Dec
25

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe Review

Lancaster in the time vortex? Coolest thing on TV this Christmas! Anyway, before that, other things happened.

We’re introduced to The Doctor via a Star Wars homage (see the opening of A New Hope) who manages to escape to Earth by climbing into a spacesuit in orbit. It’s a mental visual to start off the episode, but it’s fun and that’s all that really matters. Turns out he manages to get dressed, but puts the helmet on backwards meaning he’s not identifiable by his rescuer, Madge. In return for her help, The Doctor creates the greatest house in the world for her and her kids. He also includes a blue box, which he should have known would end in some trouble.

The house The Doctor re-built was awesomely mental, just like The Doctor himself. I’m glad they didn’t spend too much time there though, as more and more crazy inventions being introduced there throughout an episode would have been boring after a while. I much preferred the forest as a location, it was much more Christmassy and beautiful.

Speaking of the forest, the CGI team outdid themselves this year with shear beauty in their visuals. The ‘stars’ over a snow filled forest of Christmas tree’s was stunning and was an image that was perfect for Christmas. They also made what should have been ridiculous, a Lancaster Bomber in the time vortex, look completely natural. The team that put together the tree King and Queen costumes deserve praise too. They were absolutely wonderful costumes. We’ve seen ‘living’ trees before, as mentioned by The Doctor, but they never felt like anything other than a person in makeup. These trees were amazing.

Bill Bailey was used really well, like other famous cameo’s in the Moffat era of Who. Having well known people not be overused is much better than building an episode around them, as the RTD era did, is much better and doesn’t make the show feel less like Who.

There were plenty of callbacks to previous episodes too. The forest of Cheem and the sonic not working on wood are two I enjoyed. The Doctor had a great line about having to need to use the sonic on trees eventually was bound to happen which made me laugh. Obviously the whole epilogue was also a callback to the previous season and was absolutely brilliant. Amy shooting The Doctor with a water pistol, refusing to hug him first and ruining his “I’m alive” surprise by telling him River told her was great. It was incredibly sweet that The Doctor cried with happiness at the end, but since we now know the Pond’s are leaving for good, it seems The Doctor’s new family will break his hearts soon. Still, it was sweet and touching and exactly what is needed at Christmas.

Overall I did enjoy the episode for the cool visuals, sweet characterisation and the general Christmassy feeling to it.

Dec
13

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe Trailer

Here’s a new trailer for the Christmas special. I’m looking forward to it. I’m not a fan of Narnia, but throw in aliens and the TARDIS and I think it could be fun.

Dec
09

Christmas Prequel

The BBC have released the prequel for The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe. It’s pretty freaking awesome actually, I can’t wait to find out what the hell is going on!

Dec
09

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock Teaser

Turns out there’s a Doctor Who game on the way. Called The Eternity Clock, we know pretty much nothing about it except it will star The Doctor and River Song. I kinda like the idea of exploring The Doctor and River’s adventures in a different form than just TV episodes.

Dec
05

Steven Moffat on the Doctor Who Movie

Steven Moffat has given some details on the internet exploding news that there may be a Who movie that’s not linked to the show. In an email to The Register, he said the following:

There simply are no developed plans for a Doctor Who movie at the moment. It’s an incredibly exciting idea to get that magic blue box flying across our cinema screens, so stand by for further developments. If, and when, the movie happens it will need to star television’s Doctor Who – and there’s only ever one of those at a time. And it would need to come out of the same production operation that makes the series. Doctor Who is a vitally important BBC brand with a huge international audience and not even Hollywood can start this one from scratch. So sorry if there’s been any confusion, but on the plus side it has reminded us all what an exciting prospect this could be. Whatever happens, the BBC and BBC Worldwide will work together to ensure that we don’t just get a movie, we get the movie that everyone wants. Keep asking me about it -– maybe I’ll surprise you with an answer!

So there we go, panic over!

Nov
18

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe Trailer

Yep, The Doctor is going to Narnia pretty much sums up this years Christmas Special. Here’s the trailer:

Nov
15

Doctor Who Movie News and Thoughts

So a couple of days ago the internet went crazy with the news that a Doctor Who movie is in the works and would be directed by David Yates, who has directed a number of Harry Potter movies. On it’s own this sounds like ridiculously awesome news, however it was revealed that the movie would not link in with the current show. From Variety:

Yates made clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on from the current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach to the material.

“Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch,” he said.

The big problem with this is, Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat didn’t do a total reboot of the show, they continued on from the original show. A new movie, with a new Doctor and no direct link to the show isn’t going to do this project any favours. Fans of the show now would want to see the current Doctor in a big screen adventure and would probably want a movie that tells a bigger story set in that Universe. In addition to this, the show is still on and there is a veteran cast and crew who know how to make Who better than anyone else. Why waste that talent and those resources?

Obviously this is a project that’s not going to be completed any time soon and it’s still being planned, but considering the initial response, and the unnecessary breaking of links with the show, I can’t see it being accepted by fans of the show. As a way of getting new fans interested in Doctor Who, it isn’t going to work either. Imagine a person who has never seen Doctor Who discovering this movie and seeking out the show. Without knowledge of regeneration and the 50 year history of the show, they’ll probably struggle to get into the show or figure out what the hell is going on!

Still, I’ll be watching this project closely to see if my initial misgivings are incorrect. I’d LOVE to see the time war in a cinema or a massive Dalek invasion, but somehow, without a recognisable Doctor or link to the show, I can’t see it being great. To me it would feel like a strange alternate version of the show which doesn’t FEEL like Doctor Who.

Oct
31

The Greatest Doctor Who Video’s Ever!

Thank god for the internet. Here are a couple of video’s made during the filming of The End of Time and well…they’re freaking amazing. I dare anyone to watch and not have a smile on their face!

Oct
18

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Man Who Never Was Review

So the final episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures brings us corporate greed, slavery, family bonding and a dirty joke…honestly.

It was an interesting choice to do an episode based on a greedy businessman using slaves. It’s not exactly a light subject and not usually the stuff of a kids show, but The Sarah Jane Adventures managed to pull it off. Not only did they tell an interesting story with a good message, they also managed to do it without dumbing things down or skirting over humanities history with slavery. I appreciate the fact that it did not shy away from this subject.

The relationship between Sky and Luke, while never really antagonistic, was nice. The friction between them was not overplayed and it was more Sky than Luke not quite being able to deal with the issue between them. It would have been easy to make Luke a jealous teen but would have been completely out of character. I liked the resolution to this storyline and it felt like a fitting place to leave the relationship between brother and sister.

The Clyde/Rani story sadly is still left open. While this episode clearly moved forward their budding relationship, even going as far as giving them a nickname. It is fun watching the slow burn of this relationship and I’d have liked seeing how they finally realised they should get together.

Sarah Jane had great things to do in this episode and it was fitting that Liz Sladen’s final episode gave her so many cool moments. Her interview with the hologram was great fun and it was clear Liz was enjoying every moment of it. The episode also saw Sarah Jane rescuing the slaves and defeating the bad guy, something very fitting for a finale.

The epilogue at the end was perfect. We got to see Sarah Jane with ALL her friends, including Maria on various adventures. It ends with a shot of her hugging The Doctor which frankly, is a perfect way to say goodbye to her character. The final line about the adventuring continuing forever was nice and means, in the Doctor Who universe, Sarah Jane is alive and well and saving the day. No matter where the universe goes in the future, Sarah Jane will always be out there somewhere.

Overall, while not intentionally a series finale, this episode was a fantastic place to end the show.

Oct
11

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Man Who Never Was Trailer

Here’s the trailer for The Man Who Never Was, the final episode of the season. It features the return of Luke. I’m looking forward to seeing how the two super kids get on!

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