Another random find on Youtube.  Great mixing of clips here.  The author’s done a cracking job

Saddo that I am, I enjoy spending time on Youtube looking for nifty fan-made openings to Doctor Who.   I thought I’d share  few of the ones that caught my eye.

I really love this Tom Baker-style opening for the 10th Doctor:

And here’s quite a cool 80s-style Eccleston opening:

I loved season 1 of Sarah Jane Adventures, so I’m really looking forward to this.   And after how good the Sontaran Stratagem was, I’m really pleased to see them back already

Well, according to the posters on Doctor Who Forum, that was a load of rubbish.

Couldn’t disagree more.  Absolutely cracking finale.  RTD’s finale’s have always been very hit-or-miss with me.  I loved Doomsday (although Rose’s departure dragged a bit - and any weight it had has now been shot to pieces anyway), hated the “Super-Rose” ending in Parting of the Ways, and similarly hated the “Super-Doctor” ending in Last of the Time Lords, which then only got worse as it descended into “guess which movie we lifted this bit from”.

So I was slightly worried after the superb Stolen Earth, that I was going to be left dissappointed.   However, I didn’t have to worry.

Right from the start, after the country tearing itself apart for a week over James Nesbitt/Robert Carlyle etc being the new Doctor, instead we get the Doctor redirecting the regeneration energy into his hand and saying “Right.  Where were we?”  An incredibly funny anti-climax after all the palava that had me laughing out loud.

And this finale was just filled with great moments.  Jack and Mickey meeting up again.  The reference to the warp star from SJA.  DoctorBlue and Donna shouting “Oi!” at each other, Davros recognising Sarah Jane, K9’s cameo, DoctorDonna, everyone flying the TARDIS as it tows Earth home.  And so many more.

I’ve mentioned before that this finale was feeling like a swan-song to RTD’s era (despite the upcoming specials), and I still feel that way.  It was a beatiful ending.  Full of fun, and tragedy.

Talking of tragedy, Donna’s exit was very well done.   Incredibly painful to watch and heart-breaking.  She’s been the best companion out of the entire 4 seasons without doubt (oh, how I’ve changed my tune) so it was incredibly sad that she was the one who suffered the “everlasting death” Caan spoke of.  Bernard Cribbins was fantastic as usual, and I must’ve had something in my eye during his speech about watching for the Doctor.

Without doubt, this has been the strongest series yet of Doctor Who.  Every episode was a winner for me that I’d happily go back and re-watch now, and its the first series I can say that about.

Well, that was truely epic.

So much good stuff, and after last year’s “Daleks in Manhatten” misfire, its nice to see the Daleks being flippin scary again (a large part due to Elisabeth Sladen’s fantastic performance).

Great seeing the gang get back together (although the slow-motion run between the Doctor and Rose was veering dangerous close to cheese overload - thank God that Dalek was passing).  Billie Piper seems to have sorted out her performance since last week as well, and felt a lot more like this was the Rose of old turning up.

Killer cliffhanger as well.  Be interesting to see how it gets resolved.

Well, I’ve talked a bit about how exciting the “next time” trailer was, but what about the episode itself?

Borrowing from a sci-fi staple, time is altered so that Donna never met the Doctor, resulting in his death during his battle with the Racnoss.  Its downhill for Earth from there.

This was probably one of the strongest scripts RTD has delivered.  Its always fun seeing how alternate Earths might’ve turned out, safe in the knowledge that things will be back to normal at the end.  However, this was more haunting than that.  The scenes of London’s destruction after being hit by the Titanic were incredibly well done, and it was genuinely disturbing watching things go downhill, as Earth struggles to repel the various alien menaces without the Doctor’s help.  Its not long before we hear that both Martha and Sarah Jane (and Luke, Maria and Clyde.  Ouch) died at the hands of the Juudoon, and the Torchwood team sacrifice themselves to stop the Sontarans turning Earth into their new cloning world.

Of course, all eyes were on Billie Piper’s return as Rose, however she was by no means the star of this episode.  This was Donna’s chance to shine, and Catherine Tate stepped up to the mark admirably, blowing away all her nay-sayers (yes, that includes me.  I wasn’t pleased by the initial announcement either, but in my defense, I was still smarting from Martha leaving, and a pre-season 4 rewatch of the Runaway Bride completely changed my mind).   There’s no doubt in my mind that Donna has been the perfect 10th Doctor companion.  She plays off of Tennant’s Doctor perfectly in a way neither Rose (who I’ll always view as more suited to the 9th Doctor) nor Martha did.  Catherine Tate really seized this chance to show off her acting muscles, and you really felt Donna’s desperation as she thinks she’s realised she won’t die, only to have Rose tell her otherwise.

An absolutely cracking episode.  The killer cliffhanger was only the icing on the cake.  And we even got a nice reference to Sarah Jane Adventures when the Doctor identified the Time Beetle as one of the Trickster’s Brigade (a being who wiped Sarah Jane from history and had commented that it’d be a laugh to do the same to the Doctor).

All eyes are on the finale now.  There’s no doubt in my mind that for me, this has been the strongest season yet.  The finale’s got a lot to live up to, and with juggling all those different elements and characters, its either going to be the most awesome finale ever, or a complete disaster.    Personally, I’m hyped up for it and can’t wait till Saturday.

Well, the second trailer today is up for the Stolen Earth.

However, I’m not going to repost it here, as I know some of my friends will want to avoid spoilers, and this one contains a huge spoiler.

However, if you’re already fairly well spoiled, or don’t care, then click here.  Its a good ‘un.

Yeah, this blog’s probably going to be a bit Dr Who-crazy for the next 14 days or so…

I noticed today that my first Dr Who Music Video on Youtube has passed 1000 views!

Ok, so that’s not much in the grand scheme of Youtube, but still its a good acomplishment for me

Surprisingly my classic series tribute is also doing well, having racked up 270 views, versus my other new series tribute, which only has 94.   I say surprising, because the classic series one was the one I’d quickly cobbled together to test out an idea I had, versus the new series one, which I actually spent some time over.

Well, the Stolen Earth hype is firmly underway, with the Beeb showing a new teaser this morning, and a longer trailer expected tonight just before 7pm.  Here’s the Dalek teaser.

6 days to go…

I like the caption section on the BBC Youtube channel