diff --git a/papers/drwho/index.md b/papers/drwho/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34c0999 --- /dev/null +++ b/papers/drwho/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: Every Episode of Doctor Who +--- + +I'm going to try to watch every episode of Doctor Who, in order. +Then I'm going to write up what I think. + +A few rules I'm setting out initially: + +* It's okay to skip an episode if I just can't handle it. +* I don't have to write a big ol' treatise on each one. +* I fully understand I lack cultural and temporal context for a lot of this, + and I'm not going to feel bound to try and attain said. +* I will be viewing this though my personal biases. +* I may create more rules later on. + +--- + +* [Season 1](season01.md) - December 2021 +* [Season 2](season02.md) - December 2021 diff --git a/papers/drwho/season01.md b/papers/drwho/season01.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d708219 --- /dev/null +++ b/papers/drwho/season01.md @@ -0,0 +1,385 @@ +--- +title: Every Episode of Doctor Who +--- + +I'm going to try to watch every episode of Doctor Who, in order. +Then I'm going to write up what I think. + +A few rules I'm setting out initially: + +* It's okay to skip an episode if I just can't handle it. +* I don't have to write a big ol' treatise on each one. +* I fully understand I lack cultural and temporal context for a lot of this, + and I'm not going to feel bound to try and attain said. +* I will be viewing this though my personal biases. +* I may create more rules later on. + +# Season One + +## Story 1: Cavemen and Fire + +I guess this first story pretty clearly established that they travel +through time. + +### S01E01 - An Unearthly Child + +Oh man, the pacing is just slow. +I like how they're exploring "what if a time-travelling alien disguised itself as a human and went to high school." + +Okay, there are two high school teachers, +and this highschool aged timelord girl who's the Doctor's grand-daughter. + +The doctor is kind of a jerk. + + +### S01E02 - The Cave of Skulls + +Right, okay, cavemen. And of course they're all short-term-memory idiots. +Okay, sure. + +### S01E03 - The Forest of Fear + +I forgot what this one was about, +because I didn't decide to write things down until later. + +### S01E04 - The Firemaker + +The man teacher makes a fire because of course the man does that in 1963. +And then the leader of the cavemen goes hunting. +They make some skulls on fire to distract everybody, +which is pretty cool, +and then they escape. + + +## Story 2: Daleks! + +Holy crap! I didn't realized the Daleks went all the way back to episode 4! +Also there are some Dutch-looking people who are of course the good guys. + +### S01E05: The Dead Planet + +They find a dead city which, oops, high background radiation. +Cool doors open up and some neat architecture. + +You know what, for the time and (I assume) paltry budget of the first season, +this is pretty badass. + +This Doctor is a jerk. Faking a broken part to force everyone to do what +he wants. + +### S01E06: The Survivors + +Daleks! It's cool that they waited until the second episode to bring them out. +They're pretty clearly assholes right at the outset here. +No moral ambiguity with the Daleks. + +The Doctor is pretty frail. Honestly, the rest of the crew seems more +important than he is. + +### S01E07: The Escape + +I think we really meet the Norwegians here. I don't recall exactly. + +I'm pretty sure this is the one where +the Norwegians try to meet up with the Daleks and forge a peace treaty, +not knowing the Daleks are complete assholes. + +### S01E08: The Ambush + +They start taking out the Daleks. There appears to be some sort of +creature inside, which can be taken out, and the dude teacher crawls in. + +This is actually pretty cool, I liked this one. + +### S01E09: The Expedition + +I think the guy teacher tries to convince the peaceniks to fight the Daleks, +by presenting them with the possibility of him screwing up their stuff. + +The Norwegians traipse around through some cool looking sets to +look like an alien landscape. + +I think this is when the Daleks realize they need high background radiation +in order to survive, because the Norwegians (the Thaals I guess) anti-radiation +drug kills them. They plan to dump ionizing radiation onto the planet's +surface. + +A Thaal dude goes to get water and gets sucked up by a vortex or something. + +### S01E10: The Ordeal + +Half the episode was watching people jump over a chasm in a cave. +The pacing on this, holy crap. + +I think this is the one where the Doctor screws up their electrical grid. + +### S01E11: The Rescue + +Everybody runs around in the cave some more, and eventually they pop out +in the Dalek city. +The Doctor and his Grand-daughter +are imprisoned and he volunteers to teach them about his ship and how to +travel through time if they let him go. + +The Norwegians and teachers rain holy hell and kill all the Daleks. +Everybody goes home. + +Honestly, man, for being written 60 years ago, I'm surprised by how +compelling the Daleks were written when viewed by me today. + +## Story 3: A Tardis Button Gets Stuck + +This story was bathouse crazy. +Part of it was probably that I wasn't paying full attention, +but it was also just nuts. + +### S01E12: The Edge of Destruction + +People alternate between normal and crazy. +There's a lot of screaming. +Random weirdness takes place and it doesn't make sense. +Everybody turns of everybody and then suddenly it's fine and dandy. + +### S01E13: The Brink of Disaster + +The Doctor starts piecing together some clues. +Turns out the Tardis itself has been trying to send them a message +by dropping obscure clues. +He figures it out and unsticks the "go back to where you just were" button, +which, because it was stuck down, sent them back to the origin of the +solar system. + +You know, not awful. +It felt pretty incoherent but I was willing to go along. + +## Story 4: Doctor Who goes to China + +I guess the film for this was lost, +so it was sort of a slideshow playing over a radio drama. + +### S01E14: The Roof of the World + +I made it as far as them getting into a hut in Mongolia and meeting +Marco Polo, +and then I skipped to the next story. + +### S01E15: The Singing Sands + +More British people pretending they're in China, I presume. + +### S01E16: Five Hundred Eyes + +Skipped + +### S01E17: The Wall of Lies + +Skipped + +### S01E18: Rider from Shang Tu + +Skipped + +### S01E19: Mightly Kublai Khan + +Skipped + +### S01E20: Assassin at Peking + +Skipped + +## Story 5: Finding the Chips + +The Scooby gang has to find some microchips scattered around the planet, +so a machine can be repaired to mind-control everyone into +being peaceful. + +### S01E21: The Sea of Death + +This was the episode during which I decided to start writing this. + +It's really interesting how they kept the sort of stumbling around delivery +of lines, rather than shooting another take. I kind of like it. +It's like watching a play. + +LOL at the alien costume with swim flippers. + +Frickin' Susan is, disappointingly, pretty much a horror movie character. +Just sort of blithely wandering around all over the place and screaming +a lot. Amusingly, they just assumed it was her from her scream. + +Okay, got the main plot point. The dude needs to recover some keys so they +can mind-control people to make everybody peaceful. I really hope they don't +just accept this without question. + +Their mime acting could use some continuity work, LOL. + +### S02E22: The Velvet Web + +When the statue's eyes lit up and the creepy lady came out to put rocks +on everybody's forehead, it really felt like a 1970s episode from when +I was a kid. + +Aww yeah, brains in jars getting killed. + +### S02E23: The Screaming Jungle + +The Screaming Jungle, eh? Must be about Susan. + +For crying out loud, yep, she's screaming again. +I read that this actress quit early on. +I don't blame her. What a limiting role to have to play. + +Now Barbara's screaming. A statue grabbed her. + +Now she's screaming again. A net fell on her. + +Third time screaming. Some plants grabbed her. + +Apparently the scream in the jungle was mostly Barbara. + +### S01E24: The Snows of Terror + +Okay, now Ian and Barbara are cold. And a beardo has rescued them. + +Ian left for some reason, +and Beardo's giving off some really rapey vibes. +Oh, sure enough, he's got all their junk. + +Susan and a blonde woman are in a cave. +I've decided I don't like Susan at all, +her sole role appears to be screwing things up and screaming. + +Oh boy. They're all in another cave, and they're going to explore it.. +Oh, okay, we don't have to watch that. They melt some ice and... +Susan's screaming again as some dude with a cardboard sword wakes up. + +Great, they found another key. + +### S01E25: Sentence of Death + +The Scooby gang vs. the Japanese Criminal System, I guess. +They assumed Ian is guilty and he has to prove he's not. +The Doctor is going to be his defense. + +I've seen this episode at least three times on Star Trek, +and once on the Brady Bunch. +I might skip this one. + +Oh, neat, a dude who hits his wife. + +Okay, but you know what, I dig the costumes. + +### S01E26: The Keys of Marinus + +I don't like Barbara's hairstyle, though. + +Oh, snap! What a twist! I seriously was not expecting this one. +I mean, I probably should have, from a casting standpoint, but I'm not +really devoting a lot of mental energy to this. + +Okay, I guess they decided the mind-control machine wasn't so great. +Kind of a naive take but whatever, it was a pretty fun story. + +## Story 6: Doctor Who goes to Mexico + +A bunch of white people pretend to be Aztecs, and explore the moral +aspects of human sacrifice. + +To its credit, there is at least lip service to the notion that +this is some other culture and maybe you can't impose your current moral +structure over it. + +### S01E27: The Temple of Evil + +Oh goodie. Barbara's gone and gotten herself in trouble again. +I'm not sure I can stomach this one. + +Yay, let's focus on human sacrifice. And let's frame it as summoning rain, +because I'm sure that was the beginning and end of the philosophy behind it. + +LOL the sword fight. + +Haha, Susan's screaming desecrated an Aztec temple. + +### S01E28: The Warriors of Death + +Damn, the Doctor's pissed. + +Holy crap, the Vulcan Nerve Pinch! 2 years before it showed up in Star Trek! + +More 1960s dudes wrasslin'. But there's a twist, he got scratched. + +### S01E29: The Bride of Sacrifice + +Aha, the old Saffron maneuver, eh? Looks like the Doctor's gettin' hitched! + +The gang has a moral dilemma about altering the culture of the Aztecs by +Barbara abusing her god status to outlaw human sacrifice. The Doctor gets +married or engaged or something. Susan finally expresses an emotion other +than terror: + +![well hello there](susan-well-hello-there.mp4) + +I'm back to being uncomfortable with the cultural framing here. I mean, +maybe this is useful for viewing 1960s British culture, but that's still +too recent for me to not feel squicky about it. The only reason I didn't +skip this entire story is because Wikipedia said it was one of the best +stories of the entire franchise. + +### S01E30: The Day of Darkness + +They found a tunnel or something, to get back into the burial chamber +containing the Tardis. Susan is going to get married or sacrificed or +something. Ian does the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on a white guy dressed as a +brown guy, saving the white lady. They find a way to escape, and +somebody gets sacrificed, and then Barbara gets to watch Susan get +sacrificed or something, I'm not sure. + +Oh, more 1960s dudes fighting. I skipped it. I presume the British +high school teacher beats the Aztec warrior who's been training his +entire life. + +Barbara has some sort of moral quandry about her inability to change +the past, which I guess was the point of the story. I sure hope +they don't wind up on earth again in the next story. + +## Story 7: The Sensorites + +### S01E31: Strangers in Space + +They're in a spaceship, thank goodness. The lighting is pretty bad. + +Okay there are these sensorites messing with peoples' minds. Aw, crap, +we're sort of on Earth. At least it's in the future. + +This is a cool premise, +taking over a ship by manipulating everybody's emotions. + +### S01E32: The Unwilling Warriors + +Hey! Creepy! I like this story. + +Susan is doing something! Nice! + +Susan makes a sacrifice + +### S01E33: Hidden Danger + +Susan needs to get out of this place! The Doctor's being a real jerk. Again. +Seems like she's growing up and needs her own space. + +Anyway. The Sensorites are cool. And I'm glad Barbara seems to get an equal +say in matters. Like, she just argued with Ian about something, and she was +like "well then it's settled, we'll do it my way". +Still can't abide her hairstyle, though. + +Ian seems really British. It's not difficult to imagine pretty much +everything he does being done by an older dude with a brandy in his hand. +He doesn't seem to get to grow as a character, +he's already fully grown, I guess. + +I dig that the sensorites have internal debates. + +## Story 8: Dr Who vs the French Revolution + +I just couldn't get myself to care about another one of these. diff --git a/papers/drwho/season02.md b/papers/drwho/season02.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..414a5cf --- /dev/null +++ b/papers/drwho/season02.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: Doctor Who: Season 2 +--- + +# Story 1: Honey, I shrunk Doctor Who + +## S02E01: Planet of Giants + +They're on Earth again, but they're tiny. +I bet it was fun building the sets for this one! + +Pretty dorky but I'm enjoying it. +Why in the heck do they not bring flashlights with them, I wonder. + +## S02E02: Dangerous Journey + +"Anyway, you keep away from it," Ian said, just before walking over to +the pile of poisoned seeds he was referring to. + +LOL giant hymenoptera. +Holy hell, Barbara faints! + +I can't stop thinking about how much fun it must have been to +build this set! + +## S02E03: Crisis + +This is very cute. + +Yeah, just store that giant poison seed next to Barbara, +who's suffering from poisoning. + + +# Story 2: Earth. Again. Also Daleks. + +They go back to earth, and find a whole mess of Daleks. diff --git a/papers/drwho/susan-well-hello-there.mp4 b/papers/drwho/susan-well-hello-there.mp4 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ab76cf Binary files /dev/null and b/papers/drwho/susan-well-hello-there.mp4 differ