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 - Crackpot Theory: Is Clara Oswald actually Romana IV?!

Been a while. What with these sporadic mid-series breaks in the show (don’t get me started), DOCTOR WHO news has been slow to leak out. However, we have had two; count ‘em, two episodes which feature (versions) of the new companion Clara Oswald (played exquisitely by Jenna Louise-Coleman). The first of which was in the Series 7 opener ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS, in which she was the disembodied consciousness of someone who was once called Oswin Oswald (whom had once worked aboard a starship) and had since been mutated and turned into a Dalek…but had no idea what she is and had been placed in the Asylum’s (by presumably the Dalek high Command) “Intensive Care” unit, where the Daleks who survived great battles reside, weaponless. This is where Oswin is, locked in a room on her own. This will be important later in the post. Stay tuned.

The next time we see her is in the most recent Christmas Special THE SNOWMEN. She is now Clara Oswald, Victorian barmaid and secret governess to a wealthy family’s children. With the help of Silurian ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny, and the Sontaran Nursemaid (now Butler) Strax, the Doctor is in hiding, refusing to save the universe any more. Then Clara comes along and mucks things up by getting him involved. She’s quick, she’s clever and nine times out of ten in this episode she is smarter than the Doctor, or at least on par with him mentally. They spar back and forth and it all... sounds very familiar.

CRACKPOT THEORY time!

During his 4th Incarnation (Tom Baker), The Doctor spends an entire series on a quest for the various pieces to the Key To Time. On this quest (given him by the mysterious White Guardian) he is joined by another Time Lord, one fresh out of the Academy on Gallifrey. Namely, Romanadvoratrelundar (Mary Tamm), or Romana for short (though she prefers Fred). At less than 100 years old she is still a raw recruit, but being a Time Lord she can spar with the Doctor on his level. In fact he’s initially very unsettled by how much she knows. She’s a strong character, and one I really enjoy watching. Now, after the various pieces of the Key To Time are found and then re-dispersed (I’m not telling you why, go watch THE KEY TO TIME), Romana regenerates into Romana II (Lalla Ward). Romana II stays on board with the 4th Doctor for a long time (nearly until his regeneration into the 5th), but when she finally takes her leave, he gives her K-9 and off she goes.

Now that’s where vaguely the TV story of Romana ends. Thankfully the books and Audio drama’s continued her story (most especially in the political drama series from BIG FINISH called GALLIFREY). It turns out that some years after leaving the Doctor, Romana II returned to Gallifrey and ends up as its President. She and K-9 have to jump through a myriad of political hoops and nefarious plans to unseat her for many years.

And that is where some Dark Times occur during which we know very little. We only know that at some point down the line the Lord President becomes Rassilon, and the Time Lords engage in a large scale war across many systems with their most hated enemies the Daleks, in the Last Great Time War. The Doctor (in his Eighth incarnation at this point) sees many things that unsettle him about his own race. Having lived through them being stagnant, unbending, and basically arrogant…he then sees them descending further and further into madness and violence. In the final days of the Time War the Doctor time-locks it so that it doesn’t tear reality itself apart and dooms his own race and planet to eternal torment.

But what happened to Madame President Romana II? Well the books tell us that she regenerated into a third incarnation prior to this, but they never tell us how she lost the presidency, nor what happed to her during the Time War. We know that a Rival Time Lord tried to unseat her and kill her after the Second Great War In Heaven…but Eight stopped this.

The Crackpot theory part is about what I think COULD have happened. What if Romana III objected to the Last Great Time War (having survived the Second War In Heaven, and assassination attempts), and the CIA (the Gallifreyan Celestian Intervention Agency) found a way to unseat her and put Rassilon on the seat. Might she have been imprisoned for her views? What if while in prison (and in the still current locked state of the Time War) she found a way to project herself outwards. Used regeneration energy to get through the Time Lock and offworld into…a passing Starliner perhaps? What if a human aboard that ship was converted into a Time Lord, and the official 4th incarnation of Romana allowing her to escape? Her old body imprisoned on Gallifrey would die, but she would go on in a stolen human body effectively regenerated into a Time Lord. Then travelling back through time and basically BEING these other versions of her new self, on a skipping loop that repeats when she dies. She DID have a TARDIS when we last saw her, so it could be disguised as something very small. What if Oswin Oswald was that human? It would explain both her variations so far (neither of which is the main one we will be introduced to in THE BELLS OF ST. JOHNS on March 30th) being so terribly clever (smart enough to spar with a genius Time Lord who is over a 1000 years old), and seemingly un-phased by the alien nature of the plight of the Doctor against the Snowmen.

I add to this a few nuggets from things we hear in the trailer for the second half of Series 7.

1. She is referred to as the girl twice dead. So she is somehow the same person over and over again even after dying. Sounds like regeneration but the switch is stuck and instead of changing to a DIFFERENT body she’s being given new same ones instead. This could be explained by the fact that Romana needed to steal a human body.

2. The Doctor clearly says, “She’s not possible.” To me this could be a big pointer at the fact that it’s Romana IV…since her being out of the Time War would seem next to impossible. But where Rassilon failed at unlocking the Time War as a whole…perhaps One Time Lord could survive. After all, Dalek Caan rescued Davros from the Crucible and brought him across the Lock barrier. One could interpret the Doctor’s statement as simply being that she’s died twice, how can she exist a third time in the same “look”…but that’s a little too simple for DW in my eyes.

A variation on this theory (which I've seen around), with the same results is based on something talked about in THE SNOWMEN. A specific story about being "born behind Big Ben" and how this accounts for her impeccable sense of time. What if, Romana III wasn't imprisoned, but rather escaped BEFORE the Last Great Time War...but needed to hide. Enter the Chameleon Arch (the Fob Watch) that Time Lords use to hide their identities disguising themselves as human. What if Big Ben is her Fob Watch? And not only that, what happens when a Time Lord disguised as a human VIA a Chameleon Arch dies? Do they regenerate normally? Or is it possible they continue to regenerate but into the same form over and over again since that's the form they took when disguised? She keeps telling the Doctor to "Run" and to "Remember". We know from John Smith and the Master's use of the Fob Watch that little bits of their time lord personality leak out form time to time when disguised. This would explain her smarts, her ease with the decidedly alien events, her seeking out of the Doctor, and her treating him like an old friend. So this is another way that Romana could have survived and become Clara.

So that’s my theory. Clara is not only a Time Lord, but she is the 4th incarnation of the prior Lady President of Gallifrey, whom has travelled with the Doctor before. She is likely some 700 years of age and escaped the Time War. What a boon that would be going into the 50th Anniversary events storywise. The avenues and story aspects that could lead to (including multiple Doctor appearances) begin to boggle. But to be quite honest…I’d just like to see Romana make an appearance in NuWho. She is just such a great character with a lot of depth, and I think she deserves to come back.

Doctor Who: The Snowmen (review)

I was waiting. The boy who waited, if you will...for THE SNOWMEN.

DOCTOR WHO’s 2012 Christmas Special.

When last we left the Doctor, he was stuck in THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN...his best friends had slipped away through a plothole you could drive a mack truck through, in an hour where that wasn’t even the biggest plothole or script gaff. Bottom line: He was in rough shape. So he moved...to Victorian England where old friends Madame Vastra, Jenny and the Sontaran named Strax (reconstituted after his death in A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR [thus removing ANY sentimentality you had about how heroic his death was...but nevermind eh?]by some process known only to Vastra) protect him and allow him to be a grouchy old miser who refuses to save the world, let alone be bothered by it...

...Sorry. Are we watching DOCTOR WHO? The man who always saves the world starts refusing to...

Nevermind eh?

So. That’s pretty much where we stand as the episode opens. But not to leave him alone in his grouchyness and Victorian hat, the universe has other plans in the form of nasty snowmen who seemingly feed off bad thoughts. Er...yeeaaahh...okay...


Never.
Mind.
Eh?

Brass tacks.
There are some significant changes to the show that appear in this episode. They appear to stem from the 50th Anniversary coming up in November. These are, I should note, the things I REALLY liked about the episode. The opening sequence and title song are new...and the former even shows the Doctor’s face in the vortex (which hasn’t been done since the 7th Doctor), the later has some nice audio ticks and clicks to hearken to Classic Who. The biggest Classic Who nod here though is most certainly the new TARDIS interior. It’s stark, mainly metal, cool toned (blues, silvers, greens) and is not even a shadow of the warm, scatterbrained, yet inviting interior from his time with Amy and Rory. My feelings on that are that this new interior mimics his own new grumpy exterior, and perhaps even hearkens back to the look of the 5th Doctor’s TARDIS as something he KNOWS, something that comforts HIM....if no one else. Bottom line, I like it and it feels RIGHT for the 50th as a nod to days gone by. He also has new gear, a Victorian look that I’d say probably hits up the style of the 3rd and 8th Doctor’s gear (prior to the 8th Doctor's gear changing recently)...and the glasses-he-doesn’t-need have made a return appearance, which I always liked on Ten, so I’m cool with Eleven adopting them as well.

The last change, but biggest is the addition of the newest companion Clara Oswin Oswald (even though TECHNICALLY this version from the Xmas special isn’t the one he’ll travel with...yeah, I’ll get to that). Jenna Louise-Coleman is a wonderful, heartfelt actor whom I know from previous shows and love her (she can act circles around Karen Gillan). If anyone has a chance to be a really great companion to Eleven, it’s her...now if Moffat would just let her be the caliber that Rose and Donna were on an emotional level...anyways...

The episode’s actual story is totally beside the point. No honestly, it’s not even really there. It’s a by-the-numbers ep that requires nothing much from our intrepid Time Lord to deal with. It’s here only to introduce the new features I mentioned above...and present us with a big bad for Series 7.5 (don’t get me started on him breaking seasons up into pieces)...in the form of Yog Sothoth, otherwise known as The Great Intelligence...a creature from another dimension who can’t exactly enter ours...so uses proxies to do so instead and carry out his will / do his bidding...ah yes, in the from of the eponymous snowmen! So yeah, we’ve not seen TGI since the 2nd Doctor battled it many years ago. And again, part of me sincerely hopes that TGI is a cover and the real villain leading into the 50th will be Omega (another baddie from another dimension, but one with far greater connotations to the Time Lords). I digress. Either way, TGI is voiced by the stellar Ian McKellen and he does a wonderfully menacing job at the role. In the end though the doctor doesn’t really even defeat him and sort of sends him on his brief way from infecting Snowmen and terrorizing children. What astonished me is Eleven doesn’t immediately recall fighting TGI. He just mulls the name over and over saying it "rings a bell". I’m fine with that as TGI is definitely a cool villain and will make for something interesting down the line. But I wonder at his overall arc and how it will tie into the 50th.

But yeah, as fun as the episode actually is, that fun has nothing to do with the story itself, and much more to do with the introduction of all this new stuff. If you go in looking for the new shinies, you won't be disappointed. If you go in looking for a meaty Doctor Who adventure, this isn't really it. It’s like a new show now, and I can’t help but hope that it’s a sign that things will be getting better.

Oh, and Clara.

SPOILERS!

Yes, the Victorian Clara dies at the end, but it’s shown that she is linked to Oswin Oswald (from the future who was a Dalek in ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS) and apparently to a modern day version who will likely be the companion (she is briefly shown in modern day clothes at the grave of her “ancestor” at the end). The trailer talks of the girl who dies twice ect. I’m not buying that she’s another Rory. I think she’s either a Time Lord (possibly Jenny, the Doctor’s Daughter), or perhaps even my theory about her being a regeneration of The Master will pan out. Either way, there is no way she’s a normal human. I don’t know who she is, but I suppose we’ll find out...in APRIL! Again, don’t get me started on Moffat breaking up the seasons...just don’t, it will only end in tears.

THE SNOWMEN is a blast to watch, but it’s not the most substance-filled of episodes. It’s also not Timey-Wimey (I’m actually glad of that to be honest). It DOES, however, have the briefest moment near the end where the Doctor is trying to get Clara to hang on and he promises to save her...the emotion that passes between the two in that minute or so is probably the MOST I’ve seen Eleven bond with anyone since regenerating from Ten. I’m not kidding, that little moment gave me a LOT of hope for the dynamic Matt and Jenna have. I'm hoping for a Ten and Rose style relationship...and if not that, then at least a Ten and Donna caliber one.

So, bring on April now and let’s see if we can’t make this show sing again!

Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 5, The Angels Take Manhattan

After watching the mid-series finale of DOCTOR WHO (THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN) I find myself wanting to be congratulatory and kind to Steven Moffat’s written swan song for the Ponds, but I’m just too conflicted. So I’m going to lay out what I liked and what I didn’t like and why, and hopefully you can make up your own minds.

The story on the outside is pretty simple. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory visit New York City, and while sitting in Central Park and Rory goes off to get some drinks, the Doctor discovers that Amy is reading a pulpy detective novel that all of the sudden features Rory in the 1930’s and River Song. The novel ends up being a kind of future history of the events that will follow and the Doctor quickly scolds Amy for reading ahead as she’s technically creating “fixed” points in time by doing so. He tells her not to read ahead...but chapter titles might be okay. It’s not long before they sort out that Rory has been touched by the nefarious Weeping Angels and sent back in time. After sorting that out and establishing that going back to save him is too tough because New York of 1938 is so time-addled that they can’t get back there. Luckily River Song is there to establish a homing beacon to follow back to 1938 with the TARDIS. What follows is a progression of events that lead to the heroes finding out that a tenement building called “Winters Quay” is being used as a sort of battery farm for the Weeping Angels to send people back in time from to drink their energy, including the metal (not stone) Statue Of Liberty.

It all SEEMS very cool from the outside but if you dig at all into the narrative the thing falls apart like a house of cards. My immediate issue is what exactly is River Song doing there? It’s never explained, and it seems totally out of nowhere...and worse none of the characters questions her presence! Aside from the Doctor’s teasing “Shouldn’t you be in prison?” no one says boo about why River is there. One might argue that she knew of her parents’ need of her in that time and place, but I’d wonder where she got the info. (NOTE: I've been duly informed by a friend that it's set out that River is studying the Angels and that's why she's summoned there by the collector. I find that beyond convenient, but whatever, I'm willing to concede that point.) Anyways, lets gloss over that her presence makes no sense and move on. So Rory sees older Rory (who was sent back in time) there in a room showing that in this timeline he gets caught and stays in Winters Quay till his eventual death. His way of escape? Jumping from the roof, killing younger Rory, therefore depriving the Angels of their battery source and breaking their hold on the building. How, you ask? Don’t ask. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. I fail to see how Rory’s escape (one amongst however many folk have been imprisoned there to be sent back in time to create the energy) breaks their hold. But nevermind. Oh and The Statue of Liberty is there, fangs out as an Angel on top of the building. While menacing, two things immediately jump into your head. One: no one in New York in the vicinity sees that Lady Liberty is missing, nor Two: the huge statue standing in the street and menacing the roof of a tenement building? Okay, I’m going to dismiss this as having Liberty as an Angel is endlessly cool. How about the fact that she’s made of metal and not stone (as the Angels are described)? Ssshhhh. Nevermind. There is some offhanded remark about the Angel’s possessing statues...thus kind of changing them from being villains who turn to rock, into some sort of spiritual form that actually possesses statues instead. What? Did Steven Moffat just screw with his own invented creature’s origin? Ugh. Nevermind? So Amy and Rory create their paradox by jumping from the building and this wipes out that whole timeline, freeing Winter’s Quay from the hold of the Angels and they end up back in the graveyard they were in when this started. Again, I’m not sure how Rory’s specific sacrifice removes this whole bit of timeline, but I’m willing to hand wave it because here we go...here is the ending of the Ponds. Here is the (aforementioned) last day of the Doctor and the Ponds. Break out the Kleenex! Even though I have been very vocal about not caring much for the Ponds, I’m still sad to see the Doctor so distraught. So what happens? Ready for spoilers? One Angel is still in the graveyard (convenient that location!) and touches Rory sending him back to an indeterminate moment in time. So Amy freaks out and tells the Doctor to go back and help him, and the Doctor refuses saying that it would rip New York apart to try to do so. Hmmm. So Amy makes a sacrifice and decides to go back as well. The Doctor gets upset and tells her he will never see her again! It’s poignant and sad and I’ll freely admit made me emotional. It’s not emotional because of the Ponds, it’s emotional because of the Doctor. In essence Amy is 11’s Rose. In that vein he wants to do everything to save her, to stay with her and to keep traveling with her. His best friend. On that front it’s absolutely heart-jarringly sad. At least it was, until I thought about it for more than a moment. Wait. So the Doctor can’t go back to her time because it would rip New York apart. Okay, so if the episode is to be believed, it’s the constant time flux in NY causing this fact that he can’t take the TARDIS back there. Add that River says she can freely go back with her stolen (from Jack Harkness) vortex manipulator and it doesn’t cause the same issues that the TARDIS does, thus allowing her to give the book to Amy to publish in the past and create her epilogue for the Doctor to read and you have the makings of a plot hole. Then if you really break it down, then Amy and Rory can simply go outside the city to a different place (Buffalo maybe?) where the Doctor CAN travel to....hell they even have a vortex-manipulated Daughter to bring the message to do so. This is not just a plot hole; it’s a giant, fabulously over sighted writing mistake (paraphrased from another viewer). Let’s not just say that though, let’s look at it logically with historical evidence. Rose Tyler got stuck in an alternate universe. The walls closed and the universe was sealed off from ours otherwise it would rip ours to pieces. Doctor can’t go to her. In fact it’s only a need to create further rips in the universe that he DOES see her again, afterwards re-sealing those gaps to make sure things go tickety boo. Donna Noble, part of a Human /Time Lord metacrisis, she took the Doctor’s mind into her head and became the Doctor Donna, had to have her mind wiped and she would never remember any of the great things she did otherwise her mind would burn and she would die. The Doctor could never visit her otherwise he risks her remembering and subsequently dying. Fast forward, the Doctor can’t visit or save Amy and Rory from the 1930’s New York...and instead of finding a way to visit them or save them VIA another place they could travel to or another time a year or so later....he GIVES UP? Wow. That sucked almost all the emotion out of that scene in the graveyard. It smacks of a weak, weak plot device. Moffat seemingly didn’t know how to write them off the show. It’s the only thing I can come up with. Say what you will about RTD and melodrama, but I can’t believe that Moffat wrote a great and emotional end to the Ponds and totally robs it and the thing falls totally apart under the slightest scrutiny. I’m sad because I’m the guy who dismisses that kind of thing when it comes to DOCTOR WHO. The Sontaran Eps in S4 are pretty rough on common sense and plot holes, but they are scads better than this stuff. I WANT to handwavium the bullshit science and plot holes for story. I want to do that, but in this episode it was just so damn blatant.

Was it a good episode? Yes, indeed. Does it require Kleenex as promised? Yes it does. But afterwards when you begin to actually think about the ending you will most likely get annoyed. Especially in comparison with heartbreakers like Rose’s goodbye in DOOMSDAY and Donna’s goodbye in JOURNEY’S END, Amy and Rory’s goodbye is treated almost like a “we have to do this, so here you go. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s sad enough.” And that felt flat to me. It’s got a number of decent ideas and scenes and has some kickass DOCTOR WHO moments, but it never adds up to a solid whole. Again falling victim to Moffat’s trademark cobbling of a narrative AROUND his own clever plot devices instead of writing a half decent story first and then adding in his plot devices after. I’m actually a little pissed off by how this happened.

Nick Hurran’s direction and Murray Gold’s score ought to be lauded as both were spot on in this ep. Hurran’s direction really does hearken to 1930’s noir in a perfect way and Gold’s score as usual these days, was lovingly rendered and presented throughout. The acting was also quite well done throughout with Matt Smith (the Doctor’s) performance standing out most. Karen Gillan (Amy) brings home a solid performance, while Alex Kingston (River) does a decent enough job, but for me she’s never reached the heights she did in her first appearance in the library eps.

Is it a solid mid-series finale? Yeah, if you can handwavium the absolute MYRIAD of things wrong with the notions in it and add the fact that the Angels don’t come across remotely as frightening as they did in S5 (let alone BLINK)...at least the Cherubs were creepy and did a lot with sound only. You will likely enjoy it. I did. It was only after I thought about it that everything really began to leap out at me. Is it a solid ending for Amy and Rory? No. Not remotely. In fact it’s probably one of the weakest “companion(s) leave” episode in relaunched DW. I’ll add the fact that we spent two eps with Rory’s dad Brian and he gets no info on what happened to them? How about Amy’s parents? Their many friends? There is liiterally NO EPILOGUE explaining anything to anyone. This robs the episode of a further set of emotional beats that I think the audience deserved, especially Brian. Why spend two eps with him if he was only going to be left in the dark? Travesty.

So yeah. That’s where I am with it. I enjoyed it on some level, but more of me is upset at how nonsensical it was, how scatterbrained and how I feel that even the emotional moments end up not really being earned. When Rose left I cried. When Donna left I sobbed like an un-consoled kid. Now when Amy and Rory leave I shed a tear or two when during the graveyard scene and the epilogue scene, but felt utterly robbed afterwards.

This just further illustrates to me how much RTD’s era affected me. He knew characters and interaction. He paid attention to story first and plot after. Moffat’s continued failure in that department leaves us with stuff like this. Serviceable DOCTOR WHO, but it’s a far cry from what it was and what it COULD be.

Doctor Who: The Asylum Of The Daleks (review)

Saturday’s episode of DOCTOR WHO, the Series 7 premiere titled THE ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS, could have been called Return To Form. After a rocky, not all together loved Series 6, Steven Moffat’s DOCTOR WHO had some work to do to bring all the fans back into the fold.

Well, what a difference an hour makes.

THE ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS (written by Moffat) is one of his very best penned episodes in his tenure as showrunner (if not THE best), and pulled off one of the Series biggest spectacle episodes, and they were even able to keep a HUGE surprise under wraps (Note: I will be talking of that surprise in the next paragraph so if you’ve not yet watched, don’t read further).

After the 5 web minisode’s called POND LIFE which basically accounted for the goings on with both The Doctor and The Ponds during the interim since May, it appeared that the Ponds were on the rocks (though no one knew why) marriage-wise, and the Doctor had been on a fair few adventures in their absence. So as we start ASYLUM, they aren’t even living together. The Doctor receives a summons to the ruins of the planet Skaro (the Dalek homeworld, and one that had long ago been ravaged by biological and nuclear weapon war; See: Classic Who arc THE GENESIS OF THE DALEKS) and learns that a woman’s daughter is supposedly taken captive on the Asylum world of the Daleks (basically where they put all the crazy-ass Daleks), and of course the Doctor sees through the ruse with the woman’s lie, but not before he is captured. The Ponds are summarily captured as well, and the 3 end up on Skaro and in the center of the Dalek Parliament. But instead of killing them, the Daleks, led by the non-pepper-potted prime minister, tell them that they will allow them to live if they will go to the surface of their asylum world, where a ship has crashed causing a rift that could allow the escape of thousands of Mad Daleks, a risk the Skaro Daleks refuse to let happen. They wish to nuke the planet, but the forcefield defending it is active and must be deactivated on the surface first, and they won’t go down there. Thus, enter trapping the Doctor and having him go down and do it.

The first big surprise was the appearance of new companion Jenna Louise-Coleman (whose debut was said to not be coming until Christmas); named Oswin Oswald she’s a plucky, fast-talking, flirty genius. Moffat and Co. ought to be applauded for their ability in a very spoilerific show to have been able to keep Oswin’s debut a total secret. I was impressed as when she showed up I was grinning from ear to ear and stunned. It was a lovely introduction and she reminded me of a cross between Rose and Donna, so that makes me very happy. Coleman took to her dialogue like a fish to water. Her few back and forth convo’s with the Doctor proved easily why she was chosen as his new companion. She’s got the chops and she’s really unique.

The rest of the show unfolded exactly as had been foretold, and was every bit a standalone blockbuster hour of Television. It had great action, wonderful sets and writing, the music was amazing and it really felt a lot longer than it was. It felt like a treat, as if we were getting something extra long. Moffat should also be applauded for toning down his script trickery and clever bits as instead of trying to riddle the script with them he had about two or three and allowed the rest of the tale to stand out more. Something I always felt was missing from his scripts was the heart of the narrative, as he always seemed to get mired in being clever for clever’s sake…and in ASYLUM he really shows that he was listening to us when we commented on that in Series 6, and paid a lot of attention to story and much less to cleverness. I wanted to clap with the simplicity of the tale this time. We are a far cry from the kitchen sink that was A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR, and I came away very happy with that result.

The movie-format has a few giggle-worthy moments, like Rory doing a slo-mo hail may slide underneath a doorway like a Michael Bay flick…but you know what? Even that didn’t bother me and made me smile. Sure it’s over the top, but when has DOCTOR WHO ever shied away from being over the top? Nah, this is DW the way we want to see it. This is the reason we tune in. We want to see stuff like this, we lap it up!

I don’t want to go to far into the rest of the narrative as you really should see it, and the rest of the script speaks for itself. I wil say that though I am not an Amy / Rory fan, their “on the rocks” stuff in here felt much more real than any of their previous “love” elements did in the Series, so when the dénouement of the “why” of their upset comes to the fore and then the resolution to that plotline, I really FELT it this time, and that’s not something the Ponds often have done for me.

Again, this is easily one of Moffat’s BEST scripts to date since he took over the show reigns. ASYLUM has everything in it that one expects when watching DW, and it manages to open the season with a HUGE bang as well. I loved every last moment.

Now, we are left to speculate how exactly Oswin will show back up, whether her Dalek-self will have somehow escaped the Asylum world before it was blown up, or the Daleks saved her somehow, or the Doctor will meet her earlier in her timeline…we have to wait to find out, but I really love that we got to see her so early on! It felt like Donna’s first ep finishing on that shot of Rose…it totally set up the Season for me, and this feels similar. We know the Ponds are on the way out and this was the perfect way to give us our quick intro to what’s/who’s coming down the pipe this Christmas.

"Run, you clever boy, and remember." ~ Oswin

SIDENOTE: In his Hugo Acceptance speech for Best Short Form Presentation (THE DOCTOR’S WIFE), Neil Gaiman announced he was on the 3rd draft of another episode of DOCTOR WHO! I cannot wait for that, as his Series 6 ep is easily my fave.

Book Review: Doctor Who: Touched By An Angel - Jonathan Morris

 

In 2003, Rebecca Whitaker died in a road accident. Her husband Mark is still grieving. Then he receives a battered envelope, posted eight years ago, containing a set of instructions and a letter with a simple message: "You can save her." Later that night, while picking up a takeaway, Mark glances at a security monitor - to see himself, standing in the restaurant in grainy black and white. And behind him there's a stone statue of an angel. Covering its eyes, as though weeping... except, when Mark turns, there's nothing there. As Mark is given the chance to save Rebecca, it's up to the Doctor, Amy, and Rory to save the world. Because this time the Weeping Angels are using history itself as a weapon...

I collect the David Tennant-era 10th Doctor BBC DOCTOR WHO books, and have read the majority of them (and even listened to the ones that Tennant himself narrates on audio book [a treat, I guarantee you]). I liked those books more often than not as decent DW stories with which to fill the time between watching the show.

As only the second expanded universe/tie-in media book that I’ve read with Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor (and Amy & Rory) Jonathan Morris DOCTOR WHO: TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL had some making up to do. The first of the 11th Doctor books I read was Michael Moorcock’s DOCTOR WHO: THE COMING OF THE TERRAPHILES, which felt less like a DW book, and more like a random sci-fi book starring caricatures of The Doctor and Amy. It was not good.

So when I grabbed DW: TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL I did so based on the fact that the enemy of the piece was…dunh dunh dunh…the Weeping Angels of course! I also liked the sound of the plot about a man who’s wife has died 8 years previously, and he receives a letter from himself claiming that he can “Save Her!” It sounded like a great adventure.

And it is, but there are a few things working against Morris here. The first of those is that The Weeping Angels are Steven Moffat’s brilliant invention, and the last time we saw them on the show was FLESH & STONE and THE TIME OF THE ANGELS two-parter from Series 6 (arguably the best outings on that Series altogether). Morris also has to contend with the fact that attempting to subvert and defeat the Weeping Angels requires a keen mind if it’s going to avoid the pitfalls of repetition, but I’ll get to that.

Basically the Angels here are kind of an amalgam of the scavenger Angels from BLINK, and the more advanced and vigorous ones from Series 6. These Angels are searching for a paradox to feed on, and widower Mark Whitaker is the perfect choice since if given the option of saving his wife he will go to any length to do it, even creating a big, messy [tasty] paradox. Of course The Doctor knows this is bad and with Amy and Rory in tow they set out to prevent this, while trying to help Mark (both a past and present version of him) in the process.

The pacing is great and the story clips along quite well, though there are moments of “Amy did this, and then she did this, and then this” but it wasn’t as often as it could have been so I was okay with it. A lot of time is spent on both Mark’s and that’s the key to enjoyment here since it is his story, which will tug at your emotions. And that’s the main reason why this book can stand above a lot of DW books, since so often they descend into fighting the monster and ignoring the people involved. Mark is as front and center to the proceedings as the Doctor and Co. are so for that Morris ought to be applauded.

Two things fell a bit short for me. Firstly, Morris’ voice for both Amy and Rory ring very true to the characters as they are played on the show. Sadly, his Doctor is less so. Matt Smith’s voice is a difficult thing to capture in word form properly, and though Morris does an admirable job and there were definitely a few 11th Doctor-isms on display here I found that there were passages where the Doctor said things that didn’t really ring true. In a DOCTOR WHO book that is tough to overlook since it’s a key element of the show. The second thing I didn’t much care for is when and how they defeat the Angel’s. It’s a variation on the way they were beaten in BLINK. While not exactly that, it was close enough for me to groan a bit. I’ll admit to early on having the notion that it might have been a rogue Angel sending Mark back in time to HELP him save his wife…but sadly that was not to be, brave though it would have been to take a villain and create a rogue one who does a good thing.

Other than that, this book succeeds on the laurels of the story through and through. So much attention is paid to Mark’s story that the Doctor and Co. almost seem peripheral, and here that really works. Like a Doctor-lite episode. The Doctor did get to invoke a very lovely line that shows respect for the original Angel story where he talks about a past package set up by the person to give to their future selves and calls it “The Full Sally Sparrow Set” and I really loved that bit.

A decent outing for the 11th Doctor, Amy, Rory and a story that will definitely pull at your heartstrings (I always like my DW with emotion best). Is it better than the best of the Tennant-era books? It is better than a few of them certainly, but not better than others. If I am ranking though, this would definitely be in the top 5 of all the ones I’ve read, so that’s probably saying something. As far as DOCTOR WHO books, you could do very well by yourself to read this one.

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 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

TV Review: Doctor Who - The Doctor's Wife

I’d like to do this review justice, but it will be hard not to fanboy-gush, so bear with me.

Also, please note that if you haven’t seen the episode yet….stop reading. Right now. It would be damn near impossible to review this episode without spoilers, so be warned there will be such below. I’d also really rather everyone who sees the episode watches it fresh with no previous info ahead of time. Nothing spoiled.

So there, you have been warned.

The 4^th episode of DOCTOR WHO this season, titled THE DOCTOR’S WIFE, was written by none other than fantasy author, DW fan extraordinaire Neil Gaiman. We heard mention of his episode last season, but at the last minute they pulled it and decided to move it to Season 6, causing Gaiman to do a bit of a rewrite. At the time this happened I didn’t get it, but I think I truly understand now why it was moved. The subject matter of the episode is such that requires loving attention of the audience, and last year we spent most of the season concentrated on Amy and the Pandorica ect. It would have been totally lost in all that. Here we have a new season, and one where a future Doctor is still in mortal peril somewhere down the line, Amy is Schrodinger-style preggers but early days yet, and the time is ripe for an episode within that quiet time to tell a story about a madman, and his box.

Neil Gaiman has written what can only be described as a love letter to DOCTOR WHO and its mythos. He has come up with a clever idea that will show the Doctor as bare bones as we’ve yet seen him (Matt Smith’s Doctor that is). This episode eats at the core of what it is that makes the Doctor so lonely, and what it actually means to be the Last of the Timelords.

The Doctor gets a message from what appears to be another timelord, a living one! So the TARDIS crew head in search of it, but it takes them out of the Universe and into a bubble on the outside of it, in which is a spaceship graveyard…that seems to have the remnants of many TARDIS’s. There are patchwork people living there, and a deep booming voice controlling things as well. When the Doctor and Co. arrive though, they not only find things to not be as they thought, but that his own TARDIS’s  matrix has been drained out of her.

It’s not until a little while later that you realize what has happened. These patchwork people are being used as receptacles by the sentience of the junkyard/graveyard to implant TARDIS matrixes into, and Idris (played exquisitely by Suranne Jones) is where the Doctor’s TARDIS has gone. As the episode plays out, the Doctor becomes aware of the fact that Idris is a human embodiment of his ships’ personality and things just get amazing from minute to minute. They argue, they make jokes together, she ponders a name (he’s called her Sexy in the past) and she knows…well pretty much everything. She also swears that it was actually SHE that stole herself a timelord, and not him who stole a TARDIS at all. That was charming indeed.

All the Neil Gaiman staples are represented here: Patchwork people, monikers instead of names (Uncle, Mother), shadows and creepyness and even the dialogue rings true to Gaiman’s style and I loved every second of it. Gaiman also writes the Doctor VERY well. As a fan I am sure he has learned his mannerisms, the quirky nature of our intrepid Gallifreyan seems to fit like a perfect puzzle piece with Gaiman’s whimsical, scattershot writing.

The lost in the TARDIS corridor stuff with Amy and Rory stuck in a kidnapped TARDIS was fun and spooky at times…but they kind of killed Rory (Kenny) again…but I give Gaiman a pass on that since he wrote it before they ever killed Rory in the first place last season. Michael Sheen, it should also be mentioned, does a great job as the disembodied voice/sentience that likes to kidnap and drink TARDIS energy.

Oh, and Idris sending mental messages to Rory was pricelessly hilarious.

I think what steals the show though is Matt Smith and Suranne Jones scene in the TARDIS near the end. This is the first time the Doctor really reveals a deep, heavy emotion and it’s so well done and yet so simple that I can’t help but be in awe a little.

This is probably in my top 3 favourite episodes of the Matt Smith-era (along with THE ELEVENTH HOUR and VINCENT & THE DOCTOR) now. Neil Gaiman, a self-professed fan of the show, has written a wonderful episode that with a fairly simply story gives fans an hour of television that serves to remind us just why it is that we watch this show.