The story of how I fell in love with a vid...

This is kind of a long rec... also, I really need a Doctor Who icon :(

Title: Handlebars
Vidder: Seah and Margie (flummery)
Song: Handlebars by Flobots
Fandom/Pairing: Doctor Who
Why I Love It: Ok, I know this vid has been rec'ed by everyone and their dog and I can't imagine that there are many people who are interested in watching Doctor Who vids who haven't already seen this. Still, part of the reason why I'm doing these recs are so that I can examine why I love the vids I do, so I want to tell the story of how I fell in love with this vid.

Really it all started with the song. I can remember the first time I heard the song, and thinking it so ridiculous. It has a rhythm and style that I felt very unique to me, but also the lyrics struck me as funny; that the singer went from boasting about small things, like riding a bike with no handlebars, or tying a knot in a cherry stem to being capable of bigger things like splitting atoms and leading the world in a holocaust. I didn't really get the song until one day I looked up the music video on YouTube and realized that the dichotomy in the song is meant to be there. The music video depicts two friends riding their bikes home and when they reach a fort in the road they head in different directions. One goes on to lead a commercial life of influence and power, while the other boy goes on to lead a life of resistance against his old friend and it culminates into a final battle where one of them dies. After watching the music video I finally was able to understand the power behind the song.

Now, back to this vid. I believe it was a Vividcon vid, and as I said, everyone and their dog was rec'ing it (people still are). I hadn't watched Doctor Who yet, but I loved the song and there are many vids that are so well done you don't need to know the source material to be able to appreciate it. This vid, wasn't one of those vids for me. I watched it, and was able to appreciate the technical skills behind the editing: the timing was always there, especially as the song reached it climax. I could see the correlation between the lyrics and the clips chosen (such as the Doctor hopping around to the lyrics "I can show you how to do si do") but honestly? I could see what made this vid so special that everyone was going crazy over it.

Then I finally watched Doctor Who and took another look at this vid. Suddenly I could see what had everyone excited because as I watched the vid again I could see the same dichotomy that made me realize the power of the song was present in this vid as well. So often we see the Doctor bouncing around all happy energy but this vid was also alluding to the darker side of the Doctor that I find so fascinating. Watching it, especially towards the climax of the song where they're making warlike claims, it really drove home to me that one observation made against the Doctor in the s4 finale, that the Doctor tries to remain a pacifist, but he turns those around him into soldiers.

This vid shows off the Doctor's light hearted side, his relationship with his companions and the fun he has. It also shows off his darker aspects, how he can influence people (I love how it was a clip of Harriet Jones for the second half of the lyric "I can make anyone go to prison just because I don't like them), the dangerous situations he gets into and the deadly and disastrous things that happen around him that are slowly feeding this dark side of himself. And the transition is so extreme but so slowly and subtly done.