An Unearthly Journey: Doctor Who, Season Two

Continued from here, this series follows me on my erstwhile adventures through Classic Who. We left off on my review of the original Season One; now let’s act a little out of character as Doctor Who fans and proceed directly to the next season in chronological order.

I actually finished watching the First Doctor a while ago, and never really got around to posting about it. (I tend to watch while I sew, and with no conventions since Comic Con, I haven’t had a lot of time.) There are still two seasons with One in them after S2, but there are too many good episodes to talk about in this season to bother trying to mush all three remaining Hartnell seasons into one post.

So, without further ado, onto the review!

In Brightest Day: Ninth Doctor

Of all the Doctors in Doctor Who, the Ninth Doctor is my absolute favorite. Christopher Eccleston served as the doctor for the first series of the rebooted version and, for the most part, made the most of what he had to work with. Eccleston was tasked with reintroducing the world to the Doctor. Not an easy task, but he pulled it off, pun intended, FANTASTICALLY.

Asylum of the Daleks: A Review

I’m putting the jump right here because I don’t want to spoil anything. Beware of many feels behind.

The Destinations of Doctor Who

The TARDIS allows the Doctor to travel anywhere in time and space. The familiar faces from the commentaries of the previous episodes in this series return to talk about the many places we’ve seen the Doctor and his companions go.  (Sadly, we never saw Raxicoricofallipatorius as a destination in Doctor Who, so I didn’t get to hear a bunch of celebrities trying to pronounce it.)

‘Save the Daleks’? Check out this “Asylum of the Daleks” Teaser

The BBC still hasn’t given us an actual release date for the new series of Who (although signs point to September 1st), but in the meantime they have been releasing lots of promotional photos and, now, a teaser for the first episode of S7, “Asylum of the Daleks”. This episode has been touted as a return to the Daleks’ roots, making them truly scary again, and so I’m interested to see why exactly they’re pleading with/commanding the Doctor to save them.

My list of things that could frighten Daleks goes something like this:

•     River Song
•     The Doctor
•     Rose Tyler
•     Maybe Rory?
•     Other Time Lords (and oooh, that could be interesting)
•     Scary Time War things
•     ???

If my predictions are right, we’ll find out in two weeks exactly! Anyone else have some speculation as to what has the Daleks running scared? Especially when there are what look to be thousands of them?

The New Doctor Who Series 7 Trailer is Here!

We’re finally closing in on the premiere of Series 7, with around a month left to go! (Although the BBC still hasn’t released an actual premiere date, so I suppose we’re just shooting in the dark?) What I assume is the final trailer before that happens has hit the web, and it contains some exciting stuff that can’t wait for next Tuesday.

This exciting stuff includes: one zillion Daleks, baby Weeping Angels, Ponds, the Doctor angsting about his past, the Doctor angsting about being a badass, River in a cool hat, and DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP. And from what I can tell between the trailer and the episode titles that have been released so far, that’s only in the first four or five episodes!

The BBC’s website didn’t have an embed link, so check it out here!

Edited to add embedded trailer!

Doctor Who Series Seven: A Top Ten Wish List

I am starting to get tired of waiting for Series 7 and the 50th Anniversary special! Who’s with me?

Some plot spoilers and set photos and whatnot have been creeping out over the past few months, and we know that there are a few certainties: the Ponds are leaving, new Companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman (and possibly named Clara?) is joining Team TARDIS, and the Daleks and Weeping Angels will be making appearances (as might Madame Vastra, the awesome lesbian Silurian Victorian ninja).

That still leaves a lot of wiggle room, though, for my wish list. I mean, we don’t even have any idea what will happen in the 50th Anniversary special, which won’t be occuring until 2013. Let’s throw out some ideas and hope Steven Moffat reads this blog.

1. Possibly!Clara has been billed as a fast-talker and a match for the Doctor’s exuberance.  Pleasepleaseplease keep her in check, or make the Doctor a little bit more subdued. He already has puppy-like boundless energy and he really needs a more Donna-like check on his craziness than someone who will out-crazy him.
2. The Ponds’ leaving has already been drawn out unecessarily what with bringing them back after the Doctor already said goodbye once. Give their farewell some dignity, don’t make it unnecessarily tearjerking just for the sake of tearjerkingness, etc.
3. Make the scary villains scary again. The Weeping Angels have been a little over-exposed in my opinion, and their appearance in Eleven clashed with the canon given in Ten that they could be any statue. The Daleks are sort of a joke at this point.  Make them scary again. (Although with a first episode titled ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, I think I may get my wish.)
4. Exciting new locales, please! Let’s try dinosaurs (which I seem to recall might have been hinted at, or I just saw fanart of the Doctor riding a dinosaur and got confused…) or, y’know, anywhere in Asia or Africa since they’re basically never been seen (an Egypt episode! or mix up the constant WWI and WWII stories with an Asian world war setting! Literally anywhere on those forgotten-by-the-writers continents would be nice!)
5. I’ve heard speculation that the ‘Doctor’s true identity’ plotline ties back into a plot arc that had to be scrapped when Seven was taken off the air twenty years ago. It would be really awesome if we could have a more solid tie to Old Who than just the recurring villains.
6. Lady Bacula expressly desires a Cervantes episode where Eleven is the inspiration for Don Quixote. I want an Oscar Wilde episode if they can make it a proper episode and not a PSA gay-issues story.
7. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Fewer timey-wimey shenanigans? The whole kerfuffle with River about broke my brain, and I have a high tolerance for timey-wimey stuff—hell, I’ve seen the Star Trek reboot at least ten times.
8. I’m still not exactly sure how the hole in the universe thing/the big bang affected the actions of previous Doctors, or the spinoff-series universes (I’m three seasons behind in Torchwood) but I’d like to see some reunions for past companions. I’ve heard ideas tossed around regarding a multi-Doctor mashup a la Time Crash or Old Who’s The Five Doctors, but that could be tricky considering Eccleston’s definitely not gonna come back and as much as I love Rose, she needs to stay in Pete’s World—she got several last hurrahs and a Doctor of her own, and bringing her back randomly would be a great way to make the fans think DW‘s writers are truly out of ideas.  Mostly I want Jack Harkness back. I know he’s working full time at Torchwood now but he could benefit from a more light-hearted adventure. And fan theories about him being the Time Agent who arrested River Song abound.
9. I see no real reason to switch Doctors at this point, but the world could be a better place if the 50th Anniversary special gave us a regeneration into a POC or female Doctor.
10. If nothing else happens in the whole of the seventh season and the 50th Anniversary special, FIX DONNA NOBLE. SHE WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND, DOCTOR, AND YOU RAPED HER MIND ‘IN HER BEST INTERESTS’ AND LEFT HER A SAD, SELF-ESTEEMLESS SHELL OF HER FORMER SELF. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A DICK FOR THAT UNLESS YOU FIX HER. DON’T WHINE ABOUT GUILT—DO SOMETHING.

What else would you like to see in the upcoming season? Only two more grueling months of Wholessness till we can be happy (or at least angry at Moffat) again.