PTSD

This is not a post about Doctor Who

Well, not entirely, anyway. Maybe just a little. Mostly it's about West Wing. Which was both awful and wonderful tonight. When they submit Bradley Whitford's name for Emmy consideration, this is the episode I'd choose. He was pitch perfect in every single scene.

Of course, I haven't seen the rest of the episodes yet, and I'm betting I'll change my mind after next week. Or maybe not; Whitford was really, really good here, and his performance will be difficult to top. I mean, we're talking Noel-calibre reactions from him.

And here's where the Doctor Who bit comes in. I rewatched Father's Day last night, and it's about the same thing as Election Day II. Exactly the same thing. Which is deeply weird for me. Creepy, even, given that I can't wrap my head around that particular parental relationship. But obviously someone can, because the tv people have done it at least twice.

I mean, I find the episodes moving and I intellectually comprehend how it's supposed to work. Fathers are important. Even surrogate ones. That part I get; that part I can see. I just can't seem to see what sort of real life experience leads to these specific results, the ones with the shell shock and such. It bothers me the way all things bother me that I don't understand.*

The way reading Kant bothers me, because when I'm there with the arguments in front of me they flow just fine, but when I look up and think about reality they all seem a bit silly and self-important. Does that make sense?

I realize that this confusion makes me sound like a heartless bitch. That might be accurate; I don't know.

On a tangentially related note, I think I'm going to have to unilaterally call for a Doctor Who marathon, so that I can put the whole narrative together and figure out how they manage to portray the Ninth Doctor as a father figure in Father's Day and a romantic interest in The Doctor Dances. I think I can almost see where the switch is and why they've done it. Almost, and I really want to get it because, all poking the fans with sticks aside, they're both fantastic episodes. Fantastic in the good way, not the "we're probably going to die but it was fun while it lasted" way.

And, of course, once I've grasped it I can write about it. You know, the really fun bit. The part that's also supposed to come at the end of my dissertation research. If I ever get that far. Maybe, instead of just the conference panel, I should also do a dissertation on DW. There's got to be some way to swing it.

I'm beginning to think we need some sort of designated fangirl posts, ones where we just comment back and forth about each episode and pull them together. Otherwise, we're in serious danger of turning this into a very different kind of blog. Knew it was a bad thing when Priya and I found some pop culture item to agree on.

*English is totally lacking a word that is what I'm looking for here. Grok is the closest I can think of, but even it isn't quite what I'm trying to say.

posted by Elizabeth @ 11:09 PM