DW BFA Nocturne
Sep. 9th, 2021 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThe Doctor takes Ace and Hex to one of his favourite future-historical eras, full of art and poetry and music, all in the shadow of a long lasting war.
... which technically is more cheerful than Hex has been getting lately, but does not work out well for them.
I love this one, the mood and the way it evokes art and how the music rises to the challenge of suggesting a masterpiece for the ages without, you know, actually composing a whole one.
Spoilers The Doctor turns up ready for art and a party with his art friends
and ends up having to deal with the embodiment of the psyche of the planet, living music, which the composer who evoked it somehow did not expect to be quite so upset.
Everyone there trying to turn their pain into beauty but some of it just wont fit.
The one soldier musician who comes back from the war after having spent way longer travelling than fighting... his telling of his entire experience of the war... and when he shows Ace a sculpture and has to explain that bit is supposed to be The Enemy, but almost nobody has ever actually seen them, so art has to make them up.
It's a different take on the fear and futility of a drawn out war. The way it just happened to him, with no chance to make a difference.
Hex got briefly arrested in this one as a presumed deserter. No papers, no explanation for how he got there. The officer explains they get a lot of deserters, they're the last civilised stop before the war.
And the Doctor was arrested as a spy. No papers, no records of how he gets in and out, but its one of his favourite eras, so there are records of him. In the usual amounts of trouble.
Everyone living tensed up for the war to come to them, and that tension going on and on.
You can really feel it along with them.
You know, if you are used to Doctor Who and 'the planet is feeling too many things' is an explanation you can roll with.
Ace and Hex tease criticise the Doctor at the start for holding too many things back, keeping secrets, so he explains more than usual, about their arrival and what draws him to this place and this era. And it still isnt quite enough. Ace at the end asks if telling what he suspected could have saved lives, and he isnt sure.
... see from a Doylist point of view if the Doctor starts talking he either tells us the plot in advance or ends up being wrong a lot, so the secrets and manipulation thing is not entirely an in character fault, but Seven is a bit extra about it.
This was very good to listen to, and an interesting world to visit. I liked the sense of place and the characters to fill it. And I like how Seven and Ace and Hex are kind of push pull negotiating where they stand with each other, instead of the flow of orders from the Doctor they were so well intentioned about a couple of stories ago.
Definitely worth listening again.
... which technically is more cheerful than Hex has been getting lately, but does not work out well for them.
I love this one, the mood and the way it evokes art and how the music rises to the challenge of suggesting a masterpiece for the ages without, you know, actually composing a whole one.
Spoilers The Doctor turns up ready for art and a party with his art friends
and ends up having to deal with the embodiment of the psyche of the planet, living music, which the composer who evoked it somehow did not expect to be quite so upset.
Everyone there trying to turn their pain into beauty but some of it just wont fit.
The one soldier musician who comes back from the war after having spent way longer travelling than fighting... his telling of his entire experience of the war... and when he shows Ace a sculpture and has to explain that bit is supposed to be The Enemy, but almost nobody has ever actually seen them, so art has to make them up.
It's a different take on the fear and futility of a drawn out war. The way it just happened to him, with no chance to make a difference.
Hex got briefly arrested in this one as a presumed deserter. No papers, no explanation for how he got there. The officer explains they get a lot of deserters, they're the last civilised stop before the war.
And the Doctor was arrested as a spy. No papers, no records of how he gets in and out, but its one of his favourite eras, so there are records of him. In the usual amounts of trouble.
Everyone living tensed up for the war to come to them, and that tension going on and on.
You can really feel it along with them.
You know, if you are used to Doctor Who and 'the planet is feeling too many things' is an explanation you can roll with.
Ace and Hex tease criticise the Doctor at the start for holding too many things back, keeping secrets, so he explains more than usual, about their arrival and what draws him to this place and this era. And it still isnt quite enough. Ace at the end asks if telling what he suspected could have saved lives, and he isnt sure.
... see from a Doylist point of view if the Doctor starts talking he either tells us the plot in advance or ends up being wrong a lot, so the secrets and manipulation thing is not entirely an in character fault, but Seven is a bit extra about it.
This was very good to listen to, and an interesting world to visit. I liked the sense of place and the characters to fill it. And I like how Seven and Ace and Hex are kind of push pull negotiating where they stand with each other, instead of the flow of orders from the Doctor they were so well intentioned about a couple of stories ago.
Definitely worth listening again.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-09 11:50 pm (UTC)