Hi Guys
With a day to go until the Series 6 finale, it's with an air of excitement that this time I get to watch it as it goes out, with everyone else, instead of my privileged position of getting a preview. This year, previews were limited to a London Screening, and no preview discs went out, so I know as much about it as anyone else.
It has to be said, it seems like there's an awful lot to pack into forty five minutes, with what amounts to two seasons' worth of questions needing answered before the Doctor disappears, sans the Ponds, for his Christmas Special and then outa here until Autumn 2012 - which may very well be the beginning of the 50th Anniversary Season! So tonnes to get through.
The Radio Times front cover shows us a Doctor with much longer hair than usual, and SFX talk about a return of an old look for the Doctor... talk in Outpost Skaro seems to suggest we're going to see the Doctor in his Day of the Moon beard (along with a toga!), so perhaps that's it? There's also the eyepatch look, sported by all the main cast, as well as the bad guys - and again, forum talk is suggesting maybe it's a way to see the Silence and remember them? There's also Rory looking all Special Forces and the return of Winston Churchill!
There's also talk of previous guest star Simon Callow making a return appearance, and whilst he's definitely in the episode, who he plays is still a mystery. Is this the return of Charles Dickens? There are also pterosaurs in the trailer, a Viking-type fella and a steam train going into a pyramid! Personally, my heads spinning with it, but I'll be glued to the screen to see how Steven Moffat manages to pull this all together. Unlike other "epics" - Journey's End springs to mind - there seems to be no extra minutes being added, so it looks like being a hectic three quarters of an hour.
Our friend Friendsofderek will most likely to the review for this episode, so I'm looking forward to read what he has to say about it. And remember, from straight after broadcast, you can tell us as well what you think, on the forum.
One final thing before I sign off for the weekend, folks, and that is you may have become aware of a couple of bogus blogs and twitter accounts claiming to be me. Well, they're not, and, apart from upsetting my kids, I'm not sure what the point is of them. So, if you come across them, and some of the stuff they're coming out with, please ignore them. You'll get me here, here and on Twitter both on @outpost_skaro and @ed_at_motherwel, but no where else. Sorry for the confusion, but there's little I can do about them, and the guy clearly has a problem with me, which is a shame. I'm not going to start a flame war with anyone. Life is way too short.
Anyway, have a great weekend, a fabulous Doctor Who Day and I'll be around bright and early next week with Spooks, Merlin and The Fades to bore you all with.
Happy times and Places
Ed
Showing posts with label The Wedding of River Song. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Wedding of River Song. Show all posts
Friday, 30 September 2011
Thursday, 22 September 2011
River Songs Swansong
Hello faithful readers,
You know, River Song is a great character, one full of promise and finesse, but one, it seems, with a limited shelf life. Of course, she could go on forever, in a timey wimey way, and her popping up from now until Doomsday with a "shhh, spoiler!" line isn't impossible, but the actual linear narrative of her and the Doctor must come to and end, because it has a built in top, middle and bottom, unlike most relationships which, like Sarah Jane for instance, can be open ended for ever.
The River Song in Closing Time, for what it's worth, is pre-Silence In The Library. I know that might sound a bit like "well, EVERY River since then is pre-that", but by that I mean, literally, she's pre-everything, with the exception of Let's Kill Hitler. Her role in that episode too, will lead us to a few dead certs in a season of what ifs. When we see River on Saturday, we will categorically know that, in at least one scene, in the whole of the series, there have been two Doctors and two Rivers. Sometimes standing right next to each other.
The Silence is a religion, remember, not the big Scream-esque boogie men from Day of the Moon. It's the theme that's been running through two seasons and why the TARDIS blew up. Things have happened that we don't remember - because the characters seeing them don't remember. Our Scream-guys are tools for that job. So, like everything Steven Moffat writes, perspective is everything.
Time can be rewritten, we're told now - but, the question, surely, is which time? In Turn Left we saw a world without the Doctor, a world in which chaos ruled because he wasn't there. Now, if the Doctor, two hundred years older, is killed on the shores of Lake Silencio, we have to ask ourselves, where was he from? What was he doing? Was he visiting the shores of the Silver Devastation? Was he helping Craig Owens change nappies? Or was he, perhaps, doing something entirely different.
For Time to go back to the way it was - not one with dinosaurs and Dickens and Churchill and loop the loops - someone has to kill the best man she knows. And, by the end of Closing Time we'll know how she does that - but perhaps it's the Doctor's death that rights the wrongs done in his name - the big ball of mixed up wibbly wobbly Time Stuff that needs straightening out.
He has his stetson, he has his envelopes, he's travelling alone in the TARDIS... but two of someone in the same place at the same time - echoed in The Girl Who Waited - is a paradox even the TARDIS can't stand.
Even for a half-Time Lord.
And what of the Ponds? Shopping obliviously in Closing Time? Will the Doctor say hello? Will he put them in danger again? Or are they caught in a loop so important he can't. If they do talk, what do they say? And if they say anything, is it really important. For the girl who's tired of waiting, perhaps, she has to wait just a little while longer.
Suffice to say, Steven Moffat has forty five minutes to tie up two years worth of stuff, because, after The Wedding of River Song, the Doctor's off, sans Ponds, sans River, but still very, very much alive.
I wonder how?
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Spoilers
You know, River Song is a great character, one full of promise and finesse, but one, it seems, with a limited shelf life. Of course, she could go on forever, in a timey wimey way, and her popping up from now until Doomsday with a "shhh, spoiler!" line isn't impossible, but the actual linear narrative of her and the Doctor must come to and end, because it has a built in top, middle and bottom, unlike most relationships which, like Sarah Jane for instance, can be open ended for ever.
The River Song in Closing Time, for what it's worth, is pre-Silence In The Library. I know that might sound a bit like "well, EVERY River since then is pre-that", but by that I mean, literally, she's pre-everything, with the exception of Let's Kill Hitler. Her role in that episode too, will lead us to a few dead certs in a season of what ifs. When we see River on Saturday, we will categorically know that, in at least one scene, in the whole of the series, there have been two Doctors and two Rivers. Sometimes standing right next to each other.
The Silence is a religion, remember, not the big Scream-esque boogie men from Day of the Moon. It's the theme that's been running through two seasons and why the TARDIS blew up. Things have happened that we don't remember - because the characters seeing them don't remember. Our Scream-guys are tools for that job. So, like everything Steven Moffat writes, perspective is everything.
Time can be rewritten, we're told now - but, the question, surely, is which time? In Turn Left we saw a world without the Doctor, a world in which chaos ruled because he wasn't there. Now, if the Doctor, two hundred years older, is killed on the shores of Lake Silencio, we have to ask ourselves, where was he from? What was he doing? Was he visiting the shores of the Silver Devastation? Was he helping Craig Owens change nappies? Or was he, perhaps, doing something entirely different.
For Time to go back to the way it was - not one with dinosaurs and Dickens and Churchill and loop the loops - someone has to kill the best man she knows. And, by the end of Closing Time we'll know how she does that - but perhaps it's the Doctor's death that rights the wrongs done in his name - the big ball of mixed up wibbly wobbly Time Stuff that needs straightening out.
He has his stetson, he has his envelopes, he's travelling alone in the TARDIS... but two of someone in the same place at the same time - echoed in The Girl Who Waited - is a paradox even the TARDIS can't stand.
Even for a half-Time Lord.
And what of the Ponds? Shopping obliviously in Closing Time? Will the Doctor say hello? Will he put them in danger again? Or are they caught in a loop so important he can't. If they do talk, what do they say? And if they say anything, is it really important. For the girl who's tired of waiting, perhaps, she has to wait just a little while longer.
Suffice to say, Steven Moffat has forty five minutes to tie up two years worth of stuff, because, after The Wedding of River Song, the Doctor's off, sans Ponds, sans River, but still very, very much alive.
I wonder how?
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Spoilers
Did He Just Eat Jim The Fish?
Hello faithful readers,
This week, I had a jolly conversation with Derek and Andy from Outpost Skaro about not only next week's Closing Time but also the season finale The Wedding of River Song. In a bold move, however, we've introduced a new feature - Five Rounds Rapid - where I am thrown five questions submitted by Skaro users about Closing Time and our knowledge (or lack of) things to come! So we have five very specifically answered spoilers just waiting for y'all to hear!
The Podcast is available here - Did He Just Eat Jim The Fish? and also, shinily, on iTunes. Like everything else we provide, it's free!
So check on the iTunes link here or download or just listen to the podcast here which will discuss brand new spoilers, questions from yourselves and also expand on the teasers here. All we ask is that you let us know what you think! It's all about your opinion, not ours!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
SPOILERS!
This week, I had a jolly conversation with Derek and Andy from Outpost Skaro about not only next week's Closing Time but also the season finale The Wedding of River Song. In a bold move, however, we've introduced a new feature - Five Rounds Rapid - where I am thrown five questions submitted by Skaro users about Closing Time and our knowledge (or lack of) things to come! So we have five very specifically answered spoilers just waiting for y'all to hear!
The Podcast is available here - Did He Just Eat Jim The Fish? and also, shinily, on iTunes. Like everything else we provide, it's free!
So check on the iTunes link here or download or just listen to the podcast here which will discuss brand new spoilers, questions from yourselves and also expand on the teasers here. All we ask is that you let us know what you think! It's all about your opinion, not ours!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
SPOILERS!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)