TV Review: Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

Love it or hate it, you've not been able to escape Doctor Who the last week or so. And rightly, so, I think; sure, I'm a fan since being a kid, but even if I wasn't I'd hope that I could recognize what a cultural institution the how has been over the last 50 years and at least tolerate all the coverage it's had. At the centre piece of all of this has been the "special episode" that went out on the anniversary itself, a lengthened extraveganza that needs to celebrate the show as it has been, and as it is, and entertain long-standing fans and casual passers by wondering what the fuss is all about. It's a tall order, when you think about it. Wonder how they did?

Doctor Who: Eleven Companions, Eleven Stories

I had quite a lot of fun last week mentally rambling through favorite Doctor Who stories by Doctor, and have been toying with the idea of doing a "companions" list ever since. This runs into two problems - the fact that there are so many of them, and the fact that what defines a Who Companion is somewhat vexatious. Most attempts to define it within fandom end up being too narrow, too broad, or riddled with exceptions and caveats, so in the decided to pick just 11 of them. It seemed appropriate, and although there are some omissions I almost feel guilty about (Tegan and Jo Grant, for example) and as for if the Brig counts as a companion or not, well of course he bloody does. Presented in order of appearance, so as not to have to pick favorites.

Audio Review: The Light at the End

So, as mentioned a couple of months back, we've become slowly hooked on the range of Audios that Big Finish have been doing starring classic Doctors and Companions in new adventures. They're not flawless, but we've been listening to the earlier ones (because the're cheap, and because they're in order) and some of the issues tend to be inherent to Audio Drama anyway. By which I mean that sometimes the characters have a tendancy to over-describe their surroundings and situations, which you can't really get away from, even if it occasionally clunks. Anyway, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the show they've gathered together all the Doctors they can and made a giant crossover, which naturally we skipped straight to, as early as we could. 

Movie Review: Gravity

Whats this? Another movie review? Yes, that means that we did get to the cinema twice in one day, for the first time in what is possibly decades and certainly since Ewan was born. Of course, Ewan did get to come with us to see Thor: The Dark World, one of the pleasures of him getting older is that we are able to share our cinema going habits with him. Another year or so and we'll be able to take Robert, albeit to the sort of dreadful kids movies that Ewan grown out of. Anyway, after Thor, we dropped fled the kids for the evening and went to take in Gravity, a very different sort of film-going experience. And, because we saw it in 3D, a fair more expensive one!

Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

I commented on twitter the other day that whilst DC seem to be dithering around which of their stable of heroes is more problematic than others, Marvel have green-lit, made, and released, two smash-hit movies built around a character as daft as Thor. I mean, we've had the Nolan Bat-Trilogy, and a confused Green Lantern film, and a Superman movie that can't bring itself to say "Superman", and thats about it. Hell, they're so confident in the Superman property that made a ton of cash they're parachuting Batman into for the sequel, for reasons I really don't understand. As was pointed out to me, Marvel are dithering about a Black Panther movie (gasp! a Black lead actor!) or a Captain Marvel movie (shock! a woman!) but they are, broadly speaking, just picking properties and getting on with bringing them to the screen. And as "Phase 2" rolls onwards, this brings us to The Avengers Prettiest Hero, Thor.

Doctor Who: A Story for Every Doctor

Gosh, the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary is hurtling towards us, isn't it? And with it, the attendant plague of "best of lists" from every website and blogger and around. Actually, its a pretty good idea, so I'm going to one too, because it's my damn blog, thats why. But rather than just trot out any old list I thought I'd go for one from each Doctor; not necessarily the best story but one that is a good representation of the era. This will probably have a lot of "old favorites" in it anyway, but there will be some hard choices, I think. So lets see how it goes.