spring is in the air!
Apr. 2nd, 2015 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmoonstarThe last of the snow finally melted, & it distinctly felt like spring today! 75 degrees & no coats to be seen! I'm SO ready to wear dresses & sandals again! \o/
Also I'm super excited to be going to back to Chicago in a few weeks for Lyric Opera's production of Carousel. I love that they do a musical every year now- it's basically a Broadway production without having to go to New York! Laura Osnes & Steven Pasquale are starring, so wow! Also Catherine Zuber is doing the costumes & she's my fave costume designer on Broadway currently, so very excited to see what she'll come up with. Having seen their production of Oklahoma! two years ago, I know the Lyric orchestra is fantastic, and the whole production is going to be fabulous. (Also it's so glamorous there & I get to dress up, which is extra fun!) It's like musical theatre geek heaven! I'm so excited!
My Classic Who watch continues: I listened to 'The Celestial Toymaker', which was okay, but not very exciting. I think it was really intended to make it's impact through the visuals, and since most of it's missing, you lose a lot of the interest on audio. It's basically just listening to Steven & Dodo play games while the live dolls argue. (Poor Steven is like 1000% done with all of it- it's kind of hilarious, except I feel so sorry for him. I just want to hug Steven & give him the happy ending he never really got.) The Doctor isn't even in most of it, which is a shame, since the Toymaker didn't have much to do but stand around and gloat to a disembodied hand for most of the serial, which was kind of silly & somewhat undercut how threatening he was as a villain. Although the Doctor & the Toymaker played off each other rather well in the few scenes they did have. I think I got 'The Nightmare Fair' when I hit the Big Finish tables at this year's convention, I'll have to listen to it if I did, I'd like to hear another story with the Toymaker to see if they can make him a more interesting villain next time round.
Also watched 'Paradise Towers', which was... weird. 80s Who is just so much weirder than other eras, for some reason. But it was alright, certainly, & there were a lot of female characters, which is always nice to see on TV, & I just really like Mel no matter what anyone else says! But I thought the end was a little odd. I get that they were trying to make Pex a real hero at last with his noble sacrifice, but I'm kind of puzzled as to why it had to be him to do it. There were a whole bunch of the kang girls & Mel just standing there as the baddie attacked the Doctor, but they all stood there staring & waiting for Pex to do something about it, as if girls don't fight or something! The Doctor even called for Pex to help (srsly not Mel??? Your companion???) and they all looked at him as though it were his duty to go save the Doctor himself. If they had been a group of Victorian finishing school students I might buy it, but those tough kang girls & Mel? If they'd ganged up on the baddie they could've taken him easily! I think they should have at least had them trapped on the other side of a door or something, so that Pex was the only one who could've helped- that would have made sense & given him the tragic heroic ending without the rather sexist overtones spoiling things. Maybe it was just an unfortunate oversight a la the cliffhanger in 'Dragonfire'!
Also, just yesterday I was at the fabric store & saw the exact blue-polka fabric that Mel's outfit in 'Paradise Towers' was made of... and now part of me is actually contemplating cosplaying that heinous 80s monstrosity. I'm pretty sure I'd be the only Mel at the con... but I'm already planning Vicki, Ian, Romana I, possibly 2 Claras and possibly a Barbara, I don't need more!! Shut up, brain!! Is there a support group for compulsive companion cosplayers? Because I think I need to join it...
Also I'm super excited to be going to back to Chicago in a few weeks for Lyric Opera's production of Carousel. I love that they do a musical every year now- it's basically a Broadway production without having to go to New York! Laura Osnes & Steven Pasquale are starring, so wow! Also Catherine Zuber is doing the costumes & she's my fave costume designer on Broadway currently, so very excited to see what she'll come up with. Having seen their production of Oklahoma! two years ago, I know the Lyric orchestra is fantastic, and the whole production is going to be fabulous. (Also it's so glamorous there & I get to dress up, which is extra fun!) It's like musical theatre geek heaven! I'm so excited!
My Classic Who watch continues: I listened to 'The Celestial Toymaker', which was okay, but not very exciting. I think it was really intended to make it's impact through the visuals, and since most of it's missing, you lose a lot of the interest on audio. It's basically just listening to Steven & Dodo play games while the live dolls argue. (Poor Steven is like 1000% done with all of it- it's kind of hilarious, except I feel so sorry for him. I just want to hug Steven & give him the happy ending he never really got.) The Doctor isn't even in most of it, which is a shame, since the Toymaker didn't have much to do but stand around and gloat to a disembodied hand for most of the serial, which was kind of silly & somewhat undercut how threatening he was as a villain. Although the Doctor & the Toymaker played off each other rather well in the few scenes they did have. I think I got 'The Nightmare Fair' when I hit the Big Finish tables at this year's convention, I'll have to listen to it if I did, I'd like to hear another story with the Toymaker to see if they can make him a more interesting villain next time round.
Also watched 'Paradise Towers', which was... weird. 80s Who is just so much weirder than other eras, for some reason. But it was alright, certainly, & there were a lot of female characters, which is always nice to see on TV, & I just really like Mel no matter what anyone else says! But I thought the end was a little odd. I get that they were trying to make Pex a real hero at last with his noble sacrifice, but I'm kind of puzzled as to why it had to be him to do it. There were a whole bunch of the kang girls & Mel just standing there as the baddie attacked the Doctor, but they all stood there staring & waiting for Pex to do something about it, as if girls don't fight or something! The Doctor even called for Pex to help (srsly not Mel??? Your companion???) and they all looked at him as though it were his duty to go save the Doctor himself. If they had been a group of Victorian finishing school students I might buy it, but those tough kang girls & Mel? If they'd ganged up on the baddie they could've taken him easily! I think they should have at least had them trapped on the other side of a door or something, so that Pex was the only one who could've helped- that would have made sense & given him the tragic heroic ending without the rather sexist overtones spoiling things. Maybe it was just an unfortunate oversight a la the cliffhanger in 'Dragonfire'!
Also, just yesterday I was at the fabric store & saw the exact blue-polka fabric that Mel's outfit in 'Paradise Towers' was made of... and now part of me is actually contemplating cosplaying that heinous 80s monstrosity. I'm pretty sure I'd be the only Mel at the con... but I'm already planning Vicki, Ian, Romana I, possibly 2 Claras and possibly a Barbara, I don't need more!! Shut up, brain!! Is there a support group for compulsive companion cosplayers? Because I think I need to join it...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-04-02 05:27 pm (UTC):lol: It would be a pretty tempting thing to do - very bright and recognisable!
I like Mel, too, despite everything. I think particularly in Delta & the Bannerman & Terror of the Vervoids, and then she's been nicely used in some of the audios. People just hated her because Bonnie Langford was such a known personality that some people couldn't see past that, and there was no real depth written for her to defy expectations with, but Mel is quite fun, really. (I adore how weird 80s Who can be, though, I really do! Even though some of it doesn't work out, I love some of the ideas and the strangeness they were going for, even as people were accusing it of being some tired old has-been of a show.)
no subject
Date: 2015-04-07 05:04 am (UTC)I think it would be fun to be Mel for a day; she's so cheerful & never loses her can-do attitude. Any situation she finds herself in, she always believes in finding a way out, and looks for a way to make it happen. She has probably the most piercing scream of any companion ever, but she's actually very proactive in getting stuff done on her own, which I love about her. I think the fact that she didn't really have a real introduction story so the audience could get to know her, and then didn't stay on long so the character could get fleshed-out, are part of the reason people might not respond to her so well. (But most of the companions I've heard trash-talk about are usually ones I end up liking!)
no subject
Date: 2015-04-07 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-06 06:47 am (UTC)I don't see that it was necessary to make the opening Who theme so crazily cracked out and glitzy. I love Seven era but I laugh every time the new graphics for the opening come on.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-07 05:41 am (UTC)I'm kind of voyaging through classic Who in a non-linear sort of way, really sporadically with lots of eras all at once, and only somewhat in order, but if anyone is interested in it they're more than welcome to read.
And I know what you mean about the 7th Doctor's opening theme; every time I see it I think to myself: "Wow, it's like totally the 80s fer shure!" LOL
no subject
Date: 2015-04-08 07:56 pm (UTC)It was Spring here and then a cold series of thunderstorms came complete with hail!