Monday, April 15, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Cold War - "He wants to speak to the organ grinder, not to the monkey." "I heard that!"
Cold War (Doctor Who) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Series 7, Story Story 8 (Overall Series Story #234) | Previous - Next | Index
Hey, it's Jean Reno in Doctor Who! What, no?! Ohhhh ... that's Reno look-a-like, famous in his own right, Liam Cunningham. Got it. I trust I wasn't the only one fooled by the resemblance when the pictures for this episode started getting released.
That out of the way, let's get down to the most anticipated episode of the the early part of the second half of series seven. (Yes, that's a thing.) The one with an Ice Warrior!
Of an episode set in 1983 aboard a Soviet submarine searching for oil in the Arctic, we expect certain things: nuclear tensions (check), that sonar ping sound (check), dripping water and impending suffocation (check and check), and, because it's Doctor Who, we expect at least one subordinate of the crew the Doctor encounters to be an ideologue, shifty and menacing -- a bad guy at least as bad as the bad guy (check). All delivered. These are the reassuring tropes, sort of the bare minimum the episode should have, or have the wit to subvert, either way. What we don't know whether to expect or not going in is if there will be any more information provided about the mystery that is Clara, anything that ties the story to the season arc.
Better still, but maybe too much to hope, is if it can deliver something thematically intriguing in its own right.
Skaldak the Ice Warrior is, not a savage, but a killer. He murders several of the crew to do some forensics on them. And yet, in the end ... spoiler alert ...
...
He shows mercy. He leaves. His comrades rescue him and they leave. And that, I think, is the best of it. This bloody warrior can be talked back from the brink by being reminded of the song he sang to his daughter. A display of compassion that earns the warrior a salute from the Doctor as he departs. (Well, one of those Soviet crewmen was a weasel anyways, eh?)
Funny how the TARDIS translation matrix works in this episode, even after the TARDIS buggers off. That HADS protocol felt like was re-introduced (from "The Krotons") specifically to be used later. We'll see.
Rematerializing at the other pole is good for a chuckle but it's kind of an awkward chuckle if the Doctor can't fetch it back.
Does digging for oil in the ice make sense? Sounds dubious to me, but I'm no wildcatter.
And, WTF was that, a Barbie doll? Weird.
All in all, this episode did well enough dropping the Doctor and Clara into an Alien meets Das Boot milieu that I'm willing to let some of the questions I have about it slide. This half of the season hasn't quite lived up to the first few episodes of the first half, but if it can execute this well the rest of the way *and* deliver a satisfying answer to the mystery of Clara, then you'll get no complaints from me.
For those willing to dig deep, you can see the hulking, hissing, ancient Martian warriors make their black-and-white Troughton-era debut below (subject to internet impermanence):
The Ice Warriors Part1 by matrixarchive
Series 7, Story Story 8 (Overall Series Story #234) | Previous - Next | Index
Hey, it's Jean Reno in Doctor Who! What, no?! Ohhhh ... that's Reno look-a-like, famous in his own right, Liam Cunningham. Got it. I trust I wasn't the only one fooled by the resemblance when the pictures for this episode started getting released.
That out of the way, let's get down to the most anticipated episode of the the early part of the second half of series seven. (Yes, that's a thing.) The one with an Ice Warrior!
Of an episode set in 1983 aboard a Soviet submarine searching for oil in the Arctic, we expect certain things: nuclear tensions (check), that sonar ping sound (check), dripping water and impending suffocation (check and check), and, because it's Doctor Who, we expect at least one subordinate of the crew the Doctor encounters to be an ideologue, shifty and menacing -- a bad guy at least as bad as the bad guy (check). All delivered. These are the reassuring tropes, sort of the bare minimum the episode should have, or have the wit to subvert, either way. What we don't know whether to expect or not going in is if there will be any more information provided about the mystery that is Clara, anything that ties the story to the season arc.
Better still, but maybe too much to hope, is if it can deliver something thematically intriguing in its own right.
 |
| That's not a mammoth |
 |
| And surprise, monkey, that's an empty suit. Tell the organ grinder! |
Skaldak the Ice Warrior is, not a savage, but a killer. He murders several of the crew to do some forensics on them. And yet, in the end ... spoiler alert ...
...
He shows mercy. He leaves. His comrades rescue him and they leave. And that, I think, is the best of it. This bloody warrior can be talked back from the brink by being reminded of the song he sang to his daughter. A display of compassion that earns the warrior a salute from the Doctor as he departs. (Well, one of those Soviet crewmen was a weasel anyways, eh?)
Funny how the TARDIS translation matrix works in this episode, even after the TARDIS buggers off. That HADS protocol felt like was re-introduced (from "The Krotons") specifically to be used later. We'll see.
Rematerializing at the other pole is good for a chuckle but it's kind of an awkward chuckle if the Doctor can't fetch it back.
Does digging for oil in the ice make sense? Sounds dubious to me, but I'm no wildcatter.
And, WTF was that, a Barbie doll? Weird.
All in all, this episode did well enough dropping the Doctor and Clara into an Alien meets Das Boot milieu that I'm willing to let some of the questions I have about it slide. This half of the season hasn't quite lived up to the first few episodes of the first half, but if it can execute this well the rest of the way *and* deliver a satisfying answer to the mystery of Clara, then you'll get no complaints from me.
For those willing to dig deep, you can see the hulking, hissing, ancient Martian warriors make their black-and-white Troughton-era debut below (subject to internet impermanence):
The Ice Warriors Part1 by matrixarchive
Saturday, April 6, 2013
The Rings of Akhaten - “I came here a long time ago, with my granddaughter.”
"The Rings of Akhaten" | Doctor Who | The A.V. Club
Series 7, Story 7 (Complete Series Story #233) | Previous - Next | Index
I read a while back that someone who'd seen preview screenings of the first three episodes of this half of series 7 rated them: OK, pretty bad, and awesome, in that order. Can't remember where I saw it and if it was Blogtor Who or not who'd offered those assessments ... but, it left me not expecting much from this episode, even as the teasers and promo pics started coming out and they looked pretty cool.
This is your obligatory "spoilers lurk below" warning ...
They used "Ghost Town" by The Specials at the beginning, so that right there was going to make this an episode I couldn't wholly dislike. Having the Doctor do an in-person background check, as it were, on Clara, was kind of a neat idea, but I'm not sure if I missed something, and he missed something, because it looks like she's bona fide. Did something blow that leaf to kick off the series of events that got her born though? Don't know.
Exploring Akhaten was a strange mix of visually impressive and somewhat claustrophobic by turns; there was a disconnect between with f/x used to show the rings and the planets, and closely constructed indoor set feel of what I think was supposed to be a bustling open-air market. That didn't quite work for me. (And you just kind of have to accept, I guess, that there was an atmosphere around all those rocks in orbit around the sun thing that eventually disappears without causing the whole system to fly away without a mass to orbit?)
The thing that surprised me the most was Eleven casually mentioning in passing that he'd been to Akhaten before with his granddaughter. That came a bit out of the blue and is the sort of reference to the show's past that I think has to mean something, have some consequence later, or else it's an awfully manipulative red herring, isn't it?
The Doctor's weeping offering up of his memories didn't really work for me either. It struck me as another chance to put Matt Smith in a dramatic position to deliver a bombastic monologue, shades of the Stonehenge speech, but really not amounting to anything. I don't gather he lost the memories he offered up, and doing so didn't solve the problem, it was actually Clara's leaf that, somewhat implausibly, dealt the death blow to the Old God.
When it comes to matters of religiosity, I'd be remiss if I didn't remark on the Doctor's commentary on the this system's origin myth. He's kind, perhaps to a fault, in his assessment of the veracity of their account of the development of life, all life, in the universe. Clara asks him if it's true, that she is standing where life originated. He replies: "It's what they believe. It's a nice story." It's a diplomatic way to sidestep what her next question might have been, and it's generous in not being dismissive. Having no patience for mystical malarkey outside of the realm of storytelling, I'd hope to see him get the chance to say the same about an Earth religion -- rather, to point out when a "nice story" stops being nice because people use it as a justification to act immorally by appeal to a just-so story instead of applying reason, judgment, and a true feeling of compassion towards questions of morality.
So I don't think we gained much in terms of insight into the Clara mystery and the Big Bad was beaten by a leaf wielded by a (granted mysterious) Earth girl. There were nifty visuals and variety of aliens, but I'm not sure the point of it all was. I suspect I'll be doing the V-8 slap later when I realize I could've sussed something out of this one when things develop later, but for now I'm just thinking what a great song "Ghost Town" is.
Series 7, Story 7 (Complete Series Story #233) | Previous - Next | Index
I read a while back that someone who'd seen preview screenings of the first three episodes of this half of series 7 rated them: OK, pretty bad, and awesome, in that order. Can't remember where I saw it and if it was Blogtor Who or not who'd offered those assessments ... but, it left me not expecting much from this episode, even as the teasers and promo pics started coming out and they looked pretty cool.
This is your obligatory "spoilers lurk below" warning ...
 |
| Promo image via the BBC |
Exploring Akhaten was a strange mix of visually impressive and somewhat claustrophobic by turns; there was a disconnect between with f/x used to show the rings and the planets, and closely constructed indoor set feel of what I think was supposed to be a bustling open-air market. That didn't quite work for me. (And you just kind of have to accept, I guess, that there was an atmosphere around all those rocks in orbit around the sun thing that eventually disappears without causing the whole system to fly away without a mass to orbit?)
The thing that surprised me the most was Eleven casually mentioning in passing that he'd been to Akhaten before with his granddaughter. That came a bit out of the blue and is the sort of reference to the show's past that I think has to mean something, have some consequence later, or else it's an awfully manipulative red herring, isn't it?
The Doctor's weeping offering up of his memories didn't really work for me either. It struck me as another chance to put Matt Smith in a dramatic position to deliver a bombastic monologue, shades of the Stonehenge speech, but really not amounting to anything. I don't gather he lost the memories he offered up, and doing so didn't solve the problem, it was actually Clara's leaf that, somewhat implausibly, dealt the death blow to the Old God.
When it comes to matters of religiosity, I'd be remiss if I didn't remark on the Doctor's commentary on the this system's origin myth. He's kind, perhaps to a fault, in his assessment of the veracity of their account of the development of life, all life, in the universe. Clara asks him if it's true, that she is standing where life originated. He replies: "It's what they believe. It's a nice story." It's a diplomatic way to sidestep what her next question might have been, and it's generous in not being dismissive. Having no patience for mystical malarkey outside of the realm of storytelling, I'd hope to see him get the chance to say the same about an Earth religion -- rather, to point out when a "nice story" stops being nice because people use it as a justification to act immorally by appeal to a just-so story instead of applying reason, judgment, and a true feeling of compassion towards questions of morality.
So I don't think we gained much in terms of insight into the Clara mystery and the Big Bad was beaten by a leaf wielded by a (granted mysterious) Earth girl. There were nifty visuals and variety of aliens, but I'm not sure the point of it all was. I suspect I'll be doing the V-8 slap later when I realize I could've sussed something out of this one when things develop later, but for now I'm just thinking what a great song "Ghost Town" is.
The Unquiet Dead - "Go out there like that and you'll start a riot, Barbarella!"
The Unquiet Dead (TV story) - Tardis Data Core, the Doctor Who Wiki
Season 1, Story 3 (Complete Series Story #159)
From the distant future last time out, to the not-so-distant past for this story, the thrill of time travel is certainly back. Rose's sense of wonder at the ability to step into the past is brilliantly played, as is the Doctor's at meeting Dickens. Eccleston's giant smiles are delightfully infectious. How often, outside of Doctor Who, do you see characters look like they're having so much fun? This episode moves deftly from moments of joy (stepping out of the TARDIS into a snow that fell over 130 years ago) to terror (Rose trapped in the mortuary with two walking dead, beating on the door for help) and back (as the Doctor barges in, announces that Rose is his dance partner, and introduces Charles Dickens) that we can't help but enjoy the ride.
You can't build a show on facial expressions, but everyone here is so naturally expressive that we smile with them, and when the show is clicking, as it is here, that smiling along and laughing with the characters builds empathy, so we're engaged in their struggle. Tennant and Piper have this chemistry as well, but I still say it's a shame we didn't get to see more of Eccleston travelling with Piper's Rose. They're so good together and Nine's a bit more alien than Ten, not quite so pretty, so the building of that empathy feels like more skillful job.
Nine, laughing in the background, while Rose reacts with disgust at the mortician's callousness is priceless. The Doctor, this lonely, last-of-his-kind traveler, finding a companion that help him move on and enjoy adventure again brings us no small bit of pleasure. He's been through more than we have and look how he can get his mojo back, eh?
In "Rose," we saw the Doctor offer the Nestene a chance, and here again he wants to look past the unfortunate events of the alien and human interaction before his arrival and help, but again offering the hand of kindness nearly gets it bitten off. That's one of the things I like about these first few stories, he shows he's a compassionate being, even when it exposes him to danger, and he doesn't change after being disappointed. He's not a sucker, and he's going to be merciless when crossed, but he always approaches the conflict with an open mind and an open heart ... well, almost always, we'll see later for whom he's got no compassion left.
And, yes, the "happy medium" line still cracks me up.
Season 1, Story 3 (Complete Series Story #159)
From the distant future last time out, to the not-so-distant past for this story, the thrill of time travel is certainly back. Rose's sense of wonder at the ability to step into the past is brilliantly played, as is the Doctor's at meeting Dickens. Eccleston's giant smiles are delightfully infectious. How often, outside of Doctor Who, do you see characters look like they're having so much fun? This episode moves deftly from moments of joy (stepping out of the TARDIS into a snow that fell over 130 years ago) to terror (Rose trapped in the mortuary with two walking dead, beating on the door for help) and back (as the Doctor barges in, announces that Rose is his dance partner, and introduces Charles Dickens) that we can't help but enjoy the ride.
 |
| Rose, Dickens, and 9 confront the walking dead. |
Nine, laughing in the background, while Rose reacts with disgust at the mortician's callousness is priceless. The Doctor, this lonely, last-of-his-kind traveler, finding a companion that help him move on and enjoy adventure again brings us no small bit of pleasure. He's been through more than we have and look how he can get his mojo back, eh?
In "Rose," we saw the Doctor offer the Nestene a chance, and here again he wants to look past the unfortunate events of the alien and human interaction before his arrival and help, but again offering the hand of kindness nearly gets it bitten off. That's one of the things I like about these first few stories, he shows he's a compassionate being, even when it exposes him to danger, and he doesn't change after being disappointed. He's not a sucker, and he's going to be merciless when crossed, but he always approaches the conflict with an open mind and an open heart ... well, almost always, we'll see later for whom he's got no compassion left.
And, yes, the "happy medium" line still cracks me up.
Friday, April 5, 2013
"Don't worry, I'll handle this ..."
Medical Emergencies at 40,000 Feet - Celine Gounder - The Atlantic:
 |
| Airline medical emergency response hasn't changed since Airplane! |
I have responded five times to "Is there a doctor on board the plane?" In three of the cases, it was a true emergency. Airline systems are woefully underprepared to deal with these situations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
