ENJOY! So which one was your favourite regeneration sequence then? Mine definitely (despite losing the great man) was from Tom Baker to Peter Davison (even though it was the beginning of the downfall of the series).
Showing posts with label christopher ecclestone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christopher ecclestone. Show all posts
Friday, 15 June 2007
The ten regenerations of Doctor Who from William Hartnell to David Tennant
Hello again. Two blogs in two days - must be a record. Anyway I came across this regeneration sequence of videos on YouTube today and thought you'd all like to see it. We go all the way - William Hartnell to Patrick troughton to Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker to Peter Davison to Colin Baker to Sylvester McCoy to Paul McGann to Christopher Eccleston to David Tennant.
ENJOY! So which one was your favourite regeneration sequence then? Mine definitely (despite losing the great man) was from Tom Baker to Peter Davison (even though it was the beginning of the downfall of the series).
ENJOY! So which one was your favourite regeneration sequence then? Mine definitely (despite losing the great man) was from Tom Baker to Peter Davison (even though it was the beginning of the downfall of the series).
Monday, 4 June 2007
"You Wouldn't Want To Worship Me. I'd Make A Very Bad God"
So said the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, to Margaret Slitheen when, on entering the Tardis she was in awe of the whole thing and how wonderful it was. Well, now we are starting to know what he meant.
A slightly bizarre ending to "The Family Of Blood", and a very dark one too. I think I remember reading somewhere that another rumour on The-Master-Or-Not ending was that Mr Saxon would actually turn out NOT to be The Master but some kind of Really-Bad-Guy future incarnation of The Doctor of way into the future. This may well prove to be right based on what we saw in this two-part story.
But it's just a little tricky to get your head around it all. So here goes: The Doctor and Martha at the start are apparently escaping from The Family Of Blood as we see a laser shot. The Doctor sees they can follow him anywhere through time and space so feels it might be better to hide somewhere as a human because that way they could not trace him. He hopes too that they did not see Martha's face. This is what we saw in the "Human Nature" episode, and you would be quite sensible to conclude that this was some kind of rare enemy that The Doctor really WAS afraid of. Even more scary than the Daleks and Cybermen - those two must be like wimps in comparison to the mighty FAMILY! So this is what we take through episode 8 until the conclusion of that where they find him - the Human 'him' that is.
Through we go then to the "Family Of Blood" episode where the Quest For The Watch is on. We assume, and are made to believe, that if John Smith can find the watch before The Family then he can turn back into The Doctor (and miraculously regain his internal biology!). He can then know what to do, will not be afraid any more of this previously terrifying enemy (whose fear factor will have miraculously gone for him), and can then fight them all off and Save The Day Once More (Hurrah Hurrah!)
Ah, but no. It's all turned on its head! Turns out that the reason The Doctor wanted to hide is that he wanted to spare The Family their Ultimate Punishment (which they all got in the end anyway!). He wanted to show them mercy by pretending he had disappeared and so they would, in the end, just die off "like mayflies" with Punishment Not Administered. Kind of like dying of Old Age when on Death Row I suppose.
Well, I think I've analysed it enough from An Adult Point Of View which of course is completely wrong in a programme made for children (Gee, we adults spoil the whole thing, eh!).
While watching "The Family Of Blood" on Saturday night I found myself thinking two things. Firstly, that this was yet another two-parter where the second of the two parts was something of a let-down when compared to the first part. They've all been that way actually right back to Eccleston days. Part 1 full of great things, Part 2 The Doctor cleans up and makes the drama of Part 1 look like it needn't have happened. Secondly, what a rather LAME ending it WAS! I mean, The Doctor tricks The Family pretending he's still John Smith gives them the Fake Watch then falls around the place pressing a few buttons, they then fall for this little charade and the end result of this is that something that could have been done by anyone at any time happens and End-Of-Story. I mean, come ON! If all it takes to blow up a ship like that is to press a few buttons In The Wrong Way, then it ain't much of a ship, IS IT? And I think we deserved a better ending than THAT!!
Speaking of Lame Endings, it gets me thinking of previous two-parters and how they ended in comparison to this:-
DALEKS IN MANHATTAN / EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS --> This actually wasn't a bad ending at all except that by rights The Doctor should have been dead with such a huge bolt of lightning going all the way through his body from SUCH a big storm as we were told it was
ARMY OF GHOSTS / DOOMSDAY (Series 2) --> Utterly superb of course since it was the end of Series 2 and the dramatic departure of Rose. But since it WAS the end-of-series, you would expect it to be good!
IMPOSSIBLE PLANET / SATAN PIT (Series 2) --> Many people criticised this story, but I really loved it as a whole. But it has to be said that it made NO SENSE AT ALL that Rose could shoot out the window of the rocket with a bolt gun and not have the WHOLE CREW sucked out together. Seat belts holding them in? Yeah, right, and isn't space a .... VACUUM??!!
RISE OF THE CYBERMEN / AGE OF STEEL (Series 2) --> Got to be one of the dumbest endings of a Doctor Who story, as good as the rest of the story was up until that ending. OK, Mickey hacks the computer, gets the code 'somehow' (was the Binary 9 enough of a clue?), sends it to Rose's phone, The Doctor then conveniently has a point to plunge Rose's phone into (remember, an ORDINARY MOBILE PHONE!), sticks it in there and hey presto he causes chaos with the Cybermen. And blows up the factory too while we're at it. Talk about something outta nothing!! And a stupid ending to an otherwise great story.
BAD WOLF / PARTING OF THE WAYS (Series 1) --> Was again full of drama being the end of the series and end of Doctor Who #9. Rose, Mickey and the car breakdown crane yank open the Tardis's innards (the time vortex) which then goes into Rose's mind and makes her some kind of Mega-God-Of-Time and able to do what she wants - killing, turning to dust, bringing back to life etc. Did I like that one? Yes and no. It provided the way forward for the regeneration though in a somewhat bizarre way, and wouldn't the time vortex have fried Rose's brain a whole lot sooner? I mean, if it made the Doc do a regen so quickly then why was Rose virtually unhurt? Ah, because The Doctor sucked it all out! Hmm .... OK then.
EMPTY CHILD / DOCTOR DANCES --> One of my real favourites over these three series. And yes, I even liked the ending. Yes, it is plausible that these nanogenes could, intelligent as they were, recognise the parent DNA and change all things back and then the newly-enlightened nanogenes could certainly then put the rest of the gasmask-people back to normal. So that was a good story. BUT I'm not sure about how ol' Captain Jack managed to hook up with the Tardis and escape just before his ship exploded. Well, a small thing and I won't worry too much about it. It just DID, alright?
ALIENS OF LONDON / WORLD WAR THREE --> The Slitheens went from being big and fearsome in part one to floppy and just a bit pathetic in part 2. Fine when they were done in CGI, silly otherwise. Their hands were just too darn BIG! And OK, so Mickey and The Doc hacked their way into the Royal Navy computer to launch the missile and somehow managed to stop it getting intercepted. Gee, that Mickey sure learns fast! I mean, just HOW DID HE stop it being intercepted. Again, a small detail. I don't know if I'd be that scared of a Slitheen - big pot-bellies, oversized ridiculous hands that you could probably pull off if you tugged hard enough and slow-moving (but NOT so slow in CGI!!). So a good part two? Yes, but a little too condensed for my liking.
So if you look at these opinions of mine you can probably see a trend forming. Two-part Doctor Who stories are kind of running out of steam. They could probably fit a whole two-parter into one whole hour I reckon. That was another thing I was thinking on Saturday night - how it was really a one-and-a-half-parter.
Back to the present then. So we've seen a darker side to Doctor Who that will, no doubt, climax in the end of the Series in some way. Now I'm not so sure that Mr Saxon IS The Master after all but is some kind of evil alter-ego which has found its way back to meet The Doctor in present time to confront him to stop him in his tracks. A bit like that if Mr Saxon won, there would ne no chance he could be stopped in the future. OR, in a Terminator kind of way, he has come from the future to prevent the future from happening (if you see what I mean).
Next week is one of those Doctor-light episodes so I don't think I'll bother writing about that. But surely I'll come up with something to entertain you (and myself) with!
Before I sign off, I want to say just HOW GOOD WAS THE CHARACTER OF JEREMY BAINES!! A really SUPERB PERFORMANCE by the actor involved, Harry Lloyd! Oh, and I discovered, to my amusement, that the girl who played the character of the Daughter Of Mine (red balloon girl) is in fact a Canadian ice skater!
See ya next time then, Time Lords!
A slightly bizarre ending to "The Family Of Blood", and a very dark one too. I think I remember reading somewhere that another rumour on The-Master-Or-Not ending was that Mr Saxon would actually turn out NOT to be The Master but some kind of Really-Bad-Guy future incarnation of The Doctor of way into the future. This may well prove to be right based on what we saw in this two-part story.
But it's just a little tricky to get your head around it all. So here goes: The Doctor and Martha at the start are apparently escaping from The Family Of Blood as we see a laser shot. The Doctor sees they can follow him anywhere through time and space so feels it might be better to hide somewhere as a human because that way they could not trace him. He hopes too that they did not see Martha's face. This is what we saw in the "Human Nature" episode, and you would be quite sensible to conclude that this was some kind of rare enemy that The Doctor really WAS afraid of. Even more scary than the Daleks and Cybermen - those two must be like wimps in comparison to the mighty FAMILY! So this is what we take through episode 8 until the conclusion of that where they find him - the Human 'him' that is.
Through we go then to the "Family Of Blood" episode where the Quest For The Watch is on. We assume, and are made to believe, that if John Smith can find the watch before The Family then he can turn back into The Doctor (and miraculously regain his internal biology!). He can then know what to do, will not be afraid any more of this previously terrifying enemy (whose fear factor will have miraculously gone for him), and can then fight them all off and Save The Day Once More (Hurrah Hurrah!)
Ah, but no. It's all turned on its head! Turns out that the reason The Doctor wanted to hide is that he wanted to spare The Family their Ultimate Punishment (which they all got in the end anyway!). He wanted to show them mercy by pretending he had disappeared and so they would, in the end, just die off "like mayflies" with Punishment Not Administered. Kind of like dying of Old Age when on Death Row I suppose.
Well, I think I've analysed it enough from An Adult Point Of View which of course is completely wrong in a programme made for children (Gee, we adults spoil the whole thing, eh!).
While watching "The Family Of Blood" on Saturday night I found myself thinking two things. Firstly, that this was yet another two-parter where the second of the two parts was something of a let-down when compared to the first part. They've all been that way actually right back to Eccleston days. Part 1 full of great things, Part 2 The Doctor cleans up and makes the drama of Part 1 look like it needn't have happened. Secondly, what a rather LAME ending it WAS! I mean, The Doctor tricks The Family pretending he's still John Smith gives them the Fake Watch then falls around the place pressing a few buttons, they then fall for this little charade and the end result of this is that something that could have been done by anyone at any time happens and End-Of-Story. I mean, come ON! If all it takes to blow up a ship like that is to press a few buttons In The Wrong Way, then it ain't much of a ship, IS IT? And I think we deserved a better ending than THAT!!
Speaking of Lame Endings, it gets me thinking of previous two-parters and how they ended in comparison to this:-
DALEKS IN MANHATTAN / EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS --> This actually wasn't a bad ending at all except that by rights The Doctor should have been dead with such a huge bolt of lightning going all the way through his body from SUCH a big storm as we were told it was
ARMY OF GHOSTS / DOOMSDAY (Series 2) --> Utterly superb of course since it was the end of Series 2 and the dramatic departure of Rose. But since it WAS the end-of-series, you would expect it to be good!
IMPOSSIBLE PLANET / SATAN PIT (Series 2) --> Many people criticised this story, but I really loved it as a whole. But it has to be said that it made NO SENSE AT ALL that Rose could shoot out the window of the rocket with a bolt gun and not have the WHOLE CREW sucked out together. Seat belts holding them in? Yeah, right, and isn't space a .... VACUUM??!!
RISE OF THE CYBERMEN / AGE OF STEEL (Series 2) --> Got to be one of the dumbest endings of a Doctor Who story, as good as the rest of the story was up until that ending. OK, Mickey hacks the computer, gets the code 'somehow' (was the Binary 9 enough of a clue?), sends it to Rose's phone, The Doctor then conveniently has a point to plunge Rose's phone into (remember, an ORDINARY MOBILE PHONE!), sticks it in there and hey presto he causes chaos with the Cybermen. And blows up the factory too while we're at it. Talk about something outta nothing!! And a stupid ending to an otherwise great story.
BAD WOLF / PARTING OF THE WAYS (Series 1) --> Was again full of drama being the end of the series and end of Doctor Who #9. Rose, Mickey and the car breakdown crane yank open the Tardis's innards (the time vortex) which then goes into Rose's mind and makes her some kind of Mega-God-Of-Time and able to do what she wants - killing, turning to dust, bringing back to life etc. Did I like that one? Yes and no. It provided the way forward for the regeneration though in a somewhat bizarre way, and wouldn't the time vortex have fried Rose's brain a whole lot sooner? I mean, if it made the Doc do a regen so quickly then why was Rose virtually unhurt? Ah, because The Doctor sucked it all out! Hmm .... OK then.
EMPTY CHILD / DOCTOR DANCES --> One of my real favourites over these three series. And yes, I even liked the ending. Yes, it is plausible that these nanogenes could, intelligent as they were, recognise the parent DNA and change all things back and then the newly-enlightened nanogenes could certainly then put the rest of the gasmask-people back to normal. So that was a good story. BUT I'm not sure about how ol' Captain Jack managed to hook up with the Tardis and escape just before his ship exploded. Well, a small thing and I won't worry too much about it. It just DID, alright?
ALIENS OF LONDON / WORLD WAR THREE --> The Slitheens went from being big and fearsome in part one to floppy and just a bit pathetic in part 2. Fine when they were done in CGI, silly otherwise. Their hands were just too darn BIG! And OK, so Mickey and The Doc hacked their way into the Royal Navy computer to launch the missile and somehow managed to stop it getting intercepted. Gee, that Mickey sure learns fast! I mean, just HOW DID HE stop it being intercepted. Again, a small detail. I don't know if I'd be that scared of a Slitheen - big pot-bellies, oversized ridiculous hands that you could probably pull off if you tugged hard enough and slow-moving (but NOT so slow in CGI!!). So a good part two? Yes, but a little too condensed for my liking.
So if you look at these opinions of mine you can probably see a trend forming. Two-part Doctor Who stories are kind of running out of steam. They could probably fit a whole two-parter into one whole hour I reckon. That was another thing I was thinking on Saturday night - how it was really a one-and-a-half-parter.
Back to the present then. So we've seen a darker side to Doctor Who that will, no doubt, climax in the end of the Series in some way. Now I'm not so sure that Mr Saxon IS The Master after all but is some kind of evil alter-ego which has found its way back to meet The Doctor in present time to confront him to stop him in his tracks. A bit like that if Mr Saxon won, there would ne no chance he could be stopped in the future. OR, in a Terminator kind of way, he has come from the future to prevent the future from happening (if you see what I mean).
Next week is one of those Doctor-light episodes so I don't think I'll bother writing about that. But surely I'll come up with something to entertain you (and myself) with!
Before I sign off, I want to say just HOW GOOD WAS THE CHARACTER OF JEREMY BAINES!! A really SUPERB PERFORMANCE by the actor involved, Harry Lloyd! Oh, and I discovered, to my amusement, that the girl who played the character of the Daughter Of Mine (red balloon girl) is in fact a Canadian ice skater!
See ya next time then, Time Lords!
Sunday, 27 May 2007
Ah HAH! Now THAT'S more like it!
Last week, we had a definite Downer in Series 3 with the ridiculous episode entitled '42'. But I wrote about that last time so no repeats here - this isn't BBC3 folks! So I was hoping and praying that something better would spring out from our TV screens this week to compensate and put Doctor Who back on the Greatness Track where it belongs.
Oh, and I was IN NO WAY disappointed! We had, "Human Nature", the first in a two-part Dr Who story set in England in 1913 - one year before World War One (not sure of the significance of THAT yet but still). Next week it concludes, and seven days is WAY TOO LONG if you ask me, and potentially we have the best story of the series to date. Yes, EVEN BETTER than the Dalek story, which, although good, didn't really do it for me as a true Evil-Daleks-Try-To-Conquer-The-Universe type of story. Important, yes, but not nearly as good a Dalek story as that in Series 1 with Christopher Ecclestone or the Series 2 ender with Cybermen combined.
No, even today I watched it again and it stil gives you loads to think about, to wonder about, to speculate about what it all means, who they all are, why they are there, who sent them, how The Doctor knows them etc. etc.
The first thing, and I reckon this could be the most important part next week, is Tim Latimer, the boy who took the Doctor's watch. Now, he obviously went to John Smith's study for that very reason to get that watch and not to get the book. WHY? Who is he? Then there was some kind of clip or backflash of him bumping into Martha, Martha saying Sorry and then Martha running on somewhere. Except that in this backflash clip, Martha was dressed as she was at the start of this episode. So did they meet in the events leading up to the very beginning of this Human Nature episode in the part we didn't see? It seems like they may well have done!
And another thing. When Jeremy Baines returned from his 'Alien Conversion' in the woods and had come through the window, he gave a long suspicious look at Tim Latimer, who had by then opened the Doctor's watch. AND SO DID the three family members out in the countryside.
And did you notice how those three cocked their heads to one side when looking at this boy? What does THAT remind you of? Come on, think hard, think, THINK!! COME ON, it's obvious, isn't it?? Yes, full marks!! It was, of course, exactly the same gesture as Jamie, the "Are You My Mummy?" kid, the Empty Child from the brilliant Series 1 story, "The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances" story with Christopher Ecclestone and Billie Piper. Significant? Well, perhaps not but in THIS Doctor Who these days, nothing should be dismissed.
So this boy, Tim Latimer, then. I seem to remember David Tennant in, "Girl In The Fireplace" (I think it was) saying, as The Doctor, how he HAD had a child once. Maybe THIS IS THAT CHILD who has somehow managed to time travel to that time period at the same time as The Doctor. He definitely KNEW what he was doing taking that watch because he had not even seen it before entering that room - had he?
And there's also Nurse Joan Redfern, who as we have seen is to get married to our Mr John Smith next week. And a BABY too!! EHHHHH????? She too knows more than what we can see on the surface. Perhaps SHE came with the boy together from ......
Ah, now here comes the next set of speculation which comes from the Face Of Boe and his prophecy. Did you notice that the first thing we heard once the kid had opened the watch for the second time WAS indeed the words, "You Are Not Alone"? Oh, YES!!!! Mind you, this was AFTER he had got it back to his room. And we saw him with it open for a THIRD time sitting outside in .... the garden being observed by The Family Of Blood. So clearly he has been influenced in some way by the contents of that watch. Is he now some kind of Time Lord boy?
There is speculation that this Family Of Blood is somehow connected to Mr Saxon aka The Master, and that could well prove to be true. They are "hunters", The Doctor said, and for some reason need a Time Lord. Well, that would obviously target The Doctor. I'm not sure about this, but wasn't there something about The Master that he was running out of regenerations and needed another cycle? He nearly got one in 'The Five Doctors' on the promise from Barosa, the President, but that was most likely not a genuine promise as Barosa just wanted to make sure they all did his dirty work for him.
YET another piece of speculation and gossip I've got to put your way. Remember the Carrionites from Episode 2 - the witch ladies which The Doctor supposedly caught and imprisoned in some kind of 'crystal ball' and put for safe-keeping in his Tardis' attic. Well, I am thinking of the scene now inside the alien spaceship where the three Family Members have caught the other house-maid, Jenny. The bit where Jeremy Baines takes his green-glowing crystal ball saying it is The Mother and then the 'being' gets into Jenny. IS IT my imagination, or was that a bit too Carrionite Witch to be ignored?? Certainly seemed significant to me!
I seem to have picked up on a whole lot of things from this episode which may or may not have any meaning at all. Hey, YOU out there in blogland reading this! Don't be silent! Tell me what YOU think! We've got six more days to sweat over it all, and that's a WHOLE LOT OF TIME even for a Time Lord fan!
Oh, and I was IN NO WAY disappointed! We had, "Human Nature", the first in a two-part Dr Who story set in England in 1913 - one year before World War One (not sure of the significance of THAT yet but still). Next week it concludes, and seven days is WAY TOO LONG if you ask me, and potentially we have the best story of the series to date. Yes, EVEN BETTER than the Dalek story, which, although good, didn't really do it for me as a true Evil-Daleks-Try-To-Conquer-The-Universe type of story. Important, yes, but not nearly as good a Dalek story as that in Series 1 with Christopher Ecclestone or the Series 2 ender with Cybermen combined.
No, even today I watched it again and it stil gives you loads to think about, to wonder about, to speculate about what it all means, who they all are, why they are there, who sent them, how The Doctor knows them etc. etc.
The first thing, and I reckon this could be the most important part next week, is Tim Latimer, the boy who took the Doctor's watch. Now, he obviously went to John Smith's study for that very reason to get that watch and not to get the book. WHY? Who is he? Then there was some kind of clip or backflash of him bumping into Martha, Martha saying Sorry and then Martha running on somewhere. Except that in this backflash clip, Martha was dressed as she was at the start of this episode. So did they meet in the events leading up to the very beginning of this Human Nature episode in the part we didn't see? It seems like they may well have done!
And another thing. When Jeremy Baines returned from his 'Alien Conversion' in the woods and had come through the window, he gave a long suspicious look at Tim Latimer, who had by then opened the Doctor's watch. AND SO DID the three family members out in the countryside.
And did you notice how those three cocked their heads to one side when looking at this boy? What does THAT remind you of? Come on, think hard, think, THINK!! COME ON, it's obvious, isn't it?? Yes, full marks!! It was, of course, exactly the same gesture as Jamie, the "Are You My Mummy?" kid, the Empty Child from the brilliant Series 1 story, "The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances" story with Christopher Ecclestone and Billie Piper. Significant? Well, perhaps not but in THIS Doctor Who these days, nothing should be dismissed.
So this boy, Tim Latimer, then. I seem to remember David Tennant in, "Girl In The Fireplace" (I think it was) saying, as The Doctor, how he HAD had a child once. Maybe THIS IS THAT CHILD who has somehow managed to time travel to that time period at the same time as The Doctor. He definitely KNEW what he was doing taking that watch because he had not even seen it before entering that room - had he?
And there's also Nurse Joan Redfern, who as we have seen is to get married to our Mr John Smith next week. And a BABY too!! EHHHHH????? She too knows more than what we can see on the surface. Perhaps SHE came with the boy together from ......
Ah, now here comes the next set of speculation which comes from the Face Of Boe and his prophecy. Did you notice that the first thing we heard once the kid had opened the watch for the second time WAS indeed the words, "You Are Not Alone"? Oh, YES!!!! Mind you, this was AFTER he had got it back to his room. And we saw him with it open for a THIRD time sitting outside in .... the garden being observed by The Family Of Blood. So clearly he has been influenced in some way by the contents of that watch. Is he now some kind of Time Lord boy?
There is speculation that this Family Of Blood is somehow connected to Mr Saxon aka The Master, and that could well prove to be true. They are "hunters", The Doctor said, and for some reason need a Time Lord. Well, that would obviously target The Doctor. I'm not sure about this, but wasn't there something about The Master that he was running out of regenerations and needed another cycle? He nearly got one in 'The Five Doctors' on the promise from Barosa, the President, but that was most likely not a genuine promise as Barosa just wanted to make sure they all did his dirty work for him.
YET another piece of speculation and gossip I've got to put your way. Remember the Carrionites from Episode 2 - the witch ladies which The Doctor supposedly caught and imprisoned in some kind of 'crystal ball' and put for safe-keeping in his Tardis' attic. Well, I am thinking of the scene now inside the alien spaceship where the three Family Members have caught the other house-maid, Jenny. The bit where Jeremy Baines takes his green-glowing crystal ball saying it is The Mother and then the 'being' gets into Jenny. IS IT my imagination, or was that a bit too Carrionite Witch to be ignored?? Certainly seemed significant to me!
I seem to have picked up on a whole lot of things from this episode which may or may not have any meaning at all. Hey, YOU out there in blogland reading this! Don't be silent! Tell me what YOU think! We've got six more days to sweat over it all, and that's a WHOLE LOT OF TIME even for a Time Lord fan!
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
How did I get back into watching Doctor Who after 16 years?
Hey guys! While I'm well and truly in this Forum Spirit of things I thought of something. Actually I was reminded of something while watching the "Parting Of The Ways" with Christopher Ecclestone doing his regenaration thing while Rose fries the Emperor Dalek's brain (wasn't that just a GREAT and yet TOTALL BIZARRE episode??!!).
And it was this. How did I get back into Doctor Who after all these years and what started me again? Well, it was Series 1 of course and the first two episodes. My dad sent these to me on video around the time they had come out. I really didn't want to watch, and the video remained unseen in the cabinet for around a year - maybe more. My dad had watched and his comments had not been that complementary. And another reason I had resisted for ages was that BILLIE PIPER was in it!! EUUWWWWW! That one-off pop star! Couldn't imagine HOW she could POSSIBLY fit in and thought how naff it must all be. No way!! Then one day the server which gave me my internet was down a LONG TIME. Hmmm, I thought, what shall I do now - ah, I know! Let's watch that Doctor Who! And so it was done.
SERIES ONE (Christopher Ecclestone, Billie Piper)
1. ROSE - The Doc, Rose, Autons, Nestene Consciousness, new Tardis, first sight of Mickey and Jackie Tyler
OK, I'll do more with that 'blooper reel' another time. But I think I got out of a tight spot there. And you didn't really notice, did you?
And it was this. How did I get back into Doctor Who after all these years and what started me again? Well, it was Series 1 of course and the first two episodes. My dad sent these to me on video around the time they had come out. I really didn't want to watch, and the video remained unseen in the cabinet for around a year - maybe more. My dad had watched and his comments had not been that complementary. And another reason I had resisted for ages was that BILLIE PIPER was in it!! EUUWWWWW! That one-off pop star! Couldn't imagine HOW she could POSSIBLY fit in and thought how naff it must all be. No way!! Then one day the server which gave me my internet was down a LONG TIME. Hmmm, I thought, what shall I do now - ah, I know! Let's watch that Doctor Who! And so it was done.
SERIES ONE (Christopher Ecclestone, Billie Piper)
1. ROSE - The Doc, Rose, Autons, Nestene Consciousness, new Tardis, first sight of Mickey and Jackie Tyler
- I suppose they needed a way to get Rose into it all as a shop girl and the Autons were the obvious target for Villain Number 1. But they were good though not great. It gave us a good first look at our New Doctor Who that we'd waited 16 years for. Was kind of strange with me remembering old Tom Baker with his scarf and long coat and manic smile. "Doctor Who in a leather jacket of all things!!". Loved the run across the Bridge, the scene at Rose's home with the Auton arm was silly and the acting of Billie Piper on that was pretty poor. Also good though only necessary for people who'd never ever seen Doctor Who before in their life, was how Rose met and talked with Clive about the "historic sightings" of Doctor Who throughout the ages.
- We also saw the first hint of humour - there was the Doc getting throttled by this arm, falling down and Rose with no idea what was going on. Pretty silly. Also daft was the scene with Rose's mum in her dressing gown seeing the Doc for the first time and coming on to him. It was totally out of character as we saw in the character of Jackie for the rest of the two series as she never did anything like that again (except maybe in 'Love And Monsters' with the Abzorbaloff).
- OVERALL RATING FOR EPISODE --> 7 / 10
- THIS WAS THE ONE THAT DID FOR ME and proved to me that Doctor Who really WAS BACK.
- This was such a brilliant episode! Not only a great Doctor Who episode but a really GREAT science-fiction story in its own right. The monsters were brilliant, the action was great and the argument between the Doc and Rose was a high point too. The only naff and unexplained bit is of course HOW the hell DID Doctor Who walk through those rotating blades and not get chopped to bits? OK, he concentrated, and maybe that was it. Ah hell! It's sci-fi!! Who says you have to explain it all!
- And it was the final few monents which really did it for me. The final few seconds when The Doc saved them all, the sight of the sun exploding and the Earth shattering to pieces. And to cap it all, it was the final revelation that Gallifrey had gone in a Time War. "They nuked the Time Lords!!", I thought. What could be next? This was definitely IT now!
- OVERALL RATING FOR EPISODE --> 9.5 / 10
OK, I'll do more with that 'blooper reel' another time. But I think I got out of a tight spot there. And you didn't really notice, did you?
Monday, 7 May 2007
A new Doctor Who? The Sun says ....
Just read today about how The Sun predicts the end of David Tennant at the end of this series. Yes, you read correct - the end of THIS SERIES, SERIES 3.
I mean, I know that if THE SUN SAYS, then hey it must be true. But it just cannot be TRUE.
Consider if it was. The BBC would be effectively pulling the trigger in the game of Dr Who Russian Roulette with the chamber loaded. I mean, it would be two Doctors and Rose in three series only! And sorry, the BBC knows what a good thing it is onto with Dr Who and it surely would do NOTHING to jeopardise that. I mean, think what they get from merchandise on the thing.
And we've only just got used to having a settled Doctor in the role after the Ecclestone exit, and THAT was too much to take in itself. A regeneration is an emotional thing and the BBC takes a big gamble every time it does one that people won't like the new Doc and will switch off. So WHY would they do it twice in three years?? It's GOT TO be a wind-up! Oh, it HAS TO BE!! I sincerely HOPE SO for the whole future of the thing.
I mean, I know that if THE SUN SAYS, then hey it must be true. But it just cannot be TRUE.
Consider if it was. The BBC would be effectively pulling the trigger in the game of Dr Who Russian Roulette with the chamber loaded. I mean, it would be two Doctors and Rose in three series only! And sorry, the BBC knows what a good thing it is onto with Dr Who and it surely would do NOTHING to jeopardise that. I mean, think what they get from merchandise on the thing.
And we've only just got used to having a settled Doctor in the role after the Ecclestone exit, and THAT was too much to take in itself. A regeneration is an emotional thing and the BBC takes a big gamble every time it does one that people won't like the new Doc and will switch off. So WHY would they do it twice in three years?? It's GOT TO be a wind-up! Oh, it HAS TO BE!! I sincerely HOPE SO for the whole future of the thing.
Sunday, 6 May 2007
I'm Two Years Late with this BUT ....
OK, why I am doing this? Well, Those Who Know About These Things say that blogging is a Good Thing so that about seals it for me. I mean, I am a computer graduate so I know about these things but this Blogworld is a strange and crazy one if you ask me.
A bit like the strange and crazy world of our very great favourite Man Of Questioning Title.
So here we are. We just had episode 6 here in the UK featuring The Lazarus Experiment. A pretty good one I'd say - 3.5 out of 5. Not the best story ever - you knew where it was going from the start really that something weird was going to come out of the Lazarus body. Actually we all knew that from the trailers. Why watch, you might say when just about all of that episode was shown in the days up to it.
Ah, because the intriguing thing is this continuing Mr Saxon Character who keeps popping up - the Recurring Theme Of Series 3. Every series had one - Chris Ecclestone was dogged by the Bad Wolf (Still not convinced that was IT for that idea and I think Rose will be back somewhere anyhow). Series 2 had the Daleks pretty much haunting us through the last half (and a few Cybermen). Now we have the mysterious Mr Saxon.
Except he's not a mystery either if you read the wikipedia and other Dr Who blogs and sites. They are all convinced that it's gonna be The Master coming back.
I can't help thinking this: bleeaagghh! What a tired storyline THAT is. I mean, OK, the Master's a Bad Guy and all that but just not very exciting. OK, some of you will be yelling that every Good Guy must have his equal and opposite Bad Guy who never gives up and let's face it they all have them. Sherlock Holmes had Moriarty, Spiderman has Venom, Batman and Robin had ..... Liberace (I suppose).
But it does not fill ME personally with excitement at the prospect of seeing The Master come back. Now, I am not of the Roger Delgado generation but I do remember the guy who played him in the era of Tom The Great Baker. And sorry but he just isn't Bad Enough. Too HUMAN I say!
Nuff said there. Now what do you all think of Martha? I would say that up until yesterday's Lazarus thing she had been pretty lame and extremely unconvincing. WHY the hell have they given her the same idea as with Rose? And WHY is she in love with him? OK, the big Snog/Genetic Transfer in the Judoon episode, but soreeeeeee!!!! THAT is not enough to make a woman as sensible as Martha Jones fall for the Doc so quickly as all that! Well not in MY book anyway.
In the Lazarus ep, yes, she did a bit more to justify herself and justify being able to continue with the Grand Old Doc. But I tell you what. If she hadn't got in the Tardis at the end and had stayed at home then I would not have minded at all. Her character's going not very far. Unless Russell "The Wizard" T has some Spice for her at the end.
This blog, even though it is the first, is putting together too many storyline chats into one. Could have split it up I guess. But no matter - I've Started So I'll Finish!
Yeah, I said about Wikipedia. On there they already have the list of episodes and about what's goiung to happen until the end of Series 3. OK, I read them and maybe I shouldn't have but They Were There and it was late and I was bored and so there! But what is ALSO on Wikipedia which hacks me off a bit is just about the full story of the whole of the rest of Series 3. yes, nice, Captain Jack returns next time, yes the last two episodes of Series 3 are, wow wow, a 2-part story (original or WHAT!) and yes the thing with Martha's family will kind of go on.
Actually talking about Martha's family, I wanted to see more of them before now. Hey, let's have more Annalise!! OOOOHH YEAH! Legs like that should be compulsory. Actually all of her should be ALL the time! A bimbo in Doctor Who! Now for all you Doc fans when was the last Doc Who bimbo? And this is not one of those questions I know the answer to. I just thought of it right here on the Blog Spot. Who would count as a bimbo? I reckon Jo Grant of the Jon Pertwee might do. Maybe Peri (but too clever by far). Perhaps Leela given that she was a kind of tribal girl of a rather basic race of people. Ah, now what about Tegan, the Aussie flight attendant. Now THAT was a dumb way to get into the TARDIS - getting lost like that and - oh, let's go in here cos it looks like a good place to keep out the rain. As dumb entries into the Doctor Who world go, THAT was near the TOP!
Yeah yeah anyway, back to present day. I'm getting a bit worried actually. Why? Well, two series in and we've lost both The Doctor and Rose who after all brought the whole thing back into our living rooms in the first place. Mind you, I just can't see Christopher Ecclestone doing it in the same way as Tennant does. It just would not work. Do we really know the TRUTH why Chris E. bowed out after just one series? To me it looks like they couldn't get David Tennant for the start (I read someplace that he was supposed to start from the beginning), and so they had to get the other guy to fill in. Now don't get me wrong. I think Christopher Ecclestone was really GREAT and I was really sorry to see him go so soon. Wish he was still here actually. But as I said, to lose him PLUS Rose after two series is ..... well, it's getting a bit careless.
I don't see how things are going to continue more than halfway into Series 4. Yeah OK lots of new monsters and that but they are running out fast of recurring themes. Face Of Boe dead, wisdom imparted, by end of Series 3 we'll know what THAT'S all about. Dalek Emperor gone in a shot, back we go to One Dalek In Existance (Dalek Caan), Cybermen not going to be back for ages and ages I reckon. And let's face it they were pretty stupid in the end. Take over the world, make us all into Cybers, oops their factory goes meltdown, off they go through The Void and back they get sucked into it. Back where they started in John Lukic's lab. So they weren't much cop. No way we're seeing any more Autons - what kind of storyline could they have other than .... err, .... shop window dummies and yes once again they come alive and zap us all and in comes the good old Doc to switch them all off. But the Recurring Themes To Keep Us Hooked slate is rapidly being wiped VERY clean. No mystery left = a VERY BIG JOB to create the whole thing again right from scratch. In other words, back we go two years.
What about the rumours of Tennant going out mid- series 4? Nah that's never happened before so they might or might not. I reckon that if they bounced out a second Doctor in three series, they would lose a whole lot of viewers.
Riding a bit of a tightrope then I think with storylines for the series we're on and the proposed Series 4. I cannot see a Series 5 happening at all UNLESS there is something still bound up and waiting to be unleashed. The one I hope is that ..... perish the thought BIG TIME ..... Russell T Davies does not quit. THAT would be the END! But what I see now this series is les episoides written by him and more by what I think are lesser known writers. I mean, the writer of the Lazarus ep - Stephen Greenhorn. Wikipedia says he has written for The Bill, a Scottish soap opera, Where The Heart Is and is working now on a Proclaimers musical. Uh huh!! LOTS of good Doctor Who talent there, ma boy!! And I see we only have one Stephen Moffatt episode due this series. I think his stuff varies but he did what I think is one of the best Doctor Who's ever - 'The Empty Child (are you my mummy?)'. So that's good enough for me.
Anything I could say in this first blog line? Nah, I reckon that'll do you for starters. I reckon I'll write this at least once a week and in between too. Lots of stuff in my mind about Tom "the Great" Baker. Will there ever be another like HIM?
Peace and Love to all!
A bit like the strange and crazy world of our very great favourite Man Of Questioning Title.
So here we are. We just had episode 6 here in the UK featuring The Lazarus Experiment. A pretty good one I'd say - 3.5 out of 5. Not the best story ever - you knew where it was going from the start really that something weird was going to come out of the Lazarus body. Actually we all knew that from the trailers. Why watch, you might say when just about all of that episode was shown in the days up to it.
Ah, because the intriguing thing is this continuing Mr Saxon Character who keeps popping up - the Recurring Theme Of Series 3. Every series had one - Chris Ecclestone was dogged by the Bad Wolf (Still not convinced that was IT for that idea and I think Rose will be back somewhere anyhow). Series 2 had the Daleks pretty much haunting us through the last half (and a few Cybermen). Now we have the mysterious Mr Saxon.
Except he's not a mystery either if you read the wikipedia and other Dr Who blogs and sites. They are all convinced that it's gonna be The Master coming back.
I can't help thinking this: bleeaagghh! What a tired storyline THAT is. I mean, OK, the Master's a Bad Guy and all that but just not very exciting. OK, some of you will be yelling that every Good Guy must have his equal and opposite Bad Guy who never gives up and let's face it they all have them. Sherlock Holmes had Moriarty, Spiderman has Venom, Batman and Robin had ..... Liberace (I suppose).
But it does not fill ME personally with excitement at the prospect of seeing The Master come back. Now, I am not of the Roger Delgado generation but I do remember the guy who played him in the era of Tom The Great Baker. And sorry but he just isn't Bad Enough. Too HUMAN I say!
Nuff said there. Now what do you all think of Martha? I would say that up until yesterday's Lazarus thing she had been pretty lame and extremely unconvincing. WHY the hell have they given her the same idea as with Rose? And WHY is she in love with him? OK, the big Snog/Genetic Transfer in the Judoon episode, but soreeeeeee!!!! THAT is not enough to make a woman as sensible as Martha Jones fall for the Doc so quickly as all that! Well not in MY book anyway.
In the Lazarus ep, yes, she did a bit more to justify herself and justify being able to continue with the Grand Old Doc. But I tell you what. If she hadn't got in the Tardis at the end and had stayed at home then I would not have minded at all. Her character's going not very far. Unless Russell "The Wizard" T has some Spice for her at the end.
This blog, even though it is the first, is putting together too many storyline chats into one. Could have split it up I guess. But no matter - I've Started So I'll Finish!
Yeah, I said about Wikipedia. On there they already have the list of episodes and about what's goiung to happen until the end of Series 3. OK, I read them and maybe I shouldn't have but They Were There and it was late and I was bored and so there! But what is ALSO on Wikipedia which hacks me off a bit is just about the full story of the whole of the rest of Series 3. yes, nice, Captain Jack returns next time, yes the last two episodes of Series 3 are, wow wow, a 2-part story (original or WHAT!) and yes the thing with Martha's family will kind of go on.
Actually talking about Martha's family, I wanted to see more of them before now. Hey, let's have more Annalise!! OOOOHH YEAH! Legs like that should be compulsory. Actually all of her should be ALL the time! A bimbo in Doctor Who! Now for all you Doc fans when was the last Doc Who bimbo? And this is not one of those questions I know the answer to. I just thought of it right here on the Blog Spot. Who would count as a bimbo? I reckon Jo Grant of the Jon Pertwee might do. Maybe Peri (but too clever by far). Perhaps Leela given that she was a kind of tribal girl of a rather basic race of people. Ah, now what about Tegan, the Aussie flight attendant. Now THAT was a dumb way to get into the TARDIS - getting lost like that and - oh, let's go in here cos it looks like a good place to keep out the rain. As dumb entries into the Doctor Who world go, THAT was near the TOP!
Yeah yeah anyway, back to present day. I'm getting a bit worried actually. Why? Well, two series in and we've lost both The Doctor and Rose who after all brought the whole thing back into our living rooms in the first place. Mind you, I just can't see Christopher Ecclestone doing it in the same way as Tennant does. It just would not work. Do we really know the TRUTH why Chris E. bowed out after just one series? To me it looks like they couldn't get David Tennant for the start (I read someplace that he was supposed to start from the beginning), and so they had to get the other guy to fill in. Now don't get me wrong. I think Christopher Ecclestone was really GREAT and I was really sorry to see him go so soon. Wish he was still here actually. But as I said, to lose him PLUS Rose after two series is ..... well, it's getting a bit careless.
I don't see how things are going to continue more than halfway into Series 4. Yeah OK lots of new monsters and that but they are running out fast of recurring themes. Face Of Boe dead, wisdom imparted, by end of Series 3 we'll know what THAT'S all about. Dalek Emperor gone in a shot, back we go to One Dalek In Existance (Dalek Caan), Cybermen not going to be back for ages and ages I reckon. And let's face it they were pretty stupid in the end. Take over the world, make us all into Cybers, oops their factory goes meltdown, off they go through The Void and back they get sucked into it. Back where they started in John Lukic's lab. So they weren't much cop. No way we're seeing any more Autons - what kind of storyline could they have other than .... err, .... shop window dummies and yes once again they come alive and zap us all and in comes the good old Doc to switch them all off. But the Recurring Themes To Keep Us Hooked slate is rapidly being wiped VERY clean. No mystery left = a VERY BIG JOB to create the whole thing again right from scratch. In other words, back we go two years.
What about the rumours of Tennant going out mid- series 4? Nah that's never happened before so they might or might not. I reckon that if they bounced out a second Doctor in three series, they would lose a whole lot of viewers.
Riding a bit of a tightrope then I think with storylines for the series we're on and the proposed Series 4. I cannot see a Series 5 happening at all UNLESS there is something still bound up and waiting to be unleashed. The one I hope is that ..... perish the thought BIG TIME ..... Russell T Davies does not quit. THAT would be the END! But what I see now this series is les episoides written by him and more by what I think are lesser known writers. I mean, the writer of the Lazarus ep - Stephen Greenhorn. Wikipedia says he has written for The Bill, a Scottish soap opera, Where The Heart Is and is working now on a Proclaimers musical. Uh huh!! LOTS of good Doctor Who talent there, ma boy!! And I see we only have one Stephen Moffatt episode due this series. I think his stuff varies but he did what I think is one of the best Doctor Who's ever - 'The Empty Child (are you my mummy?)'. So that's good enough for me.
Anything I could say in this first blog line? Nah, I reckon that'll do you for starters. I reckon I'll write this at least once a week and in between too. Lots of stuff in my mind about Tom "the Great" Baker. Will there ever be another like HIM?
Peace and Love to all!
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