further adventures in the land of Classic Who

[ladymercury_10]

So I watched "Remembrance of the Daleks," and basically I was, as shinyjenni would say, making little fists of glee the whole way through.  Oh my goodness.  I know I say it all the time, but I love this show.  Entertaining background lady scientists!  Bechdel test passing!  The Doctor, for once, managing to be less impractical about money than the companion!  Power-synth music and other 80s tropes for childhood nostalgia and great justice!  Ahem. *straightens sweater, calms down*


But pretty much everything I was told would be there by the people who commented on the last post was there: the Doctor being an adult and not whining, Ace kicking tail, and a very entertaining mixture of well-written serious bits, perhaps accidentally campy bits (was Davros wearing old-school curly telephone wire?), and lots of intentionally playful bits.  (Thanks to everyone who told me I should watch it--you were right!) 

And Ace and Seven are fantastic.  Somebody on Tumblr was saying that Ace is like the Strong Female Character archetype done correctly, i.e., not exaggerated.  Much as I love some of the characters who take flak for supposedly being exaggeratedly strong and/or being one-dimensional, I think this is a pretty good characterization of Ace and her awesomeness.  

Also, I hyena laughed at Ace's Dalek racial purity explanation, reconstructed with help from olivia_sutton's quotes page:

Ace: Renegade Daleks are blobs.  

The Doctor: Blobs?

Ace: Imperial Daleks are bionic blobs with bits added.  You can tell the Daleks are into racial purity.  So one lot of Daleks reckon that the other lot of blobs are too different.  Well, they're mutants.  Not pure in their blobbiness.

The Doctor: Result?

Ace: They hate each other's chromosomes.  War to the death.

The Doctor: Well, um, Ace, let’s go and see which blobs are winning, hmm?

ALSO also I am relatively certain Ace was wearing Batman earrings for the duration of the episode.  See here:

 
So, uh, what do I watch next, guys?  I mean, Fenric, but what else?  And does anyone have any Seven-era fanfic recs to share?  (Probably nothing too long--if I'm going to read something above 10k, it's probably going to be one of the bajillion library books I have on my desk already.)

Comments

[clocketpatch]

It's just such an awesome fest isn't it? Did you catch the little Dalek girl with the balloon random singing the same song as the balloon girl in The Family of Blood? I still don't get whether that was an intentional cross-reference or not but I love it. And I love that Ace picks up Susan's textbook in the science lab. Heh.

As for good fic refs...

Nemo the Everbeing: http://www.whofic.com/viewuser.php?uid=1205 has some of the best Seven fic ever written.

and jjpor's Protect and Survive: http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=30676 may well be THE best Seven fic ever written (in my opinion anyway.)

And *insert self-indulgent self-promotion here* I've written a longish Seven fic myself, but since the plot hinges heavily on stuff that happens in Survival and the Big Finish Adventures it might not be exactly what you're looking for lol

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

It is indeed an awesome-fest. :) I didn't catch that with the little Dalek girl, but it's been a while since I saw "Human Nature/The Family of Blood." And that's cool about Susan's textbook--I didn't notice that, either, because I haven't seen any First Doctor episodes.

Yay, thank you for the fic recs! And it is perfectly ok to self-rec. :D I have heard one Big Finish story with Hex ("Night Thoughts") and have vague knowledge of some of the other ones' plots, but I am not sure if that is enough or not?

[clocketpatch]

I think you just need to know that he exists and have a general idea of what happened to his mother. You definitely need to have seen Survival though.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Those are things I know. :) I have not seen "Survival," though. I don't have time for a really long fic right now, anyway, as I'm coming up on finals, but I will keep it in mind, as I imagine it is excellent. :)