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Post by paulpogue on Jul 20, 2009 8:58:57 GMT -8
In other Who-relevant news, "Torchwood: Children of Men" makes its American premiere tonight on BBC America, 9 p.m. EST, with each of the rest of the five parts on consecutive nights. And repeating many, many times throughout the week.
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 20, 2009 9:01:59 GMT -8
I'm really gonna have to see this in action before I make a judgment. That said, my own initital reaction is also OMGWTF, but hell, I probably would have said the same thing about a cricket outfit with a decorative vegetable. The boots are a nice touch, though. |
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Post by K-Box on Jul 20, 2009 9:12:14 GMT -8
Here's my deal - WHERE THE FUCK IS ALL THE COLOR???
If you're going to do tweed jackets and bow-ties, more than just the bow-tie needs to stand out. Nine stood out by being STARKLY un-colorful - motherfucker was goddamn JOHNNY CASH - whereas when Ten wore brown, he had PINSTRIPES, and his outfit was coordinated enough to look like an ENSEMBLE.
I'd actually prefer Eleven in an Edwardian cricketer outfit.
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 20, 2009 9:18:32 GMT -8
Ten had a tendency to change up the colors on a regular basis, though. I'd be surprised if Eleven ends up with a stable look over the course of 13 episodes.
Just about the hardest job in the design world must be "Doctor Who costume designer," when you think about it. Coming up with an interesting look for each new Doctor must be an ENORMOUS challenge and pressure, especially when you consider that the more successful outfits have been fairly pedestrian with one or two quirks. (Four looked like any guy on the street except for the hat and scarf; Five was normal except for the fact he wasn't on a cricket field and wore a vegetable. Whereas by most viewpoints, Six, by far the most flamboyant outfit, was pretty much a frakking disaster. Even Three wasn't so unusual when you consider swingin' sixties Mod London; there's a reason Austin Powers dresses pretty much the same way.
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Post by jkcarrier on Jul 20, 2009 16:28:21 GMT -8
I dunno, I kind of like it. Dressing him like a 1950s college professor helps offset how young he looks.
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Post by K-Box on Jul 20, 2009 22:28:40 GMT -8
Doctor Who Season 5 pictures! Thank you, Blogtor Who.  More pictures of the Eleventh Doctor, his new companion, and the new TARDIS exterior (yes, you read that last part right): SERIES 5 FILMING BEGINS!SERIES 5 - More Filming Pix!And the spoilery casting pictures that have caused fandom to throw a collective fit: SERIES 5 - Returning Character?SERIES 5 - Returning Character? (Part 2)And my spoilery thoughts: Everyone else keeps complaining about how NEW the TARDIS exterior looks, but if certain spoilery rumors are true, that actually makes sense. What I can't help noticing is how much BIGGER it looks. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are NOT small people, and yet, they almost appear DWARFED by it. The entire POINT of the TARDIS is that it's supposed to look too SMALL on the outside to hold multiple people. Still not feeling Eleven's outfit, although I'm starting to suspect that has more to do with its lack of color than with anything else. Give me the same combination of clothes, but in bolder, brighter colors, and I'd be much happier with it. Yes, Nine and Ten were mostly black and brown, respectively, but Nine was so uniformly black in his wardrobe that it lent him a neo-Johnny Cash sensibility, whereas Ten's matching pinstripes and billowing coat really set off his suits. Eleven's attire still looks largely thrown together at random by comparison, and not even in an interesting way. Looking at it feels like letting soggy Corn Flakes sit in my mouth for too long. I prefer Amy Pond's ensemble in these newer pics, not only because the red really sets off her hair and complexion, but also because it makes her look old enough that I don't feel like quite as much of a pedophile. And I'm now convinced that her name is no coincidence, since we've seen that River Song is back, which leads me to wonder what the connection between the two might be. Speaking of which, I seem to be the only person in fandom who doesn't hate poor River, and the first person to cry OMG MARY SUE who also happens to be a Rose fan can GTFO, because if I have to choose between respective shades of Mary Sues, I'd much rather have the ass-kicking, space-traveling, Sonic Screwdriver-wielding archaeologist cougar fuck-buddy from the future, with the book full of spoilers, than the "average girl" whose response to encountering all the wonders of the broader universe around her seemed to be to REGRESS markedly with each season in which she appeared, until she was reduced to a BAAAWWWWWWing fangirl for Ten, who couldn't stand the prospect of him regenerating into a less pretty face. But I digress. And your thoughts?
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Post by K-Box on Jul 21, 2009 20:01:28 GMT -8
More NuWho Season 5 pictures! I should just start redirecting everyone to Blogtor Who. New Series, New TARDIS, New Sonic?Yes, you read that last part right. SERIES 5 - More of THAT Returning CharacterThe plot thickens ... And an extra spoilery picture, plus my spoilery commentary:  The word on the piece of metal in the lower right corner of the photo: "Crash of the Byzantium ... have we done that yet?" - River Song, "Silence in the Library." Yeah, at this point, in spite of suggestions that Alex Kingston might be playing a different character, I think it's pretty clear that it's River who's returning. Continuity-hounds are already throwing a shit-fit over the fact that River asked Ten if they'd done the crash of the Byzantium yet, since it looks like she'll be experiencing that event with Eleven instead. At first, I could appreciate their concerns, if not their extremism, but after I thought about it for a bit, I realized that I can hand-wave this a bit, because in real life, we misremember even really intense and emotional experiences all the time. I'm constantly having to remind my folks that trips they think they remember taking with me when I was in college were actually trips we took together when I was on leave during my military years, or that get-togethers that they're sure we had when I was in high school actually happened when I was back home for the summers during my college years. I had distinctly different hairstyles (including much different facial hair) and wardrobes (and even waistlines) at these various points in my life, but with the people whom we love and are closest to, I suspect that the mind's eye tends to gloss over those details, so that, when you look at this person, who's a friend or a family member or a lover or whatever, you don't really see them as who they are in that exact moment, but instead, you see them with all the other versions of them superimposed on top of their current appearances. Certainly, I go through that with my folks, who look about the same to me as they have for years, until I see them in photos or something, and I occasionally (but only briefly) realize how much OLDER they look now. Oh, and contrary to what seems to be the prevailing popular opinion? I'm leaning toward actually LIKING the new Sonic Screwdriver, not in the least because, while the previous model definitely LOOKED super-cool, its handle always seemed too SMALL to me, to get a truly firm, comfortable GRIP on, and especially when you're talking about a toy that kids and emotionally adolescent adults like me are going to want to handle and play with, durability and tactile appeal are always important, and this new model seems far less delicate and fragile. |
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 21, 2009 20:27:00 GMT -8
I dunno; my replica Screwdriver (which is apparently what they actually use in the series; Who lore has it that the prop kept breaking during series 1, and when Tennant took over, they just bought a supply of the plastic Character Options screwdrivers) has a pretty good feel to it. But I can see some love for the new one, too.
Interestingly enough -- and almost certainly not coincidentally -- this new Sonic seems to carry over some design elements from the Master's Laser Screwdriver.
Personally, I think the continuity-hounds who are throwing a fit over River Song interacting with a Doctor who's not Ten really, really need to grow up. The lead actor quit! Time to make up some workarounds! These things happen all the time. I can just imagine their heart failure when Albus Dumbledore completely changed appearance between movies 2 and 3.
We all know the Comic Book Prime Directive, but if there's a Beta Directive, it's this: There is nothing, nothing, nothing in genre fiction that cannot be undone in five minutes. In most cases, it can be done in one line of dialogue. ("But Doctor, don't Time Lords have a 13-life limit? And aren't you on your 15th?" "Right you are, faithful sidekick, but as it turns out, as a side effect of the Time War and exposure to the Vortex, I've been reset back to 1! And now we shall never speak of it again. To the Whomobile!") Hell, I can think of a half-dozen ways to work around the River Song problem just off the top of my head, and I'm not half as clever as Steven Moffat. (Most likely one: River was being very careful what she said, and maybe even fiddling with the truth a bit, particularly when it became clear that he'd never met her before.)
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Post by Anders on Jul 22, 2009 2:18:41 GMT -8
I suspect that the mind's eye tends to gloss over those details, so that, when you look at this person, who's a friend or a family member or a lover or whatever, you don't really see them as who they are in that exact moment, but instead, you see them with all the other versions of them superimposed on top of their current appearances. Certainly, I go through that with my folks, who look about the same to me as they have for years, until I see them in photos or something, and I occasionally (but only briefly) realize how much OLDER they look now. DERAIL BEGINS -> Hell, I do that with stuff I've experienced myself. "Which year was that? Well, let's see... it was after 1991 and before 1999. Closer than that? Er..." <- DERAIL ENDS |
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Post by K-Box on Jul 22, 2009 10:07:43 GMT -8
Who lore has it that the prop kept breaking during series 1 [...] You realize you just made my point for me, yes? |
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 22, 2009 10:30:14 GMT -8
Who lore has it that the prop kept breaking during series 1 [...] You realize you just made my point for me, yes? Well, yeah, but the Character Options sonic screwdriver didn't break anywhere near as often as that one . My own has survived several months of toddler-play without dying! |
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 25, 2009 16:31:05 GMT -8
Everyone else keeps complaining about how NEW the TARDIS exterior looks, but if certain spoilery rumors are true, that actually makes sense. What I can't help noticing is how much BIGGER it looks. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are NOT small people, and yet, they almost appear DWARFED by it. The entire POINT of the TARDIS is that it's supposed to look too SMALL on the outside to hold multiple people. I'm becoming more convinced that this is some kind of optical illusion. If the TARDIS is bigger, it's only slightly bigger, and probably by dint of being wider. Take a look at these pics:  Nine here, only slightly leaning, has the top of his head parallel with the windows, whereas Eleven and Amy are about the same height in comparison. And now Ten:  Same height. He's standing on the TARDIS platform, adding about four inches to his height, so it all evens out. Another shot that places the TARDIS height at around 10 feet:  Then add in this picture of the new TARDIS alongside the military folk:  And I would venture to say that all told, it's actually the same size, and if anything, it's the photo itself that is weird and not the size. |
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 26, 2009 10:54:21 GMT -8
A very well-thought-out blog post about Doctor Who continuity or the lack thereof: teatimebrutality.blogspot.com/2009/07/canon-and-sheep-shit-why-we-fight.htmlIt's sort of the opposite of Lawrence Miles, whom, despite my liking his writing very much, has a completely opposite viewpoint of Doctor Who than I, to the point of wringing his hands over the question of "Now that Kylie Minogue has played a character in Doctor Who, and Agatha Christie's appearance makes clear that they're now willing to have the Doctor meet historical characters who lived during the show's actual run, what happens if, fifty years from now, some Doctor Who producer decides to have the Doctor meet 1990s pop star Kylie Minogue?" (The answer: Well, uh, the Doctor meets 1990s pop star Kylie Minogue and they have an adventure, the end! It's not like space/time will divide by zero, particularly in a series that has frequently had actors play different main characters. Hell, at least two of the actors for early companions, Barbara Wright and Sarah Kingdom, eventually returned in completely different roles, and nobody blinked.) |
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Post by K-Box on Jul 26, 2009 15:33:27 GMT -8
Word from San Diego mostly confirmed what's already been spoilered online, in terms of confirming appearances by Donna, Wilf, Simm!Master and Dalton!Time Lord, but RTD also confirmed the return of Lucy Saxon. Also? The final Tennant special's title is "The End of Time."
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Post by lostphrack on Jul 26, 2009 18:52:34 GMT -8
WOW! I'm amazed that someone found his blog. I know the guy in that casual online kind of way. He posts to a comic forum I swing by every now and then.. didn't know anyone outside of that small circle knew about his blog. Neat.. Yeah, nothing Doctor Who related but I felt the urge to share. |
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