Reilly2040's Blog

With the release of the new Radio Times, we’ve gotten our first (and quite a detailed) look at the new console room set for Matt Smith’s Doctor.

There’s plenty of pictures now up on the Radio Times website and I love what we’re seeing.  The console itself has more of a steampunk feel than the organic nature of the Eccleston/Tennant TARDIS which I love (although I’m not completely sure about the look of the central column.  I’ll need to see it onscreen, but in some pictures it looks a little busy for my tastes).

The room as a whole is absolutely beautiful.  I love the flowing nature of it, and for the first time, we’ve got several corridors heading off to other parts of the TARDIS.  In the new series, the TARDIS itself remains largely unexplored, so as a big fan of stories like Logopolis and Castrovalva, I hope this new design indicates we’ll be seeing more rooms and corridors than we have over the last five years.

The room is also huge with a great multilevel design.  The previous console room also had the console on a raised platform, but here that idea is taken further, with it being a more obvious second level to the room, letting us see the underside of the console with all its wires and cables.  It should make for some great scenes where the Doctor’s performing repairs or otherwise tinkering with the TARDIS systems.

Its a cracking set, and I can’t wait to see it properly, in the episode on Saturday.

A new edit of the series Fnarg/1/5/31 trailer appeared on Jonathan Ross tonight.  God it looks so brilliant “One day that’ll work”.

The clip with the library card that led up to that line as well was just fantastic.  I really can’t understate how much I’m looking forward to seeing Smith’s first full series at this point.

Edit:

And here’s the library clip in nice embedded Youtube.

And so I finally get to writing my review of The End of Time and the last adventure for the 10th Doctor (not counting future appearances in charity or anniversary specials obviously ).

In true RTD form, for the 10th Doctor’s finale we were treated to a huge epic spectacle, with returning Time Lords, a super-powered Master, Laser Turret-toting Wilf and a high-diving Doctor.   However where this 2-parter truely shined was in the smaller moments, and I suspect they’ll what’ll be remembered in years to come more than the big, epic stuff.

I’ll be honest.  On first watching part 1, my immediate reaction was “oh dear”.  The Master’s resurrection just seemed far too magical for Doctor Who, and his subsequent super-jumping around I didn’t like (even if I did get the explanation for it).  The head-shaking effect didn’t really work for me either (funnily enough most of these complaints I can link to Last of the Time Lords.  I similarly didn’t like the sped up Doctor effects for his hyper-aging or the flying, super-powered Doctor from that story’s conclusion).  The Vinvocci seemed out of place as silly comedy aliens, and the Obama stuff also seemed a drawn out joke purely for the punchline of the Master being President of the US.

But where I think all of this stuff fell down was that it was purely setup.   None of these things were meant to be taken in the context of that single episode.   And once part 2 was on air, everything clicked into place.  The Vinvocci’s importance to the story clicked in and the Master’s plan provided part of the mechanism for tracking the drumbeat and the return of the Time Lords.  Part 2 was a superb episode and I loved it to bits.  In context of the whole story, part 1′s sole failing really was that it was a setup episode, moving everyone into place for the bigger events of the second part.  Perhaps part 1′s running length could’ve been trimmed a bit, however taking the End of Time as one whole story, it all comes together.

However as much as I disliked some of the bigger elements of part 1, the one scene I hear people referring to time and again is the cafe scene between the Doctor and Wilf.  Where The End of Time really, really shines is the scenes between these two characters, as both actors really take all the great character pieces they’re given and raise them to even greater heights.  The way the Doctor is so close to breaking down when he’s telling Wilf of the mistakes he made is powerful stuff.  We’ve never really seen the Doctor this defeated before, and his reaction to his upcoming death is powerful.  I liked how he’d interpreted the prophecy as his actual death, not regeneration (which, of course, we the audience knew it would be).  But even then he explains how regeneration will still be like death for him, knowing he’ll change so much that he’ll be a new man and cease to exist as he is.

This theme of Wilf and the Doctor playing off each other is the story’s true strength, and continued into part 2, be it Wilf trying to convince the Doctor to take up arms against the Master, or the final revelation when Wilf is revealed as the source of the four knocks.

David Tennant is at his most powerful in these scenes as well.  From his breakdown in the cafe, to the wonderful change in his expression when he thinks he’s survived, only to hear the four knocks, it was hard not to be affected by his performance.  Its truely heartbreaking when the Doctor realises that the moment has come, and even though he rails against the injustice of it, there’s never a moment’s doubt that he’s going to jump into the booth to save Wilf.  Tennant really makes the most of the material he’s given in his last episode, and for one last time reminds us of just how good an actor we’ve had playing the Doctor these last four years.  His final line of “I don’t want to go” was not only powerful, but I suspect reflected the feelings of most of the audience at that point as well.

Of course, the Time Lords came back, and that’s worth mentioning.  Many had speculated that it was going to happen, with the Time Lords being reinstated for Steven Moffat’s era and Matt Smith’s Doctor.  However what we got instead ended up emphasising that they shouldn’t come back (well, at least not just now).   The return of the Time Lords served to draw a line under the Time War as we discover that the Doctor’s been sugar-coating his memories of them ever-so-slightly.

Of course, those fans who’ve watched the old episodes were already aware that he was looking at the Time Lords through rose-tinted glasses, although the degree to which he was doing it, and the fact it was deliberate, came as a shock.

It turns out that the Master wasn’t the only Time Lord resurrected during the Time War, as its revealed that the mysterious narrator throughout part 1 isn’t only President of the Time Lords, but is also Rassilon (the assumption being that it’s THE Rassilon).   Sadly, it also quick becomes apparent that the rumours the 2nd Doctor referred to in the Five Doctors were true and he’s a bit mad.  Ever since Eccleston’s run, its been established that at the end of the Time War, the Doctor pulled the trigger on both the Daleks and the Time Lords.  I’ve always assumed that the loss of the Time Lords was an unavoidable side effect of getting rid of the Daleks, something the Doctor had no choice to do, in order to rid the universe of a great evil.   Now we know that that’s not the case.   When the Doctor got rid of the Time Lords, it was to stop them specifically, as they’d been hideously corrupted by their great power and the war, and were planning the destruction of all reality.  So while the Master is overjoyed to have brought the Time Lords back (granted, for his own purposes), he doesn’t understand why the Doctor is truely terrified by their reappearance.

It was interesting on more than one level.  The Doctor’s reaction to the Time Lords coming back reminded me very much of the 2nd Doctor’s reaction to them back in the War Games.  There, same as here, there was a real fear of these all-powerful beings (although the Time Lords back then weren’t nearly as blood-thirsty).  Seeing the Doctor terrified like that is a nice way of underlying just how powerful the Time Lords truely are, as its not often you see The Doctor that afraid.  Its also interesting, that for a storyline most thought would see the Time Lords restored, it in fact accomplishes the opposite, with the Doctor once again having to come to terms with his decision to end his race, and for the fans showing that, for now, the Time Lords are something that are gone, and should remain that way, hopefully ending the speculation as to when they’ll return.

(Of course, eventually a show-runner will have a killer idea involving non, or at least not-as, evil Time Lords and they’ll be back again, but for now its a done deal.)

So Steven Moffat’s first series will actually start with the Doctor in much the same Last of the Time Lords situation as he has been since the show returned, albeit I hope that this story will put a lid on the Time War and its impact on the Doctor, allowing Steven Moffat to explore the character in whole new ways.

Talking of which, it wouldn’t be fair to close out this post without mentioning Matt Smith’s first short scene as the Doctor, which I thought was brilliant.  It was nice how it called back to David Tennant’s first scene in the Children In Need short, as well as The Christmas Invasion with the comment about wanting to be ginger (after all, we know that he becomes a red-haired Merlin one day).    While very short, I was still impressed, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what Matt Smith brings to the role.  Watching Confidential it really gives you an impression of how he was thrown in at the deep end as well.

All in all, I was extremely happy with the End of Time.   RTD gave us a great conclusion not only to the 10th Doctor, but also to his era as a whole.  And for his finale, David Tennant gave us some of his most powerful acting, and found himself surrounded by superb actors, only further proving what a big name Doctor Who has become, and what a television event this finale was.

Yikes.  I’ve gotten a bit behind on my blogging.  Needless to say, there’ll be a full post on the End of Time coming soon (short version, I loved it), but in the meantime, here’s the trailer for Matt Smith’s first series coming later this year.   I’m really looking forward to seeing what it brings

This series of Sarah Jane Adventures has really flown past.  I guess that’s the effect of the two episodes a week format, but I couldn’t believe it was already the finale.

And this year, it was the return of those favourite monsters, the Slitheen.  While their appearances in the parent show have always been controversial (I like them, but even I’ll happily admit that Aliens in London was a mess and the fart gags were too much), they seem to have found a much happier home here, and its really nice to see new monsters returning and being a big deal rather than just the classics like Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans etc (I feel similar about seeing the Judoon turn up again in the Stolen Earth, and here in the series opener).

Of course, it wasn’t just the Slitheen who turned up, but another family from Raxacoricofallapatorius, the Blathereen, who were more than happy to help Sarah Jane and co deal with the Slitheen, and then offered them the hand (claw?) of friendship in the form of a plant that could end world hunger.

Needless to say, the plant isn’t what it seems, and it doesn’t take long before its spores are infecting all of London and Luke is ill from exposure to them.

The nice thing is that pretty much everyone gets the chance to shine in this finale.  Well, ok Luke ends up ill, but he still appears more than he did in half the stories in this series, and I’m willing to put his illness down to Tommy Knight’s exams again (he may have been present, but it cut down on the number of lines he’d have had to learn at least).   Separating Clyde and Rani to deal with events at the school with K9′s help, while Sarah Jane and Mister Smith deal with the Blathereen worked really well.

All in all, I think Sarah Jane Adventures continues to improve with each series.  I can’t think of a single duff story this year, and its interesting how some of the less publicised stories (specifically the Haunted House one) actually emerged as some of the strongest this year.  From a rights point of view, it’ll be interesting to see if they manage to keep K9 around for series 4, and I certainly hope they do, as his snarky relationship with Mister Smith has been great fun, and I’d love to see more of it.

A great series.  Roll on series 4

With his presence noticeably absent for the last few stories, this two-parter gave Luke some much-needed focus this series.

That said, I’m not entirely sure it worked. I didn’t entirely buy his falling out with Sarah Jane although the idea of Luke becoming more like a normal teenager is an interesting one that deserves a bit more focus I think. And the way he finally saved the day by tricking the Mona Lisa into summoning K9 was quite clever I thought.

There’s been a lot of chatter online rotating around the main aspect of this story. The Mona Lisa. Be it the painting itself, and whether or not the story contradicts City of Death, or the portrayal of Mona Lisa the episodes attracted a fair amount of discussion.

For the first, I don’t see that it did contradict City of Death. We know that Leonardo painted seven copies of the painting for Count Scarlioni. There’s nothing to say that all seven weren’t painted with the tainted paints and wouldn’t have reacted in the same way once they got close to the Abomination. We never saw the blank canvas of the painting either, so its quite possible “This is a fake” was still written underneath.

I loved Suranne Jones as the Mona Lisa. Personally I loved that they played the character completely against expectation.  It was a great laugh and very entertaining  I also liked the visual of the characters trapped in the paintings.  It was similar to what was done in Fear Her, although I think here the idea was a bit more successful, and removing Sarah Jane from events to allow the kids to shine made for a nice change of pace.

Now that was rather good.

The production team had previous said that Planet of the Dead had deliberately been a light-hearted runaround to compensate for how dark the remaining specials were going to be, and Waters of Mars did not disappoint.

From the outset it was obvious we were in for something different, as from the moment the Doctor realises where and when he is, he’s desperate to leave, but at odds with his own curiousity and tendency to interfere.  This eventually builds up to a wonderfully powerful scene with the Doctor walking away from the base, haunted by the chatter of the base crew trying to escape from the Water, and in some cases, failing.  The pain on the Doctor’s face there is very affecting, and leads directly into his subsequent actions.

And what a surprise they were.  I was expecting the Doctor to surprise us, but to the extent that he does, was downright scary.  We’re presented with the Doctor having a breakdown, and the responsibility of being the last of the Time Lords finally weighs on him too much and pushes him over the edge.

Back as far as New Earth, the 10th Doctor has set himself up as the ultimate authority in the universe and here that is his undoing.  He’s on  his own and (as Donna said in Runaway Bride) needs someone to stop him, and more than that, just keep him grounded and give him a friend.  Donna’s eventual fate affected the Doctor briefly and has put him on this slope where he’s pushed away all those that could’ve helped him.  We can only hope that his realisation of what he’s done, combined with the glimpse of Ood Sigma has led the Doctor to realise just how much he’s hurting and needs help.

I guess back in the day, the Doctor could always be more relaxed in his interference.  Despite his protests, there would’ve been a reassurance that should he push things too far, the Time Lords would’ve stepped in.  The loss of those Time Lords have finally forced the Doctor to face up to the responsibilities he always ran away from, and perhaps now the Time Lord’s policy of non-interference doesn’t look so nonsensical.   Perhaps the reason they ignored all those evils in the universe, was simply because they knew that eventually they would be tempted to abuse their power in the way the Doctor now has, and ultimately become much worse than anything they’d previously stopped.   Much easier to have the Doctor running around, who they can clamp down on should they need to.

The other aspects of the story were equally successful.  The water monsters were creepy, and terrifying in the way that a single droplet of water would turn people into them.  The most effective deaths by far being Steffi’s (as she is trapped in the room with the water pouring in, watching a video message from her children knowing her fate is inescapable) and Roman’s, as he tells the others to go on without him after a single drop falls on him.

And there was even a nod to the Ice Warriors

This was a superb setup for the final two-parter.  I can’t wait to see what they’ve got planned, and I’m very glad to see the return of John Simm as the Master.

Following on from The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith was always going to be a tough job.   How do you follow up having the Doctor guest star?

With a really solid story apparently.

This was a pretty standard haunted house affair.  Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani head out to help Professor Rivers investigate a haunted Manor where people have seen ghosts and disappeared for years.  It soon emerges that at the centre of things is Erasmus Darkening, an Alchemist from the 17th century.

This was a really nicely done story for one thing in particular.  Its atmosphere.  The production team weren’t afraid to really build up a creepy atmosphere in the house as they piled on the mysteries of who (or what) Erasmus Darkening was, why do the ghosts keep appearing, and what is prowling around the grounds of the Manor?  The whole production really relished the haunted house aspect of the story, and was all the more enjoyable for it.

Noticeably absent though was Luke.  I’ve noticed him getting sidelined quite frequently throughout this series (especially noticeable during the Mad Woman in the Attic) and its down to the real life issues of Tommy Knight having to sit his GCSE’s.  With the actors playing Clyde and Rani being a bit older, exams aren’t an issue for them, but it does still leave a slightly strange feeling to a story, when Sarah Jane is heading out on adventures and leaving her son behind.

Fortunately it didn’t detract too much from this story though.  There was a great supporting cast (with the possible exception of the Professor’s assistant, a character I didn’t think worked well at all and felt out of place in this production), and it was nice to see Smallville’s Major Zod, Callum Blue in his guest role as Lord Marchford, the restless ghost working against Darkening and longing to be reunited with his children.

Another great story in this series of Sarah Jane Adventures.  And I can’t finish off the review without mentioning the nice little nod to the upcoming Dr Who specials, when Clyde and Rani are trapped in the shed, and the creature knocks on the door four times

It was the Sarah Jane Adventures 2-parter everyone was waiting on, as David Tennant turned up as the Doctor just in time to disrupt Sarah Jane’s wedding.

I’d already been warned about the Doctor not appearing till the very end of the first episode, and with the whole wedding obviously a setup, I was intrigued to see how it played out over the 20-or-so minutes.  I was pleasantly surprised how genuinely it was done and how successfully over such a short space of time.  You really got a good look at the growing relationship between Sarah and Peter and it all felt quite genuine.   It was only once Sarah put on the engagement ring that things got forced, but up until then I was really impressed that the script had done such a good job on a relationship that was obviously being manipulated from the get-go.

Of course, everyone was waiting on David Tennant’s appearance, and he certainly didn’t disappoint.  We’ve not had any new Doctor Who since Planet of the Dead, and here he really was firing on all cylanders, however cleverly the script didn’t let the Doctor dominate the proceedings too much.

It would’ve been the easiest thing in the world to have the Doctor waltz in and save the day, however the script walked that fine line brilliantly, by having the Doctor team up with the kids, and putting them (or specifically Clyde) into the position of saving the day.  While the Doctor is still a force to be reckoned with, the show didn’t forget that he was just a guest star.   In many ways, the 10th Doctor found himself very much in the position of the 9th, empowering others to take action, rather than sorting things out himself.

There were a couple of really nice little stand out moments for me . Firstly was probably the near-delight in K9′s voice when the Doctor disrupts the wedding.  That was quite a sweet moment.  But mainly, there was Luke, Clyde and Rani getting to see around the TARDIS console room.  It was a brilliant wish-fulfillment moment and also gave us a great look around the console room.  A moment that I can’t help but find especially powerful knowing that that particular console room will shortly be on its way out.  Since we know this story was the final thing filmed by David Tennant, it also felt like a last-hurrah for the console room as well, and a nice little tribute to it.

It has to be said that this series of Sarah Jane Adventures is really at the top of its game.  With the gap year leaving us without a regular series of the parent show this year, its great to see the spin-offs doing so well.  Its perhaps just a pity Sarah Jane Adventures wasn’t shown earlier to avoid the shadow of Waters of Mars hanging over it.

With the second story of Sarah Jane Adventures series 3, we find our story told in flashback format, as a schoolboy encounters  an older Rani, living alone and haunted by the past.  Prompted by him, Rani tells the story of the day everything went wrong.

I found this an overall enjoyable story.  The funfair was well used, and I liked the idea that the alien wasn’t actually evil, just unable to control its own power, having been separated from its ship which was itself attempting to self-repair having crashed many years ago.

Less successful I thought was the framing device set in the future.  While effective in part 1, towards the end, the resolution of the plot, whereby an errant comment from Rani results in Sarah Jane and co vanishing from her life, I thought felt a bit tacked on.  It would’ve been nice if there had been a bit more build up to it in the present day sequences I think.

It was nice though, having an episode that focused on Rani.  The fact she feels like she’s just a standin for Maria was well done, and nicely contrasted with her best friend from her old home, who similarly feels abandoned, only by Rani who’s told him all the stories of her adventures with Sarah Jane, while he’s been left behind.

There were some nice treats in this story as well, as we’re teased with the Doctor’s appearance in the next story, but we also get a couple of quick clips of the third and fourth Doctors as the ship views Sarah Jane’s timeline.

I also liked the twist concerning “the darkness”.  Throughout Doctor Who and Torchwood over the last three/four years, whenever something ominous is happening, there’s always characters standing around saying “the darkness is coming!!!!”.   It was effective the first couple of times, but now (for me at least) its played out, so I was groaning when the ship started talking about the darkness in Sarah Jane’s mind.

So when it was turned on its head, and revealed that the darkness was the black hole, which the ship needed to power its systems, I was happily surprised.  A nice misdirection there, and also it meant that K9 was coming back full time.  It was great to see him come back to the attic, and the snippiness towards him from Mr Smith was fun.  Of course, both characters fullfill basically the same role, so it’ll be interesting to see how K9 and Mr Smith are used over the coming episodes.