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courage-a-word-of-justice · 5 years

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Morose Mononokean II 4

Aw, another little fuzzball to steal away my heart? I’m being spoiled, aren’t I?

For some reason, this episode was meant to be really emotional, but I felt pretty restless while watching it. Probably because I was thinking about playing Merc Storia all that time.

Mob Psycho 100 II 4

Didn’t expect Shinra to be back after his previous appearance…

Notably, you’d expect Matsuo’s name to have the kanji for “pine tree” in it, but it doesn’t - it has the kanji for “demon” and then one more.

I loved it when FLCL and SGRS went into manga mode, but for some reason, the transition into manga mode didn’t land as well here…hmm.

“I’ll go inside her…With an out-of-body experience.” - That sounds majorly wronggggggggggg, Mob, y’know? Even with context.

I find it interesting Mob perceives himself to be naked…as in, unguarded. He’s fine as he is and doesn’t need to change…in some ways, anyway. He could probably do with a few more emotions, but you get what I mean.

Wha-wha-wha-whoaaaaaaaaa. You mean, Mogami just got rid of Mob’s powers??? That is a nasty cliffhanger!

My Roommate is a Cat 4

Just seeing Hiroto near Kawase’s armpit…so unfazed…it’s kinda funny, but only mildly.

Tuxedo cat…ergh. The differences between American and British English never ceases to trip me up…I mean, the term makes sense…it’s just the differences between the types of English I’m annoyed at.

If you observe the OP, you’ll see Haru has that collar…I’m not sure if that’s meant to be a spoiler then…

Haru basically has the mindset of Kaguya and Shirogane, which makes this hilarious (and yet it’s still justified due to being a believable mindset for a stray!).

S-Smug dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get out of the way of Haru-chan!

Shield Hero 4

“Draw your swords!” – Wasn’t there a rule saying Naofumi can’t use a sword anyway? Plus, Motoyasu has a spear, not a sword…

Balloon? Now, that’s funny!

Using magic to intervene is the cowardly action, methinks, Myne.

I find it interesting Naofumi sees Raphtalia as a little girl – it’s a perception of vulnerability, potentially weakness – when things are shown through his perspective.

Falling Through Starlight is beautiful, y’know that? Be-a-uuuuuuuuuuu-t-i-ful!

Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka 4

Interestingly, Francine kinda looks like Mami (Madoka Magica).

Wait, is this woman Miura? (Sorry, I’m just wondering why Abigail – the blonde evil magical girl – would choose to use yakiniku to threaten people…)

Oh dear…it’s that train question (save one or save many).

Neding authority before you can actually do anything legal…now that sounds like Double Decker.

“Chef”? I was mortified when it came to the rusalka scene…but I think we already know why Povar is a chef…

CQC? Close quarters combat? Ooh, I’ve never heard it abbreviated before.

Well, I like how Povar and Rusalka Man (can’t spell Russian to save my life) always keep their salaries in mind. Makes them easier to see as evil.

Egao no Daika 5

Oh, this series has two moons? Kind of like Double Decker’s two suns, yeah?

I just realised Lily’s the only one with a skirt on her suit…

Morose Mononokean II 5

I don’t think I’ve seen a Fuzzy-centric episode ever since the first time we met the furball…

That hand on neck thing is apparently a CIA technique if I interpreted it right…just, it’s applied to a purple/white lion, so it’s hard to tell whether it’s the real thing…

Fluffy tadpole is best tadpole. All fluffy things are cute to me, even the lethal ones…I guess.

Seriously, if someone doesn’t call the animation of the Executive sakuga, I don’t know sakuga! That crow is some fancy animation!

Hanae’s mother is scarier than most youkai, given she can give me a nasty jump scare!

Mob Psycho II 5

This episode’s called Discord…which maks me think of the chat program of the same name…weird, huh?

Notably, it’s Dimple’s voice coming from Mob’s mouth…hmm.

That episode was real cool…it’s too bad by turning off the volume at the wrong time, I missed the Sajou no Hana song…

My Roommate is a Cat 5

Roku, Nana, Hachi…haha.

I noticed Haru has smaller eyes than Hachi…aside from the collar of course.

Aw…reunion too cute. I honestly think that this show has a fairly effective use of “filling in the gaps”, as it were, and thus making good use of cuts.

Double Decker! EX 1

Yep, we’re back with Double Decker!!! I’m glad to see it back, really.

Wait…ohhhhhhhhh. So Double Decker! doesn’t just refer to the bus in this show or the system. It means “2 Detectives” in Japanese (in a codeswitching sort of way). It was wordplay all along! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! I get it now!

This Deana assassin stuff must be a lie…

(after the commercial break) C’mon, Kirill, buddy. You’re drunk, y’know that, right…? Right??? Update: Oh, not drunk, dreaming. My mistake.

Oh, I was just saying that My Roommate is a Cat dos a nice job “filling in gaps”. Didn’t realise Double Decker did it as well. Also, how the heck is Doug unpopular with women???

So…Kirill actually got hired based on his feminine looks? Geesh, that Travis…

The thing I missed about this show was not being able to play the ED after an episode, so I’m glad to have it back!

Spec Ops Asuka 5

Having Kurumi fix up Nozomi’s arm kind of erases the consequences…but that’s what Kurumi’s for, right?

Barber Scissors…? Is this what happens when you take Kill la Kill way too seriously?

Wowee. Din’t think Sacchuu was capable of dealing nasty punches as well.

There’s gotta be some sort of parallel between Abigail and the queen vs Asuka and Kurumi…

Post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Shield Hero 5

Headbutt to the nuts! Oof!

When it comes to races, the one tune that comes to mind is one from the Dog Island (track 22 from this YouTube playlist).

I swear there was CGI during the race…on Filo.

Please don’t make jokes about Naofumi liking lolis, people. This is not that type of show…

Mononokean 6

Is it just me, or has this epiode been relying on the use of blue speech bubbles for humour more than normal?

It’s Mononokean: Sports Anime edition!

For some reason, I find the name “trashboat” hilarious. It was probably just “ponkotsu” (piece of trash) in practice, but the variation in English is really something to behold…

Ashiya sleeps like an old man, LOL. It must be cosy in that bed…

Moja is just adorable in whatever scene it appears in! Even Moja being dragged down a stream is cute~!

Relaxing your shoulders, huh? That reminds me that that’s a destress technique I haven’t used in a while. My head’s been spinning while I was trying to watch this episode, so I should probably get back to trying to do that stuff…after this episode, of course.

Price of Smiles 6

You think Spec Ops Asuka looks bad? Look at Price of Smiles melt in this “Yuni! You should recover!” scene.

For some reason, this one dude (I forget his name) being a father surprises me. He looks like the type to be single…

The female version of the name “Noel” is Noelle…get that right, people!

Layla’s right when she says one of the main causes of war is the struggle for resources and wealth.

Mob Psycho II 6

I noticed instead of a Mac or something, the computer is a “One” computer.

The board says something a lot more complicated than Saitama’s routine…which means One likes exercise. Maybe…probably.

“Codomo” phone, LOL.

The last time I heard of tofu in anime that I remember…was Boueibu. Something about Ryuu killing a man with tofu.

Somehow it didn’t occur to me until the eyecatch was over but the block…was tofu!

How do you even get drunk when there’s no alcohol in the drink??? (LOL)

Oh! Shinra again!

…Also Jodo Kirin!

Shield Hero 6

Naofumi is giving 0 f**ks about the dressmaker’s love of Filo.

Why is Filo CGI…? It looks unnerving, to be honest with you.

My Roommate is a Cat 6

Eleventh grade…16? 17? Heck, Yugo looks 27, not 17!

Notably, “Comic Polaris” is the name of the magazine that publishes the manga of this. Hence “Novels Polaris”.

Heck, Subaru. In the internet age in particular, people write to affect others. I should know, as someone who did just that just a few years ago!

Oushitsu Kyoushi Heine movie

Yay, we’re back! Crunchyroll bringing over movies is definitely increasing my workload for these commentaries, so with all the new things I’ve added to my lists of priorities as of late, I wonder if I can keep up…

Hitting us with CGI in the first minute of the movie…oh man, how far does CGI go these days???

Honestly, in my brain Wagner (Classicaloid) = the twins (this movie) = the Beppus (Boueibu LOVE! LOVE!). They’re very similar in terms of personality…

In the same way, Bruno = Schubert from Classicaloid (but swap one’s Sensei for the other’s Senpai).

Licht = Motz.

It seems like someone liked ponytail!Licht enough to keep him here. So it really wasn’t just me, huh?

Seriously, what’s this “God of War” stuff anyway???

Man, vocal exercises? This takes me back to my piano-playing days…I was a sightreader and only had to do one of the two (out of sightreading and vocal stuff), but there was someone else who had to do both.

This piano is bugging me. Its white keys are black and its black keys are white!

Somehow, Heine’s small top hat suits him. It’s probably because he wears a small beret in that same position usually.

More CGI background characters…*sigh*

Hmm…soft power at its finest(?)

Seriously though, why did that evil Duke guy appear in this movie again??? He has zero use plotwise. Sure, he was important in the first season and if we ever get a second he’ll be important there, but here? Nada!

Have you noticed Heine is in all those dance positions a girl would normally be in??? Hmm! Interesting! But still…if there’s one thing I ever missed from the anime’s experience, it would be-oh, scratch that! This is my cue to watch the cheesy live-action dance ending! I missed it so much!

Egao no Daika 7

Seriously…who is Eins talking to??? Whose emperor???

They still haven’t revealed what this new guy’s name is, even after his introduction…well, technically he was introduced at the River Deese, but we still didn’t learn his name then. (Did we?)

Spec Ops Asuka 6

Is Mia just this show’s version of Kyouko (from Madoka Magica, but American of course)???

Oooooookay, that (with the kissing and stuff) is so not what foreigners are like, people…

Oh, goodness. Have I really been living with this stuff (girl x girl teasing, with Kurumi in particular being one of the more extreme examples I’ve seen) in my magical girl anime for years now? I mean, Suite PreCure is laced with the stuff…

If ordinary rigor mortis business is at work, then I’d say the heater is to speed up the rotting of the corpse…

LOL, there’s Halloween-class…and then there’s Voorhees-class…how appropriate for Disas.

“Only one of the Magical Five would’ve known about that phrase.” – My bets are on Peipei, but we’ll find out for sure…someday.

Mononokean 7

As much as I found the pillow fight scene with Fuzzy in it funny, I swear Abeno is a bit too sadistic for my own good. What is it with some women and their sadistic kinks…?

Abeno calling Ashiya “hunk of junk” makes me think Ashiya isn’t much of a Sousuke (from Classicaloid), but they do have a lot of similar character traits, now that I think of it…hmm.

For some reason, I think Abeno knew the conditions of the deal and what the deal entailed in advance, hence the training camp.

Seiza…means sitting on the floor in the position Ashiya was in (knees to the floor etc).

Mob Psycho II 7

“Cheeseburger Tornado”, LOL.

When Reigen got angry at the TV, I was just like, “It’s Shield Hero (Mob Psycho version)!” I.e. you con the conman and not turn the conned into a conman…or something like that.

Those microphones are so obviously CGI, people…

I know I’m a fan of Yuzuru Tachikawa, but episode 5 actually didn’t do too much for me, to be honest (even though it was visual spectacle, which is Tachikawa’s strong suit). However, while episode 7 looked less punchy overall, it was miles better…

“First-press limited edition? That is the absolute best decision.” – What is that referring to??? Update: It’s referring to the BDs...or DVDs...or both.

Update: Forgot to add Double Decker to the title and tags.

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sebthealchemist-blog · 7 years

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Sometimes It Hurts Instead || Sequinn

WHO : Quinn Fabray & Sebastian Smythe WHERE: A beautiful cabin in Georgia, deep in the Appalachian mountains. WHEN: May 21-24, 2017 WHAT: Discussions of Quinn’s passions and the poor ways Sebastian has reacted to her choices. Mentions of Mason McCarthy. [2.7k words] WARNING: Mentions of pregnancy. Potentially harsh language.

Sebastian had slept well. He’d chalked removable sigils around the door frames of the cabin after Quinn had gone to sleep, each a mirror image of what Mason had made him to protect his suite and afterward, his loft. He’d activated them and, upon feeling safe, passed out soundly. Waking up the next morning, Sebastian dragged himself out of bed, brewing a fresh pot of coffee but also making arrangements for tea, depending on what Quinn would like. He’d insisted she take the largest room the previous night, because it had the most beautiful view. And perhaps a bit of breathtaking nature would soften the way they’d hardened against one another, friendship fossilizing slowly as if it were going extinct. He needed to put a stop to that now. He was, more than anything, desperate not to lose her. Not when they’d come so close to being true friends. He moved to the porch clad in nothing but his pajama pants, kicking his feet up on the railing and resting his coffee mug on the table beside him. A familiar book in hand, he settled into read. And to wait.

It was beautiful, in a way that reminded her of home. But the best parts of home; the calm breezes through evergreens, the smell of pine. The dirt that seemed to cling to sneakers, and the ever-present sound of birds. It was still cool, especially early in the morning. Moisture had gathered at the edges of Quinn’s windows, framing the mountain view beyond. Quinn sat cross-legged on the bed, clad in a plain white t-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms. It was just warm enough inside, the smell of smoke a gentle reminder that there was a fire going downstairs somewhere. It was peaceful. It was fresh, and clean, and so gloriously disconnected. There was no NYADaily running a story on her love life, or students staring wide-eyed as she passed. There was no Judy, or Francine, or Russell. There was only Sebastian. She’d heard him shuffling around downstairs, perking up at the smell of coffee. It was almost serene enough that she could forget they needed to talk. Almost. But Sebastian was still a drifting friend. He was still harsh texts, and doubt. She wasn’t ready to talk, but she got up anyway, bothering only with a fleece overcoat before padding down the stairs. It wasn’t until after she’d poured herself a cup of coffee that she noticed him out on the deck. She hesitated for a moment before stepping out, taking in his posture, trying to settle the uneasy feeling in her stomach. With a deep breath, she made her way out, lowering herself quietly into the seat next to him. “Morning.” She started softly, voice rough with sleep.

Sebastian was incredibly lost in a dystopian burning of books when Quinn emerged from the cabin, startling him a bit. He closed the book but left it in hips lap, smiling a bit at her. This Quinn was so different from the one he was used to seeing. He was reminded of a time when she was goofy, silly, and slumbering in his room. It was nice to see her away from everything she forced herself to be. “Hey,” he said softly, “Good morning. Sleep okay?”

Quinn hummed in lieu of an answer, giving a small nod. The bed was comfortable, mountains of pillows had piled up around her. It had been quiet in ways that New York couldn’t even dream to be. But she’d spent hours awake. “I slept fine.” She said, but didn’t expand. Once she was asleep, she was asleep, and that’s all that mattered. She pulled her gaze away from the mountains to regard Sebastian. He looked different, somehow, backdropped by hardwood and sky, a book open in his lap. “What are you reading?”

Sebastian tried to give her a bit of a smile. Holding the book up to show her the cover, he said, “Fahrenheit 451. It was floating around in my potions bag… the weirdest shit ends up in there.” He set it to the side, asking, “Have you read it?” It was quite the Commons classic, but like many Commons books, it had wormed its way into his heart. And perhaps it was easier to start the discussion with books: a subject they both held close.

Quinn eyed the book. She’d heard of it; although, it was kind of hard not to. It was one of those deemed ‘classic,’ and it had been on her list for ages. But Quinn liked to get lost, and she hadn’t quite found the nerve to tackle it. “I haven’t.” She offered, looking up. Her stomach flopped uncomfortable, and her hands tugged at the fabric of her pajama bottoms. Sebastian looked casual, something about the early morning light made him look so far from the boy she’d seen at Bloodline gatherings growing up. They’d changed, and yet Quinn still felt miles away from him. “We don’t…really want to talk about books, do we?”

Sebastian had read it a thousand time. Without a second thought, he handed the well-loved copy to her. “Give it a chance. You can return it whenever you’ve finished it.” He smiled a bit looking over to Quinn. She looked remarkably beautiful in the golden light of the sunrise, dancing across her cheeks and making her look nearly as angelic as her magic. Instantly, he sat up a straighter as he spoke, pulling his feet to the ground and clearing his throat. “Yeah. I guess that wasn’t the point of the trip.” He sighed softly, letting a silence stretch out between them before finally speaking at last. “What are your dreams?” He asked softly.

Quinn accepted the book, turning it over gently in her hands. The binding was worn in a way that told it had been read over and again. The pages turned easily and it felt soft, the same as so many of Quinn’s own books. “Thank you.” Her voice barely carried above a whisper, and it took her a moment to look back at him. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to talk. If they could have four silent but amiable days, maybe they could be the good-bye that she felt she needed. His question brought her back to the moment, however, and she swallowed thickly. Her gaze switched from him to the mountains. The golden light slowly stretching across the green treetops was much easier to look at. There were a million answers tossing around in her mind, warring for attention, tumbling over and over until she couldn’t make one out from another. Beyond that, she wasn’t sure which dreams were hers, and which ones belonged to someone else. “I want to…” Words caught in her chest, and she swallowed again, eyes never leaving the treetops. “Follow in my parents’ footsteps, and make something of myself within the UMC.”

Sebastian sighed, shaking his head. “No… I don’t—“ he raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t mean politically, Quinn. I mean… are there any special books you hope to own? Do you have hobbies that you want to pursue? Where do you want to travel?” He wanted, more than anything, to hear what was in her heart. Not the generated answer that her family expected her to give. What made Quinn happy? What did she do in her free time, besides reading and church things? He wanted to learn everything he could before it was too late for them.

Quinn’s eyes finally met Sebastian once more. She resisted the feeling of frustration that bubbled up, shoving it down before it could actually become a thing. She didn’t want to have casual conversations with Sebastian. She was mad at Sebastian. But Sebastian hadn’t brought her out into the middle of nowhere so that she could sit there and be mad at him. It was obvious that he’d wanted something genuine, something disconnected. There were no politics in the middle of nowhere. “I want to get lost in the Vatican Secret Archives, and visit my Godfather in Poland. I like obscure alternative bands who play in hole-in-the-wall venues, and books that are so detached from here that you can almost f–…get lost in them. What does any of this have to do with anything, Sebastian?”

A smile slowly crept back onto Sebastian’s face the more that Quinn explained. He couldn’t picture her listening to any kind of alternative music. For some reason, he pictured Beethoven and Tchaikovsky pouring into Quinn’s ears overtime she wore headphones. “Yeah?” He asked with a bit of a laugh, tilting his head. “Have you watched any Commons’ movies? I’ve learned that some of them are nearly as good at making forget about the world around me as books are.” He sat forward, leaning his elbows on his knees as he thought about her question. “I said some shitty stuff, Quinn. I’m sorry I said the things the way I said them. But I worry… and you’re going to tell me it’s none of my business and that I’m a jackass which is fine… I worry that you’re going to lose sight of all of those things if you resign yourself to a life with Hunter Clarington. He won’t take you to dingy bars for music shows, or allow you the faux pas of getting lost in the Vatican. He’s not going to want a life of adventure, Quinn. And I know you have adventure in your heart. It’s beautiful and so unique to you.” He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “Someone like Mason, though? He would want to make you happy. He’d take you to far off places, all while supporting your political aspirations. He’d love you. You deserve someone who will truly love you."

Quinn’s jaw clenched, now familiar anger bubbling up in her chest. She pulled a breath in, releasing it slowly. “Aether, you just continue to miss the point entirely.” The tension in her chest refused to yield, and she felt tired. It didn’t matter how many times, how many ways she tried to explain herself. It didn’t matter, if it was what she wanted. She would still be throwing her life away. “I’m not mad about how you said anything; although, you have a tendency to say things in the worst ways. It’s that you seem to believe Hunter will ever have the power, the right, or the ability to allow me to do anything. If I want to get lost in the Vatican Secret Archives, I’m going to. And I don’t need Hunter to take me to a music show, I can go on my own.” She paused, breathless. When she continued, her voice was softer in a way that she didn’t usually allow with anyone beside Mason or Blaine. “It’s that you refuse to respect the things that are important to me, you only tear them down.” They only disappoint you.

Sebastian blinked a few times, shaking his head. “That’s not what I mean at all,” he said, pausing to sip his coffee, trying to quench the way his mouth had gone dry. “I don’t mean—“ he laughed drily, shaking his head again. “Quinn, I don’t think for a single moment that you’d listen if he tried to tell you what to do or how to do it. But he’s never going to do it with you. You could have more than doing things alone. You could have a partner. I just… I wish you could see that, I guess. And what if you tire eventually of doing things alone? And slowly, the things you love fade away, one by one?” The tone of Quinn’s voice caught him off guard, making him do a double take in her direction. “I’m not tearing anything down. I don’t know how much clearer I can make it that I want all of those things for you.” Sebastian wanted so much to lean over, to take her hand, to try to apologize for being an idiot, but words failed him. “I know there is more in you than vaguely racist comments and your parents’ opinions.” He didn’t want to have to say what he was about to; Sebastian wanted nothing more to fight with Quinn until she realized Hunter Clarington wasn’t right for her. But he couldn’t. “If… if you really want to be that person, I will do my absolute best to support you. But I’m never going to stop seeing the potential in you. I will always know and love the parts of you that you keep buried. And I won’t be able to make myself stop hoping that you let other people see those parts in you too.”

“Isn’t it?” Quinn bit icily, breath catching on a huff. The last time she’d checked, asking her if she’d already run off to get knocked up was essentially saying that’s all he believed her marriage would be good for. Her hands smoothed at her pajama pants, and she did her best to push past the thought. Sebastian was trying to accept her choices, even if it was obviously hard for him. Sebastian was trying to believe in her, but Quinn was caught on the ‘trying’ of it all. Mason’s support had always been quietly insistent in a way that made Quinn believe. It wasn’t about saying ‘this is wrong,’ but rather talking her through the doubts that she already had. Sebastian said he would try, but she could remember so many times when he just didn’t. His words buzzed through her mind on loop, about Hunter, about her political standings, about her friendship with Mason. For every good there was a bad, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get past it. Sebastian was biting words over a text message, but pulling her away from the Ice Ball when she needed it the most; echoing the words that her father had said to her on multiple occasions, but quiet cabin trips because he cared enough to fight for their friendship. “This is beautiful, Sebastian.” She gestured vaguely around her, “And the fact that you’re trying, that you’re willing to try, it means a lot to me.” Her eyes found his, and for a moment she wanted to leave it there. “But…I believe this, between us, is bigger than a weekend getaway, and some kind words.”

Nearly instantly, he stiffened. “Ah. Right, of course.” His expression changed, softness leaving his eyes and his voice. He’d suddenly found his professional tone once more and became harshly aware of his comfortable clothing and lack of shirt. Had he not thought better of himself in front of Quinn Fabray? Why had he been naïve enough to think any of this trip was going to work? As if Quinn was going to magically open up to him and he’d sing some kind of miraculous cure for the canyon that had opened between them. He’d planned on talking about so many things over the stretch of days they were together. Blaine’s dream, Samhain, the election… but now, he quashed all of that deep within himself. If he buried it down far enough, away with the friendship with Quinn that had fell through his fingers like sand, he couldn’t have to feel any of it anymore. It means a lot to me. But not enough. Apologizing was never easy, and now he remembered why. Sometime apologies just weren’t sufficient. He wasn’t sufficient. “The house is big enough for the both of to enjoy the next few days. There’s food in the fridge for when you’re hungry. I’ll be running into town later to a small bookshop. You can join me if you wish. I’ll leave the items I purchase in the mutual living space if you choose not to go and you can peruse them at your leisure. I’m going to shower.” Sebastian picked up his coffee, now rapidly cooling, and headed up to his room. He’d tried. He’d put in more effort than he ever had with someone, and it had failed. This was, he remembered, the downside of building relationships and why he didn’t do it.

#sometimes it hurts instead #cw: pregnancy

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timeflies1007-blog · 5 years

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Doctor Who Reviews from a Female Doctor, Season 3, p. 2

Note: These reviews contain spoilers for Season 3 and other seasons of Doctor Who, including occasional references to the classic series.

The Lazarus Experiment: This isn’t a brilliant story, but it’s a very pleasant episode that lets Martha shine in a way that she hasn’t since “Smith and Jones.” Her scientific knowledge comes in useful, we get to watch her interact with her family, and the Doctor is, for the most part, being nice to her. He’s totally prepared to abandon her at the beginning, and he does try to pull the “one more trip” thing again at the end, but she stands up for herself and he changes his mind. In between these scenes, he’s really very charming and they work well together.

Although there were a couple of scenes with Martha’s family in “Smith and Jones,” this is our first extended look at them. It’s lovely to see more of them, but at the same time they do feel like a step down from the Tyler family. Jackie had a lot to say about Rose’s travels with the Doctor, but she also felt like an important character as an individual, with a life of her own and a genuine sense of loneliness that made her into a far more serious character than her earliest episodes might have suggested. I really like the actress playing Francine, but I had to go back and look up what the character’s name was when I started writing the reviews for Season Three. Throughout the season, she’s annoyed with Martha’s dad and concerned about Martha spending time with the Doctor, but there’s never much of an effort to paint outside of those lines. Her seconds-too-late voicemail at the close of the episode is a great way of incorporating information necessary for the Master plotline, but she’s so closely linked to the Harold Saxon plot, both here and later in the season, that there’s not enough attention to her as a person. Gugu Mbatha-Raw also seems underutilized in her role as Tish; it’s delightful to watch the two sisters run around London together, but she doesn’t get much to do and sort of weirdly goes from being creeped out by her elderly employer’s harassment to being somewhat attracted to him once he’s a younger-looking creep. On the whole, I like Martha’s family, but I don’t feel the kind of emotional investment in what happens to them that I did with Jackie or even Pete.

The plot itself is pretty thin, but it’s mostly engaging. Lazarus, who alternates between being Mark Gatiss and being a silly-looking monster, is an entertaining enough villain, and there’s some fun chaos as the Doctor and company try to stop him. He seems like a pretty terrible scientist, given that his machine would have just blown up entirely if the Doctor hadn’t been there and that he would have had to kill approximately half the United Kingdom in about a month at the rate he was going, but he’s a solid version of the hubristic genius figure. His conversation with the Doctor about his need to avoid death is nicely done as well, and death-by-church-organ is a great resolution. I forgot most of what had happened in this episode after the first time I watched it, but if it lacks anything memorable, it’s also really very enjoyable. B

42: This is basically what you would get if you took “The Satan Pit” and removed all of the philosophy and the joy. There are quite a few similarities, from the deep, spooky voice that infects various members of the crew to the TARDIS sealed off in an inaccessible part of the ship to the device of characters quickly running through a seemingly endless series of doors to the danger of the location itself (this time at the edge of the sun instead of the edge of a black hole.) I wouldn’t mind sitting through a retread of the black hole two-parter if we wound up with anything approaching the quality of the original—I would happily sit through an entire season of episodes with basically the same premise if they were as well-written as “The Satan Pit.” This one, though, doesn’t make rushing about in space anywhere near as fun, and it replaces the exploration of the Doctor’s beliefs with a contrived impending catastrophe. There are some strong scenes here, showing Chibnall’s potential as future showrunner, but it’s not exactly a strong debut for him.

Knowing that Chibnall would go on to cast the first female Doctor makes me look more closely at how his episodes work with gender, and on the plus side, he’s really very good at writing Martha. Her phone call to her mother from the escape pod is particularly well done, both as a depiction of Martha’s feelings and as an introduction to the government using Martha’s mother to get to her. She and the Doctor work well together here, and she has a wider emotional range than she gets in many other episodes this season. The rest of the women are so dull that I’m not even going to bother looking up their names, so I’ll just refer to them as Killed Immediately, Killed Almost Immediately, and Plot Device. The first of them dies so quickly that you barely have time to think “Oh, it’s that actress who was on Sherlock for a while” before she’s dead. In general, the minor characters are really weak here—nobody stands out, and the group as a whole doesn’t bring out anything interesting in Martha or the Doctor.

Much of the story unfolds either with surprising slowness for an episode that depicts a real-time fall into the sun, or with too much histrionics. The Doctor’s crazed reaction to looking into the living sun is interesting at certain moments, like when he admits that he’s scared and tries to tell Martha about regeneration, but there’s an awful lot of just writhing about or yelling awkward things like “You should have scanned!!!!” The whole notion of the sun as not just a living organism but one that is sentient enough to consciously stop pulling the ship toward itself once the fuel is returned is just such an odd notion that it comes across as an awfully silly plot contrivance; it’s not quite as overtly ridiculous as “the moon is an egg,” but it makes approximately as much sense to me. The escape pod being detached from the ship is more effectively alarming, but otherwise the situation of being minutes from destruction never actually feels dangerous.

Like “Gridlock,” we conclude an immensely boring episode with a strong final scene. This one isn’t quite as moving, but the final minutes, in which Martha kisses one of the crew members and the Doctor gives her a key to the TARDIS, is a nice conclusion to an episode that had a sort of underlying theme of regret over having left things undone or unsaid. It’s a lovely ending, but out of about 42 minutes of story, we get maybe six or seven minutes of compelling material. C+

Human Nature: After a mediocre string of episodes, Season Three gets properly underway with what has to be one of the best concepts of the entire reboot. Having the Doctor become human in order to evade his enemies is a brilliant idea, and the setting—just prior to World War I—gives him a beautiful place in which to experience that humanity. Tennant is just marvelous, even in moments when I’m uncertain about what I think of the story. He’s close enough in personality to the Doctor that he’s still recognizable, but his mannerisms are just different enough to present a truly distinct persona. It must have been a huge challenge to work out exactly how closely to hew to the Doctor’s usual personality, and both the writing and Tennant’s performance manage this perfectly. The memories that emerge from his real life as the Doctor are also handled extremely well through the device of his journal, which contains absolutely gorgeous pictures of people and monsters he has met.

As a “Tenth Doctor in Love” story, it’s definitely better than “The Girl in the Fireplace,” but I have some similar qualms about the focus on the Doctor as romantic hero rather than two characters as a romantic pairing. There’s nothing that I dislike about Joan, and she does get a couple of very good moments in the second part, but in this first part she doesn’t make much of an impression. I’ve tried for a while to come up with an adjective to describe her, and I’m still having a hard time…she’s competent, I guess? I really do think that the actress is good, and there’s more attention to her perspective here than there was with Reinette, but when I try to remember pieces of the episode, what I remember is the Doctor doing cute things (like falling down the stairs out of awkwardness!) in response to her rather than anything about Joan herself. It’s fascinating to watch the Doctor fall in love in a way that isn’t influenced by the constraints of his awareness of his species, but I never really get a sense of what attracts him to her.

Martha has to put up with even more than usual, between watching the Doctor fall in love with another woman who isn’t her and dealing with snotty, racist students. I’m not a huge fan of the decision to spend so much time on having her stare sadly at the Doctor’s instructional video—the notion that she is in very unrequited love with the Doctor has been hammered in quite enough prior to this point. Even the genuinely very tense cliffhanger at the end of the episode is basically played as another opportunity for the Doctor to compare Martha to another woman, which is tiresome. However, she gets a huge amount to do on her own here, and she is holding things together remarkably well. The script makes clear just how frustrating it is for Martha to be a highly-educated, twenty-first century woman pretending to be a servant in 1913, but her lovely friendship with Jenny brings a sense of warmth to the character that nicely counterbalances all of the nonsense that she has to deal with. Aside from her lovelorn staring at the instruction video, watching Martha in the TARDIS by herself is fantastic, as is the idea that she is basically watching over the Doctor. It’s a terrific reversal of their usual roles, and she’s very much up to the task.

This two-parter is the most attention that we get to Martha’s race this season, and it’s a much more serious take on the idea than what we saw in “The Shakespeare Code.” The Doctor’s lack of awareness of what’s happening essentially forces her to assimilate into a society that blatantly discriminates against her, and while this isn’t addressed directly, we do get the implication that she has to take on the identity of a servant in spite of her education and knowledge because it’s the only job that she could get as a black woman. The acknowledgment that her experience as a time traveler is strongly affected by her race is a welcome change from the comments in “The Shakespeare Code,” but I’m still a little frustrated by the fact that the most prominent attention to race here comes in the form of a moment that is very much about the Doctor. I can see the intention behind having him say something racist, as it raises interesting questions about whether this is part of the imposed persona of John Smith or whether this is in part the Doctor’s own lack of racial awareness bleeding through; if the latter, it’s an intriguing follow-up to his remarks earlier in the season. However, his dismissal of Martha’s stories about the TARDIS as stemming from “cultural differences” is notable mostly for the surprise of watching the Doctor, even in a somewhat different form, saying something this blatantly racist. (Even in the earlier episode this season, he comes across as clueless but not as overtly prejudiced.) To me, it’s probably the most memorable line about race this season, so I don’t like that it is about the shock factor of watching the Doctor say something horrible, and not about Martha’s feelings or experiences. If we were to look for the best depiction of racism this season, this two-parter pretty much wins by default, but I’m not unequivocally happy with the approach here.

Even if I’m not thrilled about how the episode uses the 1913 setting to comment on race, it is otherwise a stunningly beautiful backdrop for the episode. The monsters who wreak havoc upon it are even better. The Family is a terrific set of villains, and the use of Jenny’s body is especially sad, but the highlight is definitely Baines. Whoever was in charge of casting did an absolutely stellar job, because he has one of the creepiest faces I’ve ever seen. He has an expression like a demonic cat standing with a raised paw over a quivering mouse, and he manages to keep that look on his face for pretty much the entire time in his role as Son of Mine. He’s so scary that I completely understand the Doctor’s determination to run away from the Family, and the addition of creepy scarecrows underscores the atmosphere of terror. I also love the way that the interactions with the Family introduce the fob watch and its capabilities in a way that doesn’t register as foreshadowing until “Utopia.” The watch looks like it’s just here to help this particular plotline unfold, so its importance to the Master later on is a nice surprise. I do think that the seasonal arc runs into some gigantic problems at the end, but the slow build toward the finale is really put together extremely well. This episode isn’t quite as emotional as the second part, but it’s a stunning introduction both to a human Doctor and to an immensely scary new set of villains. A/A-

The Family of Blood: This episode contains one of my all-time favorite Doctor Who scenes. I don’t mean the Doctor’s vision of the human life he will never have, which is poignant but would mean more to me if I liked Joan better than I do. That scene is good, but to me the highlight of the episode is the brief, terrifying attack that the Scarecrows make upon the school. The Doctor looks tragically, hopelessly out of place as he stands there with a gun, unable to shoot or even move, but the most heartrending piece of the scene is the closeups on the faces of the boys themselves. As they prepare for and take part in their first battle, the camera moves close enough to show us the tears on their faces, and watching them look so young and so scared is made even more heartbreaking by the knowledge that World War I is just around the corner. The scene is accompanied by a short verse of a children’s choir singing a hymn, and the soundtrack of pure innocence as the boys are forced to kill for the first time makes the scene even sadder. The eeriness of the Scarecrows adds a sense of horror to the tragedy, and overall it’s one of the best pieces of direction ever to appear on this show.

While this scene is astonishingly effective, I don’t feel as much of a connection to any of the boys as individuals. Latimer is well-acted, but he comes across more as a well-acted plot device than as a real character, and a result I never really engage with his plight as a bullied student or even with the war memorial at the episode’s end. The general attention to unglorious, terrifying war works very well, though, especially in Baines’s taunting lines toward the schoolmaster. “Do you think they will thank the man who taught them it was glorious?” he asks, responding merely with “Et cetera, et cetera” to the man’s boasts of his own military past.

On the whole, I like this episode much better as a war story than as a love story, but the romantic angle definitely shows improvement from the previous episode. I continue to be mostly uninterested in Joan for much of the episode, but while she’s fairly dull as John Smith’s love interest, she starts to come alive once she learns of the Doctor’s real identity. She’s smart to ask him for details of his childhood, which he can give only as impersonal, encyclopedic facts. Once he has changed, she mourns for the man she has lost, but she’s strong enough to avoid the temptation of conflating him with the Time Lord he has once again become. Even better, she doesn’t let her feelings distract her from the responsibility that the Doctor bears for how events unfolded. “If the Doctor had never visited us, if he’d never chosen this place on a whim, would anybody here have died?” she asks, and her ability to see that he wreaked havoc on her community in order to save himself is a much stronger moment for the character than anything that happens during their short-lived romance.

Martha gets a couple of wonderful scenes here, especially the initial moments of the episode in which she uses Mother of Mine as a shield and pulls a gun on Son of Mine in order to scare the Family away. Mother of Mine’s physical resemblance to Martha’s friend doesn’t give her a moment’s hesitation, and she stays focused and determined until the crisis is over. She gets another fabulous moment when she demonstrates her medical knowledge for a skeptical Joan, a scene made even better by the fact that Martha asserts herself but isn’t really used to redeem Joan from her racist assumptions; in general, this episode doesn’t give quite as much time to Martha’s struggles as a woman of color in 1913 as did the first part, but what we do see is much more focused on Martha herself. The climax of the episode sees Martha declaring her love for the Doctor, which might have been an interesting development if he hadn’t so easily accepted her backpedaling later on. Her words show just how hopelessly infatuated with him she is: “he doesn’t even look at me, but I don’t care, because I love him to bits.” The Doctor is far too willing to dismiss these words as a desperate invention in a moment of crisis, but even if he ignores the warning signs about the destructive emotional impact he is having on her, he does show her a rare, lovely moment of genuine appreciation at the end of the episode.

There are some good moments for supporting characters here, but the Doctor is definitely the star, and Tennant gives his very best performance in his run on the show. The Doctor’s resistance to the idea that he isn’t human is really nicely developed throughout the episode, particularly in his shock that the Doctor didn’t even think to put falling in love on his list of possibilities to look out for before he changed. He’s so palpably scared about losing what he believes to be his identity that the idea of his return to being the Doctor seems cruel and unreasonable. Even with my lack of interest in his relationship with Joan, the montage of his life with her is hauntingly sad, especially in the moments when the camera pulls back from the vision and returns to his grief-stricken face. I didn’t realize, throughout most of these two episodes, quite how much he had adjusted his speech patterns, but when he tricks the Family at the end and goes directly from John Smith to Doctor, it makes really clear just how different his voice is as a human. He’s not a completely separate person, though, and he acknowledges to Joan that “Everything John Smith is and was, I’m capable of that too.” This isn’t of as much interest now, but it sets up some interesting ideas about the relationship between a Time Lord and the human persona created by the watch—a concept that gets even more interesting in “Utopia.”

The ending is a very dark moment for the Doctor, who doesn’t just put a stop to the Family but essentially dooms them to eternal torment. I don’t think it’s necessarily out of character for the Doctor to do something like this, as “The Runaway Bride” has already given us an example of the Doctor’s tendencies toward violence in moments of loss. I’m not sure that I believe he would stick to this scenario, even after his initial rage had passed, but he does pay a yearly visit to Sister of Mine, and it accords with his “no second chances” line from “The Christmas Invasion.” His behavior here seems awfully disrespectful to the Family’s victims; their bodies belonged to regular people before they were taken over, and having, for instance, Jenny’s body placed into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy seems like a cruel ending for her physical form. Still, there’s a lot of focus on the darker elements of the Doctor this season, and this is perhaps the moment in which these elements are the most impressively and fully realized.

The Doctor’s sad realization of his own inability to have a normal human relationship is much more memorable to me than the specific relationship that he is forced to give up, and that makes the love story angle a bit less emotional for me than it has been for some other viewers of the show. Still, as the story of the Doctor’s role in the destruction wrought by terrifying monsters upon the eve of the First World War, it’s a brilliant episode, and his distance from human nature has never been sadder. A

#doctor who #female doctor #season 3 #tenth doctor #martha jones #david tennant #freema agyeman #russell t davies #reviews

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