The Doctor Has Landed

14 October 2018

It's a week now since Jodie Whittaker made her proper debut as the Thirteenth-ish Doctor.  I was ready, with my edible ball bearing cakes, for a teatime treat.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode, though I was sad about Ryan's Nan.  I would have liked to see more of her.  The new style seemed to fit into Sunday evening viewing so well, that at one point I did wonder whether I was still watching The Bodyguard.

I do have a few queries though:

1. The Doctor fell out of her TARDIS in flight, through the roof of a train and was all right afterwards?  The Fourth Doctor regenerated after falling of a radar array which was nowhere near as high.  The Tenth Doctor fell through a roof in The End of Time Part Two and sort of survived for a bit, (at least until Wilf accidentally irradiated him), but at least he looked damaged.  OK - I know she was still in her regeneration cycle, when minor injuries such as losing a hand or being gunned down by the Gestapo aren't fatal, but even so.

2. If Ryan gave 'consent' for the hunting ritual when he touched the shape in the air, how come the quarry had already been lined up with enough time for 'Tim Shaw' to rig up his cheating device?  He came through almost immediately afterwards.

3. Why was Ryan trying to learn to ride a bike on uneven, muddy ground? Wouldn't an empty car park have been easier - and have they never heard of stabilisers?

4. Is it just me, or did the new Doctor's sonic screwdriver look like it might have another function?

Looking forward to finding out how the new crew cope on a different planet.

Musings

9 June 2018

Life has been very busy lately: doing two jobs, working on two books (medieval bastards and a guidebook to the Chilterns) and selling my mother's bungalow, so not much time for blogging, or for Doctor Who.

I did read the Target novelisation of The Day of the Doctor, which was excellent, in a very Steven Moffat way.  Naturally he had to tell the story from multiple viewpoints and include a running gag about Chapter Nine. On the subject of Moffat, we also re-watched Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead recently.  They are still great stories, and what struck me particularly was how well River Song's first appearance stands up even when viewed with the benefit of hindsight. The Doctor's face when someone accuses him and River of bickering like 'an old married couple' is priceless. I still want to know why Audrey Niffenegger didn't sue, though.

There are rumours that Captain Jack will return to our screens to meet Doctor 13.  These seem largely fuelled by the fact that Chris Chibnall was the showrunner for Torchwood. Whilst I would love to see the Captain back on our screens, the TARDIS is already going to be quite crowded.  I hope Jodie Whittaker has enough space to be the Doctor, and doesn't get crowed out as Peter Davison did at times.

Oh well, all will be revealed in due course.

April 2006: The Tenth Doctor

15 April 2006

So we have seen the first full outing of the new Doctor.  My first thought was that David Tennant was clearly made for the role.  He simply IS the Doctor – there is none of that feeling of awkwardness while waiting to see how the new Doctor settles down that usually accompanies a regeneration.  Christopher Eccleston had taken some getting used to, though I shed a tear at the hologram speech in The Parting of the Ways.  Five minutes into New Earth, and it was a case of Christopher Who?

 RTD’s intention with New Earth was apparently to bring back some familiar elements from the last series in order to bridge the gap. This was only partially successful, if my exhaustive survey of one casual viewer of the last series is anything to go by: “has the Face of Boe been in it before?”  To be honest, he was not really needed in this episode, but it was nice to see him again.

Cassandra, on the other hand was a revelation.  I had not really taken to her in The End of the World.  I found her character a bit, well, two-dimensional. Putting her into Billie Piper’s body dealt very effectively with that problem.  Much as I like Rose as a companion, I found the bitchy Cassandra/Rose a fascinating twist, and would have been quite happy for Cassandra to stay put for a while. It was rather strange to have a story involving body-swapping so soon after the introduction of a new Doctor, but David Tennant coped very well.  I wonder if Zoë Wanamaker has forgiven him yet?

Overall, though, there seemed to be rather too many disparate elements crammed in to the episode.  Next week looks like an improvement.

22 April 2006

That was better.  Pauline Collins was an excellent Queen Victoria, and the CGI werewolf worked well.  But kung fu monks in Victorian Scotland? What can Russell T Tarantino have been thinking?  Perhaps the plan is to use them later as station idents and thus save the Beeb some money. I wonder what the production team have against the Royal family though.  In The Christmas Invasion they were reportedly on the roof (I would have been up there too), and now it is being suggested that they are werewolves.

29 April 2006

Now we’re getting somewhere.  This could have been terrible, but fortunately was brilliant.  Anthony Head was great as the creepy Headmaster, and as for Lis Sladen, well, either she has a picture in her attic, or L’Oreal has missed an advertising opportunity.  Billie Piper got to do some seriously cheesed off acting as a dinner lady, and a lovely bitchy act with Sarah Jane.  And Mickey has discovered his role in life. At the end when the Doctor said goodbye to Sarah again and left her with K9 mark whatever, I was quite overcome.