Day 13 of Doctor Who Awesome

No horrific violence

I love that I can watch it with anyone and I know that when I watch Doctor Who I can get caught up in great storytelling without having to see people's heads being cut off, torture and constant sex scenes.  We live in a violent world and I don't need to see it all the time; I guess I'm young at heart and have a rather child like imagination in that way; the things that scare me most are the little things; things that move in the dark when you can't see, daleks hiding in corridoors etc

Doctor Who deals with death brilliantly, there have been some horrible deaths over the years; sacrifices, wars, murder but it never shows you blood, never torture, never shows you prolonged amounts of agony or suffering.  When death occurs you know its for a purpose in the story not just any excuse for a bloody battle or to kill off as many people as possible. It also shows you that killing is wrong and that their is nothing glorious about it but also at the same time it doesnt shy away from the fact that sometimes in order to beat evil we have to stand up and defend ourselves. The Doctor isnt a pacifist and the programme doesnt promote that either, the Doctor fights for what he believes in; and he does it without a weapon. He is not the sort of man who would point a gun at someone but he wouldnt stop someone with a gun from shooting the enemy (because he is responsible for his own actions).

I'd much rather watch the weaponless Doctor, than gun mad CSI type detectives anyday; there is too much violence in real life and too many guns and luckily with Doctor Who, using weapons is only in self defence or a last option.

Why we love Ian Chesterton...

Well as much of this blog seems to be devoted to the first Doctor and the first companions today is not going to be an exception.  Ian Chesterton is (along with Barbara of course) my ultimate favourite Doctor Who companion and here's why:

Ian is honourable, brave, determined and devoted. his own safety comes miles behind everyone as he will do anything to save everyone else first. He made the others leave him behind stuck in the Dalek shell and also stayed and risked extermination to warn the Thals, he even led the group of Thals and Barbara through the caves and waited for each one to jump to safety and then followed last. He also had a huge stress out that the Daleks paralysed him meaning that he was unable to get the drugs and had to send Susan as she was the only option.

How many science teachers can temporarily paralyse with a thumb?  Ian showed that he could use fighting to defend himself and others but also proved that knowing strengths and weaknesses and using intelligence would always triumph over pure punch ups. He only used violence when necessary.

Ian was knighted! but most modestly and with the intent purpose of rescuing Barbara. he was always willing to do anything to save Barbara (Even if she was very capable herself) Its not against feminism but I kind of like his protectiveness towards women, he even confronted King Richard in order to get his point across and never gave up, in most of the stories he and Barbara have the toughest deal, in theses early days you really felt they could die, they didn't have the Doctor to come and save them suddenly, they had to do it for themselves using their history/science knowledge and pure belief in each other.

And overall I love Ian's playful side, sure a lot of the time he was stubborn and irritable but lovable but when he was teasing Barbara and having fun, he was adorable.  Dancing to the Beatles like an embarrassing Dad shows this wonderfully.  He is a fun character and a noble character, he loved adventure but at the heart of him was the desire to go home and that's what I love about Ian, the shift from the non-believer at episode one to the hero to a regular guy who just wants to go home sit in a pub or watch a cricket match.

The sheer joy shown in the monatge photos on Ian and Barbara's return to London brings tears to my eyes. He is not a character who 'wants to stay with the Doctor forever' in fact he never wanted to go in the first place but the friendships were built and I imagine that their adventures with the Doctor were with them forever as we hope they began their new lives together.

Ian is a wonderful character, William Russell created a great character even when at times he was given clunky dialogue, he is definitely my fave and a very very attractive man too, I love the sixties look, cardigans, blazers, side partings they beat tracksuit bottoms and checked shirts to me anyday, he is so handsome but much of that attractiveness also comes from the personality.  And on that note I'm going to watch An Uneartly Child again...

Day 12 of Doctor Who Awesome

UNIT:

Check out the awesome clothes!

As in United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.  The UNIT team have been with us all the way since the sixties during Patrick Troughton's run and have helped defeat aliens with their badass ways.  During the 70's the team were an extremely important focus on the Earth bound episodes and the relationships between the Doctor and the Brigadier were particularly brilliant.  The Brigadier is one awesome companion and has been there for Docs 2, 3, 4, 5, I'm unsure of six as my knowledge of that era is limited but I know he graced another presence in Battlefield with our beloved 7th Doctor and continued his battles in various audio.

Sadly Nicholas Courtney died this year so my hopes to have him appear in the show now are gone but am so glad he was with the show such a long time, really annoyed that they didnt have a tribute to him on TV, I mean he also worked with Hartnell's Doctor (albeit as a different character) but he was a great influence on the history and legacy of Who.

So whilst I love UNIT and am glad they returned in the new series and praise their time on the series, I think for now I'm happy to not have many more UNIT episodes. I don't want in all honesty another era set primarily on Earth and if I had to choose I wouldn't like series based around military organisations as I hate the formality thing, I want the Doctor out and about the universe not in an office, but anyway no more moaning, the UNIT era of Doctor Who is as important as any other and very watchable and the relationships were fantastic so I'm looking foward to part two of Inferno tonight, would have watched more than one part last night but at that time of night, scientific jargon and bright yellow cars couldn't hold my concentration.

Be seeing you...

Rose



Why all the hate for Rose? I like her, Billie Piper plays her brilliantly and I cannot understand the negativity towards her. Ok I can except she's not a favourite to many just as for example I'm not a huge fan of Nyssa or Victoria but to be so bitchy about it gets my back up. What gets me is the whole 'doctor and Rose in love thing' which people seem to detest. I don't mind it myself really, The Doctor can fall in love hence with Cameca in the Aztecs, with Madame de Pompadour maybe and prob others I'm not aware of, so why not Rose? People say 'but why her? she's no better than Sarah or smarter than Romana or prettier than Peri'...but that isnt why people fall in love is it? she may not be better or smarter or prettier than any of the companions but the Doctor loved her. He may have loved other companions as well but the writers decided not to take that route, deal with it! Also, why is Rose not allowed to fall in love with the Doctor but Amy's allowed to come on to him and try to sleep with him the night before her wedding to Rory...umm double standards, apparantly that's ok for some people for Amy to treat Rory that way but when Rose did it to Mickey there was an uproar...jeez.

The reason I like Rose is because when the programme started again in 2005, I was nineteen like her, I was bored working in a shop like her and would have given anything to be swept away in a blue box, so I can totally understand her attatchment to the Doctor especially as she had no male role model in her life. Rose isn't perfect, she's jealous can be bitchy to Mickey etc but she's a good character...she grows up, learns from her travels, befriends people who are scared (something Amy lacks) is scared herself but also can take charge. 

And she isnt a chav, thanks to television the defintion of chav has been taken well out of context, both Rose and her mother worked hard all their lives and are law abiding citizens they are not work shy, weed smoking drunks. Living on a council estate doesnt make you a chav, your attitude does...Rose is merely a working class hero and as a working class person I can relate to her.

Sorry for the ramble but I feel like I need to defend Rose (who is my third fave companion) because she gets an awful lot of hate.

Day 11 of Doctor Who Awesome

A dedicated follower of Fashion:

Whether it be a frilly shirt, a cricket outfit or Edwardian chic, the Doctor will always be kitted out in memorable fashion to suit the persona of each of his incarnations.  Fezzes are cool, bowties are cool, perhaps the multi-coloured coat might want to remain in the TARDIS wardrobe along with the boring leather jacket.

Hey you! capes are cool.

What's with the ???, we know its called Doctor 'Who' but lame.

Geek Chic!

Never stop the mad fashion Doctor....

Day 10 of Doctor Who Awesome

The Whole production:

Just because in general everyone who as ever helped to make Doctor Who is very awesome indeed so to the :

Directors, writers, producers, set designers, costume, construction, special effects, make up, cinematography, lighting, assistants, actors (obv), sound people, voices, people dressed as aliens, extras, grips, techie guys or girls, runners, electricians, catering, editors, location crews, cameramen, vision mixers, PA's, model makers, CGI peeps, animators, authors, Big Finish guys,  people who got us all the fab DVD's, musicians and composers- the Radiophonic workshop, Sydney Newman, the title credit person, script editors, foley artists, publicity and photography, set dressers, stunt guys, fight co-ordinators, choreographers, and any more that we've forgotten.

These people make the show and as much as we love the actors and writers there is no Doctor Who without the entire production team, there is no 'I' in team even if there is an 'I' in Pie (sorry couldn't resist Shaun of the Dead quote) 

be seeing you...

day 09 of Doctor Who Awesome

Britishness
I don't care if it's a word or not but I love the fact that Doctor Who is a british institution along with fish and chips, tea and the Beatles. In fact the programme is sooo British that it is probably why they've never tried to make a version in the States like they have with nearly every other programme (spaced, life on mars blackpool etc) anyways it wouldnt work; the US has brill sci-fi like Star Trek and Stargate and what not but the British iconography is what makes Doctor Who special. Only in Britain could a cup of tea re-awaken David Tennant's synapses during his regeneration.

Deborah and Patrick celebrate filming with a good old cup of tea.

Eleven tries to defeat the Daleks with a Jammy Dodger!!

It's eccentic and nutty and mad and basically just like and DW fan.

Day 08 of Doctor Who Awesome

Companions:

The Doctor likes to travel with an entourage, they may be humans, they may be aliens, they may even be tin dogs!

Of course the Doctor adores his companions now and will do anything for them.  But back in 1963 poor Ian and Barbara were pretty much kidnapped to stop the secret of his ship getting out to their 'friends'. the best thing about these early eps was the change we see in the Doctor, with the help of the bond between Ian and Barbara and the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, we see him change from an anti-hero, a selfish and un-sociable alien into a caring old man who comes to love his companions. What Ian and Barbara (and all one's other companions) do for him is the most important thing because without them he would not be the Doctor he is in 2011.
As the Doctor regenerated to his second incarnation he would have even more companions, particularly a close bond with a companion from the past, a very close relationship apparently!

The Doctor's companions in the 70's especially during Tom Baker's era tended to be attractive young women and he travelled with a range of humans, aliens and even a Timelady in two of her incarnations.

in the 80's there was a lot of team TARDIS again during Peter Davison era but this ended with much of the 80's being attractive young girls again.

in the revival we have been treated to an assortment of different companions who play very significant roles in the Doctor's life as they did back in 1963, perhaps maybe a bit too much as the time goes on. I mean how many comanions can do things as extreme as absorbing the heart of the TARDIS, saving the world from the Master, becoming part time lord or most recently....giving birth to...who we learn is River Song?

Companions make Doctor Who what it is nearly as much as our Doctor and without them he definitely wouldn't still be around saving worlds. each companion has their own merits and bad ass moments and even though we all have faves I hate bad mouthing any of them because they have all impacted the world of the programme we love.

Be seeing you...

Day 07 of Doctor Who awesome

The Daleks

Dortmun in the Dalek Invasion of Earth described them as motorised dustbins whilst they've also been compared to evil pepperpots and nazi like machines created by Davros (and created in real life by Terry Nation and Ray Cusick who was the designer of the iconic look) They are definitly the number one Doctor Who villiain/monster and with no emotions, remorse or reasoning, they are the ulitmate in hatred whose only aim is to wipe out everyone who is not a Dalek; pretty strong stuff and plenty of nightmares for children!

The First glimpse of the Daleks: Ian is paralysed temporarily.

White Daleks: with Ace and Seven

Suicidal Dalek: with Rose in the aptly titled episode Dalek

I-Daleks: the latest look (and one im not fond of)

I read somewhere that Steven Moffat's giving the Daleks a break for a while and I'm glad, I mean I love them but after stealing the earth and trying to destroy reality itself and everything; it must be hard being quite as epic. See you in a few years maybe fella?

Day 06 of Doctor Who Awesome

Cheaper Budget= Bigger Imagination and better storytelling:

Us Doctor Who fans are not ones to worry too much about DIY aliens and carboard scenery, if your like me you're more interested in the story, actors etc. in fact if you're noticing the set more than anything else than I think the story isn't engaging you.

CGI is a good thing in some instances but our reliance on it today is so frustrating. I noticed yesterday on Doctor Who Confidential the crew waflling on about they needed it to be big and epic like Star Wars...um no it doesn't, I like Star Wars but I never want Doctor Who to be that extreme.  They kept saying that the hangar they filmed in needed to look vast and military like, personally I rarely noticed it as I was too busy eager to discover River Song's identity and what was going on with Amy's baby. To me it looked no different than a set.

I love the 60's eps as you can gather from this blog. I love the imagination that goes into them when faced with a criminally low budget, directors and designers have to be so much more creative under those circumstances.  the new eps look awesome but they have seem to forgotten that it isn't essential for Doctor Who.  My Dad for example thought the sweeping American Scenery in The Impossible Astronaught was a waste of time as he thought it was CGI and anyway as far as I'm concerned I don't need to be shown American landscape to know that that's where they are, heck an American flag would have done the same storytelling.  it almost feels they want to shoot movies not TV where obviously emphasis is on style and visual but TV is not supposed to be that way, it is character driven and inventive and a way to make statements about ourselves and our world.

Anyway bit of a rant, don't get me wrong I love any era of Doctor Who I just wish they wouldn't act like early episodes were 'oh they're good for the time I suppose'. NO they're great full stop, they're great now as they were then because the storytelling and acting is there and the creepy sci-fi is the most important thing.

Ooh really want to watch classic Who now.

Be seeing you.

Day 05 of Doctor Who awesome

Anything is Possible- Time and Space

With Doctor Who there is no end to the realms of possibilty and many of them have been done too; from time windows, to parallel worlds, to alien invasions, other world revelotuions, quests, monsters, bugs, time travel, alien disease, cyber malfunctions, tombs, black holes, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, mummies, robots, strange new worlds, time loops, dinosaurs, virtual reality, moon landings, space crews, underwater creatures, interplantery war, witches, fairytales, living mannequins, killer plants, clone doctors, loch ness monsters, pirates, telepathy, mulitiple Doctors, space decks, arks, spiders, crabs, gravity, mutations, shrinking, rockets, teleports, living statues, volcanoes, slavery, wasps, human colonies, doppelgangers, wars, battles, civil wars, war games and so many more...

sorry for the long list; I just wanted to emphasise the scope and awesomeness...

Day 04 of Doctor Who Awesome.

Doctor Who Historicals

Doctor Who in 1963 used history and science to educate its 8-14 target audience and used Ian and Barbara as ways to do this (Them being history and Science teachers at Coal Hill)

In the early years the historicals were brilliant but less loved than the sci-fi, these days I think we have a real interest and love for the history and the 60's had great ones. unfortunately for us history lovers the history eps were phased out in the 70's and 80's but thankfully in the revival; history, or at least pseudo-history and comedy and the Doctor meeting famous people exist for us to enjoy.

Particular faves of ours are the  comedy based historical The Romans, pure historical Marco Polo despite the fact it only remains as tele-snaps and audio whic makes me weep inside

The Doctor and Vicki visit the court of Caesar Nero.

The missing episodes of Marco Polo

 Modern faves are the Fires of Pompeii which is definitely psuedo-historical because of the inclusion of the Pyrovillia and the Doctor's involvement in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius; and Vincent and the Doctor because it's emotional and deals well with depression.

Karen Gillan as a Soothsayer in Pompeii.

Amy and The Doctor meet troubled Vincent.



Overall I love historicals but feel the new eps tend to focus on famous authors etc rather than specific time periods, would also love to see a pure historical where our time travellers go back to say a Civil War and there is no alien threat, only humanity.

Day 03 of Doctor Who awesome

Different eras, constant change

With every new Doctor or executive producer or decade or whatever, Doctor Who gets a revamp, which can be wonderful, change is always good and there is different styles to suit everyone. What other programme can do this? Star Trek yes had different ships, crews, captains etc but Doctor Who is a continuation.

Barbara and Ian in The Aztecs

In the 1960's, the black and white really helped to creat a eerie atmosphere in the episodes with cybermen, Daleks or on other worlds. The brilliant historicals were also a huge part of the deal in the early days but were phased out later.

The Doctor works with The Brig and Liz on earth.

The series has a fun and different feel when the Doctor is exiled to earth and works at UNIT. Most episodes were also set on earth.

 Six and the cybers!

The colourful eighties! A direction that some people didnt take to but I personally like the Colin Baker eps.

Series 5- Doc and Amy.

With Matt as the new Doctor and Steven Moffat as the new exec producer, the show has a more fairytale style and vivid cinematography.

Lots of different styles, Doctor's and changes but ultimately the same great show!



Day 02 of Doctor who Awesome.

Re-generation

Ok so it started as a way of keeping the series going after poor William Hartnell got too ill to maintain the role but the idea to have a character literally chnage his entire physicality and personality but retain his memories and Doctor-ish qualities was a stroke of genius allowing the programme to grow, change and live on and on for us all to enjoy.

And with every re-generation comes a wondeful British actor, it takes awesome actors and lets them bring their own style and acting ability to the programme. every Doctor has been excellent and it has defintely got unknown actors noticed!  You never know who or what he might re-generate into next which leaves a fantastic suprise element as the years pass by.

50 days of why Doctor Who is awesome

Fed up with being labelled as 'geeks' because of our love for Doctor Who. I have no offence to the term of geek but hate 'labels' just because of the hobbies you have. Anyways for all those people who say Doctor Who is a kids show or dont get it, here's why it is awesome and why we love it:

Day One- The TARDIS.

It's not a huge spaceship with a hundred crewmembers with decks and turbo-lifts, it's literally a police box from the outside and a huge living and working space for our Doctor on the inside. It not only can travel through space and time but it also can change the design to suit each Doctor.  the fact that the chameleon circuit is broken meaning that the TARDIS had to remain the 60's police box makes it a great and recognisable image and icon of Britishness. Would you really want to travel any other way?

shortest review ever of The Almost People...

Am too busy to write a long review unfortunatly due to life's annoyances, so I will just say that the episode was GREAT and OMG my brain hurts so much, what a cliffhanger!!

Sadness

There is one reason that there is not a long blog today. me and Claire watched Jacqueline Hill's mythmaker's tribute last night and I am still emotionally unstable. I don't mind admitting that we both cried at seeing her husband Alvin Rakoff, William Russell, Carole Ann Ford, Maureen O'Brien and others saying how much they loved and miss her. it was a beautiful tribute and the archive footage of Jacqueline at a convention was a lovely sight for us, these days actors are everywhere on TV, the opportunites for Matt Smith interviews are endless (great obviously but endless) and so it was nice to see what she was actually like.
A great watch.

The William Russell Mythmaker's interview was inspiring hearing about his career, his co-stars, his enthusiasm and his anecdotes about Hollywood actors and his general presence.  he was so youthful and loved his life lesson of not wanting to be doing what everyone else was doing, the 9-5 thing, the routine. he lives by change. I so agree with him, I get bored after five minutes. Anyway he did not seem like a seventy year old which he must have been at the making of this, in fact he was still so so handsome (not that as you get older you're not handsome anymore) and ok, am a bit in love with him, honestly don't care how old he is, he's the same guy.

Great purchases.

Favourite Companions

This was very very hard to choose but here it goes:

1. Ian/Barbara (from this blog you can prob tell that we love them but also it was hard to pick one over the other as they're soo good.)
2. Rose (some fans hate her but I think she is a great companion)
3. Donna (apparantly Russell T Davies described her as the Barbara of the 21st century)
4. Harry (should have been in it more because he was awesome)
5. Sarah-Jane (Great chemistry with all the Doctor's she worked with)
6. Ace- (when I was growing up I wanted to be cool like her)
7. Rory (when he's not dying, he's funny and brave)
8. Ben/Polly (couldnt seperate the two, considering most of their eps are gone they made a big impact)
9. Vicki (never really gets mentioned but she was adorable and fun)
10. Jamie (just love his relationship with two sooo funny)

Nearly made it: Jo, Jack, Susan and River Song.

Favourite Doctors

Ok, so i'm not one of those fans who hates one of the Doctor's, I actually like them all and think they all have their merits. I don't think it's cool to hate David Tennant or cool to like Tom Baker and I like them all. Obviously I have faves, my four favourites are:

1.

Good Old first Doctor who doesn't get enough credit for being the creator of the character. He isn't just grouchy, he's also sweet, stubborn, hilarious and an anti-hero.

2.

Ten made me fall in love with Doctor Who again (and not because he's good looking) but because he was exciting, funny, verbal and enthusiastic.

3.

I just love Two, he's so sweet and funny, he has an excellent rapport with companions particularly Jamie and he's great.

4.

I've really started to appreaciate Nine recently and come to love him, he reminds me a bit of the first Doctor and I love his mysterious quality and rather moody nature and wish he'd been in one more series.

Then I like equally: Tom Baker, Matt Smith, Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davison.
then equally: Jon Pertewee, Colin Baker, Paul McGann (although I've seen little of the last two)

Anyway, the Doctor is the Doctor no matter what his personality or face and I love all of his regenerations and him travelling forever in his TARDIS.





Rant time and documentaries

Why is it that TV doesn't broadcast enough classic who? Ok u can find a lot of it online but for me nothing beats good old fashioned sitting in front of the TV with a cup of tea and some biscuits but classic who just isn't shown. I mean you'd think it'd be shown here in the UK being such an iconic programme but all we get is a few repeats of series 1-4.

Imagine my delight that the channel WATCH advertised that it was Doctor who day on saturday, wow was my reply, a whole day to Doctor Who, finally.  well not only is it not on the WHOLE day but its a pretty poor line up.  we have 'The Next Doctor' followed by the two Peter Cushing movies and then the Paul Mcgann film (none of which are IMO that good) and then they are just repeating 'The next Doctor' for good measure or incase your a fan of David Morrisey or cybermen or something. 

Can't understand why they can't play a few oldies for us Who fans who are trying to watch as many as possible and don't want to be at the computer screen all day or skint from having to bu EVERY single DVD of a programme spanning almost half century.

On a positive note though our Myth maker DVD's arrived today, we got Jacqueline Hill with Raymond Cusick ones and William Russell and Verity Lambert. looking forward to watching about their opinions of their time on the show. it's great on DVD commentary but even nicer to see them in person.

On a side note about DVD commentary. on the commentary for I think it might be 'Keys of Marinus' if you can listen to it please do. Clayton Hickman the moderator informs William Russell that Edwina Currie described him as her teenage 'sex symbol' hahaha there is a brief pause before you hear Russ just sort of mutter out a few words of embarrassment and Carol Ann Ford declare amusingly that Russell doesn't look anything like John Major.

You're not the only one Edwina!

Especially if you saw him in 'The Adventures of Sir Lancelot'

That's why you should always watch anything behind the scenes, that's where the secrets come out...Be seeing you...

Doctor Who goodies...

came in the post today!

William Russell signed photograph from 'An Unearthly Child'. My dad just raised an eyebrow and obviously doesnt get why me and Katie love William Russell so much. Oh well, also purchased...

Harry Sullivan's War written by the wonderful Ian Marter who played Harry. Love Harry Sullivan and heard this is a good read so looking forward to devouring it soon.

William has pride of place on our wall next to David Tennant and Richard Armitage and various photos of me and the sister and friends who are not famous or really worth being in their presense haha. I think the frames a bit cheap so am going to buy a new one for Russ as he deserves it.

Ta ta for now, be seeing you...

Twin Dilemma

This blog title is not to be confused with the title of the Doctor Who story of the same name.  it is infact a post about being a twin which of course me and Claire are.

There are definate advantages to being a twin: someone to hang out with, someone to borrow clothes from, someone to share your mad hobbies with, a writing buddy (the world needs twin sister writers) and I'm also thinking twin Doctor Who companions (not of the freaky kind or blonde bimbo kind, real twins) would be awesome (we're available for that) and generally a close bond.

However there are many disadvantages: People calling you the wrong name, comparing you, asking you the dumbest questions, sharing everything even your date of entering the world! people refering to you as 'the twins', if you do uni together as we did people wanna know why and think its weird but if you work seperately people wanna know why you're not working together.

Anyway the biggest problem has been discussed today:

We share a lot of Doctor Who memorabillia, DVD's, Books, audio CD's, posters you name it, we've built up a bit of a collection over the last couple of years and were discussing moving out. based on the cool stuff we own there is no choice, we MUST live together or face the traumatic experience of dividing all our stuff up!!! we have both finished uni now and though at the moment have no immediate plans, job or money to entitle the luxury of escaping the clutches of the parents- in the future this is going to be a problem.

at the moment its great because we have a cool lounge office room to put all our stuff in and anything we buy is cheaper because we can split the price.  As you may have guessed we share a birthday (honestly people still ask us each when our birthdays are) so its hard to buy eachother Doctor who stuff as we may get the same thing. 

For Christmas I bought Claire 'The Adventures of sir lancelot' DVD with William Russell (Ian) as it has two of her main loves 'Arthurian legend and William Russell!' and she bought me 'The lost stories of the first Doctor' on Audio CD. basically I very nearly bought her the same thing so these days we have to kind of discuss do's and dont's of gift giving before surfing the online shops.  the ridiculous thing about this whole present giving is that the gifts go straight in our 'shared collection' therefore I may as well have just bought myself a present.

So anyway, being a twin is cool sometimes but sometimes it's a pain in the arse.  I just dread the day when half my collection of goodies is gone and in someone elses house...oh the humanity.

Random piccys we did

I wish!



The Rebel Flesh episode discussion.

The Rebel Flesh



It's War!!

Katie and I sat down last night to watch episode five of Doctor Who series six last night and was rather impressed. We can imagine people dismissing this epsiode as a filler but here's why we liked it.

Claire- It reminded me of classic Who with them landing somewhere in the future and the conflict between the two groups.

Katie- The Doppleganger idea was really good and rather dystopian like the film The Island and wasn't Rory awesome?

C- He really was, he was compassionate and loved his kindness towards Jennifer, finally he is being taken seriously as a companion and not there merely as Amy's husband.

K- Wish Amy would get a little bit more to do, she seems to be attatched to the Doctor, she's obviously a independant strong girl, we need more of Amy doing amazing things, making mistakes, shouting and bonding with others; I can't really recall her befriending anyone.

C- I'm looking forward to the second parter and by the way did you spot a certain someone from Life on Mars?

K- Yes, Marshall Lancaster aka Chris! He was good as usual. Also I was going to mention how the acid stuff and clones reminded me of when Martha was cloned in the Sontaran episodes.

C- Yeah it did look like that, I love the moral and ethical debate that comes from cloning people; they have memories too and how is the Doctor going to resolve this one?

K-And did you think the double Doctor reminded you of the first doctor's epic fight with his robot self in the Chase?

C- Just for that the episode should get a better score. Anyways a good solid episode.

Real or dopplegangers?

be seeing you...

Dr. Who and the Daleks (the Movie) Vs. The Daleks serial.

The Original story and televised version of the Daleks

Was bored today and we thought what can we watch that is Doctor Who related and we thought we haven't seen the movie version of the first ever Dalek tale in ages (the one with Peter Cushing)

What's interesting is that actually we both saw the film a few years back way before we became addicted to the first Doctor's era and so our opinions on the film at the time were that it was generally good and fun stuff for a Doctor Who fan but its a very different experience watching it after being so familiar with the BBC seven parter of our fave era of the programme.

It's obviously shorter, not even an hour and a half, they had to trim a  lot of the TV stuff (often great stuff!) to squeeze it into the film but generally the overall storyline is there in fact some is shockingly similar as if they literally copied it straight over.

This shot and in fact much of the scene is pretty much exactly the same as the serial:

Alternate Ian (Ray Castle) trapped in multi-coloured Dalek shell.

TV Ian is also trapped in the Dalek!

Well this isn't a major problem, the things that are the same are good things and it makes sense in the storyline to use them, but overall I have more thoughts on the differences between the two.

Things I noticed:

• Ok so the Doctor is an inventor rather than an alien unfortunately this for us removed the entire appeal of the first Doctor. Peter Cushing is obviously not trying to emmulate Hartnell but his character is a boring sort of bumbling crackpot inventor who is too nice! there's no conflict between him and the others which is what makes the television serial so awesome and tense and character driven...
• On that note of characterisation we have Susan as a young girl interestingly with much more guts and determination than on the series but without the unearthly quality (well she is human here) also the little girl is smug as hell.
• Theres Ian Chesterton who is only similar to the TV character by name.  sure here he's cute enough and fun but there's nothing for him to do.  his awesome speech to the Thals is removed from this film and given to The Doctor who then Uses Ian (asking him to take Dyoni to the city) poor Ian is punched again but he didn't even get a decent speech first.  In the film he's merely there to follow the Doctor, he isn't that scared or intelligent, he doesn't teach science and he just clumsily falls over all the time. it's a bit dissappointing to an Ian fan to have the film version of him completely silly and not taking charge, in fact all he wants to do is run away.
• We have Barbara who just isn't used in this film at all, all she does is wander around and play second fiddle to Susan.  she gets no lovely romance with Ganatus because 1. Ganatus here is a make up wearing Git and 2. because in this version, Ian and Barbara are a couple.
• I am totally fine with a romance between Ian and Barbara in the film but considering they're actually a couple and the 'real Ian and Barbara' aren't then its funny to see that their is little chemisty between these two.



Check out the way Ian eyes up Barbara!

One note however, the fact that the TARDIS in the film sets off because Barbara tries to kiss Ian and he lands on the lever that starts the process of de-materilisation. hahaha kinda funny.



Other observations:

The cinematography is pretty amazing in the film (though I also love the black and white) with a terrific blend of green hues particular in the forest which is very cinematic. I kept picturing the actors from the series running about in the awesome colours but oh well...

The Thals wear far too much make-up in the film and resemble men in drag (did no one tell them that blue eyeshadow was more popular in the 1970's not on Skaro)

I nearly die laughing in the film at the Dalek counting down at the end. I think a Dalek does it on the TV ep too but here he literally counts down from 100 and I'm like 'ok we get the point he's counting, cut to something else' but is very funny and I do laugh at stupid things.

Antodus doesnt die in the film! OMG how lame is that? What is this the Walt Disney version? I'm mean I'm not horrible and of course characters dying is sad but if they all survive where's the danger? The grief? In the TV  episode one of my fave moments is Ian's anguised face of guilt and sadness that he couldnt save Antodus from plummeting to his death; real character stuff.

A rather good bit of Dalek ass kicking by the Thals in the film.

So in conclusion i think everyone should watch the televised story because the character depth, intrigue and heart is there. Children might prefer the colour and fun of the film but the televised episodes are where it all began and you can't get better than that.

be seeing you...