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shadowkatIn deference to the constant squeeing on flist, I've started watching Doctor Who and Supernatural. Actually this is more out of curiousity than anything else. I respect your opinions and am curious to see what all the squeeing is about.
I'm finding Supernatural more entertaining but that's only because I have a preference for fantasy horror over science-fiction horror. And well, Jensen Ackles is more entertaining to me than David Tennant. Have to admit, I liked Christopher Eccleston better in the role - he was goofy looking, yet had a resonance and his humor was more understated. Tennant is prettier and more romantic but doesn't quite move me as much as Eccleston did, although that could change, found him strangely appealing in Smith & Jones.
At any rate - saw the first two episodes of S3 Doctor Who tonight.
Missed most of Season2, so have no idea what happened to Rose, outside of what the Doctor tells us in the opening two episodes - which get him past Rose and into the next companion. (And well what the flist told me - ie. she was left on a parallel world and lost to him, leaving the door open for her to return.) Rose - left because the actress much like Christopher Ecclesten before her, wanted out of the role. What is it about Doctor Who - it can't seem to hold actors for very long? Course it is set up in much the same way as Law & Order and ER in the US in that the actors are more less replacable. The series doesn't revolve around the characters so much as around their adventures. It is perhaps the least character centric science fiction series I've watched. Which may explain why I can't really get into it. Although, I guess you can argue that the Doctor evolves since he literally changes personalities and shapes as time wears on. But - it still feels more like a science fiction anthology series - to me. Lots of interlinking short stories.
And the set up of Doctor Who is not unlike Quantum Leap, or Highway to Heaven or Touched by an Angel or even Murder She Wrote - where we basically have two people traveling about and helping people. The difference about The Doctor is he can go anywhere/anywhen and chooses to do it not to help people but just for the fun of it. It's in short a bit more light-hearted in nature.
This may explain why actors don't stick with it for long. Anthology series that aren't *character centric* tend to be boring to actors. Or at least that's what some actors have told me. Kyra Sedwick recently stated in an interview that she turned down a starring role in a Law & Order because it wasn't character centric - it was more interested in the plot than the character.
Granted Doctor Who is arguably more character centric than L&O, but it still is more interested in the short story and how the doctor solves it. Not really in why or who the doctor is - although we do get smidgens of that. My favorite episode of the series was in the first season when Christopher Ecclesten revealed to Rose what happened to his people and who he was and his own guilt in the destruction of a race. I think it was the one about the end of Earth and with the oldest earthling, who was little more than stretched skin.
The two episodes I saw today, while a whole lot better than the film I'd watched, did not live up to the promise of that episode. Although I did enjoy bits of them. The second, Smith and Jones was my favorite. I like Martha Jones - she's tougher and smarter - an accomplished woman who doesn't need to escape her life. I don't understand the backlash I've seen on my flist against her - apparently some people in the DW fandom didn't like her?
And preferred the blond and somewhat ditzy Rose, who got my on nerves the second season, which was one of the many reasons I gave up on it. Jones seems a little brighter.
I have mixed feelings about Donna, who is unlike any of the Who companions. Not *magazine* pretty. A little on the whiny side, but not overly so. And she did call him on his crap. But unlike Martha, she has relatively little chemistry with Tennant who looks tiny next to her. I liked her because I identified with her more so than Doctor Jones.
That said, Smith & Jones was the better episode. Less cheesy. And with a little more character development regarding the Doctor. Also for the first time, I found Tennant attractive in the role as opposed to just off-beat.
Runaway has the silly robot santas and Christmas Tree, with a spider woman. Also the Bride being jilted by her groom who works for the evil spider woman creature. What is it with sci-fi and evil spiderwomen? Voyager did the same thing. And I've seen it elsewhere. I know, because I don't like spiders and cringe whenever it pops up. Also why are they always women?
For some reason - we associate spiders with women. Maybe because the female black widow spider is the most famous? Anyhow, didn't mind the silly robot santas - which I found mildly amusing in the Christmas Invasion episode in which Tennant was introduced. That episode was actually a tad more amusing, even though I missed Eccleston during it. The scene with the flying phone booth chasing the taxi driven by the robot santa was amusing.
The show really does feel comical at times - which may be why people love it. Sci-Fi more often than not tends to be on the grim side.
And Runaway did end on a bittersweet note. The Doctor asking Donna to join, and we the audience thinking she would - because what else does she have? Heck he even more or less states that. But she tells him that she can't live his life. Even though she knows he needs someone, if only to stop him from going to far - she can't be that person. It scares her too much. She wants security, stability - all the things Rose and Martha don't appear to want. More to the point - the Doctor scares her a little. His remorseless killing of the arachnid queen's offspring...worried her. (This didn't work for me. Why? The offspring were going to devour the earth? The empress had no qualms about it. And well, aranchids...so admittedly biased. I thought the topic was better addressed in Season 1 - although Tennant's humor makes you think he's more harmless than he is, Eccleston made you think bad boy from the start, Tennant looks too much like a gawky scholar to worry over - which may well be his strength. In that way at least he gives the Doctor a depth that Eccleston couldn't. Also, Doctor Who seems to revisit old ground without moving forward sometimes - I've watched several episodes in S2 and most of S1 and the fact that the Doctor was willing to kill, even exterminate a race, or hurt someone else without always a good reason outside of adventure or kicks is brought up time and again, then dismissed. He's an odd blend of hero/anti-hero. Not jumping around to save the world so much as to see it and experience it. He does care but at the same time doesn't. And the show flips back and forth between the two. I don't believe it will ever resolve it any more than I believed Angel the Series would ever resolve the Angel/Angelus quandry. Nor, do I think it is realistic to resolve that. Because good and evil like it or not reside in all of us, we can do amazingly wonderful things one day and amazingly horrible things the next. I think the fact that the Doctor jumps back and forth between those moral extreems without much commentary or resolution is a strength. I just wish it was clearer - that the spider empress was a little less the mustach twirling villainess. Angel dealt with the quandry better as did Buffy, the villains in those shows seemed to be a little less one-dimensional somehow, same with the Star Trek and Farscape series - Scorpius has got to be the most multi-faceted/multi-dimenisonal villain I've seen. Doctor Who doesn't quite succeed there. I have yet to see a villian on the show, granted I haven't seen all of it so may have missed it, that had enough complexity for me to feel the Doctor was wrong to vanquish it. That said, there are a couple of places, particularly in the first season, where the Doctor's actions did cause others to be hurt - innocents - while he was in the midst of either destroying the villain or due to his actions, the villains showed up when they might not have if he hadn't shown up.
Smith and Jones I felt was a little more multi-faceted. The intergalatic police force fascinated me. It thinks little of endangering the entire population of a planet or over a 1000 people in a hospital to extract one criminal who killed a princess on another planet. They are almost bureaucratical in their pursuit. Cataloguing people. Killing anyone who resists. And hypocritical in regards to how they enforce the law - it's okay for them to kill but no one else. At the end of the episode, it is unclear who is worse the plasma sucking old woman or the police force pursuing her. Have they in fact become as bad as the criminals they pursue?
Martha's family is almost cliche. Rose's family life was a little more complex and far more interesting. But it is early in the arc, so we'll see. The actress playing Martha does not have the same resonance and charisma as Billie Piper did. She's pretty and I like the fact that she's not white. But, she's also not that interesting. Too together. Too bright. That said, I sort of like her. And I like her chemistry with the Doctor. Even if I think she was of the companions a bit too accepting of him, a bit too quickly - although granted that made sense - given her background and the circumstances.
And the hospital on the moon bit was sort of fun. They could have done more, I guess, but it is only an hour show.
Overall? Enjoyed it more than I thought. So will probably watch next week's.
I'm finding Supernatural more entertaining but that's only because I have a preference for fantasy horror over science-fiction horror. And well, Jensen Ackles is more entertaining to me than David Tennant. Have to admit, I liked Christopher Eccleston better in the role - he was goofy looking, yet had a resonance and his humor was more understated. Tennant is prettier and more romantic but doesn't quite move me as much as Eccleston did, although that could change, found him strangely appealing in Smith & Jones.
At any rate - saw the first two episodes of S3 Doctor Who tonight.
Missed most of Season2, so have no idea what happened to Rose, outside of what the Doctor tells us in the opening two episodes - which get him past Rose and into the next companion. (And well what the flist told me - ie. she was left on a parallel world and lost to him, leaving the door open for her to return.) Rose - left because the actress much like Christopher Ecclesten before her, wanted out of the role. What is it about Doctor Who - it can't seem to hold actors for very long? Course it is set up in much the same way as Law & Order and ER in the US in that the actors are more less replacable. The series doesn't revolve around the characters so much as around their adventures. It is perhaps the least character centric science fiction series I've watched. Which may explain why I can't really get into it. Although, I guess you can argue that the Doctor evolves since he literally changes personalities and shapes as time wears on. But - it still feels more like a science fiction anthology series - to me. Lots of interlinking short stories.
And the set up of Doctor Who is not unlike Quantum Leap, or Highway to Heaven or Touched by an Angel or even Murder She Wrote - where we basically have two people traveling about and helping people. The difference about The Doctor is he can go anywhere/anywhen and chooses to do it not to help people but just for the fun of it. It's in short a bit more light-hearted in nature.
This may explain why actors don't stick with it for long. Anthology series that aren't *character centric* tend to be boring to actors. Or at least that's what some actors have told me. Kyra Sedwick recently stated in an interview that she turned down a starring role in a Law & Order because it wasn't character centric - it was more interested in the plot than the character.
Granted Doctor Who is arguably more character centric than L&O, but it still is more interested in the short story and how the doctor solves it. Not really in why or who the doctor is - although we do get smidgens of that. My favorite episode of the series was in the first season when Christopher Ecclesten revealed to Rose what happened to his people and who he was and his own guilt in the destruction of a race. I think it was the one about the end of Earth and with the oldest earthling, who was little more than stretched skin.
The two episodes I saw today, while a whole lot better than the film I'd watched, did not live up to the promise of that episode. Although I did enjoy bits of them. The second, Smith and Jones was my favorite. I like Martha Jones - she's tougher and smarter - an accomplished woman who doesn't need to escape her life. I don't understand the backlash I've seen on my flist against her - apparently some people in the DW fandom didn't like her?
And preferred the blond and somewhat ditzy Rose, who got my on nerves the second season, which was one of the many reasons I gave up on it. Jones seems a little brighter.
I have mixed feelings about Donna, who is unlike any of the Who companions. Not *magazine* pretty. A little on the whiny side, but not overly so. And she did call him on his crap. But unlike Martha, she has relatively little chemistry with Tennant who looks tiny next to her. I liked her because I identified with her more so than Doctor Jones.
That said, Smith & Jones was the better episode. Less cheesy. And with a little more character development regarding the Doctor. Also for the first time, I found Tennant attractive in the role as opposed to just off-beat.
Runaway has the silly robot santas and Christmas Tree, with a spider woman. Also the Bride being jilted by her groom who works for the evil spider woman creature. What is it with sci-fi and evil spiderwomen? Voyager did the same thing. And I've seen it elsewhere. I know, because I don't like spiders and cringe whenever it pops up. Also why are they always women?
For some reason - we associate spiders with women. Maybe because the female black widow spider is the most famous? Anyhow, didn't mind the silly robot santas - which I found mildly amusing in the Christmas Invasion episode in which Tennant was introduced. That episode was actually a tad more amusing, even though I missed Eccleston during it. The scene with the flying phone booth chasing the taxi driven by the robot santa was amusing.
The show really does feel comical at times - which may be why people love it. Sci-Fi more often than not tends to be on the grim side.
And Runaway did end on a bittersweet note. The Doctor asking Donna to join, and we the audience thinking she would - because what else does she have? Heck he even more or less states that. But she tells him that she can't live his life. Even though she knows he needs someone, if only to stop him from going to far - she can't be that person. It scares her too much. She wants security, stability - all the things Rose and Martha don't appear to want. More to the point - the Doctor scares her a little. His remorseless killing of the arachnid queen's offspring...worried her. (This didn't work for me. Why? The offspring were going to devour the earth? The empress had no qualms about it. And well, aranchids...so admittedly biased. I thought the topic was better addressed in Season 1 - although Tennant's humor makes you think he's more harmless than he is, Eccleston made you think bad boy from the start, Tennant looks too much like a gawky scholar to worry over - which may well be his strength. In that way at least he gives the Doctor a depth that Eccleston couldn't. Also, Doctor Who seems to revisit old ground without moving forward sometimes - I've watched several episodes in S2 and most of S1 and the fact that the Doctor was willing to kill, even exterminate a race, or hurt someone else without always a good reason outside of adventure or kicks is brought up time and again, then dismissed. He's an odd blend of hero/anti-hero. Not jumping around to save the world so much as to see it and experience it. He does care but at the same time doesn't. And the show flips back and forth between the two. I don't believe it will ever resolve it any more than I believed Angel the Series would ever resolve the Angel/Angelus quandry. Nor, do I think it is realistic to resolve that. Because good and evil like it or not reside in all of us, we can do amazingly wonderful things one day and amazingly horrible things the next. I think the fact that the Doctor jumps back and forth between those moral extreems without much commentary or resolution is a strength. I just wish it was clearer - that the spider empress was a little less the mustach twirling villainess. Angel dealt with the quandry better as did Buffy, the villains in those shows seemed to be a little less one-dimensional somehow, same with the Star Trek and Farscape series - Scorpius has got to be the most multi-faceted/multi-dimenisonal villain I've seen. Doctor Who doesn't quite succeed there. I have yet to see a villian on the show, granted I haven't seen all of it so may have missed it, that had enough complexity for me to feel the Doctor was wrong to vanquish it. That said, there are a couple of places, particularly in the first season, where the Doctor's actions did cause others to be hurt - innocents - while he was in the midst of either destroying the villain or due to his actions, the villains showed up when they might not have if he hadn't shown up.
Smith and Jones I felt was a little more multi-faceted. The intergalatic police force fascinated me. It thinks little of endangering the entire population of a planet or over a 1000 people in a hospital to extract one criminal who killed a princess on another planet. They are almost bureaucratical in their pursuit. Cataloguing people. Killing anyone who resists. And hypocritical in regards to how they enforce the law - it's okay for them to kill but no one else. At the end of the episode, it is unclear who is worse the plasma sucking old woman or the police force pursuing her. Have they in fact become as bad as the criminals they pursue?
Martha's family is almost cliche. Rose's family life was a little more complex and far more interesting. But it is early in the arc, so we'll see. The actress playing Martha does not have the same resonance and charisma as Billie Piper did. She's pretty and I like the fact that she's not white. But, she's also not that interesting. Too together. Too bright. That said, I sort of like her. And I like her chemistry with the Doctor. Even if I think she was of the companions a bit too accepting of him, a bit too quickly - although granted that made sense - given her background and the circumstances.
And the hospital on the moon bit was sort of fun. They could have done more, I guess, but it is only an hour show.
Overall? Enjoyed it more than I thought. So will probably watch next week's.
