I got distracted and wasn't able to post weekly reviews, but now that Series 9's three-parter has been broadcast and we now have the upcoming Christmas episode to look forward to, I'm sitting down to write up my review.
I think at this point the best that can be said of Series 9 as a whole is that, just like show runner Stephen Moffat, it's wildly inconsistent—so much so that it's almost physically painful.
Face the Raven
In this episode Clara Oswald is killed off. This is a poor way to write the character out of the show because, just as did Dark Water and Death in Heaven, it completely disregards what Moffat has already set up in Listen. In that episode, we are introduced to Clara's great-grandson by Danny Pink, Orson Pink, as he was rescued from the end of the universe by the Doctor and his human companion, and by the end of that episode we see Clara somehow manage to visit Gallifrey in the Doctor's past to comfort him as a child.
These events, having already been observed and set down as series canon, should be respected, and if they are to be disregarded then a plausible explanation must be given so as not to further insult the audience. But that's Moffat's biggest problem: he doesn't even bother to pay attention to what he's already established within the greater story, because he is too busy patting himself on the back and telling himself how clever he is.
So we have in this episode the return of Rigsy from Series 8's Flatline. Rigsy has woken up with a strange tattoo on the back of his neck that is a number counting down. He calls Clara on the TARDIS telephone and informs her, and she and the Doctor set off to investigate. Encountering Ashildr/Me once more, we learn that she orchestrated events so as to lure the Doctor to a street hidden in the middle of London that houses an assortment of aliens, with a creature called a Quantum Shade at her service executing wrongdoers if they break the Street's rules. Rigsy stands accused of a murder he can't remember, and Clara, ever more reckless, acts upon information she's been given by a Street resident and takes Rigsy's death sentence upon herself.
By the time the Doctor realizes what she's done it's too late and all he can do is tell her a tearful goodbye before he is teleported away.
Again, this episode would have been better if Moffat would stop setting up key plot points only to toss them out the window by the next episode. But he does, and so this leads into...
Heaven Sent
Peter Capaldi's acting chops are put to the test as he has to carry the entire episode virtually alone, with Jenna Coleman as a mental construct of Clara in the Doctor's tortured mind making only very brief appearances. The Doctor finds himself teleported to a weird castle in the middle of an ocean that, it is revealed, is littered with skulls. As the story unfolds, we eventually learn that the Doctor is trapped in a repeating loop of events, reliving the same day over and over for billions of years until he finally breaks free from his prison which, as it turns out, was created by the Time Lords themselves.
As a standalone episode it's a fine bit of acting we receive from Peter Capaldi, but largely unnecessary as he already has an impressive resume under his belt and really doesn't need to prove himself.
Hell Bent
Where do I begin? Arriving back on Gallifrey after breaking out of his confession dial, a device that was first introduced in Series 9 opener The Magician's Apprentice, the Doctor returns to the old barn of his childhood and quietly waits for someone important to show up to greet him. He is eventually met by Rassilon himself (Donald Sumpter), who is frustrated that he can't get his personal bodyguards to shoot his adversary. The Doctor banishes Rassilon from Gallifrey, although since the planet is positioned at the end of the universe he may not actually be able to go anywhere.
This is where we see yet another inconsistency from Moffat. According to Series 3 episode Utopia, the universe goes until the year One Hundred Trillion. Yet after spending four and a half billion years trapped inside the recursive loop of the confession dial, we're supposed to believe that the Doctor took "the long way around" to reach the end of time. But it can't be the end of time because there are still trillions of years to go before we're supposed to reach it.
HELL-O! Earth to Moffat! Sit your lazy ass down and actually watch Doctor Who from start to finish why don't you!
The Time Lords want information from the Doctor about the mysterious Hybrid, a creature prophesied to lay waste to Gallifrey and "stand in its ruins", which is why they orchestrated Clara's death and the Doctor's imprisonment in his confession dial in the first place. The Doctor demands the use of an extraction chamber to pull Clara out of her timeline a moment before her death, causing her physical processes to become time-looped, frozen between one heartbeat and the next, rendering her ageless. Her death is supposedly fixed in time, so naturally the Doctor's plan all along was to try to find a way to undo this. He runs off with Clara in a stolen TARDIS to find a solution at the last moments of the universe, where he again meets up with Ashildr/Me, who theorizes that the Hybrid is in fact the Doctor and Clara together.
Obviously this can't be allowed to stand, so a rather pointless trick is played and Moffat finds a way to get Clara out of the show without killing her off, albeit still time-looped, now traveling back to Gallifrey with Ashildr/Me "the long way around" in the stolen TARDIS. The Doctor supposedly forgets Clara, although he is able to fill in the gaps in his memory by way of the holes left there.
Review
What really frustrates me is the arrogant, self-congratulatory sloppiness employed by Moffat throughout his tenure as head writer for Doctor Who. He has no respect for viewers and nothing but contempt for good writing. If he'd stop and pay attention to what he's writing, he could come up with much more clever and plausible ways to achieve the ends he wants. As it stands, we're subjected to a tiresome parade of characters that should never have been written out of the show the way they were, characters that were allowed to overstay their welcome simply because Moffat wasn't quite done with them yet and wanted to write them out in a bigger way, and never-plausibly-explained gaffs in the storytelling. It's insulting.
Back during Doctor Who's original run, if a character was written out, he or she was usually set up to simply leave. There was no need to keep trying to top the previous departure of a Companion with ever-escalating drama that had so many twists it violated all rules of good writing. But these days it's all about the Gimmick, good writing and viewer intelligence be damned.
I really wish Moffat would leave the show as head writer and let someone competent take the reigns. But as long as Doctor Who continues to maintain higher ratings in spite of the poor quality of the stories, the BBC won't sack him. That's a shame, because we could really use fresher, better ideas with superior execution from someone who respects viewers' intelligence.
Showing posts with label 12th Doctor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 12th Doctor. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Review: Sleep No More
I'm rather disappointed in this episode.
It's not that the producers decided to replace the opening theme and CGI sequence with a Matrix-style glitch in a 'found footage' scene. It's not the horror element.
It's not even so much that the normally competent writer Mark Gatiss churned out something rather stupid, although it does contribute to the poor quality of the episode.
It's that the producers seem to have run out of steam for the show and are no longer interested in even trying to maintain storytelling standards so as not to insult viewer intelligence.
I mean, come on: Killer sleep sand? Really? That gunk that forms in the corners of our eyes at night and dries into crusty yellow-ish grainy stuff takes on a life of its own and devours people from within?
I realize that head writer Stephen Moffat is a one-trick pony and that this episode is basically filler until we reach the season finale in three weeks, but still, he owes us better and so does Gatiss.
I'm giving this episode the 'F' it deserves.
It's not that the producers decided to replace the opening theme and CGI sequence with a Matrix-style glitch in a 'found footage' scene. It's not the horror element.
It's not even so much that the normally competent writer Mark Gatiss churned out something rather stupid, although it does contribute to the poor quality of the episode.
It's that the producers seem to have run out of steam for the show and are no longer interested in even trying to maintain storytelling standards so as not to insult viewer intelligence.
I mean, come on: Killer sleep sand? Really? That gunk that forms in the corners of our eyes at night and dries into crusty yellow-ish grainy stuff takes on a life of its own and devours people from within?
I realize that head writer Stephen Moffat is a one-trick pony and that this episode is basically filler until we reach the season finale in three weeks, but still, he owes us better and so does Gatiss.
I'm giving this episode the 'F' it deserves.
Review: The Zygon Invasion, The Zygon Inversion
Given that this is a two-parter, I'll review them both as a single episode in two chapters.
As was seen in the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, in 2013, Zygon invaders were...let's just say, "convinced" to negotiate a peace treaty with U.N.I.T. to remain on Earth peacefully. By this point there are now twenty million Zygons living here disguised as humans. An opening video made by the twinned U.N.I.T. researcher Osgood explains how fragile the peace is and that if it ever breaks down there is a contingency plan inside a red carved box to deal with what's called the Nightmare Scenario.
That scenario has now taken place, with one of the Osgoods dead (see Series 8's finale, Death In Heaven, for more info) and the surviving twin on the run from rogue Zygons who have decided that they got a bum rap from their elders when they negotiated that peace treaty and now want to live openly as themselves—or else there will be consequences.
The first part basically exists to set up the story for the second, so there's not much to review other than to say that U.N.I.T. must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for red-shirts these days. You'd think they'd recruit people smart enough to know when they've walked into a trap and not to take the bait. Alas, they don't.
Part Two, The Zygon Inversion, deals with the consequences of war and why it should be avoided. Jenna-Louise Coleman delivers a rather good performance as Clara and her Zygon counterpart Bonny, who leads the aliens' revolution.
Oddly enough, Stephen Moffat for some reason decided to throw ambiguity into the mix as to whether it was the original Osgood or her Zygon twin who was killed off in Death In Heaven. The only relevancy seems to be to reinforce the prophesy of the Hybrid, which the Doctor supposedly has a hand in creating, and which is supposed to be resolved by the end of Series 9. We've already seen some red herrings in the form of Davros' regeneration-energy-charged Daleks, and Viking girl Ashildr, and now a third one in Osgood. Moffat likes to play poorly-written head games with audiences, so don't expect much delivery on his promises.
I give this two-parter a C.
As was seen in the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, in 2013, Zygon invaders were...let's just say, "convinced" to negotiate a peace treaty with U.N.I.T. to remain on Earth peacefully. By this point there are now twenty million Zygons living here disguised as humans. An opening video made by the twinned U.N.I.T. researcher Osgood explains how fragile the peace is and that if it ever breaks down there is a contingency plan inside a red carved box to deal with what's called the Nightmare Scenario.
That scenario has now taken place, with one of the Osgoods dead (see Series 8's finale, Death In Heaven, for more info) and the surviving twin on the run from rogue Zygons who have decided that they got a bum rap from their elders when they negotiated that peace treaty and now want to live openly as themselves—or else there will be consequences.
The first part basically exists to set up the story for the second, so there's not much to review other than to say that U.N.I.T. must be scraping the bottom of the barrel for red-shirts these days. You'd think they'd recruit people smart enough to know when they've walked into a trap and not to take the bait. Alas, they don't.
Part Two, The Zygon Inversion, deals with the consequences of war and why it should be avoided. Jenna-Louise Coleman delivers a rather good performance as Clara and her Zygon counterpart Bonny, who leads the aliens' revolution.
Oddly enough, Stephen Moffat for some reason decided to throw ambiguity into the mix as to whether it was the original Osgood or her Zygon twin who was killed off in Death In Heaven. The only relevancy seems to be to reinforce the prophesy of the Hybrid, which the Doctor supposedly has a hand in creating, and which is supposed to be resolved by the end of Series 9. We've already seen some red herrings in the form of Davros' regeneration-energy-charged Daleks, and Viking girl Ashildr, and now a third one in Osgood. Moffat likes to play poorly-written head games with audiences, so don't expect much delivery on his promises.
I give this two-parter a C.
Review: The Woman Who Lived
Picking up about eight centuries from where the previous episode left off, we find the Doctor on the trail of an alien artifact, interrupting a robbery in 1651 England that is in the process of being carried out by none other than Ashildr (Maisie Williams), who by now has largely forgotten her name and now answers to "Me". Bored with eternal life, she has taken to fighting in wars and robbing the spoiled rich. The Doctor is astonished at this and resolves to help her rediscover herself.
Complicating things, of course, is a leonine alien who calls himself Leandro and who claims to have lost his family and his world, and wants to use the artifact to leave Earth. There's just one catch: the artifact, an amulet called the Eyes of Hades, requires the entire life energy of a living being in order to open the portal to Leandro's dimension. "Me" seems only too happy to help, and here is where the Doctor must find a way to convince the immortal girl of the error of her ways.
Although the episode was hit-and-miss, there were some decent enough bits that were worthy of consideration. For instance, Ashildr's body may be immortal thanks to the Mire medical chip embedded in her skull, but her memories are not—the chip suppresses memories that are too painful for her to bear, and there are a lot of them. In order to keep track of her own activities, she writes them down in journals, pages of which she tears out so she won't have to relive any events that are too traumatic. She only keeps intact the journal of how she lost her children in the Black Death to remind herself not to have any more.
By the end, of course, things work out and Ashildr declares her intention to remain behind and attend to all the people the Doctor leaves behind during his visits to Earth. That's to the good, because Maisie Williams is scheduled to make at least one more appearance in this series.
But beyond this bit of character building, the episode is fairly unremarkable. I give it a C-.
Complicating things, of course, is a leonine alien who calls himself Leandro and who claims to have lost his family and his world, and wants to use the artifact to leave Earth. There's just one catch: the artifact, an amulet called the Eyes of Hades, requires the entire life energy of a living being in order to open the portal to Leandro's dimension. "Me" seems only too happy to help, and here is where the Doctor must find a way to convince the immortal girl of the error of her ways.
Although the episode was hit-and-miss, there were some decent enough bits that were worthy of consideration. For instance, Ashildr's body may be immortal thanks to the Mire medical chip embedded in her skull, but her memories are not—the chip suppresses memories that are too painful for her to bear, and there are a lot of them. In order to keep track of her own activities, she writes them down in journals, pages of which she tears out so she won't have to relive any events that are too traumatic. She only keeps intact the journal of how she lost her children in the Black Death to remind herself not to have any more.
By the end, of course, things work out and Ashildr declares her intention to remain behind and attend to all the people the Doctor leaves behind during his visits to Earth. That's to the good, because Maisie Williams is scheduled to make at least one more appearance in this series.
But beyond this bit of character building, the episode is fairly unremarkable. I give it a C-.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Review: The Girl Who Died
Okay, this was a hit-and-miss episode co-written by (wait for it) Stephen Moffat, which explains why it's so hit-and-miss.
The premise: After narrowly rescuing Clara from certain death—she's floating in space with a brain-eating spider-thing crawling through her environment suit—our two heroes land in a Medieval Viking village and are quickly captured by the local warriors. When taken back to the village, the Doctor tries rather pathetically to impersonate Odin to a disbelieving crowd when another fake Odin appears, teleports all the warriors away along with Clara and Ashildr (Maisie Williams), a village girl who is the character referred to in the episode's title, and the warriors are summarily murdered, leaving Clara and the girl to go back with a message that in twenty-four hours the aliens, called the Mire, will attack and kill the entire village. The Doctor must then train a bunch of farmers, fishermen, and storytellers in the art of combat if they are all to die with honor, because really, there's no hope of winning (or surviving) by fighting.
The rest of the episode is the Doctor, minus TARDIS or sonic sunglasses, saving the day, and the Time Lord realizing why he chose the face he did, a face that's appeared twice in the Whoniverse. For some reason Moffat felt obligated to offer up such an explanation, never mind that it's been done before in the Classic series, first with actress Lalla Ward stepping in to play the Time Lady Romana after playing another character, and then with Colin Baker playing the Doctor after previously portraying another Time Lord during the Tom Baker era. Oh well. But it does add another layer of personality to the current incarnation, so yeah, decent enough idea.
We also get hints that Ashildr will return again in Series 9 and that she will be an enemy of the Doctor next time.
What I Liked:
Clara is restored to something resembling a strong, smart female lead in the show, which is good. So far in this season, the character has been treated like a simpering comic relief moron, which cheapens both her and Jenna Coleman, the actress who portrays her.
Classic series references harkening back to the 7th Doctor era, in which the Doctor describes ripple effects of meddling with history, and that these ripples lead to unforeseen consequences.
What I Didn't Like:
I get that both Russell T. Davies and Stephen Moffat are atheists and that they're not at all keen on religion. But why do they and writers on the payroll in the revived series keep having the Doctor make some disparaging remark on people's faith in something more? I'd like to see an episode in which the Doctor and his companion(s) are challenged to at least question if there's some guiding presence in the universe that operates in ways so subtle we often miss it.
Overall, because Moffat co-wrote it and brought with it all the usual storytelling problems, I give this episode a B-.
The premise: After narrowly rescuing Clara from certain death—she's floating in space with a brain-eating spider-thing crawling through her environment suit—our two heroes land in a Medieval Viking village and are quickly captured by the local warriors. When taken back to the village, the Doctor tries rather pathetically to impersonate Odin to a disbelieving crowd when another fake Odin appears, teleports all the warriors away along with Clara and Ashildr (Maisie Williams), a village girl who is the character referred to in the episode's title, and the warriors are summarily murdered, leaving Clara and the girl to go back with a message that in twenty-four hours the aliens, called the Mire, will attack and kill the entire village. The Doctor must then train a bunch of farmers, fishermen, and storytellers in the art of combat if they are all to die with honor, because really, there's no hope of winning (or surviving) by fighting.
The rest of the episode is the Doctor, minus TARDIS or sonic sunglasses, saving the day, and the Time Lord realizing why he chose the face he did, a face that's appeared twice in the Whoniverse. For some reason Moffat felt obligated to offer up such an explanation, never mind that it's been done before in the Classic series, first with actress Lalla Ward stepping in to play the Time Lady Romana after playing another character, and then with Colin Baker playing the Doctor after previously portraying another Time Lord during the Tom Baker era. Oh well. But it does add another layer of personality to the current incarnation, so yeah, decent enough idea.
We also get hints that Ashildr will return again in Series 9 and that she will be an enemy of the Doctor next time.
What I Liked:
Clara is restored to something resembling a strong, smart female lead in the show, which is good. So far in this season, the character has been treated like a simpering comic relief moron, which cheapens both her and Jenna Coleman, the actress who portrays her.
Classic series references harkening back to the 7th Doctor era, in which the Doctor describes ripple effects of meddling with history, and that these ripples lead to unforeseen consequences.
What I Didn't Like:
I get that both Russell T. Davies and Stephen Moffat are atheists and that they're not at all keen on religion. But why do they and writers on the payroll in the revived series keep having the Doctor make some disparaging remark on people's faith in something more? I'd like to see an episode in which the Doctor and his companion(s) are challenged to at least question if there's some guiding presence in the universe that operates in ways so subtle we often miss it.
Overall, because Moffat co-wrote it and brought with it all the usual storytelling problems, I give this episode a B-.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Triple Review: The Witch's Familiar, Under the Lake, Before the Flood
Since I didn't get a chance the past three weeks to review individual episodes, this is going to be a three-review mash-up. Enjoy.
The Witch's Familiar
It stinks.
What? You want more? Okay, I'll refrain from boring you with unnecessary details and cut right to the chase. Clara has been dumbed down this series into a simpering, comic relief moron of a sidekick. Waking up after being seemingly disintegrated by a Dalek death ray in the previous episode, Clara discovers how Missy survived her apparent death in Death In Heaven basically by going through the same trick herself, or more accurately, getting dragged through it. So that's one extremely rare explanation by show head writer Stephen Moffat. Too bad it's the only one given in five years, and likely to be the only one ever.
What I found unbearable was the dynamic between Clara and Missy as they set off to rescue the Doctor. The human should despise the Time Lady for turning her boyfriend into a Cyberman in Series 8, and there's a throw away scene in which she threatens Missy with a pointed stick, but it just doesn't feel genuine on screen. Clara is reduced to being the comedy relief, with Michelle Gomez as the Master in female form chewing up the scenes. Clara's presence is almost an afterthought here and it cheapens the character. This is especially true at the end of the episode when the Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, rescues her.
The scene with the Doctor and Davros was meant to provoke tears but, again, the out-of-character nature of what turns out to be another of Davros' ploys to defeat the Doctor and grant his Daleks ultimate power just rings very false.
All in all, I give this episode a D-.
Under the Lake
Now this is much better than the two previous episodes of Series 9, and like them, is the first of another two-parter. The Doctor and Clara arrive in an underwater salvaging base in 2119, days after ghosts have begun killing members of the crew to add to their ranks. Upon realizing that the spectres are being used as transmitters to send a signal, with each murdered soul helping to boost the signal, the Doctor travels back in time to find out how it all started. That's when we get a damn good cliffhanger.
Episode writer Toby Whithouse did a splendid job spinning a ghostly horror yarn, providing scares but also whetting our appetites for what comes next, which not only continues the scares but also brings back an element of true science fiction. That brings us to...
Before the Flood
Whithouse has the Doctor start us off with a fourth-wall-breaking lecture by the Doctor explaining what is erroneously called the bootstrap paradox, in which a person, object, or event is performed by a time traveler who ultimately is responsible for making that person, object, or event come into being. The given example is Beethoven: The hypothetical traveler tries without success to locate his musical idol, and in desperation uses all of his collected sheet-copies of Beethoven's music to publish them in the past. The question then is, without an original creator, how did the music appear in the first place? But as I said, this is the wrong paradox, although writer Whithouse may be forgiven for having gotten it wrong as he is not a scientist. What he's actually describing is what I call the Terminator Paradox, in which traveling back in time to witness or alter past events actually results in causing events in the present to occur.
Anyway, the Doctor and two crewmembers from the base who came with him arrive in a soon-to-be-submerged military training town circa 1980, to locate the cause of the ghosts. The learn that a spaceship that was found in the previous episode is actually a hearse, and that its cargo, still very much alive, is responsible for starting the chain of deaths. The Doctor realizes he can't change events that are already set in stone, but tries to alter what he can.
As with Under the Lake, Before the Flood captures the emotions of the characters rather well, and we get to expand our minds with our share of science-y questions.
The only gripe I had was with two rather poorly written and improbable scenes in which characters who'd shown no previous attraction to one another suddenly declare their feelings. Come on, writer-people! You can do better than that!
I give these two episodes a B+.
The Witch's Familiar
It stinks.
What? You want more? Okay, I'll refrain from boring you with unnecessary details and cut right to the chase. Clara has been dumbed down this series into a simpering, comic relief moron of a sidekick. Waking up after being seemingly disintegrated by a Dalek death ray in the previous episode, Clara discovers how Missy survived her apparent death in Death In Heaven basically by going through the same trick herself, or more accurately, getting dragged through it. So that's one extremely rare explanation by show head writer Stephen Moffat. Too bad it's the only one given in five years, and likely to be the only one ever.
What I found unbearable was the dynamic between Clara and Missy as they set off to rescue the Doctor. The human should despise the Time Lady for turning her boyfriend into a Cyberman in Series 8, and there's a throw away scene in which she threatens Missy with a pointed stick, but it just doesn't feel genuine on screen. Clara is reduced to being the comedy relief, with Michelle Gomez as the Master in female form chewing up the scenes. Clara's presence is almost an afterthought here and it cheapens the character. This is especially true at the end of the episode when the Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, rescues her.
The scene with the Doctor and Davros was meant to provoke tears but, again, the out-of-character nature of what turns out to be another of Davros' ploys to defeat the Doctor and grant his Daleks ultimate power just rings very false.
All in all, I give this episode a D-.
Under the Lake
Now this is much better than the two previous episodes of Series 9, and like them, is the first of another two-parter. The Doctor and Clara arrive in an underwater salvaging base in 2119, days after ghosts have begun killing members of the crew to add to their ranks. Upon realizing that the spectres are being used as transmitters to send a signal, with each murdered soul helping to boost the signal, the Doctor travels back in time to find out how it all started. That's when we get a damn good cliffhanger.
Episode writer Toby Whithouse did a splendid job spinning a ghostly horror yarn, providing scares but also whetting our appetites for what comes next, which not only continues the scares but also brings back an element of true science fiction. That brings us to...
Before the Flood
Whithouse has the Doctor start us off with a fourth-wall-breaking lecture by the Doctor explaining what is erroneously called the bootstrap paradox, in which a person, object, or event is performed by a time traveler who ultimately is responsible for making that person, object, or event come into being. The given example is Beethoven: The hypothetical traveler tries without success to locate his musical idol, and in desperation uses all of his collected sheet-copies of Beethoven's music to publish them in the past. The question then is, without an original creator, how did the music appear in the first place? But as I said, this is the wrong paradox, although writer Whithouse may be forgiven for having gotten it wrong as he is not a scientist. What he's actually describing is what I call the Terminator Paradox, in which traveling back in time to witness or alter past events actually results in causing events in the present to occur.
Anyway, the Doctor and two crewmembers from the base who came with him arrive in a soon-to-be-submerged military training town circa 1980, to locate the cause of the ghosts. The learn that a spaceship that was found in the previous episode is actually a hearse, and that its cargo, still very much alive, is responsible for starting the chain of deaths. The Doctor realizes he can't change events that are already set in stone, but tries to alter what he can.
As with Under the Lake, Before the Flood captures the emotions of the characters rather well, and we get to expand our minds with our share of science-y questions.
The only gripe I had was with two rather poorly written and improbable scenes in which characters who'd shown no previous attraction to one another suddenly declare their feelings. Come on, writer-people! You can do better than that!
I give these two episodes a B+.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Review: The Magician's Apprentice
The first episode of Series 9 of Doctor Who's revived format, the first of many two-parters this season, aired on Saturday, and enough time having passed for stragglers to catch up, I thought I'd do a review.
The Doctor is sought out by a mysterious snake-creatures named Colony Sarff, who has a message for the Time Lord: Davros, creator of the Daleks and "Dark Lord of Skaro", is dying after having been killed off at the end of Series 4's Journey's End. Davros knows and remembers something pertaining to the Doctor, namely, that his latest incarnation refused to help Davros out of a weird 'hand' minefield in which hands with a single eye in the middle of their palms spring up from the ground to drag people underground, when the Kaled future despot was just a child.
Missy, aka The Mistress, aka The Master, appears again after getting the world's attention by freezing every airborne vehicle in time, in order to arrange a meeting with Clara Oswald. Missy hijacks Clara in time via a stolen vortex manipulator and the unlikely pair are off to locate the Doctor, who has been throwing himself a three-week going away party in Medieval England. Sarrf inexplicably appears to take the three time travelers to see Davros for the Kaled's final confrontation with his age-old enemy.
As is typical with head writer Stephen Moffat, no proper explanation is given as to how Davros and Missy survived their deaths at the end of their respective, prior episodic appearances. This is what irritates me, as a writer, to no end: Moffat has an extremely annoying tendency to completely ignore previously established canon in order to tell his story, and never offers up any good reason for anything.
Next week's episode, The Witch's Familiar, had damned well better explain things adequately. I'm just about fed up with Moffat's piss-poor writing.
Low Points: The anachronistic biplanes firing lasers at people on the ground, the 'hand minefield', Colony Sarff
High Points: None, really.
The Doctor is sought out by a mysterious snake-creatures named Colony Sarff, who has a message for the Time Lord: Davros, creator of the Daleks and "Dark Lord of Skaro", is dying after having been killed off at the end of Series 4's Journey's End. Davros knows and remembers something pertaining to the Doctor, namely, that his latest incarnation refused to help Davros out of a weird 'hand' minefield in which hands with a single eye in the middle of their palms spring up from the ground to drag people underground, when the Kaled future despot was just a child.
Missy, aka The Mistress, aka The Master, appears again after getting the world's attention by freezing every airborne vehicle in time, in order to arrange a meeting with Clara Oswald. Missy hijacks Clara in time via a stolen vortex manipulator and the unlikely pair are off to locate the Doctor, who has been throwing himself a three-week going away party in Medieval England. Sarrf inexplicably appears to take the three time travelers to see Davros for the Kaled's final confrontation with his age-old enemy.
As is typical with head writer Stephen Moffat, no proper explanation is given as to how Davros and Missy survived their deaths at the end of their respective, prior episodic appearances. This is what irritates me, as a writer, to no end: Moffat has an extremely annoying tendency to completely ignore previously established canon in order to tell his story, and never offers up any good reason for anything.
Next week's episode, The Witch's Familiar, had damned well better explain things adequately. I'm just about fed up with Moffat's piss-poor writing.
Low Points: The anachronistic biplanes firing lasers at people on the ground, the 'hand minefield', Colony Sarff
High Points: None, really.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Capaldi Costume
Here's a look ar Peter Capaldi's Doctor costume. Enjoy.
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| Modern, but inspired by the Victorian era. |
Monday, January 13, 2014
Review: The Time of the Doctor
All things good or bad must eventually end, and Matt Smith's tenure as the iconic Time Lord from Gallifrey is no exception. The reigns are handed over to Peter Capaldi in a tear-jerker regeneration scene you have to watch over and over again. I honestly didn't think Tennant's departure from Doctor Who could be topped, but I am happy to have been proven wrong.
The episode opens with a narrator, who is later revealed to be the head of the Church of the Papal Mainframe, telling of a planet from which a signal is being broadcast across time and space, drawing all the Doctor's enemies to the world in fear of what that signal might mean. Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor receives a panicked call from Clara, who "accidentally" told her relatives that she has a boyfriend and that she needs the Doctor to play the part at Christmas dinner. The Doctor arrives in typically comic fashion and he soon takes Clara off for what ultimately will be his final adventure.
THE BAD:
Consistency problems, much? Come to think of it: LOGIC problems, much? Why does the Doctor choose to strand himself on Trenzelore when he could simply have used the TARDIS to evacuate the farming community? Also, why and how can a farming community exist on a snowy planet where the days last only a few minutes? Plants need sunlight in order to grow. What the hell?
Again, some consistency from Moffat would be nice. It's already been established in "The Day of the Doctor" that Gallifrey was frozen in time inside a pocket universe outside our own. How, therefore, do the Time Lords manage to transmit a signal into the main universe in order to find out if it's safe to return? Dammit, Moffat!
The hideous age makeup they used on Matt Smith. It's even worse than that used for Karen Gillan in "The Girl Who Waited". If they're going to make anyone appear to grow old, do it right.
The poor treatment given to Jenna Coleman's character, Clara Oswald, in the final scene. The Doctor, regenerating and hallucinating, gives a tear-jerking eulogy to himself before transforming, and Clara is basically a bystander in the scene, rendered almost irrelevant by the appearance of a former Companion. Bad call, Moffat!
A wooden Cyberman? Seriously?
THE GOOD:
Sweet Jesus, was there a lot in this episode to love! This episode should really be subtitled "The Time of Matt Smith", because he owned it. Moffat may not be consistent as a writer, but when he writes a scene he knows how to make it work. When the Doctor, stuck on the planet (which turns out to be a pre-war Trenzalore) for centuries, shows signs of aging, he explains to Clara that he has used up all his regenerations and is on his final life. This combined with the poignancy of 'Handles', a Cyberman head the Doctor salvaged and reworked into a personal portable computer, deactivating for lack of adequate repair, really was touching. And Smith's final scene really made me cry.
The matter of the Silence, the explosion of the TARDIS, the engineering of River Song, and the prophesy of the First Question...all of it is finally resolved. Ten's partial regeneration was counted as a complete one by Moffat, who needed to explain how the Doctor can continue to regenerate with the Time Lords gone and all his regenerations used up. Granted, the latex on Matt Smith looked as fake as it was, but his acting made up for it. Moffat has stated that in his mind the Time Lords are dead and gone and not coming back, but even he realized that he had to resurrect them somehow in order to write himself out of the corner previous show-runner Russell T. Davies had put him in. The way all this was resolved was actually brilliant.
The final scene in the TARDIS, when a rejuvenated Doctor must say goodbye to Clara before his regeneration, was perhaps the best Matt Smith has ever given us, and like I said, he owned it! A surprise visitor from the past makes an appearance in the form of a pre-regeneration hallucination to send Eleven to his final rest, and despite a tearful Clara's pleas, it's time for Eleven to go. Peter Capaldi makes his appearance suddenly and without further warning, foreshadowing the tone his tenure as the Doctor will adopt. I'm looking forward to seeing Series 8!
SNAPSHOTS:
Screen captures from the episode. Enjoy!
The episode opens with a narrator, who is later revealed to be the head of the Church of the Papal Mainframe, telling of a planet from which a signal is being broadcast across time and space, drawing all the Doctor's enemies to the world in fear of what that signal might mean. Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor receives a panicked call from Clara, who "accidentally" told her relatives that she has a boyfriend and that she needs the Doctor to play the part at Christmas dinner. The Doctor arrives in typically comic fashion and he soon takes Clara off for what ultimately will be his final adventure.
THE BAD:
Consistency problems, much? Come to think of it: LOGIC problems, much? Why does the Doctor choose to strand himself on Trenzelore when he could simply have used the TARDIS to evacuate the farming community? Also, why and how can a farming community exist on a snowy planet where the days last only a few minutes? Plants need sunlight in order to grow. What the hell?
Again, some consistency from Moffat would be nice. It's already been established in "The Day of the Doctor" that Gallifrey was frozen in time inside a pocket universe outside our own. How, therefore, do the Time Lords manage to transmit a signal into the main universe in order to find out if it's safe to return? Dammit, Moffat!
The hideous age makeup they used on Matt Smith. It's even worse than that used for Karen Gillan in "The Girl Who Waited". If they're going to make anyone appear to grow old, do it right.
The poor treatment given to Jenna Coleman's character, Clara Oswald, in the final scene. The Doctor, regenerating and hallucinating, gives a tear-jerking eulogy to himself before transforming, and Clara is basically a bystander in the scene, rendered almost irrelevant by the appearance of a former Companion. Bad call, Moffat!
A wooden Cyberman? Seriously?
THE GOOD:
Sweet Jesus, was there a lot in this episode to love! This episode should really be subtitled "The Time of Matt Smith", because he owned it. Moffat may not be consistent as a writer, but when he writes a scene he knows how to make it work. When the Doctor, stuck on the planet (which turns out to be a pre-war Trenzalore) for centuries, shows signs of aging, he explains to Clara that he has used up all his regenerations and is on his final life. This combined with the poignancy of 'Handles', a Cyberman head the Doctor salvaged and reworked into a personal portable computer, deactivating for lack of adequate repair, really was touching. And Smith's final scene really made me cry.
The matter of the Silence, the explosion of the TARDIS, the engineering of River Song, and the prophesy of the First Question...all of it is finally resolved. Ten's partial regeneration was counted as a complete one by Moffat, who needed to explain how the Doctor can continue to regenerate with the Time Lords gone and all his regenerations used up. Granted, the latex on Matt Smith looked as fake as it was, but his acting made up for it. Moffat has stated that in his mind the Time Lords are dead and gone and not coming back, but even he realized that he had to resurrect them somehow in order to write himself out of the corner previous show-runner Russell T. Davies had put him in. The way all this was resolved was actually brilliant.
The final scene in the TARDIS, when a rejuvenated Doctor must say goodbye to Clara before his regeneration, was perhaps the best Matt Smith has ever given us, and like I said, he owned it! A surprise visitor from the past makes an appearance in the form of a pre-regeneration hallucination to send Eleven to his final rest, and despite a tearful Clara's pleas, it's time for Eleven to go. Peter Capaldi makes his appearance suddenly and without further warning, foreshadowing the tone his tenure as the Doctor will adopt. I'm looking forward to seeing Series 8!
SNAPSHOTS:
Screen captures from the episode. Enjoy!
Review: The Day of the Doctor
As promised, here's my review of the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor".
As always with anything written by Stephen Moffat, the episode was a mixed bag and inconsistent, yet this time the good outweighed the bad. I'll do straight away with the bad parts so as to get them out of the way. WARNING! Spoilers abound!
THE BAD:
The metamorphic Zygons have invaded Elizabethan England circa 1562, yet the queen somehow manages to keep her head and spout off knowledge of the aliens she really shouldn't have. Why the hell is this? Seriously? Moffat, I know you like to pull things out of your ass, but really, this is too much even for you.
The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) states his age as being 904, but this episode takes place from his perspective after "The Waters of Mars" and just before "The End of Time", wherein he gives his age as 906. He was 904 or 905 by the time of "Journey's End", and presumably about a year passed between "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time". Moffat uses a scene featuring the War Doctor, played by the legendary John Hurt, in a cell with Ten and Eleven (Matt Smith) to explain that the Doctor actually doesn't bother keeping track of his actual age and just tosses out whatever number he feels like giving, or that feels about right to him. Yes, the Doctor lies about his age, but this is really just too confusing for the audience. Consistency, Moffat. Learn it.
The Zygons have infiltrated UNIT's Black Vault archive, which houses alien technology gathered over the years, and the Doctors use a memory-wiping system installed to keep visitors from remembering their forays into the vault to resolve a deadly standoff between humans and Zygons, yet this subplot is left unresolved — as usual with Moffat, he brings something up and then forgets about it. Dammit, Moffat!
THE GOOD:
Those and other writing inconsistencies aside, there was plenty in this episode to enjoy. The subplot with the Zygons was actually fairly clever in that it offered a way out of the Time War for Gallifrey and the Time Lords: they stole Time Lord technology that freezes moments in time in the form of three-dimensional portal-"paintings", which the Zygons use to place themselves in a form of temporal stasis. This plays out later when the time comes to save the day.
The concept of the Moment, a weapon so powerful it not only achieved full sentience, but a conscience as well, was genius. It doesn't want to massacre an entire galaxy, which is what would have happened had it been used. Instead, it takes the form of Rose Tyler in her Bad Wolf persona to bring the War Doctor, Ten, and Eleven together so the former can see the guilt carried by his future selves. In this fashion the Moment hopes to change history for the better. Ever since Russell T. Davies killed off the Time Lords at the revival of Doctor Who in 2005, we fans have been clamoring for their return, only to be teased and ultimately denied by both Davies and Moffat. But this now brings up at least the possibility of a more permanent return.
All the Doctors working together to save Gallifrey.
The acting was superb all around. Plenty of humor to offset the drama (Tennant keeps mistaking real people and animals for Zygons, and the banter between him, Smith, and Hurt was priceless).
A last-minute appearance by Tom Baker, who reveals the survival of Gallifrey and the Time Lords to Matt Smith's Doctor, who exits the TARDIS to stand with all his previous selves.
SNAPSHOTS:
Here are some screen captures from the episode.
As always with anything written by Stephen Moffat, the episode was a mixed bag and inconsistent, yet this time the good outweighed the bad. I'll do straight away with the bad parts so as to get them out of the way. WARNING! Spoilers abound!
THE BAD:
The metamorphic Zygons have invaded Elizabethan England circa 1562, yet the queen somehow manages to keep her head and spout off knowledge of the aliens she really shouldn't have. Why the hell is this? Seriously? Moffat, I know you like to pull things out of your ass, but really, this is too much even for you.
The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) states his age as being 904, but this episode takes place from his perspective after "The Waters of Mars" and just before "The End of Time", wherein he gives his age as 906. He was 904 or 905 by the time of "Journey's End", and presumably about a year passed between "The Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time". Moffat uses a scene featuring the War Doctor, played by the legendary John Hurt, in a cell with Ten and Eleven (Matt Smith) to explain that the Doctor actually doesn't bother keeping track of his actual age and just tosses out whatever number he feels like giving, or that feels about right to him. Yes, the Doctor lies about his age, but this is really just too confusing for the audience. Consistency, Moffat. Learn it.
The Zygons have infiltrated UNIT's Black Vault archive, which houses alien technology gathered over the years, and the Doctors use a memory-wiping system installed to keep visitors from remembering their forays into the vault to resolve a deadly standoff between humans and Zygons, yet this subplot is left unresolved — as usual with Moffat, he brings something up and then forgets about it. Dammit, Moffat!
THE GOOD:
Those and other writing inconsistencies aside, there was plenty in this episode to enjoy. The subplot with the Zygons was actually fairly clever in that it offered a way out of the Time War for Gallifrey and the Time Lords: they stole Time Lord technology that freezes moments in time in the form of three-dimensional portal-"paintings", which the Zygons use to place themselves in a form of temporal stasis. This plays out later when the time comes to save the day.
The concept of the Moment, a weapon so powerful it not only achieved full sentience, but a conscience as well, was genius. It doesn't want to massacre an entire galaxy, which is what would have happened had it been used. Instead, it takes the form of Rose Tyler in her Bad Wolf persona to bring the War Doctor, Ten, and Eleven together so the former can see the guilt carried by his future selves. In this fashion the Moment hopes to change history for the better. Ever since Russell T. Davies killed off the Time Lords at the revival of Doctor Who in 2005, we fans have been clamoring for their return, only to be teased and ultimately denied by both Davies and Moffat. But this now brings up at least the possibility of a more permanent return.
All the Doctors working together to save Gallifrey.
The acting was superb all around. Plenty of humor to offset the drama (Tennant keeps mistaking real people and animals for Zygons, and the banter between him, Smith, and Hurt was priceless).
A last-minute appearance by Tom Baker, who reveals the survival of Gallifrey and the Time Lords to Matt Smith's Doctor, who exits the TARDIS to stand with all his previous selves.
SNAPSHOTS:
Here are some screen captures from the episode.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
"The Time of the Doctor" Preview!
Thanks to Krypton Radio for this link!
Time is running out for the Eleventh Doctor as the Silence gather their forces for the final battle at Trenzalore! Tune in at Christmas to find out what happens!
I get paid tomorrow, and with any luck I'll be able to order a replacement motherboard to get my computer up and running again. Having to rely on public terminals to get online is a real drag, and I'm falling so far behind it's ridiculous. I've already missed the 50th anniversary special, but if I can get my computer properly repaired I'll watch that and write up a review for you. Until then, wish me luck, and if you'd like to contribute to helping me get my computer fixed, please click the following link.
Time is running out for the Eleventh Doctor as the Silence gather their forces for the final battle at Trenzalore! Tune in at Christmas to find out what happens!
I get paid tomorrow, and with any luck I'll be able to order a replacement motherboard to get my computer up and running again. Having to rely on public terminals to get online is a real drag, and I'm falling so far behind it's ridiculous. I've already missed the 50th anniversary special, but if I can get my computer properly repaired I'll watch that and write up a review for you. Until then, wish me luck, and if you'd like to contribute to helping me get my computer fixed, please click the following link.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Lost Doctor Who Episodes Found In Africa, and the Regeneration Limit
Krypton Radio reports via the BBC and other news agencies that lost episodes of Doctor Who have been discovered in Africa.
Rumors frequently circulate about lost episodes in the hands of private collectors, but only seldom do they prove true. In the vastly finite wisdom of its earlier days, the BBC destroyed or recorded over its video tapes and film reels, or sold them off, not realizing the future potential in raking in money from home video sales. As a result, many episodes of many television shows are now "lost", and can only be recovered if copies are found from stations in other countries that preserved them, or from people who were prescient enough to record them when they were first broadcast.
So this latest rediscovery is good news for Doctor Who fans, and for the BBC. I for one am looking forward to seeing the recovered episodes in all their remastered glory.
Oh! It seems the issue of the Doctor's thirteen-life-limit will be addressed. Departing actor Matt Smith, who plays the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor, is handing the role over to Peter Capaldi in the Christmas episode at the end of this year, leaving only one or two more lives for the Time Lord under current series canon. But Stephen Moffat hinted back in August that a way will be written into the show that resolves the limit on Time Lord lives, and others have speculated on how the 12-regeneration limit could be breached. Obviously the BBC isn't going to let one of its biggest cash cows be canceled for lack of a plausible writing gimmick, so don't be surprised to see the issue resolved soon.
I'll be back next week with a review of a recent Who episode, as soon as I dig my DVDs out of boxes. Until then...see you in the Time Vortex!
Some new episodes of the popular BBC science fiction television series have been found in the archives of the Ethiopia Radio and Television Agency, and as the dust settles from the discovery it appears that 90 episodes are being recovered. In fact, it is looking like everything that had been lost is now found again, according to Bleeding Cool, except “nine episodes of The Dalek Master Plan, plus Mission To The Unknown, two episodes of The Invasion, two episodes of The Ice Warriors, and two episodes of The Wheel In Space.”This is very good news for fans worldwide, who have had to be content with surviving audio and still photographs in place of the missing episodes. What's more, with the show's fiftieth anniversary coming up next month, it gives fans another chance to become acquainted with the legendary William Hartnell, the first actor to portray the enigmatic Time Lord from Gallifrey in his broken old T.A.R.D.I.S.
Rumors frequently circulate about lost episodes in the hands of private collectors, but only seldom do they prove true. In the vastly finite wisdom of its earlier days, the BBC destroyed or recorded over its video tapes and film reels, or sold them off, not realizing the future potential in raking in money from home video sales. As a result, many episodes of many television shows are now "lost", and can only be recovered if copies are found from stations in other countries that preserved them, or from people who were prescient enough to record them when they were first broadcast.
So this latest rediscovery is good news for Doctor Who fans, and for the BBC. I for one am looking forward to seeing the recovered episodes in all their remastered glory.
Oh! It seems the issue of the Doctor's thirteen-life-limit will be addressed. Departing actor Matt Smith, who plays the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor, is handing the role over to Peter Capaldi in the Christmas episode at the end of this year, leaving only one or two more lives for the Time Lord under current series canon. But Stephen Moffat hinted back in August that a way will be written into the show that resolves the limit on Time Lord lives, and others have speculated on how the 12-regeneration limit could be breached. Obviously the BBC isn't going to let one of its biggest cash cows be canceled for lack of a plausible writing gimmick, so don't be surprised to see the issue resolved soon.
I'll be back next week with a review of a recent Who episode, as soon as I dig my DVDs out of boxes. Until then...see you in the Time Vortex!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
And the next Doctor is...Peter Capaldi!
It's official: foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker, aka actor Peter Capaldi, is the next Doctor, following the departing Matt Smith. The fifty-five-year-old Capaldi, who was born in Glasgow, is the same age William hartnell was when he first stepped into the iconic role back in 1963. Coincidence? Maybe, but knowing the BBC and Stephen Moffat, maybe not. At any rate, it'll be interesting to see how he handles the role. He played a Roman merchant in Series 4's "The Fires of Pompeii" in 2008, and kept it rather clean. Should be interesting to watch.
On a sadder note, actor Michael Ansara passed away July 31st at the age of ninety-one. Famous for his presence on television and voice work, Ansara is best remembered in sci-fi circles as the Klingon commander Kang on Star Trek, and as the voice of Mr. Freeze in the animated Batman series. Rest in peace, Mr. Ansara.
On a sadder note, actor Michael Ansara passed away July 31st at the age of ninety-one. Famous for his presence on television and voice work, Ansara is best remembered in sci-fi circles as the Klingon commander Kang on Star Trek, and as the voice of Mr. Freeze in the animated Batman series. Rest in peace, Mr. Ansara.
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