Scarlett Letters

Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Enjoy. Which episode are you watching?

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solcita.livejournal.com

Oh! Icon love! <3

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Tonight they're re-airing "Dalek." which was just a heart-stopper. It also helped to make other things later in the series make sense. Amazing stuff.

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We'll also be happily Whoing this evening. It's "Dalek," which Elizabeth hasn't yet seen. It's a stunner, so if you want someone to geek out with afterward, you know how to reach me. (It helps if you have a longtime fangeek familiarity with Doctor Who and the Daleks, but it's by no means essential.)

Hope you enjoyed Ark in Space, bubble-wrap prosthetics and all. There's more where that came from.

(Oh, and note the spelling of my LJ user name.)

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Bubble-wrap prosthetics! So funny: I saw the bubble wrap and I thought: No! Not really! And then I watched some of the extras. Hilarious.

I want to watch the other two episodes before I make any final decisions about how I feel about Tom Baker as Doctor Who. Compared to Eccleston he seems a little cold, I have to admit. But I also know it was a different time and every Doctor is different. It's just...odd. It also puts me on guard for what the new Doctor may be like. I guess we'll see.

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See, I liked Tom Baker during the early part of his run - the first three seasons or so. I got tired of his near omnipotence which is why Peter Davison's Doctor has turned out to be my favorite of them all. He was fallible, which is something I can relate to.

"The Ark in Space" was the first Doctor Who story I ever saw. It was here in New York in the mid-eighties, before there was cable. The now defunct WNYC channel 31 ran the series every night at 10:30 and I tuned into it on my small color set with rabbit ears for antenna. I didn't get a picture at all and I missed most of the episode, but I knew I had to learn more when I heard the theme song at the end. Best theme song ever. I love the way they reworked it and yet kept it true to the original with the new series.

"Dalek" was great, but my favorite of the entire series was "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances". Fantastic stuff.

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"The Ark in Space" was the first Doctor Who story I ever saw.

Now that's true for us both. I'd never seen a full Tom Baker Doctor Who episode until this one. Ever. The packaging says it's Baker's first ride in the TARDIS. Could that be true?

I guess my objection/puzzlement around "The Ark in Space" has to do with why the Doctor would travel with such a twit. Sarah Jane seems to spend most of the episode whining or cowering. Only once does she really rise to the occasion and make herself particularly useful. But, again, I must bear in mind that it was a different time and that I haven't seen her in any other context but this.

...my favorite of the entire series was "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances". Fantastic stuff.

My suspicion/impression is that most of us prefer "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" best of all, although I have to say, "The Parting of the Ways" still gets to me every time I watch it.

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The packaging says it's Baker's first ride in the TARDIS. Could that be true?

Yep, this is Baker's second full story after his regeneration. "Robot", his first story, was set on earth and UNIT was involved.

I guess my objection/puzzlement around "The Ark in Space" has to do with why the Doctor would travel with such a twit. Sarah Jane seems to spend most of the episode whining or cowering. Only once does she really rise to the occasion and make herself particularly useful. But, again, I must bear in mind that it was a different time and that I haven't seen her in any other context but this.

Sarah Jane, while my favorite companion, was also the most inconsistent. In one Who special I recently watched, Liz Sladen compared the way she acted to how her Doctor was. Jon Pertwee was the dandy, putting his arms around Sarah and protecting her. Tom Baker was more the, "Do it yourself, Sarah," type. While she appears much stronger, I think, in both "Planet of the Spiders" (Pertwee's last) and "Robot", her behavior in "Ark in Space" could be chalked up to getting used to this new Doctor and his persona.

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The first half of Tom Baker's seven-year tenure in the role is widely considered (and I'm in this crowd) the Golden Age of DW. (Although I have great fondness for Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor -- wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Doctor) -- where Sarah Jane began.) The producer at that time went for a gothic look and dark, moody stories, and Baker was obviously so at home creating and playing an often somber, dour Doctor. (Fourth Doctor wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Doctor).) Later on, a new producer pushed more camp SF elements and Baker, unrestrained, let loose with some of his less welcome instincts, such as bugging his eyes and leaning hard into the camp and comedy elements. While Sara Jane (wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Jane_Smith)) was with him, their chemistry was second to none, and compared to previous companions she was anything but a screaming mimi. She's still my fave companion, although Rose is zooming right on up there.

With the exception of the Paul McGann's Eight Doctor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Doctor) in the one-shot 1996 American telemovie, and even then in chaste and fleeting moments, there's never been a quasi-romantic dynamic between a Doctor and his companion. The Doctor was always, to varying degrees, aloof and alien, with more of a teacher-student or "experienced friend" relationship at work. Of course, in the old days you couldn't even hint at the possibility of hanky-panky in the TARDIS. This new series has upended all that without pounding it into the ground, and has done so quite well even if it took me all season to wrap my fanboy brain around it.

Oh, it's reported that Sarah Jane Smith will make an appearance in the next season. I'm really curious to see what they do with that, especially with the actress near 60.

"The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" is also my favorite of this past season, and one of the all-time DW classics, imo. A high point in a season packed with high points.

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"The Full Story" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4714061.stm)

Not only Liz Sladen, but Anthony Stewart Head as well. As for the new outfit, I like the idea, but I"m not wild about the pinstripes.

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Oh, cooool. Thanks for the link. The Doctor's new outfit certainly looks more "Doctory" than CE's. If comparisons are relevant, I'd say that the stripes and the trainers hark back to Peter Davison's incarnation. I'm not crazy about the shoes, but I love that trench coat.

Very nice to read that Anthony Stewart Head is on board. I remember some fanwank discussion long ago that said he was on a short list to be the Doctor. Don't know if that's true, of course, but it's a great notion in any case. Okay, maybe he'll appear in an episode where they bring back the Great Vampires from the Fourth Doctor/Romana era.... Or, wow, maybe he'll play the Master. [Geek overload imminent--KAPOW!]

I'm as jazzed about the return of Liz Sladen as I was about the Daleks. (And when will the Doctor ever check in on Susan Foreman, his granddaughter left on 22nd Century Earth during his First incarnation? I have no problem with the new series throwing big ol' bones to us long-time fans.)

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Very nice to read that Anthony Stewart Head is on board. I remember some fanwank discussion long ago that said he was on a short list to be the Doctor. Don't know if that's true, of course, but it's a great notion in any case. Okay, maybe he'll appear in an episode where they bring back the Great Vampires from the Fourth Doctor/Romana era.... Or, wow, maybe he'll play the Master.

I read that too, but I can't remember where I saw it. Head is playing the headmaster of a school that the Doctor and Rose visit in the third episode which will be written by RTD.

(And when will the Doctor ever check in on Susan Foreman, his granddaughter left on 22nd Century Earth during his First incarnation? I have no problem with the new series throwing big ol' bones to us long-time fans.)

I would love a story with Susan. I never liked the way they had a chance to do some real good story stuff with her in "The Five Doctors" and didn't. She never saw her grandfather again when he left her off in "Dalek Invasion of Earth" and here she is seeing the old man again and knowing that he's up to, at that time, five incarnations, and the most she does is kind of stare at Peter Davison.

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Oh, and let's not forget Stephen Fry as a scriptwriter! Another coup there, I'd say. I've enjoyed his novels, and he's even dabbled in time-travel himself with his stop-Hitler-from-being-born novel Making History.

Susan wasn't the only potential wasted in "The Five Doctors." At least the First Doctor should have referred to the Fifth (who was centuries older by that time) as "old fellow" rather than "young man," imo.

I wonder how they're redesign the Cybermen. More Borg-like, I'll wager.

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The Doctor's new outfit certainly looks more "Doctory" than CE's.

Yeah, but it makes him look a little more stuffy. I felt like the leather made The Doctor a little more accessible and...well...added to the hotness quotient, but that's just me. ::grin::

Anthony Stewart ... I remember some fanwank discussion long ago that said he was on a short list to be the Doctor.

Now that would have been fantastic.

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The Doctor -- to this old-school fan -- should be at least a little stuffy, befitting his earned arrogance. Accessible, yes, but he should never, ever be ... hot. (Yes, I know, that train of DW geekery left the station without me when the Paul McGann movie arrived nine years ago.) Now, though, this new season was so good and Eccleston was so strong by the end of it that I don't mind the Ninth Doctor being far and away the Time Lord voted most likely to be slash-fic'd. Add Cap'n Jack to the mix and wheeeeee!

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As for the new outfit, I like the idea, but I"m not wild about the pinstripes.

The whole thing "stuffies" him up a bit. I was a big fan of the leather jacket, myself.

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solcita.livejournal.com

The geek in you is a part of your charm, my dear. You should feel no shame. =)

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(Love that icon, btw. You've been Rosed from the year A.D. 200,100.)

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