The Woman Who Lived

Sunday 25 October 2015

It's the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, I've had an extra hour's sleep and a very nice lunch.

So, having had time to reflect,  what did I think of The Woman Who Lived? I liked it. It felt like a traditional Doctor Who story - there was something comfortably familiar about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on at the time.  I don't think that it was entirely that it reminded me of the 1980s Dick Turpin TV series starring Richard O'Sullivan.

There was also a moving reflection on what it would mean to be 'functionally immortal' - writing everything down in order to remember, and cutting out pages to forget the pain of loss (except for children  - those pages must be kept as a reminder against having more and repeating the tragedy.)

Once again, the alien threat was not central to the story (but this week's alien was frankly not worth more screen time). 

I liked the comedy highwayman - rather in the tradition of Glitz.  I  wouldn't mind seeing him again, but I'm not sure he has enough substance to be a regular character.  Talking of regular characters it was nice to hear a reference to Captain Jack. 

And the Doctor even remembers the Terreleptils, even if his recollection of the cause of the Great Fire of London is perhaps not entirely accurate...

An archetypal 'Who' day...

Saturday 24 October

It's wet and miserable outside and the nights are drawing in. This is just the sort of day on which to draw the curtains and snuggle up on the sofa (or behind it, according to preference) and watch Doctor Who.  It never really felt quite right in the Russell T Davies era watching it in broad daylight in the spring and summer.

We are actually at home this evening so will be able to enjoy the full experience of The Woman Who Lived.  In the meantime, I have re-watched The Girl Who Died, and still think the aliens were rather wasted.  But I do like the tune.

And talking of tunes, could we have the rock version of the theme tune back permanently, please?

To be continued...

The Girl Who Died

17 October 2015

Oops, we are away again. So watching The Girl Who Died from Travelodge somewhere in Cumbria. [Is it just us, or is everyone else unable to walk down hotel corridors without saying either 'All these corridors look the same to me' or 'Praise Him?']

This was another of those annoying stories where the aliens (great design, by the way) seem to be rather a minor side-show compared with the Doctor's angst.  I need to see it again before passing judgement, but so far:

Good things about the episode:

• David Tennant!
• Donna!
• Goodbye to the sonic shades

Bad things about this episode

• Vikings with horned helmets (No.)
• That bit of alien repair technology
• Surely there has to be a simpler way of getting adrenaline and testosterone?

Before the Flood

10 October 2015

We were actually at home to watch Before the Flood -  a very timey-wimey episode, where the Doctor goes back in time to try to prevent the events of last week's episode from happening.  Sometimes the Doctor can change history, sometimes he can't. (See Father's Day, The Waters of Mars, Fires of Pompeii, The Wedding of River Song etc.) This time the TARDIS did her best to stop him.

Fortunately the Doctor came up with a way of faking it, through a very Blink-like paradox.

Good things about this episode were:

• The sheer creepiness (the bit where Cass is being stalked by the ghost would definitely have given my 10 year old self nightmares - no wonder it is on at such a late time).
• O'Donnell's 'bigger on the inside' excitement
• The Doctor playing Beethoven's Fifth on an electric guitar and segueing into a rock version of the theme tune. (Can we keep that for a while, please?)

Less good things were:

• The Fisher King, who was essentially a (big) man in a rubber suit. 
• The co-ordinates, which are still rubbish.

On the whole, though, a pretty good effort.

Under the Lake

10 October 2015

Last Saturday night we watched an epic battle, and a Welshman hitting an Englishman with a leek.  No, we weren't watching Doctor Who, and weren't at the rugby either.  The thing about being a middle-aged fan, is that you find yourself going to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to watch Henry V.  (I blame David Tennant for the fact that I am now going to Stratford 3 or 4 times a year).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we didn't get to see Under the Lake until Sunday.  A classic  base under siege story, but was it more Waters of Mars or Warriors of the Deep?

It was definitely more the former, with something nasty affecting the crew and turning them into monsters (or 'ghosts') and a remotely-controlled device used to fetch an otherwise inaccessible object, operated by waving the arms around. The final scenes where the Doctor and Clara are separated by the flooded corridor was reminiscent of 42. I also felt that there was something of The Curse of Fenric about it, with an artefact (in this case the alien ship) controlling people so that they carry out the alien's plan.

However, that brings me to a problem. I'm not sure that the plan really comes together. I mean, how much use would those 'co-ordinates' be for a rescue mission from another planet? It's not even as if there is only one drowned town or village with an underwater church on the planet.

But no doubt all will become clear this evening. We are actually at home to watch it live.

And am I the only one who really wants to see the clockwork squirrel?

The Witch's Familar [spoilers]

Sunday 27 September 2015

This week we were at home for the full Doctor Who watching experience.  Having watched it, we weren't sure what to make of it, so watched it again.

I'm still not sure what to make of it.  There were some good bits:

• Missy's pointy stick
• The Doctor's entrance, with cup of tea
• Clara reprising (sort of) her Oswin role from Asylum of the Daleks
• Missy channelling Michael Caine at the end of the Italian Job - I think she even sounded a bit cockney.

But I found the Doctor and Davros scenes dragged on a bit, and I'm not convinced that if the Daleks had rebuilt Skaro since the Time War they would have had time for their sewers to get in quite such a mess...

But the biggest no-no was the sunglasses.  The campaign to bring back the screwdriver starts here.

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.