First post of 2016

[shivver]

Is it really past the holidays already? Back to work for me. We've had two four-day weekends in a row now, so this week is going to feel super-long.

I should really do "this year in my writing" post, but I've been so not motivated to write, I'm sure the results are going to be terrible. Ah well. I shall buck up and do it soon.


About a week before Christmas, when my husband was sick with that stomach bug I had just before he did, I was at work and I got an IM from him, saying that the mailman left a package for me, and asked me what I had ordered, saying it was a flat object. The only thing I had ordered is the box set of books that I will write about later in this post, so I had no idea what it was, and guessed that maybe someone sent me a calendar for Christmas. He said that yes, it's flat like a calendar, but the box is about three times a big - about three feet by three feet. I had no idea what it was, so I asked him to open it for me. Here's the exchange:

Me: Oh, open it! I want to know!!
Him: ok I will do that soon
Him: oh sweet jesus I am burning it now
Him: you will NEVER see it
Me: What is it?
Me: WHAT IS IT?
Him: NOTHING
Him: it was empty
Him: an insult from a .. warlord you insulted
Him: probably in pvp
Me: It has to be about David Tennant.
Me: What is it?
Him: Taluc! yeah it's from Taluc it's obscene (note: Taluc is a friend of ours in Guild Wars 2)
Him: a life-size... nothing it's NOTHING
Him: it's on fire now
Him: so warm and toasty
Me: Okay. What WAS it?
Him: a life sized DT standup
Me: No.
Me: Really?
Him: yeah
Him: I should say, LS 10th Doctor stand up
Me: Who the hell sent me that??
Me: I just laughed out loud, by the way.
Him: at which part?
Me: I laughed when you said it was a life-size standup. That just blew my mind.
Him: I'm not sure it's LS. It may be 125% sized
Him: it's HUGE
Me: I'm sure it's LS.
Me: Who the hell?
Me: I really want to know. Almost to the point of coming home for lunch.

So now I have a life-sized David Tennant standup. The package came without any information on the packing slip, so I had no idea who sent it, and I ended up posting on Facebook, "Since the package arrived without specifying who it came from on the packing slip, I would like to say: To the person who sent me a life-sized David Tennant, thank you very much!" which got a whole host of silly responses from people, which was the secondary goal of the post. (They included threats of breaking into the house to paint him purple and a question from my cousin wondering if he asked nicely, would the sender send him Billie Piper?)

I got a call from my sister later that day - turns out that she sent it to me. I was very impressed. Back in June, when I visited her for her daughter's high school graduation, I told her about Doctor Who and David Tennant; though she had heard of the show, she'd never heard of David Tennant. I showed her the picture from the photo op at the Raleigh convention (at which point she asked, "You think he's handsome??"), but that was about it. I didn't want to talk her ear off about something she didn't care about, but apparently, she remembered! She said she was talking to her husband's daughter Sarah (who's in her early 20s) and somehow DW came up and his daughter said that she loved the show. My sister said, "You watch Doctor Who???" and she replied, "Oh yeah!" Then my sister said that her sister (me) loves the Tenth Doctor (See? She really remembered what I said!) and Sarah said, "Oh yeah! He's so dreamy!" Anyway, I love the stand-up (though I haven't figured out a place to put it), but what really makes it special is how much it demonstrated that my sister was paying attention to me. I've got the best sister in the world.

Well, except that I couldn't get her to watch anything with DT in it. She doesn't watch many movies or TV, so I couldn't even convince her that she would like Broadchurch. There is no way she would be interested in DW (I'm the only person in my family who likes sci-fi and fantasy). I'm thinking maybe I might gift her Much Ado About Nothing at Digital Theatre.

I ordered a box set of DW books for my husband for Christmas. It's an old box set of ten books, six of which are Nine and Rose and four of which are Ten and Rose. I chose that collection because my husband is a big Nine fan. Well, we received a box of books, and when I pulled them out, they were all Ten and Rose and Ten and Martha. I had to write to the seller and ask if they sent the books, because the name of the seller and the name of the sender on the box were different (two different companies). I almost had to post again on Facebook asking if someone sent me the books, but it turns out that the seller did make a mistake. They're going to send me the books I ordered, but I'm also trying to see if I can just buy these books - I certainly don't mind growing my collection of DW media.

Since my last post, I have seen "The Husbands of River Song", and it was, well, disappointing. Without going into too much detail, I came out of feeling like I should have enjoyed the adventure, that it had all the things that should have made it fun, but for some reason, it didn't sit well with me. I think that a lot of that had to do with not being very happy that River tried to kill the king and lured the split-headed aliens onto a doomed ship specifically for money. It seemed out of character for her, and only served to make me dislike her more. And it didn't seem to bother the Doctor at all that she got so many people killed. The general atmosphere of the heroes trying to save their own skins in a situation that they engineered for questionable reasons just killed it for me. I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk about the ending, as it was boring enough that I kind of phased out and don't remember it very well, other than it was maudlin.

In the meantime, I'm reading DW novels (if I have to send them back, at least I'll read them first), as well as some comics I picked up. I'm currently reading the DW/Star Trek:TNG crossver "Assimilation2", and the characterizations in there are fantastic. The author really gets the speech and thought patterns of all of the characters, from both universes.

And I'm trying harder to write. I'm working on a story I probably shouldn't be working on (I'm not sure I really want the events to happen in my AU), as well as trying to plot out a longer fic that I've been wanting to write for a long time. Here's to 2016 and great things to come!

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Good to hear from you! And a life-size DT?! What an awesome present! Your sister deserves major cuddles!

*HUGS*

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

It's funny. I really don't know my sister that well. She's nine years older than me and left for college when I was in the third grade, and never really lived at home since that time. Even during her school vacations, she'd stay at her apartment in town and only come back for the actual holiday (like Christmas), so I'd barely see her more than a few days a year. I'm only now getting to know her, partly through social media and partly through visiting her for longer stretches. SHe's pretty awesome.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

You have a life-sized Tenth Doctor standup! That's amazing and makes me so jelaous. I need to show the post to my sister, maybe she'll get the message... ;)

I think that a lot of that had to do with not being very happy that River tried to kill the king and lured the split-headed aliens onto a doomed ship specifically for money. It seemed out of character for her, and only served to make me dislike her more. And it didn't seem to bother the Doctor at all that she got so many people killed.
I don't know if River the killer is out of character but the Doctor who doesn't care about it certainly is. So that's one of the reasons I didn't like the special much.

What do you think of DW novels? I've bought one with Ten and Donna and started it but I can't bring myself to read the whole of it, not sure why. It just doesn't feel like Doctor Who, I think I've read fanfics that created the atmosphere better.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Sometime I will post a picture of it, when I get it set up. :)

River's always been a killer (after all, she was trained as an assassin), but her motivations have never been greed. I would have had less of a problem if she had been like Lady Christina de Souza and had been doing it out of boredom (though that is still rather out of character in my opinion). There've been lots of out-of-character moments this season (such as him not offering to take the mark from Clara), but this was the worst.

I haven't read the ones I just received yet (it takes me a while to decide to sit down and read), but I've read a few previously. The quality definitely varies a lot, and there's no consistent feel like there is with the TV show, since they're all written by different authors. I really enjoyed "Krillitane Storm", which I felt was a good adventure and explored the backstory of the Krillitanes very well. I liked "Beautiful Chaos". but I think that's the only Ten and Donna novel I've read. "The Story of Martha", which is about Martha's journey in the Year That Never Was, was terrible. The author really wasted a fantastic storytelling opportunity.

My husband's read about four of the novels that we received, and he's been pretty much disappointed in them. The adventures haven't been very inspired, and in general, the Doctor's been a jerk. Instead of portraying him as alien and therefore thinking too quickly and not fitting into the social norms, like he is in the show, he's sarcastic and mean to everyone. My husband also complained about the one he just finished, that the Doctor is meddling where he has no reason to be.

I wonder how much quality control the BBC kept on those novels. With the TV show, the showrunner keeps a tight rein on what goes into the scripts, to keep them all in line with his vision of the show, but I wonder if they have such a system for the novels, or if they just contract a person to write a novel and don't do much more than the usual editing and making sure the Doctor doesn't shoot someone. Certainly there's a lot more cohesion with the Big Finish audios. It's very obvious that they have large story arcs in mind for the Eighth Doctor. With the other classic Doctors, there are small arcs, but in general, they've established the story types that suit the Doctors. You don't see Five getting into situations where he has to be dark and manipulative, for example - a story like that will be a Seven story.

I will recommend "12 Doctor 12 Stories", though. That's a great anthology of short stories, and the stories for Nine and Eleven in particular are fantastic. I didn't like One's story (I hated the author's style), but I enjoyed all of the rest of them.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

Sometime I will post a picture of it, when I get it set up.
Waiting! ;)

I see your point about River. On the other hand, I don't remember she has never actually showed any morals in thw show; she'd shoot everyone who was in her way, she'd destroy a thousend years piece to send the Doctor a message... She obviously cared about the Doctor and her parents, and her crew in the Library and that episode with Angels in season 5, but the reat of the world was just her playground. I'm not that surprised she'd kill for money then. But yes, there was no sign she would actually do something like that previously.

I just thought the Doctor knew the rules and he was aware since the beginning he couldn't take the mark of Clara. As you say, it doesn't make sense if he didn't.

The adventures haven't been very inspired, and in general, the Doctor's been a jerk. Instead of portraying him as alien and therefore thinking too quickly and not fitting into the social norms, like he is in the show, he's sarcastic and mean to everyone.
I'm sorry to hear that. To be honest, I feel he's been a jerk in the show a couple of times and I don't like it. There's a difference between Nine's "Put her on a slow heat and let it simmer" about Jackie and Twelve's repeated "Your face is too wide!", the first one is just alien but the second one is rude.

With the TV show, the showrunner keeps a tight rein on what goes into the scripts, to keep them all in line with his vision of the show, but I wonder if they have such a system for the novels, or if they just contract a person to write a novel and don't do much more than the usual editing and making sure the Doctor doesn't shoot someone.
I don't know if anyone has said anything about that, but I think it might be just it; there probably is some control about the novel's topic, to mantain the continuity, but no one cares if the characters behave in character, as long as it's not something really bad.

Thanks for the answer! I have "Beautiful Chaos" and I hope I'll like it in the end.

[shivver13.livejournal.com]

Well, even if the Doctor knew the rules (and I thought the rules were that he could take it if Clara agreed to give it to him), I still would expect him to make at least an effort to find a loophole that he could use to take it from her, especially from Clara.

There's a difference between Nine's "Put her on a slow heat and let it simmer" about Jackie and Twelve's repeated "Your face is too wide!", the first one is just alien but the second one is rude.

I don't particularly like Twelve being as rude as he is, but I've been fine with it, writing it off as a quirk of this incarnation. After all, Six was often just as rude, with his many offhand comments about Peri being fat. Twelve seems to have lost a lot of that, though. It seems to have turned into social awkwardness rather than outright rudeness, such as his inability to tell when he should show empathy or apologize. I suppose that's supposed to be part of the "Clara making him a better man" theme.

As a side note, your comment about Twelve being rude reminded me of Ten's "And you, Rose Tyler! Fat lot of good you were! You gave up on me! Oh, that's rude." Though it was a great line, I never thought that Ten was being rude when he said that. Blunt, yes, but not rude. Of course, he was rude at other times, but that particular time never rang true for me.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Tenth Doctor's line was rude, either. Besides, it was true - Rose kept saying the Doctor was 'gone'. ;)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Hello, happy new year! Hahahaha, I love the David Tennant idea, what a hilarious present :D

Good luck with the writing, and everything in 2016!