Little House on the Solar Farm

Saturday 1 July 2017

After a very nice celebration lunch we were home in plenty of time for the Doctor Who finale, hoping that it wouldn't turn out to be a disappointment that spoiled the day. I've  found that with two-parters the set-up is often better than the conclusion. So was that the case here? 

There was a lot to enjoy, particularly the situation with Missy and the Master.  Missy is in two minds about whose side she is on "fortunately one of them is unconscious."

But the scene soon shifts from the creepy hospital to floor 507, where settlers are protecting the children in a homestead straight out of The Waltons. Bill is having identity issues (though I wonder why she has more problems with the 'Cyber' than the 'Man'). Meanwhile Nardole is proving useful, though he is something of a Marmite character.  I have warmed to him, but my other half described him as 'like K-9 only without the charm.'

All in all, it becomes apparent that the situation is without hope, but the Doctor has to try, because that is what he does, and Peter Capaldi gets to deliver another moving speech.  The Master and Missy manage to cancel each other out in a glorious moment of self-destruction.

Ultimately, though, the ending with a deus ex machine,  or more literally dea ex lacrimis, was a little disappointing, and rather too similar to the last series, with a companion who is sort-of dead surviving to fly off round the universe with a female companion.

The final moments bode well for Christmas, though.  Roll on December!

World Enough and Time

Monday 26 June 2017

We missed the broadcast of Saturday night's episode owing to a prior engagement watching David Troughton (The Curse of Peladon and Midnight) playing Titus Andronicus  at the RSC. After an extremely gory evening, we settled down on Sunday morning to watch World Enough and Time.

Having enjoyed the previous two episodes, I didn't have particularly high hopes, particularly as I find season finales tend to be a bit disappointing.  I have seen online reviews suggesting that the episode was ruined because two of the biggest shocks had been made public in  advance.  Well, maybe, but the chances of keeping them secret would have been about the same as those of the Daleks taking up charity work.  On the other hand, Bill's fate was a genuine shock. And despite the leaks, I failed to penetrate the Master's disguise.  How could I have been so dense?

The idea of dropping Missy into a typical Doctor-type scenario to see how she got on was inspired.  I can't wait to find out what happens next week.   Unfortunately, next Saturday is a significant date, the sort of date that you might go out to celebrate.

Fortunately the husband has already thought of that.  "I've booked a table for lunch" he told me.

It's the Macra incident all over again

10 June 2017

After the fairly ho-hum Monk trilogy, I had high hopes for Empress of Mars. Mark Gatiss is at his best when writing Victorians, and this was a typical Boys Own adventure tale of derring-do and serving the British Empire .... only on Mars, in a Tomb of the Cybermen sort of setting.

Of course in every regiment there is a bad apple or two. In this case there was the pilfering soldier (helpfully called 'Jackdaw') and a Captain who was a really nasty piece of work, probably because he rejoiced under the name of Neville Catchlove.

It was Catchlove, rather than the reanimated Ice Warriors, who was the real villain of the piece, though the Ice Warriors had a particularly unpleasant way of killing people.  The hero was a cowardly Colonel, brilliantly played by Anthony Calf, who redeemed himself with an act of selfless heroism that saved the day.  The Doctor didn't actually seem to do all that much, apart from attempting to negotiate between the species.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS, with Nardole on board, had decided to return to Earth. I'm not entirely sure whether this was simply a 'separate the Doctor from the TARDIS to stop it being too easy' device, or whether the point was to engineer a situation in which Missy would be released from the vault. 

However, the highlight of the episode was not Missy in the TARDIS, but the sound of the first friendly alien race with whom the 'e-mail' rigged up by the Doctor for the Empress made contact.  As soon as I heard it, I shrieked 'Alpha Centauri' before the interference on the viewscreen cleared to show everyone's favourite hermaphrodite alien, and definitely ahead of my husband (the 'proper' fan.) Just like in Gridlock where I identified Macra from a single waving claw.

It's all thanks to the Monks

Saturday 3 June 2017

*Spoilers*

I didn't write much about last week's episode because I really didn't like it that much.  I've mentioned before that I prefer self-contained smaller scale stories to big story arcs and the whole planet mobilising against a threat.  I particularly don't like the idea of the Doctor being made President of Earth.

Anyway, tonight's episode picked up events six months later, and our hero has apparently turned into a sort of modern day Lord Haw-Haw, broadcasting about how the wonderful Monks have always been there, shaping humanity's progress.  I wonder how they got on with the Fendahl, Fenric, Scaroth and all the other aliens who have been guiding humanity over the millennia?

Ha! Trick question!  Because of course they didn't get on with them at all, as they weren't really there. It is all a lie. Martha still knows this, but struggles to keep her grip on reality.  Of course the Doctor must be a prisoner, and being forced to help the Monks, mustn't he?

Until the end of the scene on the prison ship, the episode promises much. But having thrown everything at what turns out to be a gigantic fan wind-up, it rather runs out of steam after that.  There are some obvious parallels between this episode and Last of the Time Lords. Both start from a point where the earth had been taken over by aliens at the end of the previous episode, and the action starts some months later with the companion, the  being in the aliens' power. The ultimate resolution, using the alien's telepathic gizmo against them, is also the same.  And they both feature the Master (or Mistress.) The one significant difference here is that Missy is not responsible, and having (almost) turned over a new leaf, she provides the Doctor with the clue to the Monks' weakness.

All in all, despite great performances from Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi and Michelle Gomez, I found this rather dull.

Let the speculation begin...

Sunday 5 February 2017

So Peter Capaldi will be leaving at the end of the next series. 

Cue the usual speculation about the casting of the next Doctor, and the possibility that it might be a woman this time. Well, I'm sorry if I'm a traitor to my sex, but I think the Doctor is a role that should be played by a male actor.

I mean, we don't have a female James Bond, Sherlock Holmes or Batman, do we.

It isn't as if the series doesn't have strong female roles now.  River Song and Missy can both give the Doctor a run for his money, and female companions have moved on  a bit from twisting their ankle in a quarry and screaming a lot.

Doctor Who Festival 2

After the Millennium FX talk we had three hours or so free for visiting the main exhibition area (we hadn't booked for any of the photo sessions).

I for once succumbed to the merchandising, buying a Pandorica scarf for £27. The day before I had been tempted by an Escher Metamorphosis scarf at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, but thought £75 was a bit steep, so I was an easy target.  I also bought a Dalek soft toy for my German colleague.  Yes, I did use the words 'Dalek soft toy'.  (The Dalek is now keeping up the grand tradition of adorning an office in a major university).  My husband dithered about buying a burgundy 4th Doctor scarf and eventually succumbed - with unfortunate consequences.

We caught the end of an ‘Act Like a Monster’ talk with Nick Briggs and Barnaby Edwards and later watched a ‘Director’s Class’ with Douglas Mackinnon, who took some volunteers through the Rupert Pink’s bedroom scene from Listen.  They did pretty well, considering the script had been thrust into their hands just a moment or two before, but having seen that, I appreciate the talent of the professionals all the more.

The prop and costume exhibition was all from the latest series.  It's difficult to get excited about Clara's costumes, which are just normal clothes. Missy, Osgood and Lady Me/Ashildr's costumes were much more interesting.  I probably wouldn't have recognised Leandro's costume without a label, as he really didn't make that much of an impression.  The exhibition also included a Zygon pod and the confession dial. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of that...

Zygon pod

Missy's new costume

Lady Me's costume

Osgood's costume

Props

And so it begins...The Magician's Apprentice

Saturday 26 September

Fortunately the TV in our B&B worked last Saturday, so we were able to see the The Magician's Apprentice in all its glory.  And the wifi also worked, so we were able to watch it again on iPlayer immediately afterwards.  None of which stopped us from watching it again on iPlayer on our TV when we got home on Monday.

My colleague who likes Doctor Who and always discusses developments with me, mentioned on Tuesday that he supposed I hadn't seen it yet, having been away.  When I explained that I had in fact seen it 3 times already, he looked at me a bit oddly and started to back out of the office.

Anyway, cut to the chase. It's back, big surprise (never mind).  And with an epic that references a story from 40 years ago. Hopefully, this approach will work better than it did for Attack of the Cybermen.

As it's only the first half of a two-parter, I can't pass judgement yet, but things I like so far:

• Colony Sarff - a nest of snakes in a dress. What's not to like? "We are Colony Sarff.  We bring...harm."
• The Doctor's anachronistic entrance
• Missy.  I'm still having trouble reconciling this as the same character as that played by Roger Delgado, but Michelle Gomez's 'Scary Poppins' portrayal is brilliant.

Things I'm not so sure about:

• Hand mines.  Interesting idea, but how do they work? What is the eye for, if they are buried in the ground?  I can't help feeling that this is just a pun on 'landmines' that seemed funny on paper.
• UNIT getting the PM to call Clara at work.  Really?
• Invisible planets.

Only a couple more hours to find out how it ends.

It's coming back

18 September 2015

Well, the Doctor is about to return...and am I ready? No. We picked this weekend for a short break.

This is not the first time this has happened. We managed to be at a country house hotel near Rye in April 2005 when the series returned after its enforced sabbatical. If there hadn't been a functioning a TV in the room, I would have been in dead trouble.

The following year, disaster struck when we found that our holiday in Sorrento meant that we would miss Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. When we got home, catching up on Doctor Who was the first priority after slinging our dirty washing in the machine.

But aside from that, and the time we were in Ashgabat when the 2012 Christmas Special was on, we usually manage to be somewhere with a TV where we can see the Doctor. We watched the God Complex in a soulless hotel in Coventry, which was quite scary.

So tomorrow we will be sitting down in our B&B in Douglas to find out what exactly Missy is up to.

Liar, Liar! Death in Heaven reappraised (spoilers)

Sunday 9 November

Now I have seen Death in Heaven a second time, and I'm slightly more positive about it.

There are some weak points. The Cyber-pollen made a bit more sense second time around, but I still don't understand how Missy's magic bracelet/vortex manipulator/teleport could bring the boy Danny killed in Afghanistan back to life in Clara's flat. 'Time Lord technology' really isn't a good enough explanation.

Whilst Danny and the Doctor have never really got on, I found the way Cyber-Danny seemed to equate the Doctor with the officer class he despised a bit forced. It seemed as though Steven Moffat was trying to shoehorn in a reference to the old 'lions led by donkeys' view of the First World War.

On first viewing, I didn't register the significance of lying. We all know that rule number one is 'the Doctor lies' and that Clara has been lying to Danny for much of this season, but this really came to a head in Death in Heaven.

Clara lies to the Cybermen.

Seb lies to the people uploaded to the Nethersphere.

Missy lies to everyone, but particularly to the Doctor.

In the end, the Doctor and Clara lie to each other.

I don't know quite why Santa Claus has turned up, but with all that lying going on, I doubt that it's to fill the Doctor's Christmas stocking.

Death in Heaven: Initial thoughts (spoilers)

So what did I do?  I turned off everything connected to the internet and sat down to enjoy Partners in Crime and Fires of Pompeii, of course, and to be honest, I enjoyed them both rather more than some of the more recent series.

When the husband finally reappeared, he announced that we would watch Death in Heaven  straight away. This may have affected my appreciation of it, as I was half asleep by then.  I'll need to watch again to confirm my impression of it.

First impressions though:

As with many season finales, there was too much going on. The action was rushed in places, whilst there were also pauses for emotional scenes that didn't always work, and the plot was somewhat hard to follow in places.

Positives:

• I like the Missy incarnation of the Master. She's totally bonkers, but also recognisably the same person as the John Simm version.

• Osgood was excellent, and her death was shocking, although it was clear that the writing was on the wall when the Doctor appeared to offer her a trip in the TARDIS. 

• The Cyber-Danny also worked well, and was a logical continuation from Doomsday where the converted Yvonne still performs her 'duty to Queen and Country.'

• The pre-credit wind-up with Clara pretending to be the Doctor (which carried over into the opening credits).  It was obviously done so that they could have a clip in the trailer of her saying that Clara Oswald never existed, so full marks for an excellent fan teaser.

Negatives:

•  Earth Force One and the Doctor-President. (I never cared much for the Valiant, either). The whole idea of a planet-wide response to anything is implausible, and UNIT really ought to know by now that the Doctor doesn't do positions of responsibility.

• I didn't really get the point of the cyber-pollen turning the dead into Cybermen.  The original point of Cybermen was that they had replaced parts of their bodies with cybernetics, so why would they need real skeletons, when they could easily use artificial ones? And why harvest human minds to populate the bodies, when they have to delete the emotions that make them human?

• The magic bracelet or whatever it was that allowed one person to 'cross back over' with a living body didn't make sense.  Yes, it worked as an emotional climax to the episode, but how was it possible, given that the bodies had been cyber-converted?

• The Cyber-Brig: I suppose it was a nice idea, but I find it somehow disrespectful.  And if any of UNIT had to survive, I would have preferred Osgood to the annoying Kate.

In retrospect, I suspect that the theme was designed to fit in with the broadcast on the weekend of Remembrance Day, but at the moment, I think Family of Blood addressed this far more effectively.

Dark Water -first thoughts

So now we know who Missy is. It was obvious, in retrospect. 

That was definitely one the best episodes of this (fairly mediocre) season. I loved the visual references to Tomb of the Cybermen and The Invasion. I was less sure about the dream sequence, firstly because they are always a cop-out, but also because it just felt wrong that Clara would feel she had to threaten the Doctor to get her way.

What does Steven Moffat have against the boyfriends of the Doctor's companions? He does like killing them off.  Repeatedly, in the case of poor old Rory. They are fast becoming the equivalent of Star Trek's ensign in the red shirt. Time will tell whether Danny's demise is permanent.

I can't help feeling the BBC will get complaints from a) Apple and b) Crematorium owners.

Roll on next week!

Who is Missy?

1 November 2014

Today is the start of the season finale, and we will (I hope) find out the identity of the mysterious Missy.

There are many theories about this character:

• She is Susan.  Susan is the Doctor's granddaughter (or at least used to call him 'Grandfather') whereas Missy refers to him as 'my boyfriend'. So this can't be right as it's just too creepy and weird.

• She is a regenerated Rani.  Unlikely. The Doctor and the Master are supposedly the only Time Lords who survived the Time War. Unless the Nethersphere is in the same pocket universe that Gallifrey was saved to in Day of the Doctor.

• She is a regenerated Master.  Slightly more plausible.  We don't know exactly what happened to the Master at the end The End of Time - he disappeared into a white expanse.  This could have been some sort of alternative universe where he regenerated into Michelle Gomez. And 'Missy' could be short for 'Mistress', as in female version of 'Master'. Also the slightly bonkers aspect does seem a bit reminiscent of John Simm's Master, though perhaps too much so. 

• She is River Song. The arch way of referring to the Doctor would be more in keeping, but given that we saw her regenerate into her Alex Kingston appearance and then use up her remaining regenerations, and that this incarnation later (or earlier)  'died' in the Library, this seems unlikely.  Unless the Nethersphere is actually inside CAL, where River's pattern was saved.. Hang on, that needs thinking through...

• She is an entirely new character we have not encountered before. 

Given Steven Moffat's record, my theory is that he will make us wait another couple of seasons to find out.

Meanwhile, who exactly is Clara?