Saturday Waffling (November 29th, 2014)
Hello all. Finished the V for Vendetta chapter, and am mostly through the next round of Logopolis revisions, though I’ll probably typeset the bugger before I send it back to Jane so she can check pagination, and that feels like an impossibly large task right now, though that may be because it’s 3:30 in the morning and I’m cold and tired.
Still trying to figure out what on Earth I’m going to use this blog for once TARDIS Eruditorum wraps. I mean, Last War in Albion, obviously. And the episode commentaries I owe from the Kickstarter. And the commissioned essays, I suppose. The trouble is, I’m really not eager to take on another massive project, but I also do want to keep up regular blogging. And I’m not sure how best to reconcile those. Maybe some shorter blog series.
Right. Discussion for the week. Hm.
Well, December’s waiting for us on Monday. What are you looking forward to in the last month of 2014?
November 29, 2014 @ 12:07 am
Might as well jump in with the Doctor Who 2014 Christmas episode, since somebody will.
Kinda just looking forward to the year being over. It's been one of those years where things have gone fairly well for me personally but a lot of friends have had to deal with way too much crap and there was far too little I could do to help them.
November 29, 2014 @ 12:09 am
Is it too much to wish for a reasonably unembarrasing Xmas episode of our favourite show? I'm not holding out much hope based on the trailer. Unless Moffat pulls the rug from under us big-time I've a Widow and the Wardrobe feeling about this one.
On a personal note, it's the deadline for writing the final chapters of my children's fantasy novel and none of my characters seem in any hurry to get to the denoument.
November 29, 2014 @ 12:17 am
Every December:
http://i.imgur.com/uM9gC.jpg
November 29, 2014 @ 12:28 am
Well, next week I will be in a dress, killer heels and a wig for my friend Jo's "Peter in a dress party" (not its official title, but it might as well be). Not sure whether to shave off the beard first or rock it Conchita style. The latter sounds like less effort.
I may also finally get around to laying down some laminate flooring in my living room. Tis the season to be jolly!
November 29, 2014 @ 12:52 am
Getting a better idea of what, let's say, week I will – as a result of an unpopular government's violent, politically-motivated, Murd0ch-kowtowing cuts to our national broadcaster – I will be unemployed after a dozen years of mostly-proud public service.
November 29, 2014 @ 12:54 am
Not this December but next December: the new Star Wars movie will be coming out, and based on the short teaser trailer that released today, it looks to be in with a chance of beinggood.
I know, it's only a teaser – not even a full trailer, not even any real dialogue or plot clues – but the opening shot of John Boyega looking tired, scared and panicked in the desert sold me that this will be a vast improvement on the Prequel Trilogy: I've had enough of po-faced Jedi calmly droning through the films with no more emotion shown than someone playing team sports. We haven't seen someone lose their shit properly or emote convincingly since the Original Trilogy.
November 29, 2014 @ 12:59 am
"We haven't seen someone lose their shit properly or emote convincingly since the Original Trilogy."
And that would be who, exactly? C3PO had more emotional range than any of the human characters in the Original Trilogy and he makes Jar-Jar Binks look like Laurence Olivier.
Having said that, I agree that the trailer looked more promising than I expected, although the "new" light sabre was pretty stupid.
November 29, 2014 @ 2:18 am
Not making any claims for emoting convincingly, but Luke definitely "lost his shit" on occasion.
November 29, 2014 @ 4:51 am
If there's a short series that Phil should cover after the Eruditorum ends, wouldn't it have to be Dollhouse? It's often terribly misunderstood, rich with metaphors, no shortage of real-world commentary, and very Doctor Who-ish in its ability to drop in on any kind of genre.
November 29, 2014 @ 5:37 am
I thought you were going to make The Last War In Albion twice a week?
November 29, 2014 @ 5:50 am
The one good thing about December is that it's generally cold and dry, so no more leaf mold and thus the November sniffles finally end. Also I think I'm going to finally get the Madoka Magica book into a state where it can go to the editor within the next couple of weeks, so I'll have a bit more free time than the past few months. Maybe I'll play a video game for the first time this year.
Other than that, it's a pretty consistently terrible month courtesy of the inescapable Grand Festival of Capitalist Excess and Christian Hegemony, so I'm looking forward to it being over.
November 29, 2014 @ 7:23 am
Not a short series, but I would love love love Phil to cover Battlestar Galatica. So much rich imagery and allusion.
November 29, 2014 @ 7:50 am
Some time back Phil speculated vaguely about blogging Joss Whedon's career.
November 29, 2014 @ 12:40 pm
Phil, you might not have seen this in today's Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/28/philip-pullman-william-blake-and-me?CMP=fb_gu
November 29, 2014 @ 3:04 pm
Oh hey, I wrote a paper about Milton, Blake, and Pullman for my Children's Literature class in college. The professor told me it was good but as far as she was concerned undergraduates shouldn't be allowed to talk about Blake, so bumped me down to a B.
November 29, 2014 @ 3:20 pm
First off, congratulations to Phil on his recent nuptials.
Also, has everyone else heard the news about Catherine Tregenna? Me, I just read about it a few minutes ago. It sounds like very good news to me. As a writer I don't think Moffat is the sexist and homophobe that he is sometimes accused of being, and some of this is so self-perpetuating there's nothing he can do to stop it. As a showrunner, however, it's seemed like he needed to do more to recruit female behind-the-scenes talent, so this is a good step.
November 29, 2014 @ 6:31 pm
How about… a short psychochronology of Orphan Black? You know, as a separate blog mini-series? 😉
November 29, 2014 @ 7:37 pm
I'd vote for that
November 29, 2014 @ 7:42 pm
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November 29, 2014 @ 7:51 pm
Indeed, the fight in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke loses his hand and Vader reveals their true relationship for one. I'm not saying it's the best acting ever, but I fail to remember anything from the Prequel Trilogy that approached scenes like this, embarrassing "whiney Anakin hissy-fits" included. Ewen McGregor barely even cracks a smile until Episode 3 when he goes to take down Grevious.
November 29, 2014 @ 11:07 pm
A Whedon Eruditorum gets my vote.
November 29, 2014 @ 11:24 pm
I thought Phil said he wanted to wait until Whedon's involvement with the Avengers films ended, though I would be pleasantly surprised if that was not the case.
November 29, 2014 @ 11:28 pm
I'm looking forward to starting rehearsals for The Tempest, which kick off December 1 and continue for almost two solid months up to the first performance. Somehow in all the years I've spent onstage I've never done Shakespeare until now, unless you count improvising plays he never wrote.
November 30, 2014 @ 12:46 am
Replace that last one with "Portion of graph which looks like a color-inverted pac-man."
November 30, 2014 @ 12:49 am
The best acted scenes in the prequel trilogy were those not actually directed by Lucas: Some of the improvised stuff between Anakin and Padme (the entire "Aggressive negotiations" thing being an ad-lib by Hayden Christensen), the Mustafar scenes, etc. Generally, for all his strengths and weaknesses as a visual director and writer, Lucas really can't direct actors worth a damn.
November 30, 2014 @ 1:02 am
I can't honestly say, being a big fan of the series and having watched both all the way through twice, that Fringe or Twin Peaks necessarily have the same value as Doctor Who when it comes to psychochronology, but both are steeped in psychedelia, surrealism, and television history. I've often thought that Fringe in particular felt like an American take on the Pertwee era, with an overtly pro-psychedelic narrative about a (literal) madman forced to work for the government investigating bizarre scientific events around the world, which is to say, the tri-state area.
As for what I'm wishing for this Christmas, ohhhh… crass commercialism-wise, I'm hoping for the action figure I preordered in october to arrive, I'm hoping for a good Doctor Who episode, I'm hoping for a delicious but not too large ham, and to feel good enough to put up lots of pretty lights. In a less commercial sense, I'm hoping my mom starts feeling better, that my friend's new music project works out, that federal charges are brought against Darren Wilson, and that this shitty year closes out without getting much worse in the next 31 days.
November 30, 2014 @ 1:44 am
I wasn't particularly bothered about catching episode 7 until I saw the teaser.
Shame that the opening shot will be in space like the 6 previous films because I'd love it to be the opening shot of the teaser. John Boyega immediately had my attention and kicking things off in media res would be an ideal way to shake off the stuffiness of the prequel trilogy.
Interesting to see that the stormtrooper armour has been slightly changed. I assume that's to do with the armour's public domain status in the UK.
November 30, 2014 @ 4:52 am
I am thrilled, Out of Time is one of my favorite examples of character driven sci fi, and nothing she's written that I've seen falls below "solid."
November 30, 2014 @ 10:31 am
Oh yes! And Captain Jack Harkness is my daughter's favourite Torchwood episode. Good news!
November 30, 2014 @ 4:42 pm
Including the original series!
December 2, 2014 @ 12:39 am
There's even some continuation novels of the original series – it'll be like Doctor Who's Wilderness Years all over again!
December 4, 2014 @ 3:08 am
Grotesquely off-topic but man – did you ever cover this? The Doctor Who tie-in make it damn near irresistible, I'd have thought… (the second video in the link explains it)
http://modernnotion.com/max-headroom-hackers-still-remain-a-mystery/
December 4, 2014 @ 7:25 am
…well, I know I won't be sleeping tonight.
December 4, 2014 @ 7:44 am
Or several, almost identical mini-series…
December 23, 2014 @ 8:23 am
Whedon Eruditorum sounds good to me!
December 23, 2014 @ 8:24 am
Wouldn't object to that, either. Actually, whatever Phil decides to do next I'll read.