Silence in the Library

Let’s all together say it out loud: Steven Moffat is a Genius.  He’s the master of suspense, and intricate plots, and unpredictability that keeps you on the edge of the seat.  I was nearly ready to consider Series 4 to be the weakest of the new series; but this episode brings my faith right back.

Also let me be the first (last? given that this show already aired?) to say that from the get-go, the concept of this show is pretty interesting.  The interplay of the little girl’s imagination being visited by the doctor; the physical manifestation of the girl as a security camera — forget what I said last time about following a formula.

There are some nice science fiction elements — I really liked the ghosted death with consciousness embedded in the chips.  While it’s nothing new (Neuromancer had done this computer construct thing over 20 years ago, after all), it really worked for me in the plot and added to the creepiness.

I also very much appreciated the nice touch of the the psychiatrist reversing himself.  The dreams and nightmares are real, and the real world is not — this is wonderful stuff.

Guesses and Predictions

First, Dr. Song’s knowledge of Donna foreshadows her tragic end — there’s a reason that the second-to-last episode of the series is still unnamed, and a reason that the relationship between Donna and the Doctor has not been alluded to.  Donna’s end must be rather tragic in order for Dr. Song to remember her, assuming she’s met the Doctor in her past / his future.  I’d predict that Rose Tyler’s return spells Donna’s doom.

Second, Dr. Song will end up being a companion in the abridged Series 5. It’s just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Third, I predict that “CAL” is the girl herself, probably in the sense of it being her name or her initials.

Fourth, Vashta Nerada (doesn’t this name sound just like something out of Harry Potter?) will be a major plot line of Torchwood next year.  The 51st century is Jack’s home time, so he could have easily known about this episode’s outcome.  I make this prediction in stride, though, since there are rumors that Torchwood’s posture will change.

Conclusion

I’m on the edge of my seat.  I feel almost desperate enough to find spoilers (almost, but not quite). I guess we’ll see how I did on my predictions next week, or even next year for some of them.

 

The Unicorn and the Wasp

It’s time for the 1920s! I for one have no idea what the historical context is, in England. It’s between the wars, and the aristocracy is quite alive — that much is clear. Other than that, I don’t really know.

Of course things are made easier by the fact that, yay, this is the time in our season when we visit a Famous Historical Personage! (reminder: we’ve already done the Place and Time of Historic calamity when The Doctor Ends Up Being Responsible, and we haven’t yet done the Doctor Lite episode). I actually mean this without any sarcasm, but the seasons are formulaic somewhat, aren’t they? Though I appreciated that they were actually having fun with some back-references (Charles Dickens / Christmas / ghosts)

Let it be said that I said it first (ok, well, I said it just in my last post). Once again the Doctor and Donna have to explicitly state that they’re not together. However, they sure don’t behave that way — for heaven’s sake, she kisses him. It’s almost as if the amount of physical contact of the Doctor and his companion is inversely proportional to the amount of sexual attraction the companion has to the Doctor.

The episode has at least one mistake here. According to Wikipedia, Christie disappeared on December 8th, 1928. But it certainly doesn’t look like December 8th.

The episode is, actually, quite funny. Not Death at a Funeral funny — which happens to be quite close in the sense of a British murder mystery comedy.  But certainly the least scary and most laugh-out-loud funny of the recent episodes.

It’s a bummer that we have to wait two weeks for the next fix of the Doctor and Donna.

 

The Doctor’s Daughter

The teasers were a bit more unclear than the very few minutes of the episode showed. Here I was, thinking that this episode is about to take us into the Doctor’s past, but they just go and clone a grown child out of him. Lame? Well, not necessarily; just not a blast from the past that I expected. Of course, I’m not far enough into the old serials to know all the backstory just yet. Though he did have a granddaughter of course, and the Doctor does let on a bit about his family’s death. Did this happen between the 8th and 9th Doctors? Or did this happen before and it’s a matter of time for me to see this?

Much like for the last few episodes, Donna and the Doctor keep having to deny that they’re a couple. Last time (Planet of the Ood) they were not even supposedly together — they were from the “Noble Corporation”, I think — and still someone assumed they were a couple.

The Hath make for somewhat interesting aliens (have we seen them before? do they have a history? my lack of Doctor Who history makes this tough). For one, they seem to be intelligent and not outright evil. Second, they have the absolutely most awesome moment of rah-rah before going to battle — all without a single sound.

That moment is so completely opposed to the screaming heads of the human population. Take that, you stereotypical scenes of terrorists loudly shooting in the air screaming in a foreign language!

Jenny turns out to be, what, another Time Lord of sorts? Her thinking is definitely Doctor-like; her agility and ability to take risks as well. And despite a nice false ending that seemed to wrap everything up, we get a new character in Jenny: permanent, or spin off, only time will tell.

 

Keep on watching

Well, well.   Haven’t I been bad.  Just because I got a new job didn’t mean that I had to stop following my quest.

But then again not that I had.  While the Web Planet still rests on top of the TV, waiting to be fully watched, some parts of Doctor Who keep happening and are unavoidable.  For example, Torchwood Series 2 came and went and was consumed by me, and now we’re up to Episode 6 of the new Doctor Who series’ fourth season.

My thoughts on the previously viewed work will be forthcoming.  For now, I’ll keep on watching.

 

The Time Meddler

So the Doctor has a new companion, Steven Taylor. He starts off being kind of bossy (no good when that happens around the Doctor). I like the character of the Monk, he’s pretty well imagined and is a decent adversary, if only because he’s so feisty when dealing with the Doctor. He’s also the owner of another TARDIS, which is rather cool! We haven’t seen a different TARDIS yet. It’s also another time-sensitive story; I’m glad to see time travel topics being taken advantage of. The Doctor ends the serial being a bit mean towards his fellow Time Lord and maroons him on Earth in 1066.

 

The Chase

Watched The Chase. Like the Tenth doctor’s travels, the first episode shows Shakespeare. Unlike the later story, this gives quite an uninspired explanation for the authoring of Hamlet. Also the episode manages to pander to the fan base by including a video of The Beatles’ television appearance (the song being played, Ticket to Ride, was released just a month prior to the show’s airing date). It really is a good thing that The Beatles ended up being a long-term success with enduring popularity; otherwise, this would have been a reference to a long-forgotten band.

The TARDIS finds its way to the top of the Empire State Building, along with some Daleks. Later in Tenth Doctor times we’ll be seeing some Daleks working on the very same building. After Manhattan, the crew lands on a moving ship (the Mary Celeste); this would probably be the first time they’ve landed on a moving object, so far. The ship moves on to a haunted mansion exhibit (note: the writers could have known about the Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion since it was already under construction and had been publicized).

I really liked the fact that the Daleks’ time machine is much like the TARDIS, i.e. bigger on the outside, and the Doctor vs. Robot Doctor fight. Very nifty.

Finally, we say farewell to the original companions — Barbara and Ian. I don’t know yet what the other companions will bring: when I started watching the old series my only frame of reference for companions was Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, who are quite different in attitude (and age) from Barbara and Ian. I didn’t really know what to expect, and thus was surprised by the somewhat formal style of Ian and the fear often exhibited by Barbara, plus by the patronizing relationship the Doctor had with Barbara. Some things were the same: the Doctor needs his companions, just as they need him, and he depends on them thinking on their feet and never really losing hope. Over the course of the first two seasons our Barbara and Ian matured and became more fun, more interested in their travels, more inclined to get involved in local affairs in the places they visited. I have high hopes for the upcoming companions.

 

Moving on for now; The Crusade; The Space Museum

I still haven’t watched the Netflix DVDs that I have out (incidentally, they are Labyrinth and Xanadu), and so decided to just move on to the next serials and to watch The Web Planet when I get to it.

I successfully watched the parts of The Crusade that were available on YouTube. This happens to be episodes 1 and 3, with 2 and 4 being available as photo montages and the original audio track plus a narrator to connect what was happening to the audio track (i.e. explain what’s in between the photos). It’s a palace intrigue serial, but a rather good one at that. It was rather hard to follow, since I wasn’t in the mood to watch the photo montage and thus missed vital parts of the serial. Basically, since our crew (Vicki, Barbara, Ian, and the Doctor) is still alive and well at the end of the last episode, all is well.

The Space Museum is continuing a trend from the episode that introduced us to Vicki (namely, “The Rescue“) — that is, a world with 60s-looking rocket ships. The whole theme of the Doctor visiting (being stuck in?) a museum of alien stuff, only to be surprised by a Dalek being kept in the exhibit, will be repeated in the episode “Dalek” in the New Series’ Season 1.

The show itself is built on a somewhat non-linear basis, taking advantage of the time-traveling aspect of the overall premise for once. At one point the Doctor gets frozen in a scene vividly similar to Han Solo being frozen in carbonite…  The serial ends on a great cliff-hanger, a set up for the next show.  Overall, it’s actually been a pretty interesting story!

 

A DVD in the mail

Ooh, The Web Planet isn’t on YouTube…because it’s out on DVD.  So now I have to quickly watch one of the movies I have at home so that I can receive this DVD in the mail.  Interestingly, Netflix has 1975 listed as the date for this serial, despite the fact that it actually broadcast in early 1965.

 

The Romans

Finished the very next serial, The Romans. After watching The Rescue I really started worrying that the production budget has dropped: The Rescue’s monsters and props really left a lot to be desired. The Romans, however, immediately show a much higher quality: mass scenes, good clothes and props, scenery. Immediately the plot starts smelling of being another palace intrigue variation.

The crew, though, appears to have taken a rest, which is probably a good thing: they were go-go-go all along before, and had a rather wretched time in The Dalek Invasion beforehand. And though Vicki spent a lot of time on a stranded ship, in hardship, she seems to already be bored.

As the serial progresses, the crew is getting split up. The Doctor and Vicki are on the way to Rome; Ian is an oarsman on some boat; Barbara is enslaved and is on her way to be sold at an auction. Things aren’t looking too great for them, but of course the serial has to start and end on reasonably similar terms between everyone, so the crew starts coming together over time. Now the Doctor, Vicki, and Barbara are at the same palace (even if they don’t know it yet), and Ian is heading towards gladiatorial combat in front of the caesar.

Finally in the third episode, we enter the land of palace intrigue with an episode called Conspiracy (doesn’t get more obvious, does it?)…

After much additional intrigue — poisons, tricks, fighting, defiance of authority, and crypto-Christians — the crew finds its way back to the TARDIS and gets on its way. Kind of.

 

The Rescue

Watched “The Rescue” (serial #12). Susan is gone now; too bad, I liked her character. And the Doctor is rather grumpy. However, the monster-man from the first episode is just about as unfetching as the non-bug-eyed crab-like monster that poses a challenge for Ian and the Doctor. The pace is pathetic.

The second episode speeds up somewhat, as it kind of has to in order to resolve the serial in the next 20-odd minutes. It’s interesting that the Doctor once again refers to his past when he mentions that he’s been to this planet — Dido — before. Also, for once, in this science fiction series, we have an honest-to-goodness rocket ship! On the other hand we counter-balance this positive development with the simplicity (may I say near-stupidity?) of the Vicki character. I genuinely hope that she gets better over time, since we’re going to be stuck with her for a little bit, it seems.