I can’t wait…

There are many episodes that’s brought a tear or two while watching, I say “are” because re-watching the episode gives the same response. The biggest was probably Vincent and the Doctor, a very emotional episode with The Doctor and Amy dealing with Vincent Van Gogh and some of his issues and fears. Just thinking about it gives me chills… Spoilers follow!

The scene is at the end, with The Doctor is talking to a Museum curator with Vincent listening in:

The Doctor: I just wondered, between you and me, in 100 words where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?

Dr Black (museum guy): Well… big question, but to me, van Gogh is the finest painter of them all; certainly the most popular great painter of all time: The most beloved; his command of colour; the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world… no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind that strange wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.

A few other good tear-jerkers:

• Turn Left – A few different parts, this is my favorite episode.
• A Good Man Goes to War – When River Song makes the big reveal to Amy and Rory (every time, and I think I’ve watched this one 17 times now).
• Doomsday – When Rose and The Doctor get separated forever.
• Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead - Not the first few times I watched it, but now that things from the future (River’s past) have been revealed it has a lot more significance.
• The End of Time – David Tennant’s last episode, lots of goodbyes at the end.

But none of those (except the VIncent episode) can really be watched unless you’re a fan already. I’m sure there are more, but these are some of the episodes that I’ve watched a lot, so I’ll limit it to this list.

This is from the 10 day Doctor Who Challenge, which I can’t reference because I have no idea where I found it. I’ve found other 10 day DW and 30 Days, but while similar questions are there, none are identical.

My favorite episode of Doctor Who is probably Turn Left. How one tiny little thing can change the world, whether you decided to turn right or turn left. And in telling the story, a time-travel type story (but not exactly), they manage to integrate the rest of the Doctor Who universe. As the others stand up to fill the void, they save the day, but leave our world with one less hero, until there are none left.

Rose and Donna, working together, stopping the stars from going out.

At the end, she whispers two words into Donna’s ear, a message for the Doctor. It never crossed my mind what the two words might be, until The Doctor asked and then it hit me(!), I knew without a doubt what the two words were and then Donna said them and DW fandom went wild! It’s funny, I don’t know if Rose ever said those two words to this Doctor…?

Why I didn’t want to pick that one is because you just can’t go and watch it if you aren’t a big follower of Doctor Who because it references so many things it just isn’t relevant to a non-fan. Turn Left is a very non-Doctor episode, what’s funny is my second favorite episode is Midnight, which is a very non-Donna episode, takes place right before this episode, but could be watched on it’s own, Midnight is David Mamet meets sci-fi.

Other favorite episodes that stand on their own:

• Rose – The first episode of the 2005 reboot.
• 2005 Christmas Special – The transition between Doctor’s nine and ten; plus a real Torchwood reference and Harriet Jones.
• Smith and Jones – The first episode with Martha. This was the first season I ever watched in order.
• The Shakespeare Code – Martha, The Doctor and Will Shakespeare.
• Blink – Spooky! A non-Doctor and non-Martha episode.
• Vincent and the Doctor - Amy, The Doctor and Vincent Van Gogh (and an alien)

I liked Christopher Echelson, he was cocky but also caring at the same time. He was more of a fighter then the Doctor’s since and he tried not to take any crap. But part of why I liked him was that while he was tough he also had a soft side.

My first post about Doctor Who over 5 years ago and was about the ninth doctor.

The Doctor: Sonic blaster, 51st Century… Weapon factories at Villengard?

Capt. Jack Harkness: Yeah. You’ve been to the factories?

The Doctor: Once.

Jack: They’re gone now, destroyed. Main reactor went critical. Vaporised the lot.

The Doctor: Like I said, once. There’s a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good.

I’d have liked to have seen nine with Donna…

Supposedly he left Doctor Who so he wouldn’t get typecast and while he’s done a few different types of things he’s gotten typecast a lot in the SciFi type shows and movies and I don’t think he has any Doctor Who interest any more. That’s too bad (IMHO), since Tennant reigned for three-plus seasons and Matt Smith looks like he’ll be around for three (even Amy is around for three) and pretty soon Alex Kingston will have been around longer than anyone! Maybe he’s happy, but having a bunch of fans for life seems to be a good way to be.

Doctor Who has been around for almost fifty years, I never got into it, I knew he was a SciFi icon but it wasn’t my thing at all, which is strange in that it’s about a time traveler and I love time travel. In 2005 they reintroduced the series after being off the air for over fifteen years (kind of a reboot). I caught an episode here or there but it just didn’t click and then I was watching an episode and it clicked. They were a year behind in the US so I started looking for episodes to get all caught up and ending up watching the two seasons out of order with the two different doctors but eventually I figured it all out. Now I love it and I feel all giddy when it comes to all things Doctor Who.

So why do I love Doctor Who?!? It’s this story about hope and learning and redemption. It’s about friends and love and understanding and learning. It’s about forgiveness and balance and making things right. It’s about doing the right thing and making peace and hope. Yes, I know I said hope already.

Did you notice that I didn’t even mention adventure, time travel or aliens? That’s the fun part but not the heart of it.

Actually, as I wrote that last part it made me think of something that Rose said at the end of the first season (2005) when she was trying to figure out what to do without The Doctor in her life, I thought maybe I’d steal an item or two for my list, but I’m just going to cut and paste the whole thing:

“It was a better life. I don’t mean all the traveling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don’t matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. … You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand. You say “no”! You have the guts to do what’s right when everyone else just runs away!”

- Rose in The Parting of the Ways

It’s got lots of running and lots of holding hands; I’m big on holding hands so maybe that part has more impact on me. And it’s fun, with a capital FUN.

Just so you know this is part of the Ten Day Doctor Who Challenge (and I have no idea where I got this list from, maybe Tumblr?) so I’ll be doing these for the next few weeks.

Lots of little things to do.

I’ve gotten two 8+ hours of sleep this weekend! Usually I get 11-14 on Friday and then nothing good on Saturday. If I can do this again, I’ll be up early for the sunny day tomorrow and maybe be on track for the rest of the week!

Go out to breakfast. Why? Because I never do… Done: Big Boy buffet, a little disappointing, but they had great dessert!

Bike ride: Not sure where though. All the Hines Drive entrances are closed from flooding and I’m sure even more so today. Done: I couldn’t really go as far as I wanted, I parked at HFCC and biked over to Hines Drive but the police made me leave…

But the weather reports are so conflicting on if it’s going to be nicer this morning or early afternoon. Result: It was nicer than it was supposed to be for longer than it was supposed to be!

Clean my house (more).

Home Depot to replace one of my room darkening blinds, it’s in pretty bad shape. Done: And I even hung it.

Dry cleaners to drop off two things to get fixed: a shirt that had a piece of tape (or something) stuck to the back and a belt loop on one of my better pairs of jeans. Done: Dropped off at the Wash Haus which has the best customer service.

Costco: I need a bunch of stuff, but the other stuff takes priority. I can do it after work on Tuesday if I don’t do it today (I assume they are closed Memorial Day). Done:

Watch Doctor Who Confidential (the making of). I want to see what everyone was thinking about the bomb they dropped on us at the end. Done: Not a lot of insight, but it makes me the that it (I’m avoiding spoilers) has only been since the beginning of the season (and not longer).

Watch Doctor Who again. Now that I know the ending, and I’ll have seen the making of, I’m ready to pay more attention. Done: Caught a few things I hadn’t before, understood a bunch of things that I caught before but didn’t understand the implications. Enjoyed it again!

Kick myself some more that I never realized that Amy has been wearing the same plaid shirt all season (see Doctor Who above). Done: Duh!!!

Coca-Cola is on-sale at Kroger, 4 for $10. I really need some cans and bottles! Done: Actually decided to go back get even more.

Maybe:

Set up that scanner that I keep meaning to set up. But that just sounds like a distraction from cleaning.

Tomorrow:

Dearborn parade in the morning.

Bike and blade multiple times for the rest of the day. Not sure where. I can’t imagine Hines Drive will be any more open then.

So as part of the Red Nose Day fundraiser The Doctor had a short appearance on the show Comic Relief.

The big bonus is he left two short 3-minute episodes behind! One called “Space” and one called “Time

They’re incorrectly both labeled “time”.

It also tells up that the next episode of Doctor Who will be on Easter. I’m not sure if this is a special, or the start of a new season, but either way, I’ll be happy!

Here’s a little Doctor Who present to keep you busy until today’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, a free eBook titled Snowfall.

I think it’s several short stories, but you’ll have to read it to see how it all ends.

And here’s the preview for this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special…

I was just wondering when the new Doctor Who 2010 series was going to start this year and this trailer comes along for me today. It’ll start on Easter (April 4) in the UK and on April 17th on BBC America; I’m assuming it’ll trail a few weeks behind for the rest of the season.

Here’s the direct link.

This isn’t really a normal trailer/preview as it’s a little surreal in the way it goes in the middle, it almost reminds me of a candy or gum commercial. But it makes the series looks fun.

While I’ll sorely miss David Tennant, it’s time for the newest Doctor to take over the show. Matt Smith will star as The Doctor on Doctor Who this spring (April or May?) and I’m ready to see where they take the show.

While at first glance it appears that it’ll be a younger doctor than usual that’s not all that’s changing. Russell T. Davis stepped down as Producer/Writer and it’s now Steven Moffat at the helm in charge of everything and and (I’m assuming) writing episodes. It’s enough if a change where I guess they decoded to change the Dr. Who logo this season. Here’s a mini-preview of the 2010 season:

View the above preview on YouTube.

I’m not too keen on his new trademark call of “Geronimo!” but maybe it’ll grow on me; but since it actually means “One who yawns” and nothing particularly British, I’m thinking it won’t.

An assumption being made is that this is more of a reboot of the character since the actors and person in charge is changing. So that means (to me) there won’t be much (any?) crossover between the 2005-2009 Doctor and the new one. If so that means no Rose, Donna, Martha, Mickey, etc. Although since Steven Moffat wrote “Blink”, I wouldn’t mind seeing Sally Sparrow again. The real question (to me) is what about Capt. Jack Harkness from Torchwood, Steven Moffat originally wrote the episodes that introduced him. And Torchwood is still running…

Any thoughts? Or rumors?

I’ve got a little more information on the next two Doctor Who specials than when I mentioned it a few days ago.

I spotted on the BBC America site that the End of Time part one will be on Saturday, December 26, 2009. Only a day after it shows in the UK. Part two will be on Saturday, Jan 2, 2010.

I’m assuming this fits with my guess that part 2 will be on the BCC on January first, although I guess the BBC could be showing it earlier than that.

If you haven’t seen it yet, the image is of the new Doctor Who logo.

FYI, Amazon already has Doctor Who: The End of Time, Parts 1 and 2 DVD or Blu-Ray available for pre-order. Although I can’t figure out why the Blu-Ray is $1.50 cheaper than regular DVD…

Only seven more days until the Christmas Doctor Who special The End of Time. This is the first of a two-part episode which would be the last episodes starring David Tennant. I’m assuming since that part two will be on New Year’s day (they keep saying he’ll be The Doctor until 2010). You can watch the first 3 minutes of the The End of Time here.

While it’s the “Christmas Special” it’s not as special as usual since we didn’t get a 13 episode season this year with a special to hold us off until the next year, we only got a few specials for the whole year. But it is special as it marks the end of David Tennant’s reign as The Doctor. It’s assumed he’ll be dying and regenerate as the new doctor. I’ll miss his character, but maybe in a few years I’ll mix the stories up and not remember who was The Doctor in some of the earlier episodes…

I also assume they’ll be a plethora of guest stars on the episode. To get everyone to fit in as a guest star I’m assuming it’ll take place a few years ago but I’m still not sure how that’d get Rose, Martha, Donna and The Master to fit in; although I’d guess the Master could have shown up here before Rose disappeared into the other parallel Earth, but from the preview it makes me think The Master regenerated after season three (Martha) so I’m just guessing.

More wallpapers and images can be found here, remember the BBC won’t show video or audio outside the UK.

I’m not sure when BBC America will be showing these two episodes. Traditionally the BBC has aired them weeks first, but I’m not sure why it matters these days.

Next season, starting sometime next year, will start a new doctor and a new companion. Next year will be also be directed (and written) by Steven Moffat, I’m kind of excited about that. I’ve been a fan of Steven Moffat who has done a few doctor who episodes. He also wrote the Jekyll miniseries on the BBC a year or two ago which was pretty interesting. He also wrote the Coupling series (which got old after the first few seasons). I can’t wait to see what different direction he takes the new younger doctor and his new companion in.

Here’s the first three minutes of the 2009 Doctor Who Christmas Special. It’ll be on December 25th in the UK on the BBC and delayed a day before airing on BBC America. I believe this is a two-part episode but I’m not sure when part two is on, the day after this airs or New Year’s or …?

Direct link to the 3 minute preview.

FYI, if you’re not a fan, the Sigma Ood character might not make too much sense. And you might not know that this is David Tennant’s last story which is the reference to his “song ending soon”.

I can’t really say much about the episode without giving too much away. So while I’ll try to be discreet, you might want to stop reading. If you’ve seen the preview, I’ll be giving away a little more than that and also my opinions on the episode…

One of the things I noticed in the previews was that Adelaide (the Mars commander) didn’t seem like much of a companion at all. But since I saw she was being referred to as a companion (here and there on the ‘net) I thought I might change my mind when I saw the episode, but that didn’t happen at all. I really felt like it was much more of a loaner episode for The Doctor. He works so much better with a sidekick companion, he doesn’t need to talk to himself as much…

In a few ways it was a very non-typical episode, but with only two more David Tennant episodes some changes were to be expected. At least I’m assuming the two part Christmas special includes David Tennant in both episodes; I’d like to point out I quite often see 2010 listed as the end of his tenure in the role, so it makes me wonder if he’s appearing in the first episode of 2010? or is part two of the Christmas episode, The End of Time, going to be on New Year’s Day? or is the 2010 date a mistake? *

Pretty creepy episode. I thought they were originally going to air it on/near Halloween, it would have worked!

Direct link to Doctor Who preview.

Overall, I really enjoyed the episode, the first third was very typical and enjoyable. But by the second half I felt like I (and The Doctor) was just being pulled along through the episode, part of the whole “this is a point fixed in time” problem (assuming you’ve seen the preview) you kind of have to just wait it through. The end was the part I didn’t like, it felt rushed and incomplete. I think they were trying to do some character changes and it made him seem more like an ass mean than crazed. Maybe they’ll follow through in another month and make it more clear why, but…

* He is doing the voice of The Doctor in a Doctor Who cartoon series, Dreamland, maybe that’s running until 2010?

The Doctor is on the BBC in just a few hours, I’d say it’s on today, but it’s still yesterday in Michigan, but it’s already tomorrow in the UK.

It’s one of the last few Russell T. Davies episodes and it’s written with/by Phil Ford who’s done a few (eight!) Sarah Jane Adventures, a Torchwood book (Skypoint) and “Something Borrowed” (the Torchwood wedding episode).

Viewers in the US will have to wait a bit longer (December 9th) until it’s on BBCamerica.

If you’re a Doctor Who or Torchwood fan I found a great piece of The Face of Boe fan-fiction. I’m normally not a fan, but this is so well done I wanted to share it.

From The Book of the Face of Boe:
Chapter 12, verse 19:

The Suppliant came and knelt before Him. “Ancient One, what is the greatest sin in the Universe?”

The Face of Boe answered, “Stagnation. Embrace variety, for change is the fundamental virtue of existence.”

“But you have lived for hundreds of millions of years without altering in any aspect.” said The Suppliant. “How can you, out of all living beings, say such a thing?”

The Face of Boe smiled enigmatically. “Perspective.”

If you haven’t watched all the Doctor Who episodes, especially season 3 (with Martha), then you might not know who he really is. Don’t read the story or you’ll get spoilers.

Here’s this week’s Manic Monday questions:

Both were really easy to answer, at least there were to me.

Would you rather go a week without bathing, but be able to change your clothes, or a week without a change of clothes, but be able to bathe?
Even though I like to take showers, I think I’d go with the clean clothes. There really is some magic in “the magical powers of a new shirt” (a reference from The West Wing), getting rid of the dirty sweaty shirt can make you feel much better about the day.

If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which show would you choose?
Doctor Who. Preferably the 2006 season. Traveling places and times (and saving people).
Torchwood would have been a good choice but they way they keep killing characters, I wouldn’t last a month.

From Manic Monday #178.

So this isn’t a chronology timeline, but more of a viewing guide on when to watch the TV episodes as they tie together with Torchwood. This is the order I believed they originally aired the episodes and watching them in that order works well.

• Doctor Who S1 Rose
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2005 Rose
• Doctor Who S2 Rose
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2006 Donna
• Torchwood S1
• Doctor Who S3 Martha
• “Time Crash” – a mini-episode (only a few minutes) from a children’s fund raiser (BBC’s Children In Need) starring David Tennant and Peter Davidson The Doctor
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2007 Astrid
• Torchwood S2
• Doctor Who S4 Donna
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2008 The Doctor
• Doctor Who Easter Special 2009 Christina
• Torchwood Radio Plays (July 2009)
• Torchwood Season 3 (Children of Earth)
• Doctor Who November Special 2009: Waters of Mars
• Doctor Who December 2-part Special 2009: The End of Time

If you read on, I’ll be giving you some spoilers, but I can’t really talk about continuity without talking about it. If you watch them in the above order you don’t need to read on.

I only mentioned the radio plays since they were just released and definitely take place after season two. I’ve listened to the first two and so far it doesn’t seem significant that they need to take place before they should be listened to before the Children of Earth mini-series (no plot ramifications, but they chronologically take place before the 3rd series).

The Sarah Jane Adventures can be watched any time but after her guest appearance in season 2 of Doctor Who would be best (especially if you don’t know who she is) and as long as you’ve started them before the before the end of season four of Doctor Who.

Torchwood Season 1 could be watched any time after the first Doctor Who Christmas episode (but before the end of Season 3 of DW). I don’t think the other Doctor Who specials (or 2009 DW specials) make any difference to watching Torchwood, at least they haven’t yet; but you do want to watch them in order just for continuity of Doctor Who. There are lots of Torchwood references in DW season 2 that might be better if you see them all before watching Torchwood, but I don’t think these tie directly to Torchwood Cardiff (many were just more hints to get you into the new series). Later on, other guest appearances make more sense if you catch them in order, but you’ll probably figure them out, Martha makes appearances on TW and Jack is on DW three different seasons (1, 3, 4) for multiple episodes all at the end of the season. I’m sure someone will disagree with me on some of the significance of some of the references, but I’ll defer back to the original broadcast order listed above.

I think I originally watched parts of Doctor Who season two and caught up on DW season one and saw many episodes out of order and the different actors were distracting, but then I got it all when I finally caught the end of season one and the first Christmas special. This causes me to mix up Christopher Echelson and David Tennant when I think back about past episodes. Also, I think I was watching Torchwood before I watched most of season two of Doctor Who so some of the references came after the fact.

By the time I watched Torchwood, I knew it was the same actor for Jack, but didn’t remember they were using the same character for him. I didn’t even realize it was SciFi at first, the Torchwood pilot seemed more mystical (think of they way the glove worked) until they explained it. Then I realized it was the same guy.

Update: These aren’t all relevant for Torchwood, but it rounds out the David Tennant part of the series (although for that I should add the cartoons and Srah Jane’s Wedding).

So I’ve mentioned Torchwood a few times in the past. But it’s the start of Torchwood month, so it’s time to talk about it some more.

For the next few days Wednesday-Friday they are doing audio plays on BBC radio 4, you can listen to these live at 2:15 London time or you can download the Torchwood Radio plays until July 2, 2009 for FREE (I assume you can pay for them afterwards). This is three (3) different episodes about 45 minutes each. You have to wait until they broadcast them for them to be on-line. (Note: at some point on Thursday the MP3 of the Wednesday episode, Asylum, became unavailable in the US, so don’t wait. I can still listen to the stream of Asylum in the US here.)

After this week season three starts, or as the brits say “series” three, on Monday July 6th in the UK on BBC One (and a few other places) and Monday July 20th in the US on BBC America (and other places). I might be mistaken but I think July 20 is the launch of BBC America in HD! Here’s the weird thing, it’s on for five nights in a row and then the season is over. It’s a mini-series called “Torchwood: Children of Earth”, supposed to be 75 minute cliff-hanger episodes every night. And then we wait a year for season four.

P.S. You can order Torchwood: Children of Earth now (available in HD too).

Watch the Torchwood HQ trailer here.

For those of you not in the know, Torchwood is sort of an offshoot of Doctor Who, a bit less of a family show tha DW, but it’s not really tied to Doctor Who. It’s got more kissing, violence, running and kissing that your average Sci-Fi TV show. The main character, Captain Jack Harkness was originally on Doctor Who (3 or 4 episodes of the 2005 season) before season one of Torchwood and still does a few guest appearances on DW, but the Doctor has yet to be on Torchwood. So while Jack appears on Dr. Who, The Doctor only gets the occasional reference on Torchwood, regardless of Gwen mentioning him below…

Watch the Creepy Torchwood HQ trailer here.

FYI, if you scramble the letters of Torchwood, you get Doctor Who. It was originally what they called Doctor Who when they were doing the new series in 2005, so no one would know what they were talking about. This was so no one would sneak onto sets, steal early footage or scripts, etc.

So Matt Smith is the new Doctor Who but we won’t see him until 2010. At 26 he’s the youngest Doctor Who although I’m guessing he’ll be a year older in 2010, but he is a time-lord so you never know…

The funny thing is that The Doctor generally uses “John Smith” when he needs a “real” name for something in his travels so the matching name is fun (funny?).

I don’t really know who he is which means I’ll have no preconceptions about him. I’ve seen him with Billie Piper (Rose from Doctor Who) in a Secret Diary of a Call Girl episode but I don’t really remember him.

I originally read about it at Neil Gaiman’s blog and I completely agree with him in that he looks at home in front of the TARDIS and I’m sure he’ll look even more so as time goes one (especially since I’m sure they took many photos to get one that looked “right”).

This is the Daily Mail article with the Matt Smith photo in front of the Tardis. He’s an article from The Guardian and the BBC article with a short video with Matt Smith.

David Tennant’s last show is supposed to be in 2010 (after a weird four episode mini-season) so maybe they’ll make an interesting transition episode?

I can’t believe I’m still doing this with 2,000 posts all over the last 5 years! Never would have thought it grow on me so much!

I was trying to come up with something monumental to blog about for this post, but that didn’t happen so I’ll give you a quick update on some tech (the new blog site) and a few personal things:

• I’m averaging more than a post a day, but sometimes I skip more than a few days, so I’m going to try and post more consistently (and more images with posts).
• I’m really liking WordPress, I’ve completely migrated all my old posts (from MovableType) to WordPress 2.7 (at least I think I’ve got all 4,000-ish archive/category/single pages) and mostly updated the “about“-type pages. I’ve been playing around with WP for a year and this interface on 2.7 version beats the interface for the previous six months (it was actually better previous to six months ago, IMHO). I’ll be posting more about my WordPress transition over the next few weeks (I’ve been making notes).
• Google has done an amazing job reindexing the updated site. It’s grabbed a good chunk of the pages and about 80% of the old pages have disappeared been replaced in the search engine. I’ll be posting more about this too.
• And I just saw they picked the new Doctor Who, but I’ll make that my 2001st post
• I’m still sick from when I mentioned it last week. The (medical) doctor thinks it’s some lower lung pneumonia on the right side so I’ve just been staying close to home and taking it easy (I’ll get x-ray results next week). Sleep has been the worse, I think maybe the drugs are keeping me up, or I’m just bored. Hopefully I won’t be posting more about this!
• Even being sick, the holidays were nice and relaxing, exactly what I needed after the last year, I’d have liked some more snow consistently on the ground, just enough to cover the grass. I wasn’t sick sick until Christmas so I made it through everything.

That’s it for now, I gotta go read up more on the new Doctor Who…

Until the Doctor Who christmas special!!! And I bet you thought I was going to say “Christmas”?

The Christmas Special is traditionally a pretty great episode and takes place on Christmas (or the eve of). I didn’t think I was going to like it because I’m not a big CyberMen fan but they showed a preview of the first 4 minutes and it looked pretty good.

But, we aren’t getting a regular season of Dr. Who next year, we’re just getting a series of specials throughout the year (3 or 4, I think).

This isn’t the best quality of the preview, but the one I saw earlier may have been pulled from YouTube (even though I thought it was BBC sponsored).

On a related side note, The Sarah Jane Adventures will get a third season and will be overseen by Russell T Davies.

These words, “To Be Continued”, make my top list phrases that I don’t enjoy. It’s usually a good episode of the show that ends with these words, why make a cliff-hanger of a bad episode(?). This week I was watching “The Sarah Jane Adventures”, it’s a children’s show offshoot of the new Doctor Who series; not exactly the same but enough to give me a Doctor Who fix in the off season. I haven’t mentioned much about the show but I like the Sarah Jane character (played by Elisabeth Sladen), she’s made a few cameo’s on the new Doctor Who series (that started 4 years ago) and while she was a regular on the series in the 1970′s (although I never watched it then). Actually, “regular” isn’t the proper word, I think she’s the longest running character on the series traveled with two different doctors, met more doctors and companions than probably anyone else; she’s had her own audio drama series now this TV series and recently appeared again on the Doctor Who series (saving the world and more, of course).

“The Sarah Jane Adventures” is the story of Sara Jane Smith, years ago she used to travel through time and space with The Doctor, but now on Earth still protecting the earth from Aliens. But she has an entourage of children, the girl across the street (who discovered her secret), the boy she adopted (super smart grown child rescued from aliens) and Clive their best friend (but mostly a side-kick). And they all work together to save the world (or sometimes just London itself).

Most of the stories for this series are two-part episodes, but when they started this season last week they ran the first two as one hour long episode, so I forgot. Was sorely disappointed while eating dinner that when the tensions started to run high on the show and as I started to recall this fact, the phrase “To Be Continued” popped up on my screen ending my show…Side-bar – This half-hour to be continued complaint is in contrast to other new hour long shows I’ve watched, such as the new The Ex List and Valentine, that about 5 minutes into the show you realize it needs to only be a 1/2 hour episode instead of a full hour…

Woo Hoo! More guest stars!!! And now on to the good stuff…

WARNING!!! BIG SPOILERS BELOW!So it turns out I was right on target with one of my guesses and what I hoped would happen did, they just showed David Tennant’s hand-in-a-bottle way too many times this season for me to think it was a coincidence. They used that hand (hi hand) to keep David Tennant as this version of the Doctor after he regenerated. And used it for a few other things…

And amazingly my guess about Donna becoming the Doctor came out to be mostly-true. It was a wild guess and since I hadn’t seen anyone else talking about it, but it sure felt that way to me. I wanted to get it in writing so I could get credit for it later!

Now while the above two Doctor items were mutually exclusive, it wasn’t likely I’d be right on both but I think I should get at least one-and-a-half points out of two; she was “a” Doctor just not “The” Doctor. But with a title like “Journey’s End”, I wasn’t too hopeful about Donna but it did turn out to be a strange ending for her.

(I have to put these things down somewhere ever since I’ve never truly gotten over that I had completely worked out how X-Men’s Jean Grey was going to come back to life and I never wrote in about it…)

No preview for the Christmas special, I’m under the impression they are filming it already. So that’s a little surprising we didn’t get a peek like the last few years. Not even a reference to it. The Christmas special preview was after the credits, more Cybermen, didn’t notice for sure if there was a companion.

I’m not a big Dalek fan, when there’s a bunch of villains (1,000s) they generally get rid of them with some non-reproduable miracle cure, so I didn’t like that part of the story-line. That part was a little bit slow for me, but they had a lot to wrap up too.

All in all, it was a bit of The Doctor dumping everyone off somewhere and him being alone (again). It’s not like he didn’t have some choices of a new (return) companion.

But, still, I can’t wait until the Christmas special! Unless we get a Torchwood (mini)series before then. Although, I’m thinking Torchwood is getting Martha and Mickey and that’ll make a completely different kind of team…

Amazing episode! Should have been a movie!

Can’t say much about it without giving much away. But lots of names in the main opening credits…

BIG Cliffhangers!Sadly, the one thing that I didn’t want to happen appears to be happening (and I think it’s happening they way I particularly didn’t want it to). But it’s Russell T. Davies, so you never know what’s going to happen until it’s over…

The Doctor’s hand (Christmas 2005) got some excessive screen time this episode and this season, so there is still hope it might be able to fix the one item I’m not happy about…

I think Catherine Tate is going to be the new Doctor Who. I’ll tell you why, but first I’m going to tell you there will be some episode 11 spoilers in this post so read on if you’re willing….

I also have no idea how he could possibly regenerate / transmogrify into her. That’s unless she’s always been A / The Doctor and has forgotten; that would explain some of the specialness of her.This is all based on the possibility (rumor) that there might be a new doctor next season; if that isn’t true than the rest of this isn’t even worth reading…

The one thing I don’t like about this show is it changes too often, they can’t sit still for a fraction of an episode so them turning Donna into the Doctor isn’t outside the realm of possibility. I don’t think The Doctor has ever been a woman outside of a special or one-shot movie so this would shake things up.

Different things just from this latest episode:

Donna is “special”, she’s had something (energy) about her since she was born.

To Donna, “Who are you? What will you be?”

Doctor says “Sometimes I think there’s way too much coincidence around you Donna”

Doctor says “It’s like there’s something binding us together”

She’s the “most important Woman in the whole of creation”, not person, but woman. (Is the Doctor the most important man?)

That doesn’t even factor in odd things said to/about Donna in earlier episodes, like the prophet from Pompeii and others I’m sure I can’t think of. And I’m trying to somehow factor in The Doctor’s Daughter into this theory too.

The biggest piece that doesn’t fit is the woman from “The Library” who knew the Doctor but he hadn’t met her yet. That would mean he doesn’t regenerate and is contradictory, but then I never expected them to show them actually meet in an episode. This really fits more of a Donna is like the Doctor and sacrifices herself to save the multi-verse from the darkness; but I don’t like that plan any more than I’d like a new Doctor…

And it doesn’t answer the question “where are the bees?!?”

To make up for not seeing Donna last episode, I think we see The Doctor even less this time around. And while most episodes just take place in a different time/place, this is more of a a time-travel type episode (my favorite);it’s another excellent episode by Russell T. Davies.

I won’t tell you much about the episode except that we still don’t know what’s up with the bumble bees (I’m starting to wonder if we will this season) but we do finally get to really see Rose. That’s not really much of a spoiler since Billie Piper’s actually in the main opening credits!I watched the amazing preview for next week: Imagine a guest star that could possibly be on the show and they’re probably on next week (or the week after), I’m so excited!

It seems like there is so much to happen still? Are they going to have a cliff hanger? (No, that’ll goof up the Christmas episode). Continue it in another series? And who’s going to travel with The Doctor next series (season).

So it’s Episode 10 (Season/Series 4) of Doctor Who, it’s pretty much a Doctor Who only episode, Donna Noble hangs back at the spa so we see her about a total of 60 seconds. The episode “Midnight” is written by Russell T. Davies, the man who revived the Doctor Who series four years ago and is still executive producer for Doctor Who and does the same for spinoffs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (occasional writes episodes for both).

The conversation is cRaZy and and has a bunch of people talking and no one listening and when they are, they aren’t paying attention. It made me think of a David Mamet story multiple times, the conversations seemed so much like that of Oleana and other things he’s written, if you don’t know what I mean I’m not sure how to explain it. It was an interesting episode, if you watch the show you’ll see what I mean, if you know agree with me please let me know. Actually, it was a great episode, but it certainly wasn’t a “regular” episode.

Oh, and Rose shows up on the monitors again. No big surprise there…

I’ve got some spoilers (labeled with “SPOILERS”) but I’m going to talk about the next 3 episodes: previews, rumors and conjecture (some might consider the next few paragraphs spoilers too, so stop at any time). Generally Doctor Who seasons have 13 episodes and several times that last story has spanned the last three episodes (even if you didn’t realize there was more to come after episode 11) and generally the final episodes aren’t too much of a cliff-hanger since the Christmas Special (actually broadcast on Christmas between seasons of the show) has generally been meant to sort of stand on it’s own.Obviously at some time in the next few episodes Rose Tyler will return, we’ve seen her trying to contact The Doctor since the beginning of the season. Since I’ve heard that next episode is the opposite of this episode (not much of the Doctor) maybe it’ll be sooner than later. I’ve heard nothing about who’s going to be his companion next season (is Bilie Piper too busy with Secret Diary of a Call Girl?). But many months ago (I try not to listen much) I’ve heard that Rose, Donna, Martha, Capt. Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith (maybe K-9 and Mickey too) will reunite to save The Doctor but that could just be a big rumor; I’ve seen nothing in the previews (they tend to give things away at the end of the Christmas previews) nor heard anything lately. But I’m pretty sure that John Barrowman (Capt. Jack) mentions that he’s in season 4 in his book Anything Goes so I’m assuming at least his part is true.

Also, we’ve never gotten much from the multiple times that they’ve mentioned the bees have disappeared from Earth (early 20th century), I’ve no clue what they are going to do with that.

SPOILERS – In this episode, Midnight, it really illustrates a really disappointing thing about the human race is we’re so stupid. No one wants to say “I don’t know” and no one wants to be the person that disagrees with the whole group, especially when it’s easier to agree with the whole group (especially if someone shouting you down). As the viewer you’ll see it, depending on how clever you are depends on how soon, but you’ll see it. The sad thing is because of peer pressure they almost sacrifice the wrong person and instead even more die.

Eh, I probably had more semi-spoilers in the speculation paragraphs than I actually did in the one with this episode spoilers.

So I’ve really been liking the BBC’s SciFi shows the last few years and this weekend was a Doctor Who related weekend. I’ve never liked Doctor Who until the last few years (I’ll lean more towards I disliked it).

Here’s my Doctor Who related activities this weekend:

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Glittering Storm audio book – Read by Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith on the new series, as his companion in the 1970′s Doctor Who and did a cameo a few seasons ago (which then spun off the new children’s series). The book was good, started a little slow, I felt like she didn’t like the way her character was written but the book was unabridged so she couldn’t change it, but it got much much better as the book went on. Sometimes I got the boys confused but you could always tell the who the kids were. Good story too.

Doctor Who S4E5 The Poison Sky (part 2 to The Sontaran Stratagem) – I was excited that it was on this weekend, but I forgot that it was part two of a two-parter! And it’s got Martha Jones in it. Great second part, can’t say much without giving anything away, but another very (very) short appearance of Rose. I think we’ll see a bit of her (and hear about the Bees until those episodes come up). I was surprised at the mention of Torchwood, but I think Capt. Jack’s due for another appearance too (and maybe Sarah Jane).

Torchwood: Hidden – Read by Naoko Mori, who plays Toshiko. This is a good story, but it’s really hard to tell the character’s apart. It probably reads okay, but when there’s more than a few of them, it’s hard to tell who’s who. I’m not done with this one, but it’s good so far.

Doctor Who Confidential – It’s not strange to have a “making of” for movies of TV series, but Dr. Who has one every week and this week it was another 45 minutes of show (right after the series on a different channel). It’s just really bizarre to see another show just about the previous show just on, I don’t normally watch it but it was pretty good. Torchwood has a “confidential” too, but I’m not sure they’re as long. Just think of it as the DVD Extras, but right after the show.

So it was a good weekend of entertainment. And I got lot’s of non-Doctor Who stuff done too…As other shows go, the BBC has had Jekyll as a short series, is testing out Being Human and I hoe they keep trying out more!

So I saw a pilot (or maybe it was a preview) of a new BBC show called Being Human. It’s written by Toby Whithouse who’s written episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood and I’ve been liking those writers (like Stephen Moffet with Jekyll) so I tuned in. It was a fun show, a Vampire and a Werewolf who try to be more human despite their afflictions. And it’s really treated that way, more as an affliction or disease and they just want to be “normal”.

From the beginning of the episode, I’m not really sure how well they know each other but they decide to rent a flat together. When they ask why it hasn’t rented already (it’s a good location and good price) they’re told that other short-stayed tenants thought there was something creepy about it. Later on they find out it’s a ghost (and she’s way cuter than Casper) and she’s thrilled that someone can see and hear her.

It’s a slow moving show, but they definitely have some interesting thoughts on life, the after life and on being human with a bit of humor tossed in. I’ll be watching this show for a few more episodes, I liked it…

Here’s a short ad / preview of Being Human.

So the second season of Torchwood has started up. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s a semi-secret organization with the job of finding (and removing) aliens and acquiring their technology to better protect Earth.

“Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you gotta be ready. ”

It’s actually a spin-off of the new Doctor Who series (2005), but it generally doesn’t have much to do with the Doctor, although the title does, here’s your anagram trivia for the day: Torchwood is actually Doctor Who rearranged.

Back to Torchwood, the first season was not your normal Sci-Fi show, lots of sexual innuendo, lots of sex implied. I think all of the main characters hooked up with one of the other team members, an alien, someone of the same sex (or all three) at some point in season one (the show was created by Russell T. Davies who created Queer As Folk). Wait, I did say it was SciFi didn’t I? There are generally aliens, generally doing bad “take over the world” kinds of things and they usually stop them generally (but not always) saving lives in the process. When I first watched the show I didn’t realize it was a Doctor Who spin-off, I actually thought it was some kind of supernatural British cop show, but this was better…This season season I’ve read they’ve pushed it even more and I must say from the first two episodes it seems like it so far. Episode one of the second season there was more kissing than I’ve ever seen on a SciFi show in my life (maybe all sci-fi shows combined). Episode two is definitely a little edgier and a bit more intense (and violent) than last season, I really had no idea where this episode was going the first fifteen minutes of the show (had I paid attention to the episode title). I can’t wait to see where the rest of the season goes…

It’s on BBC America on Saturdays at 9 PM and on BBC Two on Wednesdays at 9 PM (GMT).

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday today! I’d like a little more snow outside but other than that, it’s perfect. Lots of fun gifts and I think Mom liked everything I got her. More on some of the gifts later…

On a side note: One of my favorite things about Christmas (the last few years) is the Doctor Who Christmas Special! This year’s episode it titled “Voyage Of The Damned” (Starring Kylie Minogue) and takes place on the Titanic. So I’m hoping I can “tune in” to that tonight!

If you’re a Dr. Who fan you might be interested in this odd little Dr. Who 7 minute special, it takes place in the middle of the last 30 seconds of the season finale. Right after Martha walks out the door of the Tardis and right before the Titanic crashes in through the Tardis. A little mishap lets the Doctor meet one of his former selves (the 5th Doctor played by Peter Davison). It was part of a BBC “Children in Need” Special. If you don’t watch Dr. Who this clip will not be entertaining at all.

So it’s the weekend so it’s time for me to talk about Doctor Who again. It was part two of the three part season finale. It’s a little long to stretch a story but they’ve been keeping up with the action (in Dr. Who action means lots of running).

But one of the parts I really liked was when they were doing flashbacks to the Time Lord’s home world some of the imagery clearly showed

A stone-like circle that was clear supposed to look The Guardian of Forever which was was the time portal from Star Trek’s classic “The City on the Edge of Forever”

A being that looked like The Watchers the omni-potent beings from from Marvel comics.

A few more images that I didn’t recognize but probably have some sci-fi/time travel significance.

I enjoy it when shows throw things like that in to make the fans pay attention and have to go back and rewind the show. Did anyone recognize any of the other images?