New Who: Love and Monsters

[selenak]

The first day in London was delightful. I strolled through the streets, saw a lot of shiny things I may or may not aquire, met rozk and hung out for some fun hours, was treated to a vibrant crossection of new and old London around Liverpool Street Station which I hadn't seen before, and watched the new Dr. Who episode.



Clearly, Russel T. Davies adored the BTVS episode Storyteller. No wonder he hired Jane E. for next season. ( No, wait, that was Ronald D. Moore for BSG. Sorry.) As I'm in love with (well done) meta episodes in general and this one in particular as well, I was probably predisposed to like this episode. Seriously, though, all in all, I loved it, though there is one issue which I don't believe he thought through. More about that in a moment.

Firstly, I wouldn't be surprised if this episode caused something of a controversy. Episodes where canon takes on fandom itself usually do, as do outside point of view episodes. They're also pitfalls for the writer - I mean, JMS did four or five on Babylon 5, and with the exception of the very last one, The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father, they were all either playing with loaded dice (how can these reporters be mean to Our Heroes? How dare those historians?) or embarassingly self-conglaturatory. (The Corps... avoids this by giving us the anything-but-flattering Psi Corps point of view of Our Heroes without telling us it's just slander.) Love and Monsters avoids all this. I think its characters are a fair representation - you have fandom as an opportunity to form friendships, to spark each other's creativity and talents (Elton & chums), and the dark side as represented by Victor Kennedy - taking the joy out of it, stalking the crew characters, bullying anyone who doesn't share the opinion of the loudest fan in the room. And of course Victor Kennedy turns out to be a slightly silly looking monster. Firstly, he's in Dr. Who, and secondly, he's a self-appointed Guardian Of Canon And Big Name Fan.

At the same time, we get a welcome (to me, anyway) look at Jackie between visits by her daughter and the Doctor. Thinking back of the one-note-joke Jackie was in Rose, I just love the way the show developed her and Mickey (Mickey namecheck! yay!) quietly throughout the seasons. She was just darling in her vibrancy, flirting, anger and protectiveness. I do hope she forgives Elton and they do become mates, but if not, I have no doubt she'll find other friends. How could she not, being who she is?

The Doctor's "not nice" statement reminded me of a chat I had with bimo who said the only Doctor without any unpleasant sides whatsoever and pure niceness was Paul McGann, by virtue of being in an American movie, and that this as much as anything might have been why that movie failed. Mind you, I'd say each of the Doctors have displayed kindness at various points, but that's not the same thing, so she's probably right. Anyway, the one thing which I don't believe RTD thought through was Elton and Moaning Myrtle Ursula at the end. Now seeing that Ursula is fully conscious and very capable of speech, I guess she would have told the Doctor if she objected to being brought back in this fashion. At the same time, when I watched that, and before remembering my canon properly which made me realize it couldn't be, I thought "oh my god, the Doctor has created Cassandra and that is why she... no, can't be, we saw her in human form way later than that" when seeing Elton holding Ursula up. Meaning: Elton will age and die. Ursula won't. She's stuck like that. Forever. Which isn't charming and funny - which was undoubtedly the intention on Davies' part - but truly chilling.

This aside, like I said: loved the episode. Loved the meta. Loved Elton and his friends.

Now for the second day in London and meeting kangeiko....