Easy fast, for those who observe. I recommitted myself last year but took this year off because of…*waves vaguely* all this.
Continue to watch lots of Doctor Who this week! I wrapped up the Ben & Polly era and am well into the Victoria(n) era. I still haven’t looked up if there was production break between “Macra Terror” and “The Faceless Ones” but it certainly feels like it. “Macra” is one of the stories that doesn’t lead directly into the next and that COULD mean there’s a lengthy gap in time. The relationship between the Doctor and Jamie seems to have changed considerably (and Jamie’s character seems slightly reworked) so I wonder if “Macra” was actually the end of a production block, or the actors made that decision, or it’s just a coincidence that I’m happy to read into. There’s another potential gap between “Evil” and “Tomb” and Jamie sounds like he’s been traveling with the Doctor way longer than what’s been televised. The shift is a little tough to put my finger on, because it happens offscreen, but the end result is a better, funnier, more chemistry-led show.
Last night in the UNCLE group watch we reached “Secret Sceptre” and “Foxes and Hounds” which I personally think is a series high for very impartial reasons. At this point in the series Illya is just around either for the ride or to be as dramatic and goth as possible. My personal favorite is Illya naming a fox Napoleon for no explicitly given reason. As my friend said, that’s a LOT to unpack. The episode truly has everything, Illya’s total ice queen indifference to women (“that’s nice, but unnecessary”), excellent fight choreography and a brutally efficient Illya murder, some of Illya’s best one-liners (“I’ll have his teeth for cufflinks”) and lots and lots of fluffy dogs. Highly recommend. Back half of season one is really where the show finds its amazing groove between grounded spywork and comedy. Of course, I’m skipping the lesser episodes (for now) but I’ll probably devote a night to Dove, Finny-Foot and Four Steps sometime in the future. Also, my Illya 8x10s arrived! I’m fine this pandemic is fine
I’m finding more and more joy in playing video games while my roommates watch and heckle. It has pretty consistently been Breath of the Wild, which I enjoy for the diversity and range of activities. I learned that mountain climbing/dragon hunting is important, and that big rocks are hard to hit from behind. I think part of it is this particular group of people, but I also find communal storytelling (since I’m very open to suggestions and backseat driving in video games) more and more fun. I’ve always been a fan of D&D (I was in a campaign for more than a year once, even!) and I’m looking forward to my Halloween-adjacent Vampire the Masquerade one-shot and I think RPGs might have even made getting into video games easier for me. My favorite part of writing is when I get to work on something with a partner, so maybe I just crave that back and forth of ideas. Anyway, communal storytelling good. Roommates heckling me, good. Ganon, bad. Fire bad, tree pretty.