Sarah Jane, Jonathan Strange, and very strange fanfic indeed

[icepixie]

I watched "The Hand of Fear." I was very sad and sniffly at the end, because it's Sarah Jane, and she's leaving, and she doesn't want to, and the Doctor doesn't want her to, and even though he says he'll come back for her, he DOESN'T, and it's REALLY SAD. *sniffle* But there was also this conversation, which was very nice:

DOCTOR: Right, you stay here. I'll go on; it shouldn't take long, one way or another.
SARAH: Good. Let's go.
D: Not you. You stay with Professor Watson.

[The Doctor walks on; Sarah tries to follow, but Watson grabs her and pulls her back.]

WATSON: I think you'd better do as he says this time.
S: Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I should. [pause] But I'm not going to!

[She ducks away from Watson and catches up with the Doctor.]

S: [off the Doctor's look] I worry about you. Anyway, who found that thing?
D: You did.
S: Right. So I'm involved. It could've been me, not Driscoll, and besides, I'm from Earth and you're not.
D: That's true.
S: Exactly.
D: Yes, but--
S: Oh, but what?
D: I worry about you.
S: So be careful.
D: We'll both be careful.

Awwww. *melts*

I actually don't ship Sarah with the Doctor (well, Four; haven't seen Three, but when I do, I imagine I won't ship her with him either), but I absolutely believe the Doctor when he calls her his best friend. I like that there's flirting, and gestures or lines that can be read in a number of ways onscreen, but I don't think they ever crossed the line from being the best of friends into A Relationship, nor do I think they should've in canon. Shipfic (and shipicons, shipwallpapers, etc.), of course, is great fun and I heartily encourage it. *g* The actors have fantastic chemistry, and they just act like best friends knocking about in a time machine and occasionally saving the universe.

But one other thing about that episode sticks in my mind, and it's Sarah's hideous pink-striked overalls done up with lace or something at the legs and waist, combined with a red shirt and red-and-white sneakers. *raises eyebrow* I know it was the seventies, but even in 1976, no grown woman should be wearing something like this. There's hideousness, and then there's a point where I think the PTB are trying make, well, a point, and I'm pretty sure this is it. Because Sarah wore much more professional--or at least more grown up--clothes earlier in her tenure, and then she turns up looking like a friggin' Raggedy Ann doll, and no. There must be a purpose behind that. "Traveling with the Doctor will make you regress to childhood" seems a strange statement to make, though. *shrug*

*

Somewhat concomitant with that last bit, this entry from nostalgia_lj and the comments on it are really quite fascinating. I don't agree with everything said there, but it's interesting to think about. (Obviously, I am missing academia today.)

Speaking of academia, a link in the comments to that post led to whileaway, which led to this "seminar" on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The articles are not always the most well-written, but Susanna Clarke's response to them is really interesting.

*

Can someone explain this to me? (Scroll down on the page a bit and click on "Background Explanation.") I...okay, I've run into weird fic before, but this is just utterly bizarre. Doesn't taking away the whole idea of regeneration and having each incarnation of the Doctor be split up into separate people, called by the names of the actors, some of whom are evil and some of whom work for Gallifrey, contravene essentially everything about the show? And then an extended plotline with a romance between Peri and Legolas (yes, that one)? I...WTF?

I mean, AUs are all well and good, but even the AU-est AU is generally not as...different...as these. In this case, I think fiction is very much stranger than truth could ever dream of being.

*wanders off, boggling at the bizarreness of it all*

Comments

[icepixie]

Though she could also be sent off to take care of more complex bits of plot, freeing the Doctor to go do other stuff.

Yeah--which sometimes meant she got shuffled off, not to be seen until the end of the episode. (Although we did see her building the sound machine in...The Visitation, I think. But until Adric stumbled back in, that was a tiny bit boring, watching her fiddle with it and mumble to herself.)

*headdesk* I think this a conundrum without any good answer.

I'm also thinking that Romana worked pretty well, and she was essentially his equal.

Oooh, yes. City of Death is the only one with Romana II I've seen, but I loved it. And yeah, they were equals, pretty much--moreso than in the first Romana I episode, where he was constantly throwing her inexperience in her face.

I guess it all depends on why the companion was chosen and what you want him or her to accomplish, and how well you can make that combination work.

Quite possibly.

True--though maybe that should be the test. Would it seem sexist if the same events happened to a male companion? If not, then you really shouldn't be calling it sexist. (As if it's that easy to abide by such a rule! Sounds good in theory, though :) )

Oh, you've been away from the ivory tower for too long, haven't you? *g* Yeah, that doesn't fly with some of the more strident feminist critics, in my experience--it's too easy to rebut with "but the fact that these events did happen to a female and not a male is inherently sexist."

Hee! That was pretty much my brain, the whole time I was reading that thing. And really? If you have a "warnings" page for the specific purpose of "defending your actions," shouldn't that perhaps be a warning...to you??

For SERIOUS.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

hey were equals, pretty much--moreso than in the first Romana I episode, where he was constantly throwing her inexperience in her face.

True--though it only took a few stories before she was throwing it right back at him, which was great (I think the scene I'm thinking of is in "The Pirate Planet," where she's reading the TARDIS manual and he's telling her she's going to blow up the ship. It's where my "pessimistic" mood icon is from, for whatever little that's worth).

you've been away from the ivory tower for too long, haven't you? *g*

Heh. Possibly--though not thinking that's a bad thing! :) I don't recall everyone being worked up to a lather over sexism when I was in college, though--some profs, but not all (we still had the Freudians making everything phallic, because you know, it's ALL about sex), so maybe I managed to avoid it? Hmm. Good question!

(Totally OT: Just noticed A Passage to India on your reading list. LOVE that book, though it's been ages since I read it!)

[icepixie]

My library theoretically has the entire Key to Time series, but the catalogue lies a bit. I need to poke and see if they have the second one so I can get through the rest of them...

Possibly--though not thinking that's a bad thing! :)

*g*

I don't recall everyone being worked up to a lather over sexism when I was in college, though--some profs, but not all (we still had the Freudians making everything phallic, because you know, it's ALL about sex), so maybe I managed to avoid it?

I didn't have a bunch of profs who were big on feminism (although we had them at my school; I just never took any of the Women's & Gender Studies classes), but the poet Eavan Boland played a large role in my English education. If you haven't read her, check her out--she's an amazing Irish poet, but very into issues particular to female Irish writers. She has great, great stuff, but there were points where I was like, "I know, you're a woman and a writer and women writers in Ireland have been oppressed and objectified in the past. I GET IT." And of course some of the criticism is *eyeroll*-worthy.

I'm looking forward to starting A Passage to India. It's one of the purchases I made at the used bookstore a few weeks ago, though, so it keeps getting pushed back for the library books which have to go back...