The Dresden Files: The Other Dick

technomancer writes, A great episode featuring Claudia Black in what will hopefully be a
recurring role. Harry is forced to take a class to get his PI license, only to
find the instructor murdered.

Also please tell me I’m not the only one who got the ‘The Devil and Mrs.
Jones’ thing with the whole episode.

8 replies on “The Dresden Files: The Other Dick”

  1. Claudia Black
    She’s been my wife’s heroe ever since the line in farscape when Criton called her, "the Poster Child for Frontal Assault". She always plays strong and intelligent female characters, and unfortunately those are uncommon in TV.

    and as for this week’s Dresden…

    He gets to be a real wizzard again, which is good. But Now that enough of the other "background stuff" is taken caer of, I’m startign to wonder about the exact ""rules"" of his wizzardry. – What spells drain him (like the bomb shield) what can he do pretty-much all day long (locksmithing), and what was the deal when he borrowed somebody else’s power (magic mirror). Is that ever really discussed in the books? Or do we just have to assume "bigger flash"=needs more power?

    • Re: Claudia Black

      She’s been my wife’s heroe ever since the line in farscape when Criton called her, "the Poster Child for Frontal Assault". She always plays strong and intelligent female characters, and unfortunately those are uncommon in TV.

      and as for this week’s Dresden…

      He gets to be a real wizzard again, which is good. But Now that enough of the other "background stuff" is taken caer of, I’m startign to wonder about the exact ""rules"" of his wizzardry. – What spells drain him (like the bomb shield) what can he do pretty-much all day long (locksmithing), and what was the deal when he borrowed somebody else’s power (magic mirror). Is that ever really discussed in the books? Or do we just have to assume "bigger flash"=needs more power?

      The magic mirror bit was just weird… everybody over on the Jim Butcher forums thought so as well. Generally bigger bang = more energy. For example containing the explosion of a bomb takes a lot of energy, thus Harry was exhausted afterwards. In the books there are also specific-purpose focus items that make things easier. An example carried over into the show is the shield bracelet. In the books he also had a blasting rod (replaced in the show by the seemingly multi-purpose drumstick) that made it easier to direct high-force boom style magic. In the books the idea was that having a purpose-specific focus for specific spells made that spell easier and less draining. No idea if that carries over into the show, as they haven’t made it clear yet.

  2. Claudia’s ‘Murcan accent
    I love Claudia Black… but was anyone else bothered by her American accent? I’m pretty good at placing accents to within a state or even a town. Her accent sounded like the vocal equivelant of a ransom note. Ever word sounded like a different American accent… all in one sentence she had deep south, New York, San Fernando valley, Utah, etc.

    • Re: Claudia’s ‘Murcan accent

      I love Claudia Black… but was anyone else bothered by her American accent?

      That certainly wasn’t the voice that I was used to hearing out of Claudia. It was weird hearing the accent that was mostly American, but every now and then I’d hear that Australian accent click in. The pitch of her voice was different too. I don’t have the ear for telling the difference in American accents (I’m a midwesterner with some West Virginia kids in the school system, so I know my accent is wierd at times)

      Otherwise I thought she was excellent. (Then again, she always is…) If she wants to keep using that accent, she needs a little more work on it. Get the last kinks of Australian out, and settle on one specific accent.

    • Re: Claudia’s ‘Murcan accent

      I love Claudia Black… but was anyone else bothered by her American accent? I’m pretty good at placing accents to within a state or even a town. Her accent sounded like the vocal equivelant of a ransom note. Ever word sounded like a different American accent… all in one sentence she had deep south, New York, San Fernando valley, Utah, etc.

      I apparently wasn’t paying very close attention to her accent, despite usually having an ear for those kinds of differences. Of course, that could be because every time she was on the screen I was unreasonably happy. Claudia really does it for me, and it’s nice to see her in more "normal" attire. :)

      Anyway, solid episode. One thing on which I hope they improve (having read the second DF book this weekend) is the idea from the novels that being a good wizard means being prepared. That’s not to say he should be prepared for everything (that would be NO fun), but in the novels I’ve read thus far it seems that when he knows something could "go down," he does more than grab his blasting rod – like making potentially useful potions, for example. Perhaps it’s a symptom of the necessary time constraints, but I think a little bit of this (preparation over improvisation) would enhance his wizardly image.

    • Re: Claudia’s ‘Murcan accent

      I love Claudia Black… but was anyone else bothered by her American accent?

      OH YES. And I would not go so far as to call it an American accent… it was just… bad. Almost as bad as when American actors try to do a british accent. Or Australian for that matter.

    • Re: Claudia’s ‘Murcan accent
      My wife said not two lines into the ep (ok, maybe I exaggerate) that Claudia needed her accent back. Ah, well. While bizarre, she did turn in a good performance, and the ep was loads of fun.

  3. Claudia Black??
    ::Scratches "Dresden Files meets Stargate" off of list of potential fanfics::

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