Monday 6 April 2015

E is for Everybody Lives even Elves

A to Z Challenge - E

E is for "Just this once, Everybody Lives
This quote comes from The Doctor Dances, which is the follow-up episode to The Empty Child, the first Doctor Who episode to freak me out.  The Empty Child was such a disturbing advisory - a 4 year-old boy calling out for his mummy shouldn't be a scary thing, but this one was.  More on him when we get to M though.  The quote "Everybody lives, Rose.  Just this once, everybody lives" is one of my favourite Christopher Eccleston moments.  He is just so excited when he realises that, for the first time since New Who series 1 began, nobody was going to die.  The Doctor Who show-runners had no qualms about killing off people, but just this one time, everybody was going to survive.

**spoiler alert for episodes written by Stephen Moffat**
Stephen Moffat gets a lot of flack for killing people off, but to be honest, I don't think it's deserved.  This was the first episode (well first 2 really, being a 2-parter) he had written for New Who, and as I said everybody lived.  Then in Blink characters had to "live to death" when they were sent back in time to live out the remainder of their days (so not really killing them); and in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead everyone was saved (literally, by a computer).  Okay, so in The Girl In The Fireplace he killed off a number of people, but again: not actually during the episode.When Moffat took over as Executive Producer, he invented Rory, a character he killed off and brought back time and time again; and then Clara who kept returning in new generations/versions of herself.  Yes a lot of people have died during Moffat's time as Executive Producer, just not enough (in my opinion) to warrant the idea that he likes to kill off everyone's favourite characters.
**Spoilers over**

E is for Dobby the Elf
**Spoiler if you haven't read/watched Deathly Hallows**
Everyone's favourite house-elf.  Unless you are the script writer for the Harry Potter films, in which case you hate Dobby and don't put him in the films.  True story: Dobby didn't appear in films 3-6 because Steve Kloves (who wrote all films bar The Order of the Phoenix) hated the character so much, he didn't put him back in the films until he absolutely had to.  I love Dobby in the books - his character creates so many moments of absolute joy and mirth.  His devotion to Harry (even if he goes about it the wrong way) is touching.  His death was heart-breaking.  My favourite Dobby quote is one of Ron's: "Percy wouldn't recognise a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing Dobby's tea cosy."

Did you love or loathe Dobby and the other house-elves?

Happy stitching!

4 comments:

  1. The "mummy" boy (as I call him) was the source of many a nightmare for me! Glad to know I'm not the only one creeped out by scary little kids!

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  2. I have never seen Dr. Who and only bits and pieces of Harry Potter. I do like the story about Dobby and he is a cute stitch.

    Linda

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