personalized

Nine is my Doctor.

People who are Doctor Who fans have a favorite Doctor. I actually feel a bit like a failed fan because Nine is my favorite. Baker (4) and Davidson (5) are quite popular among my friends–those significanty more dedicated to the series and self-described Whovians. There is a lot of love on the internet for the dashing Ten(nant), with his tardis blue chucks and jacket and tie. Nine is serious and stripped down. His costume was rather uniconic, compared to Four’s scarf, Five’s celery, or Seven’s red and whites. He stays away from slapstick. There is a humor to him–he was still the Doctor–but it is different.

There are three parts to the characterization of the Doctor: the actor, the companion, and the executive producer. The writer of a given episode has some say in it. In modern Who, I point to Moffat’s episodes during Davies run as producer: he paints a very particular kind of doctor. Chibnall has his own style of story, and his own focus.

Smith (11) was cast in 2010 and the first shots of him filled me with trepidation. In 2008, Twilight was released. In 2010 with had Eclipse. There was a particular aesthetic that Smith fit into: pale, messy hair, brooding. Moffat, the new producer, makes a lot of decisions I don’t agree with and generally I don’t like how he portrays the Doctor. I was worried. But then on set we saw a pink-shirted, bow-tied madman with a box.

Overall, I haven’t been a fan of Eleven’s run. Lots of reasons I’ll happily rattle off to you. I love talking about the show, pulling apart the characters and plot lines to examine what is good, what is bad, and why they are these ways.

Having decided to go and watch the rest of Elven, in a mixture of loneliness, distraction, and longing for my lost England, I nearly gave up midway through series six. I sat down and talked with G about it and he reminded me of something I’d nearly forgotten: the Doctor has twelve lives. He is now a man knowing he will die, and he will not overcome.

Now as I watch the show, I see a man staring at his own mortality. Something he’s evaded for over a thousand years. Suddenly, it’s a different show. Suddenly, I like it again. I sympathize and I understand and while Eleven is not my Doctor, he is still the Doctor. A man I have followed my entire life, who is going to soon lose his.

Shoes

Oh my god, shoes.

People love to use shoes to let readers or viewers know what kind of person someone is supposed to be. This isn’t anything new. I remember being shocked when I realized that all women in movies and shows wear high heels. Even Detectives Kate Beckett (Castle) and Olivia Benson (Law and Order: SVU).

Well, Dana Scully wears flats sometimes.

I do not own this image in any way. It’s from season 4, 5, or 7. I can’t tell how long it is. (Seven had shorter hair). I think seven, because of the style of the jacket. Err…

I, in no way, own this one either. Season 9: Low cut shirts and heels for the ladies.

General trends I’ve noticed are that in books, women less frequently wear heels (unless we’re talking the comic kind of books). Songs too. Boots show slightly more dangerous girls, unless they’re marked as the hiking kind. Flats are reserved for slightly more innocent and feminine of girls. Sneakers go to the less traditional of our female leads. Here are some examples.

Wonder Boys, a book by Michael Chabon, was turned into a tip top Pgh movie starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire, with a pre-Cruise Katie Holmes as Hannah Green.

Grady, our lead (played by Douglas in the film) described Hannah as:

A talented writer who rented a room in my house. I knew her to be insightful, kind, and compulsively clad in red cowboy boots. I had, in fact, never once seen her without them.

Hannah rents a room in Grady’s house and is attracted to him, coming on to him at several points [in the film].

fun. has a song called “All the Pretty Girls” which is also about a boot glad woman.

It includes the line “I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down, but not you, you still wear boots and your hair is too long.”

The song, in general, is about how the singer wishes “all the pretty girls” would try to hook up with him, but in truth, he doesn’t want them because he wants the lady he’s singing about, even though he thinks she’s bad for him. Or at least says she is as a way to comfort himself over the rejection.

These women–for they are women as they are sexual creatures–both wear boots. They are also both trouble.

I recently read “Angel Burn” by L.A. Weatherly. I don’t recommend it. Our point of view character, Willow, is non-traditional, a bit of a hipster, and fixes cars–something she likes to remind us it not a normal thing for girls to do. She wears purple converse, a nontraditional take on a boy’s shoe.

Skye, the Colorado teen who leads us in Jocelyn Davies “A Beautiful Dark“, wears ballet flats. She wears makeup, feeling not quite complete without mascara and lip gloss.

I am totally losing the ability to keep track of all these young adult romance heroines.

Truth

Today, George Zimmerman was offered bail. He also apologized to the parents of Trayvon Martin, a boy he killed.

According to the New York Times, Zimmerman said:

“I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son,” Mr. Zimmerman, 28, said in a soft voice as he took the stand with shackles at his feet and waist. “I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. I did not know if he was armed or not.”

According to the Washington Post, Zimmerman said:

“I am sorry for the loss of your son,” Zimmerman said from the witness stand in a statement directed at Martin’s parents. “I did not know old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. And I thought he was armed.”

I wonder which is true.

More interesting to me is the fact that everyone, including Mr. Zimmerman, agrees that he shot Trayvon Martin and this resulted in his death. The argument is over whether this was wrong, and if it is, how wrong.

Ship

As far as I can tell, there are five types of sexual tension in television shows–either intended by showrunners or entirely constructed by viewers.

1. Sexual tension that is never actualized
2. Sexual tension that is actualized in the final episode
3. Sexual tension that is actualized and then that “ruins” something
4. Sexual tension that is actualized and then characters develop
5. Sexual tension that is actualized and then thrown out the window

(Spoilers below)

1) Sexual tension that is never actualized.

I just finished the first disc of Season 3 of Battlestar Galatica. This is relevant to what I am going to say next–if I am wrong, don’t correct me, please. This is my own case of sexual tension–perhaps even something I desire to see! (Among Fans, this is called “shipping.”)

Roslin and Adama. I believe that they want each other. I never expect to see them get together. This would have major effects on the plot, and maybe never be actualized. In fact, that’s probably for the best.

2) Sexual tension that is actualized in the final episode.

This can also just be in the final story arc or at the end of the series in general. I’m going to go with Kaylee and Simon from Firefly. In the series they are on and off in how explicit their tension is–how often they interact with each other, when Kaylee’s own way of dealing with it ebbs and flows, and when Simon decides how to indulge his desire for Kaylee and his idea that he cannot have her while taking care of his sister.

Their relationship comes to fruition in the conversation where Simon, effectively, tells Kaylee that there are things to fight for and she utters the special line, which I believe was designed for fanboys: You mean like sex? I’m going to live!

3) Sexual tension that is actualized and then ruins everything.

Buffy and Angel.

That is an independent sentence.

When we were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer during undergrad, AG made the comment that when Buffy and Angel finally have sex, it depicted the fear of every teenage girl: when they have sex with their boyfriend, he will change forever into a jerk and cruel monster that she then has to slay in order to save the world from the Hellmouth.

Or something like that.

Buffy and Angel are totally into each other and even kind of together. They go on dates and everything. However, in this particular case, their sexual tension is not actualized right away.

When Buffy and Angel finally do get together (“bang” in the vernacular), he actually becomes a monster–losing his soul and humanity after his moment of “true happiness”–and this ruins their relationship forever.

4) Sexual tension that is actualized and then characters develop.

In “Bones,” Booth and Brennan have their sexual tension throughout most of the series thus far. This is approached explicitly at various points during the series, including conversations between Booth and his doctor/friend, Brennan and her best friend, and Booth and Brennan themselves. There is no actualization, of the tension or their relationship, until recently when they banged, she got pregnant, and now they’re together. They’re getting a house, they’re going to raise a baby, and they’re in love. They are developing as characters and changing both in their relationship with each other and those around them. It’s pretty cool.

5) Sexual tension that is actualized and then thrown out the window.

I really want to write about the X-files. I really want to write about the X-files. Unfortunately, I have not seen that new movie, but did read the Wikipedia article which says that Fox and Mulder are not living together and aren’t together. I reject this canon and instead am going to talk about Fringe.

I will sum up my thoughts on this in a simple letter to the show’s producer.

Dear J.J. Abrams,

What the fuck?

Love,
M.

In order to not have to develop characters in Fringe, and perhaps even keep things interesting, the show resets after each major story arc (more or less season). First, Peter and Olivia get together, but then Olivia is kidnapped and replaced with Fauxlivia. Then when Olivia comes back she is too damaged to deal with it. After some time, they get together, but shortly thereafter Peter disappears from time and space but somehow comes back (due to his love for Olivia?). However, she no longer remembers him (see “disappears from time and space”).