With Tommy Wiseau lumbering about Toronto, encouraging people to see him introduce “The Room” at the Royal and “have a fun“, it seems like the right time to post a link to my recent MSN Movies gallery about movies that actually do portray romantic relationships in a convincing and entertaining manner.
Because “The Room”, y’know, doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything in a convincing or entertaining manner, really, but I guess that’s why people enjoy it.
… well, “enjoy” probably isn’t the right word, but you know what I mean.
Unrelated, but given how busy you’ve been with HotDocs, etc., did you hear that Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) died earlier this week. Apparently there will be a tribute to her at the beginning of the new season of Doctor Who starting tonight. Sarah Jane always ranked as one of the Doctor’s very best companions, and since I started watching in the Pertwee/Baker days, I have very fond memories of the character and was glad when they incorporated her into the new series occasionally.
Actually, on second thought, it is kind of related. The Doctor’s relationships with his companions were never romantic in the traditional sense, but the audience knew that strong feelings were definitely there.
I’d heard of Sladen’s death — 63 seems far too young for that sort of thing — and mentioned it on the Twitter a few days ago. It’s getting harder and harder to remember what goes where these days.
But yes, there was more of an empathy/sympathy thing going on between the Doctor and his companions in earlier versions of the series; Davies’ decision to bring back the character with a much younger actor (and to pair him up with Billie Piper for two years) definitely changed the nature of the characters’ chemistry.
It seems Moffat’s trying to steer it back to the classic Who formula, with Matt Smith’s Doctor made deeply uncomfortable by Amy Pond’s occasional flash of sexual aggression — I think Smith summed it up beautifully on the Nerdist podcast when he said his character is nine hundred years old and the cleverest person in the universe, but still hasn’t the slightest idea what girls are for.
Oh, well. Takes a weight off Rory, I’d suspect …