Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 136

Watching New Who: Dalek

Watching New Who – in conversation with David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she's rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all (plus a six-year-old daughter who is finding her own Doctors for the first time). We're going to work our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, as our blogging points. Just for fun!

DALEK – Season one, episode six

The Doctor – Christopher Eccleston

Rose Tyler – Billie Piper

TEHANI:

Okay, so we've seen the year five billion and met a creepy human skin in "The End of the World", gone back to Victorian England for a very Sherlock Holmes-y style ghost busting episode in "The Unquiet Dead", been introduced to the Slitheen and their self-centred plans in "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" (and Harriet Jones! I love her), and now we're up to "Dalek", the first of Season One's Hugo nominated episodes. The Doctor and Rose are getting to know each other, as we get to know them, and it must have been interesting for long term fans to watch Eccleston in this role, after such a long break from the show. Tansy, any thoughts to share on what that was like, for those early episodes, before we get to "Dalek"?

TANSY:

Mostly for me it was a wild ride – I had no particular interaction with fandom, and so I wasn't juggling the kind of critical attention that overwhelms Doctor Who these days. But after months of seeing nothing but "Rose" as evidence of what New Who would be about, The End of the World was an enormous delight – aliens and space stations, and the unrolling mythology of human futures! Looking at it now, that episode suffers a lot from budgetary issues, but at the time it showed us the kind of creativity and ambition we were going to associate with the new series. Also the use of actual music – not just Murray Gold being a genius, but Britney Spears! – was a shock to the system. "The Unquiet Dead" showed us also that Earth's history and time travel were going to be important – something we had learned not to take for granted about Doctor Who since the end of the Hartnell era, really. "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" are generally dismissed by fans now thanks to the silliness of the Slitheen (though gotta say, the kids love em!), but they were mind blowing at the time too – the idea that we would be exploring a contemporary Earth where everyone knew aliens were real was a fascinating one, which RTD would flirt with throughout his era.

DAVID:

I found End of the World much stronger than the Slitheen episodes, which appeared to be played a little too much for laughs. I thought too much about what they did to the pig though, that's actually pretty horrifying when you think about it. It was also interesting seeing the impact that Rose's leaving had on those around her, you don't always think about what happens to the companion's lives outside oft heir adventures with the Doctor (as I think Tansy has alluded to).

End of the World also had some good scenes for Rose where her homesickness comes to the fore, and the Doctor showing his compassion with perhaps the best phone modification imaginable. And I always love seeing heaps of different aliens.

Unquiet Dead was a bit of a throwback to some of the "historical" episodes I grew up with, where we see that it isn't just about outer space or the future, but about the past as well. The repartee between the Doctor and Charles Dickens was great fun, and it was good character development for Rose as she gets some idea about the vast distances she is travelling in both time and space, and how different her life was from the maids in its scope even before she met the Doctor.

Tehani, I loved Harriet Jones too … so VERY English!

TANSY:

I love Harriet, she's always brilliant. And worth noting that getting actors of the calibre of Penelope Wilton and Simon Callow (not to mention La Eccleston himself!) was a big deal for this first season – after a waning decade of Doctor Who in the 80′s where it was seen as a bit of a joke by those who didn't love it, it was beyond delightful to see the show redevelop into something that every actor wanted to appear in.

But never mind all that, let's talk about DALEKS.

DAVID:

Daleks! This for me is where we really get into the swing of things. I have been enjoying New Who so far, but I have found it to be erring a bit on the side of tongue in cheek. That was always part of Classic Who, sure, but the flatulent aliens and the like have so far outweighed the things that actually managed to creep me out (like the suspended human skin *shudder*) or were approached from a more serious point of view. This episode was the first that had a real sense of menace about it, and they managed to hit some great emotional notes. Rather than just being an overblown pepper pot, the Dalek came across as a truly deadly killing machine and we see a side of the Doctor that is, to be frank, unpleasant. And, of course, lots of foreshadowing…

TEHANI:

It was a bit of a shock actually, to see the Doctor so instantly horrible to the Dalek. I mean, I know they're his nemesis and all that, but after lulling us into a false sense of geniality, he strikes out like that. But it also helped show why he has a companion – Rose and her compassion (well-meaning, if rather misplaced) remind the Doctor that even he has blind spots. This became quite a theme throughout the new seasons I think – the Doctor is brilliant and manic and incredible, but without his companion/s, he can be rather, well, inhuman.

TANSY:

I really appreciated the Ninth Doctor in this – not as much as in a few later episodes, but while I had enjoyed Eccleston's performance all along, this showed the depths he was willing to bring to the part. I love that they followed up on the chilling revelations in "Rose" about the loss of his people. The Time War is cleverly seeded all through this season, but never more than in this particular episode. And I think it's important that the Doctor isn't completely likeable – his comedy collides with his emo-ness in the Dalek reveal scene in particular, and you see how very damaged he is. That's important.

DAVID:

The Doctor is completely unhinged here. It makes you realise something terrible has happened for the Doctor to be exhibiting such rabid hatred. I can't remember him ever acting like that before, even when he had to do some rough things (thinking McCoy Era especially) there was always a tinge of regret.

TANSY:

A new Doctor in more ways than one. I have to say, the idea of the Time War and the loss of Gallifrey as something in the immediate past was a masterstroke on the part of the new production team. It was a new backstory that could be told (and shown) simply and to maximum emotional effect, that didn't contradict anything of the past, but also didn't require a Classic Who Handbook for new viewers. Christopher Eccleston really seized upon the meaty material in this episode, and didn't shy away from the idea that the Doctor can be a monster as well as a hero.

TEHANI:

It's also interesting that he doesn't deny his love for Rose, even here. I mean, the Doctor probably loves all of his companions, right? But not LOVE love. Which is how the Dalek means it.

TANSY:

I'm not convinced that anything other than a platonic love is being discussed at this point. It's too soon to be credible, apart from anything. But you can't beat a Dalek talking about love when it comes to dramatic irony – important to note that Daleks are not the ones who have had all their emotions removed! They just tend to concentrate on the 'rage' and 'revenge' category of feelings.

TEHANI:

Oh yes, that's true! Still, I thought the way it was said was rather provocative, and in context with what comes later … well, we'll get to that.

DAVID: The impression that I have gotten so far is that the Doctor is trying very hard to impress Rose, he is almost like a high school kid at times. Not sure how much of that is actually romantic, the Doctor has always been full of childlike wonder, but he makes lots of wild promises of taking her to distant places and times that are almost boastful, and he is attitude to Rose's boyfriend is almost as if he is jealous of any attention she gives anyone but him.

TEHANI:

I don't think I was sold on the ending of the Dalek – I suppose it made sense but hrrmm, not a big fan of the Dalek enjoying the sunlight then begging to be ordered to die. And I have to say, does it ever get old that we continually get "the last Dalek ever"?

TANSY:

It does later, but at this point, it's a unique idea and storyline. The thing that this episode does so well is to give us a single Dalek, and terrorise us with it – it basically restores the mythology of the creature after forty years of jokes about pepperpots and jokes about stairs. My favourite part is before the sunlight bit – where the Doctor storms in to rescue Rose after she has started to empathise with the Dalek, and she points out which of the two is pointing a gun at her. This is where she really shows her value as a companion, I think – and we see the beginning of the Doctor starting to emerge from his dark cloud.

DAVID: Tansy, that is exactly what I loved about it! This is Doctor Who taking itself seriously, but not in a pompous way. There is almost a tendency in Doctor Who to try and preempt it being laughed at by getting there first, and the Daleks are a classic example of that with jokes about stairs. But, here we see the Daleks presented as what they are, one of the most lethal creatures in the Universe and devoted to the death of every other living thing.

I felt sorry for the Dalek at the end, Rose gave it enough humanity for it to know that it could never be human. I thought that whole scene was very powerful.

TEHANI:

So when I say I wasn't sold on it, totally doesn't mean I wasn't also in tears at it

TANSY:

Also it has to be said, that scene with the dripping water, where the Dalek kills EVERYBODY, is also devastating. None of this killing one at a time business, plus it's beautifully shot.

DAVID:

Agree completely, that was brilliant. It goes back to the idea that the Daleks are incredibly good at killing, that's what they are designed to do.

TEHANI:

It's amazing how visceral the viewer reaction is to the Dalek onscreen. Is it the voice? My first reaction was to go back to being a seven year old and hide behind the couch! They are simply scary, no bones.

TANSY:

Something I wanted to note about this episode, which might not mean anything to either of you, is how much it foreshadows (or possible inspires!) the spin off series of Torchwood, and to some extent the Sarah Jane Adventures. The whole concept of reclaiming artefacts and technology from random alien incursions is a really cool one, and is another reminder that there should be domestic consequences of all these alien invasions that the Doctor has been fighting off for decades. As with the consequences of the companion leaving her life behind at the sniff of a jelly baby, this is a theme that will be openly explored in New Who, where it was largely ignored in the old days.

DAVID:

Bit of a tangent, but I always loved the episodes where the Doctor had to deal with something that he had left lying around, or a loose end he hadn't tidied up. Face of Evil is a classic example, where we see that sometimes there are consequences that linger on after the TARDIS has dematerialised.

TEHANI:

Tansy, even I noticed how much this was discussed, in subtext or right up front, throughout the series. In fact, it makes me wonder how Rory and Amy will go when it all ends for them. Oops, sorry David, "spoilers"! And, ahem, haven't seen any Torchwood yet. Should I?

TANSY: I'm a huge Torchwood fangirl so I say yes, yes! For continuity's sake I recommend trying out season 1 of Torchwood after the New Who Season 2 finale, though I know this is all rewatch for you Tehani, so it's less of an issue. If you like Captain Jack later this season, I'd say give it a chance. Then if you're interested in slotting it all in, Season 2 of Torchwood can be watched quite tidily after season 3 Doctor Who (or between episodes 6-12 of Season 4 if you want to get fancy) and then as long as you put away Season 3 before David Tennant finishes his run in The End of Time, you're all good.

TEHANI:

It doesn't hurt our enjoyment of "Dalek" that our mate Robert Shearman wrote this episode (although, sorry Rob, but it wasn't enough to make me go watch Doctor Who THEN, when I met you!)

TANSY:

Am I the only person who watched this episode BEFORE meeting Rob? I think he was a little disappointed that I liked it, in contrast to Alisa telling him to his face that his was the episode that made her give up on the show because she hated it so much. Sorry, Rob. I still think it's awesome.

DAVID: Lol no you aren't, I haven't met him at all. If I do I will try and hide how much I enjoyed this episode!

PREVIOUSLY ON WATCHING NEW WHO:

Rose

NEXT UP: Father's Day

Galactic Suburbia Episode Freaking Forty!!!

New episode up on iTunes! [downloadable version will be available on our site tomorrow]

EPISODE FORTY

In which we hug the Hugos, plug the Stella, lament the loss of the Weird Tales team, and contemplate (briefly) our podcasterly mid-life crisis. Alex delves into the wonderful world of classic cyberpunk, and Tansy demands to know why on earth Alisa is still watching Doctor Who if she doesn't actually like it?

News

Weird Tales Sold, Editorial Staff Kicked Out

Strange Horizons Fundraising Drive

The Stella: new Australian novel prize for women

Galactic Chat

Kelley Armstrong

Ben Peek

Tansy's win

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Doctor Who Season 2, Outer Alliance Podcast

Alex: Trouble and her Friends, Melissa Scott; Only Ever Always, Penni Russon; Synners, Pat Cadigan; Blake's 7.

Tansy: SF Squeecast #3, Panel2Panel, Among Others by Jo Walton, Alcestis by Katherine Beukner, Stormlord's Exile by Glenda Larke, AM KINDLED WILL TRAVEL

Pet Subject: Hugoriffic!

Were you there for the Hugo Twitter party? Or did you have to resort to sitting in the live audience?

The stats

The results

Hugos commentary round up

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Taking Leaves

Some extra lovely news today – that I can finally reveal, in any case! I was selected as one of the winners of the "Never Too Late… To Learn To Read" competition which is kicking off Adult Learning Week, and launching 2012 as the National Year of Reading.

If you follow the link, you can see the whole list of winners (twelve previously published writers and eight previously unpublished), and download the winning stories. They will also be available as podcasts at a later date. There's a write up about the three Tasmanians who won prizes here.

In a moment of rare Being A Writer In Public this evening, I ditched the kids at my honey's office and zoomed down to the office of the Hobart Mercury, to meet the other Tassie winners, Philomena and Mark, and have some pics taken for (I think) tomorrow's paper. It was faintly surreal, as I had to negotiate a mostly locked and security sealed building, only to be thrust physically against two complete strangers, and hold each other in a disturbingly intimate embrace for several minutes, before going our separate ways. We feel a little bonded now, like those people who get trapped together during earthquakes and have an emotional connection for the rest of our life.

By the end of it we were all giggling hysterically, as the photographer lined us up at stranger and stranger angles. The funniest part was his bemusement when he asked for the book and we told him there wasn't one (knew I should have taken some books in!) because it was a short story competition. He racked his brain for about five seconds to consider whether there was some other possible visual representation of a short story competition, then handed us a book about football, which we had to contemplate with great attention.

Only to realise as we finally broke free of our mutual artificial and ever-so-slightly-diagonal embrace to discover that the cover of said book was upside down. Really hope that doesn't come up in the pictures!

My story, in any case, is called "Taking Leaves," and as Tehani pointed out on Twitter, it's totally a speculative fiction story. Literature, schmiterature! You can download it here.

[and just in case you thought I was going to write a whole blog entry without mentioning Doctor Who, this is the story which I was so busy trying to finish before the 5pm contest deadline that I let my six-year-old watch the episode "Doomsday" unsupervised, only to discover with ten minutes left to go before the deadline that she was in ABSOLUTE FLOODS OF TEARS because of the separation between Rose and the Doctor. One of those moments in life where being a good writer entails being a bad mummy. When I discovered I had won the competition, I must admit I felt at least partly relieved that, you know, it was worth it. I probably won't mention to her yet that my current intentions for the money are to fund a solo trip to World Fantasy Convention next year...]

Pashing the Kindle

It's been a dizzyingly good day so far, and it's not even lunch time!

First I woke up to a mad flurry of Twitter action that proved Arsenal had actually (for once) put its money where its mouth was and BOUGHT REAL PLAYERS in the eleventh hour of the transfer period. So yes, being slaughtered by Man U was good for something. We have a defensive line again, and a real grown up midfielder with experience rather than potential!

Dizzy, I tell you.

Then I hit the 70,000 word mark on my Nancy Napoleon novel. It's not finished yet, but lurching into the final act, and oh boy. Giant monsters, bitchy goddesses and pretty boys covered in blood. I must get this novel finished while I'm still in love with it!

But the big feature of the day has been my first real chance to play with the new household toy. My honey decided what he wanted for Father's Day was a Kindle, and he's been happily buying & reading books on it for the last two days (father's day came early, obviously).

Now, I was what you would call a Kindlecynic. When it comes to the Mighty Empire of Amazon, I've been backing away slowly, and doing my best to support the less enormous booksellers in our industry. For the most part, I succeeded in this, except for my recent Audible addiction. But I have to admit, the Kindle is pretty awesome. It's so much lighter than the iPad, and so comfortable to read! I was finally able to get hold of Lucy March/Lani Diane Rich's The Fortune Quilt, a book I've been wanting since I first started listening to back episodes of the podcast Will Write for Wine. I've picked up the e-book of Nick Mamatas' Starve Better, which I have been eyeing off for weeks. I've also stocked up on Octavia Butler, the complete works of Mary Shelley and a bunch of other SF and urban fantasy titles – plus my wish list is growing substantially!

I was excited to see when I searched for Nicola Griffith that her Ammonite is available as a pre-order from Gollancz later this month – SF Gateway ahoy!

Oh and, ahem, worth mentioning that my first two Creature Court novels, Power and Majesty & Shattered City, are both available through the Kindle (though I assume only to Australian & NZ readers) and they are looking a bit lonely for lack of reviews. So much so that my honey took pity on me and wrote one himself, which is equal measures of embarrassing and adorable. I'm coming down on the side of adorable. I have so many fantastic reviews over at GoodReads, so it feels churlish to ask, but I would be supremely grateful if any of you with Kindle/Amazon accounts who've read the books could post a review up there, or cut and paste you have already written over at GoodReads. THANK YOU!

From a practical point of view I've noticed only a few niggles – like the books don't disappear from the wishlist when you buy them, and the 'books recommended for you' are full of unavailable titles. For the most part, it's a smooooth reading experience, and the clarity of the screen is almost scary. (John Steinbeck is staring at me right now and I can see every bristle of his moustache!)

So yes, my cynicism has been hurled under the carpet and thoroughly stomped on. Excuse me, but I've done my writing for the day, and there's a skinny pretend book waiting for me to read it. Wheeee!

Watching New Who: Rose

Watching New Who

- in conversation with David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she's rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all (plus a six-year-old daughter who is finding her own Doctors for the first time). We're going to work our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, as our blogging points. Just for fun!

ROSE – Season one, episode one

The Doctor – Christopher Eccleston

Rose Tyler – Billie Piper

DAVID:

So, as you know I have been waiting long time to start watching the "New" Who, and it was with a mix of excitement and trepidation I sat down and pressed play. It is always dicey going back to something that you grew up with, in case it turns out that it isn't as good as you remembered (that evil Suck Fairy!) but this was even more fraught with potential problems as this was an attempt to bring Doctor Who to a more modern audience, which could have gone terribly wrong if they had tried to make it too "cool".

TEHANI:

I have been listening to friends talk about New Who for years, and it never really occurred to me to try to watch it, until Neil Gaiman went and wrote an episode. Well I couldn't just watch THAT one, and so started on Season 5 (on the plane back from the Aurealis Awards!) and was pretty much instantly hooked. I remember watching Doctor Who as a kid (frequently from behind the couch with my hands over my eyes!), when Tom Baker was THE Doctor, but really have few memories of actual episodes. Daleks and the Tardis, the curly-haired Doctor – extent of my knowledge!

TANSY: Whereas I watched "Rose" right back at the beginning, when the episode was leaked on to the internet a little while before its actual release – and that was when Australians had to wait months and months and MONTHS to get a terrestrial showing, so I had to wait a very long time to see the rest of this season. For nearly half a year, New Who was basically "Rose" – and it didn't disappoint.

DAVID:

It's been a while since I have watched any Who so, while the theme music may have been updated slightly, as soon as it started playing it took me back immediately, a lovely sensation.

TEHANI:

The music hits you straight away! It's totally iconic

DAVID:

The thing that struck me from the start was the frenetic pace, they really hit the ground running.

TEHANI:

I love that the first word you hear the Doctor say is "Run." Completely encapsulates what it's like to be on the ride with him!

TANSY:

I couldn't imagine what a New Who was going to be like – the pace and music both add the contemporary tone. It's all a bit dated now, but not too much. When it first screened, it just screamed '2005′ at us. Though as an Australian some of the 'now now now' cultural references were a little lost on me. The colour palette was also a bit of a shock to the system. So much colour! And not Colin Baker colour, either, but the episode was certainly bright, brash and vivid.

DAVID:

I liked Rose from the start, and she kept growing on me. I don't know enough about England to know whether she is a terrible stereotype, but she is certainly entertaining, and definitely not just an accessory of a companion, but a strong character in her own right.

TEHANI:

I have to confess, I'm not a huge Rose fan. She kind of irritated me from the start and never really stopped being kind of annoying. But probably this isn't the place to talk about that!

TANSY:

I love Rose as a character. Season 1 Rose much more than Season 2, but that's a conversation for another day. This early version of Rose grabbed me, and I liked that the story revolved around her and her point of view. Rewatching it recently with my daughter Raeli, I was interested to see how fast she fell in love with Rose as a character, and I found myself losing some of my cynicism that had built up over the Russell T Davies (RTD) era the first time around.

DAVID:

The Doctor was a little jarring at first, sort of how I would imagine Guy Ritchie interpreting him, and then becomingly increasingly manic but by the end of the episode, I had warmed to him as well.

TEHANI:

I really didn't know how to take him – I'd come to Season 1 of the back of a season and a half of Matt Smith, so it took me a few episodes to warm up to Eccleston's version of the Doctor. Even watching this episode a second time though, I don't think he was fully in the Doctor headspace yet. Was still good though.

TANSY:

He had me at 'run.'

DAVID:

As soon as the mannequins were shown, even before they started moving, I thought…"AUTONS!". What an interesting choice as the bad guys for the first episode, out of all the possibilities!

TANSY:

I'm a huge fan of the Autons, and the Pertwee era as a whole. How odd to think that they hadn't been seen since the early 70′s – they're really a perfect classic monster to reinvent, as they've always represented current culture through the use of plastic. The cool thing about them is that they have less baggage than the more famous Doctor Who baddies, and that you can explain the concept behind them super fast, which suits this rock video of an opening episode. Living plastic – bang! Of course it does also give us what I've always felt were the cringiest aspects of this episode – the wheelie bin and the plastic Mickey scene. Though Raeli laughed her head off at those bits, so I feel better about them now.

TEHANI:

Had no idea that the mannequins were from Classic Who! It's one of the problems with not having seen a lot of the old episodes (or remembering them, anyway) – I never know when something is genuinely new, or has been seen before!

TANSY:

But it's so cool you didn't know that – that the idea didn't feel old or dusty. You certainly don't need to have seen anything of the old show to get New Who – largely because emotional arcs, they were not a thing! All you need to know about the Doctor is right there in his lovely speech to Rose about the world turning.

DAVID:

The only disappointment was that they didn't use one of the images that will always stay with me, the flowers that shoot the film that covers your face. I thought that was a great concept, something that terrified me as a child, anyway. They did a great job with the Autons, mannequins are creepy at the best of times, but they way that they come to life is quite chilling. The scenes in the streets are one of the strong points of the episode, I think. Their death scenes did look like a Midnight Oil film clip, true, but other than that they were very well handled. I actually quite liked the duplication of her boyfriend, he is completely "off" and not convincing, but that just emphasises Rose's preoccupation.

TANSY:

But the flowers only worked because plastic daffodils were a thing in 1971! Apparently too much of a thing, as it turned out way more households than the production team guessed. I did like that they mirrored that experience through the hand trying to suffocate Rose. But the wheelie bin is the 2005 equivalent of an innocuous plastic item made deadly. It is kind of hilarious that Rose is so not into Mickey that she doesn't notice he's been replaced by an Auton, I will admit, even if it does make her look supremely dumb. I thought they conveyed the unsatisfying nature of their relationship very well through some subtle interactions – they are great mates but so obviously in a rut and taking each other completely for granted. Not the sort of issue we were used to seeing dealt with in Doctor Who in the old days!

TEHANI:

It's interesting to see how quickly the Doctor adopts his companions – and how he tears them away from everything they've ever known without, it seems, so much as a thought for what they're leaving behind. I like that this is sort of dealt with in later seasons, but it struck me quite a lot here.

TANSY: This is a major theme of New Who – and one that is definitely in conversation with the show's past. From the original companions, Ian and Barbara, who are returned to their time two years later, all the way through to 80′s teenager Ace, the show largely ignored the consequences of what time in the TARDIS did to the lives of the companions. I know we're not planning to discuss the Slitheen two parter, but one thing I love about that is the way we see Rose return home for the first time since she left with the Doctor, and they're a year late, and there's nothing that can be done about it. Her mother has had a year of thinking she was dead, her boyfriend came close to being arrested for her murder, and her family will never entirely trust her again. That's huge, and shows how relationships and emotions are being treated seriously in this new version of the show.

TEHANI:

And I think it's something we'll probably come back to as we work through.

TANSY:

Speaking of her mother, while we're discussing episode one, what are your thoughts on Jackie Tyler?

TEHANI:

It's hard to talk about Jackie having seen where she goes, so David's thoughts here will be interesting. I love that she's all "There's a strange man in my bedroom," and the Doctor is "Yeah, there is," and then totally shuts her down! Hilarious! I actually really like Jackie, even back here where she's so self-absorbed and blinkered.

TANSY:

I love the comedy she brings, and the fact that she so obviously sees herself as Rose's sister rather than her Mum. I enjoy the interactions between the Ninth Doctor and Jackie every time I see them – they are both so very rude to each other!

DAVID:

Despite the fact she is, as Tehani says, completely self centred it becomes obvious that she does really care about Rose and there is no actual malice in her. It's an interesting contrast, on one hand you have this woman who is presented as being completely wrapped up in the day to day world and unable to see anything beyond her own wants and pre occupations and whose biggest ambitions seem pretty limited. Then, on the other, you have Rose who seems to stifled by her life, and be dreaming of a bigger Universe and yearning for adventure. Touching on the Slitheen episode, Jackie is understandably protective of Rose, and asks some very well warranted questions about the Doctor's motivations and whether he has thought about what some of the consequences for Rose might be, so I think Jackie is more complex than we give her credit for.

TANSY

I agree that there's a lot more to Jackie than you might assume at first – and Mickey too, of course. The emotional issues that they represent are hugely important and of course, not wanting to spoil you, they're both going to arc towards their own kind of hero moments. I very much like that Jackie is selfish and petty and bitchy, but also right a lot of the time. And you never doubt her love for Rose.

TEHANI:

I think that's one of the things that I love about the new series – there's a lot of complexity in MOST characters, even the minor ones. Just wait, David!

The team will be back soon to discuss Dalek!

Friday Links are Not the Problem Either

The gorgeous pic I'm featuring this week is Idris, the Doctor's wife, from Springfield Punx.

Sean the Blogonaut has joined the Galactic Chat team with a great podcast interview with urban fantasy veteran author Kelley Armstrong.

Saundra Mitchell has a great response to the continuing meme about there being a YA-for-boys crisis: The Problem is Not the Books.

Yarn Harlot beautifully captures the feeling of having a new book out. (via @jumbledwords)

Sapphire, author of Push (which became the film Precious) discusses the racism she has encountered in the arts/publishing world and the expectations people often have about black authors.

I got such a kick about this story of hundreds of lovers across Italy mimicking a romantic novel by putting padlocks on bridges, and how the authorities see it as a major vandalism issue.

A lovely art post which takes the iconic images of Disney Princesses, but makes their costumes more historically accurate. (Via @angriest)

After months of depression and misery surrounding Arsenal, we qualified for the Champions League! Hell yes!

Smart Bitches made me aware of this film about the Victorian medical treatments for hysteria, which looks like the best kind of British historical comedy gold, and features my beloved Sheridan Smith, among many others:

Weird Tales Sold

I woke up this morning to the surprising news that Weird Tales has been sold – and Ann Vandermeer, the editor who has done so much to restore and revive the reputation of that publication as a home for excellent contemporary dark fantasy, has been elbowed out. The new owner, Marvin Kaye, plans to edit the magazine himself.

As a regular reader and reviewer of short fiction, I've taken this blow quite hard! It's always awful to see a brilliant editor lose their platform, but I'm particularly disappointed because Weird Tales had become one of the few print magazines that still actively excites and surprises me with its contents. Also, I have to say, some of the best cover art I've seen recent years.

Ann and her (all-female!) team developed a vibe that was modern, diverse and utterly cool, which is no mean feat for a magazine that has been around since 1923. Apparently the new editor is planning a Cthulu-themed issue. Well, then. That's something for us all to look forward to.

Bah.

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UPDATE: some responses to the news:

Warren Ellis bids goodnight to Weird Tales

Jason Sanford on Weird Tales and editorial vision

Matthew Cheney on Changes at Weird Tales

Lavie Tidhar at the World SF blog

Sweet Hestia, I'm in a Den of Filth [Xena Rewatch 3.9-3.11]

3.9 – Warrior, Priestess, Tramp

The small gene pool of the ancient world has struck gold again, with yet another perfect replica of Xena running around impersonating her. Princess Diana has been retired due to being a bit dull, and instead we have the British, lisping Hestian virgin Leah.

Actually, I want to know how come there are so many sets of Xena's armour lying around, available for purchase… she should totally be getting a royalty for all sales.

Leah's rather cute in a judgemental kind of way – I rather love the way she calls Xena and Gabrielle wanton strumpets and replies to Gabrielle's defense that she was married at the time with "well, we all have our little excuses, don't we?"

And of course we get Meg again, the raunchy lush who is always up to something dodgy. In this case, we have a mystery surrounding the Hestian virgins and a conspiracy against the head priestess. It's a pretty slight mystery, though, and mostly there as an excuse for lots of bawdy jokes and an entertaining musical number when we see Joxer being greeted as a regular in Meg's tavern.

When I say 'tavern' of course, it's blatantly a brothel, though the usual Xena Curtain of Subtext is lowered so that the transactions are referred to quite obliquely, the working girls are all terribly jolly and adore their work, and the whole thing is there largely so we can laugh at the prudish priestess's reactions.

Also, how is it that Leah has to be de-modested in order to impersonate the slutty Meg, and yet all the other Hestian virgins have dresses which are shorter and lower cut than Meg's tavern girls?

Joxer does himself no favours in slut-shaming Meg, and getting all confused as to which Xena-looking women he is supposed to respect, and which ones he is supposed to sexually harass. Dude. Respect ALL THE WOMEN. It's not hard.

(All the more confusing, of course, the girl he actually likes, Meg, is also the one he slut shames for having been 'around the block a few times.' It's an insight into his personality in an 'I don't want to join any club that would have me as a member' kind of way.)

All in all, a fun romp with some good comedy fighting. I think this is the last of the Warrior…Etc. comedies, the three Xenas plotlines having now been thoroughly milked, though Meg still has a few plot threads to come.

3.10 – The Quill is Mightier

This one is my favourite Xena comedy episode of all time, it balancing many of my favourite things about funny Xena episodes, without the worst aspects. So we get Ares, Aphrodite, Gabrielle and Joxer – even a bit of Xena herself – all playing themselves absolutely straight, and thrown into a comedy of errors in which their characters cause quite natural comedy.

Aphrodite is cranky at a group of hooligans vandalising her temple in Xena's name, and Ares takes the opportunity to set her against Xena – or rather, against Gabrielle, whose scrolls he blames for Xena's growing popularity. Aphrodite puts a spell on Gabrielle's scroll to make everything she writes come true, just as Gabrielle has decided to try her hand at fiction (or, rather, Real Person Fanfic). Hijinks ensue.

It's a classic story of wishing magic – where you have to choose your words carefully, because the magic will try to screw you at every opportunity. Gabrielle tries hard to do good with her new powers, but chaos keeps piling up.

Ares and Aphrodite both end up without their godly powers thanks to an accident of scroll, and spend the rest of the episode bickering with each other, which is one of my favourite things in the universe.

Joxer is still in love with Gabrielle, and at one point tries to write a poem to her on the enchanted scroll, which leads to three naked Gabrielles go-go dancing behind a washing line. I was always very sympathetic to Joxer's ongoing arc, being a bit of a sucker for unrequited love stories, but this time around I teeter between feeling sorry for him and just wanting him to get a life! In this case, he morosely sells his beloved family scabbard to fulfill Aphrodite's advice and buy Gabby a trinket.

Gabrielle is horrified – not because she realises the significance of his sacrifice, but because she took him at his word when he said how much he valued the scabbard, and had hidden the enchanted scroll there. I have to say, Joxer normally gets stiff upper lip points for keeping his love secret, but this time loses major points for feeling the need to tell Gabrielle (sadly) that the pretty necklace he bought for her was at the cost of his family treasure. Sure he needed to for the story, but it still makes him look like a dick.

Ares and Gabrielle share one of my favourite scenes, where the two of them have an unexpectedly warm conversation about how awesome Xena is – and then are equally consternated at the thought that they might have forgotten to hate each other for a minute there.

Xena turns up in the last five minutes, to save the day, which leads to another great classic fight sequence of all time: let me put it this way, she has a wagonload of fish, and an army of warlords to fight. The combination is awesome, especially when we get to the squid.

The moral of the story, of course, is that Gabrielle is a hack. Every time we get an insight into her writing process, we realise… she's not a great writer. At all. In this case, we get an embarrassed confession that she's not very good at writing action scenes, something that dumbfounds Ares – and leads to a very entertaining collaboration between them all.

3.11 – Maternal Instincts

This is the story which totally justifies the existence of the awful mystical pregnancy plot back in The Deliverer and Gabrielle's Hope! Amazons, Centaurs, the return of Callisto, and one very evil little redhead girl. Tragedy and bloodshed.

This story presents one of my most hated tropes in all fiction, and I still love it.

The Centaurs and Amazons gather with their children to forge a peace treaty. Xena is reunited with her secret son Solan, who sadly hasn't got much better at acting in the last year and a half. Gabrielle falls into Ephiny's arms and is finally able to talk about what happened in Britain.

Oh, and a little redheaded peasant girl releases Callisto from her fiery prison… and, it turns out, gives Callisto a run for her money. It's delicious seeing Callisto finally paired with a partner in crime who is a match for her – even better that the actress in question is about nine years old. They're adorable together, Callisto's childishness balancing against Little Red's sinister maturity.

Gabrielle comes to the slow, horrified realisation that the cute little redhead running around the camp is in fact her lost baby. Could she be… Hope?

WHY YES, YES SHE COULD BE VERY MUCH.

Renee O'Connor gives a fabulous performance of Gabrielle's conflict, trying to convince her prodigal child that she still loves her, and that she has a choice other than the path of evil. Meanwhile, Xena is distracted with protecting Solan from a vengeful Callisto. Damn, it's good to have Callisto back. She vibrates with evil charisma and sinister smiles – plus, godlike powers, remember? Hooray!

Callisto taunts Xena that she can't be in two places at once, and her tiny sidekick goes on a killing spree. When Solan's foster father is murdered, he begs to live with Xena, and she decides that she will take responsibility for him…

So, you know, his days are numbered.

I have a particular loathing of the killing of babies and children in fiction – and the death of Solan is one of those instances where a child is far more interesting to the story dead than alive, which is a hard thing for me to support. The story is told so well, though, with the double bluff of Callisto threatening the children when in fact it's Hope who is the cause of Solan's death – and with the 'maternal instincts' of the episode title, we find the one thing that will cause an irretrievable rift between the two best friends forever: Gabrielle takes the side of her daughter, and causes the death of Xena's son.

It's awful, and wrong, but also one of the most powerful moments of the Xena saga so far. It's a far better and more convincing cause for a rift than in any of the previous flirtations with the concept… How on earth can Xena forgive this?

Callisto is almost but not quite overshadowed in this story, but Hudson Leick puts in another blinder of a performance. You see how much she is enjoying Xena's pain, and how unsatisfying it still is to have caused such a great hurt, but to still… be Callisto.

There's one last act to come, with Gabrielle trying to decide whether she can actually kill her own daughter this time around, desperately wanting to be wrong about the necessity of it. Chilling work, and it shows how far Gabrielle and O'Connor have come from being Xena's cute, ditzy sidekick. After this story arc, Gabrielle and Xena will always be equals… assuming they can find their way back to each other.

It won't be today.



"You want to kill me. Wish y'could." (Callisto)

"You were wrong, Callisto. You let your pain kill you for years. I'm gonna live with mine." (Xena)

CHAKRAM STATISTICS:

People who want romance with Xena: 12

People Xena allows to romance her: 7

Xena dead lovers: 3

Gabrielle dead boyfriends: 2/7

"Adorable" children: 36

Babies: 5

Babies tossed humorously in the air during fight scenes: 6

Xena doppelgangers: 4

Xena sings at a funeral: 3 (she doesn't sing for Solon, Ephiny does)

Xena dies: 3

Gabrielle dies: 3

Characters brought back from the dead (including ghosts and visits to the Underworld): 21

Ares loses his powers and goes all to pieces about it: 2

Xena or Gabrielle earns money: 2

Xena or Gabrielle spends money (or claims to have money to spend): 6

Out of the Pantheon: Morpheus, Ares, Hera, the Titans, Hades, Celesta, Charon, the Fates, Bacchus, Aphrodite, Cupid, Poseidon, the Furies, Discord

The Celebrity Red Carpet of the Ancient World: Pandora, Prometheus, Hercules, Iolaus, Sisyphus, Helen of Troy, Paris, Deiphobus, Menelaus, Euripides, Homer, Autolycus, Meleager, Oracle of Delphi, David, Goliath, Orpheus, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Ulysses, Penelope, Cecrops, Boadicea, Cleopatra

Previous Xena Rewatch Posts:

Warlord is a Lady Tonight

I Don't Work For Money

Amazon Wanna Take A Ride?

Go To Tartarus!

Swashbuckle and Shams

Death In A Chainmail Bikini

Full Moon It Must Be Xena

How Do You Mortals Get From Day to Day?

The Future is Archaeologists

Divide and Conquer

My Sword is Always Ready to Pleasure You

Hide the Hestian Virgins!

Lunatic with Lethal Combat Skills

Coping with Your First Kill

The Story of Cesc

The thing I wasn't prepared for when I fell into this world of football fandom was how emotional it all is. From the outside, it just looks like little men running around a field, and the distinctions between teams appear entirely arbitrary. But when you choose your own team, when you get attached, you learn the stories that come with each player, and the threads of narrative weave together in deeply emotional ways. So as fans we follow the team, we learn their stories, and we retell them to each other.

When Zeft first started teaching Kaia and I about Premier League football, and the new team we had pledged to support, the first story she told us was the story of Cesc, her favourite player. How he had come from Barcelona to play for Arsenal as a young teenager, and was now one of the best creative midfielders in the world. Even before I knew what a midfielder was, I knew that Cesc was an exceptional one. He had been our youngest ever player on the first team, and youngest goalscorer. He was ours.

In my first year as Arsenal fans, I saw the developing legend of Cesc for myself. I learned to watch the games and to understand them, and it was pretty damn evident that Cesc stepping on to the pitch made a difference, to everyone's game. Also, he was adorable. Then Arsene Wenger took the captain's armband off the badly-behaving William Gallas, and Kaia and I shared Zeft's utter glee that it was presented to Cesc – at only 21 years old, though he was a five year veteran of the team. He was our captain now!

The way football works, and I don't just mean the media and reportage, but in fandom itself, it's all about the narrative beats. The story practically told itself: with our new young captain and a new lease of life, we'd regroup our strength and win something, right? Only we didn't. Cesc was struck down with a knee injury for four months, and the season ended with us barely hanging on to our place in the top four. It was the same story every year – periods of hope that this would be the year that our young, hungry team would fulfil their potential, then injuries and disappointment and a lack of silverware.

Meanwhile, a different story started competing to have Cesc in the middle of it. Barcelona wanted their player back. From their point of view, Arsenal was the big bad team who had swept away their talented youngster. Regardless of his new position as captain, and his long term contract, they mounted a media campaign every summer, telling the world how much they wanted Cesc back. His would be teammates, his family, and even local politicians got into the act. The story of how much Cesc wanted to be back in his old home team was publicly discussed by everyone except the man himself, who was doing his best to respect the team that actually paid his wages.

The longer Arsenal went without winning anything, the harder it was to hold on to our talented wonder boy captain. But at the same time, the idea of letting him go home without having won something as Arsenal captain was just as painful. Each transfer period came and went, and we held on to him (just) because of that promise, because everyone wanted the story of Cesc and Arsenal to end with a triumphant climax, not a whimper.

(except, of course, we told ourselves, if we actually won something, well, he wouldn't leave after all, would he?)

Last summer, he won the World Cup. He literally kicked the goal that won the final match for Spain. His charming colleagues forced a Barca shirt over his head during the celebrations, just to let the world know who he really belonged to. He almost left then, but our manager Arsene told him, no. We still need you. Give us one more year. So Cesc stayed, for one more year, one last chance. And you know what? We still didn't win anything.

This was the worst summer. The rumour mill was at its fieriest, and everyone knew he was leaving. But Barcelona stuck to their plan to get him home at the least possible expense to themselves, so they opened negotiations with an insultingly low offer. It dragged on, week after week. Finally, reluctantly, Arsenal let him go on the eve of the new season, for a fraction of what they could have got selling a player of his quality (and with so many years still on contract) on the open market. Cesc went home, and broke our hearts.

There's nothing more depressing than a story that trails off, none of its threads leading to anything. The season has started, and regardless of how obvious it might have been that he was really going this time, there's still an aura of shock around our team, and our fans. It's hard to look forward when we're still waiting for a narrative pay off that will never come.

And, to be frank, it doesn't help that the other Cesc story, the one about the wonder boy who left home to play in the Premier League and finally returned to wear Barcelona's colours alongside his childhood friends, has a brilliant ending. He's going to win trophies with that team, and become the legendary player that we always knew he was. He gets to be the hero of their story.

Someday, maybe, we can be happy for him. But I for one am not quite evolved enough to let it happen yet. I'm a football fan, after all, as well as being a writer. Neither of us are keen on the idea of waking up to discover that our protagonist is off plotting up a dream in someone else's novel.

A Very Dalek Fashion Plate

I challenged the very talented Kathleen Jennings to add some 1920′s fashion to her ongoing Dalek Game series of exquisite line drawings. She responded, of course, with great style, first with a hilarious Roxie Dalek straight out of Chicago (slightly more charismatic than Renee Zellweger?)

And then she surpassed herself with this lovely coloured fashion plate of Daleks doing what Daleks do best: being artfully sophisticated and beautifully dressed!