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shadowkatYou got to love a church that gives out fans with Question Authority printed across them during a worship service. Not only that - but the readings were from The Wizard of OZ and a Management Consultant's guide to governance. Plus, we had a pianist and a flutist play Gershwin's Summertime. Church always manages to dispell all the nasty feelings and thoughts that get piled up inside during the work week. Sort of akin to a spiritual washing or cleaning service. At any rate it gives me peace of mind and spirit. Something I've learned not to take for granted or lightly. After church, I no longer feel angry or frustrated. Just sort of at peace.
Watched the new USA series Covert Affairs last night - was rather surprised. It's better than I expected. Interesting characters and a suspenseful story. Sort of like Alias but without all the crazy and increasingly illogical not to mention comic bookish plot threads. I liked the first three seasons of Alias, but after they killed off Francine and Will disappeared, the series sort of went off the proverbial cliff. After the first three years, it basically copied La Femme Nikita, except Nikita was better plotted and acted. Covert Affairs - I may like better. Don't know. Only seen the pilot.
Also watched two Doctor Who episodes, both excellent and quite enjoyable. Apparently I was only three episodes behind, not five as I thought. Is it just me or does Doctor Who have incredibly short seasons? I think we only had 10-13 episodes? I'm used to tv shows with 22. Although that is rapidly changing to 13-15 now, or however many they need to get out a DVD.
Another problem with Doctor Who - which I'm guessing no one else has had, unless you also watch it on BBC America - too many commercials. They have one every ten minutes. Literally every ten minutes - I checked. I was constantly fast-forwarding. (No I don't watch commercials if I can help it - I either fast-forward, read a magazine, go to the bathroom or surf the net). This is why I don't watch Doctor Who live, bloody aggravating. Can't help but wonder what they are cutting out of each episode to make room for all of these blasted commercials. Good news - according to BBC America - Doctor Who is its best hit ever. This version has out-done all the others in ratings. I can see why, there's only four bad episodes this year instead of six. Usually with Doctor Who - I only like about four or five episodes, the rest suck beans. Heck I'm lucky if I like four, it was only three in S3. And only really two in S4. And can't remember being blown away by any really in the first two seasons. Well, I think there was one in the first - where we met the oldest earthling, who was nothing more than a bunch of skin stretched tight between two pieces of glass.
This season? I liked the majority of episodes. Rare that. The only ones I didn't like were The Hungry Earth (two parter), Vampires in Venice (which was better than the Hungry Earth but not by much), and the one on the Daleks (which was worse than the Hungry Earth - an accomplishment). That's four out 12, so far. Not bad. I may become a fan of this series yet. Favorite is the two-parter about the Angel's and reintroduction of Dr. River Song (my favorite character in the Whoverse to date - I adored her the moment we first met her in the S4 two-parter about the Library, that I can never remember the name of) , with Amy's Choice and the Lodger tied for second. Also enjoyed Vincent and The Doctor, but not as much as Amy's Choice, The Lodger, the Angel two-parter, and The Paradonica Opens.
The Lodger - is a fascinating look at the Doctor from a human perspective, one that is not enamored of him. The Doctor is basically in this episode the SWM - the guy who is better at everything. And the monster in the episode, there always is one in Doctor Who, is not really a monster - but a spaceship trying to get home. It is well-intentioned. An apt metaphor for the Doctor himself -well-intentioned. The Doctor intends to help others, but often he causes chaos. His meanderings through time, without rhyme or reason, can disrupt it. His taking of Amy, at her choosing, disrupts the thread of her timeline and all those around her. She is unable to move on and have a life, because of him. He burns through his companions - Donna, Rose, Martha, none are quite capable of keeping up with him. He ruins them for ordinary life. Here the spaceship keeps burning up potential pilots, only those who wish to stay, aren't. Another theme - this time Amy's but also the Doctor. Both Amy and the Doctor are running. The Doctor from what he's done and who he is, his past, and Amy from who she will become, what she will do, and from her future. Amy is running from her future. The Doctor from his past. While in the Lodger, the two landlord and his girlfriend - are in a way hiding from their life and their love for each other. They are running by staying put. Not moving. They don't want to leave. They are comfortable in their lives. The only thing they are hiding from is their love for each other. Another reference to Amy - who hides from her love for Rory. It's safer to be with the Doctor, her imaginary friend. She doesn't have to grow up, she doesn't have to have responsibilities. Footloose and fancyfree - as she says, no ties to anything. Yet, in the Lodger - it is their love for each other, which they finally admit to that saves them. They have a reason not to pilot the spaceship - to not give up their lives. Each other and their life together wherever that may be. The Doctor can't resist the ship's pull because he has no ties, he wants to leave to continue to run. He's the spaceship with no one to pilot him.
Pandorica Opens provides an interesting twist on Doctor Who, we see the Doctor and what he is doing from another perspective. Stephen Moffat - seems to remember the old adage when writing an antagonist - it is good to remember that in their head they are the protagonist or hero. The more I think about this episode, the more I adore it - it's like one of those little puzzle boxes that you open up and keep finding cool tid-bits inside. Hmmm, strike what I said above, favorite episodes are The Pandorica Opens, Lodger, Time of Angels - Part's One and Two, Amy's Choice, Vincent and The Doctor, The Eleventh Doctor. (hee 7 episodes that I like? Not only like, but find memorable and adore? In one season no less? That's a bloody record!!!)
Karen Gillian's Amy Pound is different from the Doctor's other companions in a variety of interesting ways. First - she met him as a child, he was the imaginary friend who saved her from her nightmares while she was alone in her house. He promises to take her away from there, but miscalculates the time and returns several years later - when she is an adult. In the time between - she wonders if she made him up, yet is obsessed with him. Creates games and dolls of him. Role plays with Rory - with Rory as the Doctor. When he returns - he saves her and Rory, and she once again finds herself enamored, wanting to go away with him - to see the universe and beyond. And he promises to come right back, but it is again much later - the night before her wedding and that is the night he whisks her away - she doesn't tell him about the wedding until much later, confessing that it is the thing she's running from, justifying she's running to him. She wants him. But he pushes her away and tries to get her to see reason - and ends up taking Rory with them on their next escapade. Until that is, Rory is about to propose, to give Amy a ring again - to ask her again, this is when Rory is killed and blinked out of existence.
And Amy cries, then is filled with Joy - fancyfree like the Doctor, not remembering Rory any longer.
Enter River Song...who is a sort of female equivalent of the Doctor (what I'd been hoping for).
Clever like he is, able to fly the Tardis, and just as snarky. Also in prison - for crimes we don't know about or are told. River much like the Doctor is a grey figure, not clearly good or evil, somewhere in between. We aren't even sure if she is human. We aren't told. She contacts that Doctor in this episode in a rather amusing way. He is taking Amy, somewhat nonchalantly, without a care in the world to the Dawn of Time to see what was written there - and it is a message from River. Aggravated yet amused, he answers her call - arriving in Roman times and saluted as Ceasar to her Cleopatra. And with Amy they travel to Stone Henge and uncover the Pandorica Box - which Amy states off-hand, reminds her of her favorite fairy tale - about Pandora's Box. A coincidence? The Doctor isn't sure. We're told the box according to fairy tales and legends holds a great monster, something horrible, that will destroy the universe.
And that the person who put it into the box - was a great wizard who tricked it. River notes, somewhat sarcastically, and the problem with these tales is the Wizard is always you.
It's at this point that all of the Doctor's worst enemies show up - the Daleks, the Cybermen,
etc. All here for what is in that box. River goes to get the Tardis to save him - and ends up in Amy's house - and finds there evidence that everything they've recently encountered - from the Roman Army that he is employing to keep his enemies at bay, to the box itself is taken from ideas in Amy's head and from Amy's house. "Oh, Amy," River says. "And oh Sweetie, I should never let you out," as she picks up the dolls that Amy crafted of the Doctor and herself.
She calls the Doctor and lets him know that it is a trap, that the Romans, including Rory are taken from Amy's recollections, a book on Amy's desk, the box itself from a fairy tale book on her desk....they've used what is inside Amy's head to trap him.
There is nothing in the Pandorica Box - we discover - but a chair, a prison, strong enough, clever enough to hold a being as powerful as The Doctor. His enemies throw him in it and fasten him inside. When he protests - but why, so that you can destroy the universe. Quite the contrary, they reply, to save it - from you. You are the one destroying the universe with your Tardis, you are putting cracks in its fabric. And if you glance backwards at the episodes you can see what he does wrong - he interfers with the fabric of time, changing things. Little things, here and there. It's not deliberate. It doesn't have to be. His taking of Amy.
And then Rory - who dies in his care - canceling out their path, their child's path and all that follow. The Angels come after him - fearful of the rips in time and space, that are blinking them out of existence.
We, his arch-enemies tell him, the worst monsters he fought in the first four seasons, are saving the universe from you. And as they say this - two other things happen, River crashes the Tardis and it splits. And Amy Pound is killed by the Rory who she created. The Rory she can't save.
Nice twist and it makes sense. He tells Amy in the very beginning - when they go to the future earth that resides on the space whale - that he can't interfer, should not interfer with another's time line or any time line - disasterous things happen when he does. Yet, a child's tears make it impossible for him to not do so. And it appears to work out well, most of the time.
Pandora's box - is in a way a metaphor for the Tardis itself, and Amy's own desire and fear regarding it. The season starts with a crack in the wall of Amy's bedroom that scares her, and the Tardis landing in her backyard. Through the crack, a prisoner escapes - as do the spirits and bad things escape the prison of PAndora's box. And from the Tardis, the Doctor emerges in much the same way. A madman in a box. The imaginary friend who brings both nightmares and dreams in his wake - isn't that always the case - dreams and nightmares walking hand in hand.
Won't get to see the finale until I get back from Maine. So no spoilers please.
Watched the new USA series Covert Affairs last night - was rather surprised. It's better than I expected. Interesting characters and a suspenseful story. Sort of like Alias but without all the crazy and increasingly illogical not to mention comic bookish plot threads. I liked the first three seasons of Alias, but after they killed off Francine and Will disappeared, the series sort of went off the proverbial cliff. After the first three years, it basically copied La Femme Nikita, except Nikita was better plotted and acted. Covert Affairs - I may like better. Don't know. Only seen the pilot.
Also watched two Doctor Who episodes, both excellent and quite enjoyable. Apparently I was only three episodes behind, not five as I thought. Is it just me or does Doctor Who have incredibly short seasons? I think we only had 10-13 episodes? I'm used to tv shows with 22. Although that is rapidly changing to 13-15 now, or however many they need to get out a DVD.
Another problem with Doctor Who - which I'm guessing no one else has had, unless you also watch it on BBC America - too many commercials. They have one every ten minutes. Literally every ten minutes - I checked. I was constantly fast-forwarding. (No I don't watch commercials if I can help it - I either fast-forward, read a magazine, go to the bathroom or surf the net). This is why I don't watch Doctor Who live, bloody aggravating. Can't help but wonder what they are cutting out of each episode to make room for all of these blasted commercials. Good news - according to BBC America - Doctor Who is its best hit ever. This version has out-done all the others in ratings. I can see why, there's only four bad episodes this year instead of six. Usually with Doctor Who - I only like about four or five episodes, the rest suck beans. Heck I'm lucky if I like four, it was only three in S3. And only really two in S4. And can't remember being blown away by any really in the first two seasons. Well, I think there was one in the first - where we met the oldest earthling, who was nothing more than a bunch of skin stretched tight between two pieces of glass.
This season? I liked the majority of episodes. Rare that. The only ones I didn't like were The Hungry Earth (two parter), Vampires in Venice (which was better than the Hungry Earth but not by much), and the one on the Daleks (which was worse than the Hungry Earth - an accomplishment). That's four out 12, so far. Not bad. I may become a fan of this series yet. Favorite is the two-parter about the Angel's and reintroduction of Dr. River Song (my favorite character in the Whoverse to date - I adored her the moment we first met her in the S4 two-parter about the Library, that I can never remember the name of) , with Amy's Choice and the Lodger tied for second. Also enjoyed Vincent and The Doctor, but not as much as Amy's Choice, The Lodger, the Angel two-parter, and The Paradonica Opens.
The Lodger - is a fascinating look at the Doctor from a human perspective, one that is not enamored of him. The Doctor is basically in this episode the SWM - the guy who is better at everything. And the monster in the episode, there always is one in Doctor Who, is not really a monster - but a spaceship trying to get home. It is well-intentioned. An apt metaphor for the Doctor himself -well-intentioned. The Doctor intends to help others, but often he causes chaos. His meanderings through time, without rhyme or reason, can disrupt it. His taking of Amy, at her choosing, disrupts the thread of her timeline and all those around her. She is unable to move on and have a life, because of him. He burns through his companions - Donna, Rose, Martha, none are quite capable of keeping up with him. He ruins them for ordinary life. Here the spaceship keeps burning up potential pilots, only those who wish to stay, aren't. Another theme - this time Amy's but also the Doctor. Both Amy and the Doctor are running. The Doctor from what he's done and who he is, his past, and Amy from who she will become, what she will do, and from her future. Amy is running from her future. The Doctor from his past. While in the Lodger, the two landlord and his girlfriend - are in a way hiding from their life and their love for each other. They are running by staying put. Not moving. They don't want to leave. They are comfortable in their lives. The only thing they are hiding from is their love for each other. Another reference to Amy - who hides from her love for Rory. It's safer to be with the Doctor, her imaginary friend. She doesn't have to grow up, she doesn't have to have responsibilities. Footloose and fancyfree - as she says, no ties to anything. Yet, in the Lodger - it is their love for each other, which they finally admit to that saves them. They have a reason not to pilot the spaceship - to not give up their lives. Each other and their life together wherever that may be. The Doctor can't resist the ship's pull because he has no ties, he wants to leave to continue to run. He's the spaceship with no one to pilot him.
Pandorica Opens provides an interesting twist on Doctor Who, we see the Doctor and what he is doing from another perspective. Stephen Moffat - seems to remember the old adage when writing an antagonist - it is good to remember that in their head they are the protagonist or hero. The more I think about this episode, the more I adore it - it's like one of those little puzzle boxes that you open up and keep finding cool tid-bits inside. Hmmm, strike what I said above, favorite episodes are The Pandorica Opens, Lodger, Time of Angels - Part's One and Two, Amy's Choice, Vincent and The Doctor, The Eleventh Doctor. (hee 7 episodes that I like? Not only like, but find memorable and adore? In one season no less? That's a bloody record!!!)
Karen Gillian's Amy Pound is different from the Doctor's other companions in a variety of interesting ways. First - she met him as a child, he was the imaginary friend who saved her from her nightmares while she was alone in her house. He promises to take her away from there, but miscalculates the time and returns several years later - when she is an adult. In the time between - she wonders if she made him up, yet is obsessed with him. Creates games and dolls of him. Role plays with Rory - with Rory as the Doctor. When he returns - he saves her and Rory, and she once again finds herself enamored, wanting to go away with him - to see the universe and beyond. And he promises to come right back, but it is again much later - the night before her wedding and that is the night he whisks her away - she doesn't tell him about the wedding until much later, confessing that it is the thing she's running from, justifying she's running to him. She wants him. But he pushes her away and tries to get her to see reason - and ends up taking Rory with them on their next escapade. Until that is, Rory is about to propose, to give Amy a ring again - to ask her again, this is when Rory is killed and blinked out of existence.
And Amy cries, then is filled with Joy - fancyfree like the Doctor, not remembering Rory any longer.
Enter River Song...who is a sort of female equivalent of the Doctor (what I'd been hoping for).
Clever like he is, able to fly the Tardis, and just as snarky. Also in prison - for crimes we don't know about or are told. River much like the Doctor is a grey figure, not clearly good or evil, somewhere in between. We aren't even sure if she is human. We aren't told. She contacts that Doctor in this episode in a rather amusing way. He is taking Amy, somewhat nonchalantly, without a care in the world to the Dawn of Time to see what was written there - and it is a message from River. Aggravated yet amused, he answers her call - arriving in Roman times and saluted as Ceasar to her Cleopatra. And with Amy they travel to Stone Henge and uncover the Pandorica Box - which Amy states off-hand, reminds her of her favorite fairy tale - about Pandora's Box. A coincidence? The Doctor isn't sure. We're told the box according to fairy tales and legends holds a great monster, something horrible, that will destroy the universe.
And that the person who put it into the box - was a great wizard who tricked it. River notes, somewhat sarcastically, and the problem with these tales is the Wizard is always you.
It's at this point that all of the Doctor's worst enemies show up - the Daleks, the Cybermen,
etc. All here for what is in that box. River goes to get the Tardis to save him - and ends up in Amy's house - and finds there evidence that everything they've recently encountered - from the Roman Army that he is employing to keep his enemies at bay, to the box itself is taken from ideas in Amy's head and from Amy's house. "Oh, Amy," River says. "And oh Sweetie, I should never let you out," as she picks up the dolls that Amy crafted of the Doctor and herself.
She calls the Doctor and lets him know that it is a trap, that the Romans, including Rory are taken from Amy's recollections, a book on Amy's desk, the box itself from a fairy tale book on her desk....they've used what is inside Amy's head to trap him.
There is nothing in the Pandorica Box - we discover - but a chair, a prison, strong enough, clever enough to hold a being as powerful as The Doctor. His enemies throw him in it and fasten him inside. When he protests - but why, so that you can destroy the universe. Quite the contrary, they reply, to save it - from you. You are the one destroying the universe with your Tardis, you are putting cracks in its fabric. And if you glance backwards at the episodes you can see what he does wrong - he interfers with the fabric of time, changing things. Little things, here and there. It's not deliberate. It doesn't have to be. His taking of Amy.
And then Rory - who dies in his care - canceling out their path, their child's path and all that follow. The Angels come after him - fearful of the rips in time and space, that are blinking them out of existence.
We, his arch-enemies tell him, the worst monsters he fought in the first four seasons, are saving the universe from you. And as they say this - two other things happen, River crashes the Tardis and it splits. And Amy Pound is killed by the Rory who she created. The Rory she can't save.
Nice twist and it makes sense. He tells Amy in the very beginning - when they go to the future earth that resides on the space whale - that he can't interfer, should not interfer with another's time line or any time line - disasterous things happen when he does. Yet, a child's tears make it impossible for him to not do so. And it appears to work out well, most of the time.
Pandora's box - is in a way a metaphor for the Tardis itself, and Amy's own desire and fear regarding it. The season starts with a crack in the wall of Amy's bedroom that scares her, and the Tardis landing in her backyard. Through the crack, a prisoner escapes - as do the spirits and bad things escape the prison of PAndora's box. And from the Tardis, the Doctor emerges in much the same way. A madman in a box. The imaginary friend who brings both nightmares and dreams in his wake - isn't that always the case - dreams and nightmares walking hand in hand.
Won't get to see the finale until I get back from Maine. So no spoilers please.
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Date: 2010-07-18 11:46 pm (UTC)And I am totally loving Doctor Who! I've found all the episodes watchable and entertaining (which wasn't always the case in past seasons), with some of them being actually brilliant enough to be rewatched. I love spending time with these characters and I think that Stephen Moffat has a real interesting imagination. You're right, their season is 12 episodes plus one Christmas episode (the latter being a stand alone months after the regular/short season has ended). It is a formate that leaves the actors with a lot of freedom to do other things. The US model of 22 episodes (and it used to be way more than that) ends up leaving the actors with little or no down time to do anything else with their career, but I have to admit that when I love a show I always wish for more episodes! lol).
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Date: 2010-10-27 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-28 12:00 am (UTC)