Post-anniversary post ;-)

[thisbluespirit]

I am just at this point, a happy Who fan, who, apart from the penguins (they did not give me any penguins - sorry if that's a spoiler ;-p), got everything she asked for, and more. It was like getting a whole lot of presents and I don't feel like being critical, I just want to sit here and play with my nice new shiny things. I hope that is okay with those who'd prefer to point out the damaged casings and the slight scratches here and there...


I love The Night of the Doctor most still. (Just. I think) I don't even know quite why - somehow it was everything I really wouldn't have said I wanted, and apparently did. I think the have-your-cake-and-eat-it approach of having Eight, in the Time War, be the one who tried not to fight, and tried to help people - and who died just to make that point to Kass, that he wasn't like a Dalek or the other Time Lords - but then who at the same time is actually the one responsible for making the decision that will end in the terrible act that ends the Time War, forging himself into a warrior...

... except now the warrior was the Doctor all along, and they found another way. And again, have-your-cake-and-eat-it, with using so much of Nine and Ten's era to make that happen and yet leaving the Doctor free of that at last. And Eleven's joy at that = ♥ And also the Doctor finding another way; it wasn't Steven Moffat refuting RTD era Who, it was an answer to the worst aspects of Eric Saward: "There should have been another way." with "You're the Doctor. You always find another way." And maybe that's too optimistic, but not for the fiftieth anniversary, I don't think. Doctor Who is always, to me at least, fundamentally optimistic.

(All right, I kind of hated the Time War, last of your kind, yadda, yadda. I get why it was done, and it was probably right, but I have never liked it, or wanted to know anything about the Time War. Sorry. I am probably a terrible fan, because I'm suppose to be impressed at the angst and the dark and all that. I'm not. Not in DW. So, I feel as if there's a great gaping hole in my DW that's suddenly been given back to me, and I like what was hidden away in there, after all. Mostly, anyway)

So, generally: Matt and David were so much fun together, as I'd expected, and John Hurt was very good, too. (I was a bit miffed, because seeing it, I didn't see why he couldn't have been Eight, after all. It could have been Eight. And then I thought that, I don't know, this Doctor we haven't seen who, instead of picking on one past Doctor rather than any of the others, speaks for all of Classic Who (it's a screwdriver, not a waterpistol, not liking the timey-wimey etc. etc.) and because it's John Hurt, just does it so well, it works. So maybe I liked that, too, after all.

And my new favourite thing: Ten's wonderful uselessness at detecting Zygons. There were such negative things with him at the end, that I forget how much fun he could be. (There should totally be crackfic now of Ten Zygon hunting, because I loved that. I am stupid for fun things like that. Sorry. ♥)

And... and... then there was Tom Baker and it was random but perfect and I cried. I don't know what he said, because I cried all the way through the scene. (I wonder what it looked like if you're not such a Classic Who fan; if you don't quite get that emotiveness of the senior living Doctor quietly talking to the current about-to-depart Doctor and shaking his hand and... and... - did it look weird and pointless? Anyway, I don't know, because I was crying. I'm hopeless, but never mind me. I'm the kind of person who falls in love with random 60s TV; I know nothing.)

(I mean, plot holes... I don't even want to think about, so I'm not. I had a very nice party, thank you, with some lovely presents. I'll do the nitpicking next anniversary when I don't irrationally want to hug everything and everyone connected to Doctor Who.)

And then this morning I battled my pc overheating every 2 minutes (quite literally) and watched The Five(Ish) Doctors by Peter Davison, which if you haven't seen, you must! The good thing about the overheating was that it gave me time to catch my breath in between laughing. Peter Davison writes Doctor Who RPF now, basically, and... one of the scenes in Day of the Doctor will now be not creepy but completely hilarious to anyone who has watched it. That is... just... LOL And the only thing I can think of that might be a suitable response is not a review but that we should get a giant bit of card, fold it in half, write THANK YOU on the front in crayon, draw happy stick people and colour them in and then add lots of glitter and sparkly hearts and send it to Peter Davison with love from the fandom.

Anyway, that was nice. I liked it all very much, more than I'd hoped until Night of the Doctor suddenly turned up. :-)

Ages ago, when we were talking about what the anniversary should be, I said I wanted multiple Doctors, a party, especially Eight, and penguins. I feel as if I absolutely got everything except for the penguins. Maybe they're coming at Christmas...

(I'm sorry if I'm not keeping up with all of the things going on right now - my cunning Calufrax plan is occupying me in between the shiny anniversary stuff. But there'll be lots to look at later in the week...)

I haven't seen An Adventure in Space and Time (yet). I did record it, but I usually tend to get freaked out by things where people aren't the real people, if you follow me, and I don't know if I can cope. I hope to try, though, but I'm doubtful about if it'll work out.

Comments

[kaffy_r]

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.

It was good for my heart, and good for my head (so much mirroring! So much reflection, so many threesomes! So much to chew on! Aaaaah, my head! I'm dizzy with concepts!)

It was good for my heart. Point blank. Full stop.

It was ... what scratches on the casing? There are none.

*flails*

(Well, yes, it would have been nice to find penguins in the corners.)

And the Fiveish Doctors? *snrk* I loved it.

[lferion]

*Dances and twirls and flails with you*

Kamelion was on that wall of Companions. The love and the detail and just, everything Yes. Yes to everything you say. Not only were things fixed, they were fixed well, the right way (a right way). Not invalidating any of the angst or grief or amazement of Nine (and I really love Nine, partly because I can see a whole lot of what Cornell & Aaronovitch & Orman & several of the others were exploring in the Virgin New Adventures) but as you say, filling in that hole, bridging that gap between Old and New that had never properly been bridged, though the connections could be seen, were obviously there.

Night of the Doctor - oh, my heart. Because - Karn, and all the implications of that, and Eight (how _does_ Paul McGann do that?!) _being_ Eight (and now we have TWO, not just one, Eight visual things), and and and....

Happy, happy fangirl here. So happy. And weepy all at the same time. I know just what you mean about the Curator part, and then ALL OF THEM at the end.

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: There are always some defects somewhere - if you look for them! But we'll just sit here in the happy afterglow, right? ;-)

[thisbluespirit]

Night of the Doctor - oh, my heart. Because - Karn, and all the implications of that, and Eight (how _does_ Paul McGann do that?!) _being_ Eight (and now we have TWO, not just one, Eight visual things), and and and....

*nods*

Basically I'm YESYESYESYESing back at you. ♥

[vilakins]

It was great - funny and clever and lifting a great weight from the Doctors and the fans. I saw the Night webisode first which was great (so I was counting Hurt as the 1st Warrior) , watch the Day twice, and the Fivish twice too. I loved how they were so funny and taking the mickey out of each other and themselves.

I think it would have made a lot of sense just to have 8 have done it, but Hurt was very, very good.

It was all very good!

[thisbluespirit]

I mean to go rewatch everything - I hear The Five(Ish) Doctors was on TV via the red button, so I shall have to see if it still is at all later, and then I can add that and have a big rewatch of all of them. :-)

It was great - funny and clever and lifting a great weight from the Doctors and the fans.

Yes, I think that is a very true and good summary of it. ♥

[kaffy_r]

How many days later, and I'm still basking.

Of course, having just watched "An Adventure in Time and Space" probably had something to do with it.

*sniff*

[thisbluespirit]

Yes. I started rewatching DoTD yesterday - got to the under gallery scene and laughed at it so hard. (I mean, there is no way of telling if it really is Colin, Peter and Sylvester under those sheets, because they're out of shot at the back and so... I imagine it is now. :-D)

And, aw, yes, An Adventure in Space and Time was good - I managed to watch it! Very lovely as a drama, though odd to watch from the point of view of knowing too many of the facts and what people should really be like. (David Bradley gives a lovely performance that fits the drama perfectly, but at the same time he's merely a pale ghost of William Hartnell - a reminder of how marvellous he really was.) I liked the Barnes Common bit as a nod to David Whitaker, because he really was the biggest omission from it, though I can see why. But, yes, it was beautiful as a story.

[kaffy_r]

I went hunting and found that David Whitaker had written Dr. Who and the Daleks - was he more involved in the early days than that? Have I not looked far enough?

Do you have other information on Hartnell? I read an item the other day in which his wife suggested quite clearly that being the Doctor made him a happier man, which made him far happier to live with; something I thought was beautifully sketched by contrasting his initial interaction with his granddaughter, the meeting with the children in the park, and his final interaction with his granddaughter.

[thisbluespirit]

David Whitaker was the original script editor on Doctor Who, so he was very important to its beginnings - with Classic Who, the biggest creative input has always been the script editor and producer combination. I understand why he wasn't there, and also Dennis Spooner, his successor, but yes... I mean, not only did he script edit it, but he was the one who saw the Doctor as name dropping, doing things like delivering presents for Father Christmas, he created the character of Vicki and wrote The Rescue. And of course, he also wrote many 1960s scripts (including the introductory stories for the Second Doctor, Victoria and Zoe). But Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure With The Daleks was the first novelisation, and he wrote that two (and that opens on Barnes Common, hence the nice little ref in apology for leaving him out).

I didn't mean the general idea wasn't true, it's just... fictionalised and simplified, as it had to be to make it work. At the start where he's so down - in rl he actually didn't want to take the part of the Doctor, because he was currently being successful in films and TV was a backstep for him, so Verity had to take him out for lunch twice to persuade him. (She'd seen him in This Sporting Life and was set on having him, if she could. Her choosing him is totally true.) And, yes, he adored being the Doctor, and said it would just run and run, back when nobody else thought it would last more than 13 weeks; I didn't mean to imply it was made up in fundamentals. But they were telling us a particular story, rather than relating all the facts and that's always a little odd when you actually are aware of at least some of those facts.

I can't remember all the details now, but I've read his biography by his granddaughter, and DWM had a really detailed series on the origins of Doctor Who sometime that I found fascinating and read over several times - and it really was detailed. So there's more information out there.

[kaffy_r]

Thanks for your help and information - greatly appreciated!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I hated the concept of the Time War too. If RTD didn't want to involve the Time Lords, he didn't have to - he could've just left them out, but no, he had to destroy them and Gallifrey and all the Daleks - except not really, because he is VERY MUCH a man who wants to have his cake and eat it...

I loved John Hurt's Doctor to a quite ridiculous degree - it's such a shame we can never have him again, not even in a BF audio.

Seriously - Tennant's melodramatic speechifying at the rabbit just cracked me up so much. As soon as he started, I went "That's just a rabbit" - and then collapsed when he said, "And basically, you're just a rabbit."

I haven't seen Adventure yet - I was mostly avoiding it because it's written by Gatiss and I can't stand the man or his writing (mostly. I think I've seen ONE thing he's written that I actually thought was okay) - but I'm tempted from seeing caps and gifs on Tumblr.

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

It couldn't have been Eight. He absolutely is not that man. It could have been Nine, but he wouldn't take part, so really it had to be 8.5. Much as I want to see Eight on TV again (he is my Doctor, in a way that none of the others ever could be, I think, thanks to all those years when the show was off the air), I am happy with what they did. And Gallifrey stands! I am so pleased about that. I've always hated the Time War/Last of the Time Lords thing. Angst is in fashion, and obviously it can be a great thing in drama, but it also gets boring very quickly. RTD way overdid it. And it wasn't necessary. If you don't want Time Lords, just don't write about them.

Basically I loved just about all of it, and could probably point good bits out all day. :) Penguins would have been nice though, I agree.

And yes, The Five(ish) Doctors was a wonderful bit of fun. Loved the Barrowman gags, and Tennant being roped into doing things by his father-in-law. Moffat being tormented by the ghosts of past companions was a good bit too. Have you been following @dayoftheFishDr on Twitter? There have been some nice little bits in the run up to the anniversary. Particularly nice picture posted today:

https://twitter.com/dayoftheFishDr/status/404578827265134593

And I agree, Peter Davison deserves thank yous and glitter. And not having his tea cup stolen, which has apparently happened in that picture.

[eve11]

Ten's speech reminded me of Eleven in "The Lodger" at the football game: "Annihilate? No! No violence, do you understand me? Not while I'm around, not today, not ever. I'm the Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. And you basically meant beat them in a football match, didn't you?"

Also, that was the biggest rabbit I've ever seen. I can totally understand why ten thought it was a Zygon in disguise.

[eve11]

I loved that I expected the War Doctor to be all grizzled and evil and heartless like the Valeyard, but that he absolutely wasn't. The "Why is there never a big red button?" put me absolutely at ease with him.

Also "This interface is hot." "Well, I do try my best." I thought Billie Piper was so good in that role. That, and the War Doctor parking far away so the TARDIS wouldn't see... that kind of broke my heart.

[ravenskyewalker.livejournal.com]

I went into it with dread, but ended up enjoying it so ridiculously much, from the briefly black-and-white opener, to the fez falling through the time fissure, to Tennant's rant at the rabbit, to John Hurt playing a surprisingly great Doctor (his "Oh, for God's sake!" annoyance with his boyishly-youthful older selves!), to Peter Capaldi's several seconds of fierce eyebrow-acting ("Capaldi intensifies," as Tumblr has posted), to all the Doctors ever rewriting Gallifrey's fall (though the Time Lords in general are unutterable gits), to Unexpected Tom Baker.

Unfortunately, I missed the ad-free simulcast, so had to see the agonizingly ad-packed repeat, but I'll be getting the DVD.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with all of this! Especially the parts about liking optimism in my Doctor Who, and not ever being a big fan of the Time War, and loving how the War Doctor turned out to still be very much the Doctor. (I think that's the main reason it couldn't have been Eight -- the drama of making him the one who'd been buried, and not acknowledged as the Doctor, to me is what made his final redemption so meaningful. Besides the fact that Eight's been acknowledged, it was important that we really not know what this Doctor was like -- I too started out thinking of him as "not the Doctor," so I got to take the same journey as Ten and Eleven, which I think is what made it work.)

Overall, I feel like Doctor Who had a big party, and I was invited to it, and I had a great time! I love all my presents. "Night of the Doctor" was the surprise gift that I really loved. "Day of the Doctor" was the big gift that I knew was coming, but was worried that I might not like -- and ended up adoring because not only was it wonderful, but it had lots of extra little presents inside of it. And finally, "The Five(ish) Doctors" was the other surprise gift from that favorite relative who knows what you would never ask for but secretly really want. :D

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about that moment in The Lodger.

'tis a very big bunny, but still not a Zygon.

[liadt]

I didn't cry at Tom Baker, but I very nearly did! It was so emotional just seeing him there, I had to control my eyes.

I really liked John Hurt's Dr. Tennant & Smith & other past Drs have a lot of energy, even William Hartnell and he wasn't.

Never liked The Time War and the resulting angst of the last time lord blah. Where there is darkness there is also light, and an old & grumpy person typing.

I've taped 'Adventure in Space & Time' too. I will watch it but I'm wary of dramas based on real things I know something about.

I'm off to see if anyone else thought the space barn looked like the one in Kate Bush's 'Suspended in Gaffa' vid. She did write 'Kinda' y'know.

[stellastars]

This reaction post is very lovely. ♥

Doctor Who is always, to me at least, fundamentally optimistic.
This! Yes! 100%!

I think what I loved most of the The Day of the Doctor is that is made me really excited about where the story could go next, and it made me really want to go back and see all of the episodes I haven't yet. I thought it was a great tribute to the whole 50 years.

Surprise!Tom-Baker also made me go all misty-eyed. He was completely unexpected and that scene was so lovely.

I've only seen half of The Five(ish) Doctors (my laptop was also having a little meltdown when I tried viewing it last night) but I'm definitely intending to finish it, and watch An Adventure in Space and Time as well. And then I'll have to check out your recs on Calufrax!

[pedanther]

Yes, to all of this.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

p.s. - I wrote you something: http://dbskyler.livejournal.com/146681.html

[rahirah]

I feel as if there's a great gaping hole in my DW that's suddenly been given back to me

Yes, exactly!

[dweomeroflight.livejournal.com]

IT WAS SO GOOD. AND I AM WITH YOU RE LAST OF HIS KIND BLAH BLAH.

AND I AM A YOUNG UN AND I CRIED AT BAKER.

THAT IS ALL.

[scifi-mel.livejournal.com]

I think I totally agree with you about EVERYTHING! I always got annoyed with the Time war and the loss of Gallifrey and the last of the time lords. I must admit I'd been really trepidatious about the 50th cause it was a special with Tennant in and SO many of his specials were the over-the-top emo everything is going to be destroyed and then saved through his godlike powers. But when he gave his Do You Know Who I Am speech to a rabbit I knew it was all going to be ok! It was nice to see him funnier and relaxed again. All the zygon detecting and the bit with the queen, brilliant. I loved John Hurt's doctor and how they found a way. I even liked the developments with Clara following on from her being the one to save the doctor in the other episode to being the one in this to save him from his biggest mistake.

And the fivish doctors was pure brilliance! I LOVE that it's RPF! You are so right!