The Tyranny of Socks

In the midst of all the doom and gloom, here is something nice: a pair of Polish ballroom dancers won the Britain's Greatest Dancer TV show this season. I don't understand how they beat the tiny and adorable Lily and Joseph (except that this is the year in which Oti Mabuse wins all the things, I guess), but given the degree to which hatred and prejudice are normalised these days it was cheering.

After my last post about Doctor Who I actually warmed to the season, because they were doing a lot of what I liked, especially with the historical episodes. I was not totally convinced by how the season arc was resolved -- I liked how it was all done but I felt like the what of it didn't make a lot of sense . ( spoiler )

I am also watching season 1 of Discovery, which is on actual television here, except that clearly other than me everyone who wanted to see it already has, since Channel 4 moved it from Sunday at 9 (a prime slot!) to Sunday at 11.15 or so. At least recording things is a lot easier than it used to be back when they did this to Babylon 5. We are almost at then end and I'm really enjoying it, except for literally everything to do with the Klingons which is both boring and confusing somehow. But the Mirror Universe has always been one of my favourite things about Star Trek and I love the way the show is playing with it. I am guessing that C4 will just never show the later seasons, alas.

And in current television news I am also watching Picard, which is definitely a thing. A thing I like, I think, but I can see very clearly why people might not like it, too. I do really love the way the show flags Picard's (and through him, the Federation's) benevolent colonialism as a thing which is not all that benevolent. Picard being a self-righteous asshole (and his struggle to be less of one) has always been one of the things I liked about him, back when I watched TNG. I fell out of touch with Star Trek, especially the later movies and pretty much everything after the first season or so of Voyager, so I mostly have only osmosis to thank for any idea about what is going on in the universe at large, but that hasn't interfered much with my enjoyment. This too is, in its own way, comforting television.

1. I am pleased about the new Doctor -- as much as I am ever pleased by cast changes on Doctor Who. Normally I spend about half a season not sure about the new Doctor or Companion and then decide that I love them. I will certainly miss Moffat and his addiction to ridiculous time travel shenanigans and Time Lordish female characters, but I expect that Chibnall will be fine, and will bring something new and interesting to the show.

2. I am, as usual at this point in the challenge, eying the crossovering tag set and wondering about signing up for it. I haven't yet, but who knows, maybe this will be the year for it! There are certainly many interesting possibilities there. The problem with crossovers is that there are stories I want, but I want them in a very specific way.

3. GAME OF THRONES IS BACK!!! ( and I am feeling all the love )

4. I am still rereading old XF fic. Thank goodness, there is a lot of it, and a lot of it is still worth reading. I do miss Krycek, that cranky, violent, uncooperative asshole (to quote a friend). He was fun to write. (On which note, self, do not write your Thomas Nightingale/Alex Krycek crossover idea. It is not a good idea. No one will read it.)

5. A crossover people would read: Tony Stark and the Westeros Starks. In New York? In Westeros? There is a lot of good crossover potential in the MCU/ASOIAF thing.

::leaping back in::

Doctor Who is back! Yay! ( spoilers, sweetie, below the cut )

No one reading this cares, I expect, but this looks like it will be a very competitive season on Strictly Come Dancing -- it's only Week 1 and already most of the dancers look competent! On further reality TV news, I am hoping that Nadiya wins GBBO, nd I just finished watching a really amusing show called Time Crashers in which a bunch of celebrities are "transported through time" and discover that the past is a really crappy place to live and work. I am always amazed by how many TV shows can be made from this simple observation!

Because I watch things slowly and legally, I am only now seeing S3 of Orphan Black -- up to episode 2 now! But it's all up on iplayer and I expect we'll have finished it in a week or so. (Because iplayer is not very intuitive, the first episode we tried to watch was Episode 10. Luckily we realized during the "previously on"s that this was not the start of things, but for a minute there we were both really confused.)

I have been re-reading things, too -- the first Rivers of London book (there will be a new one, soon!), and Neil Stephenson's Reamde. What I realized the second time through with that one is that Zula's story is far more interesting to me than anyone else's, so I kept having to stop myself from skipping ahead to her next section whenever the story broke away from her, and also that the final confrontation was disappointing for two reasons, ( which are spoilery )

Also re-reading in preparation for a new installment: Ancillary Justice etc. I found the first 50 pages or so of that book a real slog, and am picking up much more detail the second time around, now that I have a better sense of what is going on. My problem is that I'm a fast reader, but I don't retain well, because I'm always wondering what will happen next -- this is why re-reading is to important for me.

Anyway, that is enough of an update, at least for now! I might do a RL post too at some point. Maybe.

Under the cut ( SPOILERS! )