Doctor Who Question

[shadowkat]

Should make dinner but not sure what I want. Scrolled through flist and...
Regarding Doctor Who, what the heck is Valeyard? Or Vanyard? It's referred to in more than one post - as what they might be doing next year and who John Hurt might be, and I'm confused.

Comments

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

The Valeyard is a Doctor Who villain from the old series, that's all I know. I'm sure you could look up the details on wiki or something.

I really enjoyed Star Trek into Darkness. Lots of fun, a little more contemplative and emotional than the first one, the villains made much more sense and were enjoyable to watch, it was a great movie.

I had never seen Wrath of Khan, though, so I went and watched that today... I have to say, I don't understand the overwhelming love for it. I mean, I can well believe that Khan was "the most threatening villain" the original series cast faced... but that's because most of the writing for TOS was pretty bad. Silly and enjoyable, but not that good. The Khan I saw in the original flick was impressive for his ruthless determination to kill Kirk, and not much else. He definitely didn't act like someone with such "superior intellect." To me, Cumberbatch played a much more threatening and interesting villain. And of course the older movie was much slower and clunkier in general, compared to modern writing. It was enjoyable to watch... but not a masterpiece of movie-making. I feel like it's mostly nostalgia talking there.

Then again, I recently read 'The Great Gatsby' for the first time and could not believe that it deserved the title of the Great American Novel. The writing was dry, the characters felt more like caricatures, and there were lots of references that I'm sure made sense in the 20's but fell flat to a modern reader. It did not surprise me to read that when it came out, the book was a critical and commercial failure.

I think people put too much stock in owning "cultured" media as a sign of status. Most of the movies I own are either animated or geeky things that I enjoy, like superhero movies. I own Iron Man and watch it fairly frequently; I'll almost certainly get Iron Man 3. Yes, in some ways it's just a silly action flick, but the movie did a lot of rather new things, one of which was showing its hero vulnerable and grappling with PTSD. That was good to see. And superheroes can be a really fascinating metaphor for examining society and its fears. That interests me, but more importantly, I enjoy those stories. Life is short, and there shouldn't be any shame in watching something if you enjoy it.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that in a nutshell was why I edited the post and made it just about DW. ;-) You probably replied while I was editing it.

RE Great Gatsby: Great Gatsby I read over 30 years ago. Still remember it vividly though. Can't say the same for the overrated Song of Ice and Fire series which I've read more recently.

Not an easy book to read by a long shot, but an extremely well-written one. It's about how the American Dream is at its core meaningless. The drive for wealth and success and reinvention to join the upper class, that is shallow to begin with...

And it is quite relevant to today's world - the 1902s were right after the Industrial Revolution - where you had a huge gap between rich and poor. The extremely wealthy lived high and cared little. There was a spiritual hole.
Today? Same problem. The media celebrates wealth, but there's no meaning no purpose...it's empty.

But not an easy book to read or wrap your mind around. You have to be in the right mood for one thing. None of the characters are likable. And there's a sense of futility to it. Plus no real action, except for the one bit towards the end.

RE: Wrath of Khan - is a film that you almost had to have seen when it first aired to understand why it was loved. This was before CJI special effects. A bit like Star Wars. Also helps if you loved the back story.

That said? I keep wanting to tell people - mileage it varies. This is not a one-size fits all world, despite what marketing people like to tell us.

RE: owning superhero films on DVD? I did say that I own Casino Royal and Must Love Dogs...amongst all the Harry Potter DVDs..

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

I understand the ideas behind Gatsby, I just think that other writers have done it better. Gatsby is famous because it's one of the first books to talk about how pursuit of the American Dream in the form of material wealth is meaningless. Maybe reading that in the 20's was shocking. But reading it in 2013... all I can think is "Well, duh." Of course if you only pursue money your life is going to be pretty empty. Of course chasing after a girl you barely know after years and years is a futile chase.

I don't necessarily mind that all the characters are terrible people, but... I get the feeling from other reviews that Gatsby's futile chasing of his impossible dream is supposed to be sad and tragic? But I don't feel sad for Gatsby, I think "Yeah, you were an idiot, and it worked out badly. No one should be surprised." This may be my own pragmatism speaking. I have little sympathy or patience for people who sit around 'reaching out' for dreams instead of going out and acting to make them reality.

I was kind of hoping to see the movie, because there certainly are a lot of good parallels that could be drawn between that time period and the current one, and a modern movie has the hindsight to make use of that. But it sounds from reviews like they didn't, which is a shame.


Yeah, I can appreciate that Wrath of Khan was probably very impressive in 1982. Now... not so much. And having looked up some of the backstory, I still think they could have done better writing-wise. What you're telling me basically confirms that it's people's nostalgia that gives that movie its reputation, which is what I'd suspected.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Like all things...there are people who hate The Great Gatsby and don't get the appeal, and people who found it haunting.

So, whenever you read a post about someone ranking on Game of Thrones? Just think about how you feel about the Great Gatsby? And well there you are.