Rebels and Devils 2: the Hour of the Geek (first bit)

...and if anyone gets that reference, they earn a shiny handshake from me.

What this means, beasts, is that I'm allowing myself a break from my usual ironic cool (ha!) and taking the opportunity to wallow in raw fanboyness.  Yeah, it's the first bit of my Doctor Who ramblings, so y' can all stop reading there.

REASONS TO LOVE WHO

1) The Parting of the Ways: Captain Jack Harkness.  Kisses Rose goodbye fairly passionate like.  Turns and kisses the Doctor goodbye too, in the same way.  No-one comments. 

There were, and indeed, still are idiots who go on about the new version of the show having a (and I'm quoting here) "gay agenda" which makes me think of a particularly interesting boardroom meeting. This scene is basically a massive fuckyou to all those people.  Like the Stonewall adverts say, deal with it.

2) Same episode: guns, technobabble and fighting can't save the world.  No, the world gets saved by three ordinary people on a council estate who suddenly realise that they can do anything they fucking well want to and no-one can tell them that it's not possible.  And when someone you love is in trouble, you'll change the whole universe to save them.

3) The Age of Steel: in which Mickey, the insecure loser, finally takes charge of his life, assumes the role of defender of emotions (it makes sense when you watch it) and sacrifices everything he cared about in order to do something HUGE with his life.  And then turns up six weeks later with a massive grin in order to save the day, having broken every single law of physics in the process.

4) The Girl In The Fireplace: "What do monsters have nightmares about?" - "Me."

The idea that there's someone who isn't a god or a divine force to be prayed to, someone who pays attention and stops the monsters right there in their tracks?  Well, that's just an idea.  But we created it.  As a species, as a sub-culture, as people who like the idea.  Someone you could be a bit like.  Someone you could emulate.  And every time you do, if you do it well enough, the world gets a bit more like the fantasy one in your head.  

5) City of Death: "Well, you're a beautiful woman, probably"

Because when bad people are confused, they're so much more fun.

6) The End of the World: the only things illegal at the end of the world are weapons, teleportation and religion.  I think there might be a message there.  The teleportation bit is a plot point, mind, but the fake villains are called the Adherents of the Repeated Meme. Dawkinstastic.

7) Bad Wolf: "You have no weapons, no army, no plan." - "Yeah.  And doesn't that just scare you to death?"

Improvise.  It's what I do all the time.  The faster you get at making it up as you go along, the more likely the world is to go along with your mad stories.

8) The Doctor Dances: "That's what you humans do.  You go out there into the stars and you meet all these new people and you...dance."

Or, in other words, the future is going to be fun, if we do it right.

9) Love and Monsters: lots of people hate this one.  They're missing the point; it's about outsiders, the lost ones who get preyed on by the monsters.  It's about a man coming to terms with something terrible that happened to him as a child.  And then it's about hope:

"...they tell you that it's all grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better."

I can't really say much more on the subject than that.