Miss Jones and all.

[auroracloud]

After thoroughly depressing myself thinking about the world situation today (not like I can just ignore it), I decided to distract myself now with a couple of Doctor Who episodes. The first two episodes of S3, Smith and Jones and Shakespeare Code. Love them both. S3 is a mixed bag for me, containing some great stuff and some not-so-good, but I definitely love the beginning. Smith and Jones is the best first-episode-of-series that I've seen so far, and I love Shakespeare Code, even if the witch characters are a overly campy. (Oh my, a Doctor Who monster that is campy, surely you must be kidding!) Shakespeare's so great there and Martha's great in it, and 57 academics punching the air, and all that. I generally love the literature-centric episodes, they always make me want to read. I guess that's what I'll do now until it's bedtime.

And Martha, so good to see her again. I don't like the way her story becomes so much about her unrequited love for the Doctor, so I'm probably going to complain about that when I go on, but I love her otherwise. She just got a bit unfairly treated by the writers (not to mention the Doctor), but she's great herself. I love having a more bookish and studious sort of Companion for a change, and she can still hold her own in an adventure as well. And on a shallow note, she's so, so pretty. S3 is overabundant with pretty, really, what with her and Ten and also there being Jack in the last few episodes. So much pretty. Why don't I have the right kind of Martha icon to use now? Well, the Tardis is always good.

I've got Martha's Theme stuck in my head now. It's so pretty. No, I'm not going to find words other than pretty, it's too late in the evening for that.

I feel better now. The world's not fixed, but stories have a power to fix you, at least a bit. One of my motivations to keep writing. Who knows, maybe one day my stories can do some good as well.

Comments

[gutterfl0wer.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about Doctor Who S3. I think it has some of the finest writing on the show (Blink is one of the best and genuinely most terrifying Doctor Who episodes). I love the two parter Human Nature and The Family of Blood as well. I think episodes 8-13 of S3 are near flawless.

Also agree about the unrequited love story, Martha was such a strong character and a great role model for women, it's just a shame they insisted on there being another love story there, like they felt they needed it after Rose or something.

Do you have some Doctor Who soundtracks? Season 6 is my absolute favourite, I love the themes created for Matt Smith's Doctor. There are some magical pieces.

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Blink is amazing, and I love the Human Nature/Family of Blood two-parter as well, and I love the whole three-part finale. Utopia is one of my favourite episodes ever because of Jack and all the painful and intense and amazing Jack-Doctor interaction, entwined with the story of the Master being revealed and everything that's going on there; I love the rest of the finale with the Master stuff and the Doctor-Jack-Martha trio, but I have some mixed feelings about how some things were handled in the Last of the Time Lords - I'll get to it when I rewatch it, but some things were just over-the-top and silly. But yeah, basically from episode 8 onwards it's amazing stuff. It's the early-to-middle stuff that's not so good - I'm debating whether I'm even going to rewatch the Daleks in Manhattan two-parter because it was so bad, and the main thing I liked about the Lazarus episode was the interaction between Martha and her sister.

Martha's such an interesting, strong character and it's a pity they weakened her by focusing so much on the unrequited love. At least with Rose, the love story grew gradually out of her friendship and companionship with the Doctor, and there's a lot about their importance to each other which would work just as well if it was platonic. But with Martha they emphasize the unrequited love so damn much, it takes away from all else she could be. Despite how much I love her (and Rose as well), it was a relief to hit S4 and have a companion with no romantic feelings at all towards the Doctor. The Doctor-Donna friendship is one of my favourite relationships in the series!

ETA: And no, I haven't got the soundtracks yet, but I'm thinking of starting to buy them. I love much of the music, and it brings back memories and feelings of the show to listen to it.

[gutterfl0wer.livejournal.com]

I agree a lot of the first half is quite silly. John Simm as the Master is fantastic tbh, he does deranged unnervingly well, he is probably my favourite thing about the last three episodes. Are you up to date with the show? I want to mention some things but I'm slightly worried about spoilers. For me it's very weird to have a whole year without Doctor Who, though I'm really waiting for them to move on to the next one because I haven't enjoyed the writing on the Capaldi seasons.

I liked the friendship between Donna and the Doctor too, even though I found her character to be a little annoying at times, I think that was kind of the point, she's a normal overly chatty temp. The way they ended the story was more heartbreaking than Doctor/Rose in Doomsday I think. And it gave us the gem that was her grandfather, Wilfred. I LOVE that man.

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

I'm very Jack-fixated (and Jack/Ten-fixated) about the last episodes of S3, but I agree Simm's Master is amazing, and he's the most engaging and interesting villain I've seen in the show - or much anywhere else, either.

I've only watched the RTD years, so I still have quite a lot of catching up to do. I loved much of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor eras so much I wanted to watch them again before going on. I expect I'll start on Eleven some time early next year, or the end of this year if I end up being faster than I think with the rewatch. I've ran into a few things from the future series already, though, it's impossible to gallivate about in the fandom without hearing of some things, but not getting detailed spoilers is good. :-)

I loved Donna even though she could be a bit... well, much. :-) But I loved that she could be like that and still be super-important to the Doctor, rather than having to be somehow perfect. And oh yes, Wilf is amazing! One of my favourite characters in the show.