Watching Doctor Who From Behind A Brick Wall

The word 'Epic' is chucked about far too much in these modern times, and so often describing the most modern, least 'epical' of objects. Rihanna's new song is not epic. A cheese sandwich with Worcestershire sauce is not epic. A well trimmed lawn is not epic. A leap-year is not epic. Noticing the time is 11:11 am is not epic. KitKat sharing packs are not epic. Payday is not epic. However, an 8 minute prog-rock classic from the 80's which contains an entire orchestra of instrument with deep, meaningful lyrics, is epic. A long classic poem which is celebratory of a beautiful orchid by one of the vintage romantic poets, is an epic. Climbing Mount Everest using just your fingernails, is epic. The mid-series finale of the Sixth series of Doctor Who, was epic.

We're now half way through the sixth series of Doctor Who since its return to this millennium, and we're half way through Matt Smith's second series as the famous, heroic Doctor. Critics have hailed this series as being too scary and too complicated. I disagree. Yes, it's scary and very dark at frequent moments. Sometime hiding behind the sofa just isn't enough and you have to run outside and hide behind the brick wall, but that's the charm of Doctor Who. Yes, it's complicated, but only is you're multitasking. If you sit down and watch without playing about on your phone or updating your status on Facebook, you will understand it without a problem. Television seems to no longer be a form of escapism for the common person, but instead a colourful and noisy background to peoples' Tweeting activities, with them able to occasionally glance up and still understand the entire plot of Coronation Street. Doctor Who is still very much in the escapism category. It forces you to sit down and enjoy it, and if you don’t, you won't get it. Simples.

Anyway, enough about the opinions of idiotic critics, and now my opinion; which is still critical and at times, very idiotic. I have been completely disappointed by this current series of Doctor Who, but still at the same time completely gripped and loving every second of it (I did say I was still very idiotic). I think I'm disappointed because of the series being split into two. Just as you've got into it, you're chucked back outside in the pouring rain and told to wait until the autumn before you can come back. I know why Moffat has chosen to do it, and I totally agree with his thinking, the epic cliff hanger, but that's the reason for my disappointment. Last year it took about 5 episodes for me to be completely engrossed. You can't have one KitKat finger without wanting the other immediately; and I have the same opinion on the Doctor Who scheduling.

The episodes have been completely and utterly brilliant so far, and the second half promises to be just as good. The first episode back is called 'Let's Kill Hitler' for Christ's sake. How can that not be a totally brilliant, mind-boggling episode?  Anyway, let's do a quick flick through the episodes thus far:

'The Impossible Astronaut' & 'The Day of the Moon'

The Silence: Classic Alien appearance but wearing suits.  What a great foe! Now children are scared of everything they cannot remember. Now every child is scared of every noise they ever hear. The power of Doctor Who is amazing. And The Doctor; from the future; he gets shot; and he dies; PERMANTELY! Given a Viking burial. What? Mind boggled within ten minutes. We still don't know what that's all about, but I think we can make a relatively safe assumption that it's a young River Song in the astronaut outfit who shoots him. It's hard to describe the entire plot quickly, what with so much happening, but it ends with River and The Doctor sharing a kiss, just after she's killed The Silence in a really showy-off way. Other way's we're gripped into the series is that we know Amy might or might not be pregnant and we're intrigued by who the mysterious 'Eye-Patched Lady' is. Oh, and who is River Song already? Both of these episodes were written by Moffat, Doctor Who Supremo. More about him later… (Yeah, I can do cliff hangers too!)

'The Curse of the Black Spot'

This was an episode written by Stephen Thompson. This is the man who wrote the Sherlock episode which I considered to be the weakest. Unfortunately, I carry the same opinion for this episode. It seemed very anti-climax, and just a bit ridiculous I felt. I liked the idea of the 'TARDIS trio' being on a pirate ship, and seeing Amy swing from the rope as a heroine, was very pleasing to me, but it was essentially just the personal discoveries of a ruthless pirate who becomes a good Dad; too happy for me. Not dark enough. It was brilliantly performed by all involved and cleverly put together.  However, a 17th century pirate having a space ship as the ending? No, I disliked that ending.

'The Doctor's Wife'

This is my favourite episode of the series so far, just for how fantastically brilliant the idea was. This was written by Neil Gaiman, a well known writer of Sci-fi, and you can tell he is a fan of Doctor Who just by all the references to the old series, within the episode. I like episodes that use Doctor Who history. Anyway, essentially the soul of the TARDIS is put into the body of an excited woman named Idris, played by Suranne Jones. This worried me as I have somehow gained an indescribable resentment against her, which puts me off watching anything she does. However, she was perfect and demonstrated a beautiful version of what the TARDIS would be like, if it possessed a body, being true to the personality we believe her to have. The scene between the TARDIS and The Doctor in the junkyard was a great piece of television I felt too when they were arguing. I loved the darkness between Rory and Amy while running through the TARDIS corridors too; worryingly scary, but still fantastic, especially with the return of the previous TARDIS 'Desktop'. There are just so many positives about this episode. You can tell that I was very enthused by this one.

'The Rebel Flesh' & 'The Almost People'

These two episodes failed to completely grip me, and I admit to not fully understanding the entirety of both episodes due to fumbling about with the phone I brought hours before the second of these episodes, but I think that due to the fact I was just a bit bored by how drawn out it was. It was written by Matthew Graham, writer of 'Fear Her', the episode with the 2012 Olympics, back in the days of Tennant. That was quiet a thought provoking episode, and so were these episodes, essentially addressing the issue of whether man-made life would have the same rights us, a debate which can bring about fierce thoughts, which were perfectly demonstrated by this episode however. A great idea, but I feel it was a bit stretched out for two episodes, but in the same sense, if the same story was told in one episode, I'd probably complain about it being squashed. I do like it when Doctor Who reveals the greatest monsters to be a threat to humans, is in fact us.

'A Good Man Goes To War'

This being the mid-series finale, which was written by Moffat. The title of this episode was kept a secret for as long as possible, to keep the finale as much a secret as possible, and I love how enthusiastic Moffat is about keeping as much a secret for the sake of the fans, but more on that a little later. This episode had it all really; fantastically huge twists, the resolution of storylines started earlier, the creation of new captive story lines, and a huge, epic cliff hanger. The biggest of them all being that Rory and Amy now have a child, which is part Time Lord due to the child being conceived on the TARDIS in a time vortex, and it is revealed at the brutal end of the episode that River Song is Melody; the child of Rory and Amy. How do they react? We'll wait and see. It was quite a clever way of including lots of different aliens in a story without having The Doctor defeat them again, and instead having them on his side; as an army. It was the Sci-fi version of David Cameron's Big Society.

Look they're shocked! But what happens next?

It was announced last week that the Daleks were taking a holiday from Doctor Who, because they are the 'most reliably defeated enemies in the Universe' according to Moffat, and indeed he is right. He knows what he's on about. However, I do ask the question: Why bother giving the Daleks a new paint job if you're not going to take them out for a ride and show them off for a bit? I just think they should have had one big finale, before they went away for a few years, like they do in the soaps. They'll make a character have an affair and then have a miscarriage before they disappear to Spain for seven years. Where was the Doctor Who equivalent to that? Anyway, I'm not complaining too much, because that finale was pretty damn epic.

Mind you, maybe that's in comparison to what was on the TV the week before? A week when ITV had the same schedule for the entire week: Two hours of what was apparently 'British talent', intercut with half hour of the blandest and most predictable storyline within Coronation Street. What happened to soaps representing real life? Maybe they made the finale seem even better? That was perfect scheduling on behalf of the BBC.

Now, for the paragraphs you've all been waiting for: Steven Moffat. I still firmly stick to my guns about him not being the greatest writer, which I had last year. However, that hasn't been so obvious this series because he seems to have uncovered the Holy Grail of writing a fantastic, gripping Doctor Who series. He has real enthusiasm for the show, which shines through whenever he gives interviews and even when you watch his episodes. You can tell how passionate he is about Doctor Who, in how he wants to keep everything a secret. The plot for the first two episodes was leaked by some 'fans' on the Internet, and this seemed to genuinely upset him, which I find so refreshing and rather endearing. He's just a normal guy living his dream.

The cliff hanger has now been brought back to both Doctor Who, and television in general. Coronation Street do cliff hangers, but you only have to wait half hour. The American's are able to create cliff hangers that last between one series and another. Us Brit's cannot do that. Well, excluding Moffat. Every episode this series has had a cliff hanger of some kind. Some cliff hangers from this series have been 'unhung' now, but some still continue, and more created. With each episode, you gained more subtle information to allow the audience to create their own, different opinions of what the cliff hanger will result in. This makes you tune in every Saturday without fail. Now we have cliff hangers which will remain 'hanging' until the September return. Steven Moffat is fast becoming one of the greatest things to happen to British Television.

Now, I just want to cover the characters; mainly Rory. I think he is possibly the greatest companion The Doctor has ever had. This is a man who has been killed several times, been erased from existence after saving The Doctor's life, turned into plastic (Autons) and guarded the Pandorica for 2000 years as a Roman. As a character, he is pretty damn brilliant. All this while being in the shadow of Amy. A much better duo than Rose and Micky, that's for sure.

He always has the same facial expression though...

And as for Matt Smith, yesterday it was announced that he would be returning for another series, so long may the 'TARDIS trio' remain intact. Mind you, I wonder what will happen now Amy and Rory have a baby. The Universe is not a safe place for a baby, even if she is half Time Lord. We will have to just wait for September for the final six episodes of this series. Three months. It's a long old wait...

The Reincarnation Of Sherlock Holmes

A few weeks ago, 'Sherlock' appeared on our television screens for three weeks on BBC 1. Now, I have not actually had any real previous exposure to Sherlock Holmes stories, television or film adaptations for me to compare this recent reincarnation of the detective to. In comparison, it may be complete rubbish, but without a comparison I thought it to be absolutely brilliant.

I had a few doubts about it though. The adverts made it look really cool and interesting, which was great, but it was written by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who writer) and Mark Gattis (Actor/Writer for Doctor Who and of other stuff). Those of you, who have read my numerous, recent Doctor Who blogs, will be aware that I am not exactly keen on Moffat's writing. The other doubt being that it had been modernised. 'An old classic that been modernised and bastardised' was my initial thought of what it would be. Writer's have a habit of doing that of late; Old books and movies, being updated to appeal to the modern audience.

These doubts disappeared after the first 20 minutes of the first episode. If you look closely, there is that element of Doctor Who within the character of Sherlock Holmes, and the general writing. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the role of an odd, brilliant man very well, and Martin Freeman is rather good at playing the 'sidekick' Dr. John Watson; a part Matt Smith originally went for before becoming the Doctor. Anyway, Benedict and Martin seemed to work quiet well with each other, and although being massively updated, still managed to keep true to the original stories.

Just little things like Dr Watson being injured in Afghanistan in the original Conan Doyle's stories, fits in perfectly with our current state of affairs, and of course Freeman's adaptation had been injured in service in Afghanistan. Also, the fact they live at the same address on Bakers Street, London and Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft, played by Mark Gatiss, return in the adaptation.

Cumberbatch and Freeman, in the guise of Sherlock and Watson, at the famous address

As for the episodes, it is a similar tale to Doctor Who. I only really enjoyed two of the three episodes. However, would you believe it, the episode that I preferred was actually the one written by Steven Moffat, which was the first episode. The other episode I liked was mainly written by Mark Gatiss, which was the finale. The episode I didn't like was the second, written by guest writer Stephen Thompson. So, from the fact I much prefer Moffat’s writing for Sherlock than in Doctor Who, we can conclude that Moffat should give up on Doctor Who and concentrate more on writing for Sherlock.

If he did that, I am sure he could improve on it massively. Only three episodes in the series? You wouldn't expect that treatment in America. I want the series to go on for weeks and week and weeks. Also, shorten the length of the episodes. Produce more, shorter episodes. 90 minute long episodes work, but by the end you tend to tire of it. Produce 13, 60 minute episodes. Moffat is a fantastic writer, when doing the right stuff. He should give Doctor Who to someone else and go for Sherlock, just like I said at the end of the previous paragraph; just to emphasis the point.

The first episode, which was written by the Moffat and entitled 'A Study In Pink', I actually really enjoyed. Even someone like me with no previous experience with Sherlock Holmes could tell you that we were introduced to someone who everyone could identify as Holmes. The only bad thing about the episode, but classic of Moffat's writing, is that I worked out the killer half hour before Sherlock Holmes. I wasn't the only one, I'm aware of lots of people who worked out that the murderer would be a Taxi Driver. However, at the end of the 90 minutes, you felt as if you had really gotten to know the characters, like you would after a few episodes, which certainly is a credit to Moffat.

The second episode, written by a little known man called 'Stephen Thompson which was called 'The Blind Banker', was the weakest of the three stories. Again, everyone had an idea of who the killer was before Sherlock. The problem with them having different writer’s, is that the characters seemed a bit different in the second story and is taking a different angel, a weakness of numerous writers and the episode didn't seem to fit.

The third episode, written by Mark Gatiss was called 'The Great Game'. Now, between this episode and the first, there were numerous links and they fitted with each other better; which just emphasis's the point that Gatiss and Moffat should work together on writing Sherlock, and not get in other writers. This episode however, was fantastic in allowing the audience to fully understand the character of Sherlock Holmes and fully appreciate his mind power. It is an episode in which Sherlock has to solve numerous puzzles in order to save people’s lives, and with it being much more fast paced, it just came across as a great episode.

Sherlock Holmes has been updated a lot, with Laptop's, iPhone's and Blackberry's being used throughout the stories and also includes a lot of travel by taxi, in which he seems to think and work things out. Of course, he still has the old resource of books, but it has been modernised with care. You almost begin to believe that if Conan Doyle was alive today and writing the Sherlock Holmes books, it is how he would have written them, with new technologies aiding him. I have read rather a lot of reviews, because I am very intrigued as to what other people thought, and there seems to be a general thumbs up.

Hardly any reviews I have read, comment on how the modernisation has ruined the classic stories. Most people agree that it is in keeping with the original stories. There does seem to be rather a lot of love for it, which is fantastic. I honestly think that if the BBC approaches the new series right, they could have another hit, just like Doctor Who, on their hands. The new series does need to have shorter, but more episodes in my opinion for it to work. Only three episodes? By the time I got my teeth gripped into it, it just ends. The BBC also need to make sure they don't have guest writers, and they make Moffat and Gatiss write the entire lot; just to emphasis and repeat the same point yet once more.

Dramatic walking through the streets of London

So, essentially my conclusion is that Moffat should stop writing Doctor Who and give that to someone else, and just focus on Sherlock. He clearly produces better work for that project. I am so very pleased the BBC has commissioned another series. Makes a change from the usual crap they commission.

Now, I feel I should make an attempt at starting to read the original books and stories. I feel I have missed out, and if I am enjoying this new version, imagine the fun I could have if I actually read the original written by one of our most famous writers. Sherlock Holmes in my opinion is next to James Bond in the list of characters from English literature that have become quintessential characters of our every day-to-day life. Very important and should be remembered in both their original and new forms, forever, and for many generations to come.

The Regenerated Doctor: Twelve Episodes On. Part II

I feel I should say, just to clear up the confusion from the past blog; I have completely enjoyed this series of Doctor Who. It seems to have grown up a bit; with it being that slight bit darker (despite the odd cheesy bits) and I have enjoyed this series the most so far. I never really got into Ecclestone and Piper's series. Tennant and Piper seemed all a bit fake. Tennant and Agyeman never really worked. Tennant and Tate worked well, but not for a Sci-fi series; maybe a comedy drama. Smith and Gillan seem to have worked the best since it's revival in 2005. The idea of the stories have been fantastic too, and of course a lot of them ideas have come from the head of Moffat, but what my point was in the last blog, was that I did prefer the episodes that were not written by Moffat, but not in any way saying Moffat was 'shit'. I hope that is now clear.

The way I'm going to do this is a ‘short’ paragraph about each of the episodes, giving my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me - they are only my OPINIONS.

Health Warning: Make sure you rest your eyes regularly as this is a long blog. Sorry.

Episode One: The Eleventh Hour.

As opening episodes go, it was actually rather good. Infact, I may go as far as to say 'fantastic'. As an episode on its own, it worked very well, and Moffat done a very good job at writing it and introducing the new Doctor and new characters. In terms of setting up for the rest of the series and the series finale, it was great; without us even knowing, we are told of all this information which helps us as the audience piece together throughout the episodes. Great skill in my opinion. Also, casting Karen Gillan's cousin to play the young Amy Pond was actually quite a good idea, and we are introduced to her, so we recognise her character in later episodes. It is a real introduction into what we can expect.

Episode Two: The Beast Below.

In terms of it being the first episode with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan being away from Earth and fighting something unknown, it wasn't great and a bit disappointing. This episode too was written by Moffat. Again, I cannot quite fathom what it is about it I do not like. I personally think the idea was not big enough to be Amy Pond's first adventure. It was a great idea and quite thought-provoking about how us as human's think we're superior. It was good for us learning about Amy's character, but the idea just was not big enough.

Episode Three: Victory Of The Daleks.

Well, it was a waste of an episode really in terms of storyline. It was the first episode of the series not written by Moffat, and instead by Mark Gatiss. I absolutely LOVED the idea of Winston Churchill wanting to use the Daleks to win the war, it was just a shame it didn't play a bigger part in the episode. I did enjoy it though, I am just being negative and cynical, but there is more of that to come. Fighter Jets being able to fly into space and attack the Dalek spaceship? I did think that was a slightly silly idea. Inventive, but silly. Also, new Doctor means new Daleks (apparently). These Daleks seem to resemble the new sleek and colourful cars we see, and if you put a Dalek and Ford KA together, they would be hard to distinguish. They may be bigger and fierce, but they have essentially been made plastic and colourful to make them more commercial, so they can be made into little toys like Thomas the Tank Engine. I did enjoy the episode however - although you wouldn't believe it by this paragraph.

Episodes Four & Five: The Time Of The Angels & Flesh And Stone.

The first two parter, and it was written by Moffat. With the return of the Weeping Angels and River Song, it was an amalgamation of four of his previous best episodes into one story. Just to prove I am not negative towards Moffat, I did nearly like these two episodes. However, the Weeping Angels are considered to be the scariest aliens of the new era of Doctor Who, with them being everyday objects which attack when people blink or cannot be seen. 'Blink' was one of the scariest episodes for children, and yet in this episode, it was not used to its full potential. However, as episodes go, it still was actually quite good, despite the first episode being ruined by a cartoon Graham Norton. Those little banners are incredibly annoying in any television show, so doing it in the final, dramatic scene of the episode is 'a travesty' and ‘Why don’t the BBC just wipe shit all over the screen during the final scene of Dr.Who next week?’ to quote Charlie Brooker.

Episode Six: The Vampires Of Venice.

Okay, I liked this episode greatly because of Rory. His introduction and development during this episode I actually really liked. However, remember this episode was not typed from the fingers of Moffat, but instead by Toby Whithouse. The introduction to the episode was pure brilliance, with The Doctor jumping out of a cake during Rory's stag do, and just fumbling around the place. It was a shame that Doctor Who has joined in with the recent hype of Vampire's, but as usual, they put a different twist on the whole idea; fish creatures from another planet coming to Earth to find women to help reproduce their species. It was a fine example of Doctor Who explaining something that was unexplained in human history.

Episode Seven: Amy's Choice.

My second favourite episode of the series, and guess what - it wasn't written by Moffat, but instead by Simon Nye, a comedian who has history in Doctor Who. 'The Dream Lord' was a great idea, and also the thought of coming from the dark impulses of The Doctor, which it was suggested as being, was pretty clever. Swapping between two life-threatening scenarios, in which they had to decide which was real. One included the TARDIS crashing into a freezing star, the other with a pregnant Amy and being chased by Old People. I actually LOVED the idea. Also, for you fact-fans reading this blog, if you recognised the voice of the Dream Lord, it was because the actor Toby Jones, does the voice for Dobby the House Elf in Harry Potter. Cool aye?

Episodes Eight & Nine: The Hungry Earth & Cold Blood.

The second of the two parters, and this one was not written by Moffat, but instead by Chris Chibnall, who is the head writer of Torchwood. I enjoyed these - actually a lot, and I was truly gripped. The Silurians returned from the original series, and these were creatures that live in the centre of Earth, that once ruled planet Earth. They are great 'aliens' and I love the idea. This too was a good example of Doctor Who reflecting a mirror to the attitudes of the Human Race and us hating any form of change. Two clever episodes, and I think they were absolutely great. Also, I rather like the idea of us sharing the Earth with creatures of similar intelligence in 1000 years... Was a shame about Rory dying, but because it had no build up, it was predictable that he was going to return.

Episode Ten: Vincent And The Doctor.

It was my favourite episode of Doctor Who - possibly ever! Helped by the fact it was written by Richard Curtis, God of the cheesy comedy writing and one of my writing 'inspirations'. Anyway, there are not many things on Television that can bring me to tears, but, and I am not ashamed to admit it, I had a tear in my eye during the final scenes with Vincent in the art gallery. I have a prejudice towards Doctor Who episodes meeting famous historical characters like Agatha Christie, Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, so I was expecting to hate this episode, so the surprise of me loving it, was brilliant. They could have taken it further with the monster, with this episode being mainly about Gough and his torment, but it really did work. The scenes with Matt Smith fighting an invisible alien were also quite good.

Episode Eleven: The Lodger.

I liked and it wasn't written by Moffat, but instead by Gareth Roberts. I did love the idea of The Doctor becoming stuck on Earth and having to interact with normal everyday day-to-day life on Earth, by moving into a flat and playing football. It was a humorous episode, but lacked the sci-fi edge; that was thrown in for the last 10 minutes of the episode. The episode bumps off the recent popularity around James Cordon, and has the classic storyline of two best friends being in love, which always makes me laugh. However, like I said, it didn't really focus on the alien and Sci-Fi element of the show until the final 10 minutes, so as a storyline for Doctor Who, was kind of weak.

The Finale: Episodes Twelve & Thirteen: The Pandorica Opens & The Big Bang.

We return to Moffat's writing, and as Moffat's writing goes, this wasn't 'alf bad. My liking of this episode can be explained by the fact he didn't write it entirely on his own however. With the first episode being set in Roman times and around Stonehenge, I really liked it. Obviously, because Moffat wrote it, River Song returned yet again, and as I predicted, so did Rory. As I said earlier, I love the episodes of Doctor Who when they give an explanation for an unexplained phenomenon, and Stonehenge is a prime example. Loved it, and I never expected the Pandorica being for him. It was a fantastic build up with lots of alien action - including the Cybermen, which happen to be my favourite Doctor Who aliens.

The second episode was also fantastic, but if I am brutally honest, and I am going to be disliked for this, but I was disappointed. I loved The Doctor flitting between two different times in the episode, and it was great recognising him later in the episode. Rory was great, as were the two Amy's and Matt Smith was really good. The faults for me were them not making a bigger thing out of 'Nile Penguins' and 'Himalayan Pharaohs', in which you probably won't be aware of unless you watched Confidential. The idea was that the stars changed reality, so penguins lived in Egypt for example. That was a great piece of the story. Also, I was disappointed with the INCREDIBLY cheesy ending of the Doctor being brought back by a memory. There are probably poor children desperately trying to remember their grandparents to bring them back thanks to that. Anyway, I disliked the cheesiness of it. Forgetting that, I thought the episode itself was brilliant, and Matt Smith's dancing made it worthwhile.

I am also, slightly disappointed by the lack of any new aliens or brand new planets. The Weeping Angels episode, which was easily filmed in a quarry and a British Spaceship in the second episode, were the only episodes not based on Earth. There were no big, impressive CGI planets and sceneries. Also, there were no new, big aliens which required imagination. Apart from changing the design of the Daleks and Silurians, there were no new, impressive aliens. An alien that is invisible for a huge majority of an episode? Well, that's imaginative.

However, I love it when Doctor Who makes everyday objects scary for children. Essentially, that has made up for the lack of big aliens and planets, by imaginatively making everyday objects scary. Kids have had Statues, Cracks in walls, Old People and even the ground to be scared of after this series. Small ideas which are great. I feel sorry for any children that go on a day trip to an old castle with their parents this summer. Old castles generally have cracks in walls, statues, Old people walking around and are surrounded by lots of ground.

Something else I haven't quite liked is the return of River Song. I find her character just too complex. Why can she not just have a normal timeline like every other character? I spend episodes trying to work out at what point in her timeline with the Doctor we are at. I just find her far too complex. What race is she? We don’t know, and in my head, the fact that she is a time traveller, makes me wonder if she too is a Time Lord... I just don't know, and I don't like not knowing. I do not doubt her returning in the next series, because there are many questions still unanswered, for example: Does she marry the Doctor? Does she kill the Doctor?

My problem is that I don't just sit down and enjoy TV, but I am constantly ready to negatively criticise, which does annoy me, but despite all this negativity I seem to have against this series of Doctor Who and Moffat's writing, I honestly have loved this series! Matt Smith WILL shape up to be the best since Tom Baker.

As for the Christmas Special, not much has been released so far. All we know is that it includes Amy and Rory’s honeymoon, Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins. I assume that’s good. Anyway...

Long live Matt Smith!

P.S. If you have just read this entire blog, the next website you visit should be Vision Express to book an appointment to get your eyes checked. I am so very sorry! http://www.visionexpress.com/book-eye-test/

The Regenerated Doctor: Twelve Episodes On. Part I

The out first series with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan is now but over, and it is fair to that I have been both amazed and disappointed. I am very surprised with how good Matt Smith has been as the Doctor and I certainly think he will be remembered as one of the big iconic Doctor's in the future. Karen Gillan's Amy Pond also works brilliantly next to Matt Smith's Doctor, with their social interaction being top notch. However, I have been very disappointed with the writing, in particular with one writer, Steven Moffat.

If you cast your minds back to my blog at the beginning of the series, you will remember that I wasted an entire paragraph saying how good Steven Moffat's writing should be and how it will be brilliant and humorous. Don't get me wrong, the episodes have been brilliant and humorous, it is just as shame those episodes were the ones not written by Moffat. I have failed to put my finger on what it is I have not liked about his writing in this series. Maybe it is because he fails to take the storylines far enough. Maybe it is because he has spent too long developing on the characters persona. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

Before I completely write him off (Budom Tshh) as the lead writer of Doctor Who, I must compliment him on the series storyline. The continuous storyline of Amy Pond and the cracks in the Universe must be one of the biggest storylines seen in Doctor Who. Throughout the series there have been continuous hints and links in each episode to the finale. It has been a pretty mind-boggling storyline for people to piece together, with everyone having a guess to what is happening and only occasionally getting odd bits right. I think that is brilliant. Keeping the audience guessing, gripped and thinking by not giving answers away easily is an idea which I have loved.

Despite that, I do still stick my point of being disappointed by his episodes. He wrote some of the classics of the previous series, such as 'The Empty Children' (from the first series, set in World War II with the classic line 'Are you my mummy?'), 'Blink' (the original episode with the Weeping Angels) and 'Silence In The Library' (the original episodes with River Song). Moffat wrote 6 episodes for this series: the opening two episodes, the two episodes with the Weeping Angels and River Song (he was obviously proud of them two ideas) and then the concluding two episodes, but that was with help. The reason why his original episodes worked may be because they were very small ideas, but now he is using similar ideas on a bigger scale.

Let's not dwell on the negatives though.

Matt Smith has been a brilliant Doctor in my opinion, and I am glad I did not write him off like all the David Tennant fans did. Even the people who were positive that he wouldn't be good and it would no longer work without Tennant seem to like him. Obviously, there are the people who are totally against him and don't think him impressive, but those people are stubborn and don't realise the concept of Doctor Who. The idea of regeneration is a brilliant plot idea, which allows the program to continue successfully, long after an actor has left to pursue pastures new.

This reincarnation of The Doctor, I feel will go down in Doctor Who history as one of the greatest, just like Tom Baker, who does seem to be iconic Doctor from the old series. With Matt Smith not having the classic sex appeal that Tennant seemed to have, which is good because people watch him for the personality of the character, and not just get lost in his deep, blue eyes... Anyway, the persona of this Doctor seems somewhat mad, which is just fantastic. Eccleston had a touch of the madness, but let's not talk about him. Smith seems very 'retro' and 'vintage', to use some of my favourite buzzwords, and these mixed with the madness,  a splash of quirkiness and a sprinkling of one-liners, create the perfect mixture for what I think would make a great Doctor.

One-liners such as:

"Oh yeah, it's an inter-dimensional, multi-form from outer space. They're all terrified of wood."

"Oh. Ok? I escaped then? Brilliant. Love it when I do that!"

"You can do loads in 12 minutes. Suck a mint, buy a sledge, have a fast bath..."

"I like the bit when someone says "It's bigger on the inside!" I always look forward to that."

"Oh that's good, fantastic that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I have a post office... And it's shut!"

"Why does no one ever listen to me, do I just have a face that nobody listens to? Again?"

"I'm The Doctor. Well, they call me The Doctor. I don't know why. I call me The Doctor too. Still don't know why..."

If I have to compliment Steven Moffat and Matt Smith on one thing; it is the creation of this brilliant persona. He is a genuine benevolent, brainy Timelord, just like Tom Baker and Patrick Troughton.

Karen Gillan playing Amy Pond; the attractive and feisty companion for the Doctor, has been met with pretty positive criticisms. Young enough for the child viewers to be able to relate with her and find her a fun character, independent enough for the feminists among the viewing public to like her and old enough for men to drool over her short (infact, very very short) skirts. Again, there are the few people who don't quite grasp the concept of Doctor Who and think she should be setting an example by wearing layers of clothing. However, for her to appeal to the audience of the time and fit a certain 'stereotype', she matches the fashion of today.

Amy Pond has a partner called Rory, who is played by a man called Arthur Darvill, and he is another great comic character, who compliments the Doctor and Amy perfectly. Now, Rory was at risk of becoming another Mickey, Rose's Boyfriend, in that he could have been a useless and whining character. He may slightly tick them boxes, but he much more. He has infact become a main and panicle character, who is rather humorous. I like him. His character wasn't developed in the first episode and I wasn't that keen on him, but as the series went on, his character begins to unravel and became rather liked by all. In the next series, I hope we see a lot more of him and that he continues to be great.

Fashion is an odd thing. With whatever Karen Gillan wears (on or off television) being criticised by the media, and making the redhead popular, she doesn't seem to have done much wrong in their eyes. Even Matt Smith has not done bad. He has made the tweed jacket somewhat of a fashion 'must-have' this year and I'm waiting to see whether the Fez hat is going to follow suit (a very slight bad pun - geddit?). Not sure the Bowtie has made it popular, despite his persistence that "Bowties are cool!"

Right, so part 1 is done: A general synopsis of the writing, actors and their characters from this series. Like a proper blogger, I have waffled on about things I don't particularly know about, but instead what I have observed and forced my opinions onto you; the innocent reader.

In part 2 of my Doctor Who blog, I plan to delve into the plotlines and episodes of series 5 of the new, revamped Doctor Who episodes.

Oh, and anything else I think of.