From the Orient

I’ve paused in my series of “what the children think of Doctor Who” mainly because my children didn’t watch the scary pair of “Empty Child” and “Doctor Dances”, but also because George rather lost interest in Boomtown half way through and wanted to watch “the dragon thingy episode” again. However, his interest has been re-ignited by the last two episodes.

Boomtown

George rather liked the first part of this episode, especially the Sitheen bits, and found parts quite funny such as the runaround trying to catch Margaret. However, the second half of Boomtown turned into a thoughtful, dialogue led discussed episode, something a completely different pace to other episodes in the series. Frankly, George lost interest completely.

My thoughts on Boomtown is that it was the weakest of the series, yet it was a valiant failed experiment. It was odd to compare it to the fast paced all-action Rose. Here they were sitting at a table in a restaurant having a discuss. Last time we had a restaurant, Rose got to sit down for about 5 seconds before Auton-Mickey smashed the place up. 3/10

Bad Wolf

George sat through this without much interest, but he never stopped watching. Until the trailer that is when next week’s episode was spoilt. George got really excited at that point.

This episode was far better than I was expecting, and was a great setup to the series finale. I have just realised that the reason I like Captain Jack so much is that he reminds me of Crighton from Farscape. 8/10

The Parting of the Ways

George clearly thought this was the best episode for a while, lots of action and monster fighting. A visual feast and a great ending to the series. He sat on my lap the whole time. Asked plenty of questions, so I missed the dialogue that got Rose into the TARDIS, so the great moment where Rose is sent away was a little confusing, but I got the point. The regeneration totally confused and upset him, especially as the Doctor said goodbye. However, the moment had been prepared for (by the 5 doctors DVD) and George knew that Tom Baker was the Doctor, Peter Davison was the Doctor, Christopher Ecclestone was the Doctor and Dave “Barcelona” Tennant is the Doctor.

I can’t do reviews. If I could do a review properly, I’d want to do a review like “Philip Purser-Hallard”:http://arcalian.blogspot.com/2005/06/worship-him-worship-him-worship-him.html. He says much want I want to say and more. 9/10

For no particular reason, I tried to create a gmail account with the login name “badwolf”. As expected really, it was taken. However amongst the suggested alternatives were

badwolfster
badwolfenator

Badwolf[1]: I am the Badwolfenator. I created myself with the most stupid name possible.
Doctor: Except for Badwolfster.
Badwolf: You have a point there, my Doctor.

[1] This was something else until I realised this was a massive spoiler and I have at least one Austrailian reader who hasn’t even seen Dalek then. Lucky gits. I’ve got nothing to watch until Christmas. When is Serenity out?

Outpost Gallifrey reports :-

bq. BBC executive Jane Tranter announced that a third series of the show has now been commissioned, including a second Christmas special. They also noted that Billie Piper (Rose) would be in all the episodes of the second series, although whether she would return for the third was apparently still being discussed, and that John Barrowman (Captain Jack) will be returning to the series next year but will not appear in the first block of episodes. (Says our correspondent, Barrowman was also in the audience at the screening, and when Davies announced his return, he yelled out, “And I’m willing to get naked again, too!”)

A Happy Day!

The Bad Wolf website is alive :-

bq. If you’re concerned by the thought that the universe has been irrevocably altered by an enormous experiment in neuro-linguistic programming, then just tell yourself “The Bad Wolf is not real. The Bad Wolf is not real. The Bad Wolf is not real.”

Mostly all the theories from the OG forums except for the plainly stupid ones[1] (like the Doctor is the Master and Jack is the Doctor but Rose is Rose so that’s okay)

[1] If this is true, I’ll gladly submit myself for neuro-linguistic reprogramming.

Paul Cornell’s Father’s Day wins a unique prize in our household. The first Doctor Who story that the whole family has liked. George liked it from the start as usual. I liked it, obviously, but this one really caught Emilia as well. As soon as the people started disappearing from the swings, she was really hooked. She thought it was really sad. She thought the little girls shoe in street was very sad. And the Doctor being eaten was extremely sad indeed. At the end, I turned to my wife to find her quietly crying. I had a lump in my throat.

For the last 5 minutes I had to field “Where is Doctor Who?” questions from two very worried children. George helpfully pointed out that the dragon things had eaten him, so that was understood. Less understood was the whole time travel business. Both Emilia and George didn’t understand how the little girl could be Rose and Bilie Piper could be Rose. The were even more confused by two Doctor’s and two Roses.

This is now George’s favourite episode beating Dalek into second place. Seem as this is the first episode that Emilia has properly enjoyed it is also her favourite.

This was another excellent episode from the New Series. One has to ignore the fact the the time travel paradox element to the story was a little confusing and not well defined. That was only there to set up the Rose and her Father storyline (and add some menace with the Reapers). It was true drama and excellent acting.

9 out of 10 (it would have got 10 if the time travel element had been right)

This was a solid episode of the new series. Quality has been so high so far that this would have been an excellent episode, yet felt almost ordinary compared to Dalek. Compared to other TV, it was pure class.

George was again spellbound, but offered little comment this week.

Simon Pegg was excellent and I hope he survives to menace another day.

7 out of 10