Christmas is two posts: Christmas and sick, and I only feel competent to write about one of those at the moment.
( physically unwell: sinuses, fever )
( physically unwell: sinuses, fever )
Dec. 28th, 2018
Do Balrogs Have Wings?
Dec. 28th, 2018 01:03 pmHow to Mis-Read Lord of the Rings, which I tend to misremember as being titled "Do Balrogs Have Wings?" or "Is Tolkien Actually Any Good?", by Andrew Rilstone. From early 2002, when LotR-mania was still a new enough thing to be remarkable and there was only the one Harry Potter movie.
This is one of my favourite essays, and I'm tired of having to trawl through the Internet Archive to find it, so, enjoy.
(It's included in a volume of Andrew's essays, but the ebook appears to be Kindle-only, which, no.)
This is one of my favourite essays, and I'm tired of having to trawl through the Internet Archive to find it, so, enjoy.
(It's included in a volume of Andrew's essays, but the ebook appears to be Kindle-only, which, no.)
"Blink" (Doctor Who S3E10), Steven Moffat
Sally's friend vanishes while they're exploring an abandoned house. It turns out she's vanished into the past, kidnapped by statues that move when you're not looking at them, and if Sally can't figure out what's going on with these weird DVD easter eggs she might be next.
Okay, so, I liked Blink less than most people seem to, and it took me a bit to work out why that was. The Weeping Angels are great: inventive and successfully creepy, and I love love love the bit where the TARDIS vanishes from around Sally and Larry, surrounded by Angels. Sally's a decent enough character, and while we don't see much Doctor or Martha what we get is perfectly fine.
My first thought was that it's a puzzle-box story, and that's just not what I'd expect to see from Doctor Who. But that's not really accurate: a lot of episodes have been "here's a weird thing, what's going on with it," layered throughout the story. It works well. But here I could see the gears moving, and that made the difference.
Specifically: I didn't ever get a sense that Sally and company were solving the thing, were figuring out what was going on. Instead they were just following a trail that had been laid down for them, by the Doctor and Martha, and by Kathy and Shipton. There wasn't any joy in the discovery. It was all "Oh, the police box. Oh, the list of DVDs. Oh, you know what I'm going to say. Oh, we shouldn't blink."
(It didn't help that Larry, Sally's most constant companion, is a slacker dude with no particularly redeeming features. That she takes his hand at the end of the episode is just insult to injury.)
Well-constructed, neat ideas, execution left me cold. If I hadn't seen other Who, if I hadn't known how much heart this show can have, I expect I'd have been more favourably disposed towards it. But it could have been that little bit better, and I would have liked it so much more.
Sally's friend vanishes while they're exploring an abandoned house. It turns out she's vanished into the past, kidnapped by statues that move when you're not looking at them, and if Sally can't figure out what's going on with these weird DVD easter eggs she might be next.
Okay, so, I liked Blink less than most people seem to, and it took me a bit to work out why that was. The Weeping Angels are great: inventive and successfully creepy, and I love love love the bit where the TARDIS vanishes from around Sally and Larry, surrounded by Angels. Sally's a decent enough character, and while we don't see much Doctor or Martha what we get is perfectly fine.
My first thought was that it's a puzzle-box story, and that's just not what I'd expect to see from Doctor Who. But that's not really accurate: a lot of episodes have been "here's a weird thing, what's going on with it," layered throughout the story. It works well. But here I could see the gears moving, and that made the difference.
Specifically: I didn't ever get a sense that Sally and company were solving the thing, were figuring out what was going on. Instead they were just following a trail that had been laid down for them, by the Doctor and Martha, and by Kathy and Shipton. There wasn't any joy in the discovery. It was all "Oh, the police box. Oh, the list of DVDs. Oh, you know what I'm going to say. Oh, we shouldn't blink."
(It didn't help that Larry, Sally's most constant companion, is a slacker dude with no particularly redeeming features. That she takes his hand at the end of the episode is just insult to injury.)
Well-constructed, neat ideas, execution left me cold. If I hadn't seen other Who, if I hadn't known how much heart this show can have, I expect I'd have been more favourably disposed towards it. But it could have been that little bit better, and I would have liked it so much more.