Doctor Who - The Time of the Doctor

The first regeneration story I saw (and remembered seeing) was Tom Baker’s finale, “Logopolis”. It was an emotional moment, but not in the way I generally respond to regenerations now. It was not a sad moment for me, but rather an immensely exciting one. As much as Tom Baker was the Doctor to me at the time, I couldn’t wait to see the new Doctor. I had only recently really gotten into Doctor Who, and was still learning about its history. And so I didn’t shed any tears when the fourth Doctor uttered his famous last words, “It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for.”

When Peter Davison’s final story arrived a few years later, my response was a bit different. I was still excited to see the new Doctor and looking forward to the regeneration, but for the first time, the story actually grabbed me emotionally. It was more than just an exciting adventure, and when the Doctor’s regeneration approached, I found tears in my eyes. That had never happened to me with Doctor Who before. Adric’s death had shocked me, but not upset me. The fifth Doctor’s death, though... That was powerful and upsetting.

“The Caves of Androzani” is one of the most highly regarded Doctor Who stories, and it remains one of my personal favourites. A great deal of its strength comes from the fact that it is such an intimate tale. It’s not about the end of the world or the universe. It’s about a group of complex characters fighting each other and the Doctor and Peri caught in the middle. The Doctor dies making the ultimate sacrifice to save just one person, and somehow that small-scale quality makes the story far more epic and powerful than the universe-ending regeneration stories some of the other Doctors have faced.

Of course, every regeneration story should be different and appropriate to its particular Doctor. Not every one should be small-scale like “Caves”, and indeed, not every one is. “The Tenth Planet” has a threat to the entire world. “Logopolis” has a threat to the entire universe. More recently, regeneration stories have tended to go big. “The Parting of the Ways” involves saving the Earth from the Daleks. “The End of Time” is about saving the Earth from the Master and the universe from the Time Lords. And now there’s “The Time of the Doctor”, which is about preventing another Time War and saving the Doctor and a whole lot more on top of that.

There’s no doubt that “The Time of the Doctor” pretty much encapsulates the entirety of Matt Smith’s time as the Doctor and Steven Moffat’s time as showrunner. It’s big, bombastic, and full of wild and wonderful ideas. Yet at the same time, it tries to do far too much, mixing everything together in a kitchen sink effect. There are Daleks and Cybermen, Sontarans and Weeping Angels, and the return of the Silence. There’s a brand new character that the Doctor has known for a long time. We see Clara’s family for the first time. Dangling plot threads from the last three series are finally tied up in quick lines of exposition. There’s a surprisingly relatable and sympathetic Cyberman head. There’s a multi-century siege/war set in a town called Christmas. There’s Matt Smith cavorting manically around and acting his socks off. And of course, there’s a regeneration—which has its own extra revelations to go with it! This episode has everything and more. And consequently, virtually nothing actually happens.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some nice set-pieces here and there in “The Time of the Doctor”, some individual moments that work exceptionally well. But unfortunately, the whole is disjointed and just doesn’t hold up. To be fair, like most Moffat-written episodes, it is better on subsequent viewings (especially when the first viewing is interrupted by commercials), but it’s not better enough to really save it. Besides, it really shouldn’t be necessary to see something twice in order to like it. Ultimately, this episode just leaves one feeling unsatisfied, disappointed, and rather bored.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

11, 12, or 13? Thoughts on the Doctor's Incarnations in Doctor Who

Regeneration is perhaps one of the most brilliant aspects of Doctor Who. It is regeneration—both of its lead character and of the show itself—that has allowed the programme to continue for such a long time. Actors, producers, and entire production crews come and go, and yet the show goes on. Whether it’s the separation between classic Who and “Nu” Who, or the changeovers of producers and script editors, Doctor Who has seen many periods over the years, and sometimes, to compare two of those periods is to compare two incredibly different styles that somehow manage to be the same show.

Perhaps the most common way to separate the periods of the show is by the Doctor’s incarnations. William Hartnell played the Doctor from the first episode, “An Unearthly Child”, until “The Tenth Planet”, early in the run of the fourth season. We can easily think of this time as the First Doctor Years. Indeed, this is the way I broke down my recent series of reflections where I looked at my own experiences with Doctor Who over my lifetime. I looked at the first Doctor and then the second, and so on until the eleventh, then finally wrapped it all up with anything else that didn’t fit in those previous eleven categories. This has always been an easy way to break the programme up because each Doctor is easily identifiable and it’s always been easy to assign a number.

Except now things have changed a little.

Sherlock - Many Happy Returns

Sherlock returns for its third series on New Year's Day, when we'll get to learn how yet another of Steven Moffat's characters escapes death! To be fair, though, in this case, he's basically repeating what happened with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, so he gets a pass this time. To help prepare us for the show's return after its long hiatus, today saw the release of this mini-episode, "Many Happy Returns". Have a look.



I really like Lestrade's exasperation at Anderson's conspiracy theories regarding Holmes's survival. Banging his head on the table is a nice touch. Yet amid his insistence that Holmes is dead and gone, one gets just a hint that Lestrade is still secretly hopeful. It's a great performance from Rupert Graves. Indeed, for a brief moment after he says that he's off to meet a friend, I actually expected that friend to turn out to be Holmes and we would learn that Lestrade has known all along.

Of course, that friend turns out to be Watson, who is suitably saddened and morose at his friend's death. That sadness is increased by the recording of Sherlock, which is certainly not nearly as funny as Lestrade claims it is.

I have my criticisms of Sherlock (mostly the same criticisms I have of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who), but nonetheless I enjoy the show a great deal. "Many Happy Returns" has certainly helped whet my appetite for its return.

3rd Clip for The Time of the Doctor

And another one! Only one day left until "The Time of the Doctor". I'm trying my best to remain positive about it.

2nd Clip for The Time of the Doctor

The BBC have released another clip from this week's upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Time of the Doctor". It's another one focusing on the Christmas-y aspects of the episode with Clara trying to get a boyfriend.

Towns of the Inner Sea

Perhaps one of the most important things when starting a new campaign is establishing where the player characters are from. Sometimes, they’ll all come from the same place; other times, they’ll be from various different locations. These places may be major cities, smaller towns or villages, or possibly even just a country or general area of origin. Whatever the case, characters’ homes form an important part of their background. Campaigns will often start in the PCs’ home town. While many campaigns will see the characters move around and visit other locations, the characters will generally find themselves returning to their home towns or cities at some point or other. Some campaigns may never (or rarely) even leave the home town, instead keeping all of the action and intrigue centralized to one location.

A few years ago, Paizo published Cities of Golarion, a book which looked in detail at six of the major cities of the Inner Sea Region. This was a great resource for campaigns that were either set in one of these cities or simply passing through. Each city received a wealth of detail on its history, people, and sites. But while information on cities is important and useful, many campaigns spend more time in smaller towns and villages. Indeed, towns and villages often are the homes of the PCs and thus the starting points for campaigns. So last month saw the release of Towns of the Inner Sea, a book very similar in style to Cities of Golarion, except focusing on six towns from across the Inner Sea Region.

Several of the towns in Towns of the Inner Sea have featured as the settings of Pathfinder Modules and thus have seen some detail on them before. The others have simply been prominent places on the map with only a brief write-up in the Inner Sea World Guide. In all cases, however, these towns are brought to life to a much greater extent than they have seen before, and all six locations would make fascinating home bases and/or starting points for full campaigns. Also, much more so than with the cities in Cities of Golarion, it would be very easy for GMs to relocate these towns to other parts of the world. Simply change a few names, and—violà!—a whole new town (although I’d advise GMs not to do this too frequently or players might start to recognize that several of the towns they pass through are strangely similar).

Clip and Trailers for the Time of the Doctor

The BBC have released a brief clip from next week's Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Time of the Doctor". It's a light-hearted moment involving the Doctor, Clara, and a turkey.



A couple days ago, BBC America released a longer trailer for the episode as well. This contains a bit more of what actually happens in the episode compared to the short trailer released by the BBC previously.



 Update: And there's another one! Well, sort of. It's very brief. Just a familiar glimpse really.

Wrath of the Righteous - Demon's Heresy

There comes a time in every campaign when the PCs want to take a break. Sometimes, this is just a short period to rest and recover from wounds before heading back out on adventures. Other times, it lasts longer, while the PCs take care of non-adventuring concerns, develop relationships with NPCs, build businesses, craft magic items, or just plain relax. Some gaming groups gloss over these periods with a simple statement of “A few weeks pass;” while other groups play out each day along the way. But however they choose to deal with this period of “downtime”, every group goes through it from time to time.

It’s natural that the amount of downtime that occurs varies depending on the campaign and the particular group. Some campaigns will experience very little downtime, and what downtime there is may often be short. This tends to be the case with many Pathfinder adventure paths. It’s not unusual for one instalment to lead directly into another with little, if any, gap between them. This is not universal, of course. Most adventure paths allow for at least a little downtime and some allow for a bit more, but on the whole, the amount of downtime tends to be small. As such, it’s nice when an adventure path instalment comes along that allows the characters to settle for a little while and take it easy a bit—of course, even during downtime, things are rarely truly easy.

Demon’s Heresy by Jim Groves, the third part of Wrath of the Righteous is one such adventure. After the harrowing events of The Worldwound Incursion and Sword of Valor, it allows for the PCs to take a bit of a breather and even experience a little bit of semi-calm. Looked at on its own, it doesn’t have same epic quality to it that the earlier instalments have, but to look at it on its own would be to do it an injustice. While there are some adventure path instalments that could easily be run on their own without running the remainder of the adventure path, Demon’s Heresy really isn’t one of them. It’s a piece of a whole and its less-epic structure is more like the calm at the eye of the storm—except that this storm’s eye is pretty fraught with peril and adventure.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Trailer for The Time of the Doctor

The first full trailer for this year's Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Time of the Doctor", is now available. It shows glimpses of Daleks, weeping angels, the Silence, and things exploding. The siege is set, the trap is laid, "the Doctor is regenerating," etc. Despite all the flash, it's actually quite a dull trailer. That's partly because it doesn't really look like anything new, just more of the same. Hopefully the episode itself will be better.

Bestiary 4

Monsters are a dime a dozen. Or so it can sometimes seem in fantasy roleplaying games like Pathfinder. That’s not to say that new monsters aren’t fun. I absolutely enjoy opening up a new book of monsters and looking through at the new and interesting options. I know full well that I’ll never use most of them, but they’re fun to read about and a few of them will be interesting enough that they’ll show up in some of my actual games from time to time. Some I might even like enough to use multiple times or even frequently. It can also be nice to throw something brand new at the players (as opposed to the characters) from time to time. And that, I suppose, is what makes new monster books worth it in the end.

Nevertheless, I was actually quite happy that, last year, Paizo broke with the pattern of releasing a new Bestiary every fall by releasing the NPC Codex instead. It was a welcome change from the usual and fulfilled a need that the game has too often ignored. Still, it was inevitable that Bestiary 4 would show up eventually, and show up it has. So the question becomes, is it worth it? And that’s a hard question to answer because it really depends on how much you like or want new monsters (as nobody really needs new monsters). However, regardless of the answer to this question, it’s still a good book.

Bestiary 4 contains over 300 new monsters. All the monster types are represented, although some more than others. There are many of the standards found in every Bestiary—new dinosaurs, devils, dragons—but also many unusual and bizarre creatures. Perhaps the most notable new monsters, however, are the mythic monsters. This year’s release of Mythic Adventures has created a completely new category for monsters—one that needs filling up. As I said in my review of Mythic Adventures, I was actually rather disappointed in the monsters introduced in the book. All of them were simply mythic versions of already-existing monsters. While necessary, I was hoping to see some unique mythic creatures as well, and Mythic Adventures failed to deliver on that. Not so Bestiary 4. None of the mythic monsters in this book are mythic versions of non-mythic monsters (either new or old).

November Round-Up Plus Advanced Class Guide Playtest, Doctor Who Christmas Special Trailer, and TARDIS In Orbit Update

Not surprisingly, November was an even busier month for Doctor Who than October was. We didn’t have the excitement of newly discovered missing episodes, but we did get the 50th anniversary celebrations! Not surprisingly, the vast majority of things on this blog this month had to do with Doctor Who, but let’s start with the non-Doctor Who things first.

I only got round to one Pathfinder review this month: Player Companion: Blood of the Moon. There are a few more products waiting in the wings, including the third part of Wrath of the Righteous, Towns of the Inner Sea, and also Bestiary 4. Expect reviews of those over the next couple of weeks. Of course, there’ll be a whole new selection of products coming in December, too.

With all the focus on Doctor Who this month, I missed mentioning that Paizo has started an open playtest for the upcoming Advanced Class Guide, which will be released next August. This book will contain ten new classes. The Pathfinder game itself began its life with a massive open playtest, and Paizo has kept up the tradition with many of the subsequent rulebooks they have produced. This playtest runs until December 17th, and is a great opportunity for gamers to test what is to come and give feedback on it. There’s only a couple of weeks left, but that’s still enough time to try out a couple of the classes and run them through a few encounters.

The new season of Wizards Vs Aliens premièred at the end of October, and I began reviewing the episodes at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately, I’ve fallen a little behind and so far have only covered the first three stories—“100 Wizards”, “Vice Versa”, and “The Cave of Menla Gto”. I hope to catch up over the next week or so.

And that brings us back to Doctor Who. In the build-up to “The Day of the Doctor”, the beginning of the month saw the release of a couple trailers as well as a clip or two. But far more exciting was Paul McGann’s triumphant return to Doctor Who in “The Night of the Doctor”. This serves as a prequel to the anniversary special, but also details the end of the eighth Doctor’s life and the rise of John Hurt’s War Doctor. A second prequel, “The Last Day” was released shortly after. Then came the docudrama, An Adventure in Space and Time, about the beginnings of our favourite television programme. The month was rounded off with Peter Davison’s hilarious “The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot” and the special itself, “The Day of the Doctor”.

Also this month, I completed my series of reflections looking back on my own personal history with Doctor Who. I looked at the tenth and eleventh Doctors, as well as the spin-offs, movies, and other media.

Now, attention turns towards the Christmas special on December 25th. This will be Matt Smith’s final story and will feature his regeneration into Peter Capaldi’s Doctor—the twelfth...er....thirteenth Doctor. The numbering has gotten a little confusing now that John Hurt is in there. And it’s about to get more confusing (slightly spoilerish link here regarding the Doctor’s regenerations). Grumble, grumble, grumble...

Anyway, the Christmas special is titled, “The Time of the Doctor”. We’ve had a lot of “[Noun] of the Doctor” titles recently (“Name of...”, “Night of...”, “Day of...”). I hope this is the last for a little while. Here’s the first (very brief) trailer:

To end the month, here’s the latest update regarding the TARDIS In Orbit project.

Have a great December folks!

Wizards Vs Aliens - The Cave of Menla Gto

After a great, but frustrating story last time, Wizards Vs Aliens continues with a rather mediocre story. While there are moments that I like in “The Cave of Menla Gto”, the overall plot is weak and rather contrived. There are some nice character moments, particularly for Randal Moon, but also Benny—which makes for a nice change, as any development of Benny is welcome. However, much of what comes from those moments is undone by a nice big reset button at the end. There is also some nice advancement of the series’ metaplot, but that is only a small part of these two episodes, and it is not enough to save the entire story as a whole.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Doctor Who - The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

The last few weeks leading up to the 50th anniversary have been a busy period for Doctor Who. While there’s only been one actual new episode (“The Day of the Doctor”), there has been a plethora of other programming, such as the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, the prequels “Night of the Doctor” and “The Last Day”, and numerous other things for television, radio, and internet. Some have been serious drama (like the aforementioned docudrama); others have been documentaries (like The Science of Doctor Who) or behind-the-scenes programming. But perhaps the jewel amongst it all is Peter Davison’s “The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot”. If you haven’t seen it yet, take thirty minutes out of your day to watch it and then continue reading.

Despite the many years since they were on the programme, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy retain great passion for the show and that passion really shines in this beautiful tribute. The same is true for Paul McGann. Due to other filming commitments, his role here is very small, but the fact that he made time for even the small bit here (and his appearance in “Night of the Doctor”) shows the love he has for a show that he was part of for such an unfortunately short time.* All four of them would have truly loved to have been in “The Day of the Doctor”, but even though they weren’t, they still have a sense of humour about it.

Doctor Who - The Day of the Doctor

November 25th was not the date of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary. But it was close enough. It was the day I got to watch the 50th anniversary special in a movie theatre. Doctor Who in a movie theatre! Even just a couple of years ago, I never would have believed it. More than that, the theatre was packed. I arrived about an hour in advance and it was already difficult to find two seats side-by-side so that I could save one for my wife, who wouldn’t be arriving until closer to the start time.

It took time to sink in that I was in a theatre full of Doctor Who fans! And there were all kinds there, too: men, women, young, old. A few were cosplaying—as the eleventh Doctor or the TARDIS or an Ood. Others just had an accessory or two, like a sonic screwdriver, or, as in my case, just wearing a Doctor Who-themed t-shirt (I had a Dalek t-shirt on). Surprisingly, I didn’t see any children. It was a 7:30 showing, so not late, yet the youngest people I saw were around 18 to 20. Other than that, however, there was a wide diversity of people there.

Seven-thirty seemed to take forever to arrive. My wife got there around 7:15 and the time continued to tick slowly by. But eventually, show time arrived. Of course, there were the requisite trailers to then get through, but there was also a rather funny specially recorded sequence with Strax explaining the rules of theatre etiquette, as well as Matt Smith and David Tennant introducing the 3D element. It was probably around 7:45 when “The Day of the Doctor” actually started, but it was well worth the wait.

I’ve never shied away from criticising Steven Moffat’s writing on Doctor Who. Anyone who has read my previous reviews knows that I’ve had issues with much over the last couple of years. However, I also don’t shy away from giving credit where credit is due. “The Day of the Doctor” is hardly a perfect episode—it suffers from a number of typical Moffat-isms—but it is highly enjoyable and entertaining, and works well as both a celebration of Doctor Who’s past and a look forward to its future (even if I have concerns about where that future might take it). There are many moments throughout that make me smile and still others that make me want to squeal with delight (this was particularly true on my first viewing). There are also moments that frustrate me, but most of those only really do so when I stop to think about them after the episode is over. While the episode is still going, it’s possible to ignore most of them or even not notice them at all. And that’s a pretty good thing.

SPOIELRS FOLLOW

Doctor Who - An Adventure in Space and Time

The story of the beginning of Doctor Who is a big one. A lot went on in those early years, both in front of, and behind the scenes. Telling that story is a monumental task. Telling that story in 90 minutes is virtually impossible. Yet in An Adventure in Space and Time, Mark Gatiss accomplishes that virtual impossibility with aplomb. Yes, in order to do so, he must leave some things out: there is no mention of original script editor David Whitaker, and the change of producers from Verity Lambert to John Wiles (who is never named) is skimmed over. Sometimes, multiple characters or events must be amalgamated for time or dramatic reasons. Nevertheless, An Adventure in Space and Time manages to convey an accurate, if simplified, version of events, and manages it beautifully with a heart-warming and emotional production.

When I first heard that there was going to be a docudrama about the origins of Doctor Who, I was only mildly interested. On the whole, I’m not a fan of docudramas. I like drama, and I like documentaries, but the combination of the two generally doesn’t interest me—principally because of the need, no matter how justified, to change and simplify things. When I want to learn about historical events, I’d rather learn the true details and not the dramatised ones. But that’s not to say that I think docudramas are inherently bad programmes. They’re just not generally to my taste. However, An Adventure in Space and Time drew me in completely. Perhaps it’s because I was already emotionally invested in its story, and as such it could easily sweep me up and take me along for the ride. Or perhaps it’s just because it is an exceptionally well-made production. It’s not perfect in every way and there are things I wish it did a little differently or a little better, but on the whole, I’m immensely satisfied with it.

Happy 50th Birthday, Doctor Who!

Fifty years ago today, Doctor Who aired its very first episode, “An Unearthly Child”. Today, the legacy started by producer Verity Lambert and star William Hartnell still continues stronger than ever. Today will see the airing of “The Day of the Doctor” with Matt Smith, David Tennant, and John Hurt—simulcast in 3D in over 80 countries and in selected cinemas in those countries. As I sit here writing this, I am in utter awe.

Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing “The Day of the Doctor” until the 25th (couldn’t get tickets for today and I want my viewing in the theatre to be my first viewing). That means I’ll be severely limiting my internet access for the next couple of days in order to stay away from the spoilers. However, I couldn’t let the day go by without putting something up on the blog.

Enjoy the special, everyone! Don’t forget about the docudrama, An Adventure in Space and Time either. It’s worth seeing (review to come soon). And if you’re interested, check out my series of Doctor Who Reflections.

Fifty years. Wow.

Doctor Who - The Last Day

"The Last Day" is the latest short mini-episode leading into tomorrow's Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor". The prequel was originally released exclusively to iTunes a couple of days ago, but is now available on the BBC's YouTube channel.



The story details the "fall of Arcadia", which has been mentioned by the Doctor before (although I'll confess I can't remember which episode at the moment; it was a tenth Doctor episode). Really, it doesn't tell a whole lot, and is far less entertaining than "The Night of the Doctor". However, it does set up a nice sense of ominous foreboding for the special.

Just one more day to go (three for me)!

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - Reflections on the Movies, Spin-Offs, and Other Media, Plus Addenda

Doctor Who has become far more than just a television programme. One can think of that metaphorically in terms of the effect it has had on its fans, but here, I mean it literally as well. It has expanded into numerous other media, from comics and annuals to stage plays to movies to books to audio productions, and beyond. Some of these are just things fans put together in their own homes, while others are professional productions or publications. No look back over the history of Doctor Who would be complete without including a mention of these various things.

There is so much out there that it’s unlikely that any single individual has seen, read, or heard it all (if there is any such person, I’d love to meet him/her). I certainly haven’t. I’ve already mentioned in these reflections that, to my chagrin, I have heard very little of the Big Finish audio productions, something I really hope to correct some day (especially to hear the Paul McGann ones). I also haven’t read most of the novels of the last ten years or so. However, I’d like to take a look back at the things I have experienced. It’s likely that I don’t remember everything Doctor Who-related that I’ve ever come across, so no doubt some things will be left out. Also, I’ve touched on the books in previous reflections (both the Target novelizations and the later original novels from Virgin and then BBC Books), so I won’t retread that ground here. Primarily, I’m looking at the movies, spin-off television programmes, and some selected other media, such as comics and roleplaying games.

Children In Need Doctor Who Clip from The Day of the Doctor

This two-minute clip from the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor" aired today as part of this year's Children In Need charity. It's not as exciting as "The Night of the Doctor", but it's nice to see Jemma Redgrave back as Kate Stewart.

Wizards Vs Aliens - Vice Versa

“Vice Versa” by Clayton Hickman is rather unusual—not in its plot or subject matter, but in its effect. It is simultaneously one of the best episodes of Wizards Vs Aliens so far, and also one of the most frustrating. Taken by itself, without the context of the series around it, it works perfectly. It is fun and energetic, but well paced. The cast are at their best, delivering some absolutely wonderful performances. The story holds together well and wraps itself up cleverly. Yet, when taken in the context of what comes before it (namely the tragic conclusion of “100 Wizards”), it simply doesn’t fit. Everyone’s far too happy, especially Tom. In fact, if it weren’t for the mention of Katie dumping Tom, there would be nothing at all to indicate that “100 Wizards” ever even happened.

Part of the problem is that it’s a pretty standard second story of a television series: light-hearted filler that has little effect on the direction of the show as a whole. Apart from possibly a hint or two of a larger meta-plot, second stories tend to be “throwaways”, ones you can miss without ruining your enjoyment of the series as a whole, as little of any importance happens in them. Wizards Vs Aliens followed this pattern in series one with its second story, “Grazlax Attacks”, and is doing so again now with “Vice Versa”. But while a throwaway story works in early series one (even though “Grazlax Attacks” is otherwise an inferior story to “Vice Versa”), it doesn’t work so well now in the second series. The show has reached a point where it can no longer ignore the consequences of actions and events that take place. For it to progress believably, its characters need to respond organically, which they’re just not doing.

That said, “Vice Versa” is a great deal of fun, and I love it to bits. It makes for a frustrating dichotomy.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - Reflections on the Eleventh Doctor

Doctor Who is undoubtedly hugely popular at the moment, perhaps more than it’s ever been. The 50th anniversary special, which is less than two weeks away, will be simulcast in over 75 countries worldwide—and not just on television, but in movie theatres as well—in 3D, too. When I was growing up, such a thing would have been beyond belief. Even now, as the 50th approaches, it doesn’t quite seem possible. Until I’m sitting in the theatre watching the special on the 25th of November (alas, due to a computer mess-up, tickets for the 23rd were sold out before I could get some for that day), there’ll be a part of me that doesn’t quite believe it, perhaps not even then. But Doctor Who is big now.

Of course, that doesn’t stop the British tabloids from occasionally running stories about slipping ratings. They’ll carefully select the overnight ratings from episodes a few years ago, compare them to the overnights of a recent episode, and declare the show in trouble. They’ll completely neglect to mention that overnights don’t really matter to the BBC. The final ratings, which include everyone who watched the episode within seven days, are just as strong as ever. The only thing that’s really changed is that more people are watching the episodes at the times of their choosing rather than the air-times. A.I. (appreciation index) scores have also remained more-or-less stable, indicating people still like what they’re watching.

These tabloid stories also don’t take into account the massive increase in popularity Doctor Who has received in the rest of the world, outside of the U.K., particularly in the United States, since Matt Smith took over as the Doctor and Steven Moffat became showrunner. This is due in large part to the amount of publicity BBC America has given the show in the U.S. When the Sci Fi network carried the programme during the David Tennant years, they did little to publicize it (similar to how CBC handled publicity here in Canada). BBC America’s publicity campaign has brought in hordes of viewers. However, while publicity has brought the viewers in, the show has kept them watching. People obviously like it.

As with any period in Doctor Who’s history, there are, of course, people who are dissatisfied. There were fans who complained loudly about Russell T Davies. Before him, it was John Nathan Turner. Nothing can satisfy everyone. So it’s not surprising that there are very vocal fans who are disappointed with the most recent period of the programme. But from my perspective, there’s one major difference this time round: I’m one of the dissatisfied.

Doctor Who - The Night of the Doctor

Watch the following first before reading any further if you don't want a really big spoiler (and the internet hasn't already spoiled it for you):



SPOILERS FOLLOW

2nd Trailer for The Day of the Doctor

Hot on the tails of today's earlier trailer  (which actually leaked yesterday), comes this second, extended trailer. In it, we learn that the Doctor is about to face his "darkest day".

What? Again? Just how many darkest days or hours has the Doctor had?

The Day of the Doctor Trailer and Clip

The first clip-based trailer for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special is now available. Here it is:



Yesterday, the BBC also released a very brief clip from the special, which you can see here:

Blood of the Moon

There’s a love amongst many roleplayers for new playable races beyond the core dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings. Part of the point of roleplaying is to pretend to be something different and what better way than to play unusual creatures with new and interesting abilities. From aasimars and tieflings to traditionally monstrous races like goblins and kobolds, expanding the list of playable races allows for new experiences and new options. Pathfinder has certainly provided many possibilities for players, with the Advanced Race Guide being the ultimate source for various races to choose from—including a system for gamemasters to design their own.

There have also been several Pathfinder Player Companion books that look more closely at some of these options, at how they fit into the world of Golarion, and providing new options for people wanting to play characters of these races. Most of these books look at races that already exist in the game, but Blood of the Moon does something a little different. It introduces a brand new playable race, skinwalkers, who are descended from lycanthropes (essentially the lycanthropic equivalent of aasimars and tieflings), as well as a number of skinwalker variant races that are tied more specifically to each of the various kinds of lycanthrope.

One could argue that there are already more than enough playable races in the game, and to be honest, I sometimes feel this way myself. However, one could also argue that there are more than enough monsters, spells, feats, archetypes, etc. in the game already, and yet numerous books continue to introduce more of those. Why not more races? While there are certainly more options available than anyone could ever use in a single campaign, the presence of such a large variety allows for different choices in different campaigns, giving each campaign the potential to be unique. From this perspective, I really like the variety. So while the races of Blood of the Moon are certainly not needed in the game, they make for interesting options for future campaigns.

Wizards Vs Aliens - 100 Wizards

When Wizards Vs Aliens first premièred last year, I was eager to see it, coming as it did from the same people responsible for The Sarah Jane Adventures. There was good reason to believe it would be good. And it was, albeit not as good as I’d hoped it might be. Nevertheless, it was good enough to keep me eager for the second series. I saw a lot of potential in the series, even if many of its characters only occasionally rose above the stereotypes they were based on. So I was quite glad to learn that there would, indeed, be a second series. The first year of a show is often a time of figuring out what it can do and what its overall direction will be; the second year is often the year when the show demonstrates whether it will sink or swim.

Like last year (and like The Sarah Jane Adventures before it), this new series of Wizards Vs Aliens is made of two-episode stories. There are fourteen episodes this year instead of twelve, airing two per week over seven weeks. One of the forthcoming stories this year was originally written for the fifth series of Sarah Jane, but was one of the ones not filmed before Elisabeth Sladen’s untimely passing. The fact that it has been rewritten as a Wizards Vs Aliens story kind of shows the spiritual connectedness between the two shows and I’m eager to see how it works. The final story of this year is written by Russell T Davies (his first script for the show he co-created) and I’m also eager to see that one.

The second series première, “100 Wizards” by Phil Ford does not yet achieve the potential I’d like to see from the show. It’s very much a re-establishing of the premise after nearly a year off the air. But I certainly haven’t given up hope. I still see the potential and still hope that this season, Wizards Vs Aliens will significantly “up its game”. Indeed, “100 Wizards” is a great deal of fun overall, and fun is a great deal of what the show is about. It took me a little while to get into the story, but by the end of the second episode, I was fully engaged in what was going on. So in that respect, “100 Wizards” succeeds admirably.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - Reflections on the Tenth Doctor

I commented a couple weeks ago that the recent periods of Doctor Who somewhat eerily mirror the periods of my own life. I had my own wilderness years of sorts during the show’s wilderness years. In the early 2000’s, I relocated and started to build my life back up to something of a high point, and around the same time, Doctor Who came back and also built itself back up to a high point.

Of course, everyone has their own opinions on when the show has been at it its best, but for me, I do see the Russell T Davies years (both the ninth and tenth Doctors) as the years when Doctor Who was at its most consistent best. This doesn’t mean every episode was great and perfect, and it doesn’t mean there weren’t great and incredible periods before it (I wouldn’t have been a fan for all those years if there weren’t). There were weak episodes during the ninth and tenth Doctors’ periods and there were brilliant episodes, but the gap between weak and brilliant never seemed as great as the gap between weak and brilliant could sometimes be in the classic series. Just look at the difference in quality between “The Caves of Androzani” and the story that came immediately after it in the same season, “The Twin Dilemma”. There was an overall greater consistency under Russell T Davies’s control, and I was immensely satisfied with what I was watching, even after turning my rather critical eye upon it. And I don’t deny I can be very critical of what I watch.

As I covered last week, I loved Christopher Eccleston’s series. I was disappointed that he wasn’t sticking around, but I was eager to see what the new Doctor would bring to the role. Like most of the other Doctors, I hadn’t heard of David Tennant when he was announced, so I had no preconceived notions of him, but I trusted that he would be good. Before Series One has started, I had worried about the quality of the show itself, but those worries were now completely gone. I expected brilliance. Alas, there would be quite a wait for some of it.

October Round-Up - A Great Month for Doctor Who!

This was quite the month for Doctor Who fans! And there’s still nearly a month until the 50th anniversary. Build-up to the anniversary certainly has begun in earnest though. The month opened with further information on the anniversary simulcast. Specific information on the theatre venues came later in the month, although I didn’t specifically report on that. Tickets for the simulcast went on sale on October 25th, and I’m pretty sure they all sold out quite quickly. They certainly did in Toronto.

The tickets were scheduled to go on sale at 9 a.m. eastern time. I was ready and waiting to get mine. The option to purchase tickets for the Toronto location (Scotiabank Theatre) didn’t go live until nearly quarter past nine. I immediately clicked to purchase and went through the whole process, confirmed all my information for payment, and so on. Then I got the following message: “We cannot finalize your payment due to a technical error. Please try again later.” I tried again immediately, only to find that the tickets were sold out. I was very unimpressed. Oh well. I purchased tickets for November 25th instead and encountered the same problem a couple more times before I decided to try a different payment option. That finally worked, so hooray! I hope the 3D doesn’t give me too much of a headache.

The first trailer for the 50th anniversary episode (not including the Comic-Con trailer from several months ago) was released this month. It was specially recorded and does not contain any actual scenes from the episode. Instead, it’s a bit of a tribute to the full 50 years of Doctor Who history, with a narration by Matt Smith to whet viewers’ appetites for the special. Visually, it’s really quite stunning, and if you look carefully, you can see a lot of images from across Doctor Who’s history, both the classic series and the new. Apart from being a nostalgia-fest, however, there’s not much of what one could actually consider content in it, but it is just a trailer. I do wish, though, that Doctor Who would lighten up on the superlative adjectives for a while. “One impossible day”, “the Impossible Girl”, “the Doctor’s darkest hour”—lines like these show up not just in trailers, but in the programme itself, and after a while, they start to lose their meaning. When impossible things keep happening, they’re just not impossible anymore. At any rate, here’s the trailer:

The 50th anniversary, however, was not the biggest news of the month. That honour definitely goes to the recovery of missing episodes! Nine previously missing Doctor Who episodes from the sixties have been discovered and are now available for download purchase. I wrote a review of one of the newly recovered stories, “The Enemy of the World”, something I never imagined I’d get to do a couple years ago when I started this blog. I’ve not actually had a chance to watch “The Web of Fear” yet, but I’ll hopefully get to it soon. Expect a review of it shortly after.

I also continued my own reflections on the impact of Doctor Who on my own life, looking at the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth Doctors. The last couple were published a bit late (I’ve been trying to work to a schedule of one each weekend), but I hope to be back on schedule with the tenth Doctor this weekend.

In other Doctor Who news, the TARDIS in Orbit project has another update:

With the heavy emphasis on Doctor Who this month, one might start to think this is a Doctor Who blog, but it’s really quite a bit more than that! There were only three non-Doctor Who posts this month, all of them Pathfinder. With my reviews of Mythic Realms, Mythic Origins, and Sword of Valor, I finally got caught up on Pathfinder reviews. When I posted the review of Sword of Valor, I had not yet received any new products. Of course, that’s changed in the last couple of days, so expect some more Pathfinder reviews soon.

Since November is the 50th anniversary month, there will likely be lots more Doctor Who stuff to come this month (including my remaining reflection posts on the tenth and eleventh Doctors, as well as one on the spin-off series), but I’ll be looking at other stuff too. A new season of Wizards Vs Aliens began this week, so I’ll be reviewing that. Plus, I have a couple of other things I hope to get to as well.

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone, and have a great November!

Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World

I started this blog for the purpose of writing reviews, and although I initially intended to primarily write reviews of roleplaying game products, I knew right from the start I’d be doing Doctor Who reviews as well. One of my earliest posts was a review of “Let’s Kill Hitler”, which had just aired at the time. Since then, I’ve reviewed new episodes as they’ve come out (well, except “The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe”, which was many months late). I’ve often contemplated writing reviews of earlier stories, both from the new series before I started the blog and from the classic series, but other things have always gotten in the way of that idea and taken priority. However, until very recently, I never dreamt that if I did write a review for an earlier story, it would be “The Enemy of the World”. It was a missing story, and while episode three existed in full and audio of the remaining episodes existed, it just wouldn’t have seemed right to review something that was mostly incomplete.

But circumstances change. Oh how they change!

With the return of the remaining episodes of “The Enemy of the World”, along with most of the remaining episodes of “The Web of Fear”, it was no longer just a case of finding time to write a review of an old story. It was also a case of finding time to watch an old story that I had never seen before (apart from a single episode) and then write a review of it. But it is a joyous problem to have.

“The Enemy of the World”, I feel, suffered from being missing more than many other stories. It was rarely on people’s lists of favourite stories or most-wanted missing episodes. It tended to have a bit of a reputation for being dull. This is due pretty much entirely to the fact that the one surviving episode, the third, is without doubt the weakest of the story. It is rather dull, being mostly filler. The plot thread involving Fedorin is really the only important part of the episode, and that takes up only a small part of it. Griffin the chef is hilariously entertaining, but the rest of the episode contains little of relevance or interest to the rest of the story. With audio existing of the other episodes, it was always clear that episode three was the weakest, but there is so much nuance (particularly in the performances) lost in the audio recordings that this fact wasn’t enough to elevate the entire story in people’s minds. I always suspected that if “The Enemy of the World” ever turned up, people would considerably re-evaluate their opinions of the story, and it seems I was right. People everywhere are now praising it, and with good reason. “The Enemy of the World” is brilliant and perhaps one of the best Patrick Troughton stories of them all.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

(Although I’m not really sure you can have spoilers for a 45-year-old programme.)