Eldrad must live

Re: the season finale of Doctor Who, OMGWTFBBQ

ALSO, I CRIED

A LOT

........er, more detail to follow when I have more time. But suffice it to say that episode was made of fanservice and awesome, and was Russell T. Davies at his very very best.

I just got an e-mail from one of the professors in my department, who's away at Stratford for the summer - every year she sees pretty much every major Shakespeare production in England that takes place during the summer, including the RSC.

And I just realized that THAT MEANS SHE'S TOTALLY GONNA GET TO SEE DAVID TENNANT AS HAMLET AND BEROWNE AND I WON'T, ARGH ;_;

This comment on doctorwho pretty much sums up my feeling about Who fandom:

I think half the fandom doesn't actually like the show. I guess it's the "Star Wars fans hate Star Wars" phenomenon.

I'm not a good Doctor Who fan. I like it too much.

...SO MUCH WORD. But then, most of the fandoms I've ever been in have been like that; as bad and wanky as Who fandom gets, it will never be as self-destructive as Buffy or even the smaller Veronica Mars fandom (in which there was actually talk of a campaign on LJ to get the show CANCELLED during its final season, because canon wasn't going the way some shipper fans wanted it to).

( Maundering on Who fandom; those not interested in Doctor Who or fandom nattering should probably skip )

Hey, Doctor Who made fandom_wank! And not even for shipping wank either, but for full-on batshit BNF/semi-official crazy!

Short version: Lawrence Miles, co-author of the admittedly awesome About Time series of Who encyclopedias and a few spin-off novels, dislikes NuWho (possibly in part because he has not been asked to write for it?). As a challenge to himself, he wrote a NuWho spec script set in a space library. Yesterday an episode set in a space library aired, written by Steven Moffatt (he of the "are you my mummy" gasmask-people and the hella creepy Weeping Angels). Having seen the one and read the other, I think Moffatt's is ultimately better, though Miles' has its good points. Anyway, Miles feels the need to spew vitriol all over Moffatt, the episode, and for some reason Neil Gaiman, and basically Miles blames Moffatt for making him an alcoholic and for throwing his arm around him in a clearly manipulative alpha-male kind of way. It's completely tl;dr, but nevertheless worth reading, if just for the sheer unbalancedness of it all.

A sample of his vitriol against Moffatt, with bonus Gaiman-hate:
To an extent, he's the Doctor Who version of Neil Gaiman, a writer who's prepared to contrive his storylines with near-clinical precision to make sure that (a) the right demographic groups are interested and (b) he gets to look like a rock star. This is probably the harshest thing I've said so far, since Gaiman is a stinking parasite who'll sink to any depths in his quest to make goth-girls cop off with him, and even Moffat isn't that desperate.

...wow, that is some quality bile, huh? (Especially since, as far as I know, Neil Gaiman is a very happily married man who does not go around copping off with goth-girl groupies. However, I also hear there are rumblings of Gaiman writing an episode for s5 of NuWho, which I imagine rankles Miles.)

Anyway, my thoughts on yesterday's episode...

( Are you afraid of the dark? (spoilers, obviously) )

Also, I'm mildly horrified that I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. last night reading Twilight. It's SO CHEESILY BAD...on the cheestastic scale, it's cheesier than early Laurell K. Hamilton or Mercedes Lackey, but not as cheesy as, say, The Da Vinci Code. Bella is a horrific Mary Sue, the writing is lackluster, THE VAMPIRES LITERALLY SPARKLE IN THE SUNLIGHT, and the relationship between Bella and Edward is horrifying to my feminist tendencies. They're highly codependent: she says things to him like (actual quote) "You ARE my life. You're the only thing it would hurt me to lose." Also when he kisses her, sometimes she passes out, because her HEART STOPS BEATING, LITERALLY.

...and yet I could not stop reading. (Sometimes I hate my weakness for cheese.)

My favorite scene was probably the ridiculous vampire baseball, which has to be played in a thunderstorm, so that when they hit the ball with their super-strength and speed, the resulting thunderous crack can be passed off as thunder. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'.

Edit: I was talking to sergiekins about Twilight, and came up with a description that I feel perfectly describes the books as a whole:

sergiekins:God, this is like. XDD Every teenage girl who's read some vampire piece of fiction's wankfest ever. XDD
yoshitsune: Yes, it's like Anne Rice filtered through Lisa Frank. XD

As is now becoming a regular practice, my review of the latest Doctor Who episode.

( In which we meet the Doctor's clone/daughter/anomaly...massive spoilers, obviously )

Also, I've been reading more Phil Rickman (enkiae would approve)...for those who don't remember, this is the mystery series I recommended a while back featuring an Anglican exorcist named Merrily Watkins. I picked up the first two books (The Wine of Angels and Midwinter of the Spirit), as all I'd read were a couple of later books, and I've really enjoyed both. I'm sending a care package of books to my mom tomorrow (as she had to have foot surgery a couple of weeks back, and is basically stuck on bed rest for the next four weeks and needs something to read so that she doesn't go too stir-crazy), and since I'd raved about them to her she asked me to send them along. :D

THANK JESUSU, THE SEMINAR PAPER OF DOOM IS DONE, DOWN TO THE LAST FOOTNOTE

Now I can put it out of my mind, at least for a few weeks until I have to work on it again in my summer class, augh.

In other news, tomorrow I have to turn in my booklist for Gen Ed Lit in the fall, and a course description. I imagine I'll crap something out revolving around looking at literature in context and engendering a lifelong love of literature for my course description; that's pretty much all I can do, since we have yet to have our proper orientation (it's in the fall, and the one we had last weekend was basically three hours of mentioning things and then saying we were going to talk about them in the fall). As for the two novels I'm going to teach, Pride and Prejudice is a shoo-in, of course, but I'm still debating between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I've got till tomorrow, so any suggestions?

Right now I'm leaning towards Atwood, just because I'm thinking it might be better to avoid TWO 19th-century female authors. On the other hand, I'm thinking about adding monster theory to my special interest area for comps, so maybe I should get some practice teaching Frankenstein?

And last night the second half of the new two-parter of Who aired, so my usual impressions post: ( Cut for your protection )

In miscellaneous "awesome" news, have some scary fake babies, the oldest sound recording ever, and Japanese boobie pudding.

Edit: Edited for GIP. :D

Well, today I had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn (a.k.a. 5:15 a.m.) to proctor an engineering exam along with lordtravis. It pays pretty well, and isn't very demanding, but it's still like 12 hours of a Saturday gone. (And certainly if I'd known that our paper deadline was going to be extended till Sunday, I wouldn't have done it...as it is I'm having to finish it up now, weo.)

BUT! It's new Doctor Who day, so that makes everything okay! And to make it even more awesome, they end up in Pompeii on volcano day. :D

( Doctor Who 04x02 - The Fires of Pompeii - caveat spoiltor )

And while I'm Who-posting, some linkspam...

Let's Positive Linking, Gallifreyan Edition!
- For those of you unfamiliar with what Donna mentioned last week about the bees disappearing, this is in fact based on a real-life phenomenon.
- An interesting post on what Donna knows about the previous companions, which has a lot of interesting spec about Donna's role that makes me excited. :D
- Another Donna post about how the character of Donna hasn't really changed since her first appearance in "The Runaway Bride," just perception of her and her situation have.
- Finally, some spoilery finale speculation that has me totally excited for the finale. HOW CAN THEY PULL OFF THIS MUCH IN ONE EPISODE, SERIOUSLY

TODAY WAS DOCTOR WHO SEASON PREMIERE DAY, WOOHOO

( Thoughts on Doctor Who 04x01, Partners in Crime - massive spoilers, obviously )

Edit: Huh, Charlton Heston died. Though I frequently disagreed with his politics, can't deny the man was in some awesome movies in his day.

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS TILL SEASON FOUR, BITCHES

Since I've got a lot of Opera tabs to close, it's linkspam time!

Let's Positive Linking!
- The dangers of Wikihistory. Poor Hitler, he must be so confused by now.
- Twin Gay Porn Stars Arrested in Rooftop Burglaries. I believe that headline says it all. (This and above link from eslington.)
- What is Doctor Who? Oh, YTMND, never change. (I think what disturbs me most is how much Christopher Eccleston looks like Gob Bluth. Also wtf is up with David Tennant's expression?)
- Doctor Who: The NES Game. I WANT SOMEONE TO MAKE THIS SO I CAN PLAY IT NOW, F'REALZ
- Apparently it's old news, but Maggie Smith may have cancer? This sucks, because she's freaking MAGGIE SMITH and is totally not allowed to have anything happen to her, she's too awesome. (Also she's never been on Doctor Who yet! Note, however, that even actors who have been on the show are not necessarily exempt - Derek Jacobi, I'm looking at you, you'd better not keel over anytime soon.)

Also, happy birthday to the awesome rathershady!

OH LORDY, IT'S THE WHO SPOILERS TO END ALL WHO SPOILERS
(MASSIVE MASSIVE spoilers for the finale of S4, including filming photos)

( Incoherent babbling )

SEASON 4 NEEDS TO START, LIKE, YESTERDAY

SERIOUSLY