Musings of a Babylon Lurker

Doctor Who

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

Just received the DVD set of series 4 of the new Doctor Who

Now I need some time to watch it. In any case I am bringing it to a friend to watch it.

Yay!

Tags: drwho

Podcasts : Doctor Who

Monday, November 10th, 2008 | Doctor Who, podcast, scifi | No Comments

I have, over the time been listening to 3 Doctor Who podcasts :

DWO Whocast
Doctor Who Podshock
The Sonic Newsdriver

They can all be found in iTunes, or else your favourite pod catcher.

There are many more, but time is a limited resource.

“DWO Whocast” is a not too long podcast with two hosts commenting on all things Dr.Who. All is rather well organized,news, reviews of TV episodes, Audio plays (Big Finish has a ton of those), books etc. and interviews with all kinds of people involved in the series. They do talk about spin-off stories like “The Sarah Jane Adventures”, too.

The last episode there was a review of the Big Finish audio release #112 : “Kingdom of Silver”. I have it here, but not yet listened to it (time, remember?), but it sounds like it will be a solid story.

It comes out on a regular (weekly) basis and I like the format. This one looks like a keeper.

“Podshock” is, for me at least, mostly too long, often running 1h 30 min or more. This makes it too time consuming for me – someone else may love the long format, and I have no problem with that – so I am considering whether to continue with that one.

Much of their programming is similar to the Whocast, they also have (had) a Sunday live recording when a new episode has been on the BBC on the Saturday before. Nice touch, but you have to be there for the live recording.

“The Sonic Newsdriver” is a short news program coming out several times per week – at least that is how it started.

I found the “Newsdriver” a bit long winded, so that one is under consideration, too. Remember : Limited time budget. I have not seen any new releases of the Newsdriver for about a week, so I might be wondering if it is podfading, or maybe there are just not much news to report.

Update : The Sonic Newsdriver is alive – new episode out today

Tags: Doctor Who, podcasts

David Tennant leaves Doctor Who

Saturday, November 1st, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

I just got the news that David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who at the end of 2009, see the news from the BBC. Unfortunately, if you are outside the UK the interview cannot be seen from the BBC website. Possibly it is out there on U-Tube, but I have not investigated.

We will still see Tennant in the Christmas Special this year and in 4 specials in 2009. Interesting enough the title of the Christmas special will be “The Next Doctor”. Could this be an indication of things to come ?

2010 will see a new showrunner, Steven Moffatt, along with the 11th (or is it 12th after the “funny” regeneration last season?) Doctor.

It will be interesting to see who will be cast as the 11th Doctor. Your guess is as good as mine. The rumour mill has probably already started.

I will have to say that I really liked Tennant as The Doctor. This autumn/fall he has been playing Hamlet with Patrick Stewart in the UK. Stewart has said that he is interested in being in Doctor Who, it could be interesting to see him as a villain for a change. Could he become the 11th Doctor ? Possibly, but I doubt it. It could be interesting, though.

Tags: Doctor Who

Doctor Who and Steven Moffat score a hattrick.

Sunday, August 10th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

The winner of this years Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation, short form is the Doctor Who episode “Blink”, written by Steven Moffat.

I am not aware of any show winning the Hugo award in three consecutive years, it is in any case very unusual. What is even more unusual is the fact that the writer of the winners was the same.

I know very well that the final show is a joint effort of a lot of people, and the Doctor Who team has certainly done a very good job of reviving the series. Kudos to the BBC and the team.

So we have the last three year’s winners :

2006 : “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances”

2007 : “The Girl in the Fireplace”

2008 : “Blink”

All three among my favourites of the three seasons.

It will be interesting to see if Moffat’s new episodes “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead” will repeat the feat. The episodes were without any doubt among the best of the latest season. but I hope next year’s winner will be something else.

It is interesting to note that Steven Moffat is taking over from Russell T. Davies as the showrunner for Doctor Who in the 2010 season, and has hinted that there will be fewer “old enemies” coming back, and some change in the tone of the show. I am looking forward to it in any case.

Update :

After a check it turns out that “The Twilight Zone” has done this in 1960/61/62 for best dramatic presentation – at the time there was no distinction between short and long form. I have no information whether the same writer was responsible for the episodes.

Doctor Who Basics

Saturday, August 9th, 2008 | Doctor Who, scifi | 1 Comment

By Jennifer :
Doctor Who is a science fiction series from 1963. It follows The Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, on his journeys through time and space in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) a spaceship that looks like a blue police phonebox (it only looks like that because the “chameleon circuit” is broken, it would normally be able to look like practically anything). He normally has a companion, most often a female, whom he shows the wonders in space and time. The show had a pause, but restarted in 2005 with Christoffer Eccleston as the Doctor (he has now been replaced by David Tennant, the current and 10th Doctor) and Billie Piper as his companion, the human Rose Tyler (she left the show in 2006).

The Doctor himself: The Doctor is, as mentioned earlier, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Sadly, he had to destroy his home planet, and with it all of his own race friends as well as family, during a great Time War (the last of these), because this was the only way to save the universe from the greatest enemy of the universe, The Daleks. A cold hearted race of robot like creatures, they have no feelings except hatred and live for the goal to rid the universe from anything that isn’t “of Dalek design”. So now the 900 year old Doctor wanders the universe and on more than one occasion saves the Earth along with other planets.

Doctor Who

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

I was just watching the last but one episode of Doctor Who for this season, and …. OMG … I have to wait another week for the conclusion …. *what* a *cliffhanger* !!

Steven Moffat to take the helm on Doctor Who

Saturday, May 24th, 2008 | Doctor Who, authors, film and tv | No Comments

I am very excited to see that Steven Moffat will replace Russell T. Davies as the lead of BBC’s Doctor Who Team

BBC’s own news item

I consider his episodes in the previous seasons some of the very best Doctor Who stories ever.

2005 : “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances”
2006 : “The Girl in the Fireplace”
2007 : “Blink”

I am very much looking forward to seeing his two parter this season : “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead”

While RTD has been instrumental in reviving Doctor Who, I think it is the right time to have a new head of the team , and I think Steven Moffat is the right choice. We shall see …

Doctor Who 2008 has started

Saturday, April 12th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi, space | No Comments

The 4th season of the “New Doctor Who” has started on the BBC.

BBC started last Saturday with the episode “Partners in Crime” , quite a fun story, where Donna Noble from the Christmas Special 2006 reappears searching for the Doctor, misses him several times , and we see them meet again in a very amusing scene – that could have been a little shorter, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. We also briefly meet an old friend under mysterious circumstances , I will say no more , you will have to enjoy the moment for yourself.

Second episode brings us back about 2000 years to “witness” the destruction of Pompei, for the first time the Doctor Who team has been filming outside the UK. Quite a spectacular illustration of the volcano blowing up and the city buried under the ashes. As usual , when the Doctor arrives , things go awry, and he has to correct the flow of history , being put into a bit of a dilemma.

I quite enjoyed both episodes, and I am looking forward to the next ones , and solving the mystery of the first episode.

Second Hugo Award (2007) for Doctor Who

Sunday, September 9th, 2007 | Doctor Who, awards, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

Last year the Doctor Who series received a Hugo Award for the double episode “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances” . The award was for the best short dramatic presentation (less than 90 minutes).
The episodes were written by Steven Moffat, and are among my favorites from the new Doctor Who series.

They have done it again …

This year’s Hugo award for the best short dramatic presentation was awarded the Doctor Who episode “The Girl in the Fireplace” – also writen by Steven Moffat – and also one of my personal favorites.

The same TV series receiving Hugo awards for two years in a row is quite rare – the last time I know of was when the “Babylon 5″ series did that in the 90′s.

It will be interesting to see if The Doctor can make it to a third consecutive award….

You can find the complete list of Hugo winners 2007 here

Doctor Who

Monday, June 18th, 2007 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | 2 Comments

I have been watching the new (2005 onwards) series of Doctor Who, and found it very good. Generally good story lines, often a subtle arc going through a whole season.

I am much more impressed by the new series than the old one. This should not be a surprise, since a lot has happened to scifi TV in the last 20 years. No wonder we sometimes find the older tv series a little lacking. Not just special effects, but in general.

Watched episode 11 , Utopia, of the 3rd (new) series in the week end and found it extremely promising for the 2 concluding episodes. I am not going to give any spoilers yet.