I watch vids now: The RIDICULOUSLY MASSIVE rec post (Doctor Who and Torchwood)

[promethia_tenk]

So, awhile back cinderbella333  asked me for some vid recs . . .

And awhile back before that elisi  taught me all about RTD-Who and Torchwood, and good luck getting her to express anything without throwing in a vid or two or twenty ; )

And back even before that, I asked a fairly facetious question because I felt like making fun of the Tenth Doctor (like you do) and ended up getting a lot more than I'd bargained for (and if that's not an argument for always asking the facetious question, I don't know what is).

So here is this thing that I have put together.  Of vids.  Lot of vids of Torchwood and of NuWho that I have watched and with some words about why I like them.  You might think of this as A Thing I Have Put Together for Cinderbella (and anyone else who might like to watch some vids, and also for myself since I quite wanted a list of my own for reference).  Or you might think of this as Vids and What I Have Learned About Them, in the manner of some end-of-the-semester project for Fandom104: Introduction to Audiovisual Modes of Critique and Expression.  Or you might think of this as Things I Think and Feel about the Whoniverse because, while this is a very long list, I make absolutely no claims to either comprehensiveness or objectivity.  This is simply a list of vids that happened to grab me and that I watched a lot because they seemed important to me in my own little corner over here.

I have tried to be very organized with different sections and descriptions so that anyone looking for something specific might find it.  And if you happen to know a real LJ or Dreamwidth link for anything I only have a YouTube link for, do please share.  Obviously this has been a very long time in the making, both in collecting materials and in the choosing and typing up and organizing, so here's hoping somebody besides myself will find it of some use.


General Whoniverse:

When I Fall Asleep by buffyann   A child dreams of the Doctor.  Magic.

Moving Right Along by odessie   The adventurous, ramshackle spirit of the show, summed up to music from the Muppets. (Also includes Classic Who.)

OMG! by obsessive24  A general celebration of RTD-era companions framed with an extremely clever conceit, which I shall leave you to discover for yourself.  Bouncy and fun, and the song, with Lily Allen's very pronounced British accent, is an excellent fit.

Spaceman by kaydeefalls   I don't even know what to say this is about.  But there is the Doctor and there is Jack and there is RTD-DW and there is Torchwood.  And there are lots and lots and lots of parallels and a bunch of happy music.  Watch it!



Moff Teim Nao \o/:

This section can probably be summed up as 'season five yay!'

Pure Imagination by sparking_off   Living there you'll be free if you truly wish to be . . .  THE DISTILLED ESSENCE OF DELIGHT.  This vid is exactly how I feel every time I think of this era of the show.  And then I have to go skip through a daisy field just to relieve my feelings.

Fireflies by BobbyMcGriffin on YouTube  (Eleven, Amy)  Ooooo . . . glowy!

Test Drive by AnotherMyself on YouTube  In which season five is EPIC.  Feels like a big, freakin' movie trailer, complete with epic goosebumps.

Eleventh Dimension by di_br   Slightly more meta-heavy and with a bit more character study than the other vids in this category, but still mostly 'season five yay!'  Oh, I've got music, coming out of my hands and feet and kisses!  Whoo . . .

Can-Can Onze by elderberryink   Series five in two minutes to that famous Can-Can music.  Surely there's not a single person in fandom who hasn't seen this right?  Whenever I finish watching "The Big Bang" my immediate instinct is to go watch this.


Eleventy:

Let It Fall by beccatoria   (Eleven in The Big Bang)  My favorite season five vid.  Some things are simply worthy of epic sincerity.  And some crying.


Amy:

I adore Amy on the show, but somehow she makes the most sense to me in vid form.  Thus, a large selection:

Short Skirt, Long Jacket by beccatoria   Pure attitude.  Short, but the perfect little encapsulation of Amy's awesome.

Once in Love with Amy by chicafrom3   (Amy/Everyone, Amy/Rory)  Everybody is in love with Amy.  That's just how it is.

For the Moon by tearful_eye   This vid.  *guh*  It is my favorite Amy vid.  Dissonant and surreal and utterly beautiful.  Somehow both creepy and hopeful.  I think it must be what Amy's dreams are like.

Twinkle Twinkle by kiki_miserychic   Angels are taking over Amy's mind.  Deliciously sinister.

Half Life by big_n_happy   More about how creepy and unsettling Amy's life is.  What?  It's not like I gave her her crack-addled existence.  I'm just here to find it fascinating disturbing.

Blue Caravan by such_heights  on Dreamwidth  (Amy/Eleven, Amy/Rory)  The melancholy yearning in this is exquisite.

When I Was a Boy by beccatoria  (Amy/Rory)  And this is my favorite Amy/Rory vid.  Sweet and complex and true.


Rory:

Change of Time by greensilver  (Rory, Rory/Amy)  I had a dream last night . . .  I love the way this song and vid builds--it really feels appropriate to the way Rory came to grow into his new, epic, space-and-time-faring life, while the lyrics keep him grounded in that way he has: it's only a change of time.


Riverrrrr:

Slight spoilers for 6x01 and 6x02 in my notes.

The World Is Not Enough by big_n_happy  But it is such a perfect place to start, my love . . .  Perfection.  NGL, I want a River vid to every James Bond song.  ALL THE SONGS.  And on that note:

Nobody Does it Better by loafing_oaf   The 'River Song is Awesome' vid.  Warning: may induce delight and jealousy.

You Only Disappear by chaila43   (Doctor's p.o.v.)  River keeps slipping away . . .  Somehow this vid has become my antidote to the heavy-handed angst of this season.  I have no idea how that works other than, by some twisted mechanism in my head, if everybody is angsting it all cancels itself out?  Or at least balances itself out.  Anyway, this is gorgeous and subtle and the only person doing the heavy-handed angst thing is Ten, which is as it should be.

Gravity by katoelizabeth  The emotional core of that speech River gave to Rory in TIA, made months and months ago and without the stupid stuff.  Watch this instead of that scene ------> restore sanity.

Set My World Into Motion by beccatoria   Effortlessly cool and stylish, and then startles you with how deep it actually is: If vision is the only validation, then most of my life isn't real.

Strict Machine by such_heights  on Dreamwidth  River is made of PURE COMPETENCE and, yes, that makes her hot.  (Includes footage from 6x01 and 6x02.)


The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon:

Man, that pirate episode was boring.  How about some vids about how awesome and mind-bending and atmospheric and fucking creepy the season opener was instead?:

Friday (dubstep) by zombiesatemyhampster on YouTube  Ok, I'm assuming the song choice here is some kind of pop-culture candy joke that's gone over my head, but I don't care and I love it anyway.

1969 by beccatoria   Tense.

The Sound of Silence by sea_thoughts   Hello darkness my old friend . . .



General RTD-Who:

What We Had by cherryice   (Martha, Mickey, Jack) This one comes first because it's the vid that pretty much gave me a deeper way to connect with RTD's Who at all--the perspective I see almost entirely missing from the show itself and was tearing around in frustration trying to find.  I hardly ever watch this one anymore, actually, but it was just something that needed acknowledgment before I could do anything else with the show.

Tenth Doctor: The Musical by di_br   (Ten and companions)  Another one that everyone and their mother has seen, but who cares?  Never gets old, and so much fun.  I think Nine's reactions to his successor pretty much make it.

Shut Up and Drive by laurashapiro  Martha Jones pwns all.  Deal with it.

Blackout by humansrsuperior   (Doctor/Rose)  A shippy vid, yes, but a brutally realistic one.  Makes me hurt for everyone involved in a way the show itself just doesn't.

When I Ruled the World by di_br   (Nine, Ten) I consider this a miracle video.  It seems to adhere fairly closely to the narrative perspective of RTD's Who and I like it.  It's like this strange moment of stepping into Ten's headspace in an entirely uncritical manner.


Ten (and his being broken):

Handlebars by flummery   Pretty much the Ten vid, yes?  Man was screwed up.

White and Nerdy by ladysoliloque2 on YouTube  Very funny indeed but (like the evil, evil, spiteful person that I am) the real reason I love this is because it's such a cheeky reminder of how badly Ten needed to be liked, omg.

What Must Not by humansrsuperior   (Waters of Mars)  Less a vid in the sense one normally thinks of such things and more a spare, beautiful meditation on the root of Ten's breakdown.  Watch this one and the next two in sequence to get a portrait of Ten's turmoil from the core moving outwards to the conflicts it created with the broader universe.

New Dawn Fades by obsessive24  Primal scream against the realities of existence.

Marble House by hollywoodgrrl   (Human Nature/Family of Blood)  As hugely impressive as this vid is, I can't really get behind its intended criticism.  If I ignore the vidder's notes, though, I find a really challenging and uncompromising look at the Doctor's perspective and powers as a Time Lord and all the ways in which they may, in fact, be incompatible with the life he chooses to lead.



Torchwood:

Dying by cherryice   (season one) This vid is the essence of Torchwood for me: all darkness and desperation and search for connection.  When I think of the show, I think of this, and when I watch this, I want to watch the show.  Remember, you promised me--I'm dying, I'm dying, please . . .  I want to, I need to be, under your skin.

Someday You Will Be Loved by mahdi_far_gai   (Gwen/Jack, Gwen/Rhys)  Ok, so I never bought the show's attempts to sell us on Gwen/Jack.  Even when they were all up in each others' personal space and breathing each others' air, I was like 'ok, guys, very funny--you can cut it out now.'  That said: GWEN! <3333  She deserves ALL THE GOOD THINGS.

Papa Don't Preach by fan_eunice  and greensilver   (Jack/Ianto, the Doctor)  What's Torchwood without crack?  Jack's made up his mind: he's keeping his baby.

Smiley Faces by charmax   Torchwood is a hard world to live in--and a hard show to watch.  But the team is love : )


Post-CoE:

Because Children of Earth pretty much demands you find a way to deal with it.  Here's how I did it:

Above and Below by di_br   (Jack, Ten)  I'm not sure why I think of this as a Jack vid more than a Ten one, but I do.  Another one where I just ignore the vidder's opinion as to what their vid is about and make my own interpretation (ok, so elisi thought of it, but I adopted it as my own).  I read this vid as being about Jack and the Doctor's differing ways of dealing with crisis and the burden of impossible decisions: Jack tries to flee, Ten to cling on and claim more and more power.

The Pioneers by giandujakiss   (Torchwood team)  A sense of purpose and a sense of skill . . . it's all under control, it's all under control, it's all under control, it's all under control . . .  Ahhhh . . . lies.  But sustaining ones.  We will not be the last.

All the Pretty Little Horses by hollywoodgrrl   (Jack)  And this may be my ultimate act of reading against the vidder's intentions.  The notes to it compare Jack to the Pied Piper, leading his team and others to their doom.  Myself, I find this vid strangely comforting.  Because the things that Jack does, by and large, are things that need to happen.  They're ugly, but often there is simply no other option.  And if Jack doesn't do them, who does?  And he does them, and he takes the consequences, and he does what he can to shield the people around him from the guilt and responsibility he shoulders.



And something totally random to cheer you up:

Still Alive by LM1313 on YouTube  Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic sings GLaDOS's song from Portal.  Somehow manages to be even more awesome than that sounds.


Final note:  Thank you to elisi especially for feeding me a massive selection of vids and also to anyone else who may have pointed me towards anything on here.  Any vidders brought here by the Pingback Bot: my apologies for being a punk and never commenting on many of these.  Please consider the inclusion of any vid here as a sign of just how much I appreciated it.

Comments

[chaila43.livejournal.com]

Twilight Sparkle is doing science and she's still alive!!!!!! (I often don't quite "get" animated vids, which are often done in that "anime vidding" (AMV) lip-synching style, which is a pretty different tradition to what media fandom people call vidding. Like they usually just don't seem that interesting to me? But that one's PERFECT. <3)

[promethia_tenk]

Isn't it fabulous!?!? *squishes vid* I've never seen any other vids in that style before, so thanks for cluing me in, but they've definitely used it to excellent effect there. So wonderfully Twilight Sparkle and MLP and yet also so very wrong all at the same time =D

But there's no use crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying til you run out of cake . . .