beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

I have watched all the 11th Doctor, from fishfingers and custard to Trenzalore.
... so I've gone and made myself sad now.
It takes ages to make and ages of waiting to watch it all and on first broadcast there's a whole life going on around it and then
iplayer time
and it all just whooshes past.

Don't much like that particular whoosh.

Do very much still like the story.



Everything religious is super weird though.
Like someone is being Very Specific and weird.
The explanation for the Silence is very neat but theologically a right mess.

Also, comparing anything from this future religion stuff to, say,
Captain Jack Harkness,
he would mean ever so very different things with some of the same words.

I mean the stripping to distract people could just be him being
very religious.
Church time...


I liked the anniversary stuff and zygons too, mostly, but
a lot of things to do with the Doctor and women lately are just not very kind.

Still, the art and cunning plans and all was Excellent.
No More.
All 13.

The Curator is an idea that Big Finish ran with and the bigeneration arguably explains, which is neat.

And it's just good to see them.




I see a lot of complains on the internet about how the latest stories keep on referring to stuff that's from forty to sixty years ago, and yes, that's a long time since first broadcast, but
it's exactly the same number of button presses away, these days.
Multi Doctor stories aren't just indulgent, they're a path back along the iplayer to earlier incarnations and their seasons.

This does quite well at making me want to see them.



I think I shall continue watching forwards in order though.

It goes so fast.

Couldn't sleep so I watched two more Doctor Who.
Cold War had me staring into space for a while afterwards because it turns out the idea of nuclear war is still a teensy tiny bit bothersome. I wasn't entirely impressed by the specifics though.
Hide was proper scary. I was watching it at four in the morning on a no sleep night so I was noticing it was proper scary and I maybe probably hadn't scheduled that well. But it is Doctor Who so it is family television scary, where you hide behind the sofa *but* it makes it okay again by the end. So it stuck the landing very well. I was pleased happy and not scared by the time it was time to turn the tele off.
I realised though that the technique it used, finally giving us a good look at them and a happy enough ending, was quite a lot of what I found unimpressive in Cold War. I disliked their design for the insides of the suit, so I felt it detracted from the episode. But pulling the scary away and showing us the person is the actual proper point of both of those. So I am enlightened.

Not exactly sleepy still but I'll have another go.

I have finished rewatching 11 and the Ponds.
I still hate how the Ponds end. For one it makes no sense, and for a rather important other there are some behaviours that are just Always No. Instead we get them from the heroes on repeat, like it proves something. No. Hate it.
Live. It's the tricky bit.

That said, there were some chewy fascinating bits in all the previous episodes. Even River's perception of the Doctor's reaction to age makes a certain degree of sense. From her perspective, she gets older and he pulls away, so. It's a plausible read on a lot of his behaviour. But funnily enough it is not an interpretation I like, or one I find plausible currently, so, improvement.

I also like it that the Doctor got a lot older between episodes textually now. Several centuries to fill in there. Even if he has hopped planets in his counting, probably a long time. And he wanders off and makes new friends and brings them together, with dinosaurs. Lots of room for any adventure you can think of.



My flat is still Too Warm but there's only predicted to be one more day of this so it'll be fine. Blergh but fine.


And tomorrow I can watch whatever. Or listen. Or read.
Which is a lot cooler than my flat.

Today I rewatched the first episode of Mawdryn Undead, the one where we first meet Turlough, and he steals the Brigadier's car
and I noticed something even funnier about Turlough wearing a school uniform while he travels

the students aren't even wearing the same stuff.
It's not a uniform.
They're wearing suits with all the same tie and hat, but the suits can be grey brown blue black.

He just wears black.



I went back to watching 11 when I realised between the Slow and the picture quality I just don't have the patience for the classic stuff when it is this hot.


I still think it's a great intro for a character. Start with someone who doesn't want to be on the planet to the point he reckons he wouldn't mind the car crash killing him. Make him make a deal with Evil to Murder the main character. Show he can't get rid of it now he's said it.
Tea time family viewing at its best.

I finished rewatching 11s first season.
The Ponds' wedding still makes me happy :-D

Today I am mostly sitting in front of a fan and watching 11 Amy Rory River. Only just finished Vampires in Venice. Pondering if I shall skip Amy's Choice. Probably should.

This weather is Not Pleasing and my flat's tendency to stay the same temperature for ages isn't lovely this time of year. If I win on the premium bonds I am getting somewhere I can put air con and solar panels in. Blergh.

Also if Sainsburys actually feels like delivering Ribena some time soon that would be lovely.



But today is pretty okay.

And there are many more episodes to enjoy.

I just rewatched Victory of the Daleks
and I do not have new thoughts about that right now
but
thinking about it in connection to events in the most recent Doctor Who episode
( Read more... )

Today I accidentally spent all afternoon designing a character on Inevitable Excess.
I just sat down to see if something worked the way I thought and look at some feats while I waited for the shopping.
Then I tried making a new Legend and the build just didn't work in that order, or possibly at all.
So I started again.
One entire afternoon later I built something happy making
and pretty much exactly the same as the game I erased last weekend ( Read more... )

ANYway.
Shopping arrived long ago, at least the parts Sainsburys deigned to send, and I was going to take a day off from the game, so I guess I shall find something else to do.

Today I played the same levels of the same game I have been doing the other days, but this time I built the character so it at least slightly works, and looked up a guide to Achievements so I could do some of the unlikely ones.
... and immediately undo them. I don't think it is very nice when they have achievements for ( Read more... ) but it turns out some of the secret achievements hardly anyone does are unkind ones.

I think I am also on track to do a very fiddly achievement that needs getting right on every section of the DLC, so that's nice. Also trying to do things the fiddly way turned out to make the fighting parts a lot easier. Neat.

Also today I got some laundry done so on the whole I am feeling very accomplished.
🖖🌞

Two adventures from the Monthly range with 6 and no regular companions.

Both of these are quite good, but today I wasn't concentrating well, so I often had to back up a minute when I realised I'd missed things, or pause things when I started inputting a character in Wrath of the Righteous (which didn't work out like I wanted because for some reason Mystic Theurge didn't work like I expected when input in that order). I couldn't keep my attention on just one thing at a time today, so I didn't give story the brain space it deserved.

Lure of the Nomad had the Doctor and a new companion arrive on an apparently deserted ship to answer a distress call, and then there's lots of running around finding things out and meeting the locals. Some of the locals are very unpleasant people, others are trapped, and one was an artist I thought the story might be making fun of but they seemed most sympathetic by the end. I didn't find it compelling but it did what it set out to do and had interesting corners in the ideas. I don't like the Myriad and have decided to believe they are lying or the future looks a but grim. It did a good twist, at least to me, and the Doctor got some good angst fuel. Pretty okay story.

Iron Bright was more interesting but also I was paying less attention. Not the fault of the story, I think. I was trying to figure out what spells to choose through much of the story, since getting a 40th level Legend statted takes ages. I thought I could do both but now I'm regretting not spending more brain on painting the story in my head. Excellent ideas, ( Read more... ) Lots of neat stuff. I should revisit the story some time I'm actually awake, alert, and focused.



I also finished listening to another Lost Story, Point of Entry with 6 and Peri, and I think it was quite good, but I also fell asleep listening to it twice and woke up to turn it off at some screamy bits and, also, empty the tumble dryer when it went beep. Probably not the story's fault this time, see also, didn't focus on the other adventures neither.


Honestly, filling up the time on days my sleep isn't cooperate is just awkward.

This attempt wasn't an unalloyed success and I shall return to the stories another time.

This morning I watched Mark of the Rani while eating my soup. I watched it on the iplayer instead of getting my dvds down, on the vague theory that they might be counting how many people go 'hmmm, I wonder who that person in that episode was' and go to the iplayer for more, which might influence the general existence of future episodes. Don't know, but, figured it was the same thing so I might as well.

Only when it is on DVD I can play it faster. Playing it faster is preferred for older TV. For it is not fast.

I noticed especially with establishing shots. They spent like a minute looking at people covered in coal doing coal things. They weren't doing plot things or having lines yet, just walking around covered in coal. I think we'd get like six seconds of that in a newer show.

I've been listening to a lot of 6 in audios so I thiught I'd remember quite well what he's like, but I forgot quite how much he was like it back on the tele.

Also I found he moves around a lot more than my audio imaginary Doctor. I imagine them doing things that make the plot go, but actual live acting just has him moving around jumping down off things or looking at stuff in ways the audios wouldn't mention. My imagination has been leaving that out.

After watching the whole story I concluded that (a) that was a proper Doctor Who story (b) the one in my head was the Good Bits Version, even if the Good Bits were just it being faster, and somewhat augmented by owning the novelisation much longer than the recorded episode, and (c) I think some of the people complaining about Doctor Who in endless comment threads elseweb have only been watching the Good Bits Version in their heads for some time.

Not that Doctor Who is ever without flaw, but I think maybe some of them should try writing their good bits version and see what they come up with. Or try Yes And ing the show a bit.

... yes I know there is a place for critique but reading the comment threads all season I see people watching every episode to say the exact same thing and like, why? If they want to watch the old thing it is right there also.



ANYway



I also listened to three connected Big Finish Audios, The Helliax Rift, Hour of the Cybermen, and Warlock's Cross.
Three different Doctors meet the same man at three points in his life. It's also three UNIT adventures so you see assorted changes in UNIT across some years the TV didn't keep a close eye on them. Also going from a general UNIT attitude of 'oh it's him again, keep him out of the way' to 'who is the Doctor? find out later, too busy'. Interesting progression over not so many years.

Helliax Rift was a bit of a horror story but at rather more of a distance than a Torchwood story would have done. ( Read more... )

Hour of the Cybermen is the most adventure shaped, but the connection to recurring characters from the first one is mostly sad. ( Read more... )

Warlock's Cross seemed to me the strongest story of the three, because of how it used 7 and Klein and the idea of roads not taken and wanting so badly to change the past. There was a really good bit with 7 ( Read more... )

So the juxtapositions make you think instead of just keeping you jogging along the plot.


I thought the third story was strongest but by keeping some of the characters and setting but jumping the timeline forward you got interesting angles.


Not ones that made me like UNIT more.

But interesting.


Good stories, liked them as a set.

Plan to listen them again when I am better at concentrating and not actively doing other stuff at the time.

Back at the beginning of the season I think I predicted the ending would be an RTD special made of Big Feelings, and I certainly have Big Feelings about that episode.

But the ones I have at the minute are Angry Sad, which is not my favourite set, honestly.

So.

( Read more... )

Big Feelings time wasn't fun this week.


I do however know I shall eventually have different feelings about a lot of it.