Holiday and celebration...

Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends. Have a wonderful day, and - fly free.

Doctor Who: glimpse of the future....

Aack! I just watched this news clip, showing a glimpse of something that happens on Doctor Who tomorrow. Which... okay, okay, it made me gasp. Loudly. More than that: it terrified me. If I did not have iron self-control I would be whimpering. How can I wait... as long as I must wait... to find out what happens?

But there's more that's so cool. Doctor Who and its ability to keep a plot point secret has made the news. Okay, it's a little incestuous, it's all BBC publicity, but... it really is amazing.

I almost wish I hadn't watched that clip. The suspense was already overwhelming. And now? Infinitely worse. I don't want to say why: that would be a spoiler. Unless you want to watch it. Then you can see why I gasped in horror. But it bodes well, too.

Transformative works...

Does anyone here know anything about Organization for Transformative Works? Their FAQ is interesting.

Looks interesting. My first impression is that they are presenting themselves as over-serious, but perhaps they feel they must. I like the way this is a new approach to fanfic and other fannish creative projects, solving problems by changing the perspective. And good luck to them.

The best of Doctor Who...

The Daily Telegraph posted a list of the ten best stories of Doctor Who. Since I haven't seen eight of the stories they list, I can't really comment on most of it. The two I have seen fully deserved any accolades they get.

My choices:

10. 'Gridlock' by Russell T Davies (great science fiction, great costuming and make up and sets and concepts, and such a well-structured, integrated story)
9. 'Time Crash' by Steven Moffat (funny)
8. 'The Doctor's Daughter' by Stephen Greenhorn (much cuteness, both personal and humanistic)
7. 'The Shakespeare Code' by Gareth Roberts (because of Shakespeare)
6. 'Army of Ghosts/Doomsday' by Russell T. Davies (quirky and romantic)
5. 'Midnight' by Russell T Davies (gripping)
4. 'Boom Town' by Russell T Davies (brilliant)
3. 'Dalek' by Robert Shearman (heartbreaking)
2. 'Blink' by Steven Moffat (scary)
1. 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances' by Steven Moffat (brilliant, tense, and everyone lives. Not to mention our introduction to Captain Jack Harkness.)

( A few notes on my choices. )

So what are your favourites?

Doctor Who from behind the sofa....

auriaephiala sent me this article about Doctor Who and I think it may be the best article I've read on the subject yet.

The paragraph I most loved:

That means Doctor Who is - in technical terms - near as dammit exactly a superhero comic transferred to television. And that, I think, is the source of its power. For superhero comics don't just mean men in tights. They mean myth - and myth in its most naked modern form.

That shows an understanding of both comics and Doctor Who that many people miss - well done, Sam Leith. It's something Russell T Davies and his cohorts understand very well. The emotional power of the myth beyond the details. Not that I'm quite willing to concede that Rose is Jean Grey - Rose hasn't eaten a planet, but there are similarities.

Love his description of a retcon as "a posh term for cheating on the plot". Not to be confused with Captain Jack's amnesia pill. Sometimes we wish we could forget. I'm not sure he's quite right in his examples, which are not retcons as I'd use the term - or perhaps the word has evolved in meaning over the past decade. It doesn't really matter. Comics have different techniques for rewriting past, present and future continuity, and Russell T Davies has stolen been inspired by them all.

Another good paragraph:

On one level, the Doctor is a sort of Wandering Jew figure - a permanent exile, mourning an irrecoverable loss. On the other, he's in a completely cyclical situation. In every show, he saves the day. At the end of every series, he saves the universe. And his ability to regenerate means his acts of sacrificial redemption can take place over and over again.

The same is true of Captain Jack.

Ahh, heroic myths. I love 'em, especially when they tear at the heartstrings.