Telefantasy – Page 4

Doctor Who DVD Marathon Session

[I]\’m having a bit of a quiet night in tonight, watching a few Doctor Who DVDs with a couple of mates. We have four DVDs on the menu tonight, and they\’re all Tom Baker stories, among them three of my all-time favourite DW classics from the Hinchcliffe era.

We\’re starting of with Image of the Fendahl (just finishing now), followed by Terror of the Zygons, Genesis of the Daleks, and finally Destiny of the Daleks. The first three stories are all in my Top Ten classic Doctor Who Stories list. Destiny is pretty decent too, if not quite up to the standard of the first three.

Tom Baker has always been my favourite Doctor, and the Hinchcliffe era by far my favourite era ever of Doctor Who. The underlying horror, more subdued Baker humour, excellent acting and extremely high quality of the scripts in Baker\’s first three seasons have never been equalled, let alone surpassed, either in the classic or the new series.

I haven\’t seen any of these in quite a long time now, so it\’ll be really nice to revisit these old classics again. We\’re in for a very enjoyable evening. 🙂

Leonard Nimoy (1931 – 2015)

[T]he news of Leonard Nimoy\’s death yesterday has had a strong impact on me in a way that the vast majority of celebrity deaths usually don\’t. When I woke up yesterday morning and saw the news for the first time online, it was like a kick in the gut. I spent the entire day stunned, in tears, just sitting in front of my computer browsing the web for more news. Even though I usually don\’t give a damn about the passing of most celebrities, this one has left me totally gutted. Why?

This sad news really should\’ve come as no great surprise to anybody. Leonard Nimoy was 83 years old, and had been in pretty bad health for many years. But like a sick relative that everyone loves dearly, we\’re still in mourning when they die. Leonard Nimoy, in particular his iconic Mr. Spock persona, was like a close friend or relative. His passing truly is almost like losing a member of the family. But why has the death of a television actor, someone I\’ve never met, had such an effect on me?

To get an answer to that, we have to go right back to my early childhood, in the late-1960\’s and early-1970\’s, when I still hadn\’t yet entered my teens (I turned 13 in December 1973). I\’ve been a huge fan of the original Star Trek and Doctor Who since those early days, and back then I was totally obsessed with both shows, and both have always been a major part of my life, even to this day. But back to the beginning. My family life in those days was pretty rough, poverty stricken, constant domestic disputes and fighting between my parents, and all set against the dark, terrible earliest years of the Troubles, in Northern Ireland. Star Trek and other sci-fi was a way of escaping from real life and domestic problems into a much more pleasant world of make-believe, where Spock, and the Doctor, were major characters in my fantasy world.

I\’d actually been a sci-fi fan since the mid-1960\’s, that delicate age of 5-7 years old, where you start to really notice and get into stuff for the first time. I first began to notice Doctor Who on UK television about 1966 or so, and soon after that, sci-fi films such as George Pal\’s The Time Machine, Irwin Allen\’s The Lost World, and the classic film version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth also became favourites of mine. So the way was well-prepared.

Then in 1969, during the summer break between seasons of Doctor Who, something called Star Trek began its first run on UK television, making its debut on BBC1. I was a starry-eyed eight year-old back in 1969, and I\’d never seen anything remotely like Star Trek. And this weird alien guy with the pointed ears, Mr. Spock, he made a huge impact on me right away. He immediately became my favourite character on the show, and has always remained the main man for me, in EVERY incarnation of Star Trek. He has always been my favourite Star Trek character, and more than any other character in TOS, he has always epitomized the whole ethos of Trek for me. Star Trek was always more than just a TV show to me, and Spock was always far more than just another television character.

Leonard Nimoy may once have written a book titled I am NOT Spock, but, as far as I\’m concerned, he IS and always WILL be Spock. No disrespect intended to Zachary Quinto or any other talented newcomers who try to fill Nimoy\’s huge shoes, but the man is irreplaceable.

Live Long and Prosper my friend, wherever you may be.

Leonard Nimoy, RIP.

[I] rarely keep up with the celebrity news, so I got a real shock when I read some terrible news on Dayton Ward\’s excellent blog a wee while ago. I\’m sitting here stunned, in tears. I\’m gutted. Totally gutted. Leonard Nimoy is dead. I keep saying it to myself over and over again, but I still can\’t believe it. Mr. Spock is dead. 🙁

Spock was always my favourite Star Trek character, and more than any other actor/character in all of Star Trek\’s history, he epitomized the whole ethos of Trek for me. Star Trek has always been a major part of my life, ever since I watched its first run on UK television as a starry-eyed eight year-old back in 1969-1970, and Spock was always the main man for me.

Leonard Nimoy/Mr. Spock has been a huge influence on me since I was a kid. This feels like I\’ve lost a close, lifelong friend, even though I\’ve never met the man in person. I\’m gonna need a while to take this in. Gutted. 🙁

Some Good Sunday Night Viewing

[A]nother interesting Sunday night with myself and the mates here at Chez Phil, and we\’re all sitting here right now, watching some good sci-fi stuff on DVD.

First up, it was the complete 2-Season DVD box-set of The New Captain Scarlet. This was an impressive modern CGI remake of the classic Gerry Anderson 1960\’s puppet show. In my opinion, the stories are more intelligent and more adult than those in the original series, which suits me fine, as I\’m not a little kid any more. Likewise, on a visual level, the excellent (for it\’s time) CGI visuals of the new series far outstrips the 1960\’s version (and its rather wooden actors – couldn\’t resist that! 🙂 ). Indeed, the only thing that lets The New Captain Scarlet down is its rather bland theme music, which is pretty lame compared the absolutely brilliant Barry Gray 60\’s theme.

Well, four episodes later of The New Captain Scarlet, and it was time to move onto something else. So, what did we watch? By unanimous verdict, we all decided to pop open the lovely Series 1-5 DVD box-set of Warehouse 13, and stick on a few episodes of Season 4. Warehouse 13 is an odd but interesting show, very, very funny at times, with an excellent cast who work very well together. It\’s also completely stark, raving bonkers, with some really daft (but fun) storylines, completely tongue-in-cheek, and is always a hoot to watch. But it can also be very dark at times. Sometimes I think that the writers of this show are on LSD or something stronger, and they certainly must have had a complete ball coming up with all the kooky powers for those crazy artifacts that they created for the series. 🙂

This Warehouse 13 box-set actually belongs to a friend of mine, and he has generously brought it (and so much other good stuff) up for all of us to watch on Sunday nights (thanks mate!). He picked it up locally for only £35, which is an absolute steal for the entire five-season run of this entertaining show. Jeeze! I remember the not-to-distant days when we had to pay £13-£14 for VHS videos containing only two lousy episodes of our favourite sci-fi series. That would\’ve been somewhere between £400-£500 for this series on video. When you ain\’t exactly Rockerfella, there\’s a massive difference between £35 and £500 – I\’ll try anything decent for £35, but £500 is reserved for computers, electronics and other relatively expensive stuff. At only £35, methinks I shall be stalking Amazon.co.uk in the near future to pick said box-set up for such a trifling sum.

Anyway, four episodes of The New Captain Scarlet and five episodes of Warehouse 13 later, and its almost 1am on Monday morning, and time to pack it in for another night. Pretty enjoyable evening overall.

Doctor Who: \”Last Christmas\”

[I] watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special earlier this evening. Verdict? Mmmm… not bad, actually.

I must admit that when I first heard that the title of the Christmas Special was going to be Last Christmas, and saw the trailer with Santa Claus in it, I let out a huge groan, fearing the worst. Oh please, not another piece of silly, irrelevant Christmas fluff! I had images of a soppy, saccharine, Christmas-sy pile of old tosh, with Santa and strains of Wham! permeating the background music. The very thought of it filled me with dread.

Thankfully my worst fears didn\’t materialize. There was a perfectly good and logical reason for Santa, and a reasonably intelligent story, which was even pretty dark and ominous in parts. Most unChristmas-sy. 🙂 Even the aliens were pretty good, and although derivative, Moffat managed to work a joking reference into the script as an acknowledgement of the original source. I won\’t say anything more, in case I give away spoilers for anyone who hasn\’t seen it yet.

It was nice to see Clara\’s place confirmed as continuing companion in the series, after all the speculation about \”will she or won\’t she?\” (stay or leave). I know that the character has taken a lot of criticism from fans, but I think that she has come into her own during Season 8, after an initial beginning as more of a plot device than a real character. In my opinion, she is fitting in better now with Peter Capaldi than she ever did during Matt Smith\’s era. Jenna Coleman is a good little actress, so I\’m quite glad that she\’s staying with the show for a while yet.

Overall, Steven Moffat has produced a reasonably good Christmas Special for 2014. Sure, it may not have been the best Doctor Who episode of all time, but it was definitely worth an hour of my time.

Gotham – The Pilot Episode

The pilot episode (titled only \”Pilot\”) of Gotham premiered on UK television (Channel 5) last Monday, 13th October at 9pm. It\’s been getting some good reviews on the internet, and I was really looking forward to seeing the first episode. So what did I think of it?

Overall, not bad. Not bad at all. I\’d give it a 7/10. I liked it enough that I\’m really looking forward to the second episode tonight. The series is developed and written by Bruno Heller, the same guy behind hit series The Mentalist and Rome, so it certainly has some good pedigree behind it. I like Heller\’s other shows, so this bodes well for Gotham, and it is definitely in good hands.

The interesting thing about Gotham is that it is set in the Batman Universe, but it\’s not actually about Batman, although it does focus on the events, characters and background that lead up to the later Batman Universe which we\’re all familiar with. You\’d expect to see heroes and villains from the comic books and earlier television series and films, but Gotham is actually a (fairly) straightforward cop/crime series (at least so far), with no Batman or other comic book fantasy characters in sight. But we do see signs of things to come, with much younger versions of characters who will later become the hero and villains that we recognize from the familiar Batman Universe – the young pre-Batman Bruce Wayne and his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, Oswald Cobblepot/the Penguin, Edward Nygma/the Riddler, Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy.

The Pilot episode opens up with the murder of Bruce Wayne\’s parents, Thomas and Martha, and the attempts of central characters Detectives James Gordon and Harvey Bullock to track down the killer. We also meet many of the individuals who would\’ve featured more as background characters in other tellings of the beginning of the Bruce Wayne/Batman story. As such, I was pleased to see many of the everyday/non fantasy characters from the pre-Batman Gotham universe taking centre stage and becoming the primary focus of the series. To be honest, I\’ve always been a far greater fan of the Marvel Universe rather than DC, and I\’ve never exactly been a huge fan of Batman in the comics (although I do enjoy the films). But I got a nice kick recognizing background characters from Batman: Year One and the various other comic book stories and films, such as Mafia Don Carmine Falcone, Renee Montoya and a few others.

The stand-out roles for me in this first episode were Ben McKenzie, as the rookie Detective James Gordon, and Donal Logue as his senior partner, Detective Harvey Bullock. Logue, in particular, really shines as the world-weary, cynical and corrupt, bordering on amoral older detective. Sean Pertwee also promises to be a real gas as Bruce Wayne\’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and Jada Pinkett Smith excels as the sadistic, vicious and near-psychotic Fish Mooney, Falcone\’s treacherous subordinate, who plans to make a move on him.

But, to my surprise, another one of my favourite characters in the episode was Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald \”Penguin\” Cobblepot. He\’s a real psycho, and I look forward to watching him develop, and maybe even get around to exacting his revenge on Mooney and the others who turned on him. I find my liking for this particular character quite ironic, as I could never stand the Penguin as a character in either the comics or the films.

Anyway, roll on 9pm tonight, and the second episode, \”Selina Kyle\”. I hope it\’s as good as the pilot episode.

Doctor Who, Season 8 – \”Deep Breath\”

I know it\’s hard to believe, but we\’re already half-way through the new season of Doctor Who. So I thought that it\’s about time that I started posting a few brief opinions on each episode, hoping that I\’ll be able to catch up before we get to the end of the season.

The season opener, Deep Breath, was a longer than usual 75-minute episode. It\’s a typical regeneration debut story, much more about introducing the new Doctor than anything else, and, as such, it did that very well. Here are what I regarded as the plus and negative points:

The Good Stuff:
The most important thing first. I loved the new Doctor. Peter Capaldi is a fine actor, and I think he\’s going to be excellent in the role. He\’s totally different to the previous incarnation, and that\’s how it should be. He\’s a grumpy, sarcastic Scotsman (and very funny, in a totally different way to the manic Matt Smith), with a strong streak of \”alienness\”, which any good Doctor needs to offset his humanity. He pushed all the right buttons for me in his debut story, and I\’m looking forward to watching him grow into the role.

I also really liked seeing Lady Vastra, Jenny and Strax again. I always enjoy the appearances of the Paternoster Gang, and I think that Strax is absolutely hilarious. Lots of humourous moments and good character scenes in this story.

The Bad Stuff:
The story itself was okay but wasn\’t exactly amazing either. The plot was a bit on the thin side, and if you take out Peter Capaldi and the Paternoster Gang, the episode would barely have rated a C. Also, Steven Moffat\’s seeming obsession with having the Doctor constantly revisit the Victorian era is starting to wear a bit thin, as much as I might like the Victorian era.

I also had a couple of major plot and character quibbles with this story:

Number One is Clara\’s totally out of character reaction to the new Doctor. Yes, I know that Steven Moffat was using it as a strong dig at the type of fan who was reacting negatively to Matt Smith leaving, and all of the stupid, irrational hating on Peter Capaldi before they\’d even seen him in the role. But it was a completely wrong reboot of Clara\’s character. Any other companion reacting like this, yes, maybe, just maybe it might\’ve been a bit more realistic, but not the Impossible Girl.

She\’s met all of the Doctors, and a new one shouldn\’t even phase her, older or not. Hell, she\’s even been in an adventure with three different Doctors, Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt, in The Day of the Doctor, so she\’s pretty familiar with regeneration and other Doctors. I know that some people are of the opinion that Clara doesn\’t remember any of her other lives (or the Doctor\’s she met), but I\’m firmly in the \”yes she does\” camp. But even if she doesn\’t, she would never, EVER have reacted in this way.

Her overly-negative, almost hysterical overreaction to the Peter Capaldi Doctor being \”older\” is also way out of character, and totally immature and unrealistic. She\’s already met an older Doctor (Hurt), and got on really well with him. The Clara that we all know simply would NOT have behaved like this towards the new Doctor.

Number Two is a major plot/continuity cock-up by Moffat: the phone call from the Matt Smith Doctor on Trenzalore to Clara. He says to Clara that the time is getting close, and \”it\’s going to be a real whopper\” (obviously referring to the upcoming regeneration). This scene was quite poignant and well-acted, until you actually stop and remember back to what happened at the end of The Time of the Doctor. The Doctor, as far as he was concerned for the ENTIRE episode, wasn\’t going to regenerate. He was going to die.

That was the whole damned point of the story. He\’d run out of regenerations, and, right up until the climax of the episode, when the Time Lords popped up and gave the Doctor a new cycle of regenerations (after Clara pleading with them, of course), he was resigned to meeting his end while fighting to save the people of Trenzalore from the Daleks. He didn\’t know he was going to regenerate UNTIL IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. So Matt Smith\’s Doctor wouldn\’t/couldn\’t have made that phone call to Clara. As beautiful and emotional as the scene undoubtedly was, it was also a stupid continuity error and very sloppy writing on Moffat\’s part.

So overall, a couple of major issues, and a fairly average, unremarkable story. That said, there were quite a few nice character pieces, sad bits, and slices of humour. The performances of Lady Vastra, Strax and Jenny were excellent, as usual. And Peter Capaldi\’s performance (which is, after all, the most important thing) as the new Doctor was A-rated. So Deep Breath was a success, both as a regeneration story and an introduction to the new Doctor.

Deep Breath – Some Quick Thoughts

Deep Breath is, at its core, a fairly typical regeneration debut story. The story itself wasn\’t bad, but wasn\’t exactly anything special either. But a regeneration story has the primary function of successfully introducing the new Doctor to the audience. This is the single most important thing we needed from Deep Breath, to break in Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor, and, as such, the episode did an excellent job of it. Everything else is secondary, in my opinion, although there were definitely both plus and minus points.

As I\’ve said, the story was nothing exceptional, not exactly setting the world on fire for me. However, there were some nice scenes in it. The character set-pieces and interaction were generally excellent (with the exception of one thing). There were also quite a few nice bits of humour in among all the sad bits, and I also really liked seeing Lady Vastra, Jenny and Strax again. I enjoy these characters a lot, and I think that Strax is absolutely hilarious.

On the negative side, the plot itself was definitely a bit thin, there were at least a couple of glaring plot and character inconsistencies, particularly Clara\’s aggressively negative overreaction to the new, older Doctor, which was TOTALLY out of character. Any other companion, yes, it might\’ve actually been more realistic, but not the Impossible Girl. She\’s met them all. And even if, as some people argue, she has no memories of her other lives (which I disagree with), her reaction was STILL over-the-top and totally out of character.

Hey, she\’s already pretty familiar with regeneration and different Doctors, she\’s even been in an adventure with three different Doctors (Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt), in The Day of the Doctor 50th Anniversary Special, and having already met (and liked) an older Doctor (Hurt), her overly-negative reaction to Capaldi because he is \”old\” is totally unrealistic and out-of-character.

The shame is that Jenna Coleman is a pretty good actress, and Clara, as a companion, is quite likeable. But Steven Moffat didn\’t come up with the writing goods for her on this occasion, writing her not as herself, but reducing her to some kind of a one-dimensional cypher, a dig at and representation of fans who can\’t handle regeneration and the replacing of \”their\” Doctor with a new one. In her defense, I have to say that this is NOT Jenna Coleman\’s fault, and the young lady can only deal with the scripts she\’s been given.

Another major plot flaw was actually one of the nicest scenes in the entire episode, the phone call from the Matt Smith Doctor on Trenzalore to Clara, said call obviously being made before or during the events of The Time of the Doctor. It\’s all very poignant, heart-tugging and well-acted, until you actually stop and think about it, and you realize that it simply couldn\’t have happened. It was was a major continuity flub and sloppy writing by Moffat. Nice, emotional, tear-jerking writing, but sloppy and wrong, wrong, WRONG.

MattDoc says to Clara that \”the time is getting close\”, and \”it\’s going to be a real whopper\” (he\’s obviously referring to an \”upcoming regeneration\”). But remember back to what happened at the end of The Time of the Doctor. The whole crux of the story was that the Doctor was coming to the end of his final incarnation. There weren\’t going to BE any more regenerations. As far as MattDoc was concerned, for pretty much the ENTIRE episode, he\’d run out of regenerations, and he was going to die. That was the whole point of the story. Which is what would\’ve happened if Clara hadn\’t begged the Time Lords to save him, as they did right at the end, by popping up at the last minute and giving the Doctor a new cycle of regenerations. So Matt Smith\’s Doctor couldn\’t have made that phone call. He didn\’t know he was going to regenerate before it actually happened. Very sloppy continuity mess-up on Moffat\’s part.

Those were my two main gripes, and the rest I can live with. However, one thing I couldn\’t complain about was Peter Capaldi\’s performance as the new Doctor, which was excellent, top notch. I think he\’s going to be an excellent Doctor. For that reason alone, I\’ll give Deep Breath a B instead of the C that I thought the fairly average story by itself actually deserved.

Doctor Who is Back! Season 8 Starts TODAY!

Later this evening, in slightly over two hours to be exact, the big event that every Doctor Who fan on the planet has been waiting for happens, when the first episode of Season 8 debuts on BBC1 at 7.50pm.

This first episode, Deep Breath, is a 75-minute feature-length debut to the new season, and is the first of the twelve episodes comprising Season 8 (or Season 34, if you prefer to include the Classic Series along with the New Series, as I do). I know absolutely nothing about this episode or any of the others, as I\’ve been taking extreme measures to avoid ANY spoilers on the new season. I know nothing other than the titles of the episodes, and that the last two episodes of the season comprise the two-part Season Finale.

I\’ve become totally pissed off in recent years, having each new season ruined by spoilers all over the internet, on TV and in the magazines, so this year it\’s been me dodging any kind of spoilers as nimbly as I can. Fingers crossed I can make through today, and indeed all twelve episodes, without having anyone ruin things for me by spilling the beans about upcoming stories before I get to watch them first. God help anyone who does. 🙂

The Season 8 Episode Listing is as follows:

Deep Breath
Into the Dalek
Robot of Sherwood
Listen
Time Heist
The Caretaker
Kill the Moon
Mummy on the Orient Express
Flatline
In the Forest of the Night
Dark Water
Death in Heaven

I\’ve been eagerly awaiting the first full appearance of the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi, as he steps into the role he has inherited from the absolutely amazing Matt Smith. I\’ve always been a huge fan of Matt Smith as the Doctor. He\’s been a huge success, and gave us an hilariously funny, zany, eccentric, manic, and sometimes truly alien Doctor persona that reminded me most of Tom Baker (on speed), mixed with a lot of Patrick Troughton, and with some of the best elements of the other Doctors thrown in for good measure.

When you combine all of that with Smith\’s own natural hi-energy fun and crazy personality (apparently he\’s like that in real life, honest), he created a brilliant new Doctor, one who really convinced me that \”he was born for the role\”. I absolutely loved him, despite being very apprehensive back when he first took over from David Tennant (whom I also loved). Matt Smith made even the lamest episodes (and there have been a few) FUN to watch, keeping me as a viewer even at times when I thought the series was going a bit stale.

So Peter Capaldi has a lot to live up to, some pretty big shoes to fill there, but I reckon he\’ll make a darned good Doctor once he settles in. He\’s a very experienced actor, who has been around the acting business for many, many years, and the BBC have never failed yet to pick a good one to fill the new Doctor\’s role.

Another thing that I consider a major plus is that Capaldi was also a big fan of the classic series when he was a kid. This love and respect for the classic series might serve him well as he slips into the role of the new Doctor. He was a big fan of the first four Doctors, and watched the show avidly right from the William Hartnell era, right on through to the the middle of Tom Baker\’s run on the show. Eerily enough, this mirrors almost exactly my own childhood history with Doctor Who.

Anyway, back to the new season opener tonight. I\’m actually really looking forward to this new, older, grumpier, darker Doctor, and to seeing how Peter Capaldi works with the current companion, Clara (played by Jenna Coleman). Roll on this evening, 7.50pm!

Doctor Who – Season 8 Starts Today!

We\’re into the early hours of Saturday morning right now, and the big event that every Doctor Who fan on the planet has been waiting for happens later this evening, when the first episode of Season 8 debuts on BBC1 at 7.50pm.

This first episode is the first of twelve, and is a 75-minute feature-length episode titled Deep Breath. I know absolutely nothing about it, as I\’ve been very stringent about avoiding spoilers on the new season, other than the titles of the episodes, and that the last two episodes of the season are the two-part Season Finale.

The Season 8 Episode Listing is as follows:

Deep Breath
Into the Dalek
Robot of Sherwood
Listen
Time Heist
The Caretaker
Kill the Moon
Mummy on the Orient Express
Flatline
In the Forest of the Night
Dark Water
Death in Heaven

I\’ve been eagerly awaiting the first full appearance of the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi, as he steps into the role he has inherited from the absolutely amazing Matt Smith. Peter Capaldi has some pretty big shoes to fill there, but I reckon he\’ll make a darned good Doctor. He\’s a very experienced actor, who has been around the acting business for many, many years. And the BBC have never failed yet to pick a good one to fill the new Doctor\’s role.

Something which I think bodes well for the show, in my opinion, is that he was also a big fan of the classic series when he was a kid, in particular the first four Doctors, up until the middle of Tom Baker\’s run on the show. All of which pretty much mirrors exactly my own childhood journey with Doctor Who. This love and respect of the classic series might serve him well as he slips into the role of the new Doctor.

Anyway, I\’m actually really looking forward to this new, older, grumpier, darker Doctor, and to seeing how Peter Capaldi works with the current companion, Clara (played by Jenna Coleman). Roll on this evening, 7.50pm!