Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2012-01-16 01:04 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2012-01-16 01:04 am
More Who rewatch now that I finally have a day of downtime
I was kind of afraid that my ridiculous amounts of love for season 3 were exaggerated due to my love of MARTHAAA and Doctor/Master and Ten's Time War angst, and that on rewatch it wouldn't stand up as well against s1 and s2. All of these worries were absolutely false; s3 gives me ALL THE FEELINGS. ALL OF THEM. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
I mean, the end of s2 is when I finally caved and mainlined this stupid show, and I don't think that's coincidence--the second time through, the end of s2 is where I started going "YES, this is why I love this show's face." (Impossible Planet/Satan Pit remains very high on my list of favorite Who stories ever, new or classic, and I would be totally on board if the BBC decided to splice the two halves together and sell it as Doctor Who: The Movie.) I still can't bring myself to ship Ten/Rose, but this time I found myself actively liking Rose instead of just being okay with her. And I found myself swept up in the spirit of s2, where everything is giggly and beautiful and full of awkward UST and Nine's PTSD is totally forgotten, to the point where Ten is swanning around Canary Wharf pointing and laughing at Daleks. The Hammer of Angst did not actually fall at Rose's exit, because that's sad and she's heartbroken but she's a fucking BAMF by now and she will not let it break her; the Hammer of Angst fell when Ten got that look, that stony mouth-set-in-a-grim-line-but-eyes-radiating-suffering look that Tennant does so well, and I realized this is the first time we actually see it. I know I am a sucker for Ten's manpain, but seriously, he spends all season with a Rose-shaped band-aid over the festering gangrenous wound that is the Time War, and realizing that only when the band-aid gets torn off is one of those wonderfully ouchy narrative shocks.
So I already had PLENTY OF FEELS about Doomsday, and somehow I'd managed to forget that Runaway Bride is fucking flawless. It isn't a happy pleasant episode like most of s2, and possibly it's one of those things that provokes a "what the fuck is on my screen" reaction on first viewing. It is also really silly, but the silliness is pitch-perfect and executed with flawless comic timing, both by RTD's script and by the Terrible Tate & Tennant Twosome. It doesn't take itself seriously, except when it takes a turn for the really fucking dark and absolutely has to take itself seriously. In conclusion, A+.
And then SEASON THREE AND OH GOD MY FEELINGS if I tried to explain them all I'd be here all night. But MARTHAAAA and TEN and Shakespeare Code reminds me so hard of Brain of Morbius right down to the lethal levels of cheese, only the characterization side consists 100% of Martha being amazing and clever and Ten snapping at her for being clever and wanting to understand things, then snapping at her for not being clever enough to reach Rose's end-of-s2 levels of badassery on her first trip. I think it would be less blatantly awful if it weren't for the general subtext of "why do you want to understand things, that takes all the wide-eyed wonder out of them, Rose was full of wide-eyed wonder" juxtaposed with Ten being all sciencey and reductive towards the Carrionites while still respecting the power of their way of doing things ("you might call that magic, I'd call it a DNA replication module... MARTHA STOP ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME TRAVEL IT'S MAGIC OKAY.")
And then there are THEMES AND SHIT and evolution and survival at all costs and community and aloneness and species identity and being the last of one's kind, and they just build and build until they PUNCH YOU IN THE HEART. Not that I am there yet. Actually I just finished the Rubbish Dalek Two-Parter, whose horribleness is overrated IMO. It is a fascinating script despite some outrageously clunky dialogue here and there; most of the famed horribleness comes from the bad American accents, the sheer DO NOT WANT ick factor, and a weak performance by whoever was playing Dalek Sec. (Not that I'd be trying that hard if my costume consisted of half a dozen moveable dongs stuck to my head, mind you.) But Daleks trying to evolve and the Doctor overcoming his visceral hatred and offering to help them? That is fascinating, easily the best part of the script, and David Tennant acts the hell out of it. The contrast between his cheeky refusal to take the Daleks seriously in Doomsday, when he still had his Rose-shaped band-aid, and the barely-controlled hatred radiating off him when he makes his reluctant offer of help here... it's pretty stunning.
And oh, the foreshadowing. Two episodes in a row where Martha gets held up by someone at gunpoint who then goes "TROLOLOL it wasn't a real gun." And I'm sure even early on in the series, rumors were flying around that RTD was bringing the Master back, so of course he's having fun fucking with everyone--I especially liked the shot of Diagoras stalking around the Daleks' Lab O' Mad Science silhouetted in a dark suit, ostentatiously pulling on a pair of leather gloves, right after his little "My ambition is LIMITLESS, muahahahaha! Now take me to your masters!" speech. (Also approve of: Ten's "I Will Do Science To It" approach to everything. The only things missing from his interactions with Simm!Master were a good fencing match and opportunities to Do Science Together. Um, well, that and endings that didn't suck. And snogging, since they so desperately wanted to, but we got bondage and phone!sex and eventual mind!sex so I shan't complain.)
And how stupid is it that even the music gives me so many feelings? Any time I hear even a bit of "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" my brain goes "YES YES THIS IS HOW DOCTOR WHO CHASE SCENES ARE SUPPOSED TO SOUND." And another part of my brain associates that music so strongly with running around corridors in Utopia that I get a little kick of "eeeeee UTOPIA/SOD/LOTTL SOON."
--um yes so in conclusion s3 is still my favorite.
I mean, the end of s2 is when I finally caved and mainlined this stupid show, and I don't think that's coincidence--the second time through, the end of s2 is where I started going "YES, this is why I love this show's face." (Impossible Planet/Satan Pit remains very high on my list of favorite Who stories ever, new or classic, and I would be totally on board if the BBC decided to splice the two halves together and sell it as Doctor Who: The Movie.) I still can't bring myself to ship Ten/Rose, but this time I found myself actively liking Rose instead of just being okay with her. And I found myself swept up in the spirit of s2, where everything is giggly and beautiful and full of awkward UST and Nine's PTSD is totally forgotten, to the point where Ten is swanning around Canary Wharf pointing and laughing at Daleks. The Hammer of Angst did not actually fall at Rose's exit, because that's sad and she's heartbroken but she's a fucking BAMF by now and she will not let it break her; the Hammer of Angst fell when Ten got that look, that stony mouth-set-in-a-grim-line-but-eyes-radiating-suffering look that Tennant does so well, and I realized this is the first time we actually see it. I know I am a sucker for Ten's manpain, but seriously, he spends all season with a Rose-shaped band-aid over the festering gangrenous wound that is the Time War, and realizing that only when the band-aid gets torn off is one of those wonderfully ouchy narrative shocks.
So I already had PLENTY OF FEELS about Doomsday, and somehow I'd managed to forget that Runaway Bride is fucking flawless. It isn't a happy pleasant episode like most of s2, and possibly it's one of those things that provokes a "what the fuck is on my screen" reaction on first viewing. It is also really silly, but the silliness is pitch-perfect and executed with flawless comic timing, both by RTD's script and by the Terrible Tate & Tennant Twosome. It doesn't take itself seriously, except when it takes a turn for the really fucking dark and absolutely has to take itself seriously. In conclusion, A+.
And then SEASON THREE AND OH GOD MY FEELINGS if I tried to explain them all I'd be here all night. But MARTHAAAA and TEN and Shakespeare Code reminds me so hard of Brain of Morbius right down to the lethal levels of cheese, only the characterization side consists 100% of Martha being amazing and clever and Ten snapping at her for being clever and wanting to understand things, then snapping at her for not being clever enough to reach Rose's end-of-s2 levels of badassery on her first trip. I think it would be less blatantly awful if it weren't for the general subtext of "why do you want to understand things, that takes all the wide-eyed wonder out of them, Rose was full of wide-eyed wonder" juxtaposed with Ten being all sciencey and reductive towards the Carrionites while still respecting the power of their way of doing things ("you might call that magic, I'd call it a DNA replication module... MARTHA STOP ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME TRAVEL IT'S MAGIC OKAY.")
And then there are THEMES AND SHIT and evolution and survival at all costs and community and aloneness and species identity and being the last of one's kind, and they just build and build until they PUNCH YOU IN THE HEART. Not that I am there yet. Actually I just finished the Rubbish Dalek Two-Parter, whose horribleness is overrated IMO. It is a fascinating script despite some outrageously clunky dialogue here and there; most of the famed horribleness comes from the bad American accents, the sheer DO NOT WANT ick factor, and a weak performance by whoever was playing Dalek Sec. (Not that I'd be trying that hard if my costume consisted of half a dozen moveable dongs stuck to my head, mind you.) But Daleks trying to evolve and the Doctor overcoming his visceral hatred and offering to help them? That is fascinating, easily the best part of the script, and David Tennant acts the hell out of it. The contrast between his cheeky refusal to take the Daleks seriously in Doomsday, when he still had his Rose-shaped band-aid, and the barely-controlled hatred radiating off him when he makes his reluctant offer of help here... it's pretty stunning.
And oh, the foreshadowing. Two episodes in a row where Martha gets held up by someone at gunpoint who then goes "TROLOLOL it wasn't a real gun." And I'm sure even early on in the series, rumors were flying around that RTD was bringing the Master back, so of course he's having fun fucking with everyone--I especially liked the shot of Diagoras stalking around the Daleks' Lab O' Mad Science silhouetted in a dark suit, ostentatiously pulling on a pair of leather gloves, right after his little "My ambition is LIMITLESS, muahahahaha! Now take me to your masters!" speech. (Also approve of: Ten's "I Will Do Science To It" approach to everything. The only things missing from his interactions with Simm!Master were a good fencing match and opportunities to Do Science Together. Um, well, that and endings that didn't suck. And snogging, since they so desperately wanted to, but we got bondage and phone!sex and eventual mind!sex so I shan't complain.)
And how stupid is it that even the music gives me so many feelings? Any time I hear even a bit of "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" my brain goes "YES YES THIS IS HOW DOCTOR WHO CHASE SCENES ARE SUPPOSED TO SOUND." And another part of my brain associates that music so strongly with running around corridors in Utopia that I get a little kick of "eeeeee UTOPIA/SOD/LOTTL SOON."
--um yes so in conclusion s3 is still my favorite.
no subject
no subject
s3: It does things to me, apparently.