Classic Lit in a Modern World

Since Monday was the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, I decided to try watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries online. It's a vlog series with Pride and Prejudice characters in a modern setting. To be honest, I'd tried to read the original, but I couldn't maintain interest in the dancing and talking and talking about dances.  Instead, it's a bunch of funny, melodramatic reenactments. Besides, it made me feel more sympathetic for the characters- except Lydia. She's annoying.
I think I'll also watch Lost in Austen, just because Alex Kingston's in it. I mean, almost anything with her I can retcon into "River undercover."

Ooh Shinies

One of my friends posted a link to a giveaway of a Sherlock/Watson pin.  It looks really cool, and the person also makes Doctor Who and Cabin Pressure items...

The Doctor and River in Four Quotes

One quote for each season of the Doctor and River’s relationship.

It’s not over for you. You’ll see me again. You and me. Time and space. You watch us run. 

River, “Forest of the Dead”

Obviously, I had to choose from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, but I thought this quote fit the best because it points forward, to the adventures of seasons five and six.

Is River Song your wife? ‘Cause she’s someone from your future. And the way she talks to you, I’ve never seen anyone do that. She’s kind of like, you know,  ’Heel, boy.’ She’s Mrs. Doctor from the future, isn’t she? Is she going to be your wife  one day?

Amy Pond, “The Time of Angels”

This was the first episode I saw River in, and I think this quote summarizes season five (and even six to a certain extent)  when we’re still trying to work out who River is, and the Doctor doesn’t even know. She’s important to him, but we aren’t quite sure how yet.

The Doctor will find your daughter. And he will care for her, whatever it takes. And I know that,

River Song, “A Good Man Goes to War”

There were a lot of good quotes in this series, but I like this one because it shows how much the Doctor loves River, even when he doesn’t know who she really is.  Even in Let’s Kill Hitler, where she’s trying to kill him, his driving force is “River needs me.”

Just you wait till my husband comes home.  

River Song, “Angels Take Manhattan”

It just shows how secure they are in each other, that they make jokes about traffic and call each other “husband” and “wife.” I don’t care what anyone says, they consider themselves married. 

Eureka!

As a student at a Christian college, I am required to take a certain number of Bible  and theology classes. One of the professors I had last semester brought up Calvinism and Arminianism  a few times. For those who aren't familiar with it, Calvinists believe that God has ordained salvation for some people, and those people respond. Arminianists believe that we chose God. Or, in a gross simplification.

Certain verses of Scripture support the idea that God wants everyone to be saved. If we believe that God is all-powerful, why doesn't he do so? There must be something he wants even more. 

Arminianist answer: free will

Calvinist answer: his glory

Now, if you read all that, you might be wondering why it's on my scifi blog instead of my general blog, it's because I have a much more interesting way of explaining all this.

The Doctor and River had a timey-wimey relationship. From her point of view, she met him in Berlin, when she attempted to kill him per the orders of the Silence. But at the end of the episode, she chooses to save him with her remaining regenerations. The Doctor doesn't have quite as simple a beginning. The first time he meets River is the last time she sees him--in a different body, just to make it even more confusing for us. For the longest time, he doesn't even know who she is. But once he does, it turns out he's had a connection to her all along.

But what really struck me about Let's Kill Hitler is the Doctor's behavior towards River. At this point, she's a psychopath, emotionally unstable and physically dangerous. But he doesn't treat her like a threat. He treats her like the River he knows, the River he's met before--the woman he trusts with his life. Not that he ignores her immediate behavior. When the Tesselecta captures Melody for killing the Doctor, he insists

Don't you touch her, do not harm her in any way!

 And later in the same conversation,  when the Tesselecta labels her "the woman who killed the Doctor," he points out

And I'm the Doctor, so what's it to you?

A commenter on the Speculative Faith article "The Doctor's Doctrines"posted the following

I doubt it was Moffat’s intent, but you know how Scripture goes on about how our sins are against God, first and foremost?  David’s Psalm after he lost his infant son because of his adultery and murder over Bathsheeba was that he had sinned against God alone.  As weird as that may seem, if we really believe that, this is what that looks like.The Doctor’s objection to the Tessellactor is this: “Her sin is against me, not you.  Therefore, since I have decided to be merciful, who are you to say otherwise?”  And I’m thinking of how Satan is the Accuser of the Brethren, how he’s always telling us (and telling God) how we’re scum and worthless and sinful and all the horrible things we’ve done, and what does God say?  “Their sin is against Me, not you.  I’ve forgiven it, who are you to say otherwise?”

Okay, I'm taking the long way around here, but that's to be expected with my OTP. Back to predestination vs free will. River chooses to love the Doctor, to reject her programming and join his side, but one reason she chooses is because he already has chosen to love her.  The analogy breaks down from the Doctor's side, but one reason we have such trouble with predestination and free will is that we're stuck in time. Looking from the outside, even if it's scifi, can provide an example where they exist in harmony.

A Vlog Update

My first EVER vlog post. And it commemorates a very special occasion.

Unto My Hearts

Because you were the first. The first face this face saw. And you'll see it unto my hearts.
--Eleven, "Power of Three"

After rewatching "Angels Take Manhattan"--what can I say? I'm a glutton for emotional agony--I decided to pull out my essay draft comparing Ten and Eleven's reactions to losing their first companions. I've made no secret of my distaste for Ten's obsession about Rose in seasons three and four, but now that my Doctor has lost his Ponds, I'm reanalyzing my position. What, specifically, about Ten annoys me so?

I don't think I need to justify my position much. Yes, Rose's relationship with the Doctor is primary romantic while Amy ends up with Rory (I'm sticking with canon here). But both of them were the first companion for the Doctor,  witnessing the aftermath of regeneration. Finally, they both left "alive" but trapped beyond the reach of the TARDIS.  For simplicity's sake, I'll compare Ten's behavior in Smith and Jones  (with a few mentions of season three) to Eleven in The Snowmen, as I have nothing else to analyse Eleven on at the moment. I hope he finds some joy in season seven b, but that's beside the point at the moment.

First of all, Ten's reaction. When Rose slipped from the dimension-closing-thingy, he screamed, but once the breach closed, he just walked along the wall, pressing his ear as if he hoped to hear her voice from the other side.  And with his final farewell--on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay--he absolutely breaks down. Eleven has to say his final goodbye while staring at the Angel,  trying to convince Amy to come back with him--he didn't even say goodbye to Rory. His last words to Rory were "Down to the pub!" And that scream--that horrible, guttural scream when she disappears--oh, my Doctor.

Perhaps I should be comparing The Snowmen to The Runaway Bride, not Smith and Jones. For completeness, I've watched both while writing this episode. The problem with analyzing Runaway Bride is that it occurs literally minutes after Bad Wolf Bay--Ten almost has to shut down his emotions to deal with Donna.

Okay,  slight change of plans.  I will be discussing both episodes.  But any approach is going to end up lopsided slightly, with only one post-Manhattan episode to discuss. It's worth noting that the only reference to Rose in  "Smith and Jones" is  at the very end, when Martha asks if the TARDIS has a crew. He dodges the question, but admits to having a friend named Rose.  On the other hand, in the Runaway Bride,

(Donna finds Rose's shirt)
Donna: I knew it, acting all innocent. I'm not the first, am I? How many women have you abducted? Doctor: That's my friend's. Donna: Where is she, then? Popped out for a space walk? Doctor: She's gone. Donna: Gone where? Doctor: I lost her. Donna: Well, you can hurry up and lose me! How do you mean, lost? 

Doctor: Trust me. Donna: Is that what you said to her? Your friend? The one you lost? Did she trust you? Doctor Yes, she did. And she is not dead. She is so alive. Now, jump! 

Doctor: I spent Christmas Day just over there, the Powell Estate, with this family. My friend, she had this family. Well, they were. Still, gone now. 
Donna: Your friend, who was she? (....)This friend of yours. Just before she left, did she punch you in the face? Stop bleeping me! 

Donna: That friend of yours. What was her name? Doctor: Her name was Rose. 

Okay, some of that is Donna being...well, Donna, but I haven't watched these episodes for a while, and it's interesting to see how normal Ten is acting. He's chasing down aliens, asking his normal sorts of questions and making a nuisance of himself.  In fact, judging only by Runaway Bride or Smith and Jones, he's coping with the loss of Rose far better than Eleven is with his Ponds.  He's off on adventures--
OH OH EUREKA!
Maybe that's why he's so mopey later. He didn't have a chance to mourn right away, and all that repression stuff just made it worse. Not that I believe most of Freud's junk, but it can't be healthy when he doesn't ever acknowledge the hurt.
On the other hand, Eleven does have River, but with her "never-let-him-see-the-damage" mantra, I'm not sure if that was helpful or not. I'm not even sure how long she stayed with him.  So, the next time we see him, in the Great Detective prequel, he's not only withdrawn, but retired. He lives on a cloud, alone.  The best summery we get of his decision comes from Madame Vastra:

He suffered losses that hurt him. Now, he prefers isolation to the possibility of pain's return.

She also states that the Doctor's not a hero anymore.

The Doctor is not kind. He stands above this world and doesn't interfere in the affairs of its inhabitants. He is not your salvation nor your protector.

We don't see anything like this from Ten until post-Journey's End. Even then, Ten keeps traveling. He doesn't just park the TARDIS and refuse to act. More than that, Eleven intends to wipe Clara's memory of him--which, quite frankly, shocked me. Considering what happened to Donna, one'd think that he'd  be more wary of tampering with memories. Maybe--likely--in his mind, it was for her own protection. After all, what happens to his friends? They leave. They get left behind. And some...some...die.
Admittedly, Eleven is my Doctor and the Ponds are my companions, so I'm mourning them in a way I didn't for Rose, but it still seems to me that...oh, how do I put this. Eleven is the clown of the NuWho Doctors,  compared to Nine's survivor's guild and Ten's immensely human emotions. And so he doesn't let himself grieve, he doesn't want anyone to know him as anything but the "madman in a box." And Ten is human enough that he can't stop his grief leaking out, but Eleven turns himself into a ice cube--another Eureka! moment--the ice creations in The Snowmen were echoes of his own emotional state.
I'm rambling now. Maybe I should stop and come back after watching all of season three. But I definitely see a difference between Ten's grief and Eleven's. Ten's attitude could be defined in the season four quote.
"I'm always alright," because he just keeps moving on and doesn't let it show. But Eleven can't pass it over that easy, because he has River; no matter how much he wants to forget, they were her parents. Instead, he hides. He's the strangest mixture of old and young, Eleven is--the unalloyed sorrow of a child with the despair of an ancient. And he hides, like a child afraid of a shot, because he can't see how this pain is going to make things any better.

Once Upon a Time: The Outsider

Well, I'm glad I didn't give up on OUaT after last week's episode, because "The Outsider" was a wonderful piece of storytelling. Among other things, it made a Rumbelle shipper of me, although I tend to see him as more paternal to Belle than romantic. I'm a sucker for hurt/comfort and protective relationships, though, and Rumple's reaction when Hook had Belle cornered was beautiful to see.
But what I really liked was how we got to see more of Belle in this episode, both in the fairy-tale land and Storybrooke. She's clever and intelligent, not as much of an action girl as Snow or Mulan, but still very proactive. I don't think I could fight Mulan or survive on the run like Snow, but I could effeminately use my brain like Belle does.
And the way she interacts with Rumple--that's what a resurrection arc should look like. I still don't understand how the writers/producers/whoever are messing up Regina's so much when they got Rumple's running so well. She tries to hold him back from beating up Hook, from giving into those darker urges.
And what does she get for it?

SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ENDING


Amnesia! They took her memory, and since she doesn't have any memories of Storybrook beyond the padded cell, it leaves her with so little...and Hook got hit too. And does that mean he lost his memory as well, or was he exempt because he wasn't there for the curse...
AGGGGGGGGGGGH