TARDIS Thoughts

Series 3, Episode 1: "Smith and Jones"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:22:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Finally, after many months trying to catch up on Series 2, TARDIS Thoughts's analyses have finally moved on to Series 3, the era of Martha Jones and Mr. Saxon. I am intending to cover Series 3 and 4 via scheduled posts throughout the month of November, to give you all something to read while I spend November feverishly attempting to win NaNoWriMo as a rebel with my Alys Reed story. I worked it out; I should be able to cover both seasons in a month, with two days to spare even. One of these days, November 23rd, I have set aside to cover the 50th Anniversary Special (obviously). The other day, November 30th, I will devote to the specials "Time Crash" and "The Infinite Quest." (Assuming I can find some place to watch "The Infinite Quest"...I know "Time Crash" is definitely on YouTube but not sure about "The Infinite Quest"). This did not occur during the month of November as scheduled. I started it then but the posts did not get posted. Sorry about that.

So, here we go...Series 3, Episode 1, "Smith and Jones." Allons-y!

Not much to say about the plot of this episode. It has similarities to "Rose" and "The Bells of Saint John," where the plot is really about introducing the new Companion more than anything else, and the villains of the episode are not actually that important. I mean, yeah, they have an evil plan that could threaten the whole human race which the Doctor is obligated to stop, but we really don't focus on them that much, nor are they presented as a huge threat, like say, the Daleks perhaps.

Anyway, as I mentioned, this episode introduces a new Companion: an intelligent, Afro-British, doesn't-take-s***-from-anyone medical student named Martha Jones:

As the episode starts, we already learn some things about her life: she has a mom, dad, brother, and sister, and her brother (Leo) is having his 21st birthday party that evening. We also find out her dad has a girlfriend, a blonde, white, long-legged girl named Annalise.

As she walks to her training at Royal Hope Hospital, a strange man shows up in front of her in the street out of the blue and says:

DOCTOR: Like so.
(He takes off his tie.)
DOCTOR: See?

Ah, but what the heck is the Doctor doing there? Keep this in mind; it'll be explained at the end.

Martha shrugs off the weirdo and heads into the hospital, only to almost be run over by a suspicious-looking motorcyclist.

She then goes on the typical medical-students-shadow-a-doctor rounds we see in any medical drama. Over in the orthopedic ward, she runs into the Doctor again, who appears to have checked himself in with abdominal pains:

She recognizes him as the guy she ran into in the street and asks him about it, but he acts like he has no clue what she means (which technically he doesn't...but more on that later). Martha is asked to diagnose what's going on with him and proceeds to listen to his heart with a stethoscope, shocked to hear two heartbeats. The doctor she is shadowing (whose name is Dr. Stoker) thinks she can't find the heart for some reason, but she quickly covers for her apparent mistake. Stoker also reminds her she neglected to check the patient's chart, and proceeds to do so, only to get a static shock. Martha remembers that the same thing happened to her at her locker when she was changing into her scrubs, while fellow students Morgenstern and Swales say the same happened to them from the door handle and the elevator respectively. Stoker says that is due to a thunderstorm being on the way, since lightning is a form of static electricity. He asks the students who this was proven by, and the Doctor correctly answers Benjamin Franklin, then proceeds to prattle on about knowing Franklin and being there the day of his famous kite flight in a thunderstorm, at which point Stoker decides to move on, suggesting that maybe "Mr. Smith" could do with a visit from the psychiatric department. The Doctor and Martha exchange grins as she walks away.

The next scene, it's a little later, and Martha is on the phone with her sister Tish, trying once again to resolve the situation with Annalise potentially showing up at Leo's party. Tish offers to come by for lunch to talk about it, but Martha says it's pouring rain. Tish says it isn't raining where she is. She also notices there's a big black cloud just over the hospital, and that the rain near there is going up instead of down.

There is lightning and a lot of jolting around, and all of a sudden, the landscape outside has changed:

Martha and Swales can't believe it:

SWALES: Martha? It's night. Look. It was lunchtime.
MARTHA: It's not night.
SWALES: But it's got to be. It's dark.
MARTHA: We're on the moon.
(A half Earth hangs in the black sky over a cratered surface.)
SWALES: We can't be.
MARTHA: We're on the moon. We're on the bloody moon.

Back on Earth, Tish and many others look in horror at the huge crater now standing where the hospital was just moments before. She tries to call Martha but can't reach her.

In the hospital, hysteria ensues, and Martha and the other medical students and doctors try to calm everyone down. Swales and Martha try to figure out how they could possibly still have air in the hospital if they're on the moon. The Doctor, meanwhile, has snuck out of bed unnoticed and changed into his usual suit again:

He then shows some interest in Martha:

DOCTOR: Very good point. Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?
MARTHA: Martha.
DOCTOR: And it was Jones, wasn't it? Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?
SWALES: We can't be.
DOCTOR: Obviously we are, so don't waste my time. Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or
MARTHA: By the patients' lounge, yeah.
DOCTOR: Fancy going out?
MARTHA: Okay.
DOCTOR: We might die.
MARTHA: We might not.
DOCTOR: Good. Come on.

They go out on a nearby balcony, away from the chaos, and discuss the situation. We learn that Martha had a cousin named Adeola who died at the Battle of Canary Wharf. (This is the show's in-canon explanation for why Adeola and Martha look so similar; both characters were played by Freema Agyeman). And unlike other characters, Martha isn't impressed by the Doctor's credentials:

MARTHA: I promise you, Mister Smith, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way.
DOCTOR: It's not Smith. That's not my real name.
MARTHA: Who are you, then?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
MARTHA: Me too, if I can pass my exams. What is it then, Doctor Smith?
DOCTOR: Just the Doctor.
MARTHA: How do you mean, just the Doctor?
DOCTOR: Just the Doctor.
MARTHA: What, people call you the Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yeah.
MARTHA: Well, I'm not. As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title.
DOCTOR: Well, I'd better make a start, then.

Just then, the rhino-esque Judoon show up:

It turns out the Judoon are basically like space police, and they are looking for some alien creature called a Plasmavore, who they believe is hiding in the hospital. However, Earth is a neutral zone, over which they have no jurisdiction, so they have moved to the hospital to the closest place they do have jurisdiction over - the Moon - so they can catch the dangerous alien.

The Judoon begin patrolling people and scanning them to see if they are human or not. The Doctor realizes they are looking for something non-human, which is bad news for him, so he and Martha go on the run from them. Meanwhile, we the audience quickly learn who the Plasmavore is - it's the old lady, Miss Finnegan, from earlier in the episode, the one Martha and co visited before seeing the Doctor. Apparently, she drinks blood like a vampire, sort of, except with a straw. Which is pretty creepy.

The Doctor finds a room and tries to hack into the computer using the Sonic, but realizes the Judoon have erased all the patient files. While he tries to restore the backup, Martha goes looking for Dr. Stoker, only to realize the Plasmavore has already killed him. She runs back to tell the Doctor, but they are pursued by motorcyclists like the one Martha ran into earlier. They take refuge in a radiology lab, and the Doctor plays around with the X-ray machine, increasing its power to take down the motorcyclist dude.

When he explains this to Martha, she asks him if the radiation won't kill him too, but he assures her it's all right, that it's just roentgen radiation, which he claims he used to play with blocks of in the nursery. (This line is rather ironic, given that it is radiation that ultimately kills Ten later on in "The End of Time"). He claims he's absorbed it and proceeds to dance around trying to shake it out through his feet:

He ultimately does and has to throw his sneaker away, then decides he looks silly with just one shoe and throws the other off too. He investigates the motorcyclist and identifies it as a Slab, basically like a drone robot. Martha tells him the drone was working for Miss Finnegan, and that she's the alien.

The Doctor, however, has bigger issues on his mind - he mistakenly left his Sonic Screwdriver in the x-ray machine, and it's fried! He's devastated:

DOCTOR: My sonic screwdriver.
MARTHA: She was one of the patients, but
DOCTOR: Oh, no. My sonic screwdriver.
MARTHA: She had a straw like some kind of vampire.
DOCTOR: I loved my sonic screwdriver.
MARTHA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Sorry.

It's worth noting that Martha calls him "Doctor" here, after she had said she wouldn't. The Doctor even notices:

DOCTOR: You called me Doctor.

She gets his attention back and tells him Miss Finnegan was feeding off Dr. Stoker's blood with a straw. The Doctor then realizes Miss Finnegan wasn't drinking the blood; she was assimilating it. Assimilating human blood so when the Judoon find her, she will register as human!

They find Stoker, and the Doctor confirms that Finnegan is indeed a Plasmavore. They try chasing her down, and the Doctor realizes she has fled into the MRI room. Still worried the Judoon will scan him and realizes he's not human, he plays for time:

DOCTOR: Martha, stay here. I need time. You've got to hold them up.
MARTHA: How do I do that?
DOCTOR: Just forgive me for this. It could save a thousand lives. It means nothing. Honestly, nothing.

He then kisses her, long and hard:

Before proceeding to run away. Martha is saddened that, to him, the kiss had no meaning:

MARTHA: That was nothing?

The Doctor confronts the Plasmavore in the MRI room. Here David Tennant gives probably his best performance of the episode (which is saying something, cause this episode overall is pretty meh), playing dumb about everything that's going on:

DOCTOR: Have you seen them? There are these things. These great big space rhino things. I mean, rhinos from space. And we're on the moon! Great big space rhinos with guns on the moon. And I only came in for my bunions, look. I mean, all fixed now. Perfectly good treatment. The nurses were lovely. I said to my wife, I said I'd recommend this place to anyone, but then we end up on the moon. And did I mention the rhinos?

...

DOCTOR: Er, that, that big er machine thing. Is it supposed to be making that noise?
FLORENCE: You wouldn't understand.
DOCTOR: But isn't that a magnetic resonance imaging thing? Like a ginormous sort of a magnet? I did magnetics GCSE. Well, I failed, but all the same.
FLORENCE: The magnetic setting now increased to fifty thousand Tesla.
DOCTOR: Ooo, that's a bit strong, isn't it?
FLORENCE: It'll send out a magnetic pulse that'll fry the brain stems of every living thing within two hundred and fifty thousand miles. Except for me, safe in this room.
DOCTOR: But er, hold on, hold on, I did geography GCSE. I passed that one. Doesn't that distance include the Earth?
FLORENCE: Only the side facing the moon. The other half will survive. Call it my little gift.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me, I'm a little out of my depth. I've spent the past fifteen years working as a postman. Hence the bunions. Why would you do that?
FLORENCE: With everyone dead, the Judoon ships will be mine, to make my escape.
DOCTOR: No, that's weird. You're talking like you're some sort of an alien.
FLORENCE: Quite so.
DOCTOR: No!
FLORENCE: Oh, yes.
DOCTOR: You're joshing me.
FLORENCE: I am not.
DOCTOR: I'm talking to an alien? In hospital? What, has the place got an ET department?
FLORENCE: It's the perfect hiding place. Blood banks downstairs for a midnight feast, and all this equipment ready to arm myself with should the police come looking.
DOCTOR: So, those rhinos, they're looking for you?
FLORENCE: Yes. But I'm hidden.
DOCTOR: Right. Maybe that's why they're increasing their scans.
FLORENCE: They're doing what?
DOCTOR: Big chief rhino boy, he said, no sign of a non-human, we must increase our scans up to setting two?
FLORENCE: Then I must assimilate again.
DOCTOR: What does that mean?
FLORENCE: I must appear to be human.
DOCTOR: Well, you're welcome to come home and meet the wife. She'd be honoured. We can have cake.
FLORENCE: Why should I have cake? I've got my little straw.
DOCTOR: Oh, that's nice. Milkshake? I like banana.
FLORENCE: You're quite the funny man. And yet, I think, laughing on purpose at the darkness. I think it's time you found some peace. Steady him!
(The Slab forces the Doctor to his knees and turns his head so Florence has a clear shot at his jugular with her straw.)
DOCTOR: What are you doing?
FLORENCE: I'm afraid this is going to hurt. But if it's any consolation, the dead don't tend to remember.

Martha, meanwhile, must face the Judoon alone. The Judoon scan her and ultimately identify her as human, but with "non-human traces." After the Judoon release her, she goes to look for the Doctor, and the Judoon follow her into the MRI room...where Miss Finnegan is sucking away at the Doctor with her straw. The Doctor is lying on the floor, and the Judoon's scan confirms he is dead.

However, Martha remembers that the Doctor said he wasn't human, and that the Plasmavore can assimiliate the blood she drinks. And she just drank the Doctor's non-human blood! In other words, the Doctor let the Plasmavore kill him on purpose so the Judoon would find her!

Martha points a Judoon scanner at the Plasmavore and confirms this suspicion, and the Judoon arrest the Plasmavore and proceed to leave, their jurisdiction having ended. Martha, however, realizes the MRI machine is acting up, and begs the Judoon to help, but they refuse.

Martha realizes she must stop the machine, but that she needs the Doctor's help. Unfortunately, there's another problem: the oxygen in the hospital is running out.

Luckily, Martha, like any good medical student, knows CPR, so she proceeds to perform it on the Doctor:

She finally manages to revive him, just before collapsing due to lack of oxygen.

The Doctor, also barely able to breathe (Time Lords breathe oxygen too), crawls to the MRI machine to try to stop it, only to remember he doesn't have his Sonic anymore. He resorts to pulling some cables apart instead, stopping the machine. He then makes his way back to the unconscious Martha and carries her to the window, where he watches the Judoon's water scoop reverse and put the hospital back where it should be.

Back on Earth, the survivors - including Martha - are being loaded into ambulances, while Morgenstern gives a statement to the police:

MORGENSTERN: I told them I represented the human race. I told them, you can't do that. I said, we have rights.

The Doctor sneaks back into the TARDIS and dematerializes, while Tish asks Martha what happened.

Later on, we see Martha getting ready for her brother's party, listening to a radio report about the incident at the hospital. Part of Morgenstern's statement is played again:

MORGENSTERN [OC]: I was there. I saw it happen. And I feel uniquely privileged. I looked out at the surface of the moon. I saw the Earth, suspended in space, and it all just proves Mister Saxon right. We're not alone in the universe. There's life out there. Wild and extraordinary life.

Pay attention to that "Mister Saxon" reference. Mr. Saxon will get mentioned a lot this season. He's basically the meme for Series 3, like "Bad Wolf" in Series 1 and "Torchwood" in Series 2.

And then we go to the infamous party, where apparently there was an altercation between Mrs. Jones and Annalise. As the argument winds down, Martha spots the Doctor standing in the background and follows him into an alley:

She then proceeds to question him about who he is, and he invites her on a trip in the TARDIS as thanks for saving his life:

MARTHA: I went to the moon today.
DOCTOR: A bit more peaceful than down here.
MARTHA: You never even told me who you are.
DOCTOR: The Doctor.
MARTHA: What sort of species? It's not every day I get to ask that.
DOCTOR: I'm a Time Lord.
MARTHA: Right! Not pompous at all, then.
DOCTOR: I just thought since you saved my life and I've got a brand new sonic screwdriver which needs road testing, you might fancy a trip.
MARTHA: What, into space?
DOCTOR: Well.
MARTHA: But I can't. I've got exams. I've got things to do. I have to go into town first thing and pay the rent, I've got my family going mad.
DOCTOR: If it helps, I can travel in time as well.
MARTHA: Get out of here.
DOCTOR: I can.
MARTHA: Come on now, that's going too far.
DOCTOR: I'll prove it.

He then goes into his TARDIS and dematerializes, only to return a moment later, his tie in his hand.

But what's this about? Well, remember the beginning of the episode, where Martha ran into the Doctor and he took off his tie in front of her in the street? That's future him, him from later that day. At the moment he told Martha he would prove he could time travel, he time traveled back to that morning, appeared before her, did that, then returned. (This is why when she met the Doctor again in the hospital, he didn't remember seeing her - because that was the Doctor from the then currently-running timeline).

Martha realizes now why she ran into him that morning, and that that Doctor was him from right now, from after the whole Judoon thing, and asks him why he didn't warn her not to go into work that day. He tells her he can't interfere in established events, "except for cheap tricks." He then invites her into the TARDIS, which she says looks quite small, and that they'd be "intimate" if they were both in there.

But then she walks in:

And, of course, it's bigger on the inside. As usual. She asks if he has a crew, but he says no, it's just him, but that sometimes he has guests, that most recently he had a girl named Rose on board, but reassures Martha she's not replacing Rose. He then proceeds to lay the ground rules: just one trip, just to thank her for saving his life. Martha, however, seems to think he has a thing for her:

DOCTOR: Just one trip to say thanks. You get one trip, then back home. I'd rather be on my own.
MARTHA: You're the one that kissed me.
DOCTOR: That was a genetic transfer.
MARTHA: And if you will wear a tight suit.
DOCTOR: Now, don't!
MARTHA: And then travel all the way across the universe just to ask me on a date.
DOCTOR: Stop it.
MARTHA: For the record? I'm not remotely interested. I only go for humans.
DOCTOR: Good.

Actually, it's kinda like the famous "snogbox" conversations from "The Bells of Saint John":

DOCTOR: You and me inside that box, now.
CLARA: I'm sorry?
DOCTOR: Look, just get inside.
CLARA: Both of us?
DOCTOR: Oh, trust me. You'll understand once we're in there.
CLARA: I bet I will. What is that box, anyway? Why have you got a box? Is it like a snogging booth?
DOCTOR: Clara. A what?
CLARA: Is that what you do, bring a booth? There is such a thing as too keen.

...

DOCTOR: But you don't run out on the people you care about. Wish I was more like that. You know, the thing about a time machine, you can run away all you like and still be home in time for tea, so what do you say? Anywhere. All of time and space, right outside those doors.
CLARA: Does this work?
DOCTOR: Eh?
CLARA: Is this actually what you do? Do you just crook your finger and people just jump in your snog box and fly away?
DOCTOR: It is not a snog box.
CLARA: I'll be the judge of that.

(Also, the "genetic transfer" thing is intended to explain why The Doctor kissed her earlier - he was transferring traces of his genes into her, hoping that the Judoon would detect them and therefore be distracted with Martha while he dealt with the Plasmavore).

The Doctor does the necessary preparations, and they take off. It's a bit bumpy, though, and they find themselves having to hold on to something. They shake hands:

The episode ends with an amiable welcome:

DOCTOR: Welcome aboard, Miss Jones.
MARTHA: It's my pleasure, Mister Smith.

Overall, like I said, kinda a meh episode. It really didn't do it for me. I mean, David Tennant had some good moments, and Martha was cool, but it just didn't wow me. There are better episodes out there. And the Tenth Doctor...I mean, I love Ten, but he just didn't seem like the Ten I know and love in this episode. He seemed, well, alien to me. (No pun intended). Thankfully, as Series 3 progresses, David Tennant clearly gets his head in the game again and once again becomes the Ten we Tenth Doctor fans know and love. Hooray!

First Impression of Martha Jones

This episode was my first time meeting Martha Jones. I guess I had probably seen clips of her here and there, but very sparingly.

Martha gives a good first impression. She's smart, strong, and owns her identity as a doctor-to-be. She doesn't take any crud from anyone, not even her own troubled family. As I write this, I've actually seen all but the last three episodes of Series 3, and she definitely continues to show this intelligence and strength of character as the series progresses. Unlike Rose, who started out kinda weak but got stronger over time, Martha starts out strong and tough, and more or less stays that way. Her character arc is more about romance; like Clara later on, she falls in love with the Doctor during her time with him, but he doesn't seem to notice. Actually, in Martha's case, he doesn't even return her feelings, since he hasn't gotten over Rose yet. (In fact, Rose is as much of a meme as Saxon in this season, with the amount of times Ten mentions her).

That being said, I wouldn't say Martha is my favorite Companion. I like her, but she's not my fave. She has some great moments, and she's well-acted, but she's not my favorite. Rose is actually quickly becoming my #1 favorite, thanks to the novels I've read (or heard via audiobook) with her in them. I still like Amy Pond a lot too, but that may change once I watch Series 5 and 6. And I love Clara; she's awesome. The jury's still out on Donna Noble; I didn't like her in her first appearance, and I don't think Series 4 is going to change my mind about her, but other fans have told me to give her a chance, so I will. Besides these, there are the Classic Who Companions too; I haven't seen enough of Classic Who though to pick a favorite as of yet.

***

Well, that's it for that. Next up, one of my favorite episodes of Series 3, "The Shakespeare Code"!

Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts. "The Bells of Saint John" quotes from this transcript. Pictures from Sonic Biro.

So, so sorry...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 04:07:00 +0000

Hello everybody! Long time no post...

I'm really sorry. I planned to write posts ahead of time and schedule them to be posted throughout November, while I was busy with NaNoWriMo. But that did not happen. I didn't even get my 50th Anniversary Special post up (though I did watch the special - it was awesome!).

I am going to try to make up for it. As of today, I have finished Series 3 by watching "Voyage of the Damned." I am now going to skip Series 4 and the 2008-2010 specials temporarily and move on to Series 5 and 6. The reason for this is that the 2013 Christmas Special, "The Time of the Doctor," is coming up, which is also Matt Smith's last episode as The Doctor. And Steven Moffat has said loose ends from all of Matt's run, even back to his debut episode "The Eleventh Hour," will be dealt with in this special. So I have decided I am going to try to get caught up with the rest of Matt's episodes by Christmas. It will mean more than one episode a day (since there are only 15 days till Christmas), but I can handle it, I think.

So here is the plan for now. I will finish posting the posts for Series 3, while starting to watch 5 and 6. I will also get caught up on other posts, like my analyses of the 50th Anniversary Special and its two prequels and analyses of other specials (like "Time Crash," "Death is the Only Answer," the minisodes on the Complete Seventh Series set, etc) I have not yet covered.

When Christmas comes, I will have the Christmas Special (and its prequel(s), if any) to analyze. I will aim to be caught up with all pending New Who posts by the end of the year (Lord willing). This will allow me to focus on just new posts come January. Series 8 - starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara - is not set to begin airing till August 2014. So I am going to spend the 7-month void catching up on Classic Who, as well as Series 4 and the specials if I have not got to them yet, and possibly also watching the spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (I watched the pilot for SJA and liked it a lot), which I don't intend to cover for this blog.

Best case scenario, I'll be all caught up by next August and ready to tackle whatever is to come in Series 8 and beyond.

For now...Allons-y!

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 9: "The Satan Pit"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 08:44:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Yes! Finally, after this post, I will be done with my catchup from the disastrous thing back in February known as NaBloPoMo.

Here we go - episode 9 of Series 2, and part two of the 2-parter begun with "The Impossible Planet," "The Satan Pit."

I said in the previous post that I have issues with this episode, bad memories. But more about that later.

So...picking up from where "The Impossible Planet" left off, The Doctor, Rose, and the crew of a deep-space Sanctuary Base must deal with the fact that some demonic force called The Beast has just possessed the crew's language expert Toby as well as the Ood, a service-oriented race of normally peaceful aliens that are essentially the work staff of the base. And it seems to be all tied to this dark pit down near the center of the planet on which the base is located, which The Doctor and base crew member Ida have discovered.

Rose and the crew members try to run from the now possessed Ood. The Doctor confirms he and Ida have not seen anything escape the pit, and volunteers to rappel down into the dark, seemingly bottomless pit to investigate further, but Captain Zach has other plans, and orders everyone back up so he can activate "strategy 9," a policy to open the airlocks and flush the possessed Ood out. As The Doctor and Ida prepare to ascend, The Beast detects The Doctor's presence and begins communicating directly with The Doctor:

DOCTOR: If you are the Beast, then answer me this. Which one, hmm? Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?
VOICE [OC]: All of them.
DOCTOR: What, then you're the truth behind the myth?
VOICE [OC]: This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind.
DOCTOR: How did you end up on this rock?
VOICE [OC]: The Disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity.
DOCTOR: When was this?
VOICE [OC]: Before time.
DOCTOR: What does that mean?
VOICE [OC]: Before time.
DOCTOR: What does before time mean?
VOICE [OC]: Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created.
DOCTOR: That's impossible. No life could have existed back then.
VOICE [OC]: Is that your religion?
DOCTOR: It's a belief.

He then plays the typical Satanic accuser role by playing on each crew member's deepest fears and weaknesses, as well as Rose's. The Doctor understands what The Beast is doing and warns everyone, saying not to fall for what The Beast is saying, that The Beast is just trying to demoralize them by messing with their heads. The Beast retaliates by snapping the cable of the elevator The Doctor and Ida are about to use to ascend to the base, trapping the two underground.

Meanwhile, Captain Zach gets surrounded by the possessed Ood, so Rose and the remaining crew members decide to sneak into Ood habitation to turn off the telepathic field the Ood use to function, in hopes of stopping them. Unfortunately, they are forced to get there by climbing through ventilation shafts meant for robots:

What's more, the oxygen on the base is running out. Captain Zach can provide them with breathable air, but only intermittently. And to make matters worse, the possessed Ood catch on to the crew's plan and enter the shaft in pursuit:

The group manages to evade them eventually, though at the cost of Jefferson's life, since he chooses to stay and hold off the Ood at one junction of the shaft, and Captain Zach can't provide oxygen to both him and the others who are moving on. They make it to Ood habitation and turn off the telepathic network.

The Doctor and Ida, meanwhile, decide to investigate the pit, using the snapped elevator cable, while talking about The Beast's claim to be the Devil. The Doctor concludes that maybe the Devil is just an idea, manifested in different ways across the universe. He and Ida soon realize the cable doesn't go down quite far enough. The Doctor says he would rather explore what's down there than sit around waiting to die, so he decides he will detach the cable from himself and free fall the rest of the way, despite Ida's protests. Just as he does this, though, the rest of the crew restores their communication ties with Ida, and she tells them of The Doctor's decision. Rose is devastated.

Zach tells Ida that they cannot get to her, meaning they must leave her behind, a fact she accepts. The crew prepares to escape the planet. Rose begs to be left behind as well, but Zach refuses, saying he's lost too many people already, ultimately knocking Rose out to get her to come with them. They make their way to the escape rocket, unaware that the Ood are starting to reawaken.

Meanwhile, The Doctor wakes up on a large, rocky ledge overlooking a vast chasm, his helmet cracked open:

He is, quite naturally, shocked he is even alive, and moreover, that he can breathe. (Time Lords, like humans, breathe oxygen). He deduces that there must be an air pocket in the pit, and that said pocket broke his fall.

We then switch back to the crew, who have reached the rocket. Just as the rocket is about to launch, Rose wakes up and asks to be taken back, even stealing Captain Zach's gun and threatening him with it, but he tells her it's too late to go back. Toby seems almost eerily amused that they are escaping the planet, and Rose begins to wonder herself how they were able to get off - considering all the ways The Beast could've killed them, that he would simply let them go seems too easy.

The Doctor finds cave drawings depicting The Beast and a battle to defeat and imprision it in the cave in which he now is:

He finds two jars on pedestals on the edge of the ledge that match jars in the cave drawings, and touches them. They glow, illuminating the dark cave. He then finds himself face to face with a monstrous, chained creature, which looks a lot like the Balrog from Lord of the Rings:

The Beast, however, seems like just a dumb animal, rather than the intelligent, articulate being The Doctor communicated with earlier, and The Doctor figures out the creature in front of him is just The Beast's physical body - his mind is elsewhere. He also determines that the planet was a very intentional prison: the planet would fall into the black hole if The Beast ever tried to free itself. Therefore, the breathable air in the cave is not courtesy of The Beast, but of those who imprisoned it, intended to discourage The Beast from trying to escape.

The Beast, The Doctor realizes, knew this all along, which explains his mind having escaped. He also realizes if the gravity well balancing the planet were broken, the rocket Rose and company are on might be drawn into the black hole also. But, since he believes The Beast's mind has used the rocket to escape, he takes the risk, believing Rose will come through and save the day. He breaks the jars, collapsing the gravity well and causing the Beast's body to convulse:

Back in the rocket, The Beast's mind fully possesses Toby again. Rose, realizing the danger, grabs Zach's gun and points it at him:

Then, with a "Go to hell" line for good measure, she shoots out the rocket's front windshield before unbuckling the possessed Toby, sending him flying out into space toward the black hole:

But now another problem presents itself: both the rocket and the planet are getting pulled into the black hole too. The Ood, now free of the Beast's control, cower anxiously, while Ida collapses, having used the last of her oxygen.

The Doctor, meanwhile, is trying to escape The Beast's cave, which is collapsing due to the black hole. To his surprise, he finds the TARDIS nestled among the crags!

Those on the rocket prepare for the inevitable, but then all of a sudden, things go still and they realize they are being pulled away from the black hole. The Doctor's voice then comes over the speakers, informing them that he and the TARDIS are towing them away from the black hole, and also that he rescued Ida but had no time to rescue the Ood. Rose, who thought he was dead, is overjoyed to hear his voice.

Once the rocket reaches open space again, The Doctor swaps Ida for Rose, and the two have an emotional reunion.

Rose then asks him about who The Beast really was, and about The Beast's prediction about her (more on that below), but The Doctor says it's enough for him that they beat The Beast, and that the prediction is a lie. As the TARDIS is about to dematerialize, however, Ida asks who they are:

IDA: Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said. You two, who are you?
DOCTOR: Oh, the stuff of legend.

The episode ends with the Sanctuary Base crew heading back to Earth and Zach recording the base's final report, noting that Toby and all the Ood died with honors. He lists their names for the report, his voice trailing off as he begins to list each and every Ood.

And that's that!

Now...I promised I would tell the story of why I dislike this episode. So here goes.

Technically, this episode is actually the first I ever saw. It was several years ago. I was home alone and waiting for some other show to come on. As we didn't have a DVR at the time, I had to stay downstairs so as not to miss the show I was waiting for. And I had a half hour to kill. So I decided to channel surf, and found Doctor Who in the guide under Sci-Fi Channel. (This goes to show you how long ago this was - not only was Doctor Who airing on SyFy in the U.S., rather than BBC America, but also SyFy was still going by its old name). I decided to watch it, since I had heard of it online somewhere. (Being a geek online at the time, it was kind of hard not to...as a result of this I've actually known of River Song for years, though all I knew about her was that she traveled with The Doctor and was apparently really popular among fans, seeing how much people were talking about her). I got scared out of my mind watching that episode. Plus I missed whatever show I was waiting to watch, because I didn't realize Doctor Who episodes were more than a half hour long. So after that, I decided I would never watch the show again. Obviously, that has changed. Not sure what changed...time, I guess. (Ironically, this being a time travel show). Basically, I just decided to give the show a second chance...and the rest is history.

Well that's it for this post...till next time!

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Twenty-Three: I Believe in Her

There is so much Doctor/Rose stuff in this episode! They begin with Rose's reaction to finding out The Doctor free fell into the pit:

Also, of course, when the crew are about to depart in the rocket, Rose begs to be left behind, as she can't fathom leaving The Doctor behind, and has to be knocked out to get her off the planet.

Then there's the famous "I believe in her" moment from The Doctor:

And, of course, Rose is ecstatic when she hears The Doctor's voice over the speakers of the rocket:

Their reunion is pretty emotional and happy, yet it has a somber tinge with Rose's question about The Beast saying she will "die in battle" soon:

DOCTOR: I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good, Day I know everything? Might as well stop.
ROSE: What do you think it was, really?
DOCTOR: I think we beat it. That's good enough for me.
ROSE: It said I was going to die in battle.
DOCTOR: Then it lied. Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe.

I have reached the end of my catchup...but Series 2 doesn't end here. How will The Doctor and Rose's relationship continue to grow as we hurtle toward the finale? Next post I will post the remainder of this "essay series" (if it can even be called that...it's certainly not the most coherent essays I've ever written) to tie things up.

***

Now that the NaBloPoMo catchup is done, I will post the aforesaid "The Love of The Doctor and Rose Tyler" post and the post for the Series 7 special "P.S." I also intend to cover the Series 2 TARDISodes (if I can find them) and the interactive episode "Attack of the Graske," if I can figure out a way to film my computer screen.

Pictures from Sonic Biro. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 8: "The Impossible Planet"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 07:45:00 +0000

Next up is Series 2, Episode 8 - and part one of a 2-parter with episode 9, "The Satan Pit" - "The Impossible Planet."

This episode is very intense, though not quite as intense as the next episode. Not the best episode to watch at night.

Basically, in this episode, The Doctor and Rose find themselves on a "Sanctuary Base" somewhere in deep space in the 42nd century. (There are a lot of 42s in this episode). As if it wasn't bad enough that the TARDIS didn't want to land, they are greeted by this haunting message:

(It says "Welcome to Hell" by the way...Rose's head is blocking one of the words)

Plus, there is this strange writing, resembling Ancient Chinese or maybe Arabic, that is apparently so ancient even the TARDIS can't translate it:

The two meet up with the base's crew, from whom they learn the base is on a planet orbiting a black hole - something which should be scientifically impossible. The Doctor is impressed by their daring, though:

TOBY: There was some form of civilisation. They buried something. Now it's reaching out, calling us in.
DOCTOR: And you came.
IDA: Well, how could we not?
DOCTOR: So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, er, Zach, wasn't it?
ZACH: That's me.
DOCTOR: Just stand there, because I'm going to hug you. Is that all right?
ZACH: I suppose so.
DOCTOR: Here we go. Come on, then.
(The Doctor hugs Zach.)
DOCTOR: Oh, human beings. You are amazing! Ha!

We also meet the base's other inhabitants, the Ood - an alien race inclined to servitude by their very nature (kind of like the house elves in Harry Potter), who are connected by a sort of hive mind, communicate using little globules, and look like they belong in the Mos Eisley cantina or something:

But all is not well on the base. The crew's work to drill down into the planet to investigate the power source of its gravity well has awakened something no one on the base understands. Plus, stuff on the planet is becoming unstable, causing parts of the base to periodically break off and fall into a massive chasm. And exactly that happens - and that isn't good for The Doctor and Rose. Cause one of the parts that gets lost is exactly where they parked the TARDIS. Which means...they are now stranded. Indefinitely. Oops.

The Doctor and Rose try to process this possibility:

The Doctor is devastated at losing his precious ship, and is equally worried about Rose being trapped with him, since he had apparently promised Jackie he would always bring Rose home. Rose is a little more optimistic, saying they can just wait till the crew leaves the planet (which we have learned they are going to do soon) and get a ride back to Earth with them and go settle somewhere, even suggesting she and The Doctor could get a place together (which makes The Doctor awkward, although we all know how much he would love that).

Meanwhile, whatever it is the crew awakened with their drilling is on the prowl - and its target is Toby, the crew's archeaology specialist:

VOICE [OC]: Toby. Don't turn around.
TOBY: Dan? That's not Dan.
VOICE [OC]: Don't look at me.
TOBY: Who are you?
VOICE [OC]: I have so many names.
TOBY: If if I could
VOICE [OC]: If you look at me, you will die.
TOBY: But who are you?
VOICE [OC]: I'm behind you, Toby. I'm right behind you. Don't look. Don't look at me. One look and you will die. I'm reaching out, Toby. I'm so close. Don't turn around. Oh, I can touch you.

The evil entity, who we gradually learn is called The Beast, possesses Toby, and he goes on a rampage, killing fellow crew member Scooti:

It is determined soon after that someone needs to check on the drilling. Ida from the crew is chosen for this, and The Doctor volunteers to accompany her, despite Rose's protests. She kisses him before he goes down. Toby, now unpossessed, realizes he can better understand the mysterious writing he had been studying (the same writing The Doctor and Rose had found when they first arrived) as a result of his possession and begins trying to decode it. Everyone is now suspicious of him, though, because of what he did to Scooti under The Beast's influence, and tries to keep an eye on him.

The Ood, meanwhile, are acting funny too, mystifying their "caretaker," Danny. They occasionally make cryptic remarks to Rose about The Beast too, which they subsequently don't remember saying.

The Doctor and Ida reach the bottom of the cave created by the drilling and discover a stone, seemingly the cover for something, with strange markings on it:

They decide to investigate it, but just as they do so, The Beast jumps into action, repossessing Toby while simultaneously possessing all the Ood that are on board.

The Beast then properly introduces himself, saying they will all die, while the Ood proclaim they are the Beast's Legion:

And...the episode ends. To be continued.

Like I said, this episode is intense. And not one of my faves personally, though I like it better than part 2 of this 2-parter, which I have negative memories attached to (more on that in the next post).

This episode and the next features a voice long-time Doctor Who fans may recognize - The Beast is voiced by Gabriel Woolf, famous for playing Sutekh in the popular Fourth Doctor episode "Pyramids of Mars." I watched this episode long before I saw "Pyramids of Mars," so I didn't catch the connection myself. When I did finally watch "Pyramids of Mars" as part of the Fourth Doctor Doctors Revisited special, I tried to pay attention to Sutekh's voice to see if it sounded the same. It does sort of sound similar, but it's hard to tell. 31 years of time ("Pyramids of Mars" aired in 1975) can do a lot to the voice. (Not to mention a lot has happened in sound technology since 1975). Watch this clip and decide for yourself:

The idea of an ancient power using a human to escape his confinement (which we learn at the end of this episode is The Beast's goal) also hearkens back to "Pyramids of Mars," as this was also Sutekh's goal.

The episode does play on the sort of "demonic possession" tropes you might expect - someone awakens a demonic power by accident, hears strange voices, then is possessed and does horrible things. The Doctor's reference to some equation involving three sixes also references the Biblical "number of The Beast," 666. But I don't buy the idea that you are led in this episode to believe the Ood are the bad guys. I mean, yeah, it's usually the token aliens in the episode - which the Ood are in this case - that are the bad guys of the episode, but if that's what they're trying to do in this episode, they're not fooling me. Clearly, The Beast is much more sinister; heck, even the Ood make cryptic warnings about him, as if they can sense something the rest of the crew can't (which is highly probable, given their reliance on low-level telepathic energy to communicate with others of their race; technically The Beast takes advantage of this telepathic connection to possess all of them simultaneously anyway...also we know from later episodes, like "Planet of the Ood," that the Ood are known to make cryptic prophecies, and that they're usually right - they were right about The Doctor's song "ending soon" anyway).

Next post, we go to part 2 of this 2-parter, and an episode I really don't like, "The Satan Pit." Till next time!

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Twenty-Two: "The Mysterious Couple"

The Doctor and Rose definitely bond in this episode, especially when they are faced with the possibility of being stranded on the titular "impossible" planet:

ROSE: I've seen films and things, yeah. They say black holes are like gateways to another universe.
COMPUTER: Close door 18.
DOCTOR: Not that one. It just eats.
ROSE: Long way from home.
DOCTOR: Go that way, turn right, keep going for er, about, er, five hundred years, and you'll reach the Earth.
(Rose turns her phone on.)
ROSE: No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could. What would I tell her? Can you build another Tardis?
DOCTOR: They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone, we're kind of stuck.
ROSE: Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift.
DOCTOR: And then what?
ROSE: I don't know. Find a planet, get a job, live a life, same as the rest of the universe.
DOCTOR: I'd have to settle down. Get a house or something. A proper house with, with doors and things. Carpets. Me, living in a house. Now that, that is terrifying.
ROSE: You'd have to get a mortgage.
DOCTOR: No.
ROSE: Oh, yes.
DOCTOR: I'm dying. That's it. I'm dying. It is all over.
ROSE: What about me? I'd have to get one, too. I don't know, could be the same one. We could both, I don't know, share. Or not, you know. Whatever. I don't know. We'll sort something out
DOCTOR: Anyway.
ROSE: We'll see.
DOCTOR: I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home.
ROSE: Everyone leaves home in the end.
DOCTOR: Not to end up stuck here.
ROSE: Yeah, but stuck with you, that's not so bad.
DOCTOR: Yeah?
ROSE: Yes.

It's worth noting that Rose is actually comfortable with the idea of moving in with The Doctor (in the Earth sense, that is; technically she is already "living with him" by virtue of living full-time in the TARDIS except for occasional visits home). This shows that she at least views their relationship as quite serious, since not even Mickey got that honor from her (and they were supposedly in quite the steady relationship). Rose would not suggest that sort of thing lightly. By this point, I'd say it's become clear that her primary object of affection has always been The Doctor, despite her pretense of a continuing relationship with Mickey (mostly in Series 1) and her seeming infatuation with Jack Harkness (then again, even I would admit he was a lot more romantic with her than The Doctor was being at that point...plus Captain Jack just has that effect on most people, if you know what I mean).

Rose is also very concerned about The Doctor going down in the drill shaft with Ida - not because Ida is any sort of romantic rival or anything, but simply due to the inherent dangers in going down there. Before he goes down, she gives him a kiss in front of everyone:

And once he goes down, she ends up pretty much in charge of the radio which is their one communication link to The Doctor and Ida, and takes great advantage of it.

Others note The Doctor and Rose's closeness too; Danny calls them "the mysterious couple."

But with the dangers of the Pit looming in the near future...will The Doctor and Rose's love survive? We'll see.

Pictures from Sonic Biro. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

Plans for November

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 23:41:00 +0000

So, as I did last year, I am going to be devoting the month of November to participate in the great and wild ride that is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I'm actually going to work on my Doctor Who fanfic-in-progress, "The Companion's Diary of Alyson 'Alys' Reed," one of the "other projects" you may have seen mentioned on the TARDIS Thoughts Twitter, even though I have already started writing it, which would break the NaNoWriMo rule that you must start your "novel" from scratch. Eh well, I have already won by following the rules, and last year I said I would try at least once to win as a rebel (i.e., breaking the rules), so here's my chance. Also, it's just the kick in the pants I need to get this darn thing finished.

Knowing I will be quite busy working on that, I have made a plan in regards to posting on this blog during November. Cause with the 50th Anniversary Special next month and the mad dash I must now make in order to finish New Who by then, I obviously don't want to take a break for the month like I did last year.

So here is what I am going to do: I will write posts ahead of time that I will then schedule to publish each day next month. There will be a slight deviation from this on the 23rd when the Anniversary Special airs, obviously. I will attempt to get a post up on the special the same day it airs (it's being simulcast worldwide, so spoiler risk on this special will be rather low), if not by the day after.

I will probably focus my posts primarily on New Who, which I am trying to finish, but I may do some Classic Who posts in there too. Particularly in wake of the rather exciting recent discovery/release of the Patrick Troughton serials "The Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear." (I, like Matt Smith, enjoy Patrick Troughton). I will definitely try to do one post per day, but I might do more than one a day if I decide it's worth it.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads-up. Cheerio!

TARDIS Thoughts Turns One!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 06:01:00 +0000

One year ago today, I began TARDIS Thoughts and posted its first post.

I can't believe it's been a whole year!!

(Not Doctor Who-related, I know, but it works).

To be honest, I hoped to have posted much more often than I have been doing, but I guess that sort of discipline takes practice. Plus, I didn't meet my goal to be caught up by today, but that's my fault. Eh well, maybe by tomorrow I'll be caught up.

Hopefully, by this time next year, I will have covered all of New Who up through Series 7 and covered a fair amount of Classic Who as well. Fingers crossed!

Speaking of Classic Who, my copy of the Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 5-8 DVD arrived today. So soon I will likely be able to write about the episodes on that set ("Earthshock," "Vengeance on Varos," "Remembrance of the Daleks," and Doctor Who: The Movie).

Anyway, happy first birthday, TARDIS Thoughts! Here's to many more!

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 7 - "The Idiot's Lantern"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 05:32:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Welcome to yet another post of NaBloPoMo catch up...almost done. Just the "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" 2-parter after this, and I'll be caught up. Whew. Anyway, this post is about Series 2, Episode 7, "The Idiot's Lantern."

This is one of those middle-of-the-season episodes that lets us take a breather between more intense episodes. Typically there are at least two such episodes in a Doctor Who season - one toward the middle and one near the end, right before the finale. (It depends on the season though). The episode is not without its conflict and action, of course, but it's much lighter than the Cybermen 2-parter that precedes it or the "Impossible Planet" 2-parter that follows it.

So the story takes place in 1953. First we look in on a family about to watch TV. Strange noises come from upstairs, worrying the son of the house, but his father tells him to ignore it. Elsewhere a frustrated shopkeeper, Mr. Magpie (his name, and the implied connotation of that word, was not lost on me) is checking his books and realizes he's in the red trying to sell his electronics, especially TVs. Some TV show with a very proper woman addressing the audience is playing on one of the TVs. Suddenly, some sort of strange lightning strikes, and the woman starts speaking directly to Magpie. He is, naturally, alarmed, but when she agrees to help him if he helps her, he gladly agrees. His face then starts getting sucked into the TV screen and...cue the opening credits.

When we return, the TARDIS has landed on a city road. Rose steps out in a very 1950's outfit, complete with a poodle skirt (rose-colored even!) and a '50's updo. It's hands down my favorite of Rose's outfits:

The Doctor is not so period-appropriate; he just has his suit on (minus the trenchcoat) as usual. She asks where they're going, and we learn they're going to some TV studio to hear Elvis play. Or at least that's the plan. He pops back into the TARDIS and emerges with a very nice scooter:

The two then address each other in stereotypical '50's fashion, complete with not-half-bad American accents:

DOCTOR: You going my way, doll?
ROSE: Is there any other way to go, daddy-o? Straight from the fridge, man.

But it becomes increasingly obvious that they are NOT in New York, as they planned, but London. So right decade, wrong city. Eh well, that's the TARDIS for you.

Rose comments on the large amount of TV antennas on the local rooftops, which she says doesn't seem right for the period. She and The Doctor question some people unloading TVs, and learn they have arrived on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Mr. Magpie, it seems, is selling TVs for £5 (an extremely low price) to people so they can watch the momentous event.

Just then, they see someone get pulled out of a nearby house with a blanket over his or her head. Unable to stop the abduction, they decide to question the Connellys, a nearby family, posing (via the psychic paper) as inspectors from the government. Mr. Connelly seems suspicious of them, though, and acts antagonistic towards them throughout the whole scene. The Doctor tries to get info out of the son Tommy while Rose throws her weight around telling Mr. Connelly he has his Union Jack streamers hung the wrong way. Suddenly, noises are heard from upstairs. Mr. Connelly tries to dismiss the noises, but The Doctor sees through the ruse, and Connelly begrudgingly leads them upstairs. He opens a bedroom, where sits a woman we learn is the grandmother of the family. Like the person we saw abducted earlier, she has a blanket over her head. They pull the blanket off, only to see she has no face!

Just after this, the police arrive to take Gran Connelly away, to the protests of everybody. The Doctor and Rose split up, The Doctor pursuing the police on the scooter while Rose goes on foot to investigate Magpie.

The Doctor traces the police to some sort of warehouse. The door is locked, but we all know that's no problem for our intrepid Time Lord. :) A few Soniced doors later, he comes across a sort of cell or cage, in which stand a large number of faceless people. But before he can do anything, the police find him.

Rose, meanwhile, is at Magpie's shop. Magpie tells her to leave, as he's closed, and to come back tomorrow. She points out that he'll be closed tomorrow because of the coronation. (The days such events occur are usually declared public holidays in the UK, meaning people don't have to go to work; the day of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding in 2011, for example, was declared a public holiday). She then begins to question him about the TVs and the faceless people, making him agitated. The mysterious lady on the TV pops up again, asking Magpie to "feed" her. Rose, naturally, finds this suspicious and confronts the woman. This does no good, however, and we soon see the lady go on the attack once more.

The Doctor is undergoing questioning by the police inspector but manages to convince them he's not suspicious and probes them for information on the faceless persons case. The Police Inspector says they just wanted to get the faceless people out of the way, to avoid controversy what with the coronation going on, and adds that Torchwood is going to have their necks if anything happens in public during the coronation (this being Series 2, of course there has to be a Torchwood reference in the episode). Just about then, another police officer brings in another covered figure. We can't see the face, but a certain familiar pink skirt gives it away:

It's Rose. The police lift the blanket, and sure enough, her face has been taken as well. The Inspector asks where she was found, and the other officer says they just found her lying in the street.

The Doctor is now VERY furious:

DOCTOR: They did what?
BISHOP: I'm sorry?
DOCTOR: They left her where?
BISHOP: Just in the street.
DOCTOR: In the street. They left her in the street. They took her face and just chucked her out and left her in the street. And as a result, that makes things simple. Very, very simple. Do you know why?
BISHOP: No.
DOCTOR: Because now, Detective Inspector Bishop, there is no power on this Earth that can stop me. Come on!

Motivated by his righteous anger, The Doctor heads out with the Inspector to confront Magpie, somehow also adding Tommy Connelly to the party along the way. They reach the store and question him, but he blames it on the woman. The woman reveals herself as a being called The Wire, who escaped the destruction of its people by turning itself into a being of pure electrical energy. But it needs nourishment to live (don't we all?), and apparently it feeds off of faces. The Wire's plan, it seems, is to feed off the faces of the people watching the coronation, via the cheap TVs Magpie was selling.

The Doctor, obviously, is not about to let that happen, and says so. The Wire gets angry and attacks him, Tommy, and the Inspector, trying to take their faces, but the Doctor stops her with his Sonic.

The Wire then transfers herself to a portable TV and demands Magpie go forward with the next part of the plan, which involves heading for the TV transmitter at Alexandra Palace, which will be broadcasting the coronation. The Doctor and Tommy team up to stop him (the Inspector got his face stolen by the Wire). They cobble together a device using parts from the TARDIS and from Magpie's shop before pursuing Magpie to the transmitter. Some guards try to stop them, but the Doctor just flashes the psychic paper as they run past, and the guards let him through. This moment shows a rare case of the Doctor not even knowing what the psychic paper is showing:

GUARD: Wait, wait, wait! Where do you think
(The Doctor shows him the psychic paper.)
OFFICIAL: Oh! I'm very sorry, sir. Shouldn't you be at the Coronation?
DOCTOR: They're saving me a seat.
TOMMY: Who did he think you were?
DOCTOR: King of Belgium, apparently.

The Doctor sees Magpie climbing up the transmitter antenna to connect his portable TV, containing The Wire, to the antenna. He initially succeeds, and The Wire begins gleefully stealing faces from the people watching the coronation:

But The Doctor has other plans. He confronts The Wire with his own contraption, and connects it to the transmitter, dragging The Wire into it instead of the TV. Those whose faces The Wire had stolen get their faces back, and everyone watches the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II leave Westminster Abbey. (We don't actually see footage of her being crowned; in the commentary we learn that, while they were allowed to use original TV footage of the coronation for this episode - meaning that all the footage we do see is actually real-life footage - they were not permitted to use footage of her actually being crowned).

The Doctor rejoins Tommy (who stayed downstairs to operate the main part of the Doctor's machine) and shows Tommy what he trapped The Wire on - a VHS tape. Essentially he's created a primitive VCR about thirty years early.

The Doctor then reunites with Rose, and they walk down Florizel Street, where a street party is taking place in honor of the coronation. (It seems that street parties are common in the UK for events like this). She asks him what he's going to do with The Wire, and he spouts some technobabble solution, which ultimately just means he'll tape over it. They are later joined by Tommy, to whom The Doctor gives the scooter he's been riding throughout the episode. Tommy sees his father leaving the house, clearly thrown out by his mother, and says "Good riddance," as if he had been expecting it. Ultimately, though, with Rose's encouragement, he goes and joins his dad, and they walk off together. Rose and The Doctor stand and watch, sharing a toast of orange squash.

Well...that's it for this episode. Next up, an adventure in deep space with a planet orbiting a black hole, and the introduction of the mysterious Ood -- "The Impossible Planet."

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Twenty-One: No Power on This Earth That Can Stop Me

There is a lot of Doctor/Rose love in this episode. The two act like a happy couple throughout the episode, and they clearly play well off of each other.

The real evidence of their love in this episode, though, comes when Rose gets her face stolen by The Wire. The mere thought of her getting her face stolen and getting thrown out into the street is enough to get The Doctor really, really angry, to the point that he tells the Police Inspector that "now...there is no power on this Earth that can stop me." Also, he is overjoyed to reunite with Rose once it's all over:

Clearly, their relationship is moving toward something serious! How will it continue to develop? We shall see!

Pictures from Sonic Biro. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

Plans for the near future

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:36:00 +0000

So I realize the posting of analyses has been a little slow. I am trying to finish up Series 2 so I can move on to Series 3 and beyond.

With just under two months until the anniversary - the date by which I wanted to be caught up with New Who - I am beginning to think I should just focus on watching the episodes and get around to the analyses later. Because a main reason why I'm not watching episodes is because I know as soon as I watch an episode, I will feel compelled to post about it shortly thereafter, and the posts take quite a bit of work, work I don't always feel like doing some days. Plus, it was tough to do both for Countdown to Christmas and for NaBloPoMo. I am not used to blogging every day. And when I started this, I didn't realize it was going to take almost 2 hours to write each post. Not to say the amount of time spent on it isn't worth it. It is. You have to spend time on something if you want it to be thorough. But it is a LOT of time, and lately I've been tired a lot because of work and not felt like doing much of anything other than play with my phone and watch TV.

However, I just realized the blog's 1-year anniversary is coming up very shortly. I can hardly believe the blog has been around that long. And with that milestone, I really want to ramp stuff up and get this blog on a good posting discipline, etc.

So I think this is what I will do: I will try to get caught up with Series 2 and with a few other New Who posts I have in draft by October 1, the site's 1-year anniversary. For Series 2, I just have the posts on "The Idiot's Lantern," "The Impossible Planet," and "The Satan Pit" left to do. Other than that, for New Who I just have the post for the Series 7 special "P.S." to write, and a few posts for the Series 3 eps I have watched recently. I may hold off on the Series 3 episode analyses for a bit yet, till I'm caught up with other stuff.

I also have posts in draft for the Classic Who episodes I have seen; however, I think I am going to hold off on those until I am caught up with New Who, as I will have time between the 50th Anniversary Special (which we now know will be called "The Day of the Doctor") and the Christmas Special to catch up on those, and definitely time between the Christmas Special and Series 8, since the latest news says not to expect Series 8 till the autumn of 2014.

I am also going to ramp up promoting the site; I will finish the Google+ page, make a Facebook page, and become more active on the Twitter again. And I will make sure all three of these are properly connected here. I have also just conducted a "affiliation request" contact blitz tonight with a number of sites and blogs; as of yet Doctor Who Online is the only one who has responded, and while they refused to affiliate, they are offering me the chance to advertise via a banner on their homepage, which I may do instead.

I just ordered the Complete Seventh Series DVD set; I will do analyses of the mini-sodes included on that set ("Rain Gods," "Clarence and the Whispermen," "Clara and the TARDIS," and "The Inforarium") as soon as possible after I receive it (which should be next Monday). Just took a peek at them on the TARDIS Data Core to find out about them, they look good. I also went ahead and pre-ordered the DVD for the 50th Anniversary Special, which is currently available to pre-order pretty much everywhere, which actually surprised me when I first heard of it. If that DVD comes with any mini-sodes, I will analyze those too. We don't know as of yet what features it will have.

At any rate, I am going to focus on watching episodes and meeting my catchup goal for the moment, and not post analyses of New Who eps for a while once I get caught up with the posts I mentioned before. After all, I am watching the older New Who episodes via Netflix, so I can always go back and rewatch them if I need to for the analyses. Or via DVD, since after watching each season I have been buying the season sets. So never fear, I haven't given up. I just need to lighten the load a little, that's all.

(Next up for me, btw, is "Daleks in Manhattan." Which is set in the 1930's, which has been one of my favorite eras of history since I was a kid...hooray!)

Have a great day...Fantastic, Allons-y, Geronimo, and all that timey-wimey stuff.

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 6, "The Age of Steel"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 15:00:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Continuing the NaBloPoMo catchup...the second part of the 2-part story begun in "Rise of the Cybermen" -- Series 2, Episode 6, "The Age of Steel."

So last episode, we left The Doctor, Rose, Mickey, the parallel Pete Tyler, and the resistance group The Preachers surrounded by Cybermen seeking to subject them to "maximum deletion." The episode recaps this and the other events of "Rise of the Cybermen" before heading into the opening credits.

After the opening credits, we return to The Doctor and company, who are still surrounded by Cybermen. The Doctor scares off the Cybermen with blasts of energy from the currently recharging TARDIS crystal, which apparently can also be used as an impromptu weapon. The group decides to go figure out what is really going on. Pete is hesitant, knowing Jackie is still in the house, but The Doctor persuades him to come along. The group load into The Preachers' van, where we learn the parallel Pete Tyler is actually a double agent and has been sharing information with The Preachers via Mrs. Moore. Pete is disappointed, though, when he realizes the group he was sharing info with is just a rag-tag group of revolutionaries; apparently, he was expecting something much more professional.

Lumic makes his next move: luring victims for conversion to him via the EarPods. In the process, he also lures away Jackie Tyler, who had been trying to hide from the Cybermen in the cellar. She gets a glazed expression and starts walking off.

The Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Pete Tyler, and the Preachers make their way through the city, losing Ricky in the process when he is shot down by Cybermen while trying to climb a fence. They eventually reach a hill overlooking the factory where Lumic is making the Cybermen. (If the exterior looks familiar, it's because it's Battersea Power Station; they couldn't film inside the station, however, so the interior scenes in the factory were filmed in a brewery instead). They make plans for who will do what. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore will try to infiltrate the factory via a secret tunnel, Mickey and Jake will try to disarm the computers on Lumic's zeppelin (an assignment Mickey doesn't seem to like). Pete and Rose will investigate the main complex by posing as candidates for conversion. Jake provides the two with dummy EarPods for this purpose, and The Doctor warns them to show no emotion, as that will give them away as intruders. The group then splits up.

Pete and Rose successfully make it in the factory, but are given away when confronted by a Cyberman who recognizes Pete - it's Jackie! Or rather it was...she's been converted. Pete becomes distraught at having lost his wife, which alerts some other Cybermen to their intruder status, and they grab the two.

The Doctor and Mrs. Moore creep down a dark, narrow tunnel filled with inactive Cybermen. Not having any danger to fear for the moment, they get acquainted. But soon, Lumic realizes they are there and activates the Cybermen. The two run out and take down the Cybermen chasing them. The Doctor opens the chest of one fallen Cyberman, showing Mrs. Moore the emotional inhibitor chip the Cybermen put in their converted human victims. He deactivates it, and the human within the suit briefly returns, confessing that she was young and about to be married, before passing away. But before The Doctor and Mrs. Moore can mourn, another Cyberman shows up, electrocuting Mrs. Moore. The Doctor is shocked, but knows he must move on; he takes the inhibitor chip with him and departs to find Lumic.

Mickey and Jake reach Lumic's zeppelin. After taking out the guards, they make their way in and up to the control room. There they see an armed Cyberman and panic, only to realize it's just a test dummy (very similar to the one in "The Tomb of the Cybermen"). They then try the computers, trying to figure out how to cripple Lumic's operation, without much success.

The Doctor ends up getting captured and taken to Lumic. Rose and Pete are already there. Lumic reveals himself to them and is shortly after crowned Cyber Leader by his loyal army. The Doctor realizes Lumic is dying and intends to use the cyber conversion process to extend his life. The typical "Doctor speech" follows, in which Ten praises Lumic's genius while silmultaneously telling him what an idiot he is. In the meantime, Mickey has gotten a hold of Rose and gotten updated on the situation at hand (he and Jake are also watching the proceedings in Lumic's room via a security camera monitor). The Doctor continues to taunt Lumic, saying that if ever his humans-turned-Cybermen got their emotions back, it would be chaos. But the only way that'll happen, he says, is if someone figures out the deactivation code, adding that it's probably so simple "even an idiot could figure it out." This last phrase is for Mickey's benefit, since The Doctor knows Mickey is watching. (The Doctor's nickname for Mickey is "Mickey the idiot"). Mickey gets the hint and starts putting his hacking skills to work, finally figuring out the code and sending it via text message to Rose. Rose alerts The Doctor, and The Doctor takes her phone and plugs it into a console. This activates a mass deactivation of the emotional inhibitor chips, and, just as The Doctor predicted, it causes mass chaos -- we see Cybermen throughout the factory suddenly grab their heads and cry out in horror at what they've become. Lumic too, realizing what's going on, is pretty ticked off. An explosion begins in the factory (caused by what I forget).

The Doctor, Rose, and Pete escape to the roof, where Mickey and Jake fly in the zeppelin to pick them up. The Cybermen try to pursue them up the rope ladder dangling off the zeppelin, but the quick-thinking Doctor hands Pete his Sonic, with which he cuts the ropes of the ladder below him, sending the Cyberman into the massive inferno of the factory.

We switch to a park near Big Ben, where the TARDIS is now located. The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey say a quick goodbye to Jake and Pete, as The Doctor must conserve enough power to get the TARDIS back into the Vortex. At this point, Mickey reveals that he is staying in the parallel world to take the place of his fallen double. He says he's realized Rose is a lot happier with The Doctor than with him, and wishes her well. Rose says they can always visit each other, but The Doctor negates this, saying they have to close the hole in space-time between our universe and this one. Therefore, if Mickey is going to stay behind, Rose will never see him again. They consider this and have a more permanent goodbye. Pete Tyler states his intention to travel the world, shutting down the other Cyberman factories worldwide. Rose and he have a moment, and he wonders aloud why she seems so familiar to him. But before Rose can tell him she's his daughter, he interrupts, saying he can't take this right now, and leaves. The Doctor then calls for Rose to hurry, and she runs back into the TARDIS. Mickey and Jake watch it dematerialize (Jake is particularly surprised to see it do so). The two then head back to the Preachers' van, and Jake asks Mickey if he can really handle it, taking Ricky's place. Mickey says he can, adding that "I once saved the world with a big yellow truck" (a reference to him helping Rose pry up the cover over the Heart of the TARDIS in "The Parting of the Ways").

And...that's the end of that.

This episode is more action-packed than its predecessor, which makes it a little more palatable. It also has some similarities to "The Tomb of the Cybermen," though I may just be saying that because I have seen that episode twice and listened to the audiobook of it. The Cyberman dummy is a clear homage to it, and the scene with Jake and Mickey is similar to the one with Haydon and Jamie in that episode.

Other than that, I'm afraid I don't have much to say about this episode. Sorry.

More next time, when we explore an episode I like much better, "The Idiot's Lantern."

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Twenty: The End of a Love Triangle

ROSE: What about me? What if I need you?
MICKEY: Yeah, but Rose, you don't. It's just you and him, isn't it. We had something a long time ago, but not anymore.
...
MICKEY: Thanks. We've had a laugh though, haven't we? Seen it all, been there and back. Who would have thought, me and you off the old estate, flying through the stars.
ROSE: All those years just sitting there, imagining what we'd do one day. We never saw this, did we?
MICKEY: Go on, don't miss your flight.
...
MICKEY: That's the Doctor in the Tardis with Rose Tyler.

With Mickey out of the picture, how will The Doctor and Rose's love develop? Or will it? Stay tuned!

Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 5, "Rise of the Cybermen"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 15:00:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Next up in my NaBloPoMo catchup...an adventure involving alternate worlds and big steel robots! Welcome to Series 2, Episode 5, "Rise of the Cybermen," part of a 2-parter with Episode 6, "The Age of Steel."

To be honest, this isn't one of my favorite episodes. I don't like the Cybermen; they scare me. The commentary on this episode is good at least, featuring Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), and Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler).

So the episode starts with a scientist named Dr. Kendrick revealing to his wheelchair-bound boss, John Lumic, that he has created a new form of life via a humanoid metal robot. But he advises Lumic that they will have to inform authorities in Geneva of the development. Lumic doesn't like that idea, though, and orders the robot to kill Kendrick, which it does, then orders his massive zeppelin to set sail for Great Britain.

The opening credits follow. We then head to the TARDIS, where The Doctor and Rose are laughing and talking about various adventures they've had, completely ignoring Mickey, who has his finger on some button that he has been apparently pushing for the last half hour. All the sudden, there is a huge jolt in the TARDIS, and The Doctor goes running to the console, only to discover they've somehow fallen out of the Time Vortex entirely and into the no-man's-land of the Void. Which is really bad because it means they're outside of our universe (Normal Space or N-Space, as it's called in Doctor Who parlance), from which the TARDIS draws energy. When they come to a stop, all the TARDIS lights go out and emergency gas masks (like the kind you see on airplanes) drop down from the ceiling. (It's worth noting there are six; assumedly one for each pilot the TARDIS is supposed to have). The Doctor is distraught, saying that the TARDIS is dead, that they crashed in the Void, and that they're basically doomed.

Or at least he thinks they are. Mickey opens the door and reveals that they are in...London.

They quickly realize it's a parallel London, with zeppelins flying about. (Fringe fans may find this notable, as the "Other Side"/parallel Earth in Fringe also features zeppelins as a major form of transportation). And then Rose sees a poster with a familiar face.

She realizes that, in this world, her father is still alive, and at least one of those harebrained schemes he was always dreaming up took off. The Doctor senses what she is thinking and warns her away from the poster, saying that the Pete Tyler there isn't her Pete Tyler, her father who died when she was a baby, but just another version of him, who might have his own Jackie and his own Rose, and that she can't see him ever.

To understand the significance of this moment (and the other "Rose and her father" stuff in this episode and the next), you really have to have seen "Father's Day" and understand how much Rose really misses her dad. As it happens, I had, so I got it.

The bulk of the episode involves trying to revive the TARDIS, which The Doctor is able to do by giving 10 years of his own life to a small crystal hidden under the console:

Most of the episode is also about the whole thing with Rose and her dad, and how she really wants to see him, even running off to find him against The Doctor's orders. After all, recharging the TARDIS is going to take 24 hours, so she figures she has time. Mickey decides he's going to take off too, maybe check on his grandmother who just might be alive in this universe. The Doctor is faced with the dilemma of who to run after, and unsurprisingly, he chooses Rose.

The Doctor eventually catches up with Rose, and they realize the fashion here is to wear Bluetooth-like "EarPods" through which information is downloaded directly to the brain. Rose gets the same transmission on her cell phone, which has connected to the parallel world's network. They discover the EarPods are made by Cybus Industries, which also owns Pete Tyler's drink company, Vitex. (We as the audience discover this through a meeting with Lumic, Pete, and the President of Britain, in which the President expresses disgust for what Lumic intends to do with his cybernetics). They find out that the President of Great Britain, among many other high officials, will be attending the parallel Jackie Tyler's birthday party that evening. Hoping to find out more about the EarPods, The Doctor decides to attend the party as well, with Rose in tow, since he knows how badly she wants to see her dad.

Mickey has, meanwhile, gone off on his own and found out his gran is alive (though he notes that the carpet on the stairs is worn - his universe's Gran died by tripping over the worn carpet and falling down the stairs). Shortly after, he is pulled into a strange van by two unknown individuals - including a blond-haired guy who we saw earlier spying on a group of Lumic's lackeys loading a bunch of homeless people into a big truck. The two people - Jake Simmonds and Mrs. Moore - seem to think Mickey is actually someone named Ricky, the leader of their resistance movement, The Preachers.

The Doctor and Rose crash Jackie's party by pretending to be servants, much to Rose's chagrin (she was hoping they could have been somebody more fabulous). The Doctor protests that being on the staff is the best way to find out stuff. They observe the party, during which Rose sees the parallel versions of her parents for the first time (and later ends up speaking to them both, having better rapport with her dad than her mum, as usual). Sometime during this, Lumic crashes the party himself (having downloaded the details via Jackie's EarPods earlier) remotely and threatens those who doubt his work, including the President. The Doctor has, in the meantime, sneaked into a side room and used a conveniently-placed computer to find out exactly what Cybus Industries is up to - which is pretty shocking, judging by the look on his face (his expression is somewhat similar to Eleven's in "A Town Called Mercy" when he found the files in Kahler-Jex's spaceship about Jex's work).

During all this, Jake and Mrs. Moore take Mickey back to Preachers HQ, where they run into...the real Ricky!

Apparently, a case of mistaken identity has taken place, and Ricky is Mickey's parallel world double. He's none too happy to see Mickey either, and questions him (which apparently requires him to be tied down and stripped down to his boxers, not sure why). This scene in itself is interesting, as both Mickey and Ricky are played by Noel Clarke. (Noel reveals in the commentary that the two sides of the scene - Mickey's and Ricky's - were filmed separately for the most part, except for certain shots where he had to switch between the two characters in real time).

The Doctor rushes back to the party, where Lumic is launching his attack. Off in the distance, shrouded in mist, is a line of marching soldiers. They come into focus, revealing...the Cybermen.

The Doctor is, quite naturally, horrified - after all, he has quite a history with the Cybermen. (Notably, this episode aired on the 40th anniversary of the airing of "The Tenth Planet," the Doctor Who episode in which the Cybermen first premiered). The Cybermen, meanwhile, crash through the windows of the Tyler manor and start attacking people, in particular killing the President as an example. The Doctor and Rose escape the mayhem, only to be joined by Pete Tyler, and later Mickey and the Preachers, who are themselves raiding the party. The Cybermen surround them, and The Doctor attempts to surrender, seeing no other viable option at the moment. The Cybermen say they are incompatible for the conversion process and will instead be subjected to "maximum deletion." They prepare to do this...

...and the episode ends. To Be Continued.

Like I said, not my favorite episode, but definitely has a better commentary than "The Age of Steel" (which features the director Graeme Harper, the actor who played the Cyber Leader [whose name I forgot], and voice of the Cybermen Nicholas Briggs, and is really boring, especially if you aren't into the Cybermen).

The episode does have some great "Rose and her father" stuff though, and Mickey is pretty good in this episode. Camille Coduri does a good job as the parallel Jackie, a role she says in the commentary that she liked playing.

Part of what I'm not terribly keen on is that the story doesn't seem THAT original. It has elements of the typical "parallel world" formula - meeting parallel versions of oneself or one's family, someone in power that makes the parallel world oppressive, a resistance movement looking to topple that powerful person. These elements also appear in Fringe (in which the concept of parallel worlds plays a HUGE part), among other stories. It doesn't seem quite right for Doctor Who somehow.

Now Doctor Who has dealt with parallel worlds before, in the Third Doctor episode "Inferno" and in the "E-Space Trilogy" in Season 17, Tom Baker's second-to-last season (and probably in various novels and audios too; the Gallifrey audio drama series suggests the possibility of 8 parallel Gallifreys). Having not seen "Inferno" or the "E-Space Trilogy" yet, I can't really compare them to this episode. But from what I've heard of the E-Space Trilogy, they're basically just regular old adventures that happen to take place in E-Space, with the connecting thread of The Doctor, Romana II, and K-9 trying to find a way out of E-Space. (One of them, "State of Decay," gives us great background on those age-old enemies of the Time Lords, the Great Vampires, and - bonus! - introduces Adric to the show). "Inferno" is more of an alternate history sort of story, set on a parallel Earth that happens to be fascist and militaristic. I almost wish this episode had been more like that, less formulaic, but I guess it couldn't, what with the setup of Lumic's plans for artificial life and the apparent "death" of the TARDIS making things much more urgent.

Eh well. More next time, with the second part of this story, "The Age of Steel."

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Nineteen: Love in a Parallel World

In this episode, the Doctor/Rose/Mickey love triangle is played up quite a bit. Though to be fair, I think Mickey has been feeling he's lost Rose since "Boom Town" (in which he confessed he was dating another girl). Anyway, we see this from the beginning of the episode, where Rose and Ten are talking and laughing and completely ignoring Mickey. He is clearly ticked off that they forgot about him. Later, when The Doctor must choose whether to run after Rose or Mickey, Mickey seems pretty sure The Doctor will run after Rose, and when he does, the pained expression on Mickey's face says it all.

We get more Doctor/Rose scenes as the episode progresses. He clearly understands her desire to see her father, but warns her away from seeing him anyway. Personally, I think he was trying to protect her from the disappointment she might face from doing so. Which just goes to show how much he cares for her, and how he wants to protect her. Sometimes though I wonder if he realizes how strong she is at this point, and that she can withstand a lot more than he thinks. (He definitely realizes it by "The Satan Pit" at any rate).

The Doctor also ultimately gives in to Rose's desire to see her dad, which builds off of what we saw in "Tooth and Claw" of Rose's persuasive power over him.

What will become of this romance as this adventure with the Cybermen continues? We'll see!

Pictures from Sonic Biro.

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 4, "The Girl In The Fireplace"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 07:03:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Welcome back to TARDIS Thoughts! Next on the dock for my NaBloPoMo catchup, my absolute favorite episode of Series 2, "The Girl in the Fireplace"!

This episode has so many good things in it I can't even begin to describe. But clearly there is a reason it was shortlisted for a Nebula Award and won a Hugo Award in 2007 for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. It was also this episode that convinced me Steven Moffat was a brilliant writer, and is the main reason I just can't hate him like some fans do.

Sophia Myles does an amazing job as Madame de Pompadour/Reinette (an actual historical character). I really enjoyed her performance, and she and David Tennant worked really well together. (The fact that they were actually dating at the time in real life probably helps). She's very good in the commentary as well (the commentary crew for this episode consisting of her, David Tennant, and I think either the director Euros Lyn or Moffat).

Anyway, plot!

So, this episode runs backward plot-wise. It starts at the end, then goes back to the beginning and works its way to the end again. However, we don't realize this as an audience until later, when we see the opening scene in its proper context.

The episode begins in 18th-century France, at the beautiful Palace of Versailles. Chaos is raging at the palace, for what reason we know not. A young woman in a fancy dress kneels before a fireplace, while a man tries to urge her away from it. She will not leave, insisting that help will come, and calls for it:

REINETTE: Listen to me. There is a man coming to Versailles. He has watched over me my whole life and he will not desert me tonight.
...
REINETTE: Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now. You promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time. Doctor! Doctor!

The opening credits play, and all the sudden we've flashed forward 3,000 years to the 51st Century. The TARDIS materializes on board a spaceship floating all by its lonesome in space. Mickey is excited, since this is his first trip in the TARDIS:

MICKEY: It's a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go.

The Doctor and Rose encourage his sense of wonder:

DOCTOR: Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies.
ROSE: Mickey Smith, meet the universe. See anything you like?
MICKEY: It's so realistic!

They suddenly smell something burning and go to investigate. They find...an old French fireplace:

The Doctor realizes it's double-sided and peeks through, seeing a little girl in a nightgown on the other side:

They speak briefly, and he learns her name is Reinette. Soon after, he finds something on the fireplace and presses it. It rotates, and he finds himself in Reinette's room.

He reassures Reinette, saying he is the man she spoke to through the fireplace, but she insists that was months ago. Soon after, he hears a loud ticking noise in her room. He looks around, and finally spies the cause: an android with a 18th-century wig and court dress and a carnival-style mask for a face:

He confronts and later dodges the android then eventually activates the fireplace so it rotates back to the spaceship. But he has brought the android with him, and he deactivates it with a fire extinguisher. He then takes off its wig and realizes it is just clockwork inside (with a face and body that resembles the Trade Federation battle droids from Star Wars Episode I):

Various events transpire, and The Doctor finds himself in different parts of Reinette's life. Meanwhile, Rose and Mickey wander the spaceship, trying to figure out what's going on, and finding human body parts among the machinery, like a camera with an eye on it and a beating heart in the wall. Eventually The Doctor catches up with them, and they watch a moment from Reinette's life through a large window, which appears to be mirrored as they can see Reinette but she cannot see them.

MICKEY: It's France again. We can see France.
ROSE: I think we're looking through a mirror.
(Louis enters the room beyond, with two men.)
MICKEY: Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?
DOCTOR: The King of France.
ROSE: Oh, here's trouble. What you been up to?
DOCTOR: Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, picked a fight with a clockwork man.
(Neigh.)
DOCTOR: Oh, and I met a horse.
MICKEY: What's a horse doing on a spaceship?
DOCTOR: Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective. See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history.
(Reinette enters the room and curtseys to the King.)
DOCTOR: Hers. Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?
ROSE: Who is she?
DOCTOR: Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived.
ROSE: So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?
DOCTOR: No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress.
ROSE: Oh, I get it. Camilla.
DOCTOR: I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour.
(The King and his servants leave. Reinette checks her appearance in the mirror/window.)
ROSE: The Queen must have loved her.
DOCTOR: Oh, she did. They get on very well.
MICKEY: The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?
DOCTOR: France. It's a different planet.

(Rose's line about "Camilla" is apt, as this episode aired in 2006, a little over a year after Camilla Parker Bowles married Prince Charles and became Duchess of Cornwall. Their marriage was, as some people know, a little controversial, because evidence suggests she and Charles were a couple before and during Charles's marriage to Princess Diana, and that this relationship may be part of what led to Charles and Diana's divorce).

Shortly after this, yet another Clockwork Droid tries to attack Reinette, and The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey break their way into the room. We learn from the Clockwork Droid that the ship broke down in an ion storm and it and the other droids have been trying to fix it but lack the necessary parts. Therefore, they used the crew (hence the human body parts in the ship and the burning smell). But one more part is needed, and for that they need Reinette, and they are going to keep opening time windows and scanning her brain until she's compatible.

The Doctor sends Rose and Mickey back to the ship while he reads Reinette's mind to try to figure out what the Droids want with her:

He doesn't seem to find anything, but all the sudden, Reinette starts mentioning memories of his, and he realizes she is reading his mind. He asks her how she is doing that, but she only says that once a door is open, it may be walked through both ways. She then invites The Doctor to join her at the ball she is about to go to.

REINETTE: ...Oh, Doctor. My lonely Doctor. Dance with me.
DOCTOR: I can't.
REINETTE: Dance with me.
DOCTOR: This is the night you dance with the King.
REINETTE: Then first, I shall make him jealous.
DOCTOR: I can't.
REINETTE: Doctor. Doctor who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it?
DOCTOR: What did you see?
REINETTE: That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance.

Rose and Mickey, meanwhile, get captured by the Clockwork Droids and strapped to tables:

But just before the Droids can chop them up, The Doctor saunters in, looking rather ridiculous and acting rather intoxicated:

While rambling on in his seeming drunkenness, he reveals that he knows what the Droids need Reinette's brain for:

DOCTOR: ...Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for? Her milometer. They want to know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty seven years old, and they think that when Reinette is thirty seven, when she's complete, then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it, hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do.

The Doctor sends Rose to warn Reinette ahead of time. When Mickey comes rushing in to get Rose back, Reinette follows, emerging into the ship:

Screams are heard from where The Doctor has found the time window to Reinette in the future. Reinette is puzzled by the sounds, especially when she hears her own voice, and becomes afraid:

ROSE: Are you okay?
REINETTE: No, I'm very afraid. But you and I both know, don't we, Rose, the Doctor is worth the monsters.

Reinette runs back through the window she entered the ship through. We then return to the opening scene of the episode (see, told you this episode goes backwards!), and see the aftermath. The Droids come for Reinette, but she manages to lure them to the ballroom and stall them momentarily.

The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey realize the time window to Reinette is blocked off - the Droids knew The Doctor would be coming. He can go through, but the connection between the ship and the ballroom will be cut off, meaning he won't be able to come back. Still, Reinette must be saved, so he risks it, crashing through the window on the horse he found earlier wandering around the spaceship:

He confronts the androids, and they break down once they realize they have no purpose anymore. The only problem is, now both they and The Doctor are trapped in the 1700's. Oops.

Rose and Mickey realize this, and a tear rolls down Rose's cheek. Mickey is worried, knowing they can't fly the TARDIS without The Doctor.

The Doctor and Reinette look out at the starry sky together:

He laments being trapped, but ultimately accepts it:

REINETTE: In saving me, you trapped yourself. Did you know that would happen?
DOCTOR: Mmm. Pretty much.
REINETTE: Yet, still you came.
DOCTOR: Yeah, I did, didn't I? Catch me doing that again.
REINETTE: There were many doors between my world and yours. Can you not use one of the others?
DOCTOR: When the mirror broke, the shock would have severed all the links with the ship. There'll be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I'm afraid, wherever there was a time window. I'll, I'll pay for any damage. Er, that's a thought, I'm going to need money. I was always a bit vague about money. Where do you get money?
REINETTE: So, here you are, my lonely angel, stuck on the slow path with me.
DOCTOR: Yep, the slow path. Here's to the slow path.

She then says, regretfully, she would have enjoyed being on the slow path with him. He insists he's not going anywhere, but she has other ideas. She takes his hand and leads him into a bedroom, where stands -- the fireplace they met through!

The Doctor finds the catch to rotate the fireplace and goes back. But before he leaves, he calls back to Reinette:

DOCTOR: Madame de Pompadour! Still want to see those stars?
REINETTE: More than anything.
DOCTOR: Give me two minutes. Pack a bag.
REINETTE: Am I going somewhere?
DOCTOR: Go to the window. Pick a star, any star.

She runs to a nearby window, while he runs back to Rose and Mickey, who have been waiting 5 1/2 hours for him to come back. He sends them back to the TARDIS while he runs back for Reinette.

But remember...these are time windows. Leading to various points in Reinette's life. And so, when he returns, the palace is empty and cold. An older Louis XV is standing there, watching a hearse cart drive away. Reinette, it seems, is dead. Louis greets The Doctor, saying he just missed Reinette, but hands him a letter from her, saying she talked about him all the time. The Doctor sadly makes his way back to the TARDIS with the letter, where he meets Rose and Mickey. Rose asks why the Droids needed Reinette's brain specifically, but The Doctor says he has no idea, that maybe their computer messed up. Rose and Mickey leave, and The Doctor, leaning against the console, unseals Reinette's letter, which we then hear the contents of in a voiceover:

REINETTE [OC]: My dear Doctor. The path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again, but I think I shall not listen to reason. I have seen the world inside your head, and know that all things are possible. Hurry though, my love. My days grow shorter now, and I am so very weak. God speed, my lonely angel.

(In the commentary, we learn that the prop letter David Tennant is holding is actually in French; the letter was translated into French and written out all nice by someone from the prop department. The recording of Sophia Myles's voiceover reading of the letter in English was piped into the set live via speakers so David would understand what was being said. Also, the recording of the letter was one of the last things Myles did for the episode, according to the commentary).

We see the fireplace go out on the TARDIS scanner screen. The TARDIS dematerializes, and where it stood we see a portrait of Madame de Pompadour. As we zoom out from the ship, it turns, and we the audience (but not The Doctor, Rose, or Mickey) see its name -- and the reason Reinette's brain was needed for the ship:

Yep, that was the reason all along!

Anyway, like I said, this episode is really awesome. It is so well-written and so well-acted, and the set and costume design is just amazing too. A great episode all around. Good one, Moffat!

Next time we go into the Series 2 Cyberman 2-parter. Allons-y!

As a sidenote, given that the letter was translated into French for the prop The Doctor holds, I tried translating the letter into French myself, since I took French in high school (and minored in it in college). Now I don't know if the person translating it used modern French (which I used) or French as would be spoken in the 1700's. But this is what I came up with:

Mon cher Docteur. Le chemin n'a jamais semblé plus lent, et pourtant je crains que j'approche sa fin. Le raisonnement me dit c'est peu probable que tu et moi recontrerons à nouveau, mais je pense que je n'entendrai pas de raisonnement. J'ai vu le monde dans ta tête, et je sais que tout est possible. Mais dépêche-toi, mon amour. Mes journées presse maintenant, et je suis si très frêle. Bonne voyage, mon ange solitaire.

(I used the more familiar tu for "you" because of how close they became; it's possible Reinette could have used the more formal vous instead).

Also, as a video game fan, I loved Mickey's NES controller shirt. "Know Your Roots" indeed.

Till next time!

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Eighteen: I Snogged Madame de Pompadour

Although The Doctor is aware Reinette has (or will have, depending on the scene) a lover (Louis XV, the King of France) and respects that, they do almost have a bit of romance in this episode (and people behind the episode have called it "a love story for The Doctor"), though the affection seems to be coming more from Reinette than from The Doctor. It is she who initiates their kiss when he first meets her as an adult - he only reciprocates. But afterwards, he's overjoyed about it:

DOCTOR: Poisson? Reinette Poisson? No! No, no, no, no, no way. Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan, fantastic gardener!
SERVANT: Who the hell are you?!
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor, and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour. Ha, ha!

Later, Reinette is somehow able to read The Doctor's mind when he is reading hers to try to figure out why the Clockwork Droids want her head so badly, much to his surprise:

REINETTE: Oh, such a lonely childhood.
DOCTOR: It'll pass. Stay with me.
REINETTE: Oh, Doctor. So lonely. So very, very alone.
DOCTOR: What do you mean, alone? You've never been alone in your life. When did you start calling me Doctor?
REINETTE: Such a lonely little boy. Lonely then and lonelier now. How can you bear it?
(The Doctor breaks the link.)
DOCTOR: How did you do that?
REINETTE: A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction.

They definitely kindle a close relationship, and he is even willing to stay with her when he breaks the last time window into her time and finds himself stranded in the eighteenth century. She, however, has other ideas, and shows him a way home - the original fireplace through which they met:

REINETTE: It's a pity. I think I would've enjoyed the slow path.
DOCTOR: Well, I'm not going anywhere.
REINETTE: Oh, aren't you? Take my hand.
REINETTE: It's not a copy, it's the original. I had it moved here and was exact in every detail.
DOCTOR: The fireplace. The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?
REINETTE: Many years ago, in the hope that a door once opened, may someday open again. One never quite knows when one needs one's Doctor. It appears undamaged. Do you think it will still work?

The Doctor is also willing to take Reinette with him to see the stars, but sadly, when he goes back to fetch her, he's too late - she has died. He is clearly quite sad to hear this, and her lover Louis XV tells The Doctor that she talked about him all the time.

So, while there are no indications of any immediate threat to The Doctor and Rose's relationship from Reinette (like there was with Sarah Jane in the previous episode), The Doctor and Reinette definitely connect on a deep level. Reinette herself expresses this depth when Rose goes to warn her about the Clockwork Droids and tells her she must stall them, keep them talking, when they arrive:

REINETTE: Until?
ROSE: Until the Doctor can get there.
REINETTE: He's coming, then?
ROSE: He promises.
REINETTE: But he cannot make his promises in person?
ROSE: He'll be there when you need him. That's the way it's got to be.
REINETTE: It's the way it's always been. The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other.
ROSE: Tell me about it. The thing is, you weren't supposed to have either. Those creatures are messing with history. None of this was ever supposed to happen to you.
REINETTE: Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened, child, and I would not have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel.

And how will Rose and this "lonely angel" fare with their relationship? Wait and see!

Oh, P.S. Rose cries when she realizes The Doctor's not coming back. If that doesn't show she cares for him, what does?

Pictures from Sonic Biro. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 3, "School Reunion"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 05:13:00 +0000

Well...way back in February I sought to cover Series 1 and 2 via an event called National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I failed miserably, only managing to post daily for about half the month before I fell completely off course. Now, 6 months later, I'm still catching up. So, "Allons-y!", as Ten would say. (I have to say, that is my favorite Doctor catchphrase so far. Not just cause Ten is my favorite Doctor, but because it's French, and I love French).

Next up is episode 3 of Series 2, "School Reunion." This is an interesting little episode that not only fits well with the New Who series but pays homage to the past as well, with guest appearances by Elisabeth Sladen as The Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith and by John Leeson as the voice of K-9, a faithful robotic dog that became a staple of Tom Baker's era as The Doctor, being seen with Leela, Romana I, and Romana II.

So, basically, The Doctor and Rose have gone undercover at a school to investigate some strange stuff going on there (this is set up in the special "TARDISode" accompanying this episode), which Rose's boyfriend Mickey alerted them to. Their cover is already underway when the episode begins (though when I rewatched this episode with the audio commentary on, it was revealed that set-up scenes of The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS, like you would normally see at the beginning of an episode, were actually written, but ultimately not used). The Doctor is masquerading as a substitute physics teacher named John Smith (of course he pulls out his usual alias) while Rose is working as a lunch lady. When she and The Doctor meet during lunch to share intel, she remarks that the children seem unusually intelligent and that they are eating a lot of french fries. (We see an example of this unusual intelligence in a boy in The Doctor's physics class as well). Soon after, Rose is called back to the kitchen by her "boss," and sees a fellow lunchlady get severely burned by the french fry oil. Around this time, we also learn that the whole school's staff was replaced within the last few months, including the Headmaster, Lucas Finch. (The episode's token Torchwood reference appears here too: Mickey's screen shows the words "Torchwood: Access Denied").

Later the same day, The Doctor is hanging out in a staff area when Mr. Finch walks in with a woman in tow, who he introduces as an investigative journalist writing a profile on the school. The journalist's name? Sarah Jane Smith!

Albeit older than when we last saw her 23 years before in The Five Doctors. (Or 13 years, if you count Dimensions in Time as her last appearance before this). The Doctor clearly recognizes her, though, by the overjoyed look on his face:

But he has to maintain his cover, so he addresses her casually (but without familiarity) and introduces himself as John Smith, a teacher at the school. Sarah Jane, however, sees through his bluff:

SARAH: John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name.

He attempts to still bluff his way through the awkward conversation:

DOCTOR: Well, it's a very common name.
SARAH: He was a very uncommon man. Nice to meet you.
DOCTOR: Nice to meet you. Yes, very nice. More than nice. Brilliant.

Still, you can tell The Doctor can barely hold in his excitement at seeing Sarah Jane again after all these years, and as she leaves, he says to himself:

DOCTOR: Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith.

That night, The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey break into the school to investigate. Unbeknownst to them, Sarah Jane has also broken in on her own. The Doctor sends Rose to get a sample of the fry oil and Mickey to investigate the math department (all the new teachers being math teachers). He meanwhile goes off on his own.

Elsewhere, Sarah Jane wanders the hallways and finds a storage room. When she opens the door, she sees...the TARDIS!

Surprised, she staggers back into the hallway, where Ten - trenchcoat and all - is waiting for her:

They have a sad, but sweet reunion:

DOCTOR: Hello, Sarah Jane.
SARAH: It's you. Oh, Doctor Oh, my God, it's you, isn't it. You've regenerated.
DOCTOR: Yeah. Half a dozen times since we last met.
SARAH: You look incredible.
DOCTOR: So do you.
SARAH: Huh. I got old. What are you doing here?
DOCTOR: Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. I couldn't resist. What about you?
SARAH: The same. I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must have died.
DOCTOR: I lived. Everyone else died.
SARAH: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: Everyone died, Sarah.
SARAH: I can't believe it's you.

The Doctor's line "Half a dozen times since we last met" is significant, since it cements that he is in fact the Tenth Doctor (The Doctor Sarah Jane last traveled with was Four, and 4 + 6 = 10). Since the terms "Ninth Doctor," "Tenth Doctor," "Eleventh Doctor," etc., while official, are generally not actually used in the series itself, that they put this line in is definitely worth noting.

Interestingly, when Sarah Jane first meets the Eleventh Doctor in "Death of the Doctor," an episode of the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures that Matt Smith guest starred in, they have a very similar conversation:

RANI: You bring him back, whoever you are.
SARAH JANE: No, no, no. Rani, don't you see? It's you, isn't it? You've done it again.
DOCTOR: Hello, Sarah Jane.
SARAH JANE: Doctor.

If you watch the episode (or just the clip referenced above), and you've seen this episode, you'll notice Matt gives the line "Hello, Sarah Jane" the same emotion and enunciation that David Tennant does in this episode. Like, spot-on.

I'm not sure how Sarah Jane recognizes The Doctor even after he regenerates, but they were VERY close during the time she traveled with him. And mind you, she's met seven Doctors -- she traveled with Three and Four, met One, Two, and Five in The Five Doctors, met Ten in this episode, and met Eleven in "Death of the Doctor" as noted above.

Anyway, their moment is interrupted by Mickey screaming, and The Doctor and Sarah Jane regroup with Rose, allowing Rose and Sarah Jane to meet for the first time. The conversation that follows is described in the commentary by writer Toby Whithouse as a "Sex and the City moment":

ROSE: Did you hear that? Who's she?
DOCTOR: Rose, Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane, Rose.
SARAH: Hi. Nice to meet you. You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger.
ROSE: I'm not his assistant.
SARAH: No? Get you, tiger.

(This may also be a commentary on the fact that, when Sladen was on Doctor Who, the Companions were called "Assistants," whereas now they are called "Companions" - although the term "assistant" for the Companions is still frequently used in the UK. Sarah Jane's line about The Doctor's assistants getting younger could also be meant to be a feminist sort of remark, since Sarah Jane was always portrayed as openly feminist in Classic Who).

They catch up with Mickey, and learn he screamed because he found a bunch of vacuum-sealed rats (the sort they use for dissections in biology class). The four then head for Mr. Finch's office, where they are shocked to discover several bat-like creatures hanging from the ceiling. This scares them off, and they leave the school.

As the four head to Finch's office, Sarah Jane and Rose have yet another spat:

ROSE: I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you?
SARAH: Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor.
ROSE: Oh. Well, he's never mentioned you.
DOCTOR: Oh, I must've done. Sarah Jane. Mention her all the time.
ROSE: Hold on. Sorry. Never.
SARAH: What, not even once? He didn't mention me even once?
MICKEY: Ho, ho, mate. The missus and the ex. Welcome to every man's worst nightmare.

(Noel Clarke [who plays Mickey] has commented that he really liked saying the "missus and the ex" line).

They then head to a nearby diner, but not before we learn Sarah Jane has a surprise for The Doctor in the trunk of her car:

Yep, the faithful robot dog K-9 has reappeared! Only...well, he's broken.

Nothing The Doctor can't fix, though; at the diner he catches up with Sarah Jane while fixing K-9 with the Sonic Screwdriver as Rose and Mickey look on:

SARAH: I thought of you on Christmas Day. This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead. I thought, oh yeah, bet he's up there.
DOCTOR: Right on top of it, yeah.
SARAH: And Rose?
DOCTOR: She was there too.
SARAH: Did I do something wrong, because you never came back for me. You just dumped me.
DOCTOR: I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed.
SARAH: I waited for you. I missed you.
DOCTOR: Oh, you didn't need me. You were getting on with your life.
SARAH: You were my life. You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?
DOCTOR: All those things you saw, do you want me to apologise for that?
SARAH: No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back.
DOCTOR: Look at you, you're investigating. You found that school. You're doing what we always did.
SARAH: You could have come back.
DOCTOR: I couldn't.
SARAH: Why not?

Shortly after this, K-9 revives, and The Doctor gives him some of the fry oil to test. K-9 confirms that the oil is Krillitane oil.

The Doctor's eyes go wide at this, and we then go to the next day, where all covers are down and The Doctor is ready to face the Krillitanes as himself. He, Rose, and Sarah Jane infilitrate the school, leaving Mickey behind in the car with K-9, much to Mickey's annoyance. (David Tennant states in the commentary that there is a blooper from this scene where he was unable to get out of the car, and Elisabeth Sladen and Billie Piper started doing their "heroic walk" without him).

Sarah Jane and Rose go to investigate the school's computers while The Doctor confronts Headmaster Finch. Finch, by the way, is played by Anthony Head, who Joss Whedon fans will recognize as Buffy's mentor Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has since gone on to play many other roles, including Uther Pendragon in Merlin, the Prime Minister in Little Britain, and Baltazar in the Doctor Who animated special The Infinite Quest. He was also the narrator for Doctor Who Confidential from 2007 to 2009. Anyway, the two confront each other by the school's pool (David Tennant reveals in the commentary that much of the dialogue in this scene had to be re-recorded because the pool was noisy), during which Finch claims he and The Doctor are not enemies, and that in time The Doctor will embrace the Krillitanes.

Sarah Jane, meanwhile, struggles to get anything out of the computers. She and Rose then start talking about their respective times with The Doctor, which leads to what Toby Whithouse calls in the commentary a "Sex and the City b****-fight":

SARAH: Rose, can I give you a bit of advice?
ROSE: I've got a feeling you're about to.
SARAH: I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be, and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding.
ROSE: I don't feel threatened by you, if that's what you mean.
SARAH: Right. Good. Because I'm not interested in picking up where we left off.
ROSE: No? With the big sad eyes and the robot dog? What else were you doing last night?
SARAH: I was just saying how hard it was adjusting to life back on Earth.
ROSE: The thing is, when you two met they'd only just got rid of rationing. No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for you.
SARAH: I had no problem with space stuff. I saw things you wouldn't believe.
ROSE: Try me.
SARAH: Mummies.
ROSE: I've met ghosts.
SARAH: Robots. Lots of robots.
ROSE: Slitheen, in Downing Street.
SARAH: Daleks!
ROSE: Met the Emperor.
SARAH: Anti-matter monsters.
ROSE: Gas masked zombies.
SARAH: Real living dinosaurs.
ROSE: Real living werewolf.
SARAH: The Loch Ness Monster!
ROSE: Seriously?

A lot of previous episodes are referenced here. Sarah Jane references "Pyramids of Mars," "Robot," "The Sontaran Experiment," "The Android Invasion," "Genesis of the Daleks," "Death to the Daleks," "Planet of Evil," "Invasion of the Dinosaurs," and "Terror of the Zygons." Rose references "The Unquiet Dead," "Aliens in London"/"World War Three," "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances," and "Tooth and Claw."

(Sarah Jane is apparently impressed by the term "Slitheen in Downing Street," as she uses it later herself in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Revenge of the Slitheen":

SARAH JANE: The outcast Slitheen Family are scavengers, thieves of others technology. Known to infiltrate low-tech planets by hiding in the skins of the dominant native species. Slitheen in Downing Street.
LUKE: What?
SARAH JANE: Something a friend said once.

).

After this, Rose realizes how silly they are being to fight like this, and they start laughing and talking about funny things the Doctor does. The Doctor walks in on them doing this, and they are laughing like old friends:

(David Tennant reveals in the commentary that he was told they needed to make Elisabeth Sladen and Billie Piper laugh genuinely in this scene, so he had his makeup artist paint a fake moustache on his face to make them laugh. The moustache is not seen in the shots of The Doctor in this scene, as those were shot separately from Sarah Jane and Rose's side of the scene).

It's notable that Sarah Jane mentions The Doctor stroking the TARDIS, because, as I mentioned in my analysis of "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS," Eleven is seen doing just that.

The Doctor investigates the computers and figures out the Krillitanes are using the children to solve the Skasis Paradigm, a "theory of everything," the solving of which would give the Krillitanes complete control over reality itself. Finch soon arrives to confirm this hypothesis, and attempts to tempt The Doctor with the possibilities of such power:

FINCH: Let the lesson begin. Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it.
DOCTOR: Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mister Finch? Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are.
FINCH: You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good.
DOCTOR: What, by someone like you?
FINCH: No, someone like you. The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a God at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Assinta. Your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn.
SARAH: Doctor, don't listen to him.
FINCH: And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die. Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us.
DOCTOR: I could save everyone.
FINCH: Yes.
DOCTOR: I could stop the war.

While David Tennant states in the commentary that The Doctor's not really that tempted here, the dialogue seems to suggest otherwise. The Doctor had already confessed to Rose earlier in this episode that he can't spend the rest of his life with her, because humans age and die while he must live on. And we already know how guilty he feels about the Time War. And Finch is offering him the chance not only to save Gallifrey - prevent the destruction of his home planet, his people - but also to never have to lose a Companion again. Don't you think The Doctor would jump at such a chance?

Thankfully, Sarah Jane saves the day:

SARAH: No. The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends.

This prompts The Doctor to throw a chair at the screen displaying the Paradigm and order Finch out angrily.

Mickey, meanwhile, is still sitting in the car while all this is happening. However, Kenny, one of the students who didn't eat the tainted french fries, gets Mickey's attention through the glass doors of the locked-down school. Mickey realizes something is wrong and, seeing as his only weapon is the car itself, crashes it through the doors (suprisiingly Sarah Jane is not upset at this, which you'd think she would be -- it is her car, after all).

Mickey then rejoins the others, and a fight ensues between the four and the Krillitanes, in which they are saved by the timely appearance of K-9. The Doctor realizes the Krillitane oil is toxic to the Krillitanes (ironically), and heads for the kitchens (where barrels of the oil are kept) with Rose, Sarah Jane, and K-9, whilst sending Mickey off to "unplug" the kids from the system set up to solve the Paradigm and evacuate them from the school. Which Mickey proceeds to do (ironically, all the computer wires are plugged into a SINGLE PLUG. Really?!).

The Doctor and co find the barrels of oil, but Finch has sealed them with a deadlock seal, which the Sonic Screwdriver can't undo. K-9 pipes up that his laser could blow them up, but adds that his battery power is failing. The Doctor sends Rose and Sarah Jane out the back way and lines the barrels up for K-9 to shoot at.

A sad scene between The Doctor and K-9 follows:

K9: Capacity for only one shot, Master. For maximum impact, I must be stationed directly beside the vat.
DOCTOR: But you'll be trapped inside.
K9: That is correct.
DOCTOR: I can't let you do that.
K9: No alternative possible, Master.
DOCTOR: Goodbye, old friend.
K9: Goodbye, Master.
DOCTOR: You good dog.
K9: Affirmative.

Aww...feels!

Sarah Jane is none too pleased by this, but later claims to accepts it, only to burst into tears:

SARAH: Where's K9?
DOCTOR: We need to run.
SARAH: Where is he? What have you done!
...
DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
SARAH: It's all right. He was just a daft metal dog. It's fine, really.

The school goes kaboom (with K-9 and the Krillitanes inside), to the students' glee.

The scene switches to a nearby park to which the TARDIS has relocated (Whithouse says in the commentary that the scene was initially planned to take place in the ruins of the school, but appropriate debris for the background of the shot could not be found). The Doctor invites Sarah Jane inside the TARDIS for tea, and she wanders in, where Rose and Mickey are already present. She comments that he's "redecorated" (this is a huge understatement, if you know anything about Four's TARDIS interior) and admits she liked it as it was, but this is all right too. The Doctor invites her to travel with him again, but she declines. Mickey then volunteers himself, an idea Sarah Jane supports, saying playfully, "You need a Smith on board." The Doctor agrees, though Rose is less than ecstatic. Rose and Sarah Jane then have a tender parting:

ROSE: What do I do? Do I stay with him?
SARAH: Yes. Some things are worth getting your heart broken for. Find me, if you need to, one day. Find me.

The episode ends with The Doctor and Sarah Jane saying their farewells:

SARAH: It's daft, but I haven't ever thanked you for that time. And like I said, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
DOCTOR: Something to tell the grandkids.
SARAH: Oh, I think it'll be someone else's grandkids now.
DOCTOR: Right. Yes, sorry. I didn't get a chance to ask. You haven't? There hasn't been anyone? You know.
SARAH: Well, there was this one guy. I travelled with him for a while, but he was a tough act to follow. Goodbye, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Oh, it's not goodbye.
SARAH: Do say it. Please. This time. Say it.
DOCTOR: Goodbye, my Sarah Jane.

He then hugs her and goes back inside the TARDIS, which begins to dematerialize. Sarah Jane begins to walk away, but as she looks back, she sees, sitting where the TARDIS stood...K-9!

But wait, didn't K-9 get blown up with the school? Yes, but The Doctor has rebuilt him - as a new model, but with the same memories as the one Sarah Jane had with her - as a parting gift:

SARAH; K9!
K9: Mistress.
SARAH: But you were blown up.
K9: The Master rebuilt me. My systems are much improved with new undetectable hyperlink facilities.
SARAH: Oh, he replaced you with a brand new model.
K9: Affirmative.
SARAH: Yeah, he does that. Come on, you. Home. We've got work to do.
K9: Affirmative.

Given that K-9 ultimately joins Sarah Jane on The Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off, this conversation leads into that series well (as well as the spin-off K-9 and Company, in which it was explained that The Doctor sent K-9, equipped with a special alien-scanning watch and a sonic lipstick for Sarah to use, to Sarah for Christmas). Sarah Jane's last line is also a nice homage to the final line of "Survival," the last Doctor Who TV episode before the hiatus:

DOCTOR [OC]: There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do!

Overall, this is a very enjoyable episode! I really do like Sarah Jane; she's a great Companion! I think she is probably one of my favorites from the Classic series. It's a pity that Elisabeth Sladen is no longer with us; I would have very much liked to have met her. :(

This episode made me really want to watch The Sarah Jane Adventures (which it essentially leads into). I currently have all five seasons of it in my Amazon Instant Video queue (unlike Torchwood, it isn't on Netflix). I just have to watch it. I think I've watched enough Doctor Who that I can safely start watching it now. Maybe I'll analyze it too. Like I do Doctor Who here. Though not probably in quite the same way, to avoid unnecessary stress. (It may not sound like it, but at times it's been quite stressful to keep up the analyses here. I used to be so good with deadlines...I don't know what happened. College happened I guess). Still in a blog format, I mean, but I won't feel pressured to watch and analyze all the episodes in a short block of time, as I am currently with Doctor Who (I'm trying to be caught up on New Who by the anniversary, as I said before). I can take it slower. If I can find the K-9 spinoffs (the 1981 one-off K-9 and Company and the later 2009-2010 TV series K-9), I would like to watch those too as they seem interesting.

Well, till next time! Next up is my favorite episode of Series 2, "The Girl in the Fireplace"!

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Seventeen: The Missus and the Ex

ROSE: How many of us have there been travelling with you?
DOCTOR: Does it matter?
ROSE: Yeah, it does, if I'm just the latest in a long line.
DOCTOR: As opposed to what?
ROSE: I thought you and me were. I obviously got it wrong. I've been to the year five billion, right, but this? Now this is really seeing the future. You just leave us behind. Is that what you're going to do to me?
DOCTOR: No. Not to you.
ROSE: But Sarah Jane? You were that close to her once, and now you never even mention her. Why not?
DOCTOR: I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you
ROSE: What, Doctor?
DOCTOR: You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords.

As of the end of the episode, as mentioned above, Rose is uncertain whether to stick with The Doctor, but Sarah Jane encourages her to stay, saying "some things are worth getting your heart broken for."

And stay she does. What will happen next for these two? Time will tell!

"School Reunion" quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts. "Survival" quote also from The Doctor Who Transcripts. The quotes from The Sarah Jane Adventures came from The Sarah Jane Adventures Transcripts and can be found here ("Death of the Doctor") and here ("Revenge of the Siltheen").

Special Post: And the Twelfth Doctor Is...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 01:02:00 +0000

Not Ben Whishaw, sorry. It's Peter Capaldi.

Honestly, I wasn't too surprised. I knew he was a favorite for the role. Though honestly I don't even think his name was even out there being speculated about till like a week or two ago.

People are complaining about him being older. He's 55 (the same age as my dad, actually), but honestly he doesn't look that old. He's aged well I think. (As has Peter Davison, I noticed...he was interviewed on the special yesterday). Plus, c'mon, it's not like we haven't had older Doctors before; all the Classic Who Doctors except Davison and McGann were older guys. As far as I can tell, the people who are complaining about his age are the people who are big fans of Matt Smith and were thus hoping for a young Twelfth Doctor. My favorite Doctor, as I said before, is David Tennant, so I think that's probably why I'm more OK with the idea of an older Doctor (not to mention I've been watching the Doctors Revisited specials and thus have familiarity with Classic Who).

As for Capaldi himself...I say, give the guy a chance. I didn't want to give Matt much of a chance at first, but I did, and he eventually grew on me. Same with Eccelston...after watching Series 1 I didn't like Nine at all, but in retrospect I realize he had some really great scenes, and now I'm looking forward to seeing Eccelston in Thor: The Dark World later this year (he's playing some evil Dark Elf Lord though, so I doubt you'll recognize him).

I'm glad they interviewed Capaldi right after the announcement. I think that was very smart, because it gave us a chance to get a feel for him right away. And once it came out that he's a huge fan of the show and has been since he was a kid, he automatically became much more favorable to me. Because that aspect is part of what I like about David too. (And Steven Moffat for that matter). He seems like a very nice guy, not afraid to admit his failings (I mean, he admitted to having his phone ON SILENT when he got the call saying he got the part!). And that story Matt told about Capaldi coming up to him after "The Eleventh Hour" first aired to tell him how great it was...I think that's just awesome that he did that. Only a fan would do that.

And now that his daughter knows (Capaldi said he wasn't allowed to tell her before), she must be thrilled. The way I imagine Georgia Moffet (Peter Davison's daughter, and now David's wife) must be.

Interestingly, they cast somebody who's been in Doctor Who before. I did not expect that at all. Capaldi played Caecilius in "The Fires of Pompeii," the second episode of Series 4. He also played John Frobisher in Torchwood. Will have to look for him in both those roles. (I'm also intrigued to see him as Cardinal Richilieu in the new BBC production of The Three Musketeers...I've liked Richilieu [an actual historical person] in other movies).

So, even though I don't know anything about him, and have never seen any of his other stuff, something about Capaldi feels right to me. Since he's a huge fan of the show, and has been since he was a kid, I feel he will do the role justice. Also, if the GI was correct in the Series 7 finale, and The Doctor is getting darker, then you need someone who can play dark. And Capaldi can do that - he's playing Cardinal Richilieu, as I mentioned above, and that's typically a very dark and sinister role. Plus, after a couple younger, more childish Doctors (cause, let's face it, Ten was pretty childish too, though nowhere near as much as Eleven is/was), it'll be kinda nice to see a more "mature" Doctor again, I suppose.

So, anyway, before you just dismiss him, just give this guy a chance. I'm going to!

(Published via Blogger for Android)

Series 7 Special - "Pond Life" (Webisodes)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 19:27:00 +0000

The countdown to the Twelfth Doctor announcement is ticking! Just half an hour now as I write this. Anyway, while I wait, I'm catching up on posts, and here's one for the special series of webisodes that connect the Series 6 Christmas Special and Series 7: "Pond Life."

This series was originally released as five separate webisodes on the BBC's website from August 27-31, 2012, leading up to the premiere of Series 7 in September. Later, the five episodes were combined into one "omnibus" version. Both are available on the official BBC YouTube Channel; I recommend the omnibus just cause that way you can watch them all together in one video. Less choppy of an experience.

I have to say, these webisodes are pretty funny. Well, the last one is a little sad at the end, but mostly they're funny. Just short little vignettes (about a minute long apiece; the omnibus version is about 5 minutes long) detailing the life of the Ponds. The one thing that ties them all together is that throughout the series, The Doctor is trying to get back to the Ponds, but keeps failing to do so due to the TARDIS's helmic regulator being on the fritz. Meanwhile, he talks to them by phone and fills them in on what he's doing.

The first episode in the series is Pond Life April. In this segment, The Doctor calls the Ponds to check in on them, and fills them in on his recent adventures. He surfed some impressive fire falls to get away from some Sontaran soldiers, met Mata Hari in a hotel in Paris (who he calls an "interesting woman;" given his slightly embarrassed tone of voice as he reports this, and the fact that we see Hari drop her clothes, who knows what happened there), and laid down some backing vocals on a rap song. He then promises that he should be there any day now (while frantically running around the console flipping controls), but says the helmic regulator is acting up so he can't say precisely when he'll be there. Then, as the camera zooms out to show the Ponds' phone/answering machine combo, we hear him suddenly realize he's crashed into Ancient Greece, followed by a crash. Amy and Rory, meanwhile, are sitting down with some wine while this is going on, and just as we hear the crash, Rory presses the stop button on the answering machine. Amy then looks at him, unperturbed, and says "The Doctor." They then clink glasses and drink.

Next comes Pond Life May. The Ponds are in bed when all the sudden the TARDIS arrives. The Doctor, without even thinking, barges into their bedroom (though once he realizes this, he covers his eyes...the fact that Amy appears to be at least partially naked in this scene may have something to do with this). The Ponds are quite obviously angry at the intrusion:

RORY: What's going on?
AMY: Doctor! Bedroom!
RORY: We have a rule about the bedroom.

The Doctor is apologetic, but tells them the Earth is in danger, that they have to go save it while there's still time...before realizing the Ponds have no clue what the heck he's talking about. He then realizes the helmic regulator acted up again and he's arrived too early for that particular adventure. He then leaves, but Amy calls after him, saying he can't just leave, and don't they need to know about this danger? He then returns, and assures them that the future is fine, don't worry about it, and that they should go back to sleep (while, meanwhile, clips play showing that he is totally lying and the future will not be fine - the clips shown, by the way, are from the Series 7 episode "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," which at this point had not aired yet).

The TARDIS departs, and the Ponds lie awake in bed, while Rory mutters, "I really hate it when he does that."

Third is Pond Life June. This is a really short scene which starts with Rory heading to the bathroom in the morning. But when he opens the door, something shocking is in there, and he rushes out. Amy then comes out, but Rory won't let her in the bathroom. After a few moments, he finally lets her in, and they both see an Ood sitting on their toilet. The Ood, in a perfectly happy voice, asks if he (it?) can be of any assistance. Amy and Rory look at each other awkwardly, unsure what to make of this:

RORY: Ood on the loo.
AMY: Yeah.

The next one, Pond Life July, is a direct sequel to the previous webisode and features the Ponds on the phone with The Doctor to tell him about the Ood. He tells them he rescued the Ood from the Androvax Conflict and was taking it back to the Ood Sphere, and that it must've wandered into the Ponds' flat when The Doctor stopped by before (in Pond Life May).

(Hold on...the special is coming on! Right now, there's just a placeholder saying "Stay Tuned for the Live Announcement of the 12th Doctor," which means there must be a delay in the simulcast...will write while I'm waiting, and once it starts, I'll write during commercial breaks, if there are any).

(Ok, it's started!!)

(Ok guess there aren't going to be commercial breaks...will continue after the special's over)

(Ok the special's over...more on that in another post!)

Sorry about that, didn't want to miss the special (although technically, I was recording it, in case I forgot to watch it, so I could've waited and finished the post first, but I didn't want to get spoiled later today so I decided to watch it live).

Sooo..anyway, The Doctor asks the Ponds if the Ood is being any trouble. We then see a montage of the Ood doing what Oods do best, which is serving. The Ood hands Amy her laptop and Rory his lunchbox (I love that he has this childish lunchbox) as they head out the door, then we see him making the beds, hanging the laundry, and cleaning the windows. Rory feels awkward, telling The Doctor that the Ood seems to think he's their butler. The Doctor tells him it's fine, that Oods are conditioned to serve, and to just let him do his thing, and promises to pick the Ood up that evening. He then realizes a power drain has occurred that could cause the TARDIS to implode and hangs up. The Ood then gives the Ponds their tea (or "infusions," as the Ood calls them), while they eat breakfast awkwardly:

RORY: I feel so guilty.
AMY: Just eat your breakfast.

Finally, the fifth and final episode of the series, Pond Life August. Despite the name, the episode primarily features The Doctor, although the end leads nicely into "Asylum of the Daleks." As it starts, The Doctor is fixing the light on top of the TARDIS, whilst leaving yet another phone message for the Ponds, and apologizes again for not coming by, claiming the helmic regulator is on the fritz again. He then fills them in on adventures again, saying he got hit by an arrow (or maybe the regulator did; the context is confusing) on Hastings Hill, rode a horse in 11th-century Coventry, and may have accidentally invented pasta a bit too early. He also took the Ood home. He also says he stopped by their place one day, but they were out. (This scene is kind of sad, because it's rainy and The Doctor looks SO disappointed).

Then, in a slightly concerned voice, he asks about them:

DOCTOR: Everything's all right, isn't it, with you two? Course it is. Ponds always fine. Just worrying unnecessarily. Anyway, just call me if you need me.

But, as we see, the Ponds are not fine. We see Rory leaving the house, looking angry, and Amy running after him, with tears in her eyes. (Supposedly she is mouthing the words "I hate you," but it's hard to tell). Seeing as the Ponds are on the brink of divorce in "Asylum of the Daleks," I think it's safe to say they're having marital problems here (also, in "Asylum of the Daleks," it's implied that Rory has moved out of their apartment, which he seems to be doing here).

The Doctor says goodbye and then stares at the phone for a few moments. Then, reconsidering his message, he points the Sonic at the phone receiver, erasing his message. Shortly after, Amy arrives home alone, checks the answering machine, and sees there are no messages on the answering machine. She leans against the counter and sighs, clearly upset, and says:

AMY: We need you, raggedy man. I need you.

And that's the end of the series of webisodes.

Like I said, mostly a really funny set of episodes, but has some sad parts. Worth a watch, definitely!

Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

Special Post: Matt Smith's Departure and the Twelfth Doctor Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 07:42:00 +0000

As many of you reading this blog may know, Matt Smith - the wonderful young man who has played the Eleventh Doctor since New Year's Day 2010 - is leaving the show. His last episode will be this year's Christmas Special. This being a major event, I thought I should post a special post here about it.

I meant to post this back in June, after it was first announced that Matt Smith was leaving, but never got around to doing so. At any rate, writing it tonight will do, as tomorrow we find out who will replacing Matt at the helm of the TARDIS, in a live, half-hour special called Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor. It's airing at 7pm on BBC One and will be simulcast in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. (Possibly elsewhere as well, but these are the countries where the simulcast has been confirmed). Here's a trailer for the special from BBC America:

The nice thing about the event being simulcast is that all of us will get to find out who the Twelfth Doctor will be at the same time, which eliminates the possibility of spoilers, like you get with the regular Doctor Who episodes, which air at different times (though all on the same day).

I admit, way back in June, when I heard Matt was leaving the show, I was just as shocked as anyone else. I think I've said on here that Eleven isn't my favorite Doctor. Ten gets that honor. And I've said good things and bad things about Matt Smith and his performance as The Doctor. I was just re-reading my posts about Series 7 Part 1 earlier today, and I realized how much I disliked Eleven back then. Now, months later, I feel differently. The 2012 Christmas Special and Series 7 Part 2 changed my mind about Eleven; I've warmed up to him now. (That and this fanfic I've been working on that stars Eleven, which forced me to actually think about him as a character). He's still not my favorite, and I doubt he ever will be. (Granted, after I watch Series 5 and 6, my opinion on that may change).

In the past several months, I have realized that Matt Smith truly is a gifted young man. He really can act, and act well. And it's because of this that he went from being a nobody in 2009, when he was cast, to a much-beloved Doctor now 4 years later. With him came Steven Moffat as showrunner and a much darker hue to the show in general (at least based on what I've seen so far). And with him came great Companions in the forms of Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, and Jenna-Louise Coleman (Jenna Coleman now...sorry) as Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song, and Clara Oswald respectively. Each Doctor brings something new to the show, and Matt has brought his something in spades, giving us a young, rather hyperactive, childish Doctor who likes to wear bow ties and fezzes and Stetsons and a worn-out suit with patches stolen from a hospital (or fancy purple Victorian-esque suits with top hats), enjoys eating fish custard and Jammie Dodgers, and is married to a woman whose timeline is all out of whack who also happens to be Amy and Rory's daughter. (And yes, I can say this having not seen Series 5 and 6...I'm spoiled enough on those seasons that I have an inkling of what goes on in them).

So am I going to miss Matt Smith? Absolutely. But I know I still have the two specials left to see him in, and I'm sure Moffat will send him off in proper fashion come Christmastime (it was confirmed in a recent Comic-Con panel that Moffat is writing this year's Christmas Special). Apparently, according to the Wikipedia entry for the Christmas Special, that episode will also be the 800th episode of Doctor Who, which will make the send-off for Matt extra special. Also, I just realized the Complete Seventh Series DVD and Blu-Ray will be released in the UK and Europe on October 28, which is Matt's birthday. (And also mine...that's right, Matt and I share a birthday!)

But now we have the Twelfth Doctor to look forward to. It's 12:06 a.m. right now as I type this sentence, meaning that the special announcing the Twelfth Doctor is in slightly less than 11 hours from now, my time. And you know what? I can't wait. I'm tired of all the speculation (and believe me, there has been a LOT); I just want to find out who it is already. This is the first time I've been able to be part of the lead-up to a new Doctor's run, so I want to enjoy it while I can. I want to find out who the next Doctor will be, and spend the next few months letting that revelation sink in, and possibly watching other things with him (or her; many people think we'll get a female Doctor this time around) in it so I can get used to him (or her) beforehand. Personally, I am hoping for Ben Whishaw:

Ben Whishaw has long been a favorite for the role of Twelve. I loved him as Q in the latest Bond film Skyfall. He's also been in other movies like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Cloud Atlas and has a fair amount of TV experience, including playing the main character in the TV series The Hour. Plus, he's close in age to Matt, so the transition between Doctors will be a little smoother if he's cast.

Honestly though, I think I'm mature enough to be happy with whoever they picked. I'm not sure about the female Doctor idea; I mean, I'm not against it (I'm writing a story right now myself that stars a female Time Lord), but it would be such an abrupt change. Still, if, as Jenna has said, the 50th Anniversary Special is going to send the show in a whole new direction, I suppose anything's possible. Also, one of the Doctor Who audio dramas stated that, in order for a Time Lord to change sexes when regenerating, he or she has to commit suicide. Whether Moffat considers this canon or not, I just can't see Matt's Doctor doing that.

I'm more open to the idea that we might get a person of color as the next Doctor. Like the female thing, we also have never had a Doctor of color. We had Companions of color (Martha, Mickey, Rosita from "The Next Doctor," Rani from The Sarah Jane Adventures) but never a Doctor of color. I would be open to that idea. I like the idea of an Asian Doctor for some reason. (Maybe because the Time Lady in the aforementioned story I'm writing has one regeneration where she looks Chinese). One of the favorites for Twelve is black, though I forget his name.

So, let's enjoy these last few months we have with Matt before he turns in his bow tie and fez (or not; I have a feeling he'll talk someone into letting him keep those) and takes a bow. And let's get excited about what is to come, especially once we know who Twelve is (which is now in about 10 1/2 hours my time). Allons-y, as Ten would say.

Series 7, Episode 14 (Series 7 Finale): "The Name of the Doctor"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 06:26:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Sorry for the belated post...had hoped to post this closer to the finale but that didn't happen.

Anyway...here, finally, is my analysis of the episode we all waited for for ages: the Series 7 finale, "The Name of the Doctor."

Words can hardly describe how epic this episode was. And yet, it was confusing too - I was left very confused after the first time I watched it and had to discuss it to death with fellow Whovians and watch the episode itself a second time before I felt I could do an analysis of it here.

I think part of the confusion is that this episode is sort of a "Part 1" of a longer story, a story which will likely be continued in the 50th Anniversary Special that will air on November 23, since Matt Smith said this episode leads into the 50th. Not all the questions raised in the episode are answered, and even the ones that are don't seem like they're fully explained.

Anyway! Plot!

This episode begins in a rather epic fashion: ON FREAKIN' GALLIFREY.

And by "a very long time ago" (which I admit kinda made me laugh which I initially saw this as a promo photo on Facebook, because it made me think of the classic Star Wars motto "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away"), they mean a LONG time ago. This is First Doctor era, folks. Gallifrey (specifically the famous Citadel) in its PRIME. For comparison's sake, here's what the Citadel looked like during the Time War (from "The End of Time, Part Two" - which granted I have not seen, but since the Wikipedia article on this episode pointed out that we saw the Citadel destroyed in that episode, I figured I'd hunt up the picture anyway):

In this scene, we actually get to see the First Doctor and Susan about to leave Gallifrey in the TARDIS they stole, which is pretty awesome since we never saw that in the show. But just as they are about to (whilst an alert has begun to go off due to the theft), they are stopped by a mysterious (and familiar-looking) young woman, who tells The Doctor he's "about to make a very big mistake."

This is followed by a monologue from Clara, interspersed with clips of her falling through the Time Vortex and various clips of the different Doctors and of her in various period looks:

CLARA [OC]: I don't know where I am. It's like I'm breaking into a million pieces and there's only one thing I remember. I have to save the Doctor. He always looks different.
(The sixth Doctor walks across behind her.)
CLARA: Doctor!
(The fourth Doctor walks past her, scarf flying.)
CLARA [OC]: But I always know it's him. Sometimes I think I'm everywhere at once, running every second just to find him.
(The seventh Doctor is dangling from the ice cliff on the lower levels in Dragonfire.)
CLARA: Doctor!
CLARA [OC]: Just to save him.
(The third Doctor drives past in Bessie.)
CLARA: Doctor!
(The second Doctor, in his fur coat, runs past her in a palm-fringed park. She tries to follow, but falls onto a clear surface, where the fifth Doctor is floating beneath her in the reactor chamber in Warriors of the Deep.)
CLARA: Doctor?
CLARA [OC]: But he never hears me.
(The Eleventh Doctor in Victorian clothes, in Snowmen.)
CLARA: Oi.
CLARA [OC]: Almost never. I blew into this world on a leaf.
(The leaf that blew into the face of her father, that made him meet her mother.)
CLARA [OC]: I'm still blowing. I don't think I'll ever land. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm the Impossible Girl. I was born to save the Doctor.

What is this all about then? A hint?

We're left to wonder, sadly. We then go to 1893 London and Vastra visiting a prisoner named Clarence DeMarco, who begs her to use her influence to save him, which she refuses to do, as he is a serial killer. He buys her trust - and a stay on his execution - by giving her information on The Doctor (how he obtained said information is not revealed, though maybe it will come out in the "Clarence and the Whispermen" special that is supposed to be included on the Complete Seventh Series DVD set when it's released later on this year). Distressed by this information, Vastra takes action: she and Jenny (minus Strax, who has the weekend off and has decided to spend it getting into fights with big burly guys in Victorian Glasgow) decide to initiate a "conference call" across time and space, via the use of an unidentified soporific drug administered via a candle that puts you into a dream/trance state. She sends out invitations to said call to Strax (via telegram), River Song (via an unknown method) and Clara (via a letter). Significantly, Clara is about to make a soufflé when she finds the letter (yet another reference to the "Soufflé Girl" motif with her).

The whole "conference call" business is a little weird. It makes sense, but it's not something that, to my knowledge, has ever happened in the show before. And it's not clear how the heck River got there, since it was hinted prior to the episode airing - and is revealed later in the episode - that the River Song in this episode is a post-Library River, in other words a manifestation of the data ghost Ten uploaded to the Library's computers in "Forest of the Dead."

Anyway, this conference call. We learn that DeMarco traded Vastra very serious information in exchange for his life: space-time coordinates for a place said to be the location of "the Doctor's biggest secret." He describes it with the words: "The Doctor has a secret, you know. One that he will take to the grave. It is discovered." Vastra also mentions that he got her to trust him with one word (those who have seen "The Snowmen" will remember that Vastra believes truth can only be expressed in single words): Trenzalore.

Yes, THAT Trenzalore...the one we heard about in Series 6. From the prophecy:

DORIUM: On the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered.
DOCTOR: Silence will fall when the question is asked.
DORIUM: Silence must fall would be a better translation. The Silence are determined the question will never be answered. That the Doctor will never reach Trenzalore.
...
DORIUM: But you're a fool nonetheless. It's all still waiting for you. The fields of Trenzalore, the fall of the Eleventh, and the question.
DOCTOR: Goodbye, Dorium.
DORIUM: The first question. The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight. The question you've been running from all your life. Doctor who? Doctor who? Doctor Who.

River recognizes the implications of this immediately (though I have no clue how she knew about it, OR Vastra for that matter...I guess since it was a prophecy The Silence believed in strongly, and River was nominally involved with The Silence at one point, maybe she heard about it from there).

But just when you think the group's going to discuss this thing further, Jenny starts panicking, sensing a ghostly presence near her astral body. She realizes she forgot to lock the door, and that strange beings are attacking her. She declares, in a thin voice, that she thinks she's been murdered, and fades away.

River takes charge and shocks Team Vastra awake - Vastra with a slap (which has a funny backstory if you watch the behind-the-scenes clip for this episode) and Strax by splashing water (or maybe champagne, since she had summoned some for herself) in his face. Simultaneously in London and Glasgow, Vastra and Strax fall under attack by strange men in top hats and tuxedos, with white, waxy faces and almost vampiric teeth, and are captured (while Jenny is shown lying dead on the floor).

Meet new villains The Whispermen, everyone:

Oh man those guys give me the creeps.

The Whispermen somehow make their way into the astral-plane conference call as well, surrounding River and Clara. They taunt the pair with the words "Tell the Doctor," after which Clara asks them what they're supposed to tell him. A hologram of the Great Intelligence (with the face of Dr. Simeon, as in the Series 7 premiere) then appears, and utters these words:

HOLO-SIMEON: His friends are lost for ever more, unless he goes to Trenzalore.

Basically meaning, "Doctor - if you ever want to see Team Vastra again, you have to go to Trenzalore." As in the one place he's not supposed to go - a fact River vehemently points out in response to Simeon's statement.

Suddenly, The Doctor's voice breaks into the scene, and Clara wakes up, only to find The Doctor in her house, walking around blindfolded and calling for Artie and Angie. He realizes she's there, and tells her he agreed to watch the kids while their father went next door, and that they had wanted to go to the cinema, but he had said no, they needed to wait till Clara woke up. Clara removes his blindfold and reveals he's been duped: they got him to play Blind Man's Bluff so he'd be blindfolded and not see them sneak off to the cinema. This frustrates the Doctor, who calls them "little Daleks," but his look quickly changes when he sees Clara's face, and he asks her what's wrong.

A jump cut later, Clara is making tea and has apparently told the Doctor everything that occurred at the conference call. The Doctor is distraught over the fate of his friends, to the point of tears (something we rarely see from him!), and ultimately runs out of the house. Clara follows him, finding him under the console room of the TARDIS. He sadly says he always suspected what Trenzalore was, but never wanted to actually find out - but that River always knew what it was. He connects Clara directly to the TARDIS's telepathic circuits (pay close attention to that - it becomes important later) so as to retrieve the coordinates DeMarco gave from her memory. After he does so, Clara pushes The Doctor about Trenzalore:

CLARA: Okay, what is Trenzalore? Is that your big secret?
DOCTOR: No.
CLARA: Okay, what then?
DOCTOR: When you are a time traveller, there is one place you must never go. One place in all of space and time you must never, ever find yourself.
CLARA: Where?
DOCTOR: You didn't listen, did you? You lot never do. That's the problem. The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered. He wasn't talking about my secret. No, no, no, that's not what's been found. He was talking about my grave. Trenzalore is where I'm buried.
CLARA: How can you have a grave?
DOCTOR: Because we all do, somewhere out there in the future, waiting for us.
(They go up to the console.)
DOCTOR: The trouble with time travel, you can actually end up visiting.
CLARA: But you're not going to. You just said it's the one place you must never go.
DOCTOR: I have to save Vastra and Strax. Jenny too, if it's still possible. They, they cared for me during the dark times. Never questioned me, never judged me, they were just kind. I owe them. I have a duty. No point in telling you this is too dangerous.
CLARA: None at all. How can we save them?
DOCTOR: Apparently, by breaking into my own tomb.

Which they then proceed to do, a process which takes the bulk of the episode. They get to Trenzalore (after a LOT of resistance from the TARDIS, who knows all too well what Trenzalore is and that The Doctor should not go there), which, it turns out, is a pretty freaky-looking place:

The TARDIS having refused to land, The Doctor's only option is to crash-land onto the planet, which he does by turning off the anti-gravs (the only thing the TARDIS hasn't turned off yet) with his Sonic.

They land finally and walk out into a dark and scary graveyard, which The Doctor identifies as a battlefield graveyard, with different-size gravestones depending on the rank of whoever's buried there:

The graveyard is dominated by a massive monument in the form of a TARDIS, which, as it turns out, is The Doctor's tomb -- AND his TARDIS from the future:

(Apparently he never will get that Chameleon Circuit fixed).

Clara and The Doctor then proceed to break into the tomb. Oh, and just in case we forgot about her, River shows up again!

She looks really substantial for a data ghost, if you ask me. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that was River, alive and in the flesh, standing there.

River accompanies the two into the tomb, supposedly seen by only Clara, who has a mental connection to her from the conference call. (I say "supposedly"...more on that later).

Meanwhile...Vastra and company wake up inside the antechamber of the massive tomb. Strax, in classic Strax fashion, starts barking military orders:

STRAX: This base is surrounded! Lay down your weapons and your deaths will be merciful!
...
STRAX: This planet is now property of the Sontaran Empire. Surrender your women and intellectuals.

Vastra, on the other hand, could care less about Strax's military ambitions - cause she's found Jenny, her beloved wife, and she's dead. Nothing Strax's handy-dandy Sontaran handheld medical scanner/defibrillator can't cure, though; soon enough, she's back to normal. Well, as back to normal as you can be after being revived from lethal, shock-induced cardiac arrest. They don't have time to celebrate, though, because they are soon confronted by Whispermen once more. And guess who their leader is:

Well, hi there Dr. Simeon. Or Mr. Great Intelligence, rather, taking the form of Dr. Simeon (as shown earlier in this episode and in "The Bells of Saint John").

This brings on a confrontation between Vastra and Simeon:

SIMEON: I see you have repaired your pet. No matter. I was only attracting your attention. I presume I have it.
VASTRA: Doctor Simeon. This is not possible.
SIMEON: And yet here we are, meeting again, so very far from home.
JENNY: But he died. You told me.
VASTRA: Simeon died, but the creature that possessed him lived on. I take it I am now talking to the Great Intelligence?
SIMEON: Welcome to the final resting place of the cruel tyrant. Of the slaughterer of the ten billion, and the vessel of the final darkness. Welcome to the tomb of the Doctor.

We then cut briefly to The Doctor, River, and Clara - who get in the tomb but are pursued by Whispermen - before cutting back to Simeon, Vastra, and the others, where Simeon proceeds to give us backstory on Trenzalore:

SIMEON: It was a minor skirmish, by the Doctor's blood-soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War, but enough to finish him. In the end, it was too much for the old man.
JENNY: Blood-soaked?
VASTRA: The Doctor has been many things, but never blood-soaked.
SIMEON: Tell that to the leader of the Sycorax, or Solomon the trader, or the Cybermen, or the Daleks. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end. The Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard.
VASTRA: Even if any of this were true, which I take the liberty of doubting, how did you come by this information?
SIMEON: I am information.
JENNY: You were a mind without a body last time we met.
VASTRA: And you were supposed to stay that way.
SIMEON: Alas, I did.
(Simeon pulls at his face, to reveal that he is an empty shell. His clothes tumble to the ground, then a Whisper Man steps forward and becomes him again.)
SIMEON: As you can see.

Oh yeah, The Whispermen are basically just lifeless shells for the GI to inhabit. And any of them can take on Simeon's appearance. Creepy much!!

The Doctor and Clara make it into the upper parts of the tomb, when all the sudden Clara starts feeling dizzy:

DOCTOR: Hey, it's okay. You're fine. The dimensioning forces this deep in the Tardis, they can make you a bit giddy.
CLARA: I know, I know. How do I know? How do I know that?
DOCTOR: Clara, it's okay. You're fine.
CLARA: Have we, have we done this before? We have. We have done this before. Climbing through a wrecked Tardis.

Yes, you have, my dear Clara. In "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS." Remember how I said to pay attention to the fact that The Doctor directly connected Clara to the TARDIS's telepathic circuits, in order to get the coordinates for Trenzalore? Well, that connection went deeper than expected, and now her memories of the events of "Journey" - which she shouldn't even remember because The Doctor rebooted everything - are starting to reemerge:

CLARA: You said things, things I'm not supposed to remember.
DOCTOR: We can't do this now. The Tardis is a ruin. The telepathic circuits are awakening memories you shouldn't even have.
DOCTOR [memory]: Why do I keep meeting you?
DOCTOR: Clara.
DOCTOR [memory]: The Dalek Asylum. There was a girl in a shipwreck and she died saving my life. And she was you.
DOCTOR: Clara.
DOCTOR [memory]: In Victorian London there was a governess, who was really a barmaid, and she died. And she was you.
DOCTOR: Clara? Clara, what's wrong?
CLARA: What do you mean, you keep meeting me? You said I died. How could I die?
DOCTOR: That is not a conversation you should even remember.
CLARA: What do you mean I died?

The transcript doesn't do it justice; you really have to watch the scene. It's very well edited together, with the flashbacks and everything, and the panicked way The Doctor reacts to the fact that she's remembering these things.

Anyway, The Whispermen start coming after the two of them again, so they don't have time to dwell on this revelation. They make it to the antechamber where Simeon and the others are, and a rather epic scene ensues where Simeon reveals the only way to open The Doctor's tomb is if The Doctor says his name, something he refuses to do. Simeon tries to blackmail him into it by having The Whispermen attack Vastra, Jenny, Strax, and Clara. The Doctor is clearly disturbed by this, and finally literally begs Simeon to stop:

SIMEON: Doctor who?
DOCTOR: Please!

Ironically, just after he says "Please," the tomb's doors open, much to the surprise of everyone, The Doctor most of all.

Everyone in the room assumes The Doctor said his name, since that's the only thing that can open the doors (this led to a popular meme online where people claimed The Doctor's real name was "Please"). But, as it turns out, he DIDN'T say his name. But if he didn't, who did?

Well, we all know there's only one other person who knows his name, now don't we?

Yep, River's the one who said it. Only we didn't hear her say it. So we still don't know what it is. Pooh.

RIVER: The Tardis can still hear me. Lucky thing, since him indoors is being so useless.
STRAX: Why did you open the door, sir? I had them on the run.
DOCTOR: I didn't do it. I didn't say my name.
RIVER: No, but I did.

The confusing part here is that River enters the scene from inside the tomb, which leaves one to wonder how the heck she got in there to begin with. Maybe she got in by speaking The Doctor's name earlier, or maybe she can phase through walls since she's a ghost. Not sure.

Anyway, Simeon, eager to see inside the tomb, prompts The Doctor to show them in:

DOCTOR: ...Now then, Doctor Simeon, or Mister G Intelligence, whatever I call you, do you know what's in there?
SIMEON: For me, peace at last. For you, pain everlasting. Won't you invite us in?

Now, as the viewer, you might think, what the heck is he doing, letting the GI into his uber-secret tomb? In retrospect, I wonder that myself. I guess he figures there's no point in refusing to let him in, since Mr. GI will probably force his way in anyway.

So The Doctor pushes the doors open with both hands and leads the party in. They then proceed up a staircase (the same one we saw leading down to below the console in The Doctor's regular TARDIS, notably) into the console room. Or, rather, what's left of it:

Nothing but a derelict console room, with railings overgrown with plants (I'm assuming those are plants anyway) and that big glowing column in the center where the console itself would usually be.

I admit, I was quite surprised by this. I was expecting a tomb in the traditional sense. Like with a coffin or a dais with his body on or in it. It's not like Time Lords don't do traditional tombs, after all; in "The Five Doctors" we see the Tomb of Rassilon, and in Doctor Who: The Movie The Doctor is taking The Master's ashes to be interred on Gallifrey, which means they must do cremation as well. Not surprisingly, The Doctor recognizes that the others (and the viewers) are wondering this, and says:

DOCTOR: What were you expecting, a body? Bodies are boring. I've had loads of them. Nah, that's not what my tomb is for.

So instead of a body, there's this glowing column of light, all twisted and thorn-like. Despite this, Jenny calls it beautiful, while Strax, being Strax, asks if he should destroy it. (A welcome funny line in a very serious scene). The Doctor then explains:

CLARA: Doctor, explain. What is that?
DOCTOR: The tracks of my tears.
SIMEON: Less poetry, Doctor. Just tell them.
DOCTOR: Time travel is damage. It's like a tear in the fabric of reality. That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe. My path through time and space from Gallifrey to Trenzalore.

"Tracks of my tears" likely referring to the famous Smokey Robinson song:

Anyway, to prove his point, The Doctor zaps the column with his Sonic, and we start to hear voices coming from it, representing all the Doctors up to this point:

DOCTOR 1 [OC]: Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?
DOCTOR 4 [OC]: Do I have the right?
DOCTOR 6 [OC]: Daleks, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us.
DOCTOR 2 [OC]: There are corners of the universe that have bred the most dangerous things.
DOCTOR 9 [OC]: You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.
DOCTOR 10 [OC]: I'm the Doctor. I'm from Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous
DOCTOR 11 [OC]: Hello, Stonehenge!
DOCTOR: My own personal time tunnel. All the days,
DOCTOR 3 [OC]: It was the daisiest daisy I'd ever seen.
DOCTOR: Even the ones that I, er, even the ones that I haven't lived yet.

The audio we hear, by the way, comes from, in order: "An Unearthly Child," "Genesis of the Daleks," "The Ultimate Foe," "The Moonbase," "The Parting of the Ways," "Voyage of the Damned," "The Pandorica Opens," and "The Time Monster." (Thanks to Wikipedia for this list).

However, just about now, the paradoxes and such that make this tomb the one place The Doctor should never go catch up with him, and he collapses:

The GI, taking advantage of this, decides he's going to step right into this glowing time tunnel. Which, it's implied in the dialogue, he's been planning to do all along anyway:

DOCTOR: No. No. No. What are you doing? Somebody stop him!
SIMEON: The Doctor's life is a open wound. And an open wound can be entered.
DOCTOR: No, it would destroy you.
SIMEON: Not at all. It will kill me. It will destroy you. I can rewrite your every living moment. I can turn every one of your victories into defeats. Poison every friendship. Deliver pain to your every breath.
DOCTOR: It will burn you up. Once you go through, you can't come back. You will be scattered along my timeline like confetti.
SIMEON: It matters not, Doctor. You thwarted me at every turn. Now you will give me peace, as I take my revenge on every second of your life. Goodbye. Goodbye, Doctor.

The GI then steps into the beam and is consumed by it.

That is one creepy shot right there.

A rather scary sequence ensues as the GI wreaks his revenge on The Doctor, striking him all over his timeline. We see him appear in pretty much every place we saw Clara show up in the cold opening, plus a few others (like a scene from the First Doctor episode "The Aztecs"). And The Doctor feels it, oh does he feel it. He writhes as the GI does his work, while Vastra monitors the GI's actions (somehow...how she does it is not explained), which worries Clara:

CLARA: What's wrong with him? What's happening?
VASTRA: He's being rewritten. Simeon is attacking his entire timeline. He's dying all at once.

However, one of the places Vastra mentions being The Doctor dying in is the Dalek Asylum, which rings a bell for Clara due to her memories from "Journey" having returned. Finally, The GI finishes his work, and the glowing column turns red:

Vastra (who apparently knows everything) realizes what this means:

VASTRA: Oh, dear Goddess.
JENNY: What's wrong?
VASTRA: A universe without the Doctor. There will be consequences.

She rushes out with Jenny, where she points out that stars are disappearing as a result of The Doctor's timeline having been rewritten (basically stars and planets The Doctor had saved, but which now he hasn't saved thanks to the GI turning all his victories into defeats). But it's not just stars that are affected. Jenny, whose life The Doctor had saved in a previous episode, disappears. Strax, now not remembering he and Vastra are friends (their friendship having also come about thanks to The Doctor), runs out and tries to attack her. She pleads with him to remember their friendship, but fails to move him. She then lifts her weapon to shoot him, but before she can, he too disappears, since, like Jenny, he would be dead if not for The Doctor.

Clara, meanwhile, is cradling the dying Doctor, and tries to ask him what to do:

CLARA: The Dalek Asylum. You said it was me that saved you. How? Victorian London. How, how could I have been in Victorian London?

After the scene with Vastra, Clara looks at the timeline and decides she must save The Doctor, whatever it takes. This leads to a great scene between The Doctor, Clara, and River (who pops in again unannounced):

CLARA: I have to go in there.
DOCTOR: Please, please, no.
CLARA: But this is what I've already done. You've already seen me do it. I'm the Impossible Girl, and this is why.
RIVER: Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't.
CLARA: If I step in there, what happens?
RIVER: The time winds will tear you into a million pieces. A million versions of you, living and dying all over time and space, like echoes.
CLARA: But the echoes could save the Doctor, right?
RIVER: But they won't be you. The real you will die. They'll just be copies.
CLARA: But they'll be real enough to save him. It's like my mum said. The soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe. It's the only way to save him, isn't it?
(River's image nods.)
VASTRA: The stars are going out. And Jenny and Strax are dead. There must be something we can do.
CLARA: Well, how about that? I'm soufflé girl after all.
DOCTOR: No. Please.
CLARA: If this works, get out of here as fast as you can. And spare me a thought now and then.
DOCTOR: No, Clara.
CLARA: In fact, you know what? Run. Run, you clever boy, and remember me.
DOCTOR: No. Clara!

Despite his protests, our plucky Impossible Girl goes through with it anyway. Of course.

The sequence from the cold open plays again, with some new scenes added. But now we have the proper context: that sequence is showing how Clara is split into thousands of pieces across The Doctor's timeline, and that with these echoes she intends to save The Doctor from the GI's scheme.

She ends the montage by saying:

CLARA [OC]: I just know I'm running. Sometimes it's like I've lived a thousand lives in a thousand places. I'm born, I live, I die. And always, there's the Doctor. Always I'm running to save the Doctor again and again and again. Oi! And he hardly ever hears me. But I've always been there.
...
CLARA [OC]: Right from the day he started running.

There's a whiteout, and we return to the tomb, with The Doctor alive and standing once again and Jenny and Strax alive. River is still there too, unseen by everyone but the viewer. But Clara, of course, is gone. The Doctor, naturally, wants to save Clara by entering his own timestream, but both Vastra and River tell him not to. He insists, and finally River's ghost begs him:

RIVER: There has to be another way. Use the Tardis, use something. Save her, yes, but for God's sake be sensible.

She then tries to slap him, but he, amazingly, catches her hand before she can!

River is shocked. Remember, the whole episode she's been saying that only Clara can see her. But if that's so, how was The Doctor able to catch her hand?

BECAUSE HE CAN SEE HER.

That's right. And, we discover, he's been able to see her the whole episode. He just pretended he couldn't.

RIVER: How are you even doing that? I'm not really here.
DOCTOR: You are always here to me. And I always listen, and I can always see you.
RIVER: Then why didn't you speak to me?
DOCTOR: Because I thought it would hurt too much.
RIVER: I believe I could have coped.
DOCTOR: No, I thought it would hurt me. And I was right.

As you might imagine, learning this fact - that he could see her the whole time - makes watching the episode a second time even more painful, because you suddenly pick up on the moments where he clearly ignores her presence. On a first viewing of the episode, you assume it's because he can't see her, but once you know he can and could the whole time, those moments seem way more sad.

The Doctor and River then kiss, passionately:

Mind you, they haven't kissed (that we know of) since their wedding in Series 6...and that wasn't even a real kiss, it was just to fix the messed up timeline...this, however, is a real kiss. A real, loving, reciprocal kiss.

The Doctor then awkwardly realizes that, since nobody in the room can see River but him, that kiss must have looked rather odd. And indeed, Vastra and Jenny look a little weirded out (while Strax is showing no emotion whatsoever):

The Doctor and River then talk in what I think is the most awesome scene I've seen of the two of them so far. If anything screams "The Good Ship Eleven/River," it's this scene:

DOCTOR:...There is a time to live and a time to sleep. You are an echo, River. Like Clara. Like all of us, in the end. My fault, I know, but you should've faded by now.
RIVER: It's hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye.
DOCTOR: Then tell me, because I don't know. How do I say it?
RIVER: There's only one way I'd accept. If you ever loved me, say it like you're going to come back.
DOCTOR: Well, then. See you around, Professor River Song.
RIVER: Till the next time, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Don't wait up.
RIVER: Oh, there's one more thing.
DOCTOR: Isn't there always?
RIVER: I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead, then how can I still be here?
DOCTOR: Okay, how?
RIVER: Spoilers. Goodbye, sweetie.

That moment when she says goodbye is tear-worthy. It's really, really sad. Because she says it like she really, really means it. :(

After this, as Vastra and co watch, The Doctor steps into his own time tunnel.

Clara, meanwhile, is still falling through the Vortex. Finally, she lands in a strange, old-looking, empty room, bathed in yellow and brown hues:

As she tries to get her bearings, ghosts of the previous Doctors run past her, as if running away from something. Finally, The Doctor - her Doctor, the Eleventh - manages to reach her, if only by voice, and informs her that he's inside the timestream himself, and that because of this the timeline's collapsing in on itself (which is what all the other Doctors are running from). Clara tells him to get out then, but he refuses to until he gets her out of there. He then says he's sending her something from her past, telling her to hold onto it tightly, as it will help her get home. But what is this mysterious thing?

Well, does this look familiar?

Yep, it's the famous leaf from "The Rings of Akhaten"! And here I thought the leaf wasn't going to end up being significant beyond that episode. Boy was I wrong.

Clara grabs the leaf, and finally The Doctor is able to appear bodily before her.

She stumbles toward him, as he encourages her:

DOCTOR [OC]: Clara! Clara! Come on. Come on, to me, now.
DOCTOR: You can do it. I know you can.
CLARA: How?
DOCTOR: Because it's impossible. And you're my Impossible Girl. How many times have you saved me, Clara? Just this once, just for the hell of it, let me save you. You have to trust me, Clara. I'm real. Just one more step.

She manages to reach him, and nearly collapses into his arms. The white column reappears. But just as The Doctor prepares to take her back through it, Clara sees a man standing a few feet away, his back to them:

Clara asks who he is, but The Doctor says "never mind" and tries to distract Clara from the stranger. Clara insists, and finally, The Doctor tells her:

DOCTOR: He's me. There's only me here, that's the point. Now let's get back.
CLARA: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. Eleven faces, all of them you. You're the eleventh Doctor.
DOCTOR: I said he was me. I never said he was the Doctor.
CLARA: I don't understand.
DOCTOR: Look, my name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like, it's like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise.
(Clara faints.)
DOCTOR: Clara? Clara? Clara!
(The Doctor picks up Clara in his arms.)
DOCTOR: He is my secret.

The stranger then speaks up, and The Doctor responds:

NOT DOCTOR: What I did, I did without choice.
DOCTOR: I know.
NOT DOCTOR: In the name of peace and sanity.
DOCTOR: But not in the name of the Doctor.

The Doctor then turns away, Clara in his arms, back toward the white glowing column, looking somewhat disgusted. As he does, the stranger turns around, and we see an old, bearded man, dressed in simple clothes, who looks at the camera. As he does, text appears:

And with this cliffhanger, the episode ends, followed by a card that reads, "To Be Continued, November 2013" (referring to the 50th Anniversary Special).

Honestly, you should just watch that last scene. I don't think I probably did it justice describing it. Normally, I wouldn't post clips from actual episodes here, just teasers or trailers (cause I'd rather you watched the episodes via legal means) but since BBC America posted this video, I suppose it's all right to share:

Overall, a great and satisfying finale, and worth watching more than once (you really should, because I was confused out of my mind after the first time I watched it). Makes me excited for the upcoming Anniversary Special (which will clearly be "Part 2" of this story, as I mentioned at the beginning), and what it might reveal. Especially about this mysterious "John Hurt Doctor" (who has since been revealed to be a Doctor between 8 and 9).

This episode is more poignant now, actually, because, as you may have heard, Matt Smith is leaving the show. Given that the next two episodes he'll be in are both specials - the 50th Anniversary Special and the 2013 Christmas Special - "The Name of the Doctor" is his last normal episode as The Doctor. And what an episode to end his career as The Doctor on. Well, in terms of normal episodes I mean, ones that aren't specials. I mean, it's a whammy of an episode, so full of drama and suspense and feels, with so many well-written scenes - and Matt Smith pulls it off brilliantly. As our local sportscaster Jerry Coleman likes to say, "You can hang a star on that one, baby!"

Steven Moffat wrote this episode, as I mentioned before that he would. I'm glad he handed off "The Crimson Horror" to Mark Gatiss so he could focus on "The Bells of Saint John" and this episode. The two connect in several ways (the famous "I don't know where I am" line pops up again, for one). And like I said, there are many well-written scenes in here -- which is why I think I included so many quotes. The dialogue really speaks for itself here. (No pun intended). Moffat has done himself proud on this episode for sure.

So...finally, after long last...I have completed this analysis. Which has been months in the writing, because I started it then kinda abandoned it halfway through. My bad. (If the post sounds disjointed, this is why). Anyway, enjoy it now that it is done. Fantastic, Allons-y, Geronimo!

My next new episode to analyze will be the Anniversary Special, obviously, but I won't be idle. I still have Series 3-6 of New Who to catch up on -- which I want to do by the anniversary -- plus I have some Classic Who episode posts yet to write, and will likely write more as time goes by. So as I watch those, I will post analyses of them. Once I get caught up with New Who, I will focus on Classic Who catchup and on the new episodes yet to come -- the 50th Anniversary Special, the 2013 Christmas Special, and the upcoming Series 8, starring Jenna-Louise Coleman (or rather, Jenna Coleman, as she goes by now) as Clara Oswald alongside the as-yet-unannounced Twelfth Doctor, which according to BBC One, is coming next year:

*NEWS* We can confirm that we have commissioned a brand new series of #DoctorWho for 2014: http://t.co/3ARLQAlPNN
— BBC One (@BBCOne) May 19, 2013

Till next time!

Doctor Who pictures from GRANDECAPS. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

Series 7 Special: "She Said, He Said: A Prequel"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:08:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Hello again. It's a big day in the world of Doctor Who - the day the Series 7 finale airs, the episode that Steven Moffat has said will change the show forever. It actually airs in less than an hour where I live, except that I won't be able to watch it live, as I said in the last post.

But before posting on the finale itself, I want to post an analysis of the short 3 1/2-minute prequel that was released for it, called "She Said, He Said." If you haven't gone and watched it yet, I suggest you do so before reading this...I'd rather you did, even with the spoiler warning on this post (which I put on all my analysis posts anyway, mostly for the newer fans like me who are still catching up with the old episodes). You can watch it on YouTube here.

So..basically this prequel takes place in a strange, museum-like room, and consists of two monologues - one from Clara, one from The Doctor - addressed to the camera. In each, the person who is speaking starts out talking about his/her feelings for the other - feelings that appear to be romantic in nature, which should get all the Eleven/Clara (a.k.a. "Whouffle") shippers excited.

But then, the mood quickly changes, signaled by these words that appear in both monologues:

You get used to not knowing. I thought I never would. I was wrong.

This then leads into both Clara and The Doctor (in their respective monologues) revealing to the viewer that they know each other's identities and secrets, and that they found out this information "the day we went to Trenzalore."

I have to say, this clip got me so intrigued and excited for the finale. This clip, confirms, if nothing else, that the Doctor's biggest secret (his name, most likely) will be revealed, as will Clara's identity. It's also suggested we'll find out why The Doctor left Gallifrey to begin with (Clara asks him "What set you on your way and where are you going?" and then later says "I know where he began and where he is going"). The Doctor also seems to be having doubts about Clara, since although he claims she's perfect, perfect in every way for him, always exactly what he needs, he also says, in a worrisome tone, that she's "too perfect." As in too good to be true. Hmm...

I will admit, seeing the frozen, silent forms of first The Doctor and then Clara was pretty creepy, but I assume it serves some purpose in the scene, though what I'm not exactly sure. Maybe it's supposed to be like they're in the same room but on opposite sides of some invisible wall?

Also, if you look close, you can see props from various Series 7 episodes scattered hither and yon in the background. In Clara's part, you can see the rocket mechanism from "The Crimson Horror," Webley's chessboard (complete with Cyberman) from "Nightmare in Silver," The Doctor's painting of Clara from "The Bells of Saint John" and the big seal thing that was on the wall of the pyramid in "The Rings of Akhaten." There's also something that looks like the headset from "Hide" that the psychic girl wore to open a door into the pocket universe, but I'm not sure whether it's it or not cause it's blurry. In The Doctor's part, you can see Clara's Victorian governess dress from "The Snowmen" as well as a sign for The Rose and Crown, the bar Clara worked for in that same episode, plus the Anti-Cyberman gun from "Nightmare in Silver" and the bike from "The Rings of Akhaten."

Looks like somebody raided the prop department...

Also, here we have firm confirmation that Trenzalore, which Moffat had told us was happening, IS happening, and sooner than we thought. The idea of Trenzalore dates back to Series 5 (or maybe 6) and was the whole reason why The Silence was trying to kill The Doctor -- to keep him from going to Trenzalore, where, according to a prophecy, "silence must fall when the question is asked" - a question which was revealed at the end of Series 6 to be "Doctor who?". And it was also revealed that when the question is asked, The Doctor cannot lie or refuse to answer.

Anyway...just watched this again for this post and to prepare for the finale...GAH CAN'T WAIT!!

A Series 7 Part 2 Analysis Mega-Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:26:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Ok. The finale is today...actually it has already aired in the UK. It will be airing where I live shortly. Although I will not be able to watch it live cause I'm going to this Beatles tribute show I got a ticket for off Amazon Local. Will watch it when I get home probably.

Now, since I am so far behind with the Series 7 Part 2 analyses, I decided, oh WTH, I'm just going to do an analysis mega-post, analyzing multiple episodes at once. I will probably never do this again. In fact I hope I don't have to. But I just don't have the patience to do separate posts for four episodes in one go right now. Cause it takes at least 2 hours to do each, and I don't have that much time before I have to leave anyway.

So...here goes.

Series 7, Episode 10: "Hide"

I'm not sure how I feel about "Hide." I wouldn't say it's my favorite of the season. It was written by the same guy who wrote "The Rings of Akhaten," but it wasn't nearly as good of an episode by any means.

The episode is supposed to be a good, old-fashioned ghost story. But in the end, the ghost ends up not being a ghost at all, but this time-traveler from the future who's stuck in a pocket universe. And the psychic girl in the story has a connection to her by blood, which is why they are able to sense each other. As interesting of an idea as that is, I would have rather had it be a regular old ghost story. But that never happens in Doctor Who, cause of course The Doctor doesn't believe in ghosts. Still, modern-day Clara's first line in the show (from the end of "The Snowmen") was "I don't believe in ghosts," so it would've been interesting to see that belief tested.

Also, the ending of this episode seemed very rushed and honestly didn't make any sense. They seriously could've cut out all that nonsense about the monsters who were in love and just focused on the bit about the time-traveler who looks like Martha Jones. (She does!) I didn't get the part either where we find out the whole reason The Doctor was there in the first place was to find out if Psychic Girl could give him any clues on Clara's identity. It's not a bad scene writing-wise, but it is kinda a letdown. It could've been either written differently or maybe weaved into the episode instead of being sprung on us at the end.

On the bright side, this episode did have some nice Clara/Eleven scenes. And the scenes of The Doctor alone in the forest -- the source of the famous line from the Series 7 Part 2 trailers "I am The Doctor, and I am afraid" -- were very well-acted by Matt Smith. People complain that Eleven seems to HAVE to make speeches all the time, but you know what? Any time he gives a speech, Matt Smith nails it. The speech in "The Rings of Akhaten" particularly. He had quite a bit of theater experience before being cast as The Doctor, and I think it shows. (Maybe I'm just saying this having done live theater myself. And it's kinda part and parcel of acting in the UK that you do theater no matter what - something we really don't do in the U.S. But still). Also, the scene where Clara's trying to get the TARDIS to help her save the Doctor was a really great scene on Jenna-Louise Coleman's part.

So, it's an iffy episode for me. ^_^

Series 7, Episode 11: "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS"

Ever since I heard about this episode, I was eagerly looking forward to it. This was also the first episode I had the opportunity to see live, though I actually did not see it live cause I was doing something else while waiting for it to come on and lost track of time. As soon as I realized my mistake, though, I promptly stopped what I was doing to watch it.

I really liked this episode. The BBC promised we'd see more of the TARDIS than ever before, and they did not disappoint. Mostly what we saw was through Clara's eyes as she wandered around, lost in the TARDIS, and tried to stay one step ahead of these creepy zombie creatures.

The best room we saw, by far, was that library...

I'd heard we would see the library, and so I was really happy when we finally did. And it's this big, multi-floored, old-fashioned place, which just seems absolutely perfect. It's exactly as I thought it would be. Now, granted, it could have been more of a high-tech sort of setup, kind of like the Jedi Archives from Star Wars: Episode II:

And that would've even made sense. But the old-fashioned look is just better. The Time Lords are an old-fashioned sort.

And how awesome was that liquid Gallifreyan encyclopedia?!

Now, ok, it seems weird for an encyclopedia to be in liquid form, I guess. But it was just kinda neat. And apparently, if tipped over, they exude a sort of mist in which voices can be heard, as we see when Clara knocks one over by accident. (BBC One confirmed that the voice we hear is that of Timothy Dalton, a.k.a. Rassilon from "The End of Time"). At any rate, they kind of reminded me of the prophecy orbs in the Hall of Prophecy in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

Also, I noted after looking at a screenshot of that bit again recently that there are actually drawers beneath the shelf with the Encyclopaedia Gallifreya on it. Wonder what's in those drawers?

There was a little confusion about the library scene in that Clara finds a book called The History of the Time War, which theoretically only The Doctor could have written since he is the only remaining survivor of the Time War. And assumedly such a book would be in Gallifreyan, which is the one language the TARDIS doesn't translate. Yet, even the title on the cover of the book is in English:

The labels on the Encyclopaedia Gallifreya bottles are also in English, which is weird seeing as those would definitely be in Gallifreyan even if the book wasn't. Not sure if this is a production error or not. I suppose it will make more sense once I see the finale and find out who Clara really is. (We ARE going to find out! It's been confirmed!)

Also, we find out at the end of the episode that Clara read The Doctor's name in the Time War book. And we know it must've been his real name, based on how he reacts:

CLARA: I don't want to forget. Not all of it. The library. I saw it. You were mentioned in a book.
DOCTOR: I'm mentioned in a lot of books.
CLARA: You call yourself Doctor. Why do you do that? You have a name. I've seen it. In one corner of that tiny
DOCTOR: If I rewrite today, you won't remember. You won't go looking for my name.
CLARA: You'll still have secrets.
DOCTOR: It's better that way.

But...none of this matters, because of the ending.

Okay, so the ending of "Hide" was weird, but the ending of this episode was worse. What I think happened was that the writers wrote themselves into a corner, creating a situation that they couldn't figure out how to fix. So what do they do? Insert a convenient "return to the past now" button to reset everything back to the beginning. As if the entire episode didn't happen. What. The. Heck. Really?

By "return to the past now" I mean like what they do in one of my favorite shows, a French animated series named Code Lyoko. Whenever the damage that XANA (the evil AI that was the main enemy) did needed to be fixed, or someone found out about the factory and stuff and needed to have their memory erased, or what have you, Jeremie would activate a time reversion program on the supercomputer, which was activated using the command "Return to the past, now" and a keystroke. Therefore, everything would revert to before the incident, but Jeremie and co. would retain their memories of the event. Here's what it looks like in the new half live-action/half animation Code Lyoko series Code Lyoko Evolution, to give you an idea of what I mean:

The ending aside, though, it was a great episode. The salvage crew were also really great, and the storyline for them was really great. The twist about Tricky - that he was not really an android but actually the brother of the other two, who had been seriously injured in a salvaging accident and lost his sight and memory, but who was restored to life using cybernetic parts - threw me for a loop.

Also, the Doctor looks nice without a jacket. He should dress like that more often.

Series 7, Episode 12: "The Crimson Horror"

This was I think one of my favorite episodes of this season, as creepy and horror-movie-esque as it is. Unlike the last two episodes, it had a proper ending. Plus it has more the air of an old-time mystery story than it does a sci-fi story, much the way "The Angels Take Manhattan" and "The Snowmen" did, which is quite fun. And, despite guest star Rachael Sterling saying beforehand that it would be camp, it doesn't seem camp at all. "Camp" means something's over-the-top, effeminate and exaggerated, and the episode doesn't seem that way at all.

Also, this episode was different in that instead of being from The Doctor and his Companion's point of view, it's told from the point of view of The Doctor's friends Vastra, Jenny, and Strax - or "Team Vastra" as I like to call them. (It seems the more proper name for them is the "Paternoster Gang," after the street where Vastra's home is located in London, Paternoster Row). And I have loved Team Vastra since I first saw them in "The Snowmen." Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, and Dan Starkey make a great team. Dan Starkey in particular I swear must be the funniest man alive, the way he delivers Strax's particular brand of deadpan Sontaran humor. He can take a line about something totally un-funny, like grenades or trenches of acid, and make it seem absolutely hilarious.

The reveal that The Doctor had himself fallen victim to the "Crimson Horror" was definitely a shock:

Yeah, not a huge fan of Red Zombie Doctor.

But he "healed" himself in the end, and seeing him work with Team Vastra again was quite a treat. There wasn't enough of it in "The Snowmen." Of course, I haven't seen "A Good Man Goes to War" yet, so I'll get to see it again there, as well as in today's finale, in which Team Vastra is also supposed to appear.

There wasn't really anything for Clara to do in this episode, unfortunately. But Jenna handled the role well anyway, as she does with excellence, and I liked her in that last scene with the kids a lot. Some people have wondered why that scene was there, but I thought it was a nice way to set up for the finale by making Clara aware of Victorian Clara for the first time (via a photograph). It also helps to explain why the kids she is a nanny for, Angie and Artie, show up in the next episode, "Nightmare in Silver" - they basically blackmail her into letting them travel with her and The Doctor, saying that otherwise they'll tell on her to their dad.

One vibe I got from this episode is that it seemed very Edgar Allan Poe-like. And as if the feel of it wasn't enough, there's this line from villain Mrs. Gillyflower:

GILLYFLOWER: Can I offer you something? Tea? Seed cake? Oh, a glass of Amontillado?

Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" anyone?

The whole religious basis of Mrs. Gillyflower's plan was, I admit, rather disturbing for me. While stories of people using doomsday messages to lure people into a plan like this are not unheard of, it was still unsettling, as a Christian. But I went with it, somehow. You have to remember these are just fictional stories.

Also, the storyline with Ada...oh man. I love that, even though she was blind and helpless herself, she still had the mercy to save The Doctor from being thrown into the river like the other rejects and instead kept him hidden away, defying her mother to take care of him. And even though he was in a zombie state that whole time, he remembers her, and he returns the favor:

(Ada is still crying in the corner when the Doctor and Clara enter.)
ADA: Who is that? Who is there?
(The Doctor takes her hand and runs it over his face.)
ADA: You. It's you. My monster. You've come back. But you're
DOCTOR: Warm. And alive, thanks to you, Ada. You saved me from your mother's human rubbish tip. Now then, what's wrong?
ADA: She does not want me, monster. I am not to be chosen. Perhaps it was my own sin, the blackness in my heart that my father saw in me.
DOCTOR: Ada, no. That's nonsense. Stupid, backward nonsense, and you know it. You know it.
CLARA: What is it?
ADA: Who is that?
CLARA: I'm, I'm a friend. A friend of his.
ADA: Then you are fortunate indeed. It isn't good to be alone.
DOCTOR: Now, Ada, I need you to tell me something. Who is Mister Sweet? Ada?
ADA: Oh, dear monster
DOCTOR: Please, tell me.
ADA: I cannot. Even now, I cannot. I cannot betray Mama.
DOCTOR: Well, come with us, then. There's something you need to know.

DOCTOR: Now, Ada, I'd love to stay and help clear up the mess, but
ADA: I know, dear monster. You have things to do.
DOCTOR: And what about you?
ADA: Oh, there are many things a bright young lady can do to occupy her time. It's time I stepped out of the darkness and into the light.
DOCTOR: Good luck, Ada. You know, I think you will be just
(He kisses her cheek.)
DOCTOR: Splendid.

Overall, a great episode. After this episode aired, a rumor started that Team Vastra might get their own spin-off (I think this came about from Matt Smith's comment in one of the "inside look" clips where he said they should have their own show). I hope they do, because I would for sure watch it.

Mark Gatiss was the writer here again. I swear, that man is brilliant. Actually, one of the "Inside Look" clips revealed that Steven Moffat was going to write the episode originally, but found he just couldn't make it work, so he passed on the work to Gatiss. I'm kinda glad, actually. Not that Moffat couldn't have handled it; he did write "A Good Man Goes to War" after all and thus more or less created Team Vastra. But I think he was smart to hand it on and to focus his talents instead on writing the two episodes he wrote for this season - the opener "The Bells of Saint John" and today's finale.

Series 7, Episode 13: "Nightmare in Silver"

Otherwise known as the Cybermen episode by Neil Gaiman that we've heard so much about.

This episode got so much hype leading up to it, it's not even funny. I mean, I've never even read anything by Neil Gaiman, or even seen his other Doctor Who episode, "The Doctor's Wife." But from reading all the hype leading up to this episode, I was really excited to see it. Even though the Cybermen for me are the scariest monsters ever.

Gaiman said early on that, when given the job to write this episode, he was given this mission by Steven Moffat: "make the Cybermen scary again." And I say, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. This was the first episode to feature the Cybermen since "Closing Time" in Series 6, and the first time I'd seen them since the Series 2 finale (and most of "The Tomb of the Cybermen"), and they are definitely scary again. They got a sleek, new look, for one:

Plus, now apparently they can use any kind of organic parts, not just human parts, to make their Cybermen. Which makes them even more of a threat.

Essentially, this is an episode much in the same vein as "The Tomb of the Cybermen," in that it involves a group of people who believe the Cybermen to have been extinct for years, only to find out they are very, very wrong. In that episode, the story was set in a scary tomb on Telos, the Cybermen's home planet, while here it is set at Hedgwick's World of Wonders, which is, according to The Doctor, the greatest amusement park that ever is or will be - or at least it was:

Matt Smith was amazing in this episode, if only for the reason that he basically had to play this Jekyll/Hyde thing the majority of the time thanks to The Doctor getting turned into a Cyber Planner. (This is represented by this weird Cyberman tech embedded on his face). The story of Jekyll and Hyde is one Steven Moffat is very familiar with - he did a whole miniseries based off of it named Jekyll. And I'm familiar with it myself now, having seen the Jekyll & Hyde musical not long ago. Basically, the Cyber Planner consciousness/programming keeps trying to take over The Doctor's brain, but the real Doctor keeps fighting to retain control of it, resulting in him switching back and forth between the two personalities. It was a big story twist - and a quite remarkable plot seeing as Gaiman had said in some interview that he'd originally had trouble finding something for The Doctor to do in this episode. And Matt Smith pulled it off in excellent fashion. It must have taken SO much work for him to get that right. But whatever time he spent doing that was time well spent.

Remember how I said in the last episode Clara didn't have much to do? Well, that's definitely not true of this episode. In this episode, she is right in the middle of the action, along with her two charges Angie and Artie, who also got taken along for the TARDIS ride in this episode (as a result of their blackmail from "The Crimson Horror"). The Doctor puts her in charge of the forces fighting the Cybermen, and she leads them with ease (and perhaps a bit of snark), even though she's probably never had authority over anything in her life except the kids she nannies for. The famous shot of her with the Big Honking Gun from the Series 7 Part 2 trailers is from this episode, and boy does she handle that gun well.

Much of this episode involves The Doctor playing a game of chess against the Cyber Planner:

The stakes being that the Cybermen get The Doctor's mind if he loses (including knowledge of time travel), while if The Doctor wins, he gets to keep his mind, AND the Cybermen will release Angie and Artie, who they have partially converted. Not only is it crazy to see someone play chess against himself, but as the episode climaxes and we suddenly realize that there are actually millions of Cybermen hidden on the planet, the chess game actually begins to directly affect the battle outside, which is kinda cool.

In the end, the Doctor wins the game, the Cybermen are destroyed, and The Doctor, Clara, and the surviving members of the resistance movement escape. The unassuming little man Porridge (played by Warwick Davis) is revealed to in fact be the Emperor of the empire in whose era the story is set, though he admits he doesn't like being Emperor, which is why he hid out on the planet - as well as the fact that he feels responsible for the deaths of those in the galaxy the Empire blew up in order to defeat the Cybermen about 1,000 years earlier. I did not expect that he would be the Emperor. That was a complete shock to me. I didn't even think we'd meet said Emperor. It was kinda cool, though, and Warwick Davis plays it well.

Some fans have complained about how, in the ending scene, The Doctor doesn't protest Porridge and co. blowing up the planet with all the Cybermen still on it. And I see their point; that does seem like something he would be VERY against. Remember, this is the same man who not only was forced (more or less) to blow up Gallifrey, but also got really, really angry at Harriet Jones for ordering the Sycorax to be shot down in "The Christmas Invasion" and at his own cloned self (the Meta-Crisis Doctor/Tentoo) for committing genocide against the Daleks in "Journey's End." Yet he doesn't protest at all. My only guess here is that it's because only the Cybermen are there -- no innocents are left, since all the non-Cybermen survivors of the fight are on board the Emperor's flagship with him. And honestly he doesn't like the Cybermen, and never has - though he doesn't hate them like he hates the Daleks - so maybe he doesn't really care what happens to them. Oh, and also he does technically give a reason for the planet needing to be destroyed:

DOCTOR: Out of my head and redistributed across three million Cybermen right now, and about to wake them all up, kill us and start constructing a spaceship. We need to destroy this planet before they can get off it.

Warwick Davis, one of the primary guest stars for the episode, was really great. I'd seen him before ages ago in Willow and then of course in Harry Potter as Flitwick and Griphook. He really portrayed Porridge as this funny, yet poignant character, and it was easy to sympathize with him, which is what you want out of a character like that. Bravo!

In short, the episode was brilliant. Brilliantly written. Well done, Mr. Gaiman.

***

Okay, so that's my mega-post. Hope you enjoyed it! I'll post an analysis of the finale prequel "She Said, He Said" next, followed by an analysis of the finale itself - called "The Name of the Doctor" - ASAP after I see it.

Geronimo!

Doctor Who pictures from GRANDECAPS. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts. Jedi Archives picture from Culture Virtuelle. Harry Potter pic from Nerdapproved.

Series 7, Episode 9: "Cold War"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:48:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Oh my stars! As Clara Oswald would say. I've gotten SO behind on these Series 7 Part 2 posts! And the finale airs tomorrow!! Better get to work.

Okay, so..."Cold War."

Basically, The Doctor and Clara, who were apparently on their way to Vegas, end up instead on a Soviet nuclear submarine in the 1980's. Just as the submarine is sinking - like sinking sinking, not just descending into the water as submarines do. The submarine is in the Arctic where a certain Professor Grisenko has been doing research, and where he found a strange creature that had been frozen in ice up there for around 5,000 years. He believes it's a frozen mammoth. The creature - in ice and all - has been transported to the submarine, where it is being stored until the submarine can return to the USSR.

But, as one might expect, one of the crewmen gets too curious and melts the ice around said creature. The creature then escapes and begins to wreak havoc on the sub. And let's just say, it is NOT a mammoth...

...it's a freaking ICE WARRIOR.

Yes, ladies and gents, the scary reptilian Martian warriors who plagued the Second and Third Doctors are BACK, for the first time in 40 years.

And believe me, The Doctor remembers. Even after 40 years (TV time) and about 450 years of time from The Doctor's perspective (since he was a little shy of 750 when he last saw them, and he's now 1,200).

Anyway, turns out this isn't just ANY Ice Warrior, but Grand Marshal Skaldak. For some reason, this makes the situation worse - or so it sounds from how the Doctor reacts to Skaldak naming himself.

So...basically, we have a sinking submarine, armed with nuclear missiles, and an Ice Warrior on board who's rather angry that he's been separated from his people for 5,000 years, and not too happy about Executive Officer Stepashin attacking him with a cattle prod (which The Doctor warns will have provoked Skaldak). And apparently Ice Warriors are big on honor and stuff, which makes things a great deal more complicated. Not to mention Skaldak's distress call to his fellow Ice Warriors, asking them to come pick him up, appears to be going unanswered, even though The Doctor reassures Skaldak that the legend of the Ice Warriors will live on, and not just on Earth and Mars.

Oh, and Skaldak just found out that the Cold War is going on and about something called mutually assured destruction - which basically means if the sub launches its nuclear missiles, there's a really good (practically 100%) chance the enemy (the West in this case) will launch nuclear missiles back, resulting in the Cold War becoming red hot and nuclear holocaust following suit. Which means that Skaldak, who is desperate and convinced that all of humanity has declared war against his kind (which is not actually true, but he thinks it is), decides he's going to link himself to the systems for said missiles and LAUNCH THEM.

Uh oh.

Now, The Doctor, naturally, attempts to reason with Skaldak and talk him out of launching the missiles, even threatening him with the Sonic Screwdriver:

DOCTOR: No! Skaldak, wait! Wait, wait.
ZHUKOV: He's arming the warheads.
DOCTOR: Where is the honour in condemning billions of innocents to death? Five thousand years ago Mars was the centre of a vast empire. The jewel of this solar system. The people of Earth had only just begun to leave their caves. Five thousand years isn't such a long time. They're still just frightened children, still primitive. Who are you to judge them?
(Skaldak unplugs himself.)
SKALDAK: I am Skaldak! This planet is forfeit under Martian law.
DOCTOR: Then teach them. Teach them, Grand Marshal. Show them another way. Show them there is honour in mercy. Is this how you want history to remember you? Grand Marshal Skaldak, Destroyer of Earth. Because that's what you'll be if you send those missiles. Not a soldier, a murderer. Five billion lives extinguished. No chance for goodbyes. A world snuffed out like a candle flame! All right. All right, Skaldak, you leave me no choice. I'm a Time Lord, Skaldak. I know a thing or two about sonic technology myself.
SKALDAK: A threat? You threaten me, Doctor?
DOCTOR: No. No, not you, all of us. I will blow this sub up before you can even reach that button, Grand Marshal. Blow us all to oblivion.
SKALDAK: You would sacrifice yourself?
DOCTOR: In a heartbeat.
SKALDAK: Mutually assured destruction.

Yeah, he went there. He'd blow up the sub - WITH CLARA ON IT TO BOOT - just to stop Skaldak from launching those missiles.

Oh...and did I mention The Doctor and Clara are sans TARDIS at this point? In the mayhem of the sub sinking and taking on water, the TARDIS mysteriously dematerialized on its own. We learn at the end of the episode that this was because The Doctor reactivated the HADS ("Hostile Action Displacement System") by accident whilst fiddling with some stuff on the TARDIS. The HADS (last mentioned in the Second Doctor episode "The Krotons") is basically intended to automatically move the TARDIS to another location if it comes under attack. So basically, much like in "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit," The Doctor and his Companion have found themselves in a deadly situation without having the TARDIS to escape to.

AND YET HE'S WILLING TO BLOW THE SHIP UP.

Crazy what The Doctor will do when he's left with no other choice. Well, he IS mad, after all.

Anyway, thankfully, The Doctor is able to talk Skaldak out of this disastrous move, with a little help from Clara:

DOCTOR: Look into my eyes, Skaldak. Look into my eyes and tell me you're capable of doing this. Huh? Can you do that? Dare you do that? Look into my eyes, Skaldak. Come on. Face to face.
SKALDAK: Well, Doctor.
(The helmet tilts back to reveal the Martian lizard with its lidless eyes.)
SKALDAK: Which of us shall blink first?
CLARA: Why did you hesitate? Back there, in the dark. You were going to kill this man, remember? I begged you not to, and you listened. Why show compassion then, Skaldak, and not now? The Doctor's right. Billions will die. Mothers, sons, fathers, daughters. Remember that last battle, Skaldak? Your daughter. You sang the songs.
SKALDAK: Of the Red Snows.
(The submarine shifts.)
CLARA: What's happening?
(A tractor beam has grabbed them.)
SKALDAK: My people live. They have come for me!
ZHUKOV: We're rising. We're rising!
GRISENKO: Six hundred metres. Five fifty.
(The conning tower breaks through the ice.)
DOCTOR: We've surfaced. Your people have saved us.
SKALDAK: Saved me, not you.
DOCTOR: Just go, Skaldak, please. Please, go in peace.
(Skaldak is teleported away.)
CLARA: We did it. We did it!
DOCTOR: No. No, no, no, no, no. It's still armed. A single pulse from that ship. I'll destroy us if I have to. I will destroy us if I have to. Show mercy, Skaldak. Come on. Show mercy.
CLARA: (sings) I'm lost and I'm found, and I'm hungry like the wolf.
(The nuclear trigger disarms and the silos close. The Doctor turns off his sonic screwdriver.)
DOCTOR: Now we're safe.

The Doctor and Clara have a nice little bonding moment, and soon the Doctor's Sonic pings to alert him that the TARDIS has turned up -- except it's at the South Pole, and they're at the North Pole. The Doctor then sheepishly asks Captain Zhukov if they could have a lift, and the episode ends.

Overall, this was a really good episode. It was written by Mark Gatiss, one of the senior writers for the show, and had a very good amount of action and suspense. I admit, it was hard to see what was going on sometimes because the lighting was so dim -- the way it would be on a submarine -- but other than that, I have no complaints.

Clara was great in this episode. She has this great scene where she goes in to talk with Skaldak, with The Doctor prompting her what to say. (This is what she's referring to when she talks about Skaldak singing the songs of the red snow). Also, when The Doctor and Zhukov decide to go further in the ship to find Skaldak, he tells Clara to stay behind with Professor Grisenko, and to his surprise, she DOES:

DOCTOR: Stay here.
CLARA: Okay.
DOCTOR: Stay here. Don't argue.
CLARA: I'm not.
DOCTOR: Right. Good.

Many fans made a big point of highlighting this scene, simply because one of The Doctor's number one rules for Companions has always been "Don't wander off." And they always do. But here, Clara DOESN'T. Most fans tied this to the Ninth Doctor's line from "The Empty Child":

DOCTOR: You know, one day, just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole don't wander off thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me.

The point being that...he FINALLY got his wish. Granted, about 300 years later. But still.

David Warner, the primary guest star in this episode, was brilliant. Professor Grisenko was a really funny and enjoyable character. He really doesn't seem like he fits among the stern Soviet crew of the submarine; he's just a quirky scientist who enjoys listening to Ultravox and Duran Duran. And he kinda looks like the First Doctor a little bit. One of my favorite moments from him was when he retrieves the Doctor's Screwdriver (which had fallen on the floor when the sub filled with water):

CLARA: Is it true you've never seen one outside of its shell suit?
DOCTOR: Shell suit? Clara! For an Ice Warrior to leave its armour is the gravest dishonour. Skaldak is desperate. He is deadly and we have got to find him.
GRISENKO: Will this help?
(The sonic screwdriver.)
DOCTOR: Ah! You saved it.
GRISENKO: No, no, it was on the floor with this.
(The Barbie doll. The Doctor kisses it.)
DOCTOR: Ah, Professor, I could kiss you.
GRISENKO: If you insist.
DOCTOR: Later.

The Barbie doll was previously shown to be in The Doctor's pockets when the crew searched him and Clara. Not exactly sure why he has it, though some fans speculated he keeps it to remind him of Rose, since the doll kinda resembles her. Also, Clara looks at The Doctor funny when he kisses the doll.

And that, I'm afraid, is all I can think of to say on this episode. I will be trying today and tomorrow to get caught up on the posts before the finale. The finale, I think, is going to be EPIC. Can't wait!!

Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts; "The Empty Child" quote from this transcript. Pictures are from GRANDECAPS, which is where I will be getting my screencaps from Series 7 Part 2 onward, as Sonic Biro has decided not to continue posting new screencaps:

Sonic Biro's existing content will stay, however, so I will continue to use that site for my analyses of the older episodes of New Who.

Series 7, Episode 8: "The Rings of Akhaten"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:53:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Sorry this is a bit later than I promised the posts would be...but here's my analysis of the latest episode of Series 7, "The Rings of Akhaten."

Basic plot overview of this episode:

The Doctor finally picks up Clara for her first adventure (after doing a little not-so-covert spying on her past first, cause...well, he can) and asks the usual question of what she wants to see. After some hesitation, she says, "Something awesome."

The Doctor is more than happy to oblige this request (there's nothing he likes better than impressing people), and takes her to probably the most awesome place we have seen on the show: the Rings of Akhaten. Which is a big massive system of planets all lit by this really bright star. And it just so happens that they're there just in time for the Festival of Offerings, a big festival that takes place every thousand years "or so" when the Rings align.

They head down to the planet (they initially landed on an asteroid for some reason) to check things out, and land in a big bazaar full of aliens of all sorts, where the currency is not money but things that are precious to you. Meanwhile, Clara gets separated from the Doctor and meets this little girl named Merry, who we learn is the Queen of Years, an important part of the Festival because she must sing some really important song to a god. And in fact, the reason she's in the bazaar is that she's really afraid she'll get the song wrong, so she ran away from her guardians. Clara reassures her, then takes her back to the priests that were looking for her.

The moment Merry is supposed to sing comes, and all seems to be going well...until Merry gets caught in some strange energy ball and pulled toward the strange pyramid floating on a asteroid in front of the arena. The Doctor and Clara trade Clara's mother's ring for a speeder bike (which, ironically for being alien technology, looks kinda dated, like it belongs in the original Star Wars or something, or even the much-lower-budget Classic Who) and go to try to rescue Merry, but aren't able to reach her before she is pulled into the pyramid. A sequence ensues where the Doctor uses the Sonic to get the door open (and some funny bits where Matt has to keep holding the Sonic up to the heavy door to keep it open, even if he has to squat...which cannot have been good for his fragile back) and we meet that creepy mummy thing we saw in the promo photos that was behind glass. Oh and there are also these aliens called The Vigil, who are supposed to feed the Queen of Years to the mummy thing if she refuses to voluntarily sacrifice herself, and who look kinda like the Ood in my opinion. Well either the Ood or some creepy monster from a risqué anime (the ones with nasty-tentacled monsters). And the Vigil are pretty powerful...they knock both The Doctor AND Clara down, as well as knocking the Doctor's Sonic out of the way. When the two come to, the Doctor asks Clara to toss him his Sonic and the fight resumes. Clara talks Merry into singing a song which opens a secret door (one wonders why she didn't sing it earlier), through which she and Merry escape while the Doctor remains to finish off the baddies before following them.

They find their way back to where Clara and the Doctor parked the speeder bike, but the Doctor quickly realizes that something even more serious is going down, and that the mummy thing isn't the real "old god" (or "Grandfather" as the locals call him), but just an alarm clock for the real god. And now the real "old god" is awake, and really hungry, and that is not a good thing. The Doctor decides to remain behind to deal with this hungry deity while Clara returns to the planet on the bike with Merry.

The next scene is really intense. The Doctor has some words with the voiceless god (as Clara, Merry, and a bunch of aliens watch from the arena) before offering his memories to the god as nourishment. (This scene actually reminded me a lot of the Doctor's big speech to the Devil in "The Satan Pit," though it lacked the swagger Tennant gave that speech and was instead a much more desperate speech, which is okay because that is more befitting the scene anyway). I was actually scared for the Doctor in that moment, thinking he would actually lose all his memories. Which would NOT be good.

But thankfully, he is not alone. Merry decides to help him by leading all the aliens in a song. Clara just watches, but remembering her mother's words to her as a child ("And I will always come and find you. Every single time") and the Doctor's words to her from earlier in the episode ("We don't walk away"), finally decides to go rescue The Doctor. She speeds back to him on the speeder bike and offers the leaf from her 101 Places to See book to the god, saying it is full of history. The Doctor (who had been on his knees when Clara arrived) recovers and dares the god to eat the leaf, but it ends up exploding due to the leaf being full of an infinity of days that should have been but never came.

After this, The Doctor takes Clara back home (not sure why though) and tells her she reminds him of someone who died. Clara, however, takes the defensive:

Well, whoever she was, I'm not her, okay? If you want me to travel with you, that's fine. But as me. I'm not a bargain basement stand-in for someone else. I'm not going to compete with a ghost.

This is somewhat like the end of Series 3, when Martha realized she was always going to be second best to Rose in the Doctor's heart and decided to leave:

DOCTOR: Of course not. Thank you. Martha Jones, you saved the world.
MARTHA: Yes, I did. I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am good. You going to be all right?
DOCTOR: Always. Yeah.
MARTHA: Right then. Bye.
(Martha leaves, then goes back inside.)
MARTHA: Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him.
DOCTOR: Is this going anywhere?
MARTHA: Yes. Because he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted years pining after him. Years of her life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out. So this is me, getting out.

Anyway, The Doctor gives Clara back her ring (the people of Akhaten wanted her to have it back) and she leaves the TARDIS. The Doctor then closes the door, with a serious look on his face.

***

So, why did I start with a plot overview instead of analyzing the plot as I went along?

Well, mostly because I wanted to get the plot out of the way before I went on to say something I want to say about this episode.

Okay, so a LOT of people, I've noticed, have been going on online, saying that this episode is "bad" and has a "weak plot." Not everyone, mind you; there are people who, like me, liked the episode a lot. But it does seem like a large majority of people did not like it.

I'll admit -- like with "The Bells of Saint John," the villains sort of took the back seat here. Also, for all the worry Merry had about singing the song, the moment where she actually did so was kinda underwhelming.

But I would not say that this episode had a weak plot. It did have a simple plot, but that's not the same thing. Someone pointed out in one discussion I read -- and I agree with this -- that the Classic Who episodes also usually had simple plots. Of course, that may be because they had a much lower budget back then. Also, because the episodes aired as multi-week serials (the different "parts" of the episode airing over several consecutive weeks), they didn't have to cram a ton of stuff into one episode.

The plot did not have the suspense and impact of "The Bells of Saint John," to be sure. It starts out simple enough - typical first Companion adventure with the Doctor introducing the Companion to what life is like traveling with him and trying to impress the Companion along the way. As Doctor Who episodes often go, The Doctor then discovers that something's awry and goes about figuring out what it is and fixing the problem/defeating the enemy. This is a simple plot, typical Doctor Who formula.

But I don't think this means it's weak. You have to remember too -- the guy who wrote this, Neil Cross, had never written for Doctor Who before prior to writing this episode (as well as "Hide," which airs in a couple weeks). He's primarily known as the showrunner/creator of Luther, a psychological crime drama that has, like Sherlock, been released in short seasons of a few episodes each (6 in the first season, 4 in the second, with a third season on the way). So, being new to the writing team, he was probably counseled to stick to a tried-and-true story formula.

Also, Series 7 has, as a series, been produced very differently from other series/seasons of Doctor Who. Instead of using a season-wide story arc like before, Series 7 consists of standalone adventures styled, as Moffat put it, like blockbuster movies. You had a big Dalek episode, an episode in space with dinosaurs, a Western, a kinda Wild Card episode ("The Power of Three"), and a sad, dramatic episode. Then came the traditional Christmas Special, which played out much like a movie as well (one could almost say it has a three-act structure, one of the most well-known story structures; I'd have to sit down and analyze it properly to say for sure).

And then came Series 7 Part 2. Again, we have episodes that look like they are meant to be blockbusters: a Bond/Bourne-influenced techno-thriller ("The Bells of Saint John"), an episode that is a bit Indiana Jones and a bit "old school sci-fi flick" (this episode), another thriller/adventure type of episode that's clearly influenced by The Hunt for Red October (this weekend's episode, "Cold War"), a ghost story ("Hide"), a sci-fi adventure probably influenced (and clearly named for) A Journey to the Center of the Earth ("Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS"), a Gothic-style horror story set in Victorian Yorkshire ("The Crimson Horror"), a creepy story involving a theme park and Cybermen ("Nightmare in Silver"), and an equally creepy (and also potentially Gothic) finale with waxy Silence-esque villains called The Whispermen, and suspense via a plot about someone stealing all The Doctor's friends, the return of River Song, and the revelation of a "big secret" about The Doctor ("Untitled Finale"). Not to mention the 50th Anniversary Special (also as yet unnamed) which the finale supposedly will lead into (per Matt Smith) and which we don't know much about the plot of - other than that it involves Ten, Rose (yep Tennant and Billie Piper are in it...yay!), Eleven, Clara, UNIT, Zygons, and some intense scenes like Eleven hanging from the TARDIS over Trafalgar Square (as shown from recent filming photos).

So I think people need to give these episodes a break. Just saying.

One thing that DID bug me a bit about this episode was this whole thing of The Doctor going to the past and basically spying on Clara (and her parents). I'm not really sure why that whole subplot was even necessary, though it wasn't random to be sure because of how it tied in with the rest of the episode through the leaf and through Clara realizing at the end of the episode that the Doctor was there watching when she and her dad were at her mother's grave 8 years prior. I guess it might come into play later in the big grand scheme of things that is the ongoing "Clara's identity" mystery. Still, it kinda feels wrong to me that he did that. I mean, ok, I get it, he has a time machine, but seriously, Doctor? Even if it was for the sake of unraveling the mystery about Clara, there is such a thing as privacy!

Lastly...there was a nice little nod in this episode to a certain Classic Who character:

DOCTOR: ...Do you know, I forget how much I like it here. We should come here more often.
CLARA: You've been here before?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes. I came here a long time ago with my granddaughter.

Of course, anyone familiar with Classic Who will recall that the First Doctor traveled with his granddaughter, Susan Foreman (not her actual name, just one she took while she and The Doctor were on Earth; one of the novels reveals her Gallifreyan name to be Arkytior). So, I took this line to be a reference to her. This is the first time I have seen Susan referenced in New Who, so I'm glad Steven Moffat decided to acknowledge her existence, especially with this being an anniversary year. Also, if the Festival of Offerings happens every 1,000 years or so, then most likely the Doctor's last visit there would have been within the First Doctor's lifetime, since the Doctor is currently 1,200 years old (he told Clara he was 1,000 but I think he was rounding, so I'm going off the number he gave in "A Town Called Mercy") and was somewhere in his 200s when he started traveling around in the TARDIS. (Then again, since he can time travel, this might be a moot point).

***

Okay, so that's my analysis. Next up: "Cold War," an episode clearly influenced by the famous Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October and its equally famous film adaptation starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. I haven't read the book, but I did see the movie at some point. The main difference? Ice Warriors of course! This episode will mark the Ice Warriors' first appearance since The Monster of Peladon in 1974. Forty freaking years ago. (Well, 39 if you want to get technical). And several hundred years ago from The Doctor's perspective. The episode is written by Mark Gatiss, who has wanted to bring the Ice Warriors back for ages but was only able to now because he talked Moffat into it while on the phone with him to talk ideas for Sherlock. Which just goes to show how awesome Gatiss is. (Also, a post I read on Tumblr today quoted Moffat as saying he really likes this episode too, that it's his favorite...so that should tell us something).

Also, the episode guest stars well-known actor David Warner, primarily known for roles like Sark/Dillinger/MCP in the original Tron and Spicer Lovejoy in Titanic, as Professor Grisenko. He is joined by Liam Cunningham, currently known for his role as Davos Seaworth on Game of Thrones, as Captain Zhukov and Tobias Menzies (Brutus in the miniseries Rome) as Lieutenant Stepashin. The episode is directed by Douglas Mackinnon, who directed a few episodes of Moffat's miniseries Jekyll and also directed the Doctor Who episodes "The Sontaran Strategem," "The Poison Sky," and "The Power of Three."

As I did last time, here's some trailers to whet your appetite before the episode airs! First ones are BBC, last is BBC America, as before.

Also, you can get some hints about the episode here. If you want.

Oh, and in honor of the Susan reference, I'm tagging this with her tag as well as Clara's. :)

Well, till Saturday! Cheers!

Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts. "Last of the Time Lords" quote from this transcript.

Series 7, Episode 7 (Series 7 Part 2 Premiere): "The Bells of Saint John"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:58:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Major spoiler warning here, obviously, if you haven't watched it yet. I think it gets a re-run on the BBC this weekend, plus it's on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video now. If you want to go watch it.

So....Series 7 Part 2 is finally here! After months of waiting! Huzzah! Or, as Matt would say, Geronimo!

First, let me say...it's best if you avoid spoilers before watching this. I did, and I'm so grateful. It's kind of like when Deathly Hallows came out. There were so many spoilers and leaks it was not even funny. But I avoided them all. Plus, I wasn't able to pick up the book (which I'd pre-ordered) from the store until the Monday after it was released, which meant that I had to avoid spoilers during release weekend too, which was really freaking hard. (If you are a Potterhead or were one when DH came out, you know exactly what I'm talking about).

Second of all, it's a great episode! However, it's very different I think than the typical Doctor Who episode. There is much more focus on the Doctor and his Companion than there is on the villains. Then again, this seems to be a trend throughout Series 7 (with the possible exception of the Christmas Special). I think this is because Series 7 is made up of standalone movie-style stories, as opposed to episodes with an ongoing theme running throughout like previous seasons/series, such as Series 6. And in movies, you can focus more closely on small stuff. Honestly, I don't like the trend these days of cramming as much as you possibly can into a single TV episode. Some shows, I swear...you'd be surprised how much they can cram into an hour. Once Upon a Time is guilty of this, also Pretty Little Liars. Doctor Who, thankfully, does not seem to do this (instead stretching their longer stories out into two-parters).

So...anyway, the episode.

The episode starts with a voiceover over various clips, talking about wi-fi and telling people not to click on a wi-fi network whose name is in weird alien letters (which, for some reason, make me think of Aurebesh, the writing from Star Wars). Basically, this is the same as the "Nabile's Warning" preview video that BBC One released prior to the premiere last Saturday:

But there's a twist. The video of Nabile zooms out...and we learn that Nabile, the very person warning people about the alien wi-fi, is in fact a victim of the alien wi-fi himself. Whoa!

And then we go into the wonderful awesome new opening sequence with the cool remixed song. Which I ran back (I was watching a DVR recording, because I was at work when the episode actually aired) so I could hum along. Cause I'm weird and becoming this big Whovian geek. Did I mention I watched this episode wearing my bow tie from work and drinking from a white mug?

And...now all the sudden we're in 1207 Cambria. Where, once again, contrary to the orders of both Amy and River, the Doctor is off hiding by himself. Though this time he's not just brooding and mourning, like he was in "The Snowmen." He's gone into isolation and contemplation in a 13th-century monastery to think about Clara and to "divine the meaning" of her Famous Last Words ("Run, clever boy, and remember"). Why exactly he felt the need to do this, I'm not sure. Couldn't he do it just as well in the TARDIS? Then again, if he is as despondent about finding Clara in this episode as he was in the "Bells of Saint John" prequel, maybe he needed to go somewhere to clear his head.

Anyway, a couple monks go to the Doctor to tell him "the bells of Saint John are ringing" (the source of the episode title, in case you couldn't tell). He leaves to prepare, and the monks stare at the painting he has done of Clara. Who knew the Doctor was such a good painter?

From the painting of Clara we go straight into the life of modern-day Clara. Clara was so great in this episode; I love her even more now. Jenna-Louise Coleman is just so great!! Anyway, it turns out that this Clara is living with some family and taking care of the kids. Her main concern right now though: she can't get the internet to work on her computer.

Another thing worth noting in this scene: the book the kid in Clara's house has:

Did you notice the author's name??

AMELIA WILLIAMS.

Huh. Who has that name in Doctor Who? Oh, yeah, AMY POND. "Amelia Williams" is her formal married name, and the name we know she went by after being displaced in time, as indicated by the Afterword in "The Angels Take Manhattan."

So, I guess Amy became an author? We know as of "The Angels Take Manhattan" she was a journalist, and River clearly wrote a novel at some point in her life cause she wrote that Melody Malone one, so maybe Amy took a cue from her daughter or something. (Hey, why not? She unknowingly named her daughter after her daughter. Cause Mels was actually River). The styling of the cover does also seem very typical of the '30's or '40's, which is the time period Amy and Rory got sent back to.

There has also been some fan debate about Clara saying "11 is the best. You'll cry your eyes out...the good kind of crying" regarding this book. Some people think this is a reference to the Doctor, basically saying that Eleven is better than Ten, and a slight to Whovians who "cried their eyes out" over the Series 7 Part 1 finale. Honestly, I don't think the line is supposed to mean anything else than its face value - that Clara thought Chapter 11 of the book was the best, and that it made her cry. But then it's hard to know with Clara - even when you think she wouldn't remember things from her "other" selves, she does (like with the "soufflé" comment in "The Snowmen," a throwback to Oswin). Anyway, BBC Books is actually releasing that book for real as an e-book this weekend, so maybe I'll get it and read it to see what Chapter 11 is like.

The episode now switches back to 1207, where the Doctor has hidden the TARDIS away in an unassuming place in the middle of nowhere - in this case, in a cave in the middle of a forest. Which is not unlike what he did in "Human Nature," where he hid the TARDIS inside an unassuming little hut while he was human:

The "bell," it turns out, is the phone on the front of the TARDIS, which isn't supposed to ring. (The "Saint John" part is probably due to the "St. John's Ambulance" sticker on the door opposite the phone). The Doctor is confused as to why it could be ringing, but picks it up anyway.

And...he ends up talking to Clara, who thinks she's called tech support for help with her computer but has somehow called the TARDIS's police box phone instead (she claims some woman at a shop gave her the number). A rather funny conversation follows, where Clara claims she can't find the internet, that the wi-fi's not working for her, etc. Basically, this Clara, unlike Oswin, is clever but has zero computer skills. I found it weird that she had zero computer skills; I mean, don't they have to teach you computer skills in school now? Maybe it's different in England.

Then, Clara decides to try the family wi-fi router network, and asks one of the kids for the password, which like any good computer password is a random string of letters and numbers. The less-than-computer-savvy Clara decides to invent a mnemonic phrase to remember said password, which happens to be "rycbar123."

She then says this phrase aloud to herself, unaware the Doctor is still on the other end of the phone line. The phrase? "Run you clever boy and remember...1, 2, 3."

The Doctor has an a-ha moment at this point, realizing that he is talking to Clara. Once again, she has gotten his attention with words she had no clue meant anything to him (like in "The Snowmen" with "Pond"). He hangs up and prepares to leave. Meanwhile, however, Clara, desperate for wi-fi that does work (distracted by the Doctor, she typed the password wrong, so the family one won't work), sees the mysterious alien wi-fi pop up on her network list and innocently clicks it...making her a victim of the bad guys.

Clara heads downstairs, only to be greeted by someone banging on the front door. She opens it, and it's The Doctor, still in monk robes. He addresses her by name and asks if she remembers him, but she doesn't, and even with all his efforts to talk to her, she slams the door in his face.

After this we finally travel over to the Mighty Villain Lair, which is basically a high-rise office building. Here we meet Miss Kizlet, who seems to be in charge of everything, and learn a bit more about the evil plan in this episode, which is to capture human souls/minds via their evil wi-fi and trap them in the internet. There is also a reference to "Spoonheads," and we learn that Kizlet can "hack" her employees to make them have less conscience and such. Which I have to admit is pretty creepy.

Now, back to Clara. She's still by the door, trying to process her encounter with the Doctor, when she hears noises upstairs. All the sudden, a young girl starts walking down the stairs. Clara thinks she looks familiar, but can't quite place her. Then we see - the girl looks like the one on the cover of the Amelia Williams book. Clara asks the girl if she is a friend of Angie's (one of the kids Clara takes care of), but the strange girl seems to be only able to mimic what Clara says. And then...creepiness alert...her head turns around, and it's only half a head! The other side is concave, like a spoon - hence the "Spoonheads." On the other side is some weird screen thing, and it turns to Clara menacingly.

We then realize (from a brief flash over to Villain Central) that Clara is being uploaded to the bad guys' big Data Cloud of souls. Uh oh.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has popped over to the TARDIS to change clothes, thinking that maybe he turned Clara off by showing up as a monk. This prompts probably one of my favorite lines in the episode:

Right. Don't be a monk. Monks are NOT cool.

For once, we get to hear Eleven say something is NOT cool. Cool.

By the way, those of you who, unlike me, were able to keep up with all the teasers and trailers for Series 7 Part 2 will probably recognize this scene of the Doctor. It's the same scene shown in this teaser from the BBC:

I also noticed that the angle from which we see The Doctor enter the TARDIS in this scene is a different angle than what we usually see. We usually see The Doctor and/or other characters enter the TARDIS from outside and then have a follow-shot of them walking in in a side view, with the door behind them and the console and other environs front and center. In this case, we're seeing the TARDIS set as if the camera was on the opposite side of the room, looking toward the door from the inside. It's an interesting change.

This is actually our first look at the inside of the TARDIS in this episode, come to think of it. The overall look of it hasn't changed. The "wardrobe" of the Doctor's clothes seems to have moved, now being comprised of deep cupboards located on the same floor as the control console. However, this may just be a small stash of clothes the Doctor keeps close at hand, and not his full wardrobe, which we know from "The Christmas Invasion" is quite large. Or maybe it IS all he has left; Ten's TARDIS basically blew up, after all, when he regenerated, so who knows how many clothes were saved when the TARDIS rebuilt itself in "The Eleventh Hour"? I'd guess though that the original wardrobe still exists to some extent; even a future version of River in the special "Last Night" (from the Series 6 DVD) is seen wearing a dress said to come from The Doctor's wardrobe.

The Doctor goes through various clothes before finding a proper outfit, and in perhaps the fastest changing of clothes ever done, he's now changed into a somewhat Victorian outfit, though NOT the same one he wore in the Christmas Special, with a frock coat and fancy trousers to go with his usual off-white button-down shirt. Apparently, he's also had time to fix his hair, because it's suddenly back to "normal" as well (not the messy, unkempt cut we saw him with a moment before). He buttons up the last button on his shirt, looking overly pleased with himself, then returns to the cupboard and digs out a box. He opens the box, and...lo and behold, THE BOW TIE HAS RETURNED. (As has the fez, as we see earlier in the scene and also in the background of this shot, on the floor).

Happy with his new outfit, he heads back to Clara's door, thinking she'll talk to him now that he looks more presentable. He tries to talk to her via the video intercom, but all he hears is her saying she's scared and doesn't know where she is.

He rushes in, only to find Clara collapsed and the weird girl still on the stairs. He begins to piece together what's going on, uses the Sonic to reduce the girl to her real robot form, and rushes upstairs and grabs Clara's laptop (or netbook? Seems more like a netbook given the size). He then engages in a serious hacking war with one of Kizlet's men (whose IQ she upgrades so he'll be equal to the task), but ultimately wins and manages to undo Clara's uploading, which has only reached 50% or so.

I was a little confused by this part. How is the Doctor such a good hacker all the sudden? And if he has always been that good, then why did he use Mickey to hack things for him in Series 1 and 2? At any rate, he apparently is a crazy good hacker, and also has a typing speed off the charts.

The Doctor checks to see if Clara is all right, then sends a stern message to Kizlet, reading "Under My Protection --The Doctor." Kizlet dismisses her subordinate so she may confer with their "client," a.k.a. the real boss of all this. She tells her unseen boss that "he" is here, the one she had been told about.

The Doctor takes Clara up to her attic room and puts her in bed, while setting out some tea, flowers, and cookies on the bedside table. (Fans have confirmed that the cookies are Jammie Dodgers, a popular type of British cookie which Eleven previously showed an interest in...of course, being an American, I did not recognize them). He takes one of the cookies and bites into it, and it's clear he enjoys it very much. Then, rather oddly, he places the bitten-into cookie back on the plate.

He then looks around the room and finds a book entitled 101 Places to See, which he looks at. (Jenna-Louise Coleman stated in an interview that Clara's mother gave her the book). One page has the words "Property of Clara Oswald" and then a series of numbers, most of them crossed out, which I assumed were meant to be her age throughout the years she's owned the book. Fans have noted, however, that the numbers 16 and 23 are missing from the list. No one's quite sure why; though I read one good theory that pointed out that, if Clara is meant to be 24 in 2013, then when she was 16 it would have been 2005. Which, of course, was when the New Who series started. I built on this theory, saying that if she is 24 in 2013 then she would have been 23 in 2012, which is when Clara's character was introduced on the show. Not sure if there is any credence to either of those theories yet. But we've already seen some "meta" stuff going on with Clara before (Victorian Clara was born on November 23, the same day Doctor Who premiered on TV in 1963, and when she died she was 26, the same amount of years Doctor Who was on hiatus between Classic Who and New Who), so it's totally possible.

Opposite the page with the numbers lies a maple leaf. The Doctor examines it, and, as he is fond of doing, licks it. He has a strange reaction to the taste. It's not clear whether he likes it or not; his facial expression is a bit vague and seems to show both interest and possible disgust simultaneously.

He then puts the book back and leaves, just as Clara wakes up.

Time passes, and Clara opens her cool little attic window (I've always wanted a window like that!) and peers out, where she finds the Doctor camped outside, with a little table and chairs set up outside the TARDIS. They have a conversation and Clara asks The Doctor if he's guarding her, which he says he is. He also rattles off the things he's done, which include: he took a message from Angie, who says she's staying over at Nina's; he took yet another message from Clara's father, which was apparently about politics and on which The Doctor has "several pages" of notes; and he fixed some noise the washing machine was making.

Clara then comes down and joins the Doctor outside. He tells her about the sentient wi-fi that appears to be what attacked her before, which then leads to this exchange:

DOCTOR: Imagine that, human souls trapped like flies in the world wide web, stuck for ever, crying out for help.
CLARA: Isn't that basically Twitter?

I took note of that, because in a recent interview at a London Apple Store, Matt Smith had said the episode would have Twitter-bashing in it. Apparently Steven Moffat himself is not fond of Twitter. And this is hardly the first time the Doctor has mentioned Twitter - as anyone who has, like me, seen the famous "New to Who" hashtag promotion commercial BBC America blasted at you every five minutes last year can attest. If you haven't seen that commercial, basically it was one that aired leading up to the Series 7 premiere and encouraged people to write about their first Doctor Who experience on Twitter, using the hashtag "#newtowho." The primary tagline of said commercial was this one from The Doctor:

I bring you to a paradise planet, two billion light years from Earth, and you want to update Twitter.

Ironically, I thought this was just a line they made up for the commercial. Apparently, it's not. It's actually a real line, said by Eleven to Amy in "The Girl Who Waited," the 10th episode of Series 6.

Anyway, the Doctor realizes something at this moment. As far as he knows, Clara doesn't know a thing about the Internet...

...and she just made a joke about Twitter.

Apparently, when Clara was downloaded back into her body, she brought something extra back with her. And now she and the Doctor have huge targets on their backs. So much so that the villains drain most of metro London's power and remotely hack Clara's neighbors to threaten them, not to mention they send both a Spoonhead and an out-of-control plane after them! The Doctor tells Clara to get in the TARDIS with him, but she's suspicious, flirtatiously asking him if the TARDIS is a "snog box." Now, I knew (from reading Harry Potter) that "snog" is British slang for "kiss," so basically I guess she's asking him if it's some box that couples secretly hide in to kiss/make out. He denies it, obviously. And when the plane shows up, he basically grabs her hand and forces her to follow him in, her mug of tea and all. After the TARDIS experiences some turbulence, he flips some switches, and the two then exit the TARDIS, which for some reason is now onboard the out-of-control plane. I don't quite understand why he did that; it does seem a little weird. Anyway, The Doctor and Clara make their way down the plane (Clara clutching her mug tightly the whole time) till they reach the cockpit, where the Doctor reveals he can't fly a plane. Clara says she can't either, so he says they'll learn together and takes the controls, somehow managing to stabilize the plane. He then disables the plane's wi-fi with his Sonic, waking everyone up, including the pilots. After which he and Clara bid adieu and head back to the TARDIS, where Clara finally gets to drink her tea.

The Doctor then time-travels to morning and declares they are going to go get breakfast. He lands somewhere in London and he and Clara emerge in broad daylight, where The Doctor produces his famous fez and collects "donations" for their breakfast as Clara looks on. He then heads back inside the TARDIS and hunts through the garage for something, before emerging on a nice (and somewhat retro-looking) Triumph motorbike, his helmet already on. He gives Clara hers and she climbs aboard. The Doctor gives his fez to a kid, and the two speed off across a bridge headed toward Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

But...little do they know, they are being watched, over back at Villain HQ. Via tourists taking pictures, among other things. Kizlet delights in this, saying she loves London because there are so many cameras.

Along the way, Clara asks The Doctor why they're on a motorbike at all:

CLARA: If you've got a flying time machine, why are we on a motorbike?
DOCTOR: I don't take the TARDIS into battle.
CLARA: Because it's made of wood?
DOCTOR: Because it's the most powerful ship in the universe and I don't want it falling into the wrong hands.

I found the fact that the Doctor says he doesn't take the TARDIS into battle weird, because I think he has taken it into battle in a sense before. Plus, we know from the Expanded Universe of Doctor Who that "Battle TARDISes" did indeed exist at one point and were used by the Time Lords during the Time War.

Clara's response "Because it's made of wood" might mean a couple things. It might just refer to the fact that it's a police box, and the police box model the TARDIS resembles was made of wood (or, rather, wood and concrete, according to the blueprints). Or - and this is what I thought - it might be an in-joke referring to how the Doctor's Sonic doesn't work on wood. But I guess that's a long shot. (Plus, I think the TARDIS prop is made out of wood as well anyway).

The pair stop by a cafe for breakfast, where the Doctor tries to figure out why Clara's spending her time being a nanny. Clara eventually turns the conversation over to the matter at hand, and asks if he's figured out where the enemies are operating from yet, and he says he can't pinpoint their location. She volunteers to do so, since she basically has a computer in her brain now. He protests, but after some back-and-forth banter and trying to grab Clara's laptop, he finally gives in and leaves to get them more coffee.

A couple things about this scene: there are references to "The Snowmen" and maybe "Asylum of the Daleks" in the dialogue that a clever ear can catch. The Doctor's line, "I can't tell the future, I only work there" reminded me of a line from Star Trek IV, where Kirk tells Catherine Hicks's character, "I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space." And oh, let's not forget what happened to the last person who left to get the Doctor's party coffee... ("The Angels Take Manhattan," anyone?)

The next scene is very weird, with the Doctor confronting the enemies openly for the first time and Kizlet communicating with him by using the people in the cafe. It's weird and unnerving. And also a glaring reference to the Series 2 ep "The Idiot's Lantern" (and not the only reference to that episode in this episode), particularly Kizlet speaking through the lady on the TV. Despite their threats, however, the Doctor vows that "the people of this world will not be controlled" and declares that he will stop them. We also learn here the purpose for the bad guys harvesting human minds - they're necessary nourishment for their "client."

Meanwhile, Clara is still outside, hard at work using her newfound computer knowledge. She does some clever hacking and gains access to an employee roster from the building where the villains are operating. She then uses a face-matching program to pull up the social media pages for each of these people - Facebook, Twitter, etc (what looks like a Google+ profile is seen at one point also). The people back at Villain HQ realize what's going on and try to stop it, but are unable to. This leads to a funny scene where the main guy asks all the staff who's on Facebook and other social networks, and did they put on there where they work. Which of course they did. We all do that. That's part of the story/lesson of this episode, really -- about how much we depend on the Internet and how, in a way, parts of us are already on there, just not as souls sucked into the Data Cloud by Spoonheads.

Using these profiles -- and the employees' stupidity in all putting where they work on their profiles -- Clara realizes they all say they work at "The Shard." Clara looks out over the city and sees the building they're talking about.

Now, something I didn't realize watching the episode is that...The Shard is actually a real place! They didn't make that up for the episode. It's an actual skyscraper in Southwark, London, and is the tallest building in the EU. It's very new; it just opened to the public on February 1 of this year. Which means that the Doctor Who crew probably got to go into it before practically anyone else, since they assumedly filmed this episode before then. Here's what it looks like:

The Doctor returns, and Clara excitedly begins to tell him what she found out. But, strangely, he only looks at her blankly and can only mimic what she says. And then his head turns around...

IT'S NOT THE DOCTOR. IT'S A SPOONHEAD. WHAT THE GALLIFREY.

In the recording of the episode I watched, they placed this moment right before a commercial break, probably for maximum impact. I remember seeing it and saying aloud, "Oh my God, they did not just do that." That was totally out of left field. I thought they'd like turned him into a Spoonhead or something, but then I remembered the Spoonheads take on a form based on something in your subconscious, like how the Spoonhead Clara met earlier took on the form of that girl from the book Clara was reading. So, in this case, it took on the form of The Doctor instead.

Anyway, Spoonhead-Doctor wastes no time in uploading Clara back into the villain's evil Data Cloud, and fully doing it this time. By the time the real Doctor finally shows up, it's too late - Clara has been fully uploaded. All he can see is a collapsed Clara and his Spoonhead doppelganger, but, hearing Clara's cries for help from the screen on the concave part of the Spoonhead, he is able to figure out what's going on and spring into action.

We now switch to the streets of London, where the Doctor's back on the Triumph. He finds The Shard, and a man in front of him (who is being used by Kizlet to communicate with the Doctor) mocks him, saying a motorbike "isn't like him." The Doctor boasts that he rode it in the first Anti-Grav Olympics (although he came in last). (I missed the reference here, but some fans have pointed out that the line about the "Anti-Grav Olympics" here is a throwback to the beginning of "Tooth and Claw"...in the opening of that episode Ten happens to mention an Anti-Grav Olympics in passing). The man taunts the Doctor, saying there's no way he's going to break into The Shard, but the Doctor responds, "Didn't you hear me say, 'anti-grav'?" He then pushes a button and rides the motorbike up the side of the building (a really cool shot) before crash-landing in Kizlet's office.

Kizlet enters the office to see what's going on. The Doctor has already made himself comfortable, in a chair with his feet on the table. (This is somewhat similar to how he is in "The Snowmen" when he and Vastra go to confront Dr. Simeon). Notably, he still has his helmet on. (Pay attention to that - it's important). He threatens Kizlet, telling her to download Clara back into her body. She says that the only way that can be done is to download the whole cloud - or basically, send all the souls back into their bodies - and that she won't do. He tells her she will, and that he will give her very good motivation to do so. She asks him how he will do so.

He removes his helmet...and we see he only has half a head.

IT'S NOT THE DOCTOR IN THE OFFICE. In fact, he never left the cafe; he's still there, sipping his coffee out of a demitasse and watching over Clara's body. He sent Spoonhead-Doctor instead. Somehow (in a way that is not really explained, but may have to do with Clara's laptop, since he is seen sitting in front of it), he is controlling Spoonhead-Doctor remotely and speaking through it and everything. (Hey, the Doctor does have pretty strong mental powers, right?) That was a pretty crazy reveal. Was not expecting that. Clara/Oswin's right; the Doctor is a "clever boy." :)

Using Spoonhead-Doctor, he uploads Kizlet herself to the cloud. Needless to say, she is not happy to be there. She tries to get her second-in-command to free her, but he refuses, for the same reason Kizlet did - in order to free her, he'd have to free everyone.

But the Doctor still has some tricks up his sleeve. Remember how Kizlet was able to "hack" her employees and change their attributes (conscience, IQ, etc)? Well, Spoonhead-Doctor, under the real Doctor's control, finds the tablet she uses for that, and cranks up Mr. Second-in-Command's Obedience level. Which basically makes him change his mind and tell his associate to "download" everyone back to their bodies.

Time passes, and as of the next scene, UNIT has shown up and is dismantling the whole operation. Kizlet, now back in her body, reports her failures to her "client." And here comes the kicker...addressing her client, Kizlet says:

Then I appear to have failed you, Great Intelligence.

Aha! So The Great Intelligence was behind this! That was another double-take moment for me, similar to the "Amelia Williams" popping up on the book cover. The Great Intelligence (which has apparently retained the appearance/consciousness of Dr. Simeon from "The Snowmen," even a century later, since Richard E. Grant, who played Simeon, is credited as playing the role in this episode) informs her that he has fed on many minds and grown, but now it's time for her to reduce. Basically, he's giving her the "You Have Outlived Your Usefulness" talk.

Kizlet reluctantly complies with this and grabs her tablet. On it is a large button that says "Restore to Factory Settings." I had to laugh at that, as such a button is part and parcel of most, if not all, Apple mobile products. Not sure if it's meant to refer to that, but that's what I thought it was.

This causes everyone to have a terrible headache and suddenly remember who they really are. Which I'm sure didn't help UNIT out one bit in their investigation. ^_^

We also find out Kizlet has been helping Mr. GI for a LONG time. Her first words after being restored to "factory settings" are "Are you my mummy and daddy?" She basically has the mind of a child. (Also, I picked up the question as being a reference to another episode Moffat wrote, "The Empty Child," which features the famous-among-Whovians quote "Are you my mummy?").

We go back to The Doctor and Clara now, on the TARDIS. He tries to invite her along, but she's not quite ready and tells him to come back tomorrow. As she leaves, he asks her why there was a leaf in her 101 Places to See book, to which she replies:

That wasn't a leaf. That was page one.

What does that mean, I wonder? Even the official BBC Doctor Who Twitter account wants to know, apparently, since they posted this tweet asking fans about it:

So, now you’ve had chance to think about it, what do you think is so important about the leaf? Share your thoughts! #theleaf
— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) March 31, 2013

Personally, I think it's a play on words. A leaf can be a leaf from a tree, but the word can also refer to a page in a book. One of the definitions of the word "leaf" is "a unit generally comprising two printed, blank, or illustrated pages of a book, one on each side."

But maybe we're not meant to know yet.

Anyway, she leaves, and the Doctor heads up to the gallery, looking expectantly toward us, and saying:

Right then, Clara Oswald. Time to find out who you are.

And...that's it. Episode over.

***

I did like this episode a lot. Like I said, it's different. Moffat said in interviews it would be like James Bond and/or The Bourne Identity, and it definitely has that feel, and that type of action. More Bond than Bourne IMO. The Doctor IS very Bond-like in this episode, even if Clara doesn't fit the typical Bond Girl role here. The plot of the bad guys using the wi-fi to capture people is the type of plot that would fit a Bond movie as well. Plus Miss Kizlet struck me from the very first trailer as looking very like M as played by Dame Judi Dench. Some reviews I've seen, though, have complained that this enemy plot kinda takes the back seat to the task of re-introducing Clara. And it's true, more focus is put on that than on the dangerous plot the enemies have going. But I think it's kind of necessary given that it was the premiere, and The Doctor finding Clara needed to happen in this first episode to set things up for the rest of Series 7 Part 2. To be honest, the same was true of "Asylum of the Daleks," the Series 7 Part 1 opener; the interaction between the characters and the mystery of Oswin took center stage over the plot the Daleks had of blowing up the asylum planet, which was almost not even a plot point half the time.

This episode also featured a lot of throwbacks to other episodes, and not just the ones Clara has been in before. Maybe because this is the first episode of the 50th anniversary year? The James Bond film Die Another Day, which was both the 20th film in the series and also marked the Bond franchise's 40th Anniversary, did that too.

I loved Clara before this episode, but I love her more now as a result of this episode. Jenna-Louise Coleman is such a gifted actress. It's gonna be real fun to see her character aboard the TARDIS, I think!

Surprisingly I am warming up to Eleven now too. I never thought I'd actually say that. His very alien look always kind of creeped me out, which I guess is unfortunate, because - all things considered - Matt Smith is a darn good actor. He really is. Will see what I think by the Series 7 finale.

Moving on into the rest of Series 7 Part 2...Moffat has stated that by the end of these episodes we will know who Clara is. Seriously, he said that. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed. I was kind of hoping they'd spread it out a bit more. I mean, we had like a season and a half to guess who River Song really was, so why not give us lots of time to speculate? Not that there aren't like a gazillion theories out there already, but...I don't know. I don't feel ready for that revelation to come so fast.

Matt Smith also confirmed that the Series 7 finale will lead directly into the 50th Anniversary Special, which will air on November 23, 2013 (the actual anniversary). And we know from Moffat that River Song is confirmed to appear in the finale, so I imagine River will be involved somehow in the special too. Oh, and it was just confirmed that David Tennant and Billie Piper will definitely appear in the Anniversary Special, as Ten and Rose! They'll be in it along with John Hurt (Ollivander from Harry Potter), Welsh actress Joanna Page, Ken Bones (Lord Halifax in Upstairs Downstairs), some newbie actor named Orlando James, another actor named Marshall Griffin, and of course Matt and Jenna.

So...there's a lot to look forward to!

Speaking of which, to hold you over till next Saturday, here's some trailers for next Saturday's episode, "The Rings of Akhaten." Which, despite the name, is NOT set in Ancient Egypt, which I seriously thought it was because the name "Akhaten" sounded very Ancient Egyptian. I mean, doesn't it? Nope, apparently it is set in space, and somewhere pretty awesome to boot. The first two trailers are from the BBC, the last from BBC America. The BBC ones have more clips.

By the way, "Something awesome" has got to be the most awesome answer to that "Where do you want to go/what do you want to see" question EVER. You rock, Clara.

Well, till next week! (If I don't post sooner...I have some older posts to catch up on too). Hopefully next time, I'll have the analysis up closer to when the episode aired...

Quotes from my memory, Democratic Underground, or consulting trailers. "The Girl Who Waited" quote from The Doctor Who Transcripts. "Summer Falls" pic from The Nerdist; bow tie pic screencapped by me from this clip; "Human Nature" pic from Sonic Biro.

Thanks also to Anglophenia's recap of the episode; I consulted it to refresh my memory on some points, since in my excitement over watching it I had forgotten some of what happened.

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 2, "Tooth and Claw"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:46:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Ok, going to try to catch up with these posts, since we're now a mere FIVE days away from the return of Doctor Who to television.

Next up, Series 2, Episode 2, "Tooth and Claw."

This episode takes the Doctor and Rose to 1879 Scotland, where they run into Queen Victoria, who happens to be traveling by carriage through the area. She is on her way to the Torchwood Estate, a favorite of her late husband Prince Albert, to stay for the night, since the highlands are dangerous at night, due to tales of wolves.

Ironically, in the beginning of the episode, the Doctor and Rose were actually planning to go to 1979, to attend an Ian Drury concert. But the TARDIS goofed up. By like a hundred years. This seems to be a running gag with Ten, ending up in the wrong place -- it happens other times in Series 2 also. Either he's not really that good at flying the TARDIS, or maybe he still has that Randomiser that the Fourth and Fifth Doctors installed.

This is a good episode if you like werewolves, cause, well -- it's about werewolves. This one, to be exact:

Basically, these warrior monks (who seem very much like an anachronism to me, given the time period) have this werewolf in this cage, and they've brought it to Torchwood and manipulated the estate's owner, Sir Robert, into keeping things hush-hush by holding his wife and the household staff captive in the basement. Meanwhile, the warrior monks have replaced his entire staff so they can keep an eye on things. And it turns out their intention is to wait till the Queen arrives (having ensured she would by blocking her other transport option -- the train -- with a fallen tree on the tracks), have the werewolf bite her, and via this take over Britain and create an "Empire of the Wolf."

Like with any fantastical creature in this show, the Doctor doesn't really believe in werewolves and explains the whole thing away with his #1 explanation for anything fantastical: it's an alien. In this case, the werewolves are the current form of an alien race that landed in the area in 1540 and perpetuated itself by biting humans and turning them into werewolves. And unfortunately as fans, we are supposed to assume the Doctor knows what he's talking about and just go with his explanation.

That is the kind of annoying thing about the Doctor -- he does not believe in anything that could be potentially illogical or fantastical or supernatural. Ghosts, werewolves, the Devil, you name it. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't believe in God either. (In this case, art may imitate life -- Matt Smith is an atheist). Whenever he encounters anything of that sort, he usually explains it away with one of two explanations: 1) It's an alien or 2) It does not really exist - i.e., it is merely an illusion, an idea, etc, by which humans might be fooled but not him.

I found the use of mistletoe in this episode to chase off the werewolf interesting; I had not heard of this being a werewolf-stopping item. Apparently it is, although, ironically, the plant is "almost unknown" in Scotland, where the story takes place.

The opening scene with the warrior monks made me think of martial arts movies, particularly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which the director of this episode admitted was an inspiration). Though I felt that the wire work (the typical method for filming scenes like this) was perhaps a bit too obvious.

Oh and can we talk about David Tennant in this ep? As you might know, Tennant actually is Scottish. He had actually even wanted to play The Doctor in his native Scottish brogue, but showrunner Russell Davies wouldn't let him, since he didn't want The Doctor's accent "traveling the regions" after Eccelston's North Country-accented Doctor. (Apparently, the first six Doctors played their roles in Received Pronunciation - the sort of "standard" accent that we Americans would generally refer to as a "British accent" - as was prescribed by TV norms at the time. With the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, this changed; McCoy played The Doctor with a slight Scottish accent. Paul McGann appears to have used a standard accent too...just watched some of a clip to see, but I can't tell if his accent's regional or not. Eight may have had a North Country accent like Nine, since McGann, like Eccelston, is also from Lancashire. Eleven has a Northampton accent, which is more or less what Matt Smith's actual accent is anyway, if you watch him in interviews). So when Ten slips into a Scottish accent as a disguise, he's not putting it on; that is actually David Tennant's real accent. He puts on a South London one for the show. So I imagine getting to be the Doctor AND talk in his native accent in this episode must have been a real treat for David. (Sorry, I'm getting into that fan thing lately of referring to the actors by their first names. I've been calling Matt Smith just "Matt" a lot lately too, and Jenna-Louise Coleman just "Jenna." I'm not sure if this means I am now a superfan, or if I am just doing it to fit in with all the true "superfans").

In keeping with the Scottish setting, Ten gives his name as "Dr. James McCrimmon," a nice homage to James "Jamie" McCrimmon, a long-time Companion of Patrick Troughton's Doctor, who was played by Frazer Hines. Jamie, with a total of 116 TV episodes as a Companion, holds the record for most episodes appeared in as a Companion, though in terms of overall appearances (spin-offs and specials included), Sarah Jane is the winner, with 141 episodes if you include her 85 episodes as a Companion, her appearances in the spin-off K-9 and Company, her own spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures (which ran for 5 seasons, and would have run for more if not for Elizabeth Sladen's untimely death), and her appearances in charity specials.

Also love the running gag in this episode about Rose trying to get Queen Victoria to say "we are not amused." Billie Piper does such a great job with those lines, and one has to admit Russell Davies (writer of this episode) worked the gag into various lines very well.

The last scene is pretty funny too. It's a scene which I guess was cut from the TV broadcast but which is included on the Series 2 DVD set as a deleted scene and which is part of the episode if you watch it on Netflix, as I did. After Queen Victoria knights the Doctor and Rose and then subsequently banishes them from the Empire for their "unholy relationship" and for finding things funny that they should not, the Doctor and Rose run back across the Highlands to the TARDIS, where the Doctor says that he believes Victoria was indeed bit by the werewolf, and that maybe the hemophilia that we now know to be so prevalent in Queen Victoria's family tree (even in far-off branches like the Romanov family in Russia; Czarina Alexandra was a descendant of Victoria and carried the gene, passing it on to her son Alexey) was just a euphemism for being a werewolf. He and Rose laugh over the possibilities:

DOCTOR: Well, maybe haemophilia is just a Victorian euphemism.
ROSE: For werewolf?
DOCTOR: Could be.
ROSE: Queen Victoria's a werewolf?
DOCTOR: Could be. And her children had the Royal Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip.
ROSE: So, the Royal Family are werewolves?
DOCTOR: Well, maybe not yet. I mean, a single wolf cell could take a hundred years to mature. Might be ready by, oh, early 21st century?
ROSE: Nah, that's just ridiculous! Mind you, Princess Anne.
DOCTOR: I'll say no more.
ROSE: And if you think about it, they're very private. They plan everything in advance. They could schedule themselves around the moon. We'd never know. And they like hunting!
(The doctor and Rose go inside the Tardis.)
ROSE [OC]: They love blood sports. Oh my God, they're werewolves!
(The Tardis dematerialises.)

To be honest, though, given that this show airs on a BBC channel (BBC One) in the UK, and the BBC is basically the national TV company, I'm quite surprised the show can get away with making fun of the Royal Family like this. I mean, they're tabloid fodder all the time, but that's one thing. (You think our American tabloids are bad? Check out some British ones some time! They're like 10 times worse than ours, and there are a lot more of them, it seems). My experience has been that the Royal Family does not take well to press intrusion; a young Prince William actually told the press to stay away from him following his mother Princess Diana's death in 1997, and, amazingly, they obliged. (He's back in the press now, of course; I think they just stayed away from him while he was a teenager).

This episode also establishes the history of the Torchwood Institute, and how it got started -- that Queen Victoria established it to look into strange phenomena like the werewolf, and named it Torchwood in honor of Sir Robert's memory (Sir Robert sacrifices himself to save the Queen, Rose, and The Doctor from the werewolf). Whether this history is repeated in the spin-off Torchwood I don't know, though the Institute in that series is supposedly the same as the one in Doctor Who.

I read somewhere that, by causing the events in this episode, The Doctor and Rose caused their own separation in the future, since they are separated by the whole Army of Ghosts/Battle of Canary Wharf fiasco, which would never have happened if Torchwood didn't exist. And Torchwood would not have been founded if not for the events of this episode taking place. I suppose this is true. Not sure what you call that, a predestination paradox?

A good and very funny episode, this one, and actually not nearly as scary as one would expect. But then, I guess I'm ok with werewolves. At least they're not icky aliens like the Slitheen, or scary statues like the Weeping Angels. (I'm a little nervous about statues now, to be honest).

Well, till next time!

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Sixteen: The Doctor and His "Beastie"

DOCTOR: Oh, I'm, I'm dazed and confused. I've been chasing this, this wee naked child over hill and over dale. Isn't that right, ya timorous beastie?
ROSE: Och, aye! I've been oot and aboot.
DOCTOR: No, don't do that.
ROSE: Hoots mon.
DOCTOR: No, really don't. Really.

Somehow, I think that was probably just as much of a facepalm moment for David Tennant as it is for The Doctor. I mean, the way he delivers the line "No, don't do that," you can tell he's genuinely saying it. Here's the clip:

Since the Doctor has knowledge of the future, there is of course the question of the possible predestination paradox I just mentioned - did The Doctor and Rose, by their actions in this episode, cause their own separation in the future, and at this point IS The Doctor aware of this, and does it affect how he treats Rose? Having seen the Series 2 finale, I would say no. He is not aware of it. And there is precedent for The Doctor not anticipating things -- look at the Series 1 finale, where The Doctor realizes the result of his actions in saving Satellite Five in "The Long Game." He thought he was doing something good, finally giving Earth a chance to progress to where it was supposed to be, instead of staying in the stagnant state in which it was. But in the end he just made things worse.

Well, Series 2 continues...how will The Doctor and Rose's relationship continue to blossom?? We'll find out!

***

Tune in for more of my catchup of these posts. I plan to at least catchup on my NaBloPoMo posts at the very least. I think that's all I can manage in the days that are left before Series 7 Part 2 premieres. I have other posts currently in draft - posts for the two Classic Who eps I've seen via the Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited specials and for a couple Series 7 specials - but I may wait on those.

Oh, and my plan for Series 7 Part 2: I will post analyses of the episodes on the day of airing or at most a day or two after. In the case of "The Bells of Saint John," for instance, I will be unable to watch the episode live as I have to work till 10, and the episode airs at 5pm my time (PDT). But, if possible, I will watch it as soon as I get home from work (since I'm recording it), avoiding Twitter, Facebook, and probably Google+ (where I belong to the Doctor Who community) so as to keep away from spoilers.

Allons-y!

Pictures from Sonic Biro. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

Series 7 Part 2 Special - "The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 08:34:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So...the BBC released a prequel yesterday for the Series 7.2 premiere, "The Bells of Saint John." Needless to say, the spoiler warning level is high for this post!!

If you want to go watch the prequel first, it's on the BBC's Doctor Who website, the Doctor Who official Facebook page, and, naturally, all over YouTube. You can watch it on the BBC's website here. Or, if you prefer YouTube, here's a YouTube link. (I contemplated embedding it in this post, but I'd rather you go watch it elsewhere first and then read this analysis).

***

So...this prequel is a ridiculously cute (and a tad bit sad) scene that lasts about 2 1/2 minutes. It features The Doctor sitting on the swings in some playground on Earth somewhere, looking dejected, and eventually getting into a conversation with a little girl who sits down on the swing next to him.

First of all, about swings. I love swings, and have since I was a kid. And I don't care what this little girl says, you are never too old to go sit on swings. (Heck there's even a fanlisting for swings).

My favorite line in this whole prequel: "Oh, dear. I'm way past strange. I think I'm probably incredible." Great line, and so well delivered by Matt Smith. Practically the only time The Doctor sounds happy in this whole clip.

Speaking of which, can we talk about Matt Smith in this clip? I mean, I already thought he was a good actor as The Doctor, but wow. I was blown away by him here, with the amount of emotional range he was able to portray. He seems very mature here too, which is saying something given how young he is. No hyperactive, jumpy Eleven here -- just some honest-to-goodness, amazing dramatic acting.

Now, part of this talent most likely comes from the fact that, apparently, Matt has quite a bit of theater experience -- but that's practically a given these days with British actors. To be honest, I wish it was a given for American actors. Not that our actors are bad or anything, but the UK just seems to produce higher quality actors in terms of talent (this is also true of other parts of the Commonwealth, like Australia or New Zealand...Russell Crowe as Javert, anyone?). And I think the major focus on theatrical training of actors is key to that. I myself have "tread the boards" multiple times, and so I can testify -- stage acting training is worth it for anyone. Even if you don't plan to become an actor, it teaches you to project your voice (which I have to do all the time at work), gives you confidence, and makes you think about life, emotions, and all that goes with that (especially if you study Stanislavski method and its famous "emotional memory" technique). I use my acting training all the time to act out stories I am writing so I can see if scenes work. If you do plan on going into acting, it teaches you a lot about acting that TV and movie acting training alone just can't give you.

(By the way, this is totally random, but...I just realized Matt and I have the same birthday. How crazy is that?)

The little girl in this is really great too. I wonder what actress she is. Cause she's really, really good.

But, ok, can we please talk about the ending??

The girl runs up to her mother, and her rather overprotective mother asks her what she was doing, and she says she was talking to a sad man. Then the mom says:

Clara Oswald. What have I told you about talking to strange men?

Did you catch that?!

CLARA OSWALD.

All this time, the Doctor sits there telling this little girl about how he can't find Clara and how despondent he is because of it...when all the time he was talking to Clara to begin with!!

Now, this one person I follow on Tumblr, soufflesforgallifrey, does not believe that girl is Clara because of how her and her mother are dressed, saying no one dressed like that in the '90's (which is roughly when this scene would be taking place, given Clara's age in the actual Series 7 Part 2 clips we've seen, and also given a quote I read recently from Jenna-Louise Coleman that says Clara is "just out of university," which would make her mid-to-late-20's). And hey, maybe no one did dress that way in the '90's. I'm American, I don't know what British fashion was like then. All I know, is, the name matches.

Being at least familiar with "The Eleventh Hour" (I've seen clips of it from the specials, but have yet to see the episode itself), I immediately noticed the parallel here to Amy Pond. The Doctor also met Amy as a child first before meeting her as an adult and inviting her to travel with him. I find it interesting that Steven Moffat (current showrunner and writer of this prequel) is repeating that little story idea. I don't know if he thinks it's just a good story formula, or if he's just throwing in the little nod to see if people notice. I favor the former, honestly, because I don't think Moffat is clever enough to be doing the latter. (In case you can't tell, I am not a fan of this man. This is a man who has said ON CAMERA that he enjoys scaring children - and even intends to make kids "scared of wi-fi" with "The Bells of Saint John," as he stated in a more recent interview. That is sadistic and wrong on so many levels. AND he actually enjoys torturing his fans. Don't believe me? Ask the Sherlockians).

Anyway, this clip invites interesting possibilities, and I'm wondering whether they'll actually reference it in "The Bells of Saint John" itself. The prequels (which, as noted by The Nerdist, is a misnomer, because prequels usually come out after the thing they're a prequel of, not before) seem to be meant to stand alone. Yet at the same time the Doctor Who prequels seem to be intended to reveal something about the episode to which they are tied. The TARDISodes in Series 2 operated the same way. The 2012 Christmas Special ones gave some extra canon about Vastra and a glimpse into how much of a Scrooge the Doctor has become.

Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough...only about a week now!!

NaBloPoMo (catchup): Series 2, Episode 1 - "New Earth"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:40:00 +0000

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Hello everyone! I'm back. I realized that the month is ending so I better play catchup with my NaBloPoMo posts. Here's the fifteenth post, devoted to the proper first episode of Series 2, "New Earth."

In this episode, Rose and the Tenth Doctor take their first trip together in the TARDIS. He takes her to the year 5 billion 23, at which point humankind has gotten nostalgic regarding their lost planet (which was destroyed in the year 5 billion when the sun expanded, as shown in "The End of the World") and founded a new home on a planet very similar to Earth, which they have called (somewhat uncreatively) New Earth. The place they've landed is a field of apple grass near the city of New New York. (Or rather, "New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York," as the Doctor states it, since it's the 15th version after the original New York City). As much as Rose wants to go explore New New York, the Doctor postpones any such idea, saying he must first answer a call from the nearby hospital that was sent to his psychic paper.

And then the craziness begins. For one, cat-like beings are working in the hospital and breeding a bunch of homunculi (man-made humans) as living experiments for curing diseases. As if that wasn't weird enough...guess who's back!

Yep, Cassandra. Somehow she survived being blown up on Platform One and has come to reside in a secret room deep down in the hospital, with her man-made assistant Chip. Her brain and eyes somehow survived the incident, and the skin is from her backside (leading to Rose attempting to make a joke about Cassandra speaking out of her butt before getting interrupted).

And Cassandra has a grudge against the Doctor and Rose. What's more, she suspects the cat-like Sisters of Plenitude that run the hospital are hiding something, and she wants Rose to help her find out what. Rose refuses, naturally, but Cassandra has other plans and clamps Rose to a psychograft machine and does a little "Freaky Friday" thing where she basically puts her mind into Rose's body. She takes some time to check out her new body before the Doctor calls, asking for Rose to join him.

The Doctor soon becomes wise to the fact that Rose isn't herself, and confronts Cassandra when she reveals her intentions. But they aren't able to really fight due to the fact that Cassandra, with Chip's help, releases all the homunculi after the Sisters refuse to pay her for her silence, resulting in a pretty crazy zombie scenario which the Doctor and Rose have to try to escape.

Thankfully, the Doctor has an idea: he dumps the IV bags containing treatments for all the different diseases the Sisters were trying to cure into the tank of the disinfection system all the hospital's elevators have. He then lures the zombies into the elevator, where they are sprayed by the liquid and cured. The cured homunculi then go on to touch others, curing them all. The Doctor rejoices in the happy ending:

DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor, and I cured them.
(A woman hugs the Doctor.)
DOCTOR: That's right. Hey, there we go, sweetheart. Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it. It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand new form of life. New humans! Look at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them. The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! Ha!

The NNYPD (had to laugh at the initials) then take over things, and the Doctor and Rose are finally able to leave, though not without a visit to the person the Doctor had been called to see, and who he visited with earlier - the Face of Boe. The Face of Boe hints at a secret he has to tell the Doctor, but says he can't reveal it yet:

DOCTOR: The Face of Boe!
(They run to the last person left on the ward.)
DOCTOR: You were supposed to be dying.
FACE OF BOE [OC]: There are better things to do today. Dying can wait.
CASS-ROSE: Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face.
DOCTOR: Shh!
FACE OF BOE [OC]: I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew.
DOCTOR: There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old.
FACE OF BOE [OC]: There are? That would be impossible.
DOCTOR: Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me.
FACE OF BOE [OC]: A great secret.
DOCTOR: So the legend says.
FACE OF BOE [OC]: It can wait.
DOCTOR: Oh, does it have to?
FACE OF BOE [OC]: We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day
(Boe beams away.)
DOCTOR: That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic.

The secret in question, by the way, is the secret the Face of Boe tells the Doctor in their final meeting in Series 3 Episode 3. Which I won't reveal now.

As the episode ends, Cassandra still has control of Rose's body, so the Doctor orders her out. She ends up transferring her consciousness to Chip, but his cloned body cannot take it for long. The Doctor, out of pity, takes Cass-Chip back in time to a scene Cassandra was watching on a home video earlier in the episode, a party for the Ambassador of Thrace, which she claims was the last time anyone ever told her she was beautiful. And here we see, for the first time, the original Cassandra, before all the crazy surgeries, who looks kind of like Sarah Jessica Parker's character in Sex and the City:

Chip approaches her as the Doctor and Rose look on:

CASS-CHIP: Excuse me, Lady Cassandra.
CASSANDRA: I'm sorry, I don't need anything right now. I'm fine, thank you.
CASS-CHIP: No, I just wanted to say you look beautiful.
CASSANDRA: Well, that's very kind, you strange little thing. Thank you very much.
CASS-CHIP: I mean it. You look so beautiful.
CASSANDRA: Thank you.
(Chip's body collapses. Lady Cassandra cradles him.)
CASSANDRA: Oh, my Lord. Are you all right? What is it? What's wrong? Someone get some help! Call a medic or something, quickly!
WOMAN: Who is he?
CASSANDRA: I don't know. He just came up to me. I don't even know his name. He just collapsed. I think he's dying. Someone do something! I've got you, sweetheart. It's all right. There you are. There you are, I've got you. It'll be all right. There, there, you poor little thing.

Seeing Cassandra cradle Chip, the Doctor and Rose, happy with the results, slowly walk back in the TARDIS and dematerialize.

And that's the end. Tune in for more analyses. I'm going to have a crazy time trying to catch up! I may not catch up by the end of tomorrow. Eh well. If I ever do this again, I'm going to plan better. For sure. Good night!

***

NaBloPoMo Special:

The Love of the Doctor and Rose Tyler

Part Fifteen:"You've Thought So Too"

Since the theme of NaBloPoMo this month is "Love and Sex" (probably because of Valentine's Day), I feel compelled to write something about love in my posts. Hence, since I am exploring Series 1 and 2 in this challenge, I am going to write a little special essay throughout the month about the growing love between the Doctor and Rose. Please note I am in no way an expert on relationships.

This episode is kind of weird in terms of the Rose/Doctor dynamic. Rose and the Doctor seem to be hitting it off at the beginning of the episode, now that Rose has accepted that Ten is still her Doctor. This is the first time Rose travels in the TARDIS somewhere with the Tenth Doctor as well, which makes it a different episode altogether. And if not for the note the Doctor got on his psychic paper, they probably would've spent a nice afternoon together in New New York. But nope, they have to go to the hospital first, and that's where things get complicated.

Basically, Cassandra - who somehow survived her previous encounter with the Doctor and Rose on Platform One - takes over Rose's body, causing Rose to be a lot more sexually charged than she usually is. It takes the Doctor a while to notice (or maybe he noticed before but just didn't say anything), and once he does, he's pretty adamant that Cassandra leave Rose's body, even after Cass-Rose gives him a rather passionate kiss, and seems relieved at the end of the episode when he finally gets Rose back for good.

Hard to say how Rose's feelings for the Doctor develop in this episode, as she's not really herself. But the possibility of some feelings are lampshaded in this episode by Cassandra when she takes over the Doctor's body:

CASS-DOCTOR: Oo, he's slim, and a little bit foxy. You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it.

...

CASS-DOCTOR: Yap, yap, yap. God, it was tedious inside your head. Hormone city.

The second line is a less-obvious reference, but still is likely a reference to something going on Rose's head that would cause her hormones to rage, which feelings of love could certainly do.

A key lesson of this episode, though, is about loving yourself - a lesson Cassandra finds she must learn, and which is the reason the Doctor and Rose take Chip, now possessed by Cassandra, back in time to tell Cassandra's past self that she's truly beautiful. And I think this will be a lesson Rose will learn this season as well, becoming a stronger woman as time goes on, even as she learns to love the Doctor. So in a way it's a good lesson to start off Series 2 with.

How will the relationship develop during Series 2? We'll see!

***

Keep tuning in for more posts in this series!

Pictures from Sonic Biro. Quotes from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

TARDIS Thoughts Pages Complete; Promotion Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:06:00 +0000

I finally finished all the pages of this blog just now, making the site basically complete except for actual posts. Hooray!

This being done, I am going to go into full-on promotion mode, finishing the TARDIS Thoughts Google+ page and establishing its Facebook fan page and Twitter account, as well as getting the word out about the blog via other means.

I haven't forgotten about NaBloPoMo; I'm just behind. Will get back on that ASAP.

Good night!