The Ides of March, and other things

[selenak]

Yes, it's that time of year again. The death of Julius Caesar is one of the most often restaged and rewritten events in history, so it is really difficult to come up with a take that makes it suspensful and immmediate to the audience. The tv show Rome managed it, as you can see here:

One thing Rome wisely did not try was to match the Shakespearean version of the funeral orations, Brutus' and Mark Antony's, because, well, that would be... as stupid as trying to rewrite the Tilbury speech. *glare in the direction of a certain movie released this year* Okay, now seriousy, Antony's speech is one of the great set pieces in dramatic literature. Here's the young Marlon Brando's rendition:

(Incidentally, the way Rome got around having to match that scene was by limiting themselves to the before and after. It worked.)

***

calapine's What about Everything was already one of my favourite Doctor Who vids of all time, a love declaration to all the decades of the show, seamlessly integrating Old and New Who footage. Now she has put up a second version, which somehow manages to be even more magnificent (and uses some footage not available in the first one). Even New Whovians absolutely unfamiliar with any of the pre-Nine Doctors should hurry and watch it at once; it's the best summing up of the Doctor and his Companions and foes ever, seriously.

Lastly, a lighthearted drabble from the Academy days of the Master, the Doctor and the Rani. (Sidenote: and I still wonder whether the teachers who managed to produce not one, not two but three brilliant Timelord renegades all became the Gallifreyan equivalent of alcoholics later, or whether they did it intentionally. As the species thrives on manipulation.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

You are making all kinds of sense here. Whoa.

(And giving me plot bunnies. Well, mine are more like introspection bunnies, but still.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Plot and introspection bunnies are both good.

And really, the more I think about it, the more it fits. Yet another thing that occured to me: the Year that Wasn't is the worst thing the Master ever does to the Doctor (so far, of course!), what with Future Humans used to murder Current Humans, Earth as the bloody basis for a new Time Lord Empire, the Doctor kept as a pet and aged up and down at the Master's convenience. But he notably doesn't do to him what the Time Lords did to the (Second) Doctor at the end of The War Games. Which is fresh in my mind because I recently watched it, but the end of The War Games is really incredibly dark, especially for early DW, with Doctor and Companions separated by force and the Companions robbed of their memories, and then the enforced regeneration plus mind violation, with the last image being the Doctor drifting into total darkness, a smaller and smaller figure, crying "no" against what is happening till the very end. Which is arguably the worst annd most traumatic thing to happen to him before the Time War, and one assumes a repeat performance would be a very effective tool to threaten him with or go through with. But it's the one thing the Master doesn't do. And one reason could be that something similar was done or at least attempted with him.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

...I really need to watch that. *pets Two and Jamie and Zoe*

That could certainly be a reason, all right. Hmm...