Doctor Who: Let's kill Hitler [first impressions]

What? Eh? What???

More reasoned thoughts to follow.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Just finished reading this. It seemed like quite a short book, or maybe I just got engrossed in it and read it faster than usual, its hard to tell when you're reading on a Kindle.

The basic plot (no significant spoilers) is that a young London uniformed police constable gets posted to the scene of an inexplicable murder and interviews one witness, who happens to be a ghost. As a consequence of this and other events, he ends up apprenticed to the London police's only supernatural-investigating inspector. Yes, more or less a London police 'X-Files'.

The plot is interesting, engaging, fast moving and fun. About 3/5ths of the way through the book, you think you see how its going to resolve, and then wonder how the author is going to pad that out for the remaining chapters, and then the plot twists, and twists again, and again. In quite a roller coaster ride of events.

For the most part, the book is well written, but there are a few clunky scenes where it seems that a few lines of dialogue or description are simply missing. For example, at the end of the 2nd murder scene events, one of the characters dies. I read the page about three times and its still unclear to me how they died. In one paragraph they were running past our hero, in the next they were dead and sprawled on the floor, but with no description connecting the two. In a couple of other places (though none as obvious as that one) there seem to be short snippets of description that are simply missing. But its not a huge problem, and didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the story.

You know those detective stories where the male lead character meets attractive female characters and they rapidly find themselves in an explicit sex scene? This isn't one of those stories. There's a nicely written underlying air of unresolved sexual tension that runs through parts of this story as the main character completely fails to have liaisons with his female co-worker and one of the other female characters in the book. The fact that much of the romantic tension still remains at the end of the book suggests to me that the author intends to develop the relationships between these characters over several books, and that very much makes me want to go straight on to the next book, although the reality of an unresolved storyline stretching across three or more books might get annoying after a bit. But maybe it won't come to that.

So, I'd recommend this book to you. Its a lot of fun, is quite interesting, and there's clearly much more involving these characters to come in future books.

Oh, and I've just discovered that Ben Aaronovitch was one of the writers on Doctor Who back in the late 80s. He is responsible for the scene in which a Dalek was first witnessed (by the 7th Doctor and Ace) hovering up the stairs! Actually, I remember that story with some fondness, although the SFX were typically rubbish, as I recall.

And one of the many problems of having a Kindle is that I could simply buy 'Moon over Soho' right now and start reading the next book straight away...

Doctor Who opinions... [with spoilers]

So, another series of Doctor Who has come and gone. We have now got to know our new Doctor, and his new companion(s), we've seen vampires, weeping angels, Vincent van Gogh, a future Queen of Britain, some long buried aliens and a wedding. But was it any good?

Well, here's my take on it: It was OK. But not great. Quite a long way from great.

So what about the 11th Doctor?

Well, he's OK as well. Not as good as David Tennant (who was a great Doctor from his very first episode), possibly not as good as Christopher Eccleston either. I quite like the 'eccentric old duffer' persona, although the occasional flashes of arrogance don't really fit well with the character.

What about Amy Pond?

Hmmm. In general I like the character of Amy, she has all the traits of a good companion. And yet her behaviour is quite often inappropriate for a kids tv show on at dinner time. I think they should turn her libido down a bit for the next series. Glad they've kept her for more than one series though.

Rory?

I was quite irritated by the character of Rory at first, and then I was annoyed when they wrote him out, and also a bit annoyed by the way they brought him back at the end. Still don't know why Amy is with him, they really don't seem to go together. He waits 2000 years for Amy, protecting her, they get married, and yet as soon as she gets the chance she's still after a snog off the Doctor, not a good sign for the relationship. I think Rory'll be fairly pointless and useless from here on in and they'll have to write him out again somehow.

River Song?

She still annoys me. All that "spoilers" stuff is just irritating. And it looks like we might have more of her in the next series. Sigh.

So, here's a quick episode by episode comment:

1. The Eleventh Hour: was an ok introduction to a new Doctor and new companion. 6/10
   
2. The Beast Below: so many references to so many preceding Doctor Who stories I hardly know where to start. This felt like a re-hash when it should have had something fresh. 4/10
   
3. Victory of the Daleks: I liked this one. Silly, but quite fun. 7/10
   
4. The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone: the first part had the single scariest moment in any Doctor Who story thus far (when Amy is alone in the ship with nothing but a video looping), which was excellent. After that they kind of lost it and the story went downhill. 6/10
   
5. The Vampires of Venice: silly and fun. Not really tea-time family entertainment though, and the worst FX in the series so far. 7/10
   
6. Amy's Choice: felt like a filler episode. Pointless. 5/10
   
7. The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood: this one should have been really good, but once again the end result was somehow less than the sum of its parts. 6/10
   
8. Vincent and the Doctor: an invisible giant budgie. Sigh. 4/10
   
9. The Lodger: interesting but didn't really seem like a complete story. 6/10
   
10. The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang: could see the 'twist' coming a mile off. As usual with season finales they tried to fit far too much into the story. Nice resolution, but would have benefited with some decent story writing. What happened to the guy who wrote 'The Girl in the Fireplace' and 'Blink'? They should get him back. 7/10

In the grand scheme of things I don't think this series was as good as Series 3 (with Martha; which is certainly my favourite series so far) or 4 (with Donna; next best) or even Series 1 (9th Doctor and Rose), but was much like Series 2 (10th Doctor and Rose) which had some good bits, but the overall effect was less than the sum of its parts.

Hopefully the 'new' Doctor will have got into his stride by the next series.

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor

Was it just me, or wasn't it very good?

I mean, it had its moments, but it just failed to live up to expectations.

Nothing was genuinely scary, the Cybercats were just silly and the ending was just, well, a bit of a let down.

But lets face it, none of the Christmas specials have been better than an average episode. Given that they seem to put more effort into the specials, you'd expect more.

I hope the other 'specials' we're getting in 2009 will be a bit more, erm, special than that.

C- Must try harder.

Doctor Who in the cinema?

See this news story....

Could be fun. ;o)

Doctor Who: 'The Stolen Earth' & 'Journey's End' (S4E12 & 13)

And so it ends (for this year at least). I've got to say that this has been the best of the four NuHu series so far, and by quite a margin. That's not to say that the previous three series weren't good, but is to say that this series was great throughout, with only a few dips towards 'alrightness' along the way.

If you haven't seen these episodes yet, don't read on, I'm sure to spoil something for you.

This two-parter followed the pattern laid down by previous Doctor Who two-parters in that it tried to achieve far too much in the first part. Too many characters converging and too many things going on. You put Donna and Martha together in one episode and we care. You put Donna and Rose together in one episode and we care. You put Donna and Martha and Jack and Rose and Sarah-Jane and the Doctor together and try to fit a plot into 45 minutes and we're struggling. By necessity the Torchwood team, Sarah-Jane's son and Mickey and Jackie got sidelined and we didn't have the time to actually care about any of them, which is a shame.

Also, the production team seems to think it is necessary to put the entire world in jeopardy at the end of every Doctor Who series. I'm not sure it really is. You can still pack a two parter with action and an emotional punch even if the entire world has not been ripped out of time and space.
But still. The Daleks are back. Yay! Davros is back. Double Yay! All the recent companions that we know and love are back. Yay! And then the best cliffhanger of any NuHu yet. What will happen next?

But still, I do agree with SFX (.co.uk) who said it was like an extended movie trailer - lots of snippets of what should be a much longer story. But the first half was clearly just there to be a set up for the second...

... and that was just fab. Davros showing the Doctor how he used his companions was a touch of genius, the Daleks talking in German was brilliant and the DoctorDonna was great. Everything that could have been wrong about Catherine Tate being cast as a companion thrown into one scene and somehow tranformed into pure class. 10 out of 10, Russell T.

Then thrown in a few silly bits and a pretty ropey plot whereby Donna has to have her memory wiped and is therefore written out - we knew it had to happen, but I'm sure there could have been a better way. With the prophesy of "One of them will die", I don't know why they couldn't just follow through on that. They killed off Kylie last Christmas, why not kill Donna off properly? In no real way did one of them die. It was a trick.

And of course the Rose storyline is now resolved and ended and she'll not be back again. I liked what they did there with the other Doctor, but it also felt like a little bit of a cheat. But I'm nit picking here at what was a fab ending to a great series. Well done the BBC.

So here's a quick summary of the whole series:

1. Partners in crime: Silly but entertaining. 7/10
2. Fires of Pompeii: Who as Who should be. 8/10
3. Planet of the Ood: A bit weak, but passes the time. 6/10
4. The Sontaran strategy: Entertaining. 7/10
   
5. The poison sky: Fun with dull bits. 7/10
6. The Doctor's daughter: Too simple a plot. 6/10
7. The unicorn and the wasp: Silly but entertaining. 7/10 (initially 5/10 but it grew on me)
   
8. Silence in the library: Brilliant and creepy. 9/10
   
9. Forest of the dead: Continuing brilliance and creepiness. 9/10
10. Midnight: Simple story, well told, some great moments. 8/10
    
11. Turn left: Genius. 10/10
12. The stolen earth: Too much happening, but a great roller coaster ride. 8/10
13. Journey's end: Emotion, heartbreak and some punch-the-air moments. 9/10

Wow, so an episode average of 7.7/10! That's pretty good. By my own scoring rules I should go and buy the DVDs, except that I wouldn't have time to watch them these days... Oh well.

So now its ages and ages until the next Doctor Who (OK, there's a Christmas special, but then ages before the next series). But at least they are making a new series of Torchwood after the summer, so that will hopefully hit our screens early in 2009. And for those of you who don't know, it will be a five-parter, continuous story, showing Monday to Friday one week. And will feature Noel Clarke as Mickey as the new boy on the Torchwood team.

Doctor Who: 'Turn Left' (S4E11)

I
loved
it
!

That is all I need to say.

The opening credits to next week's episode are going to go on about half the episode: David Tennant; Catherine Tate; Billie Piper; Freema Ageyman; Elizabeth Sladen; John Barrowman... I wonder if Eve Myles will get opening credits billing? And it looks fantastic. I wonder why so many conincidences happen around Donna?

Doctor Who: 'Midnight' (S4E10)

I quite enjoyed this episode too, even if it did oscillate between carefully observed characterisation and pure stereotype. It was well cast, suitably quirky, had the right amount of tension & release and was generally quite entertaining. Every time it was about to get annoying it managed to get out of it in time.

But I have two gripes.

The first is a complaint against the Radio Times who listed 'Billie Piper as Rose Tyler' in the credits. So I was all excited in an 'oooh, I wonder how they're going to bring Rose back' kind of a way, only to be disappointed that she only appeared onscreen for less than a second and isn't really back yet. (but next week...)

The second is against The Doctor himself. He quite spectacularly failed to save the day and it was only through the self sacrifice of one of the other characters that he (and everyone else) were saved from peril. Our hero failed. This show is all about how The Doctor is, essentially, a superhero and always cleverly saves the day. But this time he didn't, he failed, he lost. Was this because he was without an assistant in this episode? Will there be repercussions in future episodes? I guess we'll find out. But The Doctor himself only gets 4/10 for this episode. Not clever enough by half. Or possibly too arrogant.

Doctor Who: 'Silence in the library' & 'Forest of the dead' (S4E8&9)

Was it just me, or was that the best Doctor Who story of all four series so far?

Erm, probably spoilers in what follows... ;o)

Where should I start? Well, first off, the library setting was great. Looked not unlike something that should have been in Star Wars. And then the 'stay out of the shadows' thing was nicely creepy. Although the 'I have two shadows' thing was a bit silly.

But I can forgive them for that, there were some real gems in there. The whole idea of meeting up with a future assistant was great, although if the series runs for long enough it could give some real continuity problems - it is clear that Prof River Song knew this regeneration form of the Doctor, but significantly aged, so to keep the continuity line right we need to have David Tennant as Doctor for several years yet and then have a slightly younger River Song as an assistant. Possibly more than just an assistant if the hints were accurate... That could be tricky.

The whole library and vashta nerada (or however we're spelling that) thing would have been creepy enough, but the faces on the terminals and the data ghosts made the thing a whole heap more creepy. And then to put the whole thing inside the head of a small girl. Genius.

But what I didn't totally understand was what exactly it was that River Song did at the end that the Doctor was going to do? I had thought that the Doctor was going to upload all the 'saved' people into himself somehow, but the people all rematerialised in the library, so what did River actually sacrifice herself for?

But anyway, I thought it was great and it was the first two parter in a long time that didn't have an 'oh, get on with it' section in the middle somewhere. Fab.

Spoiler sport...

Why did nobody tell me that Saturday evening's Doctor Who was the first part of a two parter? I like to know these things in advance. Now I have another four and a bit days to wait for the conclusion. I wasn't mentally prepared for this. And add to that that this is the best episode of the series so far, which only serves to increase the annoyance. Aaaaargh.

Full review to follow once I've seen the conclusion.

Doctor Who: 'The Unicorn and the Wasp' (S4E7)

Was alright, I suppose. Next...

---

Updated following Marcus's comment below:

Yes, sorry, I felt the need to comment on that one but didn't have the time. I quite liked it but also felt it was overly silly (a giant wasp?) and overly talky for its own good. The whole thing about why the wasp did everything in the style of an Agatha Christie story was one plot contrivance too far. But I think the overall idea of trying to do a Doctor Who murder mystery was great, I'm just not convinced the actual end result was as good as it should have been.

Doctor Who: 'The Doctor's Daughter' (S4E6)

I liked this one, but it was a bit of a let down too.

The idea of creating a daughter for the Doctor was good, but given that the whole story had to be wrapped up in 45 minutes, the whole thing was kind of lacking. This would have been done better in the old days where the story could have been played out over a month or six weeks.

So the underlying point - the Doctor gets a daughter - had to be wrapped in the simplest, primary coloured, paper thin plot they could come up with. Why were the Hath and the humans there? Never properly explained. Why did they have guns and replicating equipment and not much else? Never properly explained. Etc. Etc.

Still, some good points were made about nature vs nurture and making your own choices and all that. But it was all too lightly done and too quick. It is possible to convey a story with some meat on it in 45 minutes.

Nice touch that Jenny, the Doctor's daughter, was played by the daughter of a previous incarnation of the Doctor, Peter Davison. And she's a babe, so she's welcome back on my TV anytime. I get the feeling this isn't the last we'll see of her.

Doctor Who: 'The Sontaran Strategy' & 'The Poison Sky' (S4E4&5)

I do like Doctor Who two parters. Indeed, I do like Doctor Who six parters, but we haven't had any of those for a long time.

I don't really remember the Sontarans from the old days. Or rather, I remember what they looked like, but not anything about their characters. Their modern day appearance is slightly more Vogon than they were in the 70s.

So, there were a few plot holes, but on the whole this was a reasonably entertaining story. Like many of the NuHu two parters, there was a bit in the second episode where I felt like shouting 'Oh, get on with it!' at the screen, but it was still good fun.

Martha Jones was a bit underused, really. [Spoiler alert] It seems that the Sontarans went to huge bother to create a clone of Martha, just so she could press the 'no' button every few minutes. Not a great part really. But nice to see her back anyway.

Going by the preview, next week could be interesting, but I just wish they'd get on with it and do the story where Rose finally catches up with the Doctor. Preferably when Martha is still there...

Doctor Who: 'Planet of the Ood' (S4E3)

Poor Ood. They have a hard time of it.

So we're back to plots written in crayon again. Lots of guns, lots of running about, some senseless death, a few hiccups in the plot and a political message written about as large as it is possible to write it. In crayon. Yes, we get the point.

Still, it had some good moments, and I am now actively liking the character of Donna.

Oh, but the reveal of what it is the Ood naturally hold in their hands instead of the translator ball was just plain silly.

Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii (S4E2)

Loved it. I thought the seers declaring things they couldn't have known about the Doctor & Donna was great. I thought the little insights into the characters of both the Doctor and Donna were good too. I think I like what they're doing with the character of Donna and the relationship between the two. The FX were nice, the plot and supporting characters interesting and the twist was fab.

More like this please.

Doctor Who: 'Partners in Crime' (S4E1)

Doctor Who returns. Yay!

Donna returns. Hmmm?

Cute alien blobs. Nice.

Technobabble & sonic screwdrivers that can do everything. Erm.

Well, I suppose it was OK. Donna could get annoying or she could be OK. I'll get back to you on that one. Reasonably entertaining. Next.

And Rose? Well, that's where it could get interesting...

Torchwood: S2E6 'Reset'

Martha Jones guest stars, Jim Robinson from Neighbours guest stars, lots of people die and something sinister is going on in the Cardiff area.

Beware, there will be spoilers below.

First things first, its nice to see Martha in Torchwood, but her realtionship with Jack with the Doctor not there was odd. I think they managed to convey that someting was missing between the two of them, and there was a slight awkwardness. Or that could have been a slightly clumsy script?

Given that Gwen, Ianto, Tosh and Owen still have very little clue as to who Jack is, where he's from and what he's done in his own personal past (even though much of that was in the future), I'm surprised that there wasn't more effort on the part of the Torchwood team to find out about Jack through Martha. Maybe that'll come in weeks to come. The moment of bonding between Gwen and Martha was good.

Nice to see the culmination of the Tosh and Owen thing that has been building for a few weeks, even though it ends in tragedy. But of course, we now see that they were setting that up.

So the plot? Well it was OK. Nothing remarkable, not terrible, not great. But, of course, it was just the backdrop for the two events that they wanted to write in this week. Enter Dr Jones, exit Dr Harper.

Clearly Russell T. and the production team have been watching some of the big action/sci-fi shows like 24, Lost and Heroes. They've learned that you can kill off major characters and keep going. indeed, that killing off major characters can sometimes enhance a show. Perhaps that's why the show has been made to feel much more of an 'ensemble' piece over the past 5 episodes.

In fact, for most of the episode I was expecting it was going to be Martha who was going to die. Not on the basis of what was happening in the episode, but on the basis of the press coverage of Martha's appearance in Torchwood. She's been everywhere recently mentioning that she's in Torchwood for a bit but that her involvement with Doctor Who isn't over yet, etc. For some reason it reminded me very much of when Alex Fearns character 'Trevor' was written out of Eastenders. For a week or two beforehand he was making TV and magazine appearances and somehowm managed to mention in every one of them that his contract extended for several months more, and then they killed him off suddenly when no-one was expecting it. I thought they were going to do that with Martha. And it was only when Owen saved Martha that I realised that wasn't going to happen and that Owen was the one who was going to die. Somehow a death was inevitable.

And where now? Well, I've recorded episode 7 from BBC3 last night, so may watch it tonight. But does this mean that Martha will be standing in for Owen for a few episodes, or does she just do her guest appearance and leave? Will Torchwood continue as a four-piece or will they have to recruit someone new? That could be interesting... We'll just have to watch and see.

Torchwood: S2E1: Kiss, kiss, bang, bang

And so Torchwood returns with a bang. Two bangs and two kisses if the title is to be believed. Actually many more of both once you watch the episode...

But was it any good? Well, for the most part I enjoyed it. But once again it did contain (as Marcus put it last time around) "All that I dislike about Russell T writ large."

So, in the 21st century, it appears that all the cool people are sexually ambiguous and are quite prepared to swing either way when flirted with. Even Ianto. Sex and money are the only two reasons for doing anything. And life is cheap. I really disliked the throwaway comment about murder rehab - that tarnished the character of Captain Jack more than almost anything else, in my opinion.

So what's new? Well, it still looks like Angel - even more so now that it has James Masters in it as another 'Captain' - but with a BBC budget, so the car chase scenes looked really cheaply done. The script was written so that all the characters were reintroduced - several times, just in case you missed the first character summary. And everything was bold and in-yer-face. There was no room for subtlety here. But Ianto has a character now and Gwen has stepped out of her 'what's happening Jack?' insecure persona and into a much more confident and, hopefully, interesting character. Actually, the only thing that didn't ring true about Gwen was that she was still with Rhys. The others were much the same as before.

(At one point, when my wife asked something, I referred to Owen as 'the ugly one' as I have always thought he was particularly unattractive and am always surprised when he is given stories where he picks up women with ease. To my surprise, my wife said he was 'normal looking' and actually ranked him as better looking than 'cheekbones' Masters - who I know has a rather large female fanbase. Oh well, it just goes to demonstrate my opinion that men and women have very different ideas of what is attractive to the other sex.)

And so we come to Captain John. Not the most inspired character name they could have chosen, and when he appeared it seemed to me that the Adam Ant style white stripe across his nose was missing.

So he has a history with Captain Jack. They kiss, they fight, its all very macho. Clearly they have a lust/hate relationship and Jack doesn't trust him at all. And yet he does trust him and allows the team to walk straight into a trap because of this. But although he's clearly in some future episodes, I assume at least we've got all the Jack/John snogging over and done with.

Torchwood is back. Hopefully we'll get a wee bit more subtlety in future episodes and characters that aren't just caricatures. But I am interested to see what happens next and what happens when Martha turns up, so I'll be watching.

I'm also intrigued as to how they're going to make that episode child friendly enough for the 7pm showing for younger Doctor Who fans. I'd have thought they'd have to chop a full 10 minutes out of that one...

Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned

Hmmm. This one looked good but was lacking in substance. Just a load of disaster movie and sci-fi cliche's rolled into one, together with some special effects. Kylie was under-used and her story arc was ultimately disappointing.

And why, oh why does every giant spaceship have a huge chasm down the middle of it that our heroes have to cross at some point? We've seen that far too many times before!

But, I am looking forward to Torchwood and the new series of Doctor Who - the teasers looked interesting enough.

Doctor Who in my dreams...

I had a really vivid dream last night. Basically it was a two-part (yes, I dreamt it in two parts, complete with end credit music!), end of series, Doctor Who cliffhanger type story. It featured the David Tennant version of the Doctor, Billie Piper as Rose, Matt Lucas as a character who was taken over by an alien parasite (a bit like the face-hugger in Alien, but this one clung onto the back of people's heads), a spectral knight on horseback who came crashing through castle doors with alarming regularity and small, sinister, snake-like aliens who were masquerading as flute-like kids' musical instruments. Oh, and lots of laser beams.

I just wish I could remember the whole story - I woke up thinking it was really good.

Hmmm, what does all this tell you about my subconscious?