Doctor Who

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I've taken a brief break to watch the first four episodes of Torchwood (as per this suggested viewing order guide). I shan't sully my blog with such things, but here's what I thought of them:

- Everything Changes. This is the only episode of Torchwood I've seen before now (when it was first on telly). It's also the reason I didn't bother watching any more of them, because it's pretty bad. It's got that cheap BBC video look (now in HD!) like Doctor Who, except with none of the whimsy and charm of Doctor Who to accompany it. Instead, swearing, violence, gore. Relatively tame, but it's a jarring mix of serious and naff. The acting is terrible. Gwen is okay, and I think it was the right choice to have an outsider's view of Torchwood to start things off (like Rose, she is the viewer). I also quite liked the scene where they're all pretending they don't know she's there. It's batshit stupid, though. They let Gwen go because they knew they could hack her computer - what was stopping her from using a pen and paper instead? And why was their pet dinosaur(!!!) allowed to fly over Cardiff in the middle of the day? Baffling.

- Day One. Fucking dreadful, if you'll pardon my French. Now, I like that the Torchwood staff aren't all goodie-two-shoes and they have flaws of their own. In fact, most of them are bastards. Fair enough. But standing around watching Gwen necking that possessed bird in the cell, going "phwoooarr, eh lads?!" - knowing full well that she could be imminently killed by her - is just a step too far. How thick is this lot? And how thick is Jack? "Hey lady, don't smash that hand in a jar, it has literally no value to anybody except me! - oh, wait..."

- The Ghost Machine. The only episode so far that's been any good. I actually quite liked this. Again, the characters are flawed but now they're believable at least. Drama, emotion, sci-fi. More like this, please.

- Cyberwoman. What is this I don't even.

Additional notes. Every episode seems to be sponsored by Cardiff Heli-Tours. Jack is really bad in every episode so far, which is unfortunate because he ought to be the best character. His narration at the start is laughably bad ("outside the government, beyond the police..."). Yeah, alright Jack. Go back to your pizza.

Back to Doctor Who for a bit now...

[Sprite Machine]

Gridlock

(Blog has pictures)

With all of time and space at his fingertips, why does the Doctor keep coming back to the same places? Particularly when he's taking his new companion on a trip to same planet and era he took Rose - that's just going to stir up some uncomfortable memories, surely. It's New Earth, again. It's New New York, again. But the city is not thriving anymore and strange things are happening in the slums and beneath the hovercar motorways.

[Picture: Oh, look, it's the Macra! You might remember these from The Macra Terror, but you probably won't.]

Gridlock is all about traffic jams, and if you've ever spent a significant amount of time stuck in a traffic jam, you'll certainly find a lot here to relate to. It wears it influences on its sleeve - you only have to glance at this dystopian scene to see hints of Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Star Wars, Judge Dredd, and any sort of sci-fi with oppressed underdwellings and glistening cityscapes towering above. Gridlock is broadly satirical - the idea that you could be stuck in traffic for so long that you could live there is just ridiculous enough to make you think. It's amusing, and it's the sort of thing I find appealing in science-fiction, but as soon as you start to analyse it, it stops making much sense.

[Picture: Must be a Friday night. Traffic's a nightmare!]

For instance, the chain of events that led to this situation would have to be incredibly specific. The entire planet was overcome by a dangerous drug/virus simultaneously, at which point every single hovercar was trapped under the city. Entropy would demand chaos from order, but the gridlock itself is incredibly orderly and everyone seems to accept what's happening, despite no contact with the upper levels. Why does nobody make a break for it? There's plenty of room between the cars. Why not fly up a bit higher when the Macra are snapping away at you? These could just be VFX goofs, I suppose. Who plugged the Face of Boe into the system? And was it really only the Doctor who could fix it to get the roof open again? How, biologically-speaking, do an alien cat man and a human woman have kitten children? Why is everybody in New New York British except for the news reporter woman? Who is she anyway?! And so on, and so forth.

[Picture: Bah, who cares? KITTENS!!!]

But I don't really want to pick too much, because you start to lose the interesting aspects of this story. It doesn't really matter that it's not believable, it's just fun to see characters in this bizarre situation and how they react to it. It's interesting that there's no villain or malevolent foe in this story, simply a system that has failed. The Macra, previously seen in The Macra Terror, are not responsible for any of this, as far as I can tell, they're just down in those depths for some reason.

[Picture: The Face of Boe reaches the end of his long life.]

But the most interesting thing about this story is nothing to do with the gridlock itself, but the Face of Boe, who returns for his third and final appearance to finally give the Doctor his dying message... "You. Are. Not. Alone." Martha demands answers and the Doctor has to go through his "I'm the last of my people" routine again, only this time with some lovely descriptive imagery of Gallifrey. I sense a trust developing between the Doctor and Martha, which is probably why he hasn't taken her back home yet. There's a lot more to see and do before things start to get... interesting.

[Death's Head]

The news reporter from the beginning is a reference to Swifty Frisko in Alan Moore's Halo Jones. There's a few more 2000AD nods in the episode as well.

[SeanR]

Kate o'Mara just died.

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Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks

(Blog has pictures)

Now that the new Daleks are well-established in this series, their appearance has lost its impact. Bringing them back for each season is a mistake in my opinion. But they're here, the four-strong Cult of Skaro, and this time they're really the last of their kind. Really really! And to survive, they're going to have to evolve. This "last of the Daleks" stuff might have had more impact, but knowing they're going to be dragged back in time and time again after this, it's hard to care now.

[Picture: The Cult of Skaro.]

The most interesting thing about this story is the Daleks' changing attitude to what it means to survive. As 'pure' supreme beings, all they have achieved is their own demise, but is becoming human hybrids a step too far for them? This was touched upon in 'The Parting of the Ways'. Can they still call themselves Daleks if they splice themselves into human form? Conflict within the Dalek community has always been good fun to watch, and here we see Dalek Sec's loyal brethren question their orders and turn against him.

[Picture: Dalek Sec. A Dalek in a suit with a New York accent. Oh yes.]

Other than that, I can't say I enjoyed this very much. The New York setting makes a nice change, but the accents sound awful to my ears. Granted, I've not yet been to New York (and not in 1930), but most of the characters sound like they're putting on stereotypical accents rather than real ones, particularly Tallulah. Admittedly, it's not as bad as the accents in the 1960s episodes of 'The Chase' or 'The Gunfighters', but that's not saying much.

[Picture: Frank is played by Andrew Garfield. It's strange to see a (now) big Hollywood star in a bit part on Doctor Who. Thankfully, his American accent has improved significantly since this was made!]

So much of this story is just boring or silly. The Daleks use slaves to do their work for them. Makes sense, but why turn them into pigs? (They had a better idea in 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth', where they used robo-men, although they weren't much help either.) The biological engineering necessary to transform humans into pig-men just doesn't seem worth the end result - an army of conspicuous monsters that can't blend in. And why pigs again? The Slitheen loved pigs. The Daleks love pigs. Does somebody in the BBC production really fancy some bacon? (See also: the aliens = animals problem.)

[Picture: Oink, oink!]

The Daleks' plan to produce a race of human/Dalek hybrids goes to pot when the Cult of Skaro rebels against Sec. Suddenly, humans can be wholly Dalek by fusing their DNA differently, even though they still look like human (so they're non-human how, exactly?). And for some reason the Doctor's DNA can travel through electricity? And gamma rays from the sun arrive in the form of lightning? What? Somebody get the writer a science book, this is just nonsense.

[Picture: Solomon keeps the peace in the Hooverville shanty town.]

The Doctor's "I'm so sorry" routine is getting really old now as well. This time, he also seems to have a death wish, commanding the Daleks to shoot him on two separate occasions (he's surprised when they don't, so I don't think the first time is a bluff) and then getting himself zapped while climbing up the Empire State Building's spire. That's not the first time a story has ended with the Doctor climbing up some big thing and being zapped. It's boring, sorry.

[El Pibe]

I remember at the time thinking this double header was a load of old nonsense.

[Hideous Kojima]

The dildohead dalek was the last straw for the RTD era for me.

[SqueakyG]

Literally a dickhead. Atrocious.

[Sprite Machine]

Can't unsee that now, thanks.

In other news, they've taken Torchwood off of Netflix. That's annoying. I know it was awful but I was watching it!

[Space Gibbon]

Spoiler: It didn't get any better until Children of Earth, then got even worse for Miracle Day.

[Mogster]

I thought the second series was mostly an improvement over the first myself, but still a bit naff. Children of Earth was improbably ace, but Miracle Day was an abomination that I had to force myself to keep watching.

[Madness]

I liked the Martha episodes in Torchwood S2, and the finale, but beyond that thought it was incredibly poor. That season was even more confused than Season 1: Series 2 was edited down and repeated the next day on BBC2 at 6pm for kids to watch, which left it even more like a poor man's Doctor Who because they couldn't really push the limits too much.

Series 1 got the adult stuff really wrong, but at least it tried to be something different. I still don't know what the BBC were thinking when they commissioned it, though it was all worth it for Children of Earth.

[FishyFish]

The Horror Channel have picked up the rights to some of the original series stories (30 of them) and start airing them this month.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-03-13/doctor-who-30-classic-episodes-heading-for-horror-channel

Doctor Who: 30 classic episodes heading for Horror Channel From The Daemons to Genesis of the Daleks, The Talons of Weng Chiang to The Caves of Androzani, adventures starring every Doctor from William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy will air in the special season

Doctor Who fans with access to the satellite and cable service will be able to see 30 of the original adventures, including third Doctor Jon Pertwee versus the Master in The Daemons, fourth Doctor Tom Baker’s first battle with the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks and fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s well-loved farewell outing to The Caves of Androzani.

An Unearthly Child, the first ever story starring William Hartnell, will kick off the season on Good Friday, 18 April, and will be followed by a weekend marathon featuring an adventure for each of the seven Doctors, also including Patrick Troughton, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. The stories will then show in weekday double-bills, in both daytime and evening slots, in chronological order.

The Mind Robber, The Talons of Weng Chiang, Attack of the Cybermen and The Curse of Fenric are among the series of episodes, which will also feature classic foes such as Omega, the Rani, the Sea Devils and the Ice Warriors.

Alina Florea, Horror Channel's Director of Programming, said: “Doctor Who is an iconic series and we are proud and excited to welcome this giant of British television to our channel. The line-up will include some of the most revered from seven classic Doctors – stories that terrified, thrilled and captured the imagination of children and adults through the decades."

The Horror Channel is available as part of Sky Entertainment, Virgin’s XL package and to all Freesat viewers.

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The Lazarus Experiment

(Blog has pictures)

I'll say one thing for the Tenth Doctor: he's a lot better at directing the Tardis to the right time and place. Whereas the Ninth accidentally took Rose twelve months off her point of origin, Ten manages to land Martha just twelve hours later, so nobody realises she's even been gone. Conveniently, this return just happens to coincide with the grand public unveiling of the anti-aging experiment of Professor Richard Lazarus, for whom Martha's sister is working. A quick reminder, then: this is one where Mycroft Holmes transforms into the Scorpion King. Thankfully, it's not as bad as that sounds. Nor as awesome.

[Picture: Mark Gatiss didn't write this one; he's just in it.]

There have been plenty of stories like this throughout the show's history - mankind delving into things it doesn't understand and releasing a monster or other catastrophe (see Jon Pertwee's first season for the most of these!). You could argue the show has a fundamental anti-science stance, but I think it's more that it has a lack of faith in the intentions of mankind. We humans simply can't be trusted to wield great power. The Lazarus Experiment is the perfect opportunity for the Doctor to lecture about the perils of immortality and ending up alone (he should know!) and, admittedly, he gets some good dialogue with Lazarus - in between the murderous rampages, that is.

[Picture: The old man make-up is surprisingly good.]

Basically, it's a monster story, and a standard one at that. Usually, these types of stories don't reveal the creature straight away, or keep it in the shadows, but this episode is only too keen to show it in all its grotesque CGI glory. To the BBC's credit, the visual effects are reasonably impressive, without too much of that obvious compositing going on. Yes, it still looks fake in a way that better direction could have avoided, but these virtual creatures have come along since the burping bins and rubbery Slitheen of season 1. The violence is mostly implied and not shown, horrific without being bloody (see Torchwood for the opposite) but instant freeze-dried corpses can be just as effective as gore.

[Picture: Well, erm, it looks better in motion. Mostly.]

There's no apparent alien influence in this episode at all; this experiment is all the work of a human messing with his genes and accidentally becoming a genetic throwback. The science is implausible to say the least, but I am accustomed to such nonsense in countless Star Trek episodes, so it kind of washes over me. That said, however, there is a reference to Mr. Saxon's involvement in the project - it's not too far-fetched to suggest that Saxon's true identity (more on this later) has been sabotaging Lazarus's work, perhaps causing results beyond what you'd expect of simple genetics - although the Doctor doesn't appear to suspect any external influence.

[Picture: It's been a while since he had to reverse the polarity.]

This is also the Doctor's first chance to "meet the family", get annoyed (and slapped) by another companion's interfering mother, and be regarded distrustfully, even though he clearly knows what he's doing and demonstrably saves people's lives. There's just no pleasing some people. Martha is finally upgraded from 'temporary passenger' to 'full-time travelling companion', as she leaves her dysfunctional family behind for more adventures out in the universe.

[davidcotton]

Speaking of Androzani someone recently pointed out that the gap between Peter Davison's last tv story and his first Big Finish audio "Phantasmagoria", is now the same as between "Phantasmagoria" and the latest ones to come out. I feel old.

[Nick R]

Nice advert to promote the Horror Channel's broadcasts of Doctor Who:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TZ55VuIa3Q

[Jug McKenzie]

Seen them all, got every DVD, still excited.

[davidcotton]

It'll be nice to have them back on tv to break up the constant reruns of nuwho tbh

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42

(Blog has pictures)

The third series of 'NuWho' has been a little disappointing so far, all too eager to revisit previous locations and rehash ideas, trying to iterate on some "perfect formula" that doesn't exist. So, here we find the Doctor and Martha on a grimy industrial spaceship again, cut off from the Tardis again, terrorised by possessed humans again, as their ship spirals out of control into some stellar phenomenon... again.

[Picture: The S.S. Pentallian falls into the gravity of a star.]

42's twist is that the whole episode takes place in the space of 42 minutes, in realtime (like 24, see?). Forty-two minutes is all the Doctor has to stop the spaceship and its forgettable crew from plunging into a star that turns out to be a vengeful lifeform that doesn't take too kindly to being mined for fuel. On the plus side, the episode doesn't drag for a second. Everyone rushes about, shouting, panicking, no-one has time to stop and talk. It's one of the most continually exciting episodes of Doctor Who yet made, however this comes at the expense of almost any character development. Forty-two minutes is just not enough time to get to know everybody. Some of the characters have literally seconds of screen time before they're offed.

[Picture: Okay, who had "scary monsters hidden by helmets" on their Doctor Who Bingo card? Anyone?]

It's hard not to compare with the far superior 'The Impossible Planet' / 'The Satan Pit', not least because it seems to reuse a lot of the same props, costumes and set decoration. No doubt it looks good, with a striking blue and red lighting style, but it doesn't go much further than that. You get a bit of development with the captain and her husband, a little bit with Martha, her mum and the bloke in the escape pod, learn very briefly about the crew's mission, and... that's about it. Not that you'd necessarily want any more than that; the episode's primary focus is to put the characters into a fast-paced adventure for 42 minutes and see how they get out of it. It really cuts it fine, too. The Doctor has to use his quota of Stupidly Brave Things To Do In A Spacesuit per space episode and Martha gets to be a doctor again, briefly.

[Picture: The pod launch sequence is rather well done, actually. A few minutes of silence are all the more poignant in an episode where time is of the essence.]

It's all over so quickly that there's barely time to question whether what's happening makes any sense. A star that's alive? Okay, fair enough, that's an idea that will come back in a later series. A star that's alive and can "infect" humans and control them? Er, sure, okay. I mean, that's not far removed from Inferno, really. A star that's alive and can infect and control people just because they looked at it through glass? Erm, hang on a mi-... Humans with hydrogen instead of oxygen inside of them, with eyes that glow and burn people to death without harming their own bodies? Erm, time out! Hold up, let me think about this for a-... no time, stuff is exploding, wooooo!!!

[Picture: Despite his eyes being ON FIRE, the Doctor is absolutely fine a few minutes later. He should join the X-Men.]

Oh well, while I'm glad the grimy industrial future got another look-in, this is a forgettable adventure within it. Fortunately, as far as I can recall, this is the last underwhelming episode in this season. A string of more original and better quality stories are about to unfold, starting with the next one. Meanwhile, more interesting things are happening back on Earth, as the mysterious Mr. Saxon is showing an unusual interest in Martha and her adventures with the Doctor. Election day is coming, and with it, the best revelation in Doctor Who's history!

[Hexx]

Another nice trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_KpSiBHg7U

[Bluejam]

Not Who related but any Blakes 7 fans here? Kevin Davies's apparently excellent 'Making of' documentaries are on youtube at the moment. Part one here

Making B7 101: http://youtu.be/LQn-iXhepyI

These were not on the DVD releases.

[Commander Jameson]

Loved Blake's 7 when I was growing up, so I'll catch up with these when I'm back home next week. Have started to watch the first series again and I'm surprised how strong the characters are.

Thanks for the video link, Bluejam.

[Bluejam]

No worries dude

There is also the second part on there as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT89ixjCiQA

Might be worth getting / watching them now as if i recall, there was copyright issues.

I love Blakes 7, I even think it eclipses Who (depending on my mood!) The DVD's are pretty good as well but the commentary tracks are fucking awful. Long periods of silence and they all sound like they would rather be somewhere else (in fairness, they have been to so many conventions they have run out of things to say)

Jacqueline Pearce and Paul Darrow just say 'lovey and daaarrling' a lot

Finding YouTube to be a bit of a goldmine for Cult TV at the moment. Loads of Blakes 7, Sapphire and Steel, Space 1999 etc

And of course, quite a bit of Classic Who.

Recommend everyone gets Tubemate (youtube downloader thingy) and a Nexus 7 and geek out on some lovely 60 / 70 and 80's tv

[Mogster]

Anyone after classic Who should check out Daily Motion too. I think it's pretty much all up there.

Also speaking of Who and Blakes 7, Big Finish have started a full cast Blakes 7 audio series that's been getting some good word of mouth. I haven't listened to any, or seen the show, but if they're anything like their Who audios they'll be fantastic.

[davidcotton]

Anyone after classic Who should check out Daily Motion too. I think it's pretty much all up there.

Also speaking of Who and Blakes 7, Big Finish have started a full cast Blakes 7 audio series that's been getting some good word of mouth. I haven't listened to any, or seen the show, but if they're anything like their Who audios they'll be fantastic.

Yep, the Blake's 7 stuff is great. They have the same "issues" that the full cast who audios had in that the end points are already known, but even so the audios are great. Very traditional sci-fi stories and all the better for it. Two ranges, full cast single discs which are about an hour or so long just started, and The Liberator Chronicles which are along the same lines as BF's Companion Chronicles ranges. The third one "The Armageddon Storm" has just been nominated for the annual Scribe Awards, organised by the International Association of Tie-In Writers!

[Sprite Machine]

Human Nature / The Family of Blood

(Blog has pictures)

Doctor Who can be a pleasingly versatile thing when it wants to be. While this season has been a little run-of-the-mill so far, the format is due for a shake-up, starting with this imaginative two-parter that sees the Doctor become human in order to hide from a family of pursuing aliens.

[Picture: Amongst the journal of John Smith's dreams are images of the Doctor's former incarnations, for the first time since the show's 2005 revival.]

These episodes may essentially revolve around the Doctor having to outwit aliens of the week in Earth's history, but they also tackle broad themes of love, war, prejudice and many more, and do so with excellent writing and performances. As the Doctor's anchor during his transformation, Martha's role from the position of a humble servant is difficult but absolutely critical and she really comes into her own here. John Smith's relationship with Joan as a human may be rushed, but it's touching, and it's heartbreaking to see the Doctor essentially having to give up a "normal" life and become a lonely wanderer again. We see the struggle he has to go through to give up a life that he realises isn't his and we see Martha have to bury the feelings she feels she cannot have.

[Picture: John and Joan, and the life that could not be theirs.]

This is one of David Tennant's best performances, with the Doctor and John Smith showing off his range as an actor. I think I actually preferred him as the ordinary school teacher, without all of that Time Lord wackiness and bravado. There are many dual roles in these episodes; one in particular that stands out is that of schoolboy Baines, whose snooty arrogance transforms into ice-cold menace as he is inhabited by a member of The Family. The crooked smile, the vacant stares and the calm voice are brilliantly performed. It's also pleasant to see a historical episode where the period characters actually behave like they're from another time. It is both gripping and infuriating to watch some of these scenes play out, with all the class and racial discrimination, all the pomp and ceremony, and training children to fight a war that nobody knows is coming. The theme of war feels a little surplus to the main story, but it's another touching and well-written facet and concludes with a tear-jerker of an ending.

[Picture: The possessed Jeremy Baines senses the Doctor's presence.]

This story doesn't deal with ultimate good or evil. The conclusion isn't a moral victory, or scarcely a victory at all. The entire ordeal is torturous for the Doctor, the sort of thing that will affect him for the rest of his live(s), one would imagine. Was it right to create John Smith, only to destroy the possibility of his future, in order to become the Doctor again? And how many lives could have been saved if he'd never gone there in the first place? True, it's a battle of survival and for the greater good of the Universe, but then the Doctor goes to rather excessive lengths to cruelly imprison the Family in the end, seemingly an act of cold-blooded revenge.

[Picture: This story plants the idea of a personality hidden within a pocket watch with a perception filter protecting it, nicely foreshadowing the upcoming reveal at the end of the season.]

Although that raises the question of how threatening the Family was in the first place. They were going to chase him relentlessly through time and space, and yet the Doctor, once recovered, was able to waltz into their spaceship, press some buttons to blow it up and then systematically trap each of them in a personal hell. Could he not have done that in the first place without all of that painful genetic manipulation? And turning Baines into a scarecrow is hardly inconspicuous; somebody is bound to pull the sack off his head at some point, leading to all sorts of awkward questions. (Unless he put a perception filter around him, I guess.)

[Picture: Yes, the scarecrow soldiers are a tiny bit silly, but I think they're pretty scary too.]

Despite some minor nitpicks, then, this is a really great example of the high standards the show can achieve. It's the sort of thing that you might expect to not get made because "there’s not enough action" or "the kids will find it boring". Thankfully, such nonsense didn't stop it this time.

[Ravern]

This story doesn't deal with ultimate good or evil. The conclusion isn't a moral victory, or scarcely a victory at all. The entire ordeal is torturous for the Doctor, the sort of thing that will affect him for the rest of his live(s), one would imagine. Was it right to create John Smith, only to destroy the possibility of his future, in order to become the Doctor again? And how many lives could have been saved if he'd never gone there in the first place? True, it's a battle of survival and for the greater good of the Universe, but then the Doctor goes to rather excessive lengths to cruelly imprison the Family in the end, seemingly an act of cold-blooded revenge.

Although that raises the question of how threatening the Family was in the first place. They were going to chase him relentlessly through time and space, and yet the Doctor, once recovered, was able to waltz into their spaceship, press some buttons to blow it up and then systematically trap each of them in a personal hell. Could he not have done that in the first place without all of that painful genetic manipulation?

There is an awful lot of moral ambiguity (which makes it a particularly strong two parter I think), but it's worth remembering that The Doctor was not running to protect himself from the family, but the other way round. From towards the end of the episode:

"Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he’d run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.”

[Garwoofoo]

I always thought the ending of Family of Blood was out of character for the Doctor, and especially so for Tennant's Doctor. He just comes across as needlessly vindictive, and it kind of comes out of nowhere too. A very odd ending that really tarnishes what is otherwise one of the strongest two-parters in the whole of new Who.

[Flub]

It was originally a story in the 7th Doctor novels and fit him perfectly. Because the 7th doctor in the Virgin New Adventures was a proper cunt.

[Space Gibbon]

Season 3 of New Who stands out in that there are no really shit episodes, and it has at least 3 really brilliant episodes. I'm a particular fan of Utopia, mostly because of Cadfael.