Well it would be silly to carry on with that now they've actually been passed to Torchwood.
I've added the spoiler tag but really this is a bit of speculation based on a conversation I had with a woman who lives in Wales. She mentioned that the Doctor Who team had driven into RAF St Athan, just outside Llantwit Major in South Wales fr some shooting. This was about 3-5 months ago.
Now I'm making an assumption here that the scene in The Sound of Drums where The Master meets President Elect Winters disembarking Air Force One were filmed there. I stand to be corrected.
The interesting thing about what she had to say about the filming though was that certain metal meanies on castors had been present as part of the shoot. Now it's just possible that they filmed some of the Evolution in Manhattan stuff there or else, perhaps we're in for another finale involving the Daleks. Fancy that.
Have fun,
Bye bye!
The Undefinable Magic of Dr Who
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
The Doctor Who Pension Fund - New Member!
It comes to something when a Doctor Who DVD commentary is less interesting than the story itself. But it's accomplished with ease on the recent release of Tom Baker's first story - Robot.
The normally on form Tom was joined by Producer Barry Letts, the woman who just keeps looking younger and younger - Elizabeth Sladen (how does she do it? I wonder), and the writer of the story Terrence Dicks.
Poor old Tom was particularly dull in the two episodes I could listen too before heading to the pub for relief. Terrence Dicks on the other hand appeared to be full of beans.
Why he felt the need to congratulate himself every five minutes about his work in general rather than talk about how poor Robot is remains a mystery.... ah, I get it.
So now we know that all the good parts of Robot were in the script. The bad parts might just have been added by the actors or the director. Terrence inspired all the good writers of the new series into writing via his books. Terrence the great!
So we've got Courtney and now we have Dicks - The Doctor Who pension fund for people who really deserve our money. Please provide generously by buying their products.
The normally on form Tom was joined by Producer Barry Letts, the woman who just keeps looking younger and younger - Elizabeth Sladen (how does she do it? I wonder), and the writer of the story Terrence Dicks.
Poor old Tom was particularly dull in the two episodes I could listen too before heading to the pub for relief. Terrence Dicks on the other hand appeared to be full of beans.
Why he felt the need to congratulate himself every five minutes about his work in general rather than talk about how poor Robot is remains a mystery.... ah, I get it.
So now we know that all the good parts of Robot were in the script. The bad parts might just have been added by the actors or the director. Terrence inspired all the good writers of the new series into writing via his books. Terrence the great!
So we've got Courtney and now we have Dicks - The Doctor Who pension fund for people who really deserve our money. Please provide generously by buying their products.
‘Family of Blood'? More like 'Family of Raw Onions'
Written by Piggy Fizz
What a shame- there was an awful lot of good stuff in ‘Human Nature’, so much so that I genuinely felt ‘Family of Blood’ might buck the unfortunate, ‘first half’s great- the conclusion’s just a run-around’ tradition.
Instead, while ‘Human Nature’ took the old ‘mythical character becomes mortal’ plot and made it involving through well-drawn and well performed characters, the conclusion merely cranked up the scarecrows, left Smith with little choice but to become the Doctor and cattle-prodded us into feeling sad with hymns, moth-balled war veterans and soft focus wedding album shots. Emotional? No, just emotive.
There’s a rare skill to persuading people to care about a fictional romance by ensuring that we really enjoy seeing characters in each other’s company. In contrast, demanding that everyone knows something is tragic through mushy music and fancy framing is a technique anyone can pick up from a few bad Spielberg movies. It’s no more difficult than making an advert for animal charities by finding the most doe-eyed mutt then dubbing on the pleading voice of an actor supposedly expressing the hound’s confusion at why its owners kept wanting to hurt it. If as a result you donate cash to that charity rather than one helping actual human beings, then you deserve to be neutered.
If the above sounds a little tangential, it may in fact get to the root of why this episode annoyed me so much. It wasn’t just that ‘Family’ failed to keep up the quality of its predecessor, it’s the nasty feeling that fans are going to consider this as an unchallengeable work of genius merely on the grounds that it wheeled out the all the stock ‘boo-hoo’ techniques.
Really, what is there to get worked up about? Smith comes across as a dithering twit here and while, yes, he’s under exceptional circumstances, very little finally emerges to make him seem as noble as even Pete Tyler, Michelle Collins’ selfish space captain or any number of other ‘do the right thing’ everymen we’ve seen since the show’s return.
For Smith to defeat the Family as himself, then with the crisis over, ultimately acknowledge that he had a moral duty to transform back into the Doctor, if only to get Martha home, could have worked far more effectively. It would provide a genuine choice for Smith, torn between guaranteed contentment or surrender into life as an isolated wanderer. As it is we get the feeling that Smith under pressure didn’t really have much option, indeed he seemed extremely keen to forsake responsibility altogether until learning that the family would wipe out him and everyone else if he didn’t get on with the required sacrificing.
A constant theme of the comeback series has been the Doctor working more as an ideal or inspiration for ordinary characters (and hopefully viewers) rather than as a cosmic hero solving every crisis single-handed, so it’s unfortunate that what could have been the ultimate expression of that philosophy is passed over here.
The above of course is merely a suggestion, I’m not for a second saying that it’s the only or indeed the best way of sorting the story out, it’s just that Cornell and certainly RTD are gifted enough writers to go beyond the obvious and surprise viewers with a resolution packing a real emotional punch rather than just serving up a predictable and for me deeply unsatisfying platter of shallow cliches.
In short, the Doctor’s few brief speeches in ‘School Reunion’ or indeed his wordless, resigned response during the closing of ‘Green Death’ quietly convey a great deal more than any amount death-bed melodrama manages here.
What a shame- there was an awful lot of good stuff in ‘Human Nature’, so much so that I genuinely felt ‘Family of Blood’ might buck the unfortunate, ‘first half’s great- the conclusion’s just a run-around’ tradition.
Instead, while ‘Human Nature’ took the old ‘mythical character becomes mortal’ plot and made it involving through well-drawn and well performed characters, the conclusion merely cranked up the scarecrows, left Smith with little choice but to become the Doctor and cattle-prodded us into feeling sad with hymns, moth-balled war veterans and soft focus wedding album shots. Emotional? No, just emotive.
There’s a rare skill to persuading people to care about a fictional romance by ensuring that we really enjoy seeing characters in each other’s company. In contrast, demanding that everyone knows something is tragic through mushy music and fancy framing is a technique anyone can pick up from a few bad Spielberg movies. It’s no more difficult than making an advert for animal charities by finding the most doe-eyed mutt then dubbing on the pleading voice of an actor supposedly expressing the hound’s confusion at why its owners kept wanting to hurt it. If as a result you donate cash to that charity rather than one helping actual human beings, then you deserve to be neutered.
If the above sounds a little tangential, it may in fact get to the root of why this episode annoyed me so much. It wasn’t just that ‘Family’ failed to keep up the quality of its predecessor, it’s the nasty feeling that fans are going to consider this as an unchallengeable work of genius merely on the grounds that it wheeled out the all the stock ‘boo-hoo’ techniques.
Really, what is there to get worked up about? Smith comes across as a dithering twit here and while, yes, he’s under exceptional circumstances, very little finally emerges to make him seem as noble as even Pete Tyler, Michelle Collins’ selfish space captain or any number of other ‘do the right thing’ everymen we’ve seen since the show’s return.
For Smith to defeat the Family as himself, then with the crisis over, ultimately acknowledge that he had a moral duty to transform back into the Doctor, if only to get Martha home, could have worked far more effectively. It would provide a genuine choice for Smith, torn between guaranteed contentment or surrender into life as an isolated wanderer. As it is we get the feeling that Smith under pressure didn’t really have much option, indeed he seemed extremely keen to forsake responsibility altogether until learning that the family would wipe out him and everyone else if he didn’t get on with the required sacrificing.
A constant theme of the comeback series has been the Doctor working more as an ideal or inspiration for ordinary characters (and hopefully viewers) rather than as a cosmic hero solving every crisis single-handed, so it’s unfortunate that what could have been the ultimate expression of that philosophy is passed over here.
The above of course is merely a suggestion, I’m not for a second saying that it’s the only or indeed the best way of sorting the story out, it’s just that Cornell and certainly RTD are gifted enough writers to go beyond the obvious and surprise viewers with a resolution packing a real emotional punch rather than just serving up a predictable and for me deeply unsatisfying platter of shallow cliches.
In short, the Doctor’s few brief speeches in ‘School Reunion’ or indeed his wordless, resigned response during the closing of ‘Green Death’ quietly convey a great deal more than any amount death-bed melodrama manages here.
Friday, June 08, 2007
How Long Can the Fitzroy Tavern Last?
It was yet another strange night at the Fitzroy Tavern. When London's Dr Who community comes out in force nobody reminds the normal people to stay indoors which can lead to overcrowding.
The Tavern always spills out onto the street even in winter but when the weather is pleasant there are empty seats inside as the devoted catch some evening sun.
Fed up with clearing up broken glass from the pavement the Tavern staff have recently resorted to plastic tankards of the kind frowned upon by serious drinkers. But now they're obsessed with people standing on a particular patch of pavement no doubt because the council has told them to control their clients. Stray over the line of bricks and the bar closes.
Last night when people refused to drink where they were told the bar did indeed close (for a while). Shock. Horror. Nah, just move to a more pleasant pub down the road.
In fact does it have to be the Fitzroy every month?
Any suggestions?
The Tavern always spills out onto the street even in winter but when the weather is pleasant there are empty seats inside as the devoted catch some evening sun.
Fed up with clearing up broken glass from the pavement the Tavern staff have recently resorted to plastic tankards of the kind frowned upon by serious drinkers. But now they're obsessed with people standing on a particular patch of pavement no doubt because the council has told them to control their clients. Stray over the line of bricks and the bar closes.
Last night when people refused to drink where they were told the bar did indeed close (for a while). Shock. Horror. Nah, just move to a more pleasant pub down the road.
In fact does it have to be the Fitzroy every month?
Any suggestions?
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