You're all I need to hold
Nov. 23rd, 2006 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraI finally found the file I'd stuck these in and figured I'd post them. Am further on with the current story, although starting to circle somewhat.
I really liked this episode; it’s fast, it’s interesting, it isn’t predictable until quite late (and even then, you never think they’ll really kill one of the Doctor’s companions). The Doctor is great, and the opening scene with Adric complaining that the Doctor never pays any attention to him, and he’s just an outside, is an example of meta-commentary on the show done well, rather than as a cheap dig (yes, still bitter about much of David Tennant).
I do agree Nyssa gets stuck in the TARDIS purposelessly, but I was never a massive Nyssa fan anyway. There are complaints on Outpost Gallifrey (which I’m going to stop peeking at for things I’ve really liked, as there are too many years between the episodes screening and now for me to cope with all the thinking and reevaluating that’s gone on) that Beryl Reid is hopelessly miscast as the “grizzled Marine leader” but I didn’t think so; for a start, I thought she was a mercenary or independent ship captain rather than part of the military, and secondly I think she did a rather good job of establishing a believable character, someone whose actions can be both good and bad but are still internally consistent.
I do wonder if some of the reviews at OG are complaining about all the female characters entirely coincidentally. I am aware that Doctor Who is, traditionally, a male-dominated fandom (this may also be behind much of the fondness for “traditional”, one ditzy female companion-style Doctors). The show, or at least this episode, was refreshingly full of female characters, as such things go – at least three female soldiers in the group supporting the archeologists, the sole surviving (at least until ep 4) archaeologist (a professor), the captain and the first officer. It’s depressing that I find gender representation from a twenty five year old show to be better than today’s sf/f. The captain and first officer were both old, too, (in the TV sense, so obviously over 40 rather than pushing their zimmer frames) and although UK TV’s always been better at this than the US (I will just note that the occasional episode of Law and Order: SVU had older female judges and other law types – there’s a scene that sticks in my mind that had three characters, all female, two older, all distinct personalities without being characterised in relation to men) it’s nice to see this. I won’t comment on race, but yes, obviously, a gaping hole in representation as far as I know with regard to companions until Nine, although I’m happy to be corrected.
I was overidentifying with Adric when I first saw these eps, and this one devastated me. Some of that’s still there. Yes, he was irritating at times, but so were a fair number of other companions. Yes, his acting could be forced. Still… I’m reminded of Marie Dobson, in Antonia Forest’s Marlow books. It’s worse, in some ways, when someone you don’t really consider that much of a person dies, because you don’t have the certainty of unmixed feelings. And it feels as if they shouldn’t matter that much, shouldn’t be capable of something so important; but they do, and they were.
Just going through the extras, most of which I could rather do without. A man with a face only the early 80s BBC could love presenting a show called Did You See?, a fan episode five thing, a Jamaican style overdub of a scene, and the audio commentary. And a Making Of contemporary thing with an odd assortment of men (I think Sarah Sutton shows up once) pontificating, including for no reason that I can see the Shadow Transport Minister, claiming that Cybermen were more effective villains under a Tory government. Not something I'd be proud of, but there you go. And I do like the ability to switch on slightly better special effects.
Most of this isn't about the episode. I'm happy to have it lurk back in my brain
I really liked this episode; it’s fast, it’s interesting, it isn’t predictable until quite late (and even then, you never think they’ll really kill one of the Doctor’s companions). The Doctor is great, and the opening scene with Adric complaining that the Doctor never pays any attention to him, and he’s just an outside, is an example of meta-commentary on the show done well, rather than as a cheap dig (yes, still bitter about much of David Tennant).
I do agree Nyssa gets stuck in the TARDIS purposelessly, but I was never a massive Nyssa fan anyway. There are complaints on Outpost Gallifrey (which I’m going to stop peeking at for things I’ve really liked, as there are too many years between the episodes screening and now for me to cope with all the thinking and reevaluating that’s gone on) that Beryl Reid is hopelessly miscast as the “grizzled Marine leader” but I didn’t think so; for a start, I thought she was a mercenary or independent ship captain rather than part of the military, and secondly I think she did a rather good job of establishing a believable character, someone whose actions can be both good and bad but are still internally consistent.
I do wonder if some of the reviews at OG are complaining about all the female characters entirely coincidentally. I am aware that Doctor Who is, traditionally, a male-dominated fandom (this may also be behind much of the fondness for “traditional”, one ditzy female companion-style Doctors). The show, or at least this episode, was refreshingly full of female characters, as such things go – at least three female soldiers in the group supporting the archeologists, the sole surviving (at least until ep 4) archaeologist (a professor), the captain and the first officer. It’s depressing that I find gender representation from a twenty five year old show to be better than today’s sf/f. The captain and first officer were both old, too, (in the TV sense, so obviously over 40 rather than pushing their zimmer frames) and although UK TV’s always been better at this than the US (I will just note that the occasional episode of Law and Order: SVU had older female judges and other law types – there’s a scene that sticks in my mind that had three characters, all female, two older, all distinct personalities without being characterised in relation to men) it’s nice to see this. I won’t comment on race, but yes, obviously, a gaping hole in representation as far as I know with regard to companions until Nine, although I’m happy to be corrected.
I was overidentifying with Adric when I first saw these eps, and this one devastated me. Some of that’s still there. Yes, he was irritating at times, but so were a fair number of other companions. Yes, his acting could be forced. Still… I’m reminded of Marie Dobson, in Antonia Forest’s Marlow books. It’s worse, in some ways, when someone you don’t really consider that much of a person dies, because you don’t have the certainty of unmixed feelings. And it feels as if they shouldn’t matter that much, shouldn’t be capable of something so important; but they do, and they were.
Just going through the extras, most of which I could rather do without. A man with a face only the early 80s BBC could love presenting a show called Did You See?, a fan episode five thing, a Jamaican style overdub of a scene, and the audio commentary. And a Making Of contemporary thing with an odd assortment of men (I think Sarah Sutton shows up once) pontificating, including for no reason that I can see the Shadow Transport Minister, claiming that Cybermen were more effective villains under a Tory government. Not something I'd be proud of, but there you go. And I do like the ability to switch on slightly better special effects.
Most of this isn't about the episode. I'm happy to have it lurk back in my brain
