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....