Review: Doctor Who - The Name Of The Doctor

Let’s talk about the DOCTOR WHO Series 7 finale shall we?

No, I’ve not been reviewing anything from the strangely titled Series 7b (THE BELLS OF ST. JOHN to NIGHTMARE IN SILVER), and that’s really (sadly) come down to an enjoyment level. When I used to watch RTD’s DW I was EXCITED to post about it, to talk about it with friends, and gush over what I liked. When Moffat took over in Series 5, I was excited-ish throughout (nothing reaching the levels of my RTD-era love, but excited enough)…My feelings on the entirety of Series 6 are pretty well known (Read: I loathed it more than any whole series since DW came back in 2005). Series 7 has been “meh”. The only truly standout eps for me were Neil Cross’ HIDE, and the Xmas special THE SNOWMEN…everything else could be easily swept under my WHO-rug and forgotten about. It should, therefore, speak volumes that the ONLY thing that’s been able to rouse me out of my review-malaise concerning this show is to pontificate on what I felt was a relatively disjointed and ultimately pointless Finale for Series 7.

THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR, written by showrunner Steven Moffat (a man whom Chris and I used to look upon with wonder for his TV writing), is not a mess persay (at least not like 2011’s A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR), but it’s a straightforward thought essay on the Doctor.

Again.

For the 3rd Series finale in a row.

History Check: Series 5 – The Doctor must solve the mystery of the Pandorica (a box designed by his enemies to keep him from his future), and stop the TARDIS from exploding in the future.

Series 6: The Doctor has gotten to big for his britches, and his very “name” has caused an entire religion to be crafted around capturing him, and killing him…to keep him from his future. This time we get the mention of that future in Trenzalore, where the question cannot be asked “Doctor Who?”

Series 7: We go to Trenzalore, and proceed to go through 45-odd minutes of that journey and what happens there.

The issue? That for the third series running the show isn’t about the Doctor saving a planet, or people, or the universe…it’s instead all about the Doctor. Hell, it’s not even really about his companions.

This inward looking Doctor Who is about as far from the original series and mythos as it gets…but it’s also about as far from the storytelling that RTD gave us that you could get.

So we go to Trezalore. Does the “name” of the Doctor get said? Yep. But like all Moffat’s “This will happen, and it will change the Doctor forever!” proclamations…it’s all bullshit, a fake out. The name gets said, by River Song, off-screen. And there is no clever story (as was eluded by David Tennant in the Library when he said to River “there was only one time he COULD tell someone his name”) associated with her knowing of it. She literally found out “Because she badgered him about it”.

You get that? She badgered him about it. A Time Lord…scratch that, the Runaway Time Lord who for over a thousand years has kept the secret of what his name really is…gave in because his (briefly) wife badgered him about it.

Wow. Just wow.

And that’s just for starters.

So, “name” thing aside what happens on Trenzalore? Well, it’s a battlefield. “Sweet!” you say “Tell me more!” Err…well nope. It’s an old battlefield, and is “supposedly” where the Doctor died. His tomb is his TARDIS which is “leaking” it’s bigger onto the outside. So his tomb is a giant TARDIS. Cool. What’s inside? Well this kind of Swirly Light Tree thingie…and it’s basically the remnants of the Time Lord…a map of his life through time leftover as some kind of echo (I guess?).

Enter our villain. The Great Intelligence (a creature from another universe trying to get into ours VIA proxies) in the form of THE SNOWMEN’s Doctor Simeon and his Whispermen (beings that ominously whisper, and who’s powers are the ability to become incorporeal enough to squeeze your heart so you die) has shown up at the Doctor’s Tomb, and wish entrance, and after threatening the Doctor by saying he’ll kill his friends if he doesn’t speak his name and open the door to his tomb. River helps him avoid this, and everyone trundles inside where they find the light tree thingie. Then the villain does the DW Villain equivalent of a filibuster and tells everyone there his plan is to go into the Doctor’s Light Tree and screw up his every success throughout his timeline and thus undo all he has done. This would be really interesting if he had:

A) Not SPELLED OUT his plan to his enemies in the room, like a hackneyed Bond villain.

B) Found some way to close the Doctor’s Light Tree timeline map thingie after he goes into it so no one follows him…because…

C) …seconds after he goes into it, Clara decides to sacrifice herself and follow him in to “correct” all that he screws up. Negating his entire (stupid) plan in seconds.

I’m serious. The Great Intelligence, a villain whom the Second Doctor fought, and who has been tipped as the “big bad” since the Christmas episode and has been pretty much behind all the stuff that’s occurred since then…the creature that you want to see a showdown with…spells out his plan and has it foiled in less time than it would take a Dalek to say “exterminate”. The Whispermen (his lackeys on this plane) had more teeth than he did.

Okay, now let’s leave aside the silly and toothless villain. Let’s deal with Clara’s reveal. It turns out that because she chases The G.I. into the Light Tree she essentially “dies” and “scatters herself” across the Doctor’s Timeline, which is why he keeps meeting her and why she keeps dying and seemingly is resurrected in different times and places. Cool. I can totally buy that, and it’s MUCH less messy than any other Moffat-ism “timey-wimey” thing he’s chucked at us in recent seasons. If it weren’t for the idiocy of the villains it would be a very elegant solution to the “impossible girl” that actually echoes Rose and Bad Wolf.

“So what’s the problem then?” you ask.

Well, it’s in the emotional resonance of her sacrifice. She literally says she will die to save the Doctor from this fate. River actually tells her that she will cease to exist and what is left will be scattered pieces across time saving the Doctor…that the person she is, will no longer be.

Okay great. Gotcha. Poignant, and even though I’m not as emotionally invested in her as I was Rose and Donna, I’m quite fine with that. But the Doctor almost immediately goes into his own timeline (paradox much? But nevermind) to rescue her. He actually breaks the rules of the show…rules which (for example) disallowed two Amy’s, one younger and one older, into the TARDIS at the same time…an arguably WAY lesser paradox than crossing your OWN timeline…to save the girl who just had an emotional scene “rescuing” him. So we decide to steal ANY emotion I had for the scene by reversing it almost right away. That such things are happening on DOCTOR WHO is baffling.

I mean how do you even associate this Moffat-written moment with stuff like “Everybody Lives” from THE DOCTOR DANCES, or Sally Sparrow saying goodbye to a dying old man who moments before was young and hitting on her at the end of BLINK, or even the tear-jerking letter that Madame De Pompador left for Ten in THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE? How? The answer is that you can’t. They don’t even exist in the same universe.

Refer to my old post: Steven Moffat CAN be a brilliant writer…when someone else is in control…but when he’s in control of the show as a whole his writing becomes something unrecognizable.

Lastly we have to talk about John Hurt.

So at the tail end of the ep, when The Doctor goes into his own timeline to rescue Clara from her rescue (don’t get me started on why this doesn’t UN-DO her rescue…) and there are various incarnation of the Doctor walking by her…we see the back of an unrecognizable man staring out into the rain…and he is revealed (quite brashly in text on screen…cause apparently we are all dumb and need it spelled out?) as “The Doctor”…and Eleven says that he’s not really allowed to have that name cause of “what he did.” And Hurt’s version says “I only did what I had to do” Speculate as you will. I’m cool with Hurt playing some lost or evil version of the Doctor’s past (even if it renumbers the Doctors) if only because I’m sure whatever it is, won’t stick. Whatever happens with the character in the 50th Anniversary will be timey-wimey’d out of existence, and things will settle back to the status quo. As far as the reveal is concerned, I like that he was in it, to link the finale up with the 50th…but I REALLY could have done without the big, bolded text on screen. It’s almost like Moffat and Co. were like “See, look what we did! Ain’t we tricksy? What’s going on?! You must watch to find out!”…when in my mind, just having Hurt turn around and deliver his line ominously with no reveal about “what/who” exactly he is and running the credits would have been MUCH better as a cliffhanger-y moment. It’s typical of Moffat’s “tell don’t show” approach to WHO…which is the opposite of good storytelling.

Think David Tennant in years past finale epilogues.

Bride in TARDIS: “What? Whot?! WHAT?!”

The hull of the TITANIC: “What? Whot?! WHAT?!”

…it was always some visual cue, and that’s it. Imagine if RTD had put text on the screen saying “There is a BRIDE in the TARDIS?! What the?!” or “The Hull of the TITANIC? What has the Doctor gotten himself into?!”

But no, instead we get the equivalent of Moffat telling us that our attention spans are SO short that he feels the need to type out on the screen what we are seeing.

Did I like the episode in the end? Yeah, the opening nods to past Doctor’s and the like was fun, if short. The Clara reveal appeased me…if making me realize that for whatever reason Moffat needs to make his companions always be a “mystery” for the Doctor to solve…instead of just letting them be…you know, people. How can Clara grow organically as a character if all we (and the Doctor) are doing is trying to “figure her out” from ep to ep. Sad really. I miss Donna…the temp from Chiswick, and Wilf, her dreamer, stargazing grandpa. Seriously.

I liked it, and it’s SCADS better than last years ridiculous finale…but it’s not remotely close to Series 5 THE PANDORICA OPENS / THE BIG BANG, and isn’t even in the same ballpark as RTD-era finale’s like DOOMSDAY or THE LAST OF THE TIMELORDS.

Lacking doesn’t cover it, and I’m more inclined to talk about what didn’t work for me, if only because what DID work for me in the episode is very little.

And that all makes me sad.

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - 2.1 Dead London

 The 2nd Series opener for the Eighth Doctor Adventures is a bit of a gamble. We start things off in DEAD LONDON with the Doctor and Lucie Miller separated. Considering how solid their bond was by the end of Series 1, it's quite a bold choice to begin the second Series this way, but it pays off as far as I am concerned. It only pays off though because the story is such a clever spat of time shifting.

Basically this episode drops our TARDIS team into a very strange London where a parking violation in 2008 can earn you a hanging in the 1800's. Time is seemingly shifting around both Lucie and the Doctor, and there are only a few connecting threads that allow the two to sniff out the trail of what is going on. The Doctor, charged with parking the TARDIS in the wrong place, links up with a fellow lawbreaker in Victorian London named Spring-Heeled Sophie. The two eventually find Lucie and attempt to sort out what exactly is going on and why the Judge in one time looks like the chief of police in another time who looks like a hangman in another time. In any other tale it might seem convoluted, but in DOCTOR WHO it's par for the course for our intrepid Time Lord.

The best bit about this opener is the rivalry between Sophie and Lucie. It's only slightly there as Lucie is too proud to actually comment on it aloud (ala Rose Tyler), and instead just tries her very best to trump Sophie in the companion category at every chance. It's incredibly fun to watch as Lucie really does trump Sophie for me...Sophie is interesting, but she just can't match the sassy, strong nature of our companion.

The story in DEAD LONDON is a great little diddy. It's interesting without being over the top. It's got different timelines, scattered characters, and crazy alien connotations. Great voice acting form the guest stars, and a really, solid opener to the series. Is it great exercise in Doctor / Companion relationship and it is really just a good DOCTOR WHO story at the end of things.

There's not much more to say. It's not as good as some of the previous stories in the range, but it certainly is a cool, irreverent choice as an opener for the 2nd Series and for that I applaud Big Finish.

NEXT TIME: Stay tuned for one of the most fun DW Audio Drama's in the EDA range, MAX WARP!

Doctor Who Crackpot Theories: 50th Anniversary story theory and which Doctor's could come back!

I honestly don’t know how Steven Moffat (and RTD before him) and Co. and the BBC keep ANYTHING secret before it airs. Seriously. With fans as ravenous for information as us, I’m quite surprised they keep the scripts under wraps for as long as they do. I think the best they’ve done so far in Moffat’s time was keep Jenna-Louise Coleman’s pre-Christmas special debut in ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS under wraps and that probably only succeeded because the whole thing was shot on a soundstage and people probably assumed she was shooting the Christmas Special. In his book about S4 and the Specials, A WRITER’S TALE, RTD’s emails continuously point out how insanely surprised he is that both Martha and Donna’s casting were outed as companions by the ravenous DW-rumor grapevine even before their predecessors were done their series. In the world of a show with this hardcore a fanbase (and one that is constantly growing), I imagine keeping things secret is a full time job that never really works. It must be daunting.

That said, this week it became even harder to keep things under wraps. I know what you are thinking, and yes this IS a Crackpot Theories post, and yes I WILL get to the theory in a moment, but first I’d like to round up some of the Speculations, interweb buzzing and general comments about the forthcoming 50th Anniversary of our show.

First up, David Tennant. I think it goes without saying that the majority of DW fandom WANTS, no NEEDS to see Tennant return (whether that is as Ten himself, or even the human/time lord Ten Clone that lives with Rose on Pete’s World) to the role. It’s kind of a no-brainer. Well Tennant himself has been asked multiple times and up till a few weeks ago he gave the equivalent of non-committal hand waves “If they asked me…” ect.. And this was on top of the rumour that Steven Moffat had lunch with Tennant in the late summer and dinner with Peter Davison (5th Doctor) as well. Well Tennant is now making the media rounds for his part in NATIVITY 2 and he’s been asked two more times about the 50th, but his answers have gotten a lot more interesting:

First one, when asked if he’d be part of the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary he coyly replies “I don’t think there is going to be any celebrations are there?” and smiles. This is classic evasion and I love it.



The second one (starts at 49 seconds) is more telling. When asked he briefly says “Welll…” as if to answer the question and then catches himself and says “Oh, I nearly said something I shouldn’t have.” And then goes on to give similar stock answers he has been giving up to this point.




Last on the Ten front is that late yesterday Bleeding Cool reported that they had a very “solid” source telling them that:

Yes. David Tennant will be back in time for the Doctor Who anniversary. Be prepared to be surprised…


Is it wrong that I focus on the words “in time” implying that he might even be back BEFORE the 50th. This would fit with other reports that the Anniversary will be marked by not just one episode but two or more. It would actually make decent sense to me for the 50th to be celebrated as a set of 4 or 5 eps in the fall of 2013, and that would fit with Moffat’s schedule change for the shows 7th series. On top of that the dinner with Davison is telling, making me think that he’s looking to include 5 in the specials as well. I think it was a few months back when Paul McGann (8th Doctor) was asked and gave the stock non-commital “If they asked me…” answer, but that has changed more recently to a more explained answer about not yet being asked and that speaks more of evasion to me. Lastly, Matt Smith actually told someone in an interview that “it would be great to see Tennant and Eccelstone back for the 50th” and something tells me that’s not just Matt Smith giving fanboy’s hope, it seems like he’d be in the know.


Now, prepare thyselves:

CRACKPOT THEORY time!

So. Let’s assume they want multiple Doctor’s for the 50th. Let’s take that as a given. Well, they’d need villain wouldn’t they? It can’t be the Daleks, or the Cybermen, or the Silence….too easy and overdone right? So what?

Omega

For those who don’t know about Omega, click the link and edumacate yourself.

Now, we have known since the S5 episode THE BIG BANG that the TARDIS explodes at some point in the future. It created the cracks and the Silence at least had SOMETHING to do with that. We know that this was avoided with the help of River Song. What we don’t know is who or what caused it to explode and why. Okay, so stay with me here. In THE END OF TIME, Ten stopped Rassilon and the other Time Lords from using The Master as a link to reality and coming back, essentially unlocking the Time War and all that came with it. Basically unleashing hell. Well, there was once a person who was even more powerful than Rassilon and was (for a time) considered a hero amongst their lore. Omega was the man who set Rassilon on the path to harnessing a dying star to create the power source for the TARDIS and essentially allowing Time Travel. Omega disappeared in the attempt and Rassilon went on to found the Time Lords. When Omega returned (from a parallel anti-matter universe) he was upset and thought he’d been abandoned, and tried twice to destroy the universe (in THE THREE DOCTORS, and ARC OF INFINITY). What if Omega survived the events that the Time Lords thought were his final demise. Remember that the "omega symbol" seems to be the avatar of the Clerics and Headless Monks (there were Greek omega symbols all over Demon's Run) in Series 6. What if he tried to unlock the Time War using his not inconsiderable powers and the resulting reality clash causes time and space to splinter. This splintering could cause the only Time Lord to have escaped unscathed to break into his previous incarnations as pieces. So 11 incarnations of the Doctor could exist at once, but the 11 TARDISES existing together was too much for the universe to handle and THIS is what causes the explosion. The power of 11 supernova stars but all are still the same star….paradox of universe destroying proportions. So 11 versions of the doctor have to work separately to restore time and space to it’s unsplintered existence while fighting Omega and trying to stop him. This would allow for the older actors who are still alive to account for their aging and the like (AKA in these timelines they never died or regenerated just kept on living their lives), and would account for the Doctor crossing his own timeline not causing a paradox.

In my head I can see the 50th being a really BIG event, and I just think that Omega fits the bill. You could also allow The Master to come back, and you could show bits of the Time War. You could have Smith, Tennant, Eccelstone and maybe even McGann on screen together quipping with one another…which I don’t need to explain would be GOLD!

Whatever happens, I cannot wait!

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 2, Episode 3 School Reunion

I recall when we first got wind of the fact that Series 2 Episode 3 of DOCTOR WHO was going to star Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from BUFFY, and Uther from MERLIN) in a villainous role (yes, even back then I was looking up rumours and spoilers about the forthcoming series) I was super excited.

Then I saw the Next Time Trailer after TOOTH & CLAW.

Sarah Jane Smith?!? K-9?!?!? Holee crap!

I grew up watching the 4th and 5th Doctor’s (as I’ve mentioned), so seeing two of my all time fave characters from Classic DW return in the new one. Oh man, that was going to be awesome!

There I was just assuming that having them on the show at all would be boon enough, but no, RTD and writer Toby Whithouse (everyone’s favourite BEING HUMAN creator) decided not to just shoehorn them in for the sake of it, but use them to deal with latent issues that bubble under the surface with the TARDIS crew. But I’ll get to that later.

SCHOOL REUNION is a very DW type story. Alien bat-thingies (Krillitaines) have body-snatched teachers at a middle school and are feeding the children chips with special oil that makes them super smart, and then sit them at multiple computers working on a scientific theory of everything which would eventually allow them control over all time and space. Nasty buggers, the Krillitaines are creatures of scavenging who take the best features they find of each race they conquer. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey aren’t having it and set out to stop evil Giles and his cohorts.

So let’s examine the key bits about this episode above and beyond the main plot devices. First up Rose, for some reason, was under the obtuse assumption that the Doctor has not travelled with other companions. There was a pretty funny one page web comic going round that had a long line of people showing ALL the previous companions since Susan, ending in Rose shouting “You said I was special!” which I always got a chuckle out of. It’s pretty much illustrated here in Sarah Jane’s arrival and reunion with the Doctor (albeit 5 bodies removed from the one she recalls). He has to basically explain to Rose that there have indeed been others and while SHE could travel with HIM forever if she chose to, because of his long life he could NEVER travel with her for the rest of his. It’s quite a sobering moment actually and was probably like a bucket of cold water on Rose. So she really has to come to grips with his ageless life, the lonely god, and why he has to live how he lives. I like to think that Rose is accepting of the fact that she wasn’t the first and won’t be the last and hopefully she doesn’t begrudge him those relationships. But to be honest, Rose’s track record in the selfless department isn’t exactly stellar. She has spent the last few major revelations growing as a person to be less the selfish person she was when she began this, but I don’t think at this point she was quite there yet.

Secondly, we get my favourite development in this episode. The reappearance of K-9 (Mark III for those of you counting) causes Ten endless joy as he’s overjoyed to see his old faithful companion again (Last seen leaving the 4th Doctor with Sarah Jane), but in Mickey Smith it’s a head-smacking revelation. In the TARDIS crew he’s known for a while he’s kind of a third wheel when it comes to the Doctor and Rose’s budding relationship. It’s something I’ve never held Rose as accountable for (her treatment of him) as others have since Mickey begins his DW life as a lay about who would rather go down the pub and watch footie than spend time with his (at the time) girlfriend Rose. Her progression to love another man is as much a result of Mickey’s aloof treatment of her as it is her own selfishness. Mickey knows this, and has seemingly accepted it. It’s here that he comes to the realization that he’s the latest TARDIS crew’s version of the Tin Dog. He’s K-9 2005, just a human one. It’s the kind of moment that in anyone else would make them furiously angry, but I think Mickey should get points for not immediately responding that way. Be the time the episode ends we are shown that the Doctor doesn’t look at K-9 as just a Tin Dog, but as a valued and important member of the team. He’s a friend and he’s not as disposable as Mickey assumes him to be. In fact, Ten’s more then gentle treatment of K-9 when he is hurt proves to Mickey that even though Ten refers to him as “Mickey the Idiot”, he’s a friend. He’s trusted. He’s important. He’s so much more than a Tin Dog.

The TARDIS crew obviously stops the Krillitaines, and the Doctor has to say goodbye to both Sarah Jane and K-9 yet again, but again we’re given the secretly building plot of Rose and Mickey and their own inner growth. It’s truly nice to spend S1 and S2 watching Rose and Mickey go from on-the-rocks lovers, to spiteful exes, to begrudging companions to finally (down the line) inseparable platonic friends. I think it was RTD’s plan all along to set them on that journey and SCHOOL REUNION is certainly a big link in that chain of events.

All in all, a wonderful episode for modern and Classic DW fans alike. There is plenty to enjoy in the main story, and plenty more to examine in the deeper character stuff. And what’s especially interesting is that the Doctor, aside from some ex-girlfriend, new girlfriend moments of awkwardness, is kind of in the background allowing the guest stars and other protagonists a chance to shine all on their own.

Next Time: Steven Moffat’s Hugo-award winning episode THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE takes place both in Space and in 17th Century France!

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 2, Episode 2 Tooth & Claw

I’ve got more than one of these Re-Watch posts in the bag so I’ll be posting one today and you’ll see another one Monday, after that I will be caught up to the viewing sched properly as we’ve not moved onto the Cybermen two-part arc yet in our Re-Watch.

For today though…TOOTH AND CLAW!

RTD had a theme whenever he started a new Series of DW, he’d do one intro Companion ep, and the next ep would ALWAYS be one that took place in the past (Episode 2’s in Order: THE UNQUIET DEAD, TOOTH AND CLAW, THE SHAKESPEARE CODE, and THE FIRES OF POMPEII) It was just something he did. Now one might argue that of those eps, THE FIRES OF POMPEII is the best…but I think there is more at work in TOOTH AND CLAW than anyone gives it credit for. So let’s dig in shall we?

The Doctor tries to take Rose to a concert in the 1970’s…but miscalculates and they end up in the 1870’s Scotland, not only that but they stumble across a covered carriage that is transporting the Queen herself (Victoria)! I love the idea that the Doctor is like a tornado in time; he attracts big events, people and fixed points like a loadstone, and the Queen is no exception. What’s even more interesting is that they are heading to Balmoral Castle, but are waylaid by a train derailment and end up at a retreat in the wilds of northern Scotland that the Queen’s deceased husband used to frequent called…dun dun dun….TORCHWOOD! Yep, this is the genesis of the future organization and the eventual spin-off show.

Sidenote: Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. Ding ding ding…the more you know!

So the Torchwood estate has, unbeknownst to the Doctor, Rose and the Queen and Co., been taken over by a band of fighting mystic monks set on releasing a creature upon the Queen when she arrives. The creature, revealed just after the credits roll is some type of Werewolf. Cue the best special effects shown in DOCTOR WHO so far, the wolf is wonderfully realized, scary and growly. When the company arrives at the estate the monks disguise themselves as staff and the staff are kept in a sub basement with the creature, who of course escapes and attacks.

 There is a lot of little things in this episode that I enjoy watching. Firstly Rose’s attempts to get the Queen to say her famous line (“We are not amused.”) start off ridiculous and get more hilarious as the ep goes on. It’s one of those moments where you realize just how much FUN Rose has while adventuring with the Doctor.

Sidenote 2: This is something I feel was missing from recent companions Amy and Rory. They never seem to be having fun on their adventures, it’s all business.

Anyways, the Queen eventually obliges and says the line, much to Rose’s enjoyment. There is also the fact that David Tennant gets to use his actual Scottish accent in this episode since he is posing as Scottish Doctor and that must have been great for him, and we certainly enjoyed it. Watching the genesis of Torchwood and why it exists (created by Victoria in the waning minutes of the episode since she realizes that the British Empire is threatened by non-terrestrial enemies as well as terrestrial ones) is always fun, especially knowing where it went down the line. What it began as and what Jack Harkness fashions it into are two different things, and RTD let himself play about in the sandbox history of that.

The dénouement of the episode concerns the fact that Prince Albert was aware of the werewolf threat and had Victoria's famed diamond cut down so it fit into a telescope device in an observatory on the estate as a key component that would send the werewolf (which was actually an alien creature of light who was trapped on earth) gracefully into death forever. The etsate was designed in the past by the Earls father as a trap to catch the beast and set it free. It also shows us that in the final battle with the Wolf before subduing it, Victoria was bitten and the Doctor explains that her line always and forever after that had a blood abnormality (this is a truth on historical record actually) that no one could figure out. RTD made Queen Victoria and the current line royalty…part werewolf. THAT is super cool.

One of the more emotional moments in the story is when the owner of the estate, Sir Robert, after having begrudgingly let the Monks trap the Queen in the house for fear of what they would do to his family, sacrifices himself to save them, buying them time in the observatory room and preparing the device. It’s a small moment, but I always love how RTD can help redeem people. Even though he wasn’t a villain, Sir Robert made a mistake in allowing the Monks to get as far as they did and that made him a touch cowardly. Well the redemption in death allows you to walk away from the episode and not think poorly of Robert for nearly betraying his monarch. That’s kind of a big feat for a paragraph in a script to accomplish, as he could have just as easily allowed Robert to live and written his transgression away by reason of needing to save his family, no matter the cost. RTD takes the tougher route in the narrative flow and makes it look easy. Bravo sir.

There’s lots of comedy, action and dramatics in this episode and it just seems like the cast and crew had a blast making it. Great ep!

Next Time: Buffy’s mentor Giles, it turns out, is actually a human drinking bat creature form Space in SCHOOL REUNION! Also, Sarah Jane returns after 35 years with everyone’s favourite metallic dog K-9. “Affirmative, master.”

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 2, Episode 1 - New Earth

I just realized that what with the latest Series of DW (7) and my attendance of TIFF, there has not been a new DOCTOR WHO RE-WATCH post since June. We left off with the 2005 Christmas Special (THE CHRISTMAS INVASION), which aired prior to Series 2 proper and handled the immediate post-regeneration of the 9th Doctor into the 10th. We got past Rose’s initial upset over losing the 9th when she sees what Ten has up his sleeve for the adventures. And here...we...go...

And it turns out the first adventure takes them to New York. Well, strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York, which makes it New New New New New New... New New New New New New... New New New York. At any rate Series 2, Episode 1, titled NEW EARTH is a humdinger. Why? You ask me. Well that’s easy. Ten and Rose ‘shippers (that would be those of us who wanted Ten and Rose to end up together)…this is where we started. Because in this episode, though it’s not technically her at the time, we got to see Rose kiss Ten. It’s a doozy of a kiss and the chemistry between David and Billie is so palpable that I dare anyone to watch the episode and not feel it.

I’ve always said that RTD’s skill is his storytelling and characters, and this episode is especially clever because he plays the long game with us and re-introduces us to The Face Of Boe. He is a big giant head with tentacles inside a large liquid filled container, whose implications to the series down the line are great once you get there. For now though he is a big mysterious head with information about the Doctor that he doesn’t have yet. He has a message for him, but knows that it can wait till the next time they meet, which he posits will be their last meeting. Knowing who the Face Of Boe is, and what he represents makes seeing him here (and then again in S3) just a joy to fans.

The episode actually acts as a quasi-sequel to the S1 episode 2 (THE END OF THE WORLD) as it brings back another person from that episode, namely the villain Cassandra. You recall her, the last human, the big piece of stretched skin on a frame who needs to be constantly moisturized. Well, turns out she survived her apparent death in S1 by using skin from her ass. Both Cassy and Boe are in a future hospital where powerful ailments are cured, and are administered to by a set of human cat nuns. Yep, human cat nuns! Did I mention DOCTOR WHO was awesome?! The Doctor and Rose arrive to find that diseases the Doctor considers incurable are being not only treated but cured. He smells a rat and the two quickly find out that not all that’s going on at the hospital is above board, and the human cat nuns are harboring some deep secrets. So if Cassandra’s not the villain, how does she fit in you ask? Well that’s easy, she brings a lot of comedy in her attempts to swap bodies to get a new one and live a new life, including both the Doctor and Rose’s bodies for a time. When she takes over Rose’s body, she unbuttons the top buttons and allows the cleavage to spill out. Cassandra is a bit randy it appears. Which takes us to her kissing Ten and giving the shippers something to strive for goal-wise.

What RTD does best here (other than inure Rose and Ten to each other from moment one and give us a solid diatribe about the evils of “a means to an end” going on in the hospital)…is he gives his previous villain closure. Cassandra jumps around bodies and eventually ends up in that of her assistant Chip, who willingly allows her to inhabit his body. But since he’s a clone the body begins to fail with a real human soul inside it, leaving Cassandra to finally have to confront the death she’s been avoiding all these years. In one of RTD’s perfect moment’s of clarity the Doctor decides to do a final favour for Cassandra, and takes her back into the past on the last night that she recalls someone calling her beautiful. The Cassandra-In-Chip’s-Body goes up to her younger self and tells her just that before finally dying in her younger self’s arms. It’s this kind of moment that RTD (and even sometimes Moffat) are good at. Here we have the villain, a woman who caused no end of heartache and almost destroyed an entire space station, and followed that up with body switching in an attempt to STEAL more life from others…and the Doctor gets right to the root of her, who she is and what makes her do the things she does. Then he makes this magnanimous gesture and allows her a moment of peace and love and beauty before she passes away. It’s interesting how we all rattle on about how the Doctor’s anger is something to behold, a terrible, shadowy growling god and if you get on that bad side you can be dealt with very harshly. But here’s where these men writing this character understand him best. His love, his compassion, and his benevolence even to his enemies (both The Master and even Davros receive this treatment as well) is a far more stunningly powerful thing to observe. Watching quiet moments like this actually make me want to be a better person. Here’s a very lonely man who COULD, if he chose, allow that loneliness to eat him up and leave only anger and bitterness…but instead when he lets love in he can be the proudest, glowing paragon of truth in the universe.

And I love that about him.

The main issue at hand, that of the nefarious way that the hospital nuns are curing diseases, is poignant as well and results in some of that anger I mentioned above, but when you finish the episode you will definitely take more away from the Cassandra plot line, and I think that was deliberate on RTD's part. Again, the man is a stellar writer and episodes like this showcase it.

Tennant gives everyone an absolutely incredible performance in his first proper episode. He’s note perfect. Watching NEW EARTH is like a window into the man we know will become voted the best Doctor ever in history. A boy who grew up watching the 4th and 5th Doctor’s himself, comes to play the character and absolutely knocks it out of the park week after week. Well that all starts here, with that quiet moment at the tail end of this episode.

Next Time: Queen Victoria is “not amused” in TOOTH & CLAW!

Doctor Who: Series 7 Ep. 2: Dinosaurs On A Spaceship & Ep 3. A Town Called Mercy Reviews

Since I was attending TIFF and doing a multitude of reviews for that I didn’t get a chance to properly do my weekly review for DOCTOR WHO (namely episodes 2 and 3 which aired during TIFF), both of which I watched.

So, consider this a two-fer review for both DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP and A TOWN CALLED MERCY.

Without further ado…

DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP

This episode is a little more bombastic and less introspective (at least initially) than the Series opener ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS was. I mean let’s run down the list of things in the ep:

- Huge planet sized spaceship? Check.

- Dinosaurs running around on said spaceship? Check.

- Evil megalomaniacal pirate bent on collecting everything? Check.

- Two giant henchman robots with silly dialogue? Check.

- Nefertiti? Check.

- Big Game Hunter reminiscent of someone from a Wilbur Smith novel? Check.

- Amy and Rory post-marital strife? Check.

- Rory’s Dad? Check.

- Angry Doctor? Check.

- Indian Space Agency defense force threatening to destroy the ship and dino’s to save earth from collision? Check.

So yeah, a bit of a dogs breakfast with all the bits in. What makes it actually succeed is the clever writing and the acting across the board. This is not to say that it doesn’t contain things that are odd (Rory’s dad seems to take about 15 seconds to drink in the fact that not only is he in space but also that his son and daughter-in-law have been traveling with a man in time and space saving worlds…which kind of bothered me a bit), but that it contains enough good old fashioned adventurous DW to make it well worth your time.

First up, the side character the Doctor calls on for help, Nefertiti and Riddel are worthy of the temporary companion roles, and a big notion here that will jump out at the informed (AKA those who know that Amy and Rory’s time in the TARDIS is ending with Ep 5) is that the Doctor (who has been without regular companionship for roughly 300 years by the time that last Series CLOSING TIME aired) is starting to show the wear and tear of travelling on his own (which always seems to produce an angrier, and more unrepentant Doctor…like the 9th in DALEK or the 10th in THE RUNAWAY BRIDE) and seems to be at least attempting to supplement the frequent absence of Amy and Rory in his life. That’s a good thing, and it is the reason that both Nef and Riddel are present, but it’s not really working that well. The Doctor shows his unrepentant side on the pirate Solomon and allows him to basically die. It’s a telling moment, but for those speculating that this has never happened before and think the Doctor is not acting like himself… you are quite wrong. Throughout his history (in relaunched Who if not older Classic Who) the Doctor has showcased unrepentant anger, and vicious retribution on people when he’s not travelling with companions. Heck, 11 showed it early on with Amy (THE BEAST BELOW). It’s part of what makes him who he is. The companions temper him, and without them he can become cold and distant. This is what has happened, and I’m happy to see this particular personality trait return. It shows that Moffat and Co. haven’t forgotten it. It also seems to show us how unwilling The Doctor is to let the Ponds go, whereas when other companions have gone on to other lives (willingly or unwillingly) in the past he usually accepts it and moves on. With the Ponds it’s like he clinging to them, and that’s interesting considering how aloof he can be.

DINOSAURS ends on a bleakish note with the Doctor’s anger on display, but it was a fun, and adventurous episode all told and a great way to spend an hour. It’s certainly showing that Series 7 is already kicking Series 6’s ass in the entertainment dept. The standalone nature of the eps (with teeny tiny arc threads) is truly brining us back to a more solidly grounded, uncomplicated DW. And that’s a good thing.

A TOWN CALLED MERCY

This one I liked. I liked it a lot. But my reasons for liking it aren’t the old west town with the anachronistic tech, or the cowboys, or the gunslinger cyborg, or even Ben Browder.

No, my reasons for liking it stem from the alien doctor named Kahler Jex. And more over what he did.

You see Kahler Jex is essentially a war criminal, though he is not thought of like that by his own people. He stopped a war on his planet that was killing millions by experimenting on a number of the inhabitants (under false pretenses) and creating killing machine cyborgs, who eventually stopped the war by virtue of being unstoppable. Though the war was stopped, Jex was ashamed of what he had done and he fled to earth and took residence in the town called (you guessed it) Mercy. There he gave them electricity and running water, and cured Cholera and basically tried to forget what he had done while at the same time pay his own penance for his crimes against those experiments. Well, of course one of them comes look for him and wants to kill him, but doesn’t want to harm the other inhabitants of Mercy.

It’s compelling because once the Doctor learns what Jex did, out comes the angry Doctor again…no less angry than he was on the last episode, but no further. That is until Jex talks about how similar they are to one another. And that hits home for the Doctor who has been told (most recently by Davros in S4) that he crafts weapons out of his companions to do his killing for him. The Doctor tells him that he doesn’t get to choose his own form of punishment, that’s not how this works. He needs to answer for his crimes, even though they stopped a war.

But what really rocks the Doctor back and sets his anger to overload is when he realizes that he really IS NO different from Jex in that facet. The Doctor locked the Time War out of reality, resigning two entire races (the Daleks and the Time Lords) to an eternal state of hell. He essentially (to stop the aggression that threatened to destroy the universe) made the decision to do this on his own, and that falls on him. It’s almost a worse act of war crime, and what’s worse is he KNOWS it. So he snaps and manhandles Jex out to the edge of town past the barrier that the Gunslinger won’t cross and points a gun at him to await his death at the hands of his creation.

WHAT?! You say…The Doctor and a gun? Yes.

Probably my favorite thing about the episode is this moment. And Amy even comments on it (“You see? This is what happens when you travel alone for too long!”). The Doctor, (the man who never would) hasn’t held a gun up to someone since he was at his wits end in THE END OF TIME PART II and Rasillon was threatening to bring the Time War out of the lock and bring about the end of time. So couple that with this moment where Jex has reminded him of his own digressions against not just one but two races of people. It’s poignant and is the likes of which we’ve not seen since RTD gave us the PTSD Doctor (9th Doctor). Being brought so entirely low it is only Amy firing off a gun that brings him back. But not after he tries to defend his actions by mentioning his “mercy” of the Daleks, the Master ect. It’s a key point for him to do so. It shows that the Time War was exactly what he was thinking about (since both the Daleks and the Master were heavily involved in that era of his life) when he was railing at Jex.

So in the end A TOWN CALLED MERCY ends up being a great standalone, with a darker yet still entertaining story…but the core of it is this interaction between the two doctors and their crimes…and then you have Amy telling him he’s traveled too long alone…and finally the parting shot of Amy (when asked to keep traveling) turning him down and talks about their friends might start to see them age faster. The Doctor’s face is priceless in that shot. He knows the trips are getting less frequent with the Ponds and that a time will come soon when he is utterly alone.

And that’s what makes A TOWN CALLED MERCY so compelling as an hour of TV, but especially as an hour of DOCTOR WHO.

As a final note: Hopefully everyone has noticed that the titles sequences (aside from being slightly different with the logo being tailored to fit the theme of the episode)  started slightly murkier than past years and have been getting slowly darker and murkier with each episode. The running theory is that this will continue to happen until Ep 5 (THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN, and the Ponds exit) where it will pretty much be just a murky black screen with the music playing and white titles. Or it could be leading to something more ominous down the line. Either way, I think it's a nice little mystery.

TV Review: BBC's TRUE LOVE

A while back it was announced that a number of DOCTOR WHO alum as well as some other currently hot British thespians would be on a new 5-epsiode show called TRUE LOVE on the BBC. The most notable of these was the news that David Tennant and Billie Piper would be sort of reunited in their first show together since 2009’s DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME PII. When I say “sort of” that’s because TRUE LOVE would take place in the same seaside town and though there would be minor links between episodes, each one would concern a different set of characters and stories and as such Tennant and Piper weren’t in the same episode, but would be on the same show. They would not interact. Still, being a giant fan of both actors I went in with open arms to the show…and sadly, found it VERY wanting.

First off, I think it should be noted that up front the show is apparently improved dialogue-wise, in what one can only assume was an attempt to make the characters ring truer to real-life conversations. While an admirable idea on paper, this falls entirely flat in execution in a two-pronged fail. The first thing wrong with it is that unless you have your TV cranked to ear-piercing levels it is incredibly difficult to hear what is being said half the time since sentences trail off into mumbles. The second issue is that in this attempt to sound like real-life dialogue with all the uncomfortable pauses and the like, the whole thing ends up actually coming off much more falsely than well-scripted dialogue would have.

The second thing I noted is that this show is about what I have termed “un-pretty love”, in that the majority of the eps are about cheating on ones spouse for one reason or another.

Note, spoilers for the first two episodes from here on out.


In Tennant’s episode, his character Nick who is happily married with two teen kids cheats on his wife with an old love who comes to town to basically stalk him. Great... It’s one of those moments in a TV show when you think, ”Who’s side am I meant to be on?" Clearly Nick is the protagonist, and yet if we side with anyone, we side with his wife Ruth (played by DOWNTON ABBEY’S Joanne Froggat) who get’s about 4 minutes of total screen time, so that makes little sense. Nick as a character is fairly reprehensible since he ruthlessly cheats and easily lies to his loving wife. Then the episode ends with him not able to run away with his first love (as they'd planned) and ends up staying with his wife. It’s unsatisfying to say the least as a half hour of TV, and then you add in the factor that since each of the five episodes will be about different sets of characters you know that the ultimate resolution between Nick and Ruth (who seems to be more than aware of what transpired) will never be seen. So what we are left with is a disappointing and ultimately depressing tableau of infidelity with zero redeeming qualities. Nor am I even sure why I was told this particular tale.


The second episode concerned Paul, another town resident who is wedded (in a somewhat stale marriage) to Michelle and they have a young child together. Michelle is too involved in the day to day grind with her homemaker life and their child to excite Paul and he himself is bored by his own day to day grind at his job at the carpet store, which seemingly eats away it him. Until one day he sees a blonde at the bus stop and begins to share furtive looks with her, and this culminates in him leaving her a note in chalk on the ground to meet him…at which point he…guess. Go ahead and guess what happens next. That’s right, they go to her place and he cheats. He cheats multiple times with her while progressively getting more belligerent with his wife about their boring life at home. Well, this sketchy blonde ends up asking him for money to save her ailing mother, and of course he gives her a cheque for Five Thousand Pounds and off she goes with the promise to call him when she gets to her mums, and of course she never does and has swindled him out of most of his savings. At this point my girlfriend rolled her eyes at me as we were watching and I agreed with that sentiment. So this second story of adultery tacks on a hackneyed sick mother con onto the end of the tale. It’s totally and utterly predictable in the worst way. And what’s even worse is that when I began to actually think that PERHAPS…just PERHAPS the resolution of the story might be Paul, realizing his mistake, growing up and being a man and might think to start WORKING on his flagging marriage…turns into him leaving his wife anyway because he was having his affair…and even after she screams at him to get out when he confesses the infidelity, she relents as he packs and asks him not to leave not wanting to sacrifice their marriage to this indiscretion…and he STILL LEAVES. This almost makes Paul even more reprehensible than Nick was, and the only saving grace was that at least he actually had the stones to admit to his wife he’d cheated. But again, the episode ended and I thought to myself, “Who am I meant to side with here?" And sadly I can’t even side with Michelle since her sister Serena was the visiting “first love” of Nick in the first ep whom he cheated with and she is irredeemable in ep 2 because it was her convincing Nick to cheat to make her sister happy.” So I felt almost less connected here.

We stopped at episode two deciding that the show had no really redeeming qualities and was not remotely entertaining on nay level. We MIGHT watch episode three since it’s Billie Piper’s episode, but I don’t even want to really do that since I’m sure it will be but more of the same. What struck me most here is that last years Post-DW David Tennant show SINGLE FATHER, while very difficult to stomach and watch, since it also actually concerns some very unsettling things about “love”, the end result was far more endearing and made sense. In four episodes it was a complete story and served a purpose. In comparison, TRUE LOVE is an absolute joke. It’s disconnected, convoluted, predictable, nasty, irredeemable and even pretty incompetent as a TV show. People don’t watch TV to see snippets of uncomfortable real life, that aren’t cohesive into a proper narrative. People watch TV to be entertained. And while it is okay to entertain with stories that are not the easiest things to watch, it is certainly not okay to present a premise and not only not bring it to a proper conclusion, but also to not even TELL the story in a good way. We don’t need to love the protagonist, but if we don’t like them who can we relate to? And in that same vein if we aren't going to get the whole story, why are we being told it to begin with?

I’m not sure what writer/director Dominic Savage was aiming for here, but if he was aiming for the least decent, least effective show about LOVE ever, then he’s hit the nail right on the head. Perhaps that’s the point of it and perhaps I therefore missed it. I can’t say beyond what I saw and how I perceived it. If I were a betting man though I’d wager that Savage likes his drama to be brutal, unrelenting and bleak. And that is NOT TV that I wish to watch in my spare time.

PLEASE NOTE: None of these issues stem at all from the actors involved. Tennant, Froggat, Walters, McLure ect. all do as good a job as they can with the material they have been given and even do an admirable job at the improv of the dialogue, and I want it known that my issues with this show stem entirely from Savage's writing and directing. 

In short, there is nothing to “love” in TRUE LOVE, and in fact the show would be more aptly titled “Unrepentant Cheaters” or “Irredeemable Idiots”. Terrible. Just avoid it.

TV: BBC's MERLIN

With a lack of DOCTOR WHO on the air (and no sign of it till next Fall) and all three SHERLOCK episodes for Series 2 having already aired, I think I may have needed a new obsession TV show. Sure, I watch a bunch of the current staples of Prime Time North American TV…but let’s face facts and accept that if Scott is going to really get fanboyish about a TV show, it will more than likely be a British one.

So, in a perfect storm/confluence: my British co-worker gushing about it, and the first three Series being available for $19.99 each (13 episodes a piece) on iTunes, I decided to finally give BBC’s MERLIN a go.

Not only was I pleasantly surprised by the quality of it, but also it seemingly fits snugly between the ensemble genius of BUFFY and the writing and charm combo of DOCTOR WHO. If there was ever a show for me to get excited about, I think it was bound to be MERLIN…I just didn’t know it until I sat down with it.

I have had the entire last week (and weekend) on my own as my girlfriend has been away on vacation with her family. Somewhere around Thursday evening of last week I bought and downloaded Series 1. I watched two episodes that night and although the first episode leaned a little into the “cheesy” area, the second episode showed me that there might be a heart and a quality here to see. So Friday night I watched a few more and got up to episode 6 and probably somewhere in the 5th episode (one that focuses on Merlin helping Lancelot who’s newly come to Camelot join the Knights by forging documents that made him nobility, which he wasn’t) that I knew I was watching something great. Here is a show that was apparently the creator’s attempt (according to them) to make a SMALLVILLE-style show about a well known heroic personage, but tell the story of that person’s youth. What’s funny is that SMALLVILLE never got out from under its cheesy premise, and instead got mired in it. MERLIN only takes a few episodes before rising above the cheese and becoming something altogether more endearing and certainly more watchable.

The actor’s portraying the leads are really great across the board. Colin Morgan and Bradley James play young Merlin and Arthur respectively and both actors do so with the right balance of youthful exuberance with hints at future greatness…without beating you round the head with that. Angel Coulby plays a very understated (at least in Series 1) Guinevere and what’s truly lovely about her performance is when we get to Series 2 (which I have begun to watch) and see her start to blossom into a person we can see as future queen. Speaking of BUFFY, Anthony Stewart Head plays Uther Pendragon, Arthur’s father and king of Camelot. He plays the role to the hilt, and gives Uther such an unrepentant personality that you can’t help but hate him from episode to episode for A. Being so against magic that he has outlawed it and kills anyone associated with it and B. Being a stubborn ass about most things. Where that really strikes home though is on the odd episodes where he shows compassion or has to reign himself in as king, and showcases how the way Head is playing him is perfection. Probably my favourite main character is Morgana played by Irish actor Katie McGrath. Apart from being quite stunningly gorgeous, she also plays the role with the best balance between brooding, simmering upset and loving, friendly ward. For in this version of the tale she is the Ward of Uther and quasi-love interest for Arthur…but she begins to have magic-induced seer-like dreams/nightmares and slowly begins to realize that she can use magic…and ward or not Uther would have her put to death if he knew. She is, for lack of a better word, mesmerizing when she is on screen. I can’t wait to see where they take her story, as I know it can’t turn out well…but I flat out LOVE the dynamic that they’ve brought her onto the side of good, at least right now as it makes a tale that’s been told a hundred times, much more interesting. Scottish thespian Richard Wilson plays court physician (and Merlin guardian) Gaius and does so with a respectable verve and graveness…though he is one character I didn’t get truly involved with until the end of the Series, at which point he becomes much better. We should also mention that there is a great dragon who has been imprisoned deep below the keep by Uther (who feared its magic), whom Merlin befriends and who is voiced by the always amazing John Hurt. That’s another character that starts out as a very basic portrait (prophetic dragon who helps Merlin realize his destiny), but as the episodes go on he develops layers and depth I wholly wasn’t expecting. As a last but not least mention, though she only appears in four episodes, Michelle Ryan’s turn as old magic priestess/sorceress Nimueh is stunningly realized and she works really well as the chief antagonist for Series 1. I truly think that though the narrative, charm and execution of MERLIN is what will get you watching, the characters and the actors who portray them are what will make you stick around.

The special effects are another thing I’d like to make note of. Where North American shows seem to skimp the most when it comes to genre material it is definitely in the special effects department. Basically anything on Syfy or any other channel that shows genre titles is treated with less respect than is due and those seemingly are given less funds with which to produce special effects, or they companies they are hiring are just doing a poor job. Here, special effects company THE MILL (the astonishing people behind GLADIATOR, DOCTOR WHO, TORCHWOOD) were given the ticket and the BBC has paid close attention to making sure the effects look almost film-quality. Magic spells, creature’s and even creature’s shadows are dealt with in a lovingly detailed way that just helps the show. North American channels and producers could (as is usual) learn something from the BBC and showrunners here. If you are going to make a genre show, then spare no expense and the audience will appreciate it.

I think the BBC initially underestimated the fanbase for MERLIN since after Series 1 they gave Series 2 only a 10 episode order (as opposed to the normal 13)…but eventually overturned that idea and extended it to the full 13. They commissioned Series 3 and then 4…but somewhere in there we’d heard rumors of cancellation. Those rumors were likely again a complete false window into fandom since MERLIN fans have slowly become as rabid as DOCTOR WHO fans are. The 5th Series begins shooting in the next two weeks (in Pierrefonds, France which doubles for Camelot), and at San Diego Comic Con this past year the showrunner’s mentioned that if fandom stayed at this high level then a 6th Series would likely be a certainty.


The music is the last thing I wanted to note. In today's TV line-up there is a LOT to be said for really good television scores. With GAME OF THRONES, DOCTOR WHO, DOWNTON ABBEY and the like getting high, high marks and attracting film composer quality work, MERLIN is no different. Veteran TV and Film composer Robert Lane has approached MERLIN with a cinematic ear and has crafted a score that is both quiet and introspective (when the opening theme music tinkles quietly as an emotional heart-string pull) and boisterous and glorious (showcased biggest in a scene of the LANCELOT episode) you can't help but love the music across the board. I'd even go so far as to say it is worth purchasing, if you enjoy scores.

When I was halfway through the 1st Series I fell in love with this show and immediately bought and downloaded Series 2 & 3, for further consumption. I think Series 4 is almost completely up on iTunes as well and I will be buying that. It’s nice to know that I have so much ahead of me to catch up, but I feel I should also slow down since once I catch all the way up I’ll have to wait till fall for new episodes.

If you aren’t watching this show, you should be. It is a genre show, done right and without a huge budget. It is charming, action packed, approachable and at times can be quite emotionally resonant. The BBC have outdone themselves and given themselves another flagship show for its audiences…but moreover they have given us fanboys and fangirls something to truly sink our teeth into.

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe (Review)

On Christmas Day there are two things I look forward to:

1. Turkey dinner.

2. A new Doctor Who Christmas Special.

THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW & THE WARDROBE was showrunner Steven Moffat’s second Christmas episode writerly foray (after last years Michael Gambon-filled A CHRISTMAS CAROL) and it had a few things going for it.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Clearly the title is a nod to C.S. Lewis and the Narnia books, as is the idea of having a snowy alternate world setting be accessed VIA a humdrum object (in Narnia it is a wardrobe, here it is a big blue present box). Add the WWII setting and precocious kids and you have the makings of a nice homage to a literary classic. Oh and talk of the Uncle Digby who owns the house that mom and her two kids retreat to was clearly a super-nerdy nod to Digory Kirke from THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW (who accidentally releases the White Witch who harasses the kids in later books and owns the house with the wardrobe) though, that is where the similarities stop.

Matt Smith plays the Doctor with perfection in this one. Like a pastry that has risen to a golden brown, Smith has given the Doctor life and a vibrant personality and here he simply owns it. From minute one he’s making jokes and comments and spouting gobbledygook that entertains the two children to no end, whilst causing the mother to frown more than a bit.

There is a bit of a prologue wherein the Doctor hits the earth in an impact suit (which he put on backwards, in space) after causing an explosion aboard a starship. Madge (3 years before the events of the special) helps him back to his TARDIS and he promises to help her if she ever needs it.

Sadly things kind of go into status-quo territory fairly quickly, as three years pass. Where last year I could not truly tell you where things would go from minute to minute, this year I pretty much could. Madge’s husband is lost over the Channel during the war as his instruments malfunction, and she receives a telegram about his almost certain demise, which she keeps from her children. The youngest child Cyril Arwell, disappears though the present doorway onto the planet where it seems Christmas trees are forested and they seem to grow ornament appendages. He is then followed/chased by The Doctor, the boys elder sister Lily Arwell and eventually their worried/angry mother Madge Arwell. Supposedly a safe planet. That is until we find out that a group of foresters (excuse me while I have a super geek moment as they are from Androzani Major, which is the planet where the 5th Doctor met his end [THE CAVES OF THE ANDROZANI] and regenerated into the 6th, also consistently voted as the BEST episode of DOCTOR WHO ever) have informed our protagonists that the trees are about to be killed by acid rain. The chase is on to find Cyril and we get kind of a side story about a how the forest is alive and are these kind of tree-people. The whole living forest/tree people/Androzani foresters/acid rain threat plotline goes predictably where you think it will. The only real surprise is the resolution of said thread, which actually saved it from me thinking it was all going to be same-old, same old. The resolution of that ties nicely into Madge’s keeping the death of the kids father from them and the Doctor bounces around suitably unsure of what to do. In the end the story was decent enough, if not stellar. It felt like it could have been an episode during the actual season as opposed to a special. That’s not a bad thing, but I think we’ve come to expect more of a spectacle at Christmas is all. Perhaps we are spoiled.

No, this episode (for me at least) EXISTS for the epilogue. Now if you’ve not watched the ep yet, don’t read any further if you want to be unspoiled even though it’s not really a spoiler. In the epilogue The Doctor goes to the Ponds on Christmas. Amy finding him on the doorstep tells him it’s been two years (since the events in THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG) and give’s him a deadpan “Oh, so you’re alive then? River told us.” line. Here is a moment in the Doctor’s life that is almost always the same. Whoever the companion is at the time invites him for Christmas dinner. I believe he has only ONCE come in for dinner. It’s just not his thing, and he mostly does his whole Last Of The Time Lords thing, turns down the invite and disappears with the TARDIS. Amy asks him in for dinner, and he initially turns her down, but then Rory says they have set a place for him, which sort of stuns him. Amy reiterates and says they ALWAYS set a place for him, every year. A few moments earlier with Madge and family as they cried happy tears he had remarked that happy crying was so “humany wumany”, and then... right then, standing on the doorstep of his best friends, he sheds his own happy tears and then goes inside for dinner. It’s one of those DW moments that I wait for. It’s also one of the moments when Matt Smith is every bit the actor that Tennant was. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house in the Neil Gaiman episode when he was crying as he said goodbye to Idris, and that was the first time I got to see it. Getting to see it here, especially at the end of the Christmas special was a real treat for me. It also shows me that Matt Smith really has such emotion that he can bring out in his acting, and I sometimes wish that we got to see it more often like we did with Tennant. At any rate, that last few minutes made the entire episode for me.

It is a decent enough entry into the DW holiday special category, and while not quite on par with last years episode, it was nonetheless a fun hour of TV.

Sadly, the wait begins now. Unlike any other years since its been back on TV, we will now wait until fall of 2012 to see any new DOCTOR WHO as Moffat has moved the start from the normal Spring date. Sigh.

Crackpot Doctor Who Theory: 50th Anniversary Speculation

Interesting Iceberg Ink Fact:

The most consistently visited post in our blog’s yearlong history is my original DOCTOR WHO Crackpot Theories: River Song Is The TARDIS post. Without fail, most months, it tops the list in hits and holds the record for most views ever by a country mile. What’s funny about that is the theory has long ago been blown out of the water by the revelations of who River Song actually is, but the post still gets hit numerous times every month.

Why do I bring this up? Well as you can see by the post title, it’s that time again. Crackpot Theories time!

Up this time, I speculate on the nature and story that will be told in the upcoming 2013 50th Anniversary special(s). Recently Moffat stated the following in an interview about the 50th:

"Why talk in the singular? The plans are at an early stage, but we have some very clear ideas about some of the things we're doing, and I think Doctor Who fans and kids will think it's the best thing ever. We've got a load of very big plans – the mere fact that we're talking about this two years before the event should tell you how seriously we're taking it." ~Steven Moffat

The notion being that perhaps the 50^th anniversary will be spread over more than one episode. This prompted me to my theory. Now stick with me for a bit while I wax on the immediate future of DW (AKA Series 7) first.

Matt Smith’s 11^th Doctor, we now know is headed into the 7^th Series. As quoted by Dorium Maldovar in the final Series 6 episode THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG:

“On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the 11th, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a Question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered. Doctor Who?”

So this leads me to the immediate belief, that the “fall of the 11^th” could very well be the 11^th Doctor’s death and regeneration into the 12^th Doctor (implied by the fact that Matt Smith may be leaving the role after Series 7). So to me that means that perhaps, just perhaps the 50^th Anniversary special(s) will be when we actually see the prophetic events at the fields of Trenzalore.

So here we come to my crackpot theory. If there might be multiple episodes for the 50^th, and so far people have speculated that previous Doctor’s (David Tennant chief among them, and hopefully Peter Davison or even Tom Baker) will be returning in some way (like the previous many Doctor’s eps like THE FIVE DOCTORS), why not dedicate an episode to each Doctor. That way you have 4 or 5 disparate stories, each with a different Doctor in the lead that all head in the direction of the 11^th Doctor’s fall at Trenzalore. Then cap it all off with one final episode where all the stories come together and all the Doctor’s star in it at once helping one another to whatever narrative common goal or resolution.

It’s seems to be only a bit of a stretch, since the commonly held notion that multiple Doctor’s would feature in the 50^th. So jumping to the conclusion that there might be multiple-Doctor arcs to the overall story doesn’t seem so much like fanboy crackery as it does common sense to honor the franchise. Created by Steven Moffat, the ultimate DW fanboy himself.

I’d like to see this happen. Sadly, I doubt we will know ANYTHING about it until later next year when they start shooting the special(s).

What do you all think? Fanboy madness or believable prophecy?

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1 Episode's 9 & 10 (The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances)

The first time current showrunner Steven Moffat applied his writerly skills to the DOCTOR WHO universe, it was during Series 1 for the two part story of THE EMPTY CHILD and THE DOCTOR DANCES.  It was the first time any of us knew that with the right idea, Moffat’s tales could blow the doors clean off DW crafting not only memorable, but award-winning episodes! This was a trend that would continue as the Series went on, but for now let’s talk about this first one.

The Doctor and Rose follow the distress beacon of an alien craft in the TARDIS. As they land in London in the vicinity of the crash site, the Doctor informs Rose that although they followed the ship closely the TARDIS has dropped them more than a month after the alien ship had crashed. They are also both completely unaware what the date is. It is quickly apparent that it is the past, but more specifically that it is WWII-era during the London Blitz. The Doctor goes off in search of someone to help locate the fallen ship, while Rose sees a young boy in a gas mask calling out for his mother and she goes to investigate. Rose finds herself in short order hanging from a dirigible by rope, and The Doctor finds the TARDIS phone (a device that isn’t connected to anything) ringing. Over the course of the first episode we meet the monster of the episode, which it turns out, is the Gas Mask child (and anyone he touched, who then become Gas Masked as well and are forever looking for their mothers).  We also meet (for the first, but certainly not last time) Captain Jack Harkness. A far cry from his much more altruistic hero future, here he is shown as a con-man/trickster who actually caused the alien ship to crash in the hopes to swindle the Doctor for it.

I can’t help but love these two episodes. We get a villain who is not a villain, we get another villain who is really a victim, we get the rigors of war, we get creepy dialogue (“Are you my mummy?”), we get Rose in a flirtatious relationship with someone other than the Doctor, and lastly we get the Doctor expressing something we had yet to really see from him…happiness. In less than two hours, Moffat has crafted a stunning microcosm of all the things that make the re-launched DOCTOR WHO series so utterly watchable. In fact of all the episodes that my co-watchers (read: first time watchers) have seen, this two-parter has resonated the loudest. I was told “Wow, those were REALLY good!” by said co-watchers. And that’s the point I’m making. Any time I try to get people to watch DW Series 1, I will immediately mention these two episodes (and FATHER’S DAY) to them, because although there are other very good episodes in Series 1, these ones have EVERYTHING and will totally hook the new viewer.

Rose has a nice little romp in this one, a lot of which she is on her own for. This is actually one of the first times in the Series that she is left to her own devices (unwatched over) by the Doctor. There are hints of the strength that she will begin to show as a character. The first peeks of an independent Companion of the Doctor, as opposed to the unknowing tagalong she spends a few episodes being when we began this journey when she is still unsure. I mean, she’s not yet confronting and bewildering Daleks or Cybermen, but at least she starts on the path. That’s a big deal due to where the things go by the end of the Series and the Bad Wolf-Arc.

Harkness is represented well, and you even buy into his transformation over the course of the 2 eps from con-man to upstanding hero. A change wrought almost entirely by having met and pissed off the Doctor. I love that bit actually, since it showcases how even just meeting him and hearing the way he sees things can change a person. That’s a huge weight to bear around, and the Doctor does it like it’s  a feather.

This is one of the Doctor’s finest hours. The ending of THE DOCTOR DANCES is probably one of the most iconic moments of Nu-Who and has dialogue that is repeated by fans. You really can’t help but feel the infectious nature of that when you watch it, and I feel that is something that Moffat usually brings to his episodes. It is certainly one of the reasons that he has won so many Hugo Awards for these stories.

I love these through and through, and even though I have seen them multiple times, I never get bored of them.

NEXT TIME: An old, previously thought defeated (flatulent) enemy returns in BOOM TOWN.

Doctor Who: Christmas Special 2011 Trailer!

It's that time, CHILDREN IN NEED special debuted the trailer for the upcoming Christmas Special, which will be aptly titled THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE (told you guys it was going to be a Narnia/CS Lewis-tinted one)!

Enjoy with your eyeball thingies below:



Best Line: "I'm called The Doctor, of the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet."

Doctor Who Reminder: Children In Need Special (airs tomorrow in the UK)

 

To our UK readers, don’t forget tomorrow night is this year’s CHILDREN IN NEED special on BBC 1, which will again (as tradition and fans demand) feature a short DOCTOR WHO piece starring Matt Smith. There will also be a trailer for this years upcoming DOCTOR WHO Christmas Special (which I don’t need to tell you I am excited about).

For the rest of the world, I am sure in the coming days the video of both the Children In Need segment story and the trailer will be made available online for your viewing pleasure.

Chris and I will be recording this month’s Podcast tonight and plan to touch on the forthcoming Christmas Special there, so stay tuned for more info, and the second the trailer shows up online I’ll post it here.

Matt Smith with mascot Pudsey