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Tag: Nu-Who

Confession #23: I’m Disappointed by the New Companion

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As filming begins on the 2012 Christmas special, in which we will be introduced to the as-yet-publicly-unnamed new Companion being played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, the first official photos of Jenna and Matt on set are being released. And excited as I am for a change-up in the TARDIS team, I have to say I’m disappointed in what I’m seeing.

Sure she’s cute, and based on early reports, the chemistry will be great, but the new Companion (according to someone who was supposedly on set, her name is “Clara”; I’ll withhold judgment on the veracity of that designation until something official comes down the pike, but for ease of reference, I’ll use it as her name here) appears to be another run-of-the-mill, modern Earth human. Clad in a short-skirted dress, jacket and bright red shoulder bag, Clara strikes me as this decade’s answer to Jo Grant: fashionista pixie.

Since Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005, we’ve been treated to an endless parade of Companions designed specifically to be the point of reference for the audience. Almost to a one, they’ve come from 21st Century England: Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Martha, Donna, Wilf, Amy, Rory – even Sarah Jane. Adam (if we can count the idiot who had a door put in his forehead as a Companion) was also modern, though he was American. Jack and River – multi-story Companions, though not strictly “regulars” – both hailed from the 51st Century, and off-world, but are still quite human (even if 51st C. sexuality is not of a variety that’s currently considered “mainstream”). You have to get into The Specials from 2009 before you get Companions from either the past or the future (Astrid Peth, Jackson Lake, Adelaide Brooke) – and they’re all still human – British ones, at that (OK, Astrid was meant to be an off-worlder, and I can’t remember whether or not she Britted up her Aussie accent – but my point stands).

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Nu-View #7: A Grace-ful Perspective

Doctor Who: The Movie  (Story #160, 1996)
Viewed 24 Apr 2012

Doctor/Companion: Eight, Grace Holloway, Chang Lee
Stars: Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso
Preceding Story: Survival (Seven, Ace)
Succeeding Story: Rose (Nine, Rose)
Notable Aspects:

  • We’ve seen it before!
  • Only on-screen appearance of Eight
  • Broadcast mid-Hiatus; only new TV story in that 16 years

It’s a new year for the Nu-Views! What a crazy few months this has been. Nearly a third of the way into the year and we finally managed to get the Ladies together again. Well, most of us; jO couldn’t make it. But we’re back in business, and hopefully there will be more frequent Nu-Views in the coming months.

With all my recent chatter about Gally (well… within the last couple of months; this it the first time we’ve been together since then!), I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when jE requested we watch The Movie again. After all, even though I’d seen it some eight times before (~ahem~), they’d only seen it the once, and that was at the beginning of our WhoFest get-togethers, something like a year and a half ago. So, after spending some time regaling them with tales of Gallifrey One (if you haven’t read my posts yet, you can start here), we headed back to San Francisco, December 1999.

Vague memories began to emerge as the record skipped while the Doctor relaxed with his book and cuppa in the TARDIS. There were glimmers of recognition throughout, but much of it was like watching it for the first time again.

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Dashing and Debonair

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Review of the Eighth Doctor’s era

1996
The Movie

Given that my first DVD review for the blog was of The Movie, a lot of what I have to say about this particular story has already been said. However, here it is my intention to focus less on the plot and more on the characterization of the Doctor and the production context of the piece, to be consistent with my other commentaries on the various Doctors’ eras.

First off, I love that even though it was primarily an American production, those involved did everything possible to maintain continuity with the pre-Hiatus series. In no particular order, these ties include the Seal of Rassilon throughout the TARDIS (as seen during the eras of Four, Five, and Seven, at least); the use of jelly babies (Four); the Doctor reading Wells’ The Time Machine (he met Wells as Six); the pseudonym John Smith (Two, Three); the appearance of a long, striped scarf while Eight is finding clothes (Four); a classic first reaction to the TARDIS’ dimensional transcendence (everyone); the need to give the TARDIS console a bit of a konk to make it behave (many Doctors); and, most importantly, the regeneration from Seven (which actually doesn’t come until ~20 minutes in).

Sure, there are plenty of things that don’t quite sit right. But that’s going to happen when there are so many fingers in the pie, and some of those fingers are trying to stir up a more “American” flavor (a “car” chase? in Who? hmmm…). I could point out plot inconsistencies (like why would there be a tour of the operating arena at 10pm?), but that’s kind of below the belt. All eras of Who have that; you just have to ignore it.

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The Caretaker, the Matriarch and the Disappointment

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Review of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Let me say right up front that this was my favorite Christmas Special to date. Despite being fully engaged and along for the ride almost the whole way through, though, I found myself ripped out of the moment and slammed back into my seat with my Critic’s Hat jammed tight on my head by the predictable and saccharine crowning plot twist. But I’ll get back to that later.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

TDtWatW got off to a strong start with a wonderfully irrelevant introduction sequence. It gave us yet another glimpse at what the Doctor gets up to when he’s not traveling with a Companion (or even just when we don’t see him on screen). Although it was patently ridiculous (as some of the best Who is), the Doctor’s “entrance” and our introduction to Madge give us a beautiful snapshot of her personality, and set us up to suspend our disbelief quite willingly through the rest of the hour.

Her eventual heartbreak at losing her husband (c’mon – that’s hardly a spoiler; the title says “Widow”!) and the way she choses to approach that with her children provide some of the most “real” and emotionally engaging television I’ve seen in a long time (again; more later). Thus we’re set up with another family separated by wartime, ready to walk into one of the Doctor’s good deeds gone wrong.

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The Impossible Series Plot

Review of The Complete Sixth Series
DVD Release Date:  22 Nov 11
Original Air Date:  25 Dec 2010 – 01 Oct 2011
Doctor/Companion:  Eleven, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song
Stars:  Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston
Preceding Story:  The Big Bang (Eleven, Amy, Rory, River)
Succeeding Story:  The Doctor, the Widow & the Wardrobe (Eleven)

Since the blog began with a review of the first episode included in this boxed set (A Christmas Carol), I won’t go into details about my views on each one. As a reminder, though, I’ll list for you the thirteen regular episodes of the series here, with links to the associated reviews:

Look back over that list and take a moment to think about what this series was. There was some great stuff (as The Doctor’s Wife), some stinkers (I’m looking at you, Rebel Flesh/Almost People), and some mixed bags (Good Man gave us both the scintillating Mdme. Vastra and the regrettable “kitchen sink approach to cameos”). Mostly, though, it was about something “inevitable” (the Doctor’s death) that we all knew was never going to happen. I’m not sure why Moffat decided to go that route. As I’ve said before, no one over the age of eight ever believed the Doctor was really and truly dead – or at least that he would really and truly remain so. That takes a heck of a lot of suspense right out the window along with your credibility. So I suppose in the end, it was all a question of how he’d get out of it, rather than of whether.

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Much Ado About Nothing

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Review of The Wedding of River Song
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

While I will admit that I rather enjoyed (most of) the Series Six finale, and there were plenty of moments that felt epic, when you stop and think about it for a while, not much really got resolved. Moffat is a master at smoke-and-mirrors scriptwriting, like last year when the universe got “rebooted,” yet we didn’t learn anything about why the TARDIS blew up in the first place. In fact, we still don’t know the answer to that particular little puzzle.

Now we do have the answers to a couple of big questions: no, the Doctor didn’t really die on that beach (was anyone surprised by that?); and yes, River Song is his wife. Sort of. Actually, that wasn’t clearly answered, either, thank-you-very-much. I can’t imagine the Doctor actually taking that kind of thing seriously (especially since it was clearly used as a device to gain River’s cooperation). Perhaps that’s why they did a handfasting ceremony instead of an actual wedding. Are they really “married”? How binding/lasting is a handfast marriage? How did the Time Lords (does the Doctor) view such an interpersonal contract? Frankly, I was terribly disappointed to see these two get “married”; not only does it go counter to how I think of the Doctor, but it made River’s story overly predictable (“Of course she’s the Doctor’s wife! What else could she possibly be to him?” Yuck.). My own personal canon will look on this as a non-binding contract-of-convenience, and leave it at that.

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“Closing” in on the Reveal

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Review of Closing Time
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

On the surface, Closing Time is a light-hearted, family-oriented romp leading us into the series finale. I, for one, don’t believe it. I think it’s highly unlikely that the production team would use something so utterly fluffy to head into the final stretch of the series, especially with all the portents of doom we’ve been getting since The Impossible Astronaut aired back in April.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

It doesn’t even take very thorough digging to see there’s way more than the top-layer story here. The whole thing is very “meta.” Here are just a few examples of how it references previous episodes:

  • Opening: much like Rose, the shop girls close up, then find danger in a dark part of the shop.
  • The Doctor visiting Craig: “Doctor’s Reward,” anyone?
  • Another baby: could there be any more babies (or kids) in this series? (Will the Doctor’s cot reappear next week, or next series?)
  • “Stop noticing; just go”: did he learn nothing from Bowie Base One?
  • “You always win! You always survive!”: Obviously, this references the fans’ view of the Doctor. The lovely, not-quite-weepy expression of the Doctor’s reaction is supposed to help convince us that’s not going to happen again this time. (Sorry, Mr. Moffat; protest all you like, but no one’s buying it.)
  • “He needs someone”: Donna told him so. But did he listen? Noooooo. And where did it get him? Hello, Eleven!
  • “Oh, please. Just give me this.”: Seems we’ve heard this somewhere before…
  • Impossible Astronaut continuity: he nicks the blue envelopes from Sophie and gets a Stetson from Craig.
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Labyrinthine Clues

Review of The God Complex
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Perhaps it’s the fact that it was originally intended to be part of Series 5 instead of Series 6, but for some reason The God Complex has had a whole lot of hype. All sorts of superlatives were used, and somehow it was supposed to be something to which we all really looked forward. Having seen it, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the episode, but it certainly wasn’t All That. To begin, there were some important ways in which it was quite derivative.

It's OK; we're nice!
Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

I had really mixed feelings, for example, about Rita. Overall, I loved her (nearly as much as the Doctor did), but you really know from the get-go that we’re not taking on a new Companion (even if poor Amy doesn’t when the Doctor pretends to “fire” her). Which, of course, means she’s another Astrid Peth – perfect Companion material doomed to die heroically/horribly. Personally, I’d rather not invest emotional capital where the investment is sure to fail. That makes it hard to engage as fully in the episode as it might deserve.

More blatantly, though, it takes a page straight out of The Curse of Fenric. The climactic scene with Amy is a perfect rehash of how the Doctor has to ruin poor Ace’s faith in him in the earlier story, and for effectively the same reason (though it’s actually done much more gently here). Although I do like the way it sort of references the previous episode by turning Amy Pond: the Girl Who Waited into Amy Williams: the Girl Who Stopped Waiting, there’s no hiding the fact that the major plot point came straight out of Fenric.

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Kicking Ass and Waiting Games

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Review of The Girl Who Waited
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

With a few jarring-moment exceptions, I was able to enjoy this episode as it was intended – an emotional look into Amy’s character and into her relationship with Rory (again). It starts out very contrived, with Amy and Rory both breaking Rule Number Whatever: Don’t Wander Off and making some dumb moves (e.g., telling Amy to “push the button” instead of specifying, or not asking Rory in return, “which one, idiot?”). Then we get the somewhat ridiculous excuse to strand the Doctor in the TARDIS (“Germ 7” is loose, and only affects two-hearted species? That’s the best you’ve got?) so that they can shoot Doctor and Companion material separately a la “The Lodger” (they even go so far as to have a TARDIS-to-planet comm link in the same way).

Once the crew officially splits up, though (and why is Amy so sanguine about letting them fly off to “rescue” her, knowing the vagaries of the TARDIS?), everything steps up a notch. Along with the handbots becoming increasingly creepy and unintentionally (on their part) threatening, we get a few humorous moments as Amy gets oriented (like the available ride “authentically modeled on the famous Warp Speed Death Ride at Disneyland-Clom“), and the beautiful scenery of the Gardens to ease us into the main story.

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This Is the Home That George Built

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Review of Night Terrors
Warning:  This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2011 BBC

I’m not a fan of the horror genre, and last week’s trailer did not inspire me. Further, given that Mark Gatiss’s scripts have been very hit-or-miss for me (loved The Unquiet Dead, was so-so about The Idiot’s Lantern, and abhorred Victory of the Daleks), I was rather apprehensive about what all that boded for the quality of Night Terrors. Although it wasn’t my all-time favorite, it was much better than I’d allowed myself to expect.

I think perhaps I am the target market for the level of horror the Doctor Who team aims to maintain. In other words, I can handle about as much as the average eight-year-old. A little tension is good, but more than the predictable “boo!” moment upon opening a door, drawer, or what-have-you makes me too uncomfortable to watch. Thus, the horror factor in Night Terrors was just about perfect for me. Nothing truly unpredictable ever came of one of those instances, and the scene in which the landlord succumbs was just oogy enough to give me the creeps. (I had a moment of cognitive dissonance there, too – I first thought the shot of his hand morphing was Rory’s going all Auton on us again. That didn’t make sense, but the visual similarity was striking.)

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