So, so sorry...

Hello everybody! Long time no post...

I'm really sorry. I planned to write posts ahead of time and schedule them to be posted throughout November, while I was busy with NaNoWriMo. But that did not happen. I didn't even get my 50th Anniversary Special post up (though I did watch the special - it was awesome!).

I am going to try to make up for it. As of today, I have finished Series 3 by watching "Voyage of the Damned." I am now going to skip Series 4 and the 2008-2010 specials temporarily and move on to Series 5 and 6. The reason for this is that the 2013 Christmas Special, "The Time of the Doctor," is coming up, which is also Matt Smith's last episode as The Doctor. And Steven Moffat has said loose ends from all of Matt's run, even back to his debut episode "The Eleventh Hour," will be dealt with in this special. So I have decided I am going to try to get caught up with the rest of Matt's episodes by Christmas. It will mean more than one episode a day (since there are only 15 days till Christmas), but I can handle it, I think.

So here is the plan for now. I will finish posting the posts for Series 3, while starting to watch 5 and 6. I will also get caught up on other posts, like my analyses of the 50th Anniversary Special and its two prequels and analyses of other specials (like "Time Crash," "Death is the Only Answer," the minisodes on the   Complete Seventh Series set, etc) I have not yet covered. 

When Christmas comes, I will have the Christmas Special (and its prequel(s), if any) to analyze. I will aim to be caught up with all pending New Who posts by the end of the year (Lord willing). This will allow me to focus on just new posts come January. Series 8 - starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara - is not set to begin airing till August 2014. So I am going to spend the 7-month void catching up on Classic Who, as well as Series 4 and the specials if I have not got to them yet, and possibly also watching the spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (I watched the pilot for SJA and liked it a lot), which I don't intend to cover for this blog. 

Best case scenario, I'll be all caught up by next August and ready to tackle whatever is to come in Series 8 and beyond.

For now...Allons-y!

Plans for November

So, as I did last year, I am going to be devoting the month of November to participate in the great and wild ride that is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I'm actually going to work on my Doctor Who fanfic-in-progress, "The Companion's Diary of Alyson 'Alys' Reed," one of the "other projects" you may have seen mentioned on the TARDIS Thoughts Twitter, even though I have already started writing it, which would break the NaNoWriMo rule that you must start your "novel" from scratch. Eh well, I have already won by following the rules, and last year I said I would try at least once to win as a rebel (i.e., breaking the rules), so here's my chance. Also, it's just the kick in the pants I need to get this darn thing finished.

Knowing I will be quite busy working on that, I have made a plan in regards to posting on this blog during November. Cause with the 50th Anniversary Special next month and the mad dash I must now make in order to finish New Who by then, I obviously don't want to take a break for the month like I did last year.

So here is what I am going to do: I will write posts ahead of time that I will then schedule to publish each day next month. There will be a slight deviation from this on the 23rd when the Anniversary Special airs, obviously. I will attempt to get a post up on the special the same day it airs (it's being simulcast worldwide, so spoiler risk on this special will be rather low), if not by the day after.

I will probably focus my posts primarily on New Who, which I am trying to finish, but I may do some Classic Who posts in there too. Particularly in wake of the rather exciting recent discovery/release of the Patrick Troughton serials "The Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear." (I, like Matt Smith, enjoy Patrick Troughton). I will definitely try to do one post per day, but I might do more than one a day if I decide it's worth it.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads-up. Cheerio!

TARDIS Thoughts Turns One!

One year ago today, I began TARDIS Thoughts and posted its first post.

I can't believe it's been a whole year!!

(Not Doctor Who-related, I know, but it works).

To be honest, I hoped to have posted much more often than I have been doing, but I guess that sort of discipline takes practice. Plus, I didn't meet my goal to be caught up by today, but that's my fault. Eh well, maybe by tomorrow I'll be caught up.

Hopefully, by this time next year, I will have covered all of New Who up through Series 7 and covered a fair amount of Classic Who as well. Fingers crossed!

Speaking of Classic Who, my copy of the Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 5-8 DVD arrived today. So soon I will likely be able to write about the episodes on that set ("Earthshock," "Vengeance on Varos," "Remembrance of the Daleks," and Doctor Who: The Movie).

Anyway, happy first birthday, TARDIS Thoughts! Here's to many more!

Plans for the near future

So I realize the posting of analyses has been a little slow. I am trying to finish up Series 2 so I can move on to Series 3 and beyond.

With just under two months until the anniversary - the date by which I wanted to be caught up with New Who - I am beginning to think I should just focus on watching the episodes and get around to the analyses later. Because a main reason why I'm not watching episodes is because I know as soon as I watch an episode, I will feel compelled to post about it shortly thereafter, and the posts take quite a bit of work, work I don't always feel like doing some days. Plus, it was tough to do both for Countdown to Christmas and for NaBloPoMo. I am not used to blogging every day. And when I started this, I didn't realize it was going to take almost 2 hours to write each post. Not to say the amount of time spent on it isn't worth it. It is. You have to spend time on something if you want it to be thorough. But it is a LOT of time, and lately I've been tired a lot because of work and not felt like doing much of anything other than play with my phone and watch TV.

However, I just realized the blog's 1-year anniversary is coming up very shortly. I can hardly believe the blog has been around that long. And with that milestone, I really want to ramp stuff up and get this blog on a good posting discipline, etc.

So I think this is what I will do: I will try to get caught up with Series 2 and with a few other New Who posts I have in draft by October 1, the site's 1-year anniversary. For Series 2, I just have the posts on "The Idiot's Lantern," "The Impossible Planet," and "The Satan Pit" left to do. Other than that, for New Who I just have the post for the Series 7 special "P.S." to write, and a few posts for the Series 3 eps I have watched recently. I may hold off on the Series 3 episode analyses for a bit yet, till I'm caught up with other stuff.

I also have posts in draft for the Classic Who episodes I have seen; however, I think I am going to hold off on those until I am caught up with New Who, as I will have time between the 50th Anniversary Special (which we now know will be called "The Day of the Doctor") and the Christmas Special to catch up on those, and definitely time between the Christmas Special and Series 8, since the latest news says not to expect Series 8 till the autumn of 2014.

I am also going to ramp up promoting the site; I will finish the Google+ page, make a Facebook page, and become more active on the Twitter again. And I will make sure all three of these are properly connected here. I have also just conducted a "affiliation request" contact blitz tonight with a number of sites and blogs; as of yet Doctor Who Online is the only one who has responded, and while they refused to affiliate, they are offering me the chance to advertise via a banner on their homepage, which I may do instead.

I just ordered the Complete Seventh Series DVD set; I will do analyses of the mini-sodes included on that set ("Rain Gods," "Clarence and the Whispermen," "Clara and the TARDIS," and "The Inforarium") as soon as possible after I receive it (which should be next Monday). Just took a peek at them on the TARDIS Data Core to find out about them, they look good. I also went ahead and pre-ordered the DVD for the 50th Anniversary Special, which is currently available to pre-order pretty much everywhere, which actually surprised me when I first heard of it. If that DVD comes with any mini-sodes, I will analyze those too. We don't know as of yet what features it will have.

At any rate, I am going to focus on watching episodes and meeting my catchup goal for the moment, and not post analyses of New Who eps for a while once I get caught up with the posts I mentioned before. After all, I am watching the older New Who episodes via Netflix, so I can always go back and rewatch them if I need to for the analyses. Or via DVD, since after watching each season I have been buying the season sets. So never fear, I haven't given up. I just need to lighten the load a little, that's all.

(Next up for me, btw, is "Daleks in Manhattan." Which is set in the 1930's, which has been one of my favorite eras of history since I was a kid...hooray!)

Have a great day...Fantastic, Allons-y, Geronimo, and all that timey-wimey stuff.

Special Post: And the Twelfth Doctor Is...

Not Ben Whishaw, sorry. It's Peter Capaldi.

Honestly, I wasn't too surprised. I knew he was a favorite for the role. Though honestly I don't even think his name was even out there being speculated about till like a week or two ago.

People are complaining about him being older. He's 55 (the same age as my dad, actually), but honestly he doesn't look that old. He's aged well I think. (As has Peter Davison, I noticed...he was interviewed on the special yesterday). Plus, c'mon, it's not like we haven't had older Doctors before; all the Classic Who Doctors except Davison and McGann were older guys. As far as I can tell, the people who are complaining about his age are the people who are big fans of Matt Smith and were thus hoping for a young Twelfth Doctor. My favorite Doctor, as I said before, is David Tennant, so I think that's probably why I'm more OK with the idea of an older Doctor (not to mention I've been watching the Doctors Revisited specials and thus have familiarity with Classic Who).

As for Capaldi himself...I say, give the guy a chance. I didn't want to give Matt much of a chance at first, but I did, and he eventually grew on me. Same with Eccelston...after watching Series 1 I didn't like Nine at all, but in retrospect I realize he had some really great scenes, and now I'm looking forward to seeing Eccelston in Thor: The Dark World later this year (he's playing some evil Dark Elf Lord though, so I doubt you'll recognize him).

I'm glad they interviewed Capaldi right after the announcement. I think that was very smart, because it gave us a chance to get a feel for him right away. And once it came out that he's a huge fan of the show and has been since he was a kid, he automatically became much more favorable to me. Because that aspect is part of what I like about David too. (And Steven Moffat for that matter). He seems like a very nice guy, not afraid to admit his failings (I mean, he admitted to having his phone ON SILENT when he got the call saying he got the part!). And that story Matt told about Capaldi coming up to him after "The Eleventh Hour" first aired to tell him how great it was...I think that's just awesome that he did that. Only a fan would do that.

And now that his daughter knows (Capaldi said he wasn't allowed to tell her before), she must be thrilled. The way I imagine Georgia Moffet (Peter Davison's daughter, and now David's wife) must be.

Interestingly, they cast somebody who's been in Doctor Who before. I did not expect that at all. Capaldi played Caecilius in "The Fires of Pompeii," the second episode of Series 4. He also played John Frobisher in Torchwood. Will have to look for him in both those roles. (I'm also intrigued to see him as Cardinal Richilieu in the new BBC production of The Three Musketeers...I've liked Richilieu [an actual historical person] in other movies).

So, even though I don't know anything about him, and have never seen any of his other stuff, something about Capaldi feels right to me. Since he's a huge fan of the show, and has been since he was a kid, I feel he will do the role justice. Also, if the GI was correct in the Series 7 finale, and The Doctor is getting darker, then you need someone who can play dark. And Capaldi can do that - he's playing Cardinal Richilieu, as I mentioned above, and that's typically a very dark and sinister role. Plus, after a couple younger, more childish Doctors (cause, let's face it, Ten was pretty childish too, though nowhere near as much as Eleven is/was), it'll be kinda nice to see a more "mature" Doctor again, I suppose.

So, anyway, before you just dismiss him, just give this guy a chance. I'm going to!

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Special Post: Matt Smith's Departure and the Twelfth Doctor Announcement

As many of you reading this blog may know, Matt Smith - the wonderful young man who has played the Eleventh Doctor since New Year's Day 2010 - is leaving the show. His last episode will be this year's Christmas Special. This being a major event, I thought I should post a special post here about it.

I meant to post this back in June, after it was first announced that Matt Smith was leaving, but never got around to doing so. At any rate, writing it tonight will do, as tomorrow we find out who will replacing Matt at the helm of the TARDIS, in a live, half-hour special called Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor. It's airing at 7pm on BBC One and will be simulcast in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. (Possibly elsewhere as well, but these are the countries where the simulcast has been confirmed). Here's a trailer for the special from BBC America:

   

The nice thing about the event being simulcast is that all of us will get to find out who the Twelfth Doctor will be at the same time, which eliminates the possibility of spoilers, like you get with the regular Doctor Who episodes, which air at different times (though all on the same day). 

I admit, way back in June, when I heard Matt was leaving the show, I was just as shocked as anyone else. I think I've said on here that Eleven isn't my favorite Doctor. Ten gets that honor. And I've said good things and bad things about Matt Smith and his performance as The Doctor. I was just re-reading my posts about Series 7 Part 1 earlier today, and I realized how much I disliked Eleven back then. Now, months later, I feel differently. The 2012 Christmas Special and Series 7 Part 2 changed my mind about Eleven; I've warmed up to him now. (That and this fanfic I've been working on that stars Eleven, which forced me to actually think about him as a character). He's still not my favorite, and I doubt he ever will be. (Granted, after I watch Series 5 and 6, my opinion on that may change). 

In the past several months, I have realized that Matt Smith truly is a gifted young man. He really can act, and act well. And it's because of this that he went from being a nobody in 2009, when he was cast, to a much-beloved Doctor now 4 years later. With him came Steven Moffat as showrunner and a much darker hue to the show in general (at least based on what I've seen so far). And with him came great Companions in the forms of Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, and Jenna-Louise Coleman (Jenna Coleman now...sorry) as Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song, and Clara Oswald respectively. Each Doctor brings something new to the show, and Matt has brought his something in spades, giving us a young, rather hyperactive, childish Doctor who likes to wear bow ties and fezzes and Stetsons and a worn-out suit with patches stolen from a hospital (or fancy purple Victorian-esque suits with top hats), enjoys eating fish custard and Jammie Dodgers, and is married to a woman whose timeline is all out of whack who also happens to be Amy and Rory's daughter. (And yes, I can say this having not seen Series 5 and 6...I'm spoiled enough on those seasons that I have an inkling of what goes on in them). 

So am I going to miss Matt Smith? Absolutely. But I know I still have the two specials left to see him in, and I'm sure Moffat will send him off in proper fashion come Christmastime (it was confirmed in a recent Comic-Con panel that Moffat is writing this year's Christmas Special). Apparently, according to the Wikipedia entry for the Christmas Special, that episode will also be the 800th episode of Doctor Who, which will make the send-off for Matt extra special. Also, I just realized the Complete Seventh Series DVD and Blu-Ray will be released in the UK and Europe on October 28, which is Matt's birthday. (And also mine...that's right, Matt and I share a birthday!)

But now we have the Twelfth Doctor to look forward to. It's 12:06 a.m. right now as I type this sentence, meaning that the special announcing the Twelfth Doctor is in slightly less than 11 hours from now, my time. And you know what? I can't wait. I'm tired of all the speculation (and believe me, there has been a LOT); I just want to find out who it is already. This is the first time I've been able to be part of the lead-up to a new Doctor's run, so I want to enjoy it while I can. I want to find out who the next Doctor will be, and spend the next few months letting that revelation sink in, and possibly watching other things with him (or her; many people think we'll get a female Doctor this time around) in it so I can get used to him (or her) beforehand. Personally, I am hoping for Ben Whishaw:

Ben Whishaw has long been a favorite for the role of Twelve. I loved him as Q in the latest Bond film Skyfall. He's also been in other movies like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Cloud Atlas and has a fair amount of TV experience, including playing the main character in the TV series The Hour. Plus, he's close in age to Matt, so the transition between Doctors will be a little smoother if he's cast. 

Honestly though, I think I'm mature enough to be happy with whoever they picked. I'm not sure about the female Doctor idea; I mean, I'm not against it (I'm writing a story right now myself that stars a female Time Lord), but it would be such an abrupt change. Still, if, as Jenna has said, the 50th Anniversary Special is going to send the show in a whole new direction, I suppose anything's possible. Also, one of the Doctor Who audio dramas stated that, in order for a Time Lord to change sexes when regenerating, he or she has to commit suicide. Whether Moffat considers this canon or not, I just can't see Matt's Doctor doing that.

I'm more open to the idea that we might get a person of color as the next Doctor. Like the female thing, we also have never had a Doctor of color. We had Companions of color (Martha, Mickey, Rosita from "The Next Doctor," Rani from The Sarah Jane Adventures) but never a Doctor of color. I would be open to that idea. I like the idea of an Asian Doctor for some reason. (Maybe because the Time Lady in the aforementioned story I'm writing has one regeneration where she looks Chinese). One of the favorites for Twelve is black, though I forget his name.

So, let's enjoy these last few months we have with Matt before he turns in his bow tie and fez (or not; I have a feeling he'll talk someone into letting him keep those) and takes a bow. And let's get excited about what is to come, especially once we know who Twelve is (which is now in about 10 1/2 hours my time). Allons-y, as Ten would say.

TARDIS Thoughts Pages Complete; Promotion Plans

I finally finished all the pages of this blog just now, making the site basically complete except for actual posts. Hooray!

This being done, I am going to go into full-on promotion mode, finishing the TARDIS Thoughts Google+ page and establishing its Facebook fan page and Twitter account, as well as getting the word out about the blog via other means.

I haven't forgotten about NaBloPoMo; I'm just behind. Will get back on that ASAP.

Good night!

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...

...As the Doctor likes to say.

I know I'm behind on the NaBloPoMo posts. I just chose to focus on other things this last weekend, things that hadn't been getting done due to my focus on this NaBloPoMo thing. It's been tough to keep up with stuff due to my work shifts, where I have been working most of the afternoon, not getting home till 10:30pm, then having to try to watch a Doctor Who episode and get an analysis up by midnight. Because of the late hours, I then tend to sleep in in the morning, resulting in not much time before I have to catch the bus to work.

I'm not usually someone who posts a blog post every day. Weekly, maybe, but not daily. This was my first attempt to post daily since I started my personal blog way back in December 2004. I wonder if I lack the discipline. Because it's been quite stressful to do this, and quite a few posts I didn't finish by midnight and had to change the date on to make them be on the right day, which I feel bad about because it seems dishonest.

I wish this hadn't become so stressful. It started out as a fun endeavor, but gradually became stressful as I began forcing myself to watch an episode and write an analysis right after coming home from work, even if I wanted to do something else, like just take a shower and go to bed. Some days I was able to watch the episode early in the day, then have my whole work shift to mull it over before writing the post when I got home. Those were better days. And with the end of Series 1, I watched a bunch of episodes at once on a day off then wrote the analyses on the days they were supposed to be posted (with the exception of "The Christmas Invasion," where I watched the episode over breakfast and wrote the analysis that same evening).

So...I will try to get the delayed posts up ASAP and get back on track. But I am starting to think I will never do this daily post thing again. Or if I do, I will watch a bunch of episodes at once, write the analyses, and schedule them to post on the appropriate date. I did this with my initial Series 2 posts.

When Series 7 starts again, though, I am going to try to do weekly posts, on Saturday or Sunday, for the new episodes. That, at least, I think I can stick to.

Well, just wanted to get that off my chest. Allons-y Ponds...

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NaBloPoMo: Series 2 ep. 1 analysis tomorrow

I am really tired tonight. So I am going to watch Series 2 ep. 1 tonight but post the analysis tomorrow. Hope that's ok!

Good night!

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NaBloPoMo: Oops!

Just realized I forgot to post yesterday. I was supposed to post on "The Parting Of The Ways" and then finish off Series 1 today with the Christmas Special. But I forgot.

Eh well I guess there must be a little leeway with these things. I'll make it up.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope your day is, as the Doctor would say, "fantastic"!

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Series 7 Part 2 Details

So, between a news roundup at Cultbox.uk and a breakdown of the Series 7 Part 2 trailer by Doctorwhotv.co.uk, some details have come out about Series 7 Part 2. Warning: not all this info is confirmed.


Episode 7 (opener)

-Rumored title: "The Bells of St Johns"
-Written by Steven Moffat
-A modern urban thriller (confirmed by Moffat)
-Involves a "monster in the Wi-fi" (confirmed by Matt Smith)
-The Doctor finds Clara in this episode (DoctorWhoTV)
-Shots of Matt Smith on a plane from trailer rumored to be from this ep
-Shots from the trailer of the Doctor and Clara on a motorcycle and the scene of the painting of Clara along with the woman saying "she's pretty isn't she" are from this ep; the clip of Clara in between those two clips is probably from this ep too.

Episode 8

-Title: "The Rings of Akhaten"
-Written by Neil Cross (creator of the BBC miniseries Luther)
-Involves an alien planet (Moffat)
-The trailer shots of Clara in an alien market, as well as a couple shots of a monster in a glass cell, are possibly from this ep

Episode 9

-Rumored title: "The Cold War"
-Written by Mark Gatiss (a long-time writer, actor, etc with Doctor Who; also created Sherlock with Moffat)
-Takes place in a submarine under siege (Moffat)
-Several shots in the trailer from this: "Who the hell are you," the Doctor and a sea captain getting attacked, the icebergs and a man getting grabbed by some water
-Guest stars Liam Cunningham and Josh O'Connor
-Rumored to feature the return of the Ice Warriors (an enemy originating from the Second Doctor era, like the Great Intelligence)

Episode 10

-Rumored title: "Phantoms of the Hex" (may be confirmed)
-Written by Neil Cross (creator of the BBC miniseries Luther)
-A ghost story (Moffat)
-Dougray Scott guest stars
-Possible trailer shots from this ep: Clara with candles, Clara with Dougray Scott, shot of a ghost

Episode 11

-Title: "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS"
-Written by Steven Thompson (previously wrote Series 6 episode "The Curse of the Black Spot"; has also worked with Moffat and Gatiss on Sherlock)
-We'll see more of the TARDIS than ever before (Moffat)
-Guest stars Ashley Walters as one of a trio of brothers who are a space salvage crew; also Jahvel Hall as Tricky.
-The shots of the green-lit halls and of Walters and crew from the trailer are from this ep.

Episode 12

-Title: "The Crimson Horror"
-Written by Mark Gatiss (a long-time writer, actor, etc with Doctor Who; also created Sherlock with Moffat)
-Featured guest stars: Dame Diana Rigg and her real-life daughter Rachael Sterling
-Jenny, Vastra, and Strax appear
-Very camp (Sterling, Moffat)
-Trailer shot of creepy monsters in top hats and suits possibly from this ep
-The Doctor gets a new Victorian costume in this ep (Matt Smith)

Episode 13

-Title: "The Last Cyberman"
-The long-awaited episode written by well-known fantasy writer Neil Gaiman (he also wrote the 11th Doctor episode "The Doctor's Wife")
-Featured guest stars: Tanizin Outhwaite as Capt. Alice, Warwick Davis as Porridge
-Features the return of the Cybermen; Moffat asked Gaiman to make them "scary again" (much the way they made the Daleks scary again in the Series 7 Part 1 opener).
-Some obvious shots of this ep in the trailer: shots of the Cybermen themselves, also shot of Clara with a resistance group and Clara holding a gun.
-New design for the Cybermen
-Takes place on a "mysterious planet" (official site)

Episode 14 (Finale)

-Written by Steven Moffat
-Strax, Jenny, and Vastra appear
-River Song will supposedly appear (hinted by Alex Kingston; all she said was "Well, I just got back from filming in Wales..... Spoilers!")
-Rumored that Dr. Simeon (from the Christmas Special) will reappear (Doctor Who Series 7 2013: What We Know)

***

Well, just wanted to make you guys aware of this news!!

Edit: This article also gives a good rundown of what we know about Series 7.

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Updates: Classic Who, Series 7 Return, NaBloPoMo Plans

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, you guys! Time has kinda been scarce for me lately.

So, anyway, some updates.

First off, about Classic Who. A number of Classic Who episodes are now available on Netflix. However, not all the episodes are available, and they start with The Aztecs, nearly halfway through Season 1, and only go through Season 9. I also recently discovered that there is quite a lot of Classic Who on Amazon Instant Video, Amazon's video-on-demand service, a Wii Channel version of which was recently released in the U.S. Amazon's service contains episodes from Seasons 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, and 26, which means it covers every Doctor in the Classic Era except the Eighth, including all of the Fourth Doctor's run (Seasons 12-18). These episodes are all free if you have Amazon Prime; otherwise you must pay $1.99/episode to "rent" the episodes.

In addition to being available via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, a number of Classic Who episodes have apparently been released on DVD in the past or will be released this year as part of the 50th Anniversary. You can find out more about this on the "Watch The Episodes Yourself" page on this blog, which I added recently and which tells you in great detail how to watch Doctor Who for yourself.

In other news, I updated the "Next Doctor Who Episode" part of the footer to reflect the most recent news about Series 7. Originally expected to return in April, it is now confirmed that the series will return on March 30th (Easter weekend). We also know that the next episode will be called "Phantom of the Hex."

Lastly, I am for sure going to do NaBloPoMo with this blog during the month of February. Therefore, I will be making an effort to post every single day during that month. Toward that end, I am going to be doing analyses of Series 1 and 2, including "Second Look" analyses of the Series 2 episodes I already analyzed. Since there are 28 days in February, and 14 episodes apiece in Series 1 and 2 (if you count the Christmas Specials), this should work out nicely.

I am going to make an effort to finish the other pages in the top bar this week, as I would like to start seriously promoting the blog, and I don't feel like I can do that with those pages unfinished.

I have also made a decision regarding the social media thing I was considering before. I'm gonna go for it. It shouldn't be hard to link to them from here, anyway. The template I use for this blog (the GlowingStyle Blogger Template from DeluxeTemplates) does allow for a bar in the top corner with social media icons; I just hid it when I initially set up this blog because I didn't need it. At the same time, I don't want to set them up willy-nilly like I have done with social media accounts in the past, so I am going to take the time to do them right. Look for them soon!

TARDIS Thoughts Goes Carbon-Neutral!

You may have noticed the nice new button in my sidebar. It is from Kaufda, an organization that this dedicated to reducing carbon emissions in the world, and their "My blog is carbon neutral" initiative. For each person that joins the initiative, they will plant a tree, an effort that neutralizes the carbon footprint of your blog for 50 years!

How can a blog have a carbon footprint, you say? Well, according to their site, the energy output put out by computers is tied to the people who visit your blog. Which means if you blog gets, say, 15,000 visitors a month (what blogs get that, I wonder? I wish I got that many visitors here in a month!) you will ultimately emit 8 pounds of carbon in one year. That doesn't sound like a lot, but apparently it is.

So I, on TARDIS Thoughts's behalf, am going to support this initiative. Because I love trees. And I do care about the environment, though I don't practice it enough (I don't recycle as often as I should, for example, even though I went to a university that, by the time I graduated, had won a national recycling award 8 years in a row). And although I don't think it's been stated in the show (at least in what I've seen of it) what the Doctor thinks about the environment, I think the Doctor would approve of such an initiative as well. After all, he has made it plain multiple times that this planet and its people are important to him and that he'll protect them to his last breath! Not to mention he was already forced to essentially destroy his own home planet, Gallifrey, in the Time War.

Find out how you can get involved here: http://www.kaufda.de/umwelt/carbon-neutral/how-you-can-join/

***

On an un-related note, I am considering doing NaBloPoMo next month with this blog. NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month and is structured similarly to NaNoWriMo. Basically, you post every day on your blog for a whole month. Since I wanted to try to catch up on Doctor Who anyway before Series 7 comes back in April, hopefully doing this will give me a chance to do that. You can find out some more about NaBloPoMo here: http://www.blogher.com/blogher-topics/blogging-social-media/nablopomo

Have a super Whovian day!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Whovians! Hope you all had a great time counting down to 2013! I got to count down twice cause my brother and I celebrated early (about 11:30) with Martinelli's and poppers cause he was going somewhere, and then later I celebrated by myself with some more Martinelli's and Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve (a.k.a. The New Year's Eve Show Really Hosted By Ryan Seacrest).

So we have till April to wait for the new episodes of Series 7. I'm going to try to truly catch up on the show this time. As much as I can anyway. But not too quickly or I'll run out of stuff to blog about, won't I? Well, I guess not cause I can write about the new episodes. I assume we'll have at least 1 other Series after this; I think Matt Smith is signed on for a couple more years to play the Doctor. Some people are saying the show's going to end soon because the Doctor doesn't have any more regenerations left. To be honest, I don't know how many he has. I swore he had at least 12, meaning we'll get at least one more Doctor, but I could be wrong. Or they could retcon the number to prolong the show. We'll see.

Anyway Happy New Year, and look forward to more posts from TARDIS Thoughts in the coming months!

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Classic Who: Update, plus Series 7 Part 2 Release Date

So about the "Classic Who" thing I posted about before. I finally got around to actually reading the Doctor Who blogs I subscribed to (I followed all the blogs listed in the "Doctor Who Blogverse" blogroll in the sidebar - I highly recommend the official Tumblr in particular) and learned that some of the classic eps will be re-aired on TV next year as part of the 50th anniversary celebration. Unfortunately, that probably means UK TV, and I'm a Yank. But hopefully I can still watch them somehow; either that or hopefully BBC America will hook us Yanks up with something.

Another thing I learned from the blogverse is that Series 7 Part 2 does indeed have an announced date: April 2013. I saw this on a couple blogs - including the one on the official BBC website. No more specifics than that have been given as of yet.

Oh and according to The Fourth Dimension (the special behind-the-scenes info section BBC One does for each Doctor Who episode on their Who website), the exterior scenes of the asylum planet in "Asylum of the Daleks" were actually shot in the deserts of Spain while the crew was on location in Spain shooting "A Town Called Mercy." I thought that snow looked weird!

Well just wanted to post that! Will get back to the episode analyses soon.

Classic Who

Hi there. In case you're wondering, yes I am going to write an analysis of the 2012 Christmas Special. In fact, I am probably going to watch it right after I write this. My family and I are going to go see The Hobbit tonight at this fancy movie theater, and we're leaving at about 9:30. I've already seen it - I saw it last week in the 48 FPS (a.k.a. "High Frame Rate" or HFR) version - but this time I'll be able to see it properly, without having to deal with the theater having a blackout and the audio cutting out in an important scene near the end due to the movie running over its scheduled end time. Hopefully.

So the reason I am posting this is because I found out something on the internet - on GetGlue, I think - that is worth mentioning on this blog. Apparently, the old, classic pre-reboot Doctor Who episodes - the episodes from the 1960's and early 1970's that were thought to be lost - are not as lost as we thought. While some of them remain missing (most notably the last serial of The Tenth Planet, which features the First Doctor becoming the Second Doctor), apparently some of them have been found. Some of the early episodes can be seen on the video streaming/uploading site Dailymotion.com. Dailymotion is basically like YouTube in that you can watch videos on it as well as create an account and upload your own, but less well-known. It originated in France, so I think it's more popular in Europe.

You can find these episodes by going to Dailymotion and searching for "classic who doctor who" or "doctor who classic." They have been put up by multiple users. I have not done a full investigation to see which episodes are available, though the very first episode of the show, "An Unearthly Child," is among them, as are episodes from the second serial that ran from December 21, 1963-February 1, 1964, which is notable because it featured the debut of the Daleks. These early episodes all seem to be in black and white, though some color versions of the same episodes are also listed. For the search result "doctor who classic," stick to the first 3 pages of results - after that it devolves into a list of totally irrelevant stuff. For "classic who doctor who" only the first page of results is relevant.

I mention this here because, since the episodes do indeed exist and are viewable, I think I may attempt to analyze them for this blog! It would be fun, right? After all, I added a bunch of pre-reboot Doctor Who stuff to my Netflix queue along with the reboot seasons, since there was some pre-reboot stuff on there.

Well, think about it.

And...it doesn't look like I'm going to have time to watch the whole Christmas Special before we have to leave for the movie. Darn. Guess the post on it will have to wait till tomorrow. Maybe I can watch half of it right now? Nah, I'd rather watch it all in one go. So tomorrow it is!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Facebook page? Twitter? Too soon? Plus a rearranged sidebar

Hi everyone! Hope you are enjoying my Countdown to Christmas post series.

I have a question. I would like to promote TARDIS Thoughts as much as possible. And one way to do that might be through social media. I have the option to do it easily on Google+ via my Blogger dashboard. But I am thinking Facebook and Twitter for this question.

Do you guys think it is too soon for me to make a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page for TARDIS Thoughts? This blog is only a couple months old, and I don't want to rush into things. On the other hand, I have experience running a Facebook fan page (I have one for my website Myu Corner and co-admined one for this YouTube band I was part of for a little while) and run three Twitter accounts currently (personal, writing promotion-related, and web design portfolio-related; I also technically run the Twitter for that YouTube band still though I never check it now...if you want to see our lame attempts at a band go to ReiliaAmyLara on YouTube - I'm the "Lara" in that name. I'm thinking of turning all our social media accounts - Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube - over to the girl who started the band in the first place, since she's the only one who still cares about it). So I could make it work. Going to think about it.

In other news, I re-arranged the blog's sidebar slightly to make it neater and also to accommodate the AdSense widget I added. I blocked any categories I thought inappropriate, so hopefully no inappropriate ads will show up here (I blocked all the sensitive categories and a few in General - including video games because some ads for online games are not very appropriate). I'll keep an eye out though.

So anyway, just putting the question out there. Enjoy your happily Mayan apocalypse-free day (so far) and enjoy the Doctor Who specials marathon on BBC America, leading up to the List of Lists special tonight. I'm going to get ready to do some Christmas shopping. Cheers!

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Countdown to Christmas Begins Today!

It's one week till Christmas, and that means it's time for the TARDIS Thoughts Countdown to Christmas to begin! Today is Day 1, which means today I will post an analysis of the Series 7 premiere, "Asylum of the Daleks." However, due to being called into work earlier than anticipated, I will likely not post it till late tonight. I'm not keen on watching Doctor Who at night, but it can't be helped. Anyway, look for that post later today!

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New banner

This is just a quick post to point out that I have finally made my own custom banner for this blog! I got the dimensions by doing "view source" and looking at the CSS to get the height of the header wrapper, then finding out the length from the Header widget editor, which said images would be cropped down to 970 pixels long. The pics of the Doctor and the TARDIS are from Sonic Biro and are from an animated special called "Dreamland." I thought the animated look looked cool, and it would also be different than some Doctor Who website banners I've seen. The background is a stock pic from DeviantArt called Nebula Effects Fractal Stock. The subtitle font is a font I already had installed from another project called Dactylographe, while the main title is, obviously, the Doctor Who font. Both are from DaFont.

To finish things up I need to make a favicon. But I don't think I'm going to do that tonight. By tomorrow though definitely.

Good night!

Edit 12.17.2012 12:00 PM: I made and uploaded the favicon. It's not showing up yet (it usually takes time for favicons to show up) but it should shortly. Will check back later today to see if it worked. I tried to make it match the banner by using the same background and the same Doctor Who font in the same colors. I also added a TARDIS icon in the background; that icon comes from findicons.com.

Edit 12.17.2012 1:07 PM: Favicon is showing up in IE, Chrome, and Firefox. Didn't like how old one looked though, so remade and reuploaded it. New one not yet showing up but will soon. New one just features TARDIS icon, background and "initials" for the blog - TA TH - in that Doctor Who font, in the same colors.

Change of Plans

I've been thinking. And I think, instead of writing the Series 7 posts and leaving them in draft till I finish the rest of the series, I will write and post them this week. We are just over a week away from Christmas, after all, so the Christmas Special is coming fast. So it'll be a sort of "Countdown to Christmas." How does that sound?

In other news, Doctor Who won the TV Guide Fan Favorites Cover contest, meaning that Matt Smith is gracing the cover of the latest issue. The cover story deals mostly with the history and fandom of Doctor Who, but also reveals a bit about the Christmas Special, mostly stuff we kind of knew already from the trailer. But some new stuff was revealed as well. The new companion's full name is Governess Clara Oswin. The article also hints at a definite connection between her and Oswin Oswald, the character Jenna-Louise Coleman played in "Asylum of the Daleks." Specifically, the article says: "Coleman actually debuted in this fall's premiere as Oswin Oswald, a brainiac techie trapped inside a Dalek. How one woman becomes the other will presumedly be answered in the December 25 Christmas episode, which is set in Victorian London." We also find out from this article why the Doctor's in Victorian London in the first place - he's been hanging out there to deal with his grief over losing Amy & Rory. It's clear that the Doctor takes losing his Companions hard. (We see a similar reaction from the Tenth Doctor over losing Rose). But then he does say in the Dream Lord episode that he chooses his friends carefully.

The article also gives a hint of what's ahead for Series 7 part 2. The episode Neil Gaiman wrote will be part of it, and will feature the return of the Cybermen. There will also be a special entitled An Adventure in Space and Time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the franchise. Steven Moffat is quoted in the article as saying he's got huge plans for the actual anniversary celebrations, but won't say what they are.

Oh and also, for those of you Whovians still looking for Whovian Christmas gifts, the DVD of Series 7 Part 1 is now out in stores. I saw it at Target the other day.

So look forward to those Series 7 posts this week!

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