Love and Monsters
Jun. 17th, 2006 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieWell, that was a bit...light. Perhaps even fluffy. Except not exactly fluffy.
I dunno...it might have worked better as a fanfic, maybe? It was sort of "the Doctor makes you/things/the world better" (or whatever the exact line Rose has said to that effect) writ large. Which has kind of been done all over in fanfic.
All the other characters were fun, and certainly well-played (Moaning Myrtle! Hee!), but...a bit odd not having the Doctor and Rose in the episode very much. (I suppose this is this season's "The Long Game." It's starting to disturb me how well S2 episodes can be slotted into places similar to S1 episodes. This was TLG, TIP/TSP was TEC/TDD, the Cybermen two-parter was a bit like AOL/WWIII only with better monsters...) I think it did allow RTD to write more of what he knows; they seemed cut from the same cloth as the cast of Buffy, from what I could tell. Maybe more British. But it definitely seemed to be very aware that it was a kid-focused episode, you know? I can't really explain why, but it really felt that way to me. Very...formulaic, almost.
At the same time, I liked that we got some fallout from the three aliens-invade-Earth stories we've had. It was good to see that there were actually consequences from those stories. And I loved the members of LINDA coming together to form a band and a little social club and all that, which wouldn't have happened but for their connection via the Doctor. (Aww, it's like Clive version 2.0: the seedlings!) So I dunno. I kind of feel the same way about this episode that I did about most of Firefly: it's well-written, and a lot of people like it (I assume people will like this one; everyone connected with the production certainly seemed to), and the fact that it reaches its expected conclusion and its expected moral feels very natural and right, but...it just doesn't add up to the sum of its parts for me. *shrug*
Also, could Elton's last monologue about salvation and damnation being one and the same with the Doctor, and then about Jackie and Rose paying the price for it, have been more anvilicious? Ow. My head hurts. BECAUSE I HAD AN ANVIL DROPPED ON IT.
Other random bits and bobs:
- Okay, so all the filming on the street? I was flashing back SO HARD to that short film project for DeVoid's screenwriting class. *shudder* Also, Elton's room looked scarily similar to the one we used for part of said project, inhabited by one of the guys in my group. Meep. In fact, Elton kind of reminded me of that guy in a lot of ways. ("I like football, I like a drink, I like Spain...I really like Electric Light Orchestra.") That said...were the random dancing clips just there because the episode ran under time?
- Also, the washers at the "Wash Inn" (ow) were EXACTLY the same as the ones in Cornwall House at Exeter. Meep.
- So not only can I not believe that Shirley Henderson is forty, but the guy playing Elton? Is thirty-nine. I thought the absolute oldest he could have been was twenty-five.
- Was that...OH MY GOD, THEY FILKED "I'VE GOT A BRAND NEW COMBINE HARVESTER." Ow. (Scroll down for MP3.)
- Those little Torchwood references ("the Torchwood files" here, "the Torchwood archives" in the last one) would be very mysterious and very cool if we didn't know it referred to the spinoff.
- Aw, I love you,Myrtle Ursula. You're awesome.
- I think "Flip the TV on--I can't bear it silent" just encapsulates Jackie's character in so few words. Very nice. And ow, I felt sorry for Jackie Tyler. Ack.
- Rose was being awfully touchy-feely with poor Elton. Wow. I know she's tactile, but that stood out.
- ...Myrtle is now a talking flagstone. Poor Shirley Henderson can't get a break.
I dunno...it might have worked better as a fanfic, maybe? It was sort of "the Doctor makes you/things/the world better" (or whatever the exact line Rose has said to that effect) writ large. Which has kind of been done all over in fanfic.
All the other characters were fun, and certainly well-played (Moaning Myrtle! Hee!), but...a bit odd not having the Doctor and Rose in the episode very much. (I suppose this is this season's "The Long Game." It's starting to disturb me how well S2 episodes can be slotted into places similar to S1 episodes. This was TLG, TIP/TSP was TEC/TDD, the Cybermen two-parter was a bit like AOL/WWIII only with better monsters...) I think it did allow RTD to write more of what he knows; they seemed cut from the same cloth as the cast of Buffy, from what I could tell. Maybe more British. But it definitely seemed to be very aware that it was a kid-focused episode, you know? I can't really explain why, but it really felt that way to me. Very...formulaic, almost.
At the same time, I liked that we got some fallout from the three aliens-invade-Earth stories we've had. It was good to see that there were actually consequences from those stories. And I loved the members of LINDA coming together to form a band and a little social club and all that, which wouldn't have happened but for their connection via the Doctor. (Aww, it's like Clive version 2.0: the seedlings!) So I dunno. I kind of feel the same way about this episode that I did about most of Firefly: it's well-written, and a lot of people like it (I assume people will like this one; everyone connected with the production certainly seemed to), and the fact that it reaches its expected conclusion and its expected moral feels very natural and right, but...it just doesn't add up to the sum of its parts for me. *shrug*
Also, could Elton's last monologue about salvation and damnation being one and the same with the Doctor, and then about Jackie and Rose paying the price for it, have been more anvilicious? Ow. My head hurts. BECAUSE I HAD AN ANVIL DROPPED ON IT.
Other random bits and bobs:
- Okay, so all the filming on the street? I was flashing back SO HARD to that short film project for DeVoid's screenwriting class. *shudder* Also, Elton's room looked scarily similar to the one we used for part of said project, inhabited by one of the guys in my group. Meep. In fact, Elton kind of reminded me of that guy in a lot of ways. ("I like football, I like a drink, I like Spain...I really like Electric Light Orchestra.") That said...were the random dancing clips just there because the episode ran under time?
- Also, the washers at the "Wash Inn" (ow) were EXACTLY the same as the ones in Cornwall House at Exeter. Meep.
- So not only can I not believe that Shirley Henderson is forty, but the guy playing Elton? Is thirty-nine. I thought the absolute oldest he could have been was twenty-five.
- Was that...OH MY GOD, THEY FILKED "I'VE GOT A BRAND NEW COMBINE HARVESTER." Ow. (Scroll down for MP3.)
- Those little Torchwood references ("the Torchwood files" here, "the Torchwood archives" in the last one) would be very mysterious and very cool if we didn't know it referred to the spinoff.
- Aw, I love you,
- I think "Flip the TV on--I can't bear it silent" just encapsulates Jackie's character in so few words. Very nice. And ow, I felt sorry for Jackie Tyler. Ack.
- Rose was being awfully touchy-feely with poor Elton. Wow. I know she's tactile, but that stood out.
- ...Myrtle is now a talking flagstone. Poor Shirley Henderson can't get a break.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 03:24 am (UTC)My question for you is, did you recognize the woman in the coming attractions? Just how many people from Casanova are going to be on this show?!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-18 03:35 am (UTC)*cough* *cough*
My question for you is, did you recognize the woman in the coming attractions?
Hee, Bellino!
Just how many people from Casanova are going to be on this show?!
RTD must have his own unofficial rep company. (Also, if they could get Laura Fraser, that would be awesome. I wish she were in the running for the next companion. Or they could get what's-his-face who played her pretty husband...)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 03:38 am (UTC)And you're so so right about the Torchwood references. ::eyeroll::
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 05:42 am (UTC)Apparently this was filmed at the same time as TIP/TSP, and had to have less Rose and the Doctor in it because of that. (The Christmas special this year apparently wasn't allotted any extra time in the filming schedule, so they had to do this workaround.) Which makes sense to me, but I wish they could've done a better episode with this opportunity to focus on other characters. I think they maybe needed to carve out either the LINDA or the Jackie plots, and focus on just one of them.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 01:29 pm (UTC)Neither, really. I was referring more to the whole situation with Jackie, and the complete lack of resolution there. When Rose showed up to chew Elton out, and especially when she finally seemed to warm to him, I thought we'd end up with her doing something that, I would think, most people in her situation would do--phone Jackie and try to work something out.
The speech was obviously going to happen in some way, shape, or form, though the paving stone thing really just....eeeuuugghhh. I would not want to live like that, I can say for sure. To the point where I'm really kind of surprised that the Doctor would think that was an improvement over having been absorbed into the earth.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 05:27 pm (UTC)Seriously, that wouldn't have been a bad thing to include, but I guess I can just assume that it happened offscreen and be happy with it. *shrug*
I caught the joke at the end with the paving stone--and I feel fairly certain the whole thing was added just for that line--and while I laughed at the time, because I'm twelve, the more I thought about it the more disgusted I became with the whole idea. Although people have been speculating that, since she "won't ever age," she might, in five billion years, turn into the Face of Boe. Which would be highly amusing. *g*
no subject
Date: 2006-06-21 06:16 pm (UTC)No, mostly just this particular episode, though after last week's left me going "Yeah, okay, and?" I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Though, I shouldn't go back into all of that, I think ;)
she might, in five billion years, turn into the Face of Boe.
Heh. But wouldn't not aging also sort of imply that she can't grow or die? And Boe clearly thought he was dying there for a while, and also gave birth!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 03:19 pm (UTC)True. The spec I saw addressed this with, "Uh...she was...misinformed?" Heh.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-24 03:59 am (UTC)nope, didn't really get a Buffy vibe there at all. Too... dull. Buffy has spastic teenaged weirdoes, but these were middle-aged sedated hermits. Different animals.
But it definitely seemed to be very aware that it was a kid-focused episode, you know? I can't really explain why, but it really felt that way to me. Very...formulaic, almost.
To me, it didn't feel so much kid-focused as rabid-fan-focused. To the point of mocking rabid fans. But yeah, felt like fanfic.
Ow. My head hurts. BECAUSE I HAD AN ANVIL DROPPED ON IT.
YES. OW.
Rose was being awfully touchy-feely with poor Elton. Wow. I know she's tactile, but that stood out.
Didn't you get the memo? This month is Invade the Personal Space of the Pathetic Loser Guest Star Month. Geez, get with the program.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-24 05:47 am (UTC)Yeah, but they were quirky as hell. And looking for monsters (well, the Doctor, but monsters are inevitable when looking for him). Seemed Buffyish to me.
To me, it didn't feel so much kid-focused as rabid-fan-focused. To the point of mocking rabid fans. But yeah, felt like fanfic.
The whole fan-parody thing totally passed me by until I saw someone discussing it on Lj. Then I got it. But before I did, it seemed seriously simplistic.
Didn't you get the memo? This month is Invade the Personal Space of the Pathetic Loser Guest Star Month. Geez, get with the program.
*sends memo to the memo folks*
no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 06:20 am (UTC)Well, a bit, but considering the insane levels of Buffyness this show has achieved earlier, this wasn't much to speak of.
The whole fan-parody thing totally passed me by until I saw someone discussing it on Lj. Then I got it. But before I did, it seemed seriously simplistic.
Heh. A bit dense this week, are we? : ) Yeah, that secondary level *almost* saved this ep from being a little boring. Almost.