Twitter is over capacity: Something is technically wrong

[caddyman]

Happy New Year, Kids!

I hereby declare the title of this piece to be the official motto for 2010: two phrases that more than any other, Twitter fires off at me when I wish to spout a pearl of wisdom or make a a heart-rending wry comment in 140 characters or less.

New Year's Eve and today have been quiet here in The Carpathia. My fault, I'm afraid - I think ellefurtle might have wished for a little more excitement, but after I got home from work yesterday, I pretty much collapsed in a heap. She'd suggested I stay at home in the morning, but I wasn't feeling quite as bad as I sounded and anyway, taking a day off sick on New Year's Eve just looks bad. I was okay all day in the office, apart from the odd splutter and in the heat of the Tube home, too. Unfortunately, walking back from the station I managed to cough myself inside out a couple of times as the cold damp air did its evil work on my chest. I pretty much curled up in bed for a couple of hours and haven't left the flat since.

I think I am getting better now, but I still have moments of lung-expelling coughing that leave me light headed and with stars swimming in my vision. I haven't had a cough like this since before I quit smoking. Indeed, I was getting rather cocky about it.

Thank you, Karma Pixies, for reminding me of your existence.

I find that for the second week on the trot, I am in something of a minority. I enjoyed the Dr Who finale; the plot was still a little light, but it was, by and large carried off with a certain level of panache. Again, Bernard Cribbins' Wilf was the best character in it.

I do agree, however, with other correspondents: RTD should have been made to control his need to walk the Doctor around to visit all of his old companions. Enough with the mawkish schmalz, already. Cyrano de Bergerac's death scene was shorter.

This is what's to come later this year:

Tomorrow we entertain pipsytip and phil99 on a flying visit to London. I am confident that I shall be able to breathe outdoors by then.

Finally, we watched There's Something About Mary on Film4 tonight. I'd never seen it before. Ben Stiller is quite good in it despite the handicap of being Ben Stiller.

Comments

[littleonionz.livejournal.com]

You know you're getting old when your Doctor looks like a school kid.

BTW wasn't there a limit of nine regens for the Dr? wasn't that the whole ish with The Master way back when? - I reserve the right to have my facts muddled.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

They've looked like kids for some of us for a while now. Ahem.

Putting my nerd hat on (as if I ever take it off), I think it is 13 regenerations - or 12 regenerations giving 13 incarnations. But either way, they are running out. Not that they should let them stop him. A timey-wimey thing will sort that out.

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

good questions...

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

OMG Doctor kissing girl and with gun and that! And Vampires! I hope that Edward CUllen is in it, he is so dreamy! There is teh vampire angels also!

Or to put it another way, cool little trailer. I have high hopes. I also liked The End of Time. Screw the naysayers, I say. Screw them.

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

Techically, of course, the 13th regeneration is already assigned to the Valeyard. Not that I give a flying fig.

The Master has spent a chunk of his career "off the end" of the regeneration numbering system, and that didn't stop them regenerating Jacobi into Sim, so I think we're all just going to agree to not worry about it and move on.

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

She was clearly the White Guardian.

Or to put it another way, she was the "good" bit of the Time Lords before they lost their way. Remember, they were so desperate to win the Time War they tried to get the Master to work for them. Rassilon coming back to lead "his" people in glorious war makes perfect sense, and then being desperate enough to let him also makes sense to me.

Or given the whole dissident time lord thing, she might well have been Romana.

Comparing her to a Weeping Angel might be a hint that this is a Moffat plotline.

Apologies For The Wall Of Text

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

I felt that the "death scene" gave some closure to Davies' run and thus served a valid purpose, although I also acknowledge that this might well be just a matter of taste.

I could also see the Master coming up with the entire plan merely to make the Master Race joke. But then I like Sim's master. I just wish Davies hadn't needed to give him super-powers just so he could zap Rassilon. Surely a piece of technogimcrackery would have worked just as well?

I didn't find the story too thin. I regretted that it wasn't a bit better timed, and that the 20-minute goodbye ending could have been better used, or the first part better arranged, so that some of the bits didn't feel underdeveloped. I disliked the unneccessary Top Gun bit. Not perfect, but good enough.

It's not the best bit of television ever, but I think its a respectable contribution to the NooHooNeeverse. It's about eighteen million times better than The Daleks Take Manhattan for example.

I'm not building Moff up more than I have to, if only because the same principle that meant there were some standout good stories during Rusty's run, with the best will in the world, will work in reverse even if Moff is the best ever - there will be dire stories. And I reckon that the "fandom" will be divided over which are the best and which are the worst, which is how it should be.

Possibly I'm just having an unneccessary post-Christmas glow-on at the moment, but I'm not even offended by the youthfulness of Matt Smith any more than I am was the youthfulness of Peter Davison. He might well be the "older" Doctor - Moff has already shown a delight at fiddling with Time Travel conventions, and a 900+ man who looks in his 20s is older than an 800 man who looks in his 90s, for example.

I'll wait and see, and hope for the best while preparing for the worst, as is my wont.

PS - We don't mention Magic Boy At Grumpy Castle/i> in my house, but even that has started to grow on me just a little tiny bit.

Re: Apologies For The Wall Of Text

[the-hooded-crow.livejournal.com]

To paraphrase a friend of mine - "the death scene dragged like a one-legged Elephant." ;)
I look back with nostalgia on the days when the Doctor could get zapped with a lightening bolt and blam - regeneration happened. I'm really not into the Deity-Doctor that we seem to have these days. The Doctor that I recall didn't solve problems with his unexplained alien superpowers, he solved them by being damned clever and using his brain...

There were some lovely moments in the final, though. The whole "Get out of the way..." thing was nicely done, and I loved the bit where Bernard Cribbins transformed into Luke Skywalker.

The part where I felt let down the most, was the Doctor's emo speech just before he stepped into the radiation chamber. It just made poor Wilf out to be a pathetic old man. He deserved better, even if it was "an honour."

Re: Apologies For The Wall Of Text

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

Chuckle. Quite.

I can't disagree on the Doctor Sue front, but you are the very Disciple of Beelzebub for liking Dalek Treasure Island.

I'll agree that the first episode was not strong, and had a lot of wasted time in it just to show that June Whitfield is a feisty old woman.