kaffy_r | Entries tagged with meta

73 Yards: Nightmare Logic

I rarely get creeped out by a show to the extent that I wake up in the wee smalls going "It's wrong." Nor do I often wake up again and think, "Oh, now I get it. Dream logic!" before falling back, relieved, to sleep.

( More under here )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: AC. It's HOT out there.

Boom

I was right.

I think.

Woo.

Current Mood: geeky

"The Devil's Chord"

Question: is love the message?

(Don't worry, I'll actually talk about the episode. But first, this.)

( It's under here. )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Stray Kids "DLC"

I Finally Did It

I finally watched the first episode of 15's season, "Space Babies". And it did what some of Rusty's work has done for me before; roll my eyes.

And smile.

I mean, it's clearly ridiculous, in a particular way that stands slightly apart from the ridiculousness that comprises much of Dr. Who's bedrock underpinnings. It's Rusty ridiculousness. I've only had half a cup of coffee this morning, so I can't yet characterize it more accurately than that. But I do think it proceeds from his love of the show (I almost typed "franchise" but from there it would be slippery slope to describing creations as content and creators as creatives. So, no).

That love is hugely on display in "Space Babies," despite the lack of even Whoniverseian logic. And the way Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson commit to their characters, especially Gatwa, anchors the risibility in that love. The commitment also manages to make the plot hold together, if only barely. Love, spit, and bailing wire; Rusty, I hope you up the plot game in later eps, so that it doesn't fall completely on their shoulders.

And plot? Wow; much silly, so plotless; wow.*

At the end of the episode Bob, who is normally reticent about making snap judgements about any show we watch together, especially Who, looked at me and said that he knew this Doctor was going to be fun, once he got his balance. Bob was smiling as he said it. As a snap judgement from him, this was extremely high praise. I smiled back at him.

I missed the fact that the Doctor apparently did some sort of DNA scan on Ruby near the end. Come on, Doctor, can you please stop doing that without asking the target of your scans? Shades of Moffat and Amy's pregnancy ....

But yes, definitely a happy and hopeful entry to the season, at least for me. I should now hie me to other folks' journals to see what y'all thought of it.

Short bits:

Yuck!

What is it about bodily secretions? Rusty and the Moff seem to have a Frst Grade boy's love of icky stuff (Moffat - "Sleep No More" and eye gunk; Davies - the booger monster of "Space Babies.")

Everybody lives!

Speaking of the bogeyman (should I capitalize that?), Ruby and the Doctor (the latter near the end) - and most importantly, the babies who'd been terrorized by it - decide that a) it's the last one of its kind, and b) should be considered a child worth caring for as well. That's perfectly Moffatian, although Rusty's script kind of fails to convince me, tacked on at the very end as it is. Still, respect from an "Everybody Lives!" fan.

Wait, I know her!

Golda Rosheuvel is lovely, despite the lack of a towering powdered wig and air of exquisitely royal boredom. (I've only watched one season of Bridgerton, and probably won't watch further, but she often made me grin during that first season.)

Talking babies! On a spaceship!

The way Ruby and the Doctor kept looking at each other and declaiming "Space Babies!" made me think of Eleven being happy as that aforementioned First Grade boy wrt dinosaurs being on, you know, a spaceship. Heh.

* RIP Kabosu.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Music from "Made in Abyss"

Good Omens, Part the First and a Half

Many thanks to

elisi for finding me so many links to read about both the book and the television series - I'm diving into one of owls' pieces now. I will be responding to your comments on my previous Good Omens post, but I need time and brain.

What I can tell you is the following:

a) I am impressed with the depth of intellectual diving being done by people, and with such obvious joy.
b) Who knew there was a Good Omens fan base in the 30 years prior to the series? (Oh, people who read the book prior to immediately before the series, and people who, unlike me, really fell in love with Pratchett's work.)
c) AND THIS IS IMPORTANT
...
...
...
( It's all under here, for various powers of )

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/533439.html

So. Good Omens. Finally.

This is not going to be a case of me highlighting "Good Omens" in the headline, and then going "Ha! Fooled You! Got Nothing to Say! Ha! And again I say Ha!"

Nor, however, will it be very long. I only have one observation thus far, other than that which I said initially, and that was that this is a well-made BBC mini-series, with very good writing, very, very good acting and pacing, and some sweet scenes - and one that has not captured my emotional attention in the least.*
( Some spoilers for both the book and the mini-series. So beware. )

*I'm sorry guys. I wish I could tell you something else. I think I'll go back now and read some of your conversations. They should be more accessible than the extraordinarily academic tome I ran across on AO3 today.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/532743.html

Things That Are Good

1.

elisi 's meta - in two parts - on the end of Twelve's time with us (can I sob a bit? I'm looking forward to Thirteen, but gawDAMN, is Capaldi good. Also gorgeous. WHAT???!??) I plan on going back, re-reading, re-looking-at, and, finally, commenting. She is so good at this stuff that I'm afraid to say anything. But I will because I must because I want to.

2. This clip of the Temptations, doing My Girl. The first part is in the studio, and dear sweet lord, how they managed to get all of those musicians in one of the Motown studios at once, there had to be magic involved ... beyond the magic that took place, I mean. Look for Smokey Robinson in the background, conducting with big-ass headphones on. And Mr. James Jimerson on bass, ladies and gentlemen.
( Music under here )
.

Current Mood: impressed
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/479083.html

Multi- Chapter Stories

Most links to my multi-chapter stories will be to their Dreamwidth posts; links to stories prior to 2012 may go both to LJ and DW. Each multi-chapter Whoniverse story is also available at my Teaspoon and AO3 accounts.

Doctor Who
Walk Out With Me to the Unknown Region
Hearts and Moons Recall the Truth
( Read more... )

Sea Bound Hearts
( Read more... )

Redeeming the Tree
( Read more... )

Paying A Debt
( Read more... )

Bubble Tea
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/375544.html

Master Fic List

Doctor Who

Single Chapter Stories

Third Doctor
( Read more... )

Fourth Doctor
Cooking with Gallifreyans  (LJ)

Ninth Doctor
( Read more... )

Tenth Doctor
( Read more... )

Eleventh Doctor
( Read more... )
Twelfth Doctor
( Read more... )
Thirteenth Doctor
( Read more... )

Sarah Jane Adventures
A Light in the Dark  (LJ)
Carbon, Earth and Stardust  (LJ)

Torchwood
Triptych  (LJ)
Going Out With the Tide  (LJ)

Multi-Chapter Stories
Walk Out With Me to the Unknown Region

Sapphire and Steel
( Read more... )

Arcane: League of Legends
( Read more... )

Marvel Cinematic Universe
( Read more... )

The Goblin Emperor
( Read more... )

Vorkosiverse
( Read more... )

Miscellaneous
( Read more... )

Meta
( Read more... )

External Links: Ao3; Teaspoon

Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/374754.html

Under Pressure

(I wish I could write like elisi ; I wish I could think like promethia_tenk . If I could, perhaps I could have come up with something about Season 8 of Doctor Who that was better than this, or at least more organized. I've been thinking hard about this season ever since it started, but those thoughts never quite coalesced the way I wanted them to. They'd start - I'd get bits of imagery, or flashes of understanding - and then they'd dissipate.

The only thing I could do, in the end, was put those flashes and images into some sort of broken-tiled picture. I can't speak to themes and motifs; I can only speak of how I felt, and about what, and who. And I found, a little to my surprise, that I care a great deal about Clara, that indeed I found her the most compelling part of this season, with the new Doctor running only slightly behind her. I was ambushed by my affection for her, which happened with Amy as well. Why should I be so surprised, I wonder? Perhaps that's something for another day.

In the meantime there is this: unedited, unbalanced technically and probably thematically, not to mention emotionally.)

*********************************************
( Glass breaks, mirrors shatter )

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/331386.html

Very Quick Things

Cold on the way out, back spasm threatening. I will threaten it back, and frighten it way the hell out away from my muscles.
BB's thyroid biopsy came back negative for cancer. Since the tests indicate some thyroid problems, there may still be a connection to his ongoing fever, etc. We will find out when we talk to his doctor later this month. In the meantime, we are glad it isn't cancer. If that sounds less than ecstatic, it's only because we still don't have an answer to what is making his life miserable. Sometimes you can get so desperate to find out the reason for an illness that you begin to eye something definite with something uncomfortably close to approbation.
Saw the first half of the Who finale, Dark Water. I am willing to wait to see what the second half brings; I enjoyed it more than BB did, and he didn't not enjoy it. Was not surprised by the reveal, since I (and practically everyone else) had spotted that one from, oh, the first episode of S08. I'm reasonably pleased by it although I have never had the great affection for the character in question that others have. (Fascination and appreciation, yes, and some thoughts on the character's evolution, but not affection.) Why am I being this obtuse when everyone on my list who wants to see it has seen it? Because some of them may not have, so I'm trying not to be spoilerific.
And, out of nowhere, and thanks to posts elsewhere, all the scattered thoughts I've been having, the "I know there's a meta inside me waiting to get out" thoughts, the ones that have been swimming around aimlessly and without direction throughout this season (one I've regarded as extremely variable in quality, one I've been surprised to see viewed as a near masterwork by a lot of people I respect), have finally started coalescing. Mind you, that could be a mistake on my part. I thought they were coalescing around episode 3 and they didn't. So I shouldn't promise anything ....
Tomorrow, I get to go down to the legendary and fearsome Tribune Tower, to meet my new owners. Yes, it's on a deadline day, but they did at least apologize for making the mass meeting a last minute thing. More, after that happens.

Current Mood: discontent
Current Location: Going to bed
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/330404.html

In praise of flowsoffire

She wrote an excellent essay, positing some of the possible underpinnings of Clara's thought processes and actions in S08, in a series of responses to one of my posts, and having just reread it (It's in three parts), I wanted to let anyone know who hadn't read it (and many of you probably have), that they should go and read it. Clara hasn't always been well-treated by writers this season, and I think Azzie has written an excellent and acceptable Watsonian take on the hows and the whys of Clara's actions.

What are you waiting for? Go on! Shoo!.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/326148.html

Working On It

Thinking thoughts about how Moffat is taking a very risky turn in process as well as story, mixing Doylist and Watsonian angles with drunken abandon, (except that he's doing it very carefully.)

Thinking about the phrase "I am built broken. Watch me."

Thinking about the difference between liking and loving, and the similarities. Thinking about dislike and discomfort and how they are often survival tools.

Thinking about mirrors and mistakes, about how communication is a minuet of misinterpretation, rediscovery and changing minds, and how Moffat pulls it off sometimes, and how sometimes he doesn't.

Back to the tabbouleh salad, notebook at the ready ....

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: Ringo Starr, "Goodnight Vienna"
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/317412.html

Happy Birthday!

Many happy returns of the day to

janie_aire , who writes some thoughtful, beautiful commentaries and meta about Doctor Who; I'm very glad I have had the chance to "meet" you through those wonderful words, and I hope, selfishly, to read more of them in the coming year!

Current Mood: okay
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/316048.html

Stars, Survivors and Pomegranate Seeds

(Back in February of this year, I promised jjpor , the very nice creator and moderator of who_at_50 that I would post something having to do with the Ninth Doctor in March. I decided pretty quickly it was going to be something about Jackie and Nine, because I love both characters, and think they're more alike than different. And I figured that, having realized what I wanted to write about, it would be easy to write. More fool I.

It's been a far too long since I made that promise, but I finally finished my meditation on Jacqueline Angela Suzette Prentice and The One Who Stole Her Daughter.

Oh, and if you haven't explored who_at_50 , you really should. It's full of Who goodness, no doubt about it.)

***************************************

( The sky is dark and full of stars )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Going to bed
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/284628.html

Before the Angels Come

( I have not seen the Angels swing low )

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: The snores of a sleeping kitteh
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/234536.html

For Your Consideration

sarah531 has written a brief, but very thoughtful, analysis of Amy Pond's place in the Whoniverse, and some of the imagery employed in her presentation. I like her powers of observation here - she caught both tiny pieces of imagery I completely missed - and big honking patterns that were there in front of me that I never noticed, as well. I like what she has to say, and I think y'all should go over and see what you think as well!

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: BB and the Daughter of My Heart
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/215974.html

Sherlock: A Question of Time. Or Possibly Geometry

( Watch the next series? Of course I'm going to watch the next series. )

Current Mood: listless
Current Location: The Home Office
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/215529.html

Story: Sonnet for Canaan
Author:

kaffy_r
Characters: The Doctor, the TARDIS and the rest of us
Rated: Gen
Word Count: 289, per Google docs
Edited by: unedited; all mistakes are my own.
Summary: The Thief's not tame, but worth it nonetheless.
Author's Notes: This was written for

canaan 's 2011

fandom_stocking. I am not a poet, god knows, and know only the bare minimum necessary to cobble together the most common type of sonnet. And yet it seemed best to me to talk about the rhapsody of loving Doctor Who in verse. I labored over this (which probably shows, and is no predictor of quality) but I hope it reflects at least a little of the love I hold for its multiplex subject, as well as the occasional awe in which I hold it.
Disclaimer: As much as I wish it were otherwise, no Whoniverse characters are mine. They are the sole properties of the BBC and their respective creators. I intend no copyright infringement, and take no coin. I do, however, love them all, and thank the BBC for letting me play in their sandbox.

( Our lives are ruled by minutes, seconds, hours )

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: The Home Office
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/215069.html

Boxes and Paradoxes: River Song is Not a Psychopath

Boxes, boxes, paradoxes. River Song, an exercise in impossible possibilities. River Song and boxes; it's ... complicated.

( It's also long, so it's under here. )

Current Mood: nervous
Current Location: The Home Office

Empty Rooms

Well, it's taken me two weeks to say it, but I can finally say it.

The God Complex is empty. Empty halls, lined with doors that promise something but open onto empty rooms.

( The thing is as impersonally welcoming as a hotel )

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: the end of the week

The Covenant of Amy Pond

And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1st Corinthians, 13:13

A danger in writing meta too often is that you can forget that you can write anything else; that you can simply say "I liked this episode because of this" or "I didn't enjoy this, because of that." Sometimes it's best to simplify, to go back to the fundamentals.

So here are some of the very simple reasons that I thought the The Girl Who Waited was one of the best episodes of S06. Whether larger things spring from those, I'll leave to chance.

( Once again, the greatest of these is )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: the livingroom

Dance Me To The End of Love

Well, not the end of love, because who knows when the story begins, and when it ends?

I finally got my thoughts together after watching Let's Kill Hitler, and I managed to put them into words that make sentences that make paragraphs. A lot of them. Hence the cut, because yeah, verging on prolix here.

One warning. This commentary treats Let's Kill Hitler like Rory and Company treated Hitler.( It's all about love, really. )

Bigger on the Inside

It felt absolutely right to me - so right that, at first, I didn't even think the story was that momentous. Just ... well ... right.

It's a story I might write.

So,

kaffyr , you're saying you liked it not because Gaiman wrote it, not because he beautifully brought to life something other writers could have screwed up completely, but because it was something you might have written?

No, (at least not completely, she muttered, forced into complete honesty.)

I liked it - I loved it - because I think it's a story only someone who loves the TARDIS could write. Some folks have theorized that Gaiman first started the script with another goal completely, and was routed into the "TARDIS, personified" plot for various reasons. Even if that is true, I still think he wrote the story he did because he loves the TARDIS.

Wait. Let me start again.

The whole concept of the TARDIS is encapsulated in one phrase.

( Bigger on the inside )

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Location: going to bed
Current Music: a rotor, a song

Here There be No Dragons. You Will Be Saved.

After seeing a lot of the headers and hints of commentary about "Curse of the Black Spot," I was fully expecting to consider the entire thing lame, perhaps even "Victory of the Daleks" lame (although I was pretty certain we weren't going to have a replay of "Spaaaace Whaaaale!!!/Beast Below" lame.)

I'm really pleased to say - whilst being fully aware that this may say more about me than about the episode - that I found it sweet, and worth my time. Maybe just barely, and maybe the sweetness was almost too much, and, yes, the nutritional value was next to nil, but worth my time. And the show team is, of course, awaiting my judgment with steno pads in hand. Ahem.

( Oh. Wait. Is it ... oh, no, no ... the Meta Monster! It's come for me again!!! )

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: ...of the spheres

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Grasping at Grace (and Growth)

Transformation is Inescapable

Entries tagged with meta

Dept. of Who

Dept. Of Who: Boom

Dept. of Who

Dept. of Who

Dept. of Yearning

Dept. of Not A

Dept. of This and That

Dept. of Organization

Dept. of Organization

Dept. of Who: S08 Meta

Dept. of End of the Weekend

Dept. of Excellent Thinky Thoughts

Dept. of Thinky Thoughts, Lazy Edition

Dept. of Birthdays

Dept. of Meta: Doctor Who

Dept. of Transformation

Dept. of I Like This

Dept. of I Am Stepping in It, Probably

DW Stocking Offering: Sonnet for Canaana

Doctor Who Meta: River Song is Not a Psychopath

Doctor Who: The God Complex

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited

Love Stories: Let's Kill Hitler

DW: Thoughts on The Doctor's Wife

Dept. of Doctor Who Piratey (Arrr!) Sweetness; "Curse of the Black Spot" Thoughts

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May 2025

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