1225 Nevah Evah.

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Today we had a small Easter gathering. The teen had her brother and sister over. They are both adults, so they couldn’t stay for that long. Easter hasn’t really been a thing in my family for a long time. We colored eggs. I don’t remember the last time we bothered. No… That’s not true. I actually remember the last time my sister and I did. She was at that place where she wanted to do it one last time. As usual I just did what I was told. The teen reminds me of her sometimes. They both get their way no matter what.

We started watching Doctor Who again. I jumped forward to the regeneration from Eccleston to Tennant because he didn’t seem to be enthralling her. Of course the teen can be hard to read sometimes because she often pretends to hate anything I like on principle. Of course I was surprised when she demanded that the old Doctor come back and stated categorically that she would always hate Ten. Also that his face was stupid and he was a dumb poop.

She has warmed to him slightly in following episodes.

She actually picked up on a few things I thought would go over her head, like that Sarah Jane was a previous companion. So there’s hope, I guess.

34 Comments

Commenting here is hard. On the one hand, you have awesome comic. On the other hand, you have interesting, thought provoking news post. And the 2 seldom mesh.

Well, as the Forth Doctor once said in a different role, Ah well, such is life.

I can’t really blame Reggie for being angry here but judging by future interactions between him and Jo, time is healing the wounds of the past.

Something tells me that this was a time when Jolene should’ve taken the flak for the lighter mistake, but instead let that criminal manager fire her good friend, thus destroying their friendship (as well as any chance of promotions for Reggie). It’s no small wonder Reggie hates her, but this doesn’t entirely explain why he acts so condescendingly towards the other cast members.

“Let”? As in “consciously chose?” No.

Brooksie froze. Obviously the situation was more than she could cope with at that time.

This may well be why Thomas has been working with Brooksie to build up her self-esteem and self command.

It does to me. Trust and betrayal cuts really deep for some people. Even though Brooksie’s reaction can likely be explained away, it does nothing to diminish the fact that he was wounded while attempting to help.

The last time he tried to help someone who looked like they really needed it (With altruistic motives mind you), he got punished. Why would he try to help others again, risking the same result?

It’s more than just his opinion of Brooksie that was damaged. It was his opinion of people. And, in many ways himself. He now thinks he has to be cold and uncaring, in order to survive. Isolation has become his defense mechanism.

Crave, are you ever going to tell us how exactly you and the teen are related? Cause I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’s curious. It’s cool if you don’t want to, privacy and all that, of course, just wondering.

I love Ten, but deep in my heart of hearts Nine will always be my favorite.

In comicry-related comments: It’s hard to forgive and forget when a friend costs you a job – Who knows how long it took Reggie to get back on his feet after that.

Maybe having to learn to live with his negativity and that despite initial appearances she doesn’t really deserve years of flack has been good for Jo’s growth (that Thomas was so concerned with earlier on). She was in desperate need of a thicker skin and now she seems to have one.

What a terrible situation for Reggie and Jo, both. :(
After years of thinking, I do prefer 9 to 10, too.

Tennant was my first Doctor so by default my favorite. I have very little Doctor Who experience though. Whenever I do catch an episode it always seems to be Christmas in Whoverse.

My favorite will always be the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker.

Eccleton’s Doctor I often call the “Football Hooligan Doctor”

As far as I know, Dr. Who is the first baseman that later decided to achieve his doctorate.

I have yet to see even one episode.

My favorite would probably be the one that said, “Just once I’d like to encounter an alien menace not immune to bullets!”

It’s pretty much the only thing I know about Dr. Who.

I had a similar experience when I first saw the Ninth Doctor regenerate. I watched the following two episodes and hated Tennant. It took me re-watching the first season again to come to terms with it and start loving him. It was even harder to start liking Matt Smith.

I super wanted to hate Matt Smith with his stupid no-eyebrows, but, I ended up loving him after only one episode. That and poor Rory is the best thing ever…. minus his rat-tail…

Tennant’s my favorite. Good episodes and well played Doctor.

(Spoiler)For extra lulz, you remember that scene in Family of Blood where Martha just skips over some guidelines while hes human? Look that up where it’s played normally, because it’s hilarious! (And I’m going to end this making some funny noises with my mouth. Bingle, bongle, dangle, doogle…..something…..)” (/Spoiler)

Smith isn’t a completely terrible Doctor, but the real problem with after Tennant is Steven Moffat. Don’t get me wrong, he can make a great couple of episodes. Blink and River Song’s two-parter in the Library with Tennant were AWESOME! The problem is when he starts doing more than that…there’s horrible plot holes that just start cropping up and some are rather large.

(Another spoiler, but it just proves my point. At one point he starts removing all information of himself, everywhere, everywhen. So how can he then say, in The Library, “Look me up.”? There would be nothing TO look up!)
(And that’s hardly the worst of it, sadly. Okay writer, but terrible for plot holes. Davies was a lot better.)

(And yes, I did see some of the old, pre-reboot Dr. Who. Didn’t watch tons of it, but favorite was Tom Baker out of what I saw. But Tennant still won out.)

My 15-year-old niece is a serious Who fan, and I’m without a clue as to which Doctor she prefers. The last time I watched Doctor Who seriously, I walked away when they replaced 3 (Jon Pertwee) with 4 (Tom Baker), feeling a little like @Kirdei. That happened in the British 1974 Series, but for me it was probably around 1978 or ’79 before it got to American distribution. I remember I was working third shift at Colt Firearms at the time and someone ran it in the afternoons, a little after I woke up. Gahd, I’m an old fart.

“Also that his face was stupid and he was a dumb poop.”

(* sigh *) True of so many people I’ve known…

I spent about 2 years working for a contract security company keeping the bad folk out of there. I caught one of ’em once, too! I left after a former subordinate (and a crony of the Security Chief) was promoted over me, and started to ‘weed out’ his former supervisors. Last I saw of him, another of my previous supervisors was firing him from Wendy’s.

I lived in New Mexico for over 11 years from the 80’s to the late 90’s. The local PBS channel showed two complete Doctor Who stories every Saturday evening, from the First Doctor to the Seventh, all that was available at the time. Every one except for the Sixth was a great and unique character that I really enjoyed watching.
I think the most underrated is the Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton. I think it’s because so many of the lost episodes are from his run. But they recently uncovered two stories, The Web of Fear (first meeting with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) and The Enemy of the World, and they’re supposed to be some of his best, so maybe his recognition will go up.
I don’t know how much, if any, of the Original Series you’ve shown the Teen. It can really difficult to get people to watch the stuff from the 60’s and 70’s, but if you want to catch her up on some of the history, from the Second Doctor I’d suggest The Invasion (the formation of UNIT) and from the Fourth The Talons of Weng-Chiang (it holds up really well in the modern era) and/or Pyramids of Mars (the Doctor battles against an Egyptian god).

#2 is my favorite classic Doctor. Matt Smiths doctor reminded me of him in many ways, which helped me warm to him.

As for Reggie, I do feel a bit more sorry for him now, but I still think that he was either more brittle emotionally then what we see here or something else happened. He didn’t just become more cynical and bitter, he completely flipped into becoming a totally different person. I’m thinking something with his Aunt had to have gone on behind the scenes.

To be honest, whenever a serious downturn of situation is portrayed through a simplified background, it tends to be either lack of perspective and thus ignorance, like you suspected, or that someone is being an unreliable narrator.

Considering how things revolving around Thomas and his old flame up to this point already has hints of unreliable narration, I don’t know which is worse…

You also need to remember that this story is Reggie from the perspective of Jolene when she was a new hire. From her perspective he was kind and helpful, even protective, but if Carol told the same story Reggie would seem more like people expect, because he and Carol have had a more tense relationship. I chose to let Jo be the narrator because she used to see him on a very different way. In the end it is Reggie that chose to burn the bridge. He had every right to do so, but if he’d been able to forgive Jo imagine how differently the story so far would have played out. He would have one devoted work friend who would have stuck by him through anything, because he bore the wrath of a manager. Maybe not for her in the moment, but she certainly would have seen it that way if he hadn’t forsaken her. Basically the lack do clear vision is what makes Reggie his own worst enemy.

Wait a second.

Isn’t this the event everyone in the store keeps bring up as the definite sign of Reggie being a total moron. An event heavily implied several times to be the sole fault of Reggie despite him claiming otherwise, even by Thomas who was present here for it yet we now see that Jo is partly responsible for it as well.

Cause if it is. I can understand why Reggie is so full of hate for everyone in that place if they keep blaming him for something him alone for an event he wasn’t solely responsible for.

The problem is that Reggie tends to do things that irritate people, so in situations where the blame would be shared normally people tend to heap as much as they can on him. Which isn’t fair, but such is life.

So this was the moment that broke Reggie. Interesting to watch. No character is one dimensional, there are always layers to each person, and a reason behind everything they do, although subconsciously we never think that, do we? we just assume a person is being a jerk apropos of nothing.

I hope Mike is able to build a bridge between reggie and some of the others using this. Understanding a situation has the potential to reconnect people.

I generally enjoy reading your comic and blog posts ….however I did not enjoy your comparison …it’s likely next time I see you, I will turn off your Nintendo game mid level.

Say what you will, but she acts like you, mom, grandma, and unfortunately her mother, all mixed together. I feel like we should blame grandma. I mean, she started it.

DONT TURN OFF MY GAME!!!

I see… He doesn’t take betrayal well. Or perceived betrayal… And of course Brooksie’s anxiety, how could she stand up for him? Damn…. It’s all starting to come together. How can Reggie believe anyone can be is friend, he has to keep them at arm’s length and focus on his own goals. He went too far In the direction of “focus on own goals, screw people” but I see what happened.

Can’t say I blame him for feeling betrayed but it doesn’t excuse his jerkish behavior towards everyone. I pity him but I don’t condone his actions.

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