I Watched Nine Straight Hours Of Doctor Who Today

Doctor Who‘s mid-season premiere was tonight, so the Space channel marathoned all of season six in order this afternoon and evening, and it was FANTASTIC.  I had several things I should have been doing, but how often do you get to watch a Doctor Who marathon?  I think I made the right call.

Rewatching this season, I had a few thoughts:

• The two-part premiere is SO good… it’s crazy freaky and bizarre and the resolution with the moon landing video is spectacularly dark and messed up.  Plus, Nixon!!  I feel bad for the guy now, knowing that the Doctor basically set him up for his eventual fall.
• I was expecting that people would over-praise Neil Gaiman’s episode just because Neil Gaiman wrote it and he’s all fancy and famous, but all of the praise it got was totally deserved.  It’s one of the best Doctor Who episodes I’ve ever seen… the Doctor getting to actually converse with the TARDIS was such a brilliant idea. 
• The reveal at the end of the gangers two-parter was nuts!!  Even knowing it was coming this time, it was still exciting and crazy. 
• I know “A Good Man Goes to War” is supposed to be about how people are scared of the Doctor now and how he maybe needs to tone it down, but the Doctor was SO bad ass throughout the episode that I wasn’t having any of that argument.  River and the lizard lady can bugger off… if you’re the sort of person who’d be scared of the Doctor, then you SHOULD be scared of the Doctor.  The “run away” scene was super hardcore, and “AMELIA POND, GET YOUR COAT!!” is one of my favourite Doctor Who lines ever.

Then the premiere came on, and it was INSANE.  I’m going to get into some spoilers now, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, run away.

You’d think that when an episode is called “Let’s Killer Hitler”, Hitler would be a big part of it, but all he did was get inadvertently saved by the TARDIS and then shoved in a cupboard.  The episode was actually about regeneration and poisoned Doctor and River Song’s “first” appearance and a shape-shifting, time traveling android run by tiny people.  There were about eight million things going on, and midway through I was thinking “this is just way too much”, but Moffat juggled the craziness well and pulled it all together in the end.  It was rather epic.

The episode had so many great moments, but my favourite was probably the Doctor’s total disgust at the tiny android people who travel through time just to punish dead bad guys.  Rory being hilarious throughout was a damn good time too though… plus he punched Hitler!!  And on top of all the excitement, the Doctor was sporting a snazzy new coat.

Next week’s episode looks pretty creepy, and apparently there are some doozy episodes coming up in the weeks to come.  The Doctor is the BEST… he’s totally my hero.

Bin Laden Dead, Obama’s Rating Should Go From “Unfavourable” To “Total Bad Ass”

Good work, Obama!!  And the CIA and Navy SEALs and everyone involved… it sounds like one hell of an operation, pulled off extremely well.

Though now that I hear that Bin Laden’s code name in the CIA was “Geronimo”, I’ve got to assume that this guy was involved:

With the assistance of a Time Lord or not, this was extremely well done… John Brennan’s briefing this afternoon was fascinating, and this is a huge accomplishment all around.  It’s good for America, and for the whole world.

Obama pic from Best Week Ever (and then back to several other sites, I’m sure).

The New Doctor Who Trailer Is AWESOME!!

Last season was spectacular, but I think this coming season is going to be even better.  Check out this fantastic trailer:

How great was that??!!  Good lord am I dying for this new season to start… Doctor Who is in the top five of things I love most in the world.  Maybe top three.  Quite possibly top two.  And Matt Smith is amazing… the best part of the trailer is this exchange:

EVIL DISEMBODIED VOICE:  Fear me.  I’ve killed hundreds of Time Lords.

THE DOCTOR:  Fear me.  I’ve killed all of them.

It can be difficult to look bad ass in a bow tie, especially when you spend most of your time in wide-eyed wonderment and glee, but he can TOTALLY pull it off.  I think I may have to watch the whole fifth season again before April 23^rd.  Yeah, I’m going to have to.  And I’m starting tonight.  Momentarily in fact.

Anyway, new Who is less than a month away!!!!  Between this and Game of Thrones, my April is going to be epic.  And then Thor May 6^th??  Holy cats… what a spring!!

Doctor Who BBC America Premiere Date Set!!

In quite an awesome exclusive, Entertainment Weekly has announced that the new season of Doctor Who will premire on BBC America on Saturday, April 23^rd, at 9:00pm.  That’s only 45 days away!!!!  They also posted this awesome new poster:

OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN I can’t wait for new Doctor Who!!!  I’ve been jonesing for new Who since last year’s series finale… the Christmas special only whetted my appetite more. 

The season is going to be broken into two parts, with a huge cliffhanger right in the middle.  This is both awesome and terrible.  Awesome because cliffhangers are always fun AND I’ll get to watch new shows in the fall, and terrible because cliffhangers are cruel and I’ll only get to watch a little bit of Doctor Who in the spring.  I think overall it will be good, though… this waiting for months and months and months is just interminable. 

The real BBC has yet to announce an official premiere date, though Doctor Who Magazine has said that it will over the Easter weekend so it sounds like the BBC and BBC America are going to start the show at the same time.  Last year, BBC America was a couple weeks behind, likely leading nefarious miscreants to download the BBC airing of the show rather than wait and watch it later.  I have no idea what kind of a fiend would do such a thing… that’s just appalling, even if it’s SO much cooler to watch the official British BBC version and waiting totally sucks.

But yeah, 45 days!!!!!!  I’m so excited!!!!

Doctor Who “A Christmas Carol” Review

Let’s not beat around the bush here… if you follow this blog at all, you know I was more excited about the Doctor Who Christmas special than Christmas itself so, not surprisingly, I LOVED it.  Steven Moffat is astoundingly epic.

I’m not going to go on about the particulars, as reviews like that are annoying and you should go watch the show yourself because it’s FANTASTIC, so suffice it to say that there was a crashing spaceship over some sort of steampunk London, a mean man who wouldn’t save the spaceship, the Doctor going back to the mean man’s childhood to make him nicer, an unexpected love story, and fish that swim in crystalline fog.  Oh, and fezzes (fezzes are cool).  If that doesn’t make you want to watch the show, then you are a person of poor taste and I feel bad for you.

What was so great about the show was that the Doctor and Christmas go together like fish sticks and custard (this post may make NO sense whatsoever to non-Doctor Who fans… fish sticks and custard means they go together well).  There is something about Christmas that is inherently depressing.  It is quite literally the darkest time of the year, and the omnipresent cheeriness often just illuminates areas of one’s life where there is a lack of cheer.  But the Doctor is ideally suited for Christmas… the Doctor is simultaneously cheery AND sad.  He is relentlessly hopeful and enthusiastic about making things better, but he is also haunted by the loss of his home planet and all the friends he has outlived in his nine hundred years.  He embodies every wonderful thing that we learn from Christmas specials (be nice to others and help people and all that), but there is an underlying level of melancholy in the Doctor that other Christmas specials only hint at.

Frosty melts, but he comes back next year.  Rudolph is a misfit, but he becomes the lead reindeer.  Charlie Brown is essentially a manic depressive, but everything comes together with the tree and such.  It doesn’t go that way with the Doctor.  Yeah, the spaceship gets saved, but that’s hardly the point.  The show is about the mean man, Kazran Sardick, and Abigail, the woman he falls in love with through the Doctor’s machinations.  It ends both beautifully and tragically.  There’s all sorts of nice things that come from the Doctor traipsing back through Sardick’s life, but it’s heartbreaking as well, and permanently so.  Abigail’s not coming back again after she melts.

Along with the spectacular melancholy, it’s just a ridiculously fun program.  Matt Smith is pretty much the best time ever, and Michael Gambon kills it as Sardick while Katherine Jenkins is great as Abigail.  And, of course, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are tons of fun.  But really, Doctor Who just makes for excellent entertainment.  You know you’re watching a great show when there’s a sleigh pulled by a shark and an impromptu marriage to Marilyn Monroe and the Doctor showing up in your home movies.  It’s clever and hilarious and exciting, and ultimately sweetly sad.  I enjoyed it like crazy, and I can’t wait for the new season to start!!!

Speaking of which, after the credits there was a preview of the new season!!  River Song is back, the crew goes to the States, Stetsons are the new fez, and the Doctor has a beard for some mysterious reason… enjoy the preview below:

NOW It’s Christmastime!!

Look what I got in the mail!!

All the way from England too… Ebay is the best.  I missed the first three days, but that’s hardly a big deal considering that it crossed the Atlantic Ocean to get to me.  Amusingly, my mailman seemed to think that it would fit into my mailbox and jammed it right in there.  It fit, but not easily.  I had to put a few chocolates back into their slots.  But who cares??  I have a DOCTOR WHO ADVENT CALENDAR!!  I can now happily count down to the Doctor Who Christmas special… oh, and Christmas too.  But mostly the special.  No offense to those of you jazzed to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but my sort of Lord is a TIME Lord.

 I feel much more festive now.  And, in keeping with this festive spirit, I am pleased to announce the Twelve Days of Wonder Woman, a countdown to Christmas (the special for me, Christmas in general for everyone else) starting December 13^th, in which we will look at a fun Wonder Woman Christmas-themed cover every day through Christmas Ever (Doctor Who Christmas Special Eve).  I think it will be fun!!  Between my epic advent calendar and Rudolph in HD last week (Did you see that?  It was awesome!!), it’s about time to get festive around here.

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Turkey?  Delicious.  Family and friends?  Wonderful.  Exchanging presents?  Loads of fun.  Peace on earth and good will to men (and women)?  A good idea all around.

But what is it that is most important about Christmas?  Why this, of course:

NEW DOCTOR WHO!!!!  If getting to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special was the ONLY thing I got for Christmas this year, I would be the happiest boy in the world.  I should get an advent calendar, not to count down to when Santa comes but to count down to the special.  Do they make a Doctor Who advent calendar?!  That would be AWESOME. 

SWEET FANCY MOSES THEY DO!!!

And they’re on Ebay!!  Well now I’ve gotta go.