I've learned some interesting things today

[neadods]

I've learned some interesting things today. I've learned that the Horsechicks have a term "Spanish Princess Day," in honor of the Spanish princess from Ever After. (If you haven't seen the movie, she gets one scene, where she is being unwillingly married in a political alliance to the hero. She's sobbing so hard she can barely walk up the aisle.)

Yeah. I'm stealing that.

There is more heartburn in the Whoniverse over the full text of the RTD interview. Me, I'm busy wondering how dizzy the author is after putting on all that spin, because it's really odd to me how the writer can insist that the audience as a whole didn't like Martha when the ratings for this last season of Who were excellent. Perhaps someone needs to whisper in that writer's ear that in Who, as in every other show in the universe, 98% of the audience is not fannish and thus doesn't give a rat's ass about fannish issues.

Unfortunately, that is taking away attention from what I think is the most charming and exciting thing I've heard today - Paul Cornell is writing another Whovian Christmas story for the newspapers.

Last year, Cornell wrote the bittersweet story "Deep and Dreamless Sleep" for the Times, where the Doctor found the TARDIS invaded by a little boy who wants to see Christmas. The Doctor takes him to the WWI Christmas truce, among other places. (The Times still has this story online. I dare anyone to read the third and fourth paragraphs of the last page without choking up.)

This year, he and the BBC have just announced, he will be writing "The Hopes and Fears of All the Years" for The Telegraph. It will appear in the printed issue of December 22 with illustrations by the guy who does the DWM comic art, then on the website on Christmas Eve (no idea if the illustrations will be there or not). Mr. Cornell has not given any plot hints.

Since we don't know about the art, would anyone within the Telegraph's print area be willing to grab me a copy and mail me the page with the story? I'm willing to paypal price & postage costs.

Also in Whovian news, prompted by the cover art of the upcoming March Torchwood tie-in novels, crabby_lioness has written an interesting essay comparing the Torchwood characters to stock Commedia dell Arte characters.

The Captain -- the oldest of the archtypes, he is a swaggering fellow in a spendid uniform who is always chasing the ladies. He is always a foreigner who speaks with an accent. His true history is always obscured and never as noble as he would like you to think.

Yes. Yes, that fits...

Comments

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

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<i.. Me, I'm busy wondering how dizzy the author is after putting on all that spin, because it's really odd to me how the writer can insist that the audience as a whole didn't like Martha when the ratings for this last season of Who were excellent.</i>

You answered your own question. The audience is absolutely menat to love Martha. She's pretty and smart and devoted. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her. In fact, she's perfect.

At the end of TLotTL, when Martha says goodbye to the Doctor, she looks strong, and he's the one being abandoned. There's a sense of regret for that which wasn't sufficiently appreciated. martha is not meant to be second-best to the audience, but she cannot take the place of Rose in the eyes of the Doctor. I suspect that season 4 will see a renewal of the Doctor's sense of adventure and life's possibilities in spite of his losses, and then, he wil be ready to see the treasure he has in Martha (and Donna).

[steviesun.livejournal.com]

I'm a Doctor/Rose shipper, but you'd be blind not to realise that the Doctor did feel abandoned by Martha at the end because far from not feeling or caring about her she did mean something to him, and he knew that her loss would be a blow to him.