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

“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!

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!

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”

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!

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!!

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

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!