Rose And The Doctor

[filkertom]

I realize I'm late to the game on these. Same as with Firefly. But, damn, I do love DVD season sets.

I am very slowly savoring my way through both Battlestar Galactica: Season One and the Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who. And I'm realizing something really important.

I love BG. No question, it's great. Not a thing wrong with it, especially remarkable given the original.

But Doctor Who, this Doctor Who, touches my soul.

I liked The Doctor. I especially liked Tom Baker, although my first encounter was with Peter Cushing in the two movies that hardly anyone has ever seen.

But now I'm a fan.

I have rarely fallen in love with a character the way I have with Rose. Billie Piper is wonderful. And Eccleston... perfect. He's perfect. They're perfect together. The scripts are clever as hell. The acting and SFX are top-notch. The music is excellent (I really love what Murray Gold has done with Ron Granier's original theme -- the string work in particular just pushes it along). And the palpable feeling of the characters' love and respect for life, in all its forms, informs every moment of the show.

I've only made it through one frickin' disk.

I'm not gonna read this thread, I think. -- Ahhh, who am I kidding? But, do the fanboy/fangirl squee thing to your hearts' content. Spoil away. Just label it as Spoilery, please.

Comments

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

I also love Doctor Who. :)

I won't spoil anyone here. Heck, I'm even gonna be careful about my icon choice.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Ooohhhhhh. ICON LOVE.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I am so with you.

I've always been a Dr Who fan. The "SenseOWonder".

But from his first appearence, when he introduces himself and tells Rose to "Run" I knew there was something special about this one.

The episode "Dalek" is one of the BEST pieces of SF ever done on TV, ever.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The episode "Dalek" is one of the BEST pieces of SF ever done on TV, ever.

Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. Best Dr. Who episodes ever made, bar none.

[annathepiper]

*beam* I'd been watching Doctor Who over the shoulders of spazzkat and solarbird for years, but never really had become a fan until Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor.

That brought me into the fold. Because I mean, damn. :D And Rose was a huge, huge part of that!

Just wait till you get to David Tennant and the Tenth Doctor, too! ;)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Just wait till you get to David Tennant and the Tenth Doctor, too! ;)

DT is wonderful - but the characterization of Rose became very uneven. Damned pity, too.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

There's a /reason/ the new RAV I bought last year was blue. :) It also has a bumper sticker I've been saving for 15 years until I got the right car for it: My other car is a TARDIS.

I also have to say that I've been a fan since I was kneehigh to a grasshopper, but this new incarnation made me give a real /damn/ about the show again... the biggest damn one could give about the show... well, ever. For the first time, it has real emotional /bite/, it gives you the sense that things /matter/. Unlike some other SF shows that are just pure entertainment or fluff. No offense to them, of course.

And hey, Tom, if you get the filking urge to write Who-songs, lemme know, cos my show on Dementia Radio (Radio Free Gallifrey) is the /perfect/ place to play them. I'll find the slimmest excuse to play a song if it has a Who reference in it (once played Pink Floyd's 'One of These Days' because David Gilmour was playing the Who theme on his lap guitar for all of a few seconds), but a whole song about Doctor Who from you? Hell yeah! I don't even care if it's funny or technically 'dementia', I'll play it anyway.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Radio Free Gallifrey? URL, please?

[per_solo]

I have, since April, fallen in love with this series. At Incon, part of my Sunday was watching the series 2 finale, in a room full of fans. Never have been able to get into the show before that, and that was an experience I can only match by remembering watching the Season 3 premiere of Babylon 5 with a group of fans who hadn't seen it yet.

I want your review at the end of your next disc. :-) There are several episodes that show they aren't just putting on good tv, they are having FUN while doing it.

To me, it took the ideas of the older Who, and mixed in X-Files, and a few other shows that have aired since then. And, I'm hooking my 6 year old nephew (6 or 7). :-)

[devospice.livejournal.com]

I second everything you said, Tom.

The new Doctor Who just ROCKS!

And yeah, Dalek, The Empty Child, and Father's Day just friggin' rule!

->Later.....Spice

[hms42]

And the interesting headache is that all 3 of these epsidoes are up for Hugos against themselves... (7 short form nominies this year.) Its too late to vote for them, but we get to find out in about 3 weeks who got it.

Harold

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

One of the things I've always loved about the Doctor is how he can be so brash and arrogant and yet so selflessly humanitarian at the same time.

Eccleston captures that to a "T".

In many ways, it's similar to the "Intellectual Liberal" dilemma. We love humanity with all our hearts and want to help it grow, but sometimes it's so hard to get past how willfully and mind-bogglingly stupid it can so often be.

Which is probably why the Doctor, rather than try to save the many worlds he visits, just fixes the MAIN problem and leaves the world to deal with the aftermath itself, at times taking only one or two traveling companions at a time so he can return them, further enlightened, in hopes that they can make their world a little better of a place.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

Heh. Welcome to the love fest.

Now you understand (or you will soon) why I was so upset when Eccleston wimped after only one season.

Tennant's not bad. I've had a chance to catch a few courtesy of a friend of mine.

oh, and you definitely want to hit the BEEB's website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/

AFTER you've caught up to David, though. It's a very spoilery site.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

You've got the DvD set, so you will be going back and watching earlier stuff again. (Yes, you will - with the words coming out of your mouth "How did I miss that?")

Because it gets BETTER.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

We also have to send props to Russell Davies, the REAL secret behind the quality of the new DWs. Davis is on par with Joss Whedon and Joe Straczynski for utter quality of story telling and dialog.

[sdelmonte]

I'm a Whovian since the mid-80s, but I never had any illusions that the old show was great TV. Fun, entertaining, but never really great I was simply happy that it was coming back, and that a fan was getting to do it.

I never, ever expected what we got from Davies and Eccleston and Piper and everyone else. And I never expected that the Doctor would be cool, would be the character everyone wnated to see more of.

Oh, and I never expected to be moved by it.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Same with Galactica. It's amazing what people who really care can do to revitalize a concept.

Mild spoilery

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Also check out Harlan Ellison's brief comments (probably only will be at that location for another day or two—search for "iiiiii"). What Rose says to her mother at one point in that season reflects what Ellison said in his intro to the 1980s novelizations. And that's all the spoilery you get from me until you finish every last disc of this season!

[hms42]

No Spoilers....

So... Does this mean we will get some Dr. Who songs soon? :)

Also, series 2 is good. (Now if I just find the time to finish watching it...)

So far you have seen... Rose, End of the World and Unquiet Dead.. Good stuff, a bit of fun. You will like the rest of the series. It does get better. Chris Eccleston makes a good Doctor.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, and if we had a living room couch, at least one of our children would have been watching several episodes from behind it.

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

OK, people have mentioned the highlights of the Eccleston season - Dalek, Father's Day, and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. That said, there a couple (and *only* a couple) of spots where I feel the season was kind of weak. An absolutely *fantastic* season.

And then you'll get to Tennant. I'm through the seventh episode (not counting the Christmas special, which you really should watch, too, as it's a proper "first story after a regeneration"). IM(NS)HO, it's stronger than Eccleston's season (at least so far). And *these* Cybermen (eps. 5-6) scare the living daylights out of me. And yes, episode 3 is a wonderful blast from the past that doesn't feel in the least bit contrived.

And you like the theme? Well, so do I - the Eccleston version is great. But wait 'til you hear the theme now, for Tennant. Here's the spoiler: "Many thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales". That's in the season 2 credits. Wonderful stuff.

As to why Eccleston left after one season - he had given serious thought to carrying on further, but someone leaked and it got reported that he would be leaving, and he felt he had to live up (live down?) to that.

So he's going to be the new Number Six in the remake of The Prisoner. You better believe I want to see that...

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

He is?? Oh holy cow. I have to make sure to see THAT.

[kshandra]

...my first encounter was with Peter Cushing in the two movies that hardly anyone has ever seen.

One of our local independent channels ran one of the two as their Saturday Afternoon Movie in the late '80s (after I'd already discovered the series and become a hardcore Whovian, but well before gridlore and I met at a local DW Fan Club meeting...).

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

Loyal Whovian for 22 years here! :)

And I have both of the Cushing movies on tape too...they're pretty good if you treat them like the alterniverse stories they are :)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Oh god do I love what they've done with the music. The snares! The strings! I go around singing the string part for hours. And the very faint doppler-effect synth sound when the tardis goes out one tunnel and in the next. *purrrr*.

gfish and I have talked some about the new series. He was an avid fan of the original; I'd seen enough to be familiar but wasn't emotionally attached. This series... this has us both emotionally attached.

It makes us cry. Often. (We finished season 2 last night and I was weeping like mad.) I once asked him if the old series ever made people cry this much, 'cause, damn. And he said it didn't, but yeah, he knows what I mean. Whoever is writing this is... and then I realized it... is someone who loved this series dearly.

And that's the thing. It reads like really, really good fanfic. Like something cadhla would write. It goes, as Fishy said, all the dark places that the original series didn't go, but that all the fans thought of. Not dark always in the sense of bad, just... serious. Mature. Adult, in the more generic way rather than in the sexual way. Deep.

Emotional.

Partly it plays on a lot of things fans probably wished to see, or a lot of nostalgia that tugs at their heartstrings. That also makes it a way in which it comes across like very good fanfic.

But literally never has any piece of SF made me cry this much. And I was a pretty indifferent watcher of the original.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

It makes me warm and fuzzy to hear someone else is in love with the music; I think it's a much over-looked aspect of the show.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

I got turned on to Doctor Who at about the time Tom Baker was leaving, so speaking as an "old-school" fan, I can say the restart completely rocks--although I agree with Harlan, this is Season 27, not "series 1".

Eccleston won me over with "Lots of planets have a north!" The series restart won me completely with "Dalek", which just might be the best Doctor Who episode ever, old series or new. "Father's Day" just wiped me out completely, "The Empty Child" has the best intro of a companion ever (ohhh, Captain Jack... *swoon!*) and that and "The Doctor Dances" are probably the creepiest Who eps I've ever seen. Add "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" (spoilery but greatly amusing fan Flash animation for 'Parting' is here) and you have one of the strongest single seasons of Doctor Who since Roger Delgado first graced the screen.

I haven't seen any of the Tennant eps yet, but after his turn as Barty Crouch Jr in the last Potter film, I'm looking forward to it. And then there's this. :) (this link is work-safe, but most of the rest of the site ain't)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I hope to get to Dalek by the end of the week. I haven't yet picked up the DVD of Genesis of the Daleks, but I was overjoyed to see the cover picture is of the central moment in the whole six-episode story.

spoiler from season 2

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and there was this one moment in particular... I mean there are a lot of moments, but there was this one that was so brilliant...

It's Tennant-- episode called School Reunion-- and the baddie says something to the doctor about how he used to be so much more carefree and innocent, so unwilling to kill anyone, even an enemy. I forget the exact words, but that was the gist-- his innocence, unwillingness to kill to stop a foe.

The Doctor says: "I'm so much older now."

And Tennant manages to put everything into that line. Loneliness, world-weariness, all the things he's done and seen since the time the baddie is speaking of, all the things that have happened to him, the pain of the war. Jadedness and how a part of him is still fighting the jadedness. His face, his voice, his eyes, the slight baring of his teeth when he said it...

It was just breathtaking

Don't forget the Dr. Who CON

[chaoticgoodchic.livejournal.com]

Yes, Chicago Tardis sponsors the Dr. Who Con in Arlington Heights, IL the weekend after Thanksgiving every year.

If you haven't heard the radio shows yet, you're missing a treat. I believe it was the popularity of the radio shows that brought the TV Show back into production. Yea!!

I have treasured every doctor. Some of the screaming ninny companions I could have done without tho.

I'm glad you're on the ball at last!! :-)

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

I hate Dr. Who.

Let me clarify that. My husband and my best friend, both of whom live in my house with me, love Dr. Who. However, my first exposure to Dr. Who was while trying to study for a Spanish test eight or nine years ago. I was in our bedroom, and my then-not-husband was in the living room of our apartment, watching Dr. Who. And through the wall, while I'm trying to study, comes, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" As loud as a television can be blared.

So my hatred for Dr. Who was pretty well seated.

However, when the new series began to be shown here in the States, the boys were both excited, and I agreed to give it a shot. I knew enough about the previous incarnations to engage in at least a discussion on what my idea of the character of Dr. Who was--and it sure as hell wasn't Christopher Eccleston. I watched the first episode, and just kept saying, "He's not Dr. Who. He's so emo and...and mean. There's no goofy to him, no joy."

Couple episodes later, I was in love with this Dr. Who. I eventually came to feel that he played the part perfectly, in terms of my concept of who and what Dr. Who should be--semi-tortured but still with this love of all things alive and good, emo and joyful by turns. Exactly what a person in his position would be like.

So I was very sad when I heard CE only lasted one season. And I am rabidly awaiting the start of Season Two here in the States, as I have heard tales of its ending. (Incidentally, if anyone knows a good place to snag it online, I'd be forever grateful...I've found several of the episodes in pieces on YouTube.)

[hms42]

Online.... Hmm... Amazon.com for a multiregion DVD player (there was one on there for $50 last fall and it DOES work) and amazon.co.uk for the DVDs....

My Series 1 set is the UK edition (and I live in NY.)

Of course, I will be ordering series 2 on DVD from the UK. (I don't want to know what the SCIFI channel will require done to those DVDs.)

As for getting it complete now.... There are ways to download the files.. Lots of stuff is out there on the series. Including the full Confidentials and Totally Doctor Who. Filesharing software is required to download the episodes.

Harold

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

As a watcher and fan since the Third Doctor, I have to say that the 2005 series is fangasmic. Haven't seen Tennant's Doctor yet, but it sounds promising.

[chaosdancer.livejournal.com]

Oh yay hooray, you're watching it so you'll get it if we talk about it! Yay!! I'll try not to be spoilery.

Others have already mentioned David Tennant's Doctor, so I guess it isn't spoilery. You haven't seen him yet, though. But my new obsession (because I love the Vorkiverse as much as the Whoniverse) is that someday someone will film The Warrior's Apprentice and cast David Tennant as Miles and Christopher Eccleston as Bothari. What'dya all think?

I hope this new love inspires you to write songs. I have a songvid planned out in my head (only held back because I don't know how to make songvids) with Rose and the Doctor to the tune of Richard Thompson's "Sibella." I think it would be cool. :)

My Wholove started with an I-Con back in the 1980s...Colin Baker was the guest of honor, and it was right after we found out that he wouldn't be back as the Doctor, and everyone was sad. But he came bounding out on the stage for his first appearance in a blinding white suit, blinding white grin, enough charisma to stun an elephant...people were cheering and screaming like it was a Beatles concert. This was right after "Graceland" had come out, and someone had written on the chalkboard behind him "These are the days of miracle and wonder..." I read it and I just started to cry. Then I met him...gave him a deck of cat tarot cards, and he beamed all that charisma right at me, kissed my hand, took down my address and said he'd write me a thank-you note (he didn't, but I didn't mind)...I went outside and just broke down completely, through the sheer overwhelming joy of it all. It was incredible. I can't imagine losing it over any other character in any fandom the way I did that day - no one else was ever that special. And THAT'S why I love the Doctor. :)

[hms42]

I-CON 1987? That was my first con and the weekend we unfortunately lost the 2nd Doctor.

He was nice to meet that one time. Just seemed a little out of it due to the bad news about Patrict Troughton.

Harold S.

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

We were active in the Indianapolis DW fan club in the '80s, and got over to one of the TARDIS cons -- where we found ourselves sharing an elevator with several of the actors, including **shameless name-drop alert** the late Jon Pertwee.

I'm especially fond of The Fourth Doctor's bon mot, "We're all primordial slime with ideas above its station."

Well, let's see . . . technologically sophisticated, encyclopedic, quick-witted maverick . . . remind you of anyone? (Say, with a beard and a nylon-string guitar? Ah, that'd give it away . . . ) [innocent grin]