ladyofleithian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyofleithian) wrote2013-04-18 10:11 pm
ladyofleithian) wrote2013-04-18 10:11 pm
Entry tags:
Current Status of the USS Hadhafang
I'm doing all right. Only really bad thing was having a headache earlier that...well, felt kind of like my brain was trying to force its way out of my skull. (I know, lame metaphor, but really, to paraphrase a wise woman, is there a word that describes a headache that feels like every part of your head hurts and is so goddamn agonizing that it's horrible?) Feeling better now, but it's really sort of a step up from my previous feeling. Sort of less "ow God make it stop my head is trying to kill me" and more "dull ache". Hopefully sleep will make me feel better.
On a lighter note, watched "Asylum of the Daleks". Or rewatched, rather. (We were going to watch "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe", but it wasn't on the DVD. Fuck.) Anyway, I have to say...it was as good as I first remembered it, if not better.
I remember that when it first came out, it was a pretty damn polarizing episode. Some people hated it, others loathed it. I suppose it is the nature of DOCTOR WHO in general. At least with the revival series. There's sort of a whole "love it or hate it", no middle road. And when those opinions are expressed, there seems to be no middle ground.
That said, I understand the complaints made. And that said, though it had its share of problems, it was generally a very solid episode. I admit that I didn't really like the Doctor's darker demeanor in the episode, e.g. his treatment of Oswin when he first walked in on her Dalek form. I mean, Doctor -- I know that she's a Dalek and you loathe Daleks as much as Nine does if not more *, but she didn't choose to be a Dalek. It was forced on her. They did her what the Borg do in STAR TREK -- they full-on assimilated her. ** It's far from her fault.
Though come to think of it, I think that may explain a lot. The Daleks, in a way -- if these Daleks were playing the Borg angle up, then Eleven, in a way, is Captain Picard. The Time War turned him from his eighth incarnation onwards into something he never wanted to be -- someone willing to kill, someone willing to commit genocide, to boot, if only to keep others safe. After all that's happened during the Time War, Nine despises them, and rightly so, and takes on a sort of Picard mindset in "Dalek" -- mostly thinking of this line of Picard's in "First Contact"; "And I will make them pay for what they've done!" It takes Rose to sway him back from the edge. After what he went through in his previous incarnations, as well as traveling alone for quite a while...well, he has no one to stop him. No Rose to ask him what he's turning into, no Martha to just be there for him, no Donna to tell him that he can stop, no Amy to step in -- and even when he goes to find Oswin, he can't bring Amy because he has to make sure she doesn't get full-on Dalek converted. So yeah, the Doctor is...rather broken by the time of "Asylum of the Daleks". He may be cracking jokes and such, but peel it all away, and he's very broken indeed.
*Sighs*
Christ, this is getting depressing. Here's clone trooper humor: http://cheezburger.com/7115663360.
I also loved when Eleven first comes across Oswin (and not just over transmission, I mean, really encounters her) and he tells her she's a Dalek. There's something, briefly, about "I'm so sorry" that really gets to me -- he almost, in that moment, sounds like Ten. Ten and his whole "Sorry I'm so sorry" used in regards to someone he can't save, things like that, except in this moment, Eleven's using it. There's something about that specific callback that's enough to really hit hard. Not to mention Oswin flashing back to her conversion (which...there's a lot of abrupt cuts and such, but it's made clear as to what's happening, and it's horrifying. ***) and the slow, "Eggs...ster...minate" before Oswin manages to keep from killing the Doctor. And then she just breaks down right there and then -- it's just really heartwrenching. Just the way Oswin straight up breaks down, and there's a cut between the Dalek-outside and the faint sound of sobbing (bad enough) and the inside with Oswin crying, and she seems so small inside, so vulnerable, that it hurts.
And though it seems redundant to say so, that Dalek sob gets to me most, because if nothing else, when was the last time we heard a Dalek cry? That wasn't the sound of a Dalek in there. That was the sound of a completely innocent girl who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a girl who blared opera music just to keep the monsters away without realizing that they got into her mind and her physiology and made her one of them. The Daleks may be despicable -- though there are exceptions. Dalek Sec, for example, and Dalek Caan, along with the Lone Dalek in Van Statten's base -- but Oswin wasn't. And in the end, she sacrificed herself so the Doctor could live. I know something about her last words really gets me: "Remember me" and "Run, you clever boy, and remember." Another thing that got to me earlier, during her breakdown, was the matter of "why do they hate you?" in regards to the Daleks. And the Doctor says, "Because I fought them." Something about Jenna Louise Coleman's and Matt Smith's acting in this scene
(and Nicholas Briggs'. Jenna already did beautifully as Oswin, making her lovable and whatnot, and handled her breakdown well, and Nicholas Briggs...well, the man's dubbing over a young woman who has just realized that she's a Dalek. He no doubt had to balance the traditional Dalek menace with the more vulnerable nature of Oswin, being consumed in sheer shock and grief over what she's become. ****) is really well done. Not to mention the matter of...the Daleks want to destroy everything in the universe that isn't Dalek. The Doctor wants to protect the universe at large. Their goals obviously clash, and he eventually is forced to do terrible things. What Rory says in "The Girl Who Waited" about the Doctor turning Rory into him...I doubt it's a stretch to think that happened with the Doctor also. Except it's a case of "You're turning me into someone I never wanted to be" (though I think that's the case with Rory also. In a way, the Doctor and Rory really aren't that different). And it leads to people dying even when he tried to save them, leading to Davros' The Reason You Suck Speech in "Journey's End". (Seriously, as if the Doctor and co.'s day didn't suck enough, Davros calls the Doctor's companions "murderers" -- which considering Davros is about to set off the reality bomb is like Palpatine accusing someone of being a tyrant -- and accuses the Doctor of basically everyone's death being his fault. Quite the Kick the Dog moment, and probably one of the most well-done scenes on the show, but damn...) So in a way, that whole exchange in regards to why the Daleks hate the Doctor is very well done.
I also liked the little details and such, such as the matter of the Dalek conversion and the matter of the asylum being a dumping ground. It makes sense, especially in regards to the Daleks dropping off their more battle-scarred Daleks there -- after all, the Daleks expect nothing less than perfection. Pure Dalek. Discarding those who seem to them to have outlived their usefulness seems like something the Daleks would do. Also, Oswin hacking into the databases and deleting the information in said databases about the Doctor. It doesn't just save the Doctor's life; it also exonerates River, which is very good indeed. So Oswin definitely did a lot of good there.
I also loved the little touches of humor in there, such as Amy's snarky "Clearly someone's never been to Scotland!" after Oswin observes the matter of her being too angry , the Doctor's "suckers", the Daleks' utter confusion now that they have no clue who the Doctor is,
and the Doctor's rather lame pun when asked about how much trouble they're in (let's say he makes the Up to Eleven joke, basically. Hey, I like puns. XD), Oswin flirting with Rory, Rory being confused in regards to the word "eggs" (and yeah, he was acting a bit ridiculous there, but considering it's his first real encounter with a Dalek, I'll let him off the hook), etc. And even the more poignant moments, such as the reveal of why Amy and Rory split. It's horrible, but also, I think, an understandable reaction to Amy learning what Kovarian did to her. Because Kovarian ruined both their lives all for the sake of thinking that the Doctor is an abomination because of a prophecy yet to happen. And it really makes Kovarian all the more repulsive and frightening because people who see themselves as somehow righteous can be the most terrifying people in the whole wide universe, not just the world. It doesn't matter, to them, whose lives they ruin as long as they go and fulfill their seemingly righteous cause. And yet there's an element of hope in there because perhaps their lives aren't the same, but they can still live together. They can be happy together. Love doesn't always mean children. Love is just...well, two people who love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives with the other. And that's enough.
* Although I think Nine would have tried saving Oswin. I really do. He may loathe the Daleks intensely, but he has a fundamentally good heart (or hearts, really) when you get down to it. And like Ten, he likes saving people. He's damaged as hell, but he's still the Doctor.
** And really, is it just me, or did these Daleks seem very Borg-like on occasion? The hive mind, for example.
*** Then again, there's something about Body Horror and loss of identity that really terrified me.
**** Granted, I think the plot would have worked better with the Cybermen, but that said, it was still very well done.
So overall? Excellent episode. Some flaws here and there, but otherwise, a very solid, well-told story. Definitely recommended.
On a lighter note, watched "Asylum of the Daleks". Or rewatched, rather. (We were going to watch "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe", but it wasn't on the DVD. Fuck.) Anyway, I have to say...it was as good as I first remembered it, if not better.
I remember that when it first came out, it was a pretty damn polarizing episode. Some people hated it, others loathed it. I suppose it is the nature of DOCTOR WHO in general. At least with the revival series. There's sort of a whole "love it or hate it", no middle road. And when those opinions are expressed, there seems to be no middle ground.
That said, I understand the complaints made. And that said, though it had its share of problems, it was generally a very solid episode. I admit that I didn't really like the Doctor's darker demeanor in the episode, e.g. his treatment of Oswin when he first walked in on her Dalek form. I mean, Doctor -- I know that she's a Dalek and you loathe Daleks as much as Nine does if not more *, but she didn't choose to be a Dalek. It was forced on her. They did her what the Borg do in STAR TREK -- they full-on assimilated her. ** It's far from her fault.
Though come to think of it, I think that may explain a lot. The Daleks, in a way -- if these Daleks were playing the Borg angle up, then Eleven, in a way, is Captain Picard. The Time War turned him from his eighth incarnation onwards into something he never wanted to be -- someone willing to kill, someone willing to commit genocide, to boot, if only to keep others safe. After all that's happened during the Time War, Nine despises them, and rightly so, and takes on a sort of Picard mindset in "Dalek" -- mostly thinking of this line of Picard's in "First Contact"; "And I will make them pay for what they've done!" It takes Rose to sway him back from the edge. After what he went through in his previous incarnations, as well as traveling alone for quite a while...well, he has no one to stop him. No Rose to ask him what he's turning into, no Martha to just be there for him, no Donna to tell him that he can stop, no Amy to step in -- and even when he goes to find Oswin, he can't bring Amy because he has to make sure she doesn't get full-on Dalek converted. So yeah, the Doctor is...rather broken by the time of "Asylum of the Daleks". He may be cracking jokes and such, but peel it all away, and he's very broken indeed.
*Sighs*
Christ, this is getting depressing. Here's clone trooper humor: http://cheezburger.com/7115663360.
I also loved when Eleven first comes across Oswin (and not just over transmission, I mean, really encounters her) and he tells her she's a Dalek. There's something, briefly, about "I'm so sorry" that really gets to me -- he almost, in that moment, sounds like Ten. Ten and his whole "Sorry I'm so sorry" used in regards to someone he can't save, things like that, except in this moment, Eleven's using it. There's something about that specific callback that's enough to really hit hard. Not to mention Oswin flashing back to her conversion (which...there's a lot of abrupt cuts and such, but it's made clear as to what's happening, and it's horrifying. ***) and the slow, "Eggs...ster...minate" before Oswin manages to keep from killing the Doctor. And then she just breaks down right there and then -- it's just really heartwrenching. Just the way Oswin straight up breaks down, and there's a cut between the Dalek-outside and the faint sound of sobbing (bad enough) and the inside with Oswin crying, and she seems so small inside, so vulnerable, that it hurts.
And though it seems redundant to say so, that Dalek sob gets to me most, because if nothing else, when was the last time we heard a Dalek cry? That wasn't the sound of a Dalek in there. That was the sound of a completely innocent girl who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a girl who blared opera music just to keep the monsters away without realizing that they got into her mind and her physiology and made her one of them. The Daleks may be despicable -- though there are exceptions. Dalek Sec, for example, and Dalek Caan, along with the Lone Dalek in Van Statten's base -- but Oswin wasn't. And in the end, she sacrificed herself so the Doctor could live. I know something about her last words really gets me: "Remember me" and "Run, you clever boy, and remember." Another thing that got to me earlier, during her breakdown, was the matter of "why do they hate you?" in regards to the Daleks. And the Doctor says, "Because I fought them." Something about Jenna Louise Coleman's and Matt Smith's acting in this scene
(and Nicholas Briggs'. Jenna already did beautifully as Oswin, making her lovable and whatnot, and handled her breakdown well, and Nicholas Briggs...well, the man's dubbing over a young woman who has just realized that she's a Dalek. He no doubt had to balance the traditional Dalek menace with the more vulnerable nature of Oswin, being consumed in sheer shock and grief over what she's become. ****) is really well done. Not to mention the matter of...the Daleks want to destroy everything in the universe that isn't Dalek. The Doctor wants to protect the universe at large. Their goals obviously clash, and he eventually is forced to do terrible things. What Rory says in "The Girl Who Waited" about the Doctor turning Rory into him...I doubt it's a stretch to think that happened with the Doctor also. Except it's a case of "You're turning me into someone I never wanted to be" (though I think that's the case with Rory also. In a way, the Doctor and Rory really aren't that different). And it leads to people dying even when he tried to save them, leading to Davros' The Reason You Suck Speech in "Journey's End". (Seriously, as if the Doctor and co.'s day didn't suck enough, Davros calls the Doctor's companions "murderers" -- which considering Davros is about to set off the reality bomb is like Palpatine accusing someone of being a tyrant -- and accuses the Doctor of basically everyone's death being his fault. Quite the Kick the Dog moment, and probably one of the most well-done scenes on the show, but damn...) So in a way, that whole exchange in regards to why the Daleks hate the Doctor is very well done.
I also liked the little details and such, such as the matter of the Dalek conversion and the matter of the asylum being a dumping ground. It makes sense, especially in regards to the Daleks dropping off their more battle-scarred Daleks there -- after all, the Daleks expect nothing less than perfection. Pure Dalek. Discarding those who seem to them to have outlived their usefulness seems like something the Daleks would do. Also, Oswin hacking into the databases and deleting the information in said databases about the Doctor. It doesn't just save the Doctor's life; it also exonerates River, which is very good indeed. So Oswin definitely did a lot of good there.
I also loved the little touches of humor in there, such as Amy's snarky "Clearly someone's never been to Scotland!" after Oswin observes the matter of her being too angry , the Doctor's "suckers", the Daleks' utter confusion now that they have no clue who the Doctor is,
and the Doctor's rather lame pun when asked about how much trouble they're in (let's say he makes the Up to Eleven joke, basically. Hey, I like puns. XD), Oswin flirting with Rory, Rory being confused in regards to the word "eggs" (and yeah, he was acting a bit ridiculous there, but considering it's his first real encounter with a Dalek, I'll let him off the hook), etc. And even the more poignant moments, such as the reveal of why Amy and Rory split. It's horrible, but also, I think, an understandable reaction to Amy learning what Kovarian did to her. Because Kovarian ruined both their lives all for the sake of thinking that the Doctor is an abomination because of a prophecy yet to happen. And it really makes Kovarian all the more repulsive and frightening because people who see themselves as somehow righteous can be the most terrifying people in the whole wide universe, not just the world. It doesn't matter, to them, whose lives they ruin as long as they go and fulfill their seemingly righteous cause. And yet there's an element of hope in there because perhaps their lives aren't the same, but they can still live together. They can be happy together. Love doesn't always mean children. Love is just...well, two people who love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives with the other. And that's enough.
* Although I think Nine would have tried saving Oswin. I really do. He may loathe the Daleks intensely, but he has a fundamentally good heart (or hearts, really) when you get down to it. And like Ten, he likes saving people. He's damaged as hell, but he's still the Doctor.
** And really, is it just me, or did these Daleks seem very Borg-like on occasion? The hive mind, for example.
*** Then again, there's something about Body Horror and loss of identity that really terrified me.
**** Granted, I think the plot would have worked better with the Cybermen, but that said, it was still very well done.
So overall? Excellent episode. Some flaws here and there, but otherwise, a very solid, well-told story. Definitely recommended.
no subject
RE "Asylum of the Daleks" - I freakin' LOVED it when it came out, because Jenna-Louise Coleman is perfection to me. <3 Gah, she was so wonderful as Oswin in this episode! She and Matt Smith had incredible chemistry, even when it was revealed she was a Dalek. Upon a later rewatch, I noticed the flaws in it (such as Amy and Rory, and the plot holes) but my love of Oswin/Jenna-Louise Coleman stuck. I agree RE the plot would have worked better with the Cybermen (since when can Daleks transform humans into Daleks?) but I really enjoyed it. :D
*hugs*
no subject
And definite thanks on both counts. :) And thankfully, it's vanished -- I think sleep helped it a lot. (Note to self: get more sleep)
And I agree so very much regarding Jenna Louise-Coleman. She was amazing, and I'm definitely excited to see the rest of her episodes! And yes, she and Matt Smith worked amazingly together. And it was a really awesome episode, it really was.
*Hugs more*