Slow slink back

Why hello!

So as some of you may know I have recently decided that I will be beginning a quest for world domination, so as part of this I have spent the last 2 weeks in the Himalayas with a mad soviet scientist learning the ways of the sickle. So what am I going to do as my come back, why tear into a Doctor Who spin off of course!



So this is the episode called "The Death of the Doctor" which will be the third episode screened of the new Sarah Jane Adventures Series. In theory there is nothing wrong with this episode... okay in  theory there is alot wrong with this show, but lets start with the good things:
1. It has the eleventh Doctor in it. I can't expand on that till I see some footage of him but anything with the Doctor is always an up for me.
2. It has two companions and from the clip I am looking forward to it. The interaction between Sarah and Jo is reminding me a lot of the School episode of DW series 2 how the companions share their experience and an appreciation of what spending time with the Doctor can mean.

But there are also 3 problems evident:
1. There are the kids in it. For every Doctor loving ex-companion conversation this episode will have it will have equal or even out-weighted amounts of 'kiddy' dialogue I know this come with the territory of a kids show label but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.
2. The Villains... Oh the villains, they look like Jim Henson rejects, and they aren't scary in the slightest, I payed the last Doctor episode because it had him up against the last of the trickster bragade and I really would liked to have seen a full episode with 'The Trickster' but these guys don't seem to be scary at all, it is almost asthough a real hack with an axe to grind has come back to write...
3. Which effortlessly streamlines me into my next point the episode is written by Russell T. Davis. I am not going into this you all know what I think of him and thus you can work it out on your own why this is bad.

So yes to recap, I am now going on to take over the world and this episode will be good if you intermittently black out when the ex-companions and the Doctor is on screen.

Video time

Okay I know posting a video is kind of a cop out for content, but what do you want from me there is a lack of stuff out there. Anyway so the Proms were on last night and as usual Doctor Who (Wow I have been posting alot on Who for the past few days... I promise there will be something different next time) did a skit and Matt Smith just made a boys dreams come true.

The problem with Sarah Jane

Seriously I know the show needs kiddie-esque villains, but the last doctor got the trickster, a manipulator of time and space for the means of evil... What did Matt do to get a freaking bird as his enemy???

Well hello there children, it's time for a story, are you ready for story time?


Very good


The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures and I have an understanding, they can go off and do their own thing away from me, and I won't beat the kiddie desecration of Who with a large stick. But least year they had the episode Sarah Jane's Wedding, now while this on it's own wasn't enough to interest me the fact that it featured the first cross over appearance of the Doctor (then David Tennant) was enough to pique my interest. You see if we look back to last year we were suffering from a massive Who drought and any looks at Tennant's sexy Doctor were welcome and because I was desperate I was willing to grin and bear the kiddieness.

However it seems that the crossover must have been well watched because it's back again with the new Doctor (Matt 'Bowtie' Smith) with an enemy that looks like a cross between a vulture and a Jim Henson puppet. This raises 2 issues for the show, 1. Because the Doctor is there it breaks our pact and opens itself up to me watching it and murdering it, and 2. the episode will be written by Russell T. Davis.

There will be Blood!

Verdict: Russell T. Davies

Russell T. Davies

So I was writing on the Hugo awards last night and I touched on my views on Russell T. Davies, and I realised that while I had easily ladled him in my dislike category I had never justified the decision, so in order to make you all understand and because it is my 50th post and thus special I'll now deliver my Verdict on Russell T. Davies.


History:

Considered one of Davies better shows... supposedly

Russell was born Steven Russell Davies on 27 April 1963 in Wales, his mother suffering a reaction to a morphine drip suffered a phsycotic episode not long after his birth and was institutionalised.  With a fairly normal drama childhood the young Russell moved into writing and penned the acclaimed Series Queer as Folk, Bob & Rose and The Second Coming. He is most known for helming the revival of Doctor Who in 2005 and creating the spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. At the beginning of 2010 he left Doctor Who  in the hands of Steven Moffat, he continues to watch over and write episodes for the spin off with his new series Torchwood: New World take up a fair chunk of his time.

Thoughts:

A terrible monster from new Who and a Pepperpot.

I'm not going to claim to have any knowledge of Mr Davies non-Who related work so it is entirely possible that Queer as Folk  is the greatest series in the history of mankind and it would completely change my views on the man if I saw it, but I'm here to focus on Who so here comes the pain. Mr Davies will always have a place in my heart for reviving Doctor Who and his over-watch of the seasons has maintained a fairly enjoyable experience all round. The problem I have is that his writing can be so brilliantly frustrating, so hit and miss that I can't in good conscious look forward to anything he does. While he has written some great episodes such as Midnight and Waters of Mars that look at the subject of unseen fear and horror and the inner-most psyche of The Doctor makes me marvel at the way that the subject matter can be twisted. The problem is that for everyone of those episodes there are two Journey's End and The Last of the Time Lords, episodes where not only does science fiction gain the level of magic but he takes to wanking off his fan base with such gusto that one has to wonder if he has missed out on his perfect career. To take The Last of the Time Lords as a demonstration of the first one, where the previous season ender Doomsday set up a good solid device to allow transport between realities and a marvellous use of 3D glasses in order to clear up the massive building mess that Russell had created but in The Last of the Time Lords, The Doctor is revived from a gollum like state by the power of thought...

David Tennat's audition for the role of Doctor Manhattan... to many clothes.

WTF? I get that the arch-angel network connects the minds but how can the Doctor draw power from that? He isn't The Destructor from Ghostbusters who became the 'Stay Puff Marshmallow Man', and so as far as I know The Doctor can't just click his fingers and find a plot convenient way to get out of the situation, a way has to be properly weaved in and made available to the audience whilst staying hidden from their sight, see Amy's Choice. The other major complaint is the excessive ammounts of fan wank, take for example the End of Time Part 2. Now the End of Time Part 2 had a total running time of  71 minutes, one of the longest DW episodes ever, but about the last 20 minutes of the episode isn't needed, after the Doctor throws his tantrum and rescues Wilf he could have just limped back to the TARDIS and regenerated, but no, Davies has to go back over each and every companion this Doctor has had and give them an unbearably happy ending, Martha and Mickey get married, Donna gets married and the Doctor gives her a lot of money and Rose gets a nice smiley moment with The Doctor, and for some strange reason we go to a descendant of Nurse Redfern, remember her she was in that 2-parter 2 bloody seasons ago! But to head back to the proper companions for a moment, there will be people out there who call me a bit of a Grinch because 'Doesn't  David, have my babies, Tennant deserve to have a nice ending', and yes I would agree with that and this episode would be fine to do it... if we hadn't had the same thing one and a half years ago! Seriously Journey's End ended with the same sort of all smiles ending as the companions (except Donna) all walked off happy and fulfilled, so what was the point doing it again?

"We've reached the Journey's End, Having a laugh inside the TARDIS, thought it didn't make much sense, It's always nice to see them Daleks" - Chameleon Circuit

That last part has reminded me of a single instance reason I dislike Davies, the retcon. At the end of Doomsday Rose and The Doctor were separated by dimensions and one could assume she was beyond return, but peoples hearts all over the world broke as The Doctor was unable to tell Rose he loved her. It was sad but poionient that as much as The Doctor is a necessary force of the world you must keep your distance personally because he just causes destruction. As sad as it was I respected Davies for doing it. But then he went and made it so Rose gets her own personal human Doctor because she is the bestest companion or something. And it destoryed the message he had conveyed so well in Doomsday.

Thanks Seduff for the image

Torchwood seems to deliver a different style, where people die and tragedy strikes often, for that reason I look upon Children of Earth as a better Who finale than any of his real Who finales.

Summing Up:
So what do I think? Well he isn't a bad writer if he lays off the fan love and was more reasonable in his endings, but because of the forced smile ending he seems so determined to strong arm into everything, I have problems with him.


Verdict:

Hugo and the Doctor, 2 friends tied at the hip.

So the illustrious Hugo awards for science fiction have come and gone for another year and we at the far end of the Geek spectrum are left to awe at the winners and loser we find before us. So rather than delve into the sections on Books and fan-fiction that I know nothing about and have no interest in I'll skip to the Film and TV categories and de-construct them.



BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM
Nominees:
Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)


Winner:
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)

So looking at the list this was a very strong group, and it would have been hard to pick a winner lets look a how it might have gone in regards to a 100 meter dash between the nominees.

Next category:





BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM
Nominees:
Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1" Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

Winner:
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)

Ahh.. Russell we meet again, Now for the past 4 years Doctor Who has won 3 of these awards, with it's run only being stopped by Dr Horrible's sing-along blog (coincidentally my dictionary tells me at Horrible's isn't a word and that I should replace it with Horribleness, which I didn't think was a word... fun fact!) and while this may make you think I am unfair on Russell T and that he must be good if he won all those awards? I would like to point out to you that all the episodes that won, The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink were all written by my geek love overlord Steven Moffat and that this is in fact the first Russell T episode to win one. And considering it was up against those other 2 DW episodes there must have been a real lack of competition, while Mars was generally good as it gave us an unhinged and bordering on megalomaniac Doctor, the other 2 were poor attempts at cashing in on people mood at a particular time of year.

So there you have it, my take on the two entries I actually know something about, If you want to know the other categories and nominees follow this link.

Review

When I wrote my first piece on Doctor Who, I said that this would be a big Welcome bacm angels episode, however now I don't think I did them justice, so here it is again

WELCOME BACK TO THE BIGGEST INTERGALACTIC BADASSES IN THE UNIVERSE! DON'T BLINK!

This is the Moffat we know and love, the intricate plot maker who can keep you on the edge of you seat and guessing until the very end, but lets jump straight in:

PLOT

This episode is Moffat to his absolute best. The pre-credit opening was amazing, The idea of sending a message through time to have The Doctor come back to where you sent it, how mind bending is that! I'm going to address the weeping angels later in the ep, but I will state now that they were absolutly scary, especially during the scene in that trailer with the image. The only thing that I did pick up on was that they opace seemed much slower than the last couple of episodes. Thats not a complaint by the way, This kind of timing could have aided last weeks episode. The cliffhanger, oh my god if any fan out there wasn't having a geek-gasm WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???? It was just so sublte the idea that statues were all angels, I mean who was even thinking about counting the heads? If the second episode is anything this one, then this'll become my favourite of all DW 2 parters.

THE DOCTOR AND AMY

For the past 3 episodes I have felt that we have either been focusing on one of The Doctor or Amy, The Doctor in the first, Amy in the second and The Doctor in the third. But this episode gave us the best look into both of them, The Doctor tthrough River and Amy through those terrifyingly tense scenes. I was listening to the DWO podcast, they mentioned something about Amy I liked, at the point in the episode when everyone is busy and River calls the Doctor over, Amy sarcastically asks "Anyone need me" and then walks off to amuse herself. If that had been any other companion she would have followed along with what the doctor was doing like a love sick puppy, Karen just brings a sense of equal to the companion role that we haven't seen in the new series before, yhea Donna coame close but she was annoying so she doesn't count. Another thing DWO pointed out was that this episdoe was one of the first ones they filmed, Could you tell? cause I couldn't Matt Smith was pitch perfect in his role, I got chills on the trap line, and his whole personality seemed more fleshed out than it did in the first set of episodes, maybe it was helped by the fact he had River to lead, but Matt still made his own imprint on the episode.

RIVER SONG

Normally I give this section to all of the Secondary Characters, but I feel that the other characters, while present and sutiably strong, were more fodda for The Doctors interactions with River. So here we are with Ms Song, Has there ever been such a complex and intriguing relationship between a Doctor and a companion? Is she his wife? Is she the Rani? Is she the Doctor? Is she a time thief who has stole the real River Song's diary and is now abusing what she knows of old Gallirayan society to manipulate The Doctor? Who knows, but Moffat is definently good enough to keep us guessing. My only real complaint is the Spoilers line, I don't know why, but it annoyed me, still it was good that they didn't dwel on the whole diary and spoilers thing. I've never really watched Alex Kingston, but she brings this really light bubbly sort of feeling to hers and the Doctor's interactions, it's almost as though she knows better than him, which it seems she does. So while I hope we don't learn everything at the end of this 2 parter I would like to find out at least a little bit more to whet my appitite for the Season Finale

ALIEN / ENEMY OF THE WEEK

So here we are, how about them Angels? How scary were they? Everyone knew coming in that this episode would be compared to Blink, so I know when it came to the angels I had conflicting hopes. But Moffat changed what the angels were, giving us a new experience that we hadn't predicted. As the Doctor said, the first set we met were scavengers, barely surviving , they had to wait for people. Howe asy would it been to have had the angel slink around the tunnel picking off the crew one by one and ending up with Jsut the Doctor, Father and River left as Amy is thrust back trough time (this was my prediction). But the image section, the slowly changing of Amy from looking into its eyes, and the Army of angels underground, these are not the angels we knew and loved, these are dangerous and deadly badasses... Oh joy! I'm going to address a question not that I've heard from a few people, why did the angel in the tunnel snap those soliders necks. When Angel Bob was talking to The Doctor he talked about how the Angel needed the Ceribral Cortex and the voice box to comunicate with the Doctor, however why the angel needs to speak with the Doctor remains to be seen. But what if an angel can lie, what if the angel we have seen in the bottem of the maze of the dead isn't the one in the spaceship. These angels must have been trapped in that maze, else they would have gone after the people nearby, so what if they needed the hull of the ship breached to get out? Scary

NEXT TIME

So the Doctor is under the pump to come up with a way to stop the angels, my suggestion would be to watch this episode again, the answer will be hidden in there somewhere. And Amy continues to struggle with the Angel's Curse (I like that name), the doctor tells her to keep her eyes closed, a backwards blink? And who knows what we find out about River.
I now feel justified, for this entire time I've been saying that the cracks can't be as simple as they seem, and now we find the Doctor is going to deal with one in this episode, so maybe they have no link to the finale, if this is true then what is the running Link, cause Moffat has said there is one (In Moffat we Trust).

Rating: 9.5/10

Favourite Quote:
The Doctor: "The writing. The graffiti. Old High Gallifreyan! The lost language of the Timelords. There were days - there were many days - these words could burn stars, and raise up empires, and topple gods."
Amy: "What does this say?"
The Doctor: "'Hello sweetie.'"

Merchandising!

Thats right folks, got a DW itch that repeated watching of the episodes just won't scratch and tons of disposable income, then maybe you might like to be the new Series 5 merchandise avaliable.

See if you can guess what these are:

Yes it is a Dalek Toothbrush, I bet all those people who said the new Daleks were just a Merchendising opertunity are feeling pretty gratified now

These glow in the dark stickers seem pretty standard, but what does that small cresent moon (the one with X12) mean?

 Yep, A DW bored Game. The thing I like about this one is thatit states it is like racing through time because you can flip the bored over... so If we flip a clock over.... Someone call NASA I've cracked time travel

 Thats right it is a muhat thinks it is a TARDIS, well its in for a shock, because look what else we have:

Thats right, this mug is a tiny replica of the TARDIS, well aside from the bigger on the inside bit.


But thats not all folks, because I have an exclusive, yes right here before your every eyes I have the privilage to unvail 3 new posters promoting some new Doctor Who merchandise:

Everybody get your wallets open

DW Adventure Game: Back to the Skaro(Future)

Yes thats right folks when I make a promise I come through on it... well except for that one time with the Biker chick and my Yeti room-mate.... I digress. So the synopsis for the first of these downloadable video games came out reccently and I must say I'm a little worried, here it is:

"The TARDIS materializes in 1963 - and London is in ruins. The Daleks have seized control of time and the only chance of saving Earth lies in a desperate quest to Skaro, the Daleks' home planet - before time catches up with Amy, the last survivor of the human race!"

 Hmm... am I the only one who gest worried when we see that the Dalek's have taken control of time, I mean here is seems like they are using it as a simple plot device while the main plot is your mission, which I guess is fair in the context of a video game. I think something like this (if they had the budget) would have made a much better episode, you could have the Dalek's trick The Doctor, steal something from his Tardis and race off through time, The Doctor of course follows and then we move into the game plot.

And what about the games plot, well using the aformentioned synopsis and the trailer below, I've come up with some ideas:



1. We'll see a back to the future style thing were Amy begins to fade on Skaro
2. There is some fantastical device holding time in the place the Dalek's have chosen, which is what we are after.
3. At least the White Dalek will escape (Don't you agree that its about time we stoped with the whole 'Huzzah we have killed off all the Daleks and sealed a wormhole loop that will never ever ever ever ever ever be opened' when we all know that with the next season they'll all be back

So thats my brief take on the situation. The Doctor Who Adventuer Game: Back to the Future (Skaro Style) will be out on the 5th of June this year (or the 6th of May, I'm not sure how to read the date)

Clip Show: The Time of Angels

Welcome to another week of clip show, and what have we got for you this time??? Well its our firast look at the big, everything that the Moff has done up to this point all dumped into one episode... clips.

I will point out that I'm actually really looking forward to this episode, but it still has the feeling that he came up with the idea for this episode before he even began writing the series opener, wether thats good or bad remains to be seen.

So here we go first clip:


2 things I want to say about this clip, firstly The Doctor acting like a spoilt child who has had his favourite toy taken off of him is kind funny here, but if it becomes something that recurs throughout the episode, it'll really grate on my nerves. Secondly, just putting it out there, this seems like the best proof we have that either River is,
a. A Time Lady (this seems unlikly as The Doctor has said that if there were any of his kind left he would be able to feel them, also I think that the Moff is above such a cheap trick)
b. The Doctor (Again unlikley as that would mean that the Doctor has an established death, also she genuinly sacrifices herself in the Library so I doubt this is right)
c. A Companion whose timeline we will follow backwards to the start (This seems most likley of all the predictions, but the likelyhood that the Doctor would tell River so much if this is the big reveal doesn't sit right)
d. Something that none of us have though of either becausde it is:
         1. Too Bizzare
         2. Staring us in the face

My money is on d.



I really hope spoilers doesn't become a catchphrase with River, it was kind of endeering in the Library but it wouls all to easily get on my nerves.



For anyone who (like me) thought that Moffat couldn't recapture that tense scary edge that Blink had, we were wrong. Even only vaguely watching this clip made me jump, something about those eyes are so creepy.

So thats the clip show for another week I'm going to put up one more Whovian thing before the review this week. With the synopsis of the first DW Adventure Game just released, I'm going to stick up some thoughts, and maybe even a possible plot


Spoilers!

Review

Or How to Depress a Dalek

This week delivered everything I ever wanted in a Doctor Who episode, an angry Doctor, actually scary Daleks and the Doctor using some sort of impossible object to save the day. I even enjoyed the most preposterous solution to a bomb ever. Also I have a new room-mate who would like to give its opinion, but let’s jump straight in:

PLOT

Well this week we were off to the time of the Second World War and the London Blitz, with the Doctor’s old friend Winne Churchill who has a brand new scheme to defeat the terrible Nazi menace, and their old friends of the Doctor, the Dalek’s but whatever could they be up to this time? In all honesty from the line old friends until this time could have been the description of the Dalek, Daleks in Manhattan and the Stolen Earth, so while I was interested to see what this new era would do with the Daleks, but I wasn’t jumping up and down about it (my room has a fan so that is inadvisable anyway). I really enjoyed the episode especially the whole subservient Daleks at the start was quite amusing, as was the whole set of scenes on the Dalek ship. There was just something about this episode that was engrossing, and as I previously stated I even liked the whole scene with the android Bracewell (Someone motioned to me that in this episode there was a Star Wars homage in the part where the Daleks shoot off his hand and say ‘No, we created you’, much like ‘NO, I am your father’) I will admit it made no sense, but the pure emotion of the scene and of Bracewell (Bill Patterson) made me believe.

THE DOCTOR AND AMY

This episode was quite Amy light, so I’ll get her out of the way first, Amy continued to shine as one of the doctor’s most useful companions, working out all the clever things we expect from the Doctor. Now for the man of the episode, Matt Smith showed his full range of the Doctor traits, the absolute frustrated fury he had for the compliant Dalek, the calm brilliance that was on display when he held them for ransom (with a biscuit, I challenge you to find another TV hero who can confront his greatest enemy with only a biscuit?) and the absolute terror of the rebirth of his worst enemy. While I still feel bad after yesterday’s Tennant review, I think Mr Smith (if only his name was John) has so far been brilliant, and seems to be getting better.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Let’s start with Mr Churchill, the whole buddy-buddy thing that he had going on with The Doctor was really nice, I felt like it was two old friends having a catch up (the whole handshake over the TARDIS key was a nice touch). There are some people who think that Ian McNeice conveyed the insurmountable pressure that Winston was under very well. And then there was Bracewell.. I thought he was the most human character in the episode; the emotion on his face during the bomb defuesal was completely believable, basically I thought they were both much better than last week’s offering.

ALIEN/ENEMY OF THE WEEK

Well lets all have a big welcome back for the Daleks, while there has been a lot of Dalek overkill during the RTD era it was nice to see them back at their fearsome best, with a new design and paint-job too. I also found the Daleks at the start, pretending to be compliant to the humans; hilarious asking the doctor as he tries to destroy it “would you like some tea”. And using the Doctor for their master plan how surprising and interesting was that (am I being sarcastic or sincere? You be the judge). Now to explain the depressed Dalek and my room-mate, on Thursday I purchased a small Dalek (Laser non-operational of course) and as we sat down to watch the episode (well he was strapped down to stop it trying to beat me to death) it was... upbeat?? Well it was yelling exterminate rather loudly so it seemed okay. However by the end it seemed almost depressed as it tried to now kill its self over its replacement, I’m not quite sure what to do with it.. I’m thinking of showing it the stolen planet, where the Dalek kills to doctor, to cheer it up (better not show it the genocide at the end though).

NEXT TIME

River song is back, and so are the weeping angels, hidden within a myriad of stone statues, will the doctor find it before something terrible happens? Also note that in the trailer there is an image of around five of them in a corridor, is this single angel on a rescue mission?

The Crack is back, I maintain that something this obvious must be a ploy to distract us from something else, could it be the final villain in the first episode Mister Moffat alluded to in a recent interview?? Also the Stolen Earth Reset, how will this play in?

Rating: 8/10

Favourite Quote: “Don’t mess with me sweetheart”

Now I feel bad

I was browsing the interwebs when I stumbled across a Youtube page for a tuber named Seduff. I quite enjoyed the stuff I'd seen of here before so I was interested to see what she'd been up to (and as a fellow Aussie DW lover I felt patrioticaly abliged).

This is what I found:




I absolutly loved this video, but it reminds me of how great David was and tears me between my love for the DT and my budding romace with MS. Well before I make any value judgements, lets see how MS does with a true Who villian (he hasn't really tackled one yet). Also I've heared that the events of The Stolen Earth and Journey's End will be reset.

God Bless Stephen Moffat (Or Mark Gatsis if it was his idea)

Clip Show: Victory of the Daleks

The Clips are up for Victory of the Daleks, and they are alot more interesting than previous ones:



So Churchill knows the Doctor from earlier in the war, and he wants the TARDIS key... is this why the doctor is here, why the Dalek's chose not to kill him? The time energy?



Everytime I hear that line I get a chill, 'I am your sooolider'



This hopefully shall be good. I make no promises after last week.

Review

Well well well, here we are, Week 2 and Moffat tries to bring the darkness... with limited results, Amy saves us from the Doctor, and the Smilers are revealed ... and don’t satisfy. But lets jump straight in:

PLOT

Okay, this episode sees us aboard the Starship UK, where things aren’t as they seem (wouldn’t be much of an episode if things were exactly as they seem I suppose), and as one might expect it is up to the Doctor and Amy to get to the bottom of it. So far as plots go, I really felt let down by this one, Early moments with the smilers gave them a real scare appeal as these evil watchers, who are working rouge to bring society down. However one of the aspects I did like was how SM showed that given the option humanity will do terrible things and just simply choose to erase them, it made a good point and was a generally nice touch.

THE DOCTOR AND AMY

Being only the second episode, the relationship between these two is still kind of being explored, but we got to see how the ‘Last of the Time Lords’ idea was presented in this new series. I quite like how Matt Smith played it, choosing to be more distant too it and accepting of it than DT. I also liked the contrast at that point between the Doctor and Amy, they both knew terrible things and while Amy chose to hide from it, the doctor chooses to live on with the knowledge of his past, in order to find other ways of saving everyone. Now the ending, This is the sort of ending that reminds me of Dalek during the Eccleston series, where the Doctor is ready to kill but the Companion (in Dalek, Rose) stops asnd saves the Alien, this time however Amy sees something that the Doctor doesn’t, its nice that Amy seems to be more akin to the Doctor than any other new series companions, but the ending still did feel right... as though there is still something missing to this Doctor

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

The secondary Characters of this episode (Liz 10 (reminds me of the kids show Ben 10) and Mandy) were probably the most paper thin characters that I have seen from SM in his entire Who writing time, from the man who delivered Sally Sparrow and Madame de Pompadour, it hurts to watch these characters flap about on the screen. Mandy, while providing a good comaprrison between the doctor and the Space Whale, wasn’t all that interesting and once we got past Amy getting abducted, she seemed to serve no further purpose. As for Liz 10 I just didn’t find here interesting, although I will admit here line "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule" was quite awesome, but past that I just didn’t care about her.

ALIEN/ENEMY OF THE WEEK

Enemy:

The Smilers, touted as being one of the better big bads of the new season these guys were pretty pathetic, offering only a minor chill factor, they didn’t really kill anyone or do anything, they were just mere tools of the system, nothing to interesting here.

Alien:

The Space Whale, I liked how this entity was portrayed as the main villain of the piece controlling everything, but turns out to be a doctor like creature (hmm... maybe humanity should have been put as the enemy) But once much like the other characters was completely un-interesting, and a little bit silly

NEXT TIME

Churchill and the Daleks, for a guy who seems so happy with his new best friends, why would Churchill call on the Doctor... something doesn’t ring true here.

FUTURE

As we can see there is a crack, much like the one on Amy’s wall on the side of the ship. Is the crack following the doctor? And if so who is opening them? Is this something to do with the Pandorica? Who the hell knows, but this smells an awful lot of a Bad Wolf scenario.

Clip Show: Beast Below

A couple of clips were released this week for Beast Below, so I've got them up for you:

(On a more personal note I'm back from my holiday, so the blog is back from hiatus, huzzah!)








Review up tomorrow

Review

On the 1st of January man Who fans mourned the loss of the Tenth Doctor (Mr Dacid Tennant) and were saddened by the leaving of Russell T. Davis, most of us belived that no one would ever be able to fill their shoes, and on April 3rd... We were proven right, because on that day 2 new men ( an old hand and a fresh face) walked into town, wearing their own set of shoes, while the old shoes were left behind (... I don't think this analogy is working to well any more), and one thing is for certain, nothing will ever be the same

THE OLD HAND

Using all the brilliant episodes of DW written by Mr Moffat that have come before, I still didn't know what to expect. Could he make an episode that was quick witted and interesting, and still maintain that slightly dark adult edge he'd always given us before? Well the doctor has just regenerated, the TARDIS is rebuilding its self, the Sonic Screwdriver is broken and there is a shape-shifting alien prisoner on the loose... Oh and the world is going to be incinerated in 20 minutes, did I mention that the companion has gone through 12 years of therapy because of the doctor? I loved this episode it had the perfect mix of introdution and story, while we still learnt so much about this new doctor and who all our new characters are, but at the same time we got an interesting story with real enemies and pace. If we can consider this a view as to what is to come, I must say that I'm quite happy.

THE FRESH FACE

Now I know I may have rambled on the teeniest tinyest bit about shoes before, but now I'll explain what I mean, DT left a large shadow that many people though (yes, your reverant blogger included) Matt Smith would only get lost in. But we never even looked at him as the guiy who is replacing David, he was very much his own man, while he's still the mad brilliant Doctor we know and love, he brings just brings an energy to the doctor that gives it a new and different life (I particularilly enjoyed the Custrad fish fingers and how Amy bested him quite a few times). I look forward to seeing what else we learn about this new (Nothing like DT) doctor.


Kiss'O'Gram

So what about miss Pond? Looking at the most reccent set of comanions, everyone has been reliant on the Doctor, and while he may let them down for a moment, he is always quickly back to make things right. But for Amelia Pond, he has always let her down; because of him she was subjected to 12 years of therapy and a futher 2 years of anxiety when he skipped off again. So why did she go with him? He can't really be trusted and you're getting married tomorrow. But he is the man she has dreamed of/ imagined for most of her life. So while I remain unsure of how this thing will develop, I'm sure it'll be interesting to watch.




So How was...

           The Story

Cosidering the standard set by RD in the way season openers, this exceeded what I expected, I will admit that it didn't quite have the enemy element of 'Rose" or 'The Christmas Invasion', but it did come across as a mush smarter episode. I also liked the character intorductions, we learnt about the doctor and amy, through their interactions which were generally quite interesting. Another aspect which I did enjoy, and can see becoming a staple of this doctor, was the back-track view, where we searched Rory and Prisoner 0's human form. It was this use of new technology along side the nods to clasic Who that really sold me.

The Sceondary Characters

The secondary character development in this was quite good, while I would say we didn't see the usual range of colourful characters that Moffat's Who episodes have given us, this story had to be more focused on the Doctor and Amy, so it would be hard to introduce more characters. That being said, I did like his introduction of Rory, I found Rory to be very real, noticing the world around him before the doctor even arrives, he isn't like some characters (first season Micky for example) who only seem to do things in relation to what either the doctor has told them to do, or that the doctor is doing.

Alien of the week

Prisoner 0, during the first half an hour I was not impressed by this snarly growly creature, he just seemed to run around anc hase things, no thought at all. However when at the end he started talking and practically taunting the doctor, as thought he knows him, or is part of something bigger, like say... I don't know... THE  PANDORICA!!! More on this to come 

The other aliens were the Atraxi... I wasn't a big fan of these guys either, they were necessarilly big eyes in snowflake style ships, that look an awful lot like the ones piloted by the empress of the Raknos. For me I would ahve been just as happy if the Judoon had been used, but then again I guess we would have lost the bit at the end where Matt Smith steps through the images of the doctor, which was quite awsome

NEXT TIME...

So what are we up to next week and what could be coming back? Well to address the later question, Prisoner 0 alluded to the Pandorica and silence, now there have been rumours that the Pandorica would be in the finale, so lets assume those confimred, but how does 0 know about it?? I'm not too sure wether this is the last we'll see of 0 (remeber because it took the doctor 2 years to come back with the Tarids 0 could have escaped, been shot, had kids settled down, we just have to remember that stuff could have happened). Now to the next episode, well we have London in space and wierd Smilers in some sort of red room. So thus far it looks good :).

Rating: 7/10

Clip Show

In preparation for Saturday, I've trawlled through the net and found as many clips from episode one as I could, enjoy the first glimpses of the new doctor (I'm still reserving judgement until I see the full episode, but I do feel better)

It's a trap

Welcome to my disection of the latest DW trailer. The trailer to start wiuth, is pretty awsome, but what I wanted to do was have a look through it and note any spoilery things, as well as seeing if we can work out what goes with what episode.

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Lets Begin

This image of amy floating out in space could really come from any part, but taking the fact that she's in her dressing gown, I'd put this as either the very end of Episode 1 or start of Episode 2. You can see some of the Tardis from here, the more elegant touch the Moffat promised for sure, but is still retains some 9/10th doctor era look. BREAKING NEWS: The tardis is revealed, check out these pics: Tardis Interior

EPISODE: Beginning of 2

So this image looks of a far distant city, however if you look at the buildings you can see names such as "Yorkshire" and "Surrey", so this is probably the futuristic England talked about in the brief for the Second episode

EPISODE: 2

Okay for a time I thought this was from episode 2... however after looking at a RS pic below, I'll conceed that this is more likley episode 4/5

EPISODE: 4/5

Old fasion phones, kick-ass old british army uniforms, welcome to WWII Doctor who style, this episode is set to bring in some British Darleks, wether they are created by some renagde genius or they decive Churchill is unknown, but its set to be interesting.

Episode: 3

More WWII (The rumor going around about this is that we are back on parallel earth but back in time, two reasons I find this unbelivable, 1. Steven Moffat has way too much integrity to drag this back up, and 2 its definently an older looking london and those look like baloons)

Episode: 3

This space ship looks alot like the one with River Song, plus there is the picture below

I wonder who the other person is?? *cough* River Song *cough*

Episode: 4/5

I had originally thought this would be frome the Angels episode, however a poster on Gallifrey Base (Sudden Impact) suugested this could be from the final. And looking at Riversongs hair colour, back to brown like the Stonehedge pic...

Episode: 12/13

Lets say a big welcome back too THE WEEPING ANGELS!!!

EPISODE: 4/5

This is an awsome looking Dalek, note the British flag

Episode: 3

Roumor mill on the internet is that this is from the final episode, with River Song again.

And the Doctor's new sonic screwdriver, looking alot more alien than before, cool.

Episode: 12/13

Exterior shot of River Song's spaceship, you can't see it but rteportedly it has the words Byzantium on it, which is a reference to some of the adventures that River Song mentioned in the last series

Episode: 4/5

More weeping angels, and the new doctors 'how awsome something that may kill me' face

Episode: 4/5

More interior of the River Song ship

Episode: 4/5

This looks alot like the sort of scenery that wouldn't go astray with the stonehedge stuff, plus with the other c ast of characters we've seen in this style it looks alot like an end game

Episode: 12/13

More oldey times stuff, looks like the TV from Idiots Lantern... so I thought it was the Churchill episode, but people at Gallifrey Base have pointed out to me 1) there weren't many TV's during WWII and 2) there is a Smiler (enemy of episode 2) booth to the left of the shot

Episode: 2

This one, again could come from the series final, however it could also come from the Surilian one, or even the Amy centric one. I hope it is some giant final, where the Big Bad pits some of the greatest enimies of the doctors past against him. Would be interesting

Episode: 12/13

The Doctor... is riding a horse... and looking badass I can't wait to see this episode

Episode: 6 or 12/13

Just a harmless normal space battle right?? Well first off, notice that the massive ship is like the ones used by the Daleks, also those smaller ships look an awful lot like WWII Planes (Spitfire Fighters I'm told by Khai JB from io9.com)...

Episode: 3

Crazy (non-Sparkly) Vampires in Italy, we must now all pray this dosen't go anywhere near twilight.

Episode: 6

I love the Atmosphere of this episode, Amy is once again in her dressing gown

Episode: 2

New villains known as the smilers, they look like the kind of scary that we have come to expect from Moffat, but another trademark of Moffat is that there will be more than meets the eye

Episode: 2

This appears to be the only direct refference to the Sirulian episode. See the green pincary thing in the background?

Well this is what it was attached to

Episode: 8/9

Funny clothes... Generally awsome looking beard... this could very easily be mr Vincent Van Gough. Where's the yellow monster?

Episode: 10

Okay... I've got no idea about this... it could be the episode with Amy's crazy pregant dream but thats really just speculation on my part. UPDATE, I've just had it pointed out to me that Amy is in her night gown so it's more likley to be episode 2

Episode: 2

In the section that was put up from the episode in Venice the wierd vampire gilrs refered to the Stewerd.. Could this be the mysterious person??

Episode: 6

River Song is floating into space... this could call for some explanation

Alot of explanation

Episode: 4/5

One of the best things about Doctor Who trailers is the Doctor jumping from an explosion.. Reminds me of season 3's Lazarus episode

Episode: 6

This is one of my favourite clips from the trailer, it could either be the Angels episode or the final.

Episode: 4/5

Metal cable attacking Amy in the same place we saw the Cyberman with one arm (or maybe one arm of different capibilities??)

Episode: 12/13

Doctor Who returns to Australian Screens on the 18th of April, I'll have a review going up before each episode. Thanks to my UK correpondant (will be named in the first post)