I liked The Christmas Invasion okay. It was our first such special, but was more of a post-regeneration story. That aspect is what saved it for me. One of my favorite scenes was when Rose was struggling to sound authoritative to the Sycorax, and upon hearing them translated for her, she realizes The Doctor, absent for the most part up until then, must be better....
I loved seeing Harriet Jones again, we will always know who she was. I didn't care for the direction her character went, but I still appreciated her, especially in her next appearance. My other favorite scene was The Doctor picking out his new clothes. This is always fun, and we saw some nods to old Doctors and companions hanging in the wardrobe. But the wardrobe room itself was worth it, the first room outside the console room to be seen, and only other until The Doctor's Wife. To be technical, we didn't see any new rooms until Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS.
2006: Runaway Bride
Besides The End of Time, Runaway Bride is my favorite pre-Moffat era Christmas special. A lot of that could be my huge love of Catherine Tate. But aside from that it was fun. Seeing the viewpoint of a companion who found herself unwillingly in the TARDIS, as portrayed by Ms. Tate, was a riot. One of my favorite scenes is her first after finding herself inexplicably beamed into the TARDIS. Which is not even a proper word!
Donna struggles to get back to the church she had been getting married in. She's not impressed by The Doctor at all, something new, and she's also not carrying any money. (pockets) My favorite scene of the whole episode comes after she finds a cab driver willing to giver her a lift.
They really played around with the TARDIS in this one, and I don't just mean going back to the creation of the Earth. My other favorite scene is when The Doctor uses the same Huon particles in Donna that pulled her into the TARDIS to bring the TARDIS to them.
Okay this pic is from the trailer, but it shows The Doctor at "The Moment" we first heard mentioned in "The End of Time" and I included it because of an interesting behind the scenes pic that came out....
So first it looks like the moment is a plunger to be pressed, most likely creating the time bubble? Secondly, it looks as if the three of them press it. Consider a couple of quotes from the episode:
The Eleventh Doctor, "You were The Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right."
The Tenth Doctor, "What we do today, we do not out of fear or hatred, but because there is no other way."
This picture pleases me because it all but confirms the interaction we will see between them all.
These next few are from the trailer and pretty awesome:
OOOOOOH they put these out today. And if you look in the images it appears we will see a broken off TARDIS door (Matt's TARDIS), the time war, with bits of Dalek about and a Gallifreyan symbol. And what's that scrawled on that wall?
From the promotional images just released and the trailer shown at Comic Con it looks like we take a trip back to the time war in the 50th anniversary special. You can see the Daleks in the midst of battle, Gallifreyan symbols in the background. In true Dalek fashion they have managed to destroy while keeping a smooth path to travel through the rubble. I'm not going to transcribe the trailer they showed, but it sounds like there are some good shots of David Tennant's and Matt Smith's Doctors together as well as with the 'other' Doctor, John Hurt. It was an exclusive for Comic Con, and from what I understand, Steven Moffat once again asked people not to leak it. The time war aspect could always be as insignificant as the Cybermen appearance in "The Wedding of River Song," but it would be nice to see what happened finally.
Fingers crossed that the BBC will release a trailer soon that we can see. OH, and I almost forgot... It will be 75 minutes long. Just because something may be 'technically' movie length doesn't make it okay to promise movie length, but thank you for extending it as much as you did. Now the images...
It's been a busy time. I finished my monthly article on time and then I got an iPhone, which I've been glued to for over a week. But there is simply no excuse for not having congratulated David Tennant earlier on his Emmy award win. The win came for vocal work on the cartoon "Star Wars The Clone Wars" as Huyang. This doesn't surprise me for David has a very idiosyncratic voice. Congrats, David, on this prestigious honor.
Okay, you already know how I feel about talking about nothing when it comes to the next Doctor. I avoid the speculation because it's an infernal waste of time. So every once in a while, like today. I might bring up the names of the moment, but I'm not going to keep track of it daily. I will probably also avoid posting about what other various people (related AND unrelated to Who) think about the topic, unless it's individually interesting. One other blog even posted a post, longer than some of my reviews, about why they are not talking about it. but I can hardly post after a couple of weeks without at least mentioning it.
The main male name I still see is Dominic Cooper. I recognize his face, but have seen nothing he is in, but I will probably see the Captain America movie. I have no feelings one way or the other because I have nothing to form an opinion about. It makes me laugh because the reports change from day to day. He's interested, he's not interested, he's interested. Ugh, it all really is silly to keep on about until it is announced.
Interestingly, the female name I am now seeing at the top of the list is Sheridan Smith. I will not let our common first name sway me. I know her from Gavin & Stacey, but not from watching it. I think shes quite charming, though, but I'm still one of those that doesn't truly want a female Doctor. An interesting connection here is that Sheridan plays The Doctor's companion Lucie Miller in the Big Finish audio dramas, which are awesome. I haven't listened to any of hers, but if any of you are interested, go to the Doctor Who Big Finish Webpage because these are great productions featuring actors from the show, including the Doctors. If you've never listened to an audio drama, think listening to the tv with your eyes closed, but with dialog to express what is happening and surroundings. Next year they are going to release "The Abandoned" which is the first to be written by a former star of the show. This was penned by former fourth Doctor companion Leela, Louise Jameson.
They announced who will direct the Christmas episode, Matt Smith's last. It will be Jamie Payne, who directed "Hide." Not that I think it will be the same, but I hope you liked "Hide," I sure did, and I know a huge portion of that was the direction. He has also done work on other shows I watched and liked. The Hour, Call the Midwife, Outcasts, and Survivors. With him directing Moffat's words and Matt & Jenna's actions, I am starting to get more excited about that episode.
Another thing happening sounded silly at first but once I looked into it I liked it more. A kickstarter campaign was started, and succeeded, in raising the $33,000 to send a 1 foot scale replica of the TARDIS in the payload of rocket and getting it into low earth orbit. The thing is, it has solar power cells in the windows so the light on top works. Hypothetically, the people in the space station could look out at the right time and see a TARDIS orbiting. It also contains a camera to take shots, like we don't have enough pictures of Earth. The thing that was interesting to me is that if this is successful, they would then like to raise some $300,000 to send up a life sized replica. Just imagine, with the right telescope, on a clear night....
So with Matt Smith announcing is was leaving, I had to go back and crunch the numbers. If he had stayed for season 8, he would have been The Doctor in more episodes than David Tennant. It is close, though. Including the 50th, David Tennant is in 49 episodes. I'm only counting regular full length televised episodes. Including the 50th and upcoming Christmas episodes, Matt Smith is in 45. Each increases by 2 if you include their appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Bottom line is that David Tennant will still be the reigning long-running Doctor of the new show. Now, this isn't too fair of a comparison, but 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, was in 175 episodes. In all cases I include their appearance at the end of the regeneration, or the beginning of the next episode as in the 4th Doctor's case. I did not include "Shada" since it was not televised and I included "The Five Doctors" which was the same footage anyway. At that amount it hardly makes a difference.
Then I got to thinking about the companion in the most episodes. I knew it was either Rose or Amy. Amy was in 33 episodes. I'm not counting Karen Gillan in "The Fires of Pompeii." With Rose, even if you don't count the two flashes on screen in "The Poison Sky" and "Midnight" but include the last 3 episodes of that season as well as "Partners In Crime" and "The End of Time Part 2" and the upcoming 50th special, Rose has 33. They are neck and neck, but technically Rose has those extra 2 appearances. Without examining every single companion, I think I can confidently say that Sarah Jane holds the record at 84 episodes, and that doesn't even include either K9 and Company or The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Wow, sorry, I'm probably going to be the last person to review "The Crimson Horror" but unless something unexpected happens it will be up this afternoon. Until then, I found this great new promo pic for "Nightmare in Silver"
And this is the new preview clip. Check out the Cyberman's moves at the end.
and read something I found interesting and not all that surprising. BUT this is something that definitely requires...
Blogtor Who is reporting that in an interview with the Eastern Daily Press, John hurt said some interestingly descriptive words for his character in the 50th anniversary special. He was cited as saying he was playing a "part of The Doctor" in a "kind of trinity" that includes David Tennant. If this is true, it could fall in line with either him being the true 9th Doctor or him being The Valeyard, last seen in "The Ultimate Foe". I am not familiar with more than the name of the paper this appeared in, so I take it as rumor as you should too at this point. But great food for thought!
While i finish up "The Crimson Horror" review, here are some other things to ponder. First is a new clip from "Nightmare in Silver" which ends interestingly. When they show the sky pay attention to what's on the right side.
In Who news.... The filming wrapped up for the 50th special. I figured they should be done soon. We saw some interesting things, but so much was filmed on private property. We didn't see much of Billie and David in the pictures I saw. Speaking of David Tennant, he was just nominated for a daytime Emmy award for his voice acting on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" animated series. Congrats to David!!
The replacement for executive producer, Caroline Skinner, has been announced to be Brian Minchin. I don't know his name, but he has been working in BBC Wales Drama for years in various roles on projects such as The Sarah-Jane Adventures, Torchwood, Being Human, Wizards v. Aliens, and most recently the Toby Whithouse spy thriller, The Game. Welcome aboard, Brian. And in the words of the immortal Rupaul, "Don't fuck it up".
More viewing figures are in. "Cold War" finished with 7.37 million. "Hide" was just at 6.61, which is still not bad and kept them in the top 20 programs of the week. "The Crimson Horror" was down again in overnight figures, at just 4.61 million. The Appreciation Index was a respectable 85, though. I don't fully understand the AI, but I am told it is a measure of the audiences enjoyment, out of 100, and is collected from a select panel of about 5,000.
Some Updates on Previous Episodes.... I noticed a few things in "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS", but forgot to share them. First is the sonic screwdriver and new color settings. When they were on their way to the centre, the light was white. When he was scanning Tricky, it was blue. It also took me a couple of viewings to catch the point of The Doctor putting his face in his hand and realizing that would turn him into that creature, so that means in that future The Doctor was also going to die. In the beginning of the episode The Doctor uttered a word i don't think I've ever in the whole show heard him say, but that doesn't mean he hasn't. When he realized Clara was still in the TARDIS he said, "Damnit". One last thing, the magnifying glass Clara found was also in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" when Donna was investigating the house.
Picture Comment... Look at these pictures from "Nightmare in Silver". In the one shot there is a division behind the two. On the left it looks like possibly Gallifreyan writing and the right side was more electric or mathematical even. In the close up I have no idea what's happening behind them, but what is even behind there being two Doctors? Perhaps somehow tied in with some of the spoilers below?
Okay, look at the next couple of pictures. The first, looking old and worn down, is a different model than the others. I wonder what the transition will be. Also, Neil Gaiman said that an old weakness of the Cybermen would come back. Will it be their deadly aversion to gold?
I have done pretty well this series at not looking at major spoilers, but when I was looking up the AI and viewing numbers of "Hide" I accidentally saw a couple of fragments of conversation from Saturday's episode, "Nightmare in Silver". Read at your own discretion.
"Do you think the children's death will affect your relationship with Clara?"
"Allons-y! Oh you should see the state of these neurons, he's had some cowboys in here, ten complete rejects."
"There's information on Time Lords in here! Oh, this is just dreamy!"
Up next today (fingers crossed): "The Crimson Horror" review
