[overdue reactions] Doctor Who - Battlefield

[grimorie]

I finished watching the Seventh Doctor story: Battlefield (I’m following This Week in Time Travel’s suggested watchlist). I come to the Seventh Doctor with a healthy dose of skepticism because honestly fandom’s hype about Seven didn’t do him any favors (He can end the Time War with the Snap of His Fingers! He is Always Thirty Steps Ahead! He is the Coolest Edgiest Doctor. Me: Sure. Okay. ).

I liked Battlefield I did enjoy the mix of mythology and current story, I hope that that’s something we can have with Thirteen. I’m just sorry we never got the Merlin stuff during Twelve’s time but I suppose the Magician stuff is the best we can have for it.

I liked seeing Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart again and Doris, who I think is Kate’s mother?

Ace was wonderful although all the overacting from the other actors was hard to take.

I liked the Morgaine storyline and it made me want to tease out the story between the Whoverse Morgaine and Arthur story more.

Seven being ‘dark’ and shouty was… uh, a thing.

Really liked the helicopter pilot and was sad when Morgaine killed her.

Brigadier Bambera was awesome and I’m pretty sure she and Ancelyn are gonna be a thing. He is instantly devoted to her.

Plus there was Bessie! The Doctor got to drive dear old Bessie again! Also, did I mention? Ace pulled out Excalibur this means she’s the rightful King! Anyway, she gave the sword away but still!

The story actually felt like season finale so that was weird since its the first story of season 26.

There was an Asian character here! Shou Yuing. And she didn’t die!

There was an ugly, uncomfortable moment though when Ace said something terrible to Shou, which we were meant to take as ugly and uncomfortable because they were under some sort of influence. This was actually the reason why Ace broke out of it.

Did I like it? Over all I did.

What did I think of Seven: Too soon to tell. The whole shouty ‘dark’ trying to be edgy thing though was painful to watch.

Ace was ace though!

Looking forward to watching more of Seven and Ace.

Comments

[nostalgia]

We used to say "Scottish Doctors can't shout" but then P-Cap could, so...

Seven is My Doctor, I love him A WHOLE LOT but yeah he's not for everyone. (Fandom used to be Very Mean about him and sometimes still is so Seven fans tend to overreact a bit when people say they don't like him etc.) Ace is my favourite companion to the point where I rarely write fic about her in case I make her too amazing/perfect/wonderful.

The impression I got with Doris is that she and the Brig had married in later life, I think she's the woman mentioned in... Planet of the Spiders?? as a woman the Brig fancied but didn't get to marry. So I don't think of her as Kate's mum but maybe she is?

[grimorie]

Fandom used to be Very Mean about him

Ah! That can answer a lot of things I confess most of what I know Seven from are impressions I have from Reddit, which can be quite unreliable.

(I have heard a few Big Finish with him but I'm not sure how accurate they are? From what I heard about how Six is in Big Finish, it's different from how he is from the TV... Honestly, it's why I wanted to watch Classic Who because I want to know them for myself rather than third-hand information from fandom.)

I'm really liking Ace! She's been fantastic in the episodes I've seen (I'm now on episode 3 of Remembrance of the Daleks). I am also ping-ponging around watching Classic Who, so I haven't seen Invasion of Time yet (I just finished the Silurian stories) so that's an interesting backstory about Kate's family!

[thisbluespirit]

He can end the Time War with the Snap of His Fingers! He is Always Thirty Steps Ahead! He is the Coolest Edgiest Doctor.

This is just the fault of the New Adventures and not to be worried about in the TV series. (He does make some attempts at omniscient plotting, but generally still winds up improvising as ever.) He plays the spoons! That is never cool. (The Doctor is never cool.)

Fandom used to be hateful about Seven and Ace and how their era was just pantomime and you weren't allowed to mention you liked it because the whole of the 80s was so much less cool than the seventies, so if you've heard them sold as edgy, that's mostly why. It's just the inevitable backlash! Plus, the New Adventures, where he is much darker, which I dislike in general. He is obv the best, though. (He and Ace are my favourite team still, and I like their arc together.) ;-p

Doris isn't Kate's mum, as far as we know, although I don't think anything has been 100% confirmed in actual canon (well insofar as there is a canon and anything gets confirmed) but the Brig had some sort of illicit thing with Doris way back when in Brighton (mentioned in Planet of the Spiders) but he was married to Fiona (who we never saw) and got divorced at some point probably because of the strain of running a two-man alien fighting outfit at UNIT, but Fiona is supposed to be Kate's mother. in the EU there is a brother as well, Gordon or something? He probably doesn't speak to the Brig for calling him Gordon.

I'm glad you liked Battlefield! I hope you enjoy the rest when you see them.

[grimorie]

!markdown

Fandom used to be hateful about Seven and Ace and how their era was just pantomime and you weren't allowed to mention you liked it because the whole of the 80s was so much less cool than the seventies

It does make sense now knowing that back then people hated Seven, and the other half of fandom would play him up! Unfortunately most of where I got my information was from Reddit, which, yeah, I should know better. And as I mentioned above with nostalgia, a few Big Finish but I'm also not sure how accurate they are too!

Plus, the New Adventures, where he is much darker, which I dislike in general.

I have heard about the New Adventure novels and from what I've gleaned about it, I don't know if I'd like them too especially as it does seem to paint almost everyone in a very darker and edgier brush. I do like a bit of dark but too much of it and I tend to roll my eyes.

See! I didn't know that about the Brig and Kate's family, that's a lot more interesting family backstory then! I'm looking forward to finding out more!

[thisbluespirit]

Aha, I always imagine both reddit and the forums still being like rec.arts.drwho used to be back in the day, so that makes sense. Seven does do grand schemes, but it's also fair to say that he doesn't necessarily succeed in them, and he is also whimsical and affectionate as well as having his more melancholy and possibly darker moments. (Part of the dark Doctor thing comes ironically from Sylvester being a pacifist and having been v keen for the Doctor not to use weapons and kill his enemies, which tends to play out with him tricking his enemies into destroying themselves and things like that. You'll have seen his inability to use weapons in Battlefield, which is very much a Seven thing. Most of 1-6 would have gone for it, lol.)

btw, Ace has quite a distinct arc so it's really good to try and watch her stories in order if you can, at least with S26.

I have heard about the New Adventure novels and from what I've gleaned about it, I don't know if I'd like them too especially

Well, like most things, there are good installments and bad. I have very mixed feelings about them, but I don't think there would be any New Who or Big Finish if the NAs hadn't happened - a lot of the New Who authors originally wrote for them, including RTD, Paul Cornell, Gary Russell, Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts, and even Steven Moffat wrote a short story for them. But they were trying to market it firmly at an adult audience, whereas previously the Target novelisations (also Virgin published) had been for children, so I think they kind of had to make them as unsuitable for children as possible just to get the right marketing. They calmed down in the end, and then the BBC swiped the licence back. They're very hard to get hold of these days anyway. But they gave us Benny and I'm still very fond of Benny!

Big Finish depends a lot on which stories you've heard, I think. I haven't listened to many of Seven's run, because I prefer him on TV. (I think Sylvester is very much a visual actor; he does a lot without words, and on audio that's not possible.) but anyway, his stories are either set in between his adventures which should be pretty much par for the course, or they're the ones with Ace and Hex, which are set about 10 years after Survival and he and Ace have supposed to have stayed together all that time, which has a different feel, and they do occasionally play with the dark Doctor thing, although there are limits to have bad they can get with that when they have to still have Sylvester on board. And there are a few adaptations of NAs in the mix, too.

I didn't know that about the Brig and Kate's family, that's a lot more interesting family backstory then! I'm looking forward to finding out more!

Heh, you need the EU for that, because the 1970s production team couldn't afford to give the Brigadier his wife Fiona - they wanted to have her appear very briefly in one scene, but it was too much for the budget! But, yeah, you'll know everything once you've watched Classic Who. ;-D