Doctor What: A Doctor Who Blog

Review of Series 6, Episode 4: “The Doctor’s Wife”

2011-05-15T16:42:00.002-04:00

Well, that was better than last week. It wasn’t great, mind you, but it was pretty okay. Of course, I’m one of those guys who thinks Neil Gaiman hit his creative high point near the end of his run on Sandman and has been heading steadily downhill ever since, so “pretty okay” is about the best I could have reasonably expected.

So what did I like? I liked that the TARDIS assumed her name was “Sexy.” I enjoyed the interactions between the TARDIS and the Doctor in the last half of the episode, especially getting the TARDIS’s perspective on her relationship with the Doctor. The fact that she says that she chose him (and not the other way around) was great. And given that she’s a creature who sees all of time at once, her hints about the future were intriguing and useful, too. They helped Rory get into the second control room, yes, but they also set us up with a mystery for the future. “The only water in the forest is a river,” she says. Hmm. Well, that could be a reference to River Song, obviously, especially since we first met her in the “forest of the dead.” But if the only water in the forest is River, then that doesn’t bode well for Amy “Pond,” does it? The episode had a few funny moments, too, such as the construction and flight of the makeshift TARDIS and the TARDIS’s attraction to Rory.

What didn’t work for me? Well, the sets, costumes, and self-consciously quirky guest actors didn’t connect with me. The entire vibe of the episode reminded me of a Tim Burton movie circa 1998. And that’s not a compliment. Some of the plot didn’t quite gel, either. For example, how did these people get to House in the first place? They were just humans (and an Ood), right? Why did House keep the Ood around at the end, but kill the humans? Where did House get the Time Lord “help boxes,” anyway? Why did House start calling the TARDIS by the name Idris? When did she get that name? And did we really need to see Rory die yet again? This is getting to be a bad joke. Rory’s become the show’s Kenny (from South Park). The talking asteroid thing called to mind those stupid space whales from that not-very-good episode last series, too. Maybe House was a lost space whale? And I can’t say I understand why Steven Moffat, Neil Gaiman, and the rest of the crew seem to think that men want to have sex with the TARDIS. I don’t get the whole let’s-sexualize-machinery thing. But then, I’m not into cars, either.

But my biggest problem with the episode was that the audience knew within the first 3 minutes that the TARDIS has been displaced into the body of the Helena Bonham Carter wannabe, which made the next 15 minutes of the episode (where the supposedly brilliant Doctor catches up with us) rather pointless and painful to sit through. I was twiddling my thumbs through those early scenes, waiting for the Doctor to figure out what we already knew so we could just move on already. Yes, yes, the TARDIS is in the body of a human. That idea isn’t very original or interesting so can we just get past it and move on with the plot? The climax of the episode was decidedly weak, too. The emotion at the end from the Doctor and Rory felt unearned and unwarranted. After all, the TARDIS wasn’t dying; she was just leaving her stolen human body. If those two guys wanted to mourn for anyone, they should have mourned for the poor woman who owned the body originally! (Was that Idris?) I also thought they missed a great opportunity to show us more of the TARDIS’s interior. They finally leave the control room and what do we get to see? Some really lame, “sci-fi” hallways. Whoopee. Where was the churchyard that houses the cloister bell? Where was the library? Where was the oft-mentioned swimming pool, for God’s sake?! The best the production team could muster were some cardboard, hexagonal corridors. And then they started talking about old control rooms and I got excited again. I thought maybe we’d get a glimpse at the original, William Hartnell console. Or maybe Tom Baker’s. But, no. We just got David Tennant’s control room. That’s the opposite of fun.

One last thing – did anyone else catch the reference the Corsair’s gender swapping? Fans have speculated for years about whether or not Time Lords can switch genders. Now that we know they can, could a female Doctor be in the cards?

Review of Series 6, Episode 3: “The Curse of the Black Spot”

2011-05-08T21:30:00.006-04:00

My mom always told me, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Unfortunately, I have committed to blogging about all of the episodes of Doctor Who this season, which means I have to say something about last night’s episode, “The Curse of the Black Spot.”

As I mentioned last week, I didn’t have a good feeling about this story going into it based just on the trailer (and the fact that is seemed like a blatant Pirates of the Caribbean knock-off). I tried to put my preconceived notions aside, though, so I could enjoy the pirate-y thrills and derring-do. I failed – although I think it was less my fault than the episode’s. This episode was just… not good. It actually seemed more like a parody of Doctor Who than an actual episode; it was riddled with the show’s clichés – an alien masquerading as something supernatural, a decidedly low-budget feel, another oh-no-Rory's-dead scene, and a nonsensical plot that didn’t come together in the end. The script was quite bad, actually, riddled with unfunny, attempting-to-be-clever lines for the Doctor and an inadequate character arc for the pirate captain guest star. The acting was no great shakes, either. Even the regulars (Matt Smith included) seemed bored and vaguely embarrassed. Karen Gillan made the least-convincing pirate in history. (Yes, even worse than Keira Knightley.) Honestly, this episode felt like the series was just killing time. They did shoehorn in a reference to the ongoing plot with a brief appearance by Eye Patch Woman, which seemed like a token way of trying to tie this episode to the rest of the series. It didn’t work. And the scene at the end with Amy’s pregnancy scan was almost a copy/paste from last week. So why even bother including it?

As for the plot, it had more holes than a sinking ship. For one thing, why were there a total of only five crewmembers? Even at the end when the full crew gathered on the bridge of their new spaceship? And how did they all manage to walk onto the bridge at the end (including the sick kid)? I thought the “siren” had to keep them in suspended animation or some such nonsense. And is letting a crew of dangerous, bloodthirsty pirates take control of a state-of-the-art spaceship a wise decision on the Doctor’s part? Shouldn’t these guys be in jail for all their raping, murdering, etc.? Now they’re flying around a nuclear reactor with all of space to harass! Speaking of the small crew, why did one of them (the one that the annoying little kid cut with a sword to force him to stay hidden with Amy and Rory) just sort of disappear halfway through the episode, never to be mentioned again? And why would the medical hologram have an “evil, red demon setting,” anyway? And why couldn’t it speak? How does singing act as an anesthetic? Why bother making the dead aliens non-humanoid if you’re then just going to have to explain why the medical hologram looks human? And how did the alien crew die if they had this ingenious medical hologram on board with them? Shouldn’t she have healed their injuries? So many things that didn’t make sense…. And worst of all, I can’t really bring myself to care about the answers.

So, taken on it’s own merits, this episode was bad, bad, bad. It certainly ranks down there with “Fear Her,” “The Lazarus Experiment,” and “Planet of the Ood” as some of the worst of New Who. Watched right after the brilliant season-opening two-parter, though, it seems even worse. After the intriguing start to the season, I wanted more about the ongoing storyline. Or at least an enjoyable one-off. Unfortunately, this episode was neither of those things. Hopefully, Neil Gaiman can right this ship next week. Yes, I just made a sailing analogy while discussing a pirate-themed story. Not very clever, I know – which means it should fit in perfectly with this episode.

Review of Series 6, Episode 2: "Day of the Moon"

2011-05-01T15:18:00.002-04:00

I can't resist; I'm skipping to the end of the episode first.

SPOILERS!

I did not see that coming. So the little girl's a Time Lady? What the hey?! Who is she then? Is she Amy's daughter who was somehow born as a Time Lady because she was conceived in the TARDIS? (I'm assuming Rory is the father. Surely Steven Moffat wouldn't have Amy impregnated by the Doctor.... Would he?) The Doctor's medical scan of Amy at the end of the episode seemed to imply that Amy's fetus is already jumping in and out of time (or in and out of existence), which might be totally normal for Time Lord babies, who knows? Or is the little girl a young River Song, making that shady dame a secret Time Lady all this time? Maybe River was the Rani in a previous form. Or Romana. Or, a little more outlandishly, the little girl could be the Doctor's granddaughter Susan who hasn't been seen since the days of the First Doctor. Or maybe she's the Doctor's cloned "daughter" from a couple of season's past having regenerated from Georgia Moffett into a little girl? Or perhaps she's a combination of these possibilities. Perhaps she's Amy and Rory's TARDIS-conceived Time Lady daughter who just happens to grow up to become the Rani who later reforms and becomes a certain benevolent Doctor Song. Nah. That would be too confusing! There is one other possibility. Perhaps the child is the daughter of River and the Doctor. Remember last week, River also got sick after forgetting the Silents, just like Amy did. Does that mean that River's pregnant, too? We know from the ending that River and the Doctor had been quite intimate in her past (but his future), so if she is pregnant, that'd mean the baby is at least half Time Lord. Hmmm.... In any case, the possibilities have my mind reeling - and have me excited, waiting for answers.

So, aside from the ending, how was this episode? In a word, great! Continuing on from last week, this episode contained even more creepy stuff - Amy, Rory, and River marking on their skin how many times they had seen the Silents, the abandoned orphanage with the ominous warnings (written in blood?), the Silents hanging from the ceiling like bats, the Doctor imprisoned and looking like an unkept crazy person, Amy's disembodied voice begging for help through the communicator, and so on. If I were a kid, I'd have definitely been hiding behind the sofa for this one. I also thought the Doctor's solution to the problem of the Silents (involving a phone camera, Neil Armstrong's boot, and the televised moon landing) was creative and clever - although I am rather surprised that the Doctor would inspire humans to kill off an entire race of aliens, no matter how evil those aliens are. Actually, there was rather a lot of violence in this episode (what with River and the Doctor blasting Silents with guns and screwdrivers), which would probably be the one negative thing about the episode for me.

As with many of Moffat's episodes, the script answered a couple of minor questions but left many of the bigger questions to linger while introducing a few new wrinkles as well. As I mentioned above, we still don't know who the little girl is. And now we have to wonder about her status as a Time Lady, too! And why, exactly, did the Silents need her? And why did their ship look like a TARDIS? Also, we do not learn why the little girl (if that was her in the spacesuit at the start of last week's episode) killed the future Doctor - or why he allowed it to happen. And what was with that lady with the metal eyepatch who peeked at Amy through a peephole in the door and said, "She seems to be dreaming," only to then disappear (along with the peephole)? That was like something from a bizarre art film, and I have no clue where that's going.

Overall, I'd say this is the best opening for a Doctor Who series in the modern era. I'm really digging the scary yet funny tone and the various mysteries have me begging for more. I must admit that I am a little concerned about next week's pirate-themed episode, but I'll go into it with an open mind hoping for the best.

Review of Series 6, Episode 1: “The Impossible Astronaut”

2011-04-26T10:29:00.005-04:00

“The Impossible Astronaut” makes for an epic and cinematic opening episode that looks like it was made on the budget for a Hollywood movie instead of a BBC TV show. The plot starts strong and grabs you by the lapels, making innovative use of the Doctor’s ability to travel through time without becoming overly complicated for the kiddies. Basically, it’s a fantastic way to kick off Series 6!

After several not-so-funny vignettes in which the Doctor tries to get Amy and Rory’s attention throughout time (although I must admit that it was fun seeing the Doctor dance with Laurel and Hardy), the plot finally gets moving when the happy couple receives a mysterious TARDIS-blue invitation directing them to coordinates in the good ole U.S. of A. I thought it was funny that Amy and Rory arrive at the location on a traditional yellow school bus given that those buses scream “American” to Brits in the same way that red double-decker buses say “English” to those of us in the U.S. It’s like they were trying to overload on Americanisms right off the bat by including the yellow school bus, Monument Valley, a vintage Cadillac, a Stetson, a six-shooter, and (soon enough) a 1950s-style diner complete with American flag and Elvis murals. Kitschy, but fun.

Having received a blue invitation while incarcerated in Stormcage, River Song (making an explosive entrance, as always) joins the little group – and also reveals that the statues on Easter Island were actually modeled after the Doctor. They do kind of look like Matt Smith! The friends’ reunion picnic is then interrupted by the mysterious arrival of a silent astronaut from out of the nearby lake. This was a very creepy sequence that was only made even more eerie by the fact that the Doctor seemed to know what was happening. A few moments later, the Doctor is dead, having been willingly shot several times by the astronaut, the last time in the middle of his regeneration cycle, stopping him from changing into a new body. So, in the first 10 minutes of the episode, the Doctor has been finally and irrevocably murdered. Hell of a way to hook the audience!

But, of course, things aren’t that simple when you’re dealing with time travel. Another Doctor (“our” Doctor from the previous season, which means the Doctor who was killed was actually from a couple of hundred years in the future) arrives with a blue invitation, and River convinces Amy and Rory that he has to be kept in the dark regarding his ultimate fate and the identity of who invited them all. The fact that the audience now knows more than the Doctor about what’s happening made for a nice inversion to River’s oft-frustrating “spoilers!” comment; we’re on her side now instead of the Doctor’s so we can see that there are, indeed, facts that she would need to keep secret from him. The scene in the Oval Office was outstanding because it managed to combine creepy and funny in just the right proportions without giving the audience emotional whiplash. Breaking the tension from the creepy little girl’s recorded phone call with the Doctor’s antics and the appearance of the TARDIS was a stroke of brilliance.

The new aliens introduced in this episode had a great design (not to mention a great conceit – that you forget about them as soon as you’re not looking at them). The aliens’ scary faces are somehow rendered even creepier in contrast with their rather standard “man in black” suits. I noticed that these aliens didn’t have mouths and seemed to communicate telepathically. Does that mean that they are the “Silents” that were teased throughout last season with the phrase “The Silents will fall”? Whoever they are, it was spooky when River and Rory entered their spaceship only to reveal to the audience the same interior as the makeshift TARDIS from last series’ episode “The Lodger.” Of course, River and Rory wouldn’t recognize that fact because they were not in that episode, which I’m sure is no coincidence on the writer’s part. In any case, I guess we can assume that these same aliens were behind that plot as well.

Aside from the intriguing plotline, this episode also had an abundance of clever and funny lines. “You were my second choice for president, Mr. Nixon.” “They’re Americans!” “The Legs, the Nose, and Mrs. Robinson.” “Brave heart, Canton.” “She’s just a friend!” Good stuff.

The performances were all around excellent as well. Of course Matt Smith was great, but Karen Gillen as Amy Pond wasn’t as abrasive as she was last season. I found her a little annoying last year, but I liked her in this episode. I’m glad to see Arthur Darvill’s Rory become a full-time companion, too. And River is as intriguing and likeable/untrustworthy as always. Even the supporting cast was good. I don’t know if they actually hired American actors for the bit parts (I kind of doubt it), but the accents weren’t terrible. Usually Brits trying to do American accents are pretty intolerable (see the David Tennant two-parter set in New York during the Depression for some examples). The only annoying over-Americanism that I can recall from this episode was Joy’s overuse of the word “honey” in the bathroom. Her voice made me glad the alien blew her up, actually.

I did have a few very minor criticisms. As I said, I wasn’t a fan of the opening series of vignettes, which I just thought were silly and not funny. And did they really need to do the old “Doctor Who?” joke not once but twice in the episode? I know that there are probably some newer members of the audience who haven’t heard it before, but they certainly had already heard it by the time it cropped up a second time in the episode! I also wasn’t thrilled with the decision to go all slow-mo on us during the cliffhanger. I’m not a fan of slow-mo in general, but I like it even less when there are lines of dialogue during it. Always reminds me of those horrible last scenes from The Return of the King. You know the ones. “Gaaandaalf?! Haaa haa!”

Aside from those minor nitpicks, though, I thought this was an excellent episode. I can’t wait for next Saturday to see how they wrap all of this up in “Day of the Moon.” Who is the murderous astronaut? The Doctor himself? (I kind of can’t picture anyone killing the Doctor but himself, for some reason.) Or is it River Song? After all, we know that she is imprisoned in Stormcage for killing “a great man.” Speaking of River, I wonder if we’ll finally get to learn her true identity next week. Is she a Timelord, as some have suggested? The Rani, maybe? Or the Master? Or the Doctor him/herself? Or is she just a human? She says she was “an impressionable young girl” when she first met the Doctor. Is she, maybe, the girl in the spacesuit at the end of the episode? I have no clue and I’m not even going to bother guessing because I’m sure Steven Moffat has some tricks up his sleeve yet!

April 23, 2011, Baby!

2011-03-09T22:42:00.004-05:00

BBC America has announced that the first half of this year's Doctor Who series will begin airing on April 23. Let the countdown begin!

Awesome Doctor Who Infographic!

2011-02-11T15:55:00.004-05:00

Check out this cool "infographic" that my fellow Hoosier Bob Canada created and posted on his blog:

What a great introduction to the Doctor! Share it with all your friends who don't watch Doctor Who to get them up-to-speed before the next series starts this spring. Let's hope he makes it available as a poster. I know I'd buy one. Good work, Bob!

Review of the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special: “A Christmas Carol”

2011-01-06T15:46:00.002-05:00

Let’s hear it for the first ever Doctor Who episode to be broadcast on the same day on both sides of the Atlantic (December 25, 2010, natch)! That’s the good news. The bad news is that BBC America is not in HD in my town, which made the US-broadcast version look, well, less than good. Aside from the picture quality, this was also the first time I’ve tried to watch Doctor Who (a program made for the commercial-free BBC) with commercials awkwardly shoehorned into it at regular intervals, which meant that watching the episode was kind of like reading a book with someone periodically screaming in your ear. So, despite the day-and-date broadcast, I still found myself looking elsewhere to get a high-quality, commercial-free version to watch.

And, boy, am I glad I held out for a version in HD because this episode looked great, if nothing else! The foggy, steam punk setting for the episode was brilliantly realized, a mixture of nostalgic Victorian England and futuristic, sci-fi trappings. The first time they showed a school of tiny flying fish circling a street lamp like it was a plastic castle in a fish bowl, my eyes were glued to the screen. And who thought a flying shark pulling a carriage could look cool instead of stupid?

Don’t get me wrong, though, the episode was not all about the visual effects. There was a real story here. Obviously, Steven Moffat (the current executive producer of Doctor Who and the writer of this particular episode) started with the template and title of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but Moffat didn’t so much rehash that story as cleverly reinvent it. The Ghost of Christmas Past (the Doctor, of course) actually traveled to the past and messed around with the Kazran Sardick’s childhood, changing the man in the present by influencing the boy. Cool! The Ghost of Christmas Present (Amy) then used her holographic powers to both appear to Kazran as a spooky green phantom and to project the interior of the doomed ship around him, thereby taking him to the scene of the disaster. Most clever of all, though, was the Ghost of Christmas Future (the Doctor again) not bothering to take Kazran to see his future/death, but instead taking the young Kazran to his future (the present) to see the bitter old man he had become. Well played, Mr. Moffatt! These changes meant that the story did follow Dickens’ original novella, but mixed it up enough so it wasn’t just another boring rehash.

As for the acting, Matt Smith was great as usual. He’s really fallen into the role of the Doctor now, seeming to me like a blend of the First Doctor, the Second Doctor, and the Fifth Doctor. Michael Gambon (who I think we can all agree made the superior Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies) was excellent as well, making me both hate and pity Kazran. I’ve never heard of the episode’s other major guest star, a British singer named Katherine Jenkins, but she was fine, too. Her acting as Abigail didn’t really pull me out of the episode, anyway, even though her singing isn’t really my cup of tea. Given that I’m not overly fond of either of the Doctor’s current companions (Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill [whose name now appears in the opening credits, by the way] as Rory Williams), I can’t say that I was too upset that the unlikely newlyweds ended up stuck on board a crashing spaceship with the cast of Star Trek for the entire story, thereby minimizing their roles. It made them more palatable, that’s for sure! I did like how they put Amy and Rory back into their most “iconic” costumes from the preceding series (slutty policewoman and Roman centurion, respectively), explaining the odd sartorial choices as “a bit of fun” for them in their honeymoon suite.

No, the episode wasn’t perfect. But, then, what is? There were, indeed, a few cheesy lines (“Everyone stops and turns and hugs as if to say ‘Well, done, everyone!’”), but if you can’t be cheesy at Christmastime, then when can you be cheesy? Aside from the cheese, there were also a few lines of dialogue that simply didn’t work. The worst was when old Kazran said to the Doctor, “Was that a sort of threat-y thing?” which sounds more like something Joss Whedon would write for Buffy Summers instead of something an old, powerful rich dude would actually say. There was also at least one sequence (when the Doctor is analyzing Kazran and his environment near the beginning of the episode) that seemed lifted directly from Sherlock, Moffat’s other BBC series, but I chose to take that sequence as a kind of in-joke regarding his other job rather than a jarring, out-of-place element that didn’t match stylistically with the rest of the episode. And, yes, there were some logic problems. For example, why was Abigail frozen as collateral in the first place if she was dying at the time? What kind of collateral is that? Clearly Kazran’s father knew she was dying because he placed a convenient “life-count-down-ometer” on the outside of her freezer. Setting aside the idea that they even could predict, down to the day, how much time she had left to live, why would Kazran’s father have installed such a counter anyway? Why would he care? Finally, the boy who played young Kazran was a bit over-the-top for my taste. He seemed more like a kid who’s taken one-too-many acting lessons rather than a natural talent. I say send him back to his role as Gavroche in Les Miserables and start looking for kids who aren’t unnaturally hammy for TV.

Aside from those rather minor points, though, I enjoyed the episode quite a bit. It was certainly Christmas-y! Murray Gold’s music was excellent as always, and I loved seeing the Eleventh Doctor in a scarf reminiscent of the Fourth Doctor’s, even if it was just for one moment. Overall, I’d say this was the best of Doctor Who’s Christmas Specials. Looking back at the previous ones, though, that may seem like faint praise.

Happy Holidays!

2011-01-03T20:41:00.004-05:00

Just a quick post to say that I hope everyone had a great Hanukkah or Christmas or Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa or New Year's Day or whatever this year. I do plan to post a review of "A Christmas Carol" (this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special) after I've had a chance to re-watch it. I was a little less than sober when I watched it on Christmas night.... In the meantime, here are two awesome washcloths that were knitted for me by a friend of mine. The first one is of the TARDIS and the second one is of a Dalek. Exfoliate!! Thanks, Rachel!

Happy Doctor Who Day, Everybody!!

2010-11-23T11:38:00.003-05:00

Happy Doctor Who Day! In case you've forgotten, the very first episode of Doctor Who was transmitted exactly 47 years ago on Saturday, November 23, 1963. Matt Smith is looking pretty good for being middle aged, isn't he? Read my take on the first episode, An Unearthly Child, here.

Review of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4, Episodes 5 and 6: “Death of the Doctor” Parts 1 and 2

2010-10-28T12:15:00.003-04:00

I don’t usually review episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures on the blog, not because I don’t like the show (I think it’s perfectly alright for a program squarely aimed at children), but just because I am focused on Doctor Who, not its spinoffs. I don’t review episodes of Torchwood, either. This week’s two-parter demands an exception, however. Why? I should think the title (“Death of the Doctor”) would be explanation enough! Yes, Matt Smith turns up as the Eleventh Doctor. Yay! These episodes also mark the first time that our old friend Russell T Davies (RTD, the man who returned Doctor Who to our TV screens back in 2005) has written for Matt’s Doctor. How did RTD do? Read on!

Plotwise, the story is fairly simple. UNIT contacts Sarah Jane and tells her that the Doctor has been killed. They plan to hold a funeral for him, which will be presided over by the Shansheeth, a race of intergalactic undertakers/professional mourners. Sarah Jane, in a state of denial regarding the Doctor’s death, agrees to attend the memorial service with Clyde and Rani. (Luke is apparently too busy with his studies at Oxford to take a day off to pay his respects to the man that he knows has saved all of reality numerous times. Ingrate.) At the funeral, Sarah Jane finally meets Jo Grant (or Jo Jones as she’s been called since marrying Professor Clifford Jones at the end of The Green Death), another of the Doctor’s former companions. Jo also doubts the Doctor’s demise. Their skepticism is rewarded when the Eleventh Doctor suddenly trades places with Clyde from the other end of the universe, meeting his old friends for the first time in his present incarnation. Of course the Shansheeth turn out to be bad (or at least misguided) and the Doctor and his pals foil their plans.

These two episodes are a feast of nostalgia for old-time viewers. Jo makes a fun return, still as ditzy and lovable as ever. She basically serves as the co-lead with Sarah Jane in the story, turning it into a double-act. Even though this is the first time the two characters have met, they have an easy rapport, reminiscing about their Doctors and their adventures (especially Peladon), running up and down corridors together holding hands, and verbally tag-teaming the new Doctor. The two ladies complement each other nicely, Jo’s devil-may-care, free-thinking attitude contrasting with Sarah Jane’s slightly more conservative point of view. Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing Jo take on a more permanent role in the series. Those kids are all going to have to go to college some time, right? Maybe Jo could move in to 13 Bannerman Road after Sarah’s high school pals have moved on and the two older ladies can go on wacky adventures together as a team. Aside from the co-lead role for Jo, we also get shout-outs to many other companions and monsters from the program’s past, including Daleks, Ogrons, Tegan, Ben, Polly, Harry, and Ace (at least, I assume that’s the “Dorothy” that Sarah Jane mentions). Oh, and I always knew that Ian and Barbara would end up together! Although I never suspected that they’d stop aging…. Even more impressive than these mentions, we actually get to see many of the classic monsters in flashback, not to mention the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Tenth Doctors. Seeing Tom Baker appear in the middle of The Sarah Jane Adventures certainly made me smile.

The rest of the serial was top-notch as well. The CBBC budget was apparent in a few places, most notably the exterior to UNIT’s Mount Snowdon base and the rock quarry/alien planet on which the Doctor was trapped. And, okay, the Shansheeth did look a little like giant Muppets (or perhaps the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal). Still, I actually liked the design for the aliens as giant, lumbering buzzards. Maybe it was a bit too literal for a race of professional ambulance-chasers, but it worked. They didn’t look “real,” but they looked creepy and otherworldly. And I found it really disturbing, for some reason, when one of them played the harp.

When they finally stop switching places and get a chance to meet, Clyde and the Eleventh Doctor have a fun moment together where Clyde instructs the Doctor on how to travel through the air duct. “You have to shuffle backwards,” he explains as if it’s rocket science. And then comes the “controversial” part. Clyde asks how many times the Doctor can regenerate, and the Doctor says “507.” The classic series answer was 12. Quite a big difference there! But does it really matter? I know that some überfans are upset about this possible change, but, come on; we always knew the BBC would find some way around this “rule.” And the way the Doctor says the line (not to mention that he’s speaking to a kid that he hardly knows) made it seem like he could have been joking anyway. Speaking of the kids, I’m not quite sure why Jo’s grandson Santiago was introduced in the story. He didn’t do anything of consequence (aside from giving RTD a chance to mention that Santiago’s father was hiking across Antarctica with his gay dad’s club, anyway). I was afraid that he was being introduced as a regular to replace the now away-at-university Luke. Thankfully, RTD didn’t go that route, letting the hippy kid leave with his grandma at the end of the story. I wonder if the plan was to see how he worked with the cast and then make the call about whether to keep him or not at the end of filming. Probably not since I assume they already had all the subsequent stories written for this season in advance without his character in them, but it’s still fun to speculate. Maybe they’ve set him up to come back next season, though, if there’s a positive response to his character. Personally, I hope we’ve seen the last of him.

Although the story was good overall, there were still a few RTD-isms that grated. First off, why were there Grosks involved at all? It seemed like they were thrown in just so RTD could reuse that Grask costume the producers had lying around. I can hear his thoughts now, “We’ll paint the costume blue, I’ll change a vowel in the creature’s name, and then it’ll be totally different alien! And for added cleverness, I’ll call out what I’ve done in the script!” The funny thing is, RTD’s pretty much done this same trick before with the Zocci/Vinvocci. There were also a couple of lines that just seemed, well, off. First, it seemed a tad out of character for the Doctor to make fun of Jo’s visible aging. I believe he said something like, “You look like you’ve been baked in an oven.” Bad Doctor! Then, at the end, when all of the Shansheeth and at least one human UNIT soldier have been burnt to a crisp, the Grosk says, “Smells like roast chicken.” I admit, I laughed. But then I felt bad for laughing. Also, the end was a bit “magic-y,” as is usual for RTD. To recap, the Shansheeth need a key to the TARDIS so they hook up Sarah Jane and Jo to some kind of glowy machine thing called a Memory Weave that will create a new key from their memories but then the gals think too hard, overload the machine, and blow up the bad guys. Or something. Yeah, RTD always has problems with endings. Oh, one more thing. “Scarlet Monstrosity.” 'Nuff said.

Aside from those few niggles, though, these two episodes made for quite an enjoyable hour of TV for this old Doctor Who fan. In fact, I’d say it was the best storyline of The Sarah Jane Adventures yet. Certainly better than David Tennant’s two-part appearance as the Tenth Doctor last season, anyway. Matt Smith really is an excellent Doctor. Bring on this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special!

Doctor Who from the Beginning: 100,000 BC

2010-10-18T14:56:00.000-04:00

In my last post, I examined “An Unearthly Child,” the very first episode of Doctor Who. The next three episodes of the program (“The Cave of Skulls,” “The Forest of Fear,” and “The Firemaker”) form a serial of sorts, which I am going to refer to as 100,000 BC and discuss together in this post.

Curiously, “The Cave of Skulls” does not pick up directly where “An Unearthly Child” left off (with the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan taking their two new captives, Ian and Barbara, for an unwanted ride in the TARDIS). Instead, the episode begins by introducing the viewers to a crowd of dirty, Stone Age tribesmen who are all dressed in rags and are fairly indistinguishable from one another. Bold move for only the second episode of a new program! From what I could gather in this scene, Za, son of the tribe’s previous firemaker is having problems making fire. His father appears to still be alive and well, although he, too, is now unable to produce fire. The inability to make fire must run in the family, which makes me wonder how Za’s dad got fire the first time. Was he just walking in the woods and found a burning stick or something? Anyway, Za wants to make fire so he can become leader of the tribe, marry his sweetheart (creatively named Hur), and live a life of cave-bound luxury. Unfortunately for Za, the rest of the tribe, including the requisite Creepy Old Woman, wants the hunter named Kal (who is an outsider from a destroyed tribe) to step up and be their new leader. It’s hard to feel too bad for rather whiny Za given that his attempts to make fire seem to consist solely of rubbing both of his hands on an animal bone. He says he expects “Orb” (the sun, I guess) to show him how to make fire because he’s special or something. I guess religion hasn’t changed much in the last 100,000 years.

After this scintillating opening, we finally cut back to the TARDIS. The Doctor says he doesn’t know where they are, but Ian insists that they’re still in the junkyard. At one point in this scene Ian calls the Doctor “Dr. Foreman” and the Doctor promptly replies, “Eh, doctor who?” Ah, that old chestnut. As a matter of fact, that “joke” is used not once, but twice in this serial. Eventually they all leave the TARDIS and even Ian is forced to accept that they’ve moved. What convinces him? An old horse skull, of course! I guess they didn’t have horses in London in the 1960s. Interestingly, from a Doctor Who fan perspective, this is the first time that the TARDIS’s broken disguise mechanism (later called a “chameleon circuit”) is mentioned. The doctor looks at his ship and mumbles, “It’s still a police box. Why hasn’t it changed?” As the Doctor ponders this issue, Kal the hunter sneaks up on him, knocks him out, and kidnaps him because he saw the Doctor light his pipe with a match. Or maybe he was just hunting old men. Hard to tell with Kal. When the Doctor’s abduction is discovered, Susan becomes scarily hysterical. Is it just me or does this kid seem seriously psychologically messed up? Maybe all Gallifreyan kids are this weird? Meanwhile, Kal has brought the still-unconscious Doctor back to the tribe and tells them that the old man will make fire appear from his fingers for the tribe. Because “the creature” is his, Kal says, he should be the leader. The Doctor finally wakes up and tells the tribe that he can make fire for them – if they take him back to his ship. How is the Doctor able to speak their primitive language, I wonder? Ian, Barbara, and Susan then conveniently/inconveniently stumble into the tribe and are taken captive. Za says they should wait until daybreak when Orb shines again before killing them; maybe that will bring them fire, he hypothesizes. Convinced by Za’s sound logic, the tribe tosses the four captives into the Cave of Skulls where Barbara promptly tries to get romantic with Ian before noticing the piles and piles of split-open human skulls surrounding them.

“The Forest of Fear” reveals to us that Stone Age tribes apparently slept in one big pile, like a really boring orgy. While they sleep, their new captives are trying to escape, their time as prisoners uniting them. The Doctor tells Barbara that fear “makes companions of all of us.” This is where the four of them finally stop bickering (as much) and become a more unified crew. The Creepy Old Woman frees the TARDIS crew with Za’s knife and makes them promise not to make fire. She says that fire will bring trouble. I’m not sure what her motivations are here, to be quite honest. Has she seen fire destroy a tribe before? Does she just not want Za to get the credit because she’s a Libertarian and she’s backing Kal? And aside from the question of her motivation, how the hell did she move that giant stone at the doorway to the Cave of Skulls? Anyway, Za and Hur show right after the Doctor and company have escaped, so they assault the old broad. Meanwhile, in the forest, Barbara fakes a breakdown so Ian will hug her. Then she freaks out when she sees a dead boar. Maybe she wasn’t faking. Her screams bring Za and Hur. Before the two Stoners can recapture the TARDIS crew, he is mauled by an unseen (for budgetary reasons) wild animal. Tellingly, the men want to abandon Za, but the women force the Doctor and Ian to stay and help. Ian even mocks Barbara by saying, “Your flat must be littered with stray cats and dogs.” Sensitive comment, Ian! Especially when directed towards a woman who probably lives with at least 14 cats. In exchange for their help, Za and Hur agree to guide them back to the TARDIS. Back at the homestead, Kal goes to the Cave of Skulls, finds the Creepy Old Woman, and kills her because he thinks she let the captives go. Oh, Kal. She totally supported you, dude! When he discovers Za’s knife on her person, he decides to rather cleverly use the weapon to frame Za and Hur for the murder. The Doctor and company finally make it to the TARDIS, but are met there by the angry tribesmen. Oops!

At start of “The Firemaker,” Hur tries to explain to the tribe what really happened to the Creepy Old Woman, but because she’s just a stupid girl and Za is still unconscious from his previous mauling, her people refuse to believe her. The Doctor somehow proves that Kal really killed the old woman, though, so the tribe drives Kal away into exile. Yeah, that’ll stick.... Now it’s back to the Cave of Skulls for our heroes! Za recovers from his wounds and goes to visit the captives, who are busy trying to make fire with the old “rubbing two stick together” method. Ian proves that he is The Man by being the first to produce a flame. But is having a fire safe in such an enclosed environment as the Cave of Skulls? Ever hear of smoke inhalation, Ian? I thought you were a science teacher. Before anyone can get sick from the smoke, though, Kal appears and attacks Za. Begin filmed sequence of caveman on caveman action complete with anguished reaction shots from the regulars! Yay! Of course Za wins the fight, although I must admit that I had trouble telling the two hairy, dirty men apart until all the action was over. Stand-up guy that he is, Za then passes off Ian’s fire as his own and becomes leader of the tribe. Even though he’s achieved all of his dreams, including getting the luscious Hur, Za still insists on keeping the TARDIS crew captive. Because the episode is nearly over, though, they manage to escape by using a lame, unbelievable trick where they stick four skulls on torches and run away into the forest while the tribesmen cower in fear. They get to the TARDIS and dematerialize. Unfortunately for Barbara and Ian, the Doctor says he cannot take them back to their time because they “left the other place too quickly for him to properly set the coordinates.” So, they land in a strange-looking petrified forest, instead, and decide to go exploring. As they leave the TARDIS, a radiation meter on the console of the machine suddenly reads “Danger.” No one except the camera operator seems to notice, though.

This is an odd story. For one thing, it seems like Kal, the outsider underdog, is going to be the protagonist of the piece from the outset, not Za, the “privileged” son of the previous firemaker who convinces the rest of the tribe that they should kill the Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara at dawn. Even at the end, when it’s become apparent that we’re supposed to sympathize with Za, he just seems like a jerk, claiming that he made Ian’s fire and refusing to release the prisoners. Kal may have killed the Creepy Old Woman (for which we should all probably thank him), but I don’t doubt Za would have done the same if it had brought him power. Plus Kal shares Superman’s Kryptonian first name. How can he be bad? For another thing, the rather rudimentary politics of a Stone Age tribe does not make for the most fascinating basis for a plot. Although I said I liked the four-person crew in the previous story, some of the individual members of the crew don’t really get to do much in this serial. Instead, this seemed like a story that could have been told using just the Doctor and one other person, probably Ian. Does Susan even do anything in this story? In fact, both of the women characters just seem to get hysterical and scream a lot. Was this common in the 1960s, I wonder? Both of the women seemed necessary to the plot in “An Unearthly Child,” Susan because she set the story in motion with her weirdness and Barbara because she convinced Ian to help her investigate. I wish the two ladies got more to do in this story. I did like how Za and Hur related to the TARDIS members in ways that made sense to their limited experiences. For example, they call the TARDIS crew a “new tribe,” they decide that the TARDIS itself is “a tree,” and Hur says that Barbara watched over the injured Za “like a mother taking care of her baby.”

Next time: Introducing the sensational character find of 1963 – THE DALEKS! Yeah, I’m not really a fan....

Doctor Who from the Beginning: “An Unearthly Child”

2010-10-08T23:38:00.002-04:00

This weekend I sat down and watched “An Unearthly Child,” the very first episode of Doctor Who, which was broadcast on the BBC on November 23, 1963. That was nearly 47 years ago! Wow, this show has been on the air a long time. I guess people love ’em some Doctor Who.

But will people today love this episode of Doctor Who from the early 1960s? That’s debatable. TV was just different back then. TV programs, especially on the BCC, were more akin to filmed stage plays than the mini-movies that modern audiences expect. The pacing was slower, there were no quick camera cuts, and the acting could sometimes be, well, theatrical. Taking all of that into consideration, though, I think the first episode of Doctor Who holds up rather well. It’s surprising the number of constants that have remained throughout the program’s long history. The Doctor is already a cranky know-it-all when he first appears, for instance. Yes, William Hartnell’s portrayal of the First Doctor is markedly different than, say, Tom Baker’s portrayal of the Fourth Doctor, but there are similarities such as the strange sense of humor and the condescension to modern-day humans. And he’s already traveling the universe with one young female assistant for company when we first meet him (although, by the end of the episode, he ends up with a set of unwanted older companions as well). The TARDIS, too, is here at he beginning, looking and functioning pretty much as we expect it to. The machine is even described as “alive,” a contention that I assumed came along much later.

Plot wise, the 23-minute episode is pretty straightforward. Basically, Susan Foreman is an odd 15-year-old kid who has been attending Coal Hill School for around 5 months. She knows some things that a kid in 1963 shouldn’t know (she apparently understands more about science than her teacher, including the existence of a fifth dimension), but she doesn’t know some things that a British kid in 1963 should know (how many shillings in a pound, for example). She does love listening to (and sort of dancing to) those crazy 60s tunes on her transistor radio, though, so that’s pretty normal. Although she’s also fond of saying things like, “I like walking through the dark. It’s mysterious.” Yeah, she’s weird. Concerned by her behavior, her science and history teachers (Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, respectively) decide to follow her home one night. That seems a tad bit like stalking to me, but I suppose they had good intentions, right? Truthfully, I think Barbara’s primary intention was to get Ian alone in a dark car; she invites him to trail Susan with her as if she’s asking him on a date. When the pair of teachers arrives at Susan’s address (76 Totter’s Lane; kind of a fairytale-sounding address, isn’t it?), they find a scrap yard owned by one “I. M. Foreman” (or so the sign says). In the junkyard they meet a secretive and ill-tempered old man who looks like he just wandered away from playing Ebenezer Scrooge in a local theater production of A Christmas Carol. Naturally, this is the Doctor. They question him about Susan, but he only laughs at them and denies any knowledge of the girl. He nearly convinces them to leave – until Susan yells to him from inside a police box (a common site in England in those days, although not in a junkyard). Of course Ian and Barbara rush in to the police box to investigate and are shocked to find that it is (altogether now) “bigger on the inside.”

Susan appears and explains that the police box is really her grandfather’s space ship/time machine, which is called a TARDIS. She tells them that the name stands for “Time And Relative Dimension In Space” and that she coined the term. Her claim doesn’t seem possible given that we later meet other time travelers with TARDISes of their own. Little liar. The Doctor gets some good lines in this scene. When Ian is confused by the Doctor’s description of the TARDIS as a ship, for example, the Doctor says, “Yes, ship. This doesn’t roll around on wheels, you know.” And when Ian tells him not to treat them like children, the Doctor replies, “The children of my civilization would be insulted.” The Doctor and Susan seem to be exiled from their own planet and people (not here identified), which makes secrecy imperative. When the Doctor explains to Susan that they cannot stay in the present if Ian and Barbara know their secret, Susan says that she would rather stay in the 20th century without him and the TARDIS, then. Wow. Talk about family loyalty! The Doctor doesn’t take kindly to this idea, so, instead of opening the door to the TARDIS to let Ian and Barbara (and possibly Susan) stay behind, he decides to kidnap them all to the Stone Age. Sensible idea! This Doctor (who we assume to be the First Doctor) is quite old, remember, so maybe his thought processes don’t always make the most sense…. After a trippy, psychedelic time travel sequence, the episode ends with the shadow of a caveman falling across the exterior of the TARDIS. Cliffhanger!

All in all, “An Unearthly Child” makes for an intriguing start to Doctor Who. It is mysterious and makes me want to know what happens next. I like the fact that the Doctor is given multiple companions, each with a purpose. Susan is the viewer-identification character, Ian is the expert in science, and Barbara is the expert in history. Given that the show was originally developed for children, these characters all make sense. I also like the sense of mystery that pervades the episode. Is Susan’s last name really Foreman, for example? Surely she just took the name from the sign at the scrap yard, right? Heck, for all we know, her name may not even be Susan. Maybe she’s the Student or the Assistant or something. And why are the Doctor and Susan on the run from their own people? What are they hiding from? The episode was definitely atmospheric with the fog and the darkness and the spooky junkyard (the black and white helps with this, too). And I can see why kids used to hide behind the couch when they heard the eerie theme song! If I had tuned into this in the 60s, I definitely would be back for the next episode. The idea that the travelers can go anywhere in time and space is too enticing to not check in again. And who could resist the promise of cavemen?

P.S. I know that some people refer to the first four episodes of Doctor Who (“An Unearthly Child,” “The Cave of Skulls,” “The Forest of Fear,” and “The Firemaker”) as a serial called An Unearthly Child. Given how different the first episode is to the other three, though, I have decided to discuss the first episode on its own. I will review the other three episodes in my next post as a serial called 100,000 BC.

Doctor Who from the Beginning

2010-09-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

As I patiently wait for the DVD box set of Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series to be released on November 9 so I can review all of the newest episodes of the show here on the blog, I thought it might be fun to go back and revisit the very earliest Doctor Who serials from the 1960s. So, I’ve decided to embark on a rather ambitious project – discussing/reviewing all of the First Doctor (William Hartnell) stories that have been released on DVD to date, starting with An Unearthly Child. These reviews will run up until the Fifth Series DVD is released, at which point they will run concurrently with my reviews of Matt Smith’s first season.

I am setting aside time to watch An Unearthly Child this weekend, so look for my review of that very first Doctor Who story early next week.

Happy Birthday, Tegan!

2010-09-21T09:22:00.003-04:00

No, not this Tegan:

THIS Tegan:

Yep, that’s right. It’s the first birthday of my adorable little niece Tegan. Surprisingly, my sister and my brother-in-law did not name her after Tegan Jovanka. They know nothing about Doctor Who, poor souls. No, they named her after Tegan Quin from the Canadian indie rock band Tegan and Sara. Because I introduced them to that band in the first place, though, I still get to take credit for the name! And, yes, I like to pretend that little Tegan is going to get to have exciting adventures in space and time as well as in the bathtub. What can I say? I’m incredibly lame.

The Return of Doctor What!

2010-09-20T02:15:00.002-04:00

Some of you may have noticed that it's been a while since I posted an article or a review here. My absence was probably doubly puzzling given that an entire series of new Doctor Who episodes (with a brand new Doctor, no less) has aired over the past few months. The truth is, I decided to try a little experiment with this most recent series; I decided to wait until the end of the series to review the individual episodes. I thought this would be an interesting exercise given how important the overall season plots have been to Doctor Who since the show's revival a few years back. By reviewing the individual episodes at the end of the season, I can better take a look at how each episode fits into the season's uberplot. And that's just what I intend to do! The DVD box set of Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series is scheduled to be released on November 9 in the US. As soon as that set is in my hot little hands, I'll re-watch the individual episodes and post my reviews/thoughts here.

Before November 9, I will also be posting a few reviews of "classic" episodes as well. I've just finished watching the Kamelion-related episodes starring the Fifth Doctor, so I plan to start with those stories. Keep your eyes on this space!

Pre-Review of the "End of Time"

2010-01-01T19:48:00.002-05:00

I watched Part One of "The End of Time" last Friday on Christmas. I really did not care for it. Nevertheless, I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt. "Be patient," I told myself. "Maybe it won't really make sense until you've seen Part Two." Well, now I've seen Part Two and the story still doesn't make any sense. Look, I know that Russell T Davies is, by definition, a professional writer. But just because someone gets paid to do something doesn't mean they're any good at it. Look at Britney Spears, for example. Or Uwe Boll. There are many, many people in the world who are completely incompetent at what they do for a living, yet somehow make enough money to continue doing it. I have now added Russell T Davies to my own private list of incompetents.

I'll write a more complete review of this story in a couple of days where I'll articulate precisely why "The End of Time" was a terrible example of Doctor Who - nay, of television - nay, of storytelling in general. Until then, you can be sure that I was severely underwhelmed.

Come on, Steven Moffat. Fix this mess next season! I want to like Doctor Who again.

Review of the 2009 Thanksgiving Special: "The Waters of Mars"

2009-11-16T14:08:00.002-05:00

Now that was more like it!

“The Waters of Mars” is the first genuinely good episode of Doctor Who that has been broadcast since, well, since “The Stolen Earth” in June of 2008. Last December’s Christmas Special, “The Next Doctor”, was alright – fun but forgettable – and then Easter’s “Planet of the Dead” was just terminally stupid with its random psychic ladies, its flying manta rays, and that god-awful, babbling Malcolm idiot. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to enjoy an episode of this show!

As we’ve been shown repeatedly (most obviously in the 2006 Christmas Special, “The Runaway Bride”), the Doctor needs a companion to reign in his not-so-benevolent impulses. This episode, which picks up with the Doctor having traveled alone for an unspecified period of time (possibly many years), takes that idea to its ultimate – and surprisingly dark – end. This is not the Tenth Doctor we first got to know, jaunting around the universe with Rose and having a grand old time. This is a much older, much more world-weary Doctor more akin to Christopher Eccleston’s battle-hardened Ninth Doctor. One almost gets the feeling that the oncoming regeneration could be a blessing to this wounded character, granting him a new lease on life and a new pair of eyes through which to rediscover the universe.

David Tennant does a marvelous job with this more somber version of the Tenth Doctor. I like his Doctor so much better when he only occasionally gives in to his more manic impulses. He was serious when he needed to be and fun when he could be. And at the end, when he went on his “Time Lord victorious” power trip, he was downright scary. Tennant would make a much more frightening Master than the version given to us by John Simm in “The Sound of Drums”/”Last of the Time Lords.”

But Tennant’s performance would have meant very little if he hadn’t been matched up with someone of equal talent. Thankfully, that happened in the person of Lindsay Duncan who played AdelaideBrooke, head of the Mars colony. Duncan – who, as Servilia of the Junii, was one of the best things about the TV series Rome – matches Tennant note for note. She portrays Adelaide as an extremely competent leader who commands respect and has sacrificed much in pursuit of her goals. She is an equal to the Doctor, not a subservient, love-struck child. Her decision at the end of the episode, to preserve history even at the cost of her own life and in defiance of the Doctor, is a fantastic moment. This is the kind of companion with whom the Doctor should be paired – someone who can force the Doctor to make the hard decisions, or make them for him if he fails. She reminded me of Dr. Lazarus from the movie Outland, but that could be because of her age and gender paired with the extraterrestrial outpost setting.

Even the monsters in the episode worked for me. I found them creepy and effective. Yes, they were obviously influenced by the most recent spate of “zombie” movies, but they were really just window dressing to set up the themes of the episode anyway. As window dressing, they did a good job! Having said that, though, the scene where a single drop of liquid fell onto a character’s face from above, infecting him, was lifted almost shot for shot from 28 Days Later. Theft or homage? You be the judge! Too bad the character that was infected in this episode wasn’t half as likable as Brendan Gleeson’s father-figure from that movie.

All of the creepy goings-on at the Mars base build up to one terrific ending in which the Doctor learns that, even if he is the last Time Lord, he cannot control time. What he calls “time,” he discovers, is really made up of an endless number of personal choices by an endless number of individuals; no matter how powerful he thinks he is, he cannot control those individual choices. In the end, Adelaide makes a choice, a shocking, violent choice to preserve the timeline despite the Doctor’s wishes. The painful lesson hits the Doctor full-on, leading to his emotional breakdown outside the TARDIS. In the midst of this breakdown, he has a vision of Ood Sigma. The last time the Doctor saw Ood Sigma in “Planet of the Ood,” the creature prophesized that the Doctor’s “song” would soon end. As the Doctor questions Ood Sigma, the spectral visitor fades away, recalling the mysterious appearance of the Watcher from “Logopolis,” which also signaled an oncoming regeneration.

Clearly, the Doctor’s defiance of time is going to have further ramifications. Even though Adelaide offed herself, two other crewmembers survived who shouldn’t have. Could their survival have an impact on the timeline? An impact that the Doctor will have to die undoing? And how did the two surviving crewmembers explain their escape from the Mars colony, anyway? And how will Adelaide’s suicide be explained? That she was overcome by guilt because she was unable to save all of her crew?

The teaser trailer shown at the end of the episode didn’t provide many clues. The Master is returning, for sure, which begs the question, what about Mrs. Saxon? Will she return as well? Was it Mrs. Saxon who took the Master’s ring? We also see a glimpse of Donna and her grandfather Wilfred. I must admit, I’ll be glad to see them both again. Overall, the teaser looked promising. It’s not all rainbows and puppy dogs, though! Davies has shown in the past that he knows how to build suspense toward the big season-ending events (“Utopia,” “Turn Left”), but he hasn’t actually shown that he knows how to wrap them up in a satisfying manner (“Last of the Time Lords,” “Journey’s End”). Still, if he can avoid any magical cell phone prayers or TARDIS-dragging-the-Earth moments, we could get a pair of excellent final episodes yet! “The Waters of Mars” gives me hope, at least.

Review of the 2009 Easter Special: "Planet of the Dead"

2009-04-12T22:13:00.004-04:00

Russell T. Davies is officially out of steam. If only we could just skip over his final few episodes and get straight to Steven Moffat because, frankly, I'm starting to wonder why I even bother to watch Doctor Who. And coming from a guy who spends his time writing a Doctor Who blog, that's saying something!

So what was so bad about this episode? Almost everything. The one thing that I did sort of enjoy was the relationship between Christina and the Doctor. I liked how she immediately took charge when they reach the alien planet and how she insisted on calling him “The Doctor.” It's always fun to see someone take the Doctor down a peg or two. And the dialogue between them had a few nice moments as well. “You look human,” she said. “You look Timelord,” he countered. "We make quite a couple," he said. "We don't make any sort of couple, thank you very much," she said. Good stuff!

Unfortunately, that was the only good stuff. First off, the plot was nonsensical bordering on nonexistent. Some people on a bus end up on an alien planet. Why? Well, something about flying manta rays zipping around in swarms really, really quickly or something. Whatever. Really, it seemed like they ended up there just because Russell T. Davies thought it'd make for a cool visual. I assumed that they were transported through the wormhole as a consequence of whatever artifact Christina had stolen from the museum in the opening Mission Impossible "homage." But noooooo…. That would have actually made sense and would have tied her sudden appearance on the bus to the overarching plot. Turns out, an international super-thief hitched a ride on the Doctor's bus purely by coincidence. And speaking of coincidences, there also just happened to be a psychic lady on the bus. Of course there was. Isn't there always? I was hoping that perhaps she would somehow relate to the plot as well. Nope! She was just a really lazy way to give the audience the occassional info dump or scary portent. In fact, she turned out to be rather useless, never revealing anything that the other characters couldn't have figured out for themselves. As to the other people on the bus, I'm not sure why we needed them either. Not a single one of them did anything worthwhile and we never got to know (or care about) any of them. This episode was really the Doctor and Christina show - which would have been fine if we didn't have to put up with the occassional line from one of the glorified extras. Overall, the whole people-trapped-on-a-bus-bond-and-bicker scenario was done better in the episode called "Midnight," also written by Davies. In fact, the Doctor actually makes a joke to that effect. You know, calling out that you're plagiarizing your own stories doesn't make it okay....

Other things that I hated. The alien fly people approached Sarah Jane Adventures-levels of cheap - and the bad purple and green lighting in their ship only made things worse, especially when the Doctor commented on how beautiful the interior of their ship was. Yeah, really beautiful. If you think color gel sheets are the epitome of beauty. And don't even get me started on the comedy stylings of Malcolm. He was the single most irritating character in the history of Doctor Who. Every second that he was on-screen was like nails on a chalkboard. When he popped up wearing those stupid goggles or tried to use the fire extinguisher only to be knocked over, I felt my soul die a little.

Speaking, er, typing of souls, I'm not a religious man. At all. And yet, even I found the religious metaphors in the episode more heavy-handed than those of the typical Narnia book. Given the fact that the episode was set on and broadcast on the day before Easter, I can’t believe that they actually named the main female character “Christina.” She's like a female Christ, see! Oh, and in case that was too subtle for you, the people on the bus returned from a "planet of the dead" on the very holiday that celebrates the return of Christ from the dead. And I won’t even mention that Christina just happened to steal a golden cup that looked a hell of a lot like many depictions of the Holy Grail. Oh, and the Holy Grail somehow managed to save the day, returning all of the boring, stock characters to the world of the living. Yay!

Because there are only a few episodes of Doctor Who this year, you would think that the writers could devote a lot of time to each episode, really putting together a tight story with a coherent plot. But, no. We’re still getting the same nonsensical Russell T. Davies plot mechanics. For example, all of the fly aliens conveniently get killed so the Doctor can steal their only means of getting home without feeling guilty. Oh, and the bus suddenly flies. That's so wizard, Russell.

So, what I'm saying is, I didn't care for the episode.

"Doctor Who: Room With a Deja View" Announced

2009-04-10T06:45:00.006-04:00

According to this week's Lying in the Gutters column over at Comic Book Resources, Rich Johnston is reporting that IDW will be releasing a Doctor Who one-shot comic this July called "Room With a Deja View" (great title) drawn by EricJ and written by one Rich Johnston. I'd say Rich is in the clear to give this particular piece of comic industry gossip a green light.

Check out the amazing cover by Tom Mandrake:

Congrats, Rich!

Youngest Doctor, Meet the Oldest Companion

2009-04-10T06:21:00.009-04:00

Russell T. Davies has now confirmed (on BBC Breakfast) that Wilfred Mott, Donna's grandfather played by the always excellent Bernard Cribbins, will be returning as the Doctor's companion for David Tennant's last two episodes.

This is fantastic news! I loved Wilf in Season 4, especially in his heart-breaking last scene with the Doctor after Donna's memory had been erased. I have been saying for a while now that the producers ought to change up the Doctor/companion dynamic beyond the older Doctor/wide-eyed lady combination they've had going for the past few seasons - although, to be fair, Donna was a bit of a departure from that as well. I could really see Doctor #10 and Wilf working well as a team.

And just imagine if Wilf sticks around post-regeneration. How interesting would it be to have the youngest Doctor ever paired up with the oldest companion ever? That combination could really shake up the expected dynamic, perhaps putting the Doctor in a position where he actually asks for his companion's advice and wisdom on occasion. In short:

In a completely non-sexual way, of course. Although, this is Russell T. Davies.....

Review of the 2008 Christmas Special: "The Next Doctor"

2009-04-10T05:50:00.003-04:00

Given that the Easter Special (I guess that's what we're calling it) is set to air this weekend, I decided I better hurry up and type up my thoughts on this past Christmas's episode. I just couldn't bring myself to write about it at the time because it was so middle-of-the-road. Hopefully this weekend's special will be a tad more inspiring!

So, the 2008 Christmas Special, then. They called it "The Next Doctor," which set expectations fairly high. No, I didn't expect that David Morrisey was really going to be the next Doctor, but when you tease us with that idea from the outset, you better have a darn satisfying reason why he doesn't turn out to be Doctor #11 in the end. Sadly, satisficaction was something entirely lacking in the episode.

No, I didn't hate it. It started out well enough, with the Doctor arriving alone at a typical turn-of-the-century English Christmas scene for a little cheering up and immediately becoming embroiled in trouble with an act-alike adventurer and his companion. I actually really liked David Morrisey at the start of this episode. His over-the-top heroism and obvious affection for his role was ennervating. The scene where the Doctor and the faux Doctor are pulled through an abandoned warehouse on a rope and are saved from certain death at the last instant - only to then collapse into each other's arms in a laughing fit - was great. And the very idea that our current Doctor could suddenly be the companion to a future Doctor was an intriguing role-reversal that really could have been fun if sustained for a while longer.

Unfortunately, things went downhill. Fast. As soon as Russell T. Davies made it obvious that something wasn't right with faux Doctor (about 10 minutes into the episode, mind you), my interest began to wane. Soon, Jackson Lake (as we learn the faux Doctor is really called) became a blubbering, useless excuse for a companion. It was blatently obvious from the get-go that his wife had been killed and his child had been captured, but Davies decided to "save" the second revelation for a ridiculous scene near the end of the episode that comes complete with slow-motion sparks falling and bored children seemingly kidnapped from the set of Temple of Doom. By that point, Jackson Lake had become so ineffectual that all he could do was stand around crying and pointing while the Doctor made use of some improbably available rigging to rescue Jackson's sunken-eyed son.

And don't even get me started on the villains. I'm not a huge fan of these new Cybermen at the best of times, but when you add some silly new shaggy monsters with cyberfaces (creatures who are never adequately explained or utilized) and a shouting woman in a red dress, I begin to mentally tune out. There was a lot of nonsense involved in the plot on this one as well. What was Miss Hartigan trying to do? Get revenge against men? Why could she control the Cyberking? Because she was some sort of feminist genius? Why were the children necessary at all? You can't tell me that 30 lethargic children marching in circles is really going to provide enough energy for the Cyberking to rise.

Ah, well. I did like Jackson Lake's TARDIS (Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style) and I appreciated that the Doctor actually stayed for Christmas dinner for a change. Although Jackson's speech about how the Doctor had never been thanked made me want to wretch, so there was that....

Disappointing outing all around, really.

Matt Smith is Doctor Who's Eleventh Doctor

2009-01-03T22:01:00.008-05:00

Sorry there's been no review of this year's Christmas Special, "The Next Doctor," yet. I didn't really love or hate the episode, so it's hard to get worked up enough to write about.... I do plan to force myself to review it soon, though.

Of course, the lackluster Christmas Special is now old news given today's announcement. Earlier this evening, the BBC broadcast a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential revealing the name of the actor who will replace David Tennant as The Doctor. After months of speculation (with the odds being on Patterson Joseph, who would have been the first black Doctor), the big reveal for the Eleventh Doctor is kind of a head scratcher.

Matt Smith.

Cue the crickets chirping.

So, who is Matt Smith? Here's what we know. 1.) He's 26, making him the youngest actor to ever tackle the role of The Doctor (Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, was 29). 2.) He has appeared in TV movie versions of Phillip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North as well as an episode of The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, all alongside Billie Piper (Rose from Doctor Who Seasons 1, 2, and 4). Maybe she vouched for his Doctorness? 3.) He's done just a few other TV shows and some theatre work. 4.) He has an, um, interesting look to him.

I must admit, when Matt first appeared in tonight's Doctor Who Confidential episode, I was a little taken aback. To be blunt (and a little rude), I thought he looked like an emo version of Frankenstein's monster. Or Eric Stoltz in Mask. Still, I also thought David Tennant was quite a homely sort when I first saw him, so maybe I'll get used to Matt Smith's look. And besides, who cares what he looks like, right? The important question is -- can he act? Because I have seen none of his previous work, I really can't address his talent. I'm just going to assume that Steven Moffat knows what he's doing. I have no reason to doubt him, so I'm remaining cautiously optimistic. Perhaps the Eleventh Doctor will meet up with Professor River Song (from last season's "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" two-parter) and begin The Doctor's relationship with her. The older woman/younger man dynamic would be very interesting following The Tenth Doctor's perpetual cradle robbing.

I do hope the production team trims Matt's Flock of Seagulls haircut before they begin filming, though. Not everything from the 80s needs to make a comeback.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-30T23:33:00.004-04:00

As the picture to the left attests, I have now entered the next level of Geekdom. Yes, tomorrow I will be dressing up as The Fourth Doctor for Halloween. Mom and dad will be so proud! Thanks to my pal Heather for the suggestion.

The Eleventh Doctor

2008-10-29T18:28:00.003-04:00

So, it's official. David Tennant will be leaving Doctor Who after this next "season" of specials. As much as I've enjoyed him as The Doctor, I think its probably about time for a change, honestly. Let the speculation on who will play The Eleventh Doctor begin! Personally, I think David Morrissey (who will play "the next doctor" in this year's Christmas special) certainly looks the part (see the picture to the right for evidence), but I doubt the producers will go that route. Still, introducing a new Doctor before the old one has left the show IS a cool idea....

Doctor Who: The Forgotten, Issue 1 Review

2008-08-29T14:28:00.007-04:00

Six months or so ago, the good folks at IDW Publishing launched an all-new, ongoing, monthly Doctor Who comic book featuring the first-ever stories created exclusively for the US market. As a Doctor Who fanatic, I’ve been dutifully reading the comics as they appeared, although I have yet to take the time to write any reviews of the individual issues. The reason for my lack of commentary on the comic thus far is two-fold: 1.) I wanted to complete the first 6-issue storyline before discussing the comic, and 2.) I just haven’t been that thrilled with the series. I finally finished the sixth issue last night and, well, I’m still not going to write about the ongoing series. Instead, I’m going to write about the first issue of a new six-issue Doctor Who miniseries also from IDW Publishing called Doctor Who: The Forgotten (written by Tony Lee with art by Pia Guerra).

Now this is more like it!

Going in, I was a little wary of Doctor Who: The Forgotten’s premise. If you’re unaware of the basic idea of the mini-series, please allow me to explain. Basically, The Doctor and Martha are somehow stranded, TARDIS-less, in a mysterious museum that is dedicated to The Doctor’s nine previous incarnations. On top of this, The Doctor suddenly begins losing his memories, prompting Martha to try to jumpstart his brain by showing him items from the museum that relate to his earlier incarnations. Each of these items spurs The Doctor to remember one untold adventure of each of his previous forms. Intriguing premise for old-school Doctor Who fans, yes – but it could also be a recipe for disaster. First off, this set-up includes quite a few unexplained plot contrivances. How did The Doctor end up without his TARDIS? Why is there a museum dedicated to him? What force could erase his memories one by one? And who is the mysterious, so-far-unseen puppet master who is keeping an eye on The Doctor and Martha on a bank of monitors, turning dials, and talking to himself? These are questions that need to be (and hopefully will be) answered by the end of the series, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Tony Lee has a coherent plan. Secondly, even ignoring the set-up contrivances, I was afraid that the story’s flashback-of-the-month device could get old. If the flashbacks are just inconsequential, unrelated vignettes, then the forward momentum of the overarching plot could get lost in a wave of nostalgia.

I am happy to report that, for now, my reservations have been allayed!

Perhaps the best compliment I can give to Tony Lee’s writing is that The Doctor actually sounded like The Doctor. I could almost hear David Tennant saying the lines in my head. As for the story, none of the mysteries that I mentioned above were answered, but I will give Mr. Lee the benefit of the doubt for now. After all, it’s only the first issue! The “current” portion of the comic did a good job of setting the stage while the flashback adventure with Susan, Barbara, and Ian in ancient Egypt was cute and enjoyable. I really enjoyed the infusion of a more modern sense of humor to The First Doctor and to Ian and Barbara. Seeing these characters enlivened with slightly updated sensibilities made me wish that we could get a Classic Doctor Who TV series (running concurrently with The Tenth Doctor series) where we could go back and revisit the previous Doctor’s adventures with updated writing, acting, editing, and special effects. How fun would it be to see a new actor playing the curmudgeonly First Doctor traveling with new actors as his 1960s-era companions? It would be great to see Susan, Ian, and Barbara visit the Incas or the Daleks with today’s special effects – or visit the present and be totally amazed by cell phones and the Internet. But back to the comic at hand! I got the feeling that the flashback story would somehow tie in with the overarching plot, which helped it to feel more substantial than its relatively few pages would normally warrant. Next issue will have two flashbacks (to The Second Doctor and the Third Doctor, naturally), so we’ll see if they can both maintain relevance on their own while forwarding the main plot. I also quite enjoyed the scene where Martha expressed surprise at the idea that The Doctor basically abandoned Susan on a war-torn future Earth and that he was unsure what ever became of Ian and Barbara. This interaction harkened back to Rose’s discussion with Sarah Jane in the Series Two episode “School Reunion.”

One thing I was absolutely not wary about coming into this series was the art of Pia Guerra. As a fan of Y: The Last Man, I was already familiar with her spectacular pencils. Check out the first page to the right for an example! Pretty great drawing of The Tenth Doctor, eh? She really captures the subtle tics of each of the characters. Susan, for example, has that same sort-of-scared, sort-of-bewildered expression that she always seemed to have when traveling to a new place with her beloved grandfather. I do wish that the flashback adventure had been in color instead of black and white, but I understand why the creative team made that choice. Still, it seems kind of odd given that The Doctor would have lived all of his adventures in color (even if we didn’t see them that way on our TV screens).

Overall, the first issue of Doctor Who: The Forgotten was a great deal of fun and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the mini-series. Given what a difficult time I had finding the issue (it was sold out at all four of the comic book stores I checked last week), I can only speculate that the combination of great art from the popular Pia Guerra with the nostalgia factor of seeing The Doctor’s previous incarnations in comic form has driven up demand. Hopefully the mini-series will do really well for IDW Publishing so we can get more Doctor Who comic books of this caliber in the future.

Dittar Latoni's Bottom Lip

2008-08-11T21:40:00.002-04:00

Marvel at the ineptitude of the 1982-era make-up department!! Yay!

Review of Story 121: "Black Orchid"

2008-08-11T20:14:00.009-04:00

This past Tuesday saw the release of two more classic Doctor Who stories, "The Time Meddler" (starring William Hartnell as the First Doctor) and "Black Orchid" (starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor). Because it is shorter (only two 25-minute episodes), I have already had a chance to watch "Black Orchid," so I'll be discussing that story first.

First off, I think this might the first classic two-parter that I've ever watched (not counting the two-parters during Colin Baker's tenure as the Sixth Doctor, which ran 45 minutes an episode). At two episodes of 25 minutes apiece, this makes "Black Orchid" roughly the same length as a modern episode. So, is this 50-minute story the same level of quality as an episode of the new series? Well, no; but, then, this was made in 1982, over 25 years ago, and television programs were quite different beasts then than they are now. If the story was made now, for example, it almost certainly wouldn't begin with an overly indulgent five-minute cricket match or a plot that fails to coalesce until the second half. Taken for what it is, though, I found "Black Orchid" to be quite enjoyable. Yes, it plays out like an underwritten Ms. Marple episode of Mystery, but that's okay with me as a change-of-pace Doctor Who episode. Actually, it kind of reminded me of this season's Agatha Christie-centric episode, "The Unicorn and the Wasp."

To quickly recap the episode, then, The Fifth Doctor and his entourage (consisting of Adric Nyssa, and Tegan) land on an English train platform in 1925. Immediately, The Doctor is mistaken for another cricket-playing, local doctor and is carted away to a country estate to take part in a friendly match. As The Doctor and crew arrive at the Cranleigh Hall, Lord Charles Cranleigh marvels at how much Nyssa looks like his young fiancee, Ann. That afternoon, as the TARDIS crew enjoys a Roaring 20s-style kegger, a series of murders takes place at the estate. All is not as it seems at Cranleigh Hall....

This story takes place during an odd time in the history of Doctor Who, during which The Doctor traveled with a crew of three companions, which was probably two too many (I'll let you decide which ones should go). With four people in the TARDIS, two of the crew members invariably end up just standing around, getting a line or two per episode. Adric and Tegan, for example, just eat and dance, respectively, throughout this story. Neither adds anything to the plot or action. Personally, I think Adric could have been an interesting protege for The Doctor, but he was crowded out when the two ladies arrived. Thankfully, the crowded TARDIS only lasts for one more story -- and then Adric gets blasted to Kingdom Come by the Cybermen.

"Black Orchid" revolves around a series of mistaken identities. First, The Doctor is mistaken for a different doctor. Then, Nyssa is mistaken for Ann. Next, The Doctor (or his harlequin costume, anyway) is mistaken for a killer (really George Cranleigh). Finally, the "unspoilt" George Cranleigh (as he appears in a portrait) looks exactly like his brother Charles. Whether they are twins or not is never mentioned, but I think George can be seen as the flipside of Charles regardless.

Oh, one last thing; I simply cannot end my discussion of this story without mentioning possibly the worst "special effect" in all of Doctor Who's history. No, it's not some futuristic spaceship. It's not a cheesy laser beam. It's not even K-9. It's the South American "Indian" Dittar Latoni's bottom lip. I'll post a pic later so you all can enjoy it.

Review of Episode Meh: Who Really Cares

2008-07-05T22:56:00.004-04:00

I'll give Russell T. Davies this -- the man knows how to write a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, his writing bag of tricks does not include such useful items as "logical conclusions" or "satisfying resolutions."

So, Season 4, Episode 13: "Journey's End." When this episode didn't take the obvious way out, it took the nonsensical. Not only did Davies cop out on the regeneration (and if you believed that David Tennant was really leaving the show, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd be willing to sell you), he did so in the most unimaginative way possible. Yes, he used the severed hand to create a new, duplicate Tenth Doctor (as I hypothesized last week); however, he didn't even bother to regenerate an Eleventh Doctor at the same time, meaning that we were left with the classic Superman Red/Superman Blue situation (or Doctor Brown/Doctor Blue, in this case). Yet, somehow two David Tennant Doctors did not twice the fun make. Indeed, the repetition made both of the Doctors half as interesting. I did like the "third" Doctor, though -- Doctor Donna (who fulfilled Dalek Caan's "threefold man" prophecy). Unfortunately, she didn't last long, requiring a handy-dandy Vulcan memory erasure to remove the "burden of a Time Lord's knowledge" from her mind. So, in cheap plot device, Davies rendered an entire season (which was primarily based around Donna's character growth) meaningless. Yippee.

Oh, and all the Daleks in creation were wiped out of existence. Or something. Again. Let's hope it sticks this time. I really am sick of Daleks.

And don't even get me started on the "happy" Rose conclusion. It went something like this:

Doctor: "Here, Rose, I can't stay with you, but I'll leave this genocidal, half-human version of myself to grow old with you."

Rose: "Yay! Sex!"

And there was much celebrating. Lame.

When does Steven Moffat take over again?

Review of Series 4, Episodes 10, 11, and 12: "Midnight," "Turn Left," and "The Stolen Earth"

2008-06-30T22:10:00.008-04:00

I have been traveling for work over the last couple of weeks, so I haven't had much time to share my thoughts on the three most recent Doctor Who Season 4 episodes ("Midnight," "Turn Left," and "The Stolen Earth"). So, having just finished a 3-hour, work-related dinner, I figured a hotel in Boston was the perfect place to update ye ole blog! I'm gonna rush through my thoughts on the Episodes 10 and 11 because, well, let's face it -- we all want to talk about the shocking ending to Episode 12.

"Midnight" was alright. It sort of felt like Russell T. Davies was trying to pull his best Steven Moffat imitation by basing an entire episode around something that bothered most people in their childhood (in this case, the old "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" imitation game). Moffat has used such childhood fears to great effect in "The Girl in the Fireplace" (monsters under the bed),"Blink" (creepy statues), and "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" (fear of the dark). Unfortunately, Davies' attempt is really more irritating than scary, although I definitely admired the work that Lesley Sharp (playing Sky Silvestri) must have put in to memorize everyone's lines -- and then repeat them in time with each character. This episode also showcased what a condescending dick The Doctor can sometimes be. When things start to go wrong for the passengers on board the shuttle, he immediately starts issuing orders, taking on a holier-than-thou attitude that can be quite off-putting. For example, when the passengers decide to eject the "possessed" Sky Silvestri from the vehicle, The Doctor refuses to listen to reason, putting himself between the other passengers and the seemingly evil alien being. It's great to protect life at all costs and all, but, by prolonging the situation, The Doctor ultimately ends up costing not only Sky her life, but condemning the hostess to a "heroic" death as well. Nice work Doc; your moral high ground killed two people, not one. Yippee. And does he ever admit that he was wrong? Of course not. He's The Doctor. Lest you think I disliked the episode, however, let me mention that I thought it was actually enjoyable overall. The alien banging on the exterior of the hull was pretty dang creepy (even if it ultimately led to a big nothing) and the mounting tension inside the shuttle was palpable. Oh, and Rose showed up on a TV screen again. She's a regular Max Headroom, that girl!

"Turn Left" was an interesting It's a Wonderful Life kind of story, although Rose's return was decidedly underwhelming and never really explained. I'm not one to criticize the way people look, but Billie Piper just looked, well, different from how she used to look. Perhaps its all down to weight loss (she is clearly skinnier than the last time we saw her), but her face appeared much thinner and angular now and there seemed to be something going on with her teeth that caused her to lisp a bit. Again, I won't dwell on the issue, but I have to admit that it was a little distracting. Also, her accent seemed to have changed. Living in a parallel reality will do that to you, I guess! The story itself was pretty good and Catherine Tate was excellent, as always, especially at the end when she chose to sacrifice herself for th greater good. Props also must go to Jacqueline King as Donna's mother (who becomes more and more withdawn and depressed as the episode chugs along) and Bernard Cribbins as her irrascible gramps. As for Rose, I was a bit confused as to how she could travel to "our" earth from her parallel world, how she knew what was going on in "our" world, and how she knew that Donna was the lynchpin to putting "our" universe to rights again. None of that was ever explained. Rose simply appeared as a deus ex blonde every time she was required, even helping put together a make-shift time machine to send Donna back and fix everything. Um, okay. And I also thought it was a tad unbelievable how quickly the post-Doctor UK turned into Nazi Germany. Maybe I'm just an optimist, though.

Now on to the big one, Episode 12, "The Stolen Earth." Obviously, Earth was stolen, which seemed liked a minor happening compared to all of the suprise Whoverse cameos and guest apperances crammed into the episode. Sarah Jane and Luke? Check! The entire remaining Torchwood team (all three of them)? Check! Martha and her UNIT chums? Check! Rose? Check! Harriet Jones? Check! Daleks? Check! Davros? Check! K-9? Ch-nope. Sorry, Charlie. K-9 was missing in action. There were definitely some lame moments and cheesy plot devices (Dalek Caan's Alia Atreides imitation, Project Indigo, the Osterhagen Key), although all of those things faded beneath the orgy of geekiness that was the rest of the episode. Let's face it -- seeing all of those disparate characters interact and fight the Daleks was just plain fun. And Davros is back! Yay! In general, I really don't care for Daleks. Maybe it's an American thing. We never went through "Dalekmania" over here (in fact, most people have absolutely no idea what a Dalek is and very few people are frightened by screeching pepperpots), so we don't have the reverence for them that most Brits seem to. Having said that, I always find the Daleks more enjoyable when Davros is around. Maybe it's because he provides a face to their evil. Maybe it's because he can speak without screaming (although just barely). Maybe it's the interesting half-Dalek, half-Stephen Hawking design of the guy. Maybe it's his excellent, silky skin. I don't know. In any case, Davros + Daleks = goodness.

There were a number of hints in this episode pointing us to the second half. First off, one of the members of the Shadow Proclamation (they sounded much cooler than they actually turned out to be) tells Donna that she still has something on her back. Didn't we take care of that last episode? Apparently not. So, it's possible that Donna has something else inside of her. Spider eggs/babies from the Empress of the Racnoss, maybe? Or The Master? After all, a woman's hand did pick up his ring at the end of last season.... Maybe that was Donna and she's now possessed. Or, perhaps Donna still has the beetle on her back from last episode. It's always a possibility that this episode (including the shocking ending) could still be part of Donna's alternate universe. Maybe she really will have to kill herself to correct the universe for good or something (fullfilling the ongoing prophecies of her death). Also, crazy Dalek Caan calls The Doctor the "threefold man." What could that mean? I have a theory. We all saw The Doctor "die" at the end of the episode. I don't for one minute believe that the BBC has successfully managed to replace David Tennant without it leaking to the media. So, I think we may be in for a multiple Doctor episode. How? Well, at the end, The Doctor begins to regenerate, right? Well, maybe the regeneration will go wrong (thanks to the sudden trauma or something), producing a healed Tenth Doctor as well as two previous Doctors (the Fifth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor, maybe). That'd be three Doctors for the price of one, giving us our threefold man. Or, given that we got yet another shot of the Tenth Doctor's severed hand in the jar, perhaps that will play into the regeneration somehow. What if they do kill the Tenth Doctor, but the "regeneration energy" (or whatever they call it) also encompasses his amputated hand. In that case, the Tenth Doctor could regenerate into a new, Eleventh Doctor (who could carry on with the 13-episode, yearly series) AND also grow a new David Tennant's Tenth Doctor from his hand (who could leave with Rose for the alternate universe and then appear in the four TV specials scheduled to air next year). How great would it be to have two Doctors, in two different universes, to follow? Of course, that theory would only produce a twofold man, so I'm sure it's bunk. Still, it's fun to speculate! Let's just hope that Russell doesn't let us down with a cop-out part 2.

Oh, finally, this episode contained the best line of the season (and perhaps in all of Doctor Who) -- when one of the killer Daleks said to Harriet Jones in his monotone, metallic voice, "Yes, we know who you are." Ha ha ha. Good show, Russell! Good show.

Argh! He's baaa-ack!

2008-06-16T16:50:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know -- I have yet to review Saturday night's new episode. I'll get to it in short order! In the meantime, I was a tad surprised to see the following pic floating around the 'net today.

Yep, it looks like Davros is back. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I dig the one-armed freak, but I also feel he diminishes the Daleks because they always resort to deferring to their creator. Still, not being a huge Dalek fan anyway, what do I care if they're diminished? On second thought, yay, Davros is back!

Review of Series 4, Episode 9: "Forest of the Dead"

2008-06-07T21:54:00.003-04:00

Okay, so Professor River Song wasn't Romana. Well, probably not, anyway. I suppose it could still be revealed later down the line that she was Romana. After all, that white dress she wore at the end was very Mary Tamm's Romana 1.... Okay, I'll give it up.

But, even without a big, continuity-heavy reveal, the second half of the "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" two-parter wrapped up in a fairly satisfying manner. It wasn't great mind, you, but it was good. Yes, the fact that Cal was going to wind up being the computer -- for all intents and purposes, anyway -- and that she had saved the missing humans onto the "largest hard drive in the universe" (aka The Matrix) was patently obvious from the start of last episode (rendering that episode's cliffhanger rather toothless). Still, the emotional content of the episode elevated the pedestrian plot. When Donna wailed in anguish when her children disappeared, I felt genuinely sad for her. The dream of being a happy wife and mother really seemed to fit with her character. Can you imagine Rose or Martha giving such a believable performance as a grief-stricken mother? I think not! Katherine Tate continues to impress as a slightly more mature companion, one who is a true equal to The Doctor instead of a protege. Also, kudos must go out to Eve Newton, the little girl who played Cal. She impressed me last episode with her subdued yet believable performance, but she really shone in part 2. The scene when she collapsed to the floor, crying, tugged at my usually nonexistent heart strings.

As for the ending - meh. Can't The Doctor just let people die every once in a while? I found the idea that Cal was trapped in the computer system by her "loving" father as a way of staving off death to be horrific. I assumed The Doctor would agree with me and free her from her cycle of torment. But no. The good Doctor actually traps several other people - including his own future wife - inside the computer as well, condemning them to an endless simulated half-life as well. What ever happened to ethics?

K-9 Air Freshener: The Perfect Present?

2008-06-07T15:59:00.005-04:00

Knowing that my pal Becky was having her birthday while I was in the UK, I picked up a little present for her at the Doctor Who exhibition at Cardiff Bay. Yes, it's a K-9 air freshener.

Becky proudly affixed the little fella to the dashboard of her car last night. (Just between you and me, I think her Hello Kitty rear-view mirror decoration was a little jealous of the new arrival.) So, what does K-9 smell like, you might ask? Eh, kind of like lemon.

Adipose Plush Toy!!!

2008-06-07T15:45:00.006-04:00

My friend Becky from The Crafty Beaver(s) blog (www.thecraftybeaver.blogspot.com) made me this awesome plush Adipose toy, which she appropriately named Addy. This thing is really well-made and looks professional! Very good work, Beck!

Here is a pic of Addy in her natural habitat (aka Becky's back garden).

She appears to make friends easily -- even with inanimate garden gnomes.

Becky even gave Addy a butt crack. I hope she's housebroken....

Thanks again, Beck!

Review of Series 4, Episodes 6, 7, and 8: "The Doctor's Daughter," "The Unicorn and the Wasp," and "Silence in the Library"

2008-06-01T16:01:00.003-04:00

While traveling around England and Wales, I did manage to see Episodes 6 and 7, although I didn't have time to blog my thoughts on them. There was something very cool about actually watching the episodes with the rest of the UK on the BBC as they aired on Saturday evening. As I watched, I imagined all the other people in their homes up and down the street, watching the show at the same time. There's something to be said for the collective experience, I guess (especially for a sci-fi show that is so marginalized in the US). Aside from that, though, I really don't have much to say about either of the episodes; so, they'll each get a paragraph before I tackle last night's episode.

Episode 6, "The Doctor's Daughter," was pure crap from start to finish. Playing like really bad fan fiction, it made me feel slightly embarrassed to be a Doctor Who fan. The ending was a total cop-out and I hope we never see The Doctor's "daughter" again. (As an aside, there's a rumor floating around the net that she died in the original script -- until Steven Moffat requested that she survive. Although I am supremely excited by the news that Moffat will be taking over as show runner after Russell T. Davies steps down, I really hope he doesn't bring this particular character back.... Still, if there's anyone who could make me like her, it'd probably be Steven Moffat!)

Episode 7, "The Unicorn and the Wasp," on the other hand, was enjoyable and fun, although certainly not revolutionary. I loved how it established a very Agatha Christie-like set-up (the secluded house in the country, the suspicious guests, the recurring murders) and then worked its way through the genre conventions while still staying true to Doctor Who as well. Fenella Woolgar did a great job as Ms. Christie, bringing an air of authenticity to the role, and Donna's excitement for the time period was infectious. The bit where The Doctor explained how the murders occurred and who committed them while Donna tried to keep up with his logic was great. Okay, the giant bee/wasp alien was kind of stupid, but at least it made for a cool title when combined with the thief known as The Unicorn.

Now on to the main event -- Episode 8, "Silence in the Library." Steven Moffat has done it again! The man who brought us all of the best episodes not written by Paul Cornell over the past 3 years returns with part one of what should be a really nice two-parter. The opening sequence with the little girl explaining her dreams was a creepy and intriguing way of drawing the audience in, surprising us with the last second appearance of The Doctor and Donna. I love it when writers open with a "normal" point of view character who then discovers The Doctor and his companion; it reminds us of how strange and, well, alien The Doctor is when first encountered. Of course, in this episode, the little girl is anything but normal. Apparently, she is the computer brain of a planet-sized library! As a voracious reader and a wannabe writer, I have to applaud that idea! All is not ideal in the giant library, however, as The Doctor and Donna discover when they realize that they are the only living creatures on the planet. As usual, The Doctor knows more than he has revealed, admitting that he purposefully lead them to the library in response to a mysterious message that he received via his psychic paper. Who sent him this message? And why?

The why is revealed early on -- the library has been invaded by the Vashta Nerada, voracious alien critters that like to dine on living flesh and create shadows wherever they go. The who, on the other hand, is kept a little more mysterious. Yes, we know that the message was sent by Professor River Song (played by ER's Alex Kingston). We also know that she has gotten to know and travel with The Doctor in her past but his future. What we don't know, however, is whether "River Song" is her real name and what, exactly, her relationship with The Doctor was/will be. She has a sonic screwdriver of her own (unless she has The Doctor's sonic screwdriver) and she seems to be in love with our favorite Gallifreyan Time Lord. These facts bring up several questions. If she and The Doctor were in love (or even married), then why isn't she still with him? And, if The Doctor allowed her to get THAT close to him, is she human? Or is she, just maybe, Gallifreyan? I think we can all see what I'm getting at -- could Professor River Song be Romana? She said that she had never seen The Doctor so young before, which would be true if she was referring to Tom Baker's 4th Doctor or David Tennant's 10th Doctor a few years later. She said that she lead the investigative team to the library planet, but she never specified how. TARDIS, maybe? Since we lsat saw Romana as Lalla Ward, Alex Kingston could represent her next regeneration (hence The Doctor not recognizing her). Also, given the rumors that Lalla Ward was on set when her husband, Richard Dawkins, filmed his cameo for later this season, perhaps she made a cameo of her own. Regeneration flashback, maybe? Just theories!

Given my enthusiasm for the most recent episode, you can probably surmise that I'm anxiously awaiting next week. Even if Professor River Song doesn't end up being a regenerated Romana, I am sure that Mr. Moffat has some cool surprises in store for us.

Back from the UK!

2008-05-25T14:09:00.006-04:00

Just flew back from the UK last night (and boy are my arms tired, wakawaka). Look for reviews of the three most recent episodes soon. I had a blast driving around England and Wales, by the way. Even made a few new friends....

And those new pals came in handy when we ran across the inevitable baddies....

Even a Timelord Needs a Vacation!

2008-05-09T13:48:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that I will be visiting England and Wales for the next two weeks; so, there will be no new reviews until I return to the States. When I do return, though, I plan to review the first 4 issues of the ongoing Doctor Who comic book series from IDW Publishing on top of the new episodes of the TV series.

And, yes, I will be taking in the "Doctor Who Up Close" exhibit in Cardiff while travelling. I'll post geeky pics, I'm sure!

Review of Series 4, Episodes 4/5: "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky"

2008-05-04T22:49:00.004-04:00

About half-way through last Saturday's "The Sontaran Stratagem" I started to have a sinking feeling that this two-part story might rival last series' "Daleks in Manahattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks" as the worst two-parter since Doctor Who returned to the airwaves. Having now watched "The Poison Sky," I can confirm that fear. And apparently both two-parters were written by the same person - Helen Raynor. Eek! Let's hope Ms. Raynor isn't one of the people being considered to replace Russell T. Davies if he does decide to leave the show. And, after apparently okaying the return of the Sontarans as mini-me sized men in bad make up and plastic armor working with an annoying human "genius," maybe the time has come for Big Russ to move on. I haven't sensed much passion from him in the last few episodes. One request, though; if he does leave, can we get Steven Moffat as the replacement, please?

First off, let's talk about ATMOS, the crux of the first episode. What does the stupid thing even do? At first, it seems to be a GPS/navigation system (which can, conveniently, take over your car and drown you in any nearby body of water). Later, though, we're told that ATMOS is a carbon-cleaning car filter. Which relates to its navigation skills how, exactly? And where did they get the acronym ATMOS, anyway? The annoying boy genius/Chris Kattan look-alike says that it stands for "atmospheric emission system." Um, how? I suppose that you could just take the first five letters of that phrase to create the name, but then it's not even a proper acronym, is it? And if boy genius did create the name from the first five letter, then why does he keep correcting everyone who calls it the "ATMOS system"? I don't see the words "system" rolled into the acronym. Apparently being a genius doesn't encompass creating good acronyms. Speaking of lame acronyms, what's up with UNIT? It used to stand for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Yay! A proper acronym! Now it stands for Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Wouldn't that be UIT? What, they couldn't think of a word that started with N? Maybe the Brits just aren't good with the whole acronym game? I don't know.

The less said about the actor who played ATMOS's creator, the better. Basically, he ran around screeching a lot and sounding less American than Peri Brown on one of her bad accent days. Of course, I can't blame the actor entirely; his role was underwritten, unnecessary, and horribly cliche.

The Sontarans. Were they always that short? I thought for sure they used to be more average in height. In any case, seeing a bunch of five-foot-tall dwarfs trying to be intimidating while standing around in plastic armor was slightly embarrassing. Also, for clones, the Sontarans seemed to physically differ from one another quite a bit. Obviously, there were several different actors involved, but I wish the producers had made some effort to make clones look like clones. Maybe they could have just had one actor playing all of the Sontarans and digitally cloned him for the show? And what was the Sontarans' big plan? To use the Earth as a cloning planet. Yes, this makes the second time in just five episodes that an invading alien race wants to use the Earth as a hatchery/nursery. I can't believe that the makers of this show didn't tie the Adipose in with the Sontarans.... That was a missed opportunity!

Despite the bad writing for these episodes, there were some things I liked. First off, Rose! If you missed her, she popped up on the TARDIS's monitor for a split second, silently screaming something that looked, to me, like "Doctor!!" Cool. I like how they're building to her return. Second, Martha is engaged - and to Doctor Tom, too! I was hoping those crazy kids would get together. I wonder if he'll join her on Torchwood next season. Next, I still like Donna (although her family is really getting on my nerves). The scene where she infiltrated the Sontaran ship while The Doctor coached her on the phone reminded me of the scene in Rear Window where Grace Kelley investigates the bad guy's apartment while Jimmy Stewart watches/talks to her on the phone. Good stuff! I also like that Donna reacts to danger in a more realistic way than some of the past companions. You can really feel her dread when he tells her to attack the Sontaran from behind. Oh, and that undifferentiated human clone in the vat of goo was really, really creepy. Nice work on the make-up there. And Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is "stranded in Peru"? Is that setting up a future story or something? Finally, the tease for next episode was interesting. Who would want to "trap" Martha in the TARDIS? Is she going to be traveling with The Doctor and Donna for the rest of the season? Why did they keep showing The Doctor's severed hand? Was his "daughter" (who is being played by Georgia Moffett, the real-life daughter of The Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, incidentally) created from that hand somehow? And was his "daughter" kissing another chick?

Oh, and for the record, projecting purple and green lights on the walls of old factories does not make them look futuristic or spacey; they just make the sets look cheap and tacky - like a Joel Schumacher Batman movie. And SHIELD should sue over that Valiant helicarrier rip-off. SHIELD. Now there's a good acronym!

Review of Series 4, Episode 3: "Planet of the Ood"

2008-04-21T09:58:00.004-04:00

Well, that was a bit of a mess, wasn't it?

First off, I'm not sure why Russell T. Davies seems to find the Ood design so fascinating - they're basically the cantina band members from Star Wars with mini-Chtulus busting out of their chins. Yeah, they made for interesting wallpaper 2 seasons ago in "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit," but was anyone besides Big Russ begging for a return visit? Even though I wasn't particularly yearning for more Ood, I went into this episode with an open mind; the preview looked intriquing and I was looking forward to seeing The Doctor and Donna's relationship continue to grow. Unfortunately, the best thing about the Ood was taken away from them this episode. That is, when they were first introduced, we were told they were a race that lived only to serve; without orders they would die. Now that's an interesting idea! Perhaps they evolved on a planet where there was another, dominant form of life and the Ood, as a survival strategy, became a "helper" species. Kind of cool, that. Well, guess what? Now we're being told that the Ood really aren't a "basic slave race." They're yet another alien race being used and abused by humans. Yawn. To add insult to injury, The Doctor even says that there is no way a race could have evolved to be helpers and that he should have known better when he first ecountered the Ood. Excuse me, Doc, but I think I've just explained how such a race could have come into existence! Not too difficult to comprehend, really. So, instead of being a slave race, the Ood now appear to be a race of peaceful aliens who carry their brains around in their hands. Yes, in the their hands. Because that would be a real evolutionary advantage and is in no way freakin' stupid. Talk about taking an interesting initial concept for an alien race and completely throwing it away to make a hackneyed social comment like, well, slavery is bad. Thanks, Doctor - I never realized that before.

The episode was set on an ice planet. Why? No reason. The cheap CGI and fake snow did very little to convince me that it was actually cold, so the "ice" was more of a distraction than anything else. I always have to laugh when actors are running around on bits of chopped-up paper spouting lines about how cold it is while sweat runs down their faces. Not to mention that you never once see anyone's breath. Have the makers of this episode actually ever been to cold a place? Wales gets cold enough to have visible breath, right? And what kind of sense does it even make to have the Ood originate on a frozen wasteland? They have no hair/fur and they all seem to wear nothing more that thin jumpsuits. But, I guess a species that evolved to include a brain that they have to carry around in their hands at all times (in the freezing cold, we now know) doesn't have to make any kind of sense whatsoever. Honestly, the setting just seemed like some mandate from the producers. "I know! Let's have an ice planet thrown in there!" And, having now watched the Confidential, I can confirm that that is exactly what happened. Russel T. Davies admits that he gave a list of "ideas" to the writer and asked him to incoporate them. What was on that list? Ood, slavery, ice planet. So, it sounds like we have Big Russ himself to blame for the crappiness of this episode.

So, the overriding concept and the setting both sucked. Was there anything good about the episode? I still like Donna. I thought the scene where she cried over the "native Ood" was nice. (Although why all of the native Ood wear black gloves just like all of the captive Ood makes little sense. I guess the budget didn't include any money for prosthetic Ood hands....) Even the cheesy bad guy - whose name I forget and I don't care enough to look it up - was wearing gloves before he turned into a Ood, which was a ridiculously stupid concept on its own. I was a little creeped out by the actual transformation sequence, though, so good on the special effects people! Oh, and there was a tacked-on chase sequence in the middle of the episode where a giant claw that was being controlled by a way-over-the-top "actor" tried to grab The Doc. What kind of factory would be so inefficient that they'd move all of their crates with one giant claw, anyway? Still, the sequence was kind of fun, if you could overlook the stupidity of the whole thing. It was also fun to see Ayesha Dharker (Queen Jamillia, Queen Amidala's replacement, from Attack of the Clones) pop up in Doctor Who. I'm a geek, I know.

Let's just move on. Maybe next week will be better. Although, I must admit, I am very surprised to see that they're bringing Martha back already. I would prefer more time to develop The Doctor/Donna relationship before throwing other companions in. And, although I did like Martha during her season of Doctor Who, her pointless and boring three-episode stint on Torchwood went a long way toward ruining that good will. At this point, I'd prefer a longer Martha break. Still, we'll see how the Sontaran two-parter works! I'm hoping for the best. At least Martha's bringing UNIT with her, after all, which could be fun. Incidentally, UNIT now appears to stand for "Unified Intelligence Taskforce" instead of "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce" (because the United Nations wasn't keen on having their name used in a sci-fi program, apparently). That's fine, I supposed, but couldn't the producers think of an "N" word to stick in there? "Unified National Intelligence Taskforce" or something?

Review of Series 4, Episode 2: "The Fires of Pompeii"

2008-04-13T11:47:00.003-04:00

First off, I'm still digging Donna. It's great that The Doctor now has a companion who can challenge him. She's more of an equal than his other recent companions and has no problem telling him when she thinks he's wrong. Her questioning of him actually drove the plot of this episode, given that The Doctor was ready to cut and run early on when he realized where/when they were. If Donna hadn't insisted on trying to help the people of Pompeii, the episode would have been a short one! And how fun was the homage to Mary Poppins?! (If you didn't catch it, when the mountain first trembles, Caecilius and his family run through around their house catching busts and vases just like the Banks family does in Mary Poppins when their neighbor, Admiral Boom, shoots his canon.) It was also nice to see the sets from the HBO/BBC TV series Rome again; I kept watching for Titus Pullo in the background.

The plot seemed a little scattered and confusing, but I just kind of let it wash over me and enjoyed it for what it was. Upon closer examination, I'm not sure the plot really holds together. For example, the prophets can't see that Vesuvius will erupt in one day because the volcano is not "meant" to erupt thanks to the Pyroviles, who are draining the energy and keeping it from blowing. (That is, The Doctor and Donna ultimately make Vesuvius erupt to prevent the Pyroviles from taking over the Earth, thereby changing what was "supposed" to happen.) That's all fine and dandy and plays into the idea that The Doctor can't always change history for the better; in fact, he sometimes has to change history for the worse to prevent a greater disaster from occurring down the line. However, if Vesuvius was not "meant" to erupt, then how did the prophets gain the ability to see the future in the first place (since this ability was explained as a side effect of a rift in time that resulted from Vesuvius uber-powerful explosion)? If Vesuvius didn't erupt in the original timeline, there would have been no explosion to create the rift in time that gave the prophets their precognitive powers. Whew! My head hurts....

There was another reference to Rose returning (when Lucius tells The Doctor that "she is returning"). Is she this season's Bad Wolf? Lucius also mentions that Donna has "something on her back." I'm not sure what that meant. Any ideas? Another continuing theme this season seems to be missing/destroyed planets. Last episode, there was mention that the Adiposian home world had been taken (which is why the Ms. Foster was seeding the children on Earth). In this episode, the Pyroviles' planet has been taken as well. So, who or what is taking these planets? Sontarans?

Richard Dawkins to guest on Doctor Who. Can Romana be far behind?

2008-04-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

Russell T. Davies has just announced that Richard Dawkins, the celebrated evolutionary biologist, will guest star as himself in an episode of Doctor Who later this season. As most Doctor Who fans already know, Dawkins has a couple of associations with the long-running program. First, he was a close friend of the late Douglas Adams, former script editor of Doctor Who (and, of course, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels). More importantly, however, Dawkins is married to Lalla Ward (aka Romana II). Now, not that I'm trying to start any rumors - okay, maybe I am - but if Romana's real-life husband is guest-starring in Doctor Who, can Romana be far behind? Last we saw the erstwhile Time Lady in the classic series, she had chosen to stay in the parallel universe called E-Space while The Doctor returned to our universe. Let's see, who else in Doctor Who has been left in a parallel universe recently? Rose, of course! Perhaps Romana is in the same parallel universe as Rose and used her Time Lady powers to facilitate Rose's brief return in "Partners in Crime." Could it be that when Rose returns to our universe on a more permanent basis later this season she'll bring Romana with her? Obviously, this is all speculation at this point.... But it sure is fun to speculate!

Review of Story 142: "Timelash"

2008-04-07T18:30:00.001-04:00

Two classic Doctor Who stories were released here in the states on DVD last Tuesday -- "The Time Warrior" (starring Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor) and "Timelash" (starring Colin Baker as the sixth Doctor). One of these is considered a classic for introducing the Sontarans and Sarah Jane Smith and the other, well, is not. I decided to jot down my thoughts on the stories separately, starting with the one that is looked upon with derision by much of fandom, "Timelash."

First off, let me just say that "Timelash" does not deserve the horrible reputation that it has gained over the last 20 years. No, it may not be "Pyramids of Mars" or "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," but very few stories are. It's certainly not as bad as every story I've watched from the Sylvester McCoy era. Wow those stories are terrible... Anyway, I quite like Colin Baker as The Doctor. Okay, the opening scene in the TARDIS is nearly unbearable, but I chalk that up to bad dialogue more than to the actors. Nicola Bryant's American accent is as atrocious as usual, but considering how many bad faux English accents the Brits have had to put up with from us Yanks over the years, I just look on her exaggerated pronunciations as a kind of karmic payback. In any case, I like the developing relationship between The Doctor and Peri (which reaches its apex in the next story, "Revelation of the Daleks"). Their friendship is contentious, and prickly, but you can tell there's real affection there as well. They're like siblings who bicker and bitch, but always have each other's backs at the end of the day.

So, aside from the two leads, how is the story? Eh, it's okay. I still have no idea how the doctor deflected the killer missile or why it's implied that The Borad becomes the Loch Ness Monster at the end, but whatever. (By the way, every time I heard the word "Borad" in this story, I mentally pictured Sacha Baron Cohen tormenting drunk frat boys. Is that wrong?) Not everything made sense, but I'm kind of used to that from watching a lot of these things. I did think it was interesting that the story revealed that The Doctor and Jo Grant had visited Karfel long ago in some sort of missing adventure. I bet fanboys (and fangirls) flew into a tizzy back in the day, assuming that they had missed a Jon Pertwee story somewhere along the way. I did enjoy the inclusion of a young and very impressionable H.G. Wells in the story (even if if does cheapen his books a bit to imply that he just stole his ideas for The Time Machine and The Invisible Man from The Doctor). Oh, and the make-up on The Borad was pretty damn good for the time and the budget! He looked quite spooky with his deformed face and flipper hands. Not that the make-up justified keeping him turned around in his chair for the entire first episode Dr. Evil-style, mind you. That was a little over the top.

So, overall, "Timelash" was better than some classic Doctor Who stories and worse than others. It was completely middle of the road, really. I'm not quite sure why so many people hate it.

Review of Series 4, Episode 1: "Partners in Crime"

2008-04-05T21:33:00.001-04:00

I just finished watching the first episode of Series 4 and I am delighted! What a great start to the season! "Partners in Crime" was by far the best first episode of any of the new seasons (compared against "Rose," "New Earth," and "Smith and Jones"). Then again, I enjoyed Donna in "The Runaway Bride," so your milage may vary. While watching the episode I was reminded of an old Looney Tunes cartoon -- partly because of the whimsical musical cues and partly because of the overall comedic tone of the script. The scene with Donna and The Doctor seeing each other for the first time half way through the episode made me laugh out loud. Great acting there from both David Tennant and Catherine Tate. And thank goodness they got the sexual tension issue out of the way right up front. After three seasons of The Doctor and his companion making lovey-dovey eyes at each other, it will be great to have him travel with just "a mate." Speaking of great, how excellent was the surprise cameo by Rose at the end? I didn't see that one coming. One thing I do see coming (although I could be wrong, of course) is that the Adipose will turn out to be baby Sontarans. I always wondered what those little clones looked like as children -- and I think Russell T. Davies might be showing us. Overall, this episode comes highly recommended by me. I can't wait to see what happens in Pompei. Besides the volcano, of course.

Doctor What

P.S. The shout out to "Mad Martha" was a nice touch, too!