Monday Morning: A Fun Little Video

 Need a little wakey-wakey on a Monday morning folks? Here’s a nice little tribute to the RTD-era DOCTOR WHO using everyone’s favourite Proclaimers song and starring its entire cast and crew as a nice little nostalgia piece.

I know what you’re going to say. “Scott, where is the next Series 1 DW re-watch review?” To which I can only cop to the fact that this weekend having been Halloween and last week was spent preparing the condo for the Halloween theme (Insane Asylum) there just was not any time to sit down and watch it. We should hopefully get to it this week, and the next review should be up before weeks' end.

“What about books Scott?” you ask.

Well, I am currently reading Haruki Murakami’s latest. 1Q84, which is being touted as  Murakami’s masterpiece, and so far it is baffling me, melting my brain, and is one of the most engrossing novels I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. It is also 900+ Pages long (having been released in Japan in 3 separate volumes) and so you won’t see a review till likely next week sometime.

Until then, please enjoy the DW video.

Book Review: Death Of Kings - Bernard Cornwell

Uhtred is back!

Bernard Cornwell writes various series and even a few standalone’s here and there, so 2009 was the last time that we saw our favourite Danish/Viking-raised Saxon warrior (in pious King Alfred’s service) in the 5^th book THE BURNING LAND.

The 6^th (and penultimate) book, THE DEATH OF KINGS, takes place not too long after the end of the 5^th. Uhtred has once again been victorious in Alfred’s service defeating Haesten at Baemfleot, but his service can make a man pretty poor (in comparison to a raiding Viking anyways). Uhtred begins this novel living just north of Wessex in Mercia with only a small crew of men and not enough money for food or weapons. Aethelflaed is in a nunnery in Wintancaester, the Danes are again massing in the east with an eye for Wessex, and Alfred himself lays close to death. Uhtred is attacked, and then tricked by various forces of Dane’s and Saxon’s, some of which are working together. The one thing that stands out so much in this pre-England Britain is that ANYONE will switch sides…for the right price and for Uhtred, living in such a land and adding his reputation to the mix is dangerous indeed.

The novel concentrates on Uhtred attempting to get to the bottom of various betrayals, prophecies, and collusions that seem to be ripping even the stalwart stronghold of Wessex at the seams. Armies are amassed that are larger because of those collusions. Uhtred has to deal initially with the death of Alfred (who is indeed the Death of King from the title) and then the subsequent power vacuum that is created as Uhtred tries to help Edward (Alfred’s son) keep the throne of Wessex from Aethelwold (Alfred’s elder uncle who HAD been in line to the throne before Alfred took it).

All the Cornwell-isms are here and properly represented. Stalwart heroes, nasty villains, dastardly betrayals, and grand triumphs. One thing that these books always have is Uhtred going the opposite way of his superiors advice, usually to great fun and success. Case in point in this novel Edward tells Uhtred “Don’t provoke the Danes!” and at the end of that chapter Uhtred (our narrator) says “So I went to provoke the Danes” and I always liked that. I loathe when I read a book where a superior has told someone to do something stupid just so the plot will trap them in an interesting situation to get out of. Which is why I like that Uhtred abhors authority and more often than not completely ignores those figures. It’s also probably why I love Uhtred so much as a protagonist.

Cornwell’s success with this series is not just a readability, and a quick pace (both of which are aspects to all his books), but also in what he infuses into his characters throughout. Though there really aren’t any gray characters persay, he still has a talent at telling us someone is a villain, then having Uhtred interact with them and find things he likes. Haesten for example is personable and even jokey with Uhtred, but there is an underlying tension to their conversations that always feels clever to me, since the two inevitably want to kill each other.

I should note that though the book is as ridiculously enjoyable as you’d expect it to be, it is well evident that this is the second to last book in the series. Since this book deals with the death of Alfred the Great and the first year or so of Edward the Elder’s reign (Edward was, I believe the first person to rule a united England [Wessex, Northumberland, East Anglia and Mercia]) it is clear that we are setting the stage for the last book, where Edward’s reign will be secured and peace has a chance to return. So the book itself has a bunch of skirmishes, but nothing that could be called a full battle and while that is fine by me, some people might have come to expect a great battle at the end, and you won't really get that here. Cornwell is likely holding that out for the final book. For me that was a nice change of pace though. So that bit of orchestra tuning before the symphony is performed, that is what this book is. Luckily I love that part of a symphonic performance since I know it’s all the instruments preparing and getting into position for the main event. The last book should be a spectacle if the build up is any clue.

Have you read the other Saxon books? Then I am convinced you will be right at home with the latest volume. I certainly had a blast reading it, but then again I know when I settle in to read a Bernard Cornwell book that I am in for a treat.

The unequivocal king of historical fiction, Cornwell’s latest brings you all the war, action, politics and legendary characters that you could want in a novel . A total triumph and an astounding continuing look at a pre-England Briatin and just how a Kingdom was forged.

Film Anticipation: Winter 2011 Edition

When Chris and I were recording the Podcast the other day we were attempting to figure out what movies we are looking forward to that are going to drop into theatre’s between now and the end of the year. For some reason we had to wrack our brains to even come up with one title, meanwhile I am aware that there are many more I want to see coming out and they slipped my mind. Isn’t it strange that I can tell you every big film that comes out in the Summer, but if you quiz me on Winter films I stumble a bit unless I can look up a “Coming Soon” list.

So that is what I am going to do today. An Anticipation list for the winter season’s movies that I am most looking forward to.

So without further ado, in order by release dates:

THE MUPPETS (Nov. 23^rd)

I’m a kid at heart. Always have been, always probably will be. The Muppets have always held a special place in my heart, be they Muppets from SESAME STREET, FRAGGLE ROCK, THE MUPPETS, or even LABYRINTH and THE DARK CRYSTAL. Well Jason Segel (of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER fame) it would seem was also a big fan, and thankfully he was in a position to do something about it, so he set out to get an all-new Muppet movie made. The film will see the original Muppets (who have gone their separate ways) attempting to save the Muppet Theatre from a money-grubbing Oil tycoon.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL (IMAX Dec. 16^th)

The Mission Impossible film series is a strange duck. The first one, while decent was overall lackluster making it just OKAY.  Then someone decided to hire John Woo to direct the second one and it was worse, muddled and incoherent. Then along came J.J. Abrams (the creator of the great spy show ALIAS) and he made the 3^rd film absolutely rule. Seriously, how often is it that the 3^rd film in a franchise is the best of the 3? Not often, but MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III was fun, action-packed, and compelling with a really nasty (but believable) villain.  So what really excites me about GHOST PROTOCOL (the 4^th film) is that it looks to have the same vibe as the 3^rd one did, and it is being directed by Brad Bird (THE IRON GIANT, THE INCREDIBLES) as his first live action feature. 

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (Dec. 16^th)

And onto another spy film. One that has already been released in the UK and has already garnered amazing reviews, and even a few whispers of award noms for the actors. I know nothing of John le Carré’s novels, but I do know they have a significant following. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY being one of the more popular ones. What excites me about this one is that this looks to be a VERY gritty, and realistic spy tale. Whereas MI: IV will be a flashy, action-oriented film, this one will instead be a quieter piece (though I imagine it has action still) that showcases spy’s in a different light and seems to make for a darker tone. At any rate, it looks excellent!

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (Dec. 21^st)

How can you not be excited for this? Here is a film based on the wonderful tales of Belgian artist/writer Hergé, written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, produced by Peter Jackson (with effects by his company WETA), and directed by Steven Spielberg. That is a heavy hitter movie dream team that makes me actually quite giddy when I think about it! Tintin books were favourites of mine as a youth and so I know the stories are worthwhile. The trailers make the film look absolutely gorgeous, and seeing as I REALLY enjoyed the performance capture in last years A CHRISTMAS CAROL, I feel the tech has come a long way, so I don’t think you’ll find the uncanny valley anywhere here. At any rate, very excited about this one! Also notice that the writers share a font size with the directors and producers, that's not something you often seen on film posters, and probably speaks of the pedigree involved here.

WAR HORSE (Dec. 25^th)

You could call Winter 2011 Steven Spielberg’s One-Two-Punch. Seeing as this is the second film he’s directed that is coming out a week after TINTIN. Based on a children’s novel about a young man’s beloved horse who gets conscripted into the cavalry in World War I, it looks to be an amazing tale. I’ll concede I am usually a sucker for Spielberg. I have a friend who always says that he makes “Oscar-Fodder” and for some reason that bothers her. I’ve got no problem with it, because what on earth is wrong with making films that emotionally resonate with their audience? I love those films in fact. At any rate, this also looks to be sumptuously shot, and nicely cast. More importantly, kind of like THE RED VIOLIN, this looks to be a film about a non-speaking (in this case animal) and how he affects the lives of those around him throughout a very turbulent time. Consider me in the theatre seat already.

Well, those are my anticipated films for the Winter season. I'll probably review at least a few of them when I see them. Do you agree with my list? Are there any you feel I missed? What is your list? 

(Note: Please don't say my list is missing sparkly vampires...they don't count in my head at all, also vampire's DON'T SPARKLE! Nor do they begin relationships with their food, but I digress.)

Book Review: Player Of Games (A Culture Novel) - Iain M. Banks

The Culture - a human / machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy.

Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game ... a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.

Iain M. Banks is one of those writers that I’ve often heard about and never read. He’s written various sci-fi novels, mostly in a series of books about a decadent human future called The Culture, and he’s also written more contemporary novels (under the name of Iain Banks, no M.). For all intents and purposes since the mid-1980’s the Scottish author has been steadily putting out work and has grown a significant fanbase as a result.

Note: Jacob @ Drying Ink gets a nod for suggesting the one to start with and writing a post that got me interested to begin with. Cheers Jacob!

PLAYER OF GAMES - actually the second Culture novel, though since the books are largely standalone it doesn’t really matter that I began there - was my first taste of both Iain M. Banks and his Culture universe.

Consider me impressed.

First a quick crash course:

The Culture is a human and machine coexistence of a society thousands of years in the future Corrected VIA Wert in the comments below (AKA I didn't write this paragraph, he did): The Culture is a blending of alien (but often humanoid) races and machines. Most of the published novels actually take place in our past (the first, CONSIDER PHLEBAS, takes place in the 14th Century). One of Banks' Culture short stories, THE STATE OF THE ART, charts the first contact between Earth and the Culture, and we learn that Earth joins the Culture off-page in the 22nd Century. Otherwise Earth plays no role in the Culture stories.

The Culture has done and seen everything. Due to massive technological advancements over the millennia there is no longer a need for money as everyone has everything they want, and even death and disease are no longer a worry since as long as your brain survives you can regrow any part of your body. Culture humanoid’s can switch sexes if they like and then switch back. They are seemingly bioengineered with “drug glands” that I assume work in harmony with the body, and can produce any number of pleasant or useful bodily responses. It’s a totally egalitarian society and even conflict is something that you’d have to hunt for. Possessions aren’t really something one seeks to acquire any longer. All the ships are sentient (Minds) and so even owning a ship is not possible. Culture humanoids also live alongside sentient machines called Drones. Drones take many shapes and size - older ones are normally bigger (sometimes human sized), with newer ones able to fit in two cupped hands. They are the machine equivalent to biological humanoids within the Culture, and have full personalities to accompany their metal bodies. They express emotions with coloured fields called “aura’s” and are able to manipulate things with the same type of fields. This is a society where on of the main forms of habitation is on a ring structure orbiting a star as would a planet (Orbital’s). Like a ringworld, the orbital rotates to provide an analog of gravity on the inner surface and experiences clear night and day. Basically the Culture is a totally hedonistic society. You can have anything you like, any time you like, and go anywhere you like.

There, you are schooled enough to start into the Culture books now - though I am sure there is MUCH more to the universe that I simply don’t know about yet.

Now, what is funny is that on the face of it, the idea within the book – that of a man who lives on Chiark Orbital named Jernau Morat Gurgeh – who is one of the best game players in the Culture - goes off to an alien Empire to play their game that actually affects life in said Empire – is actually really simplistic. On its face it’s not even something that would normally interest me enough to pick up.

However…

Then I started to read it. The Culture itself FASCINATES me. The drones, the Ship Minds, the hedonistic humanoid race, the far-reaching decadent society who do things on a huge scale simply because they can.

Gurgeh himself even goes off to play the game in the Empire of Azad for Contact – The Culture’s organization that deals with encounters with other civilizations – because he’s bored. In the first section of the novel it is clear that Gurgeh is entirely going through the motions of his life. Since he can have or do anything he wants there is no conflict for him. He of course needs a push or two to move in the right direction of making the decision to go on the trip, but he does.

The novel is divided into three parts:

1. Gurgeh on Chiark Orbital playing existing games and living his life, showing us the reader how good he is at such things, as well as showing us other aspects of his lifestyle.

2. Gurgeh in the Empire of Azad’s capital city where he learns about the race he is living amongst, their social mores, their cruelty, and just how important the game is to their overall society (the Emperor is whoever wins the game).

3. The final game played against the emperor himself, which not only reveals a few surprises, but also defines the entire book.

The interactions within the book are stellar. Gurgeh is a great protagonist, and his interactions with other humanoids is both interesting and telling. His interactions with the Drones though is what makes this book soar. The Drones who show up initially (including the annoying, but entirely awesome Mawhrin-Skel) and the later ones like Flere-Imsaho, not to mention the Ship he uses itself (the Limiting Factor) converse with Gurgeh to provide much of the humour in the book. In fact a few exchanges between the main characters had me chuckling out loud.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I think it sings with pacing, as not once did I slow down reading it. In fact I think I can safely say I read it in about 5 or 6 hours total, and not one of those felt wasted. Yes, there are slower sections but they only last a page or three and even those are always peppered with little revelations, or conversations that make your ears perk up. It's funny, but the game itself is not even explained all that fully, and I discovered that as I finished the book I realized it’s not meant to be. It’s a prop on stage, and the characters are what I am supposed to pay attention to. Now, I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t read it, but the ending (like the last two pages) changes an already thrilling narrative and makes it be even better and switches the game up of a LOT of things completely!

I am now wholeheartedly looking forward to reading the next Culture book USE OF WEAPONS, and even to the rest of the series. Again I’ll mention that my sci-fi tastes are oddly discerning, but Banks has (with only one book) solidified my spot in his fandom. I would read a bunch of books about The Culture, as I just find it is a wholly interesting jumping off point to a crazy universe.

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1 Episode 2 (The End Of The World)

And so we settle into the second episode of DOCTOR WHO Series 1, THE END OF THE WORLD, also penned by Russell T Davies himself. This one is great because it takes place off-earth…sort of.

The Doctor takes Rose five billion years into the future to a space station called “Platform One”. Outside the viewport the earth revolves and the Doctor reveals that it is now owned by the National Trust (love that reference!) and has long since been abandoned by humanity. The empty planet has been returned to a previous glory state and the expanded sun is kept at bay by gravity satellites. Now the money has run out and various alien beings, including the last human Cassandra (now just skin and a face stretched on a metal frame and mosturized) are invited to watch as the satellites let go and the earth is consumed by the expanding sun.

It’s a party! A posh one that the Doctor and Rose only get into by using Psychic Paper (which shows people what he wants them to see as I.D.)

The best thing about this episode to begin with is that Davies (with his eye for small details about his characters) finally has Rose react to being taken this far (in space and time) from her home, amongst weird looking aliens, and all with a man she barely knows. She has a bit of a breakdown, and the Doctor attempts to cheer her up by sonicking her cell phone so she can call 5 billion years ago and speak to her mum. While this seemingly serves to only depress Rose more, it is still a really nice gesture on the part of the Doctor and the cell phone manipulation will come into play down the line. After the introductions have been made and the countdown to the earth’s destruction has begun, little metallic spiders with red laser eye’s are crawling around the station and have begun to dismantle its safety protocols and sabotage it. Safety screens on viewports are downed and people die from the intense suns rays burning them to a crisp including the host. It’s up to the Doctor and Rose to find out who and why.

This episode marks the beginning of the walls the Doctor has built up from his previous experiences starting to slowly come down. The more comfortable he is with Rose the more he seems to trust her.  I actually REALLY enjoy the fact that this is a long process and it makes more sense down the line as to why, but Davies script is clever without revealing too much. The mystery itself within the episode is rather by-the-numbers and its outcome can be guessed early on. That’s not the point of this episode though. The first ep was a little more serious, and so this one busts out into a lot of fun. Here we get to see the Doctor (Eccelstone) mugging about, goofy faced, dancing and bobbing his head to TAINTED LOVE, and even bouncing around to Britney Spears TOXIC. One of my fave bits is during the sequence where each guest is giving gifts to one another and the Doctor offers “Air from my lungs” as his gift. Though gentle with the first guest, on the second guest he breathes a whole swathe of air in a big circle, mouth gaping. It’s quite hilarious! Rose spends some of her time upset about being so far from home, and about not knowing just WHO the Doctor is ( < ---see what I did there?), until she ends up in rather mortal danger and he has to save her. She also shows the first signs of the companion she will come to be as she investigates things and unearths a few bits of important info on her own.

I think one of the KEY things that eventually makes the Doctor and Rose’s relationship so entirely strong is that she KNOWS, without a doubt that if there is a possibility to save her (no matter how dire the situation) then he will, and actually vice-versa. That is a link that becomes unbreakable. Well that link really and truly begins here on a station orbiting a dead planet.

The aliens who play the secondary characters here are all well acted, and most especially Cassandra (Zoe Wanamaker) since she’s basically a bit of skin and a face, she manages to be a very interesting character. This is also the first time we see The Face Of Boe, a character who we will see again and who has a few strong significances within the show. Again, it is nice to see Davies paying attention to the long game of continuity even in episode 2.

Here there be revelations, arrrr!: One of the secondary characters, a beautiful tree alien named Jabe eventually reveals that she knows that the Doctor is a Time Lord, and the last survivor of the Time War. Exactly what that war was is not yet explained, but it’s another piece of the puzzle that has popped up about the Doctor’s past.

After the station is saved and it was revealed who the culprit for the sabotage was, we see the Doctor’s unremitting anger, and this time he is unrepentant and cold about it. Again a nod to the need for a companion to temper that.

I love episodes that end as this one does. It ends with the Doctor confessing to Rose that his planet Gallifrey was destroyed in a great war and that he is the last of the Time Lords. She sympathizes with him as they share some chips on a sunny London afternoon. It’s one of those things that makes Davies’ writing so well timed. Here is the most epic and sad of pronouncements and it’s juxtaposed next to the day-to-day normality of sharing some chips with a friend. He could have just told her he failed a math test. It’s a great scene and a nice ending for the episode.

Stay Tuned Next Time: THE UNQUIET DEAD

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1 Episode 1 (Rose)

DOCTOR WHO is done for the season (until the Christmas special), and doesn’t look to be really returning until next fall. So what a perfect time to do a re-watch of the entire (re-launched) series and review them. This will happen slowly and sporadically since I will be watching them with my girlfriend (who hasn’t seen any of Series 1), and her sister (who hasn’t seen any of Series 1 to Series 4 or the Specials at all) and thus will it need to be watched time allowing when we are all together. The plan is to watch at least one (maybe two) a week, so hopefully you will get reviews that frequently.

Now, before I get started here I should note that I (of course) have seen all these episodes more than once, but I won’t be spoilerific for anything that comes down the line. I might take note of certain things and how they might be important down the line, but I’m not going to spoil anything outright so you should not worry about that.

So, let’s get to it shall we?

Series 1 Episode 1 (ROSE) brings us back into the world we last saw in 1996 (the Eighth Doctor’s one TV appearance). When he appears we have to wonder where the Doctor has been and what he’s been up to since that last adventure.

We are quickly introduced to the character of Rose Tyler. She lives in a working class suburb of London with her mother Jackie and dates a football-loving, goofy boyfriend named Mickey. She also works in a clothing store and it is there that she will have her first encounter with an alien enemy and an alien saviour (the 9^th Doctor). After closing the shop and heading down to deposit the receipts for the day she finds herself in an eerie room with plastic shop window dummies, that come to life. A few seconds later as all hope seems lost a hand grabs her hand and she turns to see the Doctor for the first time and he’s got one word for her “Run!”.

It’s kind of funny how that’s the first word he says to her, since “running” chaotically with the Doctor is such a staple of the show. It’s one of the things that makes DW so special in fact since he abhors guns and the like, that he’d rather run, regroup and figure out a better way.

After the initial encounter he tells Rose he has a bomb that he needs to detonate to destroy the plastic beings called Autons. He then leaves Rose and tells her to run, which she does still clutching a plastic arm, and behind her the shop explodes. She walks by a strange blue police box on her escape. The next day, The Doctor inadvertently visits Rose again at her home and ends up saving her from an attack of the plastic arm she brought home. She questions him but he refuses to give her more answers. Later at Mickey’s house she checks the internet for references to someone called The Doctor, and when she searches it in conjunction with “blue box” she gets a hit.  A man named Clive has created a website dedicated to this mysterious figure who seems to have appeared throughout history at pivotal moments. After visiting Clive and finding out that the Doctor has been at events like the JFK Assassination and the Titanic’s launch she decides that something strange is going on. It only gets stranger when Mickey gets taken over by a plastic bin and replaced with a fake plastic Mickey. As fake plastic Mickey nearly kills Rose at dinner out, the Doctor saves her by beheading him. Plastic Mickey head in his hand the two head for his blue box and Rose is astonished to find out that it is “bigger on the inside”. It is at this point that the Doctor spills a BIT of info on himself and tells her he is alien and that so are the Autons. He tells her that they are controlled by a being called The Nestene Consciousness, and if they can find it they can stop the invasion. Which of course they set out to do.

ROSE is the result of a die hard fan, who also happened to be in the TV industry as a writer, named Russell T Davies. His efforts to revive the show (which had been off the air since 1996’s TV movie and from a serial TV show since 1989) began in the late 1990’s (though he had nothing to do with above-mentioned atrocious TV Movie in 1996). It wasn’t, however, until some time in 2004 that his wish would be granted and ROSE would be scripted and shot. Davies, it should be noted wrote this first episode, but was also the overall showrunner as well for the next 4+ Series.

ROSE works an various levels, the first of which is that as a re-introduction of the Doctor character it is a standalone, monster-of-the-week episode. It’s not until you dig into the quieter scenes that you get the writing that allows Rose to see that the Doctor is a force of good, and the excitement that these events bring to her otherwise hum-drum life is intoxicating. Davies script is clever, but solid and un-complex. It has a clear beginning, middle and end. The threat of the Autons is actually wider spread than I think I expected originally. Shown in the 3^rd act when most of London is threatened as the mannequins rampage, hands turned into guns. Fists into sledgehammers.

Clive exists so we (and Rose of course) can receive information about the Doctor (vague though it is) so that the Doctor himself doesn’t have to reveal much on his own. The other things I noticed were smallish things, like Mickey as he starts out is a scaredy cat and not much of a boyfriend, and Jackie Tyler shows us that she’s lonely and a bit critical of Rose. The main thing that I like to see is how angry the 9^th Doctor is. For reasons we will find out in a few episodes time (and which I’ll share at that point) he is un-tempered and angry. It is also clear in this episode that he has recently regenerated (he looks in a mirror and comments on his big ears) and that he’s not been with a companion in a while. What is excellent is that through all this anger the Doctor still finds it within himself to be true to form, and give his enemy a chance to surrender, and it initially appears as if the Nestene is going to concede, until it finds his TARDIS and becomes scared because it knows what he is and where he is from. That’s a nice clear moment not only for us but for Rose. This is man who can save the day, but he is apparently also someone to be feared if you cross him.

All in all probably one of the best introductions to a new companion and a new Doctor in the show’s long run. It’s a solid episode that I recall made me rather impatiently wait a week to watch the next one. It had everything I recall the show having as a child and added a number of things that made it current, emotional and interesting.

If you have never watched DOCTOR WHO and don’t feel like watching 26 seasons of the classic show first, then this would be an excellent place to start your viewing experience.

I'm going to try to always throw a Next Time trailer in for the episode that is reviewed in each post. Sadly there really isn't one for ROSE as it was the first. So instead I'll put in the Teaser that aired on BBC One for Series One.

Special Note: I think Davies deserves heavy props for mentioning something like The Shadow Proclamation this early when we don’t really find out about it for a few seasons yet.

Next Time: THE END OF THE WORLD

Book Review: The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

"Opens at Nightfall; Closes at Dawn." The Le Cirque des Rêves is a circus unlike any other, just as this magical debut novel is equally unique. At the center of The Night Circus spectacle are two specially gifted young magicians, Celia and Marco, pitted against each other in professional competition, drawn towards one another in love.

THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern (autumns’ “it” book, as well as one of Heather Riesman’s [CEO of Chapters/Indigo] selected picks) is a wonderfully descriptive, interesting story that builds and builds. I think what it comes down to for me is whether you are okay with that build-up not really paying off in the end.

Let me explain that comment. I can see why the book has taken a lot of reading lists and bestseller lists by storm as it’s absolutely charming and magical. It has some of the requisite pieces that make up a great read in the genre (I’d deem this as an attempt at a Gothic mixed with fantasy) real magic, a love story, a mysterious circus that is run and inhabited by odd folk who are destined and determined to be purposely whimsical. It seems made of win to me. At least that’s what I expected when I heard the early buzz and a few other reader reviews. I would imagine those people got more from it than I.

I’m going to break down a few things that stick out immediately in the narrative:

There is No World Building.

In a fantasy book, especially one where there is a purported real magic being used, the author should really give a little back story. If magic is that ingrained in humanity that some can really manipulate it, then tell us how. We are asked to take the two initial players in the game (Prospero and the Man in the Gray Suit) as magic users who are going to pit their charges against one another in magical competition. Though we are never more than introduced to the vague idea of this before it is simply a face-value idea. Morgenstern seems to say to the reader “It is, because I say it is”. There are no stories of past magic, or any real history at all. This almost immediately disconnected me as a reader. It’s almost as if she wanted magic in the story but didn’t want to do the extra work of telling us the “how” of it.

The Magic Competition.

The weird thing is that almost the entirety of the book consists of the two protagonists Celia and Marco using the circus to create rooms that are prettier or more interesting than the other VIA magical means. So that means long descriptions of things in lieu of actual competing. It would be as if two painters were each painting a piece every few weeks and then displaying it in a room for the other to look at in an attempt to one up the other with their skill. The main problem with such a competition is one of subjectivity obviously, but the second wider issue is that this amounts to not so much as a competition as it is a slow-roasted, ever-changing slightly exhibition of art. It could have been SO much better. At one point early on Celia, for example, uses her flung black topcoat and turns it into a raven, or in another instance she idly dances paper into shapes on a table. Marco does things early on as well, like covering a young woman’s eyes in a rainy London street and has her open them to a wintry, sun winked forest glade, all an illusion made by Marco. I imagined that these sorts of magic acts, simply against one another, would comprise the narrative and I was sadly frustrated by the altogether more “still” nature of the magical competition. This is the equivalent of Merlin holding aloft a carved piece of stone for Arthur to see and saying “Look, I carved this with magic!” You can imagine Arthur’s initial reaction would be “How?” Well here Morgenstern never gives us the how.

The Love Story.

While it might be an interesting “idea” to have a love story develop between two competitors in a magical exhibition, the execution (at least here) leaves a bit to be desired. Celia and Marco spend nearly the first half of the book oblivious of one another. Neither finds out the other is their competition in the game until roughly that point. Sure, Marco dotes on her looks and is quite taken with her…but Celia is oblivious. In fact she doesn’t exhibit so much as a batted eyelash to anyone for half the book. She seemed quite “loveless” to me, and that is made all the more jarring that Marco (who already has a little side gig with the clingy Isobel) seems so smitten with her from the outset. When it comes to them realizing one another as competition, the “relationship” then begins to grow due to said unique circumstance, but it feels oddly stilted right out of the box. It’s almost as if Morgenstern decided that the continual one-upmanship between the two was enough as a sort of flirting, but I can’t say it ever passes as such. I personally think you ought to FEEL a love story right in your gut. It ought to feel as if these two don’t end up together you’d be utterly heartbroken and it doesn’t do that at all. At best they stay competitors who awkwardly flirt.

The Build Up and the puff of smoke.

The entire narrative really does feel as if it’s building towards something. Some sort of clever “I didn’t see it” twist, or at least some sort of resolution that would make the story worth telling. It chugs and chugs and chugs away and by the time I arrived at the end I thought, “That’s it?” It definitely reads like a gothic tale (in the vein of books like SHADOW OF THE WIND, or THE THIRTEENTH TALE), but the aspect that makes those so wonderful is that there was a point to them and THE NIGHT CIRCUS doesn’t have that. Here is a mysterious circus that opens at dusk and closes at dawn, is run by the rich and indulgent elite, and employs actual magic users. Here we have characters who have been pitted against one another, we have twins born on the night the circus opened, we have various outsiders forming societies and clubs about the circus. It’s all incredibly fascinating…or at least it would be, if it really went anywhere. Think of the book like this: If all the above things I mentioned existed and there was somewhere a huge leather-bound volume chronicling the place, then THE NIGHT CIRCUS would be a smallish chunk in the middle that Morgenstern has portioned out to us. To some that might be enough, but to me it simply isn’t.

I want to be fair though as this review makes it sound as if I really disliked the book. On the contrary, I quite enjoyed the descriptions and the charming characters (yes even the main protagonists, sans their stilted love story) and the idea contained therein. Even the magically created rooms from the competition are lushly described and told with aplomb for language and visuals. Morgenstern can really write, and the book can even be deemed as a page-turner as I kept compulsively reading it late at night. My issues as mentioned above might not affect the casual reader and not everyone is going to be as discerning as me about my gripes. The book is a wonderful tale, it’s just one that doesn’t go to any lengths to inform you about a great many things, nor does it feel the need to give you an ending that can be described as all that satisfying. The word that jumps out of my head most is descriptive. That’s what this book is; a snippet of (what I have to assume is) a huge chronicle that encompasses a long history of magic and one of indulgent circuses, performers and business-folk…that doesn’t tell you much beyond the snippet.

A good book, simply not one that I feel is worthy of the hype and indeed a certain type of reader will lap it up and love it I am sure. Sadly, I am not that reader.

Book Review: ROBOPOCALYPSE by Daniel H. Wilson

In a not so distant future a sentient computer program named Archos has determined that it is time for humanity to step aside as the world’s dominant species. The time of the robot as come.

After slowly infiltrating our technological infrastructure Archos ferments a robotic uprising. The initial success of the robo-revolution leaves humanity scrambling to mount a counter offensive, giving Archos time to create deadly robots whose sole purpose is to kill humankind.

Using giant concentration camps Archos conducts horrific medical experiments on survivors of the revolution in order to better understand how human beings function.

But humanity isn’t down for the count yet. All across the world small pockets of resistance are forming, fighting back against the robots and winning.

Time is running out though. Amidst dwindling resources and in the face of an enemy who feels no remorse and will stop at nothing to wipe them from the face of the earth a small group of soldiers will make a stand against Archos and his minions on the frozen fields of Alaska, with the fate of the entire world resting on the shoulders.

If while reading ROBOPOCALYPSE you muse that it seems particularly suited to a big screen adaptation, that’s probably not a coincidence.

In fact in the author’s acknowledgments at the end of the book he singles out DreamWorks SKG to thank them for their support and enthusiasm.

Putting aside for a moment that it’s awfully strange, for me anyway, to have a major Hollywood film studio interested in your book before it’s even written, ROBO very much reads like the novelization of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Reading ROBOPOCALPYSE so shortly after perusing Robert J. Sawyers own take on artificial intelligence, in his WWW series, was very interesting. You couldn’t have two more completely different takes on AI.

Where Sawyer’s Webmind was a friendly, benevolent being ROBO’s Archos seems bloodthirsty and unforgiving in comparison. It was a little disconcerting to see how quickly Archos moved to condemn and destroy humanity, seemingly have written us off in the span of a couple pages.

In all fairness Sawyer had three books to establish and build on Webmind’s motivations, but the simplistic and underwritten motivations of Archos stand out in stark contrast to Sawyer’s complex and more nuanced approach.

Utilizing the same narrative structure as WORLD WAR Z, ROBOPOCAPLYSE isn’t told so much as it is recapped by a single narrator who transcribes the scenes and adds context to events that let up to the final battle between humankind and robots.

Unlike WWZ, with its sprawling unwieldy narrative, Wilson has chosen to work with a much smaller cast of characters, which gives readers the chance become more invested in their personal story lines.

Unfortunately, by choosing to tell this story as a chronicle of past events ROBO kills the illusion that there are serious stakes at play here as the outcome of the war has already been spelt out in the book’s first pages. Kinda kills the dramatic tension when the narrator gives you an executive summary before the book has a chance to even clear its throat.

The book’s filmic influences also work against it in other ways. Brevity and narrative convenience are recurring problems with this book. Character growth and motivation are often glossed over leaving readers with underwritten characters whose internal workings are often a mystery.

Wilson has sketched out his characters just enough that this oversight sticks out like a sore thumb. I want to know what makes these people tick, where they find the fortitude to keep fighting and how they grow and change over the course of the robot war.

Coincidences also seem to pile up pretty quickly in ROBO. Anytime the human resistance runs into a problem a convenient one of a kind solution will be delivered at exactly the right moment to keep the plot moving forward. These kinds of outs are more acceptable in a movie where directors by necessity have to keep things going. But in a book I expect more from a story than to have the author write in a deus ex machina at will.

Quibbles aside ROBOPOCALYPSE is a fun, entertaining read. And if I’m harsh on its failings that’s only because they stand out against a backdrop of so many other things that are done very well.

The premise is interesting, the story compelling and the execution deft and capable. It’s a good a piece of post-apocalyptic sci-fi as anything I’ve ever read.

And in truth I devoured this book like a starving man at an all you can eat buffet.

Dig in.

(ROBOPOCALYPSE was previously reviewed by Scott here.)

Author Spotlight: Michael J. Sullivan (Riyria Revelations)

 Since starting to blog last year in late September Chris and I have come across many and varied people in all aspects of the industry. I don’t know if it was something we were expecting, but it was certainly welcome. We sometimes hear from publishers, authors, and of course other bloggers. As far as the publishers/authors, I doubt anyone in the past year has made a larger impact on me personally than Michael J. Sullivan (author of the Riyria Revelations) and his wife Robin Sullivan who served as his publisher (VIA their imprint RIDAN) and also as his publicist (a job she excels at).

When I first read THE CROWN CONSPIRACY, a book I knew next to nothing about it (a few scattered bits of praise), so it’s probably fair to say I was very surprised and impressed. That’s probably too light a phrase, since I gushed about how much I enjoyed the book in my subsequent review. I mention this because I felt so strongly about my enjoyment of the book that I wrote an email to Michael basically thanking him for such a wonderful story that swept me away as if I was a kid all over again. Well, he was kind enough to write me back, graciously thanked me for my email and for my review. I honestly felt like a teeny, tiny fish emailing a giant and he was not only kind, but also made me feel like I had contributed, and that makes me endlessly happy. Well of course I immediately ordered the other four books that were out (the 6^th book, PERCEPLIQUIS, was not yet out) and devoured them pretty much one after the other. I’m not afraid to say that I covet my copies of the RIDAN-published RIYRIA REVELATIONS and they sit on my shelf next to other books that are magical to me. In fact THE CROWN CONSPIRACY won my “2010 Best Read Award” if that tells you anything.

After championing Sullivan on the forums I frequent, reading and reviewing the other four books, (Reviews: AVEMPARTHA, NYPHRON RISING, THE EMERALD STORM, and WINTERTIDE), and settling in to await the 6^th book, a funny thing happened. Sullivan’s series got picked up by a major publisher. Orbit decided to republish the existing books (and the 6th as-yet-unpublished book) in 3 two-volume omnibuses with new cover art. This was huge news to me. An author I really enjoyed and thought deserved high recognition was actually getting recognized in a big way!

So this post is to let everyone know that the new omnibuses are on their way from Orbit and you can actually pre-order them now. The dates are as follows:

THEFT OF SWORDS (THE CROWN CONSPIRACY, AVEMPARTHA) – November 23^rd 2011 in the USA and Canada, November 3^rd 2011 in the UK (Available for pre-order in Canada, USA, UK)

RISE OF EMPIRE (NYPHRON RISING, THE EMERALD STORM) – December 14^th 2011 in the USA and Canada, December 1^st 2011 in the UK (Available for pre-order in  Canada, USA, UK)

HEIR OF NOVRON (WINTERTIDE, PERCEPLIQUIS) – January 31^st 2012 in the USA and Canada, January 26^th 2011 in the UK (Available for pre-order in Canada, USA, UK)

All of our readers who haven’t heard of the author, and even those who have would be doing themselves a huge favour if they got out there and picked up these books. It’s an absolutely fantastic series and each consecutive volume has made me an even bigger fan. Sullivan, at heart, is a master storyteller. That is the best praise I can give. His series makes me want to sit by a crackling fire in the wee hours, warm cup of hot chocolate in hand, carefully and completely devouring his tales. If someone who grew up with HARRY POTTER wanted something to read that is as magical, I’d point them right at RIYRIA in a heartbeat.

 When I first bought the books I ordered the first two from Amazon (and then the third, fourth and fifth from the RIDAN site) since when I searched for them at the Canadian Chapters/Indigo site they weren’t physically available in Canada. Therefore, it’s really quite nice to go to Chapters/Indigo now and see the Orbit versions pop up for pre-order in my search.

Lastly, I ought to point out that Michael has also written a short story in the Riyria world called THE VISCOUNT & THE WITCH (taking place 11 years before the first book) which is available as an eBook from Amazon (USA & Canada, and UK), it is available now and is getting some pretty solid reviews.

If you want to keep up to date on the series and future projects you can check out Michael’s Official Riyria site, Robin’s blog and you can LIKE their Facebook page here as well.

Extreme Makeover: Indigo Books edition

Interesting article here from the Toronto Star yesterday.

It talks about the efforts of Indigo (Chapters\Coles) to rebrand themselves as more of a lifestyle store, as opposed to a bookstore.

It seems like you can’t go into any big chain store these days without walking into a lifestyle store.

I’m serious, have you been in a Canadian Tire lately? I hear Canadian Tire and I think auto parts and maybe, MAYBE, some construction related tools or something.

I don’t think of living room furniture, snacks and diapers, which seems to be taking up an increasing amount of CT’s floor space.

All ranting aside it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that offering a wider range of goods and services is probably healthier from a business sense over the long run. Specialization is nice, but it doesn’t offer you as much cushioning from the ebb and flow of economic forces.

And besides, out of all the brands I’d like to see reinventing themselves, I think physical media focused outlets are exactly the sort of places that I think need just this kind of rebranding.

HMV and like minded stores were at the far edge of this trend in Canada. With music sales moving primarily to digital downloadery they needed another hook to bring customers into their bricks and mortar storefronts. The solution was to become a sort of music/video game/DVD/t-shirt emporium for all those young turks with cash to blow.

You can argue about the relative success of the venture (not very) but it represented a strong shift away from the core commercial identity.

Now with the growing popularity and affordability of ereaders it looks like book stores are the next outlets to get an extreme makeover. I don’t think there backs are as quite up against the wall the as their music-based cousins yet, but I have no doubt that they can see the change coming nonetheless.

While I bemoan the loss of the traditional bookstore I’d much rather they stick around in this bastardized form then cease to exist at all. Because the end of the bookstore as we know it is coming.

Just last week I stumbled across an Indigo gift card from my last birthday that I had yet to use. A couple years ago this would have been unheard of. Now I download books straight to my iPad and use Amazon to deliver physical copies right to my door. The only time I ever go into a bookstore anymore is if I’m killing time between appointments.

Until I sat down to noodle on this post a bit I wasn’t aware just how much things had changed over the last couple years. Unlike my music and comic purchasing habits, where I made a conscious decision to stop buying physical copies, my book buys are now driven completely out of convenience rather than principle and it all happened without me noticing.

If a hardcore bibliophile like myself feels this way, I can only imagine casual readers have long since realized that bookstores are becoming less and less necessary to the actual act of reading.

Book Trailer: THE COLD COMMANDS by Richard Morgan

As long as I'm throwing trailers up and calling it 'content' I might as well slap this bad boy here too.

It's the 'book trailer' (quotations added for passive aggressive sarcasm) for THE COLD COMMANDS, the second novel in Richard Morgan's fantasy series.

As far as 'book trailers' go this is pretty good, even if Ringil is coming off a bit more of a pretty boy then I pictured him. I'm really looking forward to this one, its been languishing on my Amazon wish list for nearly a year now.

(See, now, when I hear the term 'book trailer' I anticipate I should be doing some more reading in there.)

Trailer: THE AVENGERS

Putting the 'iggetty' in your 'giggetty' I proudly share the new AVENGERS trailers.

Commence months of anticpation....NOW.

Book Review: Doctor Who: Prisoner Of The Daleks - Trevor Baxendale

The Daleks are advancing, their empire constantly expanding into Earth's space. The Earth forces are resisting the Daleks in every way they can, but the battles rage on across countless solar systems, and now the future of our galaxy hangs in the balance! The Doctor finds himself stranded on board a starship near the frontline with a group of ruthless bounty hunters. With the Doctor's help, the bounty hunters achieve the ultimate prize: a Dalek prisoner - intact, powerless, and ready for interrogation. But when the Daleks are involved, nothing is what it seems, and no one is safe!

The peripheral media for the DOCTOR WHO canon have never languished under any kind of fan-hatery, like a lot of other media-based-on-television/film does (Star Wars Expanded Universe, Stargate, Buffy). DOCTOR WHO fans are always fairly easy on what they feel will make a good story. In all the BBC books I’ve read in the New Adventures series I don’t think I can ever say I walked away after reading them in a disappointed state. In fact, even the least great of them likely only made me shrug my shoulders and treat it like a lackluster (but still moderately entertaining) episode of the TV show. You never should feel as if you wasted your time though, for the simple fact that the books are never THAT long. In fact they always feel like if you wrote them up into scripts then they would fit perfectly into the 45-ish minutes of a proper episode of DOCTOR WHO on TV.

The books are always pretty fun for me, especially when I am jonesing for something DOCTOR Who-like. You can even go one better and check out one of the audiobook versions that are read by David Tennant himself. It’s great to get a book in audio form when they add special effects sounds, but then to add the actual actor who plays the hero as the narrator, that’s GOLD.

I’m getting off topic here. Usually the BBC New Adventure books have the current Doctor, and his current companion (released to jive with the seasons each was on the show), and this particular one falls timeline-wise into post-JOURNEY’S END (Series 4 finale) but prior to Ten’s regeneration in THE END OF TIME, so the 10^th Doctor is travelling alone in this one.

Trevor Baxendale’s PRISONER OF THE DALEKS is probably the BEST (non-companion) book I’ve ever read. Having the Doctor on his own is a touchy idea since we are always so used to seeing him with a well-known companion, but the 2009 Special’s proved that we can not only enjoy those stories of him alone-ish, but that they might end up being incredible (THE WATERS OF MARS). PRISONER OF THE DALEKS is one of those and it has the added interest of featuring the Doctor’s most implacable foe, The Daleks to boot. Terry Nation’s (the man who invented to villain) estate is notoriously careful with what they allow Nation’s creation to be included in, which adds an extra level of weight to the proceedings of the book. In fact I could be wrong but I don't think any other New Series Adventure features them as a villain.

Baxendale’s Doctor is pretty spot on in how he acts and how he speaks, and that’s key when it comes to the peripheral media. If the characters are not true to their TV incarnations then you get a disconnect with the reader. Thankfully Baxendale is aware of that and the translation onto the page is well executed. The secondary characters are decent enough, with Stella, and Bowman being the best among them. There is a tough guy/military muscle type called “Cutting Edge” (no seriously, that’s his name) who comes off a little bit too “Dude” to be entirely realistic, but it doesn’t hamper the story as he fulfills his job within the narrative well enough. The Daleks themselves are (of course) bang on. SEEK, OBEY, ANNIHILATE. YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS. EXTERMINATE. Ect.. It’s not until later in the narrative that we get a little more insight into the goings on in the hierarchy of the Dalek Empire. 

It IS nice to see a human population that is entirely aware of the threat they pose and is at war with them because of it. The Doctor does his level best at balancing between humane (attempting to prevent a captured Dalek’s torture by the human crew), and cold Time Lord (leaving a Dalek to sit in a dark cave for eternity) and of course I love to see that. One of my favourite things that Ten does in the TV show (and he does it here as well) is give everyone a chance to “do the right thing”. Like when he fought the Racknoss Queen in THE RUNAWAY BRIDE and said “I am giving you a chance to stop this right now. Leave this planet and never return.” And when she denies him he simply says “I want you to remember that you made this choice. Whatever happens you brought this on yourself.” I absolutely LOVE that part of the Doctor, it makes him all the more heroic to give even the most vicious enemies a chance at self-redemption. The same Doctor who offered to save evil Davros from his burning ship at the end of the 4th Series. Baxendale’s Doctor is that in spades and it was one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much.

I actually think this would have made a rather stellar episode of the TV series, and of course as I was reading it I could picture that in my head.

Good stuff and definitely the best New Adventure book in the canon of DOCTOR WHO novels, though I am partial to the ones that feature Ten and Rose (I’m a sucker for that relationship).

Book Review: DEADHOUSE GATES by Steven Erikson

Since this book is nearly ten years old I’m not going to bother with you with a full review of it. Instead I’m going to treat you to some of my rambling thoughts on its goings on.

I actually had to read DEADHOUSE in two separate sittings. It was HARD getting into this thing at first. I had to slog through the opening chapters and very little of what was going on was doing anything to capture my interest. It was only after putting the book down for a month or so to cleanse my palette was I able to summon the necessary drive to power through to the end.

My big beef is that Erikson tends to toss out a lot of information at readers but withholds that all important Rosetta stone that allows us to figure out how it all fits together.

Fortunately (or unfortunately if you’re a frustrated reader like myself) he hasn’t hindered his characters in the same fashion. While I was constantly left flipping back and forth through the book and making periodic stops to Wikipedia, trying to make sense of the ancient cultures, mysterious gods and a plethora of important information that was just being thrown out there with little to no helpful context, the characters in DEADHOUSE seemed to instantly grasp what was happening and how it all fit together.

It was a real momentum killer for me and big reason I had to walk away from the book for awhile.

Good writers have to walk the line between sharing too much or too little. I personally prefer to figure things out for myself rather than being spoon fed expositional plot points. But I think that Erikson’s work would be bolstered by just a smidge more hand holding when it comes to tying together this incredibly deep and complex world.

Erikson also utilizes these strange little scene ellipses that left me scratching my head. Events will happen or characters will make a significant decision at odds with their established motivations and readers are sort of left scrambling to figure out the ‘why’ of it all. Honking huge developments will take place and they’re simply tossed away in two sentence descriptions.*

There’s a lot to like about DEADHOUSE too. Clearly Erickson has spent a LOT of time putting this world together. It’s as rich a fantasy world as I’ve ever seen and I appreciate the time and energy that it takes to put that kind of thing together. It’s obvious there’s a fully functioning world here and that crucial events are transpiring offscreen that effect the characters in DEADHOUSE nonetheless. That’s a difficult trick to pull off. Show, don’t tell is the number one rule for all good fiction. But rules are meant to be broken and when it’s done well (see George RR Martin) then the end result can add a lot of subtlety and nuance to a book. Erikson clearly gets this and the book is stronger for it.

There’s also a lot of good character work in DEADHOUSE. While I may have been clueless about their motivations at times its only because Erikson chose to keep those cards particular cards close to his chest. Again, tipping his hand from time to time and giving me just a little more information would have done a lot to help me follow what was happening. If I had to quibble about his characters is that the bulk of them seem to be variations on the same basic stock type, hearty rugged solider types. There are one or two notable exceptions but I would have liked to have seen Erikson introduce some different characters into the book if only to mix up the flavour of the character interactions somewhat.

After a bit of a rocky start DEADHOUSE finishes strong. When the book is rocking its strengths it’s as good as any other fantasy novel out there. But when it gets bogged down in the weeds it takes a lot of mental fortitude to grind it out through the dull moments. I’m not sure the strong finish balances out the rocky journey it takes to get there, but considering the passion of the Malazan fans out there I know I’m firmly in the minority on this.

*It was a tick that I noticed throughout the book but only really had me shouting “come on” when Pormqual ordered his soldiers to surrender their weapons to the forces of Korbolo Dom. The whole thing was dealt with in less than a paragraph and was clearly just Erickson trying to power through to the end of the book.

Russell T. Davies VS Steven Moffat (A Doctor Who Comparison)

After having watched and reviewed the last episode of DOCTOR WHO this Series, I feel the need to get a few things out. So bear with me as I go over a few things, and perhaps vent a bit.

I have watched the re-launched DOCTOR WHO (circa 2005-present) since it began airing week to week on the CBC in Canada (who ponied up some of the dough for the show in 2005 and is considered co-financier company for Series 1). I got to re-embrace a TV show that I LOVED as a child, and over time the show took my top spot for weekly viewing. I never missed it, talked about it endlessly, debated it with friends, and purchased many t-shirts and collectables.

Six (nearly seven) years later, the show has moved on from its re-launched showrunner Russell T. Davies and its first two stars Christopher Eccelstone (9^th Doctor) and David Tennant (10^th Doctor), to be run by a different person and have different stars. This is a long running aspect of the show. Since its inception in the early 1960’s it has been about the character moreso than the stars playing him. So when Matt Smith took over the TARDIS duties (as 11^th Doctor) it was somewhat par for the course for DW. Yes, we’d all miss Tennant, but the show would go on and in the hands of arguably its most capable writer (other than Davies himself) Steven Moffat (BLINK, THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE) right?

Well…

Chris and I talked at length about the issues we had with the 6^th Series of DW in the last two Giggle Loop Podcasts, and I’m sure you can see my feelings about the show in my reviews, but I felt like I had so much more to say beyond a review about the show in general that I’d write a Post-Season wrap up article, and this is going to include some rather venting-type statements.

The differences between Steven Moffat’s DOCTOR WHO and Russell T. Davies DOCTOR WHO become more glaring with every episode that airs, and after the finale THE WEDDING Of RIVER SONG I feel that the shows have become so different as to be unrecognizable from one another. In fact, I’d wager if you had someone unaccustomed sit down and watch Series 2 and chase it with Series 6 they’d tell you that it was two different shows. I’m going to break down my issues into categories.

The Doctor

RTD’s Doctor (both 9^th and 10^th) had a level of mystique, but rarely made anyone feel like they were lesser because of not knowing. They were also charming, funny and emotional. When the scene called for it those two incarnations could be comedic, unrepentantly angry, near tears emotional, or even just manic and running. RTD’s Doctor had a soul. He had a dark history that was layered with things like being forced as a child to look into the vortex of time itself (the un-tempered schism) to become a time lord, he had witnessed and been on the front lines of a war that decimated both the Time Lord and Dalek population to the point where it had to be locked out of reality lest it destroy everything. RTD invented the Time Lord infantryman. The shell-shocked, PTSD Doctor who had not only experienced horrors of a war, but had been responsible for sealing his own people into a locked state of hell. Imagine carrying that around and STILL wanting to save the universe. That was what RTD brought when he revived the franchise. He gave us something to identify with, while at the same time not entirely human and in need of such humanity to make him whole. He gave us the broken, hollow, shell of a great man who could do so much good, and told us how his interactions with some people started to fill him up inside and make him better again. But he never lost the core of who he was, and what he had experienced. So that even by the time we got to Series 4 he was still acting off the impulses of a man who had been through these things. Week to week he showed some aspect of that personality, and it always made each of the stories that were being told that much more compelling because of who he was as an individual. That was part of the magic in the show and part of what kept me coming back every Saturday.

Moffat took that man and turned him into something different. Whether the reasoning behind that was to wipe away what RTD did or not I can’t say. I must admit it feels that way sometimes though. Very little of the person who both Eccelstone and Tennant played exists in Matt Smith’s Doctor. Yes he’s mentioned the Time War, and shown his regular contempt for the Daleks and Cybermen ect., but it’s always as an afterthought. And while I’m not saying I want an emo-Doctor all the time or something, it would be nice if the 11^th Doctor had to deal with his past more often and at least show shades of his previous incarnations. Yes, he’s been filled up with humanity by the companions he’s come into contact with, but he shouldn’t forget who he is and where he came from either. So now he’s a madman with a box. He’s scatterbrained, plays his cards close to his chest, and for the most part doesn’t treat his companions the same (see Companions category below for more info) as his past incarnations did. It seems he thinks that damned near everything is a secret and should not be shared with anyone. We not seen that level of secrecy since the 7^th Doctor’s (Sylvester McCoy) last season, and I’m now totally positive it’s a bad thing. The Doctor should still be mysterious to an extent, but whereas the 9^th and 10^th Doctor’s would share important info with their companions, 11 rarely does. In fact, never has more been kept secret between The Doctor and the companions (Amy’s Schrodinger baby, pregnant/not pregnant, Rory doesn’t know about Flesh Amy), nor from the Doctor himself (River, Amy, and Rory not telling the Doctor of his impending death) and such cracks are showing their wear to me. The whole point of this show has always been how the Doctor has companions who temper him, make him better and more human and more often than not HELP him solve the mystery or issue at hand in any given episode. Chris and I were discussing it and he noted (paraphrasing) “it seems like more and more as the 11^th Doctor matures as a character he’s becoming more condescending and dismissive whereas 9^th and 10^th were merely excitable with poor impulse control.” And I think he’s totally correct on that. I’m also fairly positive I dislike the condescension and dismissiveness that 11 shows.

Companions

RTD’s era had more than a few memorable companions. Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, and Jack Harkness were the main ones and then we can add a few of the smaller role companions like Sally Sparrow, Wilfred Mott, Sarah Jane Smith, Adelaide Brooke, Lady Christina de Souza, and Jackson Lake to the roster. With every one of those companions the Doctor had a different relationship, but one that was always poignant to the story told and especially to the overall personality of the Doctor himself. What I mentioned before about tempering him. While they all exhibited some of each of the following traits I think we can break them down into a few specifics: Rose (basic love), Mickey (sacrifice), Martha (unrequited love), Donna (strength & humour), Jack Harkness (passion), Sally (conviction), Wilfred (blind faith/belief), Sarah Jane (loyalty), Adelaide Brooke (truth), Lady Christina (admiration), Jackson Lake (emulation), and even The Master (not that he was a companion) eventually showed the Doctor something (brotherly conflict, and ultimately familial love). That’s what RTD gave us in companions. One thing Chris noted this morning to me and I think it rings excessively true was that no matter what was going on in any given episode, the Doctor more often than not had his companion at his side and they’d jointly solve the issue. Whatever happened they would always work together as equals and whatever the problem was they would approach it as a team. The base was ALWAYS the friendship. Always.

Moffat has removed a significant number of things that made companions relevant to the Doctor. Another paraphrased quote from Chris is that “whereas RTD had the Companions working alongside the Doctor as equals who always punched above their weight, Moffat has Smith treating Amy and Rory like kittens that need to be protected so they don’t get killed.” And I think he’s bang on there. If you think about it Amy and Rory almost never are on screen with the Doctor at the same time during the crisis, and they rarely solve the problem or issue at hand as a team with him. Instead he usually has to tell them what to do to save the day. Like when Amy is lost in THE GIRL WHO WAITED and the Doctor issues orders to Rory as to what to do from the TARDIS. Though Rory eventually does a few things on his own in regards to the situation, it’s still basically the Doctor who is in control at the end of the episode. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing as he clearly knows a lot about the perils and pitfalls in the universe, but we rarely get into a situation where the companions are doing anything to help the Doctor in which he NEEDS them at all. So gone are the days when the companions fulfilled their tempering job and made the Doctor more human it would seem. In fact any time one of the two tries to show the Doctor how harsh he is being (usually Rory yelling at him) he kind of just shrugs it off and I guess we are expected to accept that this Doctor is just a less human inside and more of an alien. But I think that’s going to be missed, simply because part of what has always made the character so compelling is the humanity inside him. So here we have a Doctor who won’t allow an older Amy into the TARDIS with young Amy because it’s a paradox, but the same person will allow a paradox like the whole Amy/Doctor in the Pandorica Sonic Screwdriver escape thing. I think there is a disconnect there. Like in THE GIRL WHO WAITED the aspect of the Doctor not allowing old Amy into the TARDIS paradox is cashed in as an emotional heartstrings moment, because the show has crossed the timey-wimey paradoxical bridge more than a few times in the last few seasons. So having two Amy’s briefly in the TARDIS (something that funnily enough actually DID happen in the mini-sodes that aired last year) while they find somewhere for old Amy to go to seems exceptionally harsh as an act by a man who has said things are impossible and paradoxical A LOT of times and overcomes them. I’m probably nitpicking, but this is an example of another difference in the show recently that I think is detrimental to overall enjoyment. And the base of it now never actually feels like friendship as it did before and instead feels more like master and servant.

I also don’t really care as much what happens to either Amy or Rory most days and I certainly don’t care about what happens to River Song. None of their various mortal perils' has created in me any kind of tension about them surviving. Add to this aspects like Amy seemingly not caring about her child after she’s taken and accepting that someday she’ll be River so all will work out well, it all rings sort of blankly to me. I got more out of the frozen/out once a year/opera singer from last years Christmas Special than I think I’ve ever gotten from Amy or Rory. Though Rory has frequently gotten the badass award from me, I don’t think it’s enough in the long run.

Enemies

I just want to note something Chris mentioned to me. In RTD’s era there was always a big bad, and it was almost always dealt with in one Series (Daleks, Cybermen & Daleks, The Master, Davros, The Time Lords themselves) and though he might revisit previous big bad’s (see Series 2, 3 and 4) you always had some sort of closure going into the following Series. With Moffat, The Silence/Silents, have been used from the outset of Series 5 and you’d think that by the end of Series 6 we’d more than simply vague information about who they are, why they care and the like. It seems like they are going to continue to be a big bad in Series 7 (unless I miss my guess), and at this point I’m simply fed-up with them. They aren’t interesting anymore and I got more out of 3 episodes with the Weeping Angels than I ever have with the Silence. My big gripe here is this: Fresh ideas Moffat. When you use the same villain (sometimes secondary villain) as the big bad in 2 full series and then set them up as the big bad in the 3^rd Series under your tenure, there’s a problem. Give us something else. I would have been happy if the Silents had been revealed at the end of Series 5 and dealt with…but no we continue to use them and the weirdest thing about it all is that every time I think they are the big bad, something happens that drops them into the secondary villain category, which only serves to confuse me. And don’t get me started on Moffat treating the Daleks and Cybermen like secondary citizens in the Who-niverse. I realize that they shouldn’t be overused, but then DON’T put them in at all is my advice! The Cybermen especially have been CRIMINALLY used this Series. In the mid-series finale they were pre-credits cannon fodder, and even in the penultimate episode CLOSING TIME they are treated like a flies to be swatted. I’m not going to lie it feels entirely disrespectful to the lineage that these various villains have been created to exemplify to use them and make them out to be just an irritating piece fluff that should be swept from your coat.

Overall Narrative and Plot Arcs

RTD took us on a long journey and showed us many things. His Doctor’s both saved the earth and the universe multiple times (sometimes to his own detriment), dealt with many enemies and friends, saw wondrous things and achieved amazing heights. What always was front and center though throughout was a fairly straightforward narrative arc. Sure sometimes he did monster-of-the-week episodes (usually with some subtle nod to the overall Series arc), but they were always clean stories with clear beginning, middle and end points. Even when they were concentrated on the overall Series arc they were not using any gimmicks to tell the story. Say what one will about RTD, he always approached the story FIRST and FOREMOST, and everything else came later. He was always concerned with his characters relationships across the board. He always addressed what his companions families thought of him whisking them away and putting them in peril, Jackie Tyler and the Noble family are the biggest in this category. I don’t care what story you are telling me, you should always pay attention to the interactions between characters as a reality for the viewer. RTD always did that during his tenure, and after reading his book about Series 4 and the 2009 Specials I am convinced of the fact.

As to Moffat's dealing of characters and reality in relation to their earthbound lives: Have we seen Amy's parents again, or Rory's parents EVER? Don't they wonder what the heck is going on?

As well, Moffat likes to use visual and narrative trickery. He always has. If you go back and watch COUPLING he had episodes concentrated on split screens in different timelines, and even one where a character speaks in another language for ten minutes and we watch it again with the opposite character speaks in another language and we understand the former. In those instances he also was telling a compelling story and it worked. He’s probably one of the most non-linear screenwriters on the planet and it always shows. You can always know his work for being his work. The problem that has arisen partly in Series 5, but really moreso in Series 6 is that it appears as if he’s using his narrative trickery as a jumping off point instead of story. So it’s almost as if he’s sitting down and thinking “I want to do a story where we introduce a character that the main character has met later in his timeline and show how their interaction would be wholly skewed and messed up by their meeting in the wrong order” and THEN cobbling a feasible story around it to fit that idea. He seems to keep doing this and every episode he writes in this way ends up being a total narrative mess that has to depend on strange plot ideas, tricks and even sometimes paradoxes to makes any sort of sense, and even then they don’t really if you look at them with any kind of discernable eye. We therefore get a situation in which the Doctor can do great things, have great moments,  and look and sound really cool while he does it…but where is the heart? Where is the emotional resonance? Where is the level of humanity I need to care? Is it cool to see the Doctor stand on the middle stone of Stonehenge and shout a speech to the alien enemies above? Yes certainly it is. What my issue is falls on the fact that it’s all rather hollow when he’s not the same person he’s always been. The 11th Doctor likes to speak fast, be glib and make references to things no one knows about, but when the entirety of the dialogue starts to depend on that to move things along, there's a problem. It definitely confuses me when he spends all of Series 5 grandstanding like he should be feared and then Series 6 closing with him feeling he needs to retreat to the shadows and be less of a presence so he can do more. Why do we even have to go to either of those extremes at all? The 9^th and 10^th Doctor’s always seemed to ride that line between being feared and being only one man so not worth the bother. The same thing was true of Classic Who in fact. Why did we have to go through the motions of the 11^th Doctor being too big for his britches and realizing it (after two seasons) when he’s already over 900 years old and likely is already aware that he shouldn’t be too much of a presence in the universe, lest he summon the ire of his enemies? It seems like pointless busy-work to me, and should be par for the course to the Doctor.

Final Thoughts

Long story short, it’s official. No mater how much I try and no matter how much I respect what Steven Moffat has tried to do with DOCTOR WHO, the current incarnation of the show isn’t even really a shadow of the one I fell so in love with in 2005. It’s strange, even my girlfriend who is far less discerning than I in what she expects from a TV show (who I got into DW and she LOVED RTD’s era of the show), and rarely even watches Sci-fi anything, seemed a little less than excited to watch the finale (which she hasn’t done yet). I asked her why she wasn’t excited and she said “It’s just not been that good this season”. Add to that the convoluted, Series arc-dependant nature of Moffat’s DW has actually alienated a few “casual” viewers that I know, including my own fifteen-year old niece and another good friend of mine. Making every episode depend in some way on the one that came before or the three that came before totally destroys any aspect that makes it easy for a casual viewer to come miss an episode. So unless you see the ones that came before you can’t figure out what the heck is going on and those casual viewers are going to flip the channel.

I’m still a big fan and I’ll continue to watch of course and hopefully enjoy some more episodes down the line, but I think there will now forever be a part of me that is more at home watching RTD’s era Series on DVD than I ever will be with what is airing on TV. And to me that’s sad.