Real life, with a dash of Doctor Who

I continue to adore audible.com. I've got all the available reboot-era DW novels in my wishlist and I'm working my way through slowly. My monthly credit costs more than the novels usually cost, so I'm using the credits on more expensive books and buying the DW books to fill in the gaps between finishing a more expensive book and getting a new credit.

I recently bought "The Silent Stars Go By" on Kilodalton's advice. She was right! It was really nice to see the relationship between the Doctor and Amy being developed in the story. The plot was also very good and I liked the little twist near the end that makes the storyline slightly more complicated than I expected. It was a solid little story and I enjoyed it very much. I had one of those moments at the end where I sighed and felt completely satisfied. I love those.

I still have a while before a new credit shows up on my account, so I went ahead and bought "The Winner Takes All." It's a Nine-era story with Rose and read by Camille Coduri (I admit, I squeed a bit when I realized she was the narrator). I've only listened to 10 minutes of this book and I am already completely charmed. Nine's pulling his, "I can do better than that" routine and Rose is giving him a hard time over it. All the reviews on this book are positive and I'm really looking forward to the rest of it.

I've also listened to The Magicians by Lev Grossman and its sequel The Magician King. It was an interesting mashup of The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter, but for adults. I liked the sequel more than the original, but would happily recommend both to anyone who likes fantasy fiction. There is a third part that has not yet been published. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

Lastly, I listened to In the Woods by Tana French. It's the first in a three-part police procedural series called "Dublin Murder Squad." I was rather lukewarm on this one. The story is good, and the writing is superb, but the resolution left me rather cold. It's realistic, but that made it sort of a letdown. I noticed the second and third parts are told from other characters' points of view, so I may like them a little more. I'm also hoping for some resolution to a storyline that was left unsolved in the first book. I'll definitely be getting the rest of this series because I think that it may have an overarching plot. At least, I'm hoping. I'm kind of hanging my hat on that hypothesis, so if it doesn't, I will be really disappointed.

The Fandom March Madness tournament is down to the Championship round and it's Donna Noble vs. Leslie Knope. If you're interested, now's the time to vote!

http://f-march-madness.livejournal.com/9961.html

* Please note that only votes from Livejournal accounts will be counted.

Justin says he's figured out the Doctor's real name. Deuteronomy Finch.

How does he know that? Well, it goes into numerology. It's very complicated. Don't forget the "t" in "Finch" which is both silent and unwritten.

Please join me on Saturday, October 8 at 2:00 p.m Eastern Daylight Time. for a rewatch of Doctor Who, Season One. Episodes will include:
Rose
The End of the World
Dalek
Father's Day
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

The rewatch will go until 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, because I have other obligations to attend to at that time. However, if the participants want to keep going, they are certainly welcome to do so.

"How do I get into the chat?"

If you're already familiar with IRC, just fire up your favorite client and join us on the Freenode IRC network.

If you haven't used IRC in the past, it's very easy! Just click here, fill in the boxes, and click "connect."

I will post the channel name here on Saturday by 1:00 p.m.

Feel free to pimp this out. The more the merrier.

I've been listening to Doctor Who audiobooks while at work. It helps the time pass when I'm doing some of my more brainless tasks. I'm halfway through "The Last Voyage" and it is supremely creepy. Naturally, I adore it. But I was in the middle of a particularly intense scene when David Tennant's voice cut out mid-word and suddenly I hear hail and it sounds as if the ceiling is coming down on top of me. I nearly jumped out of my chair and screamed (I'm pretty sure I gasped loudly). Then I realized that the first half of the recording had ended and iTunes, on shuffle, had started playing a sample of a polyrhythmic ensemble from Ghana (part of my Music as a World Phenomenon course). The singing clued me in.

Turn the sound down at the end. The last few seconds turns this super-cute video into a lame "screamer."

I've been hesitant to post about this stuff, so here it is all at once.

I'm nervous about Dominic's school. I set my alarm for midnight so I could be among the first to submit an application for open enrollment at the school my sitter's kids go to. The application wasn't open by 12:30, so I went back to bed. It was up at 5, so I submitted it then. Dominic is in the last group of kids that will be considered because he is a non-resident of that particular city and he has no siblings in higher grades. I'm terrified he won't be accepted, because neither Justin nor I will be able to pick him up from school in the afternoons. We really need our sitter to do it, and she can't do it if he doesn't go to the same school as her kids. I'm sure there's some kind of a solution if open enrollment doesn't work, but I'm afraid it would mean finding a new sitter. And I don't know when they intend to notify which kids were accepted.

I'm nervous about fall semester. I'm worried I'm taking on too much at once.

I'm scared about my upcoming trip. I'm terrified I'm going to die in a fiery plane crash. This is normal for me, so I won't focus too much on it.

Lastly, I need to finally admit that I don't care for this incarnation of Doctor Who. I don't think I'm at the I-refuse-to-watch-this-season-anymore point (and because of the midseason break, it doesn't actually matter), but I feel like the people who are completely enamored of this season are trying to push me, and people like me, that direction and it makes me feel angry. Like I'm not the fan they want me to be, so I'm not worth anything and need to stfu. Which is why I've stopped posting about it. I don't want to be all Negative Nelly about it constantly. I want to concentrate on the things I have enjoyed (and there have been things!), but I feel like the things I don't care for have been outweighing the things I've liked.

I've been comparing it to fanfic a lot lately. I think that it's an apt comparison because the writers are fans telling new stories using someone else's characters. Season 5 and what I've seen of season 6 feel like fanfic from a very popular author whose characterization I don't buy, whose OCs I don't understand, and whose themes I don't enjoy. I'm not saying that Moffat's Who is bad. I'm saying it's not for me.

Soon I'll be watching more of the Classic Series and I'm sure there will be eras that I don't care for for similar reasons, but I'll still watch them, because (as gement so eloquently put it) I still love the shape of the show. I'll continue watching Season 6 and even though this era isn't my cup of tea, chances are good that future eras will be.

AKA: 30 Days of Nu-Who: Day 30

When it comes to liking something, I usually fall back on my old standby explanation of, "I just do." Shouldn't that be good enough? But my love of Doctor Who goes beyond mere like and borders on obsession. When you like something that much you should probably examine why.

In order to understand why I love Doctor Who so much, you must first understand why I love TV. Television, in general, has a terrible reputation and it's not unearned, but television has potential to do a significant amount of good. In addition to the dissemination of information that television allows through programs such as the evening news, TV eliminates the boundaries of oral tradition and opens the doors to rich new worlds of stories, images, and sounds.

Fred Rogers once sat before Congress and argued that funding to PBS should not be cut because programs such as his Neighborhood helped children to become well-adjusted members of society. He also fought for the production of the VCR so families could record live shows and watch them later, when they could all be together. This is a clip of Rogers' testimony before Congress. In it, he explains his concern about what he sees on broadcast television and contrasts it with the things that are shown on his show. He says he finds it "much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger... much more dramatic than showing something of gunfire." In Doctor Who, the Doctor always gives the baddies a chance and only resorts to violence when all other options have been exhausted.



I admit, we also programs with very few redeeming qualities. Many shows seem to be produced specifically for shock value, or to see how "the other half" live, or to throw people into unusual situations and see how they'll react. These shows are not my cup of tea, but I'm not going to judge anyone for watching and enjoying them. My point is, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. In addition to children's educational programming such as Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, there are shows dedicated to teaching adults valuable skills such as woodworking or home improvement. There are programs that can show us parts of the world we will never get to see with our own eyes. There are entire networks dedicated to teaching history, science, and technology.

Also, there is storytelling. And this is where Doctor Who comes in.

I recently dedicated 29 entries to what I do or do not like about Doctor Who. Going back through my entries, clear patterns emerge. Passion, humor, relationships, intelligence, conflict, and conflict resolution. Also, I'm a sucker for scary stories. But it also goes beyond good storytelling.

Doctor Who can show you how to be a better person. "That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away."

And that's why I like it. Because it can teach you how to live a bigger, better life. I'm not going to go hop into my space and time machine any time soon, but I have been (and will be) faced with difficult choices in my life, and Doctor Who, among other things, will help (and has helped) me make the right decision.

You might think I'm overstating the importance of a British science fiction television show. I might be, but I think I'm far from the only person this show has affected so profoundly. This show is nearly 50 years old and has a rabid international fanbase. My reasons are my own, but I don't think I'm alone.

What do you think?

Day 1 - Favorite Incarnation of the Doctor: Nine
Day 2 - Favorite Companion: Donna Noble
Day 3 - Favorite Villain/Monster/Alien/Baddie of the Week: The Entity from "Midnight"
Day 4 - Favorite Character: Wilfred Mott
Day 5 - Favorite Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head
Day 6 - Least Favorite Character: Lady Christina de Souza
Day 7 - Favorite Episode: "Midnight"
Day 8 - Favorite Series: Series Four
Day 9 - Least Favorite Episode: "Planet of the Dead"
Day 10 - Favorite Scene/Moment: "Don't... just don't."
Day 11 - Scene/Moment that makes you cry: Ten rages against the dying of the light
Day 12 - Scene/Moment that makes you giggle: Jackie Tyler smacks the Doctor
Day 13 - Favorite Era visited by The Doctor & Co: The End of the World
Day 14 - Fave Doctor Moment: "Basically, run."
Day 15 - Fave Rose Moment: "The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life."
Day 16 - Fave Martha Moment: "This is me, getting out."
Day 17 - Fave Donna Moment: "If I change things, I don't die? That's... that's right, isn't it?"
Day 18 - Fave Amy Moment: "Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."
Day 19 - Favorite Ship: TenII/Rose
Day 20 - Prettiest Scene: "Vincent and the Doctor"
Day 21 - Favorite Location: The TARDIS
Day 22 - Something Silly: "Partners in Crime" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp" Charades
Day 23 - Something Epic: "Vale Decem"
Day 24 - Favorite Accessory of the Doctor's: Ten's maroon Chucks
Day 25 - Favorite TARDIS Team: Nine, Rose, and Jack
Day 26 - Scene/Moment that made you go 'awww': The Doctor cuddles kittens
Day 27 - Scene/Moment that made you go 'argh': Dalek Sec becomes Dalek-Human
Day 28 - Favorite Series Arc: Series 4
Day 29 - Favorite Music/Song: "This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home"
Day 30 - Why Do YOU Love Doctor Who

Day 28 - Favorite Series Arc

( Series 4 )

Day 25 - Favorite TARDIS Team

( Into time and space! )