meddow

I have been so busy lately. I'm hoping to have a weekend in which I can catch up on things and write a bit of fic, maybe do a picspam. The problem with being busy is that it leads to be tired which lead to me doing not much of anything.

Anyway, things that I've been meaning to post about all week:

1. I realised that Vincent and the Doctor is Amy's Companion tries to change history to save a life/lives, just like the Aztecs (Barbara), Father's Day (Rose) and Fires of Pompeii (Donna), except that it was a different take on it as the Doctor for once was in on it (probably knowing they'd have no success) so there was no great debate.

In a bit of drive by episode love, I have to say, as much as I love Vincent and the Aztecs (I quite like Father's Day too), Pompeii I still rate as my favourite, namely because I saw an exhibit on Pompeii earlier this year which included the plaster casts they made of people smothered by ash, and it's harrowing. Plus, Donna is utterly awesome to the point of making the naysayers finally shut up, Catherine Tate shows off why she is one of the best (if not the best) actresses to have played a Companion, and there's bonus Peter Capaldi.

But also, and leading into another thing I'm going to talk about it, my personal fanon is that it's one of the major reasons why Children of Earth happened, as in, in my fanon is that I don't think it's a coincidence that the father of the Frobisher family which did not survive CoE is the spitting image of the father of the family that survived Fires

2. I'm a bit hesitant about the new series of Torchwood that's been announced, for a number of reasons. I loved Children of Earth and was quite happy with it being a series finale, but also with the new series being set partially in America, I suspect that's lessened the chances of having Lois, Alice and Johnson join the team, or that we'll get a day in the life of Bridget Spears episode (okay, there was probably little chance of that happening ever, but it would be awesome - maybe I'll just have to write fic).

3. World Cup! World Cup! World Cup! I'm really into it this year because New Zealand's in it for the first time since the 1982. Oh, I so badly want us to score a goal.

When the All Whites are inevitably knocked out, I'm going to have to go a find some random arbitrary thing with which to use to pick a team to support. Last time I rooted for whichever team came from the country IMO had the best food. I ended up supporting Italy quite a bit.

4. Forth and finally and because I can, ( more Thick of It BAFTA pics, cos I love this cast and also because there's bonus Freema Agyeman and Jane Lynch )

ETA: Gah. My photobucket account which is entirely used for fandom purposes somehow knows of my facebook page, which is all about RL, or at least my photobucket account is prompting me to 'like' it. 1. How does it know who I am on facebook? 2. Make it stop! I keep my fandom stuff and my life stuff very separate so not cool, internet. Not cool at all.

I haven't commented on a Doctor Who episode in a while, which is a shame, but then I didn't have much to say until this one.

( To use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world )

This was easily one of my favourite episodes ever.

About that SJA casting news

( Cut for squee, excessive exclamation marks and spoilers )

Also my brother rung me up yesterday for what has become a weekly phone conversion about Doctor Who, so I had to listen to him go on about how much Eleven sucks, the Victory of the Daleks was an awesome episode, Martha was the worst companion ever and Donna was too old and not pretty enough to be a good companion. The fact I share genes with him scares me.

In short: It was wonderful!

( The Longer Review )

I watched The History of Tom Jones a Foundling yesterday, which is one of those mid-nineties BBC costume dramas that the BBC has placed in truly dull DVD packaging that in no way captures the spirit on the programme to scare off any potential viewers. Contrary to the packaging, it is quite fantastic, with an excellent cast and a brilliant sense of humour and considerably more debauchery than the average costume drama. Tom Jones (the gorgeous Max Beesley), a gentleman, bastard and foundling is of course after the love of his life, Sophia (Samantha Morton), but there are quite a few villians in the way, in the forms of James D'Arcy (who doesn't do much, but looks damn good doing it), Lindsay Duncan and Peter Capaldi (both in Dangerous Liaisons mode) and Frances de la Tour and Brian BLESSED (who are hilarious as very loud siblings). Actually, as likable as the heroes are, its the villains that make this prefect. And basically, it's one to track down and watch.

That's great news about Neil Gaiman writing a Who episodes. Not only does the show get some big name actors, it gets the big name writers. Next there will directors lining up.

Having quite a bit of free time at the moment, I've got so many fandom related projects on the go, which would be great if I could seem to focus on one for more than half an hour. There's a picspam for halfamoon, a TW:CoE vid which is way beyond my skills as a vidder and may take forever, zombie!crack TTOI fic, a TTOI/Doctor Who crossover fic, and a post-EoT Donna fic.

At least I completed one thing and changed my LJ layout, as I was bored with the old one. I went for a TTOI theme, partially inspired by the whole 'Vote Labour, Save Malcolm' thing (the fates of my favourite fictional characters are riding on Gordon Brown winning an election – I'm screwed) Although, I may yet tweak the colours.

Finally, is anybody else having trouble with LJ loading? For a couple of days it's not been loading the blue-sidebar thing, userpics or those little tiny icons by usernames and it's so slow. I'm having the same problem in both Firefox and Safari and I'm trying to locate the source of the problem, me or LJ.

I have been so bored all day it's not funny. To curb my boredom, I bring links.

Comforting signs that my brother has not discovered my livejournal despite theoretically knowing of its existence:
Him: “Did you know that the guy that played the home secretary [Frobisher] in that thing we were watching last night [Torchwood] was in an episode of Doctor Who playing a different character?”

(This was new information to him as the fact that Doctor Who tends to reuse actors has only just been discovered by my brother, who then found out that the monsters are mostly played by the same people as well and proceeded to feel ripped off.)

But yeah, some of you may have noticed over the past few weeks/months that I have a massive crush on Peter Capaldi. Just putting it out there and confirming it.

Speaking of Peter Capaldi, there have been a bunch of ten-minute silent short films airing over the Christmas period. Here's a youtube link to Syncing starting Peter Capaldi. It's written and directed by Tony Grisoni and wonderfully manages to be both melancholic and funny at the same time.

It's hardly the right season anymore, but I was listening to David Tennant and Catherine Tate on the Jonathan Ross show the other day, and Tennant played this song, White Wine in the Sun by Tim Minchin. I swear, it made me cry. I'm not sure if it's because it's just a beautiful song because of me being a antipodean atheist that did it, and that is my Christmas. For the first time, somebody has written about my Christmas. Move over Fairytale of New York, you're no longer my favourite Christmas song.

Another link: Eight Mesmerizing Sci-Fi Tracking Shots. I've known it for quite some time, the key to my heart is a tracking shot. I love them, particularly when they're used to introduce characters in pilots (The West Wing pilot and BSG miniseries both used this technique, and although it was a movie, so did Serenity, which was my first introduction to Firefly), or portraying massive devastation (such as in Children of Men, which is in that article, as was as Atonement and BSG in Revelations). Shaun of the Dead is alls features, which is another favourite movie of mine. Anyway, relive most of those (since it's sci-fi themed, Atonement and TWW aren't included) wonderful shots in that blog entry.

Finally, the Guardian has a little photo gallery of the forty top television shows of the (last) decade. While it's not the only list out there, it's the first one I've seen in which couldn't think of anything it's missed, and it also made me all nostalgic.

Less than twelve hours until the end of the Tenth Doctor.

1. The second series of Being Human - one of the few things with vampires I can bear to watch - is due to start on 10 January. What I’ve been dying to know since the first season finished is what is going to happen with Nina.

2. In case you haven't seen it: David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Nan's Christmas Carol (Risotto! Risotto! Risotto!). I love the return on the Tennant and Tate double act, even though there wasn't much of it in Doctor Who. Those two should be in everything.

3. Oh, and just in case you need another reason to love Catherine Tate:

"I love love love In the Thick of it - it's fantastic. I'd like to get my nan character with Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker character and they can have a swear off."

Okay, so I’m not advocating a Nan-Malcolm swear off namely because I have a gut 'hells no!' reaction to mixing naturalistic-comedy characters and sketch-comedy characters (although it's hard to pick. Malcolm is more foul mouthed, but he would have to be provoked to pick on an old lady), but a Thick of It/Doctor Who crossover needs to have happened last week (no, The Fires of Pompeii does not count). Actually, no. Malcolm and Donna would probably get along really well. But Malcolm vs. the Tenth Doctor, now that would be one for the ages.

(I don't know why I'm forever pitting characters against each other in my head. It's certainly fun though.)

4. And something for Thick of It fans and Peter Capaldi fangirls: News at Bedtime. A Radio Four news spoof about nursery tales with Peter Capaldi, and also with Chris Addison guesting in the first episode and Alex MacQueen guesting in the second.

Number list of mostly random but sometimes related thoughts time!

1. The other day I was thinking about who in RTD's Who universe, the same ideas keep on being used throughout with new spins on them (for example, the idea behind Father's Day was used in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane, and that evolved into Turn Left, or the repeating motif of the bride, and something occurred to me: ( cut for speculation based on casting spoilers and the ending of Children of Earth )

2. Watched V and was really disappointed. The buzz coming out of comicon was that it was brilliant, but the dialogue was appalling at times, the characters really thin and the whole thing was executed with the subtly of an anvil (it really doesn't get more heavy handed than a crucifix falling over and shattering as the space ship enters orbit). Plus it felt so rushed.

3. The latest episode of House was also disappointing. Although is about time the writers managed to find an excuse to get Hugh Laurie back in a period costume.

4. In other Hugh Laurie-as-the-Prince-Regent related win: I cannot believe I did not know of the existence of this Annie Lennox music video until a couple of days ago. Though really, who would pick John Malkovich over Hugh Laurie?

5. I miss Blackadder.

6. I've really gotten into FlashForward after the last episode. But then, how could I not with the casting that show has. Last episode had Sulu, Shakespeare and River Song investigating some crazy nihilist cult lead by Leoben. Not to mention, the huge disaster at the heart of it was apparently caused by the alliance of Meriadock Brandybuck and Steve from Coupling.

7. A trailer for Invictus has been released which is a movie I really want to see for many reason, rugby being one of the few sports I will actually watch on occasion, and I do remember watching that particular World Cup match when I was a kid (of course, I was cheering for the other team, and it will be interesting to see how the media in NZ covers the movie since it's widely believed that the All Blacks were deliberately poisoned before that match). I really want to see some day a movie made about another the 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand, which was another time rugby and apartheid mixed. I just think the mixture of the two teams playing against each other against the violence between police and rioters outside the stadiums would make for an awesome sports movie. That's me though, if I made a sports movie it wouldn't be feel good flick, it would be about violence, politics, racism and New Zealand's screwed up national psyche.

8. Finally, I have developed a crush on David Strathairn. Is that weird?

I'm all nostalgic for Nine at the moment. I think it's because of all the ads for GI Joe on the telly. (Dear Christopher Eccleston, please be in better movies, k? Thanx). So for picspammy's short form challenge I've done the Doctor Who season one launch trailer. The below is not dial-up friendly.



( Nine! Unexplained fireball! Billie pouting like it's 1998! )