Ideas are funny things. They strike at the worst of times, while you're in the shower or lying in bed, when writing them down is either impossible or frustratingly inconvenient. They vanish without warning, often never to be seen again. Even if you do manage to write them down, when you come to revisit them the next day (or next month, as I usually find), they often turn out to be a lot less awesome as when you first imagined them. Either that, or your rushed method of note taking was so terrible that you cant even remember what the idea was. A 'spark' word really doesn't help after a year.
So why am I writing this? Well, mainly because it's literally the only thing I can think to write about. This whole 'blog' business doesn't really suit me. It's not quite my scene. But I need to keep going because I've already started and if I don't Gus or Francis will just about rip my head off. Also, I enjoy it. I do! When I have something good to write about, like the bloody annoying nature of ideas, it's a lot of fun. I just sort of write what I think, no planning or logic behind it. I just write. If you look back at the top of this paragraph you'll see that it's basically a completely different topic to what I'm writing about now, which is sort of how I do things. I only make a new paragraph when I have some sort of introductory sentence or silly question in my mind.
Like this, for example.
I actually cant remember what I was writing about. It's 03:16 in the morning right now, I really should be going to bed.
Oh yes, the blog! Ideas! Stuff like that!
No, the reason I don't think I'm really cut out to have a blog is because I never have any good ideas. And when I do have good ideas, I either forget them or leave them for a couple of days and find out they're not as good as I originally thought. I always just end up writing on a whim. Which is why none of my posts have any substance or real meat to them. If people are actually reading this (and I really do hope someone is!) then you'll be hard pressed to come up with anything constructive to say. Because I never talk about a topic that needs anything constructively said about it. It's always URL's or Leeks or some shit like that.
This feels like a goodbye post, and it's not! I am absolutely not saying goodbye. This blog will continue, just as it's been continuing for the past couple of months. I just have no ideas about what to write about. I get bored too easily. I tried writing a novel once and that was an absolute disaster. I got about two pages in and decided I couldn't be arsed, deleted the file, and never came back. I want to be a writer. Heck, I want to be a lot of things. But ideas aren't the only problem. Neither is motivation, or even writing talent. It's my attention span. That's the real enemy.
This blog post was titled 'Ideas', and I've said basically nothing about them. Hm. Oh well. Hows about you dear readers leave some of your failed ideas down in the comments below! Come on, don't be shy!
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Sunday, 27 July 2014
Moffat or RTD? - The Arc of Story
So, I recently had a lovely conversation with some friends of mine about how we should kill ourselves and burn in hell for having different opinions.
...
Only joking. It was an RTD vs Moffat debate though, so anything's possible. We were discussing their treatment of story arcs and characters. I naturally found myself serving on the side of the Moff, so here's what I had to say on the issue.
Character vs Story
Yes, RTD's focus on the companions and their families definitely helped where the characters were concerned. However, his story arcs failed as a result. Moffat did the opposite. He had big, complicated story arcs, with lots of twists and turns and questions and shiz, but focused decidedly less on the companions family.
Now, with Amy Pond, he accomplished this brilliantly. He made the lack of her family part of the plot, with the crack in time having eaten them up. Her extended family were definitely there for her introductory episode (Jeff, her aunt, etc etc). Rory, her fiance, also became a regular companion.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "But Daniel, these characters only appeared once, then all vanished for the remainder of Amy Ponds era". Yes, you're right. But is that a bad thing?
You see, Doctor Who is a show that can go anywhere and do anything. It has truly infinite possibilities. As much as I love all the family stuff in RTD's era, he did visit present day earth a little too often. In a show with such a wide scope of ideas, I'd much rather visit strange alien worlds or different times, instead of the one particular year the show happens to be broadcast. That's what Moffat did.
Whatever you think of series 5, 6 or 7, you cant deny that they're easily more varied than anything in series 1, 2, 3 or 4. Series 6 and 7 especially are massive in the variety of locations they visit. I much prefer that to the frankly boring setting of contemporary earth, just so we can learn more about the companions family.
Story Arcs
We also talked about who had the better story arcs: RTD or Moffat? For me, the answer is beyond obvious. RTD didn't have story arcs at all. He had a single word or phrase that kept popping up in every other episode. Even series 1, arguably the most arc-heavy of RTD's era, was nothing in comparison to even series 5, never mind series 6.
Lets take series 6 for example. While it did rely on certain episodes as info dumps, we still got information in episodes that weren't just the finale, unlike in RTD's era, when we got the same word repeated until the finale when we found out what it meant.
So, series 6. In the first 10 minutes we get our big question, 'How did the Doctor survive?', along with answers to some running questions from series 5 (who are the Silence?). Then, although it takes 4 episodes, we start getting more answers. Why did Amy keep wearing the same clothes? Because she's a Ganger! Who is River Song? She's Amy's daughter!
Then, from this new info, we can start to speculate about other things. Who's inside the astronaut? Is it River? In that case, was the regenerating girl at the end of Day of the Moon River as well? Then when LKH rolls around, we get some more answers, as well as a bit more explanation about the silence, which also opens up more questions. Then at the end of the series we get our final answer to the big question (how did the Doctor survive?), as well as some new questions preparing for series 7.
No, it's not perfect. I would much prefer to have a steady stream of info as the series goes on, instead of specified info dumps. But in a show like Doctor Who, where every week is completely different, that's not so easy.
So to conclude, both RTD and Moffat are good. It all comes down to personal taste. RTD writes better characters, but Moffat writes a better story.
...
Only joking. It was an RTD vs Moffat debate though, so anything's possible. We were discussing their treatment of story arcs and characters. I naturally found myself serving on the side of the Moff, so here's what I had to say on the issue.
Character vs Story
Yes, RTD's focus on the companions and their families definitely helped where the characters were concerned. However, his story arcs failed as a result. Moffat did the opposite. He had big, complicated story arcs, with lots of twists and turns and questions and shiz, but focused decidedly less on the companions family.
Now, with Amy Pond, he accomplished this brilliantly. He made the lack of her family part of the plot, with the crack in time having eaten them up. Her extended family were definitely there for her introductory episode (Jeff, her aunt, etc etc). Rory, her fiance, also became a regular companion.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "But Daniel, these characters only appeared once, then all vanished for the remainder of Amy Ponds era". Yes, you're right. But is that a bad thing?
You see, Doctor Who is a show that can go anywhere and do anything. It has truly infinite possibilities. As much as I love all the family stuff in RTD's era, he did visit present day earth a little too often. In a show with such a wide scope of ideas, I'd much rather visit strange alien worlds or different times, instead of the one particular year the show happens to be broadcast. That's what Moffat did.
Whatever you think of series 5, 6 or 7, you cant deny that they're easily more varied than anything in series 1, 2, 3 or 4. Series 6 and 7 especially are massive in the variety of locations they visit. I much prefer that to the frankly boring setting of contemporary earth, just so we can learn more about the companions family.
Story Arcs
We also talked about who had the better story arcs: RTD or Moffat? For me, the answer is beyond obvious. RTD didn't have story arcs at all. He had a single word or phrase that kept popping up in every other episode. Even series 1, arguably the most arc-heavy of RTD's era, was nothing in comparison to even series 5, never mind series 6.
Lets take series 6 for example. While it did rely on certain episodes as info dumps, we still got information in episodes that weren't just the finale, unlike in RTD's era, when we got the same word repeated until the finale when we found out what it meant.
So, series 6. In the first 10 minutes we get our big question, 'How did the Doctor survive?', along with answers to some running questions from series 5 (who are the Silence?). Then, although it takes 4 episodes, we start getting more answers. Why did Amy keep wearing the same clothes? Because she's a Ganger! Who is River Song? She's Amy's daughter!
Then, from this new info, we can start to speculate about other things. Who's inside the astronaut? Is it River? In that case, was the regenerating girl at the end of Day of the Moon River as well? Then when LKH rolls around, we get some more answers, as well as a bit more explanation about the silence, which also opens up more questions. Then at the end of the series we get our final answer to the big question (how did the Doctor survive?), as well as some new questions preparing for series 7.
No, it's not perfect. I would much prefer to have a steady stream of info as the series goes on, instead of specified info dumps. But in a show like Doctor Who, where every week is completely different, that's not so easy.
So to conclude, both RTD and Moffat are good. It all comes down to personal taste. RTD writes better characters, but Moffat writes a better story.
Sunday, 13 July 2014
The Leeked Trailer
So, I was just about to write about the new Doctor Who series 8 trailer that just came out. But unfortunately, the joy and happiness that brought to me was replaced by the absolute horror of Deep Breath being uploaded to youtube, in its entirety. Sure, it's watermarked in black and white with no VFX, but it's still there!
Now, this episode has been on the internet for about a day now, but somehow it being easily available on youtube makes it worse. How, you ask? Well, surprisingly, it's the settings button.
You see, I, along with many other regular users of Youtube, instantly go for the settings button whenever I watch a video so that I can change the resolution from shitty 480p to the much more lovely 1080p. It's become instinctive. So instinctive that I always do it, even for a video I don't plan on watching. So when a friend of mine linked me the video, with me totally oblivious to what it was, I went for the settings. This meant that by the time I had realized what was going on, I'd already seen about 5 seconds of Deep Breath. I also mis-clicked. So instead of hitting the desired button, I missed and accidentally hit the time bar which shot me forward towards the end of the episode. Disaster!
So I'd seen 5 seconds of the opening, and another 5 seconds of a much later point. This pissed me off. Sure, it's only 10 seconds in total, but it's still a portion of the episode I really didn't want to see. Now, this is no fault of the person who linked me the video, he had no way of knowing I'd react like this. But quite frankly, I'm pissed off. Like, really. I'm properly angry. Not with my friend, not even with the person who uploaded the video (although I am a bit cross with him). No, I'm angry with the bloody BBC. The bastards who let this leak happen in the first place. How, in the name of Rassilon, does this get to happen!? In what fucked up, backwards universe does this sort of thing become a normality? Because it feels like a normality. It feels like the BBC aren't even bloody trying to stop these leaks from happening. I feel sorry for Steven Moffat, for Peter Capaldi, for Jenna Coleman, and for all the people who have worked tirelessly to make this series. I feel sorry for anyone who's been spoiled. I feel sorry for myself, who had even less time to wait than most people, but still feels like the entire 'Deep Breath' experience has been ruined.
I've got nothing against spoiler-hounds. If they like spoilers, let them see them. But I do have a thing against the people who let these spoilers leak. BBC Fucking Miami, or whatever they're called, are rubbish. If Marcelo Camargo isn't already fired then he needs to be, alongside the bastard who's in charge of not firing him. Basically, I'm a bit angry, and revenge is the purist of motives. I'm cross at the BBC for letting this happen. And I'm worried that it will affect my viewing of the episodes.
But oh well. It cant be as bad as series 7, right?
Now, this episode has been on the internet for about a day now, but somehow it being easily available on youtube makes it worse. How, you ask? Well, surprisingly, it's the settings button.
You see, I, along with many other regular users of Youtube, instantly go for the settings button whenever I watch a video so that I can change the resolution from shitty 480p to the much more lovely 1080p. It's become instinctive. So instinctive that I always do it, even for a video I don't plan on watching. So when a friend of mine linked me the video, with me totally oblivious to what it was, I went for the settings. This meant that by the time I had realized what was going on, I'd already seen about 5 seconds of Deep Breath. I also mis-clicked. So instead of hitting the desired button, I missed and accidentally hit the time bar which shot me forward towards the end of the episode. Disaster!
So I'd seen 5 seconds of the opening, and another 5 seconds of a much later point. This pissed me off. Sure, it's only 10 seconds in total, but it's still a portion of the episode I really didn't want to see. Now, this is no fault of the person who linked me the video, he had no way of knowing I'd react like this. But quite frankly, I'm pissed off. Like, really. I'm properly angry. Not with my friend, not even with the person who uploaded the video (although I am a bit cross with him). No, I'm angry with the bloody BBC. The bastards who let this leak happen in the first place. How, in the name of Rassilon, does this get to happen!? In what fucked up, backwards universe does this sort of thing become a normality? Because it feels like a normality. It feels like the BBC aren't even bloody trying to stop these leaks from happening. I feel sorry for Steven Moffat, for Peter Capaldi, for Jenna Coleman, and for all the people who have worked tirelessly to make this series. I feel sorry for anyone who's been spoiled. I feel sorry for myself, who had even less time to wait than most people, but still feels like the entire 'Deep Breath' experience has been ruined.
I've got nothing against spoiler-hounds. If they like spoilers, let them see them. But I do have a thing against the people who let these spoilers leak. BBC Fucking Miami, or whatever they're called, are rubbish. If Marcelo Camargo isn't already fired then he needs to be, alongside the bastard who's in charge of not firing him. Basically, I'm a bit angry, and revenge is the purist of motives. I'm cross at the BBC for letting this happen. And I'm worried that it will affect my viewing of the episodes.
But oh well. It cant be as bad as series 7, right?
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