The Weekend Roundup

Well, I caught up with Doctor Who reviews and I have to admit I’m still really bummed out on the whole Dalek crater. Man that story was lame. I can’t explain why. I watched the Confidential and although all the production team were ebullient as usual (the words “brilliant” and “marvelous” flow effortless from Russell T Davies mouth) I just didn’t like it. In fact, even though “Love and Monsters” last year must easily rate as the worst story ever, I could still overlook it because it didn’t really matter. But, this a two-part Dalek story and it will probably figure into the conclusion of this season. So, seriously bummed out.


Felt so bad that I ended up watching the PBS “America at a Crossroads” specials that I hadn’t gotten around to from the week(s) before.



An excellent, if very depressing look at terrorism and the rise of fundamentalist Islam in the world. Sometimes it was extremely interesting (the history of the rise of Bin Laden, etc.), sometimes very depressing (the soldiers in Iraq), sometimes a little dull or on the fringe (the transvestite competition in Indonesia???) Mostly it is kind of scary that the world is so on the edge right now and sad because Islam, at one time, was the most advanced religion on the planet, saving works from the pre-Christian period like the Greek philosophers from the burnings.




I also finally got to see “Gunpowder, Treason and Plot,” a two-part BBC production from a couple of years ago. Not the greatest thing in the world. The first part is a fairly straight attempt to dramatize the events of Mary Queen of Scotts, although it lacks any real interest in the choice of actors (particularly Clemence Poesy as Mary Queen of Scots). The second part is about James I and the actual “Gunpowder Plot” mentioned in the title. In a strange decision the cast begin talking to camera and Robert Carlyle clearly thinks he’s playing Richard III. Add in Tim McInnerny (“Blackadder”) and Richard Coyle (Jeff from “Coupling”) and things seem a little more off-kilter. However, overall it was still a good performance.

I caught up with “Lost” – A mostly flashback episode that usually makes me hate the fact that I like the show. It’s so stuffed with padding that sometimes it’s not a show at all. This was a Jin and Sun centric episode and we find out, hey, Jin is the father of the child, but the child and Sun will die. So, it’s a sort of bad news or bad news type thing. Also, she’s the reason Jin went to work for her father as a thug in the first place. Not terribly interesting.



And, a woman fell out of the sky with a picture of Desmond and his girlfriend. But, having fallen out of a helicopter, we didn’t get much chance to chat. She speaks Spanish and Italian, except when she said “Desmond.” Then, the eye-patch guy comes out of the forest and, after Jin kicks his ass, he helps out. We did find out that they found the plane and no one is looking for them … whatever that means.




Mostly the weekend was just resting. I’m still a little sick from last week, though now it has gone to my stomach. Wonderful.

Evolution of the Daleks - the aftermath

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I do hate it. It was really poorly conceived. I won't say that this is entirely Helen Raynor's fault, since she was pretty much given her brief with all the elements. From what I can tell in Confidential the major contribution she brought to it was Hooverville (which was the best part of it, really.) But, it's "marvelous" and "brilliant" and "fabulous" ... never trust anyone who says this stuff all the time.

What really gets me about this show, apart from what I've already written, is simple - the premise that the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords after this Time War with the Daleks ... ostensibly to get rid of Gallifrey and give mystery to the main character once again ... but, what we have is this constant referencing of the above over and over ... not to mention the Doctor's name, etc. The mystery isn't there. In fact, it's less mysterious than it's ever been in the show's history.

In series One (whatever) in 2005, the Dalek story arc was central to entire season and even the 9th Doctor's personna. His entire existence was geared toward his final battle, his emotional growth, etc. The Daleks were restored to being scary.
Last season they were trotted out as a "trick" at the end of the series. This year, they've become exactly what they started out as before the reinvention ... silly. I would have prefered just a simple Dalek story without all the "final solution, last of the daleks" stuff. Let alone the entirely stupid Dalek-human discovering his "feelings." Man, that was stupid in the 1966 Star Trek episode "What Little Girls are Made of" ...




Sorry fans, the show was doing so well, but if Dalek Caan turns up in the finale at all ... please pull the plug.

Doctor Who “Daleks In Manhattan” and “Evolutions of the Daleks”

5/10 - I didn’t hate it …

Plot - The Doctor and Martha arrive at the Statue of Liberty. There is no real reason given as to why Martha is still with the Doctor (in the last episode, he said "one more" ... and at the end explains about the Time War with the Daleks.)

Seeing the uncompleted Empire State Building, the Doctor estimates the date, while Martha finds a newspaper dated November 1st 1930. The Doctor notes the headline 'Hooverville Mystery Deepens' and reads about people going missing. He then takes Martha to Central Park where a Hooverville is located.

At the top of the Empire State Building, Mr Diagoras orders a foreman to speed up construction on the mast. When the foreman refuses, Mr Diagoras summons one of his 'Masters' to deal with him. Dalek Caan and two Pig Men emerge from the lift, and Mr Diagoras tells them that the foreman is disobeying his orders. Dalek Caan has the foreman taken away for 'the final experiment'. He then orders Mr Diagoras to recruit more 'bodies' for the final experiment.





Savage pig creatures hide in the sewers, and at the bottom of the Empire State Building, some of the Doctor's greatest and oldest enemies, the Cult of Skaro, are at work, preparing their most horrific plan yet...

Rant - Oh well, I guess the last Dalek will be popping up in the end … again. I’m really sick of the Daleks. Sorry new fans, but they’ve been around so long. They don’t need to be in every season. I think that’s the lesson the old series learned after the 3rd year. Perhaps this time around they’ll learn it, too. Still, better them than farting aliens.



My Review - In short, this is a feeble story. It’s a King King homage with very little substance or originality. Unlike “Dalek,” the big return two years ago, now it’s gone on long enough. The production team have boxed themselves in with Time War and the “last of the Daleks.” No one bothers to explain that, in a show about Time Travel, how do you go back and forth through time and yet these two events remain a constant. (?)



I think, much like the return of the Cybermen last year, there had better be a big payoff for this story to hold water. On its own, its rubbish.

Doctor Who - The Wrath of Caan

Doctor Who “Gridlock”

10/10 - I loved this one …

The Doctor offers Martha one trip into the future, to visit another planet. She asks if he can take her to his home planet, and speculates as to its beauty. He describes Gallifrey's Citadel, mountains, orange sky and other features as if they still existed, but claims he does not want to go home. He lies ...

Instead, he takes her to the year five billion and fifty three, into a dark alleyway where it is raining, and introduces her to New New York in New Earth. The Doctor repeats some things he told Rose the last time he was there. Martha becomes slightly upset when she realises she is being taken to the same place the Doctor took Rose, and mutters the word "rebound".




The Doctor and Martha are in a run-down street. Three pharmacists open their market stands and try to sell the Doctor and Martha patches that dispense "moods", particularly Happy Happy.

Suddenly, a young couple armed with guns grab Martha and haul her away, subduing her with a patch inducing Sleep. The Doctor chases them but they escape in their car. The Doctor asks the pharmacists for directions to the Motorway; they comply, but warn him that he may never see Martha again.




The Doctor must brave the ordeal of the mysterious Motorway in order to discover the terrible secrets at the heart of the city. What monsters lurk below the surface, hidden in the smog?

And remember, "There are no such thing as Macra!"

Rant - This one was really a dividing line in audiences. Some didn’t get it, thought it too slow, didn’t see the need for bringing back the Macra if they weren’t going to be used much. I disagree. Though the New Earth stuff is just getting on my nerves, I can see the groundwork being laid for getting young viewers into the idea of continuity. The Macra themselves are just a nice throwback for the fans.

The metaphors for modern life are just everywhere - The congestion, pollution, even the “mood” patches are oddly similar to nicotine patches used today. It won’t be long before it takes us a 23-years just to get across town.

My Review - This is a set-up episode for the rest of the series. The Face of Boe’s final words to the “lonely god” is to the Doctor, of course, and those words are “You are not alone.” Clearly a Time Lord(s) has survived and we will find out just what all this Saxon stuff really means by the time we finish the series.

Oh, and thank God the Face of Boe is dead. Thank freakin’ God!!!

Doctor Who "The Shakespeare Code"

Doctor Who “The Shakespeare Code”




9/10


Plot - After our quick introduction to Martha and her dysfunctional family (sigh, why????) The Doctor takes Martha on her first trip in the TARDIS. Arriving in Elizabethan England, they go to the Globe Theater and see a performance of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and meet William Shakespeare who is writing his play, Love's Labour's Won (a lost play listed in many codecs, but never found, it is a sequal to “Love’s Labour’s Lost”.) Of course, the promise of seeing the lost play, and especially finding out why it was lost, intrigues him. So, he sighs and agrees they need to stick around. Classic Doctor Who trouble detecting ...






Shaky is a bit of a rake, the “rock star” of the Elizabethan era, but the Doctor sees genius in him and he does have a lot on the average superstitious people who throw their own shit out of the window. After a brief awkward scene of the Doctor and Martha sharing a bed (in which the Doctor is completely oblivious to Martha’s flirtations) we quickly, again very quickly in the new Doctor Who, find that evil, witch-like Carrionites plot to end the world by placing a code in the new play's closing dialogue.

And, as the tag line said a million times, Shakespeare will have to give the performance of his life in order to save the Earth.

My Rant - Well, it is the same old plot almost verbatim as season 1’s (or season 27 as it should be known) Dickens oriented “The Unquiet Dead” and to some extent, “Tooth and Claw” from last year. Famous writer and his mysterious, uncompleted work (or unfound) work involved in an alien invasion from some sort of prison, etc. Weave in as many references to the author as possible and have that author important to solving the problem itself.

That being said, there isn’t much that can be complained about here apart from that. Everyone is on their very best game here and the production team were even allowed to film in the actual Globe theater (which is a first, btw.) You have the 3 witches and Shakespeare stealing lines (and even the Sycorax) from the Doctor right and left.

My Review - This is a good, if somewhat light second episode. Last year’s “Tooth and Claw” was almost note for note perfect Doctor Who, including the creepy middle bit where there is a bit of calm before the storm. This story isn’t quite as good as that, but is better than “The Unquiet Dead” for maximizing the use of Shakespeare as a character.




A few nice special effects shots are used to create the full realization of Elizabethan England ... and the Queen hershelf appears at the end, though she is clearly not happy to see the Doctor.

Iron Man

I'm not sure about Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, but at least it's a safer bet than Ben Afflect to play Daredevil. Now, it has been ages since I have read comic books and still find them kind of hard to deal with.

I also am very indifferent to comic book movies (don't care at all about Spiderman and The Fantastic Four just pissed me off!) But, reading this article, I might have to believe this could be good.



Article

LOS ANGELES — Robert Downey Jr. is hardly the obvious choice to play an iconic crime fighter.

After all, this is the guy who became a poster boy for Hollywood excess, serving a year in prison on drug and alcohol-related charges and checking in and out of rehab like it was the Four Seasons.

But it is exactly that past, says director Jon Favreau (Elf), that makes Downey the only choice to play playboy millionaire and recovering alcoholic Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, the comic-book superhero who hits multiplexes next year.

"We didn't want to just go with a safe choice," Favreau says from the set of the film, due in theaters May 2, 2008. "The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That's Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic-book character who is having trouble in high school, or can't get the girl. Plus, he's simply one of the best actors around."

For his part, Downey is trying to become an iron man. At 42, he lifts weights five days a week and practices martial arts to get in shape to play the hard-bodied Stark, an arms manufacturer who uses his ultimate weapon, a jet-powered, missile-launching suit of armor, to fight evil.

Doctor Who "Smith and Jones" review

Doctor Who “Smith and Jones” – 8/10

Plot - We start, for the first time in the new incarnation of Doctor Who, without the zoom in on the planet Earth first used in “Rose.” Euro-urban cliché hip-hop fades up as Martha talks to her many messed relatives on her cellphone. (Clearly we need the music to telegraph the fact that she is black to us. Oh no, whatever shall we do. Personally, since I regard Mickey as a companion, she isn’t the first black companion, which is the buzz word in the press.) Freema is great as Martha and the first episodes set-up has a great bookend piece of eccentricity right up front when the Doctor appears in front of her and for no reason takes off his tie and says, “Like So …” and walks off again. For Martha, this is the way things are going to be for a while.

She is a medical student and, while doing her rounds, comes across the Doctor again. He says he doesn’t remember her and their encounter. He then does a great piece of non-linear rambling about Ben Franklin and holding the kite, getting electrocuted, etc. Moments later (literally in terms of modern Doctor Who story telling) the entire hospital is enveloped in a very localized rainstorm … and the rain appears to be going up. Suddenly, the hospital is on the moon, they are invaded by rhino-like Jadoon (a race of galactic police) and fight a plasmavore in the disguise of an old lady.





My Rant - To be totally fair, this is the biggest hurdle the new series has had to face so far. The entire cast has now been replaced, and more importantly, Rose has been replaced. When the new series debuted with Eccleston’s damaged Doctor and Rose as more or less the main character, there was concern in some circles, not just about Davies’ “agenda,” but that the show was already tied to a short life-line. The soapy elements of the series (The LOVE STORY!!! Rose’s family, etc.) also seemed overdone. At the end of that series, we saw the regeneration of Eccleston into Tennant and a return to a somewhat more traditional Doctor. The love story remained and it took an awful lot of twisting and turning to come up with a season 2 closer “Doomsday” that could satisfy the “newer” fan expectation as well as return the show to its roots. It did. Last Christmas’ “The Runaway Bride” annoyed a lot of people, not least of all for Catherine Tate’s rather obnoxious character, but it did at least go straight for the traditional DW story telling without too much emotional baggage in the way.

Series Three does seem to want to throw us back into a Captain Kirk type pattern of serial monogamy, but in this case it seems that Martha likes the Doctor and he’s … well, 900 years old and not interested. This is, of course, as it should be. I’ve never followed that “modern” storytelling demands a love story (I mean, really, that stuff killed the Marx Bros. career 70 years ago. Modern???) It doesn’t mean that it isn’t good in other shows, but not in this one. This one is about something grander, bigger than life … and, frankly, intellectual. The Doctor in love is just not interesting anymore than Frankenstein doing a dance routine … in short; it is camp, spoof, silly, etc.



Review – With so much to do in 44 minutes, Smith and Jones is quite a good story. Good monsters (love the old lady with the straw) and a good new character. We are clearly back into some old territory for the long-term fans, while all the new ones should be able to come along for the ride. Martha’s crush on the Doctor seems more at a teasing stage and her family seem to be cut and pasted in over Rose’s, but we still have a long way to go before the big Saxon ending …

turn, turn, turn ...

Seasons are beginning and ending for a lot of my favorite shows ... or in some cases, shows I merely watch. And, since we are in April, the driest month for movie releases in the calendar, we should touch base with these shows just a bit. Later I will go into it a bit more. So, this blog will be all about my own boredom and sharing it with you …



"24" - Well, season six has officially gone off the map. When did "24" jump the shark? Well, immediately, really. So, I guess it's unfair of me to say this season has lost its way. We've caught up to hour 19 and the President has slipped into his second coma, the suitcase nukes were found and both the Muslim and Russian terrorists have been caught or killed. Jack suddenly gets a phone call from the mysteriously cliché sounding Chinese man who has Audrey (who isn't dead) and Jack must trade the Russian circuit board in exchange for Audrey and must escape from the clutches of Ricky Schroder ...




Ricky freakin' Schroder !!!



Yes, if you thought Samwise in last season was a leap, this year the shark jumping is in a space shuttle ... Unfortunately, I'm hooked. There are only 5 "hours" left and the show seems to have pushed all the limits possible ... the only reason to watch it is to see where it can possibly go. But, on the positive side, at least it's going to be on for the full season without months of interruptions.

"Lost" – I hear that a lot of people are turned off of “Lost” this year. I, on the other hand, feel that the show’s determination to keep moving toward something different in television with each season has been worthwhile. This year we see much more about “the Others” and we find out a lot more about the island.


The "Others" - or "101 Reasons not to go High School Reunions"




I am, however, a bit sick of the flashbacks. I know the flashbacks are there to pad out the story, but really, do we need some of them? In fact, I’m kind of sick of Kate and Sawyer. They aren’t interesting anymore. Who cares? The others appear to have quite an operation going. They can kidnap people from around the world using an elaborate network of people who can kill your boss in front of you … but no one can get pregnant. Huh … ?




"Ahhhh!!! My eyes!!!" - No wonder they can't get off the island.