Ahem

[filkertom]

Halfway through Voyage of the Damned. The new, new version.

David Tennant is so fucking awesome it isn't even measurable.

And Kylie Minogue is in a French maid outfit.

That is all.

Comments

[superherogrlcat.livejournal.com]

:D VotD is so rad, isn't it? Maybe not quite as excellent as Runaway Bride but still amazing.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I just finished it... wow.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Would someone care to share where they are finding it? The BBC site won't show it to me due to being in the US and Youtube doesn't seem to have it all.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

well - I managed to see 4 10 minute sections off you tube. plus an end bit.

and there appears to be a torrent off mininova?

I can't do torrent, darn it.

but what I've seen is very nice.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

This is the Youtube link that has the 4 segments:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=photosrus

There are others that promise to have the rest up by Boxing Day.

I'm more irritated that the BBC has the episode region locked. :-(

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

This link now has all 8 slices up just FYI.

[timemachineyeah.livejournal.com]

I downloaded it from secret places, but I'm uploading it for some friends. PM me and I'll send you the link, but you'll need Pando (http://pando.com/) (it's free) to download it, because the file is too big for most filesharing sites (700 MB).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Apply for membership to doctorwho_eps.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Done and thanks! :-)

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

also done & thank you!

[hms42]

Applied... Rejected. Not a critical thing as far as I am concerned.

[fiawol.livejournal.com]

Also applied. Also rejected. Don't know who they're trying to keep out, but they seem to be doing too well a job of it.

[voiceofkiki.livejournal.com]

I d/l the MadMartha torrents. She's consistently the best encoder for any Who-related stuff there is. I swear by her stuff.

[lizard-sf.livejournal.com]

Is this on/available in the States?

[lizard-sf.livejournal.com]

Ne'er mind, need to learn to read other comments before I post mine.

One line to rule them all...

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterberous. I'm 903 years old and I'm the man who's going to save your lives and all six-billion people on the planet below. You've got a problem with that?"

Re: One line to rule them all...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That was the line. Effing. Rocked.

Re: One line to rule them all...

[armb.livejournal.com]

Except, as smallship1 points out (http://smallship1.livejournal.com/208377.html), the bit where he then doesn't save their lives. I enjoyed it as a Christmas Special anyway, but there's nothing about smallship1's comment that I can point at and say "no, you're really wrong there".

Re: One line to rule them all...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I understand. I even kinda agree. But, under the Davies/Moffat team, with more careful history and story arc and evolution of the cast, The Doctor has become more of a tragic figure than ever. He wants to save everybody, and he knows he can't, which only makes him try harder.

I also somewhat disagree with his take on the fat people being okay to make fun of and then kill off. The shallow idiot, the good-looking rich guy, was the one to make fun of them. They themselves were smart, fun-loving, brave, generous of spirit, and very much in love. I think their being killed off was one of those awful ironies that gets lumped into the Life Isn't Fair category. There have been enough saves on the show in that department that I don't begrudge them this one.

Re: One line to rule them all...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I'm always of the opinion that fiction needs to be fairer than life, even at the expense of absolute realism. Partly to point the way to what we should be doing, and partly because we need somewhere to go where we know the universe won't drop an anvil on our toe and laugh at us. Probably makes me a lesser writer, but I'm comfy with that.

Re: One line to rule them all...

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. The difference between my fiction and reality is that in my fiction, nothing unfair happens without a reason. (I don't think that I'll ever become the kind of cruel, heartless author that'd knock someone off merely for shock effect--Stephen King I'm not.)

I still remember a guy reading an early version of Price Greater Than Rubies and sighing, "But why'd ya have to kill off the DOG?"

Polly HAD to die, simple as that.

Tom

Re: One line to rule them all...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'll certainly give you that one. It can be violated in some instances, and I happen to think this is one of them. But one of the crowning annoyances in all of literature is the whole "Life Isn't Fair" thing as described in The Princess Bride. William Goldman found it liberating; I find it shitty. It happens, no question. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. So, in this case, I take cold comfort from the victories The Doctor has won and will win, to balance out the unfair deaths like those of the Van Hoffs.

Re: One line to rule them all...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are absolutely right on TPB.

Re: One line to rule them all...

[armb.livejournal.com]

"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means." - I don't think anyone would suggest that makes Wilde a lesser writer. I agree it's not an invariable rule that all fiction should follow always (and of course Wilde didn't suggest it was himself), but breaking it to show how ironic and convention breaking we are can be overdone too.

But even if this was going to be another episode where the Doctor doesn't actually do anything much, just inspire other people with dramatic flame-lit speeches, I'd have preferred it if he got to the ending because he had a plan, or even because the Host had been told to kill surviving crew and passengers, not because a surviving stowaway isn't a survivor. Not that computers with dodgy linguistic skills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Death#Outside_references) are unique to NuWho, but that wasn't the brilliant Doctor taking clever advantage of a loophole, it was lazy scriptwriting.

But the dramatic flame-lit speeches were dramatically flame-lit, and the stunt cast member who we knew couldn't possibly become a regular companion even though she was a good looking woman who wanted to travel through space (and blonde and smarter than Rose) did a good job of her role, and we'll go on watching because there are enough good parts even if it isn't the Doctor of our youth.

(The whole "star-ship engines can destroy entire planets but are allowed in use near inhabited planets even though the safety systems aren't so good that deliberate sabotage would be the immediate conclusion of any investigation whether there are witnesses or not" thing, we'll skip over because, well, it's that sort of a story.)

Re: One line to rule them all...

[armb.livejournal.com]

P.S. I possibly should have asked smallship1 before linking that, although it's a public post. So if you comment there please be nice (though I rather assume you would anyway, or I wouldn't have linked it in the first place).

Re: One line to rule them all...

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Not a problem. I'm really glad that people enjoy it, and hope that anyone who reads my comments has already seen it and made up her/his mind. I'm just the lame kid left on the road outside the mountain. :)

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I have not watched it yet, it was not finished downloading when I went to bed last night. I will find a way to watch it before the shows start tonight on Dementia Radio. I spent the last 2 days watching most of series 3 that I missed (I bought the DVDs for myself as a late Hannukah present) and can't wait to see where this episode goes. That poor Doctor, he can just not end a series without something going wrong :-)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite Who bits is at the end of the Eccleston episode "The Doctor Dances, where he figures out how to save the day, and delightedly cries, "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!"

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Having just seen the episode (finished it 20 minutes ago), I wish the Doctor had been able to say that this time. I really hope part of that ending comes back later in series 4. Oh, and I *loved* the Douglas Adams reference in the story, even if it was just insiration.

[psywildfire.livejournal.com]

I really should watch Doctor Who.

And introduce myself. I was at OVFF last year, went to the comedy filk thing Saturday night. I'm a friend of blackpaladin and angel_vixen. Mind if I friend you?

-WF

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope. Howdy!

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

For years I said I didn't like Dr. Who. This was based on seeing a couple of episodes as a teenager that really turned me off. I couldn't even tell you which Doctor it was.

A couple of months ago my oldest friend, tired of trying to convince me, just mailed me the DVD box set of the Eccleston year. Beth and I watched the whole thing together and loved it. I haven't watched any of the Tennant episodes yet but I'm looking forward to them.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Just as good, possibly better, very different. I love 'em both. Honestly, while Tom Baker was as close to "my Doctor" as possible before this run, both Eccleston and Tennant have that position now, by a country mile.