Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2011-07-15 04:02 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2011-07-15 04:02 am
Entry tags:
Getting my fix.
So. No new Doctor Who until the fall. I finished all of new!Who months ago. And while rewatching old series 3 episodes I got that Pavlovian "YAY IT IS WHO TIME what happens neeeext" response to the theme tune and was sad because I knew what happened next. I need some way to feed the beast. Clearly the logical place to go from here is to descend upon Classic Who and watch a bunch of old Three/Delgado serials, and so, being a sensible and logical person, I... pirated some BFA audios with Eight? IDEK.
No regrets, though. None. Because as far as I can tell, the BFA audios consist of the whole crew of new!Who fanboy writers banding together to make it up to Paul McGann for the ridiculousness of the TV movie. I mean, I am still completely up for Classic Who and would love some recommendations, but right now the two warring factions in my head are "WANT TO LISTEN TO THE NEXT ONE" and "you really should not start another two-hour audio at three in the morning." I was iffy about the whole audio idea--I am not a books-on-tape person, and I'd downloaded Dead Air but never got more than twenty minutes in because the premise was cool but the narration just felt awkward. These are different. They're all dialogue and sound effects--it feels like watching an episode with the video switched off, only written in a way that you can follow the action.
And so I leave you a recommendation and a download link: The Chimes of Midnight. It's Christmas 1906 (or is it?) and the TARDIS lands smack in the middle of a very strange murder mystery where nothing adds up, time moves oddly, and the victims don't stay dead.
Reasons you need this in your life:
- You don't actually need to know anything about Eight and Charley, except that she's an Edwardian adventuress who met Eight aboard a doomed airship.
- Eight. I love Eight. I've been exposed to all of, what, a few audios and a crappy movie with him? And I might just love him more than any of the new!Who Doctors, even Ten. Yeah, I said it.
- It's written by Rob Shearman, who wrote the season 1 'Dalek' episode. I can't say too much without spoiling everything, but near the end of this one he takes up similar knotty themes of humanity, life, sentience, and compassion, and the result is just as powerful.
- Remember everything that was wonderful about Moffat's writing during RTD's run, before half of fandom started hating him? This has it in spades. It's creepy as hell (don't listen to it in the dark, just don't), full of black humor, and leans to the wibbly-wobbly side of timey-wimey. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Moffat learned some of his tricks from Shearman--he certainly reuses at least one of them in one of his comedy sketches.
- I... I just... think of it as the glorious bastard offspring of Father's Day, Blink, Dalek, and The Doctor's Wife. Now go listen to it.
No regrets, though. None. Because as far as I can tell, the BFA audios consist of the whole crew of new!Who fanboy writers banding together to make it up to Paul McGann for the ridiculousness of the TV movie. I mean, I am still completely up for Classic Who and would love some recommendations, but right now the two warring factions in my head are "WANT TO LISTEN TO THE NEXT ONE" and "you really should not start another two-hour audio at three in the morning." I was iffy about the whole audio idea--I am not a books-on-tape person, and I'd downloaded Dead Air but never got more than twenty minutes in because the premise was cool but the narration just felt awkward. These are different. They're all dialogue and sound effects--it feels like watching an episode with the video switched off, only written in a way that you can follow the action.
And so I leave you a recommendation and a download link: The Chimes of Midnight. It's Christmas 1906 (or is it?) and the TARDIS lands smack in the middle of a very strange murder mystery where nothing adds up, time moves oddly, and the victims don't stay dead.
Reasons you need this in your life:
- You don't actually need to know anything about Eight and Charley, except that she's an Edwardian adventuress who met Eight aboard a doomed airship.
- Eight. I love Eight. I've been exposed to all of, what, a few audios and a crappy movie with him? And I might just love him more than any of the new!Who Doctors, even Ten. Yeah, I said it.
- It's written by Rob Shearman, who wrote the season 1 'Dalek' episode. I can't say too much without spoiling everything, but near the end of this one he takes up similar knotty themes of humanity, life, sentience, and compassion, and the result is just as powerful.
- Remember everything that was wonderful about Moffat's writing during RTD's run, before half of fandom started hating him? This has it in spades. It's creepy as hell (don't listen to it in the dark, just don't), full of black humor, and leans to the wibbly-wobbly side of timey-wimey. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Moffat learned some of his tricks from Shearman--he certainly reuses at least one of them in one of his comedy sketches.
- I... I just... think of it as the glorious bastard offspring of Father's Day, Blink, Dalek, and The Doctor's Wife. Now go listen to it.
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I will seriously be prepared to forgive the Moff for any past, present, future, probable, and imagined crimes if he finds a way to do a good job of bringing McGann back in 2013. (Have you seen any of the interviews over the past few years where PMG talks about how much he wishes they would invite him to have a special appearance in the show? It really does break my little heart.)
As for Three serials, I love them all so but admit that they're not the easiest to get into. The pacing takes some getting used to. All of S8 is basically Three being stuck on Earth while Delgado messes with him (minus Colony in Space, which takes place in...space...and features the famous half-share in the Universe offer), so the beginning of that is a good place to start. And then there is SEA DEVILS and by the way SEA DEVILS in S9. I might recommend going back and watch S7's The Silurians beforehand, though. It's not totally essential to the plot and there's no Delgado yet, but it's related, very good, and has fun ties to 11.
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...actually, temporal shenanigans caused by the Time War would be a great way for Moff to get multiple Doctors together and do what he does best: tie time in eleven-dimensional knots and scare the pants off his viewers. And we'd get Eight.
Yay, classic recs! I think City of Death is actually first on my list, because it seems to be unanimously considered awesome, but afterwards I will go back and watch all the Three/Delgado.
(Any chance of passing on the giant BFA stash? I've been using a search engine that trawls other people's uploads to Megaupload/Rapidshare/etc, but there are a bunch it can't find.)
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Eccleston has said that he won't come back for a special, right? I'm not making that up? w/e w/e he can be that way all he wants so long as there is Eight to be had. It'll be interesting to see if they let him use the new costume that he's concocted - which is, in my personal canon, the same as wondering how tragically Time-War-y they'll make him, seeing as I'm firmly convinced that something Big And Bad would have to happen for the Doctor to so drastically change his personal style.
I haven't actually seen City of Death. Started with New, did Shalka and Eight, tried and failed to watch Unearthly Child, then went back to War Games and have been working my way through Three from there. (Hint: I have since read that taking Two from War Games is a bad plan. I'm inclined to think that such opinions are very probably right.) Plus whatever Eight BFA's I managed to get my paws on before leaving.
2013: the year I will graduate or the year I might pleasepleasepleasefinally get some good, thoroughly canonical Eight? I'll feel so much less stupid about loving him so if I have more than a handful of illegitimate audios and the glorious shitfest that is the TVM.
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And yeah, Eccleston is pretty adamant that Who was a one-time engagement. Which is sad because Niiiine I love you Nine, but pretty understandable given the way the show can eat up an actor's life/career/etc.
Not sure I'm sold on Eight's new costume though--I mean, leather frock coat is awesome, but I adore his original getup and I like the idea of the end of the Time War being this huge traumatic break. On the other hand--tragic Time War Eight. *wibble*
Haven't actually seen any Classic Who besides Time Monster and the beginning of Mind of Evil, so I think I'll do a sampling of all the Doctors (or at least Three, Four, and Five) and then settle in for a nice sequential marathon of whoever I like best. And anytime you're back on the East Coast I would be fully in favor of meeting up for Classic marathons/Shalka drinking games/fangirl cackling/cracktastic Les Mis crossovers/etc.
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I've read that McGann has said that he would refuse to come back if they jammed a wig on his head again, and I'm not sure I can imagine the cravat-y approach with a different head on top of it. But we'll see. We very much hope.
Can that pleasepleaseplease happen? It's been too long since I've been able to be unashamedly stupid with people face-to-face. I'm debating with myself if I can make the DC meetup or not. On one hand: yay! On the other: it's shortly before my midterms and I'm hesitant to put any crimps in bar-visiting plans less than a month before my 21st. But another excuse for dorking around would be fantaaaaastic.
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Oh, there absolutely must be dorking around, whether or not it involves bars or the DC meetup. When are you back in NJ? I'm sure I could make it up there for a weekend sometime.
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Having dug a bit further into the BFA Doctor Who audios, some of them are pretty crap, but some like Chimes of Midnight are incredible.
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