Due to Comic Con and work stuff, my viewing schedule has been messed about a little — and although Doctor Who is obviously coded for weekly viewing including seven days of dread before the next episode comes along, I’ll be binge-watching and reviewing the last three episodes of Series 8 in one go. From what spoilers I couldn’t really escape, looks like it’ll wreck most of my nerves whilst saving me getting upset about a few things, too.
What I like about this series of Doctor Who is that it doesn’t make everything alright. Things are allowed to not be ok, people are allowed to not be ok. “It’s ok,” could so often have been the tagline to the denouement of the week, but not this time. Not with this Doctor. What I love even more is that this time, they truly used the Doctor-lite episode to give Clara/Jenna exemplary material to work with, and she did, even more excellently than in Kill the Moon, and that was challenging already. Continue reading →
This episode affords us one of the luxuries of time travel: the recreation of period dress, set, and costume design — in the future, in space, making it feel endearingly fallen out of time. Donna went ‘flapper or slapper’ in Agatha Christie’s own time, now Clara is stepping onto the Orient Express. A marvel in its own right, of course, but also indelibly connected to, again, Christie. And we’re dealing with murder here, too — except that the perpetrator hails from a different world entirely. Continue reading →
There’s a fine line between the Doctor acting as gatekeeper to Clara’s love life and just being concerned for her wellfare and Clara herself wanting the Doctor to like her boyfriend simply because people like it when their friends and their significant others get along. This episode is dangerously skirting that line and, frankly, introducing an Eleventh Doctor Doppelgänger and letting the Doctor believe that he is the SO, then leading to instant approval… is not the way to go. At best, it’s a really, really flat joke.
The Doctor goes classic hustle in this outer space adventure. Doctor Who has always brushed up against other genres and subgenres, and there’s been plenty of breaking and entering, but in new-Who, this is a first, and it’s clear that writers, directors, and costume and set designers alike relished the opportunity to evoke some of the coolest moments of breaking the bank in film and on television.
Robot of Sherwood is a romp, a sassfest, and in the line-up of recent new-Who episodes, perhaps a bit of an odd duck reaching back to the Doctor meeting funny folk from history and fiction in the olden days. The only thing we’re missing, perhaps, is the lizard. Wasn’t there supposed to be a lizard? (→ Blink)
In summary: I’ve just seen the Doctor flip Robin Hood the bird, I don’t care what else happens this weekend.
Doctor Who has returned, clockwork dancing to a darker tune, in sync with a Scottish heartbeat and an erratic consciousness. Welcome to the Untempered Schism that is Peter Capaldi’s ferocious first performance as the Twelfth Doctor. Continue reading →
Now, pretty much the best thing for any fan is to create a thing, have the creators and/or show runners come across it, and have them love it, perhaps give you a retweet or a shout-out. What’s even better than that — well, to have it integrated into the actual show. It’s happened to Will Graham’s dog Applesauce, but probably no-one thought they’d get as far as Billy Hanshaw. The freelance motion graphics artist created a title sequence for Doctor Who’s up and coming 8th series, creating a beautiful tapestry of time and space. He posted it on youtube, where it’s attracted a huge number of viewers and admirers, including show runner Steven Moffat, who liked it so much he approached Hanshaw about using his idea — in fact, a huge part of the animation as it is in his original video — in the new title/credits sequence for the Twelfth Doctor’s first run in the TARDIS.
“I’m the Doctor. I’ve lived for over 2,000 years. I’ve made many mistakes. It’s about time that I did something about that.”
“Where are we going?”
“Into darkness.”
I am really, really looking forward to watching Peter Capaldi bringing this Twelfth Doctor to life.
What else can we gather from this official trailer: the Daleks are back, the Paternoster Gang is back, the Doctor will gallop through some streets on horseback in a nightie, someone that looks very similar to the Gunslinger from a town called Mercy, spooky knights, and another exploding TARDIS.
I’m sure you’ve heard that BBC Worldwide in Miami seems to have a serious security problem: footage of the first Series 8 episode, Deep Breath, as leaked — and not just bits, no, the entire rough cut, albeit with stand-in credit titles and missing the FX shots. Still, it’s out there, it’s online, it’s a rough cut practically ready for broadcast, and it sucks. So, anyone, please, anyone who’s got their hands on it, don’t post spoilers, don’t start rumours, don’t ruin it for anybody. Be kind and generous. And whoever is leaking this stuff, whoever is letting these things get out: please get sacked sometime soon. Alternatively — if this is hackers doing this: stop it, you ungrateful nitwits, why would you even do that. Just to upset some nerds? Get a life.
It’s not the first time this has happened. Rose leaked 20 days before the revival started — which is probably why people were so bloody well surprised that, in Series 7A, the huge secret of Clara’s involvement in Asylum of the Daleks could be kept under wraps.
Crime and Relative Dimension in Space 