Doctor Who - Silence in the Library

Spoilers!

Heh, I like using that this week. It suits the whole episode.

I actually dislike reviewing two parters. You’re only getting half of the story, and so far only questions. But what questions this week! We’ve got a mysterious little girl who seems to be able to control what’s happening to The Doctor and Donna. You have a library full of killer shadows and you have a Professor who has had past experience with The Doctor. Just that The Doctor hasn’t, just yet.

Steven Moffat, in his typical brilliant way, makes the most mundane things frightening. First he gives us the statues that kill when we blink, this time its the very shadows itself. To keep us guessing, we are also seeing a little girl who somehow is involved with this all. She sees the Doctor and Donna in her head, on her television, she can control what’s happening slightly with her remote control. I think I know where this is going, but I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for the time being.

Probably the most interesting part of it all is Professor River Song. An “acquaintance” of the Doctors, except The Doctor hasn’t met her yet in his timestream. I think she’s meant to be new Who’s version of Benny Summerfield. An archaeologist exploring ancient planets who the Doctor trusts with his life? Sounds like her to me. It’s a shame they couldn’t actually get Benny on the show (Lisa Bowerman would be awesome, I know it!) but I suppose a fresh start is always good. I hope to god they don’t kill the character off at the end so none of it doesn’t happen. I’m a fan of the New Adventures, having a reoccurring character like this would be fun. Next time they meet have her meet The Doctor for the first time, where he has to pretend they’ve never met .. And the hints of Donna not lasting till the end of the season, I kinda figured that. On the commentary of The Fires of Pompeii, Catherine talks about how she just had her final day, which tells me she’s not staying on. Which is a shame. She’s no Martha, but she’s had some great moments this year. Her horror of the young Red Shirt, I mean girl dying and the tech keeping her conscious alive for a few moments was sad.

So far so good. It felt a little too rushed, you think a two parter would have a little breathing time but obviously part two is as action packed as the last. Four outta five this week.

Neil, Steven and the good Doctor

First off, Have some Pork and Beans. (Thanks, Bloggasm!)

Secondly, with a week Doctor Who free (damn you, Eurovision!), we’ve have nothing but the mid season trailer (ps, awesome!) and lots of news. News is always being released for this show, but the past week has been especially good.

First off was the news that Steven Moffat is taking over Doctor Who once Russell T Davies leaves sometime in 2009. This is brilliant news. If you don’t know who he is, apart from making some of the best episodes of the new series, he’s also made some great TV in the past. From the creepy (but brilliant) sequel to Dr. Jeckyll and mr. Hyde, simply called Jekyll, to Coupling, one of the best comedy sitcoms for a long long time, to everyone over 20 favourite kids show, Press Gang. This guy has steadily made good TV for quite a while. The fact that he is a long time Dr. Who fan only makes this news better. People are all a-twitter over the news, that he’ll mix up the show and make it more in his image. I hardly think they’ll change such a successful formula (say what you like about RTD, he might make a weak ending but he has revitalised this show and made it popular for a whole new generation) but with Steven behind the wheel, I see just better things for the show in the future. Better Steven than just a TV writer who has never seen an episode before, hey?

Since this news, rumours are flying around about which writers will come to the show once the next proper 2010 season begins (2009 is a year of three specials, as David Tennant has other commitments. Better that than him leaving..). Warren Ellis quickly made his opinion (that’s not how it works were his direct words on his website) due to rumours, but the latest are Neil Gaiman. Yes, THAT Neil Gaiman. Neil has quite been happy to admit he’s a fan of the new series, writing on his blog how he watches with his daughter Maddy. He also has written for TV before (an episode of Babylon 5, the only one in the later period when the creator took over all creative input and wrote every episode), and he’s not confirming, or denying these rumours. He also writes Childrens books well, so it wouldn’t be too difficult a stretch to write something for Who. We can imagine, anyway. Two geeky things combined and probably the only way I could get my friend Julia to sit down and actually WATCH an episode of Dr. Who. Hah.

Thirdly, sorry about the links. You probably know all about this anyway, just thought I’d make sure

Portishead - Third

I think this is a great album. Electronic, dark, twisted, wonderful. Certainly not like Portishead of old. That’s a good thing! There’s nothing worse than a band who releases same album after same album (unless it’s AC-DC, but that’s different). I think they’re a little too late for this to be too shocking, but it works pretty darn well. It’s an interesting and different listen from most bands today.

Portishead in the present day, has one problem.

Its vocalist.

Beth Gibbons is wonderful singer, don’t get me wrong. Numb, Glory Box are some of my favourite songs from the 90s. Her vocals just don’t gel well with the more electronic stuff on this album. The more slower, acoustic tracks are really good but when it gets really interesting, there’s something not quite right about it all. I think it would of been a smarter move for this album to mix up the vocalists. Give her tracks like “Threads”, but bring other singers on some of the other tracks. Who knows, the celebrity cameos may have given the band more exposure and made those tracks a little better.

Still worth a listen. I can’t believe I took this long to suss it out.

The Unicorn and the Wasp

The Doctor and Martha travel back to the twenties, meet Agatha Christie and solve a murder mystery. All in a days work.

You know, the way they were hyping this episode, they made it sound like this would be the funniest episode of Doctor Who since the Douglas Adams days. Okay, there were a few moments that made me smile but I think the humour comes from the fact whether you’re an Agatha Christie fan or not, but I did like the style of the episode. It felt like something straight out of one her books. The big “finger pointing reveal” of each of the characters, the flashbacks (even The Doctor gets a flashback! hah!) and even the scary thunder. Very tongue-in-cheek than straight out giggles, like something out of Boom Town (that episode had some funny moments).

Of course aliens are involved. You know, I realise it is Doctor Who but for once it would of been interesting to see an episode revolve around just the characters. We really get to know all the characters in this episode, and we find out it’s an alien bee. Why couldn’t of it been like a proper mystery, and just be something do do with one of them, no alienthreats involved? Also the lady who played Agatha wasn’t that great, sorry. She played her part fine, she just wasn’t as good as some of the previous historical celebrities in the past, like Shakespeare, Dickens etc. The people who played them were truly memorable.

Not much in the whole over all arc for this year (expected, being a historical episode), but entertaining enough. Probably the weak point for this year and looking forward to Moffat’s two-parter next week. 3 out of 5.

updates and reviews

I finally caught up with Lost.

Since my terrible PC crash, I’ve kinda fell behind. What do I think? I think the time delay angle is kinda weird. I don’t know exactly the rules behind the island vs. the rest of the world, but that’s normal with Lost. I just try to follow as good as I can. it’s better than Emo-jack when he was locked up, so I’ll continue to watch for the time being. Not watching much else new at the moment. Well, you could say Doctor Who, I have a proper post for that to come. Bit underwhelmed with this week. Sure, it was good. But I’m not a Christie fan and the actress who played her was far from brilliant.

Oh, you hear about Steven Moffat getting the big role after Russell leaves? It’s been rumoured some time, and such good news. His episodes are always great and if it means he gets to write the arc episodes, all the better. I did like RTD’s work, but he was far from perfect.

Also finished a book called Farthing by Jo Walton. Like old fashioned murder detective mysteries? This will be right up your alley. The twist is this is set in an alternate history. In a world where Britain couldn’t wait for America during WW2, this rich upper class conservative family, The Farthings, took power from Churchill and managed a peace deal with Nazi Germany. Some years later, England is left alone, Hitler controls Europe and is kept busy fighting Russia and Jews are even worse off. One of them is married to The Farthings daughter. (In the UK they are tolerated) He’s framed for murder and the investigator from Scotland Yard realises something sinister is going on behind the scenes.

Good book. A little too snobby for my tastes at times and the ending is cut short for the sequel, but well worth a read. Now starting to read a book called Distraction by Bruce Sterling. Will let you know.

Anyways, late now and I have another day of work ahead of me. Night all..

Pc Woes

A few weeks back my PC died in the most horrible way. Updating to Service Pack 3, out of all things! Before the renistall I had completely seperate issues with World of Warcraft. Since one of their latest patches, The game would last for maybe five minutes if I was lucky and the PC would freeze. I went to the web forums and had no help there. In fact I discovered that I wasn’t the only one!

Strangely somehow I managed to fix the problem but then had the terrible system death. Since I have reinstalled and setup everything again, the same issue. Went back to the forums, and yes. More and more people. As far as I could tell, the new patch has conflicted with random Nvidia cards and there’s not a lot people can do about it. A large majority of people can still play the game so it’s business as usual. let’s keep updating. I finally gave up my monthly payments through paypal. I’m sorry, Blizzard.

Now, I can understand with a constantly evolving game like WoW, there are bound to be problems and the makers aren’t going to be able to fix them all. That’s why I think I’m prefering games on gaming consoles rather than PCs. Sure, there might be different internal parts in certain batches of 360s but just imagine if an update of GTA 4 caused a quarter of 360s from playing the game? There would be an uproar.

Yes, some games on consoles don’t have the same punch as playing a game on the PC. But they are getting better and better, and you don’t have to keep updating your 360. Yes, there are newer consoles but it’s not an every year upgrade.

I’m sorry, Blizzard. I have had a lot of fun. But Nico causes me less headaches and I’m not having to wait for half an hour so I can play. I might say hello in a year. At the moment they are promising not to delete any characters. We’ll see about that….

The Doctor’s Daughter

*The scene - BBC Wales, Doctor Who offices*

Russell T Davies- So, Steven, What’s something we can use to get the fans talking for the middle of the season?

Steven Moffatt - Hmm, got to keep people from tuning out, eh Rusty? (In my head, everyone calls him Rusty. Deal. ) What about Daleks?

Russell - Nah, too soon. Let’s keep them for an end of season thing. Not after the dreadful New York two parter.

Steven - What about Adric?

*Both crack up laughing and fall over the place for ten minutes*

Russell - Very funny. Come on, any serious ideas?

Steven - I know! Let’s give him a kid!

Russell - *giggles* Yeah, nice idea! Keep the old school fans angry and the message boards fired up.

Steven - Pub?

Russell - Yeah, sort this out tomorrow. I can’t concentrate after that Adric comment.

Okay, poor attempt at humour there, but I know for a fact Russell dreamt this up to get people talking. I suppose he’s taking the safe road by technically making her a genetic offspring, and not some one night stand in his reckless past (now THAT would be funny!) but the episode works well. Georgia Moffat (Daughter of Peter Davison, The Fifth Doctor) does a good job as Jenny. She’s cute, she’s feisty and works well as a Doctor-Lite. And a potential future companion. Having the Doctor face the past by looking into the eyes of another Time Lord is a nice moment, especially with himself and Donna. Keeping Jenny alive was a good but as well. You just know she’s going to come back to the show one day.

Donna is Donna in this episode. Again, the whole “are you a couple” but grates but Donna figuring out whats going on is a pretty good moment. Have to say though Martha stole the show. No longer in love with the Time Lord, she’s more independant and becoming another Doctor herself, not just in medical terms. That speech with the Hath? Reminded me of the speech The Doctor gave Lynda back in “Bad Wolf”. Freema is an amazing actress and I hope that they get her on Torchwood next season. To only have her reoccuring within the shows is a crime.

As for the story? I like the twist on the time-factor (not the paradox), but the alien & human working together was a little Star Trek/Darmok for my liking. Still, it worked well and otherwise we wouldn’t have that amazing moment with Freema on the surface. I can’t say enough good things about Freema in this episode. I think she did a better job than David. I mean, David’s great but we’re starting to get used to this Doctor now. I think there’s still a few surprises left in him but we’re beginning to pick how The Doctor is going to react. (off topic, that’s why I want to see him in Torchwood. To see The Doctor in a much darker setting and to see whether they’d portray him any different).

Anyways, enough Freema gushing. It’s a 4 outta 5 this week. The story wasn’t incredibly original but the acting in this episode all round was a good job. Bring on Agatha Christie!

I have to admit for a sec, when I saw the previews last week of Jenny kissing, you couldn’t see the other side’s face. I thought it was a female. Hah.

So people…

So people….

Who in Australia here sat down watched TV’s night of nights?

Gah.

Trashy TV was on the adgenda, and first up Erin, my father and I watched the “Gatecrashers” Big B(r)other special. Pretty average, but a laugh to see Nobbi’s reaction when Terri (or Nanna, as Kyle seems to call her) walked back into the house. The TV execs left the bleeper on as he went off (actually watched the uncensored moment a few minutes ago. Kinda weak actually. Just a lot of f bombs) and to see that little Corey Worthington (a kid who threw a party while his parents were away. party got out of control and was proud of the incident, played it up on the current affairs shows, got a publicist and now wants to be a professional party planner or something) shit in the house.

Actually, that was VERY VERY amusing. He got boos from the audience (causing Kyle to revert to his yob ways and telling the crowd to “shut their mouths”) and you can tell the kid was packing it on stage, and even in the house. Everyone was civil to him, but it’s kinda funny seeing “Mr. Cool” out of his depth. I find it disgusting that Ten are paying him twenty grand for this stint but I just hope the creators give him hell, make him earn it while he’s there. The three most popular web people were typical two-dimensional characters that they have been trying to get rid of. You should know by now that the audience doesn’t know shit.

As for the Logies? To be perfectly honest it was a little safe and bland for the 50th night. The clips of Logies passed were nice to see. As usual though, the over-hyped won. Kate Ritchie of course for leaving Home and Away and Chris Lilley/Summer Heights High were the big winners. Honestly, how can anyone like that shite? Self indulgent Little Britain for Australia. Oh, he got up and sung his “Bad Habit” song, but one thing I liked about that was he had some disabled teens up on stage being part of the dance number.

What else? Westlife, were Westlife. You should know my stance on pop music by now. Adam Hills, Stephen Curry and Peter Helliar (sorry, “Strauchanie”). The funniest (unintended) moment of the night was Darryl Somers up on stage for a small “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” moment with old characters Plucka Duck and Dickie Knee. Commenting on that the show should probably return to the screens was met by deathly silence from the crowd. Hahaha.

Doctor Who was very good this week. Even though Boy wonder was useless yet again (well, until the end). Nice Rose moment and a Brigadier reference made the old school fan squee with glee. “Sir Alistair” is very much alive and stuck somewhere in Peru. I hope to god this means we’ll get some sort of cameo from Nick Courtney one day. I know he’s too old to run up and down corridors these days, but even to see him behind a desk, or still happily retired with Doris… (No, I think Doris is alive. The books don’t count for the new show) And The Doctor’s Daughter? I need to see the forums for this episode. I can see it now “OMG! The Doctor shouldn’t have kids! It has to be a clone! whinge whinge whine whine”

I still have Lost and this Week’s behind the scenes of Doctor Who as well. GTA 4 has been sucking my time away. The story is a little cheesy at the moment, but it’s brilliantly made (and gruesome), easy enough for me to get the hang of it (I think I need some shooting practice though) so far. I don’t know what has been censored. I’m guessing something to do with the hookers. Australia doesn’t car about violence at all, oh no… I’m sorry New Zealand you get our copy as well….

I’m still alive

As glados would say.

Here, have an update. I have been lazy with this thing. It’s Friday night, it’s beer o’clock and I’m waiting for someone to come round so we can get some dinner.

We, you hear? Well, apart from work insanity that’s one of the reasons I’ve been neglecting my web that little bit.

Did anyone watch this last weeks Who? I really enjoyed it. Reminded me of the old school Who now we have a proper UNIT episode not just “oh hai remember us now we’re dead”. And Anything with Martha in is cool in my book. I can’t get frightened with a short arsed Sontaran though. Especially one with the voice of Mike Thecoolperson. Still the makeup is brilliant, and it’s great to see the Sontaran race properly fleshed out as characters and not the baddie of the week they were in the original series. Actually I’m surprised noone used the clone angle properly before this. Martha though - she’s getting a little too cocky for my tastes. Yeah, she’s pretty cool but you only just started travelling with The Doctor. You can’t pass judgements on what happened to Martha once she left. Oh, yeah. The Doctor’s daughter. I can’t wait to see the shitfight on the forums over that one..

Lost isn’t bad so far. Ben Linus is just brilliant, and I’m starting to think there’s shades of grey on both sides of this “evil corporations” story that’s going on at the moment. Oh yeah, Ben summoning Cerberus (or smokey, whatever its name is)? Pure awesome.

Oh yes, If you haven’t seen this already. I bring you this short piece of youtube goodness.

Plus - Awesome to see, but I can’t believe they showed it online only. I hope they can somehow add it to a flashback soon, or something. I think I know what the big surprise is going to be at the end of this year.

What else? Oh yes. Bought myself a PSP. Just so I can laze it up and watch videos in bed or when I go away. I also have Lemmings, which is an old childhood favourite. With This Play TV accessory coming out at the end of this year, I’m starting to kick myself that I didn’t save up for the ps3. Being able to copy TV onto the Ps3 HDD, transfer it to the PSP, and being able to copy it to portable drives? That’s my home entertainment system that I want. Fuck the gaming aspect. Even Blu Ray - Big deal! (I still think Blu Ray has a tough ride now that HD DVD is gone - there’s still HD downloads to consider). It would be brilliant, and I’d never get off the couch again.

And how about you all??

Doctor Who - Planet Of The Ood

Donna gets her first trip to the future, and it’s not as rosy as she thought it would be…

The Doctor goes all random on the TARDIS (in other words, business as usual) and he ends up at The Oodsphere, the main planet of the futuristic slaves we saw last time in the episode The Impossible Planet during The Earth’s second galactic empire. Of course, something strange is happening with the Ood again, the eyes are going all possessed and red again, but there’s no Devil this time around. In typical Doctor fashion, he slips into the official party of prospective buyers and soon as he can is snooping around the base and finding out something’s terribly amiss with all of this.

It’s not the scariest episode of the series. Although I do like the crazy army guy’s enjoyment of trying to kill The Doctor just for the fun of it, it’s mainly a go at slavery and how most probably in the future we will be doing all these things again and again. I do like Donna’s reaction. Not seeing the universe is as shiny as she thought makes her want to go home, but by the end she realises why The Doctor travels - to fix things right, when he can. I think it’s that kind of positive step at the end of the episode that makes her keep going. I have to say, Donna keeps growing on me. The whole “marraige” thing is a little on the annoying side, but she has her “oi” moments, and also some sweet beautiful moments that shows us she’s not just another Peri. The bit where she hears the “song” of the Ood is a really nice moment for the both of them.

The setting is a welcome change too. The first big future episode not set on a spaceship or New Earth. Don’t get me wrong, I like the whole “New Earth” setting, but we don’t get to see a lot of the bigger parts of The Universe. And also, big geek points for setting the future history of the human empires around the old series. He might ignore the books, comics etc but you can tell Russell is a big fan of the old series and tries to appease the old fans as much as he can.

The whole arc story is a little small this week. We get a new reference to the bees, and a sly comment to a return at the end of this year, but other than that I think this is probably the most standalone we are going to get.

All up, a good episode. The bad guy was a little rubbish (but his come-uppance at the end was clever) and the Ood are too silly looking to be that scary but a solid episode. 3 outta 5.