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A new thread since there are a few of us that Watch these show and alot are written up on Dr Who... enjoy.... tick This is the Reaction Post for The Sarah Jane Adventures series 1, episode 2 - Eye of the Gorgon (part 1). Sorry that it took me so long to get to this reaction post, but I did only just see this episode. Well, lots to discuss. Care to join me on the other side of the spoiler barrier?
Before I talk about anything else, let me just say: Hey! That’s Phyllida Law! By which I mean, “Bea Nelson-Stanley�?is being played by Emma Thompson’s Mum. She’s such an excellent actress. Sorry. Serious fangirl moment. An actress I admire in a show that I enjoy. Happy squee. Poor Maria. Her Mum invades the new place like she has every right to be there, and then insults her friends. I wonder how that family stayed together as long as it did. Ah, well. Good thing Maria has her friends. Clyde found this particular case. His Gran’s friend had seen a ghostly nun. It’s interesting to note that Clyde doesn’t think that he will ever be old. That he plans to have his brain put in a robot when he’s forty, and live forever. Did anyone else think of Cybermen? I’ve noticed that he has a lot more street smarts than Luke. Well, he has been alive longer, after all. Luke is interested by everything, it seems. He is also not very good at lying. Bea is sufficiently familiar with “different�?folks that she spots him right off, even with her memory difficulties. I’ll bet that her husband was an alien, too. Luke needs to learn a bit more in the way of street smarts if he is going to be dragged into situations like this. Don’t tell the Nun that you have the artifact, and most certainly don’t get in the car with said Nun. Sarah Jane sees in Bea what she might be like when she gets old. I hope that Bea makes it through this adventure so that Sarah Jane can visit her and talk about aliens they have known. And yes. Sontarans do sort of look like potatoes. We also see Sarah Jane’s wallet of fake I.D.s this time around. If only she could have some psychic paper. That would certainly come in handy. Did the evil nun honestly mention solving a problem like Maria? My I snicker now? Oh, dear. Maria’s dad has been turned to stone. If her survives, what is he going to think? And the baddies have the talisman. It’s a good thing that I don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. |
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the infamous “other ending�?to the Doctor Who episode: Journey’s End. The one involving a certain bit of TARDIS coral. Have you heard about it? It’s part of the reason for the online speculation as to whether or not Doctor 10.5 can grow a new TARDIS in his new Universe. |
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Snow Patrol’s song What if This Storm Ends? (from their new album A Hundred Million Suns.) It’s fairly Doctor/Rose-centric, but I really like the way it’s been put together. |
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Doctor Who: ten spoilers for the Christmas special (and for once, I think there aren't any annoying fakes.): 1. The mysterious Cybershades can jump quite high.
2. Neither the Doctor nor the Other Doctor recognise each other. But the latter doesn't remember much anyway.
3. There are two words that the Doctor never refuses.
4. The Other Doctor has a TARDIS - and it's magnificent.
5. For a while Rosita becomes the Doctor's companion (but then you'll know that already if you've read our interview with the lovely Velile Tshabalala).
6. The script includes the customary line "what about the children?"
7. At least one previous incarnation of the Doctor makes an appearance.
8. Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan) is a very special lady.
9. The Other Doctor's fobwatch is a very important clue.
10. "I suppose ** *** ***, **** ***** ** *****." Also, you'll glimpse all nine of the previous Doctors during the Christmas special, most likely in clips or something. And here are a few new pics, I think. The episode looks quite cheap and talky until the last ten minutes, and then it goes totally "batarse." And there's a whole Oliver Twist thing going on with those kids in the warehouse. And there's a visual allusion to "Earthshock," the famous Cyberman episode where a companion dies, towards the end of the episode.The Christmas special is "Godzilla meets Oliver," says a journalist. And says RTD: "How can this Doctor, the tenth Doctor, be meeting the next Doctor? And it's not just the next Doctor you get to see, you get to see some old ones as well, which is rather exciting. It's a Doctor-fest, in a way. But as to how the two of them can be together, and the very sad story �?very sad, Christmassy story �?behind that, you've got to watch on Christmas day." (And don't listen to that interview unless you want to hear RTD insult Stargate.) More quotes from Rosita actor Velile Tshabalala. Apparently Rosita was "a lady of the night," and "one night she was out earning her living and a Cyberman came to attack her. The other Doctor came to rescue her and it went from there. He wasn't a client, he came and saved her!" Awww. The Doctor takes a ride in the Other Doctor's TARDIS, and there's a new kind of sonic screwdriver. The Cybershades are "dog-like," and there's a "Cyber-King." There's a mysterious man named Jackson Lake. Also, the first of the 2009 specials will take place abroad, in an "exotic" location. (The U.S.? Or Tunisia?) And RTD is co-writing two of the specials, but he'll write Tennant's final two stories. "The big climax is mine, all mine," said the innuendo-proof Davies. There are reports that the Doctor meets Scrooge (and he's an alien) in this episode. And allegedly, Tennant says these lines in the episode:
But you're the Doctor! The next Doctor! Or the next-but-one, a future Doctor anyway. No don't tell me how it happened! Although I hope you didn't just trip over a brick, that would be embarrassing. Then again, painless. Worse ways to go. Depends on the brick. And there's a major twist at the end of the episode. Also, some speculation that the Other Doctor's fobwatch has the initials "JL" on it, for "Jackson Lake." Bad sign for those of us who are hoping it really is a future Doctor: apparently the Other Doctor's TARDIS is a hot air balloon, and it stands for "Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style." Also, I knew that David Tennant's Doctor will not have a companion during the 2009 specials �?but he's without a TARDIS as well? Or is that a misprint? Apparently the Radio Times also mentioned this fact. Oh, and the story's climax may remind you of the end of Buffy season six. (The "yellow crayon" thing?) More on that business of the Doctor being TARDIS-less in 2009. Here's some random Livejournal person who's heard the Doctor's TARDIS gets "TARDIS-jacked" at the end of the Christmas special. By the Other Doctor? Or Dervla?? |
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Just what kind of surprises await us in this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special? According to a new interview with writer and producer Russell T. Davies, more than you may think. Including more Doctors... Speaking on BBC Radio 5 after the first press screening of "The Next Doctor" - which Davies described as "nice and scary, but healthily scary" - the producer hinted that fans may get to see more than just Davids Morrissey and Tennant strut their Timelord stuff in the new special: It's not just the next Doctor you get to see, you get to see some old ones as well, which is rather exciting... It's a Doctorfest. One Doctor that we definitely won't see is David Tennant's 2010 replacement, as - if he's not just playing dumb - Davies doesn't know who that'll be: Steven Moffat and the series 5 team are casting the next Doctor, the eleventh Doctor and it's literally nothing to do with me. Everyone keeps asking me, begging me, the money I could make out of this, but I do not know what they are planning. One actor who definitely won't be picking up the sonic screwdriver is Robert Carlysle, whose signing up for Stargate: Universe lead to this offhand remark that makes us prepare to miss Davies all the more: Stargate, can you believe it? That was a surprise. Hasn't his agent watched it? "The Next Doctor" is broadcast in the UK on December 25th. |
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I would be happy with just ONE Doctor MINE!!! |
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Doctor Who: It's never too soon to start obsessing about spoilers for the Easter special �?which starts filming Jan. 19, hopefully yielding lots of set reports. So far, there are a few facts, like the Doctor meets new characters Malcolm and Christina, and gets reunited with the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Also, he's supposedly without his TARDIS, and Tunisia is supposed to be standing in for an alien planet. More fanciful rumors: we visit the Daleks' homeworld of Skaro (hence the title, "Planet Of The Dead," since our first trip to Skaro was in the episode "The Dead Planet.") Also, maybe Tunisia is the site of the eighth Doctor's final battle against the Daleks during the Time War, as shown in a huge flashback? Or maybe not. |
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It’s Christmas time and that means Russel T. Davies has given us our now-annual Doctor Who gift: A special episode. For the Doctor’s fourth Christmas special, he’s finally gone somewhere (each of the past three have taken place in the present, although last year’s WAS at least on a spaceship above Earth) - he’s gone back to 1851 to experience a very Dickensian England during the Yuletide season. Beware, this review contains some spoilers. If you only want to know what I thought of it overall and if it’s worth watching, I think the short version is that it’s worth 3.5 out of 5 sonic screwdrivers, but that if you’ve enjoyed the RTD era of the the Doctor and the 10th Doctor in particular, you should enjoy this one. It’s sad, but with some great action, mystery, and a great villain. The episode begins, as you may have seen from the Children in Need preview, with the Doctor arriving in London in 1851 and hearing trouble in an alley. When he arrives, the woman calling for the Doctor (Rosita) keeps calling for the Doctor, only for David Morrissey to arrive and declare that HE is the Doctor, asks his companion Rosita for his sonic screwdriver and declares that this commotion is a job for a Time Lord! What erupts from behind the door wears a Cyberman mask but is a shaggy animal. The Next Doctor bravely lassoes it but he and our Doctor are dragged behind the powerful beast and are saved by Rosita before being yanked out a building window. So, yes, the villains are the Cybermen. The same Cybermen that were pulled into the void back in season 2 along with the Daleks from the Battle at Canary Wharf, we’ll later learn (and I’m glad because they have the BEST villain design from Doctor Who in my opinion). Unfortunately, this means that we’re dealing with an ongoing idea from the new Doctor Who series. One of the Doctor’s most powerful enemies at a reduced workforce, forced to turn animals into henchmen. We’ve seen it with pigs, human hybrids, and so on. Oh well. We’ll get to who’s pulling their strings later, but I’m sure you’re most curious about the Next Doctor. He claims not to recognize the Tenth Doctor, who is oddly respectful of who he fully believes is a future regeneration. The Next Doctor claims huge swaths of his memory have been taken from him. Our Doctor claims to be John Smith, but due to his curiosity basically becomes the Next Doctor’s companion and helps him track down the Cybermen. Along the way, the Next Doctor asks for help, which the Doctor says he will never refuse if asked. The Cybermen identify the Next Doctor as their enemy, but not the current Doctor. Odd. Eventually, the Doctor works out what has happened. The Cybermen are using hand-sized cylinders called InfoStamps to gather information on their enemy, the Doctor and work on their new plan to convert humanity into them. The Next Doctor is staying in an abandoned warehouse full of luggage belonging to Jacob Lake. The Doctor realizes that that’s who he’s been assisting. Jacob was attacked by the Cybermen but activated an InfoStamp. The info blast overwhelmed the attacking Cybermen but also backfired and imprinted all the info on the Doctor onto Jacob. Jacob claims he lost something and something was taken from him when the Cybermen attacked and the Doctor theorizes he went into a fugue state, wanting to be someone else, and took on The Doctor’s identity. Jacob remembers that the Cybermen killed his wife. The Cybermen are being assisted by Mercy Hartigan, a cleaning lady played with delicious cruelty by Dervla Kirwan, who can offer the Cybermen what they need - cheap child labor. She in return wants liberation. In a brilliant scene, she has the powerful men of the city gather at a funeral and they are killed by the army of Cybermen (and the animal versions, called Cybershades). She spares those who own orphanages and puts them to work for the Cybermen. And the use of those children? Apparently the Cybermen couldn’t start the engine on their big machine they’ve been building without a ton of labor. Not sure I buy that, but whatever. Meanwhile, the Cybermen turn on Miss Hartigan and reveal that she, and not their Cyberleader, is intended for conversion into their new CyberKing. However, Mercy’s mind is so powerful, she isn’t overridden and she takes over the Cybermen. The CyberKing does rise and things get batshit crazy in the final ten minutes. Jacob returns to help the Doctor, reasoning that the Cybermen attacked him first because they came through his house basement. The Doctor and Jacob sneak in and Jacob remembers his son was stolen from him. They save the kids and the Doctor prepares to battle the Cybermen as the CyberKing rises. What’s the CyberKing? A massive steampunk version of a Cyberman, controlled by Mercy in a throne in its head. He rises out of the Thames and begins stomping on London. The Doctor borrows Jacob’s version of the TARDIS, a hot air balloon, and flies up to Mercy, offering her a chance to leave in peace. She doesn’t take it and he disconnects her from the Cybermen network. When she sees the devastation she’s caused, she is overwhelmed and creates a feedback loop destroying the Cybermen and herself. The CyberKing falls but the Doctor uses the tech that got the Cybermen out of the void to transport it back to the void. The episode ends with Jacob telling the people of London that the Doctor never gets thanked, but this time is different and he leads the crowd in a cheer for the Doctor. Later, they have a conversation about the Doctor’s loneliness without his companions but Jacob is able to convince the Doctor to stay for a Christmas dinner, actually changing the Doctor’s mind from leaving. Changing his mind is no small feat! Ultimately, the episode works based on the unique chemistry between Davids Tennant and Morrissey. It develops organically and is always from a point of mutual respect. It’s quite nice. The role of the Doctor and Next Doctor switch back and forth from Doctor and companion a lot. They operate as a duo and it was exciting and new. David Morrissey is all bravado and quips in battle but afterwards sits in contemplative sadness. It’s a version of our Doctor dialed up to 10. David Morrissey says he based his Doctor on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th but I actually found him to operate like a cool version of 6. He was dismissive to his companion - “The Doctor’s companion does what the Doctor says!�?- and very full of himself - “Modesty prevents me from agreeing with you, but yes!�?- but he wasn’t annoying or rude. He was brave and selfless. I really liked him and wanted him to be the Doctor. And in a way, he really was. He protected England with the tools he had at hand, which were his wits and unstoppable willpower. The Cybermen were a bit weak and the episode is very talky until the final act, which lower my score a tad. But overall I definitely enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have wanted a very serious or heavy episode on Christmas Day after opening gifts and eating a big meal with the family. I wanted some escapism and this fit the bill perfectly. Easter’s special can’t get here soon enough! Three and a half out of five sonic screwdrivers:
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can't I just have MY Doctor and Rose..maybe he would stay if Olive Snook is his new companion |
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According to news reports, we'll finally learn who's stepping into the dapper threads of David Tennant as the star of the BBC's time-traveling action-soap-dramedy Doctor Who tomorrow. Whoever it is will take over early in 2010, after the last of the four one-off specials Tennant is starring in. So today is your last chance for rumor-mongering and baseless speculation. Next up: after the leather jacket and suit-with-trainers looks, what will the next Doctor sport? |
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| | | From: LadySue | Sent: 1/3/2009 11:04 PM |
Thanks Arthur & TS!!  I'm sure I'll still love Dr Who,but it'll take getting used to another new guy so soon, I've loved David Tenant so much! |
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NO NO NO that isnt the Doctor!! |
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for those that want more and who may not be able to see the video, here we go again. A Big Thanks to Arthur and TS for the first post... tick The BBC has announced the name of the actor who'll take over the lead role in Doctor Who next year, following David Tennant's departure this year. Let's just say that it's not who we expected.
Smith, who's starred in television adaptations of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North alongside Billie Piper, has been known more for his stage work in the past, appearing in The History Boys and Swimming With Sharks (alongside My Own Worst Enemy's Christian Slater) in London's "glittering" West End. Smith came out of nowhere to become the bookie's favorite for the role just today, which tipped many off that the role was his. How does Smith feel about taking on such an iconic role? Excited, and baggy-eyed, apparently: |
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And the Eleventh Doctor Is - 
Today, the BBC announced the youngest ever Doctor (yes, younger than Peter Davison) will be 26 year-old Matt Smith. A relative unknown, Matt Smith does have a Whoniverse connection. He's acted with Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) in both The Shadow of the North and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The head of drama at BBC Wales, Piers Wenger, described that Smith "had that 'Doctor-ness' about him." David Tennant, the very popular Tenth Doctor, will exit the TARDIS as of October 29th, 2009, and says of Smith, "[his] life is about to change in so many ways". This is yet another major change for the Whoniverse this year: the announced departure of show-runner Russell T. Davies and Doctor David Tennant after the 2009 specials, with Steven Moffat and Matt Smith taking over as the head writer/executive producer and the Doctor, respectively, as well as the exit of Catherine Tate as the fan-favourite companion, Donna Noble. | |
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<STYLE>#fullpost{display:inline;}</STYLE> For fans of long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, it's been a rough couple of weeks.
But now that the mystery surrounding the identity of the Eleventh Doctor has finally been resolved (after months and months of rumors and worries), we can get back down the real issue at hand: the latest Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I watched over the holiday break and which featured the return of the Cybermen.
Airing last month on BBC One, Doctor Who's latest Christmas Special, entitled "The Next Doctor," seemed to cheekily point towards guest star David Morrissey (State of Play) assuming the mantle of the Doctor. After all, Morrissey's character was a man whom the Doctor (David Tennant, natch) encounters in Victorian times who claims to be the Doctor but can't remember his past. Only he does know that he's the "one and only" Doctor and he carries a screwdriver of his own and flies a TARDIS. A foregone conclusion then? Hmmm...
Just what is the connection between these two men? And what clues does "The Next Doctor" hold for the future of the franchise? Let's discuss after the jump.
I have to commend writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies for indulging in a nice little bit of a bait-and-switch with "The Next Doctor," knowing full well that the audience's near-hysteria trying to determine who would be taking over as the titular Doctor would be at full boil. So it was with some amusement that I watched as Morrissey's Doctor turned out not to be a future regeneration of our beloved last survivor of Gallifrey but an ordinary man, one Jackson Lake, who witnessed the murder of his wife at the hands of the Cybermen and the kidnapping of his son... and who entered a fugue state as a result. Absorbing the knowledge of a data stamp about the Doctor into his consciousness, he began to believe he WAS the Doctor.
I loved the little clues that Davies parceled out about Lake's true identity along the way. Lake possessed a sonic screwdriver... except that it was just an ordinary screwdriver that he made "sonic" by tapping it on things; the Doctor listened to his heartbeat (one instead of two, naturally); Lake kept a dead man's luggage but refused to open it; and, oh, his TARDIS was nothing more than a hot air balloon. (Or, sorry, Tethered Aerial Release Designed in Style.)
And yet despite the fact that these two men were not one and the same, there was a sympatico spirit within them. Both witnessed the destruction of their "worlds" and sought escape through adventure and travel to the stars. And both were running from the truth of their respective situations. For Lake, it was an opportunity to deny the death of his wife; for the Doctor, a chance to pretend for just a little while longer than he hadn't lost Donna Noble.
I absolutely loved Dervla Kirwan's turn as the malevolent Mercy Hartigan, who quickly proves that old adage of hell having no fury; what could have been a run-of-the-mill story of vengeance takes on an additional feminist dimension when viewed from a modern perspective of Mercy's lot in life during the Victorian era. Thirsting for power to undo the wrongs perpetrated against her as a second-class citizen, she is the perfect target for the Cybermen but proves that they too underestimated her as she possesses a mind stronger than their hive mentality.
What else worked for me? The fact that the Doctor had to use the other TARDIS (and some co-opted Dalek technology) to defeat the Cyberking, a garganutan steampunk robot that nearly flattened London; the Doctor accepting Jackson Lake's offer of a Christmas feast to "remember those they've lost" and not just leaving once the day was saved; Morrissey's morose take on the Doctor; Lake's use of bribes to get people to help him rather than inspiring them to commit acts of goodness; that gorgeously shot scene in the snowy graveyard when Mercy orders the massacre of the funeral attendees.
While I liked "The Next Doctor" as a stand-alone story, I have to say that I didn't love it as it felt a little lacking in the pacing and thrust of the overarching story. However, I thought that the scene between the Doctor and Jackson Lake outside the (true) TARDIS was absolutely beautiful as the Doctor finally admits to Lake the reason he's traveling solo. How poignant was the Doctor's admission that, in the end, his companions all inevitably "break [his] heart", whether because they leave because they have to, they meet someone else, or they "just forget" him? It was a much needed coda to the sacrifice that Donna made at the end of Season Four and a reminder that, as much as the Doctor might seem otherworldly, his heart(s) break like anyone else's.
And that, above all else, is perhaps the beauty of Doctor Who as a series: a reminder that, no matter how far we travel, we cannot ever escape our essential truths, no matter how hard we try.
Doctor Who returns later this year with "Planet of the Dead." |
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