audio review: BFA 16: "Storm Warning"
Oct. 12th, 2008 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_losficStorm Warning
Because of the way the Engineer Prime alien says ‘Charley’ I cannot get a certain internet sensation decoupled from Charley Pollard in my mind. Eight is both of those unicorns, y’all. Chaaaaarley…
Thank god I had an actual South African in the room, who I could make listen to Rathbone and confirm for me, her eyes wide with a kind of ‘swallowed a hamster’ expression, that no, No One Talks Like That. Rathbone was from Scotrussiamany: a magical land where the haggis is made of vodka and pairs well with Bavarian beers.
The men of the R101 crew undergo a sort of moral-revealing. Rathbone has a moment of surmounting his inner Uncreator, only to loose that moral vim without a ton of explanation. Tamworth is revealed to be Not That Much Of a Jingoistic Fuck, Really. I sort of liked him, so why not. Lt-Col Frayling kind of inexplicably moves in the last few minutes of the audio from a cautious, intelligent, seemingly well-disposed young man (might have made an okay companion) to someone enabled-by-roaring to be an ass. Which makes less sense. Though everyone you might have liked or cared about at all (heya, Chief Steward Weeks) is about to die, so it doesn’t matter much.
If I was supposed to feel betrayed along with the Doctor by Frayling and Rathbone lapsing back into selfish hubris, as a sort of set up for the ‘everyone I admire turns out to be an ass’ trouble Eight has later, notably in Zagreus, that could have been set up a bit better. Like Sword of Orion, which comes next, a whole crew dies. Despite Lord Tamworth making the Doctor promise to take care of them: an awkward moment that's played relatively well. But the 'crew dies' thing here, which is necessary to the plot and kind of emotionally affecting--though not to the extent it might have been if this cruel inevitability were given more time/focus--works better than it does in Sword of Orion, which ends up just making Orion feel repetitive.
The whole worldbuilding of the Triskele is interesting. I’m always down for Alienness and alternate consciousnesses in extraterrestrials, and this holds up, in a sort of ‘I hope you like archetypes,’ ‘Id-Ego-Superego’ way. The epic-fail of the atrophied Uncreators against the R101’s ‘grr’ noises is a bit cute, if embarrassing.
I know the Doctor has a Magestical Time Brain that tells him what can and can’t be mucked about with, but what in the world wouldn’t have been satisfied by dumping an anonymous female corpse into the R101 remains and helpfully attaching a ‘Charley Pollard’ name tag to the crispy remnants? If Charley needs to be /dead to the world/ and /removed from that Time Line,/ fair enough. If the universe demands the specific death total reach a certain number for reasons of its own, and then is totally down with the Doctor reversing the destruction of Venice but not Charley’s insignificant ass surviving, then the universe is pretty damn convenient for people who would like to write some good angsty!Doctor stories. I’m not saying This Can’t Be, I just want a good philosophical technobable from the Doctor to get me there. I’ll believe it if his bullshit’s pretty enough and/or if there’s some loosely constructed Actual Logic/Cosmology behind it.
Though that could set up a logic framework for the Whoniverse that would undoubtedly survive to inconvenience other people writing in that universe. From the point of view of storytelling, no one needs this. From the logical standpoint, the Charley arc is unsatisfying because it’s founded on a great big ‘?’
On that note Charley’s introduction could have been a bit more striking. She’s Plucky ™ and Compassionate, with a sort of anime-esque drive to go be An Adventuress. *Shrug* Initially I neither strongly disliked her nor felt charmed.
So surprisingly enjoyable: it did entertain me. But now that I’ve listened to better stuff in the rest of the season, comparatively lackluster.
Because of the way the Engineer Prime alien says ‘Charley’ I cannot get a certain internet sensation decoupled from Charley Pollard in my mind. Eight is both of those unicorns, y’all. Chaaaaarley…
Thank god I had an actual South African in the room, who I could make listen to Rathbone and confirm for me, her eyes wide with a kind of ‘swallowed a hamster’ expression, that no, No One Talks Like That. Rathbone was from Scotrussiamany: a magical land where the haggis is made of vodka and pairs well with Bavarian beers.
The men of the R101 crew undergo a sort of moral-revealing. Rathbone has a moment of surmounting his inner Uncreator, only to loose that moral vim without a ton of explanation. Tamworth is revealed to be Not That Much Of a Jingoistic Fuck, Really. I sort of liked him, so why not. Lt-Col Frayling kind of inexplicably moves in the last few minutes of the audio from a cautious, intelligent, seemingly well-disposed young man (might have made an okay companion) to someone enabled-by-roaring to be an ass. Which makes less sense. Though everyone you might have liked or cared about at all (heya, Chief Steward Weeks) is about to die, so it doesn’t matter much.
If I was supposed to feel betrayed along with the Doctor by Frayling and Rathbone lapsing back into selfish hubris, as a sort of set up for the ‘everyone I admire turns out to be an ass’ trouble Eight has later, notably in Zagreus, that could have been set up a bit better. Like Sword of Orion, which comes next, a whole crew dies. Despite Lord Tamworth making the Doctor promise to take care of them: an awkward moment that's played relatively well. But the 'crew dies' thing here, which is necessary to the plot and kind of emotionally affecting--though not to the extent it might have been if this cruel inevitability were given more time/focus--works better than it does in Sword of Orion, which ends up just making Orion feel repetitive.
The whole worldbuilding of the Triskele is interesting. I’m always down for Alienness and alternate consciousnesses in extraterrestrials, and this holds up, in a sort of ‘I hope you like archetypes,’ ‘Id-Ego-Superego’ way. The epic-fail of the atrophied Uncreators against the R101’s ‘grr’ noises is a bit cute, if embarrassing.
I know the Doctor has a Magestical Time Brain that tells him what can and can’t be mucked about with, but what in the world wouldn’t have been satisfied by dumping an anonymous female corpse into the R101 remains and helpfully attaching a ‘Charley Pollard’ name tag to the crispy remnants? If Charley needs to be /dead to the world/ and /removed from that Time Line,/ fair enough. If the universe demands the specific death total reach a certain number for reasons of its own, and then is totally down with the Doctor reversing the destruction of Venice but not Charley’s insignificant ass surviving, then the universe is pretty damn convenient for people who would like to write some good angsty!Doctor stories. I’m not saying This Can’t Be, I just want a good philosophical technobable from the Doctor to get me there. I’ll believe it if his bullshit’s pretty enough and/or if there’s some loosely constructed Actual Logic/Cosmology behind it.
Though that could set up a logic framework for the Whoniverse that would undoubtedly survive to inconvenience other people writing in that universe. From the point of view of storytelling, no one needs this. From the logical standpoint, the Charley arc is unsatisfying because it’s founded on a great big ‘?’
On that note Charley’s introduction could have been a bit more striking. She’s Plucky ™ and Compassionate, with a sort of anime-esque drive to go be An Adventuress. *Shrug* Initially I neither strongly disliked her nor felt charmed.
So surprisingly enjoyable: it did entertain me. But now that I’ve listened to better stuff in the rest of the season, comparatively lackluster.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-16 03:55 pm (UTC)Eight is SO different from movie!eight/book!eight. But I'm terribly fond of audio!eight at this point (I'm as far as Scherzo now), so really I'm willing to say 'regeneration trauma?' and accept a wildly divergent Doctor.
I'm thinking of listening to either Five or Six's audio run from the beginning next. I hear good things about Erimen and Evelyn both, though based purely on the show my Five soft spot beats out poor Six. I'm ready to like Six with Evelyn though!
Charley's genericness wouldn't bug me so much if the scripts didn't treat her like she wasn't generic, re: the Doctor's reaction to her.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 06:11 pm (UTC)Six: it's a cliché,, but scripts really make all the difference, and Colin Baker, being given some of the best BFA scripts full stop, shows what he can do when Eric Saward isn't at the writing helm for his Doctor. This doesn't mean they ignored his tv characterisation, but that they added and fleshed out. So he's still bombastic and brash but you see how much he cares when injustices etc. happen, and whether it's Evelyn or Frobisher, the companions he gets just play off beautifully with him. Plus really, giving Six of all the Doctors the 55-years old historian was a stroke of genius. Can't imagine any of the other incarnations being such a perfect contrast. But Andraste put it best in her great post on Six (http://andrastewhite.livejournal.com/283950.html) why the audios really are essential for loving him.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 08:07 pm (UTC)You know that post IS made of win. Previously I was rather downcast--once I finished off my newly-beloved Eight, and Five, who remains a stand by old favorite, what would I have? *sigh* Six. And Six is--well, fine. But I'm really entirely charmed by the description of the first Six and Evelyn episode, and v. much looking forward to that run now. Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2008-10-19 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 01:15 am (UTC)I wanted to like them, I really did. I'm down with Ace, scheming and spoons, but I can't excuse the production on the grounds of 'well, it was the 80's.'
Maybe the audios will be better for me?
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 07:35 pm (UTC)I also love the Seven cameo on a Six and Evelyn adventure, Thicker than Water, but that one really should only be heard after having heard several Six and Evelyn stories as well, since it's set after she stopped travelling with him. Earler than that, BF pulled off a story in which first Six and then Seven are confronted by the same villain, but not at the same time, and lest you think they missed out the chance of Baker-McCoy interaction, they found away around that without making the Doctor meet himself. *is mysterious*