Tag: doctor who

No Award goes to the movies: Doctor Who – The Power of the Daleks

On By Liz BarrIn media, television

 

This Classic Who serial originally aired in 1966. I’m not sure when it hit Australia, but my dad watched it on the ABC as a child, and the Very First Regeneration (Hartnell to Troughton) made enough of an impression on him that he could describe certain scenes to us kids.

But because early television was ephemeral (and the BBC needed to reuse that tape a bunch of times and then burn it), the serial itself was lost. Only the audio track survived.

To celebrate the serial’s 50th anniversary, and to make a quick buck, the BBC has “restored” the video via animation, and the result has been given a limited cinema run.

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Doctor Who 9.11, 9.12 and 9.13: “Face the Raven”, “Heaven Sent”, “Hell Bent”

On By Liz BarrIn meta, science fiction, television5 Comments

I could have done these in individual posts, but I’ll be honest: I was busy, I was tired, I couldn’t be bothered.  The three preceding episodes were so offensively terrible, they managed to pretty much destroy my enthusiasm for season 9.

It’s a shame, because “Face the Raven” was genuinely outstanding, and not just because it advanced a strong anti-birb agenda.  And “Heaven Sent” and “Hell Bent” were both quite good, even though I nearly noped out when —

But I get ahead of myself.

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Doctor Who 9.07 and 9.08: “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion”

On By Liz BarrIn fandom, media, television2 Comments

It’s amazing.  I haven’t disliked a Doctor Who story/serial/episode this much since Russell T Davies was at the helm.  And for much the same reason I didn’t care for a lot of RTD’s work: a hamfisted attempt at social commentary coupled with carelessness about subtext creates an unpleasant and alienating story.

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Doctor Who 9.05 and 9.06 – “The Girl Who Died” and “The Woman Who Lived”

On By Liz BarrIn media, meta, television2 Comments

How great is Maisie Williams, eh?  People are saying it’s a shame she’s too busy with Game of Thrones to be the next companion, but I say, wait until she’s 40, then she can be the sixteenth Doctor.

I probably didn’t need to review this as a two-parter — synchronicity of titles aside, these episodes didn’t have to be consecutive — but hey, I didn’t know that until it was too late.

(Beyond the cut are discussions of alleged spoilers published in the UK tabloid press — emphasis on “alleged”.)

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Doctor Who 9.01: The Magician’s Apprentice

On By Liz BarrIn fandom, media, meta, television3 Comments

Let’s get some things out of the way first:

  • Yes, it’s really season 35, the proper season 9 had Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning and Roger “no longer the best Master ever” Delgado.
  • Stephanie plays  no part in these posts, due to her moral objections to time travel, and also her general disinterest in matters Whovian except when Liz begs her to write an essay about Peri.
  • This will be a weekly thing, time and energy and the existence of the universe permitting.
  • There will be spoilers.

“The Magician’s Apprentice”, in which the Doctor meets a winsome child on a battlefield, Missy advances the asexual agenda, and Clara/Jane Austen is canon.

(Steph has proofread this post: There really is a lot about the Asexual History of Doctor Who, just fyi)

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