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Saturday, July 14, 2012

In which I talk about Doctor Who... again

This is a fantastically long post. I'm sorry. But not sorry enough to not post it.

There's a meme going around. Actually, there are a lot of memes always going around. This particular one is The Doctor Who Challenge or 30 Days of Doctor Who. It gives you 30 questions to answer, one for each day of the month. Well, writing a little blurb about Doctor Who every day for 30 days really doesn't seem like a challenge to me so I'm going to answer every question right now, at 11:09 PM on a Wednesday night. Yes, I do work in the morning and no, I don't care that I'll be tired. I want to do this dumb "challenge" and write about Doctor Who. 


Disclaimer to hard core fans pre-2005, I apologize. I'm slowly making my way through the older episodes, but 99% of my Doctor Who experience has been post 2005 era. 


If you haven't seen any of Doctor Who, first of all, start watching it right now. Second, this does have a couple big spoilers, especially in "Saddest Episode" so don't read that. The rest are pretty mild. 


1. Favorite Doctor 


Easy. David Tennant. Number ten. He wasn't my first Doctor, but he'll always be my Doctor. Like many fan girls I quickly fell in love with the tenth Doctor's charm, wit, and oh so skinny physique. Then I started finding out more about David Tennant (as fan girls so often do) and found out he was a total nerd. If I was a home wrecker, I'd wreck his home. 






2. Favorite Companion


A little less easy, but still fairly simple. Donna Noble. I know she gets flack for being abrasive, but I still love her.

First of all, Catherine Tate! Come on! She's had a horrible introduction to American audiences, but it's because of the miserable writing staff on The Office. She's hilarious.

Second, she is the first companion in the post-2005 era who doesn't fall in love with The Doctor. This is my biggest pet peeve with the Russell Davies years. Rose, the tree lady, Madame de Pompadour, Martha, the maid on the Titanic who is apparently a famous singer, the girl in Planet of the Dead, Captain Jack, EVERYONE freaking falls in love with The Doctor. I was fine with Rose and Captain Jack can do no wrong in all honesty, but it really does get tiring when every single person he meets falls head over heels. It makes me wonder if Davies is secretly in love with David Tennant. Anyway, Donna is the first and only companion (minus Rory) to not fall in love with the Doctor at some point. Amy has a blip and I appreciate them not exploring that further. She and Rory are a very close second to favorite companion, but I realized it's the ensemble of Amy, Rory, and the Doctor that I love so much. I like them all independently, but I love that ensemble. 


Third, I really do like her character. She grows so much over the course of the fourth season while still keeping her spunk. I just all around like her a lot. Thus, single favorite companion is Donna. 






3. Least Favorite Companion


I'm sorry to say this, but my least favorite companion is Martha. And I really do hate saying that. She's a doctor, she's smart, brave, selfless, and just all around awesome. She only has one flaw, and yes it has to do with number 2. She's constantly pining after the Doctor. One kiss (that he prefaced with a "this doesn't mean anything"), and she spends a year of her life complaining and whining because he doesn't like her. GET OVER IT! I place full blame on Davies. Because, let's face it. If she was better written, Martha could have been a badder ass than she already was. 






4. Favorite Villain


Hands down, the Master. No one else can pull off being that bat-shit crazy, lovable, hilarious, and mad scary at the same time. I hope he comes back soon.





5. Favorite Alien

Weeping Angels. I watched Blink in my basement with the lights off by myself. I didn't realize it was going to be the single scariest episode of the show. Every time they come back my blood pressure goes up (in a fun way).



6. Favorite Special Episode


The Waters of Mars. Those Martians were the second creepiest monster at that point (third now with the Silence) and the episode in general was brilliant. I still get chills when the Doctor says that the laws of time are his and they will obey him... Apparently I get chills when I think of the Doctor saying it too. Also, it has this part:



7. Favorite Season


Even though David Tennant is my favorite Doctor and Donna is my favorite companion, I'm going to say my favorite season is 6. Overall I like Steven Moffat's writing better than Russell Davies' and season 6 was phenomenal. You've got The Silence, 'The Doctor's Wife' (episode written by Neil Gaiman!!!), Rory being a complete bad ass right before he cries after meeting his baby daughter, River Song's story, 'Let's Kill Hitler'... the whole season is amazing.



8. Least Favorite Season


My instinct is to say season one, but there are too many awesome things in that season. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I appreciate it so much when I go back now. Every good scifi show is campy in the beginning, it's got Bad Wolf, Captain Jack, Harriett Jones... okay, maybe the list is a little shorter than I thought.



9. Favorite Master


This is where seeing only a handful of the pre-2005 episodes is making me sad. I've only known one master. Okay, two. Cause he regenerates in Utopia. So I guess I do have a choice and my choice is John Simm. I promise, I really am making my way through the earlier episodes (at least the ones available on Netflix instant)



10. Saddest Episode


Journey's End. Two horribly depressing things happen. First, the Doctor leaves Rose his human clone. He can't tell her he loves her because he knows he can't stay. Then he watches as the woman he loves hard core makes out with his human clone and he just turns and walks back into his Tardis. Good for Rose for getting the human Doctor, but the real Doctor has to leave it all behind. Again.

That's sad, but the second thing breaks me every time I watch the episode. Donna loses her memory. She doesn't remember anything she did with the Doctor. The DoctorDonna ceases to exist. She goes back to her petty life. Ugh, it's making me sad just thinking about it. Seriously though, I would be less upset if she had died. To go through what she did and become the person she was only to have it all taken away?! CURSE YOU RUSSELL DAVIES! Or maybe that one was Steven Moffat... All I can say is Moffat better fix this for the 50th anniversary.



Huh. It's 11:53 now. I just took me 45 minutes to get through a third of the questions. I'm thinking I'll continue this another time.

Saturday afternoon. What a wonderful time to continue this post and shirk my responsibilities.

11. Funniest Episode


I actually read through all the episode titles because I remembered hilarious moments, but I wasn't as sure about a single episode. Then I remembered 'The Eleventh Hour.' It's the first episode for Matt Smith as The Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond (Karen was actually in an episode in season 4), Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, and Steven Moffat as head writer. Boy do they all make an impression (especially Smith and Moffat). Matt Smith's hilarity made seeing David Tennant's exit MUCH easier to bare. I wish I could post the whole episode because it really is fantastic, but here are some highlights.

Okay, so this clip isn't so much funny as it is awesome. Still give me chills!


This is some of the hilariousness: 



And this: 



12. Episode that Scared You Most

'Blink.' Hands down. Flat out terrifying. At least when you aren't laughing at lines like "This is my timey-wimey detector. Goes 'ding' when there's stuff," and "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint , it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."

13. Favorite Theme Song


Season 4. It gets a little more rock and roll than the previous seasons.

14. Character You Like that Everyone Else Hates


I think this again will be Donna. But there are few characters that people don't like...

15. Most Annoying Character


Rose's mom. She's whiney. I don't really want to spend time talking about her.



16. Favorite Actor


I really can't say enough about David Tennant. I've seen him in several things since Doctor Who, and he's brilliant in everything.


17. Least Favorite Actor


Probably Noel Clarke who plays Mickey Smith. It could also just be Mickey's character, but I'm not a fan.



18. Favorite Actress


Alex Kingston. River Song. 'Nuff said.



19. Least Favorite Actress

Kylie Minogue. I guess she's an Australian singer and she was in an episode of Doctor Who. I hated her character (again, Davies' fault) and she really wasn't impressing me with the acting either. 


20. Favorite Writer

As far as head writers go, Steven Moffat is fantastic. His story arcs are longer and more interesting, his single episodes are scarier and more intense while hilarious at the same time, and it's laughable at how much better he is at writing female characters. (Still not great there, though. I personally have no issues with Amy or River as characters [although I know some people do], but he did a despicable job writing Irene Adler.) 

Even so, the one episode Neil Gaiman wrote was perfect. That man not only writes all the things, but he writes all the things impeccably. I highly recommend you watch his episode, 'The Doctor's Wife' as well as anything else he's ever done (American Gods, Sandman, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys, Coraline, Stardust, Graveyard Book... the list goes on and on). 


21. Favorite Couple


Before I started watching season... either 5 or 6, I saw a meme somewhere that had a picture of Amy and Rory that said, "Warning: Their story may be more interesting than the Doctor's." Turns out, that wasn't far from the truth. Amy and Rory are the best.


22. Favorite Friendship


While I love the DoctorDonna, I feel like the friendship between Amy and the Doctor is way more developed. I'm sure Catherine Tate and David Tennant are friends, but there's a special chemistry between Karen Gillan and Matt Smith that is really hard to beat. The writing helps too, Moffat seems to focus more on relationships than Davies did.


23. Favorite Doctor Who Spinoff


Well, I've only seen one, but I love it. Torchwood with John Barrowman as Captain Jack (one of my favorite characters). It's a lot darker and more adult than Doctor Who, but it's still excellent (at least the seasons in the UK. I haven't seen it since it moved to the States and I haven't heard great things - but I'll still watch it).


24. Favorite Quote


This is mean... There are too many amazing quotes from Doctor Who.

10th Doctor: "This is my timey wimey detector. Goes 'ding' when there's stuff."


10th Doctor: "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint , it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."


10th Doctor: "I just wanna mate."
Donna: "You just want TO mate?!"
10th Doctor: "A mate, I want a mate."
Donna: "Oi, you're not mating with me, Sunshine!"

10th Doctor: "Come on, we can all have a good flirt later!"
Shakespeare: "Is that a promise, Doctor?"
10th Doctor: "Oh... fifty-seven academics just punched the air."

Cyberman: "We have 5 million Cybermen. How many are you?"
Dalek: "Four."
Cyberman: "You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?"
Dalek: "We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect."
Cyberman: "What is that?"
Dalek: "You are better at dying!"

11th Doctor: She's my Tardis. Except, she's a woman. She's a woman... and my Tardis!
Amy: She's the Tardis?!
11th Doctor: ...and she's a woman
Amy: Did you wish really hard?
11th Doctor: Shut up! It's not like that.
Tardis/Idris: Hi, I'm Sexy. 
11th Doctor: Still shut up!

Jamie/The 10th Doctor: Are you my mummy?

11th Doctor: Rory, take Hitler and put him in that cupboard over there.

Rory: Shut up, Hitler!

River Song: Well, I was on my way to this gay gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled when I thought, "Gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish. I think I'll kill the Furher." 

9th Doctor: And I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean, a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving. 

11th Doctor: There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke ti with a stick. 

10th Doctor: PHYSICS! Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics... physics, physics, physics, physics...

Tardis/Idris: Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, only there's a winner. 

11th Doctor: Sorry, do you have a name?
Tardis/Idris: 700 years and finally he asks. 
11th Doctor: But what do I call you?
Tardis/Idris: I think you call me... Sexy. 
11th Doctor: Only when we're alone. 
Tardis/Idris: We are alone.
11th Doctor: Oh. Come one then, Sexy. 

Mickey: That old lady's staring. 
Captain Jack: Probably wondering what four people were doing in a small box. 
Mickey: What are you captain of? The Innuendo Squad?

And really, so many more. 

25. Favorite Doctor Catch Phrase

Allons-y!

26. Favorite Doctor Gadget

Does he have another gadget besides the sonic screwdriver? Timey wimey detector, but that's only in one episode... the 10th Doctor licks things a lot and Eleven tends to put things in his mouth... I'm sure there are more, but I can't place them. I'm going to pull an innuendo here and say the Doctor's tongue. 

27. Favorite Interview

My fandom has not reached this level yet. 

28. Favorite Gif

Probably one of the quotes above. I tend to skim through gifs and not care about them too much. 

29. Favorite Guest Star

Easy. Simon Pegg in 'The Long Game.' Even as a villain I couldn't hate him. 

30. When did you become a fan of Doctor Who?

Sadly, not until December of 2011. Since then, I have kind of exploded all the Doctor Who things. 

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