Early Dr Who

GOOD GOD these early episodes are annoying. For some reason the pilot episode is on the third disk, and I ordered the first disk from netflix (thinking, silly me, that it would contain the first episode) so I'm watching episodes out of context. And I do mean out of context, because these episodes are all "to be continued" types. Practically nothing happens in them, and the "plot" just stretches on through at least three episodes, but I believe it might be through seven. I can't imagine anyone ever enjoying these episodes, but then again, I suppose just the spectacle of seeing things on TV was exciting back in 1963. The main problem is that the episodes don't appear to be ABOUT anything. I mean... it's not funny or frightening, and I can't imagine what aspects of humanity it's supposed to be exploring, or even what fears of the unknown it is exploiting. It's just several episodes of four people (the doctor, who appears to be some sort of human, Susan, Ian, and Barbara?) languishing from radiation sickness being manipulated by non-humanoid robots. YAWN.

Aliens in London

This episode is starting out sort of sad. Rose has been gone from home for 12 months because she's been time traveling. I can't help but wonder why they can't just time travel back to an earlier time to fix it? I suppose Dr Who would say it's because time isn't linear, and events in the future could affect events in the past, but that's generally thought to be a scifi cop out. At least it is to me. Dr Who seems very perky to see mayhem. I wonder why it follows him around time and space?

Apparently Dr Who is 900 years old.

The aliens are in London in early 2000s. This show gets to accomplish a lot of scifi cliches. It can travel to the future to see new technology on earth, or on different worlds, bring the aliens to earth in the present and watch panic ensue, even travel back in time and meddle with history. It's very diverse! But I can't help thinking that this show would meet even Steven Johnson's criteria for trash television. No complex plots or character networks...

The military seems concerned with risk of contamination through space germs.

Good god, doors never open for anybody in this show!

I'm beginning to suspect that this episode will in fact end with them going back in time so all this never happened. Things are getting bad. Or maybe... it will turn out ok implausibly.

To be continued! I haven't seen that in a while.

I started looking through wikipedia to try to understand why this show is so popular. There appears to be a Time Lord that makes rules for travel in space and time, which could explain why they can't just go back in time for this. I obviously don't understand the rules yet, and I have no idea, save for wikipedia, where to find out. I remember when I first started watching Star Trek I didn't like it much, but it grew on me. I'm hoping this grows on me before the novelty wears off. Also, I haven't yet found any social network of Dr Who fans, which is disappointing. Although the farting and the kitchen chemistry with vinegar was hilarious.

Sort of a troublesome relationship Rose and the Doctor have. I should watch different episodes to see who else is in this series.

And it turns out to be the implausible resolution! A virus to remove all mention of the Doctor from the internet, the human race fools itself into thinking it was all a hoax, etc etc.

PS: I looked around a bit for where the fans are, and so far I've discovered http://dwasonline.barryrward.co.uk/index.php which is the first BBC recognised fan club, and
http://members.cox.net/tardisaz/tardis.html which is a local to AZ fan club. I emailed them, because they meet every 2 weeks, and I thought I should check that out. I decided to call myself a "Doctor Who" fan instead of a "Dr Who" fan in the email. That's how both the websites spell it. So far, I don't see online message boards or anything. There must be some somewhere.

Dr Who

So, I have chosen to enter the Dr Who Discourse for my social media class. It's a bit daunting. There are 756 episodes according to the wikipedia page. But that doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the Dr Who world. There's also something called "Doctor Who Confidential" and other Dr Who related things that are a part of this Discourse.

My impression of the first 3 episodes: the door never opens for Rose! And there's a lot of unnecessary dramatic bits. It's amusing and mildly interesting. Rose seems to always have some dark profound thought about the nature of time. The main thread that connects the episodes is that I don't know much about Dr Who. Since I've only seen the first three episodes of the new series, I'm wondering what kind of liberties this series is taking with the original. How much did we know about Dr Who before? I can't wait for the DVD of the original to come. I'm enjoying the contemporary references the show makes. In the second episode, in celebration of the life and death of planet earth, a jukebox mistakenly identified as an iPod plays a traditional earth ballad, Toxic, by Britney Spears. It made me laugh.

This is such an odd way to join a Discourse. It feels like an overwhelming assignment given that there's so much content. And I must not only watch the show, I have to join the community. But I don't want to look at the extra stuff before I've seen a fair few episodes because I don't want to get overwhelmed or anything... or spoil the fun... but! at least Dr Who isn't like Lost, where there are really any spoilers. Also, I'm sure I'll discover that I'm supposed to be writing it Dr. Who or Doctor Who instead, but... I'll wait until I figure it out organically. Let this stand as an example of my stupidity as a noob.

Afterlife

I had a dream last night that I was dead. For the first part of the dream, I was getting ready to go to my uncle's funeral. We were living in Portland, but it was warm, and by the ocean, and people were coming down to see us, but then it was also like Moses Lake because I think we went to visit my aunt and uncle's house. It was odd because I remember talking to my uncle, and he was supposed to be dead, and this didn't seem unusual to me.

I spent some time swimming in the ocean, because my uncle had left me a whale. I had met the whale before, and it would let me hold on to its tail so we would swim around together, and it was amazing.

Then I had to go back to shore for the funeral and my dad sat me down and tried to explain something to me. Then I saw my aunt and uncle and I could see that they were both looking young and perfect and terribly beautiful, and it dawned on me that the three of us had been in a car accident together and that all three of us had died, and I was still clinging to life. My aunt hugged me and told me I had to let go, that there was something amazing to look forward to, and then I found myself lying down, frozen, and people were gathered around me, worried. And I could see in my mind's eye the most beautiful sunset and feel that wonderful things were just around the corner.

So I laughed to let everyone around me know I was happy I was going to a better place. Then I was briefly standing with my beautiful aunt and uncle by the lake at sunset, and I saw my mom. And I was so happy to finally see her again, and it wasn't at all bittersweet; it was as though she'd never left me. And then I had just a moment to wonder when my dad died, how it would be for him to see both of his former wives, and the spell was broken, and I woke up feeling confused.

I then lay in bed, fully awake, trying to puzzle out if I could logically conclude there is an afterlife based on my dream. I wish I knew.

Make the Most of Today

I was eating the kind of Dove candy that has a little inspirational fortune-cookie type message on the wrapper, settling into the couch to read To Kill a Mockingbird and that's what the message said to me. I looked at it for a moment and thought perhaps I should be doing something else, but I generally don't believe in fate or whatever telling me what to do, especially through candy wrappers and whatnot. So I read a little, and absently opened a second candy.

"Make the most of Today."

That's what it said. Two candies, same message, one right after the other. I, being the sucker I am deep down for believing in fate and signs and destiny, stared at the little gold wrapper with a feeling of swelling hope. Two candies has to be a sign that I ought to be doing something else with my day. I have errands I need to run, people I ought to contact. Maybe I should do that with my day instead of reading a good book and eating chocolate.

I'm sure I wouldn't be so easily persuaded by the mystery of the candy wrapper if I could see the manufacturing process. I'm sure looking at all those little foil wrappers with the messages pre-printed and generic lined up on some assembly line would ruin the sense that when I open the candy, the message suddenly comes into being, rather than having been there the whole time.

But then the reality of it sets in as I finish the thing up and the shimmering feeling of something around the corner wears off. If I didn't have any errands to run, what would I want to be doing to feel as though I'm making the most out of my life. And the answer really is that half the time I'd rather be doing just what I was when the candy started all this: curled up on the couch, reading a good book, eating a chocolate. So why shouldn't that be the most of my today?