Sunday, April 29, 2007
Evolution not revolution
Evolution of the Daleks was something of a good episode last night in the latest installment of Doctor Who season 3. The Daleks of Skaro begin shirking away from their new "human" Dalek leader Sec, who basically has like a brain for a head some scaly tentacles on either side of his head (not to mention one eye) who has diferent ideas for the future of the Daleks. The Doctor is brought in to help the Daleks try and evolve and change their form but the our old encased pepperpot friends have a slightly different idea from their human(ish) leader.
This was a good old return to the kind of battle of good vs evil again like back in the classic days of Doctor Who, and David Tennant was on about the best form as the Doctor as he's ever been. So far this series has been echoing the qualities of the first alot more and I think its definitely for the better, especially after the disappointment of the second series. The idea of the human daleks wasn't too bad albeit I admit it was a little cheesey looking and it definitely does borrow from the Nazis especially in the solider like way they move (although a bit more robotic, but Terry Nation had always based the Daleks on the Nazis). But overall it was a good episode and one of the most enjoyable so far.
Next up comes what looks like another promising episode, The Lazarus Experiment with Mark Gatiss as... well Lazarus.
This was a good old return to the kind of battle of good vs evil again like back in the classic days of Doctor Who, and David Tennant was on about the best form as the Doctor as he's ever been. So far this series has been echoing the qualities of the first alot more and I think its definitely for the better, especially after the disappointment of the second series. The idea of the human daleks wasn't too bad albeit I admit it was a little cheesey looking and it definitely does borrow from the Nazis especially in the solider like way they move (although a bit more robotic, but Terry Nation had always based the Daleks on the Nazis). But overall it was a good episode and one of the most enjoyable so far.
Next up comes what looks like another promising episode, The Lazarus Experiment with Mark Gatiss as... well Lazarus.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Daleks oink oink!
Episode four, Daleks in Manhattan, of the new Doctor Who series was pretty entertaining again albeit a little shallow in places. This time apparently they actually did some location shooting in New York (although I'm not sure where! It looks all CGI and a bit like Wales again).
The Doctor this time takes Martha back to 1930, New York, Manhattan, where the Great Depression has just set in and there are slums everywhere. Meanwhile the Doctor's oldest enemy is back again and they are creating some diabolical experiments involving pig people, humans with pig faces that they use for slavery and other experiments which are altogether more chilling.
If you can forgive the cheesey New Yoirk accents from the cast this is a mostly enjoyable episode and seeing the Daleks back again is hardly surprising but its always a pleasure to see them get some more primetime viewing. The end of the episode (without giving too much away) provided a pretty creepy transformation which I'm sure would probably have the wee ones scurrying behind the sittee providing a whole now reason to be scared of the daleks. Should be interesting to see what next week's episode has in stall.
The Doctor this time takes Martha back to 1930, New York, Manhattan, where the Great Depression has just set in and there are slums everywhere. Meanwhile the Doctor's oldest enemy is back again and they are creating some diabolical experiments involving pig people, humans with pig faces that they use for slavery and other experiments which are altogether more chilling.
If you can forgive the cheesey New Yoirk accents from the cast this is a mostly enjoyable episode and seeing the Daleks back again is hardly surprising but its always a pleasure to see them get some more primetime viewing. The end of the episode (without giving too much away) provided a pretty creepy transformation which I'm sure would probably have the wee ones scurrying behind the sittee providing a whole now reason to be scared of the daleks. Should be interesting to see what next week's episode has in stall.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Traffic jams and the cold and Linksys are the shit!
Well I'm bunged up with the cold today, bahh!! So not exactly a great weekend so far as I've been mostly sneezing and snotting all over the place, bleeughhhh! Mind you I'm not sure if its hayfever or the cold, personally though I think it is the cold, as a few colleagues in work have been passing it around (thanks alot!).
Now for something completely different... (no, not a man with two buttocks). Just watched the third episode of the new Dr Who series, Gridlock, which was pretty enjoyable, and a slight improvement over last week's Shakespearial nonsense (which to be fair was ok). It was good to see the return of the New New York setting (from New Earth) and the plot was not too bad this time round, with the whole human race trapped into a massive traffic jam down below in the fuming gaseous undergrounds of the city, where the humans boast how they travel 5 miles in about 10 years! I quite enjoyed the bit where the Doctor kept jumping down from car to car to try and get to the bottom of the traffic jam, and he goes through each car, one of which seems to carry what appears to be a naturist couple lol. The best part of the episode though was the end (not to give it away!) where the Doctor finally confesses to Martha about his origins and what happened to his planet. Also its intruiging to see the Face of Boe say to the Doctor he's not alone (well to be honest I've got a good idea of what's coming up and what that means).
Must say I am a bit annoyed at the BBC for rescheduling the prog to fit in the blinking football as I missed most of it when it was on and I had set the dvd recorder for 7pm so most of the episode was not taped! (OK partly my fault for not checking the paper). So God Bless bit torrent so I managed to download it no problem today, also another bonus I got this weekend was a new Linksys wireless router, as my old one kept cutting out when I used bit torrent (the shame!) this one hasn't cut out once yet, very impressive.
Anyway enough bleating on for now. Back to some paracetemols...
Now for something completely different... (no, not a man with two buttocks). Just watched the third episode of the new Dr Who series, Gridlock, which was pretty enjoyable, and a slight improvement over last week's Shakespearial nonsense (which to be fair was ok). It was good to see the return of the New New York setting (from New Earth) and the plot was not too bad this time round, with the whole human race trapped into a massive traffic jam down below in the fuming gaseous undergrounds of the city, where the humans boast how they travel 5 miles in about 10 years! I quite enjoyed the bit where the Doctor kept jumping down from car to car to try and get to the bottom of the traffic jam, and he goes through each car, one of which seems to carry what appears to be a naturist couple lol. The best part of the episode though was the end (not to give it away!) where the Doctor finally confesses to Martha about his origins and what happened to his planet. Also its intruiging to see the Face of Boe say to the Doctor he's not alone (well to be honest I've got a good idea of what's coming up and what that means).
Must say I am a bit annoyed at the BBC for rescheduling the prog to fit in the blinking football as I missed most of it when it was on and I had set the dvd recorder for 7pm so most of the episode was not taped! (OK partly my fault for not checking the paper). So God Bless bit torrent so I managed to download it no problem today, also another bonus I got this weekend was a new Linksys wireless router, as my old one kept cutting out when I used bit torrent (the shame!) this one hasn't cut out once yet, very impressive.
Anyway enough bleating on for now. Back to some paracetemols...
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Shamelessly Shakespeare
The second episode of the third season of Dr Who, the Shakespeare Code, last night was fairly enteratining enough although I personally found it a bit disappointing after the breezy opener Smith and Jones. The Doctor and Martha go back in time to Earth in around about 1599 when Shakespeare was a younger man and is in the middle of writing what would become his lost masterpiece. But of course things evil are afoot (as usual) as three ugly witches are brewing a plot to invade the planet with their own kind using Shakespeare's words to bring their kind into the world as well as commit heinous acts of witchcraft to kill off innocent people. So its up to you know who (the Doc) to stop them.
Something about this episode didn't really quite do it for me, I think the plot of the witches being an "alien" species trying to bring their own race into the world seemed a bit too hackneyed again as its been done so many times before and towards the end it all got a bit too silly. Nonetheless I did enjoy Dean Lennox Kelly's performance as William Shakespeare as the Doctor kept quoting Shakesperian lines to him and his constant "that's a good line, I might use it". Freema as Martha was pretty good again (looking great in that leather jacket!) and I liked the scene where the Doctor lies on a bed with Martha (nothing sexy of course) and he tries to figure out what's going on and says "Rose would have said the right thing by now and that would have been it" and he looks to Martha and gets no answer.
Well let's hope next week's return to the New New York (originally in New Earth), Gridlock, is bit tauter and more fun.
Something about this episode didn't really quite do it for me, I think the plot of the witches being an "alien" species trying to bring their own race into the world seemed a bit too hackneyed again as its been done so many times before and towards the end it all got a bit too silly. Nonetheless I did enjoy Dean Lennox Kelly's performance as William Shakespeare as the Doctor kept quoting Shakesperian lines to him and his constant "that's a good line, I might use it". Freema as Martha was pretty good again (looking great in that leather jacket!) and I liked the scene where the Doctor lies on a bed with Martha (nothing sexy of course) and he tries to figure out what's going on and says "Rose would have said the right thing by now and that would have been it" and he looks to Martha and gets no answer.
Well let's hope next week's return to the New New York (originally in New Earth), Gridlock, is bit tauter and more fun.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Smith and Jones
Well Doctor Who series 3 started last night (well technically If I'm being extra nerdy here it started back in 1965 not 2007) but anyway the opening episode was a fairly enjoyable, breezy, light hearted one.
Plot ruiner: The Doctor investigates the goings on in a hospital that seem strange, so he checks himself in as a patient (with abdominal pains) and before we know the building is rained on heavily (the run goes upwards though) and the building is violently uprooted and plumped on the surface of the moon. Before the patients and doctors (and the Doctor) know it they are visited by a large group of rhino like headed aliens, the Judoon, who are looking for an alien imposter of sorts, but is the Doctor they are after???? Also the Doctor gets help off his new assistant Martha Jones (also a trainee medical doctor).
As far as season openers go this was pretty entertaining and I found a bit easier to get into than New Earth, which was a bit too overly camp and cheesy as a opening episode for the second season. And yes Freema Ageyman is very good as the new companion, I think Martha is a nice contrast to Rose, as she has a plan of where she wants to go in her life, unlike Rose who was just bored really. The Tennant is back on form again as the Doctor, too, well he's been on form for a while so this episode doesn't do anything to knock him off. The Judoon makeup was pretty good aswell, their armour suits reminded of the sontarans (also their helmets, in fact I thought it might have been the Sontarans at first). Their "classification" of life forms was quite funny as they scanned all the humans and used a marker pen to put a cross on her their hands, it reminded me of all those bouncers and doormen that marked you in at gigs (well at least they don't disintegrate you if you piss them off!).
Anyways, I look forward to the next episode, The Shakespeare Code next week (which seems to follow the trend of period episodes always being early on in the series).
Plot ruiner: The Doctor investigates the goings on in a hospital that seem strange, so he checks himself in as a patient (with abdominal pains) and before we know the building is rained on heavily (the run goes upwards though) and the building is violently uprooted and plumped on the surface of the moon. Before the patients and doctors (and the Doctor) know it they are visited by a large group of rhino like headed aliens, the Judoon, who are looking for an alien imposter of sorts, but is the Doctor they are after???? Also the Doctor gets help off his new assistant Martha Jones (also a trainee medical doctor).
As far as season openers go this was pretty entertaining and I found a bit easier to get into than New Earth, which was a bit too overly camp and cheesy as a opening episode for the second season. And yes Freema Ageyman is very good as the new companion, I think Martha is a nice contrast to Rose, as she has a plan of where she wants to go in her life, unlike Rose who was just bored really. The Tennant is back on form again as the Doctor, too, well he's been on form for a while so this episode doesn't do anything to knock him off. The Judoon makeup was pretty good aswell, their armour suits reminded of the sontarans (also their helmets, in fact I thought it might have been the Sontarans at first). Their "classification" of life forms was quite funny as they scanned all the humans and used a marker pen to put a cross on her their hands, it reminded me of all those bouncers and doormen that marked you in at gigs (well at least they don't disintegrate you if you piss them off!).
Anyways, I look forward to the next episode, The Shakespeare Code next week (which seems to follow the trend of period episodes always being early on in the series).
