television & transfail

[sebastienne]

UNISON - the trade union I joined to give me a better platform for my activism, and for whom I am branch Equality Officer - just sent me a "Young Members' Questionnaire" asking me to tick one box from the following:

• Bisexual
• Gay
• Heterosexual
• Lesbian
• Transgender

Oh, so much facepalming. So much angry annotation of the survey and email-writing to the instigators. And these are the GOOD GUYS! My allies against the incoming Tory government!

And now, of course, for the obligatory spoiler-filled post about the weekend's television.

The Beast Below

I.. don't care at all about all the flaws in this episode. It reminded me of the best of those much-maligned Doctors 6 (Colin Baker) and 7 (Sylvester McCoy) - Vengeance on Varos (police state, reality TV, voting with hideous consequences), Paradise Towers (tower blocks with deep dark secrets and a beast in the basement), Happiness Patrol (keep smiling and everything will be fine). It was beautifully-paced, honestly creepy, and even made me love the monarchy a little bit!

I don't care how overdone the comparison was between the Doctor and the starwhale - I started crying. I was not very sober, it is true, but at the time I found it honestly moving and see no reason to retrospectively apply cynicism.

Ashes to Ashes

LJ, why the silence on this? The new season of Ashes to Ashes has been mind-blowingly fantastic, but it feels like no-one else is watching! This week's episode opened with Gene Hunt & co *recreating the music video to Uptown Girl*. No amount of fansquee can convey its cracky glory!

But there's deep, complex, interesting stuff too; questions being raised about Sam Tyler's death. Two bars of "Life on Mars" playing as we zoomed in on Shaz's face after she was offered the promotion.

And the META! Jim Keats, on some levels of narrative analysis this season's big bad (coming in and trying to shut down the awesome maverick department we know & love), telling Gene Hunt how everyone needs to see him discredited, for their own good - is he really talking about the personal growth of the team? Or is he talking about the viewers who've taken Gene Hunt to heart as an unproblematic good guy just "telling it like it is"? Because they need to see Gene Hunt discredited even more, I'd say.

Comments

[calliope85.livejournal.com]

I don't care how overdone the comparison was between the Doctor and the starwhale - I started crying.

Oh god, I did that :D and I was utterly sober. Such a sap. But I just...to have an acknowledgement that although the Doctor's been *saving* people, he might have stopped believing in them, and that's not okay. That the universe doesn't always justify your pessimism. That although he's the last of his kind he's not alone, not really - he's not the only one who can feel, can want to help, can have good intentions. He is not, fundamentally, a lonely god. Or he shouldn't be, anyway. That it's time to start trusting the rest of the universe, because it's full of giant philanthropic space whales, basically.

Or at least that's what it made me think when the tears started welling up, anyway :D Sap.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

The fact that this is Moffat's "lonely god" - the message about the Doctor's identity that he's intent on ramming home - makes me very happy indeed.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I hope that Steven Moffat is going to restore the Doctor's faith in other people - that it's all right for Amy and others to take risks based on what they have observed and say that yes, they do have the power to change things for the better, and that the Doctor doesn't have to walk around crushed by responsibility. The signs are good, so far.

(Yes, I want and need to believe in giant philanthropic space whales too.)