Doctor Who ‘The Giggle’

Where to begin…

The entire world is going mad through as thinly veiled jab at online forums only we barely see any fallout from this aside from litter and the occasional traffic obstruction.

References to cancel culture, anti-vaxxers, online dating and “kids with their joysticks” (someone tell Davies it’s not 1978).

Some bizarre image that never existed infected every single TV screen ever with a sinister giggle.

More past companions are hired by SHIE-er… UNIT.

A reference to a missing story with Neal Patrick Harris playing a reject from Cabaret.

Donna (or Shouty McWorkingClass, as I call her) knows computer logic now.

The Doctor totally loses his cool and has a series of near nervous breakdowns as Tennant place him as being totally unhinged.

Davies rewrites the rules of regeneration (again) and the new Doctor uses ‘Toymaker magic’ to create a duplicate TARDIS all ready for the new spinoff.

The Toymaker is defeated by a game of catch (I cannot believe Davies tried to make that dynamic… it’s catch) and even though the Giggle is erased, many are dead which doesn’t add up but nothing in this story does.

More awkward gender politics and of course she’s vegan. Equally awkward racial statements (‘do you come in a variety of colors?’).

Ncuti was quite good, though Donna’s joke ‘Do you come in a variety of colors?’ was worrying. How will Davies write for Gatwa?

If you’re thinking this should have been better written, so could the episode. As poor as the previous two were, this one was the worst of the lot. There was nothing celebratory about any of these specials and if the 60th episodes and the ‘Goblin Song’ are what we should judge this new era by, I think I may just sit this one out.

Doctor Who -Wild Blue Yonder

Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi series in television, is celebrating its 60th anniversary with three specials by once show runner Russell T Davies. The program has survived the 60 long years through innovation and self-recreation; re-inventing itself every few years with a new producer, script editor and lead actor. This is the second time a past producer has returned and this time it was in the face of cancellation as the ratings for the past three seasons (and specials) were quite poor. I posit that this had less to do with the quality of the program and more to do with the lack of promotion and distribution alongside fair weather fans who had jumped ship as each led actor had departed. In fact, many of the current viewers have stated that they had stopped watching 15 years ago and are only tuning in now as fan favorite David Tennant had returned to the role.

The previous week’s special was a (very) loose adaptation of the comic strip The Star Beast. The latest special was wrapped in secrecy with only Tennant and Davies expressing great anticipation of the viewers’ reaction to what they promised to be an altogether unique and “shocking” adventure. Shortly before it aired, Davies stated it was one of the greatest experiences of his life. So… stakes were quite high. As there had been nothing very celebratory so fr in the specials and the final installment was known to feature the Celestial Toymaker, rumors flew far and wide that Wild Blue Yonder would feature past Doctor Who actors Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi (previous anniversaries had united past Doctors on screen)… but nothing doing.

Wild Blue Yonder is yet again poorly written, lazily produced and cheaply directed. A story set aboard a spacecraft on the edge of the known universe, the first 12 whole minutes are spent recycling three facts; Donna is concerned that her family are waiting for her, they have lost the TARDIS and they don’t know where they are. These facts are regurgitated endlessly as if the audience has experienced a concussion. The lead actors wander around a green screen environment consisting of poorly conceived cgi imagery and chat to each other about the song “Wild Blue Yonder.” For a program that was hinted at being the most exciting and shocking yet and possessing the largest budget that it had ever seen, it looked incredibly cheap.

I have been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation at night recently and the award winning series has not disappointed. Each installment has been impressive with its storytelling, character development and top notch special effects. Given that it ran for roughly 23-26 episodes a season, not all of the stories are mind blowing but at worst it is gripping drama. The latest episode I watched was “Schisms,” a mystery that slowly developed. It starts with Commander Rider experiencing difficulty sleeping. He becomes increasingly on edge and out of sorts and soon more crew members aboard the Enterprise report similar symptoms. Ship counselor Troi brings the affected crew members to the holodeck where they compare notes on what they can recall about their lost time and scant memories. Using the ship computer’s hard light holograms, they recreate the dream scenario and are left with an examination table complete with surgical apparatus. It’s a chilling moment and slowly unravels the plot in front of the audience’s eyes.

That’s how you tell a mystery; have the characters slowly unravel the clues with plenty of mood and atmosphere while maintaining a high level of sophistication and drama. Wild Blue Yonder simply has the characters chatter at each other nervously and discover magic buttons that assist them in solving the mystery.

Soon, the pair are separated (for no clear reason- Donna suddenly pleads with the Doctor to not leave her when she could have simply left with him) and each is joined by a duplicate of the other. Even though the duplicates (or No-Things as the subtitles describe them) are in plain sight, they have exceedingly long arms, a visual trick achieved by very dodgy looking visual effects. Davies falls back on ‘quirky’ dialog with the line “my arms are too long” repeated several times before the Doctor and Donna realize that they are in the company of some alien being.

The pair rejoin each other then are chased by the creatures which distort into mammoth monster parodies of themselves. In fact, that term suits this episode quite well; parody. While watching this episode I had great difficulty hearing the dialog as the lead actors mumbled and the score played over their words. I also had my patience tried as the plot was stretched out painfully over the long running time. This was the celebratory set of specials and we were being “treated” to a trumped up theatrical two-hander on a green screen soundstage. At one point, The Doctor and Donna are separated between several floors and the Doctor appears to descend a ladder… onto the same set with the same camera angle. My son and I howled with laughter at this. At another point, Donna experiences a “jump scare” as a door closes on its own. The “scare” was so poorly made that I was more perturbed by the laundry I needed rot tackle that weekend. There was no tension, no drama and no danger as the pair of actors scurried about a small series of sets and yammered at each other, trying to work out the mystery.

As was evident in his previous turn as show runner, this story is a first draft. It could benefit from tightening up, adding some more danger or intrigue along with drama. The end result is a poorly written and cheaply made episode that made me embarrassed for the program. I kept thinking that a friend would mistakenly see this and realize that I am a huge Doctor Who fan and wonder if there was something wrong with me for loving something like this so much.

Both Tennant and Tate play the Doctor and Donna along with the No-Thing duplicates and try to act all sinister and evil; contorting their bodies, growing scary vampire teeth and behaving in a bestial manner. It’s all terribly embarrassing as they overact to the moon and back and lost all integrity.

There is a kid to the previous season as the duplicate No-Thing Donna acquires the Doctor’s memories and talks to him about the past fifteen years (surely to was far longer for the Doctor) and how he not only discovered his true origins but also experienced the Flux that destroyed a great portion of creation. Both are sterling stories that I quite enjoyed and fans have been split as to how or of Davies would acknowledge them. Disappointingly, he simply jury-rigs both story ideas into the new Time War and has the Doctor express intense grief and responsibility over the Flux. What a waste.

The quirky adventure ends (just as The Star Beast did) with a magic button press and the TARDIS magically appearing in the air as “Wild Blue Yonder” is belted out. Eventually, the Doctor and Donna escape and are on their way to another adventure. They land on contemporary London where they encounter Donna’s granddad, Wilf, who had been waiting for them. This is a heart string-tugging moment as the actor Bernard Cribbins (who had previously appeared on not only the new series but one of the 1960s feature films). Soon after the reunion, all hell breaks loose and Wilf pleads with the Doctor to do something. This is almost exactly like the End of Time finale many years ago when the Master took over the world.

There are no new ideas in Davies’ head. He had stated that he *had* to return to Doctor Who as he had so many more stories to tell but Wild Blue Yonder is a mishmash of several old ideas we had already seen before told with computer effects that are not up to snuff with today’s top sci-fi programs. There is a classic Doctor Who story called Underworld that was almost entirely shot on green screen to save money and Wild Blue Yonder is essentially the 21st century answer to that experiment.

I am not against experimental stories or two-handers, but have some ability to tell a compelling adventure is all I ask. Don’t have the characters rehash facts over and over as if you are trying to desperately fill up the run time and don’t try to fill the production with computer trickery unless you are sure it looks impressive.

This is hardly a celebratory adventure. It’s filler to kill time before the finale. As my son put it “this is great because it completely empties your head before the next episode!” and that sums things up quite well. This was a vapid experience that meant nothing and did nothing with its time.

And the less said about the “mavity” joke and Sir Issac Newton opener, the better.

One out of ten. Total waste.

Big changes on the way for Doctor Who and a familiar face returns

Doctor Who was once a sad program screened late at night on public television (that’s free TV). It featured wobbly sets, scripts full of action and ideas, reputable actors of stage and screen along with fully functioning robots that screamed and rolled their eyes. It was a cult series that attracted roughly 4 million viewers on a bad day. It lasted from 1963-1989 when it was thought lost forever (the 1996 film doesn’t count… unless Moffat says so).

Since it’s return from obscurity in 2005, Doctor Who has grown from strength to strength with each successive series. Record viewing figures in BBC America where it trounced Top Gear and reruns of Are You Being Served? have made it a massive success in the United States while the BBC Wales production continues to air every week in its native land. But each year, the Doctor Who production team has taken chances, sometimes bold ones, such as setting the series in England, casting a woman as the companion or allowing comedian Peter Kay to appear on screen.

But this coming year will be the big game-changer. Producer and head writer Steven Moffat has been keeping all the secrets under wraps but a member of the catering staff stole a copy of his hard drive so the cat is out of the bag.

Get ready…

Logo by jjbkwrm1991

2015/16’s ninth series will be the biggest yet with a year-long thread called ‘The Search for Gallifrey.’ Viewers may recall that the Doctor discovered the location of the home of the Time Lords last year, but the villainous Missy has protected it with a temporal scatter field. As he approaches his goal, the Doctor will become fractured in the time stream, causing him to regress into previous incarnations.

The series opener ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ will introduce the new companion, Manny (played by famed Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao), a vampire-hunter from the 16th century trapped in the basement of a Harrod’s in the East End of London.

Story number two will center on Stephen Fry’s script (delayed since 2005), ‘The Man in the Ant Hill,’ will see the return of the Zarbi in what promises to be the most unforgettable adventure.

This story will be a thinly veiled stab at comedian and newscaster Russell Brand. Dialog for the evil force controlling the Zarbi known only as the Animus will be made up of old Brand material and his features will be digitally hidden in the monster’s face for eagle-eyed viewers.

In the third story, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties,’ written by Neil Gaiman, David Tennant will once more wield the controls of the TARDIS. Details are few, but they involve an exclusive cocktail lounge in limbo run by River Song. From there, the search for Gallifrey picks up steam when the TARDIS is caught in a temporal funnel, returning the Tenth Doctor to his timeline. Neal Gaimen’s script is of course top secret, but passers by have reported that a musical number could be heard booming from the recording studio. The Pet Shop Boys, Moffet’s favorite band, are rumored to have recorded a new song for the special, a cover of the Nilsson/Lennon song ‘Many Rivers to Cross.’

David Tennant has regrown his popular ponytail for his hotly anticipated return.

The TARDIS is trapped in Canada for the fourth script ‘Caverns of Alberta’ by the creator of Father Ted, Black Books and the IT Crowd, Graham Linehan This will see the return of the Ice Warriors and also feature Rowan Atkinson as the Valeyard, the Doctor’s evil twin.
In this story, the Doctor is again briefly reverted to a previous incarnation, a specially computer-generated version of Sylvester McCoy. The Valeyard and the Seventh Doctor have a duel on mopeds through the streets of Alberta. This episode will also be the first time Doctor Who was filmed in Canada!
The series will see a major climax in the Christmas Special ‘The Advent of Evil’ when the Doctor reaches Gallifrey only to confront the Curator played by Tom Baker (previously seen in Day of the Doctor). This was Moffat’s long game, forcing the Doctor to face his past and future all at once.

In a battle of wills, the Doctor and Curator play a game of cosmic chess, the Doctor using past companions and the Curator old foes such as the Family of Blood, Max Capricorn (from Voyage of the Damned), The Empress of the Racnoss (from Runaway Bride) and the evil Miss Foster from Partners in Crime.

Tom Baker as the Curator with his Cybermen bodyguards

This will all lead to a mid-series shift in producer from Moffatt to… Guillermo Del Toro. Del Toro has been working along with Mofat for years in secret and his reign promises to be the most exciting and dynamic to date.
Peter Capaldi, having recently signed on for a third year on the program after the announcement of Maffet’s departure, is thrilled for what is to come. Del Toro reportedly has plans to ‘sort out the Cybermen‘ and return the silver giants of old to Doctor Who, much to Capaldi’s delight. Through special arrangement, K-9 will also be back in the TARDIS in 2016.

Happy April Fool’s Day.

Read more Doctor Who reviews

So you wanna watch Doctor Who?

With the announcement of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor Who, there is an influx of new viewers clamoring at the screen just as there are many devoted fans screaming that they will never watch again.

Doctor Who has been described as a ‘madman with a box’ or a fairy tale in which the hero travels through a magic door into a new adventure each week… but that’s really not true, For a time, the Doctor was exiled on Earth, or on a mission from the White Guardian, or on a systematically wiping out his enemies. It has also been a wholly historical, purely whimsical and deeply disturbing program influenced by Hammer Horror movies.

Doctor Who is a lot of different things to different people. So, in my own small way, here is a suggested watch list to prepare you for the next year.

Everything up to season six is on Netflix. There will likely be a marathon of season 7 on BBC America leading up to the next special.

Tier One- ‘Need to Know’

– The arrival of Matt Smith as the Doctor and head writer/producer Steven Moffat meant a paradigm shift for the program. It also meant a hard reset for new viewers. To hammer home this point, for his first finale, Moffat re-initiated the Big Bang. If you want to be prepared for the new guy based only on the previous guy… this’ll do.

The Eleventh Doctor- Matt Smith

“The Eleventh Hour”-Matt Smith hits the ground running as the 11th Doctor. Additionally, Any Pond is introduced, a companion who would become vitally important over the next three years. The story is pretty basic, but it’s Smiths performance that makes this one so important and the shift from one approach as Moffat imitates Davies to a new one when Moffat develops his own style.

“The Time of Angels”
“Flesh and Stone”-The Weeping Angels and the time-travelling River Song both feature in this story which is fill of ropy ideas and horrific monsters. Again, Smith holds this one together and Karen Gillan is stellar as Amy.

“The Pandorica Opens”
“The Big Bang”-The first big finale, this story wraps together a year’s worth of story lines all about the explosion of the TARDIS. This is key to the workings of New Who as each year seems to include an overarching story that is concluded at the end… kinda.

I skipped a lot here because so much of the intervening years were missable and centered on incredibly convoluted ideas. You’d thank me if you knew. 

“Cold War”-There are so few stories this past year that I would recommend, but this one is quite good and features David Warner, references to 80’s pop and the Ice Warriors. While it doesn’t exactly have any key concepts of the program it’s a great story and shouldn’t be missed.

“The Name of the Doctor”-The most recent cliffhanger is almost beyond description. It’s all a run around of cobbled together ideas and weird references to the classic program. But if you want to be in on what’s going on when you watch the next special (and you do), you need to see this one.

Tier Two- ‘Best of the Past Seven Years’

– A total of 82 stories have aired since Doctor Who came back in 2005. This was such a different take on the program that it is referred to as series 1-7 rather than 27 and up, picking up the numbering from the 1989 series.

I have lots of issues with the new series, from the acting to the casting to the writing and special effects, so if you are a fan and are reading this… close your eyes.

The list is still a bit long… so I have noted some choices that are debatable.

“Rose”– It’s a no-brainer, but the series premiere resets the entire franchise for a new audience.The Doctor is an entirely new character -a tragically damaged soul who survived a catastrophe which cost the lives of so many alien cultures he would encounter in the year to come. The tone of the program is new as well, blending pop culture, humor with a whimsical sense of adventure and fantasy. Oh and Rose is in it. She was the first companion to be more important than the Doctor for the next four years.

The Ninth Doctor – Christopher Eccleston

“Dalek”– Everything you need to know about Daleks in one episode. This one is key because it reintroduces the most memorable foe from the classic series and with so much adoration and attention in Gareth Robert’s script. If you are going to watch Doctor Who, you need to know what a Dalek is.

Debatable-“The Empty Child”/“The Doctor Dances”– Written by Hugo award-winning author and future show-runner Steven Moffat, this is regarded as the first real hit of the new series. Set in WWII, the Doctor tracks a canister through the space-time vortex only to encounter the rogue-ish Captain Jack Harkness. A young girl named Nancy is attempting to maintain order for the many orphans in bombed-out London. A strange virus seems to be transforming everyone into monstrous gas mask-wearing zombies who lurch toward their victims with the weirdest battle cry ever, ‘Are you my mummy?’

This really is a superb story with relatively few flaws. It also gives Christopher Eccleston plenty to do and boy does he shine.

Debatable-“The Parting of the Ways”- I refuse to recommend part one of this story as it is so poor. The second part has the first regeneration of the series, so it is important for that fact, but you can glean much of this from the next episode. It also features the first major ‘magic button’ resolution which would become all too familiar in the following years as the Daleks are whisked out of existence… only to return again and again.

“The Christmas Invasion”– The first regeneration story, this one is key on many levels. The Doctor is remade from an emotionally scarred being into a sexy and flippant being with god-like powers. So much what’s to come is hinted at here from the Doctor being a sex symbol, to the Earth invasion and the focus on Rose’s family.

Oh, and David Tennant also takes over as the Tenth Doctor Who and would be regaled as the most important and popular actor to play the part… ever.

The Tenth Doctor – David Tennant

“School Reunion”– The return of two previous companions and the confirmation of several key factors of the classic Doctor’s past make this episode important. It also features some guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Debatable-“Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel”-The TARDIS ends up in a parallel universe where… blimps float about. Honestly, there are very few differences other than that and the fact that Rose’s dad is alive. The story is meant to reinvent the Cybermen, the second most popular monster after the Daleks, and in some ways it succeeds in this regard. However, the story loses its focus quickly and instead ends up being all about, you guessed it, Rose.

Debatable-“The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit”- This remains one of my favorite stories in the Tennant era. One of the few stories set on another planet, the visuals in this story are stunning. The Ood are introduced as an alien race who later become somewhat important. A planetoid is impossibly in orbit around a black hole. A skeleton crew mans the station with the assistance of the Ood, a slave race. Deep within the ‘impossible planet’, a strange being yearns for release.

Voiced by the great Gabriel Woolf who starred earlier as Sutekh in the Tom Baker classic serial Pyramids of Mars, the ‘Beast’ is a monster so impressive that head writer/producer Russell T Davies had no idea what it would look like.

Sadly the second part suffers greatly as the quality dips, possibly due to massive rewrites in the script. All I know is that the author refused to talk to the press afterwards and never returned. Davies admitted that he was at a loss to the identity of the Beast, which always struck me as odd as he didn’t write this one, leading me to think that he rewrote this one and made a mess of it. Additionally, the guest cast ids phenomenal, including Will Thorp, the lovely Claire Rushbrook, Danny Webb, Shaun Parks and the adorable MyAnna Buring. There’s a lot of repetition in this story by way of exposition that will have you screaming at the TV, but it’s still quite atmospheric and the first genuinely scary story of New Who.

Don’t be distracted by Rose’s weird giant eyes and mouth… or excessive makeup and bad dye job.

“Doomsday”– The Daleks and Cybermen fight each other… but all of this is sidelined by… you guessed it… Rose. Granted, there are a lot of Daleks and Cybermen fighting each other, but they do almost nothing in the end and despite the ‘magic button’ ending, it all pales in comparison to the excessively long closing scene in which Rose makes what many of my male friends have referred to as ‘the face’ when she sobs her way out of the series.

Debatable- “Human Nature”/”The Family of Blood”- One of the most loved of the Tennant era, this story is an adaptation of a novel that was released when the program was off the air in the 1990’s. In the book, the Doctor felt the need to punish himself and also discover his humanity and empathy. Thus he becomes a school teacher in a small English town and falls in love.

The reasoning is less clear in the televised version, but the production value is superb… in part one. Part two takes a nose-dive but even so this remains a moving story that is regarded as the finest material of the new program. It does feature another of those moments where the Doctor plays God and brutally murders his opponents which is interesting and actually pays off in The End of Time. Tennant is really in amazing form here and gives what is likely his best performance as the Doctor in this story. Jessica Hynes of Spaced fame is also a welcome guest star. When fans were polled, this story ranked among the most popular and for good reason.

Debatable- “The Sound of Drums”/ “Last of the Time Lords”-The Doctor has gone through much of the series claiming to be the last of the Time Lords, but in this story we discover that he is very very mistaken. The villainous Master has escaped the Time War, just like the Doctor, and has concocted a mad revenge tactic using the Doctor’s favorite people, humans. There was a lot of anticipation for this one and in the end it was a bit rubbish. But seeing as how the Master is so important in the next story and he doesn’t appear in any other stories, I am including it here. There are so many dire dire moments such as the Master’s iTunes playlist, but what can you do?

Even the most devoted fan of Doctor Who and David Tennant found this one excessive. But if you really want to appreciate how the program can change so drastically, this one needs to be seen.

This story also challenges the limitations of the ‘magic button’ to the extreme.

New companion Martha Jones was a welcome change from Rose… but she is largely overlooked by fandom.

“Silence in the Library”/ “Forest of the Dead”-Where would we be without River Song? This character challenges the importance of the Doctor that you may find yourself saying ‘Rose who?’ as she ended up taking precedence over all other concepts. In fairness, this story does have a decent monster, but they can’t harm the Doctor thanks to the script and that magic device, the sonic screwdriver.

Pay no attention to the new companion Donna.

“The End of Time”– The big big finale that saw the exit of David Tennant and Russell T Davies. This followed a series of ‘specials’ that are all mostly miss-able. This story is so absurd that it needs to be seen to be believed. The Doctor and the Master actually exchange what appear to be force lightning bolts from Star Wars and the Master eats a lot… no kidding.

The Master – John Simm

Despite its massive success (and given the amount of press it receives on a regular basis in the US, it is definitely no longer a cult TV phenomenon), fans have become frustrated with the lack of quality in the program.  The longer it has run, the more the new series has been cited for sloppy scripts that fail to properly set up challenges for the Doctor, fail to resolve them properly and also seem to find difficulty in using the resources at hand. Currently head writer Steven Moffat has come under fire for setting up impossible conclusions to conundrums that are absurdly steeped in confusion and over-writing. The concept of death also seems to be beyond the understanding of Doctor Who, as nearly every character who has died has returned to life…. several times.

Compared to the woefully limited amount of funds and time that produced the jaw-dropping Daleks in 1963 or Talons of Weng Chiang in 1977, the new series has no real excuse to not create an amazing classic each week. The impediment seems to be, again- IN MY OPINION, the point of view of the head writer/producer. While Davies saw the Doctor as perpetually looking for love, Moffat sees the Doctor as a magical imp capable of nearly anything. The need to market Doctor Who to a tween audience is also a handicap that the BBC seems reluctant to change. Compare this to the 1960’s when the series was a family program or to the mid-late 1970’s when the script editor/producer saw the benefit of writing to an older audience and you can see how Doctor Who can be so many different things.

Tier Three- ‘Tell Me Everything’

– Ok. You have watched everything in the above list and you want to know more. Maybe you got hooked and want to delve into the classic series. This is frankly where my heart lives, so I am biased. Sure, it’s flawed and sure the quality control is all over the place but at its heart it was a ground-breaking TV series where innovations in special effects, music and production were being made.

Here’s a list of my personal favorites mixed with some stories that are important in understanding the program as a whole or getting a taste of the different eras and approaches that were taken throughout the 26 year-long run. Some of these are available streaming, but you may need to find VHS tapes or borrow DVDs of the others from some well-meaning Whovian.

The First Doctor- William Hartnell

The First Doctor – William Hartnell 1963-1967
An Unearthly Child
The Daleks
The Aztecs
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The War Machines

The Second Doctor- Patrick Troughton

The Second Doctor – Patrick Troughton 1967-1969
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Mind Robber
The Seeds of Death

The Third Doctor- Jon Pertwee

The Third Doctor – Jon Pertwee 1970-1974
Spearhead from Space
Terror of the Autons
The Dæmons
Day of the Daleks
The Time Warrior

The Fourth Doctor- Tom Baker

The Fourth Doctor – Tom Baker 1974-1981
Genesis of the Daleks
Terror of the Zygons
Pyramids of Mars
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Image of the Fendahl
City of Death
Warriors’ Gate

The Fifth Doctor Peter Davison

The Fifth Doctor – Peter Davison 1981-83
Castrovalva

Kinda
The Visitation
Earthshock

       Enlightenment

Frontios

The Caves of Androzani

The Sixth Doctor- Colin Baker

The Sixth Doctor – Colin Bakrr 1983-85

Attack of the Cybermen
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors

Mysterious Planet (Trial of a Timelord parts one through four)

The Seventh Doctor- Sylvester Mccoy

The Seventh Doctor – Sylvester McCoy 1987-89
Remembrance of the Daleks
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Ghostlight
Curse of Fenric 

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

What started as a rather ingenious method of bridging the Eccleston era to the arrival of David Tennant and his massive teeth, the Doctor Who Christmas Special is now a yearly tradition. Make of it what you will, but it’s a nice notion that families are gathered ’round the telly watching the good Doctor.

Last year Steven Moffat wrote the most ‘Christamssy’ story ever with an homage to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This year, it’s time for another homage to CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Bill Bailey (of Black Books) co-stars in what looks to be a fanciful adventure set in an old house in war time 1941. But nothing is what it seems as one child wanders into a wintry world complete with woodland creatures and armored soldiers.

Evacuated to a house in Dorset from war-torn London, Madge Arwell and her two children, Lily and Cyril, are greeted by a madcap caretaker whose mysterious Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world.

(Via GeeksofDoom)

Bonus, Matt Smith interviewed on Breakfast Time about auctioning his clothes, the next series, and the upcoming 50th Anniversary.

What’s your take on the trailer?

Vote below!

No limits for new Doctor Who

He may be time’s champion, but the Doctor can only cheat death so many times. After watching the lead of the cult BBC series Doctor Who be reborn 3 times, it was explained that this occurrence has a finite number of successes. Since 1976, it was thought that Timelords had a limitation on how many times they can regenerate. A recent article in the Radio Times (http://www.radiotimes.com/blogs/1062-doctor-who-regenerate-immortal-12-times-13-lives/) reveals that in an upcoming Sarah Jane Smith adventure penned by popular Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies, this is no longer the case:

Time Lords could only regenerate 12 times – until now, it seems, when we have Matt Smith starring as the Eleventh Doctor. The rule, established and repeated over 25 years of the show, now appears to have been revoked with an aside in the spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures.

In a two-part story called The Death of the Doctor, in response to Clyde’s (Daniel Anthony) questions about regeneration, the Doctor gives a far higher figure for the number of times he can change than the Time Lords’ statutory 12.

There is a rather fascinating documentary on one of the Doctor Who DVDs that deals with the concept of regeneration, its origins and the rather odd ways in which the Doctor has changed his appearance throughout the program’s long history. Essentially, regeneration as a concept was picked up as a kind of mythological trapping much the same way other science fiction franchises had warp drive, the force and other such ideas.

For the first four Doctors, it was actually a rather complex idea that was more mercurial than it is now.

The 1st Doctor perishes due to the Cybermen’s attack on the Earth, draining the planet’s energy and also the Doctor’s life force. This regeneration is said to have been assistance of the TARDIS itself and was even thought of as a ‘rejuvenation’ rather than a regeneration for many years.

The 2nd Doctor’s regeneration is caused by the Timelords and is never really explained much beyond that. However, the 3rd Doctor is definitely a completely different persona.

The 3rd Doctor appears to be dying from massive doses of radiation in the Planet of the Spiders but is saved by another Timelord, K’anpo who ‘helps the regeneration process.’

In the 1976 adventure the Deadly Assassin, it is revealed that Timelords can only regenerate 12 times and that the Doctor’s rival known as The Master has used up all of his. Of course that doesn’t stop the Master from finding other ways to cheat death.

The 4th Doctor actually meets a spectre of his future self called the Watcher who merges with his dying body to start his rebirth as the younger 5th Doctor.

During the 5th Doctor’s era, the limitation of regeneration was brought up several times, all but cementing place that the Doctor could only regenerate 12 times and even that was dicey. In his final adventure, the 5th Doctor sacrifices his life to bravely save his companion Peri and states that he ‘may’ regenerate. The result is the aggressive and unstable 6th Doctor.

The 6th Doctor met a future self called the Valeyard who was described by the Master as ‘a distillation of all that this evil in the Doctor’ somewhere between his 12th and final incarnation. it’s important to note the script in which this bombshell was dropped on viewers was hastily written, so it shouldn’t really be analyzed too closely.

The modern Doctor Who series is content to make up rules as it goes along. The 10th Doctor, for instance somehow refuses to regenerate when he is shot by a Dalek and instead transfers the energy to his severed hand, cut off in the early stages of his 10th life.

Fans are confused about what to make of the 13 lives limitation as it pertains to the mythology of the program, but apparently we are in for more adventures for a very very long time… and that can’t be a bad thing.

Update: http://doctorno1.amplify.com/2010/10/14/sfx-lots-of-rubbish-about-regeneration/

Doctor Who – Loose Ends

With the current Doctor entering his 11th lease on life, I have to wonder if the program will attempt to tie up all the loose ends that lay dangling. Some of these are rather petty plot threads that may or may not occur to even a die-hard fan while others are quite important or just bug me. Some may seem obscure, but for a TV program that revived a monster that has not even been seen since 1966 and will likely never bee seen again (The Macra), I’m not really sure where to draw the line.

What happened when the Mandragora Helix tried to take over the Earth again?

In the 1976 adventure, the Masque of Mandragora, it is established that the villain is far from dead and will return to conquer the human race once more in the future at the tail end of the 20th Century. I know that there is a comic book story that addresses this, but there could be a cracking good tale for the new series here.

Is the Doctor really Merlin?

In the 1989 adventure ‘Battlefield,’ it is stated that the Doctor plays the role of Merlin on an alternate Earth in his own future. This could fall in the ‘yeah, but ___ is a terrible story, so who cares?’ category but again… remember the Macra and the current popularity of fantasy. Tennant’s Doctor was practically Harry Potter so it’s not a major leap.

Just what is the Valeyard?

What’s the deal with the Valeyard?

In the 1986 adventure Trial of a Timelord, audiences who stayed with the exceedingly long mult-part courtroom drama learned that the prosecuting attorney known as the Valeyard was actually the Doctor. A stunning and original idea it is also one of the most convoluted due to the explanation that the Master provides, describing the mincing lawyer as the distillation of all that is evil in the Doctor somewhere between his 12th and final regeneration. This could be one of the only real moments where as a viewer I bolted into attention to hear what was going on in 80’s Who. Since it was also intended to be the final Doctor Who adventure, it’s not surprising that this one is a tangled mess.

The role of the Valeyard was dealt with in the Virgin series of novels in the 1990’s and in audio adventures, but given the fact that one of those books (Paul Cornell’s ‘Human Nature’) was adapted into a televised adventure and head writer Russel T Davies disdain/pandering relationship with Who fandom it is very unclear if they are ‘canon.’

I’m still not sure if the Master’s dialog in The Trial of a Timelord implies that the last incarnation of the Doctor is the Valeyard or what… or if this will ever be addressed (or even if it should be).

Doctor #8 - Paul McGann

How did the Eight Doctor regenerate?

The 1996 TV movie had many flaws but Paul McGann was not one of them.  An excellent choice to play the role, he remains the only Doctor without a death scene. When the new series began in 2005 this wasn’t really an issue as it was unclear if it was a revival or continuation of the classic Doctor Who, but now that it has been confirmed as part of the 26-year long program, this detail really bugs me. I’d also love to see McGann get a chance to play the role again. Given his devotion to Doctor Who extending to a series of radio dramas (a fourth season is on its way on Big Finish!), I’d like to think he would be keen.

This could also be bundled into the ‘what happened during the Time War’ loose end but I think that is more of a plot convenience (similar to ‘the rift’ in Torchwood that spawns plot contrivances) rather than an actual event.

What is this?

What was in ‘The Pit’?

I know that the Doctor hints that the creature in ‘The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit’ is the Devil, but given that even the author and producer are unclear on what was in the pit, I feel this could be addressed better. Seeing as how well received the first part was, I’d love to see the new series team tackle this one.

What sent ‘The Wire’?

Not one of the better stories, but the Wire from ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’ wasn’t really the enemy, more of a weapon aimed at the planet Earth by some unnamed alien race. It seems strange that this was never investigated by the Doctor, but just looking at the number of loose threads I can think of off the top of my head, the new program isn’t really interested in closure.

What was the Shade that killed Elton’s mum?

The only interesting part of ‘Love & Monsters’ involves the fact that Elton’s mother was killed by an alien shadow that the Doctor was chasing. What was this thing and what was all that about? There’s a cracking story there and I’m surprised that it was never addressed.

What’s the deal with the Doctor’s ‘Daughter’?

Last seen in the eponymous episode, the soldier cloned from the Doctor’s DNA named Jenny was last seen miraculously recovering from a deadly wound only to jump into a spaceship and launch into a series of adventures. Jenny’s resemblance to the character of Rose (because RTD has a very limited view of character types) and the rumor that the actress (daughter of Doctor #5 Peter Davison) dated Tennant still creeps me out.

It’s also very bizarre that this episode feels like the pilot for a spin-off that never happened.

Like many of RTD’s dangling plots, I fully expect Jenny to have a large role in the last RTD story. However, remember that the idea of the Doctor’s daughter’s survival was Steven Moffat’s, so this may not be addressed until next year.

These are just a few, but there are many more.

Can you think of any?

Doctor Who – William Hartnell 1963-1966

It’s easy to take all of this for granted now, but imagine a time where there was no Doctor Who. No TARDIS, no Daleks, no Timelords and no Tom Baker.

Scary, isn’t it?

The creation of Doctor Who by Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert is a thing of genius, but it would have all been for naught without William Hartnell. A man shrouded in mystery almost as deep and dark as the character he portrayed on television, Hartnell was raised by his aunt in the city, never having known the identity of his father. Hartnell began his career in theater and later film as a kind of tough guy. Having only seen his performance as Doctor Who, it’s difficult to understand that he was typecast as a Sargeant Major-type from his many ‘Carry On’ films (a kind of prolonged Benny Hill routine), but the actor was getting fed up with the same act over and over.

After his stunning performance in the Mouse That Roared. he was asked to take part in a family adventure serial called Doctor Who. The ideas were sketchy at first, but if you look at the pilot episode, the program was rarely crisper or more scintillating than those first 23 minutes. We are introduced first to school teachers Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton before moving on to their strange student, Susan. They follow Susan home only to discover that ‘home’ is a junk yard guarded by a very cagey old man, played by Hartnell. After a brief exchange, it becomes clear that this old man knows more than he lets on and may be holding Susan in the strange blue box located in the center of the yard.

Hartnell’s performance is so unnerving that it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the school teachers are justified in their fears. The story progresses as the trio enter the confines of the box to rescue their student… and their world is tipped on its ear.

For an actor wishing to escape typecasting as tough guys, Hartnell stumbled into the most bizarre and challenging role of his career. He fully embraced the family-friendly elements of the program and during his reign as the Doctor took every opportunity possible to promote the TV show. A character who was at first so off-putting and unnerving in time became known as the grandfather viewers all wished they had for themselves.

Hartnell’s era remains the most inventive and risky of Doctor Who‘s history. One story would be a straight historical drama while the next was a sci-fi epic followed by a farcical comedy. There really was nothing that they could not do.

While many companions came and went during Hartnell’s stint as the Doctor, his initial pairing of Ian and Barbera remain the most favored. The staunch and determined Barbara paired with the noble and dashing unlikely hero Ian provided the perfect foils to this devious genius known only as ‘the Doctor.’

Stories of Hartnell‘s ailing health leading to his departure from the program are widely held as nonsense. Anyone who has seen his stunning last story, The Tenth Planet could tell you that there was life in the old bird yet. Truer to the point is the theory that he did not get on with the new production team lead by Innes Lloyd and wanted more money since the program was gaining an international reputation.

Whatever the case, Hartnell was the first and finest Doctor of them all. He embodied the alien intelligence and irascible charm that so many of his successors have touched upon, but more to the point, he just appeared to be impervious to harm. Like a walking talking comic book character, his Doctor was an unstoppable force of nature wrapped in a fragile old man’s body.

Were he alive today, he would be pleased to see that the program had regained its success in recent years… but my instincts tell me that he might feel that his successor David Tennant deserved to be taken down a peg… but that’s Billy.

Recommended:

Who’s There?: The Life and Career of William Hartnell (Doctor Who (BBC Hardcover))
Doctor Who – The Beginning Collection
Doctor Who – The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Doctor Who – The Aztecs
Doctor Who – Lost in Time Collection of Rare Episodes – The William Hartnell Years 1963-1966

Bille Piper back on Doctor Who for season four

METRO.co.uk
Billie chills on Doctor Who setby ANDREI HARMSWORTH – Friday, November 30, 2007Returning to the set of Doctor Who certainly sent shivers down Billie Piper’s spine.

The former teen sensation was forced to literally chill in the cool air of night, as she waited around to start filming the first of her three comeback episodes.

The star grimaced under the stars, rugging up in a large bomber jacket as filming for the BBC series got under way in Cardiff.

The 25-year-old is returning to the cult sci-fi temporarily as Doctor Who’s assistant Rose Tyler.

When she last left, her character was transported to a parallel universe.

Piper re-launched her career after receiving a cluster of TV awards for the role, including the Most Popular Actress award twice at the National Television Awards in 2005 and 2006.

Can’t say much for the current regime’s faith in Catherine Tate as the new companion given that both Freema and Billie are returning this year, can you?

Personally, I think it’s just desperate measures to retain viewers for the fourth season. This follows the pattern that Russell has set each year; S1: death of the 9th Doctor, S2: Billie leaves, S3: Martha leaves… S4: Billie returns.

Readers of this blog have made their opinion known that while many love Billie and would love to see her on the program again, her story has been told.  She became one with the universe, reunited her parents and managed to steal screen time from both the Daleks and Cybermen to profess her love to the Doctor. What more is left?

Another reason that I find this news so disappointing is that the classic series was rarely this into pulling stunts to pull viewers in. Granted, JNT was more than willing to film in Amsterdam or Spain to pull in viewers, but the program is very well respected.

It doesn’t need these kinds of gimmicks to pull in viewers… right?

TARDIS makes it into Oxford American Dictionary

New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Week:

Tardis, n.
 1 a time machine.
 2 a building or container that is larger inside than it appears to be
from outside.
 ORIGIN: the name (said to be an acronym from time and relative
dimensions in space) of a time machine that had the exterior of a
police telephone box in the British TV science-fiction series Doctor
Who, first broadcast in 1963.