Doctor Who: Music of the Spheres

Okay, this is really dorky, but really cute.



This was shown at the interval at the BBC proms. Because I'm not British I don't know for sure what that is, but that doesn't really matter. But apparently there was some real live interaction at the concert... I guess the Graske appeared on stage when the Doctor let it slip through the portal, and I guess he had the water gun with him. I love this stuff.

In Which I Make Fun of SyFy Portal For Telling Me About Things I'm Actually Interested In

This article is just silly.

"Zachary Quinto, who plays a young Spock in J.J. Abrams' upcoming "Star Trek" movie, based his characterization as much on the film's script as on Leonard Nimoy's previous performance of the iconic character."

Whoa... hold on. You're blowing my mind, SyFy Portal. SERIOUSLY? He like, watched the old show and old movies to figure out what his character would be like? And then he based HIS performance off the only other actor to ever officially play the character?! I'm completely shocked. I never knew an actor would do something so obvious to prepare for a role like that.

Why is this news? I can see wanting to know about it if Quinto was like "eff Nimoy" and decided to do what he wanted, but hearing "Oh, yeah, so he's basing it off the original performance of the character" is not something I need to know about.

I do, however, enjoy knowing that the first time Quinto put the ears on was a moment he shared with his dog.

Also, look at the desktop thing:

I got it off the official website, in the downloads section. There's one with Kirk, Uhura, and I guess whoever's the bad guy. I don't know enough about the plot to have an idea of who he is (and I don't care to, no spoilers for me). But I picked Spock, because I'm talking about him, and also, Spock is the coolest.

In other news, the new Caprica TV show might be starting in the fall. They say they haven't decided if they're airing the telemovie as a telemovie or as the start of the full season. AWESOME. This is interesting because more or less it means we'll have a totally new show about Caprica to get excited about before the end of BSG even happens. Like weaning yourself off heroin with cocaine. Here's the article talking about that. It is also talking about the other BSG telemovie they're working on, saying that it's probably going to be about totally new characters, and apparently this is cause for speculation about another spinoff besides Caprica. ...I'll withhold judgment for now, but let's not get carried away, okay kids?

Last but not least, what the heck is this. Steven Spielberg called up Steven Moffat and was like "write this movie for me"? I don't know why I think this is weird, but I do. I do know Spielberg is a Who fan, which probably means he drooled all over "Blink" just like everyone else in the universe and then decided that he needed Moffat to come make something with him because was obviously teh awsome!!!1!. I don't know where I'm going with this. The gist of it is, Moffat said no because he wanted to do Doctor Who instead of some sequels to Spielberg's Tintin thing (I guess he already wrote the first one). Which I know nothing about other than it's another comic book adaptation. The article is funny though, because it has this huge headline saying Moffat turned down Spielberg, and he was turning down ALLLLL this money to not do it, and then it quotes Moffat as saying, "I hope you don't make what happened sound too dramatic." Ha. Well, he tried.

Doctor Who 4x11: "Turn Left"

First things first, I would like to make USA viewers aware of how much the Sci-Fi Channel sucks monkey butt for cutting out so many important parts of this episode. I highly recommend finding the full version of this episode online (surfthechannel.com), because you missed the following things (that I noticed, and there may be more):

-Rose telling Donna who the "little band of fighters" were on the Sontaran ship - specifically that they were Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and freakin' Captain Jack Harkness. You know, no big loss not knowing that detail, right.
-The explanation of why the Indian guy the Nobles were living with was being taken away, and a very emotional moment between him and Wilf that really brought home the gravity of the entire situation.
-AlternateWorld!Donna's full reaction to seeing the inside of the TARDIS for the first time. She doesn't just walk in, say "no way" and then walk back out and ask for coffee. It was a great, great character moment that we never got the first time we met her because Donna saw the inside of the TARDIS before she saw the outside. She goes in, goes out, goes in again, goes out and walks all the way around it, completely disbelieving... it was great. And they didn't show ANY OF IT.

I'm so upset that Sci-Fi butchered this episode.

But anyway, as for my actual opinions on the whole episode...

Actually, hold on. Why, exactly, does the Sci-Fi Channel make its own trailers for the show? What's wrong with the ones that play at the end of the episode on the BBC? The ones without the stupid voiceover? I think that's what I have the most trouble with - the annoying Sci-Fi guy's voiceover on the previews.

Whatever.

I loved this episode. The first time I saw it, I was completely spazzing out at the end when the Doctor found out Rose was coming back. It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. No TV show has ever had me crying and shaking by the end of an episode. Thank you Doctor Who for accomplishing that.

When done well, "What If?" stories are my favorite things ever, and that's what this episode was. What if Donna had never met the Doctor? What would things be like? I love the speculation of that, and how the world would compensate - or not - in his absence.

The reason the Doctor is dead is completely devastating. The UNIT officer thought he drowned too fast to regenerate, but that isn't true. In The Runaway Bride, Donna tells him to stop - without her, he doesn't, and he lets himself die. Why? Because he's just gone through a horrific ordeal with losing Rose to the sealed off parallel world, and had no desire to live. This was displayed repeatedly in series 3. For example: in the Daleks in Manhattan episode, he basically screams at a Dalek to kill him because "it's his turn." This episode added an entirely new depth to that Christmas special and the Doctor's character and state of mind at that point in the show.

I would like to point out how absolutely splendid Catherine Tate and Billie Piper are. This was the Doctor Lite episode of the season, and it's not like you didn't notice he was gone (since the whole point of the episode was what the world would be like without him, of course you noticed), but the episode didn't suffer at all for not having David Tennant running around with his hair and his grin because of these two brilliant actresses. One day, I will be friends with them. Or I'll at least somehow get my picture taken with them and frame it and put it over my desk for the rest of my life.

One last thing - the music in this episode was so wonderful. Specifically, when Donna steps into the impromptu time machine that Rose and UNIT made with what was left of the TARDIS. It was beautiful and is another example of emotional music by Murray Gold that succeeded in making me teary eyed. (Previous examples of this include the songs "Doomsday" and "This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home" which are arguably the best songs on the first two soundtracks.)

Next week: The Stolen Earth! And thanks to the uber-revealing trailer, there's a bit of a regeneration scare coming up. Thanks for spoiling the surprise, Sci-Fi!

regarding "turn left," "the stolen earth," and "journey's end"

Doctor Who posts will henceforth show up on here after the episode airs in the USA. That's how far behind I am. Plus, I still need time to process the last three episodes and it'll take me a while to form something cohesive about the three of them.

So... next week in the US is "Midnight," which I already wrote about (EVERYONE should watch it because the episode is ACE). Then will come the new posts.

Ok.

Just letting you know what the schedule is.

You can return to your lives now.

Doctor Who 4x10: "Midnight"

Oh RTD. I wish you didn't know how to quit me. Seriously, this was such a breath of fresh air. No wonder RTD was so smiley on the commentary for Forest of the Dead... he knew THIS was coming up. "Oh Steven Moffat, let me show you how it's done."

Far and away, my favorite episode of the new series. I'm probably one of the very few people who didn't fall to pieces over "Blink," and the reason I didn't was because that episode, while being a very good one, could have been an episode of any science fiction series. It just so happened to be Doctor Who. It was a standalone that was good but didn't develop or explore any of the characters on the actual show. I liked Sally Sparrow, but this isn't her show. With "Midnight," we get a look at what the Doctor is like without a companion there to relate him to other people. That's an important question that hadn't ever been addressed. Without someone there, he's helpless - here, that's taken quite literally.

It was so simple, but still very scary and still very interesting. I loved how easily the characters on the plane (rocket? space bus?) were developed and how quickly you got to know them. The scene where they all turned on the Doctor, and he starts freaking out... that was the greatest thing. And Skye was BY FAR the scariest villain on Doctor Who this season. Or maybe even ever. She didn't look any different, which was the worst (and best) part. And the fact that the Doctor didn't know what it was, and didn't find out - there's no name for it. I know that "the fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself" and all, but what do you do when there's no name for it at all?

I was initially worried about Donna not being around so much in this episode, but I think that even contributed to the story. It wasn't just that Catherine Tate probably needed a little R&R away from the set. As I mentioned earlier, without a companion that knows him and trusts him there to back him up, the Doctor is pretty helpless. There's no go-between, no one there to explain that everything's going to be okay. As amazing and wonderful as the Doctor is, he's not actually the best at comforting people. He's too fascinated by everything going on to make everyone feel okay about it. He wanted to know about the new alien thing and everyone else wanted to kill it, because it frightened them. Without Donna, not only was there someone there to calm everyone else down, but there wasn't someone there to make him see it the human way. I think this episode really proved how important Donna is. I loved their hug at the end. He didn't even have to say anything, she just knew - something had gone wrong, and he was depressed about it, and he'd missed her because nobody there had understood him. Every time someone almost did, they went and changed their minds again. Not one of the Doctor's best days.

At the end, when the Doctor said "no, no... don't do that" after Donna repeated him speaking Italian. I LOVED that little touch. It took me a second to get it though, because I'm slow. I was like, "Doctor, why are you being such a jerk, she pronounced it fine and she's not embarrassing you in front of anyone famous - " and then I was like "Oh. Because he just spent the entire episode with this scary alien thing repeating him and stealing his voice. No wonder he's not going for it. Sorry I called you a jerk just now." This is just another way RTD schooled Moffat - it was self-referencing (the Doctor does the same thing to Rose in "Tooth and Claw" and then to Martha in "The Shakespeare Code"), yes, but it didn't reference ONLY episodes that he'd written, and it actually made sense and contributed to the story. Unlike when Moffat does it, and it's just gratuitous "remember how clever and funny I was then, well, laugh at it again."

Coming up: "Turn Left," with Donna and Rose (!!!) and not the Doctor so much.

Update

I'm really behind on my Doctor Who discussion posts and I still haven't written about the BSG midseason finale. I'll get around to it one of these days. Maybe over the next two, since I'm off work. But yeah. I haven't ditched this blog yet. I'm just lazy.

Here's a great article about Doctor Who and Russell T. Davies that was in the New York Times.

my shows are dwindling in numbers...

Lost ended. After this week, BSG isn't coming back until 2009. Doctor Who, you're my last hope, but even you only have four episodes left until the season is over. (And that hiatus is going to be even longer than the others... no new actual series episodes until 2010.)

I suppose... in the meantime, I'll catch up on Life on Mars, MI-5, and Robin Hood. There's plenty there to keep me occupied - I love my British shows. But sadly, don't expect much from this blog for a while there, with the exception of the odd sci-fi related movie.

Doctor Who 4x09: "Forest of the Dead"

Also known as "The Matrix Meets The Time Traveler's Wife."

This episode was half amazing and half... not amazing.

The half I loved: everything with Donna. I just... I love her, so dearly. I was really sad for her, especially in that scene with the kids. I also loved the explanation of the "Forest." The Vashta Nerada (sp?) came from the forests used to make the books. That was very clever, in my opinion, but it seemed to take the Doctor a while to figure it out (I don't like it when I get it before he does).

The half I hated: Everything with River. It... wasn't as bad as it could have been, I guess, but I was still so annoyed at the timing of this storyline. I'm so tired of Steven Moffat doing whatever the hell he wants when it comes to the episodes he writes. The crappy part is, I bet he's going to bring a younger River back at some point during his turn as showrunner, and we're going to have to deal with his version of Doctor romance. Is it terrible that all I want at this point is for David Tennant to leave and not have to be the one dealing with that? I just want my Ten/Rose OTP to be intact for as long as possible. I can probably be just fine with Eleven/River. I won't be ecstatic about it or anything, but I can deal with that because it won't hurt my eyes.

(I will make an allowance for the scene where River sacrifices herself rather than lose the memories she had with the Doctor in the future. I couldn't help myself - I cried. It didn't make me like her, it just made me really, really sad for her. This exchange: "Time can be rewritten." "Not those times. Don't you dare." That's what did it for me. It made me see her as someone that really does love him, and even if it's going to be a while before he realizes it, that he loved her too. Even if I concede that someday they will love each other, that still doesn't make any sense as to why they don't travel together. Seriously, what is the deal. Maybe she just got sick of it and wanted to have a real job? She did say something about that...)

I really just need the Doctor/Rose story to be wrapped up in a way that makes sense. And preferably not in a way that involves Rose dying prematurely. I STILL think the only acceptable way for them to carry that story out is to have the Doctor go spend the rest of his tenth life with Rose, and then when she dies (of old age), he regenerates and moves on with his life. Now that I think about it, maybe it makes sense for him to have a wife like River at some point down the line... not immediately, but eventually. If he was with Rose when she died (of old age), and of course he would be, then she obviously knew he was going to keep on living after her, for a long long time. And she wants the Doctor to be happy and not lonely. So maybe she told him to go out and find someone else to be with and even love the way he had loved her, because she doesn't want him to be alone. After living a life like that with Rose, he would probably be more open to doing it again with someone else.

This explanation is all that currently makes sense to me, because Rose is coming back. The Doctor is going to see her again before this River Song stuff goes down. No matter what ends up happening with her, if Rose leaves in any other circumstances other than what I described above, the Doctor's going to have to get over the loss again. And as we saw in series three, that was kind of hard for him. He's still not over losing her. In "The Doctor's Daughter" he kept saying stuff about how he can't ever have a family again, because when his family died, the part of him that loves in that way died also. At this point in the show, he isn't interested in settling down. The only person I think he could consider doing that with is Rose, but he lost her too, which just reinforced his Issues.

In the process of writing this post, I've started liking this episode a little bit more. If River really is way, way in the future for the Doctor, after Rose has told him to go and live his life and not be afraid to love people, then I think I can probably get behind it because Rose would most likely approve of him not being lonely. And if Rose is okay with it... well, I can probably make myself be okay with it too.

OH! And I now have a new theory about what happens to Donna! She DOESN'T die at the end, she just goes to the future and lives with that guy who got saved from the library, that she was married to in the computer! Stutter Guy! I was so sad at the end when he tried to call out to her but couldn't because he stuttered... I hope they end up together. That would be a much better alternative than her dying at the end of the series. And I'd really like her to be able to come back in the future.

Also, I just read a rumor that Neil Gaiman will be writing an episode in the next full season. ROCK ON.

Slackers.

Torchwood S3 only five episodes.

I'm not sure I'm on board with this. Depends on how good it's going to be, which isn't something I'll be able to decide until after all the episodes have aired. Torchwood isn't my favorite show ever, but come on. Five? That's it? Granted, it does say they could option for some more, but at this point, series 3 is looking pretty dull. It's just a little miniseries. I was looking forward to having Torchwood to tide me over between the long Doctor Who breaks they're having in 2009, with only filming three specials. 2009 is going to be the Year of Whoniverse Withdrawal, apparently (because I refuse to watch the Sarah Jane Adventures.)

Doctor Who 4x08: "Silence of the Library"

Ummm....

I don't like River Song.

That's all there is to that. I wasn't expecting to, and I was right. But now I'm worried about something - Steven Moffat is the new head honcho after this, and here's the Doctor's wife from the future, so um - does that mean she's going to be the companion when Moffat takes over? And of course keeping Jenny around was Moffat's idea so are the three of them going to make a new little family? Barf.

I'm waiting for some "time is in flux" thing to happen, where the spoiler book is only one possible future and it could get messed up and not happen because of something the Doctor does. *crosses fingers*

What will really be interesting is if David Tennant doesn't come back for series 5. Obviously River Song recognized him in that regeneration, so if he ends up regenerating at the end of RTD's run... well, there goes that idea right out the window. Is it sad that I'm almost hoping for this now.

Anyway, in regards to the actual episode, obviously it's a two-parter so I felt like this was kind of dragged out. I have no idea what's going on with the little girl but I have a theory: she's in Rose's parallel world, and she's dreaming about the library where the Doctor is. Dr. Moon works for Torchwood, and in the next episode Rose is going to show up and talk to the little girl (did they say her name? I forget) to get through to the Doctor. I'm looking forward to the moment when the Doctor finds out Rose is involved in his life again and gets all excited in front of River. Does that make me a terrible person? I don't care. But Rose is going to be involved somehow, her picture was between the pages in that countdown book on the official website. And unless I missed something obscure in this episode, she'll be showing up in the next one.

Introducing this River person at this point in the story does not make a single bit of sense. I've decided that what I like most about Steven Moffat episodes are the dialogue and the ideas behind the plot. I don't like the new characters he invents. (Except for Jack, although I'm not sure such an important character was made up by him seeing as how Jack stuck around quite a while after Moffat's episodes ended in S1. I don't know enough about the backstage writing drama of that series to know details like that. If Moffat did make up Jack, then he used up all his good character ideas on him. And okay so maybe I liked Sally Sparrow in Blink. But for the most part Moffat is hit or miss with me.)

I'm pretty sure Donna's going to die at the end of this series which is depressing. ALTHOUGH if my "time is in flux" idea pans out maybe Donna only dies in River's timeline and not in the new one. They mentioned the in-flux thing in the last episode with Agatha Christie - Donna said something about that being the night Agatha disappeared, and the Doctor said "time is in flux, Donna, for all we know this is the night Agatha Christie died" or something along those lines. So I don't think my theory is totally unfounded. I just think that bringing in a potential wife for the Doctor makes very little sense. This two-parter better have a good explanation.

Oh, and how was Donna saved? She's clearly not dead, just transported and stuck somewhere else... the little girl's head? I don't know. Probably not in the parallel universe, although if she were, that would open up a way to explain how Rose comes back. Hmm. The preview didn't really help that much. Although was that the Doctor flying through the Vortex without the TARDIS wielding only his sonic screwdriver there at the end?

Speaking of sonic screwdrivers, Doctor, are you blind, River's sonic screwdriver does NOT look "exactly" like yours. It looks totally different. But whatever.

(I guess one thing I know for sure about Moffat's episodes - they get me thinking, which is a good thing no matter what.)

Doctor Who 4x07: "The Unicorn and the Wasp"

This episode was... eh. I liked the charades scene, even if it did result in the Doctor/Donna kiss (it's okay, it was only to "shock" him enough to get the poison out, so, clearly, nothing behind it) (plus how many times are we going to hear them say they're not a couple - every episode apparently).

I heard that for the most part, you had to be British to really get this episode. So I have no qualms about saying, I didn't really "get" this episode. I mean, I just didn't particularly enjoy it. Probably because I know next to nothing about Agatha Christie, besides the fact that she once existed and wrote books.

The next episode, however, looks mighty interesting. But Steven Moffatt, if the rumors I've heard are true, I may or may not be burning down your house next week. (I'll let you know if I was right.)

RTD leaving Doctor Who in 2010.

In case you didn't know, now you do. Steven Moffatt will take over.

Here is an article about it.

I don't know how I feel about this, but I think I will withhold judgment until I see how it's going in series 5.

Doctor Who 4x06: "The Doctor's Daughter"

I really loved this episode. Really. I thought I was going to hate it passionately. But I did not. I loved it passionately. Even if it was the corniest, most cliche episode Doctor Who has ever had.

First of all, I really liked Martha this episode. She was acting a lot more independent and intelligent, even. It was a nice change. It was sort of lame that they had her separated from the Doctor and Donna the whole time though - what's the point of a guest star if she only ever talks to a burbling fish person? By the way, why didn't the TARDIS translate the fish noises?

I think this is probably the DW episode that made me laugh the hardest. I was starting to miss jokes because I hadn't recovered from the last one. Here are just a few of the things I found hilarious:
-The Hath (a.k.a. burbling fish people) petting Martha, and the look on her face.
-The fact that in the preview, the clip they showed of Donna going "I'd like to see you try that" was placed right before the clip of Jenny doing all those neat looking gymnastics through the lasers, but that really happened after Jenny makes out with the guard on their cell to get them out.
-The Doctor to Donna: "Let's save your wiles for later. In case of an emergency."
-A freakin' wind up mouse.
-The look on the Doctor's face when he goes "Now... what were you saying about running?" right before he takes off.
-Martha's crying scene (okay, I take it back - I wanted to laugh, but then I just felt uncomfortable).

All right, I might be stupid because I didn't think this was coming, but Jenny regenerated... kind of. She more just came back to life, but I have no idea if that was her Time Lordiness or the terraforming thing being magical. I don't really care though, because I completely adored her. She was just the cutest thing. And I felt terrible for the Doctor when she took the bullet for him because COME ON, hasn't the man lost enough? I know he had only known her for one episode but still. He was willing to try being her dad, and then she just died. Fortunately, the ending leaves lots of room for her to come back.

The preview for next week is the episode with Agatha Christie and the giant alien wasp. I'm preparing myself for the nightmares to come.

Doctor Who 4x05: "The Poison Sky"

Donna's mom annoyed the crap out of me until she came out with that axe and did what Donna and the Doctor should have done all along to rescue Wilf.

I really want Evil Martha to text the Sontarans on her little PDA thing.

So the Doctor is suspicious of Evil Martha. I don't know what would have tipped him off.

OH MY GOSH. ROSE WAS ON THE TV IN THE TARDIS. She's trying to talk to him! She looks kind of upset... Donna didn't see her. I wonder if Rose saw Donna?

I HATE THAT LUKE KID. UGH. What is it with Helen Raynor and creating the most annoying side characters? Okay, except for Ross. I like him. But he died apparently.

Okay, so the Brigadier is stranded in Peru...? What's he doing there?

I love this conversation the Doctor and Donna are having on the phone. It's a perfect demonstration of the dynamic between them - half serious and very intense and caring and the other half bickering and teasing and cheering each other on.

"Are you my mummy?" HAHAHA! OH MY GOSH. OH MY GOSH. THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. The Doctor wearing a gas mask and saying that. I love when shows have inside jokes with themselves. I think I can forgive Helen Raynor for everything she's ever done to me just for giving me that line. I rewound it and watched that over and over again.

Well, I hope the Doctor didn't blow up any airplanes with his little plan...

Wow, I am impressed with the Luke kid. That was some serious redemption right there.

I love the two different reactions from Martha and Donna when he comes back through the teleport. Martha goes to hug him... Donna hits him.

Awww... why can't Wilf come in the TARDIS? At least once? I hope he gets to sometime. He's so adorable.

The Doctor still has his old hand by the TARDIS console? Why...? And why do they keep showing it?

Yeah... the previews show the Doctor's "daughter." Must have something to do with the Doctor's hand because they showed it like seven times for no real apparent reason.

"I might do something stupid like eat a pear."

As anyone who watches Doctor Who probably knows, the best episode in the history of the show is the Human Nature/Family of Blood two parter. This was written by one Paul Cornell, who also happened to have written a Doctor Who novel called Human Nature in 1995 about the seventh Doctor. I'm reading this book right now, and while it is very clearly about a different Doctor, it is entertaining for me to see the things that carried over to the television version of this story.

For example, here is the list the Doctor leaves for his companion Bernice in the book:
Things Not To Let Me Do
1: Commit suicide, if for some reason I want to.
2: Do physical harm to anyone, if you're aware of it.
3: Eat meat, if you can.
4: Eat pears. I hate pears, I don't want to wake up and taste that.
5: Leave the area, or you, behind.
6: Get involved in big sociopolitical events.
7: Hurt animals, especially owls.
8: Develop an addiction.
9: Anything impossible.


Compare that with the following amusing (albeit slightly out of character around the middle) video from the deleted scenes of the actual episode:


As you can see, they sadly left out the part about the owls, but the pears at least made it to the deleted scenes.

Paul Cornell, you are my hero. One of these days I'm going to read your original novels and your comic books. And I sincerely hope that you'll write more Doctor Who episodes.

The Infinite Quest

I am loving this.

Doctor Who 4x04: "The Sontaran Strategem"

How long has it been since Martha and the Doctor saw each other?

Okay, UNIT is cool, probably cooler than Torchwood because they seem like they actually know what they're doing.

"Donna, by the way, Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute."

I'm glad Martha found someone. I heard about how she did on Torchwood, and how this guy had saved her life or whatever, but I thought it would just be some random guy at UNIT. Turns out it was that doctor guy she met during The Year That Never Was, and then looked him up afterwards, after his death had been reversed. So I'm now wondering whether he even remembers that he saved her life... not like it matters, because she knows he would do it again.

Martha: "That's why I thought we needed an expert."
The Doctor: "Really? Who'd you get? (long pause) Oh right! Me, yes."

I love when the Doctor puts his glasses on.

Whoa, the thing in the water is totally disturbing. Especially the mouth. I'm impressed with how actually intelligent these two random soldier guys are. Too bad they're about to bite it.

I like Martha standing up to the Doctor after he bitched at the guy holding a gun, I forget his name. The Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of the new UNIT.

Martha still waxes eloquent on her "ex" for someone who's engaged to someone else. That's kind of annoying.

You know how British people get annoyed when movies get Americans to do British accents for stuff? Well, I get annoyed when they get British people to do American accents for stuff. Like with this Luke Rattigan kid. He's not really American, FYI. I looked the actor up on IMDB. Whine whine whine over something miniscule and unimportant.

Oh my gosh, please give the Doctor a car to drive. I want to see him drive a car. I think it would be so funny.

Donna, come on. Stop with the "I'm going home" psych outs. I know you're going to be here the whole season. OH - HAHAHA. Okay never mind. That was really funny. "...You're just popping home for a visit, that's what you mean. And then you're coming back." Donna did make it sound like she was leaving for real though. And she didn't stop him after he went off on his little speech.

OHHH... so in the taxi in Partners in Crime, the thing in the window was the Atmos sticker. Which is part of the Sontarans' little plan to take over the world, revealed in this episode.

I love Donna's grandpa.

The Doctor is like a kid in a candystore with this genius school place.

Sontaran: "We have an intruder!"
The Doctor: "How did he get in? In-tru da window?"
Okay, that was the worst pun ever.

EW. Those things ARE clones. I wanted to say that at the beginning because I thought of that movie The Sixth Day, the clones look like that. And now there's a MARTHA clone. Gross.

Oh please. Like the Doctor would ever die by drowning in a car that drove itself into a river. Anyone who thinks he'd be defeated so easily has never watched this show.

HAHA! I liked when the Doctor and Wilf met. Donna: "And you NEVER SAID?"

The Sontaran chant at the end disturbed me.

To be continued...

Doctor Who Ranting, Speculation, and Spoilers through "Planet of the Ood."

For the love of God. David Tennant is not going to regenerate at the end of this season. He's coming back for all of 2009, for three specials or whatever it is. He's said it like a million times, okay? When the Ood said "Your song will end soon," he is NOT talking about that. That is ridiculous. He is OBVIOUSLY talking about Rose. I wish I knew that someone was reading this who cared about the amount of thought I have put into this. Whatever, I'm writing it anyway.

Remember in series three, in the third episode, they ran into the Face of Boe, and he was like "you are not alone" to the Doctor? And it seemed like, oh, that's a good thing! He's not alone! Maybe there are more Time Lords or something! That would be a good thing right? Because now he won't be depressed that he's all by himself? Yeah! Good! But then at the end of the series - no. No, it was actually bad. It was the Master, and he took over the world, and everyone on Earth was oppressed, and Jack got killed every day, and Martha's family was forced to work as servants for the Master, and the Doctor was even more depressed after his "I was a Time Lord Dobby*" incident. And then the Master ended up getting killed which depressed the Doctor even more, because then he really was alone again - he lost everything all over again. But that is beside the point.

The point is - this was the third episode again, and we get this little warning like "oh, something might happen to you" only this time it sounds ominous and worrying but I'm pretty sure it's the exact opposite of that.

One of the things I love about this show is how thoroughly they (usually) tie things together. And one of the best ways they do that is with the music. Everything they do with the soundtrack is so intentional, and as a result it ends up being absolutely gorgeous and enhancing the show in ways soundtracks haven't done before, to my knowledge at least. The most obvious examples are the songs with words - Song For Ten, Love Don't Roam, and The Stowaway. Each of these songs were from the Christmas specials, and they carried some kind of meaning for the season that was to follow.

Song For Ten was obviously about the new Doctor, and it plays at the end while the Doctor is sitting with Rose and her family for Christmas dinner. The song says "I wish today was just like every other day, because today has been the best day" - he gets the domestic family time he never got to have before. It's very sweet and romantic, but then at the end of the song - something I didn't notice at first, because I was being unobservant - "well I woke up today, and you're on the other side. Our time will never come again" and then "but if you can still dream, close your eyes, it will seem that you can see me now and then." This is obviously a reference to what happens at the end of S2, when Rose gets trapped in the parallel universe.

Love Don't Roam doesn't have any obvious plot points in it, but it is a song about the Doctor not letting his love stray from Rose. This is exactly what happened, because even though Martha was a perfectly good companion (I'm being objective), and she loved him, he couldn't love her back, because his love had already been fixed. The song set the tone for S3, which was that the Doctor was still profoundly affected by losing Rose, and he got a lot more dangerous than he ever would have if Rose was there - she would never have let him get that far gone. If you've seen S3 you must have noticed how much darker he was in terms of how he dealt with the various villains - Human Nature/Family of Blood comes to mind. And at one point, he even asks to be killed, screaming "it's my turn" at a dalek. The song didn't allude to any of these things directly, but the overall idea of the Doctor's love not roaming from Rose in any respect was important. Here's my theory: because he had lost Rose, he couldn't really, truly love anything or anyone. He was ruthless because his love couldn't be spared for anyone but Rose.

The Stowaway is much more blatant than the other two songs. It's from Astrid's perspective, talking about finding a stowaway on her ship. The entire song is about how the Doctor more or less used Astrid as a substitute for Rose. Or, as the song puts it, "his love." And the chorus goes "Borrow or steal, I'll find a way to be with my lover upon Christmas day." And well, this is all speculation of course, but what with all the Rose Returning moments we've been getting so far in S4, I'm thinking this Christmas is going to be a lot better for the Doctor. Or so I hope.

Finally... I have to talk about the Doomsday song. Firstly, this is my favorite song on either of the soundtracks, rivaled only by "This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home" on the S3 soundtrack. They have played this song twice so far in S4 - very briefly either time, but it was there. The first time, it was when Rose made her surprise appearance in "Partners in Crime." When she turned around after Donna leaves, the pulsing piano beat plays, the driving force of the song that plays through the entire thing, representing her heartbeat. The second time this song plays is in "Planet of the Ood," when the Doctor is talking to the Ood for the last time. The Doctor says he has "a song of his own," and the singing part of Doomsday plays, the part that I now believe represents the Doctor's song of sorrow and his desperate cry for his "shining star." And that's when the Ood says, "I think your song must end soon." My opinion (which is extremely widespread among people who care about this sort of thing) is that the two parts of the song are separate because they are separated. The Ood saying that this song will end soon is pretty obviously saying that Rose is coming back, and he won't have to be sad anymore. And I'm basically dying in anticipation of this finally happening.

*I stole that from someone on LiveJournal... I thought it was too hilarious to not use here.

Doctor Who 4x03: "Planet of the Ood"

Alternate post title: "Ood have thought it?"

I'll fill this in more later, once I've watched the episode. But I would like to draw everyone's attention to this non-spoilery blog post from my blog a year ago, and you should maybe keep it in mind when you watch this episode. It might be important.

By the way they also mentioned this in Partners in Crime.

ETA:

I like the Ood. When they aren't possessed, they're really sweet.

I think I've decided that I'm in favor of the new theme song because the strings get a more awesome part.

"Set the controls to random" - how is that different from every other time he lands the TARDIS somewhere.

Doctor: "I can always take you home..."
Donna: "Don't laugh at me."

"Now that's what I call a spaceship. You've got a box, he's got a ferrari."

I like how he actually started to repeat his little inspirational speech about Donna when she came back out of the TARDIS.

The Doctor can hear the soundtrack!

The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire stretches out among three galaxies. That's cool.

Oh, there's the bees reference. They're disappearing. Doctor, if you increase the bee population more than necessary, you'll probably lose some points with me.

I have a really serious issue with the Ood slavery. I understand that they "live to serve" or whatever, but that doesn't mean they deserve to be bullied and abused and whipped if they fall down. Come on. They live to serve, but they should be treated much better than this. They aren't cattle, they're sentient. I'm getting worked up over fictional aliens being mistreated.

"Is that why you travel around with a human at your side? Not so you can show them the universe, but so you can take cheap shots? Well don't, spaceman." I love when Donna puts the Doctor in his place. Pretty sure he likes it too.

OMG, the Doctor is going to get picked up by the claw. That is hilarious but also extremely screwed up. The guy controlling it is kind of sadistic about it. He was the guy I was getting pissed at for whipping the Ood. Why is that claw thing there anyway? What is that even for? It doesn't look big enough to pick up the Ood containers.

I think this guy's hair loss is a little more than "stress."

The Doctor is slightly psychic apparently. He's going to mind meld with Donna. I read a fan fiction once where the Doctor said Gene Roddenberry traveled with him and stole a bunch of real things to put in his show, and Mr. Spock was based on him. It was funny. Yes, I read Doctor Who fan fiction. You're missing out.

Okay, let me explain to you the situation I'm in right now. I'm watching this episode in clips on youtube, and in the third part, the Doctor and Donna find some natural born Ood in a cage somewhere on this compound. And these Ood are enslaved against their will, so the Doctor is trying to befriend them. They're all holding something, and he asks them what it is. One of the Ood holds it out to him and just as he starts to open his hands... the clip was over.

Okay. So the Ood hold their brains? That's... interesting.

I'm assuming this episode happens after the Impossible Planet episodes. Because if it was before, the Doctor freeing the Ood (presumably that's the outcome of this whole thing) would screw up the timeline.

I love how the Doctor says "oh yes!" It's um... adorable. Okay, so maybe that's a David Tennant thing. Still. I love it. He did it several times in this episode.

The guy with the hair loss is turning into an Ood or something like that. Am I right...? HAHA! I AM. WOW. GROSSEST THING EVER.

The Ood music is really beautiful. Kudos to Murray Gold.

AHHH - WHAT?! "Your song must end soon" and then they played some of the Doomsday music. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!!!!!!

Oh great, Martha comes back next week. Fantastic. The Sontarans are also back though which should be interesting... another classic villain brought in for the upgrade. The cool factor of that might cancel out the Martha thing. I'm sorry, but I can't like her. It's not just the "she's not Rose" thing anymore. I just... I don't like her. I don't think she's a good actress and her character is annoying. She wasn't bad on Torchwood, but... the preview from this episode? Yeah, not promising. Maybe that should be blamed on the writing though, because the line was idiotic. "Doctor? It's Martha. And I'm bringing you back to Earth." What? I'm pretty sure he does what he wants. You're not bringing him anywhere. Whatever, maybe it won't be that bad. I will do my best to get over it.