Showing posts with label Matt Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matt Smith. Show all posts

Monday, January 24, 2011

Stonehenge speech


I make no attempt to claim copyright. This is from the episode the Pandorica opens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pandorica_Opens
MMy friend Valya is coming. I probably will not see her, but I am excited. This is how she makes me feel

Monday, June 28, 2010

Doctor Who. The Matt Smith era review

There are spoilers in this review

At the end of the End of Time, the Doctor regenerated

This is my thoughts on the first series of the Matt Smith/David Moffatt era

Matt’s Smith doctor took a while to get used to. They always do. I do like Matt’s Doctor. Its more Alien. Matts Doctor is more like the genius stoner, than David Ts. David T’s Doctor was somewhat the cool school teacher David T’s Doctor quoted the Lion King, a few minutes, after regenerating Christopher Eccleson. Matt Smith’s is more unearthly. He hands James Corden, a bag full of cash and assumes it a lot. He doesn’t ask for chips, or an orange or a cup of tea.

That’s not a bad thing. A lot of the Audience for Doctor are now teenage girls, and their mothers. This is one of the triumphs of the Russell T Davis era. Russell managed to get the show a large female audience. This is not unusual in SF, going back to Star Trek had a large female audience. It is just not be fashionable to point it out, the most obsessive fans are male, but that’s a truism affecting everything from telegraph poles to the Polish Telegraph.

So Matt’s Smith Doctor, makes sense. A lot of the viewers are probably dating their first boyfriend. Rose and the Doctor, and Rose and Mickey, and Martha and the Doctor, were all studies in unrequited love. Or even courtly love, lots of sighing. Amy is confident enough to try and take matters in to her own hand

The show seems to be mindful of becoming a franchise. The episode where, the Doctor and Amy episode London travel to London during the Blitz, and meets Winston Churchill, screams American audience. The new technicolor Daleks are clearly going to be in the stores by Christmas. The short skirts of Amy, all are a nod to the money men, and the markets. It is curious to note that in the final episode. The lone Dalek adversary is a more classic design

Amy is lovely, one of those tall Scottish girls who will break your heart, and take your breath away like my friend Susanne

Karen walker is a really beautiful woman. I did wonder about her, at first. She seemed somewhat a Scottish sterotype. One of the Doctor’s first words to her, where to ask her to fry something! Red headed and aggressive, she stubbornly kept her accent. Amy lived in a middle English village rather than a South London estate, or surburbia.

I am not that keen on River song. I like Alex Kingston, something about River song, that turns me off. I can see why you would want her as a writer. She flips the script for the doctor. When facing River the Doctor does not have all the answers. River is letting on less that she knows

It could be, I am ashamed to say it, it could be Alex’s age. I worry about how old she will look in five years. I do wonder if she is prepared to commit to the role. If it was Trek or Stargate I would not worry, but I would like Doctor Who, to be around in another thirty years, and River Song may just be too big a character.

That said the scene where River kills the Dalek, and tortures it. (Remember this is a family show) Promises a lot from Ms River in the future, I will wait

There was a cute little dig at Richard Dawkins.

I worry about the plots. I have seen a lot of this before. The last words of Matt’s Smith Doctor before he heads off at the end of the series, is the Orient express in space. Oh you mean like the Titanic Christmas special. Matt Smith and Amy need something more to work with. The best story was written by Simon Nye. Moffatt is a good hard SF writer, but he needs a bit more heart in the story.

Also the Doctor is left of the hook, several times. Under Russell T Davis, the aftermath of the Doctors adventures were shown. Such as in the Long Game, where the Doctors good deed, had terrible results, or Harriet Jones ordering Torchwood to fire, in the Christmas invasion.

There was one sublime piece of television. Vincent and the Doctor. The Doctor meets Vincent Van Gogh. One of the few times, I have seen a piece of TV, that was actually uplifting, that will send smart children, to their search engines. The BBC, lived up to their charter in that one

A good start, but I want you to try much harder next term

Saturday, January 03, 2009

The New Doctor Who

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/news/latest/090103_news_01
Matt Smith Is The New Doctor.
The BBC today announced that Matt Smith has been cast in the role of the Doctor in the iconic BBC series Doctor Who. Smith will be the eleventh Time Lord and will take over from David Tennant who leaves the show at the end of 2009. He will be seen in the forthcoming fifth series that will be broadcast in 2010.
The fifth series will also have a new lead writer and Executive Producer in the form of the BAFTA award winning writer Steven Moffat who is taking over from Russell T Davies. Moffat will be joined by Piers Wenger who will be the new Executive Producer for BBC Wales making the show.
Following David Tennant's decision to step down at the end of 2009, the team behind the new series set about casting the new Doctor so that new adventures could be created and scripts written with Matt in mind.
The identity of the new Doctor was revealed on a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential that was broadcast on BBC One on January 3rd at 17.35hrs. In it Smith revealed his initial reaction at taking on such a legendary role and his thoughts on what direction the Doctor might now be going with him playing the part.
Matt Smith said of his new role "I'm just so excited about the journey that is in front of me. It's a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on. I feel proud and honoured to have been given this opportunity to join a team of people that has worked so tirelessly to make the show so thrilling.
"David Tennant has made the role his own, brilliantly with grace, talent and persistent dedication. I hope to learn from the standards set by him. The challenge for me is to do justice to the show's illustrious past, my predecessors and most importantly to those who watch it. I really cannot wait."
Lead writer and Executive Producer Steven Moffat said "The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe. As soon as Matt walked through the door and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man. 2010 is a long time away but rest assured the Eleventh Doctor is coming - and the universe has never been so safe."
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The first doctor, I remember Peter Davidson. Was a little older at 29. Its a bit sobering to think, that I am now, 5 years older, then a Young Doctor who. In fact the character is getting on in regenerations. 11 out of 12.
I was told by someone who is adopted, that the next Doctor would be Patterson Joseph. Alas.
I may post my review of the Christmas episode
Well good luck to Mr Smith :)

QPR v Burnley

I think this match will go down as a missed oppotunity. QPR conceded a soft goal- and were saved by the referee from another. QPR and Burnle...