#idk i've said it many times that i shouldn't make posts around midnight because i don't think my brain works properly

[lenievi]

I’ll shut up for tonight after this but I said before that I felt like La’an’s “Not believing you’re going to die is what gets you killed.” is kinda like the opposite of what Kirk believes in (because Kirk’s often like “I have no intention of sacrificing myself atm”), but I feel like in Balance of Terror, it’s actually something that saves them

because Kirk is aware of the real possibility that they could be destroyed 

(and because Kirk didn’t feel this way in SNW finale, that’s why the Farragut got destroyed)

[variousqueerthings]

so we're at the final double-episode of the rtd run *wipes brow*

look I'm biased. I'm sure we're all biased in terms of which era we started in, whether it was nu!who or classic!who pre-post rtd... but it's just such a good run. it just is:

obviously brought doctor who successfully back to life and returned it to its status of one of the most iconic pieces of television of all time

updated it to a 21st century storytelling format and audience, with a focus on the companion as the lens through which the show was introduced and the fact that the doctor needs them on a deep, fundamental level that echoes back and gives depth to some classic companions that maybe never got their proper dues within the show, and ripples forwards right into 13's run with bringing classic companions back!

emotional follow-through, with one long arc spanning from season 1 until the next regeneration. I've heard/seen some people think that ten near the end, and especially in the last episode, is self-indulgent and whiny, but I just... idk that is incorrect imo. this iteration of the doctor is a survivor of war and genocide, and clings desperately to people who eventually leave, and they tend to react very strongly to the continued death around them until they decide to literally test time to see if they can beat it and save someone who Shouldn't Be Saved, and then, just when they maybe have found a measure of peace with it all, they have to knowingly go and die. it's a lot for the character to emotionally compute, I think ten is allowed a little tantrum before going through with it, because so much of that regeneration is the universe using ten as a punching bag (after nine was so excited to see what came next too...)

like yeah, it's angsty writing, but that's kind of the point. emotional follow-through on concepts (immortality, transience, alienness, etc) that previously were a tad brushed over, with an added specific survivor's guilt + PTSD thrown in for good measure

speaking of all the people who leave for whatever reason -- companions with families and high stakes at home and individual personal reasons for travelling with the doctor, and for having to move on from that travelling. no longer mostly stumbling into the tardis and then sticking around until suddenly back home (or um... a couple of times dying), and reeeelatively comparably easy goodbyes (for the most part) -- being left over and over, or making the decision to go on alone, or seeing people die, hurts. and on the flipside of that, seeing all that splendor and then having to go on with life... what does that do to a person?

although chris eccleston unfortunately didn't have a great time and deserved better, the atmosphere once behind-the-scenes found its footing was clearly so supportive and friendly. people were coming back year after year (and so many of them have come back for rtd's new run, which I think says a lot too)

I know the music isn't technically underrated, but I think the music is kind of underrated actually, especially individual episode scores. the companion scores, the gallifrey score, the ood choir, the action score that was introduced in s3, and so many more, all perfection and show up wonderfully as various motifs in different places, but individual episodes had perfectly tailor-made scores (some personal favourites are dalek, father's day, impossible planet/the satan pit, gridlock, human nature/family of blood, midnight, and waters of mars)

similarly to the doctor being self-indulgent, I've also heard that dtennant is overrated, which, again, I get it. I don't agree, but I do think that some people don't engage enough with other iterations of the doctor, and so aren't really giving "the doctor as a whole character" their due shake, but sticking only with ten's narrative. that being said there's nothing about dtennant's performance that I think is anything less than amazing. and there's a reason that ten is so beloved, and it's that the main themes of the nu!who soft reboot rtd era stories that people weren't sure would last beyond a season or two, are carried on ten's slender slender shoulders and dtennant does it perfectly (see, I do think there could be less romance in ten's run, because it never works for me, and that's partly that the writers themselves seem to be shy about it/not quite sure what to do with it (because it shouldn't be there in the first place) but that's not the performance, that's unfortunately dtennant's jessica rabbit-ness). the point being, this was for a new generation that was coming from a different television background, and it was done pretty perfectly. and also dtennant loves doctor who, absolutely loves it to bits, and that shines through... the fucking nerd

rtd's main flaws (there are none I'm kidding!!) are that things can get unwieldy once they get too big, and there are times where one can see the cracks badly covered by duct tape in the format and pacing of some of the bigger adventures. that being said, every single rtd finale (from the flawless bad wolf/parting of the ways to the messy bitch that is the end of time pt1+2) is always at the end about something incredibly (for lack of better word) human. it's always about the relationships between the companions and the doctor (and also the doctor and the master, but that makes sense). the doctor and rose, the doctor and martha, the doctor and donna, the doctor and wilf (honorary companion). and the pretty big cast of characters that make them feel real -- rtd may at times be messy but he is hardly ever boring or emotionally vacant. the story itself might become untethered, but the emotions are firmly understandable

(that being said, fingers crossed that 13 years of post-doctor who have given him more sense of what to keep and what to scrap, so that the specials can be both silly and serious, without the seesaw completely ripping out of the ground -- I mean, mainly I hope it won't be wanky and self-congratulatory, but I have faith on that front! we'll see in one month)

this era of television did something that has barely ever (has it ever?) been done before. brought a story back and made it not only work, but near-perfectly balance respect for the classic, with leaps and bounds into the new. it created a brand new generation of fans, and brought along the older ones too

as a kid I didn't think any of these things, because I was just watching doctor who through the gaps of my fingers (I was a very frightened child overall). and like I said, bias ahoy, because nostalgia will do that to you, but you know what? it's still good. it's really really good. I'm so glad that it's part of my DNA