I can’t wait…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Can’t wait until tonight! Been waiting a year for more Torchwood after their (way too) short 5 episode mini-series last summer. Originally a more mature Doctor Who spinoff (scramble the letters for the anagram). It was previously on BBC but it looks like Starz is running with Torchwood now.

Gwen is pretty much a street cop gone super-duper secret-agent. The baby is new, I assume hers and Rhys (her husband) but she might just be rescuing it. Capt. Jack, well let’s just say he’s pretty hard to kill, and decided that Earth is his favorite planet to live on. And the flirt part, he’ll flirt with anything, any gender, any species; not sure how much they’ll follow through with this, since it appears they’re moving to America, I’m treating it as a reboot.

I actually saw this trailer in the theater the other day. Not in a sci-fi show, but before the new Woody Allen movie…

* “The 21st Century is when everything changes…” although I’m not sure if they’re still following that theme.

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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!

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!

Maybe:

Tomorrow:

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Finally, a preview for Torchwood: Miracle Day.

What happens if all of a sudden, everyone stops dying? How long until the world isn’t big enough to support it? Four months! I’m not sure if I agree with that time-line but that’s not really the point, it’s a mystery and they need Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper to save the day!!!

Looks like Starz is picking Torchwood up, not sure if it’s taking place in the US or not. Starts July 8th, 2011! I can’t wait

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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!

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I’m not sure what kind of playback unit this is, probably digital, but it doesn’t look like it. The screen was only about 4 or 5 inches diagonal and had some kind of touchscreen interface. It looked like it was ancient and belonged in a rack in an old TV studio.

Now while I’m picking on it, I do realize this was probably pretty cool technology when it came out. But these days the could probably just be using a $200 iPod touch for it. That’s probably 15 pounds they’re not flying around for hundreds of thousands of miles a year (a month?). And while they’re at it, ditch these old TV monitors (that weigh a ton) and put in some cheap LCD screens that barely weigh anything…

The audio isn’t that great, I’m kinda hoarse and the plan is kinda noisy.

Please note, I shot this with my iPhone on the plane, uploaded it to YouTube (via GoGo) and typed this text and posted it while sitting on a plane. That is so cool (IMHO).

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So the other month I did a post about “Where were you when _______ happened..?” and mostly the things we remember in that kind of significant way aren’t very positive things (usually disasters or death). So I’ve been thinking of a few non-negative “where were you?” things and thought that I might use a few of those for a few blog posts.

I’m not a huge sports or olympics person but I remember being home watching the Olympics. In particular (at the time) I do recall thinking the Canadian coverage was so much better than the US coverage. Now that I look it up, I didn’t even remember that was the year they were in Atlanta, so that’s even weirder that I remember that about the Canadian coverage, but that’s how I remember it.

I remember the one time she did the vault where she hurt herself*. Then she went again and while it was perfect she had to stand there on one foot and you could really tell that she hurt herself. She literally crawled away and they at some point Bella carried her around and that was one of the photos you saw over and over again for the next few weeks. It was the Olympics, and with prime-time television coverage delays I don’t really know how “live” it was but to me it was (actually I think I caught this before before it played on the US feed, because I remember talking to my Mother about it later).

I’m not sure what it is that I remember, the determination, the way she did the bowing to the crowd on only one foot (it was like a scene out of a movie, but real) or what. But it’s just one of those events that really stuck in my head.

* Now that I watch it again, I really thought she hurt herself more on the first vault.

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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.

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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?

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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…

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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.

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It’s reported that there will be a season four of Torchwood.
It’ll star John Barrowman. There will be thirteen episodes. Found at SFX.

This was said by John Barrowman on Steve Wright’s radio show (on BBC Radio 2) today. You can actually listen here (for the next 7 days) and the interview starts at about 2:17.20 into the show. At 2:27 is where he starts talking about Dr. Who and Torchwood.

The DVD An Evening with John Barrowman that is mentioned in the doesn’t appear to be available in the US yet but it appears to be region free if you order it from the UK.

Don’t know why the BBC hasn’t done a press release on this yet…

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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”.

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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!

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?

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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.

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I stumbled across this new segment of The Ellen Show called “Know or Go” on the web. It’s a little game show segment. The best part isn’t the first contestant falling through the trap doors, it’s the reaction of the other two contestant’s when the first falls!

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One of the best parts of How I Met Your Mother is when they mention a web site in the show, such as
“It was the best night ever dot com“, they’ve actually gone and got the site ItWasTheBestNightEver.com

And the site actually has some photos and a video of Marshall singing the song with Nuno Bettencourt.

It’s just one of those silly things that I enjoy when TV shows go the extra mile.

(Although, I thought the episode was a little slow otherwise)

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