Rose - "Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life."

Rose (Doctor Who)

Season 1, Story 1 (Overall Series Story #157) | Previous - Next | Index

"Run!"

I've watched this several times since it was originally broadcast and it still brings back memories of when it was new, even all these years later while we're in the interregnum between Season 7a and 7b. What would the TARDIS interior look like? How much would it be like the classic series and how would it be different? From the opening theme, to the first appearance onscreen of Eccleston, to the first time we heard that distinctive TARDIS dematerialization grind ... it was all so welcome back, so familiar but new. New!

But "new" isn't a thing that lasts. It's 8 years later and if it were only a pleasure to watch because it was new ... well, that wouldn't do us much good. We've been through two more regenerations and the return of far more than just the Nestene: we've had Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, the Silence, and Vashta Nerada, and so much more. So, now that it's just familiar again, is this story, this season, still worthwhile?

It sure is.

Said it before and I'll say it again, we deserved more time with Eccleston's Doctor. Not that I'd take it from Tennant's time ... I guess I'm saying they made us wait too long for Eccleston's Doctor, we should have had at least three or four years of him in the role, then Tennant. Eccleston was so good from the start, with that Northern accent ("Lots of planets have a North!") and the way he transitioned from cold anger to a giant grin and back, he was alien, but an interesting alien. Clive's research having so many photographs and sketches of Nine, since he was freshly regenerated, it tells us he had lots more adventures ahead then what we ever saw in the Bad Wolf storyline. Would've liked to have seen those is all. I don't think many fans count Eccleston as a favorite, certainly not the way Tennant and even Smith have joined Tom Baker in the fans' collective pantheon of the best of the best, but I think his short run and the distance he's kept from the series since leaving have left many cold and prone to short-shrifting his Doctor.

Is it the ears?

On the downside, the incidental music is uneven in this episode, it felt a bit dated when it was fresh back in 2005. (My wife remarked during one of the running scenes that it is sounded a bit Wonder Woman-y and she wasn't wrong.) And Mickey's still a bit too cowering and unlikable, that he brings out a contemptuous side of the Doctor doesn't play well, but we understand why the Doctor doesn't invite him, and that he wouldn't have wanted to go, so it's at least coherent. (The character improves over time and I'm glad this wasn't the last we saw of him, it just wasn't enjoyable chemistry.) The Nestene invasion isn't much of an invasion, the killing of Clive feels a bit mean-spirited, and it all wraps up rather quickly. As far as plotting, mystery, interestingness of the threat, this episode doesn't offer much. But ...

But that's because it's all about meeting Rose. Billie Piper is perfectly cast and she's got great chemistry with Eccleston, that's what really carries this episode beyond the novelty of the return. She may be just a shop girl living with her mum, but she's both only that and a bright, brave young woman capable of so much more. That Billie Piper sells both parts of character is a testament to her skill and natural charm. Casting her was a master stroke at least equal to the casting of Eccleston.

So, despite my nitpicks, this is still a strong episode and a well-worth watching to get a sense of what this new Doctor is all about. While this Doctor may be capable of anger and indifference, his hallmarks are fairness and broad-mindedness -- he's a much needed character in an era of neoconservativism, rising inequality, and ascendant oligarchy. Whether he's the Doctor you think you want, he's the Doctor we needed.

[Update: I'm reading this post on "Rose" by Mr. Sandifer -- he's author of the brilliant TARDIS Eruditorum over in the blogroll) and it's making me think I need to step up my game. Not necessarily by going all Rose-asserts-her-narrative-nature, but by bringing more to table than gobsmacked fan gush.]

Because lying to kids about science and calling it education is tantamount to child abuse.

Old Earth, Young Minds: Evangelical Homeschoolers Embrace Evolution - David R. Wheeler - The Atlantic: 

...  [W]hatever their reason for homeschooling, evangelical families who embrace modern science are becoming more vocal about it -- and are facing the inevitable criticism that comes with that choice. "We get a lot of flak from others for not using Christian textbooks," Warton says.

I added the "Trust, but verify," speech bubble after trying to cram in a response to the injunction on the wall in the background: "Trust in the Lord ... except when it comes to science, history, ethics and morality, or anything relating to matters of fact. But, apart from those things, knock yourself out."

No chance for a Cinderella in this bracket.

A tournament to determine the most hated college basketball players in the last 30 years - Grantland:

Before Coach K and the Cameron Crazies get too worked up about being singled out, let me explain the decision to turn part of this bracket into a mini-tournament of Duke hate. For starters, imagine the alternative. Think of all the Dukies who didn't make the cut: Carlos Boozer, Kyle Singler, Trajan Langdon, Brian Zoubek, Ryan Kelly, the Brothers Plumlee, Chris Collins, Thomas Hill, Alaa Abdelnaby, and many, many more. If Duke weren't confined to its own quadrant, half the athletes in the competition might be Blue Devils. And if they were peppered throughout all the regions, an all-Duke Final Four wouldn't just be a possibility — it would be a likelihood.

As much as I hate to admit it, they're like the Yankees in that the hatred they inspire is a direct result of winning. Relentlessly winning. Despite being such unlikable jackwads year after year.

As an aside, this post immediately called to mind fond memories of 1999, when knob-shining pundits were calling that year's tournament "The Duke Invitational," because it was a foregone conclusion they would win it all.

Hah! That was the greatest tournament ever.

"But, why Laettner of all the Dukies?" you might ask. Because 1990. Because Scott Burrell and Tate George took us to such great heights ... and then this happened.

ᔥ Gerry Canavan

Reviving Robert Ingersoll

‘The Great Agnostic,’ by Susan Jacoby - NYTimes.com: 

Robert Ingersoll, image via NYTimes.com

... Jacoby adds her suspicion that Ingersoll might have fared better had a rise in secularism, which he helped bring about, proved to be permanent. But it is wrong, she notes, to allow his stature to diminish as a result of the resurgence of religion that occurred after his death. “Intellectual history is a relay race, not a 100-yard dash,” Jacoby writes, in a nice turn of phrase. Reporting on the irreligion of many of the country’s founding figures, Ingersoll kept the ideals of secularism alive during his own era and passed them on to us. In particular, he championed the memory of Thomas Paine, whose rejection of religion had led to his being forgotten in Ingersoll’s time, despite the considerable role Paine played in turning the American colonies toward revolution. It may be hoped that Jacoby’s book does as much for Ingersoll as Ingersoll did for Paine.

Ashamed to say that if you'd mentioned Ingersoll to me before I'd read this article, I would've drawn a blank. Knowing now in what high regard he was held by the likes of Clemens and Whitman, and having read a little of his work since stumbling across this article, I'm intrigued and ready to read more ...

Cory Doctrow on KSR's Pacific Edge

Locus Online Perspectives | Cory Doctorow: Ten Years On: 

The thing I loved about Pacific Edge is how good the people were, even as they got in each other’s way and fought with one another and made things miserable for each other. Robinson’s book is a tour-de-force character novel that is deeply compassionate about the way that people of good will and good faith can trip each other up. And it is ‘‘utopian,’’ in the sense that it is all set in a time/place where technology doesn’t threaten to get away from its creators and destroy them.

Cory's talking about how PE influenced his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.