Just collected parents from airport where they were returning from that North America. They seemed wired and tired at the same time – I remember that feeling.
Here are some wired/tired linky for your wired/tired Friday.
Awesome life-size dinosaur puppets.
Password Card – remember more secure passwords.
A secret station on the London Underground, three floors above street level. And via Malc, here’s a tour of a tube station abandoned in 1938.
I haven’t listened to any of this yet, but: free album download – a tribute to Doctor Who. Presumably contains the only Doctor-Who-themed hip hop you will ever need.
Also, via Jamas: fixing the latest Doctor Who season. Worth a look if you’re a writer type and know what happened in season 5 of Who which hasn’t finished yet in NZ, spoiler warning.
Crazy U.S. right-wing pundit launches own university. This happened a while back but I was thinking about it again in light of the Krugman book. It is still mental.
Cute little AT-AT:
From Maire, a science-based discussion of gender differences in little childrens: Out with Pink and Blue
And finally: art exhibition inspired by Law & Order episode summaries. (Features Kate Beaton!)
The Doctor Who article is interesting and does point out a few things that had been at the back of my mind about the 2010 series. While I’m not so sure that “lack of coherent theme” is really a problem, it shows that Steven Moffat doesn’t seem to be as focused on it as compared to RTD. It’s true that this past year wasn’t as “about” things as much as previously (2005: about being a better person 2006: about accepting loss and change 2007: about self-reliance 2008: about 13 episodes too many starring Catherine Tate) but I suspect this was on purpose to try to bring back the more ‘varied’ sense of the original while maintaining a post-RTD framework.
I do have to agree that unfortunatly Amy wasn’t all that she could have been, and I’m hoping that next year we see an improvement in the character now that she’s more ‘settled’. (Unlike Rose who became worse in her 2nd year). However I don’t quite get the “shrew” comment, other than that Amy was a bit snarky (and nothing comared to S2 Rose, consider her attitude towards SJS and Mickey). Of course part of it could be that I’m just a little bit in love with Karen Gillan. 🙂
I stopped reading the OTI article once the line about the Doctor imagining himself as a “pedophile asshole” came up. Maybe I didn’t see the same version of the episode, but I don’t remember that bit. And I don’t think weighted references like that have any place as throwaway lines.
And I’m with Bartok too – you don’t absolutely NEED to have a recurring theme in TV these days, and just because someone extrapolates a few recurring motifs it doesn’t then follow that this was the intention – well-executed or not, of the show’s driver. I usually like Overthinking It, but in this instance I reckon they lived up to their website’s name a little too literally.
And yeah, it’s a shame about Amy (and yeas, she’s no ‘shrew’). Fingers crossed for next year!
Andrew, Jet: I pretty much agree with everything you say. There’s some value in the article, but it does push too far. And I loved Amy with her booming voice and waggly eyebrows and general inappropriateness!
I don’t know. I don’t really buy the “theme”-argument. Especially when it comes to Doctor Who. To me it just seems like a fancy excuse for writing about the same thing over and over again.
I agree with the idea that a story with theme is ultimately better than one that only entertains. But I think theme only goes so far. At some point you have to abandon the idea and just try to create a fictional world that is truthful and resonant.* And I think sticking to “theme” only hold you back as a storyteller.
* – while Moffat is leaps and bounds ahead of RTD in that regard, I don’t think this season was really as successful as it could have been. I guess a lot handwavy-plot-BS needs to be forgotten first.