I'm so behind replying and commenting, it's not even funny. Note to self: one great fanfiction has just put up its final installment, you WILL comment, no matter what Darth Real Life says.

Also I watched Die Frau ohne Schatten last night, which is an incredibly creepy opera by Richard Strauss, libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and once I'd watched and listened I knew why it gets rarely performend. I mean, opera isn't famous for its social equality promoting plots anyway, but this one not only pushes the hunting/sex metaphor to the nth degree, with one of the two couples having met while he was hunting and she was weregazelle, but he sings lyrically about how she'll always be his favourite prey and he wishes he could hunt her down again and again, no, it has also in other couple a woman vilified for not wanting to have children, and a chorus of "Unborn Children" singing to her throughout the opera, about how hard-hearted she is and needs to open her body to them. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, I know it was WWI when you were writing this stuff, but it creeps me out regardless, and I shall never listen to this opera again.

In other news: An Adventure in Time and Spaces was delightful, with a few nitpicks. Which may even be only my nitpicks! Because it was supposed to be not about a single person but about the start of Doctor Who, and it was; it's just that yours truly found the shift from Verity Lambert as central character for two thirds of the special to William Hartnell in the last third (after V. L. was no longer producing Doctor Who and had moved on to her next project) a bit jarring. I mean, I can see why, because as mentioned it tells the story of the show itself which Verity L. at this point leaves, but I still when watching thought "what? But - where is she going? How is she doing?".

My other nitpick would be that Gatiss couldn't resist using the First Doctor's justly famous goodbye speech to Susan twice, once as reenacted by David Bradley and once in the Hartnell orginal. Yes, it's a perfect Tempest/Prospero type of meta level goodbye speech to use, but doing so twice felt a bit sledgehammery; once would have sufficed.

But these are my only complaints. As a movie, it was a charming love declaration, brought out what glass ceiling breakers Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein were (casual 1963 sexism and racism alert), David Bradley was great as William Hartnell, and the story was approachable imo even if you aren't a DW fan. As opposed to his period Big Finish and DW tv stuff, Gatiss resists namechecking every contemporary event of 1963 and only includes them when it makes sense. (The Kennedy assassination had to be there because the first Doctor Who broadcast had the bad luck to coincide with it; the other, today far less famous event he includes, which was lovely to see, was the first woman in space, whom Verity Lambert and friends are watching on tv.) The main relationships focused on were Verity Lambert & Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert & Waris Husseein and Verity Lambert & William Hartnell, and without knowing whether or not they corresponded to the real life equivalents, within this particular work of historical fiction they worked for me.

Cameo by spoilery guest: was touching and appropriate. Aw.

And now: next rl appointment awaits, must dash.

My feelings, they're just a biiiiiiiiit mixed upon reading the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who will be honoured a drama about the beginnings of the show . On the one hand: great idea, and I hope for Verity Lambert (first producer, and as a young female producer in the BBC in the early 60s a pioneer in more than one way) as the central character. And Delia Derbyshire as another one. (For co-creating the DW theme tune.) On the other hand: I stand by my opinion, voiced more than once, that no matter how much he loves the show and his long term fanboy credentials, Mark Gatiss is a better actor than he is a writer. Especially with period drama. Which a story set in the early 60s would be.

Then again: the one Mark Gatiss written DW episode I really enjoyed was The Unquiet Dead, which was a period drama. But a RTD edited one, and more recently, he gave us the iDaleks and Jolly!Churchill in Victory of the Daleks, aka my least favourite episode of the Moff era so far. And his Sherlock episodes - Hounds of Baskerville and The Great Game - were decidedly mixed affairs. And his DW audio play, Invaders from Mars!, was mostly bubbles, nothing wrong with that, and "Don't let them cut Ambersons, Orson!" did crack me up, but it felt like a hasty slap dash thing, writing wise. So: mixed feelings. Can't you play Sydney Newman (= head of BBC drama at the time) instead, Mark Gatiss? Well, I suppose you can do that anyway.

Maybe I'm being unfair, and Mark Gatiss will create a wonderful script. *crosses fingers* Anyway, the idea itself I'm all for, and it's more creative and unexpected from the BBC than just throwing another Doctor-meets-Doctor-meets-Doctor party (not that I don't love those, of course) to honour the anniversary. It would be lovely if they found cameo opportunities for the surviving original team TARDIS actors. And if Jessica Hynes aka Jessica Stevenson gets to play Verity Lambert, it would be the loveliest meta ever. *

* Explanation: she played Joan Redfern in Human Nature/The Family of Blood (which itself contains a lovely homage to the people who created Doctor Who, because when John Smith, the amnesiac Doctor, is asked who his parents were, he replies "Verity and Sydney"), and then Joan Redfern's descendant Verity (!) Newman in The End of Time II.