My Favourite Peruvian Folk Band

Okay, okay, I know that I have missed a week and failed to post up a review of the Vampires of Venice. It is coming soon I promise, but first I wanted to get my thoughts about the latest episode that aired at the weekend, Amy’s Choice. And in the words of the Doctor himself… this is going to be a tricky one. Events kicked off with a very Jam and Jerusalem opening. There was rolling countryside, picture postcard cottages, free-range geese and sit-up-and-beg push bikes. There was even a distracting Miss Ellie-style soft focus shot of the very pregnant Amy, while she baked her cakes (which sounds like a euphamism but isn’t). It was

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Tags: Amy's choice, Arthur Darvill, Doctor Who, Dream Lord, Karen Gillan, Leadworth, Matt Smith, Simon Nye, TARDIS, Time-Lord, Toby Jones

Someone Looking At You

So, where were we again? Oh, yes, everybody jump. The art of the cliffhanger in new Doctor Who is always a challenge but Steven Moffat has had a couple of cracks at it already (cracks… geddit?!). Firstly, in 2005’s Empty Child and secondly in the Silence In The Library, so it was with some anticipation that I tried to work out what the gun-firing thing was all about as I looked forward to last night’s Flesh And Stone. I have to admit the resolution was a really nice touch, even the little bit of technobabble about the updraft can be easily forgiven. It was the first of many nice touches in what might well become one of my favourite Who stories. It turned out that

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Tags: Amy Pond, Flesh and Stone, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith, Steven-Moffat, The-Doctor, Weeping Angels

Angels With Dirty Faces

Well, if last week’s return of the Daleks wasn’t quite the unmitigated success that everyone had hoped for, then this week’s installment saw two returns for the price of one but the question was, could they live up to the hype? The answer: a resounding “Yes” and the pre-credit sequence alone was worth the price of admission. First up, and making the most memorable of returns was Alex Kingston, clearly having a whale of a time repising her role as the Doctor’s bickering future “love interest”, River Song. Not qualified as a professor yet, this version of Song was obviously younger than the one we saw at the end of her real-world life in The Forest of the Dead two years ago. Devising an ingenious escape from a starliner

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Tags: Alex Kingston, Doctor Who, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith, River Song, Steven-Moffat, TARDIS, Time Of The Angels

Prime Minister In His Sights

Our heroes are summoned to blitz-torn London by none other than Winston Churchill who, concerned about his new found “Ironsides” that were helping the war effort, decided to call upon his old friend, the Doctor to give a little support. I loved the way that Churchill and the Doctor had the bond formed already off-screen and the way that the PM had the ability to call the TARDIS directly. It was a clever little device that allowed the rather wonderful Ian McNiece and Matt Smith to side-step a whole bunch of exposition and get straight down to buiness. However, after the phone call and in another example of the Doctor not quite getting his timing right, he arrives a whole month later, by which time Churchill

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Tags: Churchill, Daleks, Karen Gillan, Mark-Gatiss, Matt Smith, Steven-Moffat, Victory of the Daleks, WWII

New Everything, That’s Weird

Do you remember that other fellow who used to play the Doctor: David, erm, something-or-other? No?! Me neither. Matt Smith was electric last night. It will be interesting to see how he develops into the role but the post-regenerative debut that he gave in the “Eleventh Hour” was fascinating. At first, he was a melee of arms and legs, struggling to come to terms with his new body. The eating scene raised a smirk, which is quite an effort on my part because I usually find that kind of base comedy a little off-putting: my inner snob gets released for a moment. But as he settled down, especially after the face-to-eye encounter with the Atraxi on the rooftop, I think we got to see a little bit more of how our new, favourite

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Tags: Adam Smith, Atraxi, David Tennant, eleventh hour, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith, Murray Gold, Steven-Moffat, TARDIS, Theme

Matt and Karen are Everywhere

So Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are in publicity overdrive for series 1/5/31/Fnarg. Adverts are truning up all over the Beeb on TV and Radio with some nice special recordings made by the two stars as the TARDIS cleverly turning up in various studios. There are magazine covers galore with all the usuals like DWM (obviously, although there are two variants out tomorrow) and the Radio Times (who got the scoop on the new TARDIS interior) and other listing mags but also GT (never bought Gay Times before), a cover picture on the Times last Saturday and even some strange places like a technology mag I saw in Tesco earlier this week. Plenty of news reports are being made too, on local programmes and places like BBC Breakfast and Newsround, all now being spurred on by a bus going on tour round the country. All good stuff. It has led to the inevitable flurry of clips and a fair few spoilers for those who have got to see the episode early, so I imagine that there are a fair few spoiler-phobes hiding under their beds between now and Saturday night. So, how excited are you getting now? To help you on your way, here are some links from friends and Gallifrey Base users who’ll be tracking the new series…..

• Leadworth Green (by Gareth Bundy)
• Doctoreleven (Sarah’s LiveJournal)
• TV Lover (by Shawn Lunn)
• CathodeRayTube (by Frank Collins)
• Millenium Elephant
• The Medium Is Not Enough (by Rob Buckley)
• Nebula One
• Blogtor Who (brilliant for up-to-the-minute news and reviews)
• Behind The Sofa (many, varied, fun, and excellent contributions)

Tags: BBC Breakfast, bus, Gay Times, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith, Newsround, Radio-Times, TARDIS