#excellent and heartwrenching episode no notes just 10/10

[softness-and-shattering]

Rotating Mizu in my mind, this man is so entirely transgender.

Rotating him with Taigen they are extremely homoerotic. Rotating Akemi she's very surprising. And Ringo so upbeat and sweet despite it all.

Rotating Rotating mm some fucking delicious food.

[theradioghost]

So I’ve realized recently that I actually really really like podcasts when my audio processing isn’t acting up (thanks tma!) and was wondering what recs you have for completed podcasts. I’m cool with basically any genre and theme, though I would appreciate a warning for tragedy. Thanks for your time!

Of course! I’ll put this one under a cut just so the length is a bit less ridiculous.

Some of my favorite completed shows are

Wolf 359 – a scifi comedy about four squabbling coworkers on a malfunctioning, isolated space station which then takes a hard right into a spectacular, heartwrenching drama. Not a tragedy, but many tears are shed when listening. Probably one of the best podcasts out there tbqh.

Ars Paradoxica – a modern physicist accidentally invents time travel, landing her back at the start of the Cold War and changing the course of history forever. The creators literally described it as “a tragedy” and they weren’t lying, although the finale is sort of hopefully bittersweet.

The Hidden Almanac – a grouchy professor in a plague doctor mask offers bite-sized pieces of history and hagiography from his fantastical world as well as gardening advice, occasionally interrupted and/or dragged off on unwilling shenanigans by his tequila-loving accidental necromancer best friend coworker. Fantasy writer/artist Ursula Vernon and her husband put this 4-minute show out three times a week for SEVEN YEARS, and it’s funny and cozy and poetic and can be found in full here, as there are too many episodes for most podcatchers to display.

Alice Isn’t Dead – lesbian Americana road-trip horror. A cross-country trucker searches for her missing wife while monsters and conspiracies pursue her across the vast empty and abandoned spaces of America. Actually also exists in novel form.

The Bright Sessions – records from the office of Dr. Bright, a therapist who specializes in people with strange and secret abilities. However, her patients aren’t the only ones with secrets. Personally this show never completely absorbed me like some others did, but the character writing is genuinely amazing. The story obviously also deals a lot with mental illness and some other difficult topics and content.

Our Fair City – the eight-season saga of the inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic underground city ruled over by the remnants of an insurance company, featuring mole people, lightning-harvesting sky sailors, giant ants, and a found family of mad scientists among others. Part comedy, part drama, all anticapitalist satire. You kind of have to give it a couple of seasons to find its stride (this was one of the very first shows in the podcast-based audio drama revival) but it is absolutely worth it. Disclaimer that while I am on the final season of the show I have not quite finished it yet.

Jarnsaxa Rising – a unique scifi-fantasy hybrid, in which a vengeful Norse giantess escapes imprisonment with the goal of destroying the gods and bringing about Ragnarok, only to find herself in a post-climate-change dystopian future.

Glasgow Ghost Stories – a Scottish woman begins noticing the many ghosts inhabiting the streets of her city; but the ghosts have begun to notice her too, and not all of them are friendly. Pigeons are involved.

Big Data – an odd little heist comedy about a rogue journalist investigating a spectacular crime in which the “seven keys to the internet” are stolen, leading to a story about hacking in which no actual hacking is involved. There are two fun side notes to it: one, everything that happens in it could technically happen in real life. Two, it involves an absurd amount of cameos from other well-known podcasts (and also Taika Waititi?), which you don’t need to get to follow the story but which make it kind of hilarious on a whole other level when you listen to those shows.

I Am In Eskew – a surreal, intense, disturbingly poetic horror about a man trapped in a shifting, malevolent, impossible city, and a woman on the outside trying to find him. Extremely good but I do recommend thoroughly checking the trigger warnings on this one. (Surprisingly non-tragic finale, although not a typical “happy ending.”)

The Alexandria Archives – half comedy and half horror, in the form of a late-night radio show at Alexandria University, on the edge of North Carolina’s Great Dismal Swamp. Half of each episode is a standalone cosmic horror story set in and around the town of Alexandria. The other half features the antics of the university’s students, including the host MW and her friends who are definitely Canadian exchange students, and not a vampire hiding from his ex and a bunch of stranded space pirates. (A little goofy? Yes, but I love it a ton for all its faults anyway. Also, some of the short stories are genuinely terrifying.)

and also, some completed miniseries!!

The Tower – a gorgeous experimental audio drama in which a young woman decides to climb the mysterious Tower, from which no one ever returns.

Time:Bombs – a comedy by the folks who made Wolf 359 about a bomb disposal squad on New Year’s Eve, trying to survive their leader’s obsession with breaking a record.

They Say a Lot of Things – upon discovering that she can interact with a dropped tape recorder, the ghost of a young girl tells her story, interwoven with the stories of those who have passed through the abandoned house that she cannot leave over the years that she’s haunted it.

Podcaster A. R. Olivieri specializes in microfiction miniseries, ranging from scifi to experimental to fantasy. (Side note, a lot of his work crosses over with the still-running scifi podcast Girl In Space, but you don’t need to have listened to GIS to understand what’s going on in his shows.)

Nym’s Nebulous Notions – a self-declared investigative journalist decides to check out a mysterious SOS signal and finds herself on a mysteriously abandoned ship – or so she thinks. Arguably a tragedy, although not necessarily in the way you might think.

Palimpsest – technically not finished, but each season of this anthology makes up a complete 10-part story, and seasons 1 and 2 are complete. Season 1 is a ghost story about a woman who is suspicious about strange happenings in her new home and her odd new neighbors. Season 2 is a turn-of-the-century dark urban fantasy about a girl who escapes her career criminal mother’s house, taking a job as the companion to what her new employer claims is an imprisoned faerie princess. (Season 3 is ongoing and is about a codebreaker who begins seeing ghosts on London’s streets during the Blitz.) It’s a heartbreaking sort of show, albeit in a very beautiful and moving way.

The Details is a short piece about an office worker who goes in to negotiate for a promotion and finds himself negotiating with the devil himself instead. The number of genuinely surprising and excellent twists it packs into just 45 minutes is really fun.

The London Necropolis Railway – a really underappreciated little fantasy-mystery about a recently-dead detective who refuses to board the train scheduled to take her to the afterlife until one of its hapless employees helps her solve her supernatural murder.

Janus Descending – a scifi horror told in two intertwining perspectives, one in reverse order and one in chronological order, about two scientists who land on a remote planet to investigate the ruins of its lost civilization, only to encounter the thing that killed the former inhabitants. A fantastic story told in a really clever and unique way, but stamp a big old tragedy warning all OVER this one, although because of the structure you technically know how it’s going to end right from the start – what makes this show so good is how you get there. It will make you cry, though.

… and also my show, Midnight Radio, which is about lesbian romance, small towns, old radio shows, the good and bad sides of nostalgia, and ghost stories.

[briefboutsofmadness-blog]

Thoughts on Doctor Who’s Season 10 finale

Hi guys,

Now, the season finale of Doctor Who was last week, and I’m still very much in two minds as to whether I liked it or not and, more importantly, whether or not it was a fitting, suitably epic episode for Peter Capaldi’s doctor. Here are some of my thoughts on it. (Spoilers, obviously).

To begin with, let me clarify: whilst I am a BIG fan of Capaldi’s doctor, I feel his legacy and impact has been somewhat dampened by Steven Moffat’s hugely hit-and-miss writing. His stand-alone episodes in the earlier series of the revival were outstanding, yet somehow after being given free reign on every episode, the quality has quite dramatically slipped. Though I haven’t brought myself to watch every episode in the latest series yet, I happened to catch ‘The Lie of the Land’, and I don’t think I’ve ever had such a strongly negative reaction to a Doctor Who episode (it’s usually just disappointed indifference). To put it simply, Moffat can be both a wonderful and an awful writer, it’s just the luck of the draw as to which one it is.

Having said that, the penultimate episode of the series, ‘World Enough and Time’, was genuinely incredible. The Master’s role in the episode was genius, as was his reveal (though can you imagine if the news that John Simm was returning hadn’t been leaked, and we had fully managed to experience that mind-blowing moment when he reveals himself? The Doctor Who fanbase, myself included, would have most likely imploded), and though I was sceptical at first about bringing John Simm back and potentially sullying his legacy, I was pleasantly surprised. The concept of the episode was truly original, it was funny, sad, and most importantly SCARY. Ever since Tennant’s episodes in the parallel universe, I have been terrified of the Cybermen, and this episode both justified and rejuvenated that childhood nightmare for me. It was suspenseful, disturbing (the patient pressing the ‘pain’ button still haunts me, as does the grotesque gradual change in the masks), and echoed episodes like ‘The Empty Child’ which, in my opinion certainly, is how Doctor Who should be. Truly one of my favourite episodes to date.

Following on from this masterpiece, I had high hopes for the finale and, indeed, it did start off promising. Well, sort of. The first section was a little bit tired and clichéd, down to the rousing “everything’s sorted” music, the ‘resolution-that’s-not-really-a-resolution’ trope that’s so overused within the show, and the unusually common location of a rooftop. However, it did get better. Again, sort of. The use of the “sort of” Cybermen as scarecrows who regularly attack the cluster of human survivors was scary, though it both blatantly copied the Scarecrows in Tennant’s ‘Family of Blood’ episodes, and was never really explained fully as to why they were there, so it seemed a bit lazy (though please do correct me if they did explain it and I missed it).

“Borrowing” plot points from other episodes, even other writers, seems to be an unfortunate recurrence for Moffat (honestly, don’t even get me started) and, sadly, this episode was no exception. One can’t help but wonder how much “inspiration” he took from Matt Smith’s last episodes which, as I recall, also contained a defeated Doctor essentially sacrificing himself to save a group of humans from Cybermen (though I could be wrong). In this sense, the episode truly was disappointing, as is what you would expect from borrowing from an episode that was a disappointment in the first place. Capaldi truly has been an iconic doctor, despite unfortunate writing, and so to have his penultimate episode dare I say ruined by Moffat’s sloppy writing is such a shame.

The end section was not great either. Bill’s ending was heartbreaking, and her collapsing next to the doctor, both truly defeated, was a powerful image. However, then Moffat pulled something that had a vaguely ‘deus ex machina’ feel to it. Though we had already been introduced to Heather (or rather, the form of Heather taken by the episode’s monster) in the first episode of the series, her reappearance in the form of a solution for Bill’s apparently inevitable death felt clumsy and forced, which is so disappointing. Let me tell you, I have absolutely loved Bill’s character (despite, as with Capaldi, the subpar writing), as she almost acted as a detox to Clara’s intense characterisation with her refreshing attitude to life and the situations she found herself in. Bill being gay, too, also added a completely new dimension to her character which both brought the show into the present, but also eliminated any chance of the wonderful friendship between herself and the doctor to be distorted by romantic notions (not that I’m against that trope being used at all, it was just a seldom used, interesting perspective on the doctor/companion relationship). And as much as I’m happy Bill ended up happy (and alive) with Heather, it just felt so forced and an unlikely, ridiculous solution to her situation. It’s not even that it was terrible, it’s that Bill was such a wonderful character (and should have stayed for more than one series), and her transformation into a primitive Cyberman was so heartwrenching and painful to watch, for it to be resolved in a matter of minutes was anti-climatic. All I’m saying is: Bill deserved better.

(Quick side-note: Bill would NEVER have left the Doctor’s dying body by itself in the Tardis. She just wouldn’t have, it’s entirely out of character.)

All the negative aspects aside, there were some good, even great, parts of the episode, Bill being one of them. Pearl Mackie has done just such an incredible job of playing Bill, and I will be sad to see her go. This episode, along with the previous one, was certainly stand-out for her, with the heartbreaking revelation that Bill did not see herself as a Cyberman, and so could not understand why people were scared of her. This may have been the most cruel and disturbing twist of the story arc, and I LOVE it. This puts everything we thought we knew about the Cybermen into question, and for once among multiple instances of Moffat attempting and failing at this, it works! It adds a whole new perspective on their behaviour; does every Cyberman see itself as pre-transformation? Regardless, aside from the hiccup that was her ending, Bill was excellent this episode and one of its saving aspects.

As with Mackie, Capaldi was excellent once again in this episode. Regardless of your opinion on him, it cannot be denied that Capaldi puts everything into the character; he has been consistently intense and dark with brilliant sparks of insanity and wit, and his character will be sorely missed by myself and so many others. This episode was no exception. By being characterised as beaten down and defeated, ready to accept his fate even, he almost brought me to tears a few times, as it is such a tragic end for a doctor already plagued with the questionable actions of his past selves. Not much more to say about his performance really, except that it was excellent and tragic at the same time.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the episode, as was expected, was Missy and the Master. Michelle Gomez has had a tough act to follow in terms of succeeding John Simm’s practically flawless Master, yet she managed to not only exceed everyone’s expectations as a character in her own right, but also had believable, exhilarating onscreen chemistry with Capaldi’s Doctor. Her insanity offsets his solemnity, and it’s been an absolute joy seeing the two of them share a screen. Another character who will be sorely missed. John Simm was predictably excellent, playing the Master as smug and cruel as ever. The interactions between the two of them was a standout, their conversations being wonderfully eccentric and evil. The Master attempting to hit on Missy was hilarious, and their taunting of the Doctor, as well as Missy’s internal struggle as to who to side with, was excellently carried out by Simm and Gomez.

That’s not to say, however, that there weren’t any problems with the masters. For one, there wasn’t nearly enough screentime of them, and I feel as though the opportunity to bring John Simm back has been wasted in this way. To really optimise the two appearing onscreen together, one can’t help but wonder whether the two-parter finale should have been a three episode saga, so as to create a full episode in the middle in which Gomez and Simm could have made the most of, as well as properly had fun with, their characters. The ending, too, in which they destroyed each other makes for a rather unsatisfying resolution to their roles, and for the Doctor to never know Missy’s decision to be on his side in the end is honestly quite cruel. Essentially, the two masters were brilliant, but there wasn’t nearly enough of htem.

So to summarise, despite all my moaning I did enjoy it. I can’t say that it was a great episode, or that it was a fully fitting ending for someone as incredible as Capaldi’s Doctor, but it was enjoyable to watch and had some excellent aspects, balancing out the negative aspects.

If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve said or would like to comment, I would love to hear from you, and I  hope you’ve enjoyed my little (!) ramble about the episode.

-P