Halfway Out of the Dark...

Actually, the key-line was 'Don't make my mistakes.' But you can't have that as a title. Or something between that and 'How did boredom even get invented?' (well, I guess not being in the possession of a TARDIS comes quite handy to do this).

Anyway. These 6o minutes has to prove the biggest Moffat critics that there is a reason for that guy having that job. Come on, just compare what RTD used to give us around this time of year... and he even got away with it.

But first things first, here are a few other reviews by The Guardian, SFX and The Telegraph. And after writing this 'review' (if it's one) someone should check whether Lawrence Miles is all right.

So, comparing 'A Christmas Carol' to any other Christmas episode we had so far, the biggest difference was the plot. This year, it wasn't about the end of the universe, planet earth or London, but about 4oo3 people trapped in a crashing space-ship and Kazran being the only one being able to save them. The problem is, he doesn't feel like it. But the Doctor wouldn't be the Doctor if he didn't try to do something about this, a la good old Charles Dickens. Still, after testing a chimney's general chimney-ness (another unforgettable entrance of the 11th Doctor), being let down by the psychic paper which refuses to refer to the Doctor as a 'mature and responsible adult', almost comparing himself to Mary Poppins, breaking a sonic-screwdriver (again!), rescuing and taming a flying shark, making a match between Kazran and Abigail, proving to be bad with card-tricks, and not to forget about marrying Marilyn Monroe, the Doctor finally manages to save the day. And the outcome is one of Moffat's other 'must-sees'.

Maybe its biggest plus point is that the audience doesn't need to be a Whovian to understand what is going on (*cough* not like last year *cough*) but luckily, Moffat didn't forget about us while writing it. I guess, the Doctor appearing in a fez and a Tom Baker scarf are among other things those bits which are exclusively aimed at us. So are Amy and Rory's 'costumes'... Furthermore, there are a few great one-liners and almost even more lovable situations the Doctor get himself into. I just loved the 'Kazran, it's this or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes.'-bit or his instruction to young Kazran about how to kiss Abigail 'Try and be all nervous and rubbish and a bit shaky... Make it part of the plan!'

My biggest fear was that Moffat's adaptation of Dicken's story might turn out to be some sort of a Christmassy musical, especially after a few teasers saying that Katherine Jenkins, who did a great job BTW, is singing two times within 6o minutes. But really everything was just on spot. I mean even the fact of Kazran not letting Abigail out of her ice-y coffin for Christmas in the beginning makes sense in the end. Or that the machine doesn't react to Kazran as the Doctor changed him too much, or how Kazran finally releases Abigail because of his younger self. Besides, when Kazran decides to do that after all, and she finally comes out of her 'ice-box', that was one of those rare Doctor Who-moments that I had some sort of a tear in my eyes.*

Oh, and before I forget it. Fans seem to be a bit in two minds about the Doctor saving or not saving Abigail. In my humble opinion I think he did save her. Because, although that is not exactly what he says to Amy in the closing scene, he still acts a bit fibishly (and I know that's not a proper word). As if he didn't want to tell her something for being afraid of revealing one of his habits. I mean, saving her wouldn't have been a requirement for saving those 4oo3 people on that space-ship. Additionally, the following 'Halfway out of the dark.' sounds way too optimistic... almost as if it was a reference to Kazran's own life.

EDIT: And yes, I know what official sources say. But think about it. If Kazran lost his love on that day it wouldn't be 'Half way out of the dark' for him and Kazran is the only one to whom the Doctor can refer to. Additionally, Moffat is certainly not keen on spoiling his xmas episode by not giving it a 'proper' ending.
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*The other time was, when Wilf said good bye to the Doctor in Journey's End - 'But every night, Doctor, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I'll look up on her behalf. I'll look up at the sky, and think of you.' that was the tear-jerker.

A Christmas Carol's Paradoxes

or 'Things would be much easier if script writers were aware of a *small* set of rules' but who cares...

I don't remember another episode dealing with more paradoxes than 'A Christmas Carol'. Starting with the Doctor altering Kazran's time-line to Kazran hugging his younger self in the end - and surprisingly it doesn't mean the end of the world. There aren't any Reapers (we might now from 'Father's Day') and this time it also doesn't lead to the Doctor receiving doomsday-like messages from Oods or any other aliens. So what did we miss?

Although it has to be said that I think it's not us missing something but quite the opposite. Still, I suggest to keep the good old 'fans are going to sort that out somehow'-tradition up and to start with a few 'explanations'.

The most obvious and handy reason why this time the Doctor didn't need to care about the famous 'Laws of Time' was that in the 'Big Bang' two-parter the universe was whipped out and re-installed from Amy's memories. And maybe the Reapers some sort of didn't make it. Or that their non-appearance has something to do with the mysterious 'Silence'.

However, going into further detail, those lovely creatures also didn't appear in 'The Waters of Mars'. And here I have to mention the definition of a paradox, which is something along two points in time which aren't supposed to meet. Right? And fixpoints are certain events which aren't supposed to change, as seen in 'Fires of Pompeii' and 'Waters of Mars'. So, applying this knowledge, obviously Kazran's life was not exactly a fixed point in history. That's why the Doctor had some fun instead of feeling guilty while altering it.

But there is still the question why old Kazran could touch is younger self without any consequences. Well, going back to 'Waters of Mars' we know that by saving Adelaide Brooke the Doctor started off something terrifying which haven't appeared yet. Everything what happened in 'End of Time' was caused by the Master, except for the Ood's magically fast development of the ability of time travel and prophesying. Now, that could have been a result of the Doctor changing Adelaide's time-line. And this whole thing might be a hint to time having some sort of a problem in general which has to be sorted out, maybe by the Reapers. And that issue is keeping them busy for a while, or at least it appears to be a bit more important than the whole Kazran stuff. They seem to be busy saving time as we know it first, to have the time to deal with that nasty young-Kazran-thouching-old-Kazran incident. And it seems that they won't make it out of that important time-saving-job alive. So, to cut it short, whatever happened in 'Waters of Mars' may have made the Reapers cease to exist in general.

Or is it that the Reapers are just really afraid of (flying) sharks?

Just one of Those Coincidences

Good old Disney tries to get more Doctor Who into our every day-lives.
Do you know the opening line of its (Disney's) latest ... erm, masterpiece? 'Tangled'?

It's: 'This is the story of how I died...'

What happened to good old 'Once upon a time'? Old fashioned? Maybe... So 'borrowing' the opening words of the most over-rated Doctor Who finale (I dare to put an optimistic 'ever' after this) seem to be more up to date.

Still, I don't think RTD is going to write them a letter...

It’s called 'A Christmas Carol '- is - 'A Christmas Carol'

In this interview published by The New York Times Steven Moffat talks about a few things we've all been worrying or, if not worrying at least wondering about. Starting with the Doctor mysteriously marrying Marilyn Monroe, or how he managed to write his first Christmas special in mid-April, up to whether Moffat is planning to do a Doctor Who-Sherlock cross-over, or not.

Well, I suppose you read it yourself...

On Reading Moffat's Continuiy Errors

In the very unlikely case that you aren't sure what I'm talking about, there are a few rumours that Moffat's very first Doctor Who Xmas special might have something in common with a story ('Continuity Errors') he once wrote featuring the 7th Doctor and the biggest library of the universe having every single book ever known, at least up to 2668. (So, strictly speaking, the events took place long before Moffat's 'Silence in the Library' 2-parter.)You can give it a read-through here. And believe me, it's worth it.

To sum it up, it's about the Doctor manipulating a librarian's past to get hold of a 'restricted' book. And oddly enough, reading the story now is some sort of a continuity error in its own. From the very beginning you think you know what is going to happen, for example we know that and how the Doctor will answer Gwen's question, without the question actually being part of Andrea's first 'memory-draft'. But we just know these things from Moffat's episodes, from - I don't know how to put it -  it's like reading a deja-vu. It's as if we were knowing the hard facts before them taking place but without being familiar of the details. Or vice versa. And that's what keeps us interested into the story this such.

And it's not entirely impossible that the Doctor might end up doing something different this Christmas, manipulating Mr Scrooge's life... Well, I'm pretty sure that there won't be this 'deja-vu feeling' about it, but I'm afraid, it will be only after having watched 'A Christmas Carol' that we'll know for sure.

Just for the Record...

Today Doctor Who, you know, very likely the best TV serial on this tiny blue planet, is having its 47th anniversary. But as this is the first official Doctor Who Day, there aren't any established 'rituals' yet. So we have the freedom of being creative, and freedom is, as facts prove, one of the biggest enemy of creativity in the first place. But let's ignore that side-mark.

Wish you a happy Doctor Who Day then.

Children In Need - A Christmas Carol

Here is the link.
Don't be disappointed, it is only a trailer and not the opening minutes as I at least was hoping for. But it is nevertheless a very promising one, however, there isn't much to speculate about, at least not yet.

So, what did we get then?

We are already told that 'A Christmas Carol' is not set on earth, for what we can assume that, let's call him Mr Scrooge, is an alien who is not too fond of Christmas, which is, we remember, a very human feast and quite popular on earth but even there not everyone is happily celebrating it. Furthermore, he doesn't seem to agree about the Doctor's 'Time can be rewritten' theory. I guess it is not wrong to suppose that's why the Doctor gives him a visit, and I hope Moffat has a very sensible reason why the Doctor uses the chimney to do so. Oh, this might be just after the scene where we see him standing on the roof looking through a giant window at something that might be Mr Scrooge's home...

Additionally, that blond woman the boy (young Mr Scrooge?) is staring at in the beginning might be dead, or something similar to it, and it's not too hard to guess that somehow he is connected to her past. Just as the girl, the one saying one of the Doctor's most favourite lines. And it wouldn't surprise me if somehow Mr Scrooge were also connected to those spooky white corridors which don't seem to exist for much good.

Besides, Amy and Rory appear to end up in some trouble. I hope they won't need the Doctor's help too much, because we also know in this episode they won't spend a lot of time with him.

So, for the next month the Whoniverse has something to look forward to.

About Moffat's And A Certain Blue Box's Secrets...

This Steven Moffat interview by NYMag just made my day, at least some sort of.

First, ignore its title, I couldn't find a single line referring to Sherlock, or is this just me?

The interview as such starts with Moffat answering a few questions about the Doctor's love-life, and yes, thanks for mentioning him having a grand-daughter. But what about Liz, pardon, Queen Elizabeth I?

Then they are addressing Moffat's soft spot regarding killing main-characters and the famous 'Flesh And Stone' 'continuity error' which, as it has to be added, many suspected as part of the story even back then, because it was actually crying to get some attention. Come on, you let the Doctor wandering around in a tweet jacket he had lost just a few minutes ago AND then you also gave him a different watch, so you really shouldn't have expected us not to notice that you wanteed us to notice something going on.

The final part is about the bad, bad internet. We shouldn't forget about Moffat having a twitter account to which he seems to be at least some sort of devoted*. Oh, and people writing blogs do have a life, dates and relationships and all this kind of stuff, it's only that they also happen to have a hobby. But hold on a second – there is an entire blog dedicated to Matt Smith's hair? Really? That's new to me, but then again I also didn't know that River was polarising Doctor Who fans. Gwynne Watkins might simply not know the right sites.

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* EDIT: at least Moffat shows here that he is also aware of this small paradox...

A Mad Man with a Box...

This is a Matt Smith interview by The Telegraph about how Doctor Who has changed his life, how he has been dealing with its fandom and there is also a paragraph mentioning the old 'How Did Matt Smith End Up As An Actor' story, which might be already familiar to more than just the vast majority of the people who are going to read that article.

A bit of a downer is how Matt Smith refers to the name of his character, or is this just The Telegraph quoting him in a wrong way? It is still, just as for the last 47 years, 'the Doctor' and not 'Doctor Who', latter one is the name of the show. Oh, and is it worth mentioning the whole TARDIS vs Tardis stuff?
Probably not.

However, apart from these points in my humble opinion it manages to be a surprisingly entertaining interview. Matt Smith has certainly the right idea of presenting his role. Thanks for that.

Furthermore, he also talks about why this show is still so immensely popular (yep, it does have 'the best ever TV drama format'). And I hope when saying 'everything is possible' he does not include to forget about a certain set of rules which would really appreciate if someone would actually care about them. That's rather Steven Moffat's job, though.

And finally we have to agree uncompromisingly to the last statement, we’ll never tire of watching the Doctor saving the day again and again, at least not as long as someone screws things up really badly.

You make All Of Space & Time Your Backyard...

... and what do you have? A back yard.

If you haven't come across two extraordinarily nice scenes which haven't made it into the actual episodes (and yes, I AM talking about Doctor Who) then these links might be quite interesting to you:
this one took place between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below and this one was intended to be between Flesh and Stone and Vampires in Venice.

They are quite adorable, but if you are actually waiting for your box-set to arrive, don't blame me for serving you surely one of its biggest highlights. So, it's your choice.

Oh, and BTW, there is a tiny chance that you might find the second one quite entertaining. Well, some of it is just stupid, nevertheless, in my humble opinion it's a pity that it's not in the actual episode. Because I think it's quite revealing, come on, the Doctor tells Amy why he likes to have a companion on board of the TARDIS. Additional it's hard not to love the tiny Donna reference 'No, forget mates...' At least it makes more sense to me than Flesh And Stone's actual last minutes.

Every Doctor, Every Me...

That was actually good, or is it only the nostalgia coming through?

It wasn't a surprise that part 2 of The Death of the Doctor (link) was better than part 1 because that's where the actual story took place, just like in last year's The Wedding of Sarah Jane. Basically, it even had the same structure, with the Doctor doing a lot of dashing between two places and running as about a year ago.

Nevertheless, this time it was different, in a brilliant way. For if there is one thing RTD is good at, then it's reuniting companions. Sure, there was a bit of a lot hugging and and all that stuff going on, but I suppose that's just the way people are.

I'm glad that this time RTD even addressed the 'why didn't you come back' question, which is not the easiest one to answer, I guess. But RTD handled it in one of the best ways possible. We some sort of suspected Ten going back to each of his former 'companions' before regenerating, and RTD just told us what we wanted to hear. I think also the line 'I don't look back, because I can't...' didn't take many of us by surprise (although we may want to attach an 'Explanation Needed' sign to it.)

Still, there were at least two things fans won't be too found of. First, how that Memory Wave device could have worked in the first place, because even New-Who fans might know that the Doctor uses to change the TARDIS key here and then. So Jo and Sarah Jane weren't exactly remembering the same key. Additionally, why didn't the Doctor just snap his fingers for opening the TARDIS to save them? We know that he knows that he can do that...

The second thing was RTD's attempt of rewriting the good old regeneration rule. In my humble opinion RTD didn't rewrote any sort of canon, because the Doctor was obviously lying. It isn't the first time that he would do that when confronted with a let's call it rather unpleasant question. He just didn't want them to worry about him too much. Besides, he also didn't told Jo about Gallifrey not existing anymore.*

However, all in all, this turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable episode. Sure, we have to take in account that The Sarah Jane Adventures isn't only officially made for children. It actually IS made for them.
And RTD, thanks for the Doctor not taking himself too seriously. 'Cos between you and me, if that day ever comes, I think the whole universe might just shiver.' is the perfect amount of drama all of his episodes should have.

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* EDIT: By the way, Russel T Davies himself encourages us in this SFX interview not to take that '5o7 statement' too seriously.

The Wait Is Over...

How do you write a proper introduction to a post about a 26 minutes long episode which's main purpose was to introduce its next part?

So, with The Death of the Doctor (link) we had again a very long intro to about 6 interesting minutes just as last year... and I guess they could have solved this a bit differently. Furthermore, actually I'm not too comfortable about the Doctor insulting his former companions for, well, ageing, despite Jo was not exactly nice to him either. Then again this wasn't the first time Eleven has insulted someone... poor Rory.

Furthermore, this episode might be the reason why children will be afraid of big soft-toys in the future. Loved Jo's reaction to those 'Giant Vouchers', though.

And yes, it's undeniable that RTD delivered us a cliffhanger, the part of which The Sarah Jane Adventures has become quite famous for. But in my humble opinion this wasn't exactly RTD's greatest one, it seemed to be a bit forced to me. Basically he just cut a scene into two parts, and I'm sure he could have done better than that...

Nevertheless, after there hasn't been any Doctor Who-ish episode on for about 6 month I think I've been missing it too much to be critical. So, I'm really looking forward to part two. And I'll keep my fingers crossed for RTD explaining that somewhat *cough* ridiculous *cough* 'very complicated biological swap' properly. Additionally I may not be the only one looking forward to Jo and Sarah Jane firing questions at the Doctor.

Interviews...

Sorry, but I just can't come up with a proper title for this one...

It has been for a very long time that I've seen more interviews by David Tennant within a day than yesterday. Well, I'm not complaining for when it comes to giving an interesting but still diplomatic interview there are certainly a few people who might learn form him...
So, here are the bits.

Thanks to Combom and someone calling herself Timelady the pages of David Tennant's recent Radio Times interview have made it to flickr (page 1, page2). It's mostly about his time after Doctor Who, Fright Night, the American Rex Is Not Your Lawyer pilot, Single Father and other stuff.

Furthermore, Blogtor Who was so nice to upload the 5Live interview with David Morrisay and David Tennant to YouTube (part1, part2, part3) which's main part is again about Single Father and Morrison's project Thorn. They also talk a bit about politics, David Tennant's experiences in thee US and the time when he and Morrison were working on Blackpool and The Next Doctor.
Enjoy.

Russel T Davies can't keep his Hands off Doctor Who

According to this Digital-Spy article RTD is about to deal with one of the most important question of Doctor Who, namely, how many lives does the Doctor really have... However, RTD isn't going to deal with this in that TV series which's main-elements he is going to re-write, but in that show's The Sarah Jane Adventures - spin-off.
Disappointed?

Me too.

The Ghost of Christmas Past...

First, I'm sorry for being late.

Right, let's get started... About one week ago the BBC released its showreel for the next months. And thanks to this we get a really short glimpse of Steven Moffat's very first pretty Christmas-y Christmas-Special for Doctor Who. Looking at those 4 seconds it might seem to be sensible for certain rumours popping up saying its title being 'A Christmas-Carol', last but not least because of Steven Moffat's son thinking its title is a cheesy one (as can be found on the Big Moff's twitter-page). And there is also no doubt that copying Mr Dickens is something cheesy to do.

Personally, I think it's strange that the idea of combining Dickens' story with the Christmas-special hasn't popped up earlier in certain editors' minds. Because that's one of those few classical Christmas stories which deal with Doctor Who's most important element...

The Big Moffs's Perfect Christmas & Other Stuff

According to SFX or rather a Steven Moffat interview to be found in The Brilliant Book about which SFX happened to drop a few lines, the next Christmas-special is going to be the one the Big Moff himself would 'like to see.' Actually, I liked Doctor Who's former Christmas-specials for giving me a break from those cheesy Christmas-y and consume-advertising films and episodes. Although I'm pretty sure that as a fan Moffat doesn't need much advise... And even if he spoiled it, at least we would get to know his definition of 'the perfect Christmas'.

Another point the Big Moff mentions (and SFX is so nice to write about) is the quite big 'Silence-Will-Fall'-story arch. So finally he tells us that Silence is a 'they'... (which is at least grammatically speaking also the politically correct term for referring to a female or male being alike. BTW.)

Last but not least there are also a few sentences about River Song. Well, I guess it's not really necessary to mention that Moffat has come up with a very clever story for her, but fans are always grateful for letting them know. And thank you so much for not making her an android... That's something we can put off our immensely long list then.

This changes everything...

Again.

Digital Spy tries to shorten the time to this year's Christmas special by giving us something we could consider as some sort of remarkable news.

This article is mostly about season 6, and to be honest, it's a quite mouth-watering one despite a certain lack of ... let's call it information.

First, it ensures us that, as we already might know, Moffat isn't only madly in love with 'game-changing cliffhangers', but if he weren't already married he might consider getting engaged to one of them. Furthermore, we are told (twice!) that the next season 'will change everything', whatever that is supposed to mean.

At least the last paragraph is finally giving some spoilers away... Well, I hope in spite of Rory stumbling 'to the brink of a tragic mistake' this won't make him the most often killed character of this show. Hold on, that's the Doctor. Although, Rory has already died twice this season, so he is undeniably catching up.

The Big Split...

Oh my dear. Am I the only one thinking that there are a few things Steven Moffat shouldn't mess with? I know, there aren't many arguments supporting my automatic disfavour of his idea of dividing Doctor Who's oncoming seasons into spring and autumn-ones (source), on the contrary, it's not hard to spot at least 3 almost positive points why he has come up with this. I only want you to know that somehow I am going to miss the old schedule, despite writing the following paragraphs...

So, here we go. Moffat's official reason for this, as he says, is that he thinks waiting almost 6 month for the Christmas-special and then another 4 month for the next season is not exactly child- or audience-friendly. I think there aren't many fans disagreeing with him about this. (Although, in my humble opinion it will be more than just odd to have a break after 6 or 7 episodes.)

Secondly, it was really hard not to notice that Steven Moffat was also quite involved into Sherlock's first season, and he makes the impression of being pretty found of writing detective stories. Well, it might be possible that after finishing 6 Doctor Who episodes and giving it a break after that, he hopes to get some extra time for his new project. Again, those who have watched Moffat's 'Study in Pink' might like these news.

And last but not least, is it just me thinking it's odd that the Christmas-special was the only episode which wasn't filmed under winterish-springish conditions?

Or are Moffat's news rather about the bad ratings after all, as our all time favourite series has a slight problem with 2 reality shows...

The Series That Never Was

I thought I won't join the recent fuss a certain pilot of a legal-drama makes by NOT being made... but here is my really short note about it anyway.

So, I guess there is no need of pointing out that it's Rex Is Not Your Lawyer I'm talking about. Well, in my humble opinion even a whole episode isn't enough to judge a series properly, so the given material isn't exactly my definition of 'dream-footage'.
Nevertheless, what I can say about it is that it won't be only those people who might know David Tennant from Doctor Who who will have to get used to his 'new' accent. I'm not an expert on this topic, but somehow it manages to sound a bit like some sort of a Canadian one to me... Then again, I'm neither from Canada nor the States, so I might be wrong. On the one hand I understand why they want an American accent over there, however I don't think it's that bad as some people say.

Anyway. Taking into account what I've seen so far, I think the main reason why it was cancelled is the writing. People need a few jokes or word-games to fall in love with a show, and I can't help to detect a certain lack of it. Additionally, I'm not exactly overwhelmed by the acting, certainly not on David Tennat's part, though.

The Great Game

Someone is trying hard to drive people's attention to this show. For it looks as if the Beeb won't have another choice than giving us at least another season of this 21st century Sherlock.

So, we had our story-arch then... (and this made it official that last week's episode was really just a filler, as it seemed to be in the first place). Additionally, The Great Game showed us this series' future capacity. Come on, they could have made a whole season out of the last episode's plot alone. And after sitting through it the only thing we get is a cliff-hanger, which was a bit far-fetched IMHO. But who cares. Somehow it still managed to be amazing, and I can't wait for more.

And BTW I just love Sherlock's catchy opening-titles.

The Blind Banker

Sherlock is on its best way to become one of those save-the-date TV series. Because this was awesome. 

Sure, even the at times overly fast paced action couldn't help distracting from the fact that this was the filler of this year's season (well, I for my part hope there will be more). There were too many lose strings to speculate about. Like, what happened to the man Sherlock was fighting while John was out shopping? Why is that guy Sherlock's message for the people of the Jaria Diamond case? And most importantly, why shouldn't John know about this? And still, somehow I  have the feeling that it's not important. I guess, Thompson could have made more of these thrown away snippets.

But there were more things Sherlock did not want John to know about. Like him almost dying in Soo Lin Yao's flat. Does he want to hide the fact that their job is somewhat dangerous? Does he not want to admit that he did something stupid? Why doesn't he open the flat after entering it anyway? What's his motivation?

But otherwise, it's great to see a Sherlock Holmes adaptation in which John and Sherlock can be equals in their friendship. John is more than someone filling in for Sherlock's audience, or his skull. Well, at the same time, Sherlock does his best to irritate everyone around him, also John. It's clear that he's not trying to be nice. And John's failed attempt of having a date is somewhat foreshadowing his future. 

So, the M to which Shen was talking in the last seconds of her life is certainly Moriarty. I guess, next week things will start to become really interesting...

A Study In Pink

With no Doctor Who on until Christmas and a lot of spare time on my hand, I decided to dedicate almost ninety minutes of my afternoon to the BBC's new Sherlock Holmes adaptation of which a certain Steven Moffat's happens to be one of its co-writers.

Maybe, there is to mention, that I am, or rather was a big Sherlock Holmes fan a few years ago. Well, maybe not that big, but I read some of the books, and I remember enjoying them pretty much. Additionally, I was also quite curious about what Moffat would do with Sherlock Holmes' apparently not too temporary methods. And, luckily as far as I'm concerned, this series' opener didn't let neither of its fans down.

So, let's start with the casting... For a start, I wasn't familiar with the leading actors Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Marin Freeman who plays Doctor John Watson (John Watson on this blog.) Their mixture of sticking to the original characters and adding their (and the writers') own interpretation of them to the roles just won me over right from the start. For on the one hand Cumberbatch's Sherlock is eccentric enough so that it's not difficult to identify the world's most famous detective, but on the other hand their changed his relationship to Watson, so that he isn't only using him as someone in front of whom he can show off. And through this he appears to be nicer than in the books.
Additionally, I loved the way the team circumvented the BBC's 'not showing smoking heroes in our programmes' rule, while still sticking to Doyle's ideas of Sherlock Holems. His 'This is a three-patch problem' - line was superb.

My only, and slight critic of this opener is the plot of A Study In Pink. Until now the story didn't make too much sense, however, maybe when the Moriarty-story-arch will be finally reviled it might be possible that we won't be complaining about it anymore.

After all, this episode made me certainly curious about the following ones, for this was the best thing I've seen on TV for month.

We are all stories in the end...

The Doctor is famous for giving the universe a hard time to vanish into thin air, but now the odds were more than just bad. However, the Doctor wouldn't be the Doctor if being imprisoned inside the Pandorica could stop him from fulfilling his duties, and yes, guaranteeing Amy to get her finale fairytale-y happy ending. Hurray.

These last 11o minutes didn't only topped any other of Russel T Davies' (if you happen to remember that name) so-called finales, but they also ended a season during which the Big Moff proved to be very much capable of doing his job in a really fantastic way. The only things people might criticise is that this two-parter was really for the fans (to occasional viewers the story might have been a bit complicated), and that Moffat doesn't care about paradoxes as the Doctor couldn't give Rory his screwdriver before he got out of the Pandorica in the first place. Although, when the universe and time are collapsing it can be supposed that nothing ( time included) behaves the way it used to. So, at least Moffat made sure that we get some sort of an explanation.

Then he also made sure to serve RTD-fans by making the end one of the most dramatical ones ever. For to my mind the Doctor never ever had to face the possibility of vanishing out of existence in such a complex manner. Although to be honest we knew it all along. Come on, the name of this show is Doctor Who after all. However, he did it in a very clever way... Now there is a whole generation to whom "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" has a completely different meaning. Well, I'm not complaining.

All in all, this was a great deep ending and I can't wait for the Christmas Special and for the next season to find out about River Song's view of the story.

How to do a proper cliffhanger...

Let the universe end just after reaching half of the time you have to go. That's it.

And basically that's the plot of this week's The Pandorica Opens. For the currant situation is: Auton-Rory killed Amy after a really heart breaking and love-revealing scene, the Doctor is locked up inside the Pandorica, which was actually created for... a nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, the most feared being in all the cosmos. And, River Song is about to die for being inside the very soon exploding TARDIS which is causing the cracks in time and the end of the whole universe. Well, actually things has been already better than this.

Although I have to admit this is how I would imagine the perfect end of the very last Doctor Who episode ever, Moffat has still 55 minutes to go and to turn this into the perfect happy end of Amy Pond's fairytale. And we know that's exactly what he is going to do.

I Was Not Expecting This....

I seem to be one of those few ones who weren't that fond of this week's episode, but it might be just its teasers which got me too excited... I.Just.Don't.Know.

Anway, to my mind The Lodger is walking the really narrow line between a soap-opera-ish comedy and something which might have been originally some sort of sci-fi, well, maybe before it was turned into an episode. And even back then it was rather bad sci-fi than good one, for although this show has very obviously the label sci-fi on it, this isn't an excuse for not explaining important plot elements. Like, how or through which mechanism were those humans (and also the Doctor) pulled to the machine, or why would a machine explode only because it has a really clever pilot? Or how can a not properly working time-machine keep the TARDIS from landing? Well, maybe it's just me missing something...

But starting at the very beginning, I have to admit, if we cut The Lodger into really short sequences and if we watched them separately, we would get a really entertaining..., ehm, something. Because the only parts of this  episode which worked were it's non sci-fi elements, and, I have to admit that they were outstandingly well done. Indeed, there aren't many not-Moffat episodes having such amazingly well written dialogues and one-liners.

Furthermore, its timing couldn't have been more perfect. Come on, this was maybe the only episode in which the Doctor actually plays football and it was aired just before England faced the USA in the World Cup. Additionally, let's not forget Matt Smith's original plans for the future... Can this be sheer coincidence? Yes it can! Oddly enough, there is even evince that this was *really* not planned. For the whole story is based on a comic strip published somewhen around David Tennant's era, and despite of him not being famous for his football abilities, that original story also features a football-match. So to those who think that these 43 minutes were exclusively written for Matt Smith's Doctor, I recommend to do some research.

However, apart from this and its good conversations there isn't much positive to say about The Lodger. And I'm not absolutely sure whether a football playing Doctor is something positive in the first place. I'm sorry, but it takes more than some witty dialogues to write a good Doctor Who episode. If a good storyline is too obviously not there, there isn't much to save it. And to me this was actually the most pointless and awkward plot I've ever seen in Doctor Who.

In addition, I wasn't exactly comfortable with seeing the Doctor only wrapped into a towel as a result of being in a hurry to save his friend. Sorry, but there is something utterly wrong with that. And yes please, never do that "let's smash our heads against each other to see the world from your perspective" again. Thank you.

Maybe there are a few people claiming that the story was quite funny as a whole, but I think it's already the situation alone guaranteeing that. I mean, the Doctor being forced to act as a human being for a week (or wasn't it rather 4-5 days?) automatically leads to some comical elements. Nevertheless, it's the job of a good scriptwriter to take these good elements and to turn them into an even better and coherent story.

I hope next week's finale-opener will show how it's done in a proper way.

Starry Starry Night...

"If you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of."

Sorry for being late. Well, the only good thing about writing a review after every one else have already informed us about their opinions is that I'm able to say Curti's Vincent and the Doctor is quite dividing the whoniverse. And I know saying this is not worth waiting almost one week to write a review, sorry.

I for my part liked it pretty much, although I have to agree with the common opinion, the ending was a bit cheesy, and I really could have done without the music. The next time they should make sure to get rather the acoustic version than the actual song. But apart from that, I really loved it for Curtis' didn't stopped by writing an interesting story sprinkled with quotable dialogues, but there were also some Doctor Who insiders, which maybe not even every fan knows about, but more about this in a minute.

For a start, the episode's beginning was awesome and it worked pretty well also with the small bits, like the Doctor being irritated by the boys' conversation, just like any other fan of this show.

Then, there was the actual part of the story, with Vincent Van Gogh played by an incredibly good Tony Curran. Some fans might have been upset of Vincent having a Scottish accent, but luckily SFX prepared us for that and those who still haven't got it, this was what point 5 on their preview list, the one about the ongoing TARDIS-gag, was all about.

Indeed, this week's (or rather last week's) list was hotly discussed in several Doctor Who forums. And this leads us straight to our next point (point 1o for any SFX fans) which was, and I quote "a major story element that some will decry as a massive plot hole and others will embrace on a metaphorical level".
To my mind, the only important thing lacking some explenation was "the monster", or rather, why Vincent was the only one who could see it. Nevertheless, the monster is real and I think a far more interesting question is how the Doctor appeared to "Vincent van Goff". (At one point I wondered whether David Tennant would have got the pronunciation right, and yes, actually I'm pretty sure he would.)

Furthermore, while some see the monster as a big unnecessary something, others can't help noticing the extraordinary irony Curtis has added to the story through this. Namely, we have an invisible blind monster, which only a "mad" painter can see.

Taliking about Vincent's mental conditions. I'm glad the way this topic was dealt with, so that his depression was not denied or whatever they could have done with it, but it was very much there. His breakdown and suicide were surely major elements of the episode. But at the same time we were also showed that it was the same man "painting" his famous "Starry Night" picture into the sky, which was the most beautiful scene of the whole episode. The Doctor's line "I haven't seen nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see." couldn't have been more on spot.

Maybe also because of this (and that Amy tries to apply the Doctor's "time can be rewritten" theory and has to recognise that sometimes it just doesn't rewrites itself) the ending was surely tragic. Still, again, the Doctor doesn't fail to hit the mark... And he is sooo right. They definitely added to Vincent's pile of good things.

They killed Rory ... AGAIN!?

Cold Blood was a not bad Sillurian 2 parter, well, the only thing we could have asked for was a good plot, but according to this week's Guardian comments people seem to care less about that aspect as they used to. There was some tension, some weird set of sci-fi rules, some relatives of an "old" alien species, a nice in-between human story (actually there were two of them) and the Doctor more or less saved the day (again). Still, I cant' help thinking that the connection between these parts could have been a bit better.

However, it is very likely that we don't care much about the actual story anyway, because just after we started thinking that now they will be dashing off toward a new exciting place (or Rio), the crack reappears and Rory sacrifices his life for the Doctor and gets consumed by 'the light' and his own fiancée can't remember him anymore (some sort of a Donna-deja-vu, anyone?). Furthermore, as if this would not have been enough, the crack also seems to destroy the Doctor's TARDIS in the future.
Obviously, all these finale-teasers had to steal the Sillurians the show.

Now, I won't write about how complicated (and stereotypical) the Human-Sillurian relationship was in the first place, even without Ambrose killing Ayela out of a weird form of mother-love. Or what Chris Chibnall's idea was when writing it's human germs keeping the Doctor alive, because when looking at it form a biological point of view, also humans need germs to stay alive, so they could not have done the same with them either. And I definitely won't ask myself why the Doctor could pick that TARDIS-bit out of the crack without the light having an effect on him, while Rory was forgotten before the light/the crack even consumed him completely.

Because thanks to Moffat there are a bit more interesting things to write about.

So let's start with those famous last five minute which start with Rory's death.
I'm sure that an average fan must have liked him for giving us another (a more 'down-to-earth') perspective of the happenings. Sure, generally, he was not very heroic, still, he also knew how to shine, how to appeal to a/our human common sense, but not in a boring way. Somehow he was a bit of the counterpart of the Doctor. And that's why he was so likeable.
Additionally, many (traditional) fans were glad about him being some sort of a grantee that we won't have to sit through another 'season 2' storyline.

Still, despite Moffat apparently having something against him (all in all it was him who wasn't against killing Rory three times within only one season!), there is a chance that Amy gets the opportunity to live her life with Rory, because of the simple reason that the Doctor won't allow anything, no matter how terrifying it might be, to harm his beloved TARDIS. For this, he will find a way to get the crack-story-arch fixed (I just didn't feel like calling it a 'crack-problem') and through this maybe Amy and Rory will be reunited in the future.

And next week Vincent Van Gogh will see Amy and the Doctor, and I guess he is also in desperate need of one.

Happy Towelday

To my mind it is good to have a day reminding us of the importance of towels. So dear froods, don't forget yours, especially not today.

The Differences between Cwmtaff and Rio....

... should be definitely made more obvious.

This is not a proper review for Hungry Earth because I think what Chris Chibnall did was only stretching the usual 5 minute intro of an average Doctor Who story to a sometimes not pretty fast going nor really interesting episode. If you want me to say something positive about it, I absolutely liked the costume of the Sillurians. And I loved the Doctor's meringue comment. Good for him that preparing decent desserts is not an obligatory skill to save the universe .
Anyway, all in all this was an interesting 45 minute opener for part 2. So let's wait and see.

Because if this is real life, I don't want it.

Oh my dear. Who wasn't shivering when Amy said those words to a not quite so sure Doctor. I wouldn't go so far to state that Amy's Choice (link) was the best Doctor Who episode ever, or of this season (although, giving it another thought...) But it was good, deep and emotional AND the low budget one of this season. If saving money looks this good, then I don't know Moffat's problem. (Ok, I know due to the Beeb not being too gorgeous this year he is saving the biggest part of the budget for... guess.)

I have to admit, last week after watching its trailer I didn't know where to put it. To be honest I thought it were only a good script and a story bringing those three to their limits which could save that one. However, without exaggerating, that's exactly what Simon Nye did. It seems to me as if he hadn't done anything else but thinking about the perfect Doctor Who episode, and actually, that's what Amy's Choice manages to be: perfect (although not in a "Gallifrey-ish" way if you know what I mean*.)

First, letting the Doctor's dark side to be the "Dream-Lord" was a hilarious idea, which worked on quite a few levels. It helped settling the whole love part, finally. Then, well, we were always aware of the Doctor having a reason for being a bit, ehm, difficult when it comes to his past, but his line "No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do." was quite revealing. It was also awesome that there wasn't one "real" world, in fact that would have been cheap. And there aren't many episodes where the Doctor gets the chance and also would blow up the TARDIS.

Still, Amy's Choice didn't only work with the big bits. For a start, the Doctor seems to have his very own definition of nightmare. And I smiled when he admits that he threw the TARDIS' manual into a supernova because he disagreed with it (we all know situations like that), or all the moments when everyone is teasing him for his appearance (and bow ties ARE cool BTW.) But then again, we could go on about every, really every sentence the Doctor says to work things out.

Alright, my conclusion of all that is if this was a low budget episode, then first, I hope Simon Nye won't give up on writing for this show after all (yes, I DO know what he said) and secondly, Chris Chibnall, who is in charge for The Hungry Earth 2-parter, will have a though job, or at least pretty high expectations to live up to.

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*Just watch Planet of the Dead, Gridlock, or another s3 episode in which the Doctor is talking about his "perfect" home planet.

Got my Spaceship, Got my Boys...

... Well, the Doctor maybe doesn't agree with her that much about whose TARDIS she travels in...

To be frank, this is my 2nd version of this review. The first's title went something like "Is it just me thinking this was... stupid", because Vampires of Venice had a bit too many not necessary scenes and elements of former episodes in it (more about this in a moment). But after noticing that SFX's review writer gave it 4 stars (out of 5) through what it ended up having the same rating as Flesh and Stone which was magnificent IMHO, I started wondering whether we are trying to write about the same episode... Because of this I re-watched it today (those who are still searching desperately for a link as YouTube is having some issues with the BBC: here it is) And I have to say I changed my opinion about it... a bit.

Alright then, let's start with the very obvious bad things about Vampires of Venice. For a start, what was the scene with the Doctor being electroshocked all about? Those fish-aliens weren't exactly electric eels, so how did they do that in the first place? Talking about the Saturnynians. Right after watching it I couldn't help myself thinking that somehow the whole concept (apparently human beings turn out to be deadly man-killing aliens) looked like a remake of School Reunion, so I wasn't surprised to find out that it was Toby Whithouse, known for being the writer of the said episode, being also in charge for this one. However, interestingly enough he didn't only add a few things out of his own episode, but I bet it was not only me thinking that this wasn't the first time we saw the Doctor climbing to the top of a tower while it's storming around him (Daleks in Manhattan 2-parter, anyone?). Furthermore, having some recently really overused vampires in a show like this for the 2nd time (old Who) doesn't show of having too much creativity.

Nevertheless, it wouldn't be fair not to mention Vampires of Venice's good parts. I can't deny that some scenes were just fun, or let's say, they were so out of place that they managed to "be in place" after all. Who didn't smile about Rory discussing Amy kissing the Doctor while they are going through pitch black catacombs and there might be other things to have on their minds. Or his attempt of fighting with Francesco just to impress his fiancée? Further, seeing the Doctor showing his old (and by this I mean really old) library card instead of the psychic paper was just a laugh. And I really loved the scene where the Doctor is disappointed by Rory not saying "It's bigger on the inside". I almost felt a bit sorry for him... Additionally, some of those dialogues, especially the Doctor's (which were rather monologues though) were really cleverly done and I dare to say they were the best bits of the whole episode in general. Although I bet tomorrow there will be people complaining about the whole "love/getting married/children" references. Well, I as an adult fan think that today's children are used to worse stuff than this.

So overall, what we got was a well written but still a bit "recycled" episode with a few potholes which managed to look like a big portion of fun, somehow.

Time Can Be Rewritten...

So that's how Moffat deals with the very ambiguous past of Doctor Who: by inventing a crack in time which absorbs and un-writes history. We are used to a few things but I'm sure not each further main editor will get away this easily with this series' more than just difficult "heritage".

Anyway. All in all I think 'Flesh And Stone' as such doesn't live up to Time of the Angles' quality, but if we watch it as a single episode the result is far from being disappointing. Especially because we can put a few more things on our River-speculation list. And as this is the most interesting part of the whole episode anyway, I hope you'll forgive me for skipping the other bits.

First things first. A question. What is scarier than the weeping Angels or a crack in the universe tearing reality apart? River. Maybe. Now we know that River is in prison for murder; she has killed the best man she ever knew who is maybe the same one who has taught her flying the TARDIS. But while I'm quite sure that the latter one has to be the Doctor I just can't imagine that she has killed him, at least not on purpose. Then again, if she killed him the whole Silence in the Library - stuff would get another completely new and deep meaning, and we know that's exactly what Moffat is fond of. Still, I think Moffat's big picture is surely not River killing the Doctor. Come on, the Big Moff loves fooling us. But then again, no matter whether she did it or not, to quote the Doctor: history can be rewritten so Moffat doesn't need to stick to his own 'fairy tale'-ly rules (in my humble opinion, he starts to gain too much power.) I for my part am looking forward to the next time River will show up.

Further I like how Moffat manges to add a Silence in the Library reference to the plot. River's "You, me, handcuffs... must it always end this way?" was more than just a hint to her own death. I have to admit maybe it is not only sheer coincidence that that scene is there. It could be a reference to 11th death after all, but I have still a few doubts.

Oh, and before I forget it, especially as the official reviews and their comments will be full of it: first, Amy, you bad girl. Loved the Doctor's reaction though. That's exactly what we expected and waited for... for 3 years.

And 2nd, I can't help thinking that we were actually supposed to notice the Doctor wearing his 'lost' jacket and a different watch in the 'you must remember' scene. Come on, they made him wearing a different wristwatch, that's like adding flashing lights and a 'This is IMPORTANT'-sign to it, and yes, the 'important' standing in capital letters.

So next week Rory joins the team and they are going to Venice. No idea how that should help fixing the crack but although I think there are too many vampires on TV ATM, just watching Rory and Amy dealing with each other and/or with the Doctor has the potential of making the story more interesting than it might appear to be at first sight.

Pimp My Dalek*

This seems to be quite a "controversial" episode, meaning that fans aren't sure whether to love it or to hate it, but after considering its good and bad sides I have to say actually I liked it.

Sure, I'm also starting to be tired of Amy getting too much attention, but apart from that it wasn't a really bad one. Well, an episode with Churchill and the Daleks in it can't be bad, can it?

Further I don't think that technicoloured Daleks are something bad. If I had a say I would have rather gone for the "iron-side" version, for the coloured ones look like some pepper-pots from the 6o's and 7o's standing on the shelf of a fast-food restaurant. And I loved the "All right, it's a Jammy Dodger,but I was promised tea!"-bit just as the tea-references in general.

It was strange to see that no-one believed the Doctor in the beginning, not even his own companion, bad girl. Now, that's how nightmares feel like (and I guess that's how Amy felt like about the crack when she was a child; only that hitting it with an oversized spanner wouldn't have had such an effect; but why was that necessary in the first place?) Still, I'm looking forward to finding out why and how those Journey's End Daleks could have been erased out of her mind.

Well, I guess no matter what fans are thinking about The Victory of the Daleks, it won't stop them watching the next episode because it is going to deal with one of the most discussed phenomenons in Doctor Who history: Who is Prof. River Song? I'm not saying we'll surely get that question fixed, but... let's wait and see.

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*yes, those who have read the Guardian review know these lines are not mine; but I wish they were....

This was different...

... but I'm not entirely sure whether that's good or bad.

So, Lawrence Miles is looking for "in betweens" (as mentioned here)? I really hope he stayed tuned in.

Right now, I'm going to do something which hopefully won't happen quite often: Considering The Best Below's plot it is very likely the worst Steven Moffat has written (yet?, that hurt).

I have nothing against star-whales, are surely lovely animals, and I liked the ending (letting Amy to save the day was a really nice twist), but the Big Moff's former stories used to be easy-going and light-hearted and this one seems to be a bit forced. Come on, what was the "being inside a star-whale" scene all about, or the Smilers?

Still, it could have been worse, especially because if you don't concentrate on the actual plot of the episode but on the in-betweens (should I put that in capital letters?) then it was great.

Well, let's say, this one wasn't about the story, but about character development. For it really was, especially, if we take in account that we have 2 strangers flying around in a tiny police box (or being in the mouth of a whale, I know, nice options) then we should have known that this is going to be an "in-betweens" one. But to be honest, I expected Moffat to do it a bit better. Nevertheless, the in-betweens we got were really good. I'm about to say that Amy has the potential of being a part of my "best companion" list (but sorry, she just can't be 21 years old, or am I missing something?). Further, I love Moffat for writing the Doctor less dramatic and more "alien-like". I have nothing against drama, but RTD overdid that constantly the last 5 years, so I'm quite enjoying the recent (although luckily not complete) lack of it.

So, next week the Daleks are back and it's Churchill having an appointment with the Doctor? We'll see...

Fishfingers And Custard

Moffat IS a genius, no news there, but even I wasn't quite prepared for the awesomeness of this story and the really quotable dialogues. Additionally, it was fast going, I for my part had quite long no idea how a computer virus should save planet earth from being incinerated. But it worked.

Further I loved how Moffat created a great mixture between a fairytale and a sci-fi story. Doctor Who starts to become something for "never going to be adult" grown-ups and children alike. Well, maybe the "trying food and spitting it out" scene was a bit... too childish, and Amy's job could have been something else but apart from that I really liked it. And that guy should get a BAFTA for the way he introduced Amy. People might point out that we already had a Moffat-story in which the Doctor becomes some sort of someone's imaginary friend , but even those have to admit that it's the first time that that someone knocks their imaginary friend down with a cricket bat.

Talking about Amy. She seems to be a bit random and she has definitely been a nice child. But in my opinion we don't really know a lot about her real character at the moment.

Then again, talking about randomness, I haven't mentioned Matt Smith yet, who had very likely the most difficult job of the three people I have mentioned above. And I have to say his interpretation of the Doctor was brilliant. There are certain Tennant-like features in his acting, I mean I could imagine the last Doctor talking in the way he does, but then again he also adds his own freshness, clumsiness and enthusiasm (or maybe more some kind of a fascination) to it. I just have to agree with Moffat who said "Matt's Doctor is bonkers." That sums it up pretty well.
Nice TARDIS - interior by the way, I liked the old colour of its outside more, but the interior outweighs it again.

So, that was a really nice start. Looking forward to next week.

Oh, am I the only one wondering what the title and the actual story had to do with each other? The only possible connection I can see is that the episode was about 6o minutes long, but apart from that - no idea. But shouldn't it rather say Eleventh's Hour then?

@ Mr. Mile's "In-Between Days"

... which, as I don't really need to mention, might disappear.

Sensible people know that Steven Moffar is actually one of the best script writers Doctor Who might have got to do the job of a main editor, and I guess it's not only me loving his episodes we have seen so far. And even if I have to admit that yes, I disliked the promised 6o second bit of the new episode (I know time is relative, but without the long trailer there are only about 2o seconds left) and yes, Blink wasn't Moffat's masterpiece, Lawrence Miles seems to forget that Blink was THE lowbudget episode of that season (s3), nevertheless it scooped a BAFTA, somehow. (Well, considering season 3's other episodes, that wasn't such a big surprise.)

Furthermore, in my opinion Doctor Who is still one of those TV shows where I actually do have the feeling that it lives of these "in between" parts (as Mr. Miles calls them). E.g. remembering Partners in Crime I for my part was much more enthusiastic about having Donna in it than about those extraordinary cute fat-chunks called Adiposes. And talking about Moffat's Girl in the Fireplace, it was all about those parts "in between". Now I won't quarrel about David Tennant's interpretation of the Doctor, I guess I couldn't be enough objective for that, although I really didn't liked a few things RTD wrote his Doctor into (I'm still trying to forget a few things about End of Time), but I have to say that some of the best Doctor Who stories I've seen so far belong to the 1oth Doctor's era.

Anyway, at least thanks for keeping those terms straight. I hate reading Doctor Who related articles not having their vocabulary right. Come on, I have just spotted the word "Tardis" in the rADIO tIMES, now how does that look like?

We could spend Avatar's budget and still ask for more

Now that's a statement, and I bet the Beeb isn't amused to hear it.

This article by the BBC includes some bits of a Steven Moffat interview about how the team deals with money issues for Doctor Who.

We know that producing such a science-fiction show isn't exactly cheap. So I love the fact that Moffat thinks of budge-cuts as a challenge instead of just saying that they are bad. At the same time he also adds that they "could spend Avatar's budget and still ask for more [...]" and that he wasn't considering the budget when writing episodes. Now that's true. Do you remember one of the most amazing stuff the Mighty Moff wrote? I'm referring to the sequence in Girl in the Fireplace" where the Doctor crashes through a mirror into a ballroom on a horse. IMO it's very likely that RTD wouldn't have done that, simply because it seems to be such a big and expensive effort to film (and after watching its confidential I have to say, indeed, that scene wasn't an easy one).

Further, Steven Moffat says that the TARDIS, maybe the best idea in sci-fi history ever, came into existence because of the then team having budget problems.
I like his point of view.

That Looks Awesome...

A few days ago the very first episode of the next season (5 or 31, just chose a number) had its premier and critics are not bad.* You can read here what The Guardian thinks it has to say about it, not much if you ask me. And this is SFX's opinion, which is worth reading. It's not giving away too much, but in a good way, although I have to admit I haven't highlighted that major spoiler. This is the BBC's statement, but somehow the writer doesn't seem to have been informed of the difference between "the Doctor" and "Doctor Who". I whish at least the BBC would get it right...

Furthermore, we have 2 new trailers (trailer 1, trailer 2, and that's the American version trailer 3). Additionally, there was a "The 11th Hour" Karen Gillan/Matt Smith interview, after which this short extract of the next episode was shown.

Somehow it's becoming hard to wait, good to know that in less than 2 weeks we are going to know how to spend our Saturday afternoons.
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*This is very obviously an understatement.

One to Zero for the Guardian...

And as if there weren't enough Matt Smith interviews around ATM here is another one, this time it's The Guardian doing it.

It's quite entertaining, and a lot better than the one our dear Telegraph printed a few days ago. But there isn't a lot to say about it. Matt seems to be a nice guy, who knows what to say and how to say it.

Additionally, he encourages us not to believe that there will be a lovestory (hurray) and I guess I'll like nr. 11's let's call it abstractedness.
I'm really starting to get excited about the new season...

An Odd Matt Smith Interview...

Well, maybe I could have put more effort into the title of this post. Anyway.

Our dear Telegraph has printed and partly commented some parts of a Matt Smith interview Esquire did with him (and which is going to be available tomorrow). Here is the link.

I'm not the biggest Matt Smith fan ATM, but to be fair, I have to add that actually Matt Smith doesn't say that he was destined for that role, it's the very ignorant interviewer who does so. And it's the even more ignorant Telegraph who gives that article that title.

Maybe in a few days some particular Esquire scans will have made it online. If I come across them , I promise to introduce them to you.

That's why we need a Dalek on every street corner.

I just came across this Guardian article about today's Doctor Who auction. It is highly entertaining and very true and a good way to check what kind of Doctor Who fan you are.

Personally, I would love to have a real sonic screwdriver, but as the Doctor is in desperate need of his one (to save the universe) I don't really have a choice.

Hold on, Miss Foster's sonic pen would also do the job...

Voila - the Trailer

First things first, here is the link.

Honestly, it looks slightly too 3D-ish for my taste and that's not exactly a compliment. And does it have a plot?

I mean a proper one.

Well, I have to admit the fist and last seconds (the Doctor and Amy are lying on the ground and having a chat about the universe) are good, even excellent, but the parts in between are only, and exclusively trying to show off. Remembering Steven Moffat's "back to the roots" campaign; — that didn't come close to it. I'm glad that Doctor Who isn't done in wiggly studious anymore (with the oldest police box which happens to be available), but I hope that the Beeb remembers the reason why that show was and (trusting Moffat) still is successful, and by this I mean the stories and not only David Tennant's amazing acting abilities, although I quite admire him for what he did.

Anyway, back to the trailer, I guess it looks good on a big screen and if the audience happens to wear 3D-glasses, but in my world trailers which are not teasing things are a tiny bit pointless.

The Big Moff speaks and the Whoniverse listens

When I finished reading this (that's the DWM 418 Steven Moffat interview, BTW) almost 2 weeks ago (sry, I have been busy) I couldn't help loving it.

Well, I think there is no need in pointing out that Moffat is a genius, and I have to admit he used every single trick I could (and couldn't) think of to get us on his side. Additionally, he knows in what fans are interested, or at least why fans are reading interviews in the first place. And he made sure we get served.

I loved the story about how Matt Smith's (and Karen Gillan's) Doctor Who-Casting was like, how they finally found his costume (fans LOVE last-second decisions) and I guess Moffat is also very aware of the effect the words "conservative" and "2nd Doctor" have on fans. So all in all, he knows that he managed to do a quite nice combination: He gives us a pretty young Doctor who gets the job of bringing back some of the good "old" Doctor Who magic a few fans missed during the RTD era.

Furthermore, Moffat also destroys at least one not entirely uninteresting rumour about the show's rather recent past.
I guess there isn't a fan to whom the date "29th Oct. 2oo9" doesn't ring a rather sad bell, when David Tennant won that particular BAFTA award during which's thank-you speech he announced that in the next season there will be a different actor doing the "best job in the word", as he liked to call it. For this many optimistic fans couldn't help themselves speculating about what would have happened if he hadn't won that one. Thanks to Moffat we do know now: it wouldn't have changed a thing. David Tennant had to make up his mind about this somwhen after the "library 2 parter" shootings got finished, so this wasn't such a spontaneous decision as it may have seemed to a few fans out there.*

Moreover, this also tells us that Moffat had more than just "a lot of time" to think about his first "main editor" episode and season.

And he seems to be also very aware of what his audience expect of him or of a good series, maybe more than RTD ever did, (I guess Moffat's "Tim Burton"-ishness isn't just a fancy of him) and there is evidence that he will combine this brilliantly (I'm very sorry to use that word) with the show's heritage. Firstly, he knows this show has a history on its own and secondly, he does so as a fan. Maybe I'm repeating myself, but I can't possibly think of someone whom I would have rather liked to do this job than him.

Finally, I guess I'm not the only one who starts being a bit enthusiastic, or at least curious about, what Moffat's heritage is going to be.

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*Well, there had been also more unpleasant ones... E.g. looking back, it seems obvious that around then the Beeb knew that it won't be able to spend as much money on its "flag-ship"- show as it did in the past, so a few people said that maybe that decision was also about money... but now that has been busted. Hurray.

All in all, the future doesn't look that bad...

The whoniverse is still busy mourning the 1oth Doctor and/or it is going on about Russel T Davies incompetency of writing proper scripts*, however the world does what it does best, it keeps on spinning.

The most recent evidence for this is that in a few days the new Doctor Who Magazine is going to be available , featuring a few remarkable interviews. But ATM there isn't even a lot from last month's issue on the net, still, I have found this. That's the complete DWM 417 Matt Smith Karen Gillan interview (from last month, sry poeple, I have been busy) which's middle part has made it to YT a few weeks ago.

If you haven't read it yet then give it a read-through, it deserves it.

After reading it I think Matt Smith will do a good job. He seems to be, let's say, less enthusiastic about the show, but he respects it. And in this case "less enthusiastic" isn't equal with "not enthusiastic at all". But I guess it's impossible to be more enthusiastic about Doctor Who than David Tennant was during his time.
So, it looks like Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are having a lot of fun while standing in front of the camera, what isn't bad for a start.

Karen Gillan also solves Amy Pond's job - mystery, she tells us that it was she who asked for the short skirt. Moffat originally wanted her in trousers, so it's likely that in his scripts she is referred to as a police-woman after all.

I also like that the big Moff is not tapping into the "love-story" trap, at least Matt Smith describes the Doctor as "conservative" and that sounds good to me. Additionally, he says he (and not his Doctor) is clumsy, but that's something Moffat may add to the next Doctor's character. Well, I would like it.

Another bit we, at least I , liked was Matt Smith announcing that there will be a "Tim Burton-ish" touch about the new show. Doctor Who is a bit like a fairytale, and I guess Moffat won't overdo this aspect.

Good, that interview did its job, we are looking forward to the next season... although maybe still with somewhat mixed feelings.
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*BTW, you can read Mr. Miles' opinion about Doctor Who's future (I'm referring to the show!) here, it's the column on the right... In my opinion he has made a few points, but I trust Moffat with Doctor Who. I think the show couldn't possibly be in better hands.

Before ending this era...

...there is one more thing I have to do.

This is the Allons-y confidential link.
I think it's not really worth watching except for one moment, David Tennant's far-well-speech. Actually that was more touching than any of End of Time's two parts.

Ps: Still, I didn't come close to need a tissue (although David Tennant is and always will be my Doctor) but at least it wasn't meant to be that way unlike End of Time.

Maybe not the worst possible send off of the best Doctor we very likely are ever going to have

Sometimes I wonder what is on scriptwriters' minds  while writing an episode. Maybe RTD had a check-list with topics which a good episode should include and ticked them off as he was including them. That may be the reason why the whole story seems a bit overloaded. Nevertheless, yes, we had our promised regeneration, yes, there were scenes which were good, deep and dramatic, and maybe RTD asks us to forget about the rest. Actually I would really love to forget about "the rest" and each of "Part 1"'s 75 minutes as well. But I have to admit, "Part 2" could have been worse; a lot worse.
Still, I can't help being a bit disappointed. It was David Tennant's last episode and I expected more, not from him, he and Bernhard Cribbins did an amazing job, actually it's them saving this episode from being torn into pieces by review writers; but from  Davies.  At least it was also RTD's last attempt to do his best.

I mean, on the one hand we had a few "overdone" scenes, come on RTD, you can't expect us taking you seriously after we saw the Doctor crashing through that giant glass dome from that height. And the "prophet" of the Time Lords was rather a spoof of something with which I haven't come across yet, not to mention that very "playstation-like" situation when those missiles hunt the alien space craft.

But to be fair, on the other hand it wasn't bad enough to deserve the adjective "bad". And to be even fairer no matter how good this last episode would have possibly been it wouldn't have been good enough to be the "swan song" of the 1oth Doctor.  And noone can deny that there were very "Doctor"-ish moments one has to fell in love with: The Doctor correcting Wilf's grammar followed by the "worst rescue ever!" scene put a smile on my face.* For me the most emotional scenes were Wilf and the Doctor having that chat in the space craft and when the Doctor explains to the Master the big privilege of SEEING that universe out there. I think these were the moments fans loved the most, mainly due to some great acting performance. And these were also the scenes missing in "Part 1".

So, I'm not saying it's RTD's worst script, it surely isn't, but it's also not his best one and that's because it might be impossible to write a really bad regeneration scene. Well, 1oth last line "I don't want to go." wasn't such a great idea. He is a Time Lord knowing he is just about to regenerate so it doesn't really make a lot of sense...

Then again, 11th's first line wasn't better. "I have legs!" Wow. Who can we blame for that one, was that Moffat's or RTD's line?** I have to admit, the last time we had "new teeth, that's weird." - it's hard to top that and I'm serious for a change. Talking about Matt Smith. If (some) of those explosions taking place in the TARDIS were real, and they really looked like that, then this was very likely Matt Smith most difficult shot of his entirely "Doctor Who" career. But apartf rom this I think we don't know enough about his Doctor's character or Matt's acting abilities to say something substantive about number 11 but for his first appearance this wasn't bad.

Anyway, back to the episode. There were also a few nice twists, especially when we realised that after all the Doctor will have to sacrifice his life to save Wilfed. I didn't have tears in my eyes, but when Wilf started tapping, I bet it wasn't just me who thought "Wilf, just stop it!". This was maybe one of the best done moments in DW's history ever.

Plus, I understand why RTD wanted the Doctor visiting his more or less companions. It wasn't really my taste, although "The Journal of Impossible Things" scene was an extraordinary idea. It was a bit sad, even sadder than RTD's "1o minute before the end" scene. At least she got her happy life, while he, well... we know. Then, Rose was a bit pointless. I understand why she was there, and I have no idea how it could have been done better, still, I can't help thinking it wasn't a necessary scene. Oh, and Martha and Mickey are married? Nice for them.

So, all in all it was nice and sad, there are certainly explanations missing*** but I have to say finally it wasn't the "worst possible send off" of the best Doctor we very likely are ever going to have. And that's one of the biggest compliments RTD has ever got from me.

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* I'm ignoring the fact that that escape scene had to be filmed as well. I'm curious to see the confidential explaining how they actually did that stuff with those stairs....

**It's Moffat's. Well...

*** like was that woman really the Doctor's mother? Was she a Time Lady in the first place? Becuase, if yes, then how could she scape the timelock? She spoke to Wilf a few times and if she were really from Gallifrey she couldn't have done that. Maybe we'll never find out about it but review writers who can't write TARDIS properly or refer to the Doctor as "Doctor Who" shouldn't be speculating about such things. Then, what about the Oods? I hope Moffat has an idea for them. Oh, and what happened really to the Master?