re: this week's Doctor Who

[rivendellrose]

THAT WAS A THING THAT JUST HAPPENED. AND I AM SO DAMNED HAPPY ABOUT IT!

AND I HAVE THE PERFECT ICON, BUT I CAN'T USE IT BECAUSE IT'S SPOILERY. BUT I AM SO HAPPY I DON'T CARE!!

...Srsly, so many wonderful things happened in this episode, including a million things I've been waiting a million years to see.♥ But mostly... mostly THAT. SO HAPPY.♥♥♥

Dear show, I am so glad you are back. After the last few weeks (okay, the few weeks before last week, as I ignored last week completely), I was afraid you would never be back, BUT YOU ARE. AND I STILL LOVE YOU.♥

Comments

[gaslightgallows]

I haven't watched it yet but it's all over my f-list and I can't even be coherent about it!!!! <3<3<3<3<3

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Ohnoez, you've been spoiled?! That's horrible!!!

[gaslightgallows]

Is not horrible! I love spoilers like candy!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhh. I am not a fan of them myself, because I reeeeeeally love getting OMG EXCITED when things happen that I'm not expecting. lol. And that, I definitely would have been disappointed to be expecting, because it's such a FANTASTIC shock, and I've been wanting it to happen since, like, as long as I've been watching DW. ♥

[gaslightgallows]

I'm totally the opposite--I hate being surprised so very, very much. I think I mentioned already that I'm a control freak? ;)

But THIS THIS WAS AWESOME AND WHY HASN'T BRIAN DL'D IT YET????

Also: your scene, it is finished. <3

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I hate being surprised so very, very much. I think I mentioned already that I'm a control freak? ;)

Lol. I looooooove being surprised. It's a thing. It makes me happy. Kind of like this episode. ♥

Also: your scene, it is finished. <3

I know! And I have read it and loved it and am attempting to reply, but the universe keeps conspiring to drag me away from my email and we have to head out soon for stuff. Augh.

[gaslightgallows]

Lol. I looooooove being surprised. It's a thing. It makes me happy. Kind of like this episode. ♥

I shall remember this for the future! Mwahaha. ♥

[beam-oflight.livejournal.com]

OMG it was so amazing and wonderful and I need to watch it again! I knew Neil Gaiman would come through for us, but it was just there are no words!! :D

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

YES. I knew he would, too, but I had no idea he'd, like, look into my head and grab the one thing I've wanted to happen for pretty much as long as I've been watching Doctor Who, grab most of the details, and go "Sure, I can do that! And how about if I make it EVEN MORE AWESOME?!" ♥♥♥

[alto2.livejournal.com]

You haven't heard Zagreus, have you?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I have, and I did enjoy it, although I'm not generally a big fan of Charley. She, um, reminds me too much of Rose, and after the whole endless Rose/Ten thing I got a little bitter.

I did like the Grey Lady there, but... I felt like this was handled more in the way I wanted to see it.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Wow--I've never thought of Charley as at all like Rose, though she's nothing to do with why I mentioned Zagreus. (I was downright thrilled to see Rose end up in the parallel universe, though, which is why it bugged the snot out of me that they kept bringing her back! Loved her in 2005, but post-character-assassination, not so much.)

The Zagreus circumstances were definitely very different, yes. But I loved the way she was characterized (and who played her) and the fact that someone had clearly always wondered what she'd say to the Doc given the chance.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Wow, it sounds like it was an amazing episode!

[velvet-midnight.livejournal.com]

YES, YES, YES AND YES. ♥ I need more TARDIS icons in my life, because it is a very pretty blue box of awesomeness.

[diea.livejournal.com]

lol I read this before I watched the ep, but the moment it happened, I knew it was the part you were talking about! It was awesome.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I'm not usually a big Gaiman fan, but this episode makes me wish he'd written the entire season because he so clearly gets it.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I... am 50/50 on Gaiman, in that I looooove some of his short stories, and really don't like some others, and find his novels... full of interesting ideas, but otherwise not all that compelling. But this episode? OMG♥. He does, he gets it. Which... is more than I can say for the last few episodes.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I was in art school when Sandman initially came out, and I thought Gaiman was the Coolest. Thing. Evah. There wasn't anything else like it on the market at the time and, as a struggling young illustration major who hoped one day to write and draw comics of my own, I found it quite inspirational.

I became less enamored of his work over as my tastes evolved and changed over the years. It didn't help that he ... did not impress me overmuch as a human being on the few occasions where we met in person. And no, it wasn't at a con; we had friends in common and, well, let's just say he managed to royally pissed me off.

It wasn't bad enough to make me stop reading him completely--I'm well aware that many of my literary idols have clay feet--but the bloom was definitely off the rose at that point. Twenty years later, I still think he's quite talented, I just don't think he's the greatest thing since spice racks like a lot of my Goth friends.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I still think he's quite talented, I just don't think he's the greatest thing since spice racks like a lot of my Goth friends.

That pretty much sums it up for me, even without the personal connection. It's not that I don't enjoy some of his work, it's just... that I hardly think he's the best writer in the world, etc., as many folks in my extended circle tend to.

Incidentally, I had no idea you were an illustration major in college! That's something I do kind of wish I'd at least taken a few classes in, back in college - I think I'd feel more comfortable spending time on drawing if I'd done so, but I always convinced myself to stick to the writing and history of things as "safer."

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I had no idea you were an illustration major in college!

I was actually head-hunted by the head of the illustration department at Atlanta College of Art & Design. There were two problems with this: 1) ACA was a Fine Arts college, and the rest of the profs treated illustrators like the lowest of the low, and 2) while I had enough technical skill to be a decent illustrator, I lacked the talent be a great one.

Where I kicked ass was in ink and color work. If I'd decided to pursue a career in comics, I would have made a damned fine inker or colorist. But inking and painting other people's pencil art wasn't what I wanted to do with my life.

At the time, I was pretty good friends with Jill Thompson, which is how I initially met Neil. This was in 1990 when he was still very new to fame and, from what I saw, not handling it very well. The whole incident was rather stupid; if he hadn't been Neil Gaiman, I'd've written him off as an arrogant douche and not thought twice about it or him.

I lost touch with Jill in the intervening twenty years. May have to drop her an email one of these days, see if she remembers me from back in the day. :)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I lost touch with Jill in the intervening twenty years. May have to drop her an email one of these days, see if she remembers me from back in the day. :)

Awwww, you should! It's always such fun getting in touch with people again, even if it's kind of nerve-wracking to do it.

And yes, I can see how you'd want to move away from illustrating if inking and coloring seemed like the life you'd most likely get out of it. They're both very important, and they can really change the work a lot if they're well-done, but... not precisely the most exciting or fulfilling of work as far as creative jobs go, necessarily.

As far as the profs go... therein, by analogy, lies the reason I never studied creative writing in college. Too many stories of profs determined that genre fiction wasn't real work. Arrogant professors are the very worst that college life has to offer.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

One of the profs used to continually say things like how what I did was little more than "album cover art," and that my work had no artistic merit whatsoever. That semester with her was pretty soul-crushing, and had a lot to do with why I eventually quit ... which, of course, was the whole reason she did it. Can't have useless hacks taking time away from the real artists. :P

**ETA: When I say "quit" I mean "dropped out of ACA." It took a couple more years at a different art school that didn't treat illustrators like the scum of the earth for me to figure out that being a professional inker wasn't what I wanted to do.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I... am 50/50 on Gaiman

I do the math a little differently, but it boils down mostly to the same thing. I think his short stories are often entirely brilliant, I thought American Gods had a fascinating setup and then...I won't elaborate on my gripe in case you've not read it, and the Anansi Boys audio with Lenny Henry is fantastic fun. But my favorite thing of all is his blog, though I've once again fallen off that wagon. I especially love it when he writes about writing and how the thing he wanted to happen didn't, and he's not sure where this is going, etc etc. It's so nice to know that happens to other people, too!

And of course, if you haven't read his The Nature of the Infection, you really should. It's no damn wonder he gets it once you read that.