My Doctor Who Christmas Special and Twelfth Doctor Whishlist

Having just seen the Day of the Doctor, we are now without doctor who for about a month, and following that, several more. With all this spare time and anticipation to both Matt Smith's final episode and Peter Capaldi's debut as Twelve, I decided to come up with a few things that I want to see in the Christmas special and next series.

1. Mark Gatiss to write Matt Smith's final farewell and to take over as head writer for the next series- Despite Stephen Moffat being the head writer and the inevitability of him writing the Christmas special, I really do think that Gatiss is the superior writer and that he deals with the more emotional side of the Doctor far better. Not to mention that he is an actor himself and is therefore more likely to write a more convincing Doctor in Eleven's final moments.

2. Clara to stay on as the Doctor's companion after he regenerates - I'm not a big Clara fan. However, I do feel that it's important for a new Doctor to come into our lives with something familiar coming with him. I also feel that both the Doctor and his companions benefit from staying with each other after his regeneration because, in the past it has generally been the case that companions grow closer after seeing something as personal as a regeneration. I never particularly liked Rose as a character either, but I feel that after Nine regenerated into Ten, her relationship with the Doctor was much more interesting to watch.

3. Capaldi's Doctor to act like a grumpy old man - I was particularly excited when the BBC announced that Peter Capaldi would be playing the twelfth Doctor. I loved his performance as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In the Loop and that particular character was a very grumpy (and potty mouthed) Scotsman. I think that a grumpy, no nonsense Doctor would be so much fun to watch and would contrast excellently with Matt Smith's rather silly (but outstanding) performance.

So there you have it, my hopes and dreams for the near future of Doctor who. Happy anniversary, and here's to another 50 years!

Day of the Doctor - Review

Wow! Just wow!  As much as I have complained about Stephen Moffat in the past, one thing must be said in his defence: he certainly knows how to put on a show.

Day of the Doctor is a special episode of Doctor Who to celebrate the show’s 50^th anniversary. As an enormous fan of the series, I and all of my friends have been anticipating this episode since the first trailer was shown in July. I’m not going to bother warning you about spoilers in this review, because if you haven’t yet seen the episode and are reading this review first, I seriously doubt your sanity.

Before I talk about the many things I loved about Day of the Doctor, I’m going to have to wade through the sizable puddle of faults that the episode had.

Firstly, the plot of the episode was extraordinarily weak. Aside from all the exciting time war and past Doctor awesomeness, there was still around 45 minutes of boring zygon invasion storyline to sit through. As much as I love the zygons as monsters, I think that this was the wrong time to bring them back. Their only purpose was to facilitate a rather pretentious plot point about Gallifreyan art. Furthermore, the inclusion of Queen Elizabeth I was irritating and totally unnecessary. I’m sure Moffat could have come up with a much less annoying way of bringing the three Doctors together without reinforcing the illusion the David Tennant’s Doctor is only there to get the girls.

There were a few things that I was relieved about though. Firstly, I’m glad that they didn’t actually bring Rose back as Rose. As popular as she is, I never really liked Rose’s character and her eventual romantic relationship with the Doctor’s half human clone, and I think that bringing her back would have brought with her some unwanted baggage. I’m also relieved that Moffat didn’t completely change the show’s mythology as many of us were expecting (and dreading). I think that the way the Time Lords were saved was in excellent taste, as well as making Doctors 10 and War forget about the events of the episode, as having them remember would have been confusing and annoying in the long run.

This next paragraph concerns all the things that caused me to physically ‘nerd out’ on the sofa, so, what follows may be a little erratic and perhaps slightly confusing…

First of all, John Hurt’s performance as the War Doctor was enchanting. He was every bit as dramatic and mysterious as we’d hoped. Not only that, but he was also charming and funny and as curious as the Doctor should be. Secondly, the interactions between the three of them were fantastic. I loved how judgemental Tennant was of Smith and his characteristics. The best parts of the episode however, were all the bits of fan service that were thrown. There were perhaps too many to talk about all of them in one review so I will list my top five (in no particular order):

1. Tom Baker as the ‘Great Curator’.
2. Tennant’s TARDIS transforming into the current one.
3. 13 TARDISs!!!!!
4. The War Doctor’s Regeneration.
5. An appearance from Peter Capaldi as the 12^th Doctor.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Day of the Doctor, but not because of its story. It was a fun adventure with plenty of fan service and excitement along the way.

Scores:

Story – 5/10

Fan Service ∞/10

Time Lord Children Saved – 2.47 Billion

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Review

WARNING – MILD SPOILERS!

If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t planning on going to see Catching Fire. I thought that the book, whilst having a good premise, was not written at all well. I had mixed feelings about the film adaptation of the first book, and was rather apathetic and not at all confident that Catching Fire would be any good, especially since they had to change directors from the first film. However, when my friends asked me to go and see the film with them, I decided that it couldn’t be that bad and went along with them.

I’m so glad that I did. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was phenomenal. The new director brought so many improvements over the last film, not least the removal of shaky cam. One of my biggest gripes about the first film was the over use of shaky cam during action sequences to the point where it was hard to make out what was going on. To my relief, the use of this technique was practically non existent in the action scenes, which made the actual ‘hunger games’ section of the film so much more enjoyable.

The other element of the film which I think was handled better was the world outside of the games. Not only was this done better than in the previous film, but it was much more enjoyable than that part of the book. At the end of the first film, main characters; Katniss and Peeta, attempted to kill themselves rather than kill each other in the arena. But, rather than allowing them to do so, the game makers let them both live and have two victors. Unbeknownst to Katniss, her act of rebellion was seen by the other districts as a sign that they could rebel against the Capitol and win. The first part of the film deals with the aftermath of the first games and the methods the Capitol uses to quash the rebellion, much to the horror of Katniss and Peeta. This sequence is handled incredibly well in the sense that it was so much more emotionally involving and it really made me feel sorry for those who died or were punished for speaking out.

The film looks incredible too. The costume and set design looks exactly how you would expect it to from the way things are described in the book, and the CGI was impeccable. I especially enjoyed the design of the new arena. I won’t give away the secrets of the arena that made it so enjoyable, but I will say that it was really interesting and the many horrible things that the tributes have to go through inside it are very clever and serve not only to provide fun action scenes, but also to advance the story.

The games themselves take up the bulk of the film, and whilst I enjoyed the world building elements in the first half, the games are going to be the parts I will remember when I think about the film. As previously said, the arena was fascinating and the action was very exciting. I especially enjoyed the combat between tributes in this film since all of them were winners of previous Hunger Games. And the new characters that were introduced into the arena were far more memorable and fun to watch than those in the first film.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was amazing. In fact, I think it might be my favourite film of 2013, only perhaps coming second to Iron Man 3. The Hunger Games is one of very few franchises that actually improve, not only from the first film to the second, but also from book to film, and I’m very much looking forward to the two part final chapter of this series.

9/10

Hiatus and what's to come

So I had all these big plans for this blog. I posted a review schedule and I was determined to stick to it. But I've been very busy recently with exams etc. and I've had next to no time for reviews.

My plan now is to carry on writing reviews, but they will be far less frequent.

What's to come:
- Day of the Doctor (50th anniversary episode) - Review
- I have pre-ordered a Playstation 4 and will be giving both my impressions of the console itself and any games I purchase with the system.

This is only a rough plan and may not happen exactly as expected but I hope to deliver these reviews before the end of 2013.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Premier - Review

Season four of The Walking Dead had a really excellent premier. It made the walkers feel scary again after their almost non existent threat towards the end of last season, and it put us in a place where I honestly can’t imagine all of the immensely exciting things that could happen this series.

After the attack by the Governor on his own people, Rick and the survivors have welcomed the remaining survivors from Woodberry into the prison. The group is much larger now and it gives us several new and interesting characters who we will undoubtedly end up loving before the creators of the show decide that they will die horribly and tear our hearts out in the process. One of these new characters is former army doctor, Bob Stookey. He is going to be a main character this season and from what we saw of him this week, seems to have some exciting secrets that will unfold throughout the season.

The returning main characters have gone through some changes since season three. Rick seems to be turning into a little bit of a pacifist. He has taken the responsibility of farming the land and appears reluctant to take responsibility as a leader, a job that has fallen to Daryl and Hershel. This is an interesting change for Rick and I think that this change is possibly just the next step in Rick’s slow descent into madness in the wake of all the awful things he’s had to do, an issue which was directly addressed this episode. Carol has also changed. She is probably the most developed character in the series. She has changed from the always terrified, abused wife and mother from season one into a hardened, brave and confident survivor at the start of season four. This is a change that I really enjoyed; one of my favourite scenes from the premier was a scene in which Carol was showing the larger group of children in the group how to wield a knife. This was a scene that really highlighted how much Carol has changed from season one.

Carl is also a changed character. In the premier we see him struggle to work out whether he is a child or an adult. His confliction is really interesting to watch as he shows such delight when Michonne brings him new comics and yet he wants to help his dad secure the prison and gets really angry with the other kids when they start naming the walkers. Last season Carl killed a man in cold blood, and it is strange to see him not affected by it at all now. He still wants to help and fight, and from the brief trailer at the end of the episode, it seems that he is going to further struggle with morally grey situations this season.

My favourite scene in this episode was a run that Daryl took a few people on to a Costco like shop to gather supplies. This scene alone made me actually scared of the walkers for the first time since season two. The suspense was really intense and the walkers dropping through the ceiling one by one was a really scary situation.

I loved this episode. The Walking Dead is my favourite show on television at the moment and the first episode of season four did not disappoint. I honestly can’t think of a single thing that happened that I didn’t like or at least understand why they included it. I continue to be impressed by the production quality and the high calibre of acting that TWD has to offer.

10/10

Grey's Anatomy Episode 200 Audio Review

9/10

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time this weekend to review episode six of Legend of Korra. Hopefully I will have time next week and to review Walking Dead tomorrow.

Arrow Season 2 Premier - Review

Arrow is without a doubt in my opinion, the best superhero comic based T.V. show around. Unlike Smallvile, which had a very over the top feel to it (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a series about Superman), Arrow is very grounded in realism despite being a series about a man who dresses up in green leather and a hood and goes around shooting arrows at criminals. Season one was really enjoyable. The vast majority if the characters were interesting and well developed throughout the series, and the story, whilst having its occasional weak points, was exciting, dramatic and full of emotion. The finale was full of action suspense and drama. It also left us at a great position to start season two.

Episode one of season two entitled “City of Heroes”, was just as exciting. It picks up five months after the events of season one which was a great decision seeing as having to start watching straight after the earthquake would probably have felt a little forced in terms of how much action they try and fit into an episode. The plot for this episode was very simple, which turned out to be a very good thing. Oliver returns to starling city after having returned to the island for five months in order to get away from the guilt he felt. On his return he finds four copycat vigilantes who have been murdering city officials and are now targeting the Queen family.

However, the most interesting aspect of the episode is seeing Oliver having to step up to run his family’s company. Queen Consolidated is going bankrupt and Isabel Rochev (a business woman played by Firefly’s Summer Glau) is about to buy it out. It was really interesting to see Oliver finally become as serious in the public eye as he is as the Hood.

As ever the acting in Arrow was great. Stephen Amell does a great job as Oliver, managing to show the emotional stress he feels upon his return to the city, but Emily Bett Rickards who plays Felicity is by far the most entertaining to watch. She has some really hilarious moments and pulls them off flawlessly.

As well is Isable Rochev, episode one introduces a mysterious new character at the end of the episode. Black Canary has finally been brought into the picture and I’m really interested to see what they will do with her especially since they are bring superhuman abilities into a series which prides itself in being as realistic as a superhero show can be.

Overall, I loved this episode. It sets up the rest of the series very well and I’m excited to se where they go with it.



9/10