World Enough and Time

Watched the first two parts of Michael Wood's In Search of William Shakespeare this evening. What a great show.

My computer is dismantled and sitting on the floor of my bedroom, not because it is malfunctioning (which it is), but because I got new furniture: a lovely new desk, which calls itself a Maplewood Writing Table. And my wonderful friends helped me set it up yesterday.

There seems to be no photograph of it online. It has an old-world look with new-tech functions: the large drawer doubles as a keyboard tray, and at the back of the desk there are two plugs and three charging ports for electronic devices.

Between the process of taking down my old massive desk and putting up my new sleek one, we watched The Doctor Who 2013 Christmas Special, which Alayne had not seen. I liked it rather better the second time round; the first time, I was irritated at how little sense it made, and only really enjoyed the bits with Peter Capaldi at the end. And I'm still not sure why the Gallifreyans offered the Doctor extra lives in the end - not that I'm complaining. Transilore may have fallen - I'm not sure the Doctor is the best protector they could have had - but the universe goes on, the Doctor has new kidneys, and Clara stands faithfully by.

I'm enjoying this show more with each episode. It reminds me of favourite shows of my past: The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the Avengers - I mean Steed and Mrs. Peel, not the Marvel version; X-Files and Fringe. I love the international settings - how many shows these days bring us Stockholm and Malta in two consecutive episodes?

I loved it that the show used X-ray specs.



Are we going to get more weaponry and gadgets from the ads in the back of the old comics? Amazing Sea-Monkeys? The Black Dragon Fighting Society? Grow Living Monsters in Your Own Room? New Bodies for Old?

There's a potential plot in every one of them.

I've been a fan of S.H.I.E.L.D. since the Steranko days - and a fan of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. before that. So the announcement of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series filled me with joy and trepidation. I knew it wouldn't be the S.H.I.E.L.D. of my dreams. The tidbits of information Whedon leaked about the story sounded terribly trite... but that man has been known to make pearls of out swine (and vice versa), so that wasn't much to go by. It would at least feature Agent Coulson from the movies - whom I adore.

Mixed feelings about it. I couldn't wait. I begged, cajoled and bullied my friends into watching it last night. My feelings? A sort of reasoned: not bad, not bad at all. The story didn't thrill me or move me as much as, say, The Avengers movie did, but it wasn't horrifying, either, and it had a few real plusses.

One thing horrified me: Maria Hill's long hair. So wrong. It made me almost sorry they included her.

But if that's the worst I can think of...

Though, actually, Maria Hill's hair was exacerbation of something that both commodorified and I thought: that the main characters were all a type, all too alike. Young, dark-haired... even Sky, who is supposed to be a renegade, seemed very conformist. To blend in with the crowds she hides in? I wanted her to be more of a Kenzie, more of an outsider. But she was my favourite character, except for Coulson himself. As a matter of fact, more than I expected, I liked them all - even though I had some trouble telling them apart. I didn't even notice that May was Asian until someone pointed it out.

I loved the comic book and movie references. "With great power comes..." and the inclusion of Extremis in the plot. Mentions of Thor and Iron Man and the Chitauri. It's the Marvel world, but it's a variation of the Marvel world we haven't seen before - the TV Marvel world.

I'm looking forward to next week. It hasn't awakened my fannish passions, but it has me interested and intrigued.

And it's Phil Coulson. He makes me happy. I particularly loved his moment of anger: "Don't tell me you can't do it." That's why I love S.H.I.E.L.D.

Oh, yes. Also his car. Lola. Yup, that's the right spirit.

Tonight for Fannish Night we watched the last episode of Doctor Who again, "The Name of the Doctor".

Oddly, it seemed to make less sense than the first time through. I still liked it well enough - some things about it, I loved - but a masterpiece of clarity it is not.

Makes me curious about what is to come, though.

And I really, really like the ending.

Tonight we watched Doctor Who, "The Rings of Akhaten". We watched it more or less in silence, and when it was over we said to each other: "What was that?"

There was stuff I really liked: Clara. The little girl, whose acting and singing was great. Clara in the TARDIS. I kind of liked some of the hamminess. But...

Is there any way that story made sense? Part of the time I couldn't tell what I was looking at. The villain looked like a fuzzy Jack-o-Lantern. The vampire mummy and his cohorts in the cool coats didn't seem to have anything to do with anything. The Doctor wandered off and left Clara to explore a bazaar on a strange planet on her own, for no obvious reason.

I was perplexed. I kept wondering if my friends were understanding what was going on just fine and I was the only one for whom it didn't make sense, but apparently not. They were talking about 'white man's burden' but my thought was more like, "There's no narrative here... What kind of a plot is this?"

I liked the bits about Clara's background. And the explanation of the leaf in her book.

Another new Canadian SF show debuted last night. Orphan Black. It looks and feels and tastes Canadian, from the VIA Rail train to the graffiti of Toronto.



The story at first seemed close to that of Ringer. A girl on the run from druglords (to whom she owed money) witnesses the suicide of her double, and assumes her double's identity. Many times she is almost found out; many times, due to luck and quick thinking, she avoids discovery by hook or by crook - and by having sex with her double's boyfriend. And someone is trying to kill her.

The difference? There's a third woman with the same face and body. Seems Sarah is one of a set of clones.

I liked Sarah's gay artist friend Felix, who helps her with her role and even holds a memorial service for her. I liked the attractive half-naked men and the inclusion of sex. I liked the various distinct characters - oddly enough, for a show about clones, there was a delightful diversity and each character, clone or not, was unlike all the others. Though the story wasn't very exciting - it was more set-up than anything else - I liked the situation and the ambiance. Will I make a point of watching more?

I just might.

From Wired:

As of today Steven Moffat has confirmed that he is completing a script that will feature the current Doctor, Matt Smith, facing a foe so great that he will need assistance from all ten of the previous TARDIS inhabitants. That’s right, rumors say Eccleston is in!!! The producers have gotten agreements from all living actors who have ever played the Doctor; Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith. With some studio special effects they have even resurrected William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee.

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I love the way they can bring them back from the dead. The Spiritualists of Arthur Conan Doyle's day would be so envious.

This sentence caught my attention:

Every decade since the inception of Doctor Who there has been some sort of anniversary special that pays homage to the previous Doctors.

Is that true? I thought there was nothing at all between the episode with the Eighth Doctor in 1996 and the Ninth Doctor in 2005.

30 Days of Doctor Who: Question 30: The moment you fell in love with Doctor Who.



Not a moment, exactly, but an episode.

I'd already come to love the Doctor himself because of his wonderful speech to Rose in Rose, which I've already quoted here:

Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. [He takes Rose's hand.] The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... That's who I am.

I fell in love with the show, above and beyond just loving the protagonist, with the episode Dalek. I'd heard about Daleks, of course, but I'd never seen them before. And I was under the impression still that Doctor Who was a show full of silly monsters and improbably situations - the first few episodes I saw here did nothing to make me change my mind.

The: Dalek. Nuances. Shades of meaning. Ideas beyond cliches. Characterization of heroes, bystanders, villains, and monsters. A plot which changed the main characters, and changed the situation, and changed the tenor of the show.

Doctor Who does not always live up to the potential I saw in that episode, but it had met the mark more often than I dared to expect.

30 Days of Doctor Who: Question 28: Favourite character who appears in one episode.

Jenny, the Doctor's daughter.



From episode 4x06, "The Doctor's Daughter", of course. I loved that episode. I loved Jenny, and thought it was great to see Nigel Terry. I loved the way Donna related to both Jenny and the Doctor, and tried to reconcile them, and to find out about the Doctor's past. I loved Jenny's personality, her talents, and her fate. I loved it that Martha was in the episode, too, and did her part towards creating the peace.

I love it that Jenny is out there somewhere in the universe, having her Time Lord adventures.

I've always hoped we'll see her again.