Vee

I loved it.

The audience reaction has fortunately been mostly extremely positive, but there's still a few too many butthurt latter-day fans online crying out because it "undid the history when they started watching"...less than ten years ago. This was always going to happen. I knew one day Gallifrey would return, and I was thrilled with how they did it. There's too many kids out there who think DW is only about an emo-ridden war survivor.

I also liked the exploration of the three primary Doctors, and how they interrelate and why Hurt's War Doctor feels the others have regressed. That was fascinating. I've often felt Matt Smith's era was making a point to transition away from the now-very-tired Time War angst of the Davies years, and now that break is official and total, both in plot terms and in character exploration. The War Doctor and the Moment made a point to the others about who the Doctor is, who he has been, what he has become and where he must go. That means potentially tremendous things for Peter Capaldi's run, not that Matt Smith's was not, IMO, the best since Tom Baker.

And speaking of, Tom Baker was just spellbinding as the once and future Doctor. I cried and cried. He was so 'there.'

Meanwhile, little Lindalee has returned to interview Matt Smith.

The Guardian has a series of anniversary pieces up, including one with many of the companions, with a new photo shoot for each era.

Here's something.

The health care rollout will pass. The ACA is law and that's not going to change. This is all transitory story.

Do you think Lilly will be like Lilly in the comics? I read that in the game they changed it to make sure people knew that wasn't the Lilly from the comics.

That's not a spoiler, that's just spec.

I have no idea. Kirkman was the one who decided mid-stream that the Lilly in the Walking Dead adventure game was not the same one as in the comics, though the game's writers had already designed and scripted her as such. The Lilly in the game also had a different occupation and skill set, and her father was a different type of guy. According to Kirkman the game is canon to either the comic or the show but I can't remember which.

All I remember about comic Lilly was that she was one of the Governor's foot soldiers. I can't see that happening here.

I thought that was a hell of an episode. They took a real chance with different pacing and tone - especially in the pre-credits sequence, with the erratic cutting - and I thought it really worked, and was a wonderful showcase for David Morrissey. It also continued to develop the Governor very differently from the cartoon villain I'm familiar with from the comics, and I thought that was great. Haters to the left. Get out of my life, Darn!

They won't take the Senate. Never happen. It's a Politico wet dream.

I tried to give this a shot despite my disgust for all things Ryan Murphy. I made it to the end of Week 1 and I just couldn't be bothered to come back, despite the lure of naked Evan Peters, even if they did CGI out his dick. Maybe Netflix someday. But nothing I've heard makes me terribly enthused.

I just have no time for this thing.

The idea of anyone making "Guiding Light with the serial numbers filed off" is low-rent and ridiculous enough to me - some of the cast and crew of Doctor Who barely got away with that in its wilderness years in the 1990s, and it was a British science-fiction program, a genre with a long history of fringe projects like those, and honestly they weren't very good IMO; a bunch of super-cheap direct-to-VHS stories with random characters played by actors giving knowing winks to the cameras. I just didn't like them.

The idea of doing it with a soap opera, though - and one as venerated as GL - I think it only further pollutes the GL brand, which I thought was horribly damaged by everything Ellen Wheeler did, particularly after the move to Peapack. I have talked before about thinking GL could benefit from an AMC-style revamp, but that would require distancing the show from as much of the Peapack era as possible.

I mean, it's Peapack! The idea of anyone from GL actually, voluntarily going back there - and bringing along Ellen who, while a wonderful actress years ago, seemed to genuinely believe herself to be some sort of self-styled soap messiah/dippy life coach, wherein her very Mormon-esque, cloistered vision of GL would somehow influence the world at large - is, I feel, horribly embarrassing. And of course most of the cast that's shown up is entirely unnecessary IMO, except for some of the vets. Were any of us dying to see Ava or Mel or Ashlee or Frank Cooper again? No, but Ellen Wheeler was. She's once again affixing her personal seal and vision to Guiding Light at large, shackling herself to it, and I think that's very detrimental for any future options for the show - putting aside the fact that they're somehow attempting to produce some sort of bootleg version of the show, which is radioactive in and of itself. And she's clearly learned nothing, because her interview has her still talking like a cult leader and meandering around about her world-shaking vision for a soap where every single member of the company is sharing the same bathroom and changing in the backseat of an SUV.

I'm sorry to be so brutal because I know Carl cares about this, but I honestly just detested what became of GL. It offended me. I thought there was, at times, some very naturalistic dialogue and performances, but that's the most I can say about that time on the show. The more I watched, the more there was nothing else there. No whole, just one woman's personal odyssey. I would love to see GL return, I believe that it can, but to me this is not it. And I'd say the same if this was OLTL, AMC or GH.

I was going to use spoiler space, but my assumption is he is the Doctor.

The new minisode, "The Last Day," is now available on iTunes for free. It is a brief found footage piece, depicting the oft-mentioned "fall of Arcadia" on Gallifrey through a soldier's eyes.

Another former DW star will be appearing as a cameo in this week's biopic An Adventure in Space and Time:

William Russell, a.k.a. Ian Chesterton.

Oh, Jesus.

A certain individual speaks out of turn re: this weekend's 50th Anniversary.

Don't click if you don't want to know a huge casting spoiler for DOTD. I had heard increasingly definite rumors about this for a while, but with this particular potential guest there's always a chance they're just [!@#$%^&*] with people.

Raw bootleg of a New Zealand cable spot for The Day of the Doctor.

"No more" was also glimpsed on the graffiti beneath Sarah Jane and K9 in the previous 50th Anniversay trailer. And of course, the War Doctor declared "Doctor no more" upon his regeneration on Karn. I still don't think that's Rose - I think it's the Bad Wolf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wcmdZH1mRs

Based on Eleven's dialogue here - and the announcer's voiceover - I have a suspicion that the rumor I've heard about the overarching plot for DOTD and the Christmas special is true - and we may be in for some very big changes to the very core and foundation of the modern Doctor Who.

Oh, and sources are whispering insistent claims that

Catherine Tate is back for DOTD, but the rumor mill has been saying that for at least the past year. I expect to see her, but I expect to see everyone and that can't happen.

Look, I have a lot of love and respect for the P&G soaps and all this rich history but at least half of this stuff has all the energy of a particularly slow bingo night. It's not about the actual age of the performers, either, because as Carl points out, many of them were young but still come off incredibly stodgy and drained of life. The whole show just feels very brownish-gray to me. And it's certainly the opposite of how, say, Doug Marland's ATWT feels when I watch it.

I'm not ageist in the slightest, I'm just reacting to the rhythm of the show or lack thereof.

The show does basically look like it's set inside a funeral home, doesn't it. Full of old, old people.

I don't think Carol's crazy. She realized after the fact that what she did to Karen and David had no effect on the epidemic, and she regretted doing it on some level. Even if she didn't know these things, even if she was so bloodthirsty (and I don't think she is), a large quarantine with plenty of witnesses - and the fact that Rick knew what she'd done - would've deterred her.

I think there's maybe a handful of people upset. 95% of fans seem overjoyed. There's always going to be someone angry about something, especially in DW fandom.

New trailer for the making-of film, An Adventure in Space and Time, which is supposed to be excellent.

He's a Doctor. But probably not the one you expected.

I am amazed all my beloved characters survived that one. I assume it's just going to be worse for them with the Governor back. But great episode.

I put it up earlier, in the status ticker.

I figured.

I didn't think she could do something like that until I saw her with Carl after he saw her with the kids in the library. She spoke to him the same way she does Rick; she treated him like a man and a potential ally or obstacle. No one else in the group does that. Then I knew, and when it happened I knew it was her.

When the season opened the walkers were at the fences all the time, there was evidence of sabotage, then there was a potential plague, close quarters, carriers. Carol was desperate to preserve what they have, which was security and stability in the prison.

In the plague era, medieval times, what was done to Karen and David was commonplace. Things may not be totally medieval in the zombie apocalypse but they're pretty damn close. That doesn't mean it was acceptable for her to kill them, but it was a logical assumption IMO - these are the only two exhibiting symptoms at that time, and with them knowing next to nothing about the disease at that particular moment, there was the potential to say disposing of them could have stopped an epidemic in its tracks and saved the community. (Although, Karen and David had already been isolated, which makes what she did plain overreaction.) It was with that mindset that she did it. I don't agree with it, but I very much understand it.

I think they're all disconnected though, in one way or another. They have to be. And I thought she was vulnerable in that conversation, when she did reminisce with Rick. And when she talked to him at the end. I didn't think she was all hard, more very matter of fact.

I can see why that scares Rick, but I still think he was wrong to not take her back to either the council, or to mull over the truth more before debating whether to tell everyone. She's not Shane, and she's not the Governor. She's just not Rick. I don't think she was likely to do something so rash again, especially not with him knowing the truth. Carol's not interested in power, she's interested in practicality. She was right that they had to leave the hippie dude, though she was wrong to suggest sending them out there - and she likely did it knowing they might not make it, leaving the prison with fewer people to feed, which is also, on a certain level, morally wrong. But they volunteered. They asked. If they make it, they're an asset; if they don't, they're not a burden. And in the zombie apocalypse, that kind of wrong is utterly practical.

I think he was wrong about that, though. This whole season Carol's shown plenty of humanity, IMO. But because she didn't gnash her teeth or spill a water tank when she was alone with Rick - while focused on the task at hand - she's not human enough? She said she was sorry, that it was awful, but that she felt it had to be done. I think she was keeping her guard up with him. Falling apart is not something she does anymore, not with other people around. She only does it alone.