Links and expectations

[selenak]

Firstly, if you're not all averse to reading comics: resolute on Matt Fraction's recently nominated The Order, and why you should read it. What she said. Especially if certain recent movies have induced you to check out the Marvelverse.

Secondly, speaking of good writing: Neil Gaiman interviews Terry Prattchet.

Thirdly, a link to a Battlestar Galactica story, set after Revelations and impossible to describe without spoiling that episode: Daybreak. It's an ensemble story, with the pairings the ones the show offers.

***

I might not be able to post tomorrow due to real life stuff, so, some (unspoiled) thoughts in advance on what I expect and hope from tonight's Doctor Who episode, Turn Left:



1) First and foremost, a Donna character study. It's going to be Donna-centric, and RTD in his pre-season SFX interviews has praised Catherine Tate's performance in it to the skies, so given that she has been amazing throughout, my expectations are pretty high.

2) Interesting interaction between Donna and Rose. I loved Donna's scenes with Martha The Sontaran Strategem and The Poison Sky. I also enjoyed Rose's scenes with Sarah Jane in School Reunion. So I'm curious to see Donna and Rose encountering each other, and though the Doctor will obviously be one of the subjects they'll talk about, I really doubt he'll be the only one. One thing I really appreciate about the way Rose has been handled this season so far is that the few glimpses of her we got were tied to the mystery of the season; they weren't about romance. Rose is obviously trying to deliver a warning. Donna and Rose teaming up to save the universe? Sign me on. Which brings me to:

3) Rose. You know, one of the most annoying things about fandom is the insistence on partisanship, emphasis on the "ship" part. Now I'm not a Doctor/Rose'shipper (no matter which incarnation of the Doctor, just to make that clear), and if I had to rank the three New Who companions in the scale of my personal affection, it would be Donna - Martha - Rose. But just because Rose is No.3 doesn't mean I dislike her, or feel obliged to curse her very existence, or to believe that as soon as she and the Doctor lay eyes on each other, all other characters will be ignored by both Doctor and narrative. I would have been okay with never seeing Rose again, since I think she was played out as a companion by the end of s2. But if the alternative is that the last thing we'll see of Rose isn't her crying on a beach (not that crying on a beach is the ultimate crime, which you'd think it is according to some reviews - Rose has always been open and spontanous in her emotions, she was just twenty, and honestly, given that this was the last time to her knowledge she saw a man she was in love with, I would have been surprised if she hadn't cried), but her befriending Donna and working towards saving the universe? See above, sign me on: I'm all for it. It'll put the emphasis on Rose as a "defender of Earth" in her own right instead of a love interest. S4 so far has gone a great way towards addressing issues, topics and plot threads that left at least a part of the audience uneasy in previous seasons, whether it was the Doctor's relationship with Martha (via letting him state his regrets in the season opener, including that "it was my fault", and then via their interaction in the Sontaran two-parter), the Ood, or what you could call the "Tooth and Claw attitude problem" (addressed in both "Unicorn and the Wasp" via Agatha Christie and again in Midnight, this time with the Doctor replying in an honest and not smug way - "I'm interested; I can't help it, this is a new life form, and that's fascinating"). Even the Christmas Invasion treatment of Harriet Jones got addressed in a roundabout way, because in direct opposition to Harriet Jones in "The Christmas Invasion", Colonel Mace and the people of UNIT choosing a not-Doctor-designed tactic to defend Earth is presented in an equally valiant and favourable light, and acknowledged as "brilliant" by the Doctor. So given all of this, I'd say chances are good that the role given to Rose in tonight's episode and the remaining ones will also fall into this category. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. We'll see. Until we do, I chose to be optimistic.

Comments

[wondygal.livejournal.com]

I approve of your optimism. The Rose thing is so fraught in fandom, and we make such a huge deal out of her while the show has been doing great with her this season, you're right. But there's no sense in moaning about fandom. Specially since what I want mostly is Donna. I like how you pointed out how the fourth series has dealt with some previous issues, you speak truth.

Half confession time: I started watching Who last year around this time, when LJ exploded over Utopia, but mostly because of you, because I was here for the Heroes stuff and kept getting tempted when you spoke of Who. Now I can't really remember not loving this fantastic universe. And it's been a year already, wth.

Also, even more out of topic, but because you're still a banner-carrying Sloane fan, yesterday I was watching the first season of Alias and I was slightly surprised to see how little(or, really, how subtly) Sloane is used at the beginning. Having watched the whole thing, I pay attention to his every move, but five episodes in and he's still mostly in the background. I guess I'd forgotten there was a time when everyone didn't openly hate Sloane to his face.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Ah, the early SD-6 stuff of Alias! (And no, my love for Sloane will never cease.) Mind you, you can tell in the pilot they hadn't really worked out the backstory yet as even within s1, they needed to revise. I.e. in the pilot, there is no indication that Sloane knew Sydney before hiring her for SD-6, though it is already clear that he and Jack go back before that. But in the actual season, after they've made the decision to let Jack and Sloane be former best friends since their earliest CIA days, they had the problem that then Sydney would have known him as a child, and we get a somewhat awkward "btw, Sydney, I knew you as a child, though you may have forgotten" scene. Ditto for the extent of Sloane's Rambaldi obsession; in the very early episodes, he's more or less "Milo Who? Hm, interesting", but by mid-season they turned it around to something he's been pursuing since years, and I suppose we can fanwank it to declare that he was just faking it for his own seasons in the early eps.*g*

I'm glad you didn't leave due to lack of more Heroes stuff! I haven't stopped loving the show; as soon as there will be new episodes, there will be new meta and new fanfic (as I think I've written all the stories the material so far has inspired me to, which are after all 30 something or soo!). And that you were tempted into DW. It's one of the best things of fandom, that you can get pointed towards more interesting shows/books/films to share...

[resolute.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rec!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Amazon doesn't have The Order. I guess I'll have to pay my trusted local comic guy a visit. Truth be told, I've already read something by Mark Fraction - Five Fists of Science, which is, er, Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein fighting crime. The concept and the presentation is rather awesome, the comic not quite so, but The Order sounds interesting enough to give it another shot.

Word on your thoughts on Turn Left. May they come to pass.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec to that great BSG fic.
I am hoping for the same things you are in tonight's Dr.Who. I don't have a favourite companion, really; I liked all three, in their own way. I do lean toward Donna, simply because she's a mature woman, closer in age to me, so I can identify with her a little more than with Rose or Martha.

[aralias.livejournal.com]

love your anaylsis of series four and rose as a character. were you pleased with what actually happened in turn left?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was!