As I may have mentioned a time or two recently, the 23rd of November was the 50th anniversary of the British sci-fi show, Doctor Who. The BBC released a significant number of documentaries, interviews and special episodes to mark the event. For me, three highlights were An Adventure in Space and Time, The Night of the Doctor minisode and the multi-Doctor Day of the Doctor 50th anniversary episode. Day of the Doctor written by Stephen Moffat Genres: Sci-Fi Format: iTunes Season Pass, Blu-Ray DVD Starring: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt Length: 75 minutes Buy from Amazon • iTunes There are full spoilers below for all three, so please join me after the cut.
Happy Doctor Who anniversary week everyone! I apologise in advance for any non Doctor Who fans among my readers – I’m still on a major Doctor Who mania at the moment! It will pass, honest. Day of the Doctor written by Stephen Moffat Genres: Sci-Fi Format: iTunes Season Pass, Blu-Ray DVD Starring: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt Length: 75 minutes Buy from Amazon • iTunes (anticipated) As I mentioned last week, I picked up the iTunes season pass for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary celebration. Although neither An Adventure in Space and Time nor The Day of the Doctor have been released yet, I have been enjoying the other items on the pass such as the reboot Doctors revisited. It would have been nice to have had The Night of the Doctor on the Pass as well, but never mind. I thought I’d write down my thoughts and predictions for the 50th and Christmas specials so that you can have a good laugh at me once it’s aired. I’ve not seen any spoilers (except for how Matt Smith regenerates) – they’ve done a good job keeping it under wraps – so I’m just basing it on previous episodes, the Night of the Doctor, the trailer and some comments…
One of the books I read this week was one I was given free to review by the author, State vs. Lassiter by Paul Levine. This is a legal mystery/thriller in which trial lawyer Jake Lassiter sees court from the other side as he is framed for murder. This is the tenth in the Jake Lassiter series, but only the first one I have read. Not having read the others didn’t impact my enjoyment of the book; State vs. Lassiter is quite capable of working as a stand-alone. Legal thrillers is not a genre I read a lot of although I do enjoy it. In this one I particularly appreciated the way Levine, a former trial lawyer himself, was able to express complex legal aspects clearly and succinctly to be easily understood by a layman like myself. The narrative style was fresh and engaging and each chapter ended on a cliffhanger to keep me reading more. One aspect I didn’t appreciate so much was the way women were depicted in the novel. For me a little too much focus was placed on their sexual allure rather than their mental acumen. Despite that, I enjoyed the book and gave it…