After last week's epic conclusion to the two-parter, we go for a what is a bit more of a romp, with the Timey Team on board a pirate ship dealing with a "siren" that is luring the crew away.
I'm not going to go into a description of the plot, which involves an alien spaceship, treasure and a famous pirate. I'll just go straight into the review.
The start is very promising, but then things go downhill rapidly. The pacing is off badly; this might have worked better as a two-parter. The dialogue starts to get a bit forced - this seems to be a pale imitation of Moffat's style and it shows. Then the bit at the end with Rory just walks slap bang into cliché. One note - if you're not breaking ribs, you're not doing it right.
Hugh Bonneville's Captain Avery is served badly by the script. Lily Cole doesn't even get an intelligible line and doesn't really add much to the story. Matt, Karen and Arthur all try their best with the material, but that's all they can do.
Nice try, but I'm going to have to give this a 5/10. The words "whole", "sum" and "parts", spring to mind.
Neil Gaiman's episode next week looks good. We'll see if my Doctor Who RP (The Triple First) ends up having its entire concept yanked out...
Monday, 9 May 2011
Monday, 2 May 2011
(Review: 'Doctor Who' 32.2, "Day of the Moon")
The second episode of the opening two-parter of Season 32 of Doctor Who started off dull but ended up spectacular. I'd normally call this a slow-burner, but for various reasons, I'm not going to apply that description.
After the "previously on", we jump three months to a situation where the Doctor has been incarcerated in Area 51 and the rest of the crew (henceforth called the Timey Team) are on the run from Canton. Of course, things aren't quite what they seem.
The Timey Team (plus River) then carry on investigating the evil Silence via a very creepy set of scenes in an abandoned children's home and engineering their overthrow via a very famous transmission....
I had a problem with the first 25 minutes of this episode. For a start, it wasn't fully holding my attention. I didn't like the sudden time jump, which didn't properly explain why the Timey Team were on the run from the FBI (It's obviously something the Silence did, but a single line of dialogue wouldn't have gone amiss). Also, it was badly paced - things seemed to be taking a little too long. Finally, I wasn't too keen on Nixon for much of this. So, not a slow-burner.
Things kicked up a gear in the second half, with Matt Smith on fine form at the climax, along with everyone else. Karen Gillan has been particularly good in this story as well. The climax was a barnstormer, with great dialogue, a wonderful resolution and some lovely final scenes as a misunderstanding is cleared up.
Speaking of final scenes, that last scene of all where we discovered the truth behind the little girl is clearly going to have ramifications throughout the rest of this season and arguably beyond...
8/10. The poor start was made up for by a spectacular ending. Next week, pirates!
After the "previously on", we jump three months to a situation where the Doctor has been incarcerated in Area 51 and the rest of the crew (henceforth called the Timey Team) are on the run from Canton. Of course, things aren't quite what they seem.
The Timey Team (plus River) then carry on investigating the evil Silence via a very creepy set of scenes in an abandoned children's home and engineering their overthrow via a very famous transmission....
I had a problem with the first 25 minutes of this episode. For a start, it wasn't fully holding my attention. I didn't like the sudden time jump, which didn't properly explain why the Timey Team were on the run from the FBI (It's obviously something the Silence did, but a single line of dialogue wouldn't have gone amiss). Also, it was badly paced - things seemed to be taking a little too long. Finally, I wasn't too keen on Nixon for much of this. So, not a slow-burner.
Things kicked up a gear in the second half, with Matt Smith on fine form at the climax, along with everyone else. Karen Gillan has been particularly good in this story as well. The climax was a barnstormer, with great dialogue, a wonderful resolution and some lovely final scenes as a misunderstanding is cleared up.
Speaking of final scenes, that last scene of all where we discovered the truth behind the little girl is clearly going to have ramifications throughout the rest of this season and arguably beyond...
8/10. The poor start was made up for by a spectacular ending. Next week, pirates!
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Phoenix Roleplaying is back!
Phoenix Roleplaying is back up! Our new temporary forum is located at:
Hopefully, we will soon be back at our old URL, but this will act as a "courtesy plane" for the time being.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Atlas of the 'Verse
The Leighton Ploms have found an online store that sells loads of Firefly, Doctor Who and other sci-fi related products, including a totally shiny atlas of key areas of the 'verse. This may well be on my future purchase list!
See here for more information, including a video.
See here for more information, including a video.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
A further note on Saturday's Doctor Who
Another reason to watch Doctor Who (as if any more were needed) - "Badger" from Firefly is in the episode.
Monday, 25 April 2011
So, there's this police box in the Oval Office... (Review: Doctor Who 32.1 "The Impossible Astronaut")
[I wrote this review on the Saturday evening after watching the UK transmission: However, I placed a delay on posting to prevent spoiling too many of my foreign readers]
It opened with the Doctor hiding under a woman's skirt with no clothes on. It ended with one of the strangest cliffhangers that this show has ever produced.
"The Impossible Astronaut", the first part of the Season 32 opener, is definitely a character piece: I'll get to that in a little.
The plot is definitely one of the most intriguing I've seen for a long time. President Richard Nixon is receiving daily telephone calls from a young girl. Amy, Rory and Dr. River Song, the last one being a... I can't find the right words, you've got to experience River for yourselves... are all summoned by TARDIS blue envelopes to the same space-time location (Utah in 2011). For River this means escaping from prison - again. They meet up with the Doctor, who is wearing a Stetson until River shoots it off his head (seriously, this Doctor is acquiring a poor track record with hats). After a picnic, the Doctor has a rather nasty encounter with a person in a spacesuit, but not before instructing them to go to "Space, 1969".
Going to a diner, they meet the Doctor again, for whom the previous events are two hundred years in his future (Steven Moffat breaking out the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey again. It's now bumpy-wumpy as well). Not being able to tell the Doctor what they have seen, lest they create a paradox and unleash killer-time-monkeys, they still manage to get them to take the TARDIS back to 1969...
This is a very character-driven piece, not a big bombastic episode. There's no big explosions, only two deaths and a lot of quiet introspection.
All the leads play it quiet and reflective: Matt Smith's Doctor in particular, who is particularly alien in this, but still has the playful boffin element to his portrayal. The guy playing Nixon was OK, but I managed to wonder when watching the prequel on the BBC website if it was actually meant to be Lyndon Johnson...
The one-liners are truly brilliant. We've got lines like "She's packing again", "I tried careful once" and of course "I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool". The dialogue sparkles and crackles.
Then there's the Silents. I won't spoil their particular party trick, but it's one of the most frightening concepts that Moffat has come up with.
The music isn't that overblown either, with familiar themes (such as "I Am The Doctor", Eleven's leitmotif) being played in a toned-down manner. I don't remember the musical term for that.
After a great and intriguing episode, we get a cliffhanger which is rather disappointing. It's more of a "what on earth is going on?" rather than "what happens next".
Still, I'm looking forward to next week.
4.5/5. I'm docking half a point for the cliffhanger, which was a rather large let-down.
It opened with the Doctor hiding under a woman's skirt with no clothes on. It ended with one of the strangest cliffhangers that this show has ever produced.
"The Impossible Astronaut", the first part of the Season 32 opener, is definitely a character piece: I'll get to that in a little.
The plot is definitely one of the most intriguing I've seen for a long time. President Richard Nixon is receiving daily telephone calls from a young girl. Amy, Rory and Dr. River Song, the last one being a... I can't find the right words, you've got to experience River for yourselves... are all summoned by TARDIS blue envelopes to the same space-time location (Utah in 2011). For River this means escaping from prison - again. They meet up with the Doctor, who is wearing a Stetson until River shoots it off his head (seriously, this Doctor is acquiring a poor track record with hats). After a picnic, the Doctor has a rather nasty encounter with a person in a spacesuit, but not before instructing them to go to "Space, 1969".
Going to a diner, they meet the Doctor again, for whom the previous events are two hundred years in his future (Steven Moffat breaking out the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey again. It's now bumpy-wumpy as well). Not being able to tell the Doctor what they have seen, lest they create a paradox and unleash killer-time-monkeys, they still manage to get them to take the TARDIS back to 1969...
This is a very character-driven piece, not a big bombastic episode. There's no big explosions, only two deaths and a lot of quiet introspection.
All the leads play it quiet and reflective: Matt Smith's Doctor in particular, who is particularly alien in this, but still has the playful boffin element to his portrayal. The guy playing Nixon was OK, but I managed to wonder when watching the prequel on the BBC website if it was actually meant to be Lyndon Johnson...
The one-liners are truly brilliant. We've got lines like "She's packing again", "I tried careful once" and of course "I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool". The dialogue sparkles and crackles.
Then there's the Silents. I won't spoil their particular party trick, but it's one of the most frightening concepts that Moffat has come up with.
The music isn't that overblown either, with familiar themes (such as "I Am The Doctor", Eleven's leitmotif) being played in a toned-down manner. I don't remember the musical term for that.
After a great and intriguing episode, we get a cliffhanger which is rather disappointing. It's more of a "what on earth is going on?" rather than "what happens next".
Still, I'm looking forward to next week.
4.5/5. I'm docking half a point for the cliffhanger, which was a rather large let-down.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
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