Poll Results, Dr. Who: New Earth

[selenak]

Firstly, I saw New Earth and shall review anon. Secondly, also in Dr. Who news, I bought a set called "Beginnings" and shall now be able to watch the very first Doctor in his early adventures. (Said set contains "An Unearthly Child", "Daleks", and "The Edge of Destruction".) Am greatly looking forward to this.

Thirdly, the results from yesterday's poll (so far):

1) Sisko and Lee Adama went mano a mano as men of principle caught up in a hostage situation; so far, it looks like the Sisko wins, but Lee is in really close pursuit. It occurs to me that what both eps (i.e. "Past Tense", a DS9 two parter, so really, three eps, and "Bastille Day" (BSG)) have in common, besides the Ron Moore connection, is that they combine the hostage drama with social issues. One of the many reasons why I love "Past Tense" is that this is one of the few Star Trek time travel episodes where Our Heroes go back in the past without allowing the show's audience to feel smug about themselves. (A la "no, we don't have that 30s depression and/or nazis/50s racism and cold war paranoia anymore".) The past Bashir and Sisko end up in is our future, but barely, and the mess the people are in in this future is the one we're currently producing. Bashir's "but how could people allow this to happen?" is an unconcealed "J'accuse" in this regard. Meanwhile, "Bastille Day" doesn't take the easy way out by letting Lee overpower Zarek and restore the status quo, i.e. the Astral Queen as a prison ship. Or let Zarek die, whether killed by Kara or someone else. No, it allows for the fact that Zarek, flawed and with mixed motives as he is, actually has a point with his demands, and Lee solves the situation by addressing the originally raised issue. It's still one of my favourite BSG episodes.

2) Buffy and Faith went up against the crew of Moya when it came to favourite body swaps, and for a time, the advantage switched back and forth, but then the Slayers left Crichton & Co. behind. I had a tough time making up my mind about this one myself, but ultimately I went with Who Are You because it uses the body swap concept to examine Faith's character in a way that the show hadn't done before and results in lasting changes, whereas Out of Their Minds is glorious fun but doesn't really change anything for any of the Moyans. Also? It made me look up the word "stevedore" in the dictionary.

3) The battle for best "Am I Crazy, Am I Dreamin'" is still raging, between John Crichton and Buffy Summers. Honestly, I love "Normal Again" (and think it's underestimated), but I thought John was a sure winner there because they don't come more crazy and more painful (right mixed up with the funny) than "Won't Get Fooled Again", plus, well, big arc revelation. The other big surprise is "Frame of Mind" being such a respectable third. Not that it doesn't deserve all the applause it gets, but I wasn't aware TNG episodes were still popular among yourselves, respected readers.

4) Canon AU: here BTVS and Marti Noxon score with "The Wish". No serious rivals (and I didn't even mention in my description it introduces Anya...). However, again TNG is doing respectably well with "Tapestry"; I strongly suspect the Jean-Luc Picard/Q interaction as the cause. *g* Also, I feel bad because londonkds reminded me that TNG has a canon AU episode which I really should have included in the poll, P/Q be dammed: Yesterday's Enterprise. Too right. Written a pre-DS9 era, it offered a dark "What If?" version of the Star Trek universe without any Mirror Universe campness (nothing against the Mirror Universe, I love it, but that's not a "what if?" where just one different twist of history makes all the difference for Our Heroes) and used the late Tasha Yar far better than the show had done when she was a regular.

5) "Take a look at yourself during a useful coma": Londo wins at self-examination in a comatose/delirious state, which doesn't surprise me, though I admit I'm biased. (What with "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" being one of my all time favourite Babylon 5 episodes.) What did surprise me was that Bashir and John Crichton are still duking it out for second place and no one loves The Professionals. (Me, I'd have given Life on Mars second place, but given how very new the show is, I'm not surprised it didn't get more.)

6) "Hero of the Hour": shame on me. karabair pointed out I forgot one of my all time favourite Alias episodes, "Tuesday" from season 4, wherein Marshall saves the day (but as opposed to all the other guys doesn't get laid, because he's a married man and his beloved is elsewhere, you know; but he does do a great Jack Bristow impersonation!). Anyway, here The Zeppo is the clear winner. I have issues with The Zeppo myself, but this ranking doesn't surprise me, as I knew it's a popular episode. Meanwhile, Vir comes in as a good second, leaving Vila and pre-Action!Wesley behind.

7) "My heart belongs to Daddy": the tearjerker about love for one's father and attempts to change timelines for him which wins is "The Visitor"; mind you, for a while it was back and forth between Rose Tyler and Jake Sisko. I wonder whether I should have asked after Sci Fi has broadcast "Father's Day"? Anyway, I loved that Dr. Who episode, but I voted for The Visitor myself. One of DS9's best. And now I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't request DS9/Dr. Who in the Multiverse ficathon, I tell you.

8) "Torture the Hero": wow. Another case where I thought Farscape would easily win, but no. As of now, Jean-Luc Picard has snatched the tortured hero award from John Crichton. Personally, I blame Patrick Stewart. (Again.) A word of explanations why I didn't nominate any of the numerous Jossverse occasions where heroes get tortured, including the leads: imo, episodes like In The Dark (Spike uses Angel as a pin cushion) or "War Stories" (Niska has a go at Mal and Wash) aren't really about torture. "War Stories" is primarily about the relationships between Wash, Zoe and Mal, focus on Wash and Zoe. "In the Dark" (aka the last time either show uses Spike in his original function as villain, and I think the writers knew it would be, because the episode has a "last hurrah for Evil!Spike" aura about itself) uses the backstory between Spike and Angel and is primarily about confronting Angel with a temptation for the easy way out. One of the reasons why my B5 example for a torture episode was "Intersections in Real Time" and not "Comes the Inquisitor" is that "Comes the Inquisitor" offers this brand of tv torture as well.

Now, new new Dr. Who (thank you, Davies, for that meta quote...).



I liked it muchly. Mind you, in the way I liked "Rose", i.e. good start for the new season, but I do expect better episodes to follow. The opening scene had me feel misty-eyed for poor Mickey. Really, Rose. A peck on the cheek would have been okay as a sign of enduring friendship, but a long kiss on the mouth is really stringing the guy along. I checked out some other reviews today, and they all talked about the Ten/Cassandra-in-Rose snogging (btw, I think it was a good choice to play this second kiss for laughs), but to me, the kiss that moved me came right at the start. Poor Mickey, I say again. And that look!

Billie Piper as fab both as Rose (I love her smile and her joy in adventuring!) and as Cassandra. Thank you, people, for not spoiling me when I was talking about bodyswap episodes! This way, Cassandra's revenge came as a surprise and a welcome one. Cass-as-Rose constantly got the best lines, too. My own favourite was when she realized the man with Rose was the same Doctor who had condemmed her to death, in a new body. "What a hypocrite. I must get in contact with his surgeon!" Going for the bodyswap concept shortly after the Doctor's regeneration was fun on a meta level, too.

Cassandra's change of heart came too sudden; if it was meant to be taken as genuine, that is. I'm in two minds, no pun intended, about that. On the one hand, Cassandra switching back into her younger self would make perfect sense with the rest of her characterisation and would allow the character to come back; on the other, the death scene was unexpectedly moving, in its mixture of pure Cassandrian narcissism (of course she'd die in her own arms, looking up to her own face!) and compassion (because younger Cassandra had no way of knowing this was herself, and clearly she did feel something for the dying man).

Cat People: loved them. Also thought that the "what price health?" theme, silly as the science of this episode was (but hey, when is science not silly in British sci-fi?) was more effectively and all around better presented as last year's Ewan McGreggor vehicle, The Island. This being said, do I think the Doctor is possibly being set up for hubris and over confidence? Why, yes, quite possibly. As londonkds has pointed out to me when we were talking about Selfless and how Buffy's "I am the law" statement, despite its context (which makes it a sad acknowledgment rather than a triumphant declaration), would be taken by comic readers, it is not very likely that a statement like "there is no higher authority" was penned by accident by a writer versed in pop culture.

And lastly, David Tennant as the Doctor: loved him, too. Overconfidence and all. I loved the giddiness, the utter sincerety and compassion when he told the "lab rat" "I am so sorry", the non-plussed way he reacted to being snogged by Cassandra/Rose, and all the scenes with the Face of Boe (though you know, at the end I expected the punchline to be that the lonely wanderer and last of his kind would turn out to be Cassandra instead of the Doctor; but okay, set up for future revelations works for me as well, I'm a Babylon 5 fan, after all).

Now let's see how Mr. Hartnell originated the role...

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Although "The Zeppo" is certainly very funny, and uses perspective in a brilliant way, that episode has always DRIVEN ME CRAZY, and I'll tell you why. The episode's premise: Everyone takes Xander for granted, but he discovers his courage and his moxie through the zombie adventure, and so he won't be so easy to take for granted again. The problems with this: (1) I never saw the first shred of evidence, before "The Zeppo," that anybody treated Xander that way; and (2) after "The Zeppo," everyone treats Xander like that FAR MORE -- including, in a meta sense, the writers. It rests on false premises and accomplishes the exact opposite of what it seems to accomplish for the character. Cute, but really, really hollow because of this.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Those would be precisely my own issues with The Zeppo.*g*

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, just what I said below, before looking --

The idea that Xander is the Zeppo pretty much comes out of that episode; at that point it would have made a lot more sense to do, say, an Oz-centric ep. I do like that the story has consequences, re: Xander/Faith, but still -- wtf???

[bimo.livejournal.com]

Cassandra's change of heart came too sudden; if it was meant to be taken as genuine, that is. I'm in two minds, no pun intended, about that. On the one hand, Cassandra switching back into her younger self would make perfect sense with the rest of her characterisation and would allow the character to come back

Personally, I was somewhat dissatisfied RTD did not go for the "Cassandra switching back into her younger self" option, because I thought this would have made a much better, more harmonious and also nicely ironical ending.

As much as I liked some of New Earth's ingredients (especially the unsettling cat nurses and the hilarious disinfectant showers), the episode as a whole struck me as rather disjointed. Attempting to squeeze so many different plot elements as Rose's first visit to an alien planet, Cassandra, zombies and the Face of Boe into the very same forty-five minutes, was a bit too much for my taste.

I very much enjoyed the new Doctor, though. Apparently even enough to draw him ;-)
http://www.cheery.de/fundus/ten_signed.JPG

Word on Ten displaying quite a few signs of a potentially dangerous hubris. cavendish, who watched the episode together with me yesterday afternoon, said he recognized this particular trait from the fourth Doc; the sole difference being that overly confident Four mostly failed, while overly confident Ten so far has only succeeded.

So I'm really looking forward to see whether the writers are going to turn Ten's self-confidence and arrogance into a tragic flaw...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome picture. You're very talented.

Re: Ten and success - well, he only had two outings, so that's not saying much. Also, from what adventures of Four I've seen, I agree with cavendish that he displays this, too.

[bimo.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome picture. You're very talented.

Thank you :-)

I have to say though that I was rather lucky with this one, because the processes of scanning for some reason intensified the original picture's colours and blurred the very parts that I messed up *g*

Re: Ten and success - well, he only had two outings, so that's not saying much

It surely doesn't. Actually, I'm quite convinced that what we're seeing at the moment is nothing more than a fluke, but one which will have a serious impact on the Doctor's self-perception at a point in time when his newly regenerated personality is still rather unstable.

Early reinforcement of potentially dangerous behavioral patters + unmoulded character = perfect formula for impending doom *g*

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Rose's first visit to an alien planet

But it wasn't Rose's first visit to an alien planet - well, not unless she was lying through her teeth when she told her traveller's tales to Mickey in Boomtown. Since RTD chose not to show any of those, however, he had to cover that first-time thrill retrospectively by having her tell the Doctor she never got used to being on a new planet and jump up and down in a field.

[bimo.livejournal.com]

But it wasn't Rose's first visit to an alien planet - well, not unless she was lying through her teeth when she told her traveller's tales to Mickey in Boomtown

Oh, I remember that scene... Vaguely. It's been quite a while since I last watched Boomtown ;-)

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

And now I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't request DS9/Dr. Who in the Multiverse ficathon, I tell you.

And now I'm annoyed I didn't sign up.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

See, you should always do what I ask people to do.*g* Also, I do hope you signed up for idol_reflection, because I'm hard at work on that Quark essay.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I know! I just hadn't seen it until after the signup date and I didn't want to do new BSG/DS9. (Although Dr. Baltar and Dr. Bashir would be hilarious.)

I still owe them a Josh Lyman essay for May 1st. I didn't forget ; I decided to do Ben Sisko. I just should really finish the first one. Writing 20 pages about Josh wouldn't be hard, it's the structure of the thing and time that's getting to me.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

People like "The Zeppo" more than "Guise Will be Guise"? *blinks* Well, I guess that's more pre-action!Wes for me. ("The Zeppo" is one of maybe 3 BTVS episodes that I actually don't like, even though i feel like I should -- maybe because I never really buy the idea that Xander is a peripheral character in the first place. I mean, he's the HEART for God's sake! I much much prefer "The Replacement" as a Xander-centric ep, and not just for the very nice Buffy/Riley subplot.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I prefer The Replacement, too, but we are pretty much in a minority for this. *nods sagely*

What I like about The Zeppo is pretty much the tongue in cheek self parody of the standard BTVS plot elements at the time - Buffy/Angel grand opera (complete with melodramatic music that stops when Xander enters the scene and starts again when he leaves), Willow shoots Oz, Willow tells Xander she loves him, end of the world threatening. But as for the Xander main issues? What you and Yahtzee said.

[cavendish.livejournal.com]

>Now let's see how Mr. Hartnell originated the role...

I really like the Hartnell episodes (although the perspective on women ins quite unnerving at times). Nevertheless, they are worth the while, imho. If you like, I can provide some more, especially the really great "Dalek Invasion of Earth" (Season 2)episode

Have fun,

Frank

PS.: Have any plans involving Patric Steward and Stradford evolved as yet;-) ? I thought about going in the autum break.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Having seen now "Unearthy Child" and "The Daleks", I know what you mean. I'll post my thoughts in a while.

Patrick Stewart & Stratford: unfortunately, due to my schedule (http://www.tanja-kinkel.de/index_ter.html), I wouldn't be able to it in autumm anymore than in spring, but I will be in England for several weeks in August, which is when I'll see him. BUT I also want to see Ian McKellan, and he's not on until November, so if the three of us could go together then, that would be great (and I can do two days or so in November).