GIP!

[xparrot]

Gratuitous Icon Post, just because naye told me to. Mainly so if anyone asks why I am crazy obsessed with Doctor Who I can point to it and say THERE, THIS IS WHY.

Also, if you're a fan and you're not watching the Dr. Who Confidentials, you probably should be, because they're all sorts of awesome. Not only is it fun to see how the special f/x are done and how scenes are filmed (that kind of stuff has always fascinated me), and it has all these great music videos (it's like they know that pop music would be inappropriate for the show itself, so instead they just stick all the oh-so-apropos songs in the Confidentials) but they've got loads of the writers and directors and actors talking about the show and analyzing the chars. And can I say I am mad in love with Russell T Davies, the man is brilliant and is hereby added to the list of writers who, should ever I meet them in person, I will drop to my knees before. And then, once their guard is down, I will spring up with my fork and knife and devour their brains. And then I too will be a genius! (Other notables include JMS, Neil Gaiman, and Kazuya Minekura. With Minekura-sensei I might eat her drawing hand as well. Oda-sensei is exempt because I believe the crack levels in his brain might be lethal for an ordinary human.)

In cross-fandom news: the thing about watching the Doctor Who specials is that it highlights the trouble with Smallville. I can't imagine the writers of SV showing so much care and understanding of their series, for the characters and the universe. DW is made by fans, people who grew up with the show and love it, are thrilled to be bringing it to a new generation, and you can feel that, watching the show. And the sad thing is, SV could have been like that. Superman is an American icon as Dr. Who is a British icon; there are plenty of differences (DW's canon is far more fixed, for one, despite its diversity) but there are people who love Superman, fanboys and girls who know the comics and are steeped in the myth and could have brought it to life with that kind of devotion. Maybe in the beginning, there were some people like that on SV's team, and they've just given up, I don't know. But it's a shame, to think of what it might've been, if TPTB behind it had cared the way DW's do.

Comments

[littlehollyleaf.livejournal.com]

Just one more thing actually :p - You mention in reply to someone else how Doctor Who writers etc always try to give a human/realistic reaction to things and aren't so comic book like in their portrayal. Well, to be fair to the SV team, they ARE making a show based on a comic, so there will be the tendency for comic-book like effects/plots/actions etc, like in the Superman or Batman films. But Doctor Who never was a comic book, so it never had any comic book stories to mimic. That makes it a lot easier to take it in different directions, especially as you've also got this main character who can keep changing into someone a little different. So, there's never a fixed theme that needs following.

Superman on the other hand, has a big tradition of Clark being the hero and Lex being the villain that SV did need to honour. Plus, Superman is this big American icon (from what I gather), they couldn't just flip things around (ala Wicked in comparison to The Wizard of Oz) and make Clark a jerk... although, that might have happened anyway...

I'm not saying the SV team did their job well, in fact I agree with you that by season 4 they'd starting doing it pretty badly. But I do think adding some serious moral ambiguity and more complex issues is probably an easier thing to do in DW.

And that's really it now :) You possibly think more seriously about fandom than anyone else on my flist, who generally just stick to 'squee' and 'yay' and 'nooo!' I actually have to think about stuff when I read your posts. It's great :)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahh, but the thing is, comic books have been getting less and less black & white, more complex in the last couple decades. Though really I wasn't talking so much about morality when it came to human emotions - just reactions. You can have a moral story that's still relatively realistic; people can choose to do the right thing, and it becomes all the more significant when they actually have the choice.

Really, DW is more moralistic than SV, I'd say - partly because it's, if not a kid's show, then a family show. The good guys and bad guys are quite clear-cut (bad guys = trying to destroy life, the universe, & everything! EXTERMINATE!; good guys = trying to stop them and help people). But the Doctor and his Companions still come across as believable people, because of how they react to these events; the pain they go through, or the pleasure and excitement of success. Rose and Martha both do and say things that, were I in their position, I could conceivably do, even when in situations that no one would ever be in in real life (e.g. dealing with the Doctor's regeneration.).

While as in SV, the chars react relatively realistically to ordinary things like relationship drama, but have totally nonsensical reactions to the unrealistic, scifi events. Such as the way everyone ignores the meteor mutants - yes, there's a degree that people will do that, but not to the psychotic extents seen in Smallville. The writers just don't bother with the effort of imagining what real people might do in those situations.

You possibly think more seriously about fandom than anyone else on my flist

Eheh...I'm glad you enjoy it, rather than thinking I'm a total lunatic! ^^; I enjoy a good debate and analyzing my enjoyment (or lack thereof!), but sometimes I worry I spoil the fun of people who don't want to spend so much time pondering their entertainment!

(in more standard lj-style - squeeee! to your icon! eeeee I want that next ep~!)