Tag / DW Series 5
Better a Broken Heart Than No Heart–Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol.
Previously on Doctor Who: The Big Bang.
This is it. This is what we’ve been waiting for. That gorgeous dose of Doctor Who after six months of tittering behind our napkins in the aftermath of The Big Bang. The Christmas Special and the trailer for Series 6.
And goodness, hasn’t Steven Moffat blown my mind. Again. Please excuse me and hit the jump to get to the spoilers while I scrape my brain from the walls of my room, I’ll be right with you.
The Doctor Who Proms
For all of us who just can’t get enough of Doctor Who and its beau-ti-ful incidental music, composed by Murray Gold: The Doctor Who Proms, live on BBC Radio 3, in the Royal Albert Hall:
Available on BBC iPlayer until: 8:22pm Saturday 31st July 2010!
Listen to bits of it on Youtube…
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UPDATE: Doctor Who at the Proms 2010 is due to air on telly!
60″ version on Monday, September 6, 8.30pm on BBC Three.
90″ version (w/ Red Button extras) on Friday, September 10, 7pm on BBC Three.
“Trust the Plastic!” — 2,000 Words on Doctor Who: The Big Bang. Geronimo!
Previously on Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens.
This was… there are no words. I.. you.. now.. finally… argh! See, there are no words! Well, almost no words, because I’m determined to write the “happy-happy-happy!” review this episode deserves.
If you haven’t seen the episode yet, don’t click the jump, ’cause there will be spoilers. Lots and lots of spoilers.
‘The Big Bang’ — Snippets of Speculation, I.
Images: BBC and Cracktor Who
So. Spoilers. Little Amelia’s going to make an important appearance, the Doctor’s got to somehow manage to get himself back into the action, River somehow survives ‘TARDIS bang bang’.
All in all, these pics aren’t that spoiler-y, but what’s reeally interesting: Is that Dalek set in stone? The cover of the DW Magazine suggests that that’s the case. Hm. Seeing as we’re stuck in Greek mythology already, why not bring back Medusa? The Doctor already made a bit of fun of a statue of Perseus, who had the pleasure of beheading the woman with the snake-y hair, when he visited the Musée d’Orsay together with Amy and Vincent; that might be an idea. Or.. just.. not.
Anyway: my dearest fellow Whovian M. suggested that the voice whispering “Silence will fall” could be Dalek CAAN, or maybe Davros–didn’t these guys kick the bucket in Journey’s End, though? Or am I getting things confused again? In any case, I think it might be the right voice, but I can’t be sure. Anyone else here think that’s possible? Could the Daleks be pretending to be allies, but cheating everyone else on the way again? Could it all, for the fourth time in the new series, be a Dalek conspiracy?
‘What Could You Possibly Be?’ — Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens
Previously on Doctor Who: The Lodger.
Oh. My. God. Guess who?
This was magnificent. The twists, the turns, the tragedy. Everything. Steven Moffat, I bloody love you. At the same time: Curse you, Moffat! One, for nearly giving me a heart attack, two, for making me sob into my dinner, and three, for the most awesome cliffhanger I’ve seen in.. well, ever. Rory’s back! He’s back because he’s a part of Amy’s history, and because of that dress-uppy photo in Amy’s Roman Britain he’s linked to the cover story—and he’s an Auton, supplied by the Nestene Consciousness. And he shoots Amy. Great. And the director, Toby Haynes, has called this “the death of the Doctor as we know him.” Lovely.
The Doctor: “The Pandorica…”—River: “More than just a fairy tale.”
The Pandorica Will Open — Snippets of Speculation, II.
This is potentially very spoiler-y. So don’t jump to the 2nd page unless you know what you’re doing.
“I Heard a Big Bang.” – Doctor Who: The Lodger
Previously on Doctor Who: Vincent and The Doctor.
“Have some rent!”
He’s been manipulating ATMs again, hasn’t he?
Craig and his new lodger
Yes, the football scene was slightly cringe-worthy. But it was, one, a nice reference to a fit Fifth Doctor playing cricket and, two, important for establishing the Doctor’s maddening superiority and thus setting up the tension between the Doctor and Craig. It also highlights, as favourite fellow weirdo M. pointed out, how utterly strange the Doctor can be with, as she called it, “human interaction.” The Doctor sees all the sub-textual signs of Craig and Sophie being in love with each other and even manages to drop, well, “subtle” hints (which they still don’t notice, but nevermind), and when it comes to meddling, he uses every opportunity available to make things worse — in order to make them realize what’s wrong. Well. I’m not sure whether he planned it to the point at which he had to share a psychic link with Craig and show him that absolutely awesome, adorable, incredible non-technology technological… thing-to-detect-what’s-wrong-upstairs to make him understand. Continue reading →
The Pandorica Will Open — Snippets of Speculation, I.
There was a goblin. Or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. Nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it — one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.
That’s what’s in the Pandorica. And Dalek, Sontaran, Cybermen, Slitheen and God knows who else’s fleets are gathering to witness its opening — and probably kill what’s in it, no questions asked. And what would all of them be so damn afraid of?
…
The Doctor. Seriously, who else? The Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds, the guy who has a lot of blood on his hands, even the blood of his own people, the madman who just drops out of the sky in his TARDIS and turns your world upside down until you hardly recognize it anymore — or yourself, for that matter. The guy you can rarely stop, rarely talk sense into.
And the fact that the Doctor narrates this (whether he cited from his own knowledge or from a text, we don’t know yet, so interpretation hinges on that a bit) could be an indicator that this is a testimony of his own dark side, of the Dream Lord, who promised he wouldn’t just stop to haunt the Doctor.
The thing is: when have they — and who exactly are they? — thrown him in there, which regeneration of himself is that, and how bad would it be for the two of them to meet? It is certain that the TARDIS is going to be destroyed and the Doctor will vanish, but what plan does he have to get [it] back?
The other thing is: if it’s not the Doctor — then what is it? What could be so terrifying that we haven’t met yet?
That’s my Holy Crap Thought of the day.
“He’s Drunk, He’s Mad, and He Never Pays His Bills” — Doctor Who: Vincent and The Doctor.
The lovely Vincent Van Gogh, ladies and gentlemen!
Previously on Doctor Who: Cold Blood.
Oh, this is LOVELY. Written by Richard Curtis (must I say it? Blackadder I-IV, Notting Hill, what have you), directed by Johnny Campbell, guest starring Bill Nighy and Tony Curran. It’s another quite alien-lite episode this week, there’s no great conspiracy to uncover or anything; just one lonely, blind Krafayis having been abandoned by its people. But that’s not what the story is really about (as in the end the alien is not that vicious, it’s really just a pitiable creature that’s afraid to die), it’s about the gift of sight. The Krafayis is blind, but the Doctor and Amy cannot see it either — the only one who can see it is Vincent Van Gogh. And that’s not the only thing Vincent can see: he can see so much, he can see the universe, the stars as they burn. The directors have used that for a wonderful sequence of the sky turning into Van Gogh’s famous painting of the Starry Night. Just that moment alone, with the Doctor, Amy and Vincent lying in the grass, holding each other’s hands, and the stars transforming before our eyes makes the episode so much more than just awesome Doctor Who, it makes it a dream. Continue reading →
Doctor Who Series Finale Speculation!
So, I was looking at Blogtor Who’s spoiler section for the series finale, and what I found had me a little flummoxed:
CAREFUL: Spoiler-y pic follows–don’t continue after the jump unless you really want to. Continue reading →
“Squeaky Bum Time!” — Time Can Be Rewritten. Doctor Who: Cold Blood (2).
Rory!
Previously on Doctor Who: The Hungry Earth.
Dear, dear Chris. I’ll be honest with you. It wasn’t completely boring, it didn’t have me look at the clock thinking ‘Oh, how long is this gonna take to get over with itself’, and the question of how they were going to manoeuvre themselves out of the dead sister thing did have me genuinely worried. Needless to say, I cried and cussed when Rory, poor Rory, caught the figurative bullet meant for the Doctor, died in Amy’s arms and, just to top that off, got removed from time and history by the Time Field behind the crack; effectively wiped from everyone’s except the Doctor’s memory. Oh, bloody wonderful. As I said, it wasn’t completely horrible, but this two-parter was the weakest of this new series, when it comes to wonky writing and not-so-sparkly-as-we’ve-enjoyed-before dialogue.
I’ll just get the plot and the writing and acting over with before I come to what’s this episode actually telling and, in some ways, teaching us. Continue reading →
Crime and Relative Dimension in Space 