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 tom baker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tom baker. 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).
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Don't Blink, Don't Turn Your Back or you'll miss this Blog!
Hold on a mo though. Just before I get into this one I want to put right something that was maybe a little cloudy last week. And that is this: I really DID like the two-part story "Human Nature / Family Of Blood". Probably the best of Series 3 so far. And the character of Jeremy Baines was BRILLIANTLY done. So although I had my criticisms of the second of the parts, the story as a whole stands up to anything else over this series. And the last series, and even Series 1.
There, that's put the record straight.
A Doctor-light episode .... Last time they said that we had the biggest and most complete load of DROSS OF ALL TIME with 'Love And Monsters' featuring the Abzorbaloff. When I saw they were doing ANOTHER one I froze with horror.
Ah, but THIS one was written by one of my favourite Dr Who writers, Steven Moffat. He is the man responsible for possibly my favourite story of Series 1 - 'The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances'. And he has a forthcoming BBC serial update of Jekyll And Hyde to be shown later this year. So he is GOOD!!
Before transmission of this story, we were, as ever, promised the world. Promised a monster that would make us jump - REALLY jump! A real behind-the-sofa Doctor Who monster of old! I tell you what - they certainly got the hype machine going for THIS one!
Oh, but it WAS good. And it DID make me JUMP even especially in that sequence towards the end when Larry Nightingale is left staring his heart out at the advancing Weeping Angel which gets oh-so-much-closer every time he takes his eyes off it, and it gets to within inches of his face with teeth and claws showing for all at home to see.
GREAT STUFF! And it really DIDN'T matter that The Doctor wasn't much in it this time. I guess they learnt from last time to involve him just a little more. Or was it all really EXACTLY like last time with the Abzorbaloff and I just didn't notice this time round? Not sure.
And it was such a clever idea for a story too. Most of it anyway. The idea, as The Doctor put it, that Time Is Not A Linear Progression But Is More Of Wibbly-Wobby Timey-Wimey Kind Of Stuff gave us the basis perhaps. It was one of those story lines that leaves you with a LOAD of, "How Did They ....?", or, "How Could He .... If ....?", kind of questions. Keeps you talking and thinking about it all evening and even all night. A similar thing happened to me when I watched two other - completely unrelated - films: "Total Recall" and "The Talented Mr Ripley". The kind of plots where after you've watched them fill you with so many unanswered questions, Why's and Who-Was's and How-Could's that you just HAVE TO sit back and admire just how good those writers are.
At first I didn't get why Kathy Nightingale was transported back to the past and then later why Billy Shipton was too. If they were not dead then was the story of how they would return to the present, I wondered. Ah, but on second viewing I quickly realised what was going on. Oh, darn - there I go analyzing again! Bloody adult mind that I have!!
And I certainly didn't understand why the Weeping Angels suddenly started coming after them. But it was THE KEY, stupid!! Yes, of COURSE it was!
And then the Grand Finale - the final chase of Sparrow and Nightingale through the building, through the car park, into the Tardis (and HOW could those mere HUMANS get IN THERE?? ANYTHING could have happened!!). That was then followed by the final sequence in the shop where Sally Sparrow sees The Doctor get out of a .... TAXI!! .... and then rushes out to give them all the scripts and other stuff that they would need ..... kind of ..... later .... or is it earlier? No LATER definitely because they said so.
Yes, we've definitely passed that middle-dip in the series and all the naff episodes are out the way now. Good Bye 'Shakespeare Code'! Good Bye '42'! And next week we hold onto our seats again for what the pre-episode promos call "A Pivotal Doctor Who Moment", featuring Captain Jack's return and Derek Jacobi as .... The Professor ....
Feeling a bit low myself for a moment here. Do you realise out there that in ONLY THREE WEEKS TIME it'll be the end of Doctor Who until .... well, CHRISTMAS I suppose!! WAAGGHH!! WHAT the hell are we gonna do every Saturday evening at 7 o'clock?
So until That Pivotal Moment comes I will wish you goodbye.
Now, next time I write, it'll be about some really great Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker stories I've been watching recently. And not-so good Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker stories too. But not at the same time! See ya!!
There, that's put the record straight.
A Doctor-light episode .... Last time they said that we had the biggest and most complete load of DROSS OF ALL TIME with 'Love And Monsters' featuring the Abzorbaloff. When I saw they were doing ANOTHER one I froze with horror.
Ah, but THIS one was written by one of my favourite Dr Who writers, Steven Moffat. He is the man responsible for possibly my favourite story of Series 1 - 'The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances'. And he has a forthcoming BBC serial update of Jekyll And Hyde to be shown later this year. So he is GOOD!!
Before transmission of this story, we were, as ever, promised the world. Promised a monster that would make us jump - REALLY jump! A real behind-the-sofa Doctor Who monster of old! I tell you what - they certainly got the hype machine going for THIS one!
Oh, but it WAS good. And it DID make me JUMP even especially in that sequence towards the end when Larry Nightingale is left staring his heart out at the advancing Weeping Angel which gets oh-so-much-closer every time he takes his eyes off it, and it gets to within inches of his face with teeth and claws showing for all at home to see.
GREAT STUFF! And it really DIDN'T matter that The Doctor wasn't much in it this time. I guess they learnt from last time to involve him just a little more. Or was it all really EXACTLY like last time with the Abzorbaloff and I just didn't notice this time round? Not sure.
And it was such a clever idea for a story too. Most of it anyway. The idea, as The Doctor put it, that Time Is Not A Linear Progression But Is More Of Wibbly-Wobby Timey-Wimey Kind Of Stuff gave us the basis perhaps. It was one of those story lines that leaves you with a LOAD of, "How Did They ....?", or, "How Could He .... If ....?", kind of questions. Keeps you talking and thinking about it all evening and even all night. A similar thing happened to me when I watched two other - completely unrelated - films: "Total Recall" and "The Talented Mr Ripley". The kind of plots where after you've watched them fill you with so many unanswered questions, Why's and Who-Was's and How-Could's that you just HAVE TO sit back and admire just how good those writers are.
At first I didn't get why Kathy Nightingale was transported back to the past and then later why Billy Shipton was too. If they were not dead then was the story of how they would return to the present, I wondered. Ah, but on second viewing I quickly realised what was going on. Oh, darn - there I go analyzing again! Bloody adult mind that I have!!
And I certainly didn't understand why the Weeping Angels suddenly started coming after them. But it was THE KEY, stupid!! Yes, of COURSE it was!
And then the Grand Finale - the final chase of Sparrow and Nightingale through the building, through the car park, into the Tardis (and HOW could those mere HUMANS get IN THERE?? ANYTHING could have happened!!). That was then followed by the final sequence in the shop where Sally Sparrow sees The Doctor get out of a .... TAXI!! .... and then rushes out to give them all the scripts and other stuff that they would need ..... kind of ..... later .... or is it earlier? No LATER definitely because they said so.
Yes, we've definitely passed that middle-dip in the series and all the naff episodes are out the way now. Good Bye 'Shakespeare Code'! Good Bye '42'! And next week we hold onto our seats again for what the pre-episode promos call "A Pivotal Doctor Who Moment", featuring Captain Jack's return and Derek Jacobi as .... The Professor ....
Feeling a bit low myself for a moment here. Do you realise out there that in ONLY THREE WEEKS TIME it'll be the end of Doctor Who until .... well, CHRISTMAS I suppose!! WAAGGHH!! WHAT the hell are we gonna do every Saturday evening at 7 o'clock?
So until That Pivotal Moment comes I will wish you goodbye.
Now, next time I write, it'll be about some really great Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker stories I've been watching recently. And not-so good Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker stories too. But not at the same time! See ya!!
Monday, 28 May 2007
Review of 'Doctor Who: The Five Doctors', 30th Anniversary Special
Now, some of you will be reading this and straight away thinking, "This man's insane! One minute he's telling us about the latest speculation of 'Human Nature' with David Tennant and now he's going all retro again to a long-forgotten Doctor Who story of more than TEN YEARS AGO!!".
Ah, my friends, I am quite sane I assure you. Why dismiss what is part of a long-running and classic period of Doctor Who history? Why criticise the BBC's effort in bringing together the Doctors of the peiod to celebrate the magnificence of what, effectively, we still have today? And anyway, this was more my era of Doctor Who.
But why I wanted to write this was that it was the first time I watched this the other day. And HOW it contrasts with what we have NOW is incredible in SO MANY WAYS!
First things first though. Yes, it actually wasn't that great a Doctor Who story. Rather slow-moving and somewhat plot-less and an ending that was just a little predictable. Has to be said.
But it was, in OTHER ways, a really GREAT Doctor Who story. Just think! For anyone who had not seen Doctor Who before, it gave so MANY things. We got to see Daleks (well, ONE Dalek anyway!), Cybermen and a strange thing called a Yeti (from the Patrick Troughton era). AND we had a new Doctor Who adversary called a 'Raston Warrior Robot'. Not sure if this is a Good Guy or bad-to-the-bone Bad Guy, or if its main function in life is to kill everything that moves (which it does with incredible speed and menace). But it was a great new creature. Wikipedia says it is found only in the Gallifrey Death Zone, so if that is the case then it is surely no more since Gallifrey is gone forever. But maybe someone could revive it! ...... Or maybe it is just too deadly to be useful. Anyway, GREAT to see it!
It was also my first look at Patrick Troughton playing The Doctor on screen. And oh, I wish I could see more of his Doctor Who adventures. Totally superb - a Doctor with ATTITUDE, knowledge and a complete oversized fur coat (which is maybe a bit non-PC these days!). All a great Doctor Who should be with that essential mixture of wisdom and manicness and, to some extent, dominance. HOW could you compare THAT with a wimp of a Doctor like Peter Davison or, worse still, Colin Baker?? Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?
But the Tardis!! It was not MY first look at the original Tardis layout, but WAS my son's. And he COULDN'T BELIEVE what he saw! And nor could I given the magnificence of the current 21st century look.
Looking at that old Tardis control room, the first thing that strikes you is HOW LITLE SPACE they had! I mean, you just WOULD NOT have David Tennant jumping around or going manic rushing around the controls in THAT old-style console. The cameras wouldn't keep up!! And get this - they used to have sometimes two Doctor Who companions in that small space - even THREE on a few occasions. AND even K9 in Tom Baker years gliding around. Ah, but how could K9 get IN to the modern Tardis? He couldn't! HOW could he go up the steps? It's that old Dalek problem again!
Another thing which is a huge contract is, of course, the central column of the Tardis. The part which moves up and down in flight. Old Tardis: a simple up-down movement. New Tardis: the central console goes ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CEILING and contains the up-down moving column! And then there's the decoration as a whole. Old Tardis: white, white, and more WHITE with cut-out holes around the walls - some of which double as windows to the outside world. New Tardis doesn't have these, and the walls are that much further away from the centre of the room anyway. All visions of the outside world are from the computer screen on the central console. This, in retrospect, is a but limited for us, the viewers since we have to go out to see what's going on. But it doesn't seem to have mattered up until now.
And then there's the sets, of course. The Five Doctors was filmed mostly on location on Dartmoor, Southwest England - the outdoor shots anyway. That was quite unusual for Doctor Who at that time unlike now where the majority of it is still done out of the studio (though the percentage of that is, I feel, getting less). The indoor stuff in the 'caves' did, I have to say, look a bit hammy and unstable like one push might bring it all down. Well, to be fair, I guess I'm talking mainly about the mirror caves which the First Doctor came into. But the final sequences where they are all at the Tomb Of Rassilon were quite nicely done, although very retro in feel. I'd just like to know how they'd do all that using the CGI and green screen that we have now.
And the COSTUMES OF THE TIME LORDS - particularly the Time Lord guards. "Where did you get that hat?". 'Nuff said! Yes, another great moment in Doctor Who dress-sense history!
Back to the story. When I read about it on Wikipedia, it seemed very long and I couldn't imagine how they could keep all that going on screen. But happy to say that the TV version went along at a good enough pace and all the parts that Wikipedia so laboured over actually proceeded more quickly that in the text version. Yes, as much as I love the Wikipedia for holding all that info, I do find sometimes that its descriptions are a bit longer and more-drawn out than need be. But just glad it's there!
I said at the start that the story itself was not the best part of the whole thing. Well, maybe in today's more condensed Dr Who pace it would have been whipped through a bit quicker. Really though, I think the anniversary was just a good excuse for bringing out the best Doctor Who monsters (Daleks and Cybermen), for reuniting the five Docs and, of course, for bringing together for the first time many Doctor Who companions old and new (with the NOTABLE omission of Jo Grant!). It was more than just a PITY than Tom Baker refused to be included at the time (he was said to regret this later) because, he said, it was too close to his departure from the series to be sensible. His inclusion would have been the Icing On The Cake, but there you go. But his absence did mean that Katy Manning (Jo Grant) could not be included as she had no Time Lord to be paired with. SHE was my first Doctor Who assistant that I remember! And an excellent screamer too when the time was right only matched by Sarah Jane Smith after her. Yes, it was nice to see them all working together to sort it all out.
Peter Davison had, I suppose, the main Doctorly role since he was the current Doctor of the time. And this spoiled it rather as I never liked him as Doctor Who anyway! He just never showed any emotion. Even when he discovered the tune that he had to play on the harp he reacted rather - well, EMPTILY I thought! People say that he was a more vulnerable Doctor Who character than others and that was what made him. But he just could not express himself well and did little to make the Doctor Who character of his era memorable. It was, I suppose, the beginning of the decline of the original series - after all, Tom Baker was an incredibly hard act to follow. I often wonder why he was cast. Patrick Troughton, it seems recommended him but told him not to stay more than three years - LONG years as it turned out!
Overall then, thinking about it all as a whole, I think that it IS worth watching for the joy of seeing the retro side of Doctor Who and to see all these Doctor Who actors of old coming together. Have I mentioned Jon Pertwee before now? Sorry Jon! YOU were great too, and you were my first Doctor (just about!). I would say that if you haven't seen this, then you should make an effort to do so because it has a lot to offer.
Ah, my friends, I am quite sane I assure you. Why dismiss what is part of a long-running and classic period of Doctor Who history? Why criticise the BBC's effort in bringing together the Doctors of the peiod to celebrate the magnificence of what, effectively, we still have today? And anyway, this was more my era of Doctor Who.
But why I wanted to write this was that it was the first time I watched this the other day. And HOW it contrasts with what we have NOW is incredible in SO MANY WAYS!
First things first though. Yes, it actually wasn't that great a Doctor Who story. Rather slow-moving and somewhat plot-less and an ending that was just a little predictable. Has to be said.
But it was, in OTHER ways, a really GREAT Doctor Who story. Just think! For anyone who had not seen Doctor Who before, it gave so MANY things. We got to see Daleks (well, ONE Dalek anyway!), Cybermen and a strange thing called a Yeti (from the Patrick Troughton era). AND we had a new Doctor Who adversary called a 'Raston Warrior Robot'. Not sure if this is a Good Guy or bad-to-the-bone Bad Guy, or if its main function in life is to kill everything that moves (which it does with incredible speed and menace). But it was a great new creature. Wikipedia says it is found only in the Gallifrey Death Zone, so if that is the case then it is surely no more since Gallifrey is gone forever. But maybe someone could revive it! ...... Or maybe it is just too deadly to be useful. Anyway, GREAT to see it!
It was also my first look at Patrick Troughton playing The Doctor on screen. And oh, I wish I could see more of his Doctor Who adventures. Totally superb - a Doctor with ATTITUDE, knowledge and a complete oversized fur coat (which is maybe a bit non-PC these days!). All a great Doctor Who should be with that essential mixture of wisdom and manicness and, to some extent, dominance. HOW could you compare THAT with a wimp of a Doctor like Peter Davison or, worse still, Colin Baker?? Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?
But the Tardis!! It was not MY first look at the original Tardis layout, but WAS my son's. And he COULDN'T BELIEVE what he saw! And nor could I given the magnificence of the current 21st century look.
Looking at that old Tardis control room, the first thing that strikes you is HOW LITLE SPACE they had! I mean, you just WOULD NOT have David Tennant jumping around or going manic rushing around the controls in THAT old-style console. The cameras wouldn't keep up!! And get this - they used to have sometimes two Doctor Who companions in that small space - even THREE on a few occasions. AND even K9 in Tom Baker years gliding around. Ah, but how could K9 get IN to the modern Tardis? He couldn't! HOW could he go up the steps? It's that old Dalek problem again!
Another thing which is a huge contract is, of course, the central column of the Tardis. The part which moves up and down in flight. Old Tardis: a simple up-down movement. New Tardis: the central console goes ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CEILING and contains the up-down moving column! And then there's the decoration as a whole. Old Tardis: white, white, and more WHITE with cut-out holes around the walls - some of which double as windows to the outside world. New Tardis doesn't have these, and the walls are that much further away from the centre of the room anyway. All visions of the outside world are from the computer screen on the central console. This, in retrospect, is a but limited for us, the viewers since we have to go out to see what's going on. But it doesn't seem to have mattered up until now.
And then there's the sets, of course. The Five Doctors was filmed mostly on location on Dartmoor, Southwest England - the outdoor shots anyway. That was quite unusual for Doctor Who at that time unlike now where the majority of it is still done out of the studio (though the percentage of that is, I feel, getting less). The indoor stuff in the 'caves' did, I have to say, look a bit hammy and unstable like one push might bring it all down. Well, to be fair, I guess I'm talking mainly about the mirror caves which the First Doctor came into. But the final sequences where they are all at the Tomb Of Rassilon were quite nicely done, although very retro in feel. I'd just like to know how they'd do all that using the CGI and green screen that we have now.
And the COSTUMES OF THE TIME LORDS - particularly the Time Lord guards. "Where did you get that hat?". 'Nuff said! Yes, another great moment in Doctor Who dress-sense history!
Back to the story. When I read about it on Wikipedia, it seemed very long and I couldn't imagine how they could keep all that going on screen. But happy to say that the TV version went along at a good enough pace and all the parts that Wikipedia so laboured over actually proceeded more quickly that in the text version. Yes, as much as I love the Wikipedia for holding all that info, I do find sometimes that its descriptions are a bit longer and more-drawn out than need be. But just glad it's there!
I said at the start that the story itself was not the best part of the whole thing. Well, maybe in today's more condensed Dr Who pace it would have been whipped through a bit quicker. Really though, I think the anniversary was just a good excuse for bringing out the best Doctor Who monsters (Daleks and Cybermen), for reuniting the five Docs and, of course, for bringing together for the first time many Doctor Who companions old and new (with the NOTABLE omission of Jo Grant!). It was more than just a PITY than Tom Baker refused to be included at the time (he was said to regret this later) because, he said, it was too close to his departure from the series to be sensible. His inclusion would have been the Icing On The Cake, but there you go. But his absence did mean that Katy Manning (Jo Grant) could not be included as she had no Time Lord to be paired with. SHE was my first Doctor Who assistant that I remember! And an excellent screamer too when the time was right only matched by Sarah Jane Smith after her. Yes, it was nice to see them all working together to sort it all out.
Peter Davison had, I suppose, the main Doctorly role since he was the current Doctor of the time. And this spoiled it rather as I never liked him as Doctor Who anyway! He just never showed any emotion. Even when he discovered the tune that he had to play on the harp he reacted rather - well, EMPTILY I thought! People say that he was a more vulnerable Doctor Who character than others and that was what made him. But he just could not express himself well and did little to make the Doctor Who character of his era memorable. It was, I suppose, the beginning of the decline of the original series - after all, Tom Baker was an incredibly hard act to follow. I often wonder why he was cast. Patrick Troughton, it seems recommended him but told him not to stay more than three years - LONG years as it turned out!
Overall then, thinking about it all as a whole, I think that it IS worth watching for the joy of seeing the retro side of Doctor Who and to see all these Doctor Who actors of old coming together. Have I mentioned Jon Pertwee before now? Sorry Jon! YOU were great too, and you were my first Doctor (just about!). I would say that if you haven't seen this, then you should make an effort to do so because it has a lot to offer.
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?
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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