Guest Post: Recent Doctor Who episodes

Today we have a guest blogger: my 10 year old daughter, Claire. She decided she wanted to start a blog so I told her she could do a few guest posts to see how she likes it.  First up, her thoughts about two recent episodes of Doctor Who – “In the Forest of the Night” and the first half of the two part season finale “Dark Water“.

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The nerd’s view by Claire

Hi, Hola, Guten Tag, Bonjour, Sup. My name is Claire Holston and I’m here to tell you about all the things I like- Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Animal Jam, Art, etc. I’ll write reviews of shows, share interesting websites, talk about books and show you some of my own creations.

This is me, trick or treating as the Eleventh Doctor.

Doctor Who, Episode review – 10/25/14
“In the Forest of the Night”

In this new episode, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Clara Oswald (played by Jenna-Louise Coleman), Danny Pink and a class of Coal Hill school kids find themselves in a giant overgrown forest. Or London. I understood why the forest was there, but was not quite sure how it had grown there overnight. I really felt that this episode was altogether interesting and humorous.

Doctor Who, Episode Review – 11/1/14

“Dark Water”

In the episode Dark Water, something very unexpected happens. Danny Pink (played by Samuel Anderson) dies in a car crash. Clara begs The Doctor to bring him back but he constantly replies with “No.” So, he just takes her to see him. This episode includes two of the three most iconic Doctor Who bad guys, Cybermen and The Doctor’s greatest enemy (besides the Daleks). In this first part of a two-parter, you’ll never believe who’s really been ending every episode…Missy aka The Mistress aka The Master. She is played by Michelle Gomez.

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You can find reviews of both episodes all over the Internet: In the Forest of the Night reviews here, here, here and Dark Water reviews here, here and here.

Doctor Who. Fan. Orchestra.

Wait, what? By themselves, those are three separate things that I understand completely. But put them together and….wait, what?  Well apparently the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra is indeed a thing. And it is glorious.

“One gloomy evening in early 2011, in Surrey, England, I was tinkering away in Sibelius on an arrangement of “I Am The Doctor”, the Eleventh Doctor’s theme, when a particularly crazy idea struck me. I knew that Murray’s music meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people, and I reasoned that, probably, among those fans, a lot would be musicians themselves. And that they’d give anything to be able to play music from Doctor Who. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could somehow play the music all together?”…….Stephen Willis

And thus the idea for Doctor Who Fan Orchestra was born. Inspired by Murray Gold’s music for Doctor Who and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, founder Stephen Willis, a musician and Whovian, posted on Gallifrey Base, a DW fan forum. The idea was that Willis would send the participants sheet music for their part, a click track and other materials. Participants then independently rehearse for a few months. Each person then records his/her portion and sends it back to Willis. Some, but not all, also record a video of that performance. Willis then compiles the various performances into the master track.

The first performance was “I Am The Doctor” and was published on YouTube July 10, 2011. There were 36 people. For the fifth performance, “The Impossible Astronaut (Suite)”, Willis had to put a cap on maximum number of participants – at 600. Members of DWFO “range in age from 10 to 80 and are located in at least 25 different countries.”

The performance are all available on YouTube and are:

“I Am The Doctor”

“This Is Gallifrey/Vale Decem”

“Rose’s Theme/Doomsday”

“Dalek Suite”

“The Impossible Astronaut (Suite)”

“A Christmas Carol (Suite)”

“Amy’s Suite”

“50^th Anniversary Suite”

DWFO: About the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra

DWFO also has a blog, though it doesn’t seem to be updated much. DWFO also inspired another collaborative orchestra – the Sherlock Fan Orchestra. And you can bet I’ll be checking that one out asap.

Do yourself a favor and check out the performances on YouTube. DWFO is truly a beautiful thing.

So “Who” cried? Deep Breath

Jenna Coleman as Clara and Peter Capaldi as the Doctor

The season premiere of Doctor Who premiered tonight, introducing new Doctor Peter Capaldi, and I know in this house we definitely had a few tears (mostly mine – towards the end). FYI Peter Capaldi previously appeared on an episode of Doctor Who, during David Tennant’s run. He also played John Frobisher on Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Capaldi in Fires of Pompeii

So on to the episode! We had the Paternoster Gang: Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny Flint and Strax as well as a dinosaur, a few Sherlock Holmes references and a mystery lady! Oh my. Here are some of my thoughts after my first viewing and a half. I won’t explain exactly what happened in this episode and I certainly won’t spoil the surprises. I will just keep to general terms with a few (out of context) quotes thrown in.

· Steven Moffat said this doctor would be different from the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors as played by David Tennant and Matt Smith. “He’s a much more difficult to control madman than he was before. We’re going back to that sort of Doctor, someone who is a bit off the leash.” Peter Capaldi seemed to agree. “This Doctor is a little less user friendly. I think somewhere in the regenerative process I think his social skills have become a little blunted.” And I agree. This Doctor is noticeably older and seems to permanently have a bit of a frown going on. How many times did he smile in this episode? Did he smile at all? I’ll have to go back and check because I can’t think of any right away. He certainly seems much more “alien” than Tennant and Smith.

· As a bridge to the new Doctor, the use of Vastra, Jenny and Strax along with Clara was brilliant. Vastra accepted the new Doctor right off which was supposed to help us do the same. We’ve been through a lot with Madame Vastra and I think we’ve come to trust her judgment a bit, haven’t we?

· There were plenty of funny moments and lines. Even if this new Doctor is going to be less light hearted, Moffat is not forgetting the laughs. Calling Clara the “asking questions one” sounded like a classic “Matt Smith’s Doctor” type of line. And the new Doctor telling the dinosaur “I’m not flirting by the way” and thinking Clara was Handles (a cyberman head) was funny because the Doctor was so serious.

· Clara’s story arc in this episode mirrors Rose Tyler’s when the Ninth Doctor became the Tenth Doctor. This makes absolute sense. A companion who didn’t struggle at least a little bit with the regeneration of his or her doctor would not be believable at all.

· I’m thrilled to see that Moffat and the show are addressing a few questions Whovians have had. How will the show address the fact that Capaldi’s face has been on Doctor Who before? The Doctor’s discussion with the tramp (about his face) sounds like we’ll get an answer to that. The identity of the mystery lady who gave Clara that “help line” phone number way back when has bugged a lot of people, myself included. It looks like we might be getting an answer to that as well. I know who I’m hoping the mystery lady will turn out to be but I can’t see how Moffat can make that happen. Then again, I’m not Moffat and who really knows what he can think up?

· On “The Ultimate Time Lord” (hosted by the Fifth Doctor Peter Davison) which aired last week during Doctor Who takeover week on BBC America, Moffat discussed the Doctor and his ability (or lack thereof) to make wise choices. “The Doctor flings himself out a window and works out what to do about it on the way down.” Without giving away any “spoilers”, certain actions of his in this episode support that definition.

· What happened between “Kidneys! I’ve got new kidneys! I don’t like the color” and “Hush”?? I hope we find out. Nosy Whovians want to know!

· “You’ve redecorated. I don’t like it.” And “I think there should be more round things on the wall. I used to have a lot of round things. I wonder where I put them.” I loved it. But then who doesn’t love the round things? And I think I’m digging the new TARDIS interior!

So what did you think about “Deep Breath”? What are your thoughts on Capaldi’s initial appearance? Let me know.

Torchwood

“Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future.

The twenty-first century is when everything changes.

And you’ve got to be ready.”

You had me at “tracking down alien life”. Thanks Captain Jack!

And so “Torchwood“, the BBC’s Doctor Who spin off created by former executive producer of DW Russell T. Davies, begins. The show, which aired four seasons between 2006 and 2011, follows Captain Jack Harkness (of Doctor Who fame) as he leads a secret team that monitors alien activity on Earth. In the first episode (“Everything Changes“) we meet Gwen Cooper, a policewoman, who ends up joining the Torchwood team. The character of Gwen, played by Eve Myles, remains on Torchwood for all four seasons and the show is told mainly from her point. The rest of the team are: Captain Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman; Owen Harper played by Burn Gorman; Toshiko Sato played by Naoko Mori; Ianto Jones played by Gareth David-Lloyd. We also meet Gwen’s boyfriend, Rhys Williams played by Kai Owen.

Myles, Gorman, Barrowman, David-Lloyd, Mori

The following main characters are with us for a short while, either at the beginning or in later seasons: Suzie Costello, Andy Davidson, Rex Matheson, Esther Drummond, Oswald Danes and Doctor Who alum Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman. Matheson is played by Mekhi Phifer and Bill Pullman portrays Oswald Danes when season four travels to America.

Torchwood Cardiff at Roald Dahl Plass

According to Doctor Who lore, the Torchwood Institute was the brainchild of Queen Victoria after the events of “Tooth and Claw“, a 2006 episode of DW. This version, the Cardiff branch, is Torchwood Three (according to Captain Jack). And as we know from Doctor Who, there is a time rift in Cardiff. Torchwood’s London headquarters have been destroyed (as seen in DW’s “Doomsday“).

Torchwood has four seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 feature mostly stand alone episodes while Season 3 is called Torchwood: Children of Earth. Season 4 is Torchwood: Miracle Day. Torchwood IS NOT as family friendly as Doctor Who. Trust me. This is definitely adult entertainment. Well not XXX adult entertainment but there is enough “adult” subject matter that you don’t want your kids watching it.

Weevil

For the Doctor Who fans: Paul Kasey is heavily featured in Torchwood (although you don’t see his face much). He portrays Weevils (above), a Blowfish and the Hoix. In addition to Paul Kasey’s characters and Agyeman’s Martha Jones, you will see other DW actors and characters in Torchwood. New Doctor Peter Capaldi was featured in Children of Earth as Permanent Secretary John Frobisher. Eve Myles was previously on DW during the Ninth Doctor’s reign (“The Unquiet Dead” as Gwyneth) and as Gwen during the Tenth Doctor’s period (“The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End“). David-Lloyd’s Ianto Jones also appears in The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End. Toshiko Sato had previously been seen in DW’s episode “Aliens of London” with Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston.

Interior of Torchwood HQ in Cardiff

There is much to love for Doctor Who fans in Torchwood. I personally prefer the first two seasons as they seemed more “Doctor Who”-like. Children of Earth is quite dark. Although it was definitely entertaining, I wasn’t happy with where ‘they” took the character of Captain Jack. Season four was likewise entertaining and quite a mystery but I rewatch seasons one and two regularly. The Torchwood team drives these amazeballs SUVs by the way. I really, really want one (blue lights and computers included).

Yes please.

So if you give Torchwood a go, let me know what you think. Reminder: Torchwood is not for kids. I don’t care how much they love Doctor Who – just no.

The beauty of Rory (err, I mean, Arthur Darvill)

How does one explain the beauty of Arthur Darvill aka Rory Williams? It isn’t easy because my “crush” on Rory Arthur is kinda weird. He isn’t traditionally handsome. In fact, at times, he’s kind of funny looking. When I first saw him, in Matt Smith’s first episode of Doctor Who “The Eleventh Hour‘, I don’t recall that he made much of an impression.

However, as the character of Rory Williams became more complicated and interesting, I started to think he was kind of cute. And then this happened –

And I was in love! Well not “love” love. I “love” love my husband and kids. And I haven’t actually met Arthur Darvill. Also I’m fully aware that the actor Arthur Darvill was just reading the character Rory William’s lines but still…..

Anyway, Rory quickly became one of my favorite Doctor Who characters and when he & Amy died – oh my god!

Next I learn that Arthur Darvill, the actor, can sing! And play guitar! What?!?!?

First there is this – from “Once the Musical”.
http://youtu.be/l0cftRE2O8g

Suddenly my “love” for the character Rory was morphing into a huge ole crush on the actor Arthur.
And then this happened:
http://youtu.be/IkVGYvOiXlo?t=30s

Arthur Darvill was also in Broadchurch with Tenth Doctor David Tennant and Olivia Colman. It. Was. Awesome!

He was also in The White Queen as Henry Stafford. Not a good luck for our boy though.

And I then found this:

And here’s more:

And this:

And I’ll just leave these here…..

So if you don’t get it by now, well I don’t know what else to say. Adios! I’m off to watch some Doctor Who.

Almost forgot to mention that you can find him on Twitter as @RattyBurvill and his profile lists him as “walker, talker, faller, getter back upper againer”. Now isn’t that just too cute for words?