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Month: May 2013

Reader Poll Roundup

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You may have noticed that every week there was brand new Who, I posted a reader poll inviting visitors to the blog to rate the latest episode. It’s been fascinating to see the results, watching the overall trend toward high or low score – often away from my personal rating – and the distribution of votes. I had so much fun playing with the data, as a matter of fact, that I decided to share some of my findings publicly. (You can always go back to the poll archives to check my work yourself, if you feel so inclined.)

To start, I’m going to present the chronological list of ratings for all the Series 7 stories (7A, 7B, and the Christmas Special). These are the average (mean) ratings over all votes received. In other words, I took each star rating and multiplied by the number of votes the rating got, then added all those results and divided by total number of votes. This is how it panned out:

As you can see, the season overall was very uneven. I find it interesting that Series 7A yielded an inverse bell curve, with A Town Called Mercy being the nadir according to the sampled voters. In 7B, there were several dips, but the low point of the entire series – again, according to the votes received – was The Rings of Akhaten.

For those of you already trying to figure out how they all stack up against each other, try this on for size:

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Worth Visiting

Review of The Visitation: SE (#120)

DVD Release Date: 14 May 13
Original Air Date: 15-23 Feb 1982
Doctor/Companion: Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Stars: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Kinda (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Black Orchid (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on why I like this story so much, but it’s high enough on my list that I chose it to show to the Ladies two years ago. Maybe it’s because, crowded as it made the TARDIS, this particular crew really epitomizes Five’s tenure for me.

It’s kind of typical classic fare. The Doctor steers the TARDIS wrong, then his curiosity gets the better of him, then everyone’s in trouble. There’s some lovely character development at the beginning as Teagan and the Doctor get angry with each other and then apologize, and later when Adric complains of feeling useless.

And, of course, there are some wonderful lines. A long-time favorite of mine is the Doctor’s jibe at the Terileptil about his attitude on war, but the one that jumped out at me this time was this conversation between Nyssa and the Doctor:

“So, what are you going to do if we find them?” she asks.
“Oh, twist their arms a bit to let me take them back to their own planet.”
“I hope they have arms to twist.”
“I’ll find something.”

The revelations about the man’s darker nature in the Series Seven finale put this exchange in a new light. Maybe Five isn’t a totally warm, fuzzy, sweet kind of guy after all.

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What’s in a ‘Name’?

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Review of The Name of the Doctor
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

So many conflicting emotions. Parts of this finale were brilliant, and I really wanted to love the whole thing. I’m afraid I’m going to have to admit that I’m turning into something of a curmudgeon, though; this show is not entirely for me anymore.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

I’m betting there are few Moffat fans (perhaps more specifically “River fans”) who didn’t adore this episode. For my part, as someone who has been a Doctor/River denialist rather than a shipper, the otherwise lovely bits of the story were somewhat tarnished by the saccharine (Brits would say “twee,” I suppose) farewell between them.

I’ll admit the way River was used through the rest of the episode was clever, and overall I like her. I’ve just never bought that there was a strong, romantic love between them (at least, not reciprocated by the Doctor), so while I was completely caught up in the “you can see me?” conversation, as it ground inexorably toward a big, wet smoochie, I found myself thinking, “Oh, no. Please don’t. He’s gonna – aw, damn!”

One thing that really gets me about this new, post-Library River (who knew that was even possible?) is the fact that we’re left to conclude that she has literally been haunting him for years. I’m not sure I care for that idea. Makes him rather a jerk to ignore her that whole time, doesn’t it? Is she less “real” – does she “count” less – because she’s in the mainframe, and so it’s OK for him not to think about her feelings at all? Way to respect the person you supposedly love, Doctor.

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Now With More Alien Madness

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Review of The Doctors Revisited – Fourth Doctor

By the fourth month of BBC America’s Doctor-by-Doctor celebrations of the show’s history, we’ve rolled around to the man who many still equate with the role: Tom Baker.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Perhaps more than any other actor who portrayed him, Tom Baker embodied the Doctor. As the man himself said, “I was Doctor Who. There was no acting involved at all.”

Something about Baker just clicked, and no one before – or arguably since – was ever more perfect for the role. This new Doctor was all about humor – at his own expense, from time to time – to defuse situations and get himself out of trouble. As the narration puts it, “Suddenly a big kid was in charge of the TARDIS.”

Other key changes mentioned in the first section include his alien-ness, his bohemian wardrobe – notably, the ultra-iconic scarf – and his break from UNIT, as he finally swans off for good. Given that Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s tenure had been almost entirely earthbound, it was a notable change, and allowed for a wider variety of storytelling.

Turning next to the Fourth Doctors Companions, interviewees (who, throughout the whole documentary, included Steven Moffat, David Tennant, Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Marcus Wilson, Nicholas Briggs, and Neil Gaiman) talked first about Sarah Jane Smith, who had actually come on board with the Third Doctor. Gaiman goes so far as to dub her the “greatest” of all the Companions (and there are plenty of fans out there who would agree). Perhaps what made the chemistry between these two work so well was how they viewed each other as best friends. It made for a wonderful, fun-loving dynamic that could withstand his “difficult” nature unscathed.

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Don’t Wake Me

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Review of Nightmare in Silver
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’ve read (OK, skimmed) a fair number negative reviews for this episode, but I have to say I just can’t relate at all.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

This series more than any other, I’ve observed a vast array of opinions among fans. For any given episode, there seems to be a “best thing since sliced bread” camp and a “disastrous blight besmirching the face of Our Show” camp. Occasionally, there’s a “Weeeeell… It wasn’t awful, but it sure could’ve been better” contingent, too. As best I can tell, the residents of these camps don’t all stay together as they switch campgrounds, either. I’m not sure if it’s really this series, or that I’m a little more connected these days than I used to be that’s responsible for my observation of the effect, but nearly every episode has been divisive to some degree.

I’m all for every fan having (and voicing) their own opinion, and I know no one’s line up exactly with anyone else’s – heck, things would be boring if they did. I like to believe that most times I can wrap my brain around the differences enough to say, “I don’t agree with you, but I can understand why you feel that way.” But this time I just don’t get it.

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Retro-View #11: Winding Down, or Just Wound Up?

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The Keeper of Traken (Story #114, 1981)
Viewed 29 Apr 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Adric, Nyssa of Traken
Stars: Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton
Preceding Story: Warriors’ Gate (Four, Romana II, Adric)
Succeeding Story: Logopolis (Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

It’s been a while since G has seen the Fourth Doctor. Not only has it been a month and a half since we were last able to sit down and watch together, but he’s cycled through a Companion or two since our last story, which was broadcast nearly two-and-a-half years before this one. So I guess I can’t blame her when her first reaction at the start of the story was, “Oh my gosh! Look at the question marks on this collar!” And later, “He’s got a new scarf!”

I have to pause and explain about Adric, too. The whole E-Space thing kind of goes over her head, but truth be told, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, and I’ve seen all the relevant trilogy. She doesn’t comment on his pajama-esque costume, though, and declares that she rather likes “the little guy.” More than once. And why, do you suppose, she thinks so highly of him? “Because when the women used to tell [the Doctor] he was full of ****, he’d get upset, but when this guy does it, he doesn’t care.”

The story is right up her alley, too. Halfway through Part One, she’s already sussed out (well before we see it happen) that “ol’ Melkur’s marching around in the nighttime.” When his presence leads to the Keeper (apparently) declaring that the Doctor and Adric are “Eviiiiiil!” she can hardly stand it. “I really hate misunderstandings.” (Somehow, I’m thinking she doesn’t watch many sitcoms…)

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Invasion of the Leeches

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Review of The Crimson Horror
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I can’t help but wonder if the Doctor isn’t doing some universe-hopping with Clara on board. After all, it would explain both her comment that her current home “looks different” when she comes back to it and some of the nonsensical parts of their adventure this week.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Despite the fact that bad science often irks me when I see in in Who, something about the way Mrs. Gillyflower’s rocket was the epitome of steampunk allowed me to put a perception filter on the whole thing and take it in stride. (Even if I can’t buy that this “prize-winning chemist and mechanical engineer” could devise both a viable preservation process and a functional rocket with only the help of a millions-years-old leech.) I know others were bothered by the flurry of anachronisms (and I also don’t believe that Vastra, Jenny, and Strax can work unmolested in Victorian London, but that’s another issue), but somehow – while other episodes this season have really put me off – I was mostly able to roll with this one.

I can’t honestly say I was over-the-top thrilled, though. After all, I’ve never really been a fan of the “penny dreadfuls” (or Hammer Horror films, to which I understand there were a great number of references). So the genre wasn’t my thing. That means the bodies that had succumbed to the Crimson Horror grated on me, the all-around nasty old lady put me off, and Mr. Sweet was simply 100% icky.

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Confession #37: I Think Moffat’s Waning

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What with the post earlier this week by well-known Who pundit Ian Levine about the disappointing (bordering on alarming) state of the show during this, its fiftieth anniversary year, it seems like the right time to post a few of my own thoughts on the subject.

I’ve known from the moment it was announced that I was probably not going to love the Anniversary Special unconditionally. As the details unfold, I’ve continued to be cautiously optimistic – after all, Tennant is “my” Doctor (the one who really pulled me irrevocably into the show) – but am generally disappointed. Where are McGann, McCoy, Baker, Davison, and Baker (no one should ever have had any illusions that Eccleston would be in on it)? Are we not even going to see them in cameo roles as non-Doctor characters? I’m with Levine on that count, for sure. You can’t celebrate fifty years of a show’s history by highlighting only the most recent eight or so.

The real question, though, is about the future of the show as a whole – those regular new episodes of which we are about to have such a dearth. When it was first announced that RTD was leaving and that Moffat would be his successor, I was super excited. “The guy who wrote some of the best shows of the first four post-Hiatus years (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead) is going to be showrunner? Excellent!” It all turned out a bit differently than I’d envisioned once he took the reins, though.

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