The Future’s Bright

This year we have four Doctor Who specials to look forward to.

The first is called Planet of The Dead, which apparently features UNIT, and may also feature some location filming overseas, possibly in Tunisia or somewhere like that. The companion for the story will be called Christina and has been described as being a young girl and there is also a character called Malcolm in the story. That is all we do know at the time. It is written by Gareth Roberts and Russell T Davies and is to be directed by James Strong. This one should be interesting as it will be the first special that is not going to be set at Christmas which makes it a first for Doctor Who which means that it can be watched at all times in the year and not just at Christmas. I am not sure if you are like me and just don’t see the point of watching Christmas episodes at any other point of the year. Hopefully this will be the story that features new enemies for the Doctor, although it was rumoured that the Sea Devils were to make an appearance soon which I think would be great, as they are a really great enemy and were wasted in their last appearance in the show in Warriors of the Deep.

The second one is untitled as of yet and may be broadcast at Christmas 2009. This one is written by Phil Ford and Russell T Davies and apparently features a much older companion that we have ever seen before in the TV series. What are they going to do? Bring back Ian Chesterton in a story set in Morrison’s? Or perhaps Mr Copper from Voyage of the Damned will become the companion for the story, or maybe Wilf for ruining his granddaughter’s life. Now that would be interesting: I can see the titles flashing before my eyes now David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins in Doctor Who. I read an article in a fanzine years ago that suggested both Cameca from The Atzecs, and Amelia Rumford from The Stones of Blood as companions and, of course, in Big Finish we have Evelyn Smyth so there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t work, especially in a one-off special, which this is going to be.

That leaves the final two specials which make up a two-part story which will see the end of the tenth Doctor. These are written by RTD solely and the director has not been announced at the present moment in time. This should be broadcast between Xmas and New Year 2010 and then the fifth series proper with Matt Smith will begin in spring 2010 if the other specials are broadcast when they are rumoured to be. Now this is the one that we are all looking forward to the most as it certainly going to be a pair of big, bombastic episodes much like the season finales are. Now after what they did at the end of the episode The Stolen Earth is anyone going to actually by this Doctor regenerating, when they know that if he wanted to he could stop it from happening. Now I will only except that the regeneration is a proper one when I see the first glimpse of Matt Smith chin which will then make it a proper regeneration and there is absolutely no change that he we will revert back into his tenth body, because after the cliffhanger to The Stolen Earth that could happen. Of course this time we actually know that Tennant is going, and we know who is going to be the next Doctor so that isn’t likely to happen this time thank god!

Apart from that we have Torchwood series 3 which is going to be a five hour long story broadcast over five nights sometime in June, and Sarah Jane Adventures series 3 which will be 12 episodes long and will broadcast towards the end of the year.

As for this very blog, well, I will continue to review the episodes when they are broadcast.

What’s not to look forward to?

Fairytale in London

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor

I quite enjoyed The Next Doctor. There were some interesting ideas in it and it was well directed and well-paces and there were four fine performances on display (Tennant/Morrisey/Kirwan/Tshabalala) and the effects work in the last fifteen minutes had to rank amongst the best we have ever seen since the show returned to our screens in 2005.

Sadly however the Cybermen are not the most interesting of monsters to bring back and these new Cybermen are not quite as good as their counterparts from the original series. Still at least they tried with the Cybershades – strange furry creatures that look like Cousin It from The Addams family had got a cyberman voice changer helmet stuck to his face. I would certainly be interested in seeing these creatures again before the Cybermen themselves, please bring back The Sea Devils, or The Ice Warriors first. Hell even Kroll!

For the first half of the story the cybermen were mere window dressing as the thorny issue of whether or not David Morrisey’s Doctor was in fact a future incarnation of the Doctor, who had lost his memory, or not. Of course this conceit was never going to enough to fill a whole Christmas special so this rather intimate plot was played out between Tennant and Morrisey perfectly. I was never convinced that he was in fact the Doctor from the moment that I saw the first two minutes on CIN night but I had no idea how they were going to explain it away but the time stamp idea was quite a neat one and allowed all of the younger fans a glimpse into the past of the Doctor. It was a little bit like The Brain of Morbius but less continuity bending and actually features the proper actors rather than members of the production team because they couldn’t afford to get other actors to have their picture taken in costume, or something like that. I think he will turn out to be the best Doctor that we never had, much like Sally Sparrow was the best companion that the Doctor never had. Of course now there is every possiblity that Morrisey could turn out to the be the next Doctor now because there would be nothing to say that he couldn’t regenerate into a Jackson Lake lookalike. He would also be totally different in the role if he returned to play the Doctor proper though, he wouldn’t re-create the role from The Next Doctor. I mean that would just be pointless, and not something that Steven Moffat would allow either.

Sadly once the reveal about about who Morrisey’s character actually was I do think that it started to lose its way a little. There was still some interesting moments but more often that that the Cyberman just don’t cut it in the way that the Daleks do. I hope this is the last we see of them for a while because unless they do something really interesting with them the next time I think that the Cybermen have run out of steam as far as this new series of Doctor Who is concerned.

Apart from Tennant and Morrissey Dervla Kirwan was also excellent in the role of the villainous Miss Mercy Hartigan and I wonder if they missed a trick not having her name in the opening titles. Her first appearance during the funeral scenes that the Doctor was trying to get to before being attacked by the Cybeshade is very well done and the deep red of her dress contracts perfectly against the whitness of the surrounding area. She made a very good villainess even if her character did come across as rather bitter and twisted, but then again aren’t most villains bitter and twisted? I guess I just answered my own question there. The Cybermen also seem to have developed their convertion techniques for this story by simply placing a black skull cap on the unfortunate’s head. I suppose they would stand out less in a crowd if they just looked like a normal human with that on their heads, and might make these Cybermen a bit more interesting than they are at the moment!

One cannot make comment on this story without mentioning the costume design because once again the BBC do what the BBC does best and if you want to do a drama set in the middle of the 19th century then the BBC is the best place to do it and they didn’t disappoint here. At times it did look like it was one of those adaptations of Dicken’s Christmas tale which in many ways was the kind of feeling I think that both RTD and the director Andy Goddard were aiming for.

I would have to say that this is probably the best of the Christmas Specials that we have had so far and it is probably quite telling that out of the specials this has the most intimate story of all of them and is the least epic when compared to the other specials which, for me at least, was a good thing.

Next time Planet of the Dead. Gallifrey anyone?

And the new Doctor is…

Matt Smith.

No, I’ve never heard of him either but it means that we have a complete blank slate for the next Doctor with no preconceptions about how he will play the Doctor, which hasn’t happened for me since Eccleston took on the role.

I have noticed that a lot of people in fandom are hung up on the fact that he is only 26 but so what. Davison was 29 when he took on the role so he is only 3 years younger than that.

I have no idea what we are going to get and I like the fact that I don’t  know what is going to happen. It is certainly going to be very interesting to see him in the role in 2010 and also how the current Doctor ends up regenerating into him.

Eleventh Doctor time

Eleventh Doctor to be revealed

Click for more details.

I wonder who it will be.