"I've seen how they treat you . . . "
Jan. 14th, 2008 04:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaTV Night continues to be fun. I am liking Doctor Ten more and more as we go, although aspects of the things that I didn't like about Nine continue to hang around, and several of the things that I did like about him seem to be gone for good, to my dismay. However, I have discovered that I really like what the writers have done with the character of Mickey. I started to really like him in, oddly enough, episode 1-8, "Father's Day." That he knew where to go and who could protect him even then and there meant, for me, that he had the stuff to be a companion and not just "the tin dog." And this double-episode gave him what he's deserved for a long time. That the Doctor was talking to him through the security system, that he trusted him enough at that point to know he was listening, was just spectacular - and that it was Mickey more or less alone, rather than Mickey and Rose or even Mickey and Jackie, that bailed him out was marvelous. I strongly suspect that we are not actually leaving them forever - the Doctor now has to deal with the consequences of what he does to his companions, and the Cybermen are too cool to leave in this alternate timeline, which adds up to the Cybermen invading the Doctor and Rose's timeline at some point later on and Mickey following. (Those of you who have watched the next season, please don't tell me!)
Tonight's Eureka episode, 2-7, was one of my favorites, being Fargo-centric and having a nice S.A.R.A.H. scene as well. I particularly enjoyed not only getting some more backstory on our Fargo, but seeing his grandfather's reaction to him and his situation. The moment when he tells him "I've seen the way people treat you around here, and being fired could be a blessing," and Douglas's reaction is to chew on his lip a moment and then answer "True," is just magnificent. Stark's dismissiveness towards him - and towards Pierre, just because he's a Fargo, too - speaks volumes about Stark's own character; given the little bit of Douglas we see under Dr. King in the pilot (overtalkative and trying to be slick, but fairly self-assured) and the glimpse we see of alt-future-Douglas under Dr. Deacon in episode 1-12 (still a klutz and a bit of a schlimazel, but much more confident and effective), it seems clear that a great deal of Fargo's current state of loserhood is because Dr. Stark thinks he's a loser. I suspect this is a vicious cycle - Stark thinks he's a dip, he gets nervous and screws up because of it, reinforcing the previous opinion of diphood, etc. That Fargo thinks the world of Dr. Stark - whether because of father-issues or because he has a sempai-crush on him or both - means he is particularly vulnerable to his opinion. However, I think we are already seeing a little of what Douglas is like under Dr. Blake - at the very least, he seems more assertive in this season than in last. (I suppose we could also argue that his having had a near-death experience might have something to do with that.) But she also seems to have inherited a lot of Stark's opinion of Fargo.
Also, there have been a number of weird hints in this season that even the non-religious people in Eureka have some odd pseudo-religious or even vaguely occultish beliefs. There're the references not only to the Phoenix but also to "evil spirits" in the season opener, the whole stupid "akashic field" thing, some lucid-dream-related stuff in "Noche de Suenos," and Fargo quite bluntly calling his family cursed - not even just "unlucky," which is unscientific enough, but cursed - in this episode. (There are more later in the season, but I'll avoid spoiling the Spouse here, since he hasn't seen those yet.) I don't know if these are leading up to something in seasons yet unaired, or if this is just an oddity of the writers on the show, but I'm finding it oddly jarring in a "science" fiction world. Assuming we get season 3 at all, what with the writers' strike and all, I'm betting that we get a "ghosts" episode somewhere down the line.
--
Finally, since the Spouse has been playing a lot of Portal recently, I came up with an idea for the best catfight/cage match ever: S.A.R.A.H. vs. GLaDOS - to the pain!
Tonight's Eureka episode, 2-7, was one of my favorites, being Fargo-centric and having a nice S.A.R.A.H. scene as well. I particularly enjoyed not only getting some more backstory on our Fargo, but seeing his grandfather's reaction to him and his situation. The moment when he tells him "I've seen the way people treat you around here, and being fired could be a blessing," and Douglas's reaction is to chew on his lip a moment and then answer "True," is just magnificent. Stark's dismissiveness towards him - and towards Pierre, just because he's a Fargo, too - speaks volumes about Stark's own character; given the little bit of Douglas we see under Dr. King in the pilot (overtalkative and trying to be slick, but fairly self-assured) and the glimpse we see of alt-future-Douglas under Dr. Deacon in episode 1-12 (still a klutz and a bit of a schlimazel, but much more confident and effective), it seems clear that a great deal of Fargo's current state of loserhood is because Dr. Stark thinks he's a loser. I suspect this is a vicious cycle - Stark thinks he's a dip, he gets nervous and screws up because of it, reinforcing the previous opinion of diphood, etc. That Fargo thinks the world of Dr. Stark - whether because of father-issues or because he has a sempai-crush on him or both - means he is particularly vulnerable to his opinion. However, I think we are already seeing a little of what Douglas is like under Dr. Blake - at the very least, he seems more assertive in this season than in last. (I suppose we could also argue that his having had a near-death experience might have something to do with that.) But she also seems to have inherited a lot of Stark's opinion of Fargo.
Also, there have been a number of weird hints in this season that even the non-religious people in Eureka have some odd pseudo-religious or even vaguely occultish beliefs. There're the references not only to the Phoenix but also to "evil spirits" in the season opener, the whole stupid "akashic field" thing, some lucid-dream-related stuff in "Noche de Suenos," and Fargo quite bluntly calling his family cursed - not even just "unlucky," which is unscientific enough, but cursed - in this episode. (There are more later in the season, but I'll avoid spoiling the Spouse here, since he hasn't seen those yet.) I don't know if these are leading up to something in seasons yet unaired, or if this is just an oddity of the writers on the show, but I'm finding it oddly jarring in a "science" fiction world. Assuming we get season 3 at all, what with the writers' strike and all, I'm betting that we get a "ghosts" episode somewhere down the line.
--
Finally, since the Spouse has been playing a lot of Portal recently, I came up with an idea for the best catfight/cage match ever: S.A.R.A.H. vs. GLaDOS - to the pain!
