Lull

Even in Lego, this scene makes me sniffle.

Life’s been a little low on the Doctor Who quotient the past few days. After watching “The Day of the Doctor”, I completely forgot about “The Time of the Doctor” (because I’m not very fond of it) and my husband, while he likes it, didn’t feel like subjecting me to it, apparently. I’ve been wanting to watch some Third Doctor episodes, to finally get a good feel for him and to watch the Roger Delgado Master for the first time, but we’ve been busy with a number of other things. Now that we have a bit more time, we started watching the Harry Potter movies again, so that’s kind of gotten me off track again.

We have watched “City of Death” and “The Happiness Patrol,” and I’ve listened to the Fifth Doctor audio “Loups-Garoux,” but I haven’t felt like sitting down and writing a review on them. I’m not sure I’ll get there, so here are some short statements on them.

• “City of Death” (Fourth Doctor/Romana II) was fantastic. The story is great – one of the best ever – but what really floored me in this episode was the dialogue: snappy, brilliant, and eccentric.
• “The Happiness Patrol” (Seventh Doctor/Ace) was surreal, as in, “What was the writer on and where can I get me some of that?” But I enjoyed it quite a bit, possibly because it was so out there. I think the point of it (the main character forcing everyone into her vision of “happiness”) has been rehashed a lot in other works since this one and has become a bit banal, but it still works even viewing it now.
• “Loups-Garoux” (Fifth Doctor/Turlough) was a good enough audio, though I’m really not fond of spiritual/animalistic themes in Doctor Who, which I view as a science-based sci-fi. (The science is incredibly dodgy, but a lot of the point of the universe is that it’s based on science, even when the science looks like magic). I very much enjoyed getting to see more of Turlough, and was pleased to see him exhibiting his usual self-preservation, but putting his life on the line when someone he cared about was endangered.

Next up in the audio queue are some Charley Pollard audios – her introduction, as well as the two audios about the fallout from her being saved from death by the Doctor.

I leave you now with a fantastic video by bookshelfproductions on YouTube: a recreation of “The Day of the Doctor” in Legos. Watch it: you won’t be disappointed.

“The Destiny of the Doctor”

The Destiny of the Doctor is a series of eleven audiobooks produced by Big Finish and AudioGo as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. One book for each Doctor, they were published from January, 2013 to November, 2013, one book a month. Each book is read by an actor or actress who played one of that Doctor’s companions, except for “Night of the Whisper” which was read by Nicholas Briggs, and features a second performer playing an important guest role. The books in the series are listed below.

1. Hunters of Earth, read by Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
2. Shadow of Death, read by Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon)
3. Vengeance of the Stones, read by Richard Franklin (Mike Yates)
4. Babblesphere, read by Lalla Ward (Romana)
5. Smoke and Mirrors, read by Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)
6. Trouble in Paradise, read by Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown)
7. Shockwave, read by Sophie Aldred (Ace McShane)
8. Enemy Aliens, read by India Fisher (Charley Pollard)
9. Night of the Whisper, read by Nicholas Briggs
10. Death’s Deal, read by Catherine Tate (Donna Noble)
11. The Time Machine, read by Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald)

Each book is a self-contained adventure, but they are all linked together by the appearance of the Eleventh Doctor in all of them, contacting his previous incarnations to ask them to do something for him. In most cases, it’s a seemingly simple task such as, “Make sure this object doesn’t get destroyed.” Of course, much of the time, the message gets to the Doctor just before the object is about to be destroyed, so the Doctor must figure out how to prevent it. Even though the adventures are fun in and of themselves, the introduction of this plot point makes you want to keep reading the series, to find out what other things the Doctor needs done and why he needs them. (The realization of this was a bit jarring for me. I bought the entire series of books at once, then listened to the Doctors I was most interested in, namely the Tenth Doctor and the Fifth Doctor. The appearances of the Eleventh Doctor were fun, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. Then I listened to the Eleventh Doctor’s book, and at some point, he started talking about all the things he had asked his previous incarnations to do, and I smacked myself in the forehead and stopped listening to it, so that I could go back and listen to the other ten first. Sigh.)

Looking over the series as a whole, I enjoyed it very much: the adventures are fun in and of themselves. Some are better than others (my particular favorites are Babblesphere, Shockwave, Night of the Whisper, and Death’s Deal), but all of them are good. All of the performances by the readers and the guest actors were great, and if all audiobooks have performances of this quality, I’d buy and listen to more. (I’ve been told by more experienced audiobook listeners that quality varies quite a bit. Maybe these are great because all of the readers are experienced actors and very familiar with the universe? I don’t know.)

Reviews of the individual eleven novels below. I’ve included an intro for each novel, and spoilers are pretty minimal.

Hunters of Earth, by Nigel Robinson. Read by Carole Ann Ford, featuring the First Doctor and Susan Foreman

Early in the time that the Doctor and Susan spent on Earth, Susan is having problems fitting in and finding friends. A boy in her class named Cedric tries to help her fit in by doing things with her and listening to the Beatles with her, but her other classmates begin to turn on her as if controlled by something, attacking her physically and yelling, “Aliens get out!” She and the Doctor must figure out what’s causing all of this.

This is an interesting exploration of the difficulties a normal teenager has with finding her place among her peers, not even considering an alien teenager. As the danger begins to grow, the story does a great job of dropping hints as to what physically is causing the violent attacks without explaining who or why, letting you solve the mystery along with the Doctor. The mysterious Mr. Rook, a teacher at the school, throws a spanner into the situation, and you’re not quite sure what side he’s on.

I will say, though, that this book is completely worth reading for the sole purpose of listening to Ms. Ford. As I stated above, she reads the book and plays all of the character voices except for Cedric, who is played by the guest actor. This means you hear her reading the novel as well as playing Susan, the Doctor, Mr. Rook, and other minor characters, and she is superb. Ms. Ford was at least seventy-two at the time of the recording, and you can tell that from her normal reading voice, but when she plays Susan, she sounds like a teenager. Then she effortlessly switches into the stuffy, slightly offended cadence of the First Doctor – she was amazing as the Doctor! And then, as Mr. Rook, her formal, disdainful drawl is perfect. I’ve listened to all of the novels, and in my opinion, none of the readers is as perfect and talented as she is.

Shadow of Death, by Simon Guerrier. Read by Frazer Hines, featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot

The Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie land on a planet which inexplicably exists orbiting a pulsar. A human expedition has landed here to investigate the ruins of a city on this planet, to try to figure out who built it and how they managed to survive. The extraordinary effects of the pulsar has caused time pockets on the planet, and so the members of the expedition are trapped in time zones that run at different rates, and meanwhile, a strange shadow is hunting people down and killing them.

This is one of the most interesting of the books because of the time games it plays, with areas of time running far faster than others (for example, standing in one time zone, the characters see other characters in a different time zone that are acting normally but look like statues). Because of this, everything is very mysterious until the Doctor figures out what’s going on, and in this case, he’s really the only one who can resolve the situation. There was only one disappointing thing about this audiobook: due to the quality of Mr. Hines’ voice, he sounded far more like Mr. Davison than Mr. Troughton, and it was very difficult to not picture the Fifth Doctor as the Doctor in this book.

Vengeance of the Stones, by Andrew Smith. Read by Richard Franklin, featuring the Third Doctor, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, and Lieutenant Mike Yates

During a routine flying exercise, a squad of RAF pilots in Scotland encounter an unidentified energy discharge and one of their planes is lost without a trace. The Brigadier and the Doctor arrive to investigate, seconding Lieutenant Mike Yates, who is very familiar with the area. They find the missing pilot, delirious and walking across the countryside, and follow him to a circle of standing stones. They find that the mysterious phenomenon is linked to the multiple menhir circles scattered around the area.

Getting a bit of backstory on Mike Yates was definitely a treat, but unfortunately, the rest of this story was rather predictable and banal. It wasn’t bad; just average. I did like the ending, as it wasn’t a good, happy, everyone-lives kind of ending.

Babblesphere, by Jonathan Morris. Read by Lalla Ward, featuring the Fourth Doctor and Romana

The Doctor and Romana land on a human colony which was gone to seed. They discover that the colony developed a computerized mindlink technology to help people collaborate with each directly, to become more productive, but they succumbed to the temptation of oversharing, making it compulsory for everyone to join the network so that everyone’s thoughts were broadcast to everyone at all times. The addictive information-sharing crippled the colony, as people stopped working and taking care of themselves as they sought the latest information about everyone else.

This story was Facebook/Twitter gone wild, and while it went a bit beyond the believable sphere, it was a great dystopian portrait of a society destroyed by the thoughtless spread of technology. The book was enhanced by the superb dialogue written for the Doctor and Romana; they were clever and hilarious, perfectly in character with their portrayals on the TV show. A couple of the elements of the story were a bit predictable, but did not detract from the overall enjoyment.

Smoke and Mirrors, by Steve Lyons. Read by Janet Fielding, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Tegan Jovanka, and Nyssa

The Doctor is summoned to an amusement park in 1920s America, where his friend, Harry Houdini, requests his assistance in investigating some phenomenon he’s been unable to explain rationally: as a stage magician who’s seen things with the Doctor that have always had an explanation, he knows that if he can’t figure it out, it’s likely that it’s caused by something extraterrestrial and may endanger the world. While investigating, the Doctor and Houdini are separated from the other companions, and both groups are attacked.

While there’s plenty to explore and figure out in this story, the real tale here is Houdini’s – him and his relationship with the Doctor – and while it’s interesting, it’s a little too pat. However, there’s lots of danger and running and great problem-solving by both the Doctor and his companions.

Trouble in Paradise, by Nev Fountain. Read by Nicola Bryant, featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown

Unlike most of the other stories in this series, in this one, the Eleventh Doctor’s message comes at the very beginning, asking the Doctor to obtain an energy source called an omniparadox. His search lands him on the Santa Maria just before Columbus makes landfall at Hispaniola and encounters the natives for the first time. Columbus finds the Doctor and Peri on the ship and assumes that the Doctor is a native chieftain who has somehow snuck on board, and starts trying to figure out how to manipulate this savage into finding gold and treasure for him.

This book reminds me very much of the other Big Finish audios in which the Doctor meets historical figures. Columbus is portrayed in a very over-the-top manner as an ambitious man who’s completely full of himself and jealous of anyone who might be better. I can imagine that if you aren’t used to this type of character in Doctor Who (and I can’t think of any in the modern TV show), this audiobook will be very off-putting. The Doctor’s dealings with Columbus are very enjoyable, but the final conflict was not very interesting and ruined an otherwise fun and campy story.

Shockwave, by James Swallow. Read by Sophie Aldred, featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace McShane

The Doctor and Ace land on a space station orbiting a human-inhabited planet that is about to get destroyed by a shockwave pulse from its sun. The population of the planet has mostly been evacuated, and there’s only one ship left, the Obscura, and because of the time winds around the star preventing the TARDIS from dematerializing, the Doctor and Ace must flee the star with the rest of the humans.

Unlike the other books, which concerned themselves mostly with the actions and interactions of the characters, this one took the time to describe the planet and its destruction, painting a vivid picture of what was happening and heightening the tension as the ship attempted to outrace the shockwave. Add to this the distrust the humans have for these two people that appeared out of nowhere and have no identification, and the mystery of why the Doctor landed here in the first place, and you’ve got a great story. Ms. Aldred did a fantastic job voicing her Ace, of course, as well as the Scottish rolling Rs of the Doctor.

Enemy Aliens, by Alan Barnes. Read by India Fisher, featuring the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard

In 1930s London, the Doctor receives a message from his future self about an etheric disturbance, but the message is cut off, only telling him that William Tell is important. He and Charley investigate the disturbance and discover a sideshow performer named William Tell who claims to have an eidetic memory, but when he performs on stage, he gets his details wrong. When he’s murdered in front of the audience, Charley is blamed and she and the Doctor must clear their names.

An action tale with a pre-war feel and multiple people with different goals, this is a good basic Doctor Who adventure. What I really enjoyed about this particular book, though, was the author’s style. The story is told entirely from Charley’s point of view, and her descriptions and internal monologues are entertaining. She’s human, so she doesn’t think like the Doctor, but she has an unusual style of seeing the world, and she really appealed to me. Time to listen to more of her audios, I think.

Night of the Whisper, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright. Read by Nicholas Briggs, featuring the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, and Captain Jack Harkness

On a planet called New Vegas, run by a businessman (read: mob boss) by the name of Wolfsbane, the Doctor, Rose, and Jack investigate the corruption of the world, as well as the sudden appearance of a vigilante called the Whisper who seems bent on bringing justice (read: death) to all evildoers.

I really enjoyed this story. It begins with a nice pulp fiction, dime-store detective novel feel, but by the end, it’s back in familiar Doctor Who territory, exploring the gray areas of evil, crime, and justice. Along the way, there’s plenty of action and comedy.

The thing that really made it, though, was Mr. Briggs’ portrayal of the Ninth Doctor. You might recognize him as the guy that voices the Daleks and the Cybermen (and other monsters) throughout the run of the modern show, but he’s been working as an actor and writer on Doctor Who properties since the 1980s, and has directed a number of Big Finish audios. His impersonation of the Ninth Doctor was, to overuse a particular word, fantastic. It was a delight to hear the Ninth Doctor (who is to me the rarest Doctor, the one we’ve seen the least of) again, and I was completely enthralled. If the BBC ever lets Big Finish do Ninth Doctor audios with a different actor (because we all know Mr. Eccleston won’t do it), Mr. Briggs will certainly be able to carry that torch.

Death’s Deal, by Darren Jones. Read by Catherine Tate, featuring the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble

The Doctor and Donna follow a distress signal to a planet called Death’s Deal, which has the reputation of being the deadliest planet in the universe. Soon after being joined by a group of thrillseeking sightseers who pay for the ability to claim that they’ve touched down on the surface of the planet and survived, the tourists’ ship and the TARDIS are swallowed by huge monsters that burst out of the ground. The Doctor must keep everyone alive while trying to locate the TARDIS.

While this is not the most complex of the novels, it’s full of action and vivid descriptions of this violent and rather inexplicable world – after all, how could an ecosystem of organisms completely bent on destroying everything around them, including each other, actually survive? The characterizations and dialogue were spot-on, and I really enjoyed this book, particularly because both the Doctor and Donna were perfectly written.

The Time Machine, by Matt Fitton. Read by Jenna Coleman, featuring the Eleventh Doctor

The Doctor visits Oxford University in 2013 to investigate a professor who is building an actual working time machine, centuries before humans discover time travel.

I’m not writing any more of a teaser, because it’ll just give away the plot. We know from the previous books that the Eleventh Doctor is up against something very dangerous and enlists the help of his previous incarnations to defeat it, and the tie-together is pretty incredible, and if you’ve made it this far through the audiobooks, you don’t want to miss this. However, the lead-in is pretty straightforward, and if you’re wondering if this book is worth it if you haven’t listened to the previous books, I’d have to say, probably not: the cool thing about this story is how all the rest of the books led up to it.

Ms. Coleman does a great job of playing the Doctor: while she’s not particularly convincing (and that’s no insult to her: I’d say very few people could play Mr. Smith’s Doctor well), she still captures his eccentricity and enthusiasm. I think she did the Eleventh Doctor’s voice through all of the books, because they all sounded the same.

 

OMG! FDR! BBQ!

Paul McGann, in a talk to the Cambridge Union Society, mentioned that production just started on a sequel to the Five(ish) Doctors Reboot! If I wasn’t at work right now, I’d be squealing.

Oh. Em. Gee.

(Okay, enough with the silly fangirly jargon. I’m too old for this. Except I am so totally a fangirl.)

Eeeeeeeee!

According to Geekcritique, at a con recently, Colin Baker let slip that the BBC is planning to release a 50th anniversary box DVD set (and blu-ray, hopefully), and it will include The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot! It’s just a rumor at this point, but I am BOUNCING. I adore FDR – it’s the best part of the 50th, in my opinion – and have always wanted my own copy of it, and though I already have “The Day of the Doctor” on blu-ray, I will buy it again if it comes with FDR.

I sure hope this is true!

 

Fish Doctors and spaces

 

Time to celebrate!

Have you seen the Hugo Award nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)? If you’re expecting “The Day of the Doctor” to be there, you won’t be disappointed. Here’s the list!

• An Adventure in Space and Time written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Terry McDonough (BBC Television)
• Doctor Who: “The Day of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Television)
• Doctor Who: “The Name of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Television)
• The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot written and directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television)
• Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
• Orphan Black: “Variations under Domestication” written by Will Pascoe, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space/BBC America)

Did you see the fourth one listed? The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot!!! Congratulations to Mr. Davison!

I’m not really sure how this qualifies for a Hugo Award, since they are awarded for “the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements,” according to Wikipedia, and while the show refers to Doctor Who, it’s not in itself a science fiction or fantasy work. However, I am elated! Personally, I feel that FDR was the best product of the 50th anniversary. Yes, I love “The Day of the Doctor” so much that I still watch it at least once every two weeks, but FDR was just brilliant. While poking so much fun at Doctor Who‘s production, fandom, and mythos, it was also a wonderful love letter to everyone involved over the past fifty years, including the fans. It was also unapologetic: if you weren’t a hardcore fan who knows about the whole history of the show, you missed some of the jokes. But if you were, hearing Mr. Davison quietly tell the production manager, “Sorry, must dash,” made your heart leap. I know that FDR isn’t going to win this award, but I really hope it does.

As an aside, my favorite scene in FDR is when the three Doctors walk in and out of the BBC Wales studio’s back door and the music changes from classic style to modern style, and they’re just so confused.

Readerly Geek just posted pics of her #geekspace, so I thought I would do mine. Well, I have a lot more geek space in my house, but it’s not all in one place. But I thought I’d post a picture of my Doctor Who shelf. This isn’t my full collection of DW paraphernalia: my books and comics are on a different bookshelf, cosplay stuff is in a box, and there are toys and figures scattered throughout the house, but this is the display shelf. Prominent items:

• DVD collection: Modern show is missing a couple as we’ve lent them to Carl and Sandy. Classic show still has quite a ways to go.
• Royal Mail commemorative stamp set
• John Smith replica pocket watch toy: Terrible quality, but I had to have it.
• TARDIS travel journal: Includes my trip to Victoria to see Mr. Tennant.
• Cricket ball: Still unsigned by Mr. Davison and Mr. Tennant. Some day.
• Eleventh, Tenth, and Fourth Doctors’ sonic screwdrivers: One toy, two replica remote controls
• Brainy specs and plastic celery (luckily has not turned purple yet)

 

 

 

“11 Doctors, 11 Stories”

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, the BBC released a series of eleven short stories, one for each Doctor and written by eleven different authors of note, then published it this month in a collection called Doctor Who: 11 Doctors 11 Stories. I’m only now getting into the alternate Doctor Who media and am very apprehensive about buying things, because I can never judge the quality of the material beforehand, but so far, in general, I’ve been pleased with the books, comics, and audio plays so far, and this collection is no exception. I enjoyed all but one of the eleven stories.

Here’s the list of the short stories (in Doctor order), with a brief setup of the situation in the story and maybe some opinion. No real spoilers.

“A Big Hand for the Doctor,” by Eoin Colfer: Ok, I have to admit, I didn’t finish this story. I really couldn’t stand the writing style and gave up  halfway through. My husband says it’s a good story, and I will try to finish it some other day.

“The Nameless City,” by Michael Scott: This story is hard to describe without giving things away – even summarizing the first scene will be a spoiler – so I won’t try. It’s very Second Doctor, letting him act the fool while he figures out what’s going on, and Jamie is also very Jamie.

“The Spear of Destiny,” by Marcus Sedgwick: The Third Doctor and Jo Grant investigates a (surprise!) spear in a local museum that seems to affect time in weird ways. As befits the Third Doctors, there’s more action in this story than a lot of the others, and it also takes a stab (sorry!) at showing how legends and myths are made.

“The Roots of Evil,” by Phillip Reeve: The Fourth Doctor and Leela land on an enormous tree floating in space that houses an entire colony of people. The concept behind this story and its setting is very cool, though I was a little disappointed with the motivation of the villain. The trip, though, is worth it.

“Tip of the Tongue,” by Patrick Ness: During World War II, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa land in an English town in which the children are playing with a new toy that hooks to your tongue and speaks the absolute truth about yourself and what you are thinking. This is one of my favorite stories in the book, because it explores the effect the toys have on the people’s lives; this kind of introspection is one of the things that Doctor Who can do so well. The Doctor is almost completely incidental to the theme.

“Something Borrowed,” Richelle Mead: The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown attend the wedding of the son of a friend, a species that performs a physical transformation similar to regeneration except only when they get married. This story is a simple adventure, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun read.

“The Ripple Effect,” by Malorie Blackman: The Seventh Doctor and Ace are stuck in a space-time bubble and have to blow up a star to push themselves out of it, but this has unforeseen consequences. The concept of this story is fantastic, and the Doctor and Ace get into a fascinating philosophical argument, but I didn’t like the resolution. It was a good enough story, but it really could have been a lot better.

“Spore,” by Alex Scarrow: The Eighth Doctor lands in an American town and discovers that what seems like a space virus has killed all the inhabitants. I really liked the atmosphere of this story and the final resolution was interesting.

“The Beast of Babylon,” by Charlie Higson: The Ninth Doctor makes friends with a girl on a planet that is attacked by cosmic creatures. As he would say, this story is fantastic. It develops the character of the girl and the nature of the threat gradually, keeping you reading to find out how it all fits together. There’s also a very cool tie-in to the Ninth Doctor’s first television story, “Rose.”

“The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage,” by Derek Landy: The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones land in the story from a book that Martha read when she was a child. You might think this is a revisit to the Land of Fiction, but it’s not. This is one of the weaker stories in the set, because the first couple of parts are uninteresting (it tried and failed to set up a creepy, surreal atmosphere) and the very final part of the resolution is unsatisfying (the previous parts of the resolution were cool).

“Nothing O’Clock,” by Neil Gaiman: The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond arrive on Earth in 2010 only to find that the entire planet is uninhabited. Remember at the top that I said that the stories were released individually and then as a collection? Now, if you don’t want to buy the collection, I will urge you to buy this one story. It is completely worth it. This is absolutely a wonderful story. I won’t tell you any more about it, because you have to read it.

“The Light at the End”

My current project at work is something purely visual, requiring no verbal or critical thought, which is unusual for me, because my previous projects all involved writing, usually documentation. While I’m working, I’m usually listening to music because it’s something that isn’t intrusive; I can continue to work and write with music in the background. However, I realized yesterday that while I’m working on something purely visual, I could be listening to something with actual narrative. I had purchased some Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays a week or so ago, so I downloaded one (luckily, work has a high-speed connection) and played The Light at the End while I worked, as an experiment to see if I could be productive while listening. (The result, by the way, is that I think I was more productive than before, because while my visual mind was working, my narrative mind, which is usually wandering far away and often distracting me with thoughts of “you should go look that up on the Internet!” was absorbed in listening to the story. I finished more work than I normally do in an afternoon.)

I had never listened to any audio plays of any type before this. Well, ok, when I was a kid, the morning radio program my mother used to play every day had two short humorous bits called Chicken Man and The Story Lady, which were about five minutes apiece and were short skits. But as far as I know, the U.S. doesn’t have a tradition of radio plays that lasted into the era of television, while the UK does. If you look on the BBC iPlayer website, there are radio dramas playing every day. Is there radio drama at all in the U.S.? I don’t really know, and I wouldn’t even know where to look.

So, I went into The Light at the End without any clue as to what to expect. I knew that it wasn’t an audiobook (another thing I’ve never experienced, but that will change soon), and that the original actors for Doctors Four through Eight were in it, as well as some companions, but beyond that, it was a fresh new experience for me. And it was a great one!

I had been afraid that I wouldn’t be able to follow what was going on without any visual cues. Who was talking? What were they doing? Can you really see what people are doing? I found that the writers and actors paint a very complete picture of what’s going on. First, the Doctors are all very distinct. Tom Baker and Colin Baker have very unique voices. Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor has a different accent from everyone else and rolls his Rs magnificently. Peter Davison and Paul McGann sometimes sound a bit similar, but you can usually tell from the words that are put in their mouth which is which; the Doctors all have different personalities and this extends to the way they speak and the words they choose. The companions were harder to distinguish simply by voice (except Leela; no one sounds like Leela), but again, their dialogue was very in-character. Second, the audio plays have sound effects that explain what’s going on, from explosions, to footsteps moving around in stereo, to fogged dialogue to denote dream sequences or characters being spirited away. Third, if something’s not clear, it was made clear in the dialogue, e.g. “Oh, look, here comes Ace.” Thus, I can definitely see that the script was written with its medium in mind, and I found that it was just as enjoyable as a TV episode.

I also very much enjoyed the story itself. (No real spoilers here, other than what you can glean from the episode’s summary and list of actors.) Something’s going wrong in an English town on November 23, 1963, something that will end in catastrophe, and the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors, along with their companions, are trying to figure it out and fix it. Of course, part of the charm of this story is that you have five classic Doctors interacting with each other, but the story is robust and a lot of fun, compelling you to stick around to see just how it all comes out. All of the actors do a great job of bringing their characters to life, and you can really picture them swaggering around (for the Doctors, at least). Ace’s and Peri’s youthful enthusiasm were especially delightful, and, for me anyway, it was nice to meet Charley Pollard for the first time. I would also like to note that the play also provides some very sweet surprises for fans.

Since I was working at the time, I didn’t really get to pay too much attention to the technobabble details of the plot, so I plan to relisten to this sometime, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think this is a great audio play and was a terrific choice for a first-time listener. And, as the classic Doctors’ complement to “The Day of the Doctor” 50th anniversary special for the modern show, it was a great tribute to the old show.

Ramblings

The Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who: Legacy

Sixth Doctor released in Doctor Who: Legacy!! I’m stoked. First, it’s a new Doctor, yay! Second it’s a classic Doctor, double yay! There was a Reddit interview that had implied that the game was only going to be dealing with the reboot series for a while, so I am very happy that the statement didn’t apply to Doctors. My understanding is that the Seventh Doctor will be released soon. I am crossing my fingers for the Fifth Doctor in the next couple of months (though I hope he’s not a healer; I expect he will be, though). The Sixth Doctor is a gold character, and his special power is poison – does 3% or 6% damage each turn for five turns. I think it’s a very appropriate power for him.

One thing that I’m glad the show didn’t do is give the Time Lords too much psychic power. As far as I can tell, Time Lords have telepathy (ability to read a person’s mind and/or transfer thoughts to a person), but usually require touching the target to do it. They have some amount of mind control (the Doctor used it sparingly in the classic series, and the Master used it a lot), but they don’t have other psychic powers. The only instance of telekinesis happened when the Tenth Doctor was infused with the psychic energy of all of the people on the entire planet (“The Last of the Time Lords”), and there otherwise haven’t been instances of other Time Lord psychic abilities, though other species have demonstrated them (clairvoyance, precognition, psychometry, etc.).

This is a good limit. The Time Lords are more powerful than humans, but they’re not all-powerful and they’re certainly not perfect, giving them room to be good heroes and good villains. Moreover, even though their powers are difficult to use, requiring physical contact with the target, the Doctor limits himself with his power because he is morally opposed to reading another’s thoughts without a very good reason. This self-imposed limitation brings him closer to us humans, which makes what he is – the lone, vulnerable man doing everything he can to save the universe – even more heroic.

One thing that doesn’t come up much is that the different incarnations of a Time Lord can telepathically communicate with each other. It happens in “The Three Doctors,” and also happens in the graphic novel The Forgotten (though in that case, the separate incarnations were projections within the Matrix). The communication does take effort: in both cases, the all the Doctors had to concentrate to make contact; they can’t read each others’ minds casually.  I think it might have also happened in “The Day of the Doctor,” though not nearly as formally. Once Eleven refuses to fire the moment, both he and Ten say that the Daleks don’t know that there are three Doctors now. Immediately after this, War and Ten concentrate, then say

War Doctor: Oh! Oh, yes, that is good. That is brilliant!
Tenth Doctor: Oh, oh, oh, I’m getting that, too! That is brilliant!

Ten already said that having three Doctors was a great advantage, and then he gets the final revelation. It could easily be that they thought it through and figured it out at the same time, but it really does sound like they read the idea from Eleven.

Who knows? I like the idea and choose to believe it. I love it when they use old ideas again, and I especially love it that they didn’t spell it out, leaving it as a fine story for those who don’t know, but a treat for those who do.

The greatest mystery

“The Day of the Doctor,” whether you liked it or not, was a pivotal episode in Doctor Who because changed the whole direction of the show, transforming the Doctor from the man mourning the deaths of billions of people to the man searching for his lost people. The story was very timey-wimey, and there have been countless discussions on the Internet about how it all fits together and whether or not the show maintains its already tenuous consistency. I’ve spent a few posts on this going over all of the details, because that’s the kind of thing I love. I’ve come up with my own theory on how a lot of it works, and I’m happy with it, even though I don’t think anyone else subscribes to it: my husband thinks it’s stupid.  However, I haven’t addressed the biggest mystery in the episode: In the Undergallery scene, were the statues under the shrouds played by Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy?

The Undergallery from The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot.

I truly believe that yes, they were. You see the scene from two different angles: from behind the statues in The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot (shown in the image here) and from the corridor in “The Day of the Doctor” (I couldn’t find a pic of it). The Doctor’s lines are different between the two scenes, but for efficiency’s sake, both scenes should have been shot in the same filming session. Though I know nothing about filmmaking, I would think that it would be more cost effective to do all scenes filmed in the same spot for the same purpose. And it doesn’t make sense to go through the effort of bringing in Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, and Jemma Redgrave and setting up the complex set, with all of the sand on the floor, for a completely separate filming.

The one true clue to this mystery are the statues. In both scenes, the statues have approximately the same positions. They’re both about the same height, which would indicate they are Mr. Davison and Mr. Baker. Interestingly, the statue to the right of the one in the back, which can’t be seen in this image but can be in “The Day of the Doctor,” is substantially shorter than these two, and that hints that it’s Mr. McCoy. In the later Undergallery scene, when the Zygons reveal themselves, all of the statues are taller (since the Zygons are huge) and the same height, so the figures under the shrouds in the first scene are not Zygons. (Not to mention, they’re not shaped like Zygons.)

Of course, none of this evidence is conclusive: there could easily be three other people under those shrouds, or they could be simple props. However, in this interview with Colin Baker (and it’s a great interview, by the way), he says this:

GGC: “I think I know the answer to this one, but Mary Jo would like to ask, were you really under the shrouds in the 50th anniversary special?”

CB: “We were.”

GGC: “Really?”

CB: “Well, we were!”

GGC: “OK, OK. I want to believe it so badly-“

CB: “Then you should believe it.”

So there. I believe that Mr. Baker is telling the truth, and Doctors 5 through 7 actually did appear in “The Day of the Doctor.” You have no idea how happy this makes me, to see that all of the classic Doctors had a part in the 50th anniversary (“The Night of the Doctor” is officially a part of the show). I love all of the Doctors, and their actors. Brilliant!

Somewhere else, the tea is getting cold

The trailer for “The Time of the Doctor” has just been released. It’s very short and doesn’t tell you anything, but whets your appetite for the upcoming Christmas special – which is exactly what trailers should do. I actually avoid most movie trailers because they tend to show you all the best parts of the movie and often show you the entire plot. What’s the point of seeing the movie if you already know what’s going to happen? On the other hand, I’ll watch the trailer for any Avengers universe movie. Yes, there are a few things other than Doctor Who which will command my attention.

I’m a little disappointed with the poem in the voiceover, done by Jenna-Louise Coleman. The words are

“And now it’s time for one last bow,

like all your other selves.

Eleven’s hour is over now.

The clock is striking twelve’s.”

The numbers in the poem are clearly meant to refer to Matt Smiths’ incarnation and Peter Capaldi’s incarnations, but with Clara doing the narration, she’s referring to them by their numbers, which is never done in the show – the Doctor doesn’t think of himself as “Eleven,” even though we in the fan base call him that because it’s the easiest way to refer to a specific incarnation. The Doctor of course knows which number incarnation he’s in, but he doesn’t think of himself as that number (I suppose much like the last member of a triplet doesn’t think of himself as “Three”). I’d prefer they keep the universe and the fanverse separate, but that’s probably the extremely pedantic me talking.

I received the 50th anniversary blu-ray in the mail on the 9th, one day before the actual release date. Gotta love Amazon pre-orders! The edition itself is unimpressive: it has the episode, “The Last Day” and “The Night of the Doctor” mini-sodes, the trailers, and a couple of behind-the-scenes special features. It does not have any of the “The Doctors Revisited” episodes that are included in the 50th anniversary package that’s available for streaming on Amazon. And the most disappointing part is that it doesn’t have “The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot,” which, if you’ve read older posts, you know that I absolutely love and want a hard copy of. I am hoping that sometime in the future there will be a more extensive release of the 50th anniversary content, and if it’s substantial, I will buy it.

The disc also came with a pack of 50th anniversary trading cards, which I haven’t opened because the pack is so pretty. I’m a sucker for collecting trading cards. I used to collect cards for shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation way back when, and I refuse to look at trading cards in stores because I know I will want to start collecting again. I really would love to collect these cards, but I can’t find them online; I think they haven’t been released yet. Dodged that bullet, at least for now.

Anyway, so I watched “The Day of the Doctor” again last night. We spent a lot of it searching for clues as to when the Eleventh Doctor forgets about what happened to the War Doctor. The sees the time fissure appear in the museum and says, “I remember this. Almost remember,” and that’s what we tried to figure out: at what point in the narrative did he no longer remember. He remembers the fissure and seems to remember the fez, but does not remember meeting the Eleventh Doctor when he was the Tenth Doctor. (Oh, I love how confusing discussing the Doctor’s self-meetings can become.) We came to the conclusion that it isn’t possible to sort it all out, and it’s better just to enjoy the show.

After all these viewings, tears still came to my eyes when the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors put their hands on the War Doctor’s to help him with firing the Moment. And the convergence of the thirteen Doctors on Gallifrey still makes my heart soar. And my husband still thinks my alternate timestream theory is bollocks. Life is good.

And now for something completely different. My friend and I are planning a trip to Great Britain next year. Neither of us has ever traveled abroad, and we chose the UK because we are both anglophiles. We’re planning to spend most of the time in London and a bit up in Scotland, but I’ve decided to insist on a trip to Wales to see, among other things, the Doctor Who Experience: after seeing what’s in that museum in “The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot,” especially the TARDIS console displays, I have to see it. I’ve also started to try drinking tea, so that I can really get the whole British experience while traveling. It’s something I’ve hated ever since I was a child, but, I had a cup of plain Earl Grey tea this morning, and it was pretty good. I think maybe my tastes have matured a little.