Hello, you.
After the bizarre last couple of days, things have settled around here to a more manageable level of reality. We're carrying on as normal. We went to Tesco. We bought Peep Show series 6, Sarah Jane Adventures series 2, and Tekken 6. Oh, bugger. Forgot the food. Yep, business as usual.
Part of the normalcy was in watching a brand new Doctor Who episode, after a long wait. By the way, the next part of the blog may get a bit flushed with geekery, so by all means skip along. I promise I won't talk about you behind your back while you're reading further along. The same goes for people wanting to avoid spoilers. There will be a couple inevitably, for which I do apologise; I bloody hate reading spoilers. It riles me up no end. So, skip down to the big asterisk below to avoid spoilers, or anything relating to Doctor Who if you're not interested.
Still with me? Lovely. Aside from his excellent appearance on SJA a couple of weeks ago, we've been Doctor-less since the slightly lacklustre Planet of the Dead early this year, so I've been looking forward to the latest special, The Waters of Mars. So, after my wife had a bash on Tekken (I've yet to try it, but the loading times seem a little long...), it was finally time to settle down and watch the good Doctor.
I have to admit, I've been apprehensive of this special, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm not a fan of episodes set in a confined space station, a particular staple of the Troughton era, for no other reason than it's been done to death. Pretty much anything that has the Doctor in his Guantanamo Bay space suit, I've not been a fan of; The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit were okay, not great. 42 was abysmal. As I said, Planet of the Dead wasn't great either (not helped in any way by the Bionic Mockney from EastEnders); standard Russell T Davies fare, slightly too camp in places... however, the final five minutes of that had some beautiful gems for people following the show. "You be careful, because your song is ending, sir. It is returning, it is returning through the dark. And then Doctor... oh, but then...he will knock four times." This line of dialogue was spoken by the slightly psychic character, Carmen, and suddenly the whole episode had been worth watching. The part about his "song ending" directly references Ood Sigma, who gave the Doctor the same prophecy during the previous series, and made a cameo at the end of the new episode. Things are about to end for the Tenth Doctor, and he knows it.
So, The Waters of Mars, then. Very much like its past-set counterpart, The Fires of Pompeii (not least in terms of the title construction [definite article]+[element]+[preposition]+[place], etymology fans), it's set in a 'fixed point in history', which Time Lords are forbidden from interfering with. Captain Adelaide Brooke (Lindsay Duncan) and her crew have to die in Bowie Base One on that date, inspiring her granddaughter to pioneer humanity's spread throughout the stars. Also like its predecessor, the antagonists are not humans, but an alien influence on them. The Flood are a nicely conceived threat, monstrous, but with enough of the human showing through.
Scarily enough, I know someone who looks like this.
The episode in a largish nutshell:
So, the Doctor is arrested by Number Five from Short Circuit, and winds up in a Davison-era situation where nobody knows or trusts him. When he realises he can't interfere, he does his best to try to escape, but the crew won't let him. Cue Andy Stone eating a carrot and becoming one of the zombie-like Flood, quickly infecting Trina from EastEnders. Cue Base Under Siege for most of the rest of the episode, the Doctor unable or unwilling to contribute. As he is finally let out of the base, he walks away, the sounds of the crew succumbing to infection ringing in ears. When Shane from Neighbours blows up the shuttle to prevent Trina from getting to Earth (one drop of the water on the planet would potentially infect the whole population), the Doctor has a change of hearts. He makes it back to the base much quicker than he left, uses the annoying automaton Gadget to get to the Tardis, materialising it in the room. The base explodes, but the Tardis materialises on Earth, the Doctor having changed history by saving Adelaide and two of her crew. Oh, and Wall-E.
It's at this point that, for Doctor Who fans at least, things become very interesting. One of the survivors does the whole "it's bigger on the inside" thing, before shouting "who the hell are you?" and running away scared. This was a refreshing change. The Doctor has now adopted a dangerous arrogance. Like King Canute, he shouts his defiance against Time itself, pronouncing "Time Lord victorious"; he successfully changed history. So, Adelaide heads into her house and kills herself, as "nobody should have that much power". If nothing else, it's a very final way of winning the argument. This is the darkest the Doctor has ever been, and the first hint that the Valeyard is a very real possible future incarnation. Ood Sigma appears, the Doctor realises that he is going to die after all, and quickly gets into the Tardis, a scared man.
Like Planet of the Dead, the whole episode is justified by its last scenes. The trailer for The End of Time looks amazing.
Yay! Bernard Cribbins FTW!
So, overall, a nice episode, certainly the darkest that RTD has been involved with. Nice mention of the Ice Warriors, and as I said, refreshing that nobody was in awe and reverence of the Doctor, a technique used to nice effect in Midnight. The beginning of the end, and a nice way to kickstart Tennant's exit from the show.
* Spoiler avoiders, rejoin here.
Right, onto other stuff. Thanks to the genuinely lovely people who posted messages of support in my last blog. "Fuck you" to the anonymous idiot who did the opposite. I think I know the identity of the person in question; if not, they're doing a very good impression of them, and it's just a big coincidence. The upshot of it is, don't kick a man when they're down. The anonymous poster's comments have unfortunately led me to set the blog so that only members can post. So, if you do want to post, you'll have to follow the blog from the link at the top. Sorry about that. I can take criticism, but I don't think it's fair to have me at a disadvantage over their identity. I'm all for freedom of speech, and that's as far as moderation goes for now. I hate people hiding behind internet courage, particularly if they have a personal gripe with me. I've had a very bad time of it lately, and one point of this blog (for me, anyway; sorry to drag you along for the ride) is to work things through. So, again, thanks to those who've been supportive. It's greatly appreciated.
Finally for now, self promotion. I made an app on Facebook some time ago, so I'll abuse my blogly powers by plugging it here shamelessly. It's called Keanumotions:
... and there's a preview at the end of this blog. You get the idea.
So, have a butcher's if you are on Feckbook, and it'd be appreciated if you become a fan of it on the link above. If I get to 25 fans, I can apparently give it a proper URL.
I've started a Blogroll on the left, highlighting other blogs that I read. If you want me to plug yours, let me know.
Sorry this blog's been a little humourless again, but sometimes it only takes one person.
Take care, and bless you all. Even you.
Oh, quick edit/update, Peter Serafinowicz cheered me up on Twitter the other day by replying to one of my questions (every other night, he requests that his followers send him random questions, and he answers some of them with a funny answer, bless him). Here is the much-retweeted response:
serafinowicz Who's the strongest Bee Gee? (via @IanHewett) Hercules Gibb.
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