in which "The Curse of Fenric" is watched

[ladymercury_10]

So I have been watching some Seventh Doctor episodes, but not particularly in order.  I have, however, been sort of saving "The Curse of Fenric" because I knew it was supposed to be good, and I finally got around to watching it tonight.  And it was really good!  And much scarier, I think, than most current Doctor Who, low-budget special effects notwithstanding.  (The haemovore makeup on the girls was really effective.  The fake rain, which fell sideways, and sometimes fell more heavily on one side of the screen, was not.  Especially since they didn't try to hide the fact that it was sunny when they were shooting the "rain" scenes. :P )

I am not sure I have anything terribly thoughtful to say about it, though.  I am somewhat confused by the whole "the baby was Ace's mum" subplot, because I wasn't sure if she realized it before they threw it in her face or not.  Because if she didn't, it seems a bit bad to go, "Hmm, here is a lady with my grandmum's name and surname and wartime occupation, and she has a baby with my mum's name, isn't that weird and kind of awkward?" and not make the connection.  Also I am confused about how much the Doctor actually knew, and how much he said he knew, to mess with Fenric/to break Ace's faith/for other secret manipulative reasons.  Furthermore, Ace seemed to recover from the whole "you insulted everything about me and only apologized somewhat vaguely" incident awfully quickly, didn't she?  

But really, I did like it quite a lot, I am just easily confused and generally nitpicky.  Mostly it would just be nice if people who have had longer to develop headcanons about these things/know the actual answers/etc. could enlighten me.  

Also, I knew going in that there were similarities between this serial and "The God Complex," but it is interesting that Ace also has a "girl who didn't make sense" sort of thing, like Amy, and that she has a mythology background where Amy has a fairytale one.  

Another question: Is "Survival" a good episode?  It seems Important, but the cheetah costumes are slightly lolarious to me and I don't know if I could take it seriously.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I'm famous! We both are! Or something... ;-)

:lol: I don't think they'd have had the luxury of waiting for a cloudy day, anyway. I just remember them talking about it a lot on the commentary - they were putting down sacking and planking because of all the mud and everyone was getting soaked. (I think Seven actually puts his brolly up at one point, and that moment where Seven and Ace wipe the dirt off each other's faces is Sylvester and Sophie trying to avoid discontinuity with magically vanishing mud). Anyway, since they hadn't planned to add in rain, I think they said they actually made scratches onto the videotape to simulate it, because they just wouldn't have had the budget for anything else.

If you're liking Seven and Ace, even aside from anything else, there are a couple of really lovely moments for the two of them in Survival. I find it hard to judge that one, because I found it v disturbing when I was 12 (at that point it never occurred to me that the animatronic cat was fake, or that the Cheetah people looked silly) and for some reason, that impression won't go away, even though I can have separate child and adult reactions to the other (even if the latter is forever coloured by a bit of nostalgic love). But, like shinyjenni says, least favourite of S26 - which is hardly a criticism at all.

I looked at the daily TV listings every day for ages! (I was a bit of a sad child, I think. Heh.) I didn't find out till late 1992 when I discovered Doctor Who Magazine.

ETA: Although have you seen Greatest Show? As long as you don't have bad clown phobia, that's a good one, too.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, that would explain why after they obviously fell in the mud, Ace's dress was magically pristine when they were standing on the rocks. And, dear goodness, scratching the videotape to make the rain? If that's how they made it, then I suppose that explains quite a lot. :P

I might try to watch Survival, then. I don't think I can get the Greatest Show in the Galaxy from Netflix, though.

Haha, my childhood TV sadness was mostly Carmen Sandiego-related. I used to watch the cartoon, and I was always very upset when I missed the end of a cliffhanger episode. And then when they stopped showing it.