Not that I’m fishing for well-wishes, I just thought I needed an excuse to dash off a quick post about little things. Like my birthday. Which was Friday, so you’re late anyway.
I am now 35. This seems like a large number. But considering I have vague recollections of the 70s, I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising.
I had a party on Saturday during which we watched the series finale of Doctor Who. Which was awesome, by the way. I cannot express how happy I am with this season. While I enjoyed Russel T Davies’ Doctor Who and thought David Tennant was awesome, the writing really doesn’t hold up on reflection. And in the gap year especially, it was becoming increasingly clear that RTD had run out of ideas. The new series is fresh and new and excellent. Stephen Moffat’s writing is a lot tighter, even though he isn’t straying too far from RTD’s playbook. I love Matt Smith’s zany and alien portayal of the Doctor and I hope they’re able to develop it further through the series.
In short: awesome. If you’ve fallen off the Doctor Who bandwagon or have put off getting on, season 5 is an excellent point to jump on. And you totally should.
Unrelatedly, I’m giving a presentation at [[Kwartzlab]] tomorrow for our [5+5 lightning talk event](http://www.kwartzlab.ca/events/2010-06-29/55-v2). I’ll be talking about [Clutter](http://www.clutter-project.org/).
I’m debating tonight whether I should go to dodgeball or [Devhouse Waterloo](http://devwaterloo.pbworks.com/). I’m leaning towards dodgeball, because while I was hoping to preview my Clutter presentation at Devhouse, after spending the last couple days couped up inside, I think I need to run around for a bit.
Boy, did we ever see a different series this year! :-)
I found it to be — hands down — the weakest of the five modern-era DW series. No great episodes, few that were even particularly good. A lot of mediocre with far too many dashes of stupidity. And I’m a huge Steven Moffat mark — thought his episodes in the RTD era were all outstanding, and Coupling is one of my all-time favourite shows. But this was like the fourth series of Coupling: one big disappointment after another. I thought the the writing was lazy (cheap escapes from predicaments, lame dialogue) and in need of an editor-slash-BS caller. Even when he came up with a cool idea (e.g. the Pandorica), he managed to make it completely inconsequential except as a minor plot device. I watched almost all of the Christopher Eccleston and early David Tennant episodes again this year, so it’s not misty water-coloured memories to blame. But the cast was fine. Alex Kingston’s return was particularly welcome.
You know, you’re not the first person I’ve talked to who didn’t like this season. Most people seem to like it, but enough don’t that I have to wonder a bit.
Radio Free Skaro loved it, but Neil Perryman hated it, for example.
As far as cliff-hanger resolutions go, personally, I’d prefer it if they would stop trying to top themselves for sheer and utter ridiculousness every season, but I have to say The Big Bang was a darn sight more satisfying than the “I do believe in fairies!” resolution in The Last of the Time Lords or Rassilon snapping his fingers in The End of Time.
Not that I think it was perfect, but I felt like I was having to overlook less to enjoy it than I was in the latter RTD years. And there wasn’t an episode that I didn’t enjoy. Even Victory of the Daleks, which was pretty weak, was still fun.
But to each his own, really. I liked it, but I don’t feel the need to try to make other people like it. There will be more Doctor Who is years to come that may be more to your taste. The best thing about this show is it always changes.
Happy Birthday, Squirrel! :o)
Happy Birthday to you too, Tink. :D