usuallyhats: The Second Doctor at the TARDIS console, Jamie biting his knuckles as he looks over the Doctor's shoulder (two jamie ohnoes)
I think I've wandered off from my Classic Who rewatch again now, but I watched a loooooot of First Doctor stories over the last few months. Here's some things I wrote about them as I went along.

from "The Space Museum" to "The Ark"
  • On rewatch I really think The Space Museum is underrated, not least because of the fact that our heroes keep having the same conversation about the same unsovable problem (will their actions cause or prevent the future they've already seen?) and somehow it works every time. Plus there's all the delightful bits we all know about already: the Doctor hiding in the dalek, Ian vs Barbara's cardigan, Vicki joining the rebellion and immediately taking over because all the rebels are REALLY BAD at rebelling.

  • Vicki herself: also a delight. Such a charming self-contained weirdo, I love her.

  • The first episode of "The Chase" is so good - seeing the Beatles on the spacetime visualiser was weirdly thrilling - and Ian and Barbara's leaving scene gets me every time. I don't, however, love the Marie Celeste episode - it feels like someone came up with what felt to them like a very clever idea to have the solution to the mystery be that the Daleks killed everyone on board, but then didn't think until they came to write it that actually, that's horrible to witness. And then made it worse by having most of them jump overboard themselves. It really mars what's otherwise a pretty good story.

  • Basically the first thing we see Steven do is almost get himself and everyone else killed because he went back for his teddy bear: perfect, no notes, love him.

  • I'm really interested in the evolution of the historical story in this period: we get two comedy historicals and one historical with speculative elements in quick succession, and although the latter works much better than the former, I don't think it's down to anything inherent to the format. The Time Meddler is just an absolutely cracking story with everyone firing on all cylinders - the only thing I don't like about it is the implied off-screen sexual assault, which to be fair is handled remarkably well, I just don't like it. (I suppose the fact that the Vikings all sound like they've been to RADA could also count as a flaw, but consider: it's hilarious.) Meanwhile The Romans is full of good things and mostly blends comedy and serious stuff very well, but to be truly great it just needed to a) tighten up what it's trying to say about Nero, comedy, power and privilege, and b) not... play attempted rape for laughs. D: And then there's The Myth Makers - the idea of doing three episodes of comedy and then devastating us with an episode of tragedy is not a bad one, but the execution, despite some nice moments is... well, maybe it would work better if we still had the pictures. (I didn't quite get to The Gunfighters, which iirc tries for a similar thing and still doesn't quite make it work, but does a better job overall.)

  • To be fair to The Myth Makers, the moment where Steven drops his bickering with Vicki to urge her to get Troilus to safety, if she really cares about him, is excellent - it succeeds in microcosm at what the story as a whole doesn't really achieve.

  • (I've just looked up what I said about The Myth Makers last time I watched it and apparently it really worked for me? Maybe I was just in a bad mood this time round.)

  • Back to The Time Meddler for a moment, the scene where Vicki thinks she and Steven have been left behind hits so much harder in the context of her actually having been left behind in the previous story, wow.

  • Also on The Time Meddler, I cannot get over what a genius idea it was to have a new companion who refuses to believe the TARDIS can travel in time in the same story as a time travelling antagonist who leaves anachronistic tech lying around all over the place. So simple in many ways, but so funny.

  • Relatedly, I had fully forgotten that the Monk was in The Daleks' Master Plan. The tone shifts in that serial are absolutely wild - I'd remembered that "The Feast of Steven" (which I watched on Christmas Day like the wizard of timing I am) was a complete break from the previous episode, but not that it carried on like that!

  • The Doctor and Steven are very sweet with each other at the beginning of The Massacre, which really works as a reaction to everything they went through in The Dalek's Master Plan. And the contrast between that and the ending - Steven's entirely understandable anger and the Doctor's grief - is really a lot. I really wish this serial still existed, I feel like there's some really interesting stuff going on, but even with the recon I was really struggling.

  • Speaking of, I've been watching the Loose Cannon recons for episodes where there's no animated version, and I am just fascinated by them, I wish they all came with little essays on what material was available, what they supplemented it with and how and why they made all those choices.

  • I don't know if it's a callback to Steven not believing that the TARDIS could travel in time, but I love that he is briefly convinced that Dodo's right and they've landed in Whipsnade at the beginning of The Ark.

  • I think The Ark gets a bit lost because it's a fairly standard story in a season that's just all over the place - it's a decent story with some great moments (the twist at the end of episode two!), but it's just a lot more normal, especially in retrospect, than everything else around it. It also suffers a bit because two of its big ideas are things it's best not to think too much about because otherwise the whole show would fall apart: what if our heroes are tracking germs everywhere and accidentally causing plagues, and what if their intervention has massive unintended consequences?

  • The design of the story, particularly the costumes, is gloriously, perfectly sixties, though, and I loved it.
usuallyhats: Clara looks at a model of the TARDIS that Amy made (clara)
Medar - SR Manssen
A Morbid Taste for Bones - Ellis Peters
We All Fall - Helen Vivienne Fletcher
Women & Power: A Manifesto - Mary Beard
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, And Other Lessons From the Crematorium - Caitlin Doughty
Jade War - Fonda Lee
A Killing Frost - Seanan McGuire
Black Panther: Avengers of the New World, Part One
The Memory of Souls - Jenn Lyons
Elatsoe - Darcie Little Badger
Chosen Spirits - Samit Basu
The Frost Fair Affair - Tansy Rayner Roberts
Hexarchate Stories - Yoon Ha Lee

Not much to say this month, probably because all except a couple of these were solid four star reads, often new entries in series/trilogies I'm already enjoying, so I didn't feel the need to yell about them, and the ones I didn't like didn't annoy me enough to yell about in the other direction.

While I'm here, though, I do want to mention how much I'm enjoying Jenn Lyons' Chorus of Dragons series. It's high fantasy, with a fondness for poking at and complicating the tropes it's using, and with some great characters. It's also increasingly queer, and although I'm not completely into the different gender systems in use in the different societies, I really like that there are different systems. Also there's a fun nested narrative thing going on which, in practice, means they are full of pedantic and/or snarky footnotes, good times good times.

Didn't finish: Doctor Who: The Left Handed Hummingbird - Kate Orman )

spyfall

Wednesday, 8 January 2020 20:30
usuallyhats: The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Jack (nine/rose/jack)
A Doctor Who reaction post! Partying like it's 2013*. (I really need a Thirteen icon, but that would involve dealing with the whole Icon Situation over here (I let my paid account expire, it's a mess) and I don't want to.)

I thoroughly enjoyed these two episodes, but there were a few things I didn't like, so let's start with them:

and cut for spoilers )

OK, now that's off my chest, onto the things I did like.

good things )
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (silk)
Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life - Samantha Ellis
Binti - Nnedi Okorafor
A Larger Reality / Una Realidad más Amplia ed. Libia Brenda
The True Queen - Zen Cho
Doctor Who: Blood Heat - Jim Mortimore
This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Cloud Roads - Martha Wells
The Serpent Sea - Martha Wells
The Siren Depths - Martha Wells
Stories of the Raksura vol 1 - Martha Wells
Midnighter: Hard
The Edge of Worlds - Martha Wells
The Harbors of the Sun - Martha Wells

Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life (four stars), The True Queen (four stars), Doctor Who: Blood Heat (probably three stars), This Is How You Lose the Time War (five stars), Martha Wells's Raksura books (four stars), Midnighter: Hard (three stars) )
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (alicia books)
(super late, I am a disaster)

Thornfruit - Felicia Davin
Power and Majesty - Tansy Rayner Roberts
Flight of Magpies - KJ Charles
Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death - Brenna Hassett
American Street - Ibi Zoboi
Middlemarch - George Eliot
A Spoonful of Murder - Robin Stevens
The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal - KJ Charles

Power and Majesty (unrated), Built on Bones (four stars) )

Didn't finish: Doctor Who: Rags - Mick Lewis )
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (how do you want to do this)
Hello dreamwidth friends new and old! Here is an intro post.

Some facts about me )

Fandoms )

footnotes )
usuallyhats: The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Jack (nine/rose/jack)
Landmarks - Robert Macfarlane
The Seventh Bride - T Kingfisher
Han Solo - Marjorie Liu
Night and Silence - Seanan McGuire
Tiny Titans: Welcome to the Treehouse
Tess of the Road - Rachel Hartmann
Doctor Who: Mission: Impractical - David A. McIntee
Cream Buns and Crime - Robin Stevens
A Seditious Affair - KJ Charles
A Case of Possession - KJ Charles
Doctor Who: Time and Relative - Kim Newman
The Wicked and the Divine: Rising Action
The Wicked and the Divine: Imperial Phase, Part 1
The Wicked and the Divine: Imperial Phase, Part 2
The Ninth Flame - Jen Williams
Spectred Isle - KJ Charles
Hamilton's Battalion - Alyssa Cole, Courtney Milan and Rose Lerner
Things A Bright Girl Can Do - Sally Nicholls

(I briefly experimented with cross-posting these to Goodreads, but then the editor of the Critical Role comic I read last month commented on my review to tell me my opinions were wrong, so definitely don't want to do that anymore.)

Han Solo (five stars), Tiny Titans: Welcome to the Treehouse (three stars), Tess of the Road (three stars), Doctor Who: Time and Relative (four stars), Things A Bright Girl Can Do (four stars) )
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (how do you want to do this)
Updraft - Fran Wilde
The Covert Captain: Or, A Marriage of Equals - Jeanelle M. Ferreira
Decalog ed Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker
Decalog 2: Lost Property ed Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker
Heart of Iron - Ashley Poston

I came into this month in a terrible book slump, feeling like it had been ages since I'd really loved or been engrossed by a book*. This hit something of a peak with The Covert Captain, which I really wanted to love but really didn't (see below), so I spent quite a lot of this month hiding in early nineties Doctor Who short stories, on the grounds that I wasn't expecting to have any reaction to them stronger than "well, that was entirely fine".

But then Doctor Who came through for me, as it so often does: Decalog 2 had two unexpectedly charming stories that made me feel like maybe I do know how to enjoy books after all. "Where The Heart Is" by Andy Lane was a lovely little slice of UNIT era goodness (Jo rescued the Doctor! The Doctor told the Brig that he does actually respect him! The Brig stole the last vol-au-vent off Yates's plate!), and "Timeshare" by Vanessa Bishop somehow managed to be a delight despite committing the two standard sins of Six and Peri stories (hewing towards the meaner end of their relationship and harping on Six's size). Good work both, much appreciated.

*Not necessarily the same thing; I'm still not sure how I feel about Too Like the Lightning, but it certainly gripped me.

Updraft (three stars), The Covert Captain (two stars), Heart of Iron (four stars) )
usuallyhats: The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Jack (nine/rose/jack)
The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks - Jeanne Theoharis
Verdigris Deep - Frances Hardinge
The Island at the End of Everything - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Lost Plot - Genevieve Cogman
Doctor Who: Rose - Russell T. Davies
Doctor Who: Lucifer Rising - Andy Lane and Jim Mortimore
Hunger Makes the Wolf - Alex Wells
Saga vol 8

Doctor Who: Rose (four stars), Hunger Makes the Wolf (two stars) )
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (alicia books)
Angel of the Blockade - Alex Wells
Doctor Who: Deceit - Peter Darvill-Evans
Bernice Summerfield: Old Friends - Jonathan Clements, Marc Platt and Pete Kempshall
Sparks Fly - Llinos Cathryn Wynn Jones
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - Lois McMaster Bujold
The Mislaid Magician, Or Ten Years After - Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Smek for President! - Adam Rex
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

Doctor Who: Deceit (two stars), Sparks Fly (five stars) )
usuallyhats: Close up of Jaylah from Star Trek Beyond (jaylah)
1. I went to see Cursed Child the other week! I had very few expectations going in, other than that the staging would be fantastic (which it was), but friends, I loved it. I mean, I'm sure there are criticisms to be made of it? But I just enjoyed it so much. (Not least because I went to see it with [personal profile] raven, so we got to talk about our reactions and take photos of each other with our respective house banners. ♥) I laughed, I cried, I never knew what was going to happen, it was excellent. I'm torn between "I WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN" and "I don't want to risk diluting this wonderful experience". I do want to read the script, though, which I haven't yet done.

2a. STAR TREK DISCO NEW TRAILER AHHHHH WHAT IF IT'S GOOD

2b. I saw Star Trek Beyond a year ago yesterday, so have now been at Peak Star Trek Joy for a whole year and it's been amazing.

3. THIRTEEN. I didn't really know who Jodie Whittaker was, so it took a moment to sink in, but then I watched the teaser and suddenly had all these emotions in my eyes. And she looks so Doctorish! A little weird and otherworldly and mischievous. I can't wait. It's a shame that we still have a white actor playing the Doctor (my top picks for Fourteen: Meera Syal, Indira Varma, Josette Simon), but this means so much to me even so, not least because I was so sure it was going to be yet another white dude. Also, I watched a few episodes last season for Bill, who is wonderful, and I'm crossing my fingers that she'll be Thirteen's companion, whilst also resigning myself to the likelihood that we'll get a solo boy companion instead.

4. Character announcements for Young Justice season three! I've always found Young Justice a bit hit and miss (I still haven't seen the last three episodes), but with enough hits to keep me more or less on board. ALSO. don't think this is really a spoiler, but just to be on the safe side ) I'm also holding out a teeny tiny bit of hope that now they're free of the constraints of whatever network they were on before, they might be able to include queer characters, as originally planned.
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (shocking)
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh
Doctor Who: City of Death - James Goss
Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton
Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders - Kate Griffin
Secret Avengers: God Level
JLA: World Without Grown-Ups
If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home - Lucy Worsley
Doctor Who: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark - Andrew Hunt
Secret Hero Society: Study Hall of Justice
New Avengers: The Reunion
The Coldest Girl In Coldtown - Holly Black
Kitty Peck and the Child of Ill Fortune - Kate Griffin
The Blue Castle - L. M. Montgomery

Doctor Who: City of Death (two stars), Tooth and Claw (three stars), The Coldest Girl In Coldtown (three stars), The Blue Castle (five stars) )
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (alicia books)
Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Gotham Academy: Welcome to Gotham Academy
Dragon Haven - Robin Hobb
Companion Piece: Women Celebrate the Humans, Aliens and Tin Dogs of Doctor Who ed LM Myles and Liz Barr
The Pulse: Thin Air
Ms Marvel: Crushed
The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects - Deborah Lutz
A Man Lies Dreaming - Lavie Tidhar
Good Times, Bad Times: The Welfare Myth of Them and Us - John Hills
We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Resistance is Futile - Jenny T. Colgan
Ms Marvel: Last Days
The Pulse: Secret War
The Pulse: Fear

Gotham Academy: Welcome to Gotham Academy (five stars), Dragon Haven (four stars), Companion Piece (five stars), The Brontë Cabinet (four stars), Resistance is Futile (four stars) )

Didn't finish: Black Wolves, Astro City: Life in the Big City )

A short story I enjoyed this month:
The Spy Who Never Grew Up by Sarah Rees Brennan, in which Peter Pan is recruited into the Secret Service.
usuallyhats: Black silhouette of a man wearing a frock coat pointing in the air, standing on top of a star shape, on a gold background (like you're running out of time)
Since it is nearly 2016, here are some things that made me happy in 2015, sorted vaguely by category. There were probably more, but I can't remember what they were right now.

SUPERHEROES
- Peggy Carter, punching people so pleasingly, and realising that trying to win the respect of her male colleagues is trying to win a rigged game. If they don't value her, that's THEIR problem.
- Kara Danvers, dorky ray of sunshine and superpower.
- Jessica Jones, bruised and cynical and fundamentally heroic.
- Kamala Khan, noblest of dorks.
- Carol Danvers, punching the sky. The last issue of her comic made me cry; I am looking forward to seeing her have space adventures with Abigail Brand next year.
- Possibly stretching the definition of "hero" a tiny bit, but Loki: Agent of Asgard was one of my favourite comics of the year, despite the endless crossovers it got tangled up in, and I am sad it's over.
- Age of Ultron gave me NATASHA and WANDA and MARIA and HELEN, and also some boys, some of whom were also quite good, and it was GREAT. And then [personal profile] purplefringe made Wolf Like Me, a beautiful Natasha vid, and everything was excellent.

SPACE DORKS
- I played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and fought a lot of lightsaber battles and lost a lot of money playing Pazaak and it was GREAT. Also this one time I found a gong and I clicked on it and it went bong. (I ask for very little in a computer game.)
- [archiveofourown.org profile] kathkin's lovely Second Doctor era fic made me very happy this year.
- seeing "The Trouble With Tribbles" and "Trials and Tribble-ations" (aka "Kirk Is Super Done With Everything About Today" and "Jadzia has the best day ever") with many excellent humans.
- reading Una McCormack's The Crimson Shadow and still wanting to draw hearts around it months later, for reasons of GARAK, and also spoilers )
- my gaming group is slowly starting to work its way through Mass Effect. I AM EXCITE.

BOOOOOOKS
- Sarah Caudwell's Hilary Tamar mysteries, recommended to me by [personal profile] raven, are a gem: witty and delightful.
- I read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor the other day and, oh, my heart. People trying to be kind and to act rightly in difficult situations. ♥
- I followed Tansy Rayner Roberts's Musketeer Space, a retelling of The Three Musketeers, but with lots of women and queer people and brown people, and also set in space, as it was being serialised, and I loved it SO MUCH. Highly recommended! I want to read a million more things like it.

OTHER
- Hamilton! I feel like I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said at length elsewhere, but I really love it and am so excited about the fact that I'm going to see it next year. :DDDD
- Sense8! I didn't talk about this anywhere, but I really enjoyed it. I loved that it took its time and really immersed us in the characters, and I liked (almost) all the sensates and their associated humans a whole lot.
- Person of Interest's Sameen Shaw. PRECIOUS VIOLENT WEIRDO. <3
- KORRA. The last two seasons were SO GOOD.
usuallyhats: Steph carries Cass in her arms (she was my friend)
Lovely Festividder, thank you for making me a vid! ♥ I am so excited to see whatever you make, and I hope you have fun making it. :D If you already have an idea, hurray, but if you are looking for more guidance, this is the post for that! But rest assured that whatever vid you make, I will be happy. ♥

general likes and dislikes )

specific fandoms: Batgirl (2000-2006), The Batman, Borgen, The Five(Ish) Doctors Reboot, The Sapphires, Scott and Bailey, Supergirl, Vixen )

Thank you again, lovely person! I hope some of this wittering was helpful to you. ♥

not one line

Monday, 26 January 2015 11:45
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (shocking)
The BBC are rereleasing another set of Doctor Who books, this time under the theme of "history"! And having judged the last set of these they did, I am going to judge these ones too. :D

The Witch Hunters - Steve Lyons (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara) Aw, this was one of the first ones I read, and I liked it a lot! Nice characterisation and fits into the era perfectly. (Apart from the big continuity error in the coda, which relies on spoilers ))

The Roundheads - Mark Gatiss (Two, Jamie, Ben, Polly) It's ages since I read this, so I don't remember it terribly well, but I think it was pretty decent? I think there was some gender stuff that annoyed me, but Gatiss's work is usually fairly enjoyable, and anything with this TARDIS team that isn't a disaster generally makes me happy.

Amorality Tale - David Bishop (Three, Sarah Jane) Again, it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure I basically hated this one?

The English Way of Death - Gareth Roberts (Four, Romana II, K-9) Hey, this one I read pretty recently! It's a bit Missing-Adventures-y in that there's some gratuitous gruesomeness, but otherwise it's great fun.

No Fifth Doctor books, though thinking about the ones I've read, I'm not sure what they could have picked. The only historical I can think of is Empire of Death, which contained an anti-abortion subplot delivered with all the subtlety of a brick to the forehead. D:

Shadow in the Glass - Stephen Cole and Justin Richards (Six, the Brig) ...I have definitely read this, but remember nothing about it. It's got the Brigadier in it, so that's a point in its favour? (Having checked my tags, apparently I read it in 2007 and liked it.)

Human Nature - Paul Cornell (Seven, Benny) Read this, it's great. It has a much better ending than the TV version, plus more pacifism, Benny befriending a suffragette, and also some gay characters, hurrah! It doesn't have Martha, but since she hadn't been invented when it was written, I suppose I can let that slide.

NO EIGHTH DOCTOR BOOK THIS IS A TRAVESTY. HE HAD A WHOLE ARC WHERE HE WAS TRAPPED ON EARTH AND ENCOUNTERING HISTORY, AND MOST OF IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. NOT TO MENTION AUTUMN MIST OR THE TAINT (which, ok, wasn't great, but does introduce Fitz) OR HISTORY 101, WHICH IS EXCELLENT AND HAS "HISTORY" RIGHT THERE IN THE TITLE (and is by Mags L. Halliday, and would therefore have increased the number of female authors in this set to two), WAS SOMEONE ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL? LOOK AT YOUR LIFE, BBC BOOKS, LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES.

No Ninth Doctor book, either. I have less outrage about this, though, largely because I've only read one Ninth Doctor book and it was set in the present day. Sorry, Nine!

The Stone Rose - Jacqueline Rayner (Ten, Rose) I haven't read this (though I do own it), but it's by Jacqueline Rayner so it's probably good.

Dead of Winter - James Goss (Eleven, Amy, Rory) I haven't read this one either! It's got good reviews, but I am judging it a bit for not being Una McCormack's The Way Through the Woods, though, that one was great.
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (alicia books)
Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties - Rachel Cooke*
Princeless: Save Yourself
Green Arrow: Quiver*
Unmade - Sarah Rees Brennan
Princeless: Get Over Yourself
The Mad Ship - Robin Hobb
Doctor Who: The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin*
Doctor Who: The English Way of Death - Gareth Roberts
The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo
The Mummy Case - Elizabeth Peters
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
If This Is A Man/The Truce - Primo Levi
Star Wars: Razor's Edge - Martha Wells*

*reviewed )

I didn't get round to reviewing half the stuff I meant to this month! I also really recommend Princeless, Unmade (...though I recommend reading the two previous books, Unspoken and Untold, first), The Ghost Bride and Ancillary Justice.
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (alicia books)
The Dream Thieves - Maggie Stiefvater
Uncanny X-Force: Let It Bleed
A Tangle of Magicks - Stephanie Burgis
*Adaptation - Malinda Lo
*The Shadowed Sun - NK Jemisin
*The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
*Ironskin - Tina Connolly
*Voices from the Past ed. Scott Harrison and Lee Harris
Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues
Runaways: Rock Zombies
Discount Armageddon - Seanan McGuire
*Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack and Ancient Code and the Uncovering of a Lost Civilisation - Margalit Fox
Midnight Blue-Light Special - Seanan McGuire
Doctor Who: Secrets of the TARDIS
Rosemary and Rue - Seanan McGuire
*Stuff Matters: The Strange Story of the Marvellous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Midiownik
*Doctor Who: To The Slaughter - Steven Cole
*The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion
Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

some thoughts on some things )

I am also aflail with love for Seanan McGuire's stuff, but not really in a way where I wanted to say things about the individual books? READ THEM, THEY'RE GREAT.
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (lovely two)
On Saturday I went to a marathon screening of The Enemy of the World amd The Web of Fear, neither of which I'd seen before outside of recons. The screening was in London, so I had to get up BEFORE 7AM to get there (no, I am never going to stop moaning about this, my natural hours of sleep are 2am-10am so losing my Saturday lie-in is a big deal), but it was absolutely worth it: it was a really great way to see the episodes for the first time. (I can neither confirm or deny that I got a tiny bit emotional as Enemy of the World part one started. I LOVE DOCTOR WHO SO MUCH.)

Both stories looked AMAZING on the big screen and I thoroughly enjoyed them both. Recons can't really compare (as became obvious with Web of Fear episode three, though to be fair the BBC's recon wasn't as good as some recons I've seen). Enemy of the World is definitely the stronger story, partly because The Web of Fear is essentially a base under siege story, albeit a pretty good one. Web of Fear falls down a bit by having slightly too many named secondary characters, I thought: their deaths didn't quite mean as much as I think the story wanted them too. Also Victoria doesn't come off very well: there's nothing wrong with a female character screaming and being scared, of course, but it's a shame she didn't really have anything more to do on top of that. She does much better in Enemy of the World, where yes, she's scared, but she has some lovely moments of defiance too, when pushed far enough: snapping "Don't shout at me" at Bruce, attacking the Doctor when she think's he's Salamander, and generally getting to do plot-relevant stuff too. The Web of Fear does do really well at claustrophobia, though, with the good guys getting trapped in a gradually-decreasing section of the underground, and has some excellent secondary characters: Professor Travers is hugely dynamic and fun (and having Team TARDIS run into someone they've met before is always great; I don't remember this happening before, but I may be wrong), it was great to see the Brig before he was the Brig, and Anne Travers was marvellous. She was cool, intelligent, amused, scared sometimes but not incapacitated by her fear, and generally great. I also liked the fact that there was a definite difference between the way the soldiers treated her (as a woman who does science) and the way the Doctor treated her (just as a scientist). The sets are, of course, fantastic. I really liked the one used for the story's denoument, which, obviously, I hadn't seen before.

The Enemy of the World has a much more interesting plot, I thought: and thus gets a spoiler cut )

I was also pleased to see that both stories had lots and lots of gratuitous clinging and hand holding for Two, Jamie and Victoria. THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO SEE.

The screening was followed by a fun Q&A with Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling, Michael Troughton and Ralph Watson (who played Captain Knight in The Web of Fear), moderated by Tony Hadoke. Also, it turned out that in the audience was someone who'd been a junior camera operator on The Web of Fear, and Tony Hadoke, being Tony Hadoke, had realised who he was and asked him to tell us what he remembered about the production. He talked about how they'd had to put the camera at an angle to film the opening scenes of Our Heroes falling out of the TARDIS (which was almost as tricky as putting the entire set on an angle...), and explained that the web had been made out of strands of Airfix glue sprinkled with talcum powder to make it show up! Everyone praised the Web of Fear sets, and someone (possibly Frazer Hines?) pointed out that the tube stations were all the same set with different signs up, which seems obvious now it's pointed out but hadn't really occurred to me as I was watching - they did a great job of selling all the stations as different locations.

Frazer Hines claimed that the first he'd heard of the return of these stories was when Deborah Watling phoned to say she'd see him at the screening! She said that she'd forgotten that her father was in Web of Fear until she actually saw him on screen. ("I grabbed Frazer and said 'That's my father!'. 'I know,' he said.") They all talked about how much they'd liked Jack Watling, and how much fun they all had making Doctor Who. ♥

Someone asked the panel which other missing stories they'd like to see back. Deborah Watling wants Fury From The Deep, because Victoria got to defeat the monster! Frazer Hines wants The Highlanders, and Michael Troughton thought that it would be good to see his father's performance in one of his earlier stories, like that one. He also talked about how dedicated his father had been to the idea of Doctor Who as being for children, and reminisced about visiting the Web of Fear set for an episode.

There was a lot of other stuff that I have forgotten, because my memory is a sieve. /o\ Oh, though someone (Hadoke?) did say that they'd intended to have lots more stuff with Salamander and the Doctor interacting in Enemy of the World, but hadn't been able to get the studio time. WOE.
usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (yay for big finish!)
Slightly belated December posting meme! [personal profile] ghost2 asked for "Big Finish. Anything would be great, but maybe your thoughts about a story you would like BF to make? Or a character you think should return. Or an underrated audio more people should listen to."

♥ Big Finish ♥ I love them a lot; I love that they've turned their fannishness into a full on respected professional company. The whole reason we have Big Finish is because some people really loved Doctor Who and wanted to tell more stories about it and this makes me so happy. They currently have main range audios #51-#75 on special offer, so let's start with some recs from there, since I have listened to all except one of them.

1) The Council of Nicaea (Five, Peri, Erimem) Thoughtful yet intense, with beautiful characterisation for the three leads.

2) Caerdroia (Eight, Charley, C'rizz) Absolutely hilarious, with lots of great character stuff for Eight. One of my favourites!

3) The Harvest (Seven, Ace, Hex) I like this story a lot, mostly because it's a great introduction for Hex (HEEEEEXXXXXX).

(The Natural History of Fear is also great, but I can't explain why without spoiling it, and also it's probably better if you listen to it in order.)

A story I would like Big Finish to make: more historicals! They've produced some wonderful ones and I would love to hear more, especially from corners of history that I don't know much about. Or a story set in the TARDIS, since they don't have to worry about building sets. In general I'd also like them to do more stories with queer characters, because they are a bit terrible at that. :(

A character I think should return: ALL OF THE COMPANIONS. ...actually, yes, that's basically it, I love all of BF's new companions a lot and I'm sad that a lot of them aren't appearing much any more. Erimem, Evelyn, Hex... I'm looking forward to more Molly in the new Dark Eyes boxsets, as she's easily my favourite Eighth Doctor audio companion. And speaking of Eight, I would love to see more adventures with him and Mary Shelley, and with Benny, and with his book and comics companions, especially Anji. For the non-companion characters, I'll go with Emily Chaudhry, from the UNIT audios (which are my pick for underrated stories more people should listen to, incidentally). She had a lot of potential and it would be wonderful to see her again, either during the time when she traveled with Six, or later, as the new leader of UNIT. (...now I think of it, why hasn't there been a Bambera and Ancelyn spin off yet? GET ON IT, BIG FINISH. (Rights and actors permitting, of course.))

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usuallyhats: The cast of Critical Role sitting round a table playing Dungeons and Dragons (Default)
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