Hello faithful readers,
When I was about six I remember watching an episode of Doctor Who called The Hand of Fear, and this was a pretty standard, although companion heavy episode about a malevolent alien who could control humans through the power of a special ring. In the end, it was a pretty easy fix for the Doctor, even though the whole of England was threatened with nuclear meltdown a couple of times and poor Sarah Jane was hypnotised and made to do a few pretty heinous things.
At the end of this episode though, my whole world turned upside down. Arbitrarily, and out of the blue, the Doctor made a decision on his companion, and, for one of the only times in the show's history, decided it was time for them to leave. Of course, he had a good reason (sort of), that he had been called to Gallifrey and that humans weren't allowed - but this really doesn't hold water, as before and since humans have been to Gallifrey, and it's never been mentioned since. Retro-fixing things, as us fans do, the new accepted "canon" is that the Doctor sort of knew what was in store for him on Gallifrey - a meeting with his best enemy - The Master - and that Sarah would not have been safe. With her own protests on how she had been treated recently still ringing in his ears, the Doctor sacrificed his relationship with his best friend and left her on Earth as he whizzed off, alone, in the TARDIS. The TARDIS appears in a suburban street, a normal road, and despatched Sarah Jane Smith, and her goodies, and the Doctor left.
More recently, the Doctor's need for a companion has seen him struggle with the dangerous he puts them in as opposed to the need to show off to someone. "Go home, Rose Tyler," he tells the love of his life, and he baulks against Donna and flatly refused to take Christina. In his knew regeneration he's been much more keen to show off again - his TARDIS has bulged more than ever before, whether it be Amy Pond, the Williams, River Song or even Canton III and he's not averse to going back looking for help from old friends.
But at what cost? The constant in his Eleventh Persona has been Amy Pond. Little Amelia, the girl who waited, sitting on a suitcase until she fell asleep in her garden, whisked away in her nighty the day before her wedding, and her whole life rewritten at least twice.And where do we start that as a mother Amy has had the most traumatic time of all companions - her whole self being a facsimile, her child stolen from her, her husband killed, more than once, wiped from her memory, and reinstated. All because of the Doctor, that raggedy man, and his need to show off.
During the encounter with Fenric, the seventh Doctor, Time's Champion, realised it was as dangerous to love him as it was to hate him - Fenric feared faith, feared the concept of unconditional love, and that love for the Doctor saw Ace, another companion who's life was so wrapped up in what and who the Doctor was it became a paradox of itself, actually having the ability to stop the Doctor saving everyone. Her very faith in him resolving the matter was the very thing stopping him.
Amy has that unconditional love for the Doctor. She has waited, more than once, for decades, for centuries for him. She knowns, without a doubt, he'll always come back. That he is a hero.
But at what cost? Is the Doctor being selfish? In Let's Kill Hitler he asks the TARDIS for an interface he can trust. It shows him Rose, Martha and Donna, all of whom the Doctor admits to having crushing guilt for - Rose, trapped with a half Doctor in another universe, Martha, her family tortured and enslaved, her own heart broken, now not a Doctor but a soldier and Donna, a shallow, mouthy wanderer when she is so, so much more. So the Doctor feels guilt for his past companions. But not for the Ponds?
The Ponds (Williams) time is coming. It surely must be. In The Girl Who Waited, Rory voices his concerns on how the Doctor changes people, how his seemingly charming and easy going nature gets people killed. Real people, in real situations. The fact Rory and Amy are still talking to the Doctor is a miracle. Death, rewritten histories, stolen children... and all for the TARDIS. "Offer a child a suitcase of sweets," the Doctor says... "Offer them the whole of Time and Space..." he then muses and the girl he's with, Rita, isn't daft - "Have you just done it again?" she asked.
The Ponds have been a great team for the Doctor. They have been patient, tolerant, brave and loyal. The Doctor, the hero, the man who always comes back, surely isn't that selfish? Surely the Ponds have been through enough? Perhaps for them to leave, it doesn't need alternate universes, temporal paradoxes or world destroying threats? Going with the themes of intimacy in series 6 - particularly 6b - perhaps all it needs for the Doctor and the Ponds to part company is for the Doctor to realise, like he did with Sarah, like he did with Christina, that, in the end, they're better without him?
The Doctor's middle name, he tells Amy, is Bad Penny - it gets some funny looks when he fills out forms - so he'll always turn up, so I don't think this is the end of the Ponds - indeed, now, with the Anniversary year approaching, it would be unrealistic to think we've seen the last of them - and, of course, Steven Moffat has been treating us with lots of loose ends being tied up, so the finale to Series 6 - including a Pond wedding again - would really suggest we haven't seen the end of them. But the Doctor, and the Ponds, in the TARDIS... those days aren't just numbered, but over.
I wonder who's next?
Happy Times and Places
Eddie
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Monday, 12 September 2011
The God Complex - Teasers
Hello there, faithful readers!
Here are some The God Complex teasers...
Here are some The God Complex teasers...
- The Doctor's room is number 11.. when he sees what's in it he says "Of course..."
- There are many old monsters, check the walls!
- Rory doesn't have a room.
- Amy's room number is number 7...
- Rory gets a present from the Doctor
- The Doctor repeats a line from Tooth and Claw
- He repeats a strategy from The Curse of Fenric
- Oh, trailer for next week - "I work in a shop now.."
- The Doctor really admires a cheese plant. And an apple.
- The Weeping Angels are not for who you think they're for.
Happy Times and Places
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Torchwood: The Bloodline - Review
Hello there, Faithful Reader!
It's fair to say that this series of Torchwood took some time to dig in. The jarring from Cardiff to America, and the involvement of the CIA, particularly Rex Matheson, definitely took some time to get used to. Rex was brusque, unlikeable and unheroic, despite his grim expression and gritted teeth, and Esther Drummond was a bit wet and scared and pointless.
So, by episode ten, are they, actually, Torchwood? And if they are, are they heroes?
Damn right they are.
By episode nine we know that the Blessing is something that connects Buenos Aires and Shanghai and it is something that needs, and calls for, Jack's blood. We have Torchwood split in two and in strategic places, helped randomly by an increasingly pointless Oswald Danes and hindered by an increasingly confused Jilly Kitzinger. Back at Langley, the closest we have to a HUB, John de Lancie - for whichever character John de Lancie plays it is, without a doubt, John de Lancie - barks orders out Picardlike and seems the stony faced, unmoving, granite chiselled Secret Service man of old. We also know, finally, that the Three Families, after seeing Jack in 1928, have used the knowledge of his immortality, given to him by Rose Tyler, to create and distribute the Miracle. Why? Is it to enhance the finances of the pharmaceutical giant Phicorp? To create a Messiah in the form of paedophillic murder Oswald Danes? Or, perhaps, something else?
Well, actually, it's something else. But nothing too taxing.
Torchwood Team One and Two, now with the help, albeit knowingly of Langley thanks to Rex, eventually find there way to the hub of the matter - the reason both cities are important - and find a way to destroy the Miracle - and with the Miracle gone, everything, it seems, snaps back to normal, including the Category Ones now becoming, actually death. With one bullet, it seems, Gwen Cooper can bring death to the world. But at what cost? Who has to die to bring back death? And if Jack's blood is needed on both sides of the world at once, what do Esther and Rex do if they find themselves without it, and a gun at their head? Have, in fact, the families won?
You know, this is another episode which uses the words "The Doctor said," and it also uses the words, "Racnoss", "Silurian" and "Hibernation Matrix" and well as "a sympbiotic morphic field, fed on the blood of an Immortal." But when Gwen turns to Jack and says "You don't know, do you?" Jack has to smile back.
With Davies AND Espenson at the helm for this one, all neatly wrapped in a story by RTD, we know we're getting epic, we're getting emotions, we're getting sharp dialogue and we're getting twists. Desperately, I didn't want the soul sapping emptiness I was left with at the end of Children of Earth, I wanted it to be triumphant, to be magnificent, and I wanted a punch the air moment.
There are at least three of those in this episode, but not all of the Torchwood team survive. Even more are changed for ever. But this story is complete, with a neat segue into Torchwood Five, should it ever emerge, and the Doctor Who anniversary year, because, let's face it, it won't be the same without Gwen. Or whatever shape Torchwood takes.
John Barrowman is as good as he's ever been, here, and this is a sharply cut, brilliantly edited piece of heart thumping, air punching, adrenalin whooping actioner as you'll ever see. It is this best this new Torchwood will get, and, probably, insures it another series of this type. It's sad, of course, it has it's casualties, and it has at least two WTF??? Moments that will absolutely resonate back to the Doctor.
As an experiment, it was patchy at times, and it changed gears too often and it was probably too long. Ten or thirteen mostly individual episodes (can we see the US order 22?) would be better, and, for what's left of the Torchwood team, and to add new faces, would be the best way to go.
Roll on the next time we see "that" man, who cannot die, and who's a bit pissed off about it.
Phew. Torchwood made it!
So, by episode ten, are they, actually, Torchwood? And if they are, are they heroes?
Damn right they are.
By episode nine we know that the Blessing is something that connects Buenos Aires and Shanghai and it is something that needs, and calls for, Jack's blood. We have Torchwood split in two and in strategic places, helped randomly by an increasingly pointless Oswald Danes and hindered by an increasingly confused Jilly Kitzinger. Back at Langley, the closest we have to a HUB, John de Lancie - for whichever character John de Lancie plays it is, without a doubt, John de Lancie - barks orders out Picardlike and seems the stony faced, unmoving, granite chiselled Secret Service man of old. We also know, finally, that the Three Families, after seeing Jack in 1928, have used the knowledge of his immortality, given to him by Rose Tyler, to create and distribute the Miracle. Why? Is it to enhance the finances of the pharmaceutical giant Phicorp? To create a Messiah in the form of paedophillic murder Oswald Danes? Or, perhaps, something else?
Well, actually, it's something else. But nothing too taxing.
Torchwood Team One and Two, now with the help, albeit knowingly of Langley thanks to Rex, eventually find there way to the hub of the matter - the reason both cities are important - and find a way to destroy the Miracle - and with the Miracle gone, everything, it seems, snaps back to normal, including the Category Ones now becoming, actually death. With one bullet, it seems, Gwen Cooper can bring death to the world. But at what cost? Who has to die to bring back death? And if Jack's blood is needed on both sides of the world at once, what do Esther and Rex do if they find themselves without it, and a gun at their head? Have, in fact, the families won?
You know, this is another episode which uses the words "The Doctor said," and it also uses the words, "Racnoss", "Silurian" and "Hibernation Matrix" and well as "a sympbiotic morphic field, fed on the blood of an Immortal." But when Gwen turns to Jack and says "You don't know, do you?" Jack has to smile back.
With Davies AND Espenson at the helm for this one, all neatly wrapped in a story by RTD, we know we're getting epic, we're getting emotions, we're getting sharp dialogue and we're getting twists. Desperately, I didn't want the soul sapping emptiness I was left with at the end of Children of Earth, I wanted it to be triumphant, to be magnificent, and I wanted a punch the air moment.
There are at least three of those in this episode, but not all of the Torchwood team survive. Even more are changed for ever. But this story is complete, with a neat segue into Torchwood Five, should it ever emerge, and the Doctor Who anniversary year, because, let's face it, it won't be the same without Gwen. Or whatever shape Torchwood takes.
John Barrowman is as good as he's ever been, here, and this is a sharply cut, brilliantly edited piece of heart thumping, air punching, adrenalin whooping actioner as you'll ever see. It is this best this new Torchwood will get, and, probably, insures it another series of this type. It's sad, of course, it has it's casualties, and it has at least two WTF??? Moments that will absolutely resonate back to the Doctor.
As an experiment, it was patchy at times, and it changed gears too often and it was probably too long. Ten or thirteen mostly individual episodes (can we see the US order 22?) would be better, and, for what's left of the Torchwood team, and to add new faces, would be the best way to go.
Roll on the next time we see "that" man, who cannot die, and who's a bit pissed off about it.
Phew. Torchwood made it!
Happy Times and Place
Friday, 9 September 2011
Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Finale!
Hello there, Faithful Readers!
Wow, the time has come, in America at least, for the last episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day.
I thought it might be a good idea to refresh people's memory of everything that's gone on in TWMD so far, so, if you haven't already done so
Click here for our Spoilery Review
Click here for our Survivors Roll Call
Click here for our spoilers!
Everything you need to know is HERE and HERE and, of course, let us know what YOU think HERE or here with comments CLICKETY CLICK.
Thanks for all the positivity and enthusiasm with your responses, and keep watching for more Who - based stuff! The finale of Series Six is just around the corner!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Oooh... Spoilers
Wow, the time has come, in America at least, for the last episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day.
I thought it might be a good idea to refresh people's memory of everything that's gone on in TWMD so far, so, if you haven't already done so
Click here for our Spoilery Review
Click here for our Survivors Roll Call
Click here for our spoilers!
Everything you need to know is HERE and HERE and, of course, let us know what YOU think HERE or here with comments CLICKETY CLICK.
Thanks for all the positivity and enthusiasm with your responses, and keep watching for more Who - based stuff! The finale of Series Six is just around the corner!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Oooh... Spoilers
Monday, 5 September 2011
Torchwood - Miracle Day: Survivor Roll Call
Hello there, Faithful Readers. Irritating, isn't it?
Here is a list of the Lives and Not Lives in the finale of Torchwood: Miracle Day.
My dear, dear Jack, so much alive and yet so very much dead, the man with all to die for and nothing to live for, finds a way to do both, and his pain is seen through others eyes. Gwen Cooper, more concerned for her daughter and husband, and the horror that is falling on them, does the only thing she possibly can, and sacrifices her true self for the greater good. But so does Rex, as he watches Esther shot at point blank range, can either of them, blood splattered and alive, survive? Both die, unfortunately, and one at the hands of Charlotte, the CIA Family infiltrator, who does a good job at blowing up everyone else in the CIA, to the point where it's hard to know if the Blessing was enough to save even them. Poor Q. Love a Q.
And what of Kitzinger? Will her sins be forgiven as she scambles for the exit? The flames of the end of the Miracle engulf her, and there's nothing the others can do. And then, of course, there's Oswald Danes, a man so evil, so corrupt, so twisted surely, never, could salvation be found in those flames? And again, is it enough? Goodbye Oswald. Will we ever see you again.
And so Team Torchwood is set for America, but with people gone and others not there, whilst some are oh so, so alive, it looks like the next year, thanks to Jack, Gwen, Oswald, Esther and Rex's sacrifice is secure.
Well, you didn't think I'd just tell you, did you? Ssshhh... Spoilers!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Oh, you should go here too...
Here is a list of the Lives and Not Lives in the finale of Torchwood: Miracle Day.
My dear, dear Jack, so much alive and yet so very much dead, the man with all to die for and nothing to live for, finds a way to do both, and his pain is seen through others eyes. Gwen Cooper, more concerned for her daughter and husband, and the horror that is falling on them, does the only thing she possibly can, and sacrifices her true self for the greater good. But so does Rex, as he watches Esther shot at point blank range, can either of them, blood splattered and alive, survive? Both die, unfortunately, and one at the hands of Charlotte, the CIA Family infiltrator, who does a good job at blowing up everyone else in the CIA, to the point where it's hard to know if the Blessing was enough to save even them. Poor Q. Love a Q.
And what of Kitzinger? Will her sins be forgiven as she scambles for the exit? The flames of the end of the Miracle engulf her, and there's nothing the others can do. And then, of course, there's Oswald Danes, a man so evil, so corrupt, so twisted surely, never, could salvation be found in those flames? And again, is it enough? Goodbye Oswald. Will we ever see you again.
And so Team Torchwood is set for America, but with people gone and others not there, whilst some are oh so, so alive, it looks like the next year, thanks to Jack, Gwen, Oswald, Esther and Rex's sacrifice is secure.
Well, you didn't think I'd just tell you, did you? Ssshhh... Spoilers!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Oh, you should go here too...
The Girl Who Waited - Spoilers
Hello there Faithful Readers!
Here's some spoilers from The Girl Who Waited.
Here's some spoilers from The Girl Who Waited.
- I take you to a paradise planet and you want to update Twitter?
- Time goes wibbly wobbly - I hate it when it does that!
- What's the answer to not get us killed?
- Ah. That'll be the small act of vandalism alarm.
- Cage dancing Amy? Oh my.
- Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Third time.
- Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?
- This isn't fair, you're turning me into you.
- Glasses are cool.
- I'm going to pull Time apart for you.
You'll enjoy this one, it's bloody brilliant - we review it HERE
Happy Times and Places
Ed
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Night Terrors! Teaser Spoilers
Hello there, faithful reader!
Here are some Night Terror Spoilers for you to mull over! Enjoy!
Ed
Here are some Night Terror Spoilers for you to mull over! Enjoy!
- Sontarans get a name check
- Rory contemplates always getting killed
- The Doctor, perhaps, gives a clue about the finale
- Just this once, everybody lives. Well just this third time, I suppose
- Vampires of Venice is referenced - second week on the trot
- The self referencing hits overdrive with The Seven Keys of Doomsday. I know!
- Do Daleks wear clothes? Or do they just all agree that the Emperor's are nice?
- From raggedy Doctor to raggedy Amy. Brush your hair woman!
- The psychic paper HURTS!
- Spot the re-used locations from, amongst other places, The End of Time Part One (finale), The End of Time Part Two (Rose sequence) and The Christmas Invasion
Not the best episode of the year so far, but probably not the worst either. Although, if I'm honest, there hasn't really been a BAD one, just some bad acts... Act III of Curse of the Black Spot, for instance. Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Twice that's been used now. The Moff must like Star Trek Voyager. Aahhh... so he's the one!
See you on Monday for some big Torchwood: Miracle Day revelations, including the Survivors Roll. And I mean, "roll"!
Happy Times and Places
Ed
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