Countdown to Christmas, Day 3: Series 7, Episode 3 - "A Town Called Mercy"

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
 

It's Day 3 of the Countdown to Christmas series! Surprised this is being posted earlier in the evening? Well, I worked early today so I got home early. And I am in a better mood than the last two days. I just wish it wasn't so cold. It's like someone - or something - decided to remind Southern California that winter is upon us by sending some super-duper cold weather. But that's neither here nor there.

So...next up (or "ep" ha ha): Series 7, Episode 3: "A Town Called Mercy"!

This episode takes us to a very new place for Doctor Who: the American Wild West! Apparently, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory were en route to the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico and because, as the Doctor puts it in an annoyed tone, somebody spilled toast crumbs on the TARDIS console, they've ended up in the middle of the desert about 200 miles north of their destination instead. (Not sure who spilled the crumbs...though Rory's dad WAS eating a sandwich in the TARDIS at the end of the last episode... maybe the Doctor whisked Amy and Rory away while they were eating breakfast?). I have to say, the setting looks spot-on. Not that I know much about the Wild West - SoCal is not the Wild West, clearly - but I have seen some Westerns and know some history. Who knew they had replicas of the Wild West out in the deserts of Andalucia, Spain? (That's where this episode was filmed, by the way. It was filmed at the Parque Tématico del Desierto de Tabermas-Almería, also known as Parque Oasys or Mini Hollywood, and at Fort Bravo, formerly known as Texas Hollywood, a former movie set-turned-theme-park of sorts. Both places are located in the province of Almería in the Andalucia region of Spain and have both been used for shooting Westerns).

The crisis de jour is that 3 weeks prior, some weird cyborg cowboy called "The Gunslinger" showed up and has threatened to shoot anyone who crosses over the border of stone and wood placed around the town (called Mercy, hence the episode title) unless the town agrees to give up this alien doctor that The Gunslinger wants to kill. But the town wants to keep said doctor around because he saved the town from cholera and has given the town electric streetlamps and modern (for the time) heating via power from his crashed spacecraft. The problem with this arrangement is that, with The Gunslinger's ultimatum in place, no supplies can get to the town from the surrounding area, meaning that sooner or later the people of the town are going to starve to death.

And this is where the Doctor, Amy, and Rory come in. Even though Rory warns the Doctor of the "Keep Out" signs, the three end up stepping into town, where the Doctor notes the electric streetlamps, which are "ten years too early," and the fact that people are staring at them. Ironically, he finds this amusing, saying, "Anachronistic electricity, Keep Out signs, aggressive stares. Has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?" He also makes a comment to Rory about Rory leaving his phone charger in Henry the Eighth's en-suite (which, according to The TARDIS Index File, actually happens in the next episode, "The Power of Three," meaning that chronologically this episode takes place after that one).

The Doctor then saunters into the local saloon like nothing's wrong, pushing open the doors just like in an old western. He then goes up to the bar and orders tea. Unfortunately, trouble ensues once the Doctor introduces himself and confirms he is an alien. Thinking he is the "alien doctor" the Gunslinger is after, they drag him out of town and dump him over the border. The Gunslinger then appears from some subspace or other and is about to kill the Doctor, when the town sheriff/Marshal Isaac intervenes. Isaac was very well played I thought. He's played by American actor Ben Browder, famous for his role as John Crichton on the Australian series Farscape and as Cameron Mitchell on Stargate SG-1. I've never seen him in anything but this though.

It turns out that the sheriff/Marshal knows who the real alien doctor is - this guy named Kahler-Jex. Kahler-Jex is played by Adrian Scarborough, an English actor primarily known for his role as Barnes in the film Gosford Park, his small role as a BBC Radio Announcer in The King's Speech (which is probably where I've heard/seen him, because I've seen that movie), and his role as Mr. Pritchard on the popular TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. He does a great job in this episode playing a scientist who regrets what he has created but fears having to deal with his past. In many ways, he is in the same position as Dr. Frankenstein from the book Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - he created a creature that was supposed to be used for good (in Kahler-Jex's case, ending the civil war on his planet) but instead it became a monster and did things he did not intend. And apparently, the people on Jex's planet believe that when you die, your soul must climb a mountain while carrying the souls of all those you've wronged - which is why he doesn't want to die for his crimes, because he can't bear to face the afterlife consequences. Pretty odd afterlife concept if you ask me, but it works.

The Doctor originally comes up with a plan to evacuate the whole city into the TARDIS to save everyone from the Gunslinger, but changes his mind when he finds Jex's ship and learns who he truly is. He then heads back to town to confront Jex about his crimes. And then Jex has the nerve to tick the Doctor off:

Looking at you, Doctor, is like looking into a mirror, almost. There's rage there, like me. Guilt, like me. Solitude. Everything but the nerve to do what needs to be done. Thank the gods my people weren't relying on you to save them.

That's the last straw for the Doctor, and he angrily pushes Jex out of town, more than ready to let the Gunslinger finish him off, while the townspeople look on.

And this is where the amazing Amy Pond steps in and takes charge once again. She basically tells the Doctor off:

AMY: Let him come back, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Or what? You won't shoot me, Amy.
AMY: How do you know? Maybe I've changed. I mean, you've clearly been taking stupid lessons since I saw you last.
(Her gun fires again.)
AMY: I didn't mean to do that.
(So Isaac fires to get everyone's attention.)
ISAAC: Everyone who isn't an American, drop your gun.
DOCTOR: We can end this right now. We could save everyone right now.
AMY: This is not how we roll, and you know it. What happened to you, Doctor? When did killing someone become an option?
DOCTOR: Jex has to answer for his crimes.
AMY: And what then? Are you going to hunt down everyone who's made a gun or a bullet or a bomb?
DOCTOR: But they [keep] coming back, don't you see? Every time I negotiate, I try to understand. Well, not today. No. Today, I honour the victims first. His, the Master's, the Dalek's, all the people who died because of my mercy!
AMY: You see, this is what happens when you travel alone for too long. Well, listen to me, Doctor. We can't be like him. We have to be better than him. 

You have to remember, the Doctor is traditionally a pacifist. So for him to act the way he does in this scene, bent on violence, is unlike him, and Amy knows it. So she does the right thing and tells him he's wrong. And apparently not even the Doctor can say no to Amy Pond.

DOCTOR: Amelia Pond. Fine, fine. We think of something else.

The Inside Peek into the episode, a BBC America-exclusive feature shown during one of the commercial breaks for each episode so far of this series, actually deals with this. In it, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill discuss the different side of the Doctor that we see in this episode. Here's the clip:

Still, the Doctor's "betting on the Gunslinger," and sure enough the Gunslinger shows up to take Jex out. But Isaac won't have it and takes the shot himself to save Jex. Before dying, he appoints the Doctor the new sheriff/Marshal and asks him to take care of the town and of Jex. The Doctor pins on the Marshal badge, orders that Jex be returned to his cell, and confronts the Gunslinger, who agrees to give the townspeople till noon tomorrow to give up Jex - otherwise, he's going to shoot up the town.

I love Amy's reaction when it sinks in that the Doctor is now the Marshal. I think she's thinking "Oh crud, what did we just get ourselves into now?" Rory's reaction in the following scene to being called "fella" is pretty funny too. In the following scene, the townspeople try to convince the Doctor to let Jex go out into the desert for the whole town's sake, but he refuses. The Doctor's line at the end of the scene is very revealing of his current mood:

DOCTOR: Frightened people. Give me a Dalek any day.

The Doctor and Jex then have a conversation, where Jex points out that he still suffers mentally because of what he did. This conversation is actually a lot like the final conversation between the Doctor and Oswin in "Asylum of the Daleks." The hyper-rational Doctor has an opinion and he won't let go of it, even when someone tries to present another side to the situation or another point of view. In "Asylum of the Daleks," the Doctor was convinced Oswin had been fully converted into a Dalek and was only dreaming she was still human as a way of denying the reality of her new life, because that was what seemed rational to him. But Oswin, on the other hand, was trying to present him with another possibility, the possibility that she was still human, but trapped inside a Dalek - a possibility the Doctor rejected because, like emotion to Spock on Star Trek, it was illogical from his point of view. In this case, Jex is presenting his point of view, that he regrets what he did but would not consider it shameful if the Doctor handed him over to the Gunslinger. The Doctor, on the other hand, doesn't believe him, and claims Jex has chosen life in Mercy as his "punishment" for his crimes, a sort of penance more or less. Yet, the Doctor seems to show a moment of his own crisis of conscience at the same time:

DOCTOR: ...You committed an atrocity and chose this as your punishment. Don't get me wrong, good choice. Civilised hours, lots of adulation, nice weather, but, but justice doesn't work like that. You don't get to decide when and how your debt is paid. 

I find this line interesting because of the Doctor's character. Remember, in the reboot continuity, the Doctor is the last of his kind. He was forced to destroy Gallifrey, and all his fellow Time Lords with it, during the Time Wars that happened prior to Series 1. If anyone would have war guilt, it's him. And I'm sure he has a debt to pay for many things throughout the 1,200 years of his existence (he states he is 1,200 years old in this episode). I mean, think of the Pandorica episodes, where all his enemies basically blamed him for the cracks in the universe. Does the good he's done outweigh the bad in the end? I think this situation - as well as the other episodes of Series 7 so far - point out a key point: whether the Doctor is a hero or a villain depends on your viewpoint. It's been shown so far in Series 7 that the Doctor can get pretty nasty when he's been alone for too long, and even Matt Smith points this out in the Inside Look (clip above), saying "I would imagine, you know, the Doctor with not that much patience and tolerance...could be complete carnage." It's also notable that the opening line of the episode, given by an unknown female in voice-over, is "When I was a child, my favourite story was about a man who lived forever, but whose eyes were heavy with the weight of all he'd seen. A man who fell from the stars."  I think that describes the Doctor to a T. Just goes to show that the Companions may be more necessary than I thought. They are what keep the Doctor from going over the edge. As Jex points out to the Doctor:

We all carry our prisons with us. Mine is my past. Yours is your morality.

The Doctor scoffs at that line, but Jex is totally right. The Doctor's morality is what makes or breaks everything he does. It reminds me of this bit from Hamlet, my favorite Shakespeare play:

HAMLET

...Let me question more in particular: what have you,
my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
that she sends you to prison hither?

GUILDENSTERN

Prison, my lord!

HAMLET

Denmark's a prison.

ROSENCRANTZ

Then is the world one.

HAMLET

A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.

ROSENCRANTZ

We think not so, my lord.

HAMLET

Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
it is a prison.

 (Text source)

The Gunslinger's ultimatum leads to a classic trope of Western movies: the shootout. Watch any Western movie and it is bound to have one of these scenes. For some reason, they are always at high noon, just like in this episode. The scene plays as usual, and unsurprisingly, the Doctor pulls out his trusty Sonic Screwdriver rather than a gun. I also liked the little trick the townspeople did by running around with Jex's facial marking painted on their faces to confuse the Gunslinger, which reminded me of the movie Three Amigos where the townspeople dressed up like the Amigos to confuse El Guapo and his men (which you can see in this clip; the action starts around 3:47). I thought it was funny that Rory's mark was identified as incorrect according to the Gunslinger's scanner. Guess he didn't draw his right. Oops.

Meanwhile, while the decoys confuse the Gunslinger, Jex escapes to his ship. But he realizes that even if he leaves, the Gunslinger will just pursue him to another planet and they'll have to go through this again somewhere else, as the Gunslinger isn't going to stop pursuing him until Jex is dead. Reminds me of the song "Confrontation" from the recent Jekyll & Hyde musical I saw, in which Hyde threatens Jekyll and says Jekyll will never be free from him:

So Jex decides to face justice and end the war for both him and the Gunslinger. He activates the self-destruct on his spaceship, blowing himself up. Now why the Doctor didn't run off and try to stop him or something I'm not sure. Normally, he would. But he doesn't. Why, I wonder?

At any rate, the Gunslinger is kinda stuck now, his revenge being complete. The Doctor offers to take him home to his home planet, but the Gunslinger says he has no place in a time of peace and says he's going to go off into the desert and self-destruct. But then the Doctor stops him and says he might still have a purpose. In the scene that follows, we see the townspeople seeing the Doctor, Amy, and Rory off. The Doctor suggests they go on another adventure, but Amy objects, saying their friends might start to notice she and Rory are aging faster than they are (apparently all this travel through space and time does that to you). So the Doctor agrees to take them home, though he engages in a mock gun draw with the young guy who tried to shoot him earlier before they leave.

The lady who narrated at the beginning closes out the episode with a great closing:

By the time the Gunslinger arrived, the people of Mercy were used to the strange, the impossible. Where he came from didn't matter. As a man once said, America is a land of second chances. Do I believe the story? I don't know. My great-grandmother must have been a little girl when he arrived. But next time you're in Mercy, ask someone why they don't have a Marshal or Sheriff or policeman there. We've got our own arrangement, they'll say, then they'll smile like they got a secret. Like they've got their own special angel watching out for them. Their very own angel who fell from the stars.

As she narrates this, we see a little girl (assumedly the narrator's great-grandmother) run to the edge of town and look up at a nearby ledge. And there stands the Gunslinger...with the Marshal badge on. I thought that was a nice touch. Cause obviously the Doctor couldn't stay there and be the Marshal.

This was a pretty good episode, in my opinion. Still not convinced whether I like Matt Smith as the Doctor or not. Given the side of the Doctor we're seeing in Series 7, it's not the best introduction to the Eleventh Doctor, I suppose; I may have to see Series 5 and 6 before I decide. It's not like with David Tennant where after a couple episodes I warmed up to him.

Tune in tomorrow for Day 4 and episode 4, "The Power of Three" (why does that make me think of Charmed?). That is, if the world is still here. Since tomorrow's December 21st and all. (Honestly, I don't believe the apocalypse will happen tomorrow. Never did). Bye!

Episode quotes taken from The Doctor Who Transcripts.

Countdown to Christmas, Day 2: Series 7, Episode 2 - "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
 

Welcome to Day 2 of the Countdown to Christmas series! Today's episode: Series 7, Episode 2: "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship."

This episode is a very different one from the last one. Less scary. I like the robots. They remind me of Stormtroopers or maybe Monty Python characters. Very funny but not that bright. (Turns out the robots are voiced by the British comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, a.k.a. Mitchell and Webb. Now the comedy makes sense).

Queen Nefertiti (played by English actress Riann Steele) is really cool. I'm a history and mythology fan so seeing her was as cool for me as it is for Amy in this episode.

The reptilian Silurians are mentioned once again in this episode.  Interesting how creatures on Doctor Who keep coming back. And I actually got the "ark" reference, because I know the Bible well.

Liked seeing Rory's dad in this episode and how bewildered he was. As Arthur Darvill points out in the inside peek, it does definitely give some insight into Rory's character. I also like how in-charge Amy was in this episode. She's way less emo than she was last episode. (But maybe it's because it has been 10 months since when "Asylum of the Daleks" took place, so she's mellowed out by now).

The bad guy is some guy named Solomon who's a greedy space trader. Apparently, he's played by David Bradley, the same guy who played Filch in Harry Potter. I thought I recognized him from somewhere.

I don't much care for Riddell. He does seem very much like a guy from the colonial period. (For those of you who watch Sherlock, Riddell is played by Rupert Graves, known for playing Lestrade on that show).

Given what happens to the Ponds later on in Series 7 (yes, I've already been spoiled about that), the Doctor and Amy's conversation about his relationship with her and Rory seems prophetic - especially her comment that he'll be around "to the end of me."

This episode didn't seem as drawn out as the last one. It went by more quickly than I expected. Which is good. Sometimes it's better not to draw things out.

Matt Smith was a little more tolerable for me this time around. He does know how to be not serious, apparently.

Not much else to say here. Enjoyable episode, not as dark as "Asylum of the Daleks."

Oh hey Rory's dad is played by Mark Williams, the guy who plays Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter! That's cool. I thought I recognized him too. Must've been a nice reunion for him and David Bradley. I wonder how many other Harry Potter actors have been in Doctor Who? You never hear as much about the adult actors in Potter as you do the younger actors. But the Potter cast is all-British, so it makes sense they'd appear in British shows.

Well, that's it for now. Tune in tomorrow for Day 3 and "A Town Called Mercy." Looks like a Western-style adventure next time. Yee-haw!

Oh, and don't forget to watch the new special on Friday night - The Brit List: The Doctor Who Ultimate List of Lists. It's on at 7 p.m. with an encore at 10. A sort of marathon of Doctor Who specials is also airing on BBC America that day, according to my TV's program guide, starting at noon. The 2011 Christmas Special is also re-airing that day at 9 p.m. Also, found out when the 2012 Christmas Special is airing here - the official Doctor Who Tumblr posted that it will be on BBC America at 9/8 PM central on Christmas Day. However, the Brits get it at 5:15pm and the Canadians at 6pm, so be careful and watch out for spoilers on the net! And don't spoil it for the Aussies and Kiwis (New Zealanders) who have to wait till the 26th to see it. Remember, SPOILERS ARE BAD.

Countdown to Christmas, Day 1: Series 7, Episode 1 - "Asylum of the Daleks"

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED DOCTOR WHO OR AT THE VERY LEAST HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 

Well, it's begun. Today is exactly one week until Christmas, and that means it's time for that series I promised - Countdown to Christmas!

As promised, this series will consist of analyses of the episodes of Series 7 Part 1, as well as the 2-part prequel to the Christmas Special. This being day 1, today's analysis shall be of the Series 7 premiere, "Asylum of the Daleks."

So the biggest thing for me going into this episode was that I was a tad bit lost. You have to remember, I went from the Series 2 Christmas Special to this. So WAY different vibe. And different Doctor for that matter. The opening credits sequence was WAY different than the much plainer version used in Series 2. And yet they supposedly are going to change it AGAIN in the Christmas Special this year? Not sure why. The one in this episode is pretty cool in my opinion.

So, as for the episode...we start with a lady narrating some sort of letter, and the Doctor's shadow is seen. Then the Doctor appears and talks with the woman, while they look on the ruins of Scaro, the original home planet of the Doctor's nemesis, the Daleks. I have to say, Matt Smith's acting was pretty good in this scene. I'm not familiar with the Eleventh Doctor except through the specials, so this was my first time seeing him in an actual episode. He's kinda scary actually. I think it's his head/face - they are very statuesque. In a creepy way. I don't know if that's intentional. At the same time though, the Doctor wasn't very nice in this scene. I know the Doctor has scenes where he has to be serious and not so nice, but the Eleventh Doctor seems to do it more than usual.

Anyway, it turns out the lady is a Dalek. Sort of. It's like she was turned into one. Which is pretty icky. So, the Daleks capture the Doctor using her. We then go to Earth, where apparently Amy Pond has become some kind of model and gotten a sort of punk makeover. She's doing a photo shoot anyway when someone comes up to tell her her husband is there, to which she replies she has no husband. But she goes to the dressing room anyway, and Rory's there with what appear to be divorce papers. Amy doesn't even seem concerned about it, though Rory clearly is. So something is not going too well with these two. Hmm. Meanwhile, Amy gets abducted by her stylist-turned-Dalek, and the same thing happens to Rory as he gets on a bus to leave.

Amy and Rory find themselves in some white room. They don't seem too happy to be together, given the circumstances. Rory peeks out the window and sees a bunch of spaceships aiming at them. He reads the atmosphere and guesses they are in trouble. Then the Doctor comes in, guarded by Daleks, and small talk ensues. Now here I was confused. Why are there those metal/iron Daleks in this episode? I mean, I get that there are ones on the asylum planet (more about that in a sec), cause that's where the old, useless Daleks get sent to. But in the other scenes where there are Daleks, like this scene, they are all those iron Daleks. But I thought they'd "upgraded" in "Victory of the Daleks" to those colored, plastic-looking ones. But I could be wrong.

So Amy, Rory, and the Doctor get raised up on a platform where they are confronted by the Dalek Parliament. The last thing I'd want would be to hear that many Daleks talking at once. Aw man. That is not fun to listen to. Anyway, they apparently want to destroy this asylum planet they've set up where they dump all the useless Daleks. Problem is, there's a force field, and it can only be disabled from within the planet. Just goes to show how un-forward-thinking the Daleks are. And, for whatever reason, none of the Daleks want to go down there and deactivate it, so they're going to make the Doctor do it instead, regardless of the fact that they basically hate him. And because the Doctor "requires companions" (not sure where they got that idea; he can totally travel alone if he wants...the Companions are supposedly to help him not abuse his power and, I suppose, also to keep him from going insane from the loneliness), Amy and Rory are going too. The looks on Amy and Rory's faces when they finally understand why they are even on this Dalek ship in the first place are priceless. I bet Amy was thinking "And I left a BLOODY PHOTOSHOOT for this!"

So, after being provided with watch-like devices that are supposed to protect them from some nanomatter or other, the three are beamed down to the planet. The planet looked a lot like Hoth to me, the icy planet from The Empire Strikes Back. Also, the snow, I'm sad to say, did NOT look like snow. It kind of looked like sand actually. Then again, who knows how they filmed these exterior scenes - they could be on a soundstage for all I know.

And their adventures on the asylum planet begin, which mostly involve a lot of running from Daleks or people turned into Daleks. Amy loses her watch-thing and the Doctor realizes that she is now vulnerable to the nanomatter, which in a short period of time will turn her into one of those human-Dalek hybrids. He does everything he can to keep her human, while in the meantime the two try to find Rory, who ended up down in the interior of the planet in a maze of hallways filled with a lot of broken Daleks. Every time he tried to touch one, I thought "You better not do that," remembering how Rose woke a Dalek up by touching it back in Series 1.

And then there is Oswin. Oswin Oswald, the girl trapped inside a Dalek - and the episode strongly suggests she is just a human trapped in a Dalek, by the way. The Doctor may be convinced she is a full-on Dalek, who happens to have dreamed up her whole reality of hacking Dalek security, unsuccessfully making soufflés, recounting her day into a tape recorder à la the Captain's Log from Star Trek, boarding up her hatch to keep the Daleks out, and listening to the soundtrack for Bizet's Carmen on repeat. But I don't think so. I think she is really human. Yeah, it does appear she is controlling and speaking through that Dalek, but I believe her when she says she is a human who fought the Daleks. How exactly that room she is in exists I can't say. Definitely too big to be inside of a Dalek for sure. But she does show her humanness at the very end when she tells the Doctor to run, and to remember her. So I believe she's human.

Oswin was great. Kinda snarky, kinda flirty, but funny at the same time. Very well acted. And of course, Oswin is played by none other than Jenna-Louise Coleman, who's going to be the new Companion starting with this year's Christmas Special. This sort of thing isn't unheard of - it happened to Freema Agyeman, who played Series 3 Companion Martha; she appeared in "Army of Ghosts" in a smaller role before becoming a Companion. Alex Kingston also had a cameo as River Song in Series 4 before being properly introduced as River Song in Series 5. Since it does appear Oswin Oswald and Clara Oswin may be connected or even the same person (as I suggested in my post the other day), Oswin's "remember me" may have some significance. We'll see.

Overall, I liked the episode. It was less scary than I expected. And Amy and Rory got back together in the end, yay! Oh yeah, and it's in this episode that we learn Amy has become infertile as a result of what happened to her in "A Good Man Goes to War." That's why she wanted to divorce Rory - because he wants kids, and she can't give him kids (well except Melody/River Song). But it seems he doesn't care about that at all - he still loves Amy anyway. We'll see how that develops.

I'm still not crazy about the Eleventh Doctor yet. Like with the Tenth Doctor, he may grow on me, but for right now, he's not my favorite. A little too Byronic to me. Though he does have good light moments. Like at the end when all the Daleks start saying "Doctor who?" (nice touch, given the title of the show) and he realizes Oswin really did wipe all memory of him from all the Daleks' minds, and then he dances around the TARDIS saying "Doctor who?" with enthusiasm.

Well, that's it for today. Tune in tomorrow for Day 2 and Series 7, Episode 2, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"!

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!

Posted via Blogger for iPod/iPhone

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!

Written & posted via Blogger for iPod/iPhone, with some edits done via desktop version

2012 Christmas Special Details Revealed

I know I said I'd likely be on hiatus this month, but some important details have been revealed by the BBC regarding this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I have picked up from the ever-so-helpful pop culture newshounds over at LeakyNews.com, a blog spun off from the popular Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron.

So...first off, the episode will air on Christmas Day as usual.We also have an episode title; just a couple days ago the official Doctor Who Twitter account confirmed it will be called "The Snowmen." We do know from previous information it will be set in Victorian times and that a new Companion will be introduced to replace the departing Amy & Rory Pond, and that she is a girl, and she will be played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. And, according to the first proper trailer for the episode (also just released), her character will be named Clara. Coleman also played Oswin Oswald in "Asylum of the Daleks," the Series 7 premiere, making the Christmas Special her second episode of the series. It is unknown whether her character as a Companion and her character in "Asylum of the Daleks" are the same person (though in a bit introducing the trailer Matt Smith and Coleman joke about that possibility). Coleman is primarily known for her four years on Emmerdale, a British soap opera set on a farm in Yorkshire, as Jasmine Thomas.

A prequel for the Christmas Special was also aired by the BBC, called "The Great Detective," which can now be viewed online. You can see more at LeakyNews via the link below, as well as watch the prequel and the trailer.

Just wanted to share that news! There's only a little over a month till Christmas, so not much longer to wait yet!

Info from:
http://www.leakynews.com/watch-now-doctor-who-christmas-special-prequel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenna-Louise_Coleman

Edit: I have edited the "Next Doctor Who Episode" part of the footer to reflect this new information.