7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[riversong]

Yup, he played Rassilon.

[Celedam]

The point is that Rassilon is a Very Important Person in the mythology, but they glossed over it in "The End of Time". I always thought that was a mistake. Fans of the classic series knew who he was and could fill in the blanks, but fans only of the revived series — like you, apparently — simply didn't get it.

Long story short, there is a good reason why Rassilon considered himself a god: he kinda sorta was. (Or is, now that we know Gallifrey is still out there?) The Time Lords are already like gods compared to the rest of us, and Rassilon was the Steve Jobs of the Time Lords (with Omega being the Steve Wozniak). And he made himself a god because he really, really, really didn't want to die. Ever. The whole thing about immortality not being so great and likely to drive you mad in the long run… yeah, Rassilon didn't buy it.

That context helps to explain his actions in "The End of Time": he absolutely could and would destroy the universe to break the time lock and escape death. In fact, I think he's the only one who could so corrupt the Time Lords and drive them to that "final sanction".

That's why I'm annoyed by "The Day of the Doctor" — that showdown between the Doctor and Rassilon, and everything that led up to it, got thrown out the window.

[Zunu]

Naru hodo. Although on the other hand I think there's something interesting in its own right about a deep mythos that can be enjoyed without knowing the whole backstory. In this case, I could see that Rassilon was a badass, had a lot of power, wanted to destroy the universe and ascend to the realm of pure energy (hi Stargate). I could've KNOWN more, but not sure if I would've enjoyed it more. The veil of ignorance made him in a sense more mysterious, and probably made it easier for me to accept whatever alterations they made in the timeline. I mean, for most people,

LoTR > Silmarillion.
SW: Eps 456 > Eps 123.
STTOS > ST:Enterprise
Looney Tunes > Baby Looney Tunes
Sex in the City > The Carrie Diaries.

(Yes, I do realize the comparison doesn't work. The difference between those examples and Dr. Who is that the early Dr. Who eps were truly before the later ones, and not retrofitted prequels riding on the coattails of their "sequels".)

[Celedam]

The veil of ignorance made him in a sense more mysterious, and probably made it easier for me to accept whatever alterations they made in the timeline.

That's the problem, though. We both could enjoy "The End of Time" because it worked on two levels: it was epic for the old fans, and it was badass for the new fans. In contrast, "The Day of the Doctor" not only failed to be epic on its own, it also took away the epic-ness of what came before. So new fans may not mind the reboot, but old fans are left wondering what was the point.

(Sorry, I'm mostly thinking out loud here. Like I said the night of, I needed to think about it.)

[Celedam]

This seems like something y'all would be interested in…

[sada*]

Hello! Project needs one of these.

A Hello! Project ver. would be so much fun if it was one for the Playstation Move or Wii consoles. Ah I kind of really want this game now..

[Celedam]

Clara as a companion has been a disappointment to me, by far the least interesting of the ones I've followed (Davies-Moffat era only.)

I agree about Clara, though. From the beginning she has existed solely as a plot device, almost like a throwback to the worst companions of the classic series. She's pretty and clever and perpetually cheerful, but that just makes her incredibly dull.

What she lacks in quality, she makes up for in quantity…



(So my type.)

[Rm88]

I just want to strongly recommend Escape Goat which I bought during this Steam sale

[esm]

The Walking Dead

Spoiler: show

At first I was like, not the sword, this isn't Game of Thrones...

[Daisuki Daiiyo]

Before the day, there is the night…

Spoiler: show

For long-time fans, this is HUGE. The death of the Eighth Doctor and his regeneration into… the War Doctor? Is that what we're calling him?

Even better, it's Paul McGann's second-ever appearance on screen as the Eighth Doctor, after the 1996 movie. And what an appearance it is…

He's done a huge number of radio plays, though. And that may be what's best about this clip. The radio plays produced by Big Finish have always been considered only semi-canon; they have a license from the BBC and all of the original actors from the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors, but anything not actually broadcast on BBC 1 just isn't quite… y'know. This clip, however, may have just confirmed the radio plays as canon, because the list of names that the Doctor zips through at 5:34 are all of his companions from there.

That is indescribably cool for long-time fans like me. SQUEEEEE!

And finally, if they've shown the regeneration from the Eighth Doctor to the War Doctor, what are the chances that they'll show the regeneration from the War Doctor to the Ninth Doctor? That would be a hell of a surprise for and gift to the fans. They say Christopher Eccleston declined to be in the special, and he's always tried to distance himself from his turn as the Ninth Doctor so that it wouldn't cramp the rest of his career (*snort*), but he can't be so spiteful as to ruin what would be an epic twist… can he?

Years and years of loose ends — pretty much everything involving the Time War — may get tied up in this special. And I thought the end of "The End of Time" was a big deal…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9OWAAsSXU0

Ah. Looking back now, if they were just going to save Gallifrey, they could've just used Paul McGann instead of John Hurt in the special lol since the whole point of introducing Hurt was so that, y'know, he could do the thing that the Doctor didn't want to do.

Hell, even if they were going to go through with destroying Gallifrey (which was never going to happen because Moffat never really kills off characters- and using time to kill them doesn't count lol), it still would've been cool to have Paul McGann.