*Shows up late to New Year with a poorly mixed smoothie and a secondhand copy of Nabokov's Lolita*

[kafkaesquely]

Yeah, I know it's a bit late for a New Year post, but hey, whatever. I could say I've been busy, but actually I haven't done what i was supposed to do (i.e. studying) so I'll admit that I've been:

• Knitting (expect progress posts of my infinity scarf)
• Reading (expect reviews)
• Watching doctor who (expect recaps. Spoiler: I don't like the Moffat era, so beware). 
• Watching Adventure Time (I want to catch up with this one)

So that's pretty mucho has been my Christmas break (which won't end until January 9th, but it's close enough to be afraid of finals). And as it's customary: I'M NOT DEAD. 

Comments

[alasse_irena]

Oh no, if people are posting about how late their New Year posts are, I had better get on mine... And also the gleeful Yuletide reveal post that I keep meaning to do.

I look forward to the Doctor Who posts - I am also not the slightest bit a fan of Moffat's era, so I will feel gratified and validated when I read them... I still need to watch the Christmas special. Oops.

Also: happy New Year!

[kafkaesquely]

Well, I only did it to keep up my new year resolution, which is keep a (personal?) blog updated at least once a week. I'm doing well so far!

I learnt about Yuletide thanks to your blog and seems like a great thing?? I might participate next year.

The thing about Doctor Who and me is, well, I'm not even in the 8th season yet. I watched the end of the seventh, and started eight. And while I really enjoyed The Day of the Doctor (that episode deserves one big post about how much Moffat got it right, IMHO), but then I started to dislike it again. They reminded me how Doctor Who had become a burden, instead of my hour of joy of the week.

[alasse_irena]

Yuletide is in fact a great thing! Aside from anything else, it motivates me to write stuff, *and* you get presents. I would strongly encourage all fannish people who write to get involved (except apparently my sister, who finds deciding what she wants to request stressful).

The thing about Doctor Who and me is that the parts of the show I imprinted on and got invested in no longer seem to be there, and also I am heartily sick of matronly dominatrices... I really enjoyed Day of the Doctor too - it wasn't perfect, but it was thoroughly enjoyable, which is a lot more than I can say for poor Capaldi's season (not to say it didn't have its moments, but it was just so frustrating to see it take good ideas and run them into a hole).

[kafkaesquely]

I'll have to support your sister: Deciding requests is awful. What if you change your mind later? Anyway, I hope I educate myself about Yuletide during the year, and most likely I'll participate next year. I really need to keep the writing up, since I'm losing my skills.

I pretty much agree about everything. From Capaldi's season, I've only watched Deep Breath, which I didn't really enjoy. The Doctor doesn't treat Clara well (why does he has to say she's ugly and a control freak ALL THE TIME), and Vastra and Jenny (and their relationship) has pretty much disappointed me over the course of their story arc. Plus sexual jokes. Plus naked jokes.

I think what I miss the most about Doctor Who are personal relationships. On the RTD you could get attached to the way two characters interacted, and you could feel their relationship (whether it was romance, friendship, father and son... ). Now we're told two characters love or care about each other in any way, and we have to believe it because apparently everything happens out of camera (and if it didn't, well, we wouldn't have enough time to see dinosaurs and explosions). And every relationship involving the Doctor has to be romantic or sexual at some level, BECAUSE EVERYONE WANTS TO MAKE SWEET LOVE TO THE DOCTOR. Ugh.

I'm sorry this became a long rant about how I feel about the newest Who.

[alasse_irena]

I am totally behind you with everything you've said regarding Doctor Who. I mean, to be fair, I've always found it a bit weird that the Doctor would be romantically interested in someone centuries younger and of a different species, so none of his romantic plots have ever really done anything for me since Four and Romana...

I really deeply enjoyed Donna because they brought up the possible relationship occasionally, and both of them were just like, "Whoa, no, would never". (I mean, I really deeply enjoyed Donna for a whole variety of reasons to do with her sassiness reading like an actual character trait, rather than like someone said, "I guess she'll be....feisty?" and not being the obvious pretty twenty-something girl, and having this really delightful arc where she learnt things about herself and developed her self-esteem, and where skills that our society doesn't usually put much value on were celebrated... I could go on. I'm still ticked off at that ending.)

And god, yes, I am so sick of the way he treats Clara. I don't know what Moffat thinks he's doing. It's not funny, it makes me hate this Doctor, and it really really smells of sexism...

[kafkaesquely]

I did enjoy romantic subplots back in the time. For me, it added another layer to the "everyone is special in their own way", but Donna was a relief. I mean, I loved Martha, but I felt like she wasn't treated right. She deserved so much more, but she a)showed up after Rose so everyone hated her and b)her love for the doctor blinded her. And her ending didn't make so much sense to me. Like, "she's black, and Mickey is also black.They're perfect". Because they didn't have too much time on screen together, we wouldn't know they were a good couple.

Donna was simply great. She was a character people could actually relate to, and didn't fit the Manic Pixie Dream Girl every companion have to fit at some point. Her sassiness was perfectly built, and her relationship with the doctor was new and fresh (compared to other relationships on New Who). And the way they refused to be together was also well done, since they didn't need to tell each other how much they weren't physically attracted all the time. For me, Donna's ending was even cruel. She had learnt that she was important, but suddenly it was gone. She didn't deserve that. Nobody deserve that.

For what I've noticed from interviews, I feel like the Doctor says what Moffat thinks. So that's where all the sexism may come from. And since the guy thinks all the female fans of Doctor Who are there because they want to fuck the doctor (because that's what all women want, a guy who change, then marry and have them on a leash until they die), he's more than proud to shame women and their life choices (even when those life choices are the ones he gave to them).

Sadly I'm not on Classic Who, but I'm looking forward to watch some episodes.

[alasse_irena]

I loved Martha a lot, and I actually did enjoy the way her feelings for the Doctor were portrayed (although his continuous references to Rose were so frustrating). She was a bit blinded by her feelings at the start, but then as the series goes on she realised she deserves better and by the end she leaves. And that was great.

I never understood the thing with Mickey. I was so ticked off when they did that. It was like a combination of "Rose and the Doctor's leftovers" and "eh, they're both black", and especially when Martha already had a canon fiance whose relationship with her made sense and was a little but developed... I just don't know why you would do that.

Classic Who is a lot of fun, especially if you keep an open mind about cheap special effects... It's generally less...emotional? than the new series, or it's not trying as hard to make sure you feel the emotional weight of what's going on. You have to do more of that work yourself. But the bits and pieces I've watched have been great, although you never know whether an episode is going to be legitimately good or so bad it's good. Enjoyable either way...

I saw a pair of quotes on Tumblr one time. One of them was RTD talking about the differences in personality between his companions and how that effected their story arc, and the other was Moffat, saying something about how all woman who would travel with the Doctor would be much the same - feisty and a bit adventurous - and it was up to the actresses to bring differences to the roles...

[kafkaesquely]

Martha is my favorite companion, alongside with Donna (and I loved that they got along, really). I mostly meant that she wasn't treated right mostly because of the fandom (I love fandom but they can be assholes). But yeah, she was such an interesting character, and in the end she developed well. But Mickey. Everything made sense but Mickey.

I'm looking forward to watch a few episodes of Classic Who. Sounds like the kind of show I'd enjoy, so much emotional weight and "the world will end because of you" is starting to annoy me (some random filler, PLEASE). Plus there's nothing better than "so bad it's good".

Maybe the way I feel about Moffat comes from tumblr's social justice stuff, but I just don't like the guy anymore, nor his way to portray anything (because everything he creates ends up disappointing me). Plus he's been recycling his plot lines so much they don't even make sense anymore.

[alasse_irena]

Martha is definitely my favourite - but I think the only reason I connected to her more than Donna is that she's closer to me in age and general life-experience (twenty-something, university student...) And yes - if you're sick of emotional weight and "the world will end because of you" and "I don't want to go" and all that shit, then Classic is absolutely for you...

I am hesitant to attribute my feelings on Moffat to Tumblr social justice stuff, simply because I don't think I even knew Tumblr existed for his first few seasons, and I still wasn't enjoying his run. I think the difference Tumblr has made for me is the ability to articulate what it is that's making me uncomfortable or dissatisfied.

And I guess the other thing about learning to dislike something through Tumblr is this: sometimes "I didn't know to expect any better" is a thing? Like, if you don't know you can expect a thing, then you can't be disappointed when you don't see it? So it's less "because of Tumblr, I can't enjoy this show anymore", and more "because of Tumblr, I know I deserve better"? (Maybe I'm expressing myself coherently, maybe I'm not.)

[kafkaesquely]

Yeah, similarities are always Important. But I also loved Martha because, while Rose seemed to have given up (left high school unfinished and started working on a shop, and suddenly unemployed), Martha was still fighting, and intended to do so until the very end. On those episodes where she had to play the Doctor's maid and people told her she couldn't be a doctor because she was a woman and black she wouldn't stop to tell those people how stupid they sounded. That was the moment I learnt I couldn't love a companion the way I loved Martha.

I think I understand you. We're so used to see badly developed plots and characters that we think that's the only way it can be done. I always see it on female characters: they are usually classified as "sluts" or "virgins", and while I see it clearly, most people say I'm overthinking stuff. But that's because I've read about TV and movie tropes, and it's a subject I'm very interested on. I think I can apply what you said (the difference tumblr has made for me... ) on my experience, because it helped me see awful stuff, but also articulate what I thought on the awful stuff I already noticed. And also, I'm taking TV and film studies at college, so over the course of the past year and a half I've learnt to notice the little things on scripts (mostly). That has also made a difference, I think.

[alasse_irena]

Yes! This is one of those things I really loved about Martha - she was really deeply involved and invested in her life without the Doctor, so that it as well as providing a backdrop to her character - it was something she wanted actively to keep doing.

It's a little bit like that children's novel trap of making your main character an orphan - sure, it stops you having to deal with the logistics of protective guardian + adventurous child, but it starts to feel like a cheat after a while, and one day I really want to pick up a book where the first thing the teenaged protagonist does when she encounters the supernatural is ring her mum like, "You'll never guess what, Mum - vampires are real!"

Giving your Doctor's companion no pressing commitments at home makes it *easier*, yes, but it also misses out on some really interesting character stuff that I think Martha played out really well - eventually realising that her life with the Doctor wasn't worth as much to her as the life she was leaving behind to travel with him...

And yes - I've never formally studied scriptwriting, but I think all the writing-about-writing stuff I have read has made me far more able to explain *why* I didn't like a thing, as well. So you go from, "That book was boring" to "That book was boring because..." (Speaking of, I often find Moffat's episodes really badly paced? Like, they will be so slow that I'm bored for the first half an hour, and then it's almost as though they realise suddenly that they've only got ten minutes left to wrap it up, so the endings feel really rushed... I don't know, is that one just me?)

[kafkaesquely]

I feel like the end of the fourth season was a way to get rid of all the RTD's crew. There was no way any of then would show up for any unsolved business (yup, still thinking about this).

Yeah, it has come to a point where teenager fiction is pretty much all the same. All orphans that turn out to be part of some ancient legacy related to magic creatures or races and have to save their king from the big bad final boss. It'd be great to get one of those. Like "mum, this guy told me I'm half a dragon?? Also he's cute??" and mum has a vote on the thing.
Instead of seeing no giving the characters a strong backstory at home as *easy*, I see it as lazy writing. That's something I liked about the beginning of Amy's story arc. She was getting married, but she was running away from her responsibilities. In the end it all came to the front line and it became a TARDIS business so it really didn't matter, but it was a neat starter point.

Being able to explain why you don't like the thing is amazing. Gives you a deep understanding of the story, the characters and their reasoning. There's also I've learnt that bothers me: realism. People complains about realism on tv and movies all the time, when those don't even try to be "realistic", but believable. Anyway we have jerks saying movie dragons don't look like real dragons. Ugh.
I've found many Moffat's episodes badly paced, too. Whether it's because they have a lot of filler, or because they built very complicated plots, they end up being annoyingly slow, and in the end they fail when it comes to solve everything in a believable way.

[alasse_irena]

Re Amy: yes, that was something I was quite interested in at the beginning of Amy's arc, and then it was all about Amy fancying the Doctor (having fancied him since she saw him that one time when she was a kid??), which was disappointing. (Not to mention that that arc contained one of the early appearances of Moffat's weird non-consensual kissing kink...) In the end, I just never really connected with her the way I did with RTD's companions.

(I also remember being really ticked off at the Doctor for making a mess of a seven-year-old's kitchen in the middle of the night, promising her a trip away, and then buggering off... Seriously, it's a time machine. Couldn't he have rocked up 20 years late, gone, "Oops, missed a bit," and then headed back? Or at least stuck around to clean up.)

I think the thing where people complain about realism in movies that are not going for realism is not so much an idiot saying, "Those look *nothing* like the dragons I've seen in real life" as it is just people having difficulty expressing the lack of believability. So when they say, "The way it flies is just not realistic," what they mean is that when they looked at it, they weren't convinced... Not jerks, just people not expressing themselves as clearly as you need them to?

With regard to teen novels, I would just really like to see a protagonist who learns about the existence of a hidden supernatural world and doesn't turn out to already have some sort of secret connection to it. Because a lot of the nice thing about that kind of novel is reading it with the feeling that, yes, this could happen to any normal person, and it would be really nice if it really was "any person" and not, "any person whose estranged father was secretly a sorcerer".

[kafkaesquely]

I feel like that is also happening with Clara now (I last watched S08E02). There's background, but most likely it will die pretty soon. I've read somewhere that Moffat's companions are cool because they have an independent life, but in the end it doesn't matter because the only interesting thing about them seems to be about the Doctor. In the end, there's no difference with RTD's companions. Also, yeah, physical attraction and love are the only attachments a woman knows. And non-consensual kissing? Yeah, they crave that shit.
At first I loved Amy so much, and I still somehow do, but there are many things that doesn't make much sense to me. My main example is she losing her baby. After it happens, she still travels with the Doctor and Rory and nothing happens?? That's not how a mother deals with losing her child. And I've been told she didn't know she was pregnant so it made sense, but then again once the kid was born she took care of her for a while, and protected her not just like a baby that must be protected, but like a mather protecting her new born baby girl. They quickly turned her into a mother, but suddenly she's not.

That's something I did't understand, but then again, I didn't understand it when it happened on Season 1 (when Rose was supposed to be gone for 12 minutes, but in the end it was 12 months and the Doctor didn't take her back because that's what time machines are about).

Ok, I see your point. It's like saying " I see the green halo on those people because they used a green screen and they did it poorly" or "that CGI is not well rendered", but in a simplistic way. Sorry I made a jerk of myself.

I still enjoy reading my teen novels because there's a great part of me on them (I always secretly wanted to be like the cold-hearted yet caring character, because let's face it, there's always one), but you're right. The way I see it, they want to make you think you're special, but instead they tell you "you MAY also be special" which is not the same.

[alasse_irena]

Don't worry - you didn't make a jerk of yourself, and there are definitely people out there crying for realism in silly places (see: those people who say "But it's *realistic*" about the lack of female characters in a book which literally has dragons). But I do think there is a place to say things like, "Her friendship with the centaur just didn't seem realistic to me". You know, there aren't any real world examples to compare it to, but we have the imagination to figure out what it *should* be like.

I'll be honest, most of what I read is still teen novels, and that's why I have so much to say critiquing them: I have seen so many things I've loved, or wanted to see again, and I have a tonne of favourite books, but there are also things that, the more I read, the more I *want* to see, that just aren't appearing, and one of them is the "ordinary teenage girl" being, literally, an ordinary teenage girl, whose interesting traits and plot points come from her own choices and actions rather than things she's born with?

I found the way Amy dealt with pregnancy and motherhood and losing her child very unsatisfying, for probably the same reasons. It was like, on the one hand, the writers wanted to make her a mother, and on the other hand, they didn't want to deal with the consequences, so the baby was stolen, and then Any's desire to find her never really followed up. To me, finding Mels and growing up alongside her didn't really satisfy the desire to raise her child I felt like Amy was written with, and so it felt like the show let something that was important to Amy drop without following it up...

[kafkaesquely]

I have to add to the list: messing with Delicious Library. The scanning thing is addictive, and I love to see my books so neatly listed.