Thorns

Have you ever had a really strong memory of scene from a book or movie, but on rewatching/reading, it didn't happen?

I just watched "The City of Death", the Dr Who serial which Douglas Adams helped write and then cheerfully reused the plot of for "Dirk Gently's Detective Agency". I haven't seen the serial since the mid 80s, where it stuck in my memory as one of my favourites, but reading the book in the late 90s was struck by the similarities.

Now as it turns out the plot is somewhat less like Dirk Gently's Holistic Agency than I remember, which isn't that big of a surprise. But there's a scene I remember vividly:
( Cut for spoilers )

Anyway, datedness and general "Dr Who crapness" aside it was pretty good. And Dr/Romana OTP, she's at least the right species. I still found the plot a bit confused, the book is definitely better.

So, several years ago one of Swancon's guests was the Doctor Who author Kate Orman. I didn't pay that much attention because you know, I don't like Dr Who *cough*, but she seemed pretty cool and I think we may have had a nice conversation at some point (it was a long time ago, and my brain leaks)

Now a year or so ago I joined the anti-racist community debunkingwhite. A little while ago I decided to start posting a bit about racism in australia since I couldn't find anywhere else better to do so(*), and another australian, seeingred, was very enthusiastic and posted some stuff as well. I've seen her here and there on the internet with her "redheads against racism" icon (which somewhat inspired one of mine), and we've had a few pleasant conversations, and she seems pretty cool.

A month or so ago I discovered the Dr Who macro community icanhastardis. I've gotten a lot of enjoyment from it, but have noticed a bit of friction over the rather strict spoiler policy, cheerfully but firmly enforced by the mod, who I decided was a bit odd but to be commended for running such a large and worthwhile community, and overall..pretty cool.

So (and I think you can see where this is going), today I killing time on the internet and came across a post(**) about this lj user who was involved in a bit of a kerfuffle in Dr Who fandom, and it mentioned some of the drama around the way she mods icanhastardis.

Her name? kateorman, aka seeingred.

How I managed to not recognise her name on all the mod posts (and in great shiny letters on her other lj) I do not know.

Anyway, I just had to share :) I am otherwise taking a day off thinking for I have a very busy day tomorrow, I intend to answer my piles of email some time after I gather the energy to wrap my brothers birthday present.

EDIT: checks out her userinfo and discovers she's been friended by nine of you guys, all of who are I'm sure laughing at me right now :P

(*)A well meaning gesture which has somewhat fallen to the wayside, because I am lazy and have a short attention span
(**)Which I won't link to, but I'm sure you can find if you really want. It's not very exciting, but I guess it is proof that no publicity os bad publicity :) I wouldn't have mentioned it at all but it was such a weird way to find out!

So, the latest show I got out from Quickflix was "Bleak House", the BBC adaptation of the Dickens novel. It's pretty good so far, apart from the rather distracting "OMGTENSION" music stings at random, really not very tense moments.

Anyway, going in I knew Gillian Anderson was in it, which I found mildly amusing but I know she's been going a lot of period dramas recently. But the more I watch the more surreal the casting becomes. I uh, have a feeling the casting director of a certain BBC sf show was kind of lazy.
( Picspam ahoy! (no spoilers) )

OMG

Also three separate things I'd thought "It would be really cool if the show did *blah*, but they totally won't" at three totally separate times during the last four seasons: and they did them! Woot! Continuity FTW!

It was a bit overblown, really, but I forgive them for that. That cliffhanger, however...

EDIT: lol isit_7_05yet (support communiy for people waiting for the final episode. userinfo has MAJOR SPOILERS)

So, I've just finished all the season 4 Dr Who episodes I had (there's one more on the way, and then I'm back to waiting like an ordinary person. The indignity!) and to fill the gap downloaded every single recced Dr Who vid on the_reel (but not the latest Torchwood one) and thefourthvine

In retrospect, while it was convenient, it was a bad idea to get them in reverse chronological order since it meant the amount of footage the vidders were working from got less and less(*) and by the end I was heartily sick of Nine/Rose.

Anyway, the result of this is some particular recs (though they're all pretty good):

• Don't Stop Me Now(to the end of season 3) The Master to Queen. Made of awesome (and, specifically, made for sonnlich :))
  
• The Remedy Clever and effective Nine/Rose/Doctor vid (up to season 2)
  
• And She Was Infectious Rose character vid (up to season 2)
  
• Back to the Start Doctor/Rose, very nice match of song and content (up to season 2)
  

(*)It would be great if there were some seven->nine or eight->nine ones to create some continuity, but it was not to be

Disclaimer: My "You are too stupid for the internet right now" warning beeper is sounding but I am in a mood to pontificate and the cat's wandered off. Also, spoilers, there's anyone who cares left who hasn't seen it.

So, I just finished Dr Who Season 3. Overall I really enjoyed it, but some bits were just..blah. Wrong. In the end I found the only way to process the arc so far is to see the Doctor as a condescending borderline-sociopath who prefers the company of those who don't challenge his intelligence or power. Still, the second last disk is made of like 99% pure awesome (with 1%: a maid? Really? Ew)

And so finally I can read all the meta I kept seeing on metafandom a year ago. And use it to say what I would but am too dumb to :) Unfortunately a little under half of them are flocked/deleted, which I guess is a sign of how intense the imbroglio got.
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(Yes, I have been very bored recently. Stupid cold)

So, I've just finished Torchwood Season One and thought I'd do the sort of description of it I wanted before I started, just in case any of you still haven't watched it and are curious, or you have watched it and are curious to know what I thought.

First off: is set just after (and spoils the finale of somewhat) Season 2 of Dr Who.

Overall..it was crap. But I enjoyed it anyway, I'm not sure why! It's very patchy and inconsistent, but has some coolish ideas. I think I'm just a sucker for ensemble genre shows with character change and soap opera-y stuff going on in the background. The unselfconscious inclusion of same-sex romance/tension etc was a very nice change from every other tv show ever.
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So I've been watching the new Dr Who and enjoying it well enough, and getting into season 2 there's a bunch of intriguing mentions of "The Torchwood Institute". Unfortunately, I watched an episode of Torchwood season one and it was terrible, and from all accounts it doesn't get any good till season 2. So, is it worth starting in season 2? Or are there individual season 1 episodes I should watch to get the backstory? They have season 1 at the local video store so that's no trouble. Or should I not bother at all?

And is there a point in Dr Who I should get to before starting Torchwood? I just finished season 2 disk 2.

Thank youse all :) I really shouldn't be asking more questions before answering my mail (the point of a poll was to avoid having lots of comments to reply to) but I want stuff to watch! (Video store doesn't have disk 3, dammit)