Sunday 30 September 2012

Suicide Saves the Day! Angels Take Manhattan.


So finally the "Ponds" are gone. I know that there are people, who for what ever inexplicable reason, liked Amy. For the life of me though, I can not understand why. She was totally 1 dimensional, and please, do not assault me with "oh but she was." I've heard all the arguments before from her fans, and the truth is, a couple of times she's been well written by writers other than her creator. That does not save the character over all though. Worse still, I've always felt like she was designed (not intentionally) as a side-companion, an extension of the better companion Rory. Rory, who dies constantly, comes back to life, has lives 2000 years. Yes, he is far more interesting than Amy ever has or would have been. Amy was a character designed to be flirty, and abrasive. I don't know why anyone is going to be sorry to see the character go but I will act as if I do. You see, I think Angels Take Manhattan betrayed that fan group. I am sure they will disagree with me now that I've said I dislike her, but hear me out.

For starters, the episode has no real plot. Similar to last weeks Power of Three which had no real narrative, a bland plot with no real resolution. It had character development. Which is not a problem, of course pretending to have a plot is a bit silly, but regardless Power of Three develops the characters a little better than some of the previous episodes. We learn about how the Doctor misses them when they're gone, how Amy and Rory have to cope with two lives. It's quite good in that regard.

Angels misses that mark though. We have a few crowbarred in lines to suggest they are older now, we have some painfully cheesy stuff to do with River and the Doctor. There is nothing developmental for them. Worse still we have something quite annoying, Rory dyeing, again. Oh wait no, he dies, again. Hey wait, what! He dies again! Three, that's three times in the episode. Seriously, in the final goodbye episode of these characters we're reminded of one of the biggest jokes of the tenure! It totally destroys any meaning in what they do. Also, I'm amazed that Moffat who is the writer who loves playing with time-travel and changing time, wrote out his beloveds with a story about the inability to change it.

Oh and no. I did not mind that Rory decided to commit suicide. I was kind of annoyed that he faltered  It was a little out of character I think, we've seen him act rather quickly before, and be the hero. So I expected him to just say his good-byes and step off. I am amazed the BBC green-lit it though. There are going to be so many parents out there who are dumbfounded and will complain that they have a story that just said that suicide will fix everything.

In all honesty, I think the story would of been far more memorable if the two had died there and then. Yes the paradox destroys the Angels, but they stay dead. It would of been more devastating to the Doctor than Adric. Why do I think this? Ok he can't go to the Year that they arrive because of the problem with the time-line. Specifically Manhattan. Ok. Go to 1938 New Jersey, take a train or a cab.
Goto 1939. You know they live to their 80s. That's a bit of a plot hole I think, that the Doctor, who has done the so called impossible before, just can give up on them when so many ideas appear whilst typing this. Ah well.

To make matters worse, I feel like Moffat is often proud of when he does silly, verging on stupid things in his writing. Drawing attention to them and rubbing them in peoples faces. A rather childish and silly reaction to have to criticism isn't it? If memory serves, Terry Nation responded to critics by writing Genesis of the Daleks. Maybe Moff should take a cue from him.

I was almost surprised when we didn't get a mention of The Singing Towers. In fact I half expected when the Doctor asked her to travel with him that she'd set the co-ordinates and say something like "It looks like we're going to the Singing Towers of Darillium, sweetie." So that we know that between now and Christmas would be their last time together. Why do that? Because the Ponds are over. River Song is a Pond! Of course we know that Moffat is in love with the character so not really that surprised...

Over all Angels Take Manhattan was not a very good episode, very little really happens despite it being the departure of a companion. Knowing Moffat hates to hear this line but he really should watch the Classic episodes. Dragonfire has a more depressing exit from Mel than this has for Amy. Resurrection of the Daleks and Earthshock are more dramatic! Lest we forget Dalek Invasion of Earth and leaving Susan behind! As companion departures go, I do not think this one will go down in peoples memories for long. Which is unfortunate for those who truly loved the character.

Let us hope that the new companion is better.


(Oh and those glasses were clearly meant for the Doctor, no way were they Amy's haha!)

New Cover Styles. Unearthly Child and The Daleks.

I've recently been working on a new cover style idea. They probably would work best as new (Target) novelisation covers. I'm thinking of doing a whole set. First is An Unearthly Child;


A lot of people have pointed out this and yes it is the NuWho Tardis. I never pretended that it wasn't. It's just very hard to find a very hi res shot of Hartnell's one to work with. I was tempted to do something to do with skulls, but thought as the first story, this worked best. After that I worked on The Daleks;


Again, this is actually a Nu Who Dalek (RTD Era), but it's so hard to find hi res classic photos to work with. I went for the petrified forest as the fous of this cover. Am going to be working on others as time goes by. I think this could be something quite fun to do a set for.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think!

Wednesday 19 September 2012

The 12th Doctor; Wishful Thinking.

Just a little bit of wishful thinking I know, but surely you agree. For starters it will be more convincing once again not to have some one younger than so much of the audience as the Doctor. It would also be nice to have some one who is a little more convincingly intelligent in the role, not that I dislike Matt, or think he's stupid. I just think Stephen here would be such a brilliant Doctor.

He'd be so excellent because of his attitude, his ability to be incredibly intelligent, yet incredibly humorous at the same time. He can be sincere and dramatic and comedic at the drop of a hat. A lot of people claim that we can have an older actor take on the role, I think you'll find Jon Pertwee, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Christopher Eccleston (who were all older than their predecessors) would highly disagree with you.

Sunday 16 September 2012

Morality Flip-Flops, A Town Called Mercy.


So Series 7 has surprised me so far. Asylum of the Daleks was very predictable and the ending was cringe worthy, but otherwise was a fun episode. Of course there were problems, it was a Steven Moffat episode, so there were plot holes as narrative all over the place. Unlike some of his previous episodes though, Asylum worked well and wasn't annoyingly bad. Even for it's flaws. Then there was Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. When I heard that title I cringed, yet it turned out well. A little silly in places, but it worked, every character was fleshed out and different. Chibnall managed to write a powerful female character in Nefertiti who wasn't all sarcasm, rude quips and sex. Though there was a lot of it. It certainly wasn't as annoying as Moffat's version of women (you know they're all the same). Which is why it was most interesting how Chibnall made Amy work well in Dinosaurs! Some of the more peculiar issues of her character were almost parodied in the episode, making light of the fact that she is almost a "super-companion" at times. Even better, Chibnall seems to remember that the Doctor does kill people and aliens. Two good episodes in a row (of course there are flaws but they were good just the same). Then along comes A Town Called Mercy.

On my first viewing I didn't think it was bad. There was just a niggling sensation at the back of my mind, like there was something off at every turn. Like with Asylum the story was very predictable, it's difficult to come up with different concepts for the ahistorical stories I'm sure, but this was essentially The Curse of the Black Spot. Alien interferes with history. (Isn't that every episode?) It was interesting at first how they tried to imply that the alien that was the evil character was in fact the good character. Yet this just went in a very annoying way.

For starters, it results in a totally pointless discussion about how they should handle the situation. I say totally pointless because, the discussion goes no where. The character is a war criminal, a horrific, beyond the Nazis style war criminal. Sacrificing him to the good, misunderstood character, would save everyone in the town, women and children included. Rory suggests doing it, the Doctor even thinks about it. Even better, the Doctor goes to do it, at gun point. Why is this good? He even says why; people die because he lets the evil ones live. Now let's be honest, the ones he mentions? Only one of them (The Master) does he ever not kill.

So just after an episode in which the Doctor killing someone, someone who killed a ship full of Silurians, and an on screen dinosaur, is treated as heroic and amazing. We get treated to an episode that says "No Doctor, you never kill." Now, that's just bad episode planning surely? Perhaps this episode would of been a bit better later on, when we'd perhaps seen him kill people in every episode up to this one? Instead we've seen him fight Daleks (who it's just fine to kill I'm sure) and an old crippled man, who he definitely killed. In fact, if memory serves he mocked the old man as he did it. I don't think Amy batted an eyelash at that though.

Yet it's the way that it's handled so quickly, and so rushed that makes it far worse. Going beyond the fact that the show flip-flopped within the week on morality with its titular character. The Doctor pulls a gun on the evil war criminal to exile him out, to his death. Not that we've seen him do something like hold a gun and threaten some one 'helpless' before.


Then Amy pulls a gun on the Doctor. He immediately points out the plot-hole for us that she won't shoot. So there's no tension there. Her point about him changing because he travels alone is insultingly bad. For starters, he hasn't really changed. Ignore the Classic (argh I hate saying that), pretend that it's only Nu Who for a moment. He killed the "bad" (even if they weren't really bad) in;

 Rose, The End of the World, The Unquiet Dead, Aliens of London, The Long Game, Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways (kinda), Tooth and Claw, School Reunion (he sacrifices his best firend!), The Girl in the Fireplace, Rise of the Cybermen, The Idiot's Lantern, The Impossible Planet, Love & Monsters, Army of Ghosts, The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones, Daleks in Manhatten, The Lazerus Experiment, Human Nature (he does worse than just kill them), Blink (worse than kill again), The Fires of Pompeii, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Midnight, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, The End of Time, The Time of Angels, The Vampires of Venice, Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, Day of the Moon, The Doctor's Wife, The Almost People, The God Complex, Closing Time, The Wedding of River Song, Asylum of the Daleks, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

A lot of them isn't there? Most of the series in fact. Even better is the fact that The Wedding of River Song isn't really The Doctor killing the big bad. Instead it was Amy who killed her. I know it's a struggle for the show to maintain continuity between Classic and Nu Who, but surely it can maintain continuity between it's own seasons with the same characters? Amy killed some one, yes it was over her child being kidnapped, but she still killed some one. Yet she stands pious against killing a war criminal? The morality of the show flip-flopped between this and last week and it's just poor story telling. Which is a shame. 2 out of 3 episodes isn't bad. Hopefully Power of Three will be a good one too!

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Nu Who Classic Covers

It's not a totally new concept, to create DVD covers for stuff. It's not even an original idea to create covers for Nu Who episodes in the Classic DVDs style. This is my take on it however, you can download the full versions on my deviantART page.


That is all of Series 1 (of Nu Who). Notice that I do not do an individual cover for both halves of a two-parter. In Classic style I decided that they constitute one story! I've also made a start on Series 2.


They're all the ones I have done so far, like I said you can find them on my deviantART page to download if you want to use them. I will be doing reviews of Series 7 episodes starting shortly. Enjoy guys!