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 Re-Watch: Series 2, Episode 1 - The Christmas Invasion

Ah THE CHRISTMAS INVASION, thou art a weird duck. The first episode of Series 2, the first full episode with David Tennant in the lead as the 10th Doctor is quite good. But it’s still an odd duck since it’s technically what will come to be called a Doctor-lite episode down the line.

Sidenote: Doctor-lite: These are episodes that existed during the tight shooting schedule when David and Billie or down the road Freema or Catherine would be shooting other episodes and the need to get done more shooting in less time was high (this is info I’ve gleaned from Russell T. Davies book A WRITER’S TALE, which is a must-read if you are at all interested in the behind the scenes of the show) so they would craft an episode that only marginally included the Doctor (prime examples are BLINK, and LOVE & MONSTERS).

THE CHRISTMAS INVASION is a different type of this because it wasn’t a scheduling conflict that made it be Doctor-lite but rather the fact that the violent and taxing process of the 9th Doctor’s regeneration into the 10th Doctor had left the Time Lord bedridden and unconscious for the majority of the running time.

Where the episode benefits from this most is in the fact that Rose Tyler, her mum Jackie and her boyfriend Mickey Smith get a chance to really shine front and center solving a large part of the mystery in the narrative (this time an invasion of the Sycorax) on their own before the Doctor even wakes up.

Let’s get the plot out of the way, which for a Christmas Special is serviceable, if one of the more lackluster ones from the stellar Series 2. While the Doctor is convalescing, Rose and Mickey go Christmas shopping, only to be attacked by Santa robots! When they escape home the Doctor briefly wakes only to defeat the robots and mention it’s the residual regeneration energy that is drawing the things to him. Prime Minister Harriet Jones (whom you’ll all recall became Prime Minister after the incident with the Slitheen in Series 1) has sent a probe into space to Mars, but little known to her it has been gobbled up by the Sycorax warship on its way to earth to invade. The Sycorax arrive and hypnotize people all over London to position themselves on the tops of buildings with the threat that they will make the humans jump if those in charge don’t surrender half the human population to the aliens to become their slaves. This plotline slowly gets undone by the discovery that all the hypnotized humans have the same blood type (that of the type that was on the probe the ship gobbled up), and the eventual moving of the Doctor to the TARDIS where he finally wakes. Upon learning of the plot, the Doctor challenges the Sycorax leader to a swordfight (in borrowed pajama’s yet!) where he subsequently loses his hand. Being so close to the tail end of his regeneration though the hand grows back, and the Doctor is able to vanquish the leader in the confusion. Pretty standard stuff, but not at all unpalatable either. Decent and entertaining, if kind of a prologue to the rest of the Series.

Like I said above though, the spot where this ep shines best is with Rose and Co. All three of them spend a lot of time trying to come to terms with the regeneration, since the idea of it is so alien to them as humans. This person seems to be the same on some levels, but on most others including his looks he is also quite different.  There is a CORE that makes him a Time Lord and some very specific rules he follows, but otherwise all bets are off. The 9th Doctor is gone and in his place is a stranger. Compound this with the adoration that Rose had already begun to have for the 9th Doctor, this further complicates her own feelings. Imagine falling for someone only to have them change their face and parts of their personality. It would be bizarre to say the very least. Both Jackie and Mickey have an equally difficult time with it, but naturally on a different level than Rose. I think Jackie's reaction is probably the funniest (though that's usually the case with Camille Coduri's spot on delivery of lines) since she is truly baffled by this turn of events. I’ve always maintained that this is one of the areas where Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor missed a bit of a boat as he was freshly introduced to Amy Pond without her having known him before. I like the fact that companions have to deal with regeneration like Rose & Co. do here, and it hearkens back to Adric, Nyssa and Tegan having to see the 4th Doctor regenerate into the 5th, and again later when Peri watched the 5th regenerate into the 6th at the end of the CAVES OF THE ANDROZANI.

Now, it’s no secret that David Tennant is my favourite Doctor. I'm a card carrying, die-hard, flag waving, David Tennant fan. He likely always will be, and so THE CHRISTMAS INVASION holds a special place in my heart as his proper introduction, but there is a part of me that wishes he was in it more. That said, his scenes in the finale are very good and you can see where he is headed as the Doctor. Over the next few eps he will begin to solidify both his final look (with hair all “sticky uppy” as Wilfred Mott would call it later), his mannerisms and his personality, but in this ep he gets his wardrobe (Brown and Blue suits, plus Chuck Taylors and a long brown coat) which would become so iconic that I have personally cosplayed as him twice.

Next Time: We get more meat with the latest Doctor when he and Rose visit a future New York in NEW EARTH.

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.

Movie Musings: FRIGHT NIGHT

A kind of brainless teenage vampire film aimed at teens who were lucky enough to avoid the TWILIGHT phenomenon but still prefer their vampires to be better than average in the looks department.

There’s nothing really new here. Vampire drinks blood, turns neighbourhood into vampires, fends off hero vampire-slayer type.

A bit of a disappointment to see Oscar-nominee Toni Collette in the tough Mom role, playing strong and spunky until she needs to be shuffled offscreen for a bit in order to let our 20-something teen hero save the day, er, night. Colin Farrell is all over the map in his career choices so he gets a pass. But when you’ve got someone like Toni Collette looking for work…generic maternal figurejust seems beneath her.

Oh and FRIGHT NIGHT also does that gahd-awful hackneyed 3D thing where shit comes flying really quickly towards the screen to try and freak you out and maybe justify that extra money spent on yer ticket.

Crosses! Motorcycles! Paint cans! Things you always wanted coming zipping towards your eyeballs can all be found HERE!

But you know what, FRIGHT NIGHT does have David Tennant doing his thing. It was kind of like watching a lost DOCTOR WHO episode, only one where the Doc walks around with his shirt off an awful lot, boozing it up and not afraid to use salty language if given a chance.

Fun but fluffy.

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?