Hello, as a Doctor Who fan who has just watched the Twelfth Doctor regenerate into the character’s first female incarnation, I thought it would be a good time to rank them in my estimation. My rankings are purely personal, and are based on a mixture of the storylines, the performances and the whole caboodle. 14 Sixth Doctor to Seventh Doctor, Time and the Rani 1987 (Colin Baker to Sylvester McCoy)Cause of regeneration: fatally injured in a TARDIS crash caused by the Rani Coming in at the bottom spot, we have the regeneration from Six to Seven. This really is pretty bad as a regeneration story. Due to conflict between Baker and the BBC, he did not come back to film his regeneration scene or even tie up his era. Instead we were given McCoy in a blond wig. Awful In addition, because of this, the regeneration story was very underwhelming. No build up, no farewell to the outgoing Doctor. A poor showing all round. 13 Third Doctor to Fourth Doctor, Planet of the Spiders 1974 (Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker)Cause of regeneration: fatally poisoned by radiation I have no strong feelings on this particular storyline. 12 Fourth Doctor to Fifth Doctor,…
Congratulations Jodie Whittaker, our 13th Doctor. Here’s the video of the announcement. As a Brit, Doctor Who is part of my cultural DNA, and the casting of a new Doctor is a national event. I am so, so excited about this. I was so happy when I saw the hand taking the TARDIS key and knew we had a woman! First, I’m just really happy it’s not Kris Marshall. No disrespect to Kris – I’m sure he’s a very fine and talented comedic actor, but I don’t think he was at all the right person to fill Capaldi’s shoes. Now I’m even more excited for the Christmas special with the First Doctor. Regeneration is bound to be a major theme given that both Doctors are within hours of their respective regenerations. As an older gentleman product of the Sixties, the First Doctor is very patriarchal. I really hope we get to see his horror at the prospect of turning into a woman! I’m not familiar with Jodie Whittaker’s work personally, but I understand she’s handled some really tough storylines on Broadchurch so I’m satisfied. I don’t think Who has ever miscast the Doctor. Even poor Colin Baker only played the…
Today I thought I’d tell you about my top three fictional relationships. While I do not consider myself a hard core shipper, there are a few pairings in which I am super invested, and here they are. The Doctor and River Song (BBC, Doctor Who) Perhaps I should provide some background here for those readers unfamiliar with the BBC series. The Doctor is a space and time travelling alien from the planet Gallifrey who has a special fondness for Earth and who is frequently called upon to use his smarts and trusty sonic screwdriver to save the world. As a Time Lord, he has the unique trait that, when he is severely injured, his body regenerates, giving a whole new look and personality to the character. River Song is a slightly-more-than-human time traveller whose timeline collides on a regular basis with that of The Doctor. Showrunner Russell T Davies, who introduced River to the show, has said that his inspiration for the character was Audrey Niffinegger’s novel The Time Traveler’s Wife in which a time traveller’s relationship with his wife is complicated by his meeting her at different points in her life. The first time we – and The Doctor…
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.
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…
I think my reading of House of Hades must have infected me with some demigod ADHD because I am trying to read no fewer than four books at the same time. Sigh. So many great books, so little time. I couldn’t decide what audiobook to listen to at work so I used a random number generator to help me choose. The selection landed on The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March. For those of you who don’t know, this is set in the same world as Finding Colin Firth but written and set earlier. So far I’m enjoying it – I loved the setting and the characters are relatable. A full review will come shortly. After listening to a few chapters though I realised I was more in the mood for some YA dystopia, so I picked up Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds. I’d been hooked by the preview on Bracken’s website and I am continuing to enjoy it. Ruby seems an interesting, if damaged character, and I look forward to reading more of her story. Again, expect a full review soon. I had been asked to review Paul Levine’s State vs. Lassiter so I have added it to this…
The second half of Matt Smith's second season as the Eleventh Doctor kicked off last Saturday with an episode entitled Let's Kill Hitler. It was written by show runner Steven Moffat. Following on from my previous entry regarding spoilers I saw this episode completely unspoiled, especially the reveal that Amy and Rory's friend "Mels" was actually one of River Song's regenerations. In this case I believe being spoiler-free added to my enjoyment of the episode. Judging from the Television Without Pity forums, this seems to have been rather a divisive episode with some viewers turned off by what they perceived as Moffat's flaunting his cleverness in the viewer's face. Personally, I really enjoyed it, although it owes a great deal to the charisma of Matt Smith and Alex Kingston playing The Doctor and River Song respectively. Honourable mentions to Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan. I really doubt I would have enjoyed this episode nearly as much with different actors. Alex Kingston in particular appeared to have an absolute blast playing this episode. So with this episode we've now seen the first and last meetings between River and The Doctor from River's perspective. We've yet to see the last from The Doctor's…