Meta += Expelliarmus! (Doctor Who)

[blue_bells]

It seems to be the week of induction for me. Not only was I properly introduced to Transformers the other week (sort of, as far as beautifully loyal remakes count as inductions), but the other day lyore passed several DVDs of Doctor Who for necromage and myself to watch.

As of about seven minute ago I am officially caught up on the New Who! I've been up since 0530 in the morning, I've since gone to work AND choir practice, had a riveting time slamming those second As and I am knackered.

To be fair I cheated with a select watching schedule, but I'm at the same end and my God, I love this show. I don't know when was the last time I watched something that fascinated and disturbed me at the same time (no, Gladiator does not count it's just "'Sad', which is 'happy' for deep people"). Catharsis! Inter-textual-fandom fun and glory!

So, some spoilery comments and squeeage of scattered season viewing under the cut.

I've already squeed to lyore over most of the surprises and hilarity that I didn't realise this show offered, but -- seriously?? Doctor Invisible Claude on Big Brother? Don't they have to pay some sort of rights for that? Possibly including the medical coverage of all the viewers you sent into cardiac arrest?

I kind of liked the 9th Doctor, who I'll henceforth call 9 or Doc Claude for memory's sake, possibly more than David Tennant. They may have the same mannerisms and personality, but the aura is different and yeah, physical presence does account for quite a lot of that.

I'm more tired than I thought, so this is going to be shorter than originally planned, but I'd like to comment primarily on Captain Jack.

Captain Jack is the reason I finally relented to watch Doctor Who. I watched (and sometimes skimmed) all that exists of Torchwood before I ever saw a full episode of DW, so to have all the mystique of Jack's origins, motivations and nature stripped away merely by seeing the other side of the story is... disappointing, to say the least.

First of all, nice to know that in the event of a full scale alien invasion, Torchwood, any and all remakings thereof, is abso-fucking-lutely useless that it doesn't even blip on the radar. I mean... dude, where's my team? Where is the love?? WHERE IS THE CAVALRY WHEN YOU NEED THEM, OH THEY BEEN DUPED OFF TO THE HIMALAYAS, CAP'N! To-oo-osh; Gwen! Boys! I was almost starting to respect you as a working unit! Come on, people, blip my radar! Don't you love your Captain?

I like that the Captain's thoughts turned back to his team on occasion (though not enough, nope), interesting that their own apocalypse-averting effort went unmentioned and unacknowledged (silly, stumbling Abaddon, you fail to inspire anything beyond the yawn of my diaphragm), but let's recall some of Jack's lines to the Doctor:

"You abandoned me!"

"I did it all in honour of you!"

[sings] Everything I do.... I'd lie, steal, fight, endure torture and send myself into a gunfight with future human bots vying to fillet me if you only asked me to!

Ianto, poor Ianto, he never stood a chance (ho ho, I weep for the fangirls).

Jack and Martha need to form some sort of society of "People pathetically infatuated with The Doctor who desperately need to move on with life". By the end of this season (mid-season?) it seems they've both made a resolution to do so and I'm glad for them, though a little sad for the Doctor who is, sure, doomed to wander eternity between mortal companions, but that's the price of immortality. See, this just affirms my belief that immortality would just suck unless you were surrounded by numerous immortal beings like yourself, whom you could get along with, your immortality went hand-in-hand with eternal youth and invulnerability AND you had the option to end it when you wanted.

The Time Lords have it made.

The Captain on the other hand... that's a different deal unless you warm to the notion of persisting thousands of years in the future as a bloated, bodiless head brimming with tentacles.

So, the Face of Boe, huh? On first sight I thought it was the wicked queen from Mirrormask. (At least now I can join this comm and know wth they're talking about. [/pimp])

If Jack is indeed the Face of Boe that's both narratively cool and incredibly depressing. Living so long and in solitude, one can imagine that the Captain's nature and personality would adapt over the, err, millenia, but it'd sure pay to have such a loyal cat maid. Although I'd miss his penchant to flirt with a simple self-introduction, oh, that never gets old.

I don't know all the canon and facts, so I'm not so disturbed by this revelation or suggestion (I'm leaning towards the former), but I must read up or just have fans give me the rundown. The Face of Boe is probably an old skool recurring character that may have Capt. Jack-retconning canon unto himself. Tomorrow I shall read, when my eyes have regenerated. @.@

There may have been more I intended to say. I'll just finish on the note that DW did in one ep what Torchwood took a full season to do, I enjoy all incarnations of Doctors and companions alike, Captain Jack remains a fine specimen of a human being although a little whipped for my preferences and OMG ROGUE QUANTUM-LOCKED NOT!ANGELS AM TWISTED-TERRIFYING LOVE! This show scares and enthralls me.

Expelliarmus.

I really don't know what I have to look forward to in Torchwood now, except, possibly a fresh and abounding sense of Team Love. I would be so lucky as I think this 'verse suffers SG-and-Whedon-itis, i.e. the inability of producers to equally divide their creative talents between two shows on air in the same universe.

As much as I enjoy having a new fandom to plough into, where's my SG-1 S10 season finale I was promised, eh, Boo? Eh??