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

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

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

Oooooh, shiny!

As the new broom continues its sweep through the corridors of BBC Wales’  Upper Boat studios, this morning sees the launch of the new Doctor Who logo exclusively on the show’s offical homepage (and copied above) A thousand bloggers will incorporate it in to their themes and merchandisers around the world will try and work out how to replace the now familiar “taxi cab” symbol on their products. I guess we won’t start to see it on the shelves before 2010 as we build up to the end of the RTD/Tennant era but it’s another sign of things to come. Change is afoot. For what it’s worth I think the “DW” in the shape of the TARDIS is something appraoching genius, and the old style words are pretty good too. More importantly, what do you think?

Tags: BBC, Logo, Stephen-Moffat, TARDIS

On The Sofa, Not Behind It

20th July 2009 is a day to remember! Is it because it is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings? Not exactly, no. Is it, perhaps, because Freddie Flintoff has become some kind of cricketing deity by taking five wickets during England’s  historic victory over the old enemy at Lords? No. (Well, may be a little bit). Or is it because filming is now underway on the newest incarnation of the adventures of our favourite Time Lord? Could be.

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Tags: Apollo 11, Benjamin Cook, Cricket, Flintoff, Karen Gillan, Lizo Mzimba, Matt Smith, Moon, Series 5, TARDIS, Tom Baker