evelyn_b | TV Tuesday: Some Minor News

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evelyn_b

We have a thirteenth Doctor!

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Who's guardedly optimistic? I am! I don't know anything about this actor, but I like the way her mouth goes a little crooked before the full smile, and that's all I need really.

I still need to catch up on the most recent series (I've only gotten as far as the DON'T READ episode with the Vatican breaking up Bill's date) but I'm looking forward to all of it

In Classic Who, I've just started The War Machines and it is terrific. A giant computer decides that Earth can't properly thrive with all these humans dragging it down, and who can blame it? Meanwhile, Dodo goes clubbing, meets Polly and Ben, and is immediately upstaged by both of them. There's an amazing score by Team Who's creepy sound engineers, and a reporter from "The New York Sketch" provides one of the best bad American accents since Peter Purves hammed it up as an Alabama cowboy in The Chase.

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From:

thisbluespirit

Who's guardedly optimistic? I am! I don't know anything about this actor, but I like the way her mouth goes a little crooked before the full smile, and that's all I need really.

I think that goes for me, too. <3 (Although I must sadly remind myself that watching Chris Chibnall things ends in me wanting to kill my TV, but that is my burden alone to bear, and I'm happy to think I'll at least enjoy the new Doctor. :-D)

\o/

I've just started The War Machines and it is terrific. A giant computer decides that Earth can't properly thrive with all these humans dragging it down, and who can blame it? Meanwhile, Dodo goes clubbing, meets Polly and Ben, and is immediately upstaged by both of them.

Yay! I enjoy The war Machines a lot (look out for Hartnell being esp. dramatic and fab in a cliffhanger near you soon), and be mercifully thankful that you won't get the Jimmy Savile reference in the nightclub. I love Ben and Polly! Some people claim they are bland, but I do not understand these people. They are the best. Well, apart from all the other companions who are also the best, but they are still the best.

from "The New York Sketch" provides one of the best bad American accents since Peter Purves hammed it up as an Alabama cowboy in The Chase.

Sometimes 60s Britain could find a passing American or even Canadian, but most of the time it would probably only have spoiled the fun. It is much more entertaining to make them pretend to be German or Scottish. (My own particular favourite is that time there was a tinpot totalitarian/Communist Eastern European country that was run by an American head of Secret Police and a Welsh dictator and their soldiers wore borrowed Nazi uniforms. You've got to wonder what sort of history led up to that moment... Or at least, I feel the need to.)

(I am currently watching an ITC 1960s film serial and they tended to have Actual Americans (at least 1 per series), so I suppose I can't complain at the moment, but still.)

From:

evelyn_b

Ben and Polly are the opposite of bland; they are a delight and a half. Polly's mugging when the science dude introduced her as a "crack typist" instantly endeared me to her. Ben's not quite as instantly charismatic, but I can tell I'm going to like him, too. They were the companions who argued over whether the Doctor was still the Doctor in the animated restoration of Power of the Daleks (the first regeneration). I really liked them in that serial, but it's even better to meet them in live action, with facial expressions and everything.

I have a vague sense that I didn't like Chris Chibnall's episodes very much, but I can't remember which ones they were. I could look it up, but maybe it's better just to see what happens. I'm still here for the Doctor even if the writing gets a little worse.

From:

thisbluespirit

Ben and Polly are the opposite of bland; they are a delight and a half. Polly's mugging when the science dude introduced her as a "crack typist" instantly endeared me to her.

<3 Yes, and much as Dodo can be fun - ooh, did you watch The Gunfighters? Did you enjoy it or did The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon and the fake accents traumatise you? Have we already had this conversation? I feel we may have done - Ben and Polly are characters who are immediately recognisable and consistent, which Dodo... isn't, frequently. Poor Dodo.

They were the companions who argued over whether the Doctor was still the Doctor in the animated restoration of Power of the Daleks (the first regeneration).

Yes, of course! And they're really good in that, too. (I haven't seen the animation, but I have listened to the soundtrack.)

I have a vague sense that I didn't like Chris Chibnall's episodes very much, but I can't remember which ones they were. I could look it up, but maybe it's better just to see what happens.

Probably! I don't mind his lighter episodes, but I seem to have an allergic reaction to some of his episodes - it took me a while to realise that the same person who nearly put me off Life on Mars was the same person who'd written my worst New Who episode, was the same person running Torchwood (and writing my most hated episodes of that) and after that, I realised that I just need to keep clear of him as far as I can. But I think that's just me - something about his writing grates with me, and there we are. But he has a pretty good rep as a show-runner, so I'm sure it'll do well and be interesting. I will just need to keep an eye out for likely eps to skip.

From:

evelyn_b

I enjoyed The Gunfighters, and hope New Who alludes to it via, e.g., a creepy bar with a jukebox that only plays one song, or something.

Torchwood never clicked for me; I watched a few episodes, but it just wasn't fun the way Who was fun - and I was never a huge Jack Harkness fan to begin with - at least, I thought he was best in small doses.

Poor Dodo just wasn't very well-written, I think. The lack of a distinct personality made her giant-computer brainwashing noticeably less effective than Polly's.

Edited Date: 2017-07-18 09:22 pm (UTC)

From:

thisbluespirit

e.g., a creepy bar with a jukebox that only plays one song, or something.

Let's hope the piano knows it! For years, The Gunfighters was supposed to be the worst DW serial ever, until people actually started being able to watch it. And then it just depended on how they feel about the ballad!

Torchwood was never my thing, either, but it's really the only Who-related thing that hasn't been.

Poor Dodo. Alas, we never knew you...