Drumroll, Please! It's Another Doctor Who Discussion Post.
Today's Doctor Who episode here in the US is "The Sound of Drums." You may now talk about it here! And there's only one episode left now to avoid spoiling.
You know, I have that stuck in my head again. And have since yesterday.
Given that the Master's evil plan actually involved getting a tune stuck in people's heads, I find this highly amusing. The dude's so diabolical, he succeeds on the audience!
I actually wasn't sold on the song at first. I think I worried that I didn't like it so much as I like Elvis Costello's "Pump it Up" (whose drumbeat it steals). But it's now in my iPod. That's mad genius!
Tough discussing this without discussing the last episode of the season...
I wasn't sold on it at first just because, in the context of the episode, it had a bizarre WTF?! quality that I resisted for, oh, several seconds... and then gave in to entirely. At this point, I think it's disturbingly close to the top of my most-played list in iTunes. Mad genius, indeed. :)
By the way, while I'm thinking about it... A while back ol' Pop noted that we'd had Porky Pigs, Scary Scarecrows, and Sneaky Statues and was wondering what would come next. We have the answer now, of course: a Totally Loony Time Lord and his Bouncing Balls of Butchery. :)
And, heck, while I'm pointing out things, I'll also point out, for those who were involved in some variant of the discussion about Time Lord reproduction, that bits of this episode can be pointed to as hard-to-debate evidence that the Master, at least, a) was once a child and b) is not asexual.
Aaargh! OK, I lied. One more comment. Because while I was researching the cut scenes for next week's episode, I discovered that not only did they apparently do the worst job imaginable of deciding where to insert the commercials for this one, they actually cut out a line that was significant for a character-related discussion I was having a while back, but abandoned so as not to spoil the very bit that got cut. It's right after the Doctor says that thing about the perception filter being like when you fancy someone and they don't notice you. Martha gets a very telling look on her face, whereupon Jack looks at her sympathetically and says, "You too, huh?"
Only not in America, he doesn't.
*bangs head on desk repeatedly* Great, now I apparently have to add "gratuitous homophobia" to the list of things I that piss me off about the Sci Fi Channel. *gnashes teeth*
And I really am shutting up now, because I'm going to bed. Angry. Going to bed angry.
On the looniness scale? He shoots right up to the top and rings the bell. :) He's way crazier than any of them, and a lot goofier to boot. But Simm totally pulls it off.
Ok I watched the episode: Betty, The iTunes & the WTF thing are you referring to the song that they bust out at the end. Pretty dramatic ending but.... And maybe after about a second or 2 I decided that it did actually work. I sort of had Battlestar Galactica flashbacks at first hehehe.
Yes, the "here come the drums!" song, which, for the record, is "Voodoo Child" by the Rogue Traders, who I strongly suspect noticed a strong spike in their iTunes sales immediately after this episode aired. :)
What gave you the BSG flashbacks? Just the whole genocidal planetary destruction thing?
By the way to take us back to last week's episode. Upon rewatching the end of Utopia I see that the reason the TARDIS door was open was because The Doctor had run a wire out from it into the thingamajig that he fixed for Yana.
As far as the song goes, I might have been shuffling my feet along with Mrs. Saxon, but I can't remember it for the life of me. Plus, the four-beat rhythm was so infinitely irritating that the Master had better hope I'm one of the 10% he offed right away, or I'd fight against him, just to defeat his annoying pounding.
Ahem. Anyway, I wonder if I would have laughed at Jack's cut line or had an Aha! moment about the Doctor being oblivious, which reminds me of the woman I knew who found me irresistible, but I had no clue. (She found me tall, dark, and chivalrous.)
Finally (for now), I'll repeat a question I e-mailed you, for the benefit of your other readers. How much of the backstory/exposition that the Doctor told Jack and Martha was known to Whovians already, and how much was new to us all?
Clearly the human race needs more people like you. :)
I actually get a bit eye-rolly about the whole "everyone is in love with the Doctor and he totally fails to notice" thing. It gets old fast, and makes for some strange, rather uncomfortable character dynamics. But it actually works better for me, and in fact makes a lot more sense to me in character terms, coming from Jack than from Martha.
I'll reply to your e-mail in depth later, but to answer this question... Some of it's new information and some of it's old. We did know the Doctor and the Master were at the Academy together, although we didn't know until now just how young they were when they started there. We did know that they were friends once, before they became enemies. The stuff about the Schism and the drums is new, and it's possible to debate exactly how much influence that did or did not have on the Master as we've known him. The fact that the drums have never come up before suggests that they're a lot more influential now than they were in the past, which is supported from the episode, I think, as he says at some point that they've been getting louder.
Yep. This may damage my Whovian street cred, but I will admit that the first time I saw this episode, that had to be pointed out to me. (Though it seemed entirely obvious in retrospect.) At which point I believe I exclaimed, "The Master's hearing the theme song in his head?! Oh, man, that's what a paradox machine does! It's a device for breaking the fourth wall!"
Damn you people I have it stuck in my head right now!!!
Yes I have old school cred. Speaking of I once pledged $20 to PBS to get to talk to Peter Davison on the phone hehehehe oh and really all I could think to ask him was how he liked New Jersey, what the.....
I didn't catch it either. I either read it on the BBC website or, more likely, heard it in one of the commentaries there.
It maybe should be noted that there are commentary tracks there that don't appear on the DVDs. Well, that don't appear on my region 1 DVDs, at any rate.
Kathy: See how insidious that getting-tunes-stuck-in-your-head plan really is?
And I remember that. I remember that you called me up on the phone afterward, absolutely incoherent with excitement, all "OMG, GUESS WHO I JUST TALKED TO?!" :)
By the way, I'm watching bits of one of the "lost episodes" DVDs you got me for Christmas last year in a different window right now. :)
Fred: It was pointed out to me by a friend, although I can't remember now whether he mentioned it after "Utopia" or after "The Sound of Drums." If it was the former, he might have read about it somewhere, as he got to see that episode several days before I did. I think he might just have been a lot more perceptive than me, though.
And I thought the R1 DVDs had all the commentaries that were on the website? Mine seemed to, although I'll admit that, having already listened to them once, I didn't make a point of going through them all again.
Betty: Some of the commentaries made it to the DVDs, but some didn't. On the BBC website, I think every episode from the past two seasons has some commentary (or even video commentary) attached to it, but not every episode on the discs can say the same. And sometimes there are completely different commentaries -- I'm assuming because some were done specifically for DVD and some were done just for the website.
The third season might be different, I don't know.
Here come the drums, here come the drums!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I have that stuck in my head again. And have since yesterday.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the Master's evil plan actually involved getting a tune stuck in people's heads, I find this highly amusing. The dude's so diabolical, he succeeds on the audience!
I actually wasn't sold on the song at first. I think I worried that I didn't like it so much as I like Elvis Costello's "Pump it Up" (whose drumbeat it steals). But it's now in my iPod. That's mad genius!
ReplyDeleteTough discussing this without discussing the last episode of the season...
I wasn't sold on it at first just because, in the context of the episode, it had a bizarre WTF?! quality that I resisted for, oh, several seconds... and then gave in to entirely. At this point, I think it's disturbingly close to the top of my most-played list in iTunes. Mad genius, indeed. :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, while I'm thinking about it... A while back ol' Pop noted that we'd had Porky Pigs, Scary Scarecrows, and Sneaky Statues and was wondering what would come next. We have the answer now, of course: a Totally Loony Time Lord and his Bouncing Balls of Butchery. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd, heck, while I'm pointing out things, I'll also point out, for those who were involved in some variant of the discussion about Time Lord reproduction, that bits of this episode can be pointed to as hard-to-debate evidence that the Master, at least, a) was once a child and b) is not asexual.
ReplyDelete*ahem* I'll shut up now. Briefly. :)
Aaargh! OK, I lied. One more comment. Because while I was researching the cut scenes for next week's episode, I discovered that not only did they apparently do the worst job imaginable of deciding where to insert the commercials for this one, they actually cut out a line that was significant for a character-related discussion I was having a while back, but abandoned so as not to spoil the very bit that got cut. It's right after the Doctor says that thing about the perception filter being like when you fancy someone and they don't notice you. Martha gets a very telling look on her face, whereupon Jack looks at her sympathetically and says, "You too, huh?"
ReplyDeleteOnly not in America, he doesn't.
*bangs head on desk repeatedly* Great, now I apparently have to add "gratuitous homophobia" to the list of things I that piss me off about the Sci Fi Channel. *gnashes teeth*
And I really am shutting up now, because I'm going to bed. Angry. Going to bed angry.
I like the Moniker that you gave for The Master. Can I have an avi? I ask o please, o please.
ReplyDelete"Totally Loony Time Lord"? Well, he earned it. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd, sure, I'll send you one.
How's he stack up against past Masters?
ReplyDeleteOn the looniness scale? He shoots right up to the top and rings the bell. :) He's way crazier than any of them, and a lot goofier to boot. But Simm totally pulls it off.
ReplyDeleteOk I watched the episode:
ReplyDeleteBetty,
The iTunes & the WTF thing are you referring to the song that they bust out at the end. Pretty dramatic ending but.... And maybe after about a second or 2 I decided that it did actually work. I sort of had Battlestar Galactica flashbacks at first hehehe.
Yes, the "here come the drums!" song, which, for the record, is "Voodoo Child" by the Rogue Traders, who I strongly suspect noticed a strong spike in their iTunes sales immediately after this episode aired. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat gave you the BSG flashbacks? Just the whole genocidal planetary destruction thing?
Betty:
ReplyDeleteNo it was the busting out the pop song at the climatic end of the episode(yes I know the song thing was different but still WTF)
Oh, that. Heh. Yes, I can see that. Although I think the BSG version was much more WTF-ish. :)
ReplyDeleteActually, it's next week's that gave me a brief, but strong BSG flashback... See if you have the same reaction when you get to it. :)
I can't wait!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMan am I going to have withdrawal!!!!!
Heh. Yeah, I remember being on pins-and-needles for a week, myself. :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way to take us back to last week's episode. Upon rewatching the end of Utopia I see that the reason the TARDIS door was open was because The Doctor had run a wire out from it into the thingamajig that he fixed for Yana.
ReplyDeleteSee, there ya go! I thought it had to do with the fact that they'd been working in there.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the song goes, I might have been shuffling my feet along with Mrs. Saxon, but I can't remember it for the life of me. Plus, the four-beat rhythm was so infinitely irritating that the Master had better hope I'm one of the 10% he offed right away, or I'd fight against him, just to defeat his annoying pounding.
ReplyDeleteAhem. Anyway, I wonder if I would have laughed at Jack's cut line or had an Aha! moment about the Doctor being oblivious, which reminds me of the woman I knew who found me irresistible, but I had no clue. (She found me tall, dark, and chivalrous.)
Finally (for now), I'll repeat a question I e-mailed you, for the benefit of your other readers. How much of the backstory/exposition that the Doctor told Jack and Martha was known to Whovians already, and how much was new to us all?
Clearly the human race needs more people like you. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually get a bit eye-rolly about the whole "everyone is in love with the Doctor and he totally fails to notice" thing. It gets old fast, and makes for some strange, rather uncomfortable character dynamics. But it actually works better for me, and in fact makes a lot more sense to me in character terms, coming from Jack than from Martha.
I'll reply to your e-mail in depth later, but to answer this question... Some of it's new information and some of it's old. We did know the Doctor and the Master were at the Academy together, although we didn't know until now just how young they were when they started there. We did know that they were friends once, before they became enemies. The stuff about the Schism and the drums is new, and it's possible to debate exactly how much influence that did or did not have on the Master as we've known him. The fact that the drums have never come up before suggests that they're a lot more influential now than they were in the past, which is supported from the episode, I think, as he says at some point that they've been getting louder.
The tapping rhythm, by the way, is the opening of the Doctor Who theme song.
ReplyDeleteYep. This may damage my Whovian street cred, but I will admit that the first time I saw this episode, that had to be pointed out to me. (Though it seemed entirely obvious in retrospect.) At which point I believe I exclaimed, "The Master's hearing the theme song in his head?! Oh, man, that's what a paradox machine does! It's a device for breaking the fourth wall!"
ReplyDeleteWell, it amused me. :)
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
ReplyDelete*blushes in embarrassment*
You didn't catch it either, huh? But it is obvious in retrospect, isn't it? :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of us would have caught it. They didn't have the really cool "oo-ee-oooo" tune playing on top of it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but Kathy's got Old School Who cred, and, like me, is supposed to qualify as geeky enough to spot that sort of thing. ;)
ReplyDeleteThat tune is almost the same as the ringtone on my cell phone.
ReplyDeleteKathy, by the way I did mention about the wire in Tardis` door in a previous post. Go "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" again. I liked that.
That tune is almost the same as the ringtone on my cell phone.
ReplyDeleteSo you're definitely among the brainwashed, then. :)
Damn you people I have it stuck in my head right now!!!
ReplyDeleteYes I have old school cred. Speaking of I once pledged $20 to PBS to get to talk to Peter Davison on the phone hehehehe oh and really all I could think to ask him was how he liked New Jersey, what the.....
I didn't catch it either. I either read it on the BBC website or, more likely, heard it in one of the commentaries there.
ReplyDeleteIt maybe should be noted that there are commentary tracks there that don't appear on the DVDs. Well, that don't appear on my region 1 DVDs, at any rate.
Kathy: See how insidious that getting-tunes-stuck-in-your-head plan really is?
ReplyDeleteAnd I remember that. I remember that you called me up on the phone afterward, absolutely incoherent with excitement, all "OMG, GUESS WHO I JUST TALKED TO?!" :)
By the way, I'm watching bits of one of the "lost episodes" DVDs you got me for Christmas last year in a different window right now. :)
Fred: It was pointed out to me by a friend, although I can't remember now whether he mentioned it after "Utopia" or after "The Sound of Drums." If it was the former, he might have read about it somewhere, as he got to see that episode several days before I did. I think he might just have been a lot more perceptive than me, though.
And I thought the R1 DVDs had all the commentaries that were on the website? Mine seemed to, although I'll admit that, having already listened to them once, I didn't make a point of going through them all again.
all I could think to ask him was how he liked New Jersey
ReplyDeleteKathy, you were young and innocent then (or at least young). :)
Betty: Some of the commentaries made it to the DVDs, but some didn't. On the BBC website, I think every episode from the past two seasons has some commentary (or even video commentary) attached to it, but not every episode on the discs can say the same. And sometimes there are completely different commentaries -- I'm assuming because some were done specifically for DVD and some were done just for the website.
ReplyDeleteThe third season might be different, I don't know.
Huh. Will have to go back and look at my discs again. I tried a couple, and they were the same as the web ones, so I figured they all were.
ReplyDeleteBetty, thanks for the disc. Got it today. Finished Farscape Season 1. Got any more?
ReplyDeleteYour Pop,
ReplyDeleteAsking Betty if she has any more Farscape discs is like dangling raw meat in front of a starving pit of lions.
I can't wait until tomorrow!!!
Pop: Hey, the timing on that worked out well! You can watch it tomorrow with the rest of the country. Only with more scenes.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, I can most definitely do you some more Farscape. I assume it must've done something for you, if you're asking for more? :)
Kathy: No, no, I'm the one with the raw meat. *dangles it teasingly above the Farscape-hungry lions* :)
I'll be interested to see what people think of the episode. I have... complicated feelings about it, but I don't want to bias anybody in advance.
Yes I liked.
ReplyDeleteKathy. Your not saying Betty is happy that i liked Farscape.
I`m ready, willing and able you carnivoire.
I'll try to remember to make some more tapes next week. Remind me if I forget.
ReplyDelete