BFA: The Stockbridge Trilogy
Jan. 23rd, 2010 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethToday I listened to the recent 5 and Nyssa Stockbridge Trilogy, 127-129, Castle of Fear, The Eternal Summer, and Plague of the Daleks. The first two I had heard before but the third was new today.
Things that turn up in all of them: we're not who we are / deceptive appearances, people who turn out not to be themselves or to be taken over by an outside influence, Nyssa saving the day by knowing more tech than anyone except the Doctor, the Doctor and Nyssa being separated so Nyssa can know more tech than everyone else, and lots of messing about with time.
My intolerance for repetition kind of gets in the way of appreciating messing about with time, even when it's really clever. My attention wanders off. It didn't the first time on the bus though cause I listened to the parts one at a time.
There were bits with playing with the idea of Lord Doctor and Lady Nyssa, lords and ladies, aristocracy, and a bit of pagan religion.
I quite like Castle of Fear. I don't think it's as funny as it thinks it is, but it's amusing, and I like how everyone turns out to be someone else, and how that's extra fun with the particular aliens involved. Also there's Clues with Science and you can figure stuff out.
I like The Eternal Summer because it's another story making time travel and immortality into a slice of hell, while preserving why people might try it anyway. I kind of thought random pagan god was random. I mean it's much more fun if you just stick with things that could plausibly develop from the Doctor and Nyssa getting trapped in a time loop. And I think it could be argued they could go that way from mistaken good intentions, trying to save people and take away their pain, and getting corrupted by it. Once a godlike alien made them do it it's much less interesting.
I did not quite like Plague of the Daleks, and I'm not quite sure why. I felt like the ingredients did not quite bind together. I mean, was it a zombie thing, was it a Dalek thing, was it a time travel trapped in a bubble thing? First it's confusing, and then the bits get knocked down, and then they've won and I'm not quite sure why the emotional bits were there or how they related to the plot in general, and I want to take it all out, maybe use the same recipe, but stir it more til it binds. Or, possibly, I wasn't paying attention. I will think on it some more.
There were three pairs m-f, a glowing dude, zombies, and some Daleks. One Dalek blew himself up because he'd gone blind. That didn't seem to relate to anything before or after. It did show Daleks are damaged but I think we already knew that. I didn't like it because blind does not equal kill self, except clearly Daleks are made of stupid so they would, but why just drop that in there? Was there another bit where someone was impaired and decided to go? Oh yeah, the ending... where someone killed themselves to get the Daleks out of their head... acting in approved Dalek fashion... I think.
... I know I only just listened to it but I think I need to listen again to remember what went on in the ending. Maybe I'm tired.
Couples:
Married couple where everyone is :eyeroll: about why he would put up with her, but then she keeps trying to save him even when she gets hurt, so you can see they really love each other. There's versions of the Doctor and companion that would be a meta comment on. But Nyssa and 5 aren't one of those. They get along quite well and he doesn't piss off bystanders.
Father and daughter pair. Father had random interlude of emotional story about why his wife wasn't there cause she got violently killed. I hadn't actually been wondering why his wife wasn't there, so that felt random. And getting him to talk about it was meant to break Dalek mental conditioning, because Daleks is mean and violent. And then he dies protecting daughter and daughter dies avenging father even though they were both Dalek controlled, or possibly Dalek created, I wasn't really sure.
I felt like either I missed a hell of a lot of clues or they kept on switching out what the problem was.
Doctor and Nyssa, mostly split up, except for a couple times they're in the same room to worry about each other.
They start out together wandering around Stockbridge discovering all sorts of weirdness which is explained but I never felt really paid off. And finding out the weird villagers were clones of clones of clones so they only had parts and pieces left was... unpleasant. I guess it doesn't poke anyone else's disability and slavery filters if that just gets left in there like that, but clones is only twins, so they twin people until they end up with mentally disabled ones and then leave them to play exhibit? WTF? Why aren't they robots, or artificial life forms, or whatever the heck the animals were meant to be? Because artificial life wouldn't turn into zombies?
So then there was the zombie making rain. Which is a neat idea. Slightly hindered by the whole thing where Waters of Mars did it bigger and scarier and actually followed through on it, but, you know, neat.
I felt like it set up three stories, the weirdness that looked like another time gone wrong story, the weirdness that was going to be a zombie invasion, and the Daleks that we were told about on the tin. And they were all tied off, but, I don't know, I ended up *big shrug* about all the parts because there were lots of parts.
Or I'm tired and wasn't paying attention.
Zombie stories are about the inevitability of death and the dehumanising effects of modern mass society, mass production, rush hour, offices and production lines and humans in lumps together doing all the same things with no brain applied. Applying a zombie story to the quintessential English country village, Stockbridge, would make it about the dehumanising effects of ye olde worlde nothing ever changes no opportunities no way out middle of bloody nowhere life. That works. Making Stockbridge into a theme park where... ah! Right! I just realised what was missing - they weren't turned into zombies by the rain, they were already zombies, mindless automata with an appearance of life, and the rain just made them go all creepy looking and try and eat brains. It didn't mess up their free will or turn beloved companions into creepy brain eaters, it just, you know, happened.
The first character we met was a Stockbridge person with memory problems the Doctor reckoned could be the result of trauma. So we're set a problem, what has happened to her and how can the Doctor save her? Only it turns out she's just set dressing. And this is wrong, this is I think where the story lost me, because she's a person with a name and a history in the village, someone the Doctor recognises, with a named problem, and... she's a bait and switch, she's dropped, ignored, and we're told not an actual person at all. So it's like setting up a second story when the tourists arrive, because even though the clues can all point towards 'really crappy tourist attraction', what's the problem then? Do we care about the holiday experience of these new arrivals? They're treating Stockbridge like an exhibit when we're still worrying about the traumatised inhabitants, so that would be a no, they seem like part of the problem. Yet after they arrive we're meant to switch our focus over to them as the characters in danger, which doesn't become immediately apparent and I'm not sure I ever did. So then the village gets rained on, the villagers go all grrr zombie, and we can't care about that bit because we've been told they ain't people in the first place, and we can't care about the tourists because we were feeling like they were mistreating the villagers, and who are we left to care about? Well the Doctor and Nyssa obviously, but it leaves the story in a bit of a pickle.
I could be quite wrong, I could be failing to notice major clues and not following a reasonable twist, but that's the best I can figure about my reaction.
And again, are we meant to care about the people running the tourist park? Well they're in danger the longest, so presumably yes. But they're treating the villagers like things, which we aren't initially convinced they are, and then they're Dalek agents, and the little story about his so sad background doesn't for me fix the problem where I don't actually know or care about these people before they get in the trouble. The girl, maybe, because she was chatting with Nyssa and helping and stuff, but the guy? Really no.
The most interesting bit, the really good bit, was when the whole entire thing was a big trap for the Doctor. Stockbridge was where he keeps going back to, so Daleks notice and turn it into a trap. And the cliffhanger bit where they say he's going to be turned into a Dalek by their bioweapon in the rain! That was great! That was actually scary! Because you can just imagine it, all the horrible things they'll try and force him to do, and it could all go really horribly wrong.
Also there was just a time bubble story where a future him went horribly wrong, so if they were still in a time bubble where things could go that wrong, anything could happen. The Daleks could succeed, and then Nyssa would have to save the Doctor, who would be fighting her! Brilliant!
... that story didn't happen.
Basically the Doctor had already cured himself before we found out there was a threat, so he sort of stood around for a while and then stopped the Daleks single handed.
So I was bored.
Nyssa wasn't very Nyssa. Nyssa wasn't very much. *shrugs*
So, anyway:
Story had Stockbridge with time all jumbled up, except that was a fake out and not the real problem.
Story had zombies and infection and braaaains getting taken over, only that was a fake out and not the real problem.
Story had Daleks, but the Doctor defeated them solo without telling us and while his brain was getting taken over so he wasn't acting like himself.
So I think that's why I ended up not liking it very much. It kept switching out the problem and I didn't like the solution. *shrugs*
So there's parent+child issues, sort of, and compare-contrasts on couples who get each other in danger, unintended consequences, science-medical and science-technical, stuff that was in my keywords on my first thoughts. Maybe add to that stranded a long way from home. A few things about stories of home and how they get transmitted and changed along the way.
Now I've listened to all the 5 and Nyssa audios I've got (I have bazillions of audios but there's lots of different peoples in them).
Next I can watch one or two DVDs, and then on Monday say no more watching until I done writing.
I must say, doing the reading for a Doctor Who assignment is tons more fun than doing the reading for a college assignment, except for that one much missed time when college was in fact about Doctor Who. I shall study DW some more. :-)
Things that turn up in all of them: we're not who we are / deceptive appearances, people who turn out not to be themselves or to be taken over by an outside influence, Nyssa saving the day by knowing more tech than anyone except the Doctor, the Doctor and Nyssa being separated so Nyssa can know more tech than everyone else, and lots of messing about with time.
My intolerance for repetition kind of gets in the way of appreciating messing about with time, even when it's really clever. My attention wanders off. It didn't the first time on the bus though cause I listened to the parts one at a time.
There were bits with playing with the idea of Lord Doctor and Lady Nyssa, lords and ladies, aristocracy, and a bit of pagan religion.
I quite like Castle of Fear. I don't think it's as funny as it thinks it is, but it's amusing, and I like how everyone turns out to be someone else, and how that's extra fun with the particular aliens involved. Also there's Clues with Science and you can figure stuff out.
I like The Eternal Summer because it's another story making time travel and immortality into a slice of hell, while preserving why people might try it anyway. I kind of thought random pagan god was random. I mean it's much more fun if you just stick with things that could plausibly develop from the Doctor and Nyssa getting trapped in a time loop. And I think it could be argued they could go that way from mistaken good intentions, trying to save people and take away their pain, and getting corrupted by it. Once a godlike alien made them do it it's much less interesting.
I did not quite like Plague of the Daleks, and I'm not quite sure why. I felt like the ingredients did not quite bind together. I mean, was it a zombie thing, was it a Dalek thing, was it a time travel trapped in a bubble thing? First it's confusing, and then the bits get knocked down, and then they've won and I'm not quite sure why the emotional bits were there or how they related to the plot in general, and I want to take it all out, maybe use the same recipe, but stir it more til it binds. Or, possibly, I wasn't paying attention. I will think on it some more.
There were three pairs m-f, a glowing dude, zombies, and some Daleks. One Dalek blew himself up because he'd gone blind. That didn't seem to relate to anything before or after. It did show Daleks are damaged but I think we already knew that. I didn't like it because blind does not equal kill self, except clearly Daleks are made of stupid so they would, but why just drop that in there? Was there another bit where someone was impaired and decided to go? Oh yeah, the ending... where someone killed themselves to get the Daleks out of their head... acting in approved Dalek fashion... I think.
... I know I only just listened to it but I think I need to listen again to remember what went on in the ending. Maybe I'm tired.
Couples:
Married couple where everyone is :eyeroll: about why he would put up with her, but then she keeps trying to save him even when she gets hurt, so you can see they really love each other. There's versions of the Doctor and companion that would be a meta comment on. But Nyssa and 5 aren't one of those. They get along quite well and he doesn't piss off bystanders.
Father and daughter pair. Father had random interlude of emotional story about why his wife wasn't there cause she got violently killed. I hadn't actually been wondering why his wife wasn't there, so that felt random. And getting him to talk about it was meant to break Dalek mental conditioning, because Daleks is mean and violent. And then he dies protecting daughter and daughter dies avenging father even though they were both Dalek controlled, or possibly Dalek created, I wasn't really sure.
I felt like either I missed a hell of a lot of clues or they kept on switching out what the problem was.
Doctor and Nyssa, mostly split up, except for a couple times they're in the same room to worry about each other.
They start out together wandering around Stockbridge discovering all sorts of weirdness which is explained but I never felt really paid off. And finding out the weird villagers were clones of clones of clones so they only had parts and pieces left was... unpleasant. I guess it doesn't poke anyone else's disability and slavery filters if that just gets left in there like that, but clones is only twins, so they twin people until they end up with mentally disabled ones and then leave them to play exhibit? WTF? Why aren't they robots, or artificial life forms, or whatever the heck the animals were meant to be? Because artificial life wouldn't turn into zombies?
So then there was the zombie making rain. Which is a neat idea. Slightly hindered by the whole thing where Waters of Mars did it bigger and scarier and actually followed through on it, but, you know, neat.
I felt like it set up three stories, the weirdness that looked like another time gone wrong story, the weirdness that was going to be a zombie invasion, and the Daleks that we were told about on the tin. And they were all tied off, but, I don't know, I ended up *big shrug* about all the parts because there were lots of parts.
Or I'm tired and wasn't paying attention.
Zombie stories are about the inevitability of death and the dehumanising effects of modern mass society, mass production, rush hour, offices and production lines and humans in lumps together doing all the same things with no brain applied. Applying a zombie story to the quintessential English country village, Stockbridge, would make it about the dehumanising effects of ye olde worlde nothing ever changes no opportunities no way out middle of bloody nowhere life. That works. Making Stockbridge into a theme park where... ah! Right! I just realised what was missing - they weren't turned into zombies by the rain, they were already zombies, mindless automata with an appearance of life, and the rain just made them go all creepy looking and try and eat brains. It didn't mess up their free will or turn beloved companions into creepy brain eaters, it just, you know, happened.
The first character we met was a Stockbridge person with memory problems the Doctor reckoned could be the result of trauma. So we're set a problem, what has happened to her and how can the Doctor save her? Only it turns out she's just set dressing. And this is wrong, this is I think where the story lost me, because she's a person with a name and a history in the village, someone the Doctor recognises, with a named problem, and... she's a bait and switch, she's dropped, ignored, and we're told not an actual person at all. So it's like setting up a second story when the tourists arrive, because even though the clues can all point towards 'really crappy tourist attraction', what's the problem then? Do we care about the holiday experience of these new arrivals? They're treating Stockbridge like an exhibit when we're still worrying about the traumatised inhabitants, so that would be a no, they seem like part of the problem. Yet after they arrive we're meant to switch our focus over to them as the characters in danger, which doesn't become immediately apparent and I'm not sure I ever did. So then the village gets rained on, the villagers go all grrr zombie, and we can't care about that bit because we've been told they ain't people in the first place, and we can't care about the tourists because we were feeling like they were mistreating the villagers, and who are we left to care about? Well the Doctor and Nyssa obviously, but it leaves the story in a bit of a pickle.
I could be quite wrong, I could be failing to notice major clues and not following a reasonable twist, but that's the best I can figure about my reaction.
And again, are we meant to care about the people running the tourist park? Well they're in danger the longest, so presumably yes. But they're treating the villagers like things, which we aren't initially convinced they are, and then they're Dalek agents, and the little story about his so sad background doesn't for me fix the problem where I don't actually know or care about these people before they get in the trouble. The girl, maybe, because she was chatting with Nyssa and helping and stuff, but the guy? Really no.
The most interesting bit, the really good bit, was when the whole entire thing was a big trap for the Doctor. Stockbridge was where he keeps going back to, so Daleks notice and turn it into a trap. And the cliffhanger bit where they say he's going to be turned into a Dalek by their bioweapon in the rain! That was great! That was actually scary! Because you can just imagine it, all the horrible things they'll try and force him to do, and it could all go really horribly wrong.
Also there was just a time bubble story where a future him went horribly wrong, so if they were still in a time bubble where things could go that wrong, anything could happen. The Daleks could succeed, and then Nyssa would have to save the Doctor, who would be fighting her! Brilliant!
... that story didn't happen.
Basically the Doctor had already cured himself before we found out there was a threat, so he sort of stood around for a while and then stopped the Daleks single handed.
So I was bored.
Nyssa wasn't very Nyssa. Nyssa wasn't very much. *shrugs*
So, anyway:
Story had Stockbridge with time all jumbled up, except that was a fake out and not the real problem.
Story had zombies and infection and braaaains getting taken over, only that was a fake out and not the real problem.
Story had Daleks, but the Doctor defeated them solo without telling us and while his brain was getting taken over so he wasn't acting like himself.
So I think that's why I ended up not liking it very much. It kept switching out the problem and I didn't like the solution. *shrugs*
So there's parent+child issues, sort of, and compare-contrasts on couples who get each other in danger, unintended consequences, science-medical and science-technical, stuff that was in my keywords on my first thoughts. Maybe add to that stranded a long way from home. A few things about stories of home and how they get transmitted and changed along the way.
Now I've listened to all the 5 and Nyssa audios I've got (I have bazillions of audios but there's lots of different peoples in them).
Next I can watch one or two DVDs, and then on Monday say no more watching until I done writing.
I must say, doing the reading for a Doctor Who assignment is tons more fun than doing the reading for a college assignment, except for that one much missed time when college was in fact about Doctor Who. I shall study DW some more. :-)