you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!

[hathycol]

Oh, help. Last night, through a series of amusing coincidences, Phil and Richie came around to my house to watch Doctor Who. At 3am, after perusing the pubs of St Andrews and watching Survivor after closing times, I staggered home and ruefully thought about all the work I hadn't done. I still haven't done it, but I am working on a To Do document, so that's okay.

Er, yes. Truly, sitting in The Castle and insisting that that it was Rose that seems to be going around blowing up planets, and discussing spoilers for later episodes, and fandom, was quite good fun! I'm not going to review the episode because I need to re-watch it and find out if I liked it or not. I remember not, but readign reviews of it, I'm like "hey, that was good!". Maybe it's because I've heard enough about it over the years that I knew the Caecilius was a deliberate reference and I felt a wee bit oppressed by the BBC. Help, help, I'm being oppressed!

No, I'm joking. I really am. I do, however, think it was a very specific joke and maybe I'm just annoyed because I, and everyone else in my living room, wasn't included.

So, yes. After watching Survivor and making cheap jokes for far too long and getting academically married to Richie and drinking schnapps at 2am, I now just sort of want to sleep. Instead, I have to now write about a thousand words on the Treaty of Birgham and at some point, I need to shower and stuff because WAHEY it's back to the cleaning job tomorrow.

On the bright side, Dodgeball is on tonight. SCORE.

Comments

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

I do, however, think it was a very specific joke and maybe I'm just annoyed because I, and everyone else in my living room, wasn't included.

*clings* YES.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

After all the jokes about 'chavvy' Jackie and Rose which are faintly amusing, but I don't see really? Yes, I recognise that many of the stereotypical chavs do come from the white working-class background, but living in a council flat and being a single mum doesn't mean that you're a chav; smacks of middle-class assumption to me. And with stuff like this thrown in every so often, I get a bit defensive and have to resist the urge to wear red and talk proper northern, like.

But then, it made a lot of people happy, and said nothing negative about people who didn't get the joke, because the characters still worked? So maybe I'm jus tbeing a bit overly defensive.

And I have no idea why I'm thinking about class politics when I should be writing a mini-essay on the Treaty of Birgham. ARGH ARGH ARGH.

[sunlightdances.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Urges to stomp around shouting, "I'm on benefits! I didn't go to grammar school! I live in Essex! DAMN YOU ALL" are difficult to resist. Making in-jokes based on a specific Latin book used in Grammar Schools is - unfair. Using Latin in the episode, without any kind of translation for an audience? Also strikes of the unfair. Wide cultural references like, "I'm Sparticus!" are great, because they're inclusive. Nods to old!Who are excellent for a devoted audience. Shakespeare: wide audience. Dickens: same. Every school (and thus every person) would have base levels of both authors.

I was just thinking of it in terms of languages I know, that many people don't: if there were sign language refs, I would be grinning and laughing, but it would exclude so many people, both hearing and Deaf.

I felt it did confuse things, because of the length of the names involved. In an attempt to keep things true to the book, the Baddie was called Lucius *something something*, where just calling him Lucius would have sufficed for a 45-min family tea-time show. Characters need to be established quickly, and giving them three names and then referring to him interchangeably with the first and last is not helpful to an audience. It confused me, and - yes, I'm on antidepressants - but I'm also twenty one, and shouldn't easily become confused by Doctor Who storylines.

RTD said something in last week's Confidential about 'all Mums and daughters snipe at each other' and I wanted to stab him in his eyes. Evidently he learns about Real People by watching Hollyoaks?

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Well, I could deal with all of the name issues because I've seen Gladiator and thus don't think about it much (I think the second name is the family name? No idea past that); some of the Latin you could get away with (ipso facto, etc) but other than that... I have no idea. It confused me, to be honest, but I don't think it was important in terms of the plot? I hope.

HOWEVER. I don't think it's malicious, I think it's just part of the general trend that is apparent in Doctor Who on more than a couple of levels. Basically, it's just an occasional lack of understanding that, actually, everyone watching isn't comfortably middle class (at least they don't make blase London jokes, which pisses me right off in other programs) and that hey ho, the whole audience doesn't think like that. Yeah, it's a good injoke if you did Latin in school or independently (I understand it's the major book to learn with in Britain?) and it doesn't alter the plot or make the characters unlikeable, but it just reinforces that feeling I get a lot in St Andrews, where I'm basically hit over the head and reminded that I went to free school but I should just try and pretend that I didn't and fit into the mentality.

And attempts to breach that gap are often significantly uncomfortable, to my mind. It doesn't happen very often, but it's a bit awkward when it does.

I learn about Real Issues by watching Hollyoaks! Or at least I learn about emo kids. Does that count?

[gothmog-dave.livejournal.com]

Actually the Lucius character was not in the book - his name was a pun as it translated to "Lucius with a stone right hand" which, it transpired, he was.

[musemistress.livejournal.com]

HAH I was wondering, after such a rant, when the reference to your subject title would come in.

DODGEBALL RULZ!!!

[tau_sigma]

It was a bit specific; I knew enought to know that it was a reference, and be a little bit disappointed that Cacilius was not, at any point, in the garden; but though I did Latin, it was a different course, so I didn't know until later that the wife and son's names were taken from the Cambridge Latin Course too. Anyway.

Rose blowing up planets! Yay! I quite like the idea of evil!Rose, I think it's about the only way they could bring her back that I wouldn't be bored and disappointed by.