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Post by Abbyromana on Jan 9, 2010 23:45:42 GMT
AH hahahaha... that's the one with the photoshopped eyebrows. ;D ;D ;D What do you mean? :/ Which one do you mean?
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Post by magnusgreel on Jan 10, 2010 21:25:18 GMT
I don't want to spoil people's fun that they're having with these Ten stories, so I'm afraid to comment. I just saw Waters of Mars and EoT at a friend's place Friday... my impression is that RTD DW has been veering farther away from any DW I know and love more and more with every story, and now it's changed so much that I'll never see any more recognizable new DW, ever.
I have often liked the emotional content of new DW, and that's RTD's strength, but I really, really wish he had never been even close to being in charge. There needed to be an anti-Davies with veto power. DW is now a landscape of tears and pseudo-operatic melodrama. One moment we're seeing obviously campy aliens or monsters, the next moment we're supposed to feel very adult grief or angst, and I can't fuse those two experiences in my head, or shift back and forth as easily as RTD apparently can. The hardest aspect for me to forgive is all the magic. The Doctor and the Time Lords are now magical wizards casting spells, and in the Dr's case his magic wand is his sonic screwdriver... all because RTD thinks DW was always about magic, not SF. He's wrong. Someone who didn't understand the program got hold of it.
What makes it so hard to reject RTD though is how, on the other hand, he shows all these unmistakable signs of "getting" DW. He gets it completely, and at the same time, not at all.
Sorry, my memory is too bad to come up with specific remarks. Everything I just said was triggered by this story, though. I have to say, Timothy Dalton does have the perfect look for an elderly, twisted Time Lord now, strangely enough. I don't get to see these stories more than once, and it's only on second viewing that I start getting a story.
I miss Tom Baker's avoidance of heart-on-the-sleeve acting. There was a sort of "transcendance" of the mundane in that. It was freeing. It was a sort of triumph over the debilitation of grief or tragedy... look at it obliquely and be energized by the irony and dark drama, don't look at it all head-on and get consumed in tears. Four had a perfect defence mechanism, Ten's lost it.
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Post by jjpor on Jan 10, 2010 22:44:44 GMT
Yes, Magnus; yes, this last point you make, it's what I was trying to put into words when I first saw EoT. Less really is more sometimes when it comes to the emotional side of DW; I find myself comparing EoT more and more to Caves of Androzani (I rewatched Caves last week, just to see if I was unfairly lionising Five/bashing Ten, but I don't think I was).
We have the same sort of self-sacrificial situation, the same knowledge by the Doctor that he is doomed some time before the actual end (not as much foreknowledge as in Logopolis, but that's another point); and it's so low-key compared to EoT, so much less grandstanding, and yet so much more affecting for me. And I'm not even a huge Five fan; on the whole it's one of my less-favoured eras of Who, but that's how to do it, I find myself thinking.
Tennant does play those emotional scenes so well, however; he does a lot of acting with his eyes, really conveys the character's feelings just with his expression. He comes out of his tenure on Who triumphant, as an actor, I think, whatever we might think of some of the stories he's been in.
But yeah, I don't want to go bringing anyone down or ruining anyone else's enjoyment by harping on like this, but I can't find it in my heart to love EoT right now; maybe I'll feel different in a few years time, much as I now enjoy Nine much, much more than I did the first time I watched his stories.
Thinking back on DW Live last night, I think I was getting a bit mean, a bit negative with some of my comments, and hope I didn't spoil the generally fun, jokey mood for anyone. I'll go back to la la la la la-ing about Eleven, now. ;D
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Post by magnusgreel on Jan 11, 2010 2:24:42 GMT
I agree about Androzani. Five sacrifices himself without an audience, without getting to take some dramatic stand and be an obvious hero, for someone he only met recently, because he got her into the whole mess. At no point do the people surrounding him see him as being at all important, he's not appreciated or valued. He does it anyway.
I also agree about David Tennant.
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Post by merrythemad on Jan 11, 2010 11:59:50 GMT
this goes back to ten's little fit which I found COMPLETELY out of character and really rather unseemly, I have other thoughts regarding this but they need whited out and I haven't the mind to do that as yet, inly one cup of coffee, lol. I shall elaborate later
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Post by jjpor on Jan 11, 2010 21:08:54 GMT
Restraint is the word we're looking for, I think - the brief companion montage thing when Five regenerated achieved exactly the same effect as the last 20-25 minutes of EoT, but more tellingly, for me, and in a mere fraction of the time. And without Murray Gold going crazy with heavenly choirs and stuff on the soundtrack. That sums it up for me, really...
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Post by merrythemad on Jan 11, 2010 21:15:42 GMT
I;d say Dignity really, JJ, over restraint, self respect mebbe? I honestly don't know that scene was so jarring and out of character for both characters I don't know how else to put it
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Post by jjpor on Jan 11, 2010 21:18:42 GMT
Yes, dignity, Merry; nice one. A bit of dignity AND restraint would be a winning combination...
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Post by Stripes on Jan 19, 2010 3:11:14 GMT
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Post by merrythemad on Jan 19, 2010 12:44:04 GMT
hahaha, thanks for sharing Newton
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Post by jjpor on Jan 20, 2010 20:50:10 GMT
Now, if that _had_ been his reaction at that moment... ;D
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Post by jjpor on Jan 31, 2010 0:04:55 GMT
You know, I'd forgotten just how far in advance we'd been spoiled for this particular feature of Ten's finale: From all I've heard/seen, he dies in the TARDIS. And this is also the reason for the redecorating. TARDIS goes BOOM!
*sad* I'd completely forgotten about that in the intervening months... Still thought it was kind of daft, though! ;D
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Post by merrythemad on Feb 1, 2010 12:57:26 GMT
see that I can ALMOST give them, he fought it for so long the regeneration just sort of exploded out of him...I can almost buy that...almost...for a nickel so long as it isn't quarter draft night, then I need my nickel.
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Post by jjpor on Feb 1, 2010 21:24:48 GMT
Well, I think your explanation is my new fanon, just because I need rational explanations for these sort of things. It helps me sleep at night...
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