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Doctor Who 3.2 - The Shakespeare Code

April 9th 2007 02:23

Image taken from Wikipedia.org

WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS EPISODE

A Brief Rundown of the Plot
To prove to his new companion Martha that he does indreed travel through time, the Doctor takes her back to London, 1599. It's the era of Elizabeth the 1st, and Shakespeare is a popular writer of comedies on the London stage at the Globe Theatre. The Doctor and Martha go to watch the playwright's latest, 'Love's Labour's Lost', and witness Shakespeare announcing the early arrival of his next play, 'Love's Labour's Won' - the fabled lost Shakespeare play. But the Doctor and Martha aren't the only ones eagerly awaiting this new comedy - three murderous witches wait in the wings, manipulating events for their own evil ends.

What's Cool
Elizabethan England is beautifully and exceptionally recreated via big budget set decoration, matte paintings and CGI. A wonderful example of the show's new and improved quality and a reminder of Doctor Who's endless possibilities for adventure and atmosphere.

William Shakespeare. We're introduced to Shakespeare as he accepts the congratulations of his adoring crowd, and the Doctor prattles on about how great a wordsmith the writer was, and then Shakespeare speaks to the crowd, "Oh shut yer mouths!" Shakespeare comes across hilariously as a celebrity of his age - a vain, funny, sexed up genius.

The episode is also rife with references to Shakespearian lore... we see members of his documented company from the era, influential events from the episode, and the Doctor drops hints galore (accidental and otherwise) about the writer's future works.

As usual, David Tennant is on fire. The dialogue is great too.

What's Not So Cool
The witches are very pantomime, and the makeup used for them is fairly cliched, though it could be argued that this is kind of the point of the episode. Either way, they aren't the most original of Doctor Who foes.

That's about it, most of this episode was great.

The Verdict
This is a good episode, the setting was wonderfully re-created and the script was sharp and funny (I'd love to see writer Gareth Roberts pen further Doctor Who scripts). Non-stop fun the whole way through. Bravo.

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Doctor Who 3.1 - Smith and Jones

April 2nd 2007 09:55

Image taken from Wikipedia.org

WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS EPISODE

The new Doctor Who is back with a third series and it feels like it never really left our screens (well, it feels like that to me, probably because I live and breathe Doctor Who). David Tennant, riding high on the back of a huge wave of popularity (the Radio Times recently had him voted as the most popular Doctor of all time), returns for his second year, and this time he is paired up with a new companion in the shape of Freema Agyeman, who was last seen playing a minor character in last year's season finale. Agyeman plays Martha Jones, a medical student from modern day London, and whilst she has big shoes to fill (Billie Piper was a particularly and undeniably formative influence on the rebooted show's early success), I think it's safe to say that her travels with the Doctor will be anything less than eventful and entertaining.

A Brief Rundown of the Plot
A hospital has been transported to the moon by an army of alien mercenaries called the Judoon (see picture at top of blog). The Doctor, sensing something was about to happen, has smuggled himself into the hospital by admitting himself as a patient. Meanwhile, Martha Jones, an intern at the hospital, is one of the few people not to freak out at the sight of the moon's barren and remote landscape suddenly appearing around the building. This of course makes her an ideal candidate for being the Doctor's sidekick, and so the two begin the frantic search for the cause of the Judoon's appearance.

What's New
The Doctor has a brand new suit, a rather nice blue one that resembles his brown number from the previous series. It's nice to see him switching between the two as well.

Martha looks set to be a great addition to the Doctor's list of companions. It was relieving to see that the writers didn't just make her a Rose-clone either, she seems to come from a more affluent background and seems more self-assured. Her family seemed a little irritating though, but this is probably because they felt kind of shoehorned into the story and there wasn't really any room for them in the episode's 44 minute runtime.

Carrying on from some previous hints (in the recent christmas special, 'The Runaway Bride', and in last year's 'Love and Monsters'), we're told in passing of a certain Mr. Saxon, a politician campaigning for Prime Minister. It seems this will be the story arc for the third series, and I suspect he will not be a very nice person at all!

Also, Martha asks the Doctor if he has a brother and he replies, rather casually, "No, not anymore". Not anymore? This, coupled with his claims of once being a father in last year's 'Fear Her', seems to imply that we're going to see or learn more about the Doctor's family in future episodes. Interesting... it definitely covers some new ground for the show. Here's hoping they don't stuff it up!

The Verdict
This was an okay episode. It was exciting to see the Doctor back again, and David Tennant just seems to get better and better. The Judoon were pretty cool and I found myself rather willing to forgive their superficial resemblance to the classic alien race, the Sontarans. The sequences involving the transportation of the hospital and the arrival of the Judoon on the moon were fantastic, it felt like I was watching a big budget movie. The story itself (and the rather silly villain) didn't really do much for me though, and I suspect I'll like this episode less on repeat viewings. But I sure am excited that the series is back! Can't wait for the next episode.

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Doctor Who Series 3 for 2007

March 26th 2007 05:22

Check out www.gallifreyone.com for more information

Things are getting exciting! The third series of Doctor Who is due to go to air in the U.K. on the 31st of March, which is around a week from now. No word yet on when the series will go to air in Australia... I emailed the ABC about their failure to buy Torchwood and they told me it was outside of their budget but that they will indeed be getting the new series of Doctor Who, starting with the recent Christmas episode 'The Runaway Bride'.
Here's what we can expect for the new series...

Episode 1: Smith and Jones
Written by Russell T. Davies
This episode will introduce us to the Doctor's new companion, Martha Jones, and will take place mostly in a hospital that has been transported to the moon. Also features a new race of aliens called the Judoon, who look massive.

Episode 2: The Shakespeare Code
Written by Gareth Roberts
Reputed to be the most expensive single episode of Doctor Who ever made, this episode (as you might guess from the title) is set in Elizabethan England and features Shakespeare himself as a supporting character. This is also the first episode of Doctor Who to be written by Gareth Roberts, a popular author of several Doctor Who novels throughout the late 90s.
Episode 3
Written by Russell T. Davies
This episode sees the Doctor return to New Earth (last seen at the beginning of Series 2) and will feature another appearance of the Face of Boe, who has something important to tell the Doctor.

Episode 4: Daleks in Manhattan
Written by Helen Raynor
1930s New York. I'm pretty sure this one features some on-location filming in the Big Apple, and is said to involve 'art deco' Daleks. These are the first Doctor Who scripts to be written by Helen Raynor, who worked as script editor on the first two series.

Episode 5
Written by Helen Raynor
Part 2 of 'Daleks in Manhattan'.

Episode 6: The Lazarus Experiment
Written by Stephen Greenhorn
League of Gentleman star and Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss makes his first appearance in front of the camera for the show in this episode about immortality. Stephen Greenhorn has written television drama in the U.K. for the last ten years, this is his first script for Doctor Who.

Episode 7: 42
Written by Chris Chibnall
Life on Mars and Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall pens his first Doctor Who episode with '42'. Rumoured to be an episode played out in real-time, ala '24'.

Episode 8: Human Nature
Written by Paul Cornell
Previous episodes of the new Doctor Who series have drawn upon previously released Doctor Who audioplays for inspiration. This episode marks the first instance of an episode being based on an original Doctor Who novel. The novel in question was one of the more popular books from the 'New Adventures' series, where the Doctor renounced his Time Lord biology and became a human (think 'Superman 2') in early 20th century England.

Episode 9: Family of Blood
Written by Paul Cornell
The second part of 'Human Nature'. The 'Family of Blood' of the title probably refers to the alien family involved in the story, though it should be said that in this respect the episodes might differ from the book they're based on.

Episode 10: Blink
Written by Steven Moffat
Moffat previously wrote 'Press Gang', 'Coupling' and the popular Doctor Who episodes 'Girl in the Fireplace' and 'The Empty Child'. It's most likely that this episode will feature the Doctor only minimally, or not at all, like last year's 'Love and Monsters'.

Episode 11: Utopia
Written by Russell T. Davies
Captain Jack Harkness returns to Doctor Who! Also features Sir Derek Jacobi as a character called The Professor. This episode is rumoured to dovetail into the final two-part story of the season.

Episode 12: The Sound of Drums
Written by Russell T. Davies
Also features Captain Jack. If the formula for the last two series of Doctor Who are anything to go by, then it looks like we might be up for another big war (and the title, 'The Sound of Drums' implies such a thing too). A few small clues in Series 2 and the recent Christmas episode point towards Series 3's story arc involving someone or something called Saxon, possibly the Prime Minister who follows on from Harriet Jones.

Episode 13
Written by Russell T. Davies
The big finale! The show has been working up to this since it started in 2005. Will we get a clean start for Series 4? Or will more ongoing elements be introduced?

Only time will tell.

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Doctor Who - Redesign a Monster Pt. 2

January 30th 2007 11:00

Two weeks ago I put up a blog called Doctor Who - Redesign a Monster, featuring some imaginative re-designs of classic and b-grade Doctor Who monsters - showing us how some of these fantastic creatures might've looked had the BBC had a bigger budget. Anyway, here's a bunch more, this time from a different artist, Dean Betton (who kindly granted me permission to put them up here).

Alpha Centauri
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An Unearthly Child

January 23rd 2007 05:40

Thought I'd go right back to the beginning with my Doctor Who reviews. Here's the very first Doctor Who story

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Doctor Who - Redesign a Monster!

January 15th 2007 10:44

I've been hanging out on a Doctor Who messageboard recently (yes, incredibly nerdy I know, but it's a disease and I can't help it) and there have been some threads on there where Doctor Who fans post their art. One rather inventive thread, partly inspired by the recent new look Cybermen in the new series (see background of this blog!), posed a challenge to artistic Doctor Who fans... if you could redesign any classic monster from old episodes of Doctor Who, how would you do it?

Anyway, one particular artist (Neil Sims) did some fantastic work with his redesigns, so (with his kind permission) I'm going to post them here

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Video spinoffs of Doctor Who

January 2nd 2007 06:30

Delving into the ever esoteric extended world of Doctor Who, here are some strange offshoots of the Doctor Who franchise that have cropped up on video in the last decade or two. You could probably term them as 'Spin offs' of Doctor Who, but they are - as a majority - fan-made productions and I don't think any serious Doctor Who fan would probably count them as truly a part of the show's official history. They are all straight-to-video adventures utilising certain aspects of Doctor Who (where permission has been granted by those who hold the copyright to these things, or where it can simply be gotten away with without too much worry), often also making use of the actors and actresses who have been involved with the show in the past.

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New Doctor Who

December 26th 2006 23:46

Well, another Christmas - another Doctor Who Christmas special. Yes, the UK are lucky enough to get a new hour-long Christmas episode of Doctor Who - meanwhile the rest of the world will have to wait a minimum of six months to see it, most likely. Anywayyyyyyy... it's called 'The Runaway Bride' and I could *not* wait. I was so excited - the prospect of seeing a new episode of Doctor Who was (for me) the best thing about Christmas this year, and I almost couldn't contain myself

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Doctor Who Volume 1 DVD

December 18th 2006 09:32

Rose
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Craig Hinton dies

December 6th 2006 07:17

A sad piece of news here, Doctor Who author Craig Hinton has died at the all-too-young age of 42. It happened a few days ago on December 3rd, he was found dead in his home in London. No other details are really known at the moment, it's been said by some of his friends and colleagues that life often threw unwarranted troubles at him and that he was a jovial and upbeat fellow well-loved by the Doctor Who community, so I guess his death comes as a bit of a shock

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Fear Her

September 28th 2006 10:27

Drawings come alive! Shock! Horror!

Last week's episode of Doctor Who, 'Fear Her', was probably the least-interesting, most uninspired and all-round boring episode of the new Doctor Who to be made yet. Whereas 'New Earth' and 'Love and Monsters' had elements that really irritated me, this episode - 'Fear Her' - is so pedestrian that I just didn't care

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Inferno

September 21st 2006 11:13

Inferno (1970)

This Doctor Who story can be found on DVD out and about at the moment, I think it was released just in the last month or three

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Love and Monsters

September 18th 2006 10:19

The Abzorbaloff

What can I say about last week's Doctor Who episode? I'm not entirely sure what to think of it... half of me enjoyed it and loved it's fun attitude and willingness to break new ground in Doctor Who, the other half of me hated it for being a tremendous pile of self-serving arsery!

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