Thoughts on the new Doctor.

I didn't see the showbiz announcement of the new Doctor. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it very much, but that's by the by. The method of the announcement is largely irrelevant, the important thing is we now know who will be playing the twelfth Doctor and I am rather pleased with the choice, so far.

I do wish Matt Smith had stuck around for a little bit longer as he has turned out to be my favourite Doctor of the modern era, and also because each regeneration brings us a step closer to the final end of the show. The Doctor after Peter Capaldi will be the last, and as much as I will be sad to see the show end I hope that there won't be some some clumsy contrivance to drag it onwards.

This is all, hopefully, a good few years away though. Peter Capaldi has been on our stage and screens for ages and is fine actor. His final scene in Torchwood Children Of Earth is probably the most dramatic, heart stopping moment of the series, and all the emotion is conveyed quietly and perfectly by the actor.

I've seen a few posts about some people being put off by his age and deciding, without even seeing him in the role, to abandon the show. This is a shame because I think that as wonderful as Matt has been and as popular as Tennant was, Peter Capaldi can bring an extra depth and potential darkness to the character that was hinted at with Ecclestone, while still being able to carry off the quirky alien in the time-travelling box aspect. I hope he sticks around as long as ten and eleven did, longer if he's enjoying himself and the show remains strong.

I am full of mixed emotions now for the regeneration at Christmas. I'll be sad to see the end of eleven, but anticipating the arrival of twelve. And all this is before the excitement of what the 50th Anniversary in November will bring!

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show Live–Manchester Opera House 2nd July 2012

 

The tickets for this show were a present for my dad for his birthday earlier in the year. It was my dad who first introduced me to all things Hitchhikers. We’ve shared pretty much every incarnation. (And both agree that the worst version is the film version.) So the fact that the original radio cast were reuniting for a live tour was big news for us.

Throughout the tour they have had guest artists featuring as the voice of the Book. For our performance it was John Challis. The way they depicted the Book was excellent. The voice of the Book sat in a big leather “story teller” chair with a lamp and framed photograph of Douglas Adams. Turning back to an image of traditional storytelling to depict a futuristic electronic book was pure genius. (Actually the irony was not lost that as I watched the performance I had a kindle with all the Hitchhiker books loaded on it in my bag.)

Like all incarnations of the story, this version was different to ones that went before, leaping over chunks of the story to include as much as possible in the little time available.

Highlights included a special guest appearance of Johnny Vegas as Dish of the Day in Milliways, the visualisation of Marvin the Paranoid Android and, for me anyway, Mark Wing-Davey in a black kilt. (This wasn’t relevant to the character of Zaphod, it was just what he was wearing that evening for the show.) I have to

There was a bit of an emotional moment as it dawned on me that Douglas Adams himself was playing Agrajag. Another splendid idea for this production. There was a huge round of applause at the end when, as the cast took their final bows, they were watched over by a large image of Douglas projected on the screen behind them. After all, he was the reason we were all there that night.

Revisiting Hitchhikers in any form (well maybe not the film) is like visiting with old friends. So much from the series has entered the vernacular of certain generations, that we don’t always realise it these days. It’s almost like a race memory.

The tour continues through to the end of July. See the hitchikerslive.com site for tour dates. It’s well worth it.

(Yeah…I may have hit the merch stall a little hard!)

X-Men First Class

I finally watched X Men First Class last night. It's a cracking little film.

I'm not sure what I was expecting but it surpassed any I may have unknowingly had. It kept wonderful visual continuity with the other X-Men films and fleshed out character backgrounds that had only been hinted at or been part of brief flashbacks. (I'm not up well enough on the comic books to compare stories from there.)

The casting was superb and the script had some great throwaway lines. The best line however came from a certain cameo, as not everyone has seen the film yet I won't go into detail, but I'm sure those who have seen it will know which bit a mean.

I guess there's enough scope for a sequel to the prequel, and if they make it as good as this it would be something to look forward to.


DVD


Blu Ray

Film Review - Moon

I am terribly late to the party here but I watched Moon on DVD last night and I think it may have shot right into my top five favourite movies.

Even though it's been out there for a while I am going to attempt to keep this review spoiler free, because if I can tempt someone to watch it I think they should go into it without knowing the finer details of the plot. I didn't read any spoilers beforehand and just loved the way it unfolded.

The basic premise is that Sam Bell is up on the moon, working alone apart from a service computer/robot named Gerty. Gerty is voiced perfectly by Kevin Spacey, the whole spoiler free thing prevents me from saying exactly why!

Sam Rockwell takes on the role of Sam Bell, and essentially acts his socks off. I mean that. I don't think I've been that impressed with an actor in a role for a long time.

The direction and editing are spot on, helping to convey the emotion of the scenes without ever seeming gimmicky or intrusive. The film doesn't boast stunning visual effects and it doesn't need them. The plot and the power of the script and acting is all that is needed.

While watching the film, two comparisons sprang to mind. One was the movie Silent Running, which is emotionally akin to the film and the other was the book A Rag, A Bone and A Hank of Hair by Nicholas Fisk (which is hopefully as spoilery as I will get here.)

I could imagine that some people may watch the film and gather what is going on quite quickly and then stop paying attention. My advice to those sort of people is to stop being so smug and enjoy the acting and the way the story develops. I too had worked out some of it before Sam did, but it didn't stop me enjoying how he works it out, or what he does with the knowledge.

I can't praise this film enough, it really reminded me of the more character driven classics (rather than high tech shoot 'em ups) from the days I started to be interested in science fiction.

By the way, you should also check out the ScyFiLove.com post about the Liverpool Sci Fi Pub Crawl last weekend for details of the Gerty drinking game sent by the film's director Duncan Jones for the event! It was lots of fun!





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Doctor Who: Goodbye Then Ten. (SPOILERS!)

I'm writing this without rewatching the episodes. This means I'll probably miss stuff out.

But the last two Doctor Who episodes for David Tennant were at least worthy of being Christmas and New Year events - which is more than can be said for the Easter and November "specials" (Yes I feel cheated that we didn't get an actual series in 2009 and I am pleased that things are going back to normal in 2010)

So, anyone spot the kitchen sink? No? Seriously? RTD didn't throw that in as well? I'm suprised!

As a swansong for DT it was a fine one. Flawed, but a good ending. Hard to go wrong when paying homage to so many classic sci-fi films and programmes really. I'm sure youtube will be full off mashups of DW/Star Trek and DW/Star Wars videos in the coming weeks. I'm certain I wasn't the only one providing the alternate dialogue in my head.

I felt the elongated ending was a tad self-indulgent. Nice as it was to see the end of the stories for some of the characters in the Who universe, it did drag a bit. Not sure what the big deal was for him going back to see Rose to be honest. In part one he gives an emotional speech about how in regeneration everything he is dies, then goes back to see her just before she meets the Doctor he was before this one!

I think of all the companions in this new Who, Wilf is my favourite. I don't think his story has ended yet, at least I hope not. Many people have commented on the moment the Tenth Doctor realises that it is Wilf who knocks four four times and brings about his end, but if you can tear yourself away from Tennant for a second, rewatch the episode and notice the moment that Wilf realises it! I think that was the closest I got to tears while watching this episode.

Despite so many loose ends being neatly tidied away for the new boys to take over, I did like the fact that we still don't quite know who Claire Bloom's character was other than she was one of two Timelords who did not agree with the plan to mess with the Master and bring the events of this episode about. Nor do we know the identity of the other Timelord who objected. Certainly something to ponder on, particularly in the light of some of the dialogue between the mysterious Timelady and Wilf!

I'm sure that the line "But I don't want to go" was poignant for some, but by then I was just waiting for the blaze of glory and to see how Matt Smith would make an impact in the brief moment he would appear. I think he carried it off well, with a few little jokes in there too (references to his hair and his chin) and watching the New Series trailer on the Doctor Who site has whetted my appetite for the adventures to come.

Some links!

Reviews -

Scyfilove.com Review of Part One

Scyfilove.com Review of Part Two

Den of Geek Review of Part One

Den of Geek Review of Part Two

Getting ready for the New Series -

The official BBC site (includes the trailer for the new series)

Matt Smith Fan Site

Karen Gillan Fan Site

Day of The Triffids part two. (spoilers)

This should have been the climax of my festive viewing...and ended up being a bit of a non-event.

There was no tension, no sense of danger. Even the creepy stuff like the Nun feeding the triffids didn't feel creepy, just predictable. It should have been an unpleasant realisation not signposted so obviously.

I was hoping that the slow pace of the first episode was leading to a gripping finale.

In the end it was guilty of being bland. Which was a shame.

I think I'll splash out a few quid on this instead

or even this!

Day of The Triffids part one. (mild spoilers)

I was probably looking forward to this more than the Doctor Who specials. A strong and terrifying TV related childhood memory was the sight of a Triffid. I know that looking back at the 80s series now the effects aren't that great, but I didn't think that look of the triffids in this version was any better, in fact possibly slightly more silly.

At the end of the first part I feel undecided. There were some great moments, the aeroplane crashing and finally a reasonably scary Triffid attack towards the very end of it. And I do like the fact that it was a good half an hour before you saw a triffid properly. But the lead actor is so bland and monotonous that I didn't feel able to get involved. Eddie Izzard and Jason Priestley stood out though.

Perhaps it would have been better paced had it been an hour long, or even 45 minutes. Not that I have a lousy attention span, just that shorter episodes with reasonable cliff hangers always seem more exciting to me. Maybe they should have taken a leaf out of Torchwood's book and run it over five nights.

I will tune in tomorrow, and maybe it will grip me in the way I felt I should have been from the start.

Verdict so far: It doesn't suck, but it's not a classic either.