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.

Lost in Austen

“Lost in Austen“, a TV miniseries from 2008 starring Jemima Rooper, really tests your ability to ignore reality and buy into a premise. But if you manage to do so, you will probably enjoy this cute little movie about Jane Austen. Well it’s not actually about Jane Austen, it’s more about a Jane Austen fanatic. Either way, it’s enjoyable.

Amanda, an ardent Jane Austen fan, lives in present day London with her boyfriend Michael, until she finds she’s swapped places with Austen’s fictional creation Elizabeth Bennet.

It is a truth generally acknowledged that we are all longing to escape. I escape always to my favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. I’ve read it so many times now, the words just say themselves in my head, and it’s like a window opening. It’s like I’m actually there. It’s become a place I know so intimately. I can see that world. I can touch it. I can see Darcy.

And so begins “Lost in Austen”, starring Jemima Rooper as Jane Austen fan Amanda Price. She is bored with her life and escapes into Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice.

I have no right to complain about my life. I mean, it’s the same for everybody. I do what we all do. I take it on the chin and patch myself up with Jane Austen. I know I sound like a terrible loser. I do actually have a boyfriend. Sometimes I’d rather stay in with Elizabeth Bennet.

And stay in she does, drinking wine and reading P&P, until her boyfriend comes by, drunkenly proposes (with a beer tab) and then passes out on her sofa.

She tries to explain her love of Austen to her mother, “I love the love story. I love Elizabeth. I love the manners, and and the language and the courtesy. It’s become part of who I am and what I want. I’m saying, mum, that I have standards.”

Amanda hears some noises coming from her bathroom and discovers a stranger in her bathtub. The stranger introduces herself as Elizabeth Bennet – and then promptly disappears. She later finds Elizabeth Bennet (played by Gemma Arterton) turning her bathroom light on and off. “You see, I am a real person and you are a pretend person…You are a character in a book.” But then she is curious enough to go through the little door in her bathroom….which leads to the upstairs of a house. The door of course closes behind her and she can’t get back to her own apartment. And thus Amanda Price is suddenly a guest in the Bennet household.

This movie is quite entertaining, provided you buy into the premise. If you can suspend your doubt for a bit, you’ll enjoy Hugh Bonneville, who plays Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham on Downton Abbey as well as Captain Avery in Doctor Who. Bonneville portrays Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet is played by the amazing Alex Kingston (River Song of Doctor Who).

Mr. Bennet: Large gatherings of society bring me out in hives. As do small gatherings.

Bonneville as Mr. Bennet

Kingston as Mrs. Bennet

We also meet Mr. Bingley who apparently is a “pleasant enough fellow, not strong on brains” as well as the other Bennet daughters, Jane, Lydia, Kitty and the (predictably) bespectacled Mary. The portrayal of the Bennet daughters is spot on – each one looks exactly how I think she should. And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?  Tom Mison who portrays Mr. Bingley is also quite accurate.

Elliot Cowan, who plays Mr. Darcy, looks the part and has all the arrogance we’d expect. Mrs. Bingley does not take to the new girl as she is taking attention away from her daughters, who she needs to marry off. And because Elizabeth Bennet is not present, she cannot meet Mr. Darcy, which of course ruins all the events of the novel.

Arterton, Rooper and Cowan as Elizabeth, Amanda and Darcy

One of my favorite actresses, Lindsay Duncan, plays Lady Catherine de Bourgh, one of my favorite characters ever. Lindsay Duncan has been in: Doctor Who as Adelaide Brooke, in Mansfield Price as Lady Bertram and Mrs. Price and in Sherlock as Lady Smallwood. In 2009, she was appointed CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to drama.

Duncan as Lady Catherine

I won’t tell you any more of the plot. You’ll have to watch the movie yourself. I will share some of the lines I found enjoyable. If you can imagine a 21st century woman immersed in Pride and Prejudice, you will realize that there are many options for laughs.

Amanda Price: I’d quite like to clean my teeth. Is that possible?
Jane: Of course. The instruments are already before you. See, I brought birch twigs, powdered salt and a fresh block of chalk.
Amanda: Right. Thank you. Splendid.

Kitty: Do you have a Psalter, Miss Price?
Amanda Price: Is that like a picnic thing for seasoning sandwiches?
Kitty: More for the recitation of psalms.

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen, you should definitely give this miniseries a try. If you’re not (yet), well what’s wrong with you? If you do watch Lost in Austen, please let me know what you thought.

Bletchley Circle – Season One

PBS’s The Bletchley Circle Season 1 takes place in 1952, when four women who worked at the wartime code-breaking center, Bletchley Park, reunite to track down a serial killer.

With an extraordinary flair for code breaking and razor-sharp intelligence skills, four seemingly ordinary women become the unlikely investigators of a string of grisly murders in this original thriller, set against the backdrop of post-war London.

The four main characters are:

Susan (played by Anna Maxwell Martin who was Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra in “Becoming Jane” and Elizabeth Darcy in “Death Comes to Pemberley”) is the mathematical genius who is a whiz at patterns, statistics and puzzles. She is also a married woman with two young children.

Anna Maxwell Martin in The Bletchley Circle

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Millie (portrayed by Rachael Stirling who played Ada in the Doctor Who episode “The Crimson Horror” with her mother Diana Rigg) is bohemian, streetwise and adventurous – and Susan’s best friend.

Rachael Stirling in The Bletchley Circle

Dame Diana Rigg and daughter Rachael Stirling in the Doctor Who episode “The Crimson Horror”

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Lucy (played by Sophie Rundle from Call the Midwife and Episodes, where she played Matt Le Blanc’s stalker) has an idetic memory with photographic memory and recall. She is also the youngest and most naïve of the four women.

Sophie Rundle

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Jean (portrayed by Julie Graham who played a villainous alien on an episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures) is organizer who has access to everyone and everything. She is described as “the moral center” of the four women.

Julie Gardner in The Bletchley Circle

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The first episode opens during WWII. It’s 1943 and we meet four women (Susan, Millie, Lucy, and Jean) who are working at the top secret Bletchley Park. As Susan is working on a message, she notices a strange pattern. After discussing it with Millie, Lucy and Jean, they work out what seems to be an important aspect of a code. After taking it to their supervisors, Susan learns that they were correct. Their breakthrough changes troop movements and saves Allied lives. The process they use to solve this problem shows us just how intelligent these women are and how important the workers at Bletchley Park were.

The show then jumps to nine years later. Susan, now a married housewife with two children, is following the news of a string of murdered women. She thinks she sees a pattern but when she offers help to the police, she is rebuffed. Eventually they take some of her advice but when the police fail to find any physical evidence, they give up. Susan is sure she can help solve the murders and looks up her old friend Millie. They enlist their former co-workers Lucy and Jean. Although reluctant at first, all four realize that they can help save the lives of women. So when another girl goes missing, they get organized and start working to solve this whodunit.

The show is a combination murder mystery and social drama with strong women leads. It does a great job of portraying the gender roles of the time and how these intelligent women, who helped win the war, were displaced afterwards. It is clear that the male officials find it impossible that these women would be able to help them, let alone solve the crimes. With the exception of Steven Robertson (who plays a super creepy bad guy), the male actors are relegated to the types of roles women often get, i.e., “the husband”, “the co-worker” etc.

I’m really looking forward to getting Season 2 as it adds two actresses I really enjoy: Hattie Morahan who played Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (which I wrote about here) and Faye Marsay who was Anne Neville in The White Queen (which I wrote about here). I’ll be sure to review Season 2 as soon as I watch it.

For more info about Bletchley park, go here: Bletchley Park Research

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?

Who?

I have decided that people currently fall into one of two categories: people who are obsessed with Doctor Who and people who have no idea what Doctor Who is.  Okay maybe there are some gray areas between those two categories but lately it seems like everyone I’ve talked to lately falls into one of these categories.

I have a few Doctor Who related t-shirts (okay, more than a few – I guess it depends on how you define “few”). Anyway, lately I’ve noticed one of two very different reactions to my DW shirts.

1. Umm, excuse me. But what is that on your shirt? When I reply “It’s the TARDIS/It’s from Doctor Who” or some such response, I am met with a somewhat confused look. “It’s a show……on the BBC…..been around for 50 years?” Nope. Still get the blank looks……OR….
2. “OhMyGod! I LOVE YOUR SHIRT!” and then he/she proceeds to show me his/her Doctor Who shirt/keychain/purse/tattoo.  Seriously it’s one of the other – no middle ground.

If you fall into category #2, to you I say, “Hello fellow crazy person. Have you checked out BlueBoxTees? You totally should”. If you fall into category #1, I say, “Seriously? You’ve never heard of Doctor Who? Please read the rest of this blog post and then we’ll talk.”

So Doctor Who.  Doc…tor…Who.  How to describe Doctor Who?

Well let’s start somewhere near the beginning. No not 1953 – the beginning for me. Jeez, how old do you think I am?  So…….In the winter of 2013, I fell down some bleachers, sprained my left ankle and sustained a spiral fracture of my right leg. I had to have surgery to repair the right leg; the doctor placed a titanium rod down through my tibia and attached it with screws to both my knee and my ankle. It was sooo much fun! Anyway, because I also had a severely sprained left ankle, I was in a wheelchair for far too long. Now you may be surprised to learn this but I do not live in a mansion (I know, right?). In fact our house is quite tiny. So my choices in our tiny house were fairly limited. I could hop around (yes, hop) with the aid of an “old person” walker and hope I didn’t fall. Or I could wheel myself around in my lovely wheelchair. One fairly substantial problem was that the wheelchair wouldn’t fit through our doorways…..like any of our doorways. So I was able to wheel myself around the living room and into the hallway. Then if I had to enter a room (you know like the bathroom, the bedroom, or the kitchen) I had to do my lovely “hopping” thing with my walker and hope I didn’t crash land. So I spent a lot of time in the living room. Seriously. A. LOT. OF. TIME.

One day whilst flipping through the channels, I came upon “Doctor Who” on BBC America. I remembered that DW was written/produced/something by the same guys who made “Sherlock” (which I LOVE). So I figured I’d give it a shot. And the rest, as they say, is history. I slowly but surely recruited my entire family and now we are all fairly obsessed (notice me, laughing at the use of the word “fairly”).

David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor

My first episode was “The Shakespeare Code” with Tenth Doctor David Tennant. Since I am somewhat of a history and English nerd, this was a great episode for me to start with. To this day, I still love a good historical episode of Doctor Who. I continued watching DW through the tenure of the Tenth Doctor  and into Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. Then I got the Ninth Doctor’s season (Christopher Eccleston) and all of David Tennant’s prior to Martha Jones from Netflix.

Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor

Having started with the modern episodes (i.e., “New Who”), I have a problem going back and watching the older episodes (i.e., “Classic Who”). It’s not that I don’t enjoy the stories or the actors. I just have a hard time with the  special effects from the 1950s and 1960s. But I try. I really do. Lately, because Sarah Jane Smith is a favorite, I’ve been watching the Fourth Doctor episodes. As long as I remember that the episodes are older than me (usually), I can make myself ignore the special effects issues.

Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith

Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor

So Doctor Who.  I still haven’t explained Doctor Who yet, have I? Or why you should watch it. Hmmmm. Well the Doctor is an alien from Gallifrey. He is a Time Lord and travels throughout time and space in a blue police box time machine. The TARDIS is its name but it isn’t actually a blue police box. It just looks like a blue police box. Got it? Anyway, because he can go literally anywhere in time and space, he spends a lot of time in England. (Old joke). The Doctor seems to have a special fondness for English citizens and usually has one (or two) traveling along with him. These lucky, lucky ducks are known as “The Doctor’s Companions“.

Sometimes the Doctor and Companions travel to other planets. Sometimes they travel into the past. Sometimes they travel into the future. Regardless of where (or when) they are going, hijinks ensue:) You will laugh. You will cry (seriously, I double dog dare you to watch the endings of “Vincent and the Doctor” or “The Angels Take Manhattan” and NOT cry). You will be thoroughly entertained. And you just might become a Whovian.

So that’s a fairly short summary of Doctor Who. I seriously recommend watching the damn thing and then you’ll understand the attraction. If you have any questions or want to know where to start, let me know and I’ll try to guide you. Thanks and Allons-y!