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rosa_acicularis) wrote2010-06-02 12:27 pm
rosa_acicularis) wrote2010-06-02 12:27 pm
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thirty days of television meme - day four.
Day Four: Your Favorite Television Show Ever.
Oh, like you're surprised.
I haven't watched every episode of Who, not even close, but I've seen enough to know that even when I don't have the patience for the occasionally excruciating pacing of the Classic series or the absurd melodrama of the New series' more ridiculous plots, even when watching the atrocious TV movie or The Talons of Weng-Chiang or, heavens forbid, Daleks in Manhattan, even when the show just kind of sucks, I still love it.
I love the Doctor, all of him. I love the companions, New Series and Old, tin dog or temp, medical student or kissogram. I love Dickens and his ghosts, Shakespeare and his witches, Christie and her giant wasps. I love Tooth and Claw, The Satan Pit, Human Nature, and Midnight. I love The Girl in the Fireplace, Love and Monsters, The Last of the Time Lords, and The Planet of the Dead. I don't always love it because it's good television, because it isn't, always -- there have been times when it made me angry, or frustrated, or annoyed, but I loved it still, because even at its worst I never forgot that it was capable of better things.
I love Eleven and Amy and Rory, just as I love One and Susan and Ian and Barbara. Six and Peri often make me want to strangle one or both of them, but in the end that just gives them a special, occasionally violent, place in my heart. I ship One/Cameca, Two/Jamie, Three/Jo, Four/Romana, Five/Tegan, Six/Peri, Seven/Ace, Eight/Charley, Nine/Jabe, Ten/Donna, Eleven/Amy/Rory, and any combination thereabove. I ship Mickey/Rose, Mickey/Jake, and Mickey/Martha. When it comes down to it, I will happily ship Rose and Martha and Donna with just about anyone, as long as it's awesome. (I have read some Master/Martha that set my hair on fire, in a good way. Now there's a pairing I never thought I'd enjoy.) I ship Doctor/Master, in any incarnation, because -- well, because of scenes like this:
And of course I ship Doctor/Rose. Maybe because Rose was my first companion; maybe because I find it entirely too easy to relate to her, despite our many differences. (I asked a RL friend of mine named Amy if she felt an unusual kinship with Amy Pond because they share a first name; she looked at me like I was nuts. Just me, then?) But in the end the things I like most about Rose are the things that are farthest from my own personality, the flaws and the strengths most remote from my own. And I don't ship Doctor/Rose just because I like the Doctor and I like Rose -- I like their story, for all its holes and missed opportunities. From the way they meet to the way they part, and then part again -- though that's a whole other post in the making -- I like the way they talk to each other, the way they ask questions and listen and bicker and fight. I like the way she challenges him, the way he challenges her, and the times when they should challenge each other and don't (the Doctor in Rise of the Cybermen, for example, or Rose in Girl in the Fireplace) as if sensing that there is something fragile in their connection, and that while before they could fight about anything and end it closer than ever, now they're both afraid to be the one left behind.
The Doctor loses everyone, in the end, and they lose him, and I think Doctor Who is at its best when it knows this and knows that despite these inevitable losses life goes on -- Jamie and Zoe and Donna forget him, but they live wonderful lives all the same. (Though, a note to RTD: a marriage to a nice bloke alone does not a wonderful, fulfilled life make, not even with a winning lottery ticket. Donna deserved better than that, and I am disappointed in you.) Jack and Mickey and Martha, the Brig and Sarah Jane, Nyssa and Ace -- so many never forget him, and go on to save the world in their own ways, without him, time after time. We all lose the Doctor, but we are better for it, and Sarah Jane is right, though he may never know it -- he's not a Lonely God. Not at all, not even close.
Anyway. There are a lot of things I like about Doctor Who, and while I don't know that it's the best show I've ever loved, it's certainly the one I've loved the most.
Oh, like you're surprised.
I haven't watched every episode of Who, not even close, but I've seen enough to know that even when I don't have the patience for the occasionally excruciating pacing of the Classic series or the absurd melodrama of the New series' more ridiculous plots, even when watching the atrocious TV movie or The Talons of Weng-Chiang or, heavens forbid, Daleks in Manhattan, even when the show just kind of sucks, I still love it.
I love the Doctor, all of him. I love the companions, New Series and Old, tin dog or temp, medical student or kissogram. I love Dickens and his ghosts, Shakespeare and his witches, Christie and her giant wasps. I love Tooth and Claw, The Satan Pit, Human Nature, and Midnight. I love The Girl in the Fireplace, Love and Monsters, The Last of the Time Lords, and The Planet of the Dead. I don't always love it because it's good television, because it isn't, always -- there have been times when it made me angry, or frustrated, or annoyed, but I loved it still, because even at its worst I never forgot that it was capable of better things.
I love Eleven and Amy and Rory, just as I love One and Susan and Ian and Barbara. Six and Peri often make me want to strangle one or both of them, but in the end that just gives them a special, occasionally violent, place in my heart. I ship One/Cameca, Two/Jamie, Three/Jo, Four/Romana, Five/Tegan, Six/Peri, Seven/Ace, Eight/Charley, Nine/Jabe, Ten/Donna, Eleven/Amy/Rory, and any combination thereabove. I ship Mickey/Rose, Mickey/Jake, and Mickey/Martha. When it comes down to it, I will happily ship Rose and Martha and Donna with just about anyone, as long as it's awesome. (I have read some Master/Martha that set my hair on fire, in a good way. Now there's a pairing I never thought I'd enjoy.) I ship Doctor/Master, in any incarnation, because -- well, because of scenes like this:
And of course I ship Doctor/Rose. Maybe because Rose was my first companion; maybe because I find it entirely too easy to relate to her, despite our many differences. (I asked a RL friend of mine named Amy if she felt an unusual kinship with Amy Pond because they share a first name; she looked at me like I was nuts. Just me, then?) But in the end the things I like most about Rose are the things that are farthest from my own personality, the flaws and the strengths most remote from my own. And I don't ship Doctor/Rose just because I like the Doctor and I like Rose -- I like their story, for all its holes and missed opportunities. From the way they meet to the way they part, and then part again -- though that's a whole other post in the making -- I like the way they talk to each other, the way they ask questions and listen and bicker and fight. I like the way she challenges him, the way he challenges her, and the times when they should challenge each other and don't (the Doctor in Rise of the Cybermen, for example, or Rose in Girl in the Fireplace) as if sensing that there is something fragile in their connection, and that while before they could fight about anything and end it closer than ever, now they're both afraid to be the one left behind.
The Doctor loses everyone, in the end, and they lose him, and I think Doctor Who is at its best when it knows this and knows that despite these inevitable losses life goes on -- Jamie and Zoe and Donna forget him, but they live wonderful lives all the same. (Though, a note to RTD: a marriage to a nice bloke alone does not a wonderful, fulfilled life make, not even with a winning lottery ticket. Donna deserved better than that, and I am disappointed in you.) Jack and Mickey and Martha, the Brig and Sarah Jane, Nyssa and Ace -- so many never forget him, and go on to save the world in their own ways, without him, time after time. We all lose the Doctor, but we are better for it, and Sarah Jane is right, though he may never know it -- he's not a Lonely God. Not at all, not even close.
Anyway. There are a lot of things I like about Doctor Who, and while I don't know that it's the best show I've ever loved, it's certainly the one I've loved the most.