About Things

Another mostly random stream-of-consciousness post, which could be excruciatingly dull or slightly entertaining... Hmm... Let's see where this goes.

Starting with work... My current assignment ends in about two weeks, and I'm still in two minds about it all. On the one hand, it feels too soon (I keep picturing David Tennant's excruciating "I don't want to go..." from his final Doctor Who appearance (yeah, I know, till the special later this year...) but it's unlikely I'll start spewing out regeneration energy and become a different person on that day. Well, not a physically different person. For a while, at least, I'll be a gentleman of leisure, able to do whatever I want, whenever I want... as long as I have money enough to cover it. Once the novelty of not having to get up for work wears off, I'll likely be hit by a wave of apathy, and I'm not sure how that'll work now that I'm dating. I'm hoping it'll be possible to just put it aside and get on with things, the way it's been when she and I spend a weekend together (certain other blog projects have been far more productive - almost regularly so - while the two of us sit around working on our separate things for a few hours a day).

I'm also hoping that the period of 'rest' will not be indefinite. I've finally heard back from a new agency, recommended to me by a friend. Took almost two weeks, which just ain't impressive, but apparently their clients offer quite stupidly high day rates, which can only be a good thing. If I can get the next job lined up quickly, I'll have less to worry about.

I've had the sense that my current employers really are keen to hang on to me, and that I may have shot myself in the foot somewhat. In pointing out that more of my time is spent on things other than my regular monthly title, it has become less likely that anyone would think to employ a separate body (or me, specifically) to work on these 'other' projects. Hey ho.

There have been lots of discussions about how things are going to work (or, more often, how they're really just not going to work) when the maternity-leaver returns, and it sounds as though a whole new system will be created to take certain company politics into account. Elsewhere, there are discussions about the myriad other ways the situation could be fixed but, naturally, the higher-ups just don't want to know. They're too busy with their knee-jerk reactions.

It's this kind of thing - and the hopeless lack of organisational skills exhibited by some folks in other departments - that leaves me feeling that I'll be glad to get out of there. It'll have been almost a full five months on this run, with only a couple of half-day holidays to deal with the ants in my flat. It's been mostly fun, and I rather like the people I'm working with... but some of their office-inappropriate conversations have been getting on my nerves a little...

Still, it seems that my concerns about being unable to return to office work for an extended period were unfounded.

It occurs to me that I could probably add to my last post about Doctor Who by writing a little bit about this series in general and, perhaps, the finale. It's true to say it's had it's ups and downs. Clara's introductory episode (the proper one, 'The Bells of St John') was a bit random and a bit clichéd... or at least unoriginal. It seemed to be setting up something big, connected to the Christmas special which preceded it. If that's the case, even the series finale didn't really explore it thoroughly... It's almost as if we're in for another two-series arc, like 'The Girl Who Waited'. That's no bad thing, and I'd welcome Richard E. Grant returning as the disembodied villain for a third (fourth?) time... but I am beginning to feel that Moffat is stretching his arcs to the point where they're barely curved, and filling in each series with gradually patchier standalone stories.

They haven't been terrible, though... still nothing to rival the majority of RTD's run and, as always, my major complaint is that they need more time to develop the stories and get the most out of the characters and situations. I honestly think that, at this point in the series, it should switch format so we have two or three stories per year, each of three to five episodes.

That said, certain specific episodes from this series probably wouldn't benefit from such treatment. 'The Rings of Akhaten' harked back to the David Tennant era, not least because of the Doctor's grand oration toward the end, and his 'self-sacrifice' seemed like a direct lift from Torchwood's series 1 finale. 'Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS', meanwhile, was a tight story, that would just have become flabby if it had been extended.

'Cold War', hopefully heralding the return of the Ice Warriors, was similarly tight - not to say claustrophobic - but it might have been interesting to explore the Grand Marshall in a little more detail (perhaps explaining his relationship with the Doctor, since it was clearly intimated they knew each other... was this a reference to Classic Who?), not to mention the terrestrial Cold War politics... and also the vague similarity to The Thing, in that the 'monster' was brought aboard the submarine encased in ice.

'The Crimson Horror' desperately needed another hour or two to fully explore what was happening, from the mysterious Mr. Sweet' to the strange, almost Stepfordesque gated community of Sweetville. There was potential for cliff hangers aplenty, but the single episode format didn't allow for such luxuries.

Neil Gaiman's second episode, 'Nightmare in Silver' could have squeezed in far more tension with another hour, since the newly-upgraded Cybermen didn't really get to do very much... Though I'd imagine they'll return soon enough.

The finale left me a little nonplussed. Certain bits I liked, certain bits didn't make a whole lot of sense. Tying it all in with Classic Who was pretty cute, especially with this being the 50th Anniversary year but, ultimately, it was another finale where Moffat teased a lot, and delivered surprisingly little. One of these days, he's going to have to start properly answering some of the questions he opens up... but I can live with not knowing the Doctor's actual name...

And John Hurt's appearance? Well... I was speechless for all of about three seconds, then said - out loud - "You're shitting me". If the captions are to be believed (and one never knows with Moffat), this is an amazing coup, and I can't wait to see more. Weird thing is, it seems to pin Moffat down and force him into an explanation of something important, though we don't yet know what that important thing is. Some have theorised that it's to do with the Time War that 'destroyed' Gallifrey... but, to me, that seems unlikely since those events, we are given to believe, occurred before Ecclestones' turn as the Doctor... but this is a show about Time Travel, so anything's possible.

In other news, I had a rather bonkers dream last night, which started out in a large, sprawling shopping centre which seemed to have been built in a rather hilly area without first levelling the terrain. The main drag through the shopping centre twisted and turned, went up and down small hills... Reaching the centre point and looking back the way I'd come, it almost looked like the sort of landscape that occurs in the more contemporary Japanese RPGs like the increasingly inaccurately named Final Fantasy series or Xenoblade (particularly the field on Bionis' leg). It appeared that I was there to meet my girlfriend, and I had a rather uncomfortable time trying to separate myself from a guy who'd started talking to me along the way... ending up claiming that I'd walked past where I'd intended to go, just so I could walk the opposite way for a few minutes, thereby getting away from him.

And when I met up with my girlfriend, we were accosted by a comically Italian older gentleman, who claimed to have been under some enchantment which my girlfriend had broken. He believed, therefore, that this was evidence of further fairy tale shenanigens. When my girlfriend started talking about her 'burnt-out wreck' of an ex, it began to seem that I'd been sidelined, and it slowly dawned on me that she was talking about a very recent ex-... like, only ex- for a few moments... as in me.

When I queried this with her, she confessed to feeling that it was over between us - I don't remember the specifics, but it all sounded pretty reasonable - so I hugged her, wished her well... and half-jokingly threatened to do her harm if she ever referred to me as a 'burnt-out wreck' again.

Which brings us to this very weekend... which is pretty busy. Well, comparatively busy. While I'm just going to be doing personal stuff for most of today, I'm taking my girlfriend and folks to see the new Star Trek movie tonight, then going to the London Expo (MCM Comic Con London) with an old mate tomorrow, and probably to a concert on Monday. This could be another of those weekends that actually feels like a proper holiday...

...But we shall see...