It's not that easy to come up with Das Kapital in the back of the cab, Glen

[carmen_lj]

I made a list; I like lists:

• Plato's Stepchildren is making me ALMOST CRY. Yeah, TOS's Plato's Stepchildren - no running away till you've heard me out! Channel One, formally Virgin One, is doing a promo for their TOS reruns and they've taken Uhura's speech to Kirk when she's forced to kiss him and OMG, Nichols' delivery is so good which oddly, since it's surrounded by PLATO'S STEPCHILDREN, I never noticed before. But strip all that awfulness away, and combine it with a nice montage and suddenly it's kinda awesome. Her voice is so beautiful and she says "and I am not afraid" and I may have FLAILED SLIGHTLY THE FIRST TIME.
  
  
• It is one of my favourite things about Uhura that she is allowed that emotional vulnerability and it works for me pretty much wholly because of how Nichols plays it: not as "omg, I am so scared," but as a woman who has enough confidence and self-knowledge that she's comfortable admitting when she's afraid and when she needs emotional support.
  
  
• Everyone has seen this Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover vid, yes? If not, it's pretty goshdarned good. FEEL FREE TO MAKE THIS BEEB!
  
  
• I am Backing Stuff Up. It's very dull.
  
  
• Getting a smidgen excited about the return of SJA because I saw a wee clip and OMG JO! JO SAYING GROOVY! JO HOLDING HANDS WITH SARAH! No sign of Eleventy, but it's a bit ridiculous how excited I am about this. Jo isn't even a favourite, I mean I like her and think she is seriously underrated by fandom, but she'd never be in my top ten.
  
  Also, from an interview selenak linked to is this frankly awesome quote from RTD: “We talked about it a lot beforehand,” says Davies. “I know there’s a feeling that she’d have got divorced, and there was a theory that she’d be living on her own in Wales in a little cottage – some of the novels did this – and you think, ‘Nice idea, but actually that’s absolutely betraying the way we left her’. We left her with the promise of happiness, of adventure, of love and joy, and you can’t be cynical and undercut that by saying, ‘Oh, she’s a drug addict now! Her husband left her, she’s lonely, her life is bitter’. That’s just interfering with classic Doctor Who and rewriting what we were promised. So I was absolutely strict about that.”
  
  Which is not exactly how I feel but it's PRETTY DAMN CLOSE and more-or-less the main reason that I so very Do Not Like so much the the NAs.
  
  
• I sort of inhaled The Thick of It after reading this post of meddow's. It's Yes, Minister twenty years later with the swearing - there is an awful lot of swearing - left in and, basically, it's brilliant, brillianter and then, omg, BLOODY BRILLIANT. I did have a bit of a problem with the first season as I recgonised the name Chris Langham but couldn't remember from where and looked it up and, uh, yeah, that. I remember that being in the news, though I had no idea who actor was as an actor at the time and, WEIRDLY, knowing someone was downloading child pornography did slightly interfere with my ability to enjoy the show. Mostly I scrunched up my eyes when he was onscreen and tried to pretend he was Bill Nighy.
  
  Anyway, then Langham went off to have a trial and go to jail and there were the specials and, oh, SO GOOD. The Opposition are AMAZING. It is possible Peter Mannion is my favourite character; I do love them all really, but he's exactly the sort of vaguely competent politican who has zero time for pandering to his media image that means I end up liking him even if I find his politics appalling and Roger Allam is so gloriously deadpan and CONSTANTLY LOLARIOUS. (Randomly, I keep getting Allam mixed up with Kevin McNally.) And then there is season three and there is a political comedy where EVERY EPISODE gets to pass the Bechdel test which is like Extra Bonus Points on top of the marvoulessness that is Nicola Murray MP. And my very favourite bits are, I thinkit is 304 and 305, where there is Nicola and her dudes and Peter and his dudes and there is GLORIOUS COMEDY LOLS pay-off for so much character stuff it makes me utterly glee.
  
  And I haven't even mentioned Peter Capaldi, who is AS MAGIC. Sweary magic.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

That vid was *brilliant*.

And yes, I'm very sad that TTOI never really got the showing it could have had in the US - other than a brief indie run of "In the Loop" in cinemas and on HBO - because it *is* a slice of sweary, cynical, gold. And that's just Peter Capaldi. Will have to read meddow's post, even though I know something about the show through following its fandom's main LJ comm.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I am a bit appalled at myself for never having seen it before. I'm in the right country! It's political comedy! With Peter Capaldi! HOW CAN I NOT HAVE WATCHED THIS? Ahem.

I am trying v hard to save In The Loop for a bit. At least they are making more tToI.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I have seen series, but not film. I should fix that. OMG CAPALDI. Just... I will never look at Local Hero the same way again.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I have been trying to accept that Frobisher and Malcolm Tucker are played by the same actor. IT'S NOT WORKING V WELL.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

Peter Capaldi I knew could be convincingly evil, thanks to the Angel Islington. but rewatching LH after jekyll was so odd, because Wedge was not A Nice Man in Jekyll, you know? So I had to suspend extra disbelief.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

Getting a smidgen excited about the return of SJA because I saw a wee clip

I just watched it and OMG Skeksis! Skeksis invading Earth! This is v. v. exciting.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I had to LOOK UP Skeksis; the worst thing is I'm almost certain I have The Dark Crystal somewhere cause I vaguely remember it being in a double DVD with Labyrinth.

[abates.livejournal.com]

Skeksis? I thought they were Emus
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.burns/hull.htm

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I saw that crossover vid -- as in, I saw it come up when I youtube-searched something. Didn't know whether to trust it. Yay!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It is V TRUSTWORTHY. If by trustworthy I mean entertaining. Really it's a bit sneaky for making a lovely trailer for a fake show, woes.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I may actually forgive RTD a lot JUST for that comment because I REALLY WANT Jo to have been living an awesome happy life of awesome and so see her having lived it and know stuff. THAT IS WHAT I WANT, DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME, RTD!

And I wish the Beeb would both make that. There was one night where they were filming Sherlock and Doctor Who in the Cardiff museum at the same time, IT'S NOT IMPOSSIBLE DAMMIT.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It is quite nice really that he will cheerfully RUIN his own characters but other people's are to be played with V CAREFULLY.

[bana05.livejournal.com]

I fully approve of your message re: Nichelle Nichols/Uhura who is That Awesome (TM).

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! She is very good, so she is.

[nonelvis]

I'm assuming you missed this when I first linked it? Whoever came up with it originally titled it "Why Malcolm Tucker should be the next Doctor":



I haven't seen the third series or the movie yet, but I really should get around to doing that.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

**FLAILS** :D:D

Dude.

(Oh, yes, you should. Nicola Murray is ROCKING.)

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I just wish RTD had been equally win about Sarah Jane's departure. OH WELL. JO! HOLDING HANDS WITH SARAH AND RUNNING!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I am not going to ask what he said cause I am having the WEIRD FEELING of not headdesking at RTD which I shall hold onto A LITTLE WHILE LONGER, yes.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I don't think he said anything, just that "School Reunion" took a wry and upbeat departure and tried to use it to foreshadow "Doomsday".

("That wasn't Croydon. It was a BEACH IN NORWAY!")

[calapine.livejournal.com]

That's alright then, I have got used to pretending which bits of SC don't exist.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

RTD said: We left her with the promise of happiness, of adventure, of love and joy, and you can’t be cynical and undercut that by saying, ‘Oh, she’s a drug addict now! Her husband left her, she’s lonely, her life is bitter’. That’s just interfering with classic Doctor Who and rewriting what we were promised. So I was absolutely strict about that.

Ironically, interfering with classic Who and rewriting what we were promised re: Sarah Jane, namely making her lonely and bitter and undercutting a happy, adventurous, can-do sort of promise made when she left, would be a big reason why I had issues with School Reunion.

That said, Jo is awesome, yo. I'm surprisingly fond of her.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

This is why, in my head, she was fibbing immensely due to still being A Bit Annoyed at getting dumped in Aberdeen. Which is very cold and far away.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

OMG that vid! Although if the show is ever made, my ovaries might explode.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

That...is a lovely image. My morning coffee LOVES YOU. :p

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*snickers* Sorry. But that amount of sheer male "guh!" all at the same time - Cumberbatch and Tennant, and Simm, and Freeman? Together? (And since they used clips from that ep, Barrowman as well.)

I'd say more, but higher brain functioning shutting down at the thought...

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

ooh, thanks for reminding me to watch the thick of it. have you ever heard iannucci's old radio show, on the hour? IT IS AMAZING. definitely trck it down if you can.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I am rub at radio due to the lack of pictures, but that name does sound vaguely familiar. Possibly I've been told to listen to it before by some sensible person.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so glad you like TTOI.

The Chris Langham thing does make season one distinctly uncomfortable viewing at times (Randomly: I was at a party a few months ago and found myself putting right a few people who were all 'Didn't Bill Nighy once get done for child pornography?' The resemblance isn't doing poor Bill Nighy favours).

Oh, Peter Mannion is wonderful. The best thing is I really wouldn't mind all that much if the Peter and Nicola swapped positions and he became the main character and the show was about Emma and Phil squabbling, and Stewart communicating in only ridiculous management consultancy speak and Peter trying to avoid Terri and her massive crush on him like the plague (which is good since it's what's likely to happen with season four if they don't spend the entire season on the election).

And I could write an epic poem about my love for Peter Capaldi's performance. I won't though.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I approve of that season four SO MUCH. It is a bit ridiculous how much I love Mannion and his team for being four NEW CHARACTERS who just turned up and STOLE TIME away from ma dudes what I'd grown to really quite like. But if you're going to make a giant chart and put Uhura and classic Cylons on it, it is quite difficult not to love, yes.

[the-arn.livejournal.com]

I should point out that it was the BBC Books (Genocide from memory) that did that to Jo rather thans the NAs... although you are generally Not Wrong about the NA's adolescent tendency to show everything being Epic Woe for anyone associated with the Doctor.

[stunt-muppet.livejournal.com]

There's much I'm willing to forgive RTD for for that quote. I guess he doesn't feel as bad breaking his own toys? But yeah, one of the more obnoxious trends of any Extended Universe is the tendency to make everyone have miserable lives in an attempt to be Taken Seriously, and with Who I just don't think that's true to the show, and I'm glad that's not just me being a grump who's overprotective of her favorite characters.

SJA Series 4, eeeee. \o/

[celievamp.livejournal.com]

I must admit to having The Thick of It running through my head and wondering how many times Malcolm Tucker would have worked himself up into an aneurysm during the last election campaign esp. the week of horsetrading that went on after it that ended in the ConDem fiasco.


Oh, and the SJA clip. Much Much Love.