rusty_halo

1. Are the Supernatural DVDs worth buying? Are there any good commentaries or extras? I enjoy commentaries that shed light on the story and characters, but I’m not so into the ones that bore me with technical details and irrelevant anecdotes. Is there a particular season that stands out as worth owning?

2. Is anyone going to Book Expo America? Is there anything there worth seeing or doing? I have to go for work, but aside from a few meetings I’m basically free to roam. I didn’t see anything particularly exciting listed on the website, though.

3. I’m thinking about maybe watching Ashes to Ashes. A lot of my flist has been buzzing with positive thoughts about its finale. I really do like Keeley Hawes and, of course, I love the Bowie references. However, I’m worried because I thought the premiere was terrible, because I loved the ending of Life on Mars and don’t want to see it ruined, and because I really can’t stand the glorification of Gene Hunt. He’s a racist, sexist, ableist homophobe–I liked him on LoM because he was (mostly) presented as a flawed character and because Sam was there to point out how wrong he was. But even LoM was starting to get caught up in the glorification of Gene, and from what I’ve heard it only gets worse in A2A. I really just cannot take a bunch of white male writers glossing over Gene’s flaws as if they’re somehow minor or lovable, when in fact they’re deeply hurtful and wrong. So I’m curious if anyone else has this issue, and how they thought A2A handled it overall, and whether or not A2A is, in the end, worth watching.

Many thanks to anyone who answers. :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2594

While I appreciate that fandom is banding together to elect a pro-fandom candidate in the LJ elections, I would encourage people to take the time to learn about the prospective candidates. I’ve seen a lot of people voting in alphabetical order or for most recognizable name, without realizing that, say, current lead legomymalfoy supported LiveJournal during Strikethrough, while rm made some of the most calm and articulate arguments against it.

You might want to consider reading their platforms and updating your vote.

(Yeah, I don’t actually think that this election will matter. But I like to live in hope, and if anyone can do something positive with the position, it’s rm.)

In happy fannish news, this Life on Mars vid, set to the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” is a thing of beauty. A pastiche of a pastiche! There’s got to be an essay about postmodernism in that. (Thanks to the person who linked it from lifein1973.)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Best Valentine's Day cards ever.

jaydk came over yesterday for an evening of very bad TV:

( Torchwood 2x05 - Which harkens back to the good old days of S1, by which I mean that I can't stop laughing at the stupid. )

( Torchwood 2x06 - The Triumphant Return of Martha Sue! )

( Ashes to Ashes 1x01 - Wow, they just completely sucked the soul out of Life on Mars. )

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

Should I watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles? I almost never watch TV shows as they air unless I know that they've already managed to pull off at least one decent season. But Sarah Connor is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters, and The Terminator is in my list of top five movies of all time. (I'm one of those freaks who prefers the original to the sequel; it's just so raw. And it's infiltrated my subconscious to the point where I have nightmares about being chased by the Terminator on a regular basis.) I'm kind of freaked out that Linda Hamilton isn't in it, although I understand that wouldn't really work because of the age issue. And I'm glad that the character, and the whole fictional world, is having a life beyond its original writers and actors. So. Is it worth watching, or am I just going to end up ranting about how disappointing it is?

I'm kind of boggled that so many of my friends are getting into Torchwood. I mean, yes, there's bisexuality, but the show is so badly written. I'm just hoping that people will follow the Torchwood trail back to Doctor Who, and see how much better that show is, and discover the slashtastic awesomeness of the Doctor and the Master.

Today's fic recs:

John Simm did an interview in which he confessed to having worked as a cage dancer when he was young and needed the money. No, seriously! So versaphile wrote fic in which a young inexperienced David Tennant meets cagedancer!Simm. And then they have some of the hottest sex I've ever read. And the end almost made me cry. Read it here: Kiss Me Quick.

versaphile also wrote more Doctor/Master. (versaphile, I swear I am not stalking you. I just kind of want to live inside of your brain.) Three for a Wedding. It's actually Doctor/Master and Doctor/TARDIS, and it's extremely disturbing, but it's the good kind of disturbing.

yahtzee63 wrote The Yankee's Loot, in which the Tenth Doctor picks up Scarlett O'Hara as a companion. And it works, brilliantly, because she perfectly captures Scarlett's inner voice. That woman is a sociopathic megalomaniac, and somehow you can't help but love her. I'd never have imagined that these two fandoms could be combined, but Yahtzee makes it work.

Here's another Life on Mars fic that I greatly enjoyed. It's like an episode--70s police show plot, entertaining dialog--just with the bonus of gay sex. You wouldn't think those things would blend together so well, but, obviously, they do. (Sorry, I know there's tons of slashy police show fandoms out there, I've just never been into one before.)

I've been following the metafandom discussions about the Organization for Transformative Works, and I continue to think that it's awesome. One of the things that boggles me about the internet is that people just take for granted that things disappear. You can read a story that's stunning, life-changing, brilliant, and then look it up one morning and find that it's completely gone.

( here is me rambling on about the OTW, as if you haven't read enough about it already )

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

It occurs to me that part of the reason I love the messianic imagery and over-the-top badass slow-motion Doctor in Voyage of the Damned is that it reminds me of a Sergio Leone Western. Exaggerated, stylish, drawn out, set to striking music... yep. That explains it.

(Leone wasn't invested in religion either, but he used tons of Catholic imagery in his films because it was part of his culture, and because he understood the power of mythological images that are ingrained in our consciousness from childhood. I don't get why people have such a problem with it. It's about the power of image and myth, not about some kind of subconscious urge to actually be religious.

Actually, both Leone and Davies seem to have a thing about subverting religious imagery. Davies has got killer angels, a killer Christmas star, and killer Santas. Leone had... well, tons of stuff, but what comes immediately to mind is Indio at the church pulpit, "preaching" a "parable" to his gang about the bank they're about to rob.)

I started thinking about this during one of those "Doctor striding through the fire" scenes, when a bit of the music reminded me of Ennio Morricone, and then the Doctor does that slow-motion finger snap and the angels carry him up. It feels very Leone!

(Leone, of course, has had a huge impact on the modern action film, so the influence might not even be direct. VotD is a pastiche of tons of things, mostly disaster movies. But the combination of religious imagery, extended time, and striking music in a couple of specific scenes definitely has a Leone aspect to it.)

There is totally other Leone-inspired stuff in Doctor Who, btw. Or at least, Morricone inspired. The confrontation scene between the Doctor and Giles Mr. Finch in "School Reunion" comes to mind.

VotD also has a bunch of James Bond type imagery (although thankfully the Doctor is not a misogynist douchebag like Bond--and I say that with love) and I can remember writing some college essay about how Bond and Leone's Western heroes reflected the changing cultural construction of masculinity in the 1960s... now I totally can't remember what it said. Mostly I think Doctor Who was just playing with the cool images, anyway.

Yeah, you can tell what I spent my weekend thinking about! Well, that and comparing Life on Mars to Fight Club. God help me.

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]