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Weekend update - Sheep, Horses, & Dr. Who
May. 7th, 2006 05:38 pm( The Maryland Sheep and Bankruptcy Festival )
Saturday night was spent making icons like the one on this post and ( watching the new Dr. Who episode )
And finally, prompted by no particular post, but something that's been bugging me long enough to want to put it down in electrons - A Ranty Defense of Russel T. Davies.
If there's one big wank that keeps coming up, it's about how RTD has "ruined" Who or oversexed Who or is just fine as a producer as long as he's not allowed to write scripts for Who.
Oh, please!
Look, I'm not going to champion his scripts as the Bestest Ones Ever because they're not, but they're not total gobshite either. Silly monsters? Check. Zany characterization? Check. QE2-sized plot holes? Check. Sounds like any given old-school episode to me.
Yeah, RTD brought us an angstier, more sexualized Doctor, and he's keeping him on a fairly short leash close to Earth. (Although not as short as Pertwee was on for a season or two, there.) These are major changes, but obviously not deal-breakers, not the way the ratings are going.
Frankly, I've seen worse. And I've seen it slapped right in the faces of the fans.
Y'know what RTD hasn't done? He hasn't gone "oh, let's make fun of that old show; do something really stupid with a whole bunch of clowns and people will watch it just because of the nostalgia of the name." It's a better deal than the fans of Wild Wild West, I Spy, Starsky and Hutch, et al got.
He hasn't gone "Y'know what would be a great plot twist? Take the favorite pivotal character and make him evil!" That's one up on Mission: Make Peter Graves Tell You to Fuck Yourself and Get a New Actor.
He hasn't gone "Let's totally rewrite itand rip off other SF shows and people will watch just because it has the magic show name on it!" Not that I'm bitter about edgy, unique shows getting cancelled while Star Trek's assorted offspring took season after season to find their audience. Nor that I'm intensely wary about "Bill and Ted's Kirk and Spock's Excellent Academy Adventure."
He certainly hasn't ripped all old Who off the market, tinkered with it by slapping on a whole set of extraneous scenes and effects, sworn that This Was The Only Version Ever, taken a whole lot of money from grudging fans, and then said "oops, I'm going to give you what you've been demanding all along... for even more money." (I'm one of the lucky ones in that I didn't buy the bastardization of Star Wars, but I know plenty of people who did, and who are livid right now.) Nor did he come up with a bunch of "prequels" that majorly retconned the original and had two of the most annoying Gary Stus ever written into existance.
What has RTD done? Brought back a beloved show with a surprising amount of respect for and use of previous canon; updated it enough to bring in hoards of new fans; and written a bunch of middle-of-the-road scripts for it.
Ye gods, the horror.
Saturday night was spent making icons like the one on this post and ( watching the new Dr. Who episode )
And finally, prompted by no particular post, but something that's been bugging me long enough to want to put it down in electrons - A Ranty Defense of Russel T. Davies.
If there's one big wank that keeps coming up, it's about how RTD has "ruined" Who or oversexed Who or is just fine as a producer as long as he's not allowed to write scripts for Who.
Oh, please!
Look, I'm not going to champion his scripts as the Bestest Ones Ever because they're not, but they're not total gobshite either. Silly monsters? Check. Zany characterization? Check. QE2-sized plot holes? Check. Sounds like any given old-school episode to me.
Yeah, RTD brought us an angstier, more sexualized Doctor, and he's keeping him on a fairly short leash close to Earth. (Although not as short as Pertwee was on for a season or two, there.) These are major changes, but obviously not deal-breakers, not the way the ratings are going.
Frankly, I've seen worse. And I've seen it slapped right in the faces of the fans.
Y'know what RTD hasn't done? He hasn't gone "oh, let's make fun of that old show; do something really stupid with a whole bunch of clowns and people will watch it just because of the nostalgia of the name." It's a better deal than the fans of Wild Wild West, I Spy, Starsky and Hutch, et al got.
He hasn't gone "Y'know what would be a great plot twist? Take the favorite pivotal character and make him evil!" That's one up on Mission: Make Peter Graves Tell You to Fuck Yourself and Get a New Actor.
He hasn't gone "Let's totally rewrite it
He certainly hasn't ripped all old Who off the market, tinkered with it by slapping on a whole set of extraneous scenes and effects, sworn that This Was The Only Version Ever, taken a whole lot of money from grudging fans, and then said "oops, I'm going to give you what you've been demanding all along... for even more money." (I'm one of the lucky ones in that I didn't buy the bastardization of Star Wars, but I know plenty of people who did, and who are livid right now.) Nor did he come up with a bunch of "prequels" that majorly retconned the original and had two of the most annoying Gary Stus ever written into existance.
What has RTD done? Brought back a beloved show with a surprising amount of respect for and use of previous canon; updated it enough to bring in hoards of new fans; and written a bunch of middle-of-the-road scripts for it.
Ye gods, the horror.
