straight off the back of Journey's End, without TND and POTD in the middle.

I think the scheduling makes sense; after POTD I was happy to wait. After this, the next month can't be gone quick enough.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Fair. And yes, you're right, the two intermediary specials were nothing much to do with anything - they were like the minor books we were complaining about on Facebook, in that they fit anywhere and affect nothing.

[stu-n.livejournal.com]

Nine was cracked to the point of barely being able to take action about anything. Ten's twisted the other way - he thinks (or thought, at that point) that he could get away with anything.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

He pretty much can, though (Reapers permitting). And we know from River Song that the Ten we've seen was just getting started...

[alexdecampi.livejournal.com]

I've only been dipping in and out of recent Who, but during the whole whispering voiceover bit then "Time Lord Victorious" Charlie and I basically looked at each other and went, "this is the new direction? Dr Who, Total Dickwad?" I just wanted to give Tennant a smack before he came out with "I'm The Timelord, B1tch!"

I... dunno. Because it was so clear Everyone Was Going To Die, there was no tension. Then he half-saved them in a lame and predictable way (Tardis!) that turned out not to be very well thought through. He's now neck and neck with Aslan for Least Actually Helpful Although Supposedly Heroic Sci/Fantasy Lead.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The tension this time wasn't about who was going to die, it was about the Doctor's internal tension. Which I much prefer because I've seen more than enough 'who will survive - and what will be left of them?' stories already, in general and specifically in Who.

He does save the entire world/universe/multiverse quite a lot, so I think he can be forgiven the occasional off day.

I was personally expecting "I'm the goddamn Time Lord!", but your alternative would also have been more than acceptable.

[xandratheblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the end kind of threw me - I was hoping he was going to hide them in the future as well - but then again, I suppose that was part of the "benevolent God" thing the Doctor supposedly has going on.

I was surprised how good it was, actually. If only because it involved Waterzombies! SO much more could have been done with the Water Zombies!, even though perhaps less was done to keep up their 'mystery.'

You know my thoughts on the lastest Sarah Jane. It made absolutely no sense, too much shoehorning where all that was needed was a little oil.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

You caught up? Phew, I was worried you might get spoilered, but thank heavens for iPlayer.

I did not get to see your reaction to the second part of the SJA but no, I wasn't expecting it to change your mind any more than it did mine.

The soggy zombies were kind of a MacGuffin for me rather than a directly interesting monster. The effect seems to have done a great job of freaking some people out, though, and I guess no Who monster is going to be able to do that to everyone.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Disco Ulterior Vomit! Call him by his name!!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I'm sloooowly catching up on Sarah Jane, only up to the third episode but I am Sorting That Out. However, I've liked them all so far. Proving that I am a ho for haunted house style set-ups, I really liked the Mad Woman of Bannerman Road (only seen ep 1!), even if it is probably the exact same as that Buffy episode where Xander was showed his fake future, and red goth demon can go eat a s4ck of hairfalls...

Mona the Vampire Lisa more like. Clyde has to draw a GIANT BOWSHIP coming to life! Hm I wonder why Rusty hasn't hired me yet.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I thought the red goth alien was kinda cute!

And you may say you like haunted house set-ups, but there is 1 x actual haunted house story which you have yet to see and it is bobbins.

Rusty is on his way out, so I reckon CC that to Roberts and Moffat ASAP and you're in!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

That is the least shocking news I have ever heard since someone informed me that Pikachu has a yellow belly.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Did you write this the second you got in? :D

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

When Adelaide doesn't feel up to sharing the Doctor's responsibility, why not just nip in, get rid of the body then go get the other two and take them on a long trip? You're not out of control, Doctor. You did the right thing. No need to emote, now go save the Time Lords. And fuck the Ood, they're not all that.

You have the weirest morals I have ever seen. :P

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

What? It's important that humanity gets to the stars. The Brook legacy - like John Wyndham's Troon legacy, which it was clearly ripping off - is massively important. Exactly how Adelaide Brook dies, not so much.

And I already had the SJA bit written up ready.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

The doctor clearly DIDN'T do the right thing, he caused a woman, instead of dying the way she should have done, to have to kill herself instead. That is a tough one. And his 'little people' speech did not endear (spelling?) him to me. Which is what made it fantastic. How could he not just lose it like that, so many deaths and he had enough of it.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

This is a terribly written comment, I haven't had my breakfast yet or any tea, can you pick my point out of it or shall I re-write? ;)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

He does normally save a lot of little people too, but it doesn't stop them all being little people. Doesn't that make him better than someone who goes on and on about how all people are equally special and important, and yet never saves one life, let alone billions?

And she didn't have to kill herself. She just couldn't face the idea of living with that responsibility. It was only the responsibility to be an inspiring grandmother, which lots of people manage fine, and is not a hundredth of the responsibility the Doctor has shouldered for centuries and so much more now he's the last.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I did NOT understand why Adelaide believed in the Doctor enough to accept his story that she was fated to die, but not enough to accept his story that actually, she and her crew could live. Especially as she'd met him about 15 minutes before. Who was she to stand in judgment over him? Maybe as a captain she had a "must go down with the ship" complex.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It was a stressful time, she was making duff decisions? My main worry was why the Doctor didn't just wave the psychic paper around straight off, I thought that existed precisely to get the once-obligatory 'Doctor is treated suspiciously at first but then not' bit out of the way quicker.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

NB that was 'a long trip' to somewhere nice but where they will not derail history. Maybe Capri or space equivalent. Not like sending them to 'live on a farm'.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I agree that the Doctor did right, based on his motivations and the way the timelines changed, not obviously for the worse; I guess though that there was a big risk of the timelines changing in unpredictable and disastrous ways (like, oh just say, the Time War never happening?) and as such he should have known better. But he's not obviously an arrogant bastard for doing what he did, and as such I feel Adelaide's suicide and the other two's being ungrateful little swine was ladling it on a bit thick.

The real disappointment of the episode for me was that it wasn't anywhere near "The Scariest Doctor Who Ever?", mainly because we'd already seen anything that qualified as a scary bit in the trailer.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

But would preventing the Time War be 'disastrous'? Why?

I hadn't heard it hyped as 'the scariest ever' so wasn't bothered that it wasn't. TBH if Moffat's name isn't on the credits, for me it's unlikely to be in the running for that honour - but I know some people found it terrifying, so fair enough, it didn't totally fail to deliver the scares either.

[miss-sheldon.livejournal.com]

I thought the robot thing was going to click his fingers too!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I said as soon as he first said "Gadget gadget", by the end of the episode that's going to get really annoying. And then the turbocharded Segway bit too! But by the climactic moments, I was really rooting for the little guy.