Torchwood, Buffy, chatter and a few thoughts...

[fajrdrako]

I had a great evening. First I met auriaephiala, iclysdale, raynedaze, commodorified and a friend of theirs at the locks of the Canal, and we visited the The Fair Jeanne, a brigantine wintering in the Rideau Locks just beside the Bytown Museum. Even covered in snow and tarps and ice she was beautiful, and so well kept. My tallship love leaped to the fore and I felt like worshipping at her bow. Why do I have such an emotional reaction to vessels like that?

Then they all walked me home, which was fun, except for the really icy bits. We talked about books, and authors, and the list of Hugo Award nominees, and Enid Blyton. We agreed how well we walk together. Really, we do. It's remarkable. Good walking companions are worth their weight in gold.

I had supper with maaseru and maaboroshi. We watched Coronation Street and then I rashly mentioned Buffy to maaboroshi, who wanted to see an episode or two. She wanted to slip right over to "What's My Line, part 1" but I insisted on going chronologically, so we watched "The Dark Age" first - and now I'm ahead of schedule (yay!) and it was fun watching with different people, even if it was people who had seen it before - which really added to the fun, though they are troopers and were careful not to utter spoilers. Much laughter. Much commentary. Much discussion of Giles and Ethan.

A thought: that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the vanguard of a sort of self-referential TV style created by and for one of the first generations to grow up entirely on television. In some ways it's an amalgam of our collective TV memories - with a good dollop of comic book lore, but comic books follow the same timeframe, too. So it's all built on what came before, like a pyramid, and it isn't just a tribute or a pastiche to shows, ideas, images and icons of the past, it's a sort of art form based on pop culture foundations, the way Renaissance art was based on biblical and classical lore.

And now Doctor Who and Torchwood follow the same trend. Other shows may well do the same; I don't know because I'm not watching other shows.

Also cleared a lot of old stuff off my DVD hard drive, like season 3 Veronica Mars and season 2 Heroes. I discovered that I'd recorded the first half of the Doctor Who story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", but not the second half - I hadn't realized it was being aired on BBCK later on Sunday. How... sneaky of them. Drat.

Comments

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yay, Giles! Not that I ever watched more than two episodes of Buffy, but I liked Giles.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. Giles is quite wonderful. Sometimes I find him too one-noted, but when he has a good scene, it's terrific.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

... *tilts head* What does one-noted mean? something like monotonous? I've never heard of it and it's not in my dictionary *shifty eyes*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I mean 'something like monotonous'. I mean that almost every time we see Giles, he has the same manner and style, and his emotional attitude doesn't change with circumstances - except, so far, in "Halloween". This doesn't affect my love of the character, but in the long run it makes me impatient. I like 'range' in my characters - that is, a wide spectrum of emotions and expressoins. It's clear that Giles has a lot of story to tell, but the show is about Buffy, so what we see of Giles is - incomplete.

As of the episode I saw last night, she's just figured out that he's a person as well as being a grown-up.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense. That the audience only gets to see one side of Giles 'cause the show isn't about him. 's a bit sad, though, isn't it? There's so many episodes of Buffy, it could be divided a bit more equally. Just a bit.

Eh. I really don't know a thing about Buffy. Just so you know.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Considering that I find Giles more interesting than Buffy, yes, it's too bad he's not more of a central figure or viewpoint. Buffy is... such a kid.

So far I find the show clever but unsophisticated. I'm told it deepens and builds on itself, and will be much more ... something ... as I go. But of course I'm being told this by Buffy fans!

I'm so glad I have people to talk about Torchwood with - !

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

How fortunate you are, having dear friends so near! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am well aware of that. It's wonderful.