Teddy bears are specifically designed with expressionless faces. This is a device for children to project their own emotions into their bear. This is why police cars often keep one in the trunk for children who have experienced trauma. This idea however, is not specific to teddy bears. It can be found in other toys, like say even a Doctor Who action figure. But even further, the concept can be extended to fictional characters. In most any story, the main character(s) are used as a conduit through which the viewer experiences the story. Sometimes, the more fantastical the world, the more mundane the character. Sometimes this works, like Harry Potter for instance, and sometimes the lead character remains flat and fails to grow with the world around them. Like Bella Swan for instance- a girl who less partakes in her world, so much as someone at whom her world happens.
Possible spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched all of the Ninth Doctor…
I was watching “The Parting of Ways” and I noticed something at the part where the Daleks hover up to the window to kill Lynda. If you skip forward to about 4:25 you can clearly see the Dalek’s head lights light up with those four famous syllables- “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!” lol… I dunno why, but I find this darkly funny. Even in the cold silence of outer space, the Daleks are creatures of habit. :P
Doctor Who Challenge #21: Best Update of a Classic Character- The Doctor
I almost chose the Sontarans, the Daleks and even the Autons/Nestine Consciousness. But when I started to think about it, one of the main things that made the 2005 revamp work better than the 1996 movie was that the Doctor was a better drawn out character. In the ‘96 movie, he just kinda dies and turns into a sweet, eccentric guy with no memory but an intense inclination that he had to do something… But Eccleston is the Doctor also freshly regenerated, and from what we can gather, deeply disturbed from a case of serious post traumatic stress. The Time War really did do a number on the Time Lord. Having this weight on his shoulders really was the thing that the show needed to update the Doctor for today’s television era. His brooding fits the indie character driven art house cinema and experimental TV of the day. Without his traumatic experiences, his character would not be a logical removal from the happy-go-lucky Tom Baker. It also gave the show a proper air of mystery. This is, in my mind, a key component to the show’s success with new viewers. The mythology is so dense that it is its own mystery to new comers, but not a very good reason to continue viewing, damn near daunting. But this broken spaceman surrounded in mystery and myth? Now there’s someone worth following, worth discovering.
Doctor Who Challenge #18: Favorite Doctor Moment- The Doctor trash talks a Dalek
I kind of want to go with a moment when the Doctor is doing some amazing physical feat like in “Human Nature” when he throws the ball to save the baby from a falling piano, or when he owns ass in soccer in “The Lodger.” But I’m actually going to go with the first time the show ever really drew me in. That would be from the 2005 episode “Dalek” when Nine has dialog with the first Dalek he’s seen since the Time War. I still hadn’t really bought into the show’s greatness after having seen the Slitheen episodes. But then BAM! Eccleston’s acting levels the entire scene and you get a glimpse into the Doctor’s fury and dark side. We see this dark side come out in future episodes like “The Runaway Bride,” “The Family of Blood,” or Eleven’s speech at the end of “The Pandorica Opens.” It’s times like those when we realize why Vashta Nerada or the Atraxi run from him. Because in between his moments of loving goofiness, malaise, or cockiness, he’s actually kind of scary.
Doctor Who Challenge #13: Least Favorite Aliens- The Slitheen
First off, who the fuck designed these aliens? Secondly, who the fuck decided they should be in three episodes? Not only do they look like farty pot bellied long neck baby heads, but they also chewed up almost a 4th of Christopher Eccleston’s episodes. Whoever came up with these things should be shot. However, I would like to say that the episode Boom Town was actually not terrible. The dinner scene between the Doctor and “Margaret” is Eccleston at his most Bugs Bunny. Boom Town is a lot of what “Nu Who” was all about- forgiveness. So I won’t say they’re all terrible, but the two parter that preceded Boom Town is like stepping in shit with both shoes. Not once are these things scary or believable. The new series improved on special effects quite considerably, except with these lame ass baddies.
