"Terminus" and "Enlightenment"
Apr. 9th, 2010 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitSuddenly, all I want to do is watch Turlough Doctor Who. Today I've mainlined "Terminus" and "Enlightenment," and I hope to watch "The King's Demons" before bed.
Terminus
This should've been brilliant, but the writer over-egged the pudding. If the focus had stayed on the lazar epidemic (with its haunting parallel to AIDS) and the giant corporation ferrying the sick away to a fake "cure" on a space station run by the slave labor of other infected people (who get medicine in return), it would've been a wrenching, amazing story. Okay, it would've been more a Blake's 7 story that a Doctor Who story, but I would've loved it. Unfortunately, too much other stuff was added in, including Turlough's ongoing Black Guardian problem, a giant alien who looked like a mutant version of Ratty from The Wind in the Willows, and the ship's leaky engines having somehow caused the Big Bang (I was totally confused) and potentially now ending the universe. The end result was a bit of a mess, even more so when the cure inexplicably turned out to be a genuine cure, which didn't make sense at all and seemed like a "we can't make a family show too bleak" cop-out.
Still, there was a lot of great stuff. There were big-haired space pirates! Turlough and Tegan crawling through access tunnels and almost bonding ("If you had to kill someone, could you do it?" "You're weird, Turlough.")! Nyssa being brave and awesome! (I was completely unspoiled and didn't know this was Nyssa's last episode.) Oh, and bonus points for the word "lazar," which made my inner medievalist happy.
I especially loved Bor, who stole every scene he was in with his dreamy rambling. Also, Bor and Sigurd were totally boyfriends, and I want fic.
I could, however, have done without the "how many clothes can we have Nyssa remove in the course of the episode" factor, and especially without the appalling crotch shot in episode 4, when she's lying on the floor unconscious after her radiation treatment, with the camera angle looking right up her skirt. Geez, show, there's no need to be so crude. Or so sexist.
Enlightenment
A happy convergence of my two current main fandoms, Who and age of sail, and generally a lot of cracked-out fun. In this story, I learned that Turlough is very good at charming ordinary sailors, but less good at charming female pirates captains; his wiles seem to work best on men. (And once again Tegan is awesomely aware of it. I loved her cynical response to Turlough's redemption and especially the Doctor's doting "I believe you": she says "You're mad . . . you only believe him because he gave up enlightenment for your sake." And she's absolutely right--all shippiness aside, what the Doctor's responding to in Turlough is Turlough's ability to make him feel special, looked-up-to, heroic. Well, that and an unpleasant sexist tendency that I don't remember from previous Doctors, where Five respects and listens to men more than women.)
I also learned that the Doctor will take advantage of tense moments tocop a feel comfort Turlough. Honestly, Doctor, wouldn't a nice scary movie work just as well?
They are rather grabby. Not at anything like Two-and-Jamie levels, but it's interesting, especially since the Doctor tends to keep his distance from Tegan (and Nyssa when she was around). I know there's a Doyleist explanation for this--a "no touching" order from TPTB, lest we should think that Sexy Young Doctor was getting it on with his companions--but the effect onscreen is "the Doctor likes Turlough better. For several given values of 'like'." Especially since the Doctor's reaction to Tegan looking beautiful in a low-cut gown is complete indifference.
I don't know that I'd say I ship Five/Turlough yet. For one thing, I just don't find Five all that interesting; his personality seems much less distinct, to me, than any other Doctor I've seen. But there's slashiness in the TARDIS again, and I'm totally unapologetic about how happy that makes me.
Okay, more seriously, one other thing I really liked in this episode was the (perhaps inadvertent) feminist critique of conventional romantic love. All the stuff that Marriner says to Tegan--you're my life, I'm empty without you, you fascinate me--is completely predicated on him seeing her as a lesser being who's there for his entertainment. It exactly echoes that way that the discourse of romantic love can erase women's agency, their selfhood, at the very moment it seems to idealize them. It was awesome to watch Tegan being completely unmoved, and in fact creeped out, by it. *hearts her*
Oh, and did I mention SAILING SHIPS IN SPACE OMG!
Terminus
This should've been brilliant, but the writer over-egged the pudding. If the focus had stayed on the lazar epidemic (with its haunting parallel to AIDS) and the giant corporation ferrying the sick away to a fake "cure" on a space station run by the slave labor of other infected people (who get medicine in return), it would've been a wrenching, amazing story. Okay, it would've been more a Blake's 7 story that a Doctor Who story, but I would've loved it. Unfortunately, too much other stuff was added in, including Turlough's ongoing Black Guardian problem, a giant alien who looked like a mutant version of Ratty from The Wind in the Willows, and the ship's leaky engines having somehow caused the Big Bang (I was totally confused) and potentially now ending the universe. The end result was a bit of a mess, even more so when the cure inexplicably turned out to be a genuine cure, which didn't make sense at all and seemed like a "we can't make a family show too bleak" cop-out.
Still, there was a lot of great stuff. There were big-haired space pirates! Turlough and Tegan crawling through access tunnels and almost bonding ("If you had to kill someone, could you do it?" "You're weird, Turlough.")! Nyssa being brave and awesome! (I was completely unspoiled and didn't know this was Nyssa's last episode.) Oh, and bonus points for the word "lazar," which made my inner medievalist happy.
I especially loved Bor, who stole every scene he was in with his dreamy rambling. Also, Bor and Sigurd were totally boyfriends, and I want fic.
I could, however, have done without the "how many clothes can we have Nyssa remove in the course of the episode" factor, and especially without the appalling crotch shot in episode 4, when she's lying on the floor unconscious after her radiation treatment, with the camera angle looking right up her skirt. Geez, show, there's no need to be so crude. Or so sexist.
Enlightenment
A happy convergence of my two current main fandoms, Who and age of sail, and generally a lot of cracked-out fun. In this story, I learned that Turlough is very good at charming ordinary sailors, but less good at charming female pirates captains; his wiles seem to work best on men. (And once again Tegan is awesomely aware of it. I loved her cynical response to Turlough's redemption and especially the Doctor's doting "I believe you": she says "You're mad . . . you only believe him because he gave up enlightenment for your sake." And she's absolutely right--all shippiness aside, what the Doctor's responding to in Turlough is Turlough's ability to make him feel special, looked-up-to, heroic. Well, that and an unpleasant sexist tendency that I don't remember from previous Doctors, where Five respects and listens to men more than women.)
I also learned that the Doctor will take advantage of tense moments to
They are rather grabby. Not at anything like Two-and-Jamie levels, but it's interesting, especially since the Doctor tends to keep his distance from Tegan (and Nyssa when she was around). I know there's a Doyleist explanation for this--a "no touching" order from TPTB, lest we should think that Sexy Young Doctor was getting it on with his companions--but the effect onscreen is "the Doctor likes Turlough better. For several given values of 'like'." Especially since the Doctor's reaction to Tegan looking beautiful in a low-cut gown is complete indifference.
I don't know that I'd say I ship Five/Turlough yet. For one thing, I just don't find Five all that interesting; his personality seems much less distinct, to me, than any other Doctor I've seen. But there's slashiness in the TARDIS again, and I'm totally unapologetic about how happy that makes me.
Okay, more seriously, one other thing I really liked in this episode was the (perhaps inadvertent) feminist critique of conventional romantic love. All the stuff that Marriner says to Tegan--you're my life, I'm empty without you, you fascinate me--is completely predicated on him seeing her as a lesser being who's there for his entertainment. It exactly echoes that way that the discourse of romantic love can erase women's agency, their selfhood, at the very moment it seems to idealize them. It was awesome to watch Tegan being completely unmoved, and in fact creeped out, by it. *hearts her*
Oh, and did I mention SAILING SHIPS IN SPACE OMG!
