![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
No one move a muscle when the dead come home
The ironic aftereffect of viewing The Night of the Doctor (2013) last thing before bed is that I woke up wanting a time machine. The Doctor who sold his soul, sacrificed his name, gave away everything he stood for and became a monster to fight monsters? Of course I want him played by John Hurt. And then I want a series of that nameless Warrior seen for just one stinger moment in that fire-polished ripple of metal: Doctor no more . . . I have always thought John Hurt was beautiful, especially in his dark, watchful younger years. He always looked a little bruised around the eyes, even when the rest of him was boyish; he's a good face for someone I suspect of deploying the Gallifreyan equivalent of the Deplorable Word to end the Time War. I imagine we'll find out the full story in "The Day of the Doctor," but it will still be just a flicker, like this glimpse of Paul McGann. Thirty-year-old John Hurt is not happening without serious technology. (Neither is more onscreen McGann, I am afraid, although at least in his case there's years of radio drama to catch up on.) It's still probably most I've enjoyed a script by Steven Moffat since "Blink." And I can write wistfully about the rest.
no subject
It's why Season 5 of Highlander is by far the best one. I don't know if you've seen it, but they circle around the question of what, for lack of a better term, I think of as the moral statute of limitations: with people who live forever, how long do you get to hold them accountable for what they did before? At what point are they allowed to reasonably claim that they have repented and changed? Who gets to judge them for what they've done, and for how long? There's a whole sequence of episodes scattered through there that keep hitting that question from different angles, and it's so infinitely better than the early-seasons stuff of "now we're going to have an episode that's basically Die Hard! But with an immortal, so they think they've killed him and then he shows up and defeats them!"
Also, there is one fourth-season episode whose plot is utter Macguffin stupidity, but I forgive it because it contains an amazing speech that takes all the "ooooh I'm an immortal and people want to chop my head off" angst and says, bullshit. Try being mortal.
And it hurts so much. He wouldn't have cared if she hated him so long as she let him save her. And it makes sense of his choice: "I don't suppose there's any need for a doctor anymore." Because that person couldn't have helped Cass: didn't.
Yes. And it's the same excellent button some of the Tennant plots hit with me: the limitations of the Doctor's ability to save people, and the effect those limitations have on him. Sort of akin to why I can tolerate Lymond, in Dunnett's books; he's brilliant and amazing and all the rest of it, and sometimes, it still isn't enough. When it isn't . . . the Doctor doesn't always make good choices.
If you find you only want to watch a little bit of Tennant, I recommend the last two specials, "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time." Some of what goes on in them will mean less if you haven't seen what goes before, and the penultimate scenes of the latter bog down a bit in "Russell T. Davies says goodbye to everyone and everything from his time on the show," but they're what I think of when I talk about why I loved Tennant's run.
no subject
I've seen the first Highlander movie, nothing else. I've never had a serious recommendation for the series and I've been actively warned against the movie sequels. Do you consider the previous seasons worth watching to get to the fifth?
Who gets to judge them for what they've done, and for how long?
That's nice. It shouldn't be an easily answerable question.
Some of what goes on in them will mean less if you haven't seen what goes before, and the penultimate scenes of the latter bog down a bit in "Russell T. Davies says goodbye to everyone and everything from his time on the show," but they're what I think of when I talk about why I loved Tennant's run.
Thanks; I haven't seen either, except for maybe the last five minutes of "The End of Time" unless they were reprised at the beginning of "The Eleventh Hour."
no subject
What sequels? They only ever made the one movie. <nods vigorously>
Do you consider the previous seasons worth watching to get to the fifth?
Selected episodes, yes, and maybe a bit of background summary to explain stuff that's nowhere in the movie/things you'll see Duncan angsting about. You need at a minimum to see the stuff with Methos before season five, so you can properly appreciate how he's the best thing that ever happened to the show. :-P
If you're genuinely interested in this, shoot me an e-mail (marie{dot}brennan{at}gmail), and I'll try to write up a recommendation.
Thanks; I haven't seen either, except for maybe the last five minutes of "The End of Time" unless they were reprised at the beginning of "The Eleventh Hour."
I can't remember how much got reprised there, but it can't have been much more than the last half-centimeter of the spear point, so to speak. Some things need momentum to work.
no subject
I have seen a lot of icons with him.
If you're genuinely interested in this, shoot me an e-mail (marie{dot}brennan{at}gmail), and I'll try to write up a recommendation.
I am genuinely interested in that no one has ever before made a case to me for watching the series; I am unlikely to start any time soon because a series of any greater length than Slings & Arrows is a major viewing commitment and I'm barely watching movies at this point. I don't want to put you to the trouble of writing me an exhaustive guide to the series right now when it may take me years to get around to making use of it.