Trilogy of Who-rror

Our wireless DSL modem died on Friday, so I spent the weekend internet free. Not a bad gig. Saturday was so nice we sat most of the afternoon on the back deck listening to 60s/70s oldies and drinking Negra Modelo. I think the prolonged exposure to bright light helped me get over my jetlag.

I finished up a severely revised draft of a short story I wrote originally in 2000. Though the overall story is materially the same, the focus and nuance are much richer, I hope. It went from 2700 to 3700 words during the revision process. My first reader has it at present—then I’ll decide if it’s ready to go out to market. For some reason, I only ever submitted this story twice, then sort of gave up on it. I think I realized it was missing something.

We watched Freedom Writers on Friday night. Highly recommended. I’d seen it on the flight to Tokyo, but on such a tiny screen with such poor contrast that I felt like I missed a lot. Including all the bad words.

SPOILERS for the current Doctor Who series

I watched the three most recent episodes of Doctor Who yesterday, up to the first half of the two-parter that concluded in the UK this weekend.

1) The Lazarus Experiment. Biggest clue this was going to be about someone who figured out how to make himself young (besides the episode title, that is): bad old-age makeup. I knew he was going to come out young the instant I saw him on the screen for the first time. The first of two consecutive episodes that emphasize the notion that you should never assume someone is dead, especially if he’s evil, even if he’s been subjected to some terrible injury. Like Jason, he rises again and again. Once Lazarus becomes a prehensile throwback cross between a scorpion and a dinosaur, the episode has some good scares, and I liked the bit where the set rotated around him to show what things are like from his POV when he was caroming off the walls.

So, who’s the creepy guy whispering in Ma Jones’s ear? The poorly-kept-secret villain scheduled to arrive later in the season?

2) 42 — an obvious (dyslexic) riff on 24, an episode in realtime. 42 minutes until we crash into the sun. Another Doctor Who trope: the faceless monster that repeats an inane mantra. Burn with me. Good interplay between the guest victims, good tension and a Star Trek-like story about inanimate objects that are really living. Got the doc and Martha off terra cognita for a while, at least, and Martha got to kiss someone, at least.

So, what’s the deal with the wiretappers in Ma Jones’s kitchen? More Torchwood stuff?

3) Human Nature: Off we go to the eve of WWI, and “the family” are in pursuit of the Doctor for reasons unknown. So desperate is he that he must become *gasp* human—a process that is clearly excruciating. I like Martha more and more and I’m glad that the Doctor is doling out her treasures (universe-wide roaming, the key, etc) in small measures because she’s so delighted with each gift. She’s more open about her attraction to the Doctor than Rose was and her jealousy fairly simmers in this episode. Creepy scarecrow monsters, and I thought the head-tilting gag was a hoot. The little boy is a mystery that I hope gets solved in The Family of Blood. The Doctor’s journal is nifty.