Doctor Who: Monks and Motorbikes are Cool

Doctor Who The Bells of Saint John

           Doctor Who fans rejoice.  The Doctor is back, and we have yet another strange thing to be afraid of.  This time, The Doctor battles malicious wi-fi which sucks you into an eternal cloud if you click on it.  Along the way he meets Clara, a modern nanny who wants to travel the world but stays where she is out of love for the family, who lost their mom.  Clara isn't as she seems, as Whovians know.  The Doctor has already met different versions of her, and in both stories Clara dies.  Well, not this time.  Using wit and a smidge of computer hacking skills, the Doctor saves himself a new companion and sets up the second half of the season as a great way to introduce the mystery of who Clara is.  It's refreshing to have a mysterious character other than The Doctor.  Jenna Louise Coleman is more than equipped to play the next companion. I only hope that Matt Smith stays on for a while longer.  Rumors are swirling about a departure next year.  For now though, Whovians rejoice, for monks, bowties, Jenna Louise Coleman and Matt Smith are all cool. Geronimo season 7! Get ready for the next chapter!

Doctor Who: Winter is Coming

Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman

             Coming into the new Doctor Who Christmas special, especially knowing that the most recent beloved companions were no longer going to be there (Oh Ponds), I was anxious to see how they were going to pull off bringing in Clara, the new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman.  Last season, Coleman played Oswin, a modern girl who tragically and heroically died after realizing she was a Dalek.  How then, would the writers of Doctor Who bring her back from the dead?  While the episode only added to the mystery, it managed to offer some truly  terrifying carnivorous snow.  In no particular order the episode was an above par Christmas story for the following reasons.

1.  Matt Smith, the Doctor, grieved for the Ponds, but ultimately couldn't resist the call to save the world and don a bowtie, because bowties, quite like snow, are cool.

2.  The Doctor pretended to be Sherlock Holmes, which is a wink to fans of the BBC's other brilliant show Sherlock, which is also headed by Doctor Who show runner Steven Moffat.  If we can't have new Sherlock episodes until 2014, at least we get a bone.

3.  Gandalf played the voice of the evil snow.  I kept telling my little brother that the villain's voice sounded like Sir Ian McKellen, and was very happy to verify my guess with IMDb.  I kept wanting the snow to shout, "You shall not pass!"

4.  Multiple times, the phrase, "Winter is coming" was uttered.  I love a good Game of Thrones reference.  At least, I really hope it was intentional.

5.  Did I mention that Gandalf was in the episode? That is pretty much the best surprise of all.

6.  The END!  When Clara revealed that she remembered being Owsin, I screamed.  Clara is full of such energy and stands to bring a new, shiny spark to the show.  Her pluck and brains, and of course the mystery surrounding her make her an ideal companion for the show.  As much as saying goodbye to the Ponds made me weep, it was in the spirit of regeneration.

I am so ready for the new season and all the surprises and energy it will bring.  Doctor Who is truly a wonderful Christmas gift, and this year's special was no exception.

Doctor WHEN?

         BBC 1 just released their new trailer for Doctor Who, Season 7, the cult-favorite show about an ancient time traveler.  It looks like a huge focus of the season is an almost western space odyssey, though any Doctor Who fan with half an ear on has heard that Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill are leaving mid-way through the season.
         Doctor Who is all about regeneration, but many still mourn the loss of the beloved married companions Amy and Rory.  Is the trailer just teasing us when it shows The Doctor (Matt Smith) carrying Amy's lifeless body, or is something more deadly at play?  We do know that the Weeping Angels, the deadly creatures who rip out vocal chords, send you back and time, and torture you while they do it will be back.  Other creatures, like dinosaurs and the omnipresent Daleks are back to play as well.  The question is, will Amy and Rory leave the show happy and alive, or will the weeping angels kill them?  Poor brave and all around incredible Rory has died so many times, he deserves an award.
       All and all, it looks like a good season in store, though the emphasis was a little more on the monsters  and a little less on the deeper question: Doctor WHO? WHO is the man behind the crazy adventures? This could just be the result of editing for the trailer though.
        I will certainly be tuning in when it plays this Fall on BBC America.  I just wish they'd announce when it was coming.  What does Autumn mean to these people?  I am just going to pretend it means the absolute first day of Fall.  Watch the trailer here. If you have yet to watch Doctor Who, start on Season 5 on Netflix. It is a new start to a fantastic show.

Doctor Who?

         
       Doctor Who was not a love at first watching for me.  I watched the 2005 season's first few episodes, and was left confused and not overly committed to it.  However, BBC-America played a more recent episode featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor, and I found myself utterly hooked.  It featured Weeping Angels, creatures who were frozen whenever looked on by a living thing, but deadly killers if you even blinked your eyes.  With renewed interest, I set to watching the reboot of 2005 featuring Chris Eccleston as the Doctor, a powerful and ancient timelord who travels through time and space to help the humanity he so desperately wants to be a part of, befriended humans and fighting off creatures along the way.  It is both big and epic and  simple and silly all at once.  

        One of the key features of Doctor Who, and one of the reasons it has been around in England for fifty years, is because of its ability to regenerate.  The Doctor regenerates into different men, always staying fundamentally himself.  This allows for new actors to play him in new and delightful ways.  David Tennant took over in 2006, becoming the much beloved 10th Doctor.  He brought energy and heart to the role, allowing the Doctor to fall in love with his traveling companion and face an ultimate sacrifice with dignity and soul.  When Matt Smith became the 11th Doctor, there was concern he wouldn't live up to Tennant's performance.  However, Smith created a beloved nutty professor of a Doctor whose thoughts, actions, power, and love can't be contained.  Instead, they spill out of him in clumsy abandon.  Steven Moffat, who also runs the BBC's Sherlock, stands at the helm of the show, writing multiple episodes and creating a universe bigger than the Doctor.  
       Children and adults love Doctor Who in Great Britain.  The love has grown in America as well, with thousands flocking to Comic Con to catch a glimpse of Matt Smith and his human companions.  If you are a Doctor Who newbie, I'd recommend starting with Season 5 of the reboot, which is when Matt Smith takes over as the Doctor.  It is rather self-contained and easy to pick up from there.  If you become hooked, go back to Eccleston and Tennant, or even further back.  The Doctor travels through space and time in the Tardis, a spaceship shaped like an old-school police box.  It is, as the show loves to point out, "bigger on the inside."  I'd argue that the show itself is much, much bigger on the inside.
      Check out the trailer for Season 5 here.