FF:QLD Doctor Who

Testing, one, two.

 

Well here's something a little different. The ABC passed on Torchwood, but Channel 10 is going to be showing it instead.

 

I can't imagine that working. I'm not saying it won't work, just that I'm not entirely certain on they'd approach it. Would they capitalise on the Doctor Who link for ratings, or shy away from plugging another network's show?

Torchwood was made with non-Who viewers in mind, up to a point, but in the UK that crowd is such a minority that it's really only a superficial touch. Sever it from the mother programme and the show gets placed in an entirely new light. I really hope it can survive out there in the brightness, free of Who's shadow, but it's hard to make a call when we can't even be sure Ten will give it a serious chance.

It's funny how even the network can change a show's identity. On the ABC, it would have loosely fit the usual lineup of BBC murder mysteries. On Ten, it would be grouped with CSI, Medium and the like. Given Channel Ten's target audience, it's likely to have a lot of casual viewers who have little to no clue about this Doctor bloke, let alone his severed hand, and what's the deal with the high-heeled robot chick? She's, like, a total babe!

Unfortunately, you just know they're going to play up the "sexy" element. At least for the first two weeks, before they replace it with a resurrected Friday Night Games.

Still, both ABC and SBS turned it down, so it's better than nothing. Those weird people who actually wait for their favourite shows to air on Australian TV have something to be happy about.

 

In other news, Doctor Who 29.01/3.01 - "Smith & Jones" will be shown in the UK on 31 March. No idea when the ABC will start showing it, but time is relative to people like us, local release times doubly so

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Yep. On the 31st I'm going to hop into my TARDIS and pop forward in time to watch it when it's out in Australia....

 

Well today Duchess and I discussed the uses of the inflatable "Emergency TARDIS". Dunno if hoping forward in time for new "Doctor Who" episodes is techincally an emergency.

But anyway, its so close I can smell it...or just watch these trailers!

I don't like what they're doing here. Way too "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" for my liking; not the movie with Brad and Angelina, but the old TV series with Scott Bakula and Maria Bello. And while I loved the romantic banter between the leads in that, not in Doctor Who please.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Ah, the "Doctor Who" Thread. Home of the intentional double post!

Apparently I woke up in some bizarre alternate reality today, because a Radio Times Poll declared the 10th Doctor to be the Coolest TV Character.

Why couldn't I have woken up in this world sometime in high school?

The Top Ten List is:

1. The Doctor (David Tennant), Doctor Who
2. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), 24
3. The Fonz (Henry Winkler), Happy Days
4. Mr Darcy (Colin Firth), Pride & Prejudice
5. Cat (Danny John-Jules), Red Dwarf
6. DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), Life On Mars
7. Dermot O'Leary, host of Big Brother's Little Brother host
8. Dylan, animated stoned rabbit from The Magic Roundabout
9. Columbo (Peter Falk), Columbo
10. Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Lost

How the host of a Big Brother spin-off is a character, I've no idea, but look at that! The Doctor beat Jack Bauer! And the Fonz!

Glad the Gene Genie got in there too, he's one of the best new characters on a TV show in a while.

Counting down.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Mr Darcy? and an animated stoned rabbbit....

You're taking this poll as an affirmation of Doctor Who's coolness?

*points at stoned Magic Roundabout Rabbit Reference

 

Magic Roundabout? Oh my, I remember that show... I believe the Rabbit was named Dillan

 

No idea. I'm imagining that rabbit like the aging rocker from "Luck Of the Fryrish", taking a drag from his "cigarette" and saying to the camera, "Phil came in right? Strummed out this tune, yeah? And I said 'that's a number one record'".

Besides, he beats the Fonz. That's worth something. Now if the stoned rabbit had beaten the Fonz...

Anyway, The Doctor will see you now.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

I can't justify writing too long a reply here when I have a presentation to plan (no, I can only trick myself into procrastination when the distraction is divided into smaller things, like individual digital issues of All-Star Superman). Just had to say Smith & Jones is a solid new start to the season. It's a fairly diplomatic, family-friendly RTD episode with a very healthy injection of creativity.

Tennant is brilliantly eccentric, even more so than usual when viewed through a new pair of eyes. This is a very different introduction to the one we got in Rose. It really made me appreciate how much Tennant has made the character his own. He's well and truly out of Eccleston's shadow now. But of course, we're paying much more attention to the new lady in his life. Martha seems like an incredibly promising character. Bright, quick to adapt to new situations - instant companion material. (It helps that Liz Shaw, another assistant capable of intellectual sparring with the Doctor, remains one of my all-time favourites.) All up, not a classic, but a very competent new beginning.

It's wonderful to have the Doctor back. And with Battlestar and Heroes out of the equation for now, the timing could not have been better.

Edit: Wow, that was quite a bit longer than I intended. I guess the motivation to ignore uni work can overcome anything.

 

The Doctor's back, and so are my recaps.

Doctor Who 29.01/3.01 - "Smith & Jones"

You're completely mad!
You're right...I look daft with one shoe.

Much like in "Rose", we are introduced to the new companion, Martha Jones, Medical Student, very quickly while she's on her way to work. A couple of quick cuts show us she's got a younger brother and sister, her parents are divorced and her father's going through his mid-life crisis with a little blonde thing the same age as his children.

Bumping into a strange man who makes a show of taking his tie off in front of her, Ms. Jones enters the hospital she works at and begins her rounds with her supervisor. During which she meets a nice, somewhat forgetful older lady (who I thought for a moment was Harriet Jones, but no such luck) and a younger man with crazy hair and two hearts going by the moniker "John Smith", who looks just like the guy outside...

...and then something transports the hospital and all its occupants to the moon, and a bunch of black armoured aliens march inside looking for something not human. Fortunately the patient with two hearts has put on a sharp blue suit and thinks he can solve the problem...

This is a solid start to the new season, but nothing spectacular. The stakes start out small but get progressively larger as the aliens, an intergalactic set of freelance police called the Judoon, search the hospital for an alien fugitive whilst the air's running out and the fugitive in question plans to cover their escape by wiping out half the Earth's population.

The Judoon are sadly neither Sontarans nor Kraals, but maybe representatives of those races got drunk one night and there was a gene splicer and a cloning tank nearby...

The whole point of the episode is to give us the new companion, and as a launch vehicle for Martha Jones it does its job splendidly. Ms. Jones is smart, funny, brave, actually acknowledges previous alien involvement on Earth, and does indeed make an excellent foil for the Doctor.

As for the Doctor; its David Tennant. The role is firmly his now. No need to say anything more.

Russel T. Davies has done a good job here, despite some unnecessary tearing up and down corridors and further excuses to get the companion to snog the Doctor (and how many more of those can there be??). However, props for giving us the coolest "I'll prove that its a time machine" moment in a long time.

Incidentally, the "Word of the Series" this time is "Saxon". See how many times you can pick it out.

It appears Mr. Saxon has a website which offers some clues for future episodes. I'm just glad I finally found out what's hidden in the name "Mister Saxon"

Next week...The Globe Theatre! Will Shakespeare! Witches! Much hey nonny-nonnying! And is that DI Sam Tyler with a bushy beard??

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

I completely agree with ya Magnus, I think Saxon will be an important issue to pop up later in the series.

 

You obviously haven't been paying much attention to teh internets. Mr Saxon IS this year's Bad Wolf, that much is known for certain. He also may or may not be The Master.

 

A blog entry about the premiere of Season 3 in London, which seems to confirm the worst kept spoiler in Doctor Who fandom.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Badly kept indeed.

There's spoilers in that there previous link, for anyone who's inclined to balk at such things.

It's funny, I'm mortally terrified of Battlestar and Heroes spoilers, but I'm shrugging off something like this. Perhaps because we knew it was coming eventually, and because it's just so gosh-darn cool, in the end.

 

302 - The Shakespere Code

I'll leave the recap to Magnus, but that was really good. Tennant is just brilliant as the Doctor, such bouncing energy in everything he does. Martha continues to impress, proving much, much sharper than your usual run of the mill tag-along time traveler. Her dynamic with the Doctor is very different to Rose's, and I really like it. The guy playing Shakespere was really good, too, lots of fun.

Lots of really great dialogue and witticisms, especially in the banter between the Doctor and Shakespere. And 10 points to ol' William for not only figuring out on his own that his new friends were an alien and a time traveller, and for being totally cool with that fact. It's always so refreshing when characters in these shows are able to figure things out for themselves.

Next week's episode looks really cool. I'm getting quite excited about this season.

 

Doctor Who 29.02/3.02 - "The Shakespeare Code"

Umm...Verily! Forsoothe! Egads!
No, no. Don't do that. Don't...

London, 1599, and a young minstrel sings words of love under the window of his lady. Back in the day that was what we called courting. These days its called stalking. Happier times...

Obviously the song is appreciated, as the young lady invites him up to her room. Once inside, as soon as he says, "But Lilith..." we know he's in trouble. More on that later.

Lilith's boudoir is decorated in the "Wyrd Sisters" Style. She kisses the boy to silence his protests, and the action transforms her into a stereotypical "witch" As the boy gapes, Lilith introduces her two "mothers". They all make a meal of the boy.

Insert Villainous Rant #138, and fire up the credits.

The Doctor not so gently lands the TARDIS in this Elizabethan England to take Martha on her "one trip". As a treat, he takes Martha to the Globe Theatre to see a performance of Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost". After the show, the man himself comes out to quiet the crowd and announce (under a spell from the watching Lilith) that the sequel "Love's Labour's Won" will play the following night. The Doctor's confused, as "Love's Labour's Won" is one of the lost works of Shakespeare. Despite the fact he only wanted to give Martha a short trip, he decides to stay and get to the bottom of the matter, so the two time travellers go to see the most brilliant man of the era...

A great followup to "Smith & Jones", Martha continues to be an intelligent and likeable character. She asks all the right questions, makes intelligent observations and to be fair, some of the rookiee time traveller mistakes as the Doctor breaks his new companion in. His interaction with her is great too; he misses Rose still, and is a little annoyed that he has to start all over again. Still, he obviously does enjoy her company.

Dean Lennox Kelly's turn as Will Shakespeare is fantastic; playing the Bard like a rock star and channelling Kenneth Branagh into the bargain. In-jokes about Shakespeare and his works come thick and fast as well.

The "witches" are scary and threatening villains, once again the Doctor finds himself dealing with an old race and "magic", in this case it's all about the power of words. Speaking of; lads if you meet a girl named "Lilith", run away. Some names should not be bestowed upon children.

The humour is great, we get jokes about Back to the Future, "Harry Potter" and how the world wasn't that much different 400 years ago.

And for the continuity nuts amongst us, we get enough references to keep us happy, and nothing that contradicts anything previously.

In the end, Shakespeare proves that he is a genius by deducing the Doctor's an alien and Martha's from the future, and the TARDIS crew are forced to run from the Queen's Guards as the Doctor has offended her by doing something he "hasn't done yet".

Highly entertaining.

Next week...New Earth! New New York (the city so nice they names it thrice)! The Face of Boe! Traffic jams from Hell!

No odds bet that this will be the prophesied final meeting between the Lonely God and the Face of Boe.

I could ramble about some thoughts I've had concerning continuity of late and how to clean them up, but instead I'll just show you this spoilerific trailer instead.

Now why the Hell wasn't that tacked onto the end of "The Runaway Bride"?

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Now that's a trailer.

 

You think that was good, just you wait till you witness the power of the French Dalek

 

I had my doubts, as one who knows of the Hungarian Lesbian Dalek porn only can.

However, that was insanely brilliant.

I can see David Tennant badgering Russell T. Davies to get John Cleese to cameo as a Dalek for the fourth season.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Hungarian Lesbian Dalek porn

*Shudder*

Never speak of that. Please.

 

Just watched the first episode of the new season and really really loved the doctor's craziness. New sidekick is cool and smart at least but still has that street London edge I guess. I did feela little like I was watching Fifth Element for a while, and did wonder how Dr Who still does manage to have decent effects and costumes and people still look like they're wearing costumes and engaging with decent effects. I'm not even criticing that though..it's part of Dr Who to me.

2nd one sitting here waiting to be watched. Look forward to it.

 

The second one's definitely better than the first. I wasn't sure how I'd react to Martha, but I'm really liking her. She's a lot sharper than you usually expect from a sidekick-type character in one of these sorts of shows. And that's the kind of thing that keeps Doctor Who interesting.

 

Tragically, the third episode will be delayed a week for a silly football game. Why must we sci-fi fans suffer so an inconsequential minority group can watch some obscure ball game?