Rose Returns for Audio Adventures

Good news for Rose Tyler fans as she is about to be reunited with the Tenth Doctor in upcoming Big Finish productions 'The Tenth Doctor Adventures - Volume Two'. These are three hour long audio adventures. 

I was never a particular fan of Rose Tyler. I thought she was great in Series One with Christopher Eccleston but found her a little irritating when she was paired with the Tenth Doctor in Series Two. Nevertheless, Billie Piper was great in the role and at least the fans of the Tenth Doctor and Rose will be happy. As the first companion of the modern series, Rose is an important part of the Doctor Who history and its a great achievement for Big Finish to get hold of Billie Piper. It will certainly be interesting to hear her meet the Ice Warriors.

Doctor Who 10x05: Oxygen

Oxygen was one of the episodes of Series Ten that I was most looking forward to watching. The episode's writer, Jamie Mathieson, has been one of the best new writers to be hired during the Peter Capaldi years. Each of his stories, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline and The Girl Who Died, had something great about them. Yet, somehow, this episode just didn’t work for me.

The Doctor has ignored Nardole's protests and taken the Tardis the mining facility of Chasm Forge in response to a distress call. The first act is similar to The Ark in Space in that the three regular characters are travelling alone across the Space Station. The Doctor introduces us to one of the more interesting ideas for the future where companies charge the staff for use of oxygen was an interesting one. It's a nice expansion on the modern idea of paying for heating or water.

Soon our heroes meet up with the sole surviving crewmembers, who, have very little in the way of personality, despite there only being four of them. The alien, Dahh Ren, was distinguished through having blue and that was it. There's no further sense of who he was. Ivan and Abby had no discernible personality. Ivan's girlfriend died in the pre-titles sequence but it does not seem to have affected his reactions much. Both of these characters were angry and suspicious anyway. I think I preferred the students from Knock Knock to these guys.

One of the problems with this episode was how it all felt very familiar. The Space Station, Chasm Forge, felt visually very similar to Space Ships or Space Stations we’ve seen in other episodes like the Pentallian of 42 or the Sanctuary Base of The Impossible Planet. Whether the Chasm Forge were filmed in the same location or used recycled sets, I don't know. Next time the production team could have go for a tonally different look.

At least the few new ideas that were featured in this episode were good ones.  The idea that these companies would go as far as to kill their own staff and to use automated suits to save money was also good. But the execution of these two ideas were a bit mixed. 

The highlight of the episode was the interaction between the regular leads. The Doctor was well portrayed by Peter Capaldi. We get to see his rebellious side when he steers the Tardis from Earth to answer the distress signal. We see his selflessness when he saves Bill. Ultimately he is blinded by his experience and brought back to Earth. His arrogance has cost him and it will be interesting to see how he goes on from here.

Bill was also put through the wringer this week, what with almost dying of oxygen starvation and almost being killed. The sequence where she died felt very real. Her last memories being her mum was quite sweet.  The moment when she needs comfort from the Doctor and he cannot give it is cool.

Nardole got a lot of good character development this week which was a highlight of the episode. He stole the fluid link and acted in the role of the Doctor's conscience. It is now clear that his whole body is mechanical and not just his head. Apparently he has had a girlfriend before now.

The direction was good. The decision to shoot Bill's loss of oxygen as a POV shot was an interesting decision. The outside space scenes were also effectively shot, giving a sense of non-gravity. 

The Doctor going blind was an interesting move. Quite how this will be worked into the forthcoming episodes remains a mystery. As with the previous episode there is a promising opening but a dull middle. Let's hope Extremis will have a good middle and an ending. 

6/10

New Torchwood!

It's been announced that Torchwood will finally be getting a series 5 in the form of Big Finish Audio Format.  What makes this especially exciting is that the series is going to be overseen by Russell T Davies himself. With the BBC currently unwilling to revive the series, this is as close as we're going to get to new episodes. It will be interesting to see what the tone of the episodes will be. Will they be as camp as the first two series or will they capture the brilliance of Children of Earth? Time will tell.

Doctor Who 10x04: Knock Knock

Mike Bartlett has become well known for writing Doctor Foster so I was interested in seeing how he would write for a very different kind of Doctor. On the basis of this episode I would say it is not so well.

It seems that Bill, like previous companions created by Steven Moffat will alternate between travelling in the Tardis and living on Earth. This time it makes more sense given that she is focusing on studying. She and her student friends Harry, Shireen, Paul, Felicity and Pavel are searching for accomodation and seem to have been in luck when a Landlord offers them a huge empty house to stay in. It is too good to  be true. The Doctor helps Bill to move in but soon discovers that something is not quite right when the walls board up and people get trapped in the walls.

The cause of these problems are creepy alien insects called the Dryads. Creepy crawlies are always a good way of getting the audience to feel uncomfortable. The way they can crawl up people's shoes and swarm over them is an effective way to cause scares.

Deep in a tower in the house is a wooden woman, Eliza. She turns out to be the Land Lord's mother who has been preserved for many years. The wood-design around her body is quite good. It also helps the story to take on a darker significance. The Landlord is actually a recluse living with his mother. They both vanish in a cloud of insects.

This all leads to a disappointingly abrupt ending where the people are restored for some reason. Perhaps it took them twenty years to be fully absorbed. It still felt a little unexplained.

Overall this story was not spectacular. Haunted House stories are difficult to pull off in Doctor Who. As a Saturday night show there are limits as to how horrific the show can go.The ending is a sign of how a show can chicken out. Still, the guest cast were decent but overall I would say this is average fair.

6/10

The New K9

After months of nothing, development for the new K9 film, Timequake looks set to proceed now that they have unveiled the new design for K9.

This new model resembles the one from the 2010 television series, only with pointy ears. It's not a bad design, although it is very similar to the one that was used in the K-9 TV series. The laser snout certainly looks more powerful. The collar is a nice homage to the original. It will be interesting to see what Omega will looks like.

The film is now supposed to be released next year. Like the television series, this may get delayed further but it will probably come out eventually. While I don't think K9 really works as a leading character, it will be interesting to see a Doctor Who spin-off on the big screen.

Rogue One (2016)

Today is May the 4th, Star Wars day, which feels like just the right time to put up a short review for Rogue One. I didn’t bother seeing this film when it first came out last year. The Force Awakens was the next chapter in an ongoing story whereas Rogue One was merely a side story dealing with a plot thread we already knew about. To be honest, now that I’ve seen Rogue One, I’m glad I waited for the commercial release and didn't spend any extra money seeing it in the cinema.

The story follows the life and times of Jyn Erso, daughter of research scientist Galen Erso.
As a child, she witnesses her father, being taken by the Empire and her mother killed by the Empire. Jyn is taken in by Saw Gerrera. The story then cuts to many years later, Jyn has left Saw, for reasons we never see and is freed from imprisonment by the rebellion and is sent to reunite with Saw. What follows is a bit of a planet hop.

The supporting characters are fairly thinly sketched. Cassian, the main rebel shows an interesting side when he kills an informant but later can't kill Jyn's father for no good reason. It might have been more dramatic if he had killed Jyn's father and they still had to work together. Most of the characters say who they are and don’t demonstrate it. Jinn is meant to be a troublemaker but she does the right thing for most of the film. The droid K-2SO is a more successful element. The idea of an Imperial Droid being reprogrammed is new. He has a nice sarcastic personality. The pilot, Bodi Rook is memorable for being a pilot. There's not much more to him.

Chirrut Imwe is an easy character to like. JUst as George Lucas drew on Kurosawaiinfluences and wanted Obi-Wan to be played Toshiro Mifune, so Chirrut is a japanese style warrior in the style of a Zatoichi. It is a good thing to have a force user who is not a Jedi. It's a pity that his friend, Baze Malbus, has very little of interest and he just shoots things with guns.

The main villain is Director Krennic, the man who captured Jyn's father. Now that Moff Tarkin is taking over he ants to be known as the man who built the Death Star.It is quite a petty motivation for a villain and makes a change from galactic conquerers. He would be too boring for a main Star Wars film but is suitable here.

There's not much to say about Darth Vader because he is only in it for a short time. I like the fact that he lives on Mustufar which is effectively his birthplace. The notion o f Vader living on a volcano planet is one that goes back to the Leigh Brackett draft of The Empire Strikes Back. Vader is a bit more chatty like his New Hope self rather than the silent and broody Empire version.

One of the more controversial elements is the recreations of Tarkin and Leia. I have to agree with those who say they're not particularly successful. They are a little too clean next to the humans and Tarkin's voice isn't an entirely successful recreation of Peter Cushing's voice. Both of these characters have a sense of the Uncanny Valley about them. Disney has probably put more money and effort into this than most companies would have but it’s not good enough.

If there is one good aspect about the film its the action sequences. The battles on Jedha and the attack on Scarif are well done. It's nice to see Rebel Troopers in battle without Ewoks or Gungans.

All in all, this is a film which expands the Star Wars mythology even though it is not very interesting in and of itself. A lot of effort on aesthetic for little plot. There are better Star Wars films. I look forward to The Last Jedi. 

7/10

Doctor Who 10x03: Thin Ice

Structurally, Series Ten has played it safe, following the present-future-past triptych of other companion introductions. Bill has seen the present and the future. Now she gets to see the past.
This episode's writer, Sarah Dollard, earned great acclaim writing Face the Raven. This time around she shows us a new era for televised Doctor Who; the regency era. More specifically, we get to see a London Frost Fair.

In Dollard's tale, the Frost Fair is connected to a creature lurking beneath the depths of the Thames
This creature is being exploited by the evil Lord Sutcliffe, who uses the Fair to lure humans to the Thames so the creature can eat them. The creatures' waste matter is then refined into fuel. This premise is similar to The Beast Below only this time around the human villain, Lord Sutcliffe, actually gets comeuppance for his actions, unlike Hawthorne of The Beast Below who was allowed to get away scot free after feeding humans to a Star Whale. Another improvement over a previous story is that  there are no double standards regarding the victims of the beast. Although the Thames beast is not intentionally evil, it cannot distinguish between adult or child victims and eats them both for its own survival. There is no sense in this story, unlike The Beast Below, where sparing children over adults is seen as more acceptable. Both are reprehensible and Sarah Dollard has succeeded where Steven Moffat introduced skewy morality.

Although the plot was average, the character development of the Doctor and Bill was where this episode really excelled. Bill gets to see a darker side to her travels as she actually sees someone die as well as facing some racism from the aristocracy. She also has her first confrontational argument with the Doctor. Unlike in Series 8, this argument is over in a minute and the Doctor gets a chanceto show that deep down he really does care about urchins. The Doctor gets a cheesy speech but it is all but forgotten about and we can move on to a decent climax.

Pearl Mackie continues to impress as she portrays the serious side to Bill Potts. She sells the grieving of Bill when Spider dies and successfully shows anger when she is facing off against the Doctor. In turn, Peter Capaldi can switch from funny Doctor to angry Doctor in almost a blink of an eye.

Doctor Who is meant to be watched by children yet child characters tend to get a mixed response from viewers of the show. I would say this gang of street urchins include Spider, Dot, Harriet, Dowell and Perry are less annoying than some kids that have been on the show. Their resourcefulness and cunning is emphasized over trying to make them too sweet. Dot may be cute but it belies her thieving persona. I am glad the production team were bold enough to let Spider die. As with the plot being similar to Beast Below, these kids feel similar to the ones from The Empty Child. It makes you woner how much of the splot was Dollard;'s and how much was suggested by Steven.

As is usual for these kinds of productions, the  historical setting  is well presented.  Michael Pickwoad can be recommended for his really good job at doing the set for the Frost Fair and it is all very well directed by Bill Anderson. This episode also proves that costume designer, Hayley Nebauer can do a fantastic job. The first episode was on modern  day Earth and the second only had a few humans at the end. With the Regency period, Nebauer can show off her talents. Bill gets a lovely feathered hat and the villain gets a glorious blue coat, showing his wealth. The music by Murray Gold is perhaps less interesting this week, but since everything else excells, this is not a problem.

With so much of the story focused on Bill and the Doctor, Nardole gets relegated to a couple of scenes at the very end with more hints as to the occupant of the vault. We get more of a hint that Nardole is not too happy with being the Doctor's servant. When the thing inside starts knocking, we get a glimpse of Nardole's mettle when he tells off the thing in the vault. One wonders if he willbe so brave when the thing is actually released. The evidence so far suggests that this thing will be Missy or the Master.

Thin Ice is unlikely to go down as a classic story. There are just a few too many recycled elements to make it stand out above other adventures. Nevertheless it does accomplish the task of settling Bill in rather well. Now that she has settled in we will hopefully go to more interesting locations. I for one it will be very interested in seeing where she, the Doctor and Nardole go next.

7/10