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Notes on - Doctor Who: Lux

 

Lux notes

I love old newsreels

They’re so useful for establishing a specific era quickly

Not many people in the movie theater

It’s notable that the candy girl isn’t selling cigarettes

Queen Elizabeth gets a shout out in the newsreel

I like the projectionist

They’re establishing that all the film is stored ina separate room

There’s something about the threading of physical film that’s magical. Love that era of newsreels and cartoons

‘Don’t make me laugh’ is an irritating catch phrase

They did a good job copying that super early animation style

Sinister moonlight

Reflected off a spoon and a poster into the light from the projector

The moonlight speech is really sinister

The effect of him climbing out of the screen is pretty well done

I always love the image of the Doctor tinkering underneath the TARDIS console.  And this is a sweet ‘new friends’ conversation’

It’s refreshing to have a companion who has a normal, healthy relationship with what sounds like perfectly lovely parents

5/24/25

Didn’t we just do a ‘the one place the TARDIS can’t reach’ plot point last year?

Belinda:  Take me back to your planet… Timelordia…

The Doctor: Oh, I wish it was called that.

It is terribly practical for Belinda to think that the easiest way to get the TARDIS fixes would be to take it to its manufacturer

The Doctor: But I never asked. What about you? Who’ve you got?  Girlfriend? Boyfriend? Other friend?

Belinda’s description of her parents is sweet and feels very real. It’s cool that her mother is in an orchestra

Her saying that she would really, really like to see her parents again  is so sweet

The Doctor: It is a Vortex Indicator. Which I am going to call a Vindicator, yeah?

It really is a clever idea. They land a binch of places, get a draw on 5/24/25, and use the data to ohaul themselves home

Belinda very rightly doesn’t want to pass up the chance to experience 1952 and then remembers that she’s in her jammies

This Doctor considers the clothes to be the fun bit

Wow, Belinda looks great in that dress

The vindicator looks like an electric guitar

Miami, Florida

The Doctor: 4 AM. We got dressed up for no one to see.  1952, that might be wise.

I like how the Doctor is consistently aware of the potential race issues, but doesn’t kick against them. He’s trying to leave no footprints

Belinda’s musings on Rock Hudson are a very nice variation on past examples of companions musing on being in the past

OK, The whole Vindicator thing I was expecting to take the whole episode, but they got it done right away.  That means that there’s nothing really keeping them from leaving other than the Doctor’s curiosity

They got the county name right as just ‘Dade’ for the period on the ordinance letter

Dade City isn’t in Dade county, it’s the county seat of Pasco county, where Miami isn’t.

I like that they are alerted to the problem by the memorial

It would be the Dade sheriff’s department, not police department.

Belinda very reasonably wants to just leave

Belinda: Oh my God, you actually want to investigate that spooky old cinema.  You’re Scooby Doo.

The Doctor: Honey, I’m Velma.

Getting a coffee would indeed be a risk for them at that time and place.

They shouldn’t be able to sit at that counter and order coffee in this time and place.  Probably the waiter is open minded and bored and since it’s 4 am is letting it slide.

Oh, I like your English cinema is not how any American would phrase that

Tommy Lee

Bend the rules. Ah, OK. He is just open minded

They weren’t sure if Yaz would have counted back in Rosa, but are sure Belinda does here

*** I’ve toppled worlds. Sometimes I wait for people to topple the world. Until then, I live in it and I shine.

All 15 people in the audience just disappeared and the police only searched during the day

The Police Box gave Tommy Lee’s mother hope

Mrs. Lowenstien

Mr. Pye the old projectionist. He keeps playing the movies to an empty house in a locked up theater

The Doctor: There is literally an old caretaker in a haunted cinema.

Belinda: Come on Velma.

The Doctor: Okay, Fred.

If all the doors are chained shut, how has Mr. Pye been eating?  Just living on Popcorn and candy?

I wonder what western they’re showing

It’s an interesting manifestation of courtesy, the Doctor acknowledging to Mr. Pye that they were infringing on a segregated space. Not sure how to unpack that.

Belinda: I’m Belinda and this is.. The Doctor… (to The Doctor) Really?  Just The Doctor? Always?

The Doctor: Yeah.

Belinda: Ridiculous.

Sinister tapdancing

Alan Cumming owns a cabaret in MYC. I’ve always wanted to go

Mr. Ring-A-Ding is made entirely of light

The Doctor is giving Mr. Ring-A-Ding the benefit of the doubt as regards being good or evil

He’s finally twigged to be afraid

Nice callback to the giggle, but I thought that laugh was specifically the Toymaker, not all gods?

The Harvest Bringer isn’t a real movie

Lux Imperator – The god of light

He has to sing the entire song every time it’s prompted.  That’s fun

Mr. Ring-A-Ding needs Pye to show him movies to feed him and in return brings film footage of his dead wife back

Mr. Pye: One spring day she went to cross the road… And I’ve been alone ever since.

Dancing with his black and white wife is such a striking image, I which she hadn’t morphed into full color

Mr. Ring-A-Ding: Darnit, I was so big when I arrived.  I should never have learned perspective.

The fifteen people are each trapped on individual frames of celluloid. Good on Belinda for noticing them

Mr. Ring-A_Ding: I’m a two dimensional character. You can’t expect backstory

It’s really very cruel, the way Lux is threatening to burn Mr. Pye’s wife

It was just a random chance combination of light reflecting with electricity that manifested Lus into Mr. Ring-A-Ding

Lux figured out the Doctor’s previous connections to the other Gods

‘What have I not done?’  what’s the answer to that mystery

Love the huge old film projectors

I’m not a huge fan of live action shows doing animated episodes

Belinda: Gosh, I’m all flat. And this waistline is impossible.

They’re getting more three dimensional as they reveal their feelings

And now they’re live action inserted into a cartoon

Pulling the frames down is a cool visual

And they’re back on the theater stage

Mrs. Lowenstien wouldn’t be that mean, and the Doctor is totally unimpressed

The Doctor: Seriously? The continuity is terrible. This is Miami-Dade County (Not for another 45 years it isn’t), and that is the uniform of the NYPD. Try harder.

I literally just said that if they come out through the screen into my living room I’m going to have so many questions

Look, it’s Doctor Who fans!

I don’t know how I feel about them confirming that there’s an outside reality where Doctor Who is just a TV show and the Doctor can get out into it.

Robyn: Well, I knew that this would happen because it was leaked online. Hashtag RIP Doctor Who.

I love that The Doctor’s response is just to kick back and ask what their favorite episode is.  And the fact that they all insist on Blink feels like Russell’s taking a friendly poke at Steven Moffat

Belinda: What happens is ‘Blink’?

Hassan: It’s the story where you’re not allowed to blink.

Belinda: Well, that sounds like an absolute epic.

Belinda calling them annoying leads to a touching moment of defense of Doctor Who fans

And then the switch. It’s the Doctor Who fans that aren’t real, not The Doctor and Belinda

They do have surnames in the credits

Good fans know that the show isn’t about them and that it can lead to finding your best friends and they don’t have the right to demand that the show be anything specific

They’re going to stop the celluloid so that the heat from the projector sets it on fire

LOVE the detail that the film in camera is upside down.

The Doctor’s hand being burned both confirms that this is the real world AND allows them to show off the magic light regeneration energy for Lux to get all turned on by

I don’t love that Bi-generation left him with some pocket energy to hang onto, but it helps as a plot function, so I’ll let it go

The ability to build a body out of light would be appealing to Mr. Ring-A-Ding

This is a lot like The Doctor fighting the musical notes in the Devil’s Chord?

He never goes outside.  Not really a satisfying resolution to the ‘What don’t I ever do’ question

The nuclear blast as the ultimate light kind of comes in out of nowhere and doesn’t really go anywhere

He knows what time it is – e.g. dawn

I like that she knew he smoked because of nicotine fingers.

Mr Ring-A-Ding’s real body is kind of gross

Find me?  What does that mean? Was she encouraging him to kill himself in the attempt to kill Lux?

Sally sunshine… was she a subtle setup for this?

And now he’s back to being just a cartoon because he’s taking in so much light?  That feels like a little bit of a blind alley

Logan and Tommy Lee are totally doing it, right?

Mr. Ring-A-Ding does the end of 2001

And here are all the people back. Not sure that makes logical sense, but I’ll take a happy ending

Belinda resolutely facing that they’re both still scared is a nice moment

And here’s Mrs. Flood. First time we’ve seen her out of contemporary London

Mid credit break to the Doctor Who fans. I really LOVE they’re joy at realizing that they still exist.

The Ring-A-Ding song kept reminding me of something and it was driving me crazy.  It’s the Feast of Fools song from Hunchback of Notre Dame

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