Saturday 27 September 2014

A Dead Crab

Wow, this review is coming in late, huh? I'd apologize if I thought anybody actually cared. Or was even reading this. Still, one must press on.

When reviewing an episode of of Doctor Who one of the most important things is in deciding what angle to take in ones assessment. I find it helpful to have some sort of hook from which to start. And I admit I was a little stumped at first with how to tackle Time Heist. It's a good episode, sure. But more solid than standout remarkable. But when I finally managed to rewatch it I finally realized what it was about that episode that made it particularly enjoyable to me, and would give me my starting point when talking about it.

Did you know that 9 out of 10 housewives can't tell the difference between Time Heist and an adventure module for a Cyberpunk RPG?


Wednesday 17 September 2014

Stop, Look And The Other Thing

Conventional wisdom is a funny old thing isn't it? It's been one of the assumed tenants of Doctor Who for many years now that every story has to have a monster in it. Even when there is no real point to the creature in story terms.

You rang?

Even in recent years there have been several occasions where a creature has been tacked onto the episode, presumably just in case it makes a good action figure.

Not they always actually get as far as making them.

So in Listen we have something rather unique and interesting. Because it's not often you get a whole story that turns around the idea that, just possibly, there ISN'T actually a monster. Apart from that one bit in The Power Of Kroll obviously.

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Karma Karma Karma

It's funny really. In my reviews of the last two episodes of this series of Doctor Who I've made jokes about how it seems like they were basically remaking an episode of the classic series. Specifically some of the sort of episodes that don't often make it into peoples top 10 lists.

Hardly surprising when at least 5 of the available positions are taken by Timelash.

I do like to jest about crazy fan type conspiracy theories because it amuses me to do so. What I don't like so much is when I make up some random stuff for fun and then it starts to actually come TRUE.

This week they kinda sorta remade The Kings Deamons.

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Prawn Visibility

Funny story: Last weekend I was helping out a friend with a few chores, and as we were going about our business the subject of conversation invariably came around to Doctor Who. He mentioned that the title of the upcoming episode Into The Dalek was rather odd, and I jokingly suggested that maybe they were going to go for some sort of remake of The Invisible Enemy.

I wasn't actually being serious.

CONTACT HAS BEEN MADE. For some reason.

And yet, nevertheless and riff on The Invisible Enemy is just we got. It's funny when you think about it. The first episode combined features of The Twin Dilemma with a splash of Invasion Of The Dinosaurs. More stories that are not all that highly regarded. At this rate next will be a remake of Black Orchid and the season finale will just be a 45 minute dubstep remix of that song from the Gunfighters accompanied by Peter Capaldi's dancing eyebrows.

But I digress. Right now we're here to talk about the past, not the future. Even if it WAS set in the future. Shut up, I know what I'm talking about.