Moffat's Leaving, Capaldi Speaks Out On BBC Complacency, Other News, and My Thoughts On Moffat

Is it March 2016 already?  Geez, how time flies when you're busy!  I won't bother reviewing the Christmas Special from last year in this entry except to say that as usual, Moffat really needs to let his favorite character rest in peace.  The episode was basically comedy, which was badly needed after the heavy drama of ‘Series 9’, and not much can be said because there really isn’t much to say.

NEWS

Stephen Moffat finally, thankfully announced his departure from Doctor Who following next year’s ‘Series 10’.  That’s right: We have to wait until 2017 to see the next full series.  Apparently the 2016 Summer Olympics is taking precedence on the BBC’s programming schedule and they don’t want to make the show have to compete against coverage of the games.  Okay, fair enough, but it’s still an excruciatingly long wait.  There will, however, be a Christmas Special this year.  Whew!  Replacing Moffat is Broadchurch’s Chris Chibnall, whose style of writing involves more character-driven stories than epic ones.  I think that's actually a good thing, as I’ll write in just a bit.

Peter Capaldi, recovering from surgery to repair injuries sustained on set (running and jumping around so much does takes its toll even on healthy young actors), sat down for interviews to give his thoughts on the show and the direction it's taking, and how the BBC has been treating it.  For one thing, he thinks that with regards to diversity, the show really does need to reflect the times in which it is broadcast.  He feels that the next Doctor should be portrayed by a non-white actor or even a woman.  I'm still not entirely sold on the idea of Time Lords being naturally capable of switching sexes during regeneration, nor am I sure viewers would take as kindly to such an abrupt change in the show’s title character as Capaldi seems to think, but I could be wrong.

As for how the BBC is treating Doctor Who, Capaldi did express his concern, arguing that the network is too complacent about it.  Last year the show's time slot kept changing, throwing off what the actor says has become a sort of family television viewing ritual for the long-running and still highly popular program.  I happen to concur.  Over the show’s history, various producers have held varying degrees of respect—or lack thereof—for Doctor Who.  This was most visibly seen during the mid- and late-1980s when BBC heads kept trying to sabotage the show and finally deprived it of funding so that it went on what proved to be a sixteen year hiatus.  Wiser heads have since prevailed, but now the opposite trend of too much love for the show as a cultural phenomenon has led, in Capaldi's opinion, to BBC schedulers taking it for granted that they can play such games as making viewers wait a year or more between seasons and shuffling it around the Saturday night schedule.  This can actually hurt the show as it risks losing audience members.  Long periods between seasons can, as well, lead to viewer complacency, which is often taken as a lack of interest, further undermining the popularity of Doctor Who and putting its continuation in jeopardy.

In other news, Moffat did talk about how John Hurt came to be the thought-up-at-the-last-minute incarnation of the Doctor for the 50th anniversary special in 2013.  According to him, talks with Christopher Eccleston to return to play Nine failed, forcing Moffat to rewrite the season-ender as well as the 50th anniversary episode.

Speaking of Hurt, he's coming back to portray the War Doctor for Big Finish Audio in a story that includes the voice talents of actor David Warner, a fitting casting decision to match the distinguished style Hurt’s incarnation brings to the role.

OPINION

And now to my thoughts on Moffat’s tenure as Doctor Who head writer...

I can best sum up my opinion of him by saying that while he has had some very good and lofty ideas—the Weeping Angels, I think, are one of the better and more original monsters ever created for fiction—Moffat simply isn't talented enough a writer to properly realize those ideas.  With a budget that is much smaller than what episode airings would have us believe, is is unable to bring his ideas to the screen in a compelling way that does justice to them.

A good example is the 50th Anniversary special.  We've all been told for years now how great and terribly destructive the Time War was to the universe within the context of Doctor Who, but not once have we ever actually seen how this was so, to the point that the Doctor, having joined the fray with everyone else and realizing the Time Lords were planning to end it in a manner even worse than anything he could perceive the Daleks doing, chose to destroy his own world and everyone on it.  What we ultimately saw on screen was a conventional war that only threatened Gallifrey, but nothing that indicates how and why the whole of creation was in danger.  it was only talked of.

When I was taking screenwriting courses, one of the big things my instructor hammered home was that it’s always better to show something in a film rather than have the character(s) talk about it.  And it’s true.  Film and television are visual media, and as such, what the audience sees has a much bigger emotional impact than what it hears.  Aside from the cracks in reality that have marked the entirety of the Moffat era and which ultimately had nothing to do with the Time War, we haven’t actually been given a visual idea of how such catastrophic events might affect reality itself within the continuity of the show.  So we as the audience cannot take seriously the concept that the Time War was so devastating because we only ever hear about it but never get to see it.

Then there is Moffat’s inability to sit down and actually watch the show.  It was already established by then-head writer Russell T. Davies in The End of Time that the reason the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey was to stop Rassilon and the High Council of Time lords from destroying the whole of Creation in order to win the Time War.  But Moffat decided that the Doctor, war-weary, simply recognized the damage the war itself was doing to the universe and put an end to it the only way he thought he could until intervention from two of his future incarnations and the very weapon he was to use changed the course of history.  This is an obvious storytelling retcon, one of many Moffat has committed thinking audience would be too stupid to notice.

There is also the problem Moffat intimated in his telling of how the 50th Anniversary special came about: rushed and last minute decisions, panicked action trying to make everything come together.  This seems to have been an ongoing problem with Moffat.  It’s a sign of disorganization and chaos.  When Eleventh Doctor actor Matt Smith announced his departure from Doctor Who at the end of ‘Series 7’, that meant Moffat had to wrap up Eleven’s storyline in a hurry, and it really shows in the rushed, shortcut feeling you get watching the 2013 episodes.  So much time is spent on the buildup that there is very little remaining to fully and properly develop the finish, which is supposed to be the big payoff.  This is why the supposedly epic ideas Moffat has ultimately end up feeling anti-climactic when put into production.  The wrap-up feels more like an afterthought than the gripping climax it was intended to be.

Throwing gasoline on those three concurrent fires is Moffat’s massive ego, which prevents him from taking any time to sit down and think things through, question his own judgment, or ask for help from more talented writers than himself.  He was a poor choice to take over as head writer because he simply was never talented enough a writer to carry the weight of an entire show, let alone the two he currently runs (Sherlock being the other one besides Doctor Who).  But Russell T. Davies wanted someone who would continue his legacy of having killed off the Time Lords, something Moffat showed he was keen to do at the time until he realized how infeasible that was, and so we ended up with what will ultimately be seven long years of writing mediocrity.

If you’re a writer and you have big ideas, you need both the budget and the talent to bring those ideas to fruition.  Stephen Moffat had neither of those crucial elements.  Sure, his dialog is excellent—I will give him full credit for his tear-jerker scenes—but his execution of ideas is highly lacking.  Doctor Who doesn't need epic stories.  It needs consistently well written ones that don’t insult the intelligence of the audience.

I hope Chris Chibnall can restore the show to what made the original so endearing and long-lasting, and go a step further by incorporating the social-political commentary that made Star Trek and The Twilight Zone so popular as science fiction.  Sure, therein lies a danger in making Doctor Who too preachy, but in science fiction, more often than not preachy just works because then you’re challenging viewers to question their own opinions and beliefs, and in so doing elevate our consciousness.  That is the very defining characteristic of science fiction more than any other aspect.  I won’t hold my breath for seeing this under Chibnall, but a man can dream.

Triple Review: Face the Raven, Heaven Sent, Hell Bent

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.

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.

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.

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-.

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-.

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.

"Day of the Doctor" Mini-Episode Confirmed

According to Kasterborous.com, we may get to see a mini-episode teaser in the run-up to this month's fiftieth anniversary episode of Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor".

While we knew we were going to get an initial Day of the Doctor treat at the upcoming Children in Need event, we now have a little more inclination as to what we might be seeing. According to information on the BBFC web site, two different minisodes have been classified and attached to the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray release of the 50th anniversary special: The Last Day and The Night of the Doctor.

The Last Day is slated to run just shy of 4 minutes and has no additional information attached to the description (although, Time War anyone?). The Night of the Doctor is set to run for almost 7 minutes and features David Tennant and Matt Smith (Note: at the time of writing, the BBFC page for this mini-sode has gone dark… Coincidence? I think not! Head to Who-natic to see the page before it was pulled). It’s anyone’s guess at this point as to what the minisodes will actually contain, but with only 11 days until Children in Need and 19 until the 50th, the wait is almost over!

Woohoo!

'Day of the Doctor' to Screen in American Movie Theaters!

I'm typing on my aunt's computer this afternoon while I'm over here washing laundry.  With any luck, my next paycheck (two weeks from today) will be enough for me to get a new power supply unit for my computer.  The old one is 400-watt and probably gave out finally trying to power my monster graphics card.  I really, really don't want the problem to be anything other than simply needing a new power unit.  If something broke in the C-drive, then my computer is well and truly dead.  UGH.

Anyway, it seems that the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor", is screening in select movie theaters stateside.

“Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor” will screen in select movie theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Minneapolis Nov. 23 in RealD 3D, coinciding with a worldwide simulcast of the special in 75 countries, including the U.S.

Yes, this event is going to be that big.  I just hope I'm able to see this when it airs.  SQUEEEE!

The Day of the Doctor Trailer / I Hope It's Only Resting / SL Downturn News

Sorry it's so late, but I thought I'd post the trailer for next month's 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor".


Awesome, isn't it?  I'm actually looking forward to watching this.

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.

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!

Review: The Name of the Doctor

Talk about titles that mislead, but don't!  The episode isn't about "the name of the Doctor".  It's about the Name of the Doctor: The Doctor, the title, the name he's chosen for himself, and the secret the revalation of which has ramifications throughout the Whoniverse.

Stephen Moffat left us with a cliffhanger ending that introduced (SPOILER ALERT) John Hurt as a future (?) incarnation of the Doctor.  Why the FUCK has he been holding out on us, letting mediocre stories get produced for the second half of Series 7, when he could have made them all awesomely epic and well written?  I don't know and I no longer care.  Moffat really ought to be sacked and replaced with someone who can write well and do it consistently.

Okay, now that I've gone off on my usual tangent, there was actually a lot to like about this episode and a lot not to like, but nothing I could really stay angry about.  Madame Vastra visits a prison, where a deranged convicted murderer waiting to be hanged offers information about the Doctor and Trenzalore in return for his life being spared.  The information turns out to be the location of Trenzalore, where the Doctor's future corpse is buried.  This sets off the story's action, and things get really bad really quickly.

There were a lot of things I didn't like, chief among them being the complete lack of the Silence, the group led by the Edward Munch-looking aliens, which has been trying to prevent the Doctor from ever going to Trenzalore for fear of what the revelation of his greatest secret will do to them.  Well, it seems that, going by what cryptic information this episode gave us, Trenzalore may in fact be the Silents' homeworld, or at least, their primary base of operations, or maybe just the place of their final defeat at the Doctor's hands.  We don't know, because nothing was revealed along those lines.  Instead, we got the Great Intelligence making another appearance, apparently trying to uncover the Doctor's Big Secret as a means of gaining its final revenge on the Time Lord, in an apparently completely unrelated plot.

Granted, the Doctor faked his death to get the Silence off his back, but still, for all the trouble they cause throughout Series 5 with blowing up the TARDIS and destroying all of Creation, and throughout Series 6 with their ploy to turn Amy Pond's and Rory Williams' daughter into a weapon with which to kill the Doctor, you'd think Moffat would have brought them back.  But no, instead we get the Great Intelligence, with no hint as to any previous involvement in any of this, on his own quest to kill the Doctor.  That just annoys the hell out of me.  Moffat, you botched it again in that department!  A pox upon your house!

On the other hand, we finally get the explanation for Clara and how and why she has existed in time and space before.  No, she's not Bad Wolf II like I initially thought.  Just watch the episode and you'll see.  I did like all the appearances of the Doctor's past selves, which included William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and (only as a stuntman dressed in costume) Christopher Eccleston.  We didn't get to see Paul McGann or David Tennant, either through footage or stunt doubles, as with the others.  That was odd, but we should really see all the Doctors in some way in November for the 50th Anniversary episode.  Anything less would be a huge letdown.

Now, as I wrote above, the cliffhanger ending was fantastic and introduced us to a (possibly) future incarnation of the Doctor — perhaps the Final Doctor — played by legendary actor John Hurt.  Only Hurt could portray a guilt-wracked Time Lord the way the future and Final Doctor must ultimately be played.  Brilliant casting decision there.  Oh, and if you're wondering how River Song could be in this episode after her doomed trip to the Library, well, it's Moffat's typically throwaway non-explanation.  I'll just say that even with that monumental cheat, the chemistry between Matt Smith and Alex Kingston was superb and undoubtedly caused quite the number of tears for many audience members.

So, I give "The Name of the Doctor" a B+ or A-.  Moffat still gets a big fat F- from me, but we'll see how the 50th Anniversary goes.

For an alternate take, go here.

Review: Nightmare In Silver

I loved the new design for the Cybermen.  The story was so-so, and had rather obvious flaws.  The chief of these is that the Mondas-originated Cybermen at some point merged with the Cybus Cybermen, according to episode writer Neil Gaiman (who wrote the Series 6 episode "The Doctor's Wife"), but we never actually got to see this, nor was any mention of it made in the episode itself.  So we end up with the Doctor managing to delay the Cyber-Planner's invasion of his mind with a gold ticket, a weakness the Cybus Cybermen never had, and no explanation as to why they have it.

The episode was saved somewhat by the incredible acting talents of Matt Smith and guest star Warwick Davis (of Star Wars, Willow, and Leprachaun fame), but neither of these two fine actors was given much to work with.  Smith, by the way, has confirmed that he will be returning for Series 8.

I don't know why Moffat is letting such poor writing permeate the second half of Series 7, but the next episode, "The Name of the Doctor", is supposed to be freakin' epic and from all we've been given so far, it's going to be yet another monumental letdown.  I don't know if Moffat is trying to get himself fired from the show, but if he is, a simple resignation would have sufficed.

Review: Journey to the Center of the TARDIS

I've got mixed feelings about this episode.  On the one hand, it was enjoyable seeing areas of the new TARDIS, which included a glimpse at the swimming pool, the library, an observatory, and even the Doctor's store room of cherished mementos.  On the other hand, the story was mediocre, which is to be expected from a show run by Stephen Moffat, and the ending was another "it never happened" cheat that abused time travel as a storytelling aspect.

Yes, I just gave you a major spoiler.  Considering how awful it was, you're not missing anything by knowing how the episode ends.

Okay, the plot revolves around the Doctor, Clara, and a trio of space salvage brothers as they try to save themselves from hideous burnt-mummy-clay-things.  At the same time the Doctor sets the TARDIS controls to a level Clara is able to handle, in an effort to bring her and the ancient time ship closer together, the salvagers lock a powerful tractor beam on the exterior, which happens to be materialized in space, heavily damaging the TARDIS.  Upon waking up from under the junk pile where the salvage team's spaceship dropped the exterior, the Doctor then proceeds to threaten them to help him locate Clara, who is lost somewhere inside the TARDIS, by activating a self destruct sequence.  And as is quickly evident, the five are not alone, and soon five become four.

There were a few nice touches, such as when one salvager removes a console panel only to hear the echoes of voices from the past, bringing us another reminder of the classic series, and another when Clara discovers the library and, irritated and impressed at the same time, reacts with the line, "now you're just showing off."  Also, while there, Clara makes an interesting if predictable discovery that, really, shouldn't have been included -- at least not the way it was in this episode.

So we have yet another contrived ending that once again leaves us feeling robbed of what should have been an epic moment in the development of Clara's and the Doctor's relationship.  I give "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS" a C- for poor writing.  I give Stephen Moffat a big fat F for his atrocious handling of Series 5-7.

Review: Hide

This was a 'monster in the house' story that turned out to be something else entirely.  No one actually dies.  I know.  It's a rarity, right?  Anyway, get ready for a lot of spoilers.

It's 1974.  Professor Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott) and his assistant, psychic empath Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine of Call the Midwife fame) try to summon the ghost of a woman who haunts the mansion they're working in when there is a knock on the door.  It's the Doctor and Clara, who identify themselves as "ghostbusters" sent by military intelligence to help find out what's going on.  The Doctor gives away Palmer's past as a military intelligence operative, contradicting the professor's story about having been a POW in World War II.  This would make more sense if actor Dougray Scott, who is forty-seven, wasn't too young to have held such a position in a war that took place over thirty years prior to the story, but for some reason writer Neil Cross felt compelled to give a nod to Third Doctor Jon Pertwee's service during WWII and didn't feel any need to get his chronology correct.  Damn lazy bastard.

As things start to get weird, and then comically frightening, the Doctor and Clara take turns playing matchmaker to Alec and Emma, who have feelings for one another but are each too timid to express themselves to one another.

So basically, it's really a love story set against a haunted house.  But there are some darker elements thrown in.  The TARDIS, still not fully liking or trusting Clara, gets under her skin by using a holographic interface to irritate her.  Clara's response: "Oh, you are a cow!" was hilarious.  It was kind of creepy and funny at the same time.  And when the Doctor reveals his true reason for coming to the mansion to Emma, grilling her about her impression of Clara, which turns out to be quite normal, his disbelief, his refusal to accept her for what she is, suggests hostility on his part toward his own companion, masking it in his usual friendly, buffoonish demeanor.

My favorite part came when Clara, after having witnessed Earth in its distant past, near-past, and far-flung future, practically traumatized by the weight of it all, confronts the Doctor about how he must view human beings: we're all ghosts to him, because from his perspective he's seen everyone come and go — literally.

And yet for all those smaller, brilliant moments, there were obvious flaws in the story that kept me from enjoying it as much as I did "Cold War", the preceding episode.  Writer Neil Cross's bad chronology, for starters, and the lack of any real tension or fright, just didn't mesh well with the ending, and when we learn who the "ghost" is and what her relationship is to the mansion, Alec, and Emma, it all felt very contrived and fake.  "Hide" is only slightly better than Cross's other episode script, "The Rings of Ahkaten", but that's not really saying much in its favor.

Review: Cold War

Alright, nothing bad really to say about this episode; I actually couldn't think of any major problems I had with it.  I did enjoy it, so count this review as a positive one.

The year is 1983.  A Soviet nuclear submarine is performing a launch drill somewhere near the North Pole when it is interrupted by Professor Grisenko (played funnily and brilliantly by David Warner).  The first mate opines to the captain that the Americans' aggressiveness is an indication that the Cold War is about to become a hot one, and that they must continue with further drills.  The older, less hot-headed captain informs him that the crew has practiced enough for one day and orders a stand down.

A little later, we see a sailor thawing out a block of ice in which some kind of specimen, thought to perhaps be a mammoth, is trapped.  Suddenly an armored hand bursts through the ice and grabs the sailor by the neck.  The submarine soon begins to sink, and it is then that the TARDIS appears on board with the Doctor and Clara exiting thinking they've landed in Las Vegas.  And from there "Cold War" really kicks into gear as we get to see an Ice Warrior for the first time in almost forty years!

Doctor Who contributing writer Mark Gatiss did a very good job with this episode, and director Douglas MacKinnon handled the story quite capably.  Gatiss had apparently been wanting to do one featuring the Ice Warriors, and after much begging finally convinced head writer Stephen Moffat to let him give it a go.

The rest of the episode revolves around trying — not always successfully — to negotiate a non-violent resolution to the crisis at hand, mirroring the handling of the Cold War itself.  The Ice Warrior, a famous Grand Marshall named Skaldek, is compelled by Martian law to go to war against any who attack an Ice Warrior, and having been attacked upon waking after 5,000 years in a block of ice, he's understandably cranky.  The episode really did a good job of playing on this as a reminder of the Cold War during the 1980s.  Although it was actually winding down at this point, with Russia going bankrupt as a result of overspending on its military and growing disillusionment with Soviet-style communism, paranoia and rhetoric on both sides were still running high.

David Warner as Professor Grisenko illustrates this disillusionment with an almost carefree attitude and a love for American pop music, which he listens to through his headphones.  By contrast, First Mate Stephashin is all too eager to see nuclear war break out, figuring that the Americans will launch their missiles soon so the Soviets might as well beat them to the punch.  Captain Zhukov, played by Cunningham, represents the middle ground between these two extremes.

Also well handled was giving us, the viewers, for the first time, a glimpse of what the Ice Warriors look like underneath all that armor they wear.  Although the CGI makes him look a bit silly, the practical effects are much better, and thankfully the CGI isn't used too much.  Check this out and tell me what you think:

"I floss my teeth with the tendons of vanquished foes."

Actually looks kinda badass, doesn't he?  The creative team wisely decided not to deviate too much from the classic design, opting simply to give him a gigantic size and body-builder physique (as opposed to the barrel-shaped costumes worn in the classic series).  Actor Spencer Wilding, standing at 6'7", was the perfect choice to portray the Ice Warrior Skaldek, having previously acted the part of the Minotaur in "The God Complex" and the Tree King in "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe".

All in all, I give this episode a B+.  For another take on "Cold War", Den of Geek's review.

Review: The Rings of Akhaten

I'm not quite sure what to make of this episode.  A lot of it reminds me of "The Beast Below", meaning the alien marketplace set, the kid in distress, the new Companion saving the day instead of the Doctor.  I hate it when Moffat recycles stuff.  Can he not come up with anything new?  On the other hand, there were moments I liked that made the episode worthwhile.  And so, swiping Jayne Gudkov's format once again, here I go...

WHAT I LIKED

The Doctor stalking the latest incarnation of Clara through time as he tries to figure her out.  His exclamation, "She's not possible!" revealed his frustration upon realizing who and what she might really be.  It conveys once again that, as usual, the Doctor is several steps ahead of everyone else.

Showing how Clara's parents met, establishing before our eyes that, yes, she is — at least on the surface — pretty much what she appears to be: a normal human woman.  That this stands in stark contradiction with what the Doctor might or might not know about her only adds to the mystery surrounding the character.  I like a good puzzle!

The TARDIS doesn't seem to like Clara, much as it doesn't like Captain Jack Harkness (who is a fixed temporal "fact" because of the actions of Rose Tyler in her brief time as the Bad Wolf entity).  The reason for this might seem obvious: this is a woman who has existed with the same body and name at three different points of space and time, for reasons yet to be revealed.  The TARDIS, being temporally aware of the past, present, and future, knows who and what Clara is even if she and the Doctor don't.  I can only guess, but she's got to be the product of an entity similar to Bad Wolf, possibly even Bad Wolf herself.  Think about what the entity is capable of: fixing things and people throughout space and time as a message to the Doctor and her past self.  Why wouldn't this be something along the same line?  Is it possible that Clara or someone who knows her somehow morphed into Bad Wolf II by absorbing energy from the Time Vortex, just as Rose did, and orchestrated the events within the story by replicating Clara throughout time and space?  If I'm right, it's Moffat recycling things that have already been done in recent memory, and it's a huuuuge cheat for which he may never be forgiven.  On the other hand, depending on how it plays out, it could be epic.  We'll just have to wait and see.

WHAT I LOVED

That whole speech toward the end where the Doctor tells the monster about everything he's seen and experienced.  Matt Smith revealed again just how awesome a choice he was to fill the role.  I couldn't help but get misty-eyed.

WHAT I DISLIKED

You just know I'm gonna have problems with anything in a show run by Stephen Moffat, but this one is (relatively) minor.  When the Doctor and Clara rush to an asteroid-based pyramid to save a little girl, they take time out to buy a space moped instead of using the TARDIS.  HELLO!  I understand Neil Cross, the writer of this episode, wanted emotional moments, such as Clara having to trade her mother's ring for the moped (the people on this planetoid use things that have sentimental value as currency).  But really, this whole not using the TARDIS just because it makes things more difficult for the Doctor and Clara and allows the excuse of making the episode longer, doesn't work at all.  Shame on you, Moffat, for letting this plot point be used.

WHAT I HATED

The smiley face on the monster gas giant.  LAME.  That Clara and the Doctor essentially snuffed out the star or "mother" planet around which at least seven inhabited worlds orbited and it had no apparent devastating effect (thanks, Jayne, for pointing that out).  That, in defiance of the laws of physics and what we know of the vacuum of space, Clara and the Doctor are able to ride a hover-moped through space with no protection from the vacuum of space whatsoever and not freeze or die of asphyxiation.  It is unforgivable that a science-fiction show completely ignores good science, and presents horrendously bad science, so frequently.  Come on, people!  You can do better than that!

QUOTES FOR THE WATERCOOLER

The Doctor: I've seen bigger.

Clara: Really?

The Doctor:  Are you joking!?  It's massive!

NEXT EPISODE

"Cold War", featuring an Ice Warrior on a nuclear submarine in the 1980s.  David Warner guest stars.

The Bells of Saint John's: Minisode

Screencaps!

After watching the 2012 Christmas Special, I thought I'd share some screencaps.

The Cybermen get a new look and it actually looks even cooler than the art deco design they had before.

Shades of the classic series opening with the Doctor's current face appearing in the opening titles sequence.

The new console room looks more high-tech and futuristic, and very metallic in style.

I like the new opening sequence for its throwback to the classic series, but not the color scheme.  There's too much yellow, red, and violet for my liking.  Still, it is definitely an improvement over the last opening CGI vortex, and the opening theme music is much closer to the classic series, which is a nice touch.

Return of the Time War Daleks!

As previous entries will reveal to readers unaware of last year's fiasco, the last time Dalek avatars came up in association with my name, it didn't go very well.  That was entirely my fault, it was stupid, I got caught, and had to admit it publicly.  That cost me a few friends and trashed my reputation.  Again, my fault entirely.

Since then, many things have happened, but lately work has been underway to correct my previous mistakes.

And so, without further adieu, I am proud to present you with the first of what is hoped to be the resurrection of the (hybrid) Daleks.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/SFE-Dalek-Supreme/4261825

The new Dalek Supreme was made under the account of Malcolm Danick, and is priced at 400L$.  Features include HUD control, flashing dome lights when typing, head rotation, laser beam effect, and an opening and closing casing.

The avatars were built under supervision.  Some parts, such as the eye stalk, plunger, and interior parts, were used from my old line with permission.  Everything else was made by Malcolm Danick and scripted to function as you see in the pictures.  Other Dalek avatars in the line will be released as they are finished testing.

The design is a concept one blending the classic series Daleks with the Russell T. Davies-era versions, with some features unique to this line.  The shoulder slats are spaced farther apart, and two handle bars are mounted on each shoulder behind the arm boxes, the for attaching grenade belts and other weapons or tools.  Color schemes include gray, red, blue, and supreme, with rank numbers below the eye stalks.

In-world, you can visit our vendors here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Naughty%20Naughty/220/100/23

Stay tuned for further updates!