Looking back at 2013

It's certainly been a busy year with ups and downs. Nelson Mandela passed away, sadly. Andy Murray won Wimbledon and Prince George was born and eventually named.

For me personally it's been a bit up and down. Not bad but not brilliant. I hope, as always, that the new year will provide an opportunity to improve matters.

Doctor Who's 50th anniversary year has certainly been busy. Back in January Matt Smith was sitll the Doctor, fans were complaining that there was nothing interesting for the 50th anniversary. But we got a 3D Episode, a biopic, tie in programs and even a regeneration story for Paul McGann! Better still, could any of us imagine, back in January, that by the end of the year we would be able to watch the complete story The Enemy of the World or the almost complete The Web of Fear? It was a good time to be a Doctor Who fan

Here are five of my favourite things from 2013.

Favourite Public Event: Andy Murray wins Wimbledon
I must admit, I have been one of Andy Murray's doubters for some years. I never really thought he could win Wimbledon, so I was pleasantly surprised when he succeeded. It was nice to have a British Champion, so well done Andy!

Favourite TV Show: Orphan Black 
If you haven't seen this TV show (and you really should do because it's brilliant), stop reading and go watch it now because there'll be spoilers below.

This has been my favourite TV Show of the year. Tatiana Maslanay proved to be perfect at portraying Sarah Manning and her various clones. Series 2 will be coming in 2014 and I can't wait to find out what happened to Sarah's daughter.

Favourite Podcast: "Verity" 
The best Doctor Who podcast out there which started at the beginning of this year. Six smart women discuss Doctor Who. Their analysis of episodes are effortlessly better than my own. So, my thanks goes to Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Liz Myles, Lynne M Thomas, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Katrina Griffiths for making such a brilliant podcast.

Favourite Exhibition: "Alien Invasion" at The Lightbox Museum and Art Gallery
The Lightbox Museum and Art Gallery in Woking has had many good exhibitions this year, from the Gertrude Jeckyll gardening exhibition, to World Wildlife fund art. This exhibition is great for family with sections on HG Wells and the rest of the museum. It's open until 19th January, so if you haven't seen it already, go and see it now.

Favourite Game: Gone Home (PC)
A game with no enemies or supporting characters, just you, the protagonist, exploring an empty house. It's very much like Myst mixed with the original Resident Evil. The story is a little basic, but it's a good step forward for game developers to look in different directions.

Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor

The story of The Time of the Doctor wasn't really suited to being a Christmas Special. It had to bring an end to Matt Smith's Doctor and tie up plot threads from as far back as 2010. As a result, the episode is packed full to the brim with incident and exposition that might have been a bit baffling to a casual audience who were too full up on up on turkey and wine and wouldn't necessarily remember every plot point from previous season. A lot of the Christmas related story threads, such as the Christmas themed town and Clara trying to cook Christmas dinner for her family, felt tacked on. The time spent joking around with Clara's family might have been better spent establishing the main plot.

At its heart, The Time of the Doctor is a very simple story of the Doctor growing old while attempting to protect a backwater town from alien attack. But to get to this point there is a lot of setting up to do, such as reintroducing Gallifrey and the Trenzalore prophecy from Series Six. The story was further complicated by the idea that the Doctor had reached his thirteenth life. A plot point necessitated by the introduction of the War Doctor back in The Day of the Doctor. All of these additions mean that the plot is shifting from location to location. From Earth to the Papal Mainframe, to Trenzalore, and back and forth. This gives the audience little time to take in what is going on, before the story moves to the next set up.

In fairness, Steven Moffat does answer the majority of outstanding questions from the Matt Smith years. We now know who it was that blew up the Tardis in The Pandorica Opens, why the Doctor had to speak his name at Trenzalore and why the Silents wanted to prevent this. While some elements have obviously been altered over the years, Steven has done a good job of tying things together for the end and he can now move on to give Peter Capaldi's Doctor a relatively fresh start.

While the story had its ups and downs, other elements f the production were pretty good. The design work by Michael Pickwoad was excellant. Christmas Town looked like every other fantasy Christmas town ever. The Church of the Papal Mainframe looked suitably vast and moody in black with glowing blues and reds.

By now, Matt Smith has complete confidence in the role of the Eleventh Doctor. This episode shows off every facet of his character from the goofiness when he is naked, to the trickster and the warrior who defends Trenzalore from his old enemies. Seeing the older Doctor at the end of his life was very interesting. It also means that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor will seem younger in comparison. I wonder if the crutch was for his injury that he had before filming?

Jenna Louise Coleman continues to do her best with a thinly defined character. Clara apparently now fancies the Doctor which is disappointingly familiar to other companions. Still, it will be interesting to see how this affects her reaction to the new, older, Doctor. It was nice to see more of Clara’s family life. Her dad is now completely different from the one we saw in the Rings of Akhaten. The Gran was the best character. The other woman is unexplained, but I guess it was supposed to be Dad’s new girlfriend, since she was listed in the credits as “Linda” and not “Mum”.

The Papal Mainframe was an interesting idea, building up from the religious elements introduced in The Time of Angels and A Good Man Goes to War. However, it did veer into the hardcore science fiction that Russell T Davies strove to avoid. I didn’t really like the character of Tasha Lem , partly because I dislike old friends of the Doctor that we have never met before and partly because she felt way too similar to River Song in that she is a psychopath who fancies the Doctor. Either Alex Kingston was unavailable or Moffat fell back on an old character archetype. At least Orla Brady proved herself to be good in the role. It was good to see the Silents back again after it seemed like they'd been forgotten in Series 7. They are continuing with their tradition of having a different background per episode. First they were a race that had manipulated humanity. Then they became the establishers of history, now they are demoted to being confessors for the Papal Mainframe.

The alliance of aliens attempting to destroy Trenzalore was a bit of a repeat of the alliance in The Pandorica Opens but had a few, more interesting differences. The Daleks and Cybermen were generic threats with no discernable differences. I did, however, like the idea Wooden Cyberman that was used to infiltrate Christmas Town. I also liked the comedy Sontarans with their invisibility field. I would query the inclusion of Terileptils in the list of aliens though. It seems that in Steven Moffat’s vision of Doctor Who, every alien race knows about the Doctor.

As for the regeneration itself, Moffat has his cake and eats it by having the volcanic regeneration as the way to defeat the Daleks and a more low key regeneration. Amy’s cameo was nice, although I wish Rory could have been there. I liked the fact that the actual regeneration was swift. It meant the audience was just as disoriented as Clara was. It’s impossible at this stage to give my opinion on Peter Capaldi yet, because he is acting insane through post regeneration trauma, but he looked suitably insane.

All in all, The Time of the Doctor was not a bad story, but not a very emotionally engaging one. It does, at least, give Steven Moffat an advantage in that he can jettison all of the previous story threads and give Peter Capaldi's Doctor a fresh start. Matt Smith has been a very successful Doctor. While I am not sure this was the best story for him to go out on, he has been great in other stories. Steven Moffat has made good decisions and some not so good, but hiring Matt Smith was definitely a good decision. Goodbye Mr Smith. You were brilliant.

My Favourite moments of Matt Smith's Doctor

In three days time, we will be saying goodbye to the Eleventh Doctor, so I've decided to post some of my favourite moments of Matt Smith in his time in the part. Others would no doubt have chosen differently, but this my blog, so it's my choices.

1.  Confronting Rosana Calvieri (Vampires of Venice)
When Matt Smith was first announced as the new Doctor, a lot of people thought that he would be too young to show power and authority. This scene proves those people wrong. He begins the scene sitting on a throne, relaxed and confident. He circles the evil Rosanna, flirting and warning her at the same time. Finally he brushes away her manservant and strides out of the room. A good demonstration that this is not a Time Lord to mess with.

2. Saying goodbye to Amelia before the crack swallows him up (The Big Bang)
The Eleventh Doctor is often described as "wacky" or "zany", but here we see his more melancholy side as he sits by Amelia's bedside and tells her the story of how he left Gallifrey before he enters the crack in time, we viewers can finally see the old man beneath the veneer. Matt makes this a sad moment, one which might rival his regeneration scene.

3. Getting the boy to stop the Bomb (The Boy Who Saved the Proms)
Technically this isn't part of the TV Show but I don't care because it's brilliant. Matt Smith proves that he is great at acting with children away from the controlled studio environment and in a hall full of people and with a child whose responses can't be predicted.  As Matt and the boy disarm a bomb with invisible wires, we can see that like Tom Baker before him, Matt can deal with the unpredictable.

4. The Doctor confronts Oswin (Asylum of the Daleks)
The Doctor/Oswin conversations throughout the episode are pretty good, given that the actors were performing separately. I love the look on Matt Smith's face as he enters Oswin's room and realizes that she is a Dalek before she herself does. The eyes say it all. I also like the fact that the Doctor gets carried away with tearing down Oswin's illusions without realizing the danger he is putting himself in when she starts to revert to Dalek behaviour.

5. The Future Doctor prepares for his own death (The Impossible Astronaut)
Once you've seen the future Doctor being killed by the astronaut, it's interesting to look back at the subtle differences between Matt's performance as future Doctor and the present one. The future Doctor has the same tics, but is warier and more confident. The way he says he "never got done saving you" is the dead giveaway. The younger one is more excitable. It's a good example of the range of Matt Smith's performance.

6. Confronting his friends on their secrecy (The Impossible Astronaut)
A good example of how the Doctor can switch from a comedic goon to a serious Lord of Time as the Doctor reveals to his companions that he knows they are hiding something from him. It is at this moment that he reveals his nastier side as he tells River that he does not trust her.

7. Eating Fish Fingers and Custard with Amelia (The Eleventh Hour)
When we first see the Eleventh Doctor after his regeneration, he is completely crazy. The Doctor's one to one talk with young Amelia in her kitchen is the moment that the Doctor finally settles down. We knew he could be funny, but now we see him being observant. It is also the first time we see him acting with children. It's something that Matt has always been good at.

8. Imploring Amy to release him to save the world (The Eleventh Hour)
The Doctor is forced to implore Amy to free him to save the world. For the first time since she was a child, the Doctor talks seriously to Amy Pond.

9. Closing the door to Older Amy (The Girl Who Waited) 
The Doctor shows his darker side as he shuts the Tardis door on the older Amy. While Steven Moffat's version of Doctor Who is generally optimistic, this is a rare example of the Doctor making a harsh decision.

10. "Legs! I've still got legs!" (The End of Time Part 2)
After the downbeat death of the Tenth Doctor, the mood completely changes for the upbeat birth of the Eleventh. Not every Doctor gets the benefit of having a first line. Tom Baker got no line at all. David's first lines gave no indication of whether I would like him or not. Matt is very good at acting naturally crazy. From this moment on, I knew I would like him.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

In short: I didn't like everything that this special did. But I liked the way they did it.

Before now, every fan had their ideal version of the 50th anniversary special in their head, so Steven Moffat could never have satisfied everyone. He appears to have gone for a version based on The Three Doctors. In that story, three Doctors are brought together to solve a common problem involving Time Lord history, and there was an end to the story arc of the past years. In this tale, three Doctors are drawn together from different timeas a by the Moment, a weapon from Time Lord history. These are the Eleventh, Tenth and the War Doctor played by John Hurt. After solving the problem of a Zygon invasion of Earth they unite with their other selves to save Gallifrey. 

I have to admit, I don't like the idea of the Doctor undoing the destruction of Gallifrey. It feels like a cop out. I wouldn't have minded if a colony of Time Lords had survived and hidden away without the Doctor knowing about it, but the idea that the Doctor’s difficult decisions can be erased through a bit of time travel is weak. There are loads of other planets and civilisations that suffered during the time war, why didn't the Doctor save them as well?Although Steven Moffat has said that he tried to make sure that his work did not undo the Russell T Davies stories, it still undermines them when you know that all the Doctor's talk about killing his people is not true. The drama of the Doctor destroying Pompeii to save the world in Fires of Pompeii is diminished . His actions in the past eight years of the new series have been influenced by an event which now never happened.

There are still good things about this story though. The three main Doctors are fun to watch. Matt Smith is at the top of his game as the Eleventh Doctor, continuing to excel in the role of an old man in a body of a young one. For all the excitement over Peter Capaldi, who also makes a teasing cameo appearance here, this story serves as a good reminder of how lucky we fans are to have had Matt Smith as the lead in the show for four years. He will be sorely missed when he goes. David Tennant has not changed a bit in the role of the Tenth Doctor. It's like he's been preserved since The End of Time and they got him out of the cupboard. We see his more romantic side and his arrogance and coolness. I particularly liked his outrage when he realised that the Eleven had forgotten the number of children who died on Gallifrey. John Hurt does a good job as the new incarnation, the War Doctor. He gives a Doctorish twinkle and getting to say all the things that the old school fans like to complain about, like the "wavy hands" and phrases like "timey wimey". While its easy to see how this role could have worked for Eccleston, Hurt brings an old man's weariness to the part which the Ninth Doctor could not have done.

Thanks to Jenna Louise Coleman, Clara still comes across as a likable companion, even if she is not a particularly well developed one. Since we last saw her, she has moved on from being a nanny to being a teacher at Coal Hill School. While it makes sense that she is still in a role involving children, it seems like a bit of a jolt to find out that time has passed. Like many companions before her, she acts as the conscience for the Three Doctors, which is as it should be. She is also completely comfortable with the Eleventh Doctor. It is understandable that she is not dominating this story. Viewers will have to wait until Series 8 to see if the Clara is going to develop.

Billie Piper was also good at playing the Moment, in the form of Rose Tyler. The idea of a weapon gaining its own sentience was interesting and character has elements of Idris in it, a complex event compressed into a human body. Steven Moffat may have diminished the end of the Time War, but he was wise not ruin Rose Tyler's character arc. The Tenth Doctor and Rose have had enough re-introductions and goodbyes already.

The other characters were less developed. It was great to see Jemma Redgrave back as Kate Stewart. The fangirl scientific advisor, Osgood, was also a nice touch. She was like a female version of Malcolm from Planet of the Dead. The weakest link was Queen Elizabeth I, who came across as too much of a caricature.

The redesign of the Zygons was a success, and their transformation is definite improvement on the one used in Terror of the Zygons. While the Zygon plan to invade Earth by hiding in paintings could could seem like a minor event in an anniversary special, it dovetailed nicely with the main one. Humans having to deal with their Zygon copies reflects the Doctor having to deal with other versions of himself. The Doctors plan to make the humans and Zygons form a peace treaty is inspired and shows their determination to find a third option, as they will when they bring Gallifrey back. Even the stasis cubes used to freeze the Zygons are deployed later as a means to freeze Gallifrey. 

As an anniversary story, this managed to include plenty of Easter eggs, large and small, that referenced the past fifty years, from Coal Hill School to the Space/Time Telegraph. Seeing all of the Doctors in their Tardises, uniting to save Gallifrey was a nice touch, even if I didn't like what they were trying to accomplish. 
I only wish William Russell could have made a cameo as Ian Chesterton. This includes Tom Baker's scarf, and finally Tom Baker himself.

Tom Baker may have failed to appear in the 20th anniversary special but at least he is here for the 50th. The Curator is clearly meant to be a future Doctor. It was a great surprise for those of us, like myself, who were fortunate enough to successfully avoid the spoilers about his appearance.

All in all, this is a mixed bag. It has more plot than The Five Doctors but The Three Doctors did not undo its exile.

An Adventure in Space and Time

While the origins of Doctor Who have been well researched and documented, it was not clear how the story would be dramatised. There were a large number of people involved in creating the program, so it would be impossible to list them all. Would the program focus on the creators or the actors? Mark Gatiss'' story focuses on two major individuals. One of them is Verity Lambert, the new female producer who has to prove herself by making a show that nobody at the BBC liked. The other is William Hartnell, the lead actor, who has gone from playing tough guy parts to playing in childrens television. Both of these characters are stepping into an unknown world.

I was unsure how good Jessica Raine would be at playing Verity Lambert, so I was happy to see that she was successful at it. Raine successfully shows the "piss and vinegar" in Verity that Sydney Newman spoke about, while showing her warmer side when talking with Waris Hussein. The development from a stiff, uncertain new producer into a confident controller of people is well presented.

David Bradley is good as William Hartnell, pulling off the grumpy old actor and the kindlier man who develops as the role of Doctor Who brings him closer to his granddaughter. The only problem is that we do not see his portrayal of Doctor Who after it has been a success. Some of these scenes can be seen on the BBC Website, but it is a shame they couldn't have been included on the page itself. He portrays well the scenes of Hartnell developing from a mad old man to a friend of all children, to a grumpy old man with memory faults. 

 The rest of the cast are smaller. The companions serve as an example of how time has passed. As they start to change, you can see William Hartnell's alienation. Brian Cox is great as Sydney Newman, a larger than life character who feels like he was well recreated from the 1966 interview. Waris Hussein is also successfully portrayed. The racism towards Waris is also shown.

The weakest link in the cast is Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton. He seems to be playing the Second Doctor rather than Patrick Troughton, who was not like the impish man on screen. Fortunately he is only on screen for a few minutes and does not get in the way.

The best moment is seeing the Hartnell regeneration, as Hartnell glimpses the Matt Smith incarnation. It shows the legacy that the show will impart. People may, quite rightly, appreciate the work of Russell T Davies or Steven Moffat, but it's good to acknowledge the people who started the whole thing, and didn't get enough plaudits.

Overall, this is a good tribute to the creators of Doctor Who.

8/10

Looking back at the 50th Anniversary celebrations

The 50th anniversary weekend celebrations are over. Looking back, was it all any good? The answer definitely a yes!

The main event programs were all good in their own way. The Day of the Doctor managed to be brilliant and ridiculous at the same time. An Adventure in Space and Time was touching and  The Five(ish) Doctors reboot was a fantastic piece of work by Peter Davison and deserves a DVD release of its own.

Some of the other events were a bit ridiculous, like The Ultimate Guide and the After Party. Others were tie ins, like The Science of Doctor Who and Celebrity Antiques Roadshow, but they all added to the sense that Doctor Who was "taking over television", like the showrunner had promised.

It wasn't just on television that the anniversary was being celebrated. One of my favourite stories this year was the DWM Comic strip story Hunters of the Burning Stone. The Doctor, in his eleventh incarnation, reunites with his very first companions, with Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright in a sequel to the very first Doctor Who serial. It ends with the wedding of Ian and Barbara. A great story.

Reviews of An Adventure in Space and Time and The Night of the Doctor are coming soon, as soon as I've been able to put my thoughts into a coherent narrative.

My congratulations go to everyone involved in making it all work.

50 Years in the Tardis

The day of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary is finally here. Back in the 40th anniversary year it was difficult to imagine Doctor Who becoming as popular as it is now. I have already enjoyed the 50th Celebration event at the Excel on Friday, especially getting to see the Waris Hussein panel.

I thought I'd list the stories which are currently my top ten favourites. These are in no particular order.

1. The Aztecs
It's great to have a story where every companion is well utilized by the script writer. We also get to see a rare example, in the original series, of the Doctor falling in love, before it became unfashionable in later fandom and then came back in the new series.

2. The War Games
An epic that only sags slightly in the middle and lifts up again pretty quickly. The World War One sections are well directed by David Maloney. The War Chief/Security Chief/War Lord trio are a wonderful group of villains.

3. The Ambassadors of Death
Like the reversal of the "thing in the spacecraft" being ambassadors. This sums up one of the things I like about Doctor Who, which is that he's far more likely to want to chat to the monsters than kill them. It manages to be an action serial while still having a good moral message.

4. The Ribos Operation
This story is a favourite for nostalgic reasons, because it was the first Doctor Who story I ever saw. It's a fun con caper. The Fourth Doctor and Romana I are one of my favourite Tardis teams.

5. Snakedance
It was a choice between this and Kinda and in the end I went with this story.
What makes this story interesting is the way that evil, in this case the Mara, can been trivialized by being merchandised.

6. The Caves of Androzani
Some people find this story very downbeat. To me it's the victory of the small man, the Fifth Doctor, overcoming incredible odds in a cynical world. Peri, the innocent person, is the only one to survive.

7. The Curse of Fenric
This story contains a lot of interesting musings on faith. Ian Briggs' comments on the DVD reveal that this is a story with plenty of layers. We also get a rare example, for the original series, of character development for the companion.

8. The End of the World

People tend to talk about the Russell T Davies era being earthbound, but this story features large amount of crazy aliens. It also has a wonderful note about things not lasting forever. 

9. Midnight
A very creepy Doctor Who story. Although this story sees the Tenth Doctor at his weakest, it is one of his best stories. A great script by Russell T Davies.

10. Vincent and the Doctor
While Steven Moffat's Doctor Who tends to focus on time bending events, this brilliant script focuses on the life of one man, Vincent Van Goth, and the theme of depression.