Generally the reviews on the boards seem quite in favour of the new Sontaran two-parter, old monsters returning with gusto and more pizzazz than, well, the other, more lacklustre early two-parters of previous seasons.  And really that isn’t a good yardstick to compare these episodes by.  Having felt that a bit of extra time would’ve benefited both Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood to expand plot strands and ideas that were begging to be developed, Stratagem and Sky seemed too much like a runaround.  By co-incidence I ended up rewatching Girl in the Fireplace shortly after seeing the closing episode and it simply brought home to me (as Jamas noted in his blog) that this is just a really good Sarah Jane Adventure story.  It has it all, simple plot, in-jokes, turns-out-nice doppelganger, lots of action, backyard setting, eco-theme, villainous kid, and cutesy aliens.

I never thought I could describe the Sontarans as cutesy – but here they’ve taken one of the series’ design classics and tweaked it out of skew.  It’s not that they’ve made them short (they always were stocky, but they never made jokes about it before; I don’t see Pertles or Tom B wrestling with Chris Ryan); it’s not that they dressed them in baby blue (though black always looked niftier); it’s not even that they’ve turned them into cut-price Klingons; it’s because they’ve made them so bad at it.

After years of lone clones living by their wits, the warriors have arrived en masse, but seem a lot less sharp for it, the new army less than the sum of its original parts.  All the bluster about honour, and yet they resort to subterfuge, using kids and look-alikes (a Rutan method), shooting the unarmed as sport – they used to be even more shrewd and cunning, but they didn’t prattle on hypocritically about it.  All the moaning about females (whereas they used to be a curiosity), they seem more like gung-ho schoolboys.  The aliens of this story could be almost anyone, just with a lot of Sontaran window dressing, like the good old probic vent; their only weakness… that and bullets.  The new Sontarans have no fear of death, which is handy, as they seem far too good at it.

Donna continues to shine, although some of the set pieces (“you’re leaving?” TARDIS key) are such parodies they detract from the plot.  Bernard Cribbins needs to do a Mickey and come onboard for a stint on the ship (although given the behind the scenes reasons for his casting, the way his character is developing may be in slightly pour taste); even Sylvia gets a chance to look good (how would’ve we reacted to Jacqui or Martha’s Mum with an axe?).  Sadly they had to clone Martha to give her something productive to do, but all this aside it all just seems far too clever, mummy jokes, handy hammers, but really it’s almost an exercise in ticking the boxes: bring back Martha, tick; UNIT, Sontarans, tick, tick. Valiant, family issues, special effects, obligatory Rose reference etc.  Given the potential scope of what could be done with these two episodes what we’ve been given just seems a little mundane.

DR

Blogging can be backbreaking work. But there was no need for him to take it so literally.

Not even a year on from an arm-breaking effort in his own back yard, Peter A has upped the ante with a weekend accident on a friend’s trampoline, landing with some force on a stationary obstacle and fracturing his vertebra in the process (L1 for those of you keeping score at home). After a two-day stay in hospital, he’s now home and braced-up, on heavy medication and muttering feverishly about “making a man” out of all the various x-rays of limbs collected over the life of ZeusPlug (score to date: a head, lower torso and an elbow).

His message: apologies for the delay in Fast Return and new series reviews; normal service will resume shortly.

Thanks

PA

It’s bigger on the inside!

Temporal engineering is surely the only way to explain how Alex has managed to fit such an embarrassment of riches into what is still a relatively slim volume. An interview, articles, reviews, artwork, comic strips and cartoons – there’s even a crossword, for heavens sake! You can keep your official activity books – get RTP! instead.

But to get inside, you must first get past the cover.

Are we about to read RTP! 26, or Doctor Who and the Sorcer’s (sic) Weapon?  It’s wonderful to see RTP! with a colour cover and always charming to see some artwork from a young and enthusiastic fan, but in this case the result is definitely less than the sum of its parts.  What we actually have is a landmark full-colour cover which looks as if it’s been hand-drawn by a young and enthusiastic fan.  Instead of taking the opportunity to enhance RTP!’s own brand by adding colour to that sharp masthead logo, we see it instead shrunk and stuck somewhere near the bottom – in black and white!  Cropping, angling, or drop-shadowing the illustration might have helped to make it an element of, rather than becoming the cover so that RTP!’s traditionally clean typography could still have been maintained.  Never mind there’s always the back cover, where we have – a black and white illustration! (An extremely good one, but another missed opportunity for colour, regardless).

Alright, we’re now inside, and despite the terrifyingly narrow outside page margin (getting to the end of right-hand sentences is like playing chicken with the page edge, at times) RTP! 26 is, as usual, a delight.  As implied earlier, there’s far too much on offer to do justice to in a short review – but three of the main features deserve focussing upon.

If the 8 page first part of ‘The Tower of Angum’ was a film, I’d have to say that it’s stylishly directed; with the panel composition and content both innovative and adept at communicating the story visually.  I’m looking forward to Part 2.

James Grant’s reply (or rebuttal?) to Lorna Fleming’s recent TSV article ‘Planet of Fear’ is a well-researched piece which could so easily have become inflammatory, or at the very least pedantic.  In fact, the Fleming TSV article is not just deconstructed with sensitivity and respect, but Grant offers equally fascinating alternative theories and observations for us to mull over.  Articles like this show how much Fandom has grown up – leaving behind the days when differences of opinion often seemed centred on whether a story, Doctor or entire ‘era’ was ‘crap’ or not.

Speaking of intelligent opinion, the Morgan Davie interview also contains many thoughtful and balanced views on Fandom and writing in general. Davie also communicates the enviable excitement of living in Britain as the ‘new series tsunami’ built and broke in 2005 – something the rest of us can only imagine.

I’ll close by urging that everyone contribute to the always excellent ‘Fanboy Confidential’ at least once in their lives.  It’s enormous fun, a cornerstone of RTP! and, as compiler Peter Adamson says:

“When we share, we heal.”

AH

Slaves to the Music or Bad Things Happen to Ood People

Spoilers follow… Read the rest of this entry »

Ooh. Spoilers. Read the rest of this entry »

From Outpost Gallifrey:

‘Unofficial figures show that episode three of Series Four, Planet of the Ood, was watched by 86.9 million viewers, giving it a 33.4% share of the total television audience.’

This makes Planet of the Ood the most-watched Doctor Who episode of all time, beating the previous champion, City of Death Episode 4, by more than 70 million viewers.

Due to some unallowed content , the commentary for the episode The Last of the Time Lords was removed for the US Series Three box set. This is well known, this wasn’t the only change. And so, we present the Top 10 changes for the US Series Three Box Set.

1. Freema Agyeman was digitally replaced with Jessica Simpson, as the American audience expects companion actresses to be a) blonde (to a degree) and b) have had a failed singing career.

2. Gridlock now takes place in the Holland Tunnel and is “based on real events”.

3. The Beatles question in 42 has been replaced with a British group the Americans do know: The Spice Girls.

4. There is an extra features praising the US for getting involved in the War in Iraq and everything they do is wonderful, and please don’t bomb the UK next.

5. There is an alternative Angle option on the two Daleks Take Manhattan episodes which feature waving American Flags in Every Single Shot! Just like in every US show!

6. Just so no-one feels like they are missing out (no viewer left behind!), whenever Mr Saxon is mentioned, there is a ten second pause, and scrolling text that reads “This is an important arc-plot point! Mr Saxon will be revealed to be the Master, who shows up at the end of the series!”

7. There is an extra commentary on Blink assuring American watchers that yes, it is possible to have TV this decent.

8. [Reference to “guns in schools” feature removed due to sudden attack of taste.]

9. There is an hour long documentary about how the British term is Series and the American term is Season. Guest presenter: Adam McGechan.

10. And, of course, the US Box Set doesn’t feature the ten hours of intro scenes and logos everyone else has to suffer through.

JE

It’s episode 2, it’s a historical, and it has a big SFX finale. Sound familiar? It’s no lie to say that The Fires of Pompeii follows the tried and true formula of previous seasons, but happily manages to mine deeper and darker than romps around Scottish castles and the Globe Theatre.

The episode started a little like it was heading down an Up Pompeii route, with our ‘oh so very modern’ family discussing modern art and teenage hangovers. Luckily, no phallic vegetables presented themselves, and just as it was about to get all ‘Ancient Sexy Money’ on us, the early fluffy tone came crashing down with soothsayer prophecies of returning women and things on backs. Obviously another nod to the series arc, and of the return of Rose, but ‘something on your back’? The fanboy in me automatically thought ‘Metebelis Spiders!’, but then I had a lie down and dismissed it. A great scene though - unsettling, ominous and just what was required to really get the episode started.

The journey however wasn’t without bumps – this episode is filled with characters, so many in fact that a fair few of them get next to no screen time (particularly the members of the sisterhood, and the son and daughter). The plot also feels rushed in parts, the alien threat playing second fiddle to the moral dilemma present throughout. Still, it makes a nice change not for it to be all about the monsters, and I’ll forgive any episode that references a story 44 years previous.

Tennant was his usual good self (downplaying more than usual, even when paired with a water pistol and lava puns), and Catherine Tate built on a good start, though with not really much to do except run. That said, her role as the Doctor’s conscience is a great place for her character to be, and the ending with the Doctor admitting that he needed her was really quite lovely. Good to see some good emotional range from Tate as well, proving through a teary moment that she’s more than just an loud amusement. Donna crying in episode 2… who’d have picked it?

Kudos too for the art direction and visual effects. The location filming on the Rome sets really gives the episode space and an excellent sense of realism, and the mountain and subsequent eruption thereof were stunning. The rock monsters are also beautifully rendered (looking very Balrog-esque, and every bit as good), and from a make-up perspective, the leader of the sisterhood is absolutely brilliant and quite terrifying.

This series really does seem different to the previous 3 – I haven’t quite put my finger on it yet, but it just seems more… adult. Which is ironic, given fat monsters and the appearance of Tate, but there does seem to be a much darker undercurrent with the series so far compared to what I think we’ve seen before. If it keeps going this way, then I cannot think what the finale is going to be like. Dark as hell hopefully.

So we’re two down, both with good pass marks, and with next week looking Ood-tastic.  

JP

Ladies and gentlemen we have some winners!

After rounds and rounds and bouts and bouts the victors have been determined in ZeusBlog’s inaugural Monster Mash - and it’s the Sontarans ! In far-off Cardiff a producer is probably hoo-raying quietly to himself, safe in the knowledge that this year’s baddies could beat up last year’s baddies.

It could also mean that you lot are a bunch of rabid traditionalists. But we wouldn’t dream of suggesting that. Oh no

Monster Mash has been a great success though, and for that the blog thanks you all, from those who stuck with it since day one (most of you), to our newest participant (Hi Jon!). With participation like this we can hope that a future interactive game like, say, Robot Wars might have a real chance of being every bit as good.

In the mean-time there is a the small issue of the utter losers in this game - those teams who fell at the first hurdle (all sixteen of them). What do you think, readers - should we put them in a jar together and see if they fight, or do we try to empirically* determine which is the biggest loser?

Speak now!

(* No I don’t know what empirically means. It’s something that isn’t metric, right?)