Not Anonymous

see more Lol Celebs

Yes, I LOL'd.

I sighed like an indulgent aunt.
I don't consider myself having that kind of relationship with a celeb.
But he's as adorable as my 4 year old niece!

I have a bunch of tags open to reaction posts I haven't read yet.

If you are still interested in talking... *sigh* I'm here.

( Still Not Ginger )

And now, I go hunting for fic. So much to expand and so much to fix.

Friends tell me I wasn't the only one who flashed to John Barrowman in The Producers while watching Doctor Who: The End of Time (Part 1)?

I've been humming:
And now it's...
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay!

Tell me that doesn't encapsulate the entire ep!?

Don't know what I'm talking about? Don't want to know what I'm talking about? ( Spoilers under the cut! )

That's all for now.
I can't wait for next week!

I've just come home from viewing the most recent Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars.

In a word: Damn! (or *squee*!!!)

In many more words: ( Here be spoilers, enter at your own risk )

I hope that wasn't too incoherent!
I will try gather more and better thoughts on this over the next few days.

In the meantime *fangrrl SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

I've just been told by the BFF who downloaded the 3ed Season of Torchwood for me that it is burned onto a DVD and I should be getting it today.

I'm so freakin' nervous.

Torchwood, the show and the fandom, take up about the same kind of emotional and cerebral space that I thought would never be able to be shared with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and to a certain extent Harry Potter.

I've been very good about avoiding spoilers, though I watch various communities and blogs who are TW fandomy, I only got tiny details by osmosis and one big something that I hope doesn't mean what I think it means but I'm keeping my mind open to whatever happens in these five episodes.

I'll talk more at length about "Children of Earth" after I've actually viewed them, I'll even write (a) reaction post(s) before I read any other Meta and/or Fic, though I'm really, really tempted.

I think it's fairly clear that when it comes to which show I prefer, it is Torchwood and not Doctor who that stole my heart - though I love the Doctor and his Companions and will regale to anyone who will (or won't) listen about how fucking awesome New!Who is.

Torchwood however, is something else.

( Spoilers for lots of stuff (not including season 3 of TW as I have not seen it yet) )

I'm really looking forward to "Children on Earth", though I am very scared of what may happen.

I just watched the Doctor Who 2008 Christmas special titled "The Next Doctor".

That means there will be spoilers! Beware!

It was... eh.

The villainess, Miss Ms. Mercy Hardigan, was boring and an Angry Woman who is Angry! At Men!
Lots of Men.
Has most brilliant mind there ever was!
Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!
Defeated by massive guilt trip.
Not so brilliant.

The Cybermen were uninteresting, like they usually are when there aren't any Daleks around.

Seriously, the Cyberman-Dalek exchange in "Doomsday" series two finale was one of the best ever! So hilarious.

( For your enjoyment: the entire brilliant scene of Dalek and Cyberman Extermination and Deletion! )

Aaaaaaanyway!

The Doctor - Tennant - was cute and dashing as always.
The "Next" Doctor - Morrisey - should... really keep to singing as he's truly a horrendous actor.
Rosita - yes, that was the name *gag* - was the pretty, cockney, token woman of colour... she of course had to rescued from danger and from prostitution... I'm feeling the forward sci-fi thinking here.

Oh Russel T. Davies why do you wound me thus!

Aargh!

As I was watching the episode on Ursula-the-laptop, my mother asked me why I was looking so glum and why was I cringing.

Dude.
It could have been so-so-soooooooooooooo much better!

The next Doctor Who special is called "Planet of the Dead".
It's either Zombies or Vampires.
Either of those options has to be better than this special.
I really hope Auntie Beeb doesn't SNAFU Tennant's final year as the Doctor.
It would leave me with a really sour taste in my mouth... I don't know anything about this new guy... Matt Smith... except that Steven Moffat (he who will be replacing current Executive Producer and main writer Russel T. Davies) has a crush on his coiffure.

Man... I mean, compared to "A Christmas Invasion", "Voyage of the Damned" and "A Runaway Bride", "The Next Doctor" was just unoriginal, predictable and just plain... eh.
I'm tempted to say Pareveh - which means neither Milk nor Meat as related to Kosher laws and is colloquial in Israeli Hebrew as bland, boring and neither here nor there.
So yeah.
Pareveh.

Edited To Add: Via hemlock_sholes and violachic.
The Alternative Doctor Who Christmas Special:
( Trek Through Time )

Lately I've been obsessing about Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Just so you all know, this entry contains general spoilsers for the current run of "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood".

Doctor Who is very much a family oriented show. The writing is layered and things I would and find funny or poignant would probably be lost on less conscientious viewers and/or my older Nephews. My Nephews would probably not be shy about taking a screwdriver, pointing it at things, making "whir-whir" noises and pretend it was sonic.

Kids have it good.
They can run around the street and play superhero and are indulged as imaginative children. If I were to do the same people would think I were certifiable.
Even though we'd both be playing pretend.
The differences age makes in our linear based society.

Excuse me, went off tangent there for a mo'. Let us backpeddle to the point.

I haven't seen Classic Who, but I' certainly know of it. Coming from an Anglophilic family, and Doctor Who being the show to watch on the BBC in the early 70's, which was when my family lived there (before my time, obviously).
When I mentioned Doctor Who a couple of years ago my father said "and the Daleks" and intoned "Exterminate!" in their high pitched and screeching fashion.
Freaky, I tell you.

"Who" being a family oriented hasn't stopped it from being Queer friendly at the same time. Russel T. Davies, current producer and writer, a Gay man himself, seemed intent on updating the cult teevee programme to the 21st century - as a viewer of television that comes from both sides of the pond, I feel the Brits generally do minority representation better than the Yanks, if only on a purely superficial level and yes, they do fall into stereotypes and traps, which is irritating.
The Doctor, as a character and person, reads as pretty Asexual to me and his few kisses have generally been platonic. Romantic feelings and sexual tension has in general come from the seasonal companion (traveling, not the "Firefly" kind), which the Doctor either ignores or is ignorant of.

There is a great deal of love and affection between the Doctor (Nine and Ten) and his companions (Rose from season 1 & 2, Jack from 1, Martha from 3 and Donna from 4), but to me any kind of sexuality from the Doctor is latent and mainly extrapolated by fandom and the desires of his companions.

What I feel makes "Who" Queer friendly is the Doctor's tolerance and acceptance of nearly everything and everyone that he encounters, which seems to diffuse into the companions who are usually what we would consider "the everyman", which on Doctor who are generally women.
The Doctor judges everyone, or at the very least tries to, by the virtue of their own merits.
Also, Queer characters are shown on the programme as normal and not extraordinary.
Oh, and the Queer characters don't die left, right and centre as often happens on other programmes (Larry and Tara on BtVS spring to mind) that are not LGBT oriented in to begin with.

The one character that in my mind helped shape the modern Whoinverse to be the lovely Queer friendly and inclusive phenomenon that it is, is Captain Jack Harkness.

Jack is a modern kind of man.
Very modern.
51st century kind of modern. Which in our standards is post-modern*.

*Modern Whoinverse is a very post-modern show in the it portrays culture and society. The parallels of current events with History and/or Future and Alien worlds is very clear, especially in the breaking down of various cultural totems and the criticism of social norms.

3000 years of history seemed to have made Humanity not only a mighty inter-galactic empire, but also over-sexed, omnisexual, pheromone exuding and with the view that monogamy is old fashioned and quaint, along with other identity labels.
Jack is tactile, uninhibited in his feelings and in his physicality. He feels a great deal of love towards the people he considers family (The Doctor and Rose in Season one of "Doctor Who" and later in "Torchwood", the more adult oriented spin-off).
Jack also likes kissing.
He kisses everyone and while his attitude can be grating to 21st century puritanism, he himself isn't viewed as any kind of perversion, except in the playful sense.

Torchwood is a cracky programme when it comes to plot, suspension of disbelief, etc. I always describe it as an X-Files Parody on Buffy (I mean Rift=Hellmouth, Aliens as Metaphor=Demons as Metaphor, not a huge jump all in all). It's the programme where Jack the character plays after leaving "Doctor Who". It also takes Queer inclusiveness to a level which in other sci-fi programmes is lacking.
Deeply.
Jack being Jack, here too kisses all the characters, male and female.

Out of the five main characters in Torchwood (Seasons 1 & 2) only two, Gwen and Owen, seem to identify as straight, though they've shared same sex kisses it wasn't in any kind of situation in which the kisses were something they did out of desire.

The other three, Jack, Ianto and Tosh, are portrayed as sexually fluid.
We know of Jack's sexual practices from our prior knowledge of him on "Doctor Who", though in the programme we are shown some of his previous relationships (Estelle and John), just to make sure the viewer knows what kind of man Jack is... the man who can make a double entendre out of antything!
It's a super power in some places I hear.
Ianto is shown to have had a girlfriend (Lisa) and later on is in a sexual (and very likely emotional) relationship with Jack. Tosh is shown with a woman (Mary), men (Tommy and Adam) and with a consistant crush on Owen, which doesn't negate her previous bisexuality, just as being with Jack doesn't negate Ianto's own bisexuality with regards to Lisa.

As mentioned, Torchwood is adult oriented. There is nudity (none full frontal that I remember), there is blatant sexuality of various kids. There is, in general, more man on man action due to the fact that the Hero, Jack, is in a relationship with Ianto (alluded to by mid-season 1, confirmed by the end of the season and emphasised somewhat in season 2). The programme portrays sex and sexuality as natural. There is rarely any censor from one character to another regarding sexual orientation and any negativity shown towards sexual practice has more to do with the consequences of certain relationships. Specifically Tosh's relationship with Mary which very nearly caused a catastrophe and Owen's disparaging remarks towards Ianto's relationship with Jack, which to me is more about Ianto's position within the group dynamics than actual homophobia.

"Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" contain within them a strange blend of optimism about human nature. In that respect the programmes are hard-core sci-fi. They show the possibilities in which humanity (not just technologically, but with it) can develop and give us, the viewers and readers, the opportunity to also be those kinds of people.
Heroes who are capable of love without boundaries. In which it isn't who we are that is judged but what we do, which today unfortunately is still correlated with stigma and discrimination.

Hope you reached the end of this and enjoyed.

A weekend without Internet is less than ideal.
The phone cable decayed and Frida fritzed!
Poor Frida, at the lab with a hardware problem. I hope the my hard drive makes it out.
*hopes*

It did, however give me a chance to finish watching the entire fourth season on Doctor Who.

It was awesome!
And sad!
And oh no, what's going to happen now?!
And I want more Torchwood!
Ianto... I hope he doesn't die *whimper*

And by the way, out of the three women companions that The Doctor has traveled with over the past four seasons, Martha and Donna rule!
So much better than Rose.
Not really sure what The Doctor sees in her, except that she might make him feel young, but eh.
I'll write more about those.

So, yeah.

Hey, USaians! Your elections are catching. 't would appear that we're having our... what... fifth, sixth election in a decade.
There's stable government for you.
Took the entire Holiday season for Ms. Livni to figure out that the current Knesset wouldnot form a coalition with her.
Unless she gave certain factions more funds.
Yeah.
No, really. It's all here (there's an embedded video, so you'd better mute if you don't want to hear it).
Bit gross if you ask me.
Lucky for me you do.

And breaking News of the hour. Looks like the US Military attacked the Abu Kamal area in Syria just across the border with Iraq.
Dude.
Oh no they didn't!
It would appear... they did.
Eight deaths have been confirmed.

It's going to be an interesting News cycle, I'd say.