The Doctor

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Doctor Who 8×04 ‘Listen’ Review

They did some scaring this episode, but did the questions raised and the familiar scare tactic bog it down? Is our complicated love-hate relationship with this episode’s writer and showrunner tainting our enjoyment of the show? Maybe, but I’m going to allow the little part of myself that did enjoy the episode to take over for a bit.

‘Listen’ isn’t about a tangible thing that goes bump in the night, it’s about the nothingness that engulfs the space around you when you’re sure you’re alone. That thing underneath your bed doesn’t exist, it’s your own fear that holds you captive, but if Clara grabbed the Doctor’s leg all them years ago when he was a scared lil timebubby starting this whole tulpa/thoughtform, then why has it taken so long for the Doctor to remember to ‘Listen’? It boils down to the idea that fear is a companion, always with you. “Fear makes companions of us all.” Oh hi ‘Unearthly Child’ feels.

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Moffat hammers in, again, the idea that Clara has seen the Doctor through some fearful moments of his long life- even if he didn’t know it. Capaldi’s initial monologue is great in that caught our attention and I do believe those first few minutes elicited some small amount of terror- however I can’t say I felt the same amount of ‘fear’ as earlier work from Moffat. Because I still don’t blink when walking past angel statues.

The monster in this episode was your own imagination, well the Doctor’s own, brought to life- sorta. I immediately thought of Supernatural, ‘Hell House’. Remember the tulpa? If enough people believe it it’ll come to life, right? I half expected Sam and Dean to burst into the TARDIS and tell the Doctor to change the story, and suddenly a crossover AU fanfic was born. However all it took was Clara’s maternal touch and a heartfelt speech, not sure I was exactly wowed by the anticlimactic resolution but it worked so I can’t complain too much.

Extra thoughts:

- The side romance of Clara and Danny made a few steps forward, a jump or two back before hopping into a car and going full-speed ahead. They do work well, Coleman and Anderson have an interesting chemistry that I like. I’ll give them that. Are we to believe that Orson (the Pink line are not kind with names) is a descendant of Clara and Danny then? I still need Danny to meet the Doctor, that is all. Well, properly meet him, as an adult. Especially considering Danny became ‘Dan dan the soldier man’ thanks to his influence.

- “He’ll never make a Time Lord!” Is that person from the Doctor’s past the original cereal guy?

 

 

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Doctor Who 8×03: Robot of Sherwood Review

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Uh, what did we just watch? Anyone know what Gatiss was smoking when he penned ‘Robot of Sherwood’ and can we have some? I’m playing, but really it was a rather silly episode, wasn’t it? And it served to remind us that Doctor Who, at its core, is a children’s show. Where episodes like ‘Robot of Sherwood’ shouldn’t be so surprising. And yet, it was.

The Doctor lets Clara decide their next destination and with much fangirling she reveals that she really wants to meet the legendary hero himself- Robin Hood (played with much ha ha ha-ing by Tom Riley). They do and much slapstick humour is to be had, with a grating amount of fake laughter and much too merry men. I don’t know, I felt a bit like the Doctor myself the entire episode. Perhaps if I had a little more Clara in me I might have enjoyed the episode a bit more, but there seemed to be a forced atmosphere to it that I couldn’t shake. Was it the generous amount of sun in Nottingham? As the Doctor pointed out. Or the smile that didn’t reach Robin’s eyes? Or was it the irritating way he laughed, as Jess described, with a pause between each ha.

Perhaps it was the conflict between the two heroes. The man, the myth the legend… the Doctor or Robin Hood? Both rooted in their respective histories, from the page to the screen we’re all fine to accept them both in the show as ‘real’. Well at least Clara is, the Doctor -and by extension us- isn’t so sure. He spends the majority of the episode trying to expose Robin Hood as a fraudbot. Because he can’t possibly be real, that jawline and perfect teeth can’t exist. While it made for good (eh) banter, it grew ever so slightly tiresome by like the fourth round of pot-shots. All the while the Doctor was forbidding banter altogether. No banter from the Doctor? Sounds like a Tui Ad.

I agree, with Jess, that the storyline left a lot to be desired. A bit weak, saved only by the actors’ convictions to be their characters. Because what was even happening this episode? Seriously, The Sheriff of Nottingham is stealing gold to power a spaceship because he wants to fly to London and take over England with his robot army? Oh…kay. But this (is Doctor Who so what are you even complaining about?!) episode isn’t trying to bring the gravitas, not even a little bit. It’s slapstick and tongue-in-cheek humour with robots in a forest circa 1190AD-ish. They’ll take us back to the series-long arc soon enough, but for now enjoy a bit of the funny.

Next week they’re bringing the scary/creepy, you know how I love the scary/creepy!

Honourable Mentions:

- Them hair extensions tho’.

- History is a burden, stories can make us fly.

3 Comments Posted on by Mata Doctor Who, Fandom, TV Talk

Whoniverse: The Doctor [Will Be] In [Australia…no fair!]

WhoniverseNo fair! The Hub Productions will be presenting Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, with a further guest to be announced, on stage for the first time in Australia at Whoniverse: The Doctor Is In. Australia, across the ditch, get EVERYTHING! She screams like a spoilt child. What about New Zealand? Tickets for Whoniverse will be available mid-January from major ticketing outlets for Australia.

The event features the guests live on stage, talking about Doctor Who and their lives as Karen and the Babes (yes I’m really hoping the third guest is Arthur Darvill). There’ll be merchandise and rare collectibles to purchase from dealers, limited autographs and professional photographs available with the Doctor and Amy (depending on the ticket you buy) and all the things we in New Zealand won’t be getting. The travesty.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and others will be appearing in the following cities: Sydney - Saturday 1st March; Perth - Sunday 2nd March; Adelaide - Saturday 8th March; Melbourne - Sunday 9th March.

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Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor Christmas Special - Goodbye Raggedy Man

This review/recap will be all over the show, as I am still smarting from the episode. In the end Smith’s performance held a rather crazy episode together, I have to admit that during the first half I wasn’t sold but the last 11 or so minutes had me. See what I did there?

Firstly, who would want to live in a town called Christmas? Especially one located on a truth field? Nope. And yet, it exists and the Papal Mainframe, a space church headed by Mother Superious Tasha Lem, someone with an interesting relationship with the Doctor indeed, have the Doctor go investigatin’ a town called Christmas. Which happens to be located on a planet that Handles (a severed Cyberman head) called Gallifrey. I suppose Handles was confused by the crack in the wall, really a split in the skin of reality- scar tissue from the 26th of June 2010 when the TARDIS blew up and took the universe with it, projecting a request for information. A question. Doctor Who?

The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Doctor Who? If the Doctor speaks his name the Timelords will be able to come back into this universe, and what’s wrong with that? Well, according to the Doctor it would be “Hell, all hell. That’s what happens if the Timelords come back.” Basically if the Timelords were to come back the Time War would begin anew. They’re asking for his help through the crack in time, but if he says it all of his enemies will destroy Tranzalore and all the people on it- including the town of Christmas. The first thing the Doctor does is trick Clara, who he’d picked up from Christmas dinner with her family after giving them a full monty, into going into the TARDIS and sending her home.

With a bit of exposition the Doctor confirms what Moffat had been saying and we’ve been trying to wrap our heads around, that Hurt’s doctor counted as did Ten’s regeneration, even if he’d kept his foxy face- making Smith’s doctor the last. Well. Unless of course the Timelords help a Doctor out.

The Doctor has been stranded on Christmas (yes that’s the name of the town on Trenzalore) for over 300 years. The TARDIS took ages to get back to him, after he sent Clara back to earth on it, because she clung to it when she realised he tricked her. What on earth is wrong with him? Last time he tricked a companion into safety, Rose, she hacked the TARDIS console and absorbed the time vortex and became some all powerful being- this time Clara did a Jack Harkness and the TARDIS had to use power to keep her alive while they were in space.

With some more exposition, courtesy of Mother Superious (who’s actually really dead and now a Dalek unit) we discover that the Papal Mainfrain’s, now the Church dedicated to Silence, Kovarian branch were responsible for the TARDIS blowing up and thus creating the cracks in time when they tried to kill him and prevent him from ever making it to Trenzalore to this Christmas hell- I mean to the town of Christmas. This episode has been rather here there and everywhere- but an origin story for the Silence sect? Moffat, are you even trying?

The crack disappeared from the wall when Clara begged the Timelords on the other side to help the Doctor who was walking up the clocktower to his death. Irony, the Daleks have been trying to kill him for how long- and what does him in is old age. Love it. The crack reappears in the sky, as the Timelords do as she had asked and help the Doctor who’s dying from old age. The question is, however, did the Timelords send him one regeneration or a whole new set? The doctor, finally looking his [old] age, dances around on the clock tower, singing ‘regeneration 13′ before using regenerative energy to destroy the Dalek mothership. He then returns to the TARDIS to complete the regeneration cycle.

‘Times change and so must I.’ Smith’s final speech as the Doctor was heartbreaking, if beautifully done. The regeneration had begun and it reset the Doctor’s appearance so he looked young for his goodbye speech- it seems Ten wasn’t the only vain guy.

I’ll always remember when the Doctor was me.

When we saw the fish fingers and custard and Amy and she says “Raggedy man, goodnight.” I about lost my grip on my tears- despite not being able to get over their wigs. However in the end it was rather apt, Smith’s farewell. And the regeneration itself was pretty quick, while there were tears during his speech he didn’t mess around about changing.

Any moment now, he’s a comin’.

And here he is, Capaldi’s first words are ‘Kidneys, I’ve got new kidneys!’ His Scottish accent intact which is more than I can say about his knowledge of flying the TARDIS!

And now? We wait.

Honourable Mentions:

- So that’s what was behind his door, huh? The crack in time. Which emits a message, ‘Doctor Who?’

- Handles though, Handles was my favourite this episode. ‘When- when.’ Oh Handles! RIP Handles. Who’d been with the Doctor for a good 300 years. Um longest serving companion?

- Oh I’m so excited for Capaldi’s run!
Leave a comment Posted on by Mata Doctor Who, TV Talk

Doctor Who 7×13 - The Name of the Doctor Review

Your name is a very important thing, as the Doctor points out ‘the name you choose is like a promise you make.’ The Doctor chose to be called the Doctor, he promised to save others, to heal. So at some point the Doctor broke that promise and was therefore not deserving of the name. Or at least a regeneration we didn’t know existed. A regeneration played by John Hurt, who we’ll have to wait until November 23rd to properly meet. (Excuse me while I go rewatch Merlin episodes.) However I’m getting ahead of myself here, let’s back up a bit.

When you are a time-traveler there is one place you must never go. One place in all of space and time you must never ever find yourself, your grave. Unfortunately that’s the one place the Doctor must go in order to save his friends, Vastra, Strax and Jenny, providing she’s still saveable at this point. The three people who cared for him during the ‘dark times’, after Amy and Rory’s departure, are in peril and being detained in the one place the Doctor should never go, Trenzalore. Why must he never go there?

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 who? Who’s glad his name was never uttered aloud for us to hear? It was answered, by River, but no one heard. Oh sweet heavens, there would have been pandemonium otherwise, that or great disappointment. However there we are, against the TARDIS’ wish, on Trenzalore because the Great Intelligence (and his Whisper Men) can’t give it a break. We discover the Doctor’s Tomb within the dying TARDIS, that was beautiful despite leaking the essence that makes it bigger on the inside.

Before we get there, however, we had to go through the secret passageway, River Song’s ‘tombstone’.

Seeing River again was lovely. Saying goodbye was… difficult. The Doctor doesn’t like endings, we know this. Nor do we. So his goodbye to River was, well, bittersweet. Because it hurt, but it was perfect. I mean:

Making him say goodbye like he was coming back was the closest thing to a goodbye you can get with the Doctor. Although, I still believe this isn’t the last we’ll see of River. She’s mentally linked to Clara now. However how and what exactly that entails is… Spoilers. Damn it!

And the answer to the Impossible Girl finally rears its head. We finally understand who/what Clara is. It makes sense, just don’t try to delve too far into it. When the Great Intelligence decides to walk into the Doctor’s time stream and essentially rewrite the Doctor, undoing all the right the Doctor’s done it sets his time stream on fire and the only way to save it is for Clara to also jump into the Doctor’s time stream. In doing so she is torn into a million pieces by the winds of time, a million versions of herself, living and dying all over time and space. She becomes a million copies, echoes, of herself. This is how she becomes that impossible girl. River says that she wouldn’t be her anymore, however I like to think that it is all of her versions that make Clara who she is. She is, after all, the impossible girl. These versions of her are ingredients of Clara, spread out through time and space. She is soufflé girl because all of her echoes make her. ‘The soufflé isn’t the soufflé — the soufflé is the recipe.’

I don’t know where I am. 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. And he hardly ever hears me, but I’ve always been there. Right from the very beginning. Right from the day he started running.

So who, then. Is this version of the Doctor that doesn’t deserve the name? Who is he? We’ve seen a few theories thrown about here and there. The Valeyard. Ninth Doctor? A regeneration of himself that occurred just before or during the Time War to do the unspeakable in order to come out the other side, not unscathed but alive and psychologically damaged enough to bury the memory beneath the surface? We won’t know until the 50th Anniversary episode, where we will encounter David Tennant and Billie Piper reprising their roles as Ten and Rose and of course, John Hurt as… “The Doctor.“

And with that I leave you with the final scene, just in case you needed it. Who am I kidding? Of course you need it again.

Special Mentions:

- Strax, everything this Sontaren says deserves to be preserved in an archive of hilarity.

- ‘Those little Daleks.’ HAHAHAHAHA

- ‘What kind of idiot would try and steal a faulty TARDIS?’ This guy.

Care to theorise?

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Doctor Who 7×09 - Hide Review

Doctor Who 7x09 Hide
This might be my favourite episode of Doctor Who this year, granted there have only been a few episodes, with Cold War being my least. We’re given a genuinely scary premise at the start that, as with everything in Doctor Who, turns out to have a rational explanation in the end. Well, I say rational but what’s rational about a girl trapped in a pocket universe and a lonely monster? Oh, spoilers, by the way.

So in this episode we have a very large, very old manor and inside that manor we have Professor Alec Palmer and his companion- sorry, I mean assistant, Emma Grayling who is also an empathic psychic and they’re trying to contact a ghost. So it would only make sense for the Doctor and Clara to come a knockin’, right? Because it’s ‘Ghost time!’

The atmosphere, writing and acting were superb. In that first half there were moments where I thought ‘yeah that’s going to have a cameo in my nightmares tonight’ however there was enough banter between the Doctor and Clara, as well as the Professor and even with Emma, that I could relax and enjoy the Doctor looking like he was teaching steps to a dance when identifying the cold spot in the music room.

The idea of bravery is mentioned or referenced a bit more in this episode. Clara points out that the Professor’s purchase of an old creepy, abandoned and rumoured to be haunted, manor with his own money is incredibly brave. Clara’s bravery is tested more and more with each episode, although I will admit that it was stretched farther last week, this week it seemed a bit more, I don’t know, human? She disputes the Doctor’s assertion that she would want to wander around in search of a ghost. Understandable. And it seems that in order to pluck up the courage to go with him, Clara tells the Doctor to ‘dare’ her. Accepting a dare is something incredibly human, you do things when dared to because it’s a great motivator. And I couldn’t help but think ‘challenge accepted’ when the Doctor ‘dared’ Clara. Even if it was per her request.

‘Experience makes liars of us all.’ Rule number one, the Doctor lies. The entire trip to 1974 to see a ghost is actually a ruse for the Doctor to have Emma read Clara, to gage what the psychic might glean off the Impossible Girl. Nothing out of the ordinary, according to Emma, but does the Doctor believe her? He’s seen too much and knows too much, just like the Professor, to ever just upfront about himself. Emma tells Clara that he has a sliver of ice in his soul and it prompts her, spurned by seeing the birth of the earth to its death, to question whether he even cares about them, humans. Clara, you have no idea.

Clara’s turbulent relationship with the TARDIS is so far my favourite relationship. I mean, sassy TARDIS interface telling Clara she’s up herself (in a matter of speaking) was perhaps the best interaction between the TARDIS and a companion.

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I’m glad they managed to resolve or put their differences aside to save the Doctor from being stuck in the pocket universe. But what those differences are still eludes us. What does the TARDIS have against her? The TARDIS knows she’s Impossible, but how and why? That’s the question of the season though, isn’t it? Who is she? It’s why the Doctor took this adventure to interrupt Professor Palmer and Emma’s paranormal investigations.

I reckon they would have eventually managed to help time-traveler Hila Tarcorian, somehow. The Doctor even pointed out that as blood relatives, however far down in the family tree Hila was from Emma and the Professor, their blood was what called to her in the first place.

I don’t know that I liked the Doctor turning the entire experience into a mere love story, I know love stories can be epic but I think turning this ‘ghost story’ into a love story may have detracted from the overall impact of the scare. Although it was nice having it end on a positive note. Also, referencing of the Doctor and Rose’s separation after series 2?

Special Mentions:

- ‘You grumpy old cow!’

- Nope. Nope nope nope.

- Warm feelings restored.
1 Comment Posted on by Mata Doctor Who, TV Talk

Doctor Who 7×08 Cold War Review

This week’s review will be in the style of a hard out gangsta.
Aye yo they’ve gone back in time to the Cold War. Awww shiiiit, historical adventure! We about to see what happens when white people on one side of the world with nukes and white people on the other side of the world with nukes point that shit at each other in a damn Mexican stand off. Okay, I failed, I can’t do it. (Edit: I hope someone picked up on the Psych ‘Mexican Stand Off’ joke. No? Sigh. Okay.)
This week the Doctor and Clara travel back to 1983 (five years before I was born btw) during the Cold War, under the sea and in a failing submarine with some Soviets and nuclear missiles! Oh what fun, and they were apparently trying to get to Vegas. Ah TARDIS, you’ve done it again and in that confusing beginning sequence things get cray and the TARDIS disappears. We later find out it’s because the Doctor had reset her Hostile Actions Displacement System making her relocate when shit hits the fan.
We had an old who monster make a reappearance, the martian Ice Warriors but just any Ice Warrior but the most badass one out Grand Marshall Skaldak who has to find out by a bunch of humans in a metal coffin fitted out with nuclear missiles that he’s been M.I.A for 5000 years. Now that is a nap if ever I heard of one. Skaldak might have been convinced to just let them go had some idiot with a cattle prod not been so trigger happy with it. And so Skaldak goes all die hard on them because it’s not like he’s got anything to lose. He talks about his daughter and how she’s probably dead by now and that’s what Clara uses to sort of reach him in the end when his peeps finally hear his distress call and come get him and he leaves without disarming the launch sequence. Clara sings, as the professor had tried to get her earlier to do, to diffuse the tension. Clara proves that she can take orders, be willing and ready to help out and that she’s brave while also being absolutely shit-scared. Well courage isn’t the absence of fear is it? It’s pushing through the fear.
Jess wasn’t feeling this week’s episode. I was going to ask why but then I got distracted, I forget why. Maybe it was a shiny object to the left of my screen or something on the TV. Maybe the episode was too watery for her liking? It gave her a sinking feeling? Sorry, I’ll stop.
I, myself, liked Clara’s human reaction to seeing the dead body of Soviet soldiers. The slightly morbid person in me was wondering why they weren’t showing us what Clara was seeing, and then rational me was shaking her head and saying ‘dude, it’s a children’s show.’ What did you guys think of the episode?

Were you immersed? Okay now I’ll stop.

Special Mentions:
- If you insist.

- Looks like the Doctor’s finally found a companion who knows the meaning of ‘don’t wander off!’