rivendellrose | (no subject)

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I have seen the new trailer for S5 Doctor Who.

I'm pretty okay with Eleven as the new Doctor. I never particularly liked my first glimpse of any of the new or new-to-me Doctors (meaning One through Eight and then Ten, as Nine was the only one I came onto with no preconceptions), and I always end up loving them. So that's no problem. And it looks very pretty. And I'm excited to have the Weeping Angels back. And the Daleks, too, apparently. And... something, some kind of monster I don't recognize, too, so that could be exciting.

Amy looks really cute, too. I think I'll like her.

It's Amy and the Doctor that's giving me a little pause.

I'm getting really tired of the whole "the Doctor and his companion are in twu wuv!" angle. Particularly because the companion's apparent age keeps dipping lower and lower. I'm not sure how old Amy-the-character is going to be, but she appears to be... seventeen? And really, while I know the Doctor's always had a thing for hanging out with young girls, I think I preferred it in the good old days when they were at least out of high school. Hell, even Rose was out of high school.

It's possible I'm just feeling fussy about this because I'm both older and, after the last 'series' of specials and the end of last year, feeling a good bit crankier about Doctor Who than I've felt since starting to watch it. It's also possible I'm particularly cranky about the whole twu wuv angle because my brain's been niggling at me to write a bit of meta re: gender and storyline in one of my other fandoms, and it kind of makes me go "bleh!" right now. But on the whole I find that I'm increasingly annoyed with the way Doctor Who tends lately to be becoming more about the love and less about the Doctor and his companions of both genders running around the universe having adventures. In the old days, we did have companions of both genders. And the Doctor was usually nicer to his girls than to his boys (usually - see Jamie for a major disclaimer on that, as well as probably Fitz), but it wasn't so much "The Doctor, who takes girls around the universe and they fall in love with him" as it was "The Doctor, who takes humans around the universe and they have fun and adventures."

Anyway, I recognize it's probably unfair to judge Eleven and Amy's relationship based on a trailer alone, so I will shut up now and go back to being excited about the Weeping Angels and the Daleks and actually having a show to watch again, because gods know I need something new to watch rather than constantly wandering around in circles in the world's tiniest comic book fandom. :P

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Eh, don't worry. Moffat wants Doctor/River, so he's not going to go for a Eleven/Amy romance.

And there, again, I'm in an awkward position - I really really like River - I've always loved the actress, and I adore them having older women on the show who aren't inherently evil or, you know, Sarah Jane, and plus, hey, archaeologist! But I'm very uncertain about their whole romance angle. I like it in theory, but in practice I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, because... honestly, I feel like the Doctor is a character with whom romance works best when it's kept to subtext.

Or, you know, mostly subtext-ish text (see Doctor/Romana). ;)

...And god, I hope that means we're not going to have to put up with another unrequited romance from a companion, because as much as I love Martha Jones (and I do!!!) that was just painful at times.

Doctor/Romana works because she's also a Time Lord! It's a much more even playing field.

I know Who fans don't want to hear this, but Doctor/Rose (or Doctor/Amy) is about as creepy as Edward/Bella in Twilight. He is still an old dude chasing a young girl just because he's wearing a young body.

Granted, the Doctor is a much more complex and interesting character than Edward, and I do believe that IF he does love Rose it's much more complex that the way her blood smells. But still.

I know Who fans don't want to hear this, but Doctor/Rose (or Doctor/Amy) is about as creepy as Edward/Bella in Twilight.

Exactly. I loved the Doctor and Rose in Nine's era, when they were just crazy friends, but the whole Ten/Rose thing really put me off. Is it supposed to be okay because the Doctor has the attitude of an eternal teenager, or is it just supposed to be okay because he's pretty? Either way... eh, I'm really not quite comfortable with it.

And yeah, the even playing field is exactly what I love about Doctor/Romana - it's not all about him being so amazing and lifting her up and making her something more. There isn't a scary imbalance of power or anything, they just have fun.

See, usually I would agree on the unrequited angle, but Doctor/River is one where I'm actually hoping he won't be as in love with her as she let on he would be in SitL/FotD because I reflexively dislike mutual Doctor/human romances (in the In a Relationship Sense). In other words, I'm hoping it'll actual be somewhat dysfunctional in that she mighg consider him the love of her life but he will have loved so many others that it would be ridiculous for him to suddenly love her more than he ever loved anyone else, and that a lot of it will be due to him feeling guilty about knowing how her life ends (not in an Emo Ten way, just a sort of I'll-Go-Along-With-Whatever-You-Want-Because-I-Feel Quite-Terrible-That-You'll-Die-Horribly.

Then, I also want a life-supply of beer. It'll probably be the opposite of what I want.

Oh, and just to clarify: I'd rather there not be any romance between them but that's clearly what TPTB want, so making it screwed up would make would be the next-best thing for me.

Eleven...Meh. Amy, I think you are giving the bebefit of the doubt by saying 17.
Weeping Angels...YAY!!!!

Well, you know. I figure they'd probably want to avoid the legal issues of having a 15 year old running off with an older man. :P

Besides. I suppose I can't really throw stones, considering how young Romana II looked sometimes.

Yay!

I think this is totally valid, but I have to say I wasn't picking up the romance vibe from the trailer? Now that I've rewatched it, I guess I can see the possibility of it, but. Maybe I'm just too hopeful that it won't happen and I'm being deliberately blind. I just have to try to have faith in Moffat.

I want to add Ian to the list of excepted males! I would say that Ian and the Doctor teased each other in equal measure, when they weren't being complete idiots and making chemistry puns and destroying Barbara's cardigans. ♥

I think I'm just paranoid about the romance angle, after everything we went through with Ten. :P I'm trying to have faith in Moffat, too, I've just gotten a bit gun-shy lately.

Awww, Ian. I really do need to see more of the stuff with him and Barbara and Susan. The bits I've seen have been fabulously cute.

Ahh I have to remember which Ian ones I liked best - I'm still making my way slowly through chronologically. If you've not seen it, I loved him and Barbara in "The Romans", they were adorable. Pretty much any of the later episodes, even after Susan's gone, with Ian and Barbara in are great, after they've gotten more friendly with the Doctor and feel comfortable constantly mocking him. >D There's a running gag about them always needing to destroy Barbara's cardigans to save their skins. It's amazing.

The more I think of it, the more I think "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" is the only Barbara & Ian serial I've seen. I've heard a lot of good things about "The Romans" - I'll have to put that on my list of to-watch episodes. The running gag about the cardigan sounds awesome, too!

Which tiny comic book fandom is this? Oz Squad? (Fingers crossed!)

Alas, no - just Hellboy. Which I suppose in comic-book-fandom terms isn't all that tiny, but... when you're used to big fandoms it's kind of horrifyingly small.

I watched the trailer and immediately thought "Oh, God, it's Doctor Who: The High School years."

Then I reminded myself that the trailers for the last few years haven't exactly been reflective of the way the series has been. I mean the trailers for S3 made it look like Ten & Martha were going to have happy, flirty adventures when what we got was unrequited love and I miss Rose." And the trailers for S4 looked incredibly epic and angsty, and yeah, it was in the end but most of it was hilarious BFFs have adventures.

And, also, that I'm getting old and grumpy.

At the moment I'm just... because I'm sure I'll come to love Eleven, but I haven't been instantly charmed by him the way I was by ten right from "new teeth, that's weird."

I watched the trailer and immediately thought "Oh, God, it's Doctor Who: The High School years."

YES! Aaaggh. But of course you're right that the trailers have overall been pretty deceptive, so... I hold out hope? I'm just so nervous. I really haven't liked a lot of the directions the show's gone in lately, so I'm kind of panicking about the switch, wondering if it'll be for the good or for the bad.

I am totally on the same page with you on this. I am a curmudgeonly Old Who fan, who cut her Doctor Who fannish teeth on Four and Five. I fell hard for Nine, and he has become my Doctor pretty much, but for me, the Doctor is not a romantic character--to the point where the whole "Doctor Dances = Doctor Falling In Love" metaphor went STRAIGHT over my head, because the Doctor in love with Rose was never even on my radar. (I know, I'm the world's worst shipper.)

That's why S2 irritated the hell out of me, and why Martha's unrequited crush irritated me, and S4 and Donna was the first time I really really liked Ten--because there wasn't even a hint of romance between them, so FINALLY, for the first time (for me, anyway) since Nine, the Doctor felt like himself again (or at least like the Doctor I grew up loving.)

I am not at all interested in Doctor/companion romance. I am interested in the Doctor who travels around the universe with human companions and has adventures. When Ten so obviously chose Rose's safety over Mickey's, because she was his True Love, it irritated me to no end.

I'll watch Eleven, of course, and I am loathe to judge on such little information, but I too wish Amy was older, and that the romance was less obvious and predictable.

Edited 2010-02-21 20:52 (UTC)

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