Sophia Reading

I have watched all the 11th Doctor, from fishfingers and custard to Trenzalore.
... so I've gone and made myself sad now.
It takes ages to make and ages of waiting to watch it all and on first broadcast there's a whole life going on around it and then
iplayer time
and it all just whooshes past.

Don't much like that particular whoosh.

Do very much still like the story.



Everything religious is super weird though.
Like someone is being Very Specific and weird.
The explanation for the Silence is very neat but theologically a right mess.

Also, comparing anything from this future religion stuff to, say,
Captain Jack Harkness,
he would mean ever so very different things with some of the same words.

I mean the stripping to distract people could just be him being
very religious.
Church time...


I liked the anniversary stuff and zygons too, mostly, but
a lot of things to do with the Doctor and women lately are just not very kind.

Still, the art and cunning plans and all was Excellent.
No More.
All 13.

The Curator is an idea that Big Finish ran with and the bigeneration arguably explains, which is neat.

And it's just good to see them.




I see a lot of complains on the internet about how the latest stories keep on referring to stuff that's from forty to sixty years ago, and yes, that's a long time since first broadcast, but
it's exactly the same number of button presses away, these days.
Multi Doctor stories aren't just indulgent, they're a path back along the iplayer to earlier incarnations and their seasons.

This does quite well at making me want to see them.



I think I shall continue watching forwards in order though.

It goes so fast.

I have rewatched Doctor Who with 11 and Clara up through Name of the Doctor.
I say rewatched, but aside from remembering just enough images to be sure I watched before, they do feel new to me. I actually looked up my own review to see what I thought. I liked them very well the first time, and they are still solid stories, very enjoyable, and knowing what we know about the anniversary special they do stay on topic and click together in ways that wouldn't be obvious on first viewing. Topic and theme and mystery and answers. Rather well done.

So the not remembering is just my brain. It was my last year at college. Not my favourite, glad that's all done and dusted.

I like Clara better than I remember. She seems nice. She did a very big thing for the Doctor. And the kindness that sets her up for being someone who would, that has nothing to do with the Doctor being all sweep them off their feet, that is from the same place that has her looking after the kids and all. She's consistent and she makes sense. I remember her getting to be a bit... much, later, but I don't feel like that yet, which is nice. She did get three seperate intros that are all about making her memorable. The first two were, like, concentrated? Wowing us. The third when she sticks around unfolds at an easier pace. So I like her better now.

I liked Nightmare in Silver, but more as a collection of ideas than as what they actually did. The Emperor nobody recognises because they made the statues tall is an interesting role. Also a short actor on an SF show gets to play someone very much human. Improvement. I just didn't feel like the other characters were well done, like they'd only got a couple of panels each. But what caught my attention this time was the huge horrible thing done to end the war, and the Emperor who just sympathises with the guy who had to push the button.

Foreshadowing as most of the character moments, there.

Mr Clever was possibly not as well done. But the basic idea of the Doctor's face not having the Doctor behind it is solid. And actors always have fun with that one.


I have some feelings about how disabled people are being treated in this show, but the feelings keep on being sort of a bunch of squichy faces and wiggly hand gestures. Like there's a lot to unpack there, but.

I think I'd rather not.



The maths on people of color could also be better. Like I haven't sat down and checked but they might be running at 100% death scene again? Which is, oddly enough, a bit not good.
Also the suspicion that Strax reads even more badly if you read his skin color is... a thing.
And there's just a lot of very white episodes.

Many things have improved.

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS had a lot of interesting though, like a quick tour of TARDIS parts to dream on, and a library where knowledge comes in bottles, and that one big highlighted book. A tree made of TARDIS DNA growing glowing egg circuits that can make anything. The swimming pool. And cracks in time that story falls through, not to be forgotten this time.

All lovely interesting stuff.

I hope it stays in my head this time.

Couldn't sleep so I watched two more Doctor Who.
Cold War had me staring into space for a while afterwards because it turns out the idea of nuclear war is still a teensy tiny bit bothersome. I wasn't entirely impressed by the specifics though.
Hide was proper scary. I was watching it at four in the morning on a no sleep night so I was noticing it was proper scary and I maybe probably hadn't scheduled that well. But it is Doctor Who so it is family television scary, where you hide behind the sofa *but* it makes it okay again by the end. So it stuck the landing very well. I was pleased happy and not scared by the time it was time to turn the tele off.
I realised though that the technique it used, finally giving us a good look at them and a happy enough ending, was quite a lot of what I found unimpressive in Cold War. I disliked their design for the insides of the suit, so I felt it detracted from the episode. But pulling the scary away and showing us the person is the actual proper point of both of those. So I am enlightened.

Not exactly sleepy still but I'll have another go.

Today the weather is Much Better, and I could go for a Nice Walk in the light rain and nice temperatures.
The rain appears to have stopped while I had a nap but the temperature remains.
I hope there is a decent amount of rain soon because the Ducks were in substantially less Pond than is traditional. They had a duck exclusive mud beach. Pond was still present but it looked, like, concentrated, or possibly stewed. That seems less than ideal for the ducks.

I have been watching more Doctor Who and have started on 11 and Clara, and I am ... actually sort of creeped out by how little of these I remember. Couple of images, major plot point, funny bit, but not the actual episodes. Which, great, I get new again Doctor Who, and these are solid stories. But, this is not how my brain usually works and it feels. Bad.

But plus point, I continue to enjoy Doctor Who.
I liked singing and storytelling as a solution.
And evil wifi as a problem, when the problem is connecting to strange networks. Modern fairy tale don't go in the woods.

Leaving my windows open is only having moderate impact on indoor temperatures so the specifically my flat bit of the world is still slightly having a heatwave.

But I quite like sitting in front of the fan watching Doctor Who, so that works out okays.