(no subject)

[sebastienne]

So I've finally got around to getting into the 8th Doctor.

DISCLAIMER: I am, in many ways, a Doctor Who ingenue. I am also trying desperately to get all of these thoughts down in a 20-minute break. Please forgive any nonsense - I mean well.

First off: let's get the squeeing out of the way. Yes, yes, he's repeatedly described as small - in fact the Sixth Doctor calls him "offensively thin". So when, in the second novel, he gets described as looking like Oscar Wilde, my response should be "Does he fuck - Wilde was well over six foot, and was never thin!". It is telling, then, that my response was, in fact, to sigh wistfully and consider that my Wilde/Holmes action figure tableau could easily be reinterpreted as Doctor/Holmes.

And, in a way more convincing even than the "Last of the Timelords" resurrection sequence, I've come to realise that the Doctor is God. Not in a squeeing, OMGWTFBBQ sort of a way. Not in an allegorical or literary sense. But in the sense that he can be seen to fill a god-shaped hole in my psychology, and perhaps that of many other fangirls. While, perhaps, not omnipotent or omniscient, he is always at least more -potent and -scient than you. In some incarnations, perhaps, he's a patriarchal god, in others, more of a benevolent spirit or faerie - but he's always a better-than-you force for good with a strong moral compass - even though it may not always align with yours. (Hartnell braining cavemen, Ecclestone volunteering corpses to gas-people.) I think this may be why I respond so positively to loneraven's girl_doctor concept: it's reclaiming that patriarchal god-figure for us, for me. The Doctor isn't better than me because he is a man, thus reinforcing thousands of years of patriarchy; zie's better than me because zie is a bloody Time Lord. Or a pantheon of Time Lords. I'm not sure how regeneration factors into this yet.

Is this why I'm so very very keen on Time Lord mythology right at the moment?

ION, Mort was fantastic. I'm very cynical about Death ever being able to translate well to the stage, but I think Rhys et al. have managed it about as well as is ever going to be possible. Mort's physical transformation was subtle & convincing all at once, and some of the cameos/throwaway gags were hysterical. The audience appeared to be almost entirely composed of people I knew, which was pleasant, if somewhat confusing, when the play ended and I had to decide who to go to the pub with.

I'm considering going to see Mort again on Saturday, if anyone wants to join me? And I'm definitely seeing the OULES'/Virgil's Aeneid on Friday, with liminereid. My Doctor it's confusing to be dashing around seeing all these fabuous plays, written/lit/directed by and starring my friends, but not to actually be involved in any way. It's (almost) all of the fun with none of the work! (Of course (inevitably) I actually miss it lots.)

Comments

[the-whybird.livejournal.com]

While, perhaps, not omnipotent or omniscient, he is always at least more -potent and -scient than you.

Maybe so, but as far as the question of omnibenevolence goes, he fails miserably. He has a tightly-focused benevolence on a group of maybe three people, and a general desire to protect Earth or at least the bits of it that are nice and downtrodden and not stuck-up. Everyone else can go hang if they're getting in the way of his current holiday. Any half-decent deity would love everyone. Even the people who are trying to kill him right now. Especially the people who are trying to kill him right now, because they're obviously the ones who need his help the most.

I'm not suggesting that this would make good TV, of course -- just that as he stands, he's not worthy of my respect. :)

[ktroo85.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked Mort. If you are going to come again on Saturday can I suggest you book. I know Amy and Sally are going on Saturday too but I'm not sure whether they are going to the matinee or evening. xxx

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

See, I'm not so sure - in the book I'm reading at the moment he's formed a bloodfast with a vampire and is looking into almost-impossible science, to try to avoid killing them all - despite Ancient and Epic vampire/Time Lord conflict, and the fact that most of them are trying to kill him.

I agree that he's most focussed on companions/humans - but that might be a bias of ease of televising, rather than a true bias.

I think that the Doctor probably does love everyone, or at least find everyone equally fascinating. But maybe this intuition comes from the fact that I've already deified him?

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

psssst.

Sword of Orion (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U1ZXA9J0) and Stones of Venice (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4VJJM1H0).

The phantom audio-drama-er strikes again.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Damn you, now I really have no excuse for not tidying my room up at the weekend!

(tr: Many, many thanks. You know, I don't want to stabby-death these companions as much as I thought I would. Or perhaps the eighth doctor and his ever-changing eyes just inspires me with enough love that I'm willing to overlook their flaws. I'm starting to see where you're coming from on this...)

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

*grins* My pleasure. I love all forms of 8th continuity far too much - the level of mythologising is just *epic*, the companions are frequently awesome, and the Doctor is delightful - and it's lovely to be able to share them with people ^_^

My attitude of stabby-death towards several of the companions is possibly in part a product of circumstance. I read the first few Sam books at about the same time as I heard the first few Charley audio-dramas, at about the same time as I watched the first few Rose episodes, and I got *so* *annoyed* with every companion being blonde, late teens, from earth, with a sassy attitude and an increasingly irritating crush on the Doctor. I mean, *I've* got a crush on the Doctor too, but that still doesn't mean I want to spend hours listening to/reading/watching other characters mope about it! Rose I'm still not a fan of; and I still find Sam to be a very badly-thought-out concept who didn't suit where the series was going and who none of the writers really knew what to do with and whose characterisation veered around wildly. Charley I have learned to appreciate more. I can't *wait* to hear the new Big Finish audiodrama where she pairs up with Sixth, as I think that'll cut out a lot of the things that irritate me about her relationship with Eighth, and replace them with buckets of snark, which is never a bad thing.

Never mind. Even for a grouch like me, there's always Fitz and Compassion to look forward to, and I adore them both ^_^

and oh, Eighth's ever-changing eyes. And the supreme fangirl-ness of *every* *single* description of him. It gives me a little thrill of fangirl amusement every time.

[the-whybird.livejournal.com]

Certainly Nine and Ten have been big on the righteous anger: Dalek/Parting of the Ways, Family of Blood, New Earth... I'm not so heavily-immersed in episodes previous to the new series, and it does occur to me that there's much less vengeful in the bits of them that I have seen. (Colin Baker aside.)

And yes, the righteous anger is justified. Or at least, it would be justified in a person. It wouldn't be in a god.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I can see where you're coming from, but aren't most commonly-worshipped gods big on the Bad Guys getting What They Deserve - hell, etc? Sounds quite a lot like righteous anger to me.

Then again I suppose the god I used to believe in wasn't like that, but then that god, liked me, believed there was good in everyone, and hence no Bad Guys.

So, I wonder, does Doctor Who offer me escapism into a world where Bad Things don't happen because of chance or error or human fallibility, as they do in the world I live in - but instead happen because of Vanquishable Evil? It would be so much easier to live in the world if they did. But they don't.

[mrkgnao.livejournal.com]

Glad Mort is good - will inevitably be going on Sat to support boyfriend's kid brother (I just mistyped that as bother, I wonder if that was Freudian). I'm generally opposed to Pratchett-Theatre, simply because I don't think the books translate well to stage.

[the-whybird.livejournal.com]

I can see where you're coming from, but aren't most commonly-worshipped gods big on the Bad Guys getting What They Deserve - hell, etc? Sounds quite a lot like righteous anger to me.

Then again I suppose the god I used to believe in wasn't like that, but then that god, liked me, believed there was good in everyone, and hence no Bad Guys.

Yup, that's kind of my point, and one (of several) reasons why I don't worship them.

So, I wonder, does Doctor Who offer me escapism into a world where Bad Things don't happen because of chance or error or human fallibility, as they do in the world I live in - but instead happen because of Vanquishable Evil? It would be so much easier to live in the world if they did. But they don't.

I'm not sure it does any more so than any other piece of literature with evil in it, which is most of them. I imagine the main pull of Doctor Who to the geek crowd is that the ultimate force in the universe is not a muscle-bound cigar-chomping bag of testosterone but a quiet, unassuming, geeky guy with a sonic screwdriver.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

at the end of the day it's intelligence, not brute force, that has the power? i feel the pull of that.