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Nov. 16th, 2005 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doyleYou know what's awesome? The new Big Finish Doctor Who audio, Singularity. Which is a Fifth Doctor and Turlough one, huzzah and hurrah. I listened to it on my lunch hour and journeys to work today and I'm a bit in love with it.
In a nutshell, the Doctor and Turlough end up in mid-21st century Moscow and come up againstScientologists a cult called the Somnus Foundation which has a nasty tendency to brainwash people. And the Doctor is Doctory and Turlough is beautifully characterized and gets to angst about the war, particularly in a bit where he psychically attacks the bad guy with his pain - and Turlough, who was exiled from his homeworld and saw his family and friends slaughtered, has lots of pain to share. There's lovely use of the TARDIS too, with Turlough and the Doctor getting very upset when the ship gets tortured by the villains. And the plot is very very good and in places reminiscent of both End of the World and Father's Day - the Doctor inadvertently takes a girl back to the day her mother died and Turlough talks her out of changing history. I was Gripped. *nods*
Lines what I liked, paraphrased as best I can remember:
"Come on, Turlough, where's your sense of adventure?"
"In the TARDIS! In a box! Marked 'sense of adventure'!" (A couple of people on OG complained about this line, and also Turlough's desire to go some place "with nice weather and pretty girls". For the latter, the crux of their argument seemed to be an inability to believe Turlough would be interested in girls...)
(After Turlough bitches about the cold)
"You must forgive Turlough. Anything below room temperature triggers an automatic grumbling reflex."
Villain: "Tell us where the blond man is!"
Turlough: "SOD OFF!" (I cheered.)
OC: "Do you have a family?"
The Doctor: "Yes, in a way. And every so often one of them leaves me and I feel like I've aged a hundred years over night. But it's better than the alternative - endless empty corridors and echoing rooms."
(And later, as they watch a brother and sister reunite)
Turlough: "Look at them. It's so easy for them to forgive each other, even after everything. Sometimes... I don't think I'll ever have that."
The Doctor: "But you have a family somewhere, surely?"
Turlough: "...yes, in a way." (The subtext here's all very lovely - the sister was able to save her brother from the dimension he was trapped in because he's her family, and as the Doctor says "like calls to like". And the Doctor is able to save Turlough from the same place, in exactly the same way. And had I not been on the bus I would have welled up a bit at "Doctor?" "Welcome home.")
Turlough: "I'm not like other boys!" (I quite wilfully misinterpreted this.)
The Doctor, demanding the release of Turlough and the TARDIS: "I've come to ask for my ball back. In a manner of speaking." (And that.)
Turlough: "Maybe we could get a better view from that tall building?"
The Doctor: "That's the Kremlin, Turlough. They won't want me back in there. Not after last time." (This one took me a startled moment to remember where the story was set; The Kremlin is the name of Belfast's major gay club. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
panloaf suggested when I told him this, maybe that's why they had to renovate last year.)
"Are you planning what I think you're planning?"
"I never know what you're thinking, Turlough. That's why you're such an interesting travelling companion."
Turlough, standing outside and watching, aghast, as the building the Doctor's in goes up in flames: "Has he... has he set the building on fire? Every time! I leave him alone for five minutes, and something burns down or blows up!"
And a very pretty conversation that I don't remember well enough to paraphrase about heroism and how Turlough is more like the Doctor than he thinks.
I would recommend it to all, but especially to Turlough or Five/Turlough fans - they get to interact a bit more than in the other two plays, and I loved how Turlough was written here, as outwardly cowardly and self-serving but ultimately a good person, and one who helps save the day even when he's cut off from the Doctor and it's him versus quite a lot of ultra-powerful energy beings. "Well, if the Doctor was here he'd probably do something very clever," he says, examining the beings' main energy cortex. "As for me, I'm going to hit it until it breaks." That's my boy.
In a nutshell, the Doctor and Turlough end up in mid-21st century Moscow and come up against
Lines what I liked, paraphrased as best I can remember:
"Come on, Turlough, where's your sense of adventure?"
"In the TARDIS! In a box! Marked 'sense of adventure'!" (A couple of people on OG complained about this line, and also Turlough's desire to go some place "with nice weather and pretty girls". For the latter, the crux of their argument seemed to be an inability to believe Turlough would be interested in girls...)
(After Turlough bitches about the cold)
"You must forgive Turlough. Anything below room temperature triggers an automatic grumbling reflex."
Villain: "Tell us where the blond man is!"
Turlough: "SOD OFF!" (I cheered.)
OC: "Do you have a family?"
The Doctor: "Yes, in a way. And every so often one of them leaves me and I feel like I've aged a hundred years over night. But it's better than the alternative - endless empty corridors and echoing rooms."
(And later, as they watch a brother and sister reunite)
Turlough: "Look at them. It's so easy for them to forgive each other, even after everything. Sometimes... I don't think I'll ever have that."
The Doctor: "But you have a family somewhere, surely?"
Turlough: "...yes, in a way." (The subtext here's all very lovely - the sister was able to save her brother from the dimension he was trapped in because he's her family, and as the Doctor says "like calls to like". And the Doctor is able to save Turlough from the same place, in exactly the same way. And had I not been on the bus I would have welled up a bit at "Doctor?" "Welcome home.")
Turlough: "I'm not like other boys!" (I quite wilfully misinterpreted this.)
The Doctor, demanding the release of Turlough and the TARDIS: "I've come to ask for my ball back. In a manner of speaking." (And that.)
Turlough: "Maybe we could get a better view from that tall building?"
The Doctor: "That's the Kremlin, Turlough. They won't want me back in there. Not after last time." (This one took me a startled moment to remember where the story was set; The Kremlin is the name of Belfast's major gay club. As
panloaf suggested when I told him this, maybe that's why they had to renovate last year.)"Are you planning what I think you're planning?"
"I never know what you're thinking, Turlough. That's why you're such an interesting travelling companion."
Turlough, standing outside and watching, aghast, as the building the Doctor's in goes up in flames: "Has he... has he set the building on fire? Every time! I leave him alone for five minutes, and something burns down or blows up!"
And a very pretty conversation that I don't remember well enough to paraphrase about heroism and how Turlough is more like the Doctor than he thinks.
I would recommend it to all, but especially to Turlough or Five/Turlough fans - they get to interact a bit more than in the other two plays, and I loved how Turlough was written here, as outwardly cowardly and self-serving but ultimately a good person, and one who helps save the day even when he's cut off from the Doctor and it's him versus quite a lot of ultra-powerful energy beings. "Well, if the Doctor was here he'd probably do something very clever," he says, examining the beings' main energy cortex. "As for me, I'm going to hit it until it breaks." That's my boy.
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on 2005-11-16 11:37 pm (UTC)