Hello all,
It has been forever since I've posted a new blog. But then again, summer breaks and jobs will do that to you. I know I started reviewing The Sarah Jane Adventures and only did one episode and I apologize for leaving readers stranded in deep space.
Sad to say, senior year is a lot of work and what free time I have is going more to my 360, Rainbow Six, Soul Calibur 4 and Halo 3 than to writing anything. That's going to change though. I really need something to focus on other than writing long ass papers and reading 30-60 pages of text a night.
What I'm getting at is, the Tardis Blog is coming back in full force. My first objective is to finish Series 1 of The Sarah Jane Adventures and quickly move into Series 2, which started two weeks ago. Next, who knows. Torchwood won't be back till next spring and Doctor Who won't be back till Christmas. Still, there are four series of shows I haven't covered. I know I keep saying I will get around to it but never do; but I WILL get to Torchwood Series 1 most likely after SJA Series 2 wraps up or if I'm bored enough I'll review both at the same time. This could work since I will be reviewing SJA episodes as a whole and not in their 2 part format.
Well, that's the plan now and it won't be implimented till next week after I enjoy home for a few days. Prepare for the return of the reviews. And spread the word, I'd love to chat on the comments boards about your views on these episodes. My opinions don't speak for everyone just my own and I'd love to chat (now I'm just repeating myself, stopping now).
A bientot tout le monde!!!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Sarah Jane Adventures S01E01-02-Revenge of the Slitheen
Luke’s first day at school holds many unexpected surprises. Social awkwardness aside, he finds acceptance in a tiny school science club that specializes in impossibly hard equations. Unfortunately, not everything is as normal as Luke, Maria and newcomer Clyde come to expect from school. An old threat has returned to seek revenge on planet Earth. And this time, they’re pulling out all of the stops to ensure the total destruction of the planet.
After the somewhat uneven pilot that was “The Invasion of Bane”, The Sarah Jane Adventures gets off to a more proper start. And what better way to bring in new viewers and long time Doctor Who associates than to have our spunky heroine tackle the Slitheen, making their first appearance since “Boom Town” in Doctor Who Series 1. It’s cool that The Doctor got two big nods here in this episode; when Sarah Jane reveals why, or rather “who”, the Slitheen were stopped way back when; and when Clyde is properly introduced to Sarah Jane’s world. It is pretty obvious to anyone by now that Russell T. Davies and his writing team are doing their best to keep Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures connected in whatever small way they can. It works well here, but then again, it will be nice to see how Sarah Jane and her companions take on a more original threat later on in the series.
In keeping with the mindset that this is an aimed at children program, the young cast does a good job with their roles. Maria’s character is reminiscent of a Doctor companion a la Rose or Martha, taking in her new discoveries while using her unparalleled wit and calm to help save the day. Luke is your typical genetically engineered smart but socially awkward that continues to bring to thought ideas that this could be reminiscent of The Doctor’s long forgotten youth. Mind you that is only speculative. And Clyde, replacing Kelsey from the pilot, turns out to be a far more interesting character than his predecessor. He is the young audiences real key to accessing this series, reacting probably more realistically to how any youngster would when seeing a Slitheen. Even better, he is not as annoying a character as Kelsey was, something that made “The Invasion of Bane” drag a bit.
And what of Sarah Jane herself? Give Elisabeth Sladen her props, after almost two decades away from the Doctor Who seen, she is still a companion we all love and want to cheer for. Most of this is thanks to Sladen, who infuses real depth to her character, suddenly thrust into the role of mother not only for Luke, but Maria and Clyde in a way as well. And, in the spirit of Captain Jack Harkness, I should say, she doesn’t look too bad for what, 60? Not at all.
“Revenge of the Slitheen” had all the energy of a fast paced Doctor Who story but with a totally different cast. If the show can keep up this pace then it is sure to go far. For the teens who have Doctor Who and the adults who have Torchwood, children now have their access point to the world of The Doctor, and that is The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Next Time-Those aren’t ordinary garden statues, are they?
Rating-8/10
After the somewhat uneven pilot that was “The Invasion of Bane”, The Sarah Jane Adventures gets off to a more proper start. And what better way to bring in new viewers and long time Doctor Who associates than to have our spunky heroine tackle the Slitheen, making their first appearance since “Boom Town” in Doctor Who Series 1. It’s cool that The Doctor got two big nods here in this episode; when Sarah Jane reveals why, or rather “who”, the Slitheen were stopped way back when; and when Clyde is properly introduced to Sarah Jane’s world. It is pretty obvious to anyone by now that Russell T. Davies and his writing team are doing their best to keep Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures connected in whatever small way they can. It works well here, but then again, it will be nice to see how Sarah Jane and her companions take on a more original threat later on in the series.
In keeping with the mindset that this is an aimed at children program, the young cast does a good job with their roles. Maria’s character is reminiscent of a Doctor companion a la Rose or Martha, taking in her new discoveries while using her unparalleled wit and calm to help save the day. Luke is your typical genetically engineered smart but socially awkward that continues to bring to thought ideas that this could be reminiscent of The Doctor’s long forgotten youth. Mind you that is only speculative. And Clyde, replacing Kelsey from the pilot, turns out to be a far more interesting character than his predecessor. He is the young audiences real key to accessing this series, reacting probably more realistically to how any youngster would when seeing a Slitheen. Even better, he is not as annoying a character as Kelsey was, something that made “The Invasion of Bane” drag a bit.
And what of Sarah Jane herself? Give Elisabeth Sladen her props, after almost two decades away from the Doctor Who seen, she is still a companion we all love and want to cheer for. Most of this is thanks to Sladen, who infuses real depth to her character, suddenly thrust into the role of mother not only for Luke, but Maria and Clyde in a way as well. And, in the spirit of Captain Jack Harkness, I should say, she doesn’t look too bad for what, 60? Not at all.
“Revenge of the Slitheen” had all the energy of a fast paced Doctor Who story but with a totally different cast. If the show can keep up this pace then it is sure to go far. For the teens who have Doctor Who and the adults who have Torchwood, children now have their access point to the world of The Doctor, and that is The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Next Time-Those aren’t ordinary garden statues, are they?
Rating-8/10
Sunday, July 6, 2008
What Now?
And now I’m sure there’s another question of everyone’s mind. Doctor Who and Torchwood are done for the time being. Will this blog site go dormant till then? Hell no!!! There are still three series of Doctor Who and one series of Torchwood, and…I guess The Sarah Jane adventures to review. I’ll find a way, be it Youtube, or some other media viewing method to bring full reviews of these fantastic shows and bring those who may have been a bit in the dark over events thus far up to speed.
The rides not over yet folks, trust me.
The rides not over yet folks, trust me.
Doctor Who S04E13-Journey's End
Having barely survived a surprise attack from the Daleks, The Doctor, Rose, Donna and Jack find themselves prisoners of Davors and his Dalek Empire. The Doctor’s remaining companions: Sarah Jane, Martha and a recently returned Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler, each form alternative plans to save the Earth, but at equally devastating costs. The final showdown is set and more is at stake than ever before. Can The Doctor do what he does best only better? And when the dust finally settles what will the final cost of such a desperate victory bring for the last of the Time Lords?
Be warned…This is going to be a pretty lengthy entry with plenty of spoilers just because I can’t give a proper review without revealing a few things. Stop now for spoiler risk, otherwise continue reading.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s all take a quick second to give a round of applause for Russell T. Davies. I have said it before and I will most certainly say it again, he is the science fiction writer extraordinaire equivalent of Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Next Generation) for London. A man who can skillfully and successfully tie together four years of mythos aplenty and give it a proper send off deserves all of the upmost respect and congrats.
I hope that fans of the series will feel as I did when I finished viewing this episode, greatly rewarded and very sad. “Journey’s End” marks the end of an era for the revived series. Enemies have been dealt with (for now), characters are moving on to better things (and back to their own spin offs), and others are, well, at least making it home alive in one piece.
Incase some were too blind to notice, in this epic two part finale plenty of characters from Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures got some screen time and all were given something important to do, be it taking the fight to the enemy head on (a la Jack, Gwen and Ianto) or giving their family silent support from the sidelines (a la Martha’s Mom and Jackie). Heck, even out beloved tin dog K9 makes a surprise return to help The Doctor.
Let me at least get this out of the way. I am so happy that David Tennant will be sticking around for more time traveling/space faring fun (he even says himself “Why change?”) He has truly become my Doctor in the last three years he’s played the role. Many may have their own favorite Time Lord persona (be it Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker amongst many, both good choices) but David Tennant has been from the beginning and always will be my most beloved of the ten Doctor’s thus far. And come on, any one who can play the same Doctor with two different personalities, I’m of course talking about the second Doctor Donna creates, has got to be quite the capable actor. Props David Tennant, props all around.
The reunion between The Doctor and Rose was as emotionally filled as we all expected it would be after the amount of time these star crossed lovers had been apart. What kind of sucks is the fact that at the end of the epic, they kind of finds themselves right back where they left off at the end of Series 2. I know there will be many of you who will be down right furious that Rose will not be staying with the real Doctor, but rather trapped again on a parallel Earth with the other, half human Doctor (I kind of fit this category). However, at least she is not without a Doctor she can live to the end of time with. And yes, we do get that little “Does he love her?” question cleared up. The answer…you better believe he does. Oh well, it was good to see Billie Piper back while it lasted.
And then there’s Donna. Donna. Donna. Donna. She finally gets to save the world and now she must forget everything she knows about The Doctor in order to save her own life. It’s a very, very sad ending for someone I never really thought I’d end up liking. We all thought of Donna as that loud mouth and extremely annoying tag along that wouldn’t shut up. But here, Davies does a complete 180 with her, giving Donna a strength she never even knew she had. I never thought I’d ever end up saying this, but she is going to be missed, especially by The Doctor whose look of sadness and despair is hard to look at because we are all feeling the same. Donna Noble, rock on girl.
Throw in the return of the Daleks and Davros (a villain I saw in one of the Tom Baker serials “Destiny of the Daleks”) and you’ve got one perfect recipe for awesomeness. Bringing Davros back cleared up some questions about the Time War such as The Doctor’s genocidal and war like actions which killed both the Time Lords and the Daleks at its climax. And here I thought that only The Master could really push The Doctor’s buttons, boy was I wrong. I haven’t seen The Doctor this pissed off EVER. Great stuff. I wouldn’t count The Daleks out at all. Maybe Davros, but the Daleks will always be around so long as Doctor Who continues to air. And maybe one day we will finally see the Time War itself and get the full mystery of its chaos cleared up at last. Steven Moffat, get to writing man.
I guess the big question now is, what next? Well: Jack will return to Gwen and Ianto (with Martha and Mickey as possible new teammates); Sarah Jane will go back to Luke and his friends; Rose, Jackie and the other Doctor are stuck on parallel Earth again; and The Doctor is on his own again, a position that he never wants to be in, but is. The series will continue in 2010, but don’t think that there’s going to be a big two year wait for more of The Doctor. I’m sure we’ll have Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures back eventually, but don’t count The Doctor out completely. You never know when he’ll turn up again.
Until then, thank you very much Russell T. Davies and crew for a truly amazing finale. Series 4 may have been a bit uneven throughout, but this series wrapped up with all barrels blazing. Again, everyone still reading, a round of applause please.
Next Time: The Cybermen are back…December 25, 2008. C ya at Christmas.
Rating-10/10
Be warned…This is going to be a pretty lengthy entry with plenty of spoilers just because I can’t give a proper review without revealing a few things. Stop now for spoiler risk, otherwise continue reading.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s all take a quick second to give a round of applause for Russell T. Davies. I have said it before and I will most certainly say it again, he is the science fiction writer extraordinaire equivalent of Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Next Generation) for London. A man who can skillfully and successfully tie together four years of mythos aplenty and give it a proper send off deserves all of the upmost respect and congrats.
I hope that fans of the series will feel as I did when I finished viewing this episode, greatly rewarded and very sad. “Journey’s End” marks the end of an era for the revived series. Enemies have been dealt with (for now), characters are moving on to better things (and back to their own spin offs), and others are, well, at least making it home alive in one piece.
Incase some were too blind to notice, in this epic two part finale plenty of characters from Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures got some screen time and all were given something important to do, be it taking the fight to the enemy head on (a la Jack, Gwen and Ianto) or giving their family silent support from the sidelines (a la Martha’s Mom and Jackie). Heck, even out beloved tin dog K9 makes a surprise return to help The Doctor.
Let me at least get this out of the way. I am so happy that David Tennant will be sticking around for more time traveling/space faring fun (he even says himself “Why change?”) He has truly become my Doctor in the last three years he’s played the role. Many may have their own favorite Time Lord persona (be it Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker amongst many, both good choices) but David Tennant has been from the beginning and always will be my most beloved of the ten Doctor’s thus far. And come on, any one who can play the same Doctor with two different personalities, I’m of course talking about the second Doctor Donna creates, has got to be quite the capable actor. Props David Tennant, props all around.
The reunion between The Doctor and Rose was as emotionally filled as we all expected it would be after the amount of time these star crossed lovers had been apart. What kind of sucks is the fact that at the end of the epic, they kind of finds themselves right back where they left off at the end of Series 2. I know there will be many of you who will be down right furious that Rose will not be staying with the real Doctor, but rather trapped again on a parallel Earth with the other, half human Doctor (I kind of fit this category). However, at least she is not without a Doctor she can live to the end of time with. And yes, we do get that little “Does he love her?” question cleared up. The answer…you better believe he does. Oh well, it was good to see Billie Piper back while it lasted.
And then there’s Donna. Donna. Donna. Donna. She finally gets to save the world and now she must forget everything she knows about The Doctor in order to save her own life. It’s a very, very sad ending for someone I never really thought I’d end up liking. We all thought of Donna as that loud mouth and extremely annoying tag along that wouldn’t shut up. But here, Davies does a complete 180 with her, giving Donna a strength she never even knew she had. I never thought I’d ever end up saying this, but she is going to be missed, especially by The Doctor whose look of sadness and despair is hard to look at because we are all feeling the same. Donna Noble, rock on girl.
Throw in the return of the Daleks and Davros (a villain I saw in one of the Tom Baker serials “Destiny of the Daleks”) and you’ve got one perfect recipe for awesomeness. Bringing Davros back cleared up some questions about the Time War such as The Doctor’s genocidal and war like actions which killed both the Time Lords and the Daleks at its climax. And here I thought that only The Master could really push The Doctor’s buttons, boy was I wrong. I haven’t seen The Doctor this pissed off EVER. Great stuff. I wouldn’t count The Daleks out at all. Maybe Davros, but the Daleks will always be around so long as Doctor Who continues to air. And maybe one day we will finally see the Time War itself and get the full mystery of its chaos cleared up at last. Steven Moffat, get to writing man.
I guess the big question now is, what next? Well: Jack will return to Gwen and Ianto (with Martha and Mickey as possible new teammates); Sarah Jane will go back to Luke and his friends; Rose, Jackie and the other Doctor are stuck on parallel Earth again; and The Doctor is on his own again, a position that he never wants to be in, but is. The series will continue in 2010, but don’t think that there’s going to be a big two year wait for more of The Doctor. I’m sure we’ll have Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures back eventually, but don’t count The Doctor out completely. You never know when he’ll turn up again.
Until then, thank you very much Russell T. Davies and crew for a truly amazing finale. Series 4 may have been a bit uneven throughout, but this series wrapped up with all barrels blazing. Again, everyone still reading, a round of applause please.
Next Time: The Cybermen are back…December 25, 2008. C ya at Christmas.
Rating-10/10
Monday, June 30, 2008
Doctor Who S04E12-The Stolen Earth
In a sudden instant, the Earth vanishes from right under The Doctor and Donna’s feet. As the planet float in a shrouded area of space with several other stolen worlds, the problems of humanity get worse when a vast army of Daleks begin attacking the planet. As The Doctor and Donna desperately search for a way to find the missing planets, the Earth’s last remaining defenders: (Martha Jones and U.N.I.T., Captain Jack Harkness and Torchwood, Sarah Jane and Luke Smith) and one defender from another Earth (Rose Tyler) band together to confront the Dalek threat. But Jack, Martha, Sarah Jane and Rose have faced the Daleks before and know of their destructive capabilities. Without The Doctor and even with Rose’s help, can they stop the Dalek invasion of Earth? And who is the mysterious voice giving orders to the Daleks?
Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve finally arrived at “The Stolen Earth” and like most two part episodes of the series so far, it does a spectacular job of getting the blood pumping for the inevitable conclusion. With this story we see the culmination of four years worth of Doctor Who and more come together for the end all be all clash of the ages. For those of you who have followed the series since it’s resurrection in 2005 and even before that, this is one big reward for your dedication with characters and lots of series trivia tidbits, so many you will be lucky enough to catch them all. This is the start of a finale that “The Parting of the Ways”, “Doomsday” and “Last of the Time Lords” (the third one especially) could only dream of being.
I’ll try to keep this as short as possible and try to be spoiler free for those of you who haven’t watched this yet. However, there is little negativity to be found with this episode. I’ll start with my amazement of Russell T. Davies bringing Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures under the umbrella of it’s parent series and making them all work together. It was fun seeing Gwen, Ianto and Luke, who have only been mentioned in passing in previous episodes, interacting with Jack, Martha and Sarah Jane, like, well, one big happy family.
Leave it to the Daleks to come back with a bang. It is hard to believe that at one point there was only one left, but as everyone knows, you can’t keep them dead forever. The Daleks will always come back in one way or another to take on The Doctor in a battle of epic proportions. It would be one big spoiler to reveal the reason behind their return and it may even be expanded more next week. I will say, however, that Dalek Caan, the last of the Cult of Skaro has a role to play as The Doctor predicted.
Rose is back as previously mentioned. Like I said in my review of “Turn Left”, last week we saw her at her most clever and this week we saw her at her most bad ass, blasting Daleks to dust left and right with her BFG. While she only meets Jack and Donna she does see everyone else but can communicate with them and feels left out. You can hear it in her voice, her helplessness and do I dare say jealousy of The Doctor’s faith in her successors.
Possibly the saddest moment of the episode is the reason The Doctor’s companions coming together. Harriet Jones, ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain, returns to help out one last time. It is a fitting farewell to her character, sticking to the morals that got her ostracized by The Doctor and yet finding some redemption and providing a way for The Doctor to find his way to Earth. I’ll leave it at that if you can’t guess yet what happens. That’s me trying to be spoiler free for ya.
I’ll stop there so I don’t spoil anything else. If you haven’t seen “The Stolen Earth” yet, find a way to do so immediately and hold your breath for July 5, 2008 when “Journey’s End” brings us to the biggest epic we’ve ever seen.
Next Week…The Journey Ends...here's hoping this isn't the end of the road for David Tennant's fantastic Doctor.
Rating-10/10
Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve finally arrived at “The Stolen Earth” and like most two part episodes of the series so far, it does a spectacular job of getting the blood pumping for the inevitable conclusion. With this story we see the culmination of four years worth of Doctor Who and more come together for the end all be all clash of the ages. For those of you who have followed the series since it’s resurrection in 2005 and even before that, this is one big reward for your dedication with characters and lots of series trivia tidbits, so many you will be lucky enough to catch them all. This is the start of a finale that “The Parting of the Ways”, “Doomsday” and “Last of the Time Lords” (the third one especially) could only dream of being.
I’ll try to keep this as short as possible and try to be spoiler free for those of you who haven’t watched this yet. However, there is little negativity to be found with this episode. I’ll start with my amazement of Russell T. Davies bringing Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures under the umbrella of it’s parent series and making them all work together. It was fun seeing Gwen, Ianto and Luke, who have only been mentioned in passing in previous episodes, interacting with Jack, Martha and Sarah Jane, like, well, one big happy family.
Leave it to the Daleks to come back with a bang. It is hard to believe that at one point there was only one left, but as everyone knows, you can’t keep them dead forever. The Daleks will always come back in one way or another to take on The Doctor in a battle of epic proportions. It would be one big spoiler to reveal the reason behind their return and it may even be expanded more next week. I will say, however, that Dalek Caan, the last of the Cult of Skaro has a role to play as The Doctor predicted.
Rose is back as previously mentioned. Like I said in my review of “Turn Left”, last week we saw her at her most clever and this week we saw her at her most bad ass, blasting Daleks to dust left and right with her BFG. While she only meets Jack and Donna she does see everyone else but can communicate with them and feels left out. You can hear it in her voice, her helplessness and do I dare say jealousy of The Doctor’s faith in her successors.
Possibly the saddest moment of the episode is the reason The Doctor’s companions coming together. Harriet Jones, ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain, returns to help out one last time. It is a fitting farewell to her character, sticking to the morals that got her ostracized by The Doctor and yet finding some redemption and providing a way for The Doctor to find his way to Earth. I’ll leave it at that if you can’t guess yet what happens. That’s me trying to be spoiler free for ya.
I’ll stop there so I don’t spoil anything else. If you haven’t seen “The Stolen Earth” yet, find a way to do so immediately and hold your breath for July 5, 2008 when “Journey’s End” brings us to the biggest epic we’ve ever seen.
Next Week…The Journey Ends...here's hoping this isn't the end of the road for David Tennant's fantastic Doctor.
Rating-10/10
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Doctor Who S04E11-Turn Left
When Donna goes to get her fortune read, she is transported to a parallel Earth. Here, anything that can go bad has, all because of one small decision. The Doctor, Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith and her friends have all died saving the world from various threats. And now the biggest threat the universe has ever seen is about to descend and nothing can stop it. When all hope seems lost, a mysterious blonde girl appears who may hold the key to giving another Earth a fighting chance against the coming darkness.
Don’t you just love those parallel timeline stories? Personally, it makes me feel sad to know that every character you love can die at some point. But knocking off all of them at one time for sake of story of the alternate Earth can be a bit depressing. If anyone needs further examples take a look at some of Marvel Comics X-Men and Avengers storylines and you may see what I mean.
But yeah, sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. What an episode this week huh? The perfect setup has been laid for the mother of all finales. And while it was strange to see The Doctor out of the picture for a bit, “Turn Left” did a good job at analyzing just how insecure and a pain in the ass Donna can be sometimes. But, if all is as proclaimed by this episode alone, she is clearly more important to The Doctor than anyone would have guessed.
And how can you chat about this episode without feeling excited at Rose’s long awaited return? God, it was so good to see her on the show again for more than thirty seconds. Billie Piper picks up the character in a bit of a different place from when we last saw her. She’s no longer sad about losing The Doctor, perhaps knowing she was going to see him again put her in a good mood. But she acts more like The Doctor this time around, sort of filling in for our absent Time Lord this week. Just shows how much she’s learned from being with him. This week we saw her as the open minded and clever individual we all love and next week we get to see her at her most bad ass. Welcome back Rose!!!
And hopefully all of you die hard Doctor Who fans caught all of the references to episodes and characters throughout the show, from Sarah Jane to “The Runaway Bride” and “Voyage of the Damned” to the first mention of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones from “Torchwood”.
Overall, the setup is ready, now it’s time to bring the noise with the finale we’ve been waiting to see since “Partners in Crime” back in April.
Next Week-Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf, Daleks-lots of Daleks, and the end of the world…the episode we’ve been waiting for since April.
Rating-9/10
Don’t you just love those parallel timeline stories? Personally, it makes me feel sad to know that every character you love can die at some point. But knocking off all of them at one time for sake of story of the alternate Earth can be a bit depressing. If anyone needs further examples take a look at some of Marvel Comics X-Men and Avengers storylines and you may see what I mean.
But yeah, sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. What an episode this week huh? The perfect setup has been laid for the mother of all finales. And while it was strange to see The Doctor out of the picture for a bit, “Turn Left” did a good job at analyzing just how insecure and a pain in the ass Donna can be sometimes. But, if all is as proclaimed by this episode alone, she is clearly more important to The Doctor than anyone would have guessed.
And how can you chat about this episode without feeling excited at Rose’s long awaited return? God, it was so good to see her on the show again for more than thirty seconds. Billie Piper picks up the character in a bit of a different place from when we last saw her. She’s no longer sad about losing The Doctor, perhaps knowing she was going to see him again put her in a good mood. But she acts more like The Doctor this time around, sort of filling in for our absent Time Lord this week. Just shows how much she’s learned from being with him. This week we saw her as the open minded and clever individual we all love and next week we get to see her at her most bad ass. Welcome back Rose!!!
And hopefully all of you die hard Doctor Who fans caught all of the references to episodes and characters throughout the show, from Sarah Jane to “The Runaway Bride” and “Voyage of the Damned” to the first mention of Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones from “Torchwood”.
Overall, the setup is ready, now it’s time to bring the noise with the finale we’ve been waiting to see since “Partners in Crime” back in April.
Next Week-Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf, Daleks-lots of Daleks, and the end of the world…the episode we’ve been waiting for since April.
Rating-9/10
Friday, June 20, 2008
Doctor Who S04E10-Midnight
While Donna sunbathes in the pleasure palace on the planet Midnight, The Doctor boards a local flight to witness the beautiful crystal waterfalls of the planet. All is going well on board for most of the trip: the passengers are friendly and the mood is absolutely pleasant. That is, until a mysterious force attacks the ship and infects one of the passengers. Trapped in the middle of nowhere with help a long ways off, The Doctor soon finds himself just as helpless as everyone else as fear and paranoia quickly grip the passengers.
I’ll give Russell T. Davies one thing; if he wants to he can almost absolutely find new and unusual ways to blow an audience away with a Doctor Who serial. And here with “Midnight” he both succeeds and fails in this regard.
First, this is not your ordinary Doctor Who outing. It is more a psychological thriller/horror piece designed to terrify and genuinlly freak out to the best of its ability. Again, as with “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead”, the supporting characters are typecast in roles that fit such a genre story such as this. Even The Doctor finds himself out of character, a man not in control of the situation but rather the soon to be helpless victim of a paranoid crew determined to use the airlock on him. Props again to David Tennant for showing another side of The Doctor we have never seen before.
However, putting the story in one tiny setting is something that I feel should be reserved for only those seven minute “Children in Need” specials Doctor Who has done in the past. Doctor Who to me is supposed to be above and beyond epic proportions. Keeping the story confined to one tiny shuttle for 45 minutes can be as effective to the horror atmosphere as it was aggravating for me hoping that the story would move elsewhere for a minute or two.
So yeah, this is a mixed episode, both excellent and frustrating as well. Luckilly, Davies must again be given credit for trying something new with the series. I’m sure he will take what this episode did best and be sure to add it to future installments if he opts to stay on as a guest writer in the series future.
Next Week: As Donna’s world falls down around her…Rose Tyler returns to help her save The Doctor and the world. I think the important part is that after a year and a half of waiting…ROSE IS BACK!!!
Rating-8/10
I’ll give Russell T. Davies one thing; if he wants to he can almost absolutely find new and unusual ways to blow an audience away with a Doctor Who serial. And here with “Midnight” he both succeeds and fails in this regard.
First, this is not your ordinary Doctor Who outing. It is more a psychological thriller/horror piece designed to terrify and genuinlly freak out to the best of its ability. Again, as with “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead”, the supporting characters are typecast in roles that fit such a genre story such as this. Even The Doctor finds himself out of character, a man not in control of the situation but rather the soon to be helpless victim of a paranoid crew determined to use the airlock on him. Props again to David Tennant for showing another side of The Doctor we have never seen before.
However, putting the story in one tiny setting is something that I feel should be reserved for only those seven minute “Children in Need” specials Doctor Who has done in the past. Doctor Who to me is supposed to be above and beyond epic proportions. Keeping the story confined to one tiny shuttle for 45 minutes can be as effective to the horror atmosphere as it was aggravating for me hoping that the story would move elsewhere for a minute or two.
So yeah, this is a mixed episode, both excellent and frustrating as well. Luckilly, Davies must again be given credit for trying something new with the series. I’m sure he will take what this episode did best and be sure to add it to future installments if he opts to stay on as a guest writer in the series future.
Next Week: As Donna’s world falls down around her…Rose Tyler returns to help her save The Doctor and the world. I think the important part is that after a year and a half of waiting…ROSE IS BACK!!!
Rating-8/10
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