Yooge Doctor Who review post
Monday, 4 August 2008 21:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
Things that I have watched and read and listened to recently, y compris BFAs (The Veiled Leopard, Shada and The Church and the Crown), Marco Polo, an EDA (Dark Progeny) and a PDA (The Roundheads).
Audios first. I found the latest Big Finish release, The Boy That Time Forgot, er, not terribly impressive (the first two parts, certainly, haven't got round to listening to the last two yet and have no desire so to do), but luckily I bought some other audios off of someone on the forum formerly known as Outpost Gallifrey and they also arrived on Friday, thus allowing me to regain my Big Finish squee.
The Veiled Leopard
I have in fact listened to this one a couple of times already, it was one of the first I heard (except the BBC7 McGann ones), but it is always worth a relisten and now I has it on shiny disc, hurrah! Anyway. I realised this time round that all the stuff Ace 'n' Hex know about Lily and the theft, they know because Peri 'n' Erimem found it out, yay, hence providing the fake diamond for Lily to sell and the bad fake to catch Walker out. And any suspicious gaps in their knowledge can be explained by "Peri and Erimem got smashed on cocktails and forgot about it" (or "Seven didn't tell them for mysterious reasons of his own", I suppose). Ah, I love this audio. It's nice to hear our heroes having fun and dressing up and messing about, and though it's sad we don't get to hear both teams working together, it practically demands that you assume they partied together after the story finished. :) I was going to quote all my favourite lines, but that would probably have involved transcribing the entire thing. So some random things of yayness:
- Two line deliveries I really liked: Erimem's "Why is he putting a burning stick in his mouth, is he mad?" and one of Ace's lines to the slimy guy (Walker?), I can't remember what she said exactly but the chirpy way she said it made me happy.
- Peri and Erimem eyeing each other up all the time. "In these dresses, it's definitely 'bust'." *ships them happily*
- Ace threatening Hex with hiding the marmalade ♥ I love getting little snapshots of everyday TARDIS life like this.
- Oh, and Hex very very earnestly telling Ace how nice she looks! And getting a "shut yer face" for his trouble, heh, but not an angry one, more a sort of absent-minded automatic reaction. I love their relationship, Hex falling for Ace and rather in awe, Ace not knowing how to react - she likes him, but she doesn't know whether she wants him as a mate or a boyfriend. She's obviously more comfortable with him in their mentor/protegé bits, cos that's what she knows, having spent so much time with it just being her and the Doctor.
- And the plot is so very much not the point but it is still rather spiffy.
Shada
I've seen the webcast for this already, but I think the audio version is slightly different - did I miss it, or did they cut Eight's line about "careering through regenerations like I own a particularly dangerous bicycle"? Haven't seen the TV version yet but I think it might work better as an audio, it's very talky (in a good way!). A few of the Doctor's lines are obviously Fourth Doctor lines, but Paul McGann does a great job of making it his own, on the whole - in particular I like the bit where he's persuading the ship that since he's dead, he can't give any orders that would possibly hurt Skagra. I liked Chris and Claire (and got some geeky joy from recognising them as Oliver Wood from Harry Potter and Angie March from Ultraviolet respectively), especially Claire's determination to find her bicycle. And of course it was also stuffed with great lines ("People don't steal rooms, generally") and things that are both completely mad and rather logical at the same time. I love Eight and Romana together, she does go a bit schoolgirl at him occasionally but that's understandable under the circumstances. So basically much love for this audio.
The Church and the Crown
Yay, a new-to-me audio! Some observations:
- I really need to reread The Three Musketeers
- Some lovely companion bits - Peri immediately escaping from the castle and then going back to rescue the Doctor too! And so much lovely Erimem stuff, fitting in so confidently at the French court, observing and picking up on how this society works and how she can slot herself into it. Her speech to the French army, leading them into battle ("she's very good, isn't she?"), and fighting alongside them. Telling Peri that she's very attractive, asking "why would anybody put glass where a window should be?", generally being wide-eyed and awed by what she's seeing without ever getting annoying.
- Many great lines, especially for the Doctor: "There's nothing quite like a sticky bun." "Not a good vintage for tea." [on being tortured] "My arms are a bit longer, but that should come in handy for controlling the TARDIS." I also liked Richelieu being discerning when picking soldiers to send to warn the king: "You, and you, and... no, not you." and the guard at the city gates, faced with an oncoming army: "It looks like you want to come in, but I'm afraid we're all out. Could you come back later?"
- Nicola Bryant was great as Queen Anne.
Recently I've seen a few people mentioning that they're watching all of Doctor Who from the beginning. This seemed like a good idea so I nicked it. Have just started on my first new-to-me serial - Marco Polo - and am up to episode three. I loved the atmosphere in part two, Marco and Ian playing chess, everyone else pottering in and out, very familiar, but against the strange background of thirteenth century China and the sandstorm. Overall, I'm loving how sedate this story is, how absorbed I am by the journey, the characters they meet and the places they go. I almost resent the plot for getting in the way.
The last EDA I read was Dark Progeny, with Fitz and Anji, which was slightly less my kind of thing than the EDAs usually are, being a proper thriller rather than a slightly mad adventure, but it was still pretty good. As well as being lots of female secondary characters, quite often the nameless background characters, mostly soldiers, were also women, which is great and a bit rare. Both companions came off fairly well, despite spending a lot of the first half or so unconscious or incapacitated; there were some nice little moments - Anji wishing she had her handbag because it's got a torch in it, for example, or Fitz thinking that "there was something improper about a woman seeing you in the buff when you weren’t conscious to make excuses or sheepishly flex the muscles you possessed", and the bit at the beginning when he describes himself as a "swashbuckling space gipsy". The plot felt a bit "seen it before" in places, but it was well done and it was mostly elements I don't mind seeing again, like the Doctor getting angry at the humans for not treating the alien babies like people. And there's a very good section with some lovely Eighth Doctor characterisation when the children name themselves (it's a whole long passage, this is a little bit from the middle):
It really made the children matter to me, when before that, although I was sympathetic towards them, I'd mostly seen them as there for plot purposes.
Last night I read another PDA, The Roundheads (Two, Polly, Ben and Jamie), not much to say about this one, it was a fun romp and I learned a new word (said word being "ingles", a seventeenth century slang term for male prostitutes and therefore not terribly useful in general conversation, but never mind). (ETA it has also just helped me with one of the picture rounds on University Challenge, heh.) And the Doctor had a line that made me go "hee!"; on knowing how to hypnotise people: "I knew someone ages ago who taught me. Of course, he was an absolute master..."
Audios first. I found the latest Big Finish release, The Boy That Time Forgot, er, not terribly impressive (the first two parts, certainly, haven't got round to listening to the last two yet and have no desire so to do), but luckily I bought some other audios off of someone on the forum formerly known as Outpost Gallifrey and they also arrived on Friday, thus allowing me to regain my Big Finish squee.
The Veiled Leopard
I have in fact listened to this one a couple of times already, it was one of the first I heard (except the BBC7 McGann ones), but it is always worth a relisten and now I has it on shiny disc, hurrah! Anyway. I realised this time round that all the stuff Ace 'n' Hex know about Lily and the theft, they know because Peri 'n' Erimem found it out, yay, hence providing the fake diamond for Lily to sell and the bad fake to catch Walker out. And any suspicious gaps in their knowledge can be explained by "Peri and Erimem got smashed on cocktails and forgot about it" (or "Seven didn't tell them for mysterious reasons of his own", I suppose). Ah, I love this audio. It's nice to hear our heroes having fun and dressing up and messing about, and though it's sad we don't get to hear both teams working together, it practically demands that you assume they partied together after the story finished. :) I was going to quote all my favourite lines, but that would probably have involved transcribing the entire thing. So some random things of yayness:
- Two line deliveries I really liked: Erimem's "Why is he putting a burning stick in his mouth, is he mad?" and one of Ace's lines to the slimy guy (Walker?), I can't remember what she said exactly but the chirpy way she said it made me happy.
- Peri and Erimem eyeing each other up all the time. "In these dresses, it's definitely 'bust'." *ships them happily*
- Ace threatening Hex with hiding the marmalade ♥ I love getting little snapshots of everyday TARDIS life like this.
- Oh, and Hex very very earnestly telling Ace how nice she looks! And getting a "shut yer face" for his trouble, heh, but not an angry one, more a sort of absent-minded automatic reaction. I love their relationship, Hex falling for Ace and rather in awe, Ace not knowing how to react - she likes him, but she doesn't know whether she wants him as a mate or a boyfriend. She's obviously more comfortable with him in their mentor/protegé bits, cos that's what she knows, having spent so much time with it just being her and the Doctor.
- And the plot is so very much not the point but it is still rather spiffy.
Shada
I've seen the webcast for this already, but I think the audio version is slightly different - did I miss it, or did they cut Eight's line about "careering through regenerations like I own a particularly dangerous bicycle"? Haven't seen the TV version yet but I think it might work better as an audio, it's very talky (in a good way!). A few of the Doctor's lines are obviously Fourth Doctor lines, but Paul McGann does a great job of making it his own, on the whole - in particular I like the bit where he's persuading the ship that since he's dead, he can't give any orders that would possibly hurt Skagra. I liked Chris and Claire (and got some geeky joy from recognising them as Oliver Wood from Harry Potter and Angie March from Ultraviolet respectively), especially Claire's determination to find her bicycle. And of course it was also stuffed with great lines ("People don't steal rooms, generally") and things that are both completely mad and rather logical at the same time. I love Eight and Romana together, she does go a bit schoolgirl at him occasionally but that's understandable under the circumstances. So basically much love for this audio.
The Church and the Crown
Yay, a new-to-me audio! Some observations:
- I really need to reread The Three Musketeers
- Some lovely companion bits - Peri immediately escaping from the castle and then going back to rescue the Doctor too! And so much lovely Erimem stuff, fitting in so confidently at the French court, observing and picking up on how this society works and how she can slot herself into it. Her speech to the French army, leading them into battle ("she's very good, isn't she?"), and fighting alongside them. Telling Peri that she's very attractive, asking "why would anybody put glass where a window should be?", generally being wide-eyed and awed by what she's seeing without ever getting annoying.
- Many great lines, especially for the Doctor: "There's nothing quite like a sticky bun." "Not a good vintage for tea." [on being tortured] "My arms are a bit longer, but that should come in handy for controlling the TARDIS." I also liked Richelieu being discerning when picking soldiers to send to warn the king: "You, and you, and... no, not you." and the guard at the city gates, faced with an oncoming army: "It looks like you want to come in, but I'm afraid we're all out. Could you come back later?"
- Nicola Bryant was great as Queen Anne.
Recently I've seen a few people mentioning that they're watching all of Doctor Who from the beginning. This seemed like a good idea so I nicked it. Have just started on my first new-to-me serial - Marco Polo - and am up to episode three. I loved the atmosphere in part two, Marco and Ian playing chess, everyone else pottering in and out, very familiar, but against the strange background of thirteenth century China and the sandstorm. Overall, I'm loving how sedate this story is, how absorbed I am by the journey, the characters they meet and the places they go. I almost resent the plot for getting in the way.
The last EDA I read was Dark Progeny, with Fitz and Anji, which was slightly less my kind of thing than the EDAs usually are, being a proper thriller rather than a slightly mad adventure, but it was still pretty good. As well as being lots of female secondary characters, quite often the nameless background characters, mostly soldiers, were also women, which is great and a bit rare. Both companions came off fairly well, despite spending a lot of the first half or so unconscious or incapacitated; there were some nice little moments - Anji wishing she had her handbag because it's got a torch in it, for example, or Fitz thinking that "there was something improper about a woman seeing you in the buff when you weren’t conscious to make excuses or sheepishly flex the muscles you possessed", and the bit at the beginning when he describes himself as a "swashbuckling space gipsy". The plot felt a bit "seen it before" in places, but it was well done and it was mostly elements I don't mind seeing again, like the Doctor getting angry at the humans for not treating the alien babies like people. And there's a very good section with some lovely Eighth Doctor characterisation when the children name themselves (it's a whole long passage, this is a little bit from the middle):
‘They named themselves, you know,’ [the Doctor] said suddenly. ‘Quaxo, Coricopat, Rum Tum Tugger, Mungojerrie, Rumpelteazer, Bombalurina, Mr Mistoffelees, Macavity, Asparagus, Bustopher Jones, Skimbleshanks, Jellylorum.’
‘Those are names?’
‘Oh yes,’ the Doctor said quite earnestly. ‘Particular. Peculiar. Dignified.’
It really made the children matter to me, when before that, although I was sympathetic towards them, I'd mostly seen them as there for plot purposes.
Last night I read another PDA, The Roundheads (Two, Polly, Ben and Jamie), not much to say about this one, it was a fun romp and I learned a new word (said word being "ingles", a seventeenth century slang term for male prostitutes and therefore not terribly useful in general conversation, but never mind). (ETA it has also just helped me with one of the picture rounds on University Challenge, heh.) And the Doctor had a line that made me go "hee!"; on knowing how to hypnotise people: "I knew someone ages ago who taught me. Of course, he was an absolute master..."