(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

maaseru sent me a link to this interesting article about David Tennant in Hamlet. I liked the opening line with its link between this and "The Shakespeare Code": "For the second time in his career, David Tennant is finding himself saving Shakespeare." But even better, a connection I'd never thought of:

Tennant ... has no difficulty in making the transition from the BBC's Time Lord to a man who could be bounded in a nutshell and count himself a king of infinite space.

I'd never thought of the Doctor in the TARDIS as "a king of infinite space", but now I think of it, I can't imagine a better description of him.

Ever since Tennant became the Tenth Doctor, I've thought he had a good dollop of Hamlet in him: clever, mercurial, eloquent, suicidal. I wonder how the Doctor got along with his mother, and whether he had an uncle. Or a stepfather.

I'm tired of the condescension shown to SF in these articles, though, as if Tennant and Stewart have never done Shakespeare before, or as if Star Trek and Doctor Who fans are too déclassé for such highfalutin Tudor drama - as if they don't really want the riffraff wandering about the premises.

It's all storytelling, and one of the great virtues of Shakespeare is that he was never a snob. So why do the people producing his plays become so patronizing?

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

Thank God it's good! I was worried. Good on ya, David!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How I wish I could see it. I saw the Stratford Ontario Hamlet last week and loved it - not the best I've seen, but not bad at all, and certainly not boring in any way. It raised my never-deeply-buried Hamlet-love. Aah, if only I could see Tennant - as a fly on the wall, a ghost in the rafters, a technician in a booth - anything!

I adore that play.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm jealous you got to see the Stratford Ont one, especially as it has my beloved "Scott the First"... but in a choice of two Hamlets and only money enough to cover one...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it has my beloved "Scott the First".

And he was wonderful.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

He is AMAZING.

I want you to tell ALL about this production!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I will, at the first opportunity.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

or as if Star Trek and Doctor Who fans are too déclassé for such highfalutin Tudor drama - as if they don't really want the riffraff wandering about the premises.

The concerns have been more that some of them are bizarre obsessives without a real life. Galaxy Quest was pretty accurate re: some of the more serious Trekkies!

On Monday, I posted you a small packet including some reviews of David as Hamlet. He's getting very good press for it!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

However excessive a fan may become, I've yet to see anyone attend a Shakespeare plan dressed as a Klingon.... Though come to think of it, I've seen some Shakespearean costume designs that looked excessively Klingonish! I'm sure Macbeth would go over well among the Klingon intelligentsia.

Galaxyquest is IMHO a delightful movie.

So glad that Tennant is getting raves as Hamlet.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

However excessive a fan may become, I've yet to see anyone attend a Shakespeare play dressed as a Klingon

I think they were afraid some of Patrick Stewart's fans might just do that…! (I'm not sure what it is about certain science fiction fandoms, but some do seem to me to attract a lot of 'trainspotter' obsessive types whom I'd probably place on the mild end of the Asperger's spectrum.)

Galaxy Quest is great fun! Some Trekkie friends of mine squirmed in painful but amused recognition.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Galaxy Quest managed to have just the right tone - funny but not over the top or insulting. And Alan Rickman, too.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

It's ridiculous, isn't it?

I mean, Ian McKellen! Shakespeare AND Magneto.

Not like Paul McGann isn't a classically trained actor, either.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly.... I find it interesting that actors have no trouble bridging whatever great divide is supposed to exist between Entertainment and Art, or stage and television, or Drama and Trash. So why do so many people have a conceptual problem there? The man who wrote "Titus Andronicus" would have no problem with this, I'm sure.

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare was an actor. He would have acted in science fiction!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, and he'd have loved it!

[msilverstar]

"bounded in a nutshell and count himself a king of infinite space."

What a truly perfect description of Doctor Who.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Stunning, isn't it? Perfect.

Funny how these are two of my favourite heroes, with connections I hadn't never considered or noticed before.

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

I remember Stewart commenting that all those years of playing kings in Shakespeare came in handy for sitting in the "big chair" in Star Trek - turning conventional wisdom on its ear. I would have loved to have seen his Claudius, 20-25 years along from the Jacobi Hamlet, but... it wouldn't have been worth the pain for me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

that all those years of playing kings in Shakespeare came in handy for sitting in the "big chair" in Star Trek

Variation on a theme!

As far as thrones go... It was fun for me, seeing him as Henry II.

I'd have gone to England to see the show if I could have, but I could only afford the Stratford tickets here because they were a gift. (A wonderful gift!)

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

It's all storytelling, and one of the great virtues of Shakespeare is that he was never a snob.

That Creation company I told you about, we saw them doing "Measure for Measure", back in the spring. That play is basically a soap opera, for goodness' sake.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - so very true! Being in 17th century language doesn't change the nature of the best.