Doctor Who: "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" Review - *May Include Spoilers*

It's bigger on the inside. That is the constantly running gag whenever a new person steps into the big blue box. This episode was what every Doctor Who fan has wanted to see. This episode was set to explore the inside of the TARDIS.

A story that took place almost entirely inside of the legendary blue box. What a great idea for a story. But did it deliver? Answer: Sort of. The episode surely did take us on a ride and adventure through the TARDIS. But it did seem like there was a lot more that could have been done. The episode did not completely live up to the huge hype that surrounded it. But could it have really? Doctor Who fans are notorious for creating hype that can not be lived up to. This failed to reach the lofty goals set for it, but it still succeeded in making for an interesting story.

We got to see a lot of corridor shots, a la The Doctor's Wife. More than that, we got to see actually rooms of the TARDIS. We got a look into the library, a huge expanse filled with what I assume is every important work of literature. The library included a copy of "The History of the Time War" and a set of Encyclopedia Gallifreya. I enjoyed that the Encyclopedia wasn't written, but instead was filled with voices and was spoken when opened. We were also treated to the inside of the Eye of Harmony, the power source of the TARDIS, and to the engine room. Although the engine room was only seen in pieces, literal pieces floating around, keeping open the secrecy around the workings of the engine.

The support cast really did nothing in this story. They were basically just there to give a reason why the TARDIS was broken. Their acting was sub-par and could have done with less of them. Even Matt Smith's acting was below where it normally is, not a bad performance, but nothing too special. I did however enjoy Jenna-Louise Coleman's performance. She gave off a air of fear, anger, and worry that helped bring the viewer into the story.

The Doctor-Clara relationship was not totally forwarded in this episode. We didn't learn anything new or anything that we really needed for the story. We do learn however that Clara has no memory (or least none that she wishes to share with the Doctor) of her other selves (Oswin from Asylum of the Daleks and Clara from The Snowmen). We also get a confrontation between Clara and the Doctor near the end about her finding the Doctor's real name. The Doctor is very visibly shaken and angered by her finding out his name. This sets up intrigue for the Series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor.

Some other quick notes: In the library, why was "The History of the Time War" written in English? It had to be since the TARDIS does not translate Gallifreyan. Or if it was written in Gallifreyan, then how could Clara read it? And why would the Doctor (who I assume wrote the book) put his real name in the book if he did not want it to be known. I don't quite understand the motivations behind the charred monsters. The explanation given was that they were the salvage crew, Clara, and the Doctor burned and melted by the Eye of Harmony. If this is the case, then why would they be attacking their past selves?

I am beginning to become very tired of the sonic screwdriver being able to do basically everything. It is becoming a magic wand (term coined by Tom from The Doctor Who Podcast). Instead of being a tool, it is now used to push the plot along and get the Doctor out of any situation. That needs to change.

I thought that this episode was very well directed. I loved the shots and the colors shown. It made up for the lackluster writing. The writing I felt was done by someone who had a sort of idea for what they wanted to do, but couldn't fully get it together or come up with a good enough conclusion.

The ending was a cop out, but did not detract from the enjoyment of the story. It is a good stand alone story used to show the inside of the TARDIS. For those that say they were not satisfied with what they showed of the TARDIS in the story, well too bad for those people. Those are the people that will not be happy with anything less than a 6 hour extravaganza. This showed enough to make the viewers happy while also keeping enough hidden to show at a later time. 8 out of 10.

Feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments below.

Olympus Has Fallen Review

So here we go, my very first non-Doctor Who review post. I tackle my first attempt at writing a movie review. These posts will be a bit shorter than my Doctor Who reviews. I want to keep the movie reviews pretty concise and not to give too much away.

So first off this is a high octane action movie. There are two types of movie watchers, those that like stupid action movies and those that don't. This is the definition of a stupid action movie. So if that is not your cup of tea then you will not enjoy this movie. But, if you do like a movie where you can just sit and watch things blow up, gun fights, and not have to think too hard then you will enjoy this movie.

Now this is your basic action movie. It did not have that great of acting, even Morgan Freeman didn't pull off  a great performance. There were a ton of holes that you could poke into the plot. But the fun of these types of movies is not thinking too hard about the plot and just letting the action take over. And this movie had lots of action. If you can get by the fact that the terrorists are attacking the White House, then the action is great. It's weird to say, but it was fun to see kind of what would unfold if something like that were to happen. Even if his acting was lacking, Gerard Butler was a badass in this movie. This is the type of role you want to see Butler in and he did it to the tee. As for the plot holes, if you can get past it there is still enough plot to make the movie interesting and engaging.

As I said if these aren't the types of movies you like in the first place, then you won't like Olympus Has Fallen. But if you are an action movie fan, I would recommend it. 6.5 out of 10.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below. This will be the general format when I review movies and the score is based not just quality of the movie but also enjoyability.

 

Doctor Who: "Hide" Review - *May include Spoilers*

Doctor Who takes a trip into the paranormal with the ghost story, Hide. The show has tackled ghosts in previous stories, such as The Unquiet Dead written by Mark Gatiss. This episode might give that one a run for it's money in the ghost market. Of course with this being Doctor Who we knew going into it that the ghosts would not be real ghosts. So the question became how will the episode twist and turn?

The episode begins by setting up a classic haunted house situation. The Doctor and Clara crashed the ghost hunting party of Alec Palmer and emphatic psychic Emma. Palmer and Emma were investigating a centuries old ghost haunting on the site. During their investigation they would take pictures of the ghost and after developing the pictures the ghost would appear to be in the same position in every shot. This lead the Doctor to do his own picture investigation in a way only the Doctor can. He grabbed Clara, hopped in the TARDIS, and traveled to various points in history taking pictures on the very same spot as the house, revealing that the ghost appeared in pictures every time.

The Doctor was able to figure out that the ghost was not in fact a ghost, but was a lost time traveler. The time traveler, Hila Tacorian, was trapped in a "pocket universe" and was on the run from a monster hiding in the mist. The Doctor used Emma's psychic gift in order to open a gateway to the pocket universe and rescue Hila. Events unfolded where the Doctor ended up trapped in the pocket himself. Clara needed to team up with the TARDIS and rescue the Doctor and bring him back. Once rescued the Doctor was set to go back on his way when he was hit with the realization that he missed something. There were in fact two monsters, lovers broken up an accident in time. The Doctor makes one last trip to the pocket in order to reunite the two monsters.

The episode was small in scope. Much like last week's Cold War it was limited in the scenery, as it only really utilized three scenes. It also had a limited cast, showcasing just the Doctor, Clara, and two supporting actors. I, for one, like the smaller episodes. Don't get me wrong it is nice to see the Doctor save the Earth or another planet every now and then, but in between those times it is nice to see him taken back down and shown that there are other problems out there worth solving. Even the Doctor acknowledges that there is more to what he does than just saving planets; When talking to Clara in one scene the Doctor mentions the Clara is "the only mystery worth solving." Small episodes gives us a chance to really delve into the character of the Doctor, which we get a bit of in this one.

The characters of Palmer and Emma acted as parallels for the Doctor and Clara. Palmer's and Emma's relationship was supposed to serve as a parallel for the Doctor and Clara. It is a road that I am scared of the show going down. I'd rather not have this become a romantic thing, but at the moment Moffat is dropping lots of those types of hints at the moment. I just hope that he is dropping those hints to get people off the real trail of who Clara is supposed to be. Palmer himself was used to almost as a mirror for the Doctor. Palmer, a war-hero, had seen death and had sent others to die as well. The Doctor asked Palmer what he would say to them if he could contact them and Palmer replied, "I'd very much like to thank them."

This was Jenna Louise-Coleman's first episode of the season that she filmed. Unfortunately it showed. She didn't exactly feel the same as she had in the previous three. Neil Cross, the writer of this episode, had a hard task of trying to write for a character that he had not seen on film yet. Some of her dialogue was little weak and awkward.

Some quick notes: The relationship between Clara and the TARDIS continued. This included the TARDIS pretty much calling Clara conceded. I'm very much interested to show how this relationship continues into next week's TARDIScentric episode. The callbacks continued with the orange spacesuit that David Tennant wore and as well with the blue crystal from Metabelis III a callback to Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor. Also I liked that the power source for the psychic device used to open the gateway was actually part of the Eye of Harmony from the TARDIS. Emma had interesting interactions with both Clara and the Doctor. She told Clara not to trust the Doctor as he had "a sliver of ice in his heart" so it will be interesting to see where that leads Clara. Then in the ending scene the Doctor asked Emma about Clara, specifically asking "What is she?" All Emma replied with was that she was a normal girl who is more scared then she lets on. Does Emma know more than she is letting on? I think she does and just doesn't trust the Doctor to tell him anymore.

I did not like that it spent so much time alone with Emma and Palmer. It was nice that they were there, but the show really should have stayed more with the Doctor and Clara. I know they did it to show the parallels, but it was still a little boring at times. The tonal shift at the end was little jarring. It side shifted so quickly from this ghost/horror story to being a love story all of a sudden. Not bad, but it just felt weird.

At the end, the Doctor says, "Every lonely monster needs a companion." This quote is my favorite of the episode. He is talking about the pocket universe creature, but at the same time talking about himself. Very subtle, but very powerful all at the same time.

This episode was very well directed. It had just enough suspense and enough horror/ghost elements to make it work. The best part of this episode is when the Doctor is left alone in the pocket universe and he is being watched by the creature in the mist. When he says "I am the Doctor, and I am afraid" it really made me frightened because if he is scared then I should be as well. It will be able to stand on its own against The Unquiet Dead. It was a decent episode, not a stand out of the series but still good. 7.5 out of 10.

Very much looking forward to next week's Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Feel free to post your own thoughts and comments below.

Doctor Who: "The Bells of Saint John" Review - *May Contain Spoilers*

To get the new blog going, I will be going back and reviewing the two previous Doctor Who episodes that I missed. Starting with the Series 7B premiere, The Bells of Saint John, which premiered on March, 30th. This was the first new episode since the Christmas Special and first new regular episode since September. Since it had been quite the wait the anticipation for this one was rather high, especially when you add in the element of a new companion joining the show.

Leading up to the premiere of the episode, Producer Steven Moffat had hinted that this episode would make people afraid of WiFi. That promise was paid off right in the cold open. The show begins with a character conveying a warning to others to stay away from a strange WiFi. Once a user clicks on it and connects they then become victims of the people who had placed the WiFi there in the first place. This was an interesting way to go with the concept of WiFi, a person being able to be sucked into the WiFi and their consciousness locked away in the Internet. It also showed that this was a worldwide event and not just isolated to London/England like other Doctor Who episodes. I just wonder why there are so many people clicking on strange, unlocked WiFi in the first place. Are people really that greedy/needy for the Internet? I guess in this tech culture that is probably plausible and they are in fact "like rats to the cheese."

The episode was well paced for what it was meant to be. What I mean by that is that it had the task of not only being a premiere, thus setting up the remainder of the season, and also it had to introduce us to the Doctor's new companion. Because of the latter, the plot becomes secondary to the interaction between the Doctor and Clara. Out of the 45 minute episode if the Doctor/Clare interaction was taken out, the plot would probably only take maybe 15-20 minutes. But does that mean it's not a good episode? Of course not because it is still a very good 15 minutes of plot. Plus the 25 minutes of the Doctor & Clara is just fantastic.

Speaking of the Doctor and Clara, let's talk about that a little. This is the first time when we get to see Clara proper, or at least the version that gets to travel with the Doctor. Jenna Louise-Coleman already showed Doctor Who fans glimpses of what she could bring to show and in this episode she kept that ball rolling. Her performance did not disappoint this Whovian. Clara is a very clever character and plays off of Matt Smith's Doctor very well. This episode gives a clue as to where Oswin (Asylum of the Daleks) received her computer knowledge and reveals a nanny/governess connection to Victorian Clara (The Snowmen). This episode did a brilliant job of setting up Clara as a character and I have a feeling she is going to be a companion that will be remembered.

Going back to the shortened amount of time for the plot, the only thing that really bugged me was the quickened resolution. Seemed like a lot of build up for what was a rather fast ending. But besides it being a quick wrap-up it was still a clever one. It was an extraordinary twist by having the Doctor use one of the Spoonhead WiFi stations to do his work for him. I just thought that there was more that could have been done.

Some quick notes: I enjoyed the couple of callbacks in this episode. Tom Baker's scarf, Patrick Troughton's bow tie  and David Tennant's coat were all seen in this episode. Also the book written by Amelia Williams was a nice throw in. The "client" in the episode was revealed to be the Great Intelligence (making a return from his appearance in The Snowmen). This leads me to believe that the Great Intelligence will be making a return to Doctor Who either in the Season 7 finale or in the 50th Anniversary special. Steven Moffat is smarter than to just throw something like that in without it meaning something, especially considering that Moffat not only was the writer of The Snowmen but also will be the writer of both the finale and 50th special. Celia Imrie guest starred as Miss Kizlet, the person being controlled by the Great Intelligence. She did a great job in the episode and was very believable as the "baddie" in the story. Her acting skills really shone through in her ending scene when she was revert back to childhood.

This episode was very much needed when it premiered. It sat just right on the pallet. It was a nice opening to the season, but it still didn't just blow me away. Acting was great, plot was so so, and the threat was new and interesting. 7.5 out of 10.

Feel free to post your comments down below with your own feelings and thoughts. My review of The Rings of Akhaten will be posted before the newest episode, Hide, arrives on Saturday.

Doctor Who: "Cold War" Review - *May include Minor Spoilers*

For my very first review I will be reviewing the Doctor Who episode Cold War which debuted on this past Saturday April, 13th, 2013. Again I will state that there may be some minor spoilers as I will discuss some plot points.

This was a good setup for the episode. Cold War, Russian Sub, and returning Monster. But did it deliver on that promising setup? I believe it did. The episode included enough plot and tension to make it worth watching. The main characters played their parts superbly. Matt Smith played the Doctor as well as he ever has before. Jenna Louise-Coleman seems to be really coming into her own as Clara. Guest Star Liam Cunningham gave a great performance as the subs' Captain.

This episode featured the return of Classic series monster, the Ice Warriors. After a nearly 40 year absence, they made their debut in the New series. Did their return work? Absolutely yes! The look of the Ice Warrior was modernized, but also stayed mostly true to the original look. The look and feel was very intimidating. The confined space of the submarine only added to the luster of the Ice Warrior. The story made the Ice Warrior something to be feared and taken seriously. I really enjoyed seeing this enemy. The ending also added a nice conclusion and an opportunity for them to make a return at some point.

Cold War was definitely Clara's coming out party as a Doctor Who companion. She actually had to act like a true companion. Tasked with talking to the Ice Warrior when the Doctor was unable and also was counted on to keep the Doctor in check. The season so far has followed the established Doctor Who story arc for companions. First episode was meeting the Doctor (3 times in Clara's instance ha). Second episode was the fantastic time travel demonstration. And then this, the Third episode, was the one where the companion becomes the companion. Clara was actually in a truly dangerous situation for the first time. She did freak out when she became aware that things were starting to get real, but by the end of the episode she gained her footing and is on her way to becoming a really amazing companion (even without her secret background).

Just some other quick notes: I think that there may be more to the disappearance of the TARDIS then just the Doctor's explanation of the HADS activating. The Doctor was carrying a doll with him when he was searched by the Russian crew. Why did he have the doll? Was it another token from Clara's past or something else? I did notice that the doll bared a striking resemblance to Rose, which only continued the Clara's connections/references to Rose and other companions. Next week's episode looks very interesting and looks like we are going to a little deeper into the Clara mystery.

I feel like this was the best episode that Mark Gatiss has written. He has had an up and down history when it comes to writing for Doctor Who, having written the stories The Unquiet Dead, The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks, and Night Terrors. Not the best of histories, but Steven Moffat must see something in him if he keeps giving him scripts. Gatiss will have another episode during this half season, The Crimson Horror, and I hope he has written that in the style of Cold War and not fallen back into his previous stories.

Overall this was a fine episode. It had great suspense, a great monster, the Doctor being the Doctor, and the companion fulfilling her role. 8 out of 10.

Feel free to post your comments below with your own feelings and thoughts. I will be posting reviews of The Bells of St. John and The Rings of Akhaten at a later time.

Let's Get This Started

So I have been thinking of starting this thing for awhile now. I've always wanted a blog where I could just write down my thoughts on movies and TV shows that I have watched recently. So I just decided that it is never going to get started unless I make it happen. So here it is!

I have posted been posting movie reviews on my Facebook page for a little while now, but I wanted something a little more permanent and such. When I give movie reviews I like to give a quick synopsis of the movie (with as little spoilers as possible) and then add in my own thoughts. I'll add what I liked and disliked about what I thought. I will be using  1-10 scale for my scores at the end of the review.

Now we get to the TV show portion. One of the major reasons I've wanted to start this blog was to talk about my love of some TV shows (particularly Doctor Who as mentioned above in the description). So I will be writing reviews of some episodes which I would like to write about. But more so than the review, I like to discuss the show and what is going on in the show, what I think is going to happen and what I would like to see happen.

So if any of this interests you then come along for the journey. I would love to have you.

Official start begins tomorrow with my review of the Doctor Who episode "Cold War."