August Giant Sci-Fi Marathon

One day in August I'm going to wake up and then watch TV and write about it until I go to bed. This is the tentative schedule:

1 pm: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Band Candy"

1:45 pm: Being Human, "Episode 1"

2:30 pm: Battlestar Galactica, "33"

3:15 pm: The X-Files, "Field Trip"

4 pm: Doctor Who, (2 Classic Who episodes, 25 min each)

5 pm: Heroes, "Company Man"

5:45 pm: Firefly, "Out of Gas"

6:30 pm: BREAK!

7:30 pm: Torchwood, "Random Shoes"

8:15 pm: Dead Like Me, "My Room"

9 pm: Fringe, "Ability"

9:45 pm: Doctor Who, "The Beast Below"

10:30 pm: Pushing Daisies, "Bitches"

I'll write as I watch and focus on these points:

• Basic analysis and comparison of the shows/episodes
• Common themes
• What is science fiction?
• Vampire portrayals in Buffy and Being Human
• Being Human first episode vs. BSG first episode; expositional differences specific to these shows, and then to all science fiction shows
• "Company Man" vs. "Out of Gas" out-of-order storytelling; past vs. present, how and why characters are the way they are
• Fairytale and fantasy elements in The Beast Below vs. Bitches
• Which characters are similar and why; are they science fiction staples or archetypes?
• What are common plot elements -- aliens? Cloning?
• Representation of evil in science fiction; corporeal vs. the unseen
• Music/score, licensed vs. composed; are there common science fiction musical elements?
• General commentary on acting, direction, production design, writing, etc.

Doctor Who Interlude

I love the fairytale feeling of series 5, but it occurred to me that it would've worked even better in series 1. Bad Wolf? Huge missed opportunity. Could've used a red/scarlet palette (which incidentally was used in series 5 to good effect), the "wolf in sheep's clothing" idea, and a whole load of "the better to ____ you with" references. That would have been awesome. Moffat perpetuated this so well, but RTD definitely missed the boat. Oh well.

More ideas for the fairytale-series-1-that-will-never-be:

• Jack as the woodcutter
• Misdirection for the audience; insinuate that the Doctor is the big, bad wolf
• Innocence, growing up motif
• Forests! Creepy shadows, etc. (Moffat wins.)
• My, what large ears you have. (Because he does. Have enormous ears. But we also don't want to beat the audience over the head with Lil' Red, so freely omit.)
• He also has a big nose. Just saying.

(In related news, I really need to stop rewatching series 1 and move on with my life.)

Doctor Who - Earthshock

I didn't watch much new television this week, just a bunch of Doctor Who series 2 for my rewatch endeavor and some Secret Diary. Treme has been impossible to find online, so I don't know what I'm going to do about that. I started Bored to Death, but I'm not impressed so far (though I love the cast and the awesome music choices. Schwartzman/Galafianakis interactions are worth watching for alone). Might drop those two for the time being.

However, I did watch Doctor Who's Earthshock. Out of the classic Who serials I've seen so far*, I think it's my favorite. I prefer the Doctor with an entourage, and the Fifth Doctor had quite a few companions. Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan accompanied him on this particular adventure.

Classic Who companions have been criticized of getting kidnapped and being generally helpless. Though there is some of that, it isn't to say they don't help the Doctor in their own ways. Some are braver than others, and some are better at math; some aren't there by choice but trek on with the crew good-naturedly anyway, some fall down more than others. Companions are like a box of chocolates. I like the strong-willed ones that aren't afraid to talk back to the Doctor, like Sarah Jane. I also like Leela and Adric. In Earthshock, Tegan ventured out to help look for the Doctor while Nyssa stayed behind to hold down the fort. Not helpless at all.

But the companion that proved himself as righteous and self-sacrificing as the Doctor was Adric. Part 1 of Earthshock set up the frustration Adric felt toward the Doctor's sometimes condescending manner. He wants to return to his home planet, but the Doctor isn't having it, seeing as they'd have to journey through E-space to get there. Adric and the Doctor quarrel, and before Nyssa and Tegan can adequately encourage repair, the two are cornered by Cybermen. What's interesting about Adric and the Doctor's argument is that the Doctor is extremely hotheaded, at first, and dismissive of the accusation. What it eventually boils down to is the core of the Doctor/companion relationship -- the question of what exactly the Doctor's role is in a companion's life. There is a balance between affection (which the Cybermen consider the Doctor's greatest weakness, as they use it against him when they threaten Tegan's life) and mentorship (Adric complains the Doctor never explains things to him). In the end, Adric, the mathematician prodigy, gives his life just as the Doctor would have done to save the Earth. Unfortunately, a Cyberman destroys the console before Adric can solve the code, and Adric laments that he will "never know if he was right" as his final words.

(In The Caves of Androzani, The Fifth Doctor's last word is "Adric"; he dies feeling overwhelming guilt, a sure theme in the Doctor's life.)

* I've watched Pyramids of Mars (4th Doctor), City of Death (4th), Robots of Death (4th), The Caves of Androzani (5th Doctor), Earthshock (5th), The Three Doctors, and The Five Doctors. The Doctor Who movie kind of sits in the void between classic and new Who, but I've seen that too. Talons of Weng-Chiang next, yay racism!

Doctor Who Series 5 Observations

I will keep a list, by episode, of possibly significant details in series 5 of Doctor Who.

The Eleventh Hour, 5.01

• Amelia Pond. In a way she is meant to be seen separate from Amy; is possibly the most important character in this series; the Doctor's and her timeline are intertwined, the Doctor has influenced every bit of her life, she is completely obsessed with him.
• The crack in Amelia's bedroom wall. Opens to the Atraxi prison from which Prisoner Zero has escaped, this means travel from one side to the other is possible? "The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?" - Prisoner Zero to the Doctor; the Doctor clearly plays some sort of part, but he is unaware of it
• "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall." - Prisoner Zero; the crack is already notably important; the Pandorica opens in the aptly titled twelfth episode; "silence will fall" is the mystery, repeated in this episode
• The shadowy human-like figure in Amelia's house, unexplained in this episode.
• Series theme: fairy tales.

The Beast Below, 5.02

• Series theme: children. Amelia Pond; the Doctor and the star whale's affection for children; their innocence and openness
• "A horse and a man, above, below,
  One has a plan, but both must go,
  Mile after mile, above, beneath,
  One has a smile, and one has teeth.
  Though the man above might say 'Hello,'
  Expect no love from the Beast Below!
  
  In bed above we're deep asleep,
  While greater love lies further deep,
  This dream must end, this world must know:
  We all depend on the beast below." -- Could this rhyme be a metaphor for more than the episode? The series, perhaps?
• The crack is on Spaceship UK.

Victory of the Daleks, 5.03

• Amy doesn't remember Earth's Dalek invasion.
• The crack makes its appearance on the wall behind the TARDIS.

The Time of Angels, 5.04

• The ubiquitous, wonderful, River Song.

Flesh and Stone, 5.05

• The Doctor w/ jacket is INTENTIONAL. There's no way that should be attributed to lazy direction/editing/costuming. The Doctor leaves, but returns with a close-up shot of his hands covering Amy's, as if introducing a new character onto the scene, and then up to his face. His tone (and yeah, jacket) is completely different, more serious with a bit of anguish, which totally fits his mysterious message:

"Amy, you need to start trusting me. It's never been more important."

"But you don't always tell me the truth."

"If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me."

"Doctor, the crack in my wall, how could it be here?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm working it out. Now, listen. Remember what I told you when you were seven?"

"What did you tell me?"

"No... no, that's not the point. You have to remember."

"Remember what? Doctor? Doctor?"

Amy's faulty memory is clearly creating some problems on a universal scale. But why her?

• The Doctor rambles about how Amy didn't remember the Daleks and questions why she knew the duck pond was a duck pond if there weren't any ducks, then asks, What if time could be rewritten? Then, he realizes (I hypothesize), that he can rewrite history.
• "The Pandorica... that's a fairy tale." "Aren't we all?"
• "What are you thinking?" "Time can be rewritten."

Vampires of Venice, 5.06

• The Doctor and Rory hear silence as they step into the TARDIS.

Amy's Choice, 5.07

• "We have to grow up eventually." "Says who?"
• Dreams/false realities.
• "You save everyone." "Not always." "Then what is the point of you?"
• The Dream Lord. The Doctor sees the Dream Lord as his reflection in the TARDIS console a few seconds before the episode ends; this is likely not anything with real repercussions (like the psychic pollen is still there), but a self-reflective-Doctor-thing
• Series theme: Amy's choice. Amy's choice, the angel in Amy's eyes/mind, Amy's memories; Amy is extremely important.

The Hungry Earth, 5.08

• Amy and Rory see themselves 10 years in the future

Cold Blood, 5.09

• The crack has gotten wider, the Doctor sticks his hand in and pulls out a piece of TARDIS shrapnel, Rory is engulfed in time energy light and is erased from time; an explosion is causing the crack, could it be the TARDIS exploding?
• "Rory still lives in your mind."
• Amy waves to another Amy on top of a hill

Vincent and the Doctor, 5.10

• "Time can be rewritten, I know it can." - Amy

The Lodger, 5.11

• The crack makes an appearance behind Craig's refrigerator. Amy also sees it when she opens her engagement ring box.

The Pandorica Opens, 5.12

• Is there a reason van Gogh has heightened psychic ability (i.e. he can see invisible monsters and paint the future)?
• "Vortex manipulator -- fresh off the wrist of a handsome Time Agent." Jack?
• First words ever written: "Hello Sweetie." Just to give us even more perspective on exactly how incredibly necessary River Song is to the entire universe.
• The Doctor is wearing a red bowtie and his jacket has deep red buttons. Red-haired Amy has on her usual bright red scarf and red gloves. Her engagement ring box is red. Roman-Rory's cape is red. Red-robed queen is back. Red is both important and foreboding.
• The painting "might not be that literal," according to River.
• "A box, a cage, a prison... it was built to contain the most feared thing in all the universe." "It's a fairytale, a legend. It can't be real."
• I think this is the earliest we have seen River -- the last two times (Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone and Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead) were further in her timeline.
• "The Pandorica." "More than just a fairy tale."
• "You know fairy tales... a good wizard tricked it." "I hate good wizards in fairy tales, they always turn out to be him."
• Pandora's Box is Amy's favorite book when she was a kid. "Never ignore coincidence."
• The large stones transmit the warning to everyone that the Pandorica is opening. But why doesn't the Doctor know?
• "Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered, it can come back."
• "Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life doesn't make any sense?" Her house has too many rooms
• "A whole 'nother life, just like I woke up from a dream." - Rory, on what physically happened to him between death and waking up as a Roman
• Strange markings on the grass in front of Amy's house
• Amy owns a book on Roman soldiers and one on Pandora's Box
• The Nestene Consciousness is using Amy's memories to construct the Roman soldiers -- but Roman Rory still remembers dying, as if his subconscious remained intact, as if he weren't a construct out of Amy's memory. Somehow the Autons obtained the real Rory's memories?
• "Someone else is flying it." "But why? How?"
• Amy finally remembers Rory.
• The Nestene Consciousness! Daleks! Cybermen, Sontarans, the Judoon, Silurians.
• "Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS." Not true. There's River, and didn't even Donna fly it once?
• Amy dies.
• "Silence will fall." And it does.

The Big Bang, 5.13

• The fairy tale identity crisis ends with a box (the TARDIS, or the hero part of Eleven) flying into another box (the Pandorica, possibly the "beast below" facet of Eleven's identity). Yin meets yang, and the universe explodes! More importantly, the two sides of Eleven's personality meet, which he's grappled with the entire series. Is he the beast or the angel? More than once, his past selves have shown up on screen (library card in Vampires of Venice, identifier gadget in Vincent and the Doctor, blue light in The Eleventh Hour, sparknotes of his life in The Lodger). Series 5 dealt with the two warring sides of the Doctor, and more specifically, who Eleven is. Is he rude and not ginger? Not this time -- the good wizard in fairy tales "always turn out to be him." He's a wizard, and a fairy tale, with a "beast below," which is reconciled in The Big Bang with the collision of the TARDIS and the Pandorica. PRAISE MOFFAT!

Doctor Who - The Beast Below, 5.02

Once upon a time...

Amelia Pond is a child with a big imagination and a fairy tale name. Amy Pond is a self-proclaimed grown-up. The Doctor instigated her belief in the impossible, and twelve long years contributed to her subsequent disillusionment. Rose Tyler was the big, bad, wolf, and Amy Pond is Alice down the rabbit hole. A strange man in your house at night who promises you the universe is a fairy tale. A crack in time and space that happens to be in your bedroom wall, of all places (and you, of all people!), is a fairy tale. Monsters, and hidden doors out of sight unless you turn your head just so, are the makings of a fairy tale. And the fairy tale of the Raggedy Doctor with a Box happens to Amy Pond, who is Amelia Pond, who is a Scottish girl in an English village yet never relinquished her accent (and the Doctor knows how that feels).

I started the fifth season of Doctor Who today. Steven Moffat took the reigns from Russell T Davies, and I have high expectations.* Moffat's episodes in the last four seasons of New Who have been my favorites -- he is an incredibly creative writer. I could write tons about what exactly I like about his stories, but I expect I'll be covering a lot of those points as I write about this new season. I will definitely note parallels and common themes introduced in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, and Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, that return here. I've already noticed a couple:

• What's not seen is scarier than an in-your-face monster. Blink's Weeping Angels, SitL/FotD's Vashta Nerada, a door in your house you can't see unless you look in the corner of your eye...
• Tons of creepiness. TEC/TDD's gas masks, TGitL's ticking baddies, The Beast Below's Smilers.
• Repeated phrases for maximum creep factor. "Are you my mummy?" "Don't blink." "Count the shadows." -- none yet in s5, but I'm confident!

The Eleventh Hour is directed and acted sharper, crisper than RTD's Who; the better direction is perhaps a testament more to the times than the showrunner (any Old Who serial elicits a giggle -- the times, they are a-changin'), but the acting, I think, is a conscious decision by Moffat to distinguish his characters from Ten's incredibly emotive face and hyperactive personality (not to mention the Rose Tyler's big eyes and Martha Jones's pining after the Doctor and Donna Noble's loud voice and at times abrasive demeanor). Smith and Gillan are Moffat's toys. While RTD made his Doctor shed tears or fall in love, Moffat's Doctor might quip a non-sequitur with a steady expression (so I theorize, from what I've seen so far!).** RTD would up the ante by adding more Daleks; Moffat excels at creating villains out of shadows and silence.*** And to be honest, I don't know which tone I prefer. I like theatrics and big emotion, but I'm also completely enamored of the simple creepiness and organic intrigue that gets under your skin as you watch a Moffat story unfold.

Observations specifically about The Beast Below:

• The Queen is royally dressed in a velvet-like material, but most interestingly, it's a deep red hood and cape. (Rebel/defiant Queen itself an archetype of sorts). She is deceptively old, and has told herself the greatest lie every ten years; she has deceived herself.
• Two choices: Protest vs. Forget -- very red pill/blue pill, very fork-in-the-road, very fairy tale.
• Spaceship UK has the interior of a medieval castle, complete with a dungeon that houses a beast
• I cannot express how much I LOVED Amy's revelation about the parallel between the star whale and the Doctor -- both lonely, the last of their kind, hundreds of years old, can't stand to see children cry, their misery and solitude and age have made them kind
• Astounding episode, already one of my favorites!
• Plus, nursery rhymes! How haunting, and fitting for an episode (and likely, series) set around the innocence of children.

* I am going to analyze the SHIT out of this series. It's Moffat. Nothing is coincidence. It has to be done.

** Smith's Doctor gets angry, but it's focused inward, and released in bursts.

*** Exceptions abound. RTD's Midnight was terrifying without a visible monster. Moffat's clockwork monsters from The Girl in the Fireplace. Etc.

Misfits - Episode Five, 1.05

I'm writing this in the afterglow of the episode. I'm still grinning from the 48-odd minutes of capital-A Amazing I just watched.

From episode three, Misfits took the Skins route and began focusing primarily on individual characters for each episode. Episodes one and two followed the crew as they killed, buried, dug up, and buried again their probation officer; the following episodes still dealt with the aftermath, but mostly as a B-plot to the A story of a protagonist as he/she deals with his or her new power.

This episode, which focused on Simon, is my favorite so far. It had a strange subplot about Nathan getting hypnotized by a baby, which served only to add substance to his and Kelly's relationship, I'm guessing, but that was largely overshadowed by the Simon/Sally story. Simon has always been the odd one out (the actor who portrays him has mastered the art of sitting and acting uncomfortable -- I'm serious, he's really good), the brunt of Nathan's jokes, or else ignored entirely. So when you see him warm up to Sally here (his gradual smile in the bar!), it's tragic, because she is cruelly using him to incriminate the group of her boyfriend's murder.

Not sure why she didn't just confiscate phones like they did in the first episode, but I'm glad she didn't, because the resulting tragedy that unfolded was well worth the price of admission.

We see Simon fall for Sally, and there are two beautiful, parallel scenes:

1. He asks her to get a drink, she says no and walks away, turns around, says, "Simon," and suddenly they're at the bar. (Their date's soundtrack consisting, perfectly as usual, of the XX and Damien Rice.)

2. He kisses her, she says, "This is my fault," walks away, turns around, and a beat later he's sitting in her kitchen, grinning. Half a scene later, you realize he has used his power to become invisible and she didn't really invite him in.

This episode played at first like a quirky love story (older woman/shy younger man; guy dates his probation worker) that transformed at its climax into a fantastically terrifying horror-movie plot as he smashes her head against the door -- silence at first, and then you realize she's dead over the same Damien Rice that played during their date. I'm a complete sucker for this kind of unpredictable plot/ironic parallel or song choice, but I thought this was absolutely perfect.

I won't even mention the beautiful-as-usual cinematography and direction, brilliant acting, etc. (Well, only one mention, then.)

Heroes Retrospective

Heroes had a promising premise, strong pilot, and talented (albeit huge) cast. Where did it go wrong? Having not seen the later seasons, I only have the first to hypothesize by. My theory assumes the second through fourth seasons build on tone/direction of the first.

I think, simply, that Heroes isn't as grand or intelligent as it thinks it is.

Despite clever marketing ("Save the cheerleader, Save the world" plastered on flyers and merch everywhere was effective; tie-in comics and extensive online content contributed to a richer experience) and good acting (Masi Oka!) and stylish art direction and whatever else made it a success at first failed in the end, when the audience realized in their own time that the writing was thin. In a year that boasted Lost, among others, Heroes never quite made the grade. Mohinder babbled on and on through monologues, the writing a weak attempt to seem smart, but its core was never anything of substance.

Where the show excelled, I think, was in its creativity and special effects. I could never tire of seeing Claire snap her ribs back into place, or watching Hiro stop time (how do they do that? It's awesome!). I loved the episode that gave us a peek five years into the future, a dystopia of sorts, that would occur if Hiro didn't kill Sylar. I loved the episode titles that mimicked comic book typesetting. Give me a couple of explosions or interesting uses of a power, and I'm satisfied -- I'd obviously take a coherent, clever plot over any of it, but special effects are sure an effective distraction. Unfortunately, the season finale, "How to Stop an Exploding Man" didn't offer us any of that. We expected an epic showdown that would showcase powers and expel false theories (is it Peter, Ted, or Sylar that explodes?) and overall, surprise us. What we got was an uncharacteristically weak Sylar and a bit of flying. The definition of an anticlimax.

To recap, I'm going to make a couple of lists:

Things I Like About Heroes

• Art direction -- comic book theme
• Actors/acting -- I even like the large cast. I like that most of the characters are expendable, so deaths can happen
• Special effects -- Ted blowing up the Bennett house, Claire healing herself, Sylar doing anything, Hiro stopping time
• Hiro and Ando's relationship
• Large-scaleness of it -- India, New York, Las Vegas, LA...
• Claude

Things I Don't Like About Heroes

• Pacing -- first half of season 1 was slow, second half moved a bit better
• Lame writing most of the time
• Ali Larter's character and her power
• Peter Whiny Petrelli
• Uninteresting/useless characters like Simone or Parkman's FBI partner
• Sometimes there is not enough Claude