World Enough and Time

Was this the first time you've seen The Second Coming? I can't remember!

It is very similar to DW (RTD has his ISSUES), although I think the results are mixed in both cases (S1 of DW probably did it better than SC, but S3 really didn't, very badly).

The thing that amazes me — and testifies to the brilliance of both writing and acting, is that it's only three minutes into the miniseries when Judith and Stephen kiss, and you're already thinking, "Bloody hell, it's about time!"

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Was this the first time you've seen The Second Coming? I can't remember!

I'd seen the beginning before, and clips from it, but this is the first time I saw the whoe thing.

it's only three minutes into the miniseries when Judith and Stephen kiss, and you're already thinking, "Bloody hell, it's about time!"

That is so true! Preceded by a moment or so thinking, "Okay, so kiss her already."

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I definitely agree it's flawed, although I think it's RTD's best ending (along with POTW), because he tends to be absolute rubbish at endings. One thing I loved about SC, even though, okay, it's a structural flaw (and yes, the shift of POV is startling, but I don't think fatal) was that I certainly didn't realize the first time I saw it that their first date was going to be the last supper, as it were. Here I was thinking it was the lull before "Judgment Day", and suddenly, it's the climax. It's like driving down a highway and realizing that your exit was back about a mile, and I do like it when I can be surprised like that.

Weird thing to be impressed by: CE's "food acting". The chippie scene with the priest (btw, inappropriate chemistry strikes again); and eating and sobbing at the same time in the "last supper". I'm amazed he didn't throw up. On the commentary, RTD comments with some glee that CE was in training for a marathon on a no-carb diet, so what did they have him consuming in great quantities? Chips, lager, pasta.

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I think it's RTD's best ending (along with POTW), because he tends to be absolute rubbish at endings.

Point.

I certainly didn't realize the first time I saw it that their first date was going to be the last supper, as it were

Yes. We were all very slow in seeing that Judith was going to be Judas. I thought it was Francis, but he 'turned' way too early in the story for that to be right.

It's like driving down a highway and realizing that your exit was back about a mile, and I do like it when I can be surprised like that.

I anticipated that twist, so it didn't work for me - not in that way, anyway.

Weird thing to be impressed by: CE's "food acting".

True. He does it well. But then, he does it all well. At one point we were on pause for a tea/bathroom break and we were admiring the back of his neck. From any angle, he has such charisma and personality.

On the commentary, RTD comments with some glee that CE was in training for a marathon on a no-carb diet, so what did they have him consuming in great quantities? Chips, lager, pasta.

LOL - what is that, actor-torture?

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Point.

What's weird to me is that JE had the ending that Paul Abbott talked RTD out of for SC because it was an emotional cheat. I wonder if he realized it, or whether he just didn't care in the context of DW.

we were admiring the back of his neck. From any angle, he has such charisma and personality.

There are so many things that he does as Steve that are brilliant - I think it's one of his best performances, among many, but shy, awkward Steve is heartbreaking. That long, long one-shot scene in the police station when they finally talk, before they make love, is wonderful by both of them, but it's amazing when he's talking about them being kids and suddenly he is a kid again. His entire body language changes. Same with the scene where the finally get to the bedroom and he's asking if she wants the lights off. But then when he's asking her not to laugh and she just looks at him with such love, it makes it a lot better.

Possibly most painful line ever in a drama, though: "I was hoping for better."

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I wonder if he realized it, or whether he just didn't care in the context of DW.

I suspect he thought it worked in 'Journey's End' - or perhaps he had always liked it, and never forgot about it, and took his next opportunity to use it.

I think it's one of his best performances, among many, but shy, awkward Steve is heartbreaking.

And very sweet. I like the way he went from certainty to confusion and back again.

it's amazing when he's talking about them being kids and suddenly he is a kid again. His entire body language changes.

Yes. Lovely scene. Maybe my favourite.

Possibly most painful line ever in a drama, though: "I was hoping for better."

That seriously bothered

auriaephiala. I wasn't sure what to make of it - it was, for us, probably the most controversial and disturbing line in the show. I thought it opened a whole new (huge) topic that ought to have been explored (examined and possibly resolved) or left out entirely.

commodorified was more focussed on the Christian issues. But I thought that since the movie was extolling humanism, the human issues should have had more emphasis.

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That seriously bothered auriaephiala. I wasn't sure what to make of it - it was, for us, probably the most controversial and disturbing line in the show. I thought it opened a whole new (huge) topic that ought to have been explored (examined and possibly resolved) or left out entirely.

It's a really complicated moment, which is one reason I like it. And I like that it's not entirely resolved, but yes, it probably did need more unpacking.

I mean, exactly what was she trying to say?

On the most basic level, Steve was always her "fall back" position and she wanted something/someone better than this slightly slow guy who worked at the video store (but his sweetness I think is incredibly important because he is worth something; he's a true innocent, it seems). But is it ironic - hey, I was waiting for something better, and here I am (stupid), passing up the son of God, the best there i? Or was it a taunt — you were never good enough for me, so be a good boy and eat your poison because you want to die of humiliation?

That whole table scene is just pure, wonderful acting (and they shot it with two cameras so they're playing it "live"). The way he rockets from vengeful god, to bargaining, to frightened child — that moment when he says, "Don't want to!", it's like he's a toddler who doesn't want to go to bed, both rebellious and pleading/bargaining. And she's just barely holding it together, trying to get him to see that hers is the best solution.

I can put up with a lot of the plot inconsistencies because the acting is just so stunning. But that's the thing, isn't it? When the actors aren't that good, the center cannot hold in RTD's writing.

I can't remember if I've said this to you or not, but I'm now campaigning for RTD to write an adult love triangle with CE, Lesley Sharp, and Catherine Tate. Or, hell, they could be a lesbian couple and he's their gay best friend, I'm sure they'd do it brilliantly, but just something to get them all on the same page.

Are you at work today, btw?

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Thank you yet again... The Second Coming is now on my list. (I have yet to see the recent movie made of Susan Cooper's incomparable book The Dark Is Rising, because the man who wrote the script apparently didn't like the book, for all the insipid changes he made, but still -- it's on my list also, because Christopher Eccleston plays the Dark Rider.

Hugs to you. Real ones, if I could in any way manage to be there. I knew I should have called today... or, well, maybe not. Either way, was thinking of you. Take strength. Maybe it's just ironic karma that you might be in things that have you out of balance, right now as you are yearning so to be able to walk in balance again...? Mi amas vin, mia kara!

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I saw The Dark is Rising, or at least part of it. Not sure I watched it through to the end. When Christopher Eccleston is on screen, it was riveting. Otherwise... not. Forget that it has anything to do with the book. They even changed the title, in the end.

Thanks for the moral support - always appreciated.

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Yes. In one year, where will you be? ...Holding a Chinese restaurant door for someone else on crutches, saying comfortingly, "A year ago I looked like you." But you already know this. A year from now, you will be working and loving all of it. Perhaps you will become a secret agent. Perhaps you will have to tell all of us that you just can't find a better job than selling beavertails in the Sparks Street Mall (in January?!?!!) but thank you all for asking... when, in reality, that will be nothing but your cover for the Grand Mission which you will be entrusted with carrying out. For the greater glory of Canada. Whoa, baby!

But as for The Dark Is Rising, I do look forward to the Dark Rider's parts of it now. Thank you.

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Perhaps you will become a secret agent.

You know, I'd like to work for Torchwood. Do you think they might be hiring? I hear they may have two vacancies - !

The Dark Rider is sort of breathtaking. The rest of the movie isn't unpleasant, but it isn't very impressive; not as it should be.

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You know, I'd like to work for Torchwood. Do you think they might be hiring? I hear they may have two vacancies - !

See? Perfect! Do you think you could get them to let you apprentice to Ianto?

The Dark Rider is sort of breathtaking. The rest of the movie isn't unpleasant, but it isn't very impressive; not as it should be.

Yep. The Dark Rider has me sold on this movie.

As for the rest of it...: The book came out in the 1970s, before the recent inundation of technology -- video games, cable television, wireless telephones, personal computers. As such, it serves as a wonderful time capsule to an era I remember fondly, when kids grew up trying to figure out who they were within the ocntext of their family and ocmmunity, not within the context of their all-important peer group. People did not talk in catch-phrases and did not try to be cleverer than everyone else. One of the key scenes in this book was Will waking up terrified in his attic bedroom, and his big brother coming in to see what was up, and ending up tactfully telling Will to go sleep in his room instead -- seeing that Will was still terrified, and not needing to tease him for it. I shudder to think what that scene ended up being in the movie. But in the trailer I saw a taste of what Will's older twin brothers were like: a funhouse-mirror image of Fred and George Weasley, teasing Will about "all the changes going on in your body." It was repulsive.

And there was the quest Will was on: collect all six Signs. Little Celtic-cross things in various media, wood and metal and so on. At one point, he had three of them already, and he and several of the Old Ones (his surreptitious helpers) were trapped in the village church on Christmas Day, and just by holding up the three Signs was
Will able to beat back the dark forces trying to break in on them. I saw a photo in Starlog that had to be of this scene. It showed the Old Ones standing ready to fend off attack, alert and empty-handed, and Will standing beside them with both hands in fists, held up like a boxer! For pity's sake, did the screenwriter even bother to read the book? If so, he apparenlty didn't like it much!

Ahem. Rant ended. (I really wanted to like that movie, you have to understand. Just as I really wanted to like the version of Earthsea that the Sci Fi Channel did, alas!)

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Do you think you could get them to let you apprentice to Ianto?

Why not? He could teach me to make good coffee. (Could teach me a few other things, too. Looking good in a suit, maybe?)

did the screenwriter even bother to read the book?

Possibly not!

Just as I really wanted to like the version of Earthsea that the Sci Fi Channel did, alas!

Sometimes it's just hopeless. I always wonder why they change so much - and change the wrong things. Why use the book in the first place? Why not just write a new story, if it's going to be so unlike the book it's based on?

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Ianto could teach you a few things... yup, you did catch my subtext there, good for you. (You already look good in a suit. And out of one.)

I also always wonder why someone will take a book or other work that they claim to love and admire, only to change it into something much less than it already is. Agreed: if you were inspired by it, then write your own! So many of us do! But don't change Will Stanton from 11 to 14, and from a member of a loving, supportive family fully aware of its own histoy into a misfit outsider kid who can't talk to his own siblings, and then say that you've improved on Susan Cooper. She won Newberry Awards for a reason, dude.

I just read a review of the Batman movie. Epic, they are calling it. And not one mention of Frank Miller! "What makes this Batman so different? What has given it such an impact?" Uh, gee, folks, could be that the source material was incredibly ground-breaking and nonlinear.

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I don't know about the new Batman movie, though I approve of the publicity it's getting - even though I am suspicious of it. The trailers I saw made it look too much like horror. (and yes, many Batman stories are horror stories - but not the ones I tend to like.)

Still, Batman is such a great hero, I love it that the movie is making waves.

Epic? I don't generally like 'epic' movies but perhaps I'll like it anyway!

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"Epic" never succeeds with me. A visual medium can't equal what happens in my head when I read it instead.

In your icon: is he holding a baton to lead an orchestra? Almost looks like it. Write the story!

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I don't need or like 'epic' stories. I need and want personal stories. The intimate rather than the grandiose.

The Jack icon? He's holding a piece of chain that was handing from above. I don't even remember which episode it's from, but I like the stance.

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I shy away fron "epic." Usually leaves me cold. And is almost never done with style. Agreed: personal stories.

Now, it looks as if he is holding his putter to line up a putt. But I do see it is chain. But it could be so many other things, too.

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