Fazzinchi

Just Reach Out and I’ll Be There

It might have just been me, and judging by reaction elsewhere I could be right that it is only me, but “Blink” wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. This will teach me (once again) not to believe the hype generated by an online fan community, I had been hearing tales of RTD being positively chilled as he viewed the rushes during production and the “Fear Factor” team (check out the official site for more on them) scoring it as 5-and-a-half out of 5!. Oddly though, it has (more…)

Mr & Mrs
If part two of “Human Nature” lives up to the standards of this week’s part one, then I have a feeling that this may go down as one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time. Paul Cornell (read his blog, for it is good) is returning as a writer for the first time since “Father’s Day” way back in 2005 and he is in fine form. Adapted from his New Adventures novel of the same name, Human Nature starts with the Doctor and Martha seemingly in the middle of an escape from an unseen adversary.  However, realising that they have the ability to chase him (more…)

24 meets Alien meets Red Dwarf meets….

It seemed to me that Torchwoood’s head honcho and first time Doctor Who writer, Chris Chibnall’s introduction to the bigger stage of the Whoniverse was a somewhat derivative storyline. Any genre fan worth his salt (never understood that phrase… answers on a postcard) would be able to spot at least a dozen similarities between this story and many other movies and programmes of a similar ilk. However, if you flip between either using the phrase “rip-off” or the phrase (more…)

What’s That Coming Over The Plinth?

The story started off with what was supposed to be the end of Martha’s travels, although I doubt anyone watching would have thought for a moment that the adventures.  A chance sighting of Martha’s sister, Tish, on the telly with the eponymous Dr Lazarus was enough to tempt the Doctor to hang around for a while and, by the time the day was saved, Martha had been promoted to permanent companion status.  The story also gave us an insight into her family: Dad was (more…)

Old New York

The Doctor and Martha’s tete a tete at the end of “Gridlock” must’ve been enough to encourage the Time Lord to treat his new companion to another detour in the TARDIS and so, from the New New York of 5-billion-and-something in the far-flung future, they stay where they are in space but move a long way back in time to arrive on Liberty Island of 1930. The secret location filming in New York was clearly worthwhile as the settings were sumptuous and evoked a genuine feeling of (more…)

Are We There Yet?

Thousands sat through the Man United v Watford FA Cup semi final waiting to see whether Watford could pull off a shock victory.  Not through any great sporting interest, or even for a love of football but because the BBC had announced that, if the match was to go to extra-time then the third episode of Doctor Who, “Gridlock” would be delayed by a week.  What outrage there would have been.  The season was already a week later than planned after being delayed by the England v (more…)