Music of the Spheres
The British Broadcasting Corporation puts on yearly classical music concerts known as The Proms. This year, they’ve added a Doctor Who Prom to the lineup, and you can hear it online at the BBC iPlayer site until August 3rd.
The concerts are audio broadcasts presented by Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), and include performances of soundtrack music from the new series as well as classical music that “you might find on the Doctor’s MP3 player”. There will also be a special short TV episode on the BBC website called “Music of the Spheres” which, if it’s like the other online trailers and specials, can technically only be watched from computers in Great Britain. (I’m quite sure that my fellow Whovian geeks are working on that as I type this.)
There’s a program online listing the included compositions. If you’re interested in orchestral music, enjoy!
EDIT: Aaaaand the online player just locked up on me. I am having a day of Internet servers crashing repeatedly. With luck, they’ll get it fixed.
EDIT 2: ‘Tis back. Clearly, the server couldn’t handle the Doctor spamming Moonfire.
Grown-ups of Time
I recently finished Series 4 of the revived Doctor Who. In many ways, the finale wrapped up and tied together the last four years of programming, as Russell Davies is moving on to other projects. The finale was a slam-bang affair, one comparable to ST:TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds” in breathtaking moments and an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger. However, the finale underscored certain themes of Davies that I hope to see put to rest.
Originally, the Doctor was a political fugitive from his people, but he eventually evolved into a crusader of Time and Space, saving individuals and entire planets from oncoming disaster. His fourth incarnation sacrificed himself to save the existence of the universe from one man’s foolishness. The Doctor was clearly fulfilled by his never-ending quest.
When the Doctor returned to television, he was in some ways a broken man. He had been at least partially responsible for the destruction of his race in an attempt to prevent an apocalypse (a futile attempt, as it turned out). Other characters made much about the Doctor as the bringer of Death. Of course, he repeatedly staves off even greater death and destruction, but apparently one gets minimal points for that.
Rose Tyler’s love healed the Doctor, and in fact he began to return the emotion openly for the first time in the 40-year history of the show. But he then regenerated into a new body and personality, and Rose was forced to leave him, and he sank into depression and despair. The crusader of Time and Space was replaced by a sad, lonely immortal who kept on keeping on mainly because he didn’t have anything better to do.
When the villain of the finale mocks the Doctor for creating a band of “Children of Time”, willing tools who will aid our immortal in the destruction of lives and worlds, it’s completely unfair, and yet the Doctor shows hurt and shame. What he’s really done, of course, is give a succession of companions a broader perspective, the skills and the confidence to defend themselves and their loved ones, and the ability to make the awful decisions at times when the Doctor isn’t around. They are “Grown-ups of Time” now, but the Doctor is too busy wallowing in failure to deal with that.
The new helmsman, Steven Moffat, has written episodes that temporarily bring back the crusader. While Moffat’s Doctor in these tales retains a vulnerability that the older series did not give him, he remembers his role as the defender of Life, and revels in the challenge. I absolutely hope that future seasons return to that philosophy, as the worn-out, depressed Doctor is a shadow of the beings he once were, and I become sadder with every episode in which he flails about desperately.
Why have I gone on at length about this? Because the older Doctors, the Fourth especially, represent in many ways the person I’ve always wanted to be. Assertive, cheerful, full of wonder, and up to the challenges of life. Frankly, the Doctor these days has a far emptier life than I do, and it’s hard to see the fictional hero I’ve felt so connected to suffer so. I guess this is something of a “Get Well” card to my old hero.
Further points, with spoilers, below
We’ve got work to do
Meme from lemonlye:
When you read this, quote Doctor Who in your LiveJournal.
The Doctor: I don’t suppose you’ve completely ignored my instructions and secretly prepared any Nitro-9, have you?
Ace: What if I had?
The Doctor: And naturally, you wouldn’t do anything so insanely dangerous as to carry it around with you, would you?
Ace: Of course not. I’m a good girl and do what I’m told.
The Doctor: Excellent. Blow up that vehicle.
– “Silver Nemesis”
(I resisted the urge to quote my own fanfic. Aren’t I well-behaved?)
In which a writer avenges himself upon his fans
“Midnight”: the most excruciatingly painful 43 minutes of Doctor Who I can remember watching.
I’ll be kinder to the science flubs from now on. This episode had no science issues, no overt plot stupidity, no unreasonable characterizations, no bad acting… and yet I can assure you I’ll never watch it again if I can help it.
The episode is a cheap “bottle” show, intended to save money (I’m sure) for the Library two-parter and what I suspect will be another three-part finale. One set, and few actors: a futuristic tour bus with a small group of tourists aboard. The episode may have been a bargain for the writing budget as well, because very little happens.
“Where’s the override?”
Found Iron Chef Japan on the Fine Living Network. Now I need only suffer through the occasional Martha Stewart commercial to get my fix. Sadly, NBC / Universal came down on them about the Backdraft music, and the whole show’s been re-scored by someone who didn’t really get it; but it’s better than nothing.
There’s a tire fire in North Carolina this week, and the smoke’s traveled all the way up here. The air in Portsmouth is nasty. I feel like someone in a cyberpunk book who should be walking the city streets with a small respirator. Sucks, because otherwise the heat’s much more tolerable today.
Thank goodness for the Baen Free Library and the Baen CDs. Because of those resources, I didn’t pay any money for John Ringo’s The Hero. Now, I enjoyed his first “Posleen” books well enough, though the ending of the war was unsatisfying; but this book pretends to be one story for 100 pages (!) and then, without warning, changes its mind, abandons nearly everything, and becomes a completely different story.
Imagine you’re watching the second Trek movie, getting into the story, and the first face-off between Kirk and Khan has just ended. Suddenly, a renegade cadet from the Enterprise steals the Genesis Device plans, uses the prefix codes to cause warp core breaches and destroy both ships, and hides in the Mutara Nebula in a 72-hour survival spacesuit to wait for an arranged Romulan pickup. Unknown to him, one of Khan’s men got out in a similar spacesuit, and is hunting him down as the only chance for survival.
While the “hunting each other down” part of the movie might be gripping, I assume most people’s reaction would be, “WTF? What happened to the plot I was just watching? Who are these people? I don’t even like these people.” That was my reaction to this book. Ah, well, it’s not like I don’t have lots more to read, including In The Serpent’s Coils, Grave Peril, and Little Brother (yes, it’s a free download).
Oh, and while I’m reviewing things, have I mentioned that I am now quite the Steven Moffat fan? The ending of “Forest of the Dead” had me saying to myself, “Bit of a downer, but everything lined up properly, lotsa neat stuff, some good lines. Good episode.” Then: Non-specific Spoiler
Visited By An Old Friend
My old Trek fanfic character, the one in this usericon, started as Chief Navigator on the USS Heimdal, and eventually worked his way up the ranks to Captain of the USS Yeager. “Grin’elle Kriet” was half-human, half-alien, and spent most of his Starfleet career as a Chief Engineer.
Grin’s dark secret? He was also an exiled quasi-Time Lord from the Doctor Who universe. (The concept worked better in the fic than it does in this paragraph.) He and I haven’t spoken as author and character for many years; I wrapped up all the important bits of his story arc back in the Nineties. Grin helped me begin working out some personal issues, for which I’ll always appreciate him.
Without warning, Grin’elle woke up last night, after I’d wrapped up watching “Forest of the Dead”. The conversation, expanded into English sentences, went something like this:
Hey… hey, I just heard something I don’t know if I believe. Are all the Time Lords dead? Is Gallifrey gone?
“What? Oh… er, yes, apparently so. They were all destroyed in a Time War with the Daleks… The Doctor was the only survivor. Except a few Daleks, and the Master. But he’s dead now too, as near as we can tell.”
Holy… are you kidding? I lived there for decades… I had roots there.
“You hated them. They were embarrassed by you.”
Not all of them.
“You left their universe, left it for good. Heck, you’ve set up shop in a third one for the time being.”
I know. They show Who here. Just like Trek, I make sure never to catch an episode.
“So, what do you care?”
… I’m not really sure. I’ll have to get back to you on that.
… and then he was gone, and I was left wondering where the hell all that had come from.
Stay Cool
Wow. I was sick yesterday, and Starr’s sick today. Awesome. It might very well have been dehydration on both our parts, though I drink more water these days than I have in years.
I need to watch the latest Doctor Who very soon, it is apparently most excellent, and the net is bursting with spoilers that I am carefully avoiding. Stephen Moffat may be the best Who writer on the new show, responsible for The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, The Girl In the Fireplace, and Blink; I’m not displeased at all that he’s in charge of 2010’s Series Five. The “Everybody lives!!” line still gets me right ‘there’.
And now, this year’s zombie meme:
You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:
1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.
* Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.
1) Phaser II, set to “vaporise”. With endless ammo, I can just hold down the trigger and sweep.
2) Queen, “Flight of the Hawkmen” (starts at about 1:08 in the video)
3) Tim the Enchanter (I think his skills would be well matched to the situation.)
Starr’s list:
1) Sonic Screwdriver (“I’m sure it has a ‘defeat zombies’ setting.”)
2) Meredith Brooks, “Bitch”
3) Kal-El
Entropy loses a round
Hmph. The Microsoft Office 2008 icons are kinda ugly.
Listening to some Vangelis music at work this morning. “Alpha” is one of those tunes that sends tingles up my spine when I listen to it, and awakes wonder and potential in my mind. If only I could stay in that headspace for days at a time… it probably wouldn’t be good for me, but I feel that I’d get a lot done while I could stand it.
I wonder where the ‘tingles’ come from? It’s absolutely a physical sensation to me, but I have no idea what produces it.
Far more importantly, my mom is walking now without human assistance. She’s still using a walker or crutch, but given that she couldn’t even move the leg two weeks ago, this is an absolutely awesome development, and I joked that she’s making far better progress than I did. If any of my friends have ever wondered where my buried stubborn streak came from, this may provide a clue. I am thrilled for her – and while she’s there, they think they may be able to correct a nerve issue that’s pained her for about 20 years, so, silver lining!
And speaking of doctors, it took me a visit to Wikipedia to learn that the awfully-familiar looking archaeologist on Doctor Who this week was Dr. Corday on ER for seven seasons. Cool.
Sontar-HA!
The Sontaran two-parter from this Doctor Who series really pleased me. Lots of fun things happened, the production design of the alien battlesuits and technology looked great, and we got a somewhat more mature Martha Jones back for a couple of episodes. There were a few rough pacing moments – as if the script worked out about 10 minutes short overall – but nothing fatal.
Donna remains an excellent foil for the Doctor, freaking out in fear one moment and standing up to him the next. It’s a lot of fun having grownups aboard the TARDIS, and even when Donna must leave, I hope they consider continuing the trend. At no point did the episode get stupid (well, there’s an atmosphere bit near the end which is a little brow-raising, but not too bad), and UNIT gets to show that, in the 21st century, they’re actually good for something.
I’d put in a request, if I could, for the Beeb to fund some more space episodes, as Earth is getting invaded now every month on the first Wednesday. It’s like paying bills – “Let’s see, cable, electric, water, and oh yes, alien invasion due tomorrow. Must call in sick to work.”
Everyone caught the face that shows for a split second on the TARDIS console screen, right?
We’re picking up spoilers on scan…
‘Twas caviar
This weekend was good. I got to chill a little bit, which I’d long needed. Had caviar for the first time ever; it tasted mostly of salt, and slightly fishy. I’ve heard it’s served on buttered toast, and I think that would improve it quite a bit.
I also tried the Lord of the Rings online role-playing game. The first thing I noticed is that it’s certainly prettier than WoW (and therefore needs more video processing power than, say, my desktop can handle). I enjoyed the Minstrel class I tried – there’s something entertaining about whipping out a lute in the middle of a melee and dealing damage with a few bars of a song.
But, when all’s said and done, I enjoy the slightly surrealistic graphics of WoW – they seem to fit with a world which has so many fantastic shorthands for everyday actions – and the LotR game takes itself fairly seriously, which also isn’t really what I’m here for. I might play it if there were a Mac version and no other competitors, but my subscription will stay with Blizzard for now.
This week’s Doctor Who episode brings the Series 4 average down to .667. Even discounting the goofy, thoughtless science – which is hard, since one element is a major plot point – there wasn’t much special about it. Donna was great; her emotional arc about the future of humanity and our ethics, and the conditions of the Ood provided a welcome touch of development.
But overall, the episode was fairly formulaic, including at least one completely gratuitous CGI death, and someone trying viciously to kill the Doctor for no reason at all. One touch I did like: minor spoiler
