Doctor Who: Series 11

Guys, I don't get it.

What the hell is the matter with this series? I have heard so little good things about anything from this latest series of Doctor Who. Why? I actually really liked it! It was a sort of back to basics, Christopher Eccleston first series vibe, and I really enjoyed it! I think Jodie Whittaker is an absolutely wonderful Doctor, she probably takes more of her personality from the 5th Doctor, a very compassionate, caring, and sweet person who is completely against violence and above all wants to help in any way possible. She plays this role with such charm, joy, and doesn't take things as a joke. You feel her dedication and her wish to be a great Doctor Who and I can really say she accomplished it, I love her to the moon and back in this series. And it was very hard for me to say goodbye to the 12th Doctor because he may not have been my Doctor but he is easily one of my top 5, but I'm happy we have Jodie on board and hope we see more and more of her. Her companions this time around are really good, back to a multi-Tardis team again very much like the 4th/5th Doctor, and I actually realized something very early on. The episodes themselves while still having that sci-fi adventure feel, are there so we know more about the companions and get to really enjoy them. Their dynamic really does feel like a family because of how well they know each other and we the audience can feel that too. So we have Graham and Ryan who are grandad and grandson respectively, and Yasmin who has been a childhood friend of Ryan. So all of these people know each other before the adventuring starts and you really believe it.  But I love the fact that every episode has them sort of face their own demons. Graham lost his wife and has to come to terms with her not being there on his travels with the Doctor, Ryan lost his gran and also has an absent father so it makes him a bit more distant from the group and he faces those demons in his own way, and Yasmine has an importance on family that she doesn't always get along with and faces facts about her heritage that she finds difficult to accept. All of these character's dilemmas are real, any person can immediately identify with them, and we see them slowly grow and change for the better like real people. So the focus is more on the Tardis crew, and I'm totally fine with that because I like these characters! The stories themselves still are quite good, they are not the best episodes of Doctor Who but neither are they the worst. They sort of feel very late 80s Doctor Who, specifically the earlier 7th Doctor episodes which were okay stories but had a charm of their own very much like this. The Woman Who Fell To Earth is a very good story, finely introducing all our main players and my second favorite post-regeneration story of the modern series, the first going to Deep Breath. It really is a clean slate, I mean there's new everything, new showrunner, new theme, new titles, new sonic screwdriver, it really does feel like 2005 all over again. The Ghost Monument was a fun little trek episode showing off the new Tardis design which actually reminds me quite a bit of the 8th Doctor's Tardis, very atmospheric and unique. Rosa I thought was a damn fine episode that had no qualms fully showing the racial climate of the mid 50s and actually did get me a tiny bit choked up at the end. Arachnids In The UK I know for a fact would have scared the living daylights out of me when I was younger, and it's a decent horror-esque mystery that I actually do kinda wish UNIT was in if only to see Kate and this Doctor chat for a bit. The Tsuranga Conundrum was an okay episode, though I have to admit the monster design did get a laugh out of me. Kerblam goes full mystery with a genuinely unsettling monster design but yeah we have seen this story before. The Witchfinders on the other hand was friggin' awesome! I loved this episode, essentially taking The Crucible with a Doctor Who twist, with Alan Cumming hamming it up to a delightful degree, but man....that one scene. It has such great acting, absolutely outstanding acting even, it's subtle but it works so friggin' well you can really tell Jodie and Alan were giving it their all, and there's just one little bit at the very end from Jodie and it only lasts for like 2 seconds but you can see that fury of a Time Lord is still in her. Oh, I love it! God help me I love it so! And the finale wasn't half bad but I will admit the stakes weren't very high but the additions to the universe I thought were really nice and had some good character moments. And I fully understand why, they knew people were going to be hesitant with a female Doctor and no more Steven Moffat behind the wheel so they didn't want to throw all the big storylines, sci-fi explosions, and madcap time travel stories just yet. They had to gauge people to it, and I really don't think they were being different for different's sake, it still feels like Doctor Who. The new theme and opening is outstanding, taking the classic 1963 opening titles and modernizing it, with a fantastic new theme that feels more sci-fi than it has been in a while. I dig the sonic and Tardis designs, I love the fact the Doctor has to make the screwdriver on Earth with a bit of alien tech and a lot of bits and pieces, I'd love to buy the replica toy and add it to my screwdriver collection. I also like the fact the Tardis implements the crystal theme, it's a very simplistic console but I know they can build upon it and make it look even better. A lot of people were complaining about the costume and said it looked like she got it from a thrift shop, and she totally does! I don't quite get the pants which don't go all the way down to her ankles but it's still a cool costume. I really took my positive mind frame into this series and I genuinely did enjoy it, and I know they can build upon this and make an even better series with more excellent stories. The quality of the cinematography blew me away in the first handful of episodes, it reminded me an awful lot of Tron Legacy in it's opening shots of Sam Flynn on his motorbike, it looked so damn clean with great lighting, the writing was more character focused than story and that's totally fine, the effects are well done, and I love the new aspects and designs of the show. If memory serves the newest series will hit next year and I hope I can get to watch it every week. I haven't even been a fan of Doctor Who for a decade but I love it so much, there's such creativity and love put into every Doctor, every series both old and new, and yes I have had huge problems with this show in the past. Upon my first viewing of Hell Bent, I thought it killed Doctor Who for me. I went into series 10 with a sense of dread and bitterness, but it became a great series in my eyes. I know I ranted a fair amount but I do it out of love, I do it because they made decisions that hurt the show, hurt the story, the characters, the villains, because I knew full well they could have done better. But no show is perfect, and every show has had it's ups and downs, and I didn't stop loving Doctor Who or stopped watching the show. If you're a fan, and truly love and appreciate the show you stick around through thick and thin. The same thing happened in the late 80s, Doctor Who came under a lot of fire for being too violent and scary, the show was getting less and less great ratings and viewings, and even though it was still making good stories and great characters it was cancelled. They cancelled Doctor Who just barely after it's 25th anniversary, and it took nearly two decades for it to come back full force. Which is a shame cause I greatly love the 7th Doctor stories, every single one of them to be honest, I thought Trial Of A Timelord was excellent and Colin Baker really did better than people give him credit for. And I highly doubt that Jodie Whittaker will lead this show back into cancellation, this was a fine series of Doctor Who and I am fully ready for more. If you've never watched the show before and I've peaked your interest for the future and perhaps even the past of Doctor Who, I hope you enjoy it and have a lot of fun with it. If you're a fan and you've sat through 2 weeks of my rantings and praises, I have to thank you, I mean you guys are troopers, and I always love to hear people's thoughts on this show. Thank you so much for joining me on a long adventure through time and space but there's always more out there, there are films out there where acting reigns supreme, where animation is beauty and motion is key, people who chew scenery and special effects worthy of praise. Somewhere there's action, somewhere there's horror, and somewhere else there's comedy gold. Come on, we've got movies to see.

Doctor Who: Series 10

I'm sorry, whaaaaat?

A series of Doctor Who that I love from beginning to end, have nothing to complain about, and even like the finale? I never thought I'd see the day. I mean Peter Capaldi has always been top notch, utter class, and a joy to watch and for a final series it's really good. The circle is now complete, when Peter Capaldi was a young boy he watched Doctor Who from the beginning, from An Unearthly Child all the way to now with several series and a wonderful finale. And that classic feel is still felt perhaps even more so with our new companion, Bill played expertly by Pearl Mackie and I love her. I love everything about her. I love her personality, her curiosity, her witty banter, the fact it sort of is another Doctor and Ace relationship being an aspiring learner and a patient professor. Brilliant! Could not love her more. And like I said the relationship her and the Doctor have is wonderful, Peter does amazing work as always, being fun and entertaining but can really hit home those dramatic points. And I just don't mean the regeneration, there's one scene with Missy and it really does make me get all misty eyed, he can act the full range of emotions. Plus we have another companion who previously worked with River and now tags along on occassion with the Doctor, and people are sort of split on Nardole. Now I really didn't like or even get his character first time around but on second viewing Matt Lucas brings a lot of humor and enjoyment and he quickly grew on me. Then we have Missy, now this is how you make a character who was hamfisted and given poor characterization in the last series and is now given good writing, some real lovely acting by Michelle Gomez, and a more interesting dynamic between the two Time Lords. I mean the relationship between the Doctor and the Master has always been so interesting, because it's this complete love/hate waltz, when people said in series 9 that the talks and interactions between Missy and the Doctor reminded people of Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado I wanted to slap them upside the head and decode what combo of narcotics they were using, but here I fully see it. You can tell these people are on opposite sides of the board yet retain a great respect and admiration for each other, you can tell they were previous friends just like you could during the classic series, and that is beyond fantastic! It's the best writing in the finale if not the whole series, they really did a superb job! All the episodes are good if not great, The Pilot introduces us to Bill and has some lovely moments throughout with the Doctor actually teaching at a university, and has a rather sweet and lovely little nod to the first actor to play Doctor Who. Thin Ice had beautiful visuals and a good story with honestly some very good incidental music. Yeah, that's one thing I noticed, usually like in any show there's background music and it's done very well in some episodes, but this time even scenes with the Doctor playing his guitar has really great music, almost spaghetti western in style with electric guitar solo's, but yeah the music was much more noticeable and lovely in this series. Knock Knock gave me Ghost Light flashbacks with a very spooky mystery in a old mansion, and had it's fair share of fun as well. But the stories after that, essentially a huge mid-season 4 part story where the Doctor actually goes blind, and I don't mean a oh he's been inflicted with something to raise the stakes and he brushes it off at the end, I mean he cannot see for multiple episodes. That's....never happened before. I mean yes, there have been tons of stories with an overarching story or a character arc, but to have such a huge blow hit the Doctor in a damaging way for several episodes is kind of a big deal. I was so shocked seeing that and was wondering what would happen next and the stories around that are well done indeed. Empress Of Mars just screamed Star Trek The Next Generation at me, I'm not sure why, maybe it was the story elements, an importance on diplomacy and negotiation, I'm not too sure but it seemed very Star Trek to me. Then the finale, wow. I won't dare say a thing but it is so well done, a true no-win scenario for the Doctor with very grim stakes, and a return of old enemies makes it a great finale. And the fact we have a wonderful callback to the 5th Doctor's regeneration before the true regeneration story begins sets the tone perfectly, because we see the 1st Doctor played by David Bradley, known to the muggle world as Mr. Filch, arrives as a sort of tie in to The Tenth Planet the very first regeneration story told. And it really is a perfect send off for Capaldi, no massive story but more a character piece, the conversations between the two Doctor's is truly great with both having resignations over their regenerations and have to come to terms with that, with lots of fun back and forth between a truly old fashioned Doctor with his totally modern incarnation. Peter's final scene is emotional but a truly triumphant goodbye with great hope and love for the future. Which I will fully take with me in Jodie Whittaker's first series! So near the end, and yet so soon.

Doctor Who: Series 9

Well that was unexpected.

Series 9 is like, good? It's actually really good and barely pisses me off? I'm stunned. Like they went from f***ing omnishambles to a good series? Wow. After the complete mental breaking that the series 8 finale inflicted upon me I was very nervous about this series. But they fixed it. It still has issues that make me just have an emotional fit bordering on rage but it's really nothing that major. We have Clara and The Doctor having adventures, really good adventures, Clara has apparently completely gotten over her one true love and is back to the fun and lovable Clara. So either she was still lying through her teeth at the last finale or she got over his death super fast. But I like her again! She's gotten a bit overzealous with the adventures and travelling far past how Rose was always game for something new and exciting, to the point where even The Doctor looks incredibly concerned but more on that later. I thoroughly enjoy almost every episode save one, they are written very well and give a lot of entertainment. What surprised me though was how many two-parters there were, literally every episode save for one and the finale are two-parters which make it feel very classic Doctor Who. I love that with Peter Capaldi's series, it feels very classic but modern, Peter was a massive fan of Doctor Who and his love for the classic series can be really felt here in many different aspects. The fact we have an opening episode based on Skaro with Dalek designs from both classic and modern eras is a real treat, The Magician's Apprentice is a great way to start the series with wonderful emotion and good writing. We then move on to Under The Lake which is a good little mystery with a bit of a spooky twist and has some good character moments in it. The Girl Who Died is an amazing story, if only for just the last 15 minutes, I'm serious watch this two-parter for the last 15 minutes of this arc. You will not regret it. Great writing, very good acting, and while it did introduce a character I grow to not like much I did enjoy her here, but it has a lot of good ideas and character moments. After that we have The Zygon Invasion, more Kate and Osgood so this episode gets two big thumbs up from me but seriously Peter Capaldi deserves 50 Oscars for his performance. I mean whoa, it made me just an emotional mess of tears. Sleep No More is a bit blah, but it's the standard filler episode before the finale. Speaking of which. Oh boy here we go. I have significant issues with the finale but it all lies on the back of the last episode. Face The Raven was really, really good with an emotional end and it has a deeper meaning than just another companion's goodbye which we'll talk about. However...Clara and Ashildr are not good, I don't enjoy their characters anymore and it kinda severely screwed everything over. Big time. Now before we discuss my utter disappointment and fueled rage of the finale it's time to talk characters. Now, I love Doctor Who. I really love it. It is a fantastic show with limitless potential, it is a show that could go on for 100 years, I truly believe that. But some people ask why, and the answer is very simple. The characters is what either makes or breaks the series whether classic or modern. It's so easy to just fall in love with Sarah Jane Smith because of such excellent writing and acting, she is kind, intelligent, a true and undoubtedly best friend to The Doctor, intrigued by the adventures and fully capable to take care of herself. And yet even with characters I didn't really go for like Harry Sullivan or Turlough, they grew on me as time went by. There was evolution to the characters, reasons for their decisions and personality, they grew and changed like real people. Clara was a character I quickly liked and enjoyed, she was so fun, she could flirt and joke but still be real and a true joy to watch. Yet through the entirety of series 8 she became a horrible person due to poor writing, but she came through again because she is back to being a joy to see, ready for adventures, light and funny, and becomes a complete character once more. Her death was tragic and emotional, but it had purpose because she falsely believed she was impervious to bad things and that she was on the same level as The Doctor. Now flawed characters is no major problem, no one is perfect, yet I feel this trait for Clara seems so off. She shouldn't be racing into these situations throwing caution to the wind, it seems so unlike her. But she tries to justify it and it kind of works but it does detract from her death because of her own hubris. But not in a clever or ironic way, just a stupid way. She acted how a child acts, well I saw how this person does this so I will do the same as them and be completely fine if not better. That is not how anything works. And she pays the consequences for that, she is killed, and it has a severe effect on The Doctor and you fully feel it. The problem with Clara is that her death becomes beyond pointless, she is rescued by being pulled out of time and if she continues to live time will break. I mean like, game over man game over! And she is completely ready to face her fate, her last words "Let me be brave." fully back this up, she knows she has to die and accepts it. And then the ending happens. She decides on a whim, like a leaf on the wind, that she should travel with Ashildr in a Tardis for awhile before then. No. That makes Clara's death pointless. Modern Doctor Who does not have the sheer will to kill a companion, they subvert it in any way possible. Oh Rose Tyler isn't dead despite that's what she said in the intro of Army Of Ghosts, she's just in a parallel dimension! Oh Donna Noble didn't really die, it was purely a symbolic death because her memories were wiped, she's alive and well! Amy and Rory didn't die, they were zapped back in time and had a long life together, they're totally fine! River didn't die, her conscious is in a super computer matrix so her spirit lives on. Oh Clara's not dead you silly bean, she's travelling in time and space in her own Tardis! Because death isn't a thing in life! Death doesn't exist and never has to be faced, pain and grief and loss never has to be felt for really realsies! Now if you will permit me I will quote a different sci-fi series, "Damn it, Bones, you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!". That's right kids, death is something you never have to face, you never have to face the no-win scenario, everything will be fine always no matter what. Imagine if they even attempted that in classic Doctor Who, oh Adric didn't die at the end of Earthshock, nooooo the ship he was on actually had an escape pod that inexplicably also had time travel capabilities, he's back in his own time doing just fiiine and dandy!

You do not ever get to do that. You have completely betrayed and ruined Clara's story beyond comprehension because of this. It kinda takes away the emotional crux and performance of Peter Capaldi in Heaven Sent which I can fully say without even batting an eye is the best Doctor Who episode of the modern era. The absolute best. It is a masterfully crafted, written, acted, and directed episode. I cannot love it enough, absolutely well done! And the finale isn't bad for the most part until the end but the writing in Clara's case just completely ruins it. Oh but I'm forgetting someone, Ashildr is harboring on my nemesis list, now when we first meet her I really liked her! Just a girl with an imagination and Viking blood in her veins, wonderful! I can see why The Doctor did what he did which is essentially implant her with an advanced medical chip that makes her pretty much immortal. Never aging, never changing, the second immortal we know of. They could have done so much with this character. Instead they make her an apathetic, bitchy, angsty, pathetic child. She lives from Viking times to the end of time itself, and she has no growth. I'm sorry what? In every single last piece of media I have ever digested, in terms of immortals, they change. Now I'm not saying she can't be bitter and all angsty after a few hundred years. That makes sense! You get tired of seeing everything and everyone you hold dear just fade in front of your eyes, you'd get pretty bitter and have a shitty attitude about everything after that. But that's the problem, she's always the absolute **** who doesn't care about a damn thing, and it could have been amazing. We learn that her memory can only go so far, she has written a library of volumed diary entries recounting her story, we learn she has had children and they were killed during the Black Plague, she's been in wars, saved people, and can't retain it in her memory because she is that old. That's an incredible idea. You could have done anything and decided to do nothing. Have her grow bitter and disconnected from humanity by the time she meets The Doctor again in the 1600s, and she realizes she made a mistake by teaming up with a villain and she accepts her fault but then dedicates her life to help people, to have a new lease on life and follow in The Doctor's path but here on Earth. You could even have a conversation between them reminiscing of the conversation he had with Jack when they were fixing the rocket in Utopia, that she's a forever fixed point in time and that he just can't take her but she understands and stays on Earth. That would have been incredible character moments in dialogue. To have The Doctor connect with this woman, and understand how she feels about her prolonged existence and past lives. There was excellent material here for a character and they didn't do anything with her. It is a colossal waste. Just absolute wasting of great character potential, that is what I hate most of all. I can rage against the ruining of the Cybermen but those can be fixed and changed, but it's the characters that stick around that have the biggest impact. It hurts the show, it really does. Not just in my eyes but in the actual world of the show. So instead of Clara having one last bittersweet talk with The Doctor before she returns to face her death, she's travelling about with an immortal in a ship they can't possibly know how to fly. Great. Perfect.

Whatever, just....whatever.

Doctor Who: Series 8

Boy did this go downhill fast.

Now I love Peter Capaldi, he is truly a fantastic Doctor and I still miss him now, he fully understands the character and has done no wrong. That is not the issue of this series. And in all fairness it started off damn well, Deep Breath was a great first episode for Peter and the new dynamic change for Clara was nice but it was only the beginning of the end for her character. Remember this is a woman who knows The Doctor, is fully aware of who he is and that he can change his face into a new incarnation, so why does she throw this tantrum that "He's not The Doctor anymore! Where's my sexy boyfriend? Why is he ooooold??" I mean are you kidding me? She knows him better than any of his recent companions, more than Sarah Jane, Rose, anybody and yet she still acts like a child. We'll rip into her, I mean get to her in a bit. Not yet. But she comes to accept who he is and their next adventures are really fun. It's just great to see an older Doctor and younger companion, so no bullshit crushes or romance, just a nice friendship between them and it's nice. Into The Dalek is an interesting episode but I kinda hate how they made the actual Dalek casing act like a human body full of squishy bits, white blood cells, and a stomach. Just...weird, I mean I get it but yeah, weird. Robot Of Sherwood was excellent fun, with The Doctor being a total grump as he banters with a fun Robin Hood and Clara gets her fairy tale adventure. Listen I felt was trying soooo hard to be the next Blink, and while it was eerie it didn't have that terror punch Blink had but I still liked it. Time Heist was the last good episode of the series, a very Ocean's 11 caper in an intergalactic bank, short but sweet, and was well crafted. After that.....ugh. I mean the episodes aren't god awful, they're not even really bad at all but they absolutely just ruined a fun, charming, and very likable companion. We'll talk about the series finale but we need to address the absolute assassination of Clara Oswald. I mean talk about a complete betrayal, I have no idea what Steven was on or thinking but he made Clara go from a sweet, likable, and fun companion into this whiny, bitching, insufferable, pathological liar that borders and then crosses into psychopathic child who I absolutely despise. And I know exactly the moment she became a hateful person, and it was when she dated Danny Pink. I'm still racking my brain trying to figure out how their little relationship even got off the godforsaken ground. When I see more chemistry and substance in a relationship between Anastasia and f***ing Christian Grey, then you my friend have officialy failed at writing. That is how bad their relationship is, their first date is an absolute dumpster fire and yet they inexplicably keep dating and forming an I can only assume supremely toxic relationship, Clara can't stop lying straight to his face even when he practically knows about The Doctor, he keeps trying to break the bond between Clara and The Doctor to the point where it seems like he's gaslighting and manipulating her to just never see The Doctor again and be with him. It sickens me in the pit of my stomach. And you know what? It works. Clara starts whining and bitching like a spoiled child, always wanting her way without ever regarding anybody's feelings, to the point where she snaps like a Twix bar, essentially holds her best friend hostage and destroys all the Tardis keys because she wants her dead boyfriend back. She was dying already since Deep Breath but in the first part of the series finale, she is dead to me. Just dead to me, I now hate a truly wonderful companion that I greatly enjoyed seeing. And it is very apparent to anyone who watches this series, there is such an obvious and almost tangible break between this one character from two seperate series. It sucks to see her turn into this cunniving monster, because I liked Clara! I really liked her! I thought she was so much fun, had wonderful chemistry with Matt, Jenna Coleman is a delight in those episodes! And this is what happens to her. Becoming a codependent, immature, pathetic, horrible, utter pathological liar who goes from sociopathic to psychopathic and it is a slap in the face to all of her fans! Clara deserves better than this. And all because of an absolute piece of shit, f*** Danny Pink, his whole character I can sum up very quickly. "Clara you should listen to me because I'm a man, and I don't trust your best friend and I think he's secretly a massive asshole. Come be with me because I know better but I hate you because you can't ever tell me the truth, and I'm just a swishy bitch who wants attention. Because I killed a kid in the army!" Honestly that last bit about the kid when I first heard it, I thought it was really good character writing, but at the end of it I just don't care. I somehow hated him more when he turns into a Cyberman, probably because he was the biggest emo twat I've ever seen in my life, I was honestly expecting to hear in the background of any scene of him "Crawling in my skin, these wounds they will not heal". I am not joking. Doctor Who is making me fricking LIVID lately, and I don't want to be this way! But bullshit is bullshit and when the bullshit man says this finale is bullshit...oh my God I could not be more serious. Okay fine, the whole mystery built over the series and in the first part of the finale is good. Who's this batshit crazy broad? What's this afterlife place? What are all these supporting characters doing here? And I'll freely admit I had no idea it was the Cybermen until the reveal! And then it just gets more stupid. What the hell is the deal with Missy? Now I have no issue with the idea behind this character, I can roll with it to a point. Now I seriously and truly do not hate Michelle Gomez but my Goooood what even is this character?! And I do NOT want to hear anybody defend this with, oh she's just a crazy, zany, illogical character so you can't be mad that her plan is utterly pointless and she's an annoying prat! Let me give you an acorn of wisdom: Crazy has motive, there is a reason the saying "There is a method to the madness" exists, villains in media could be nuttier than squirrel droppings but they had motivation and ulterior motives. There is none of that here. She's just crazy to be crazy, and we don't have to explain it because she's an animaniac!! No. Do something with her character, give us material to know her and enjoy her presence more. Stop. Lazily. Writing. Characters! There's one thing I liked in the finale besides Peter and seeing Kate again, it's so silly but I just love it, when the Cybermen emerge in the street if you look in the background there's this lady who just bear hugs a Cyberman and I swear to God it is the cutest damn thing. Why do I love that so much? I have no idea but I'm taking what I can get from this dumpster fire! Allow me to relay this whole evil plan because I wanna bash my frick fraking brains out against the walls because of how much zero sense it makes. So let me get this straight...a company front which is actually a Cyberman converting factory not only harvests dead bodies to make Cybermen (which is totally fine, I like that) and then after that, they start flying Iron Man style into the atmosphere, then explode causing huge synthesized storm clouds to emerge, which then rain water into graves all over the world, kinda like in Return Of The Living Dead, where instantaneously corpses no matter how long they've been buried or how much they have decayed, whether a few weeks or several centuries, emerge as fully functioning Cybermen. Uh-huh.

I just took like...a lot of pills, maybe had some alcohol. I'm fine. Everything is just tickety boo here at Dude Central! What mind melting level of stupid are you talking about? Of course Cybermen can just bust out of graves even if they don't have a brain which is literally what they need to function. They're just mindless zombies now that are at the whim of a woman who would make Charles Manson look like Albert Einstein, even though they are tactical, methodical, pure logical beings who make extensive plans to upgrade the universe. I see nooooo issue with this! Let them do a little dance, it'd be so funny! Hey you remember that in Doctor Who when the iconic villains did nothing and were just a waste of time? Oh man those were fun times. What's that? None of this makes sense and the ending destroys the coolness and impact of the Cybermen almost beyond repair? Nahhh! It's fine! It's all fine! This is totally Doctor Who, that beloved sci-fi series enjoyed by young and old for over 50 years, that made excellent stories, beloved characters, thoughtful and interesting dilemmas, original monsters, and fun for everyone. Yeah.....that's what this was.

Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Specials

I'm throwing in the Christmas special with this one.

Normally I don't talk about the Christmas specials unless something happened story wise but since The Time Of The Doctor was Matt's final episode I feel obligated to see him off of course. But in good time. I was very fortunate to actually see the 50th anniversary special in a theater surrounded by mega fans of the entire series, it was great fun and an occasion worthy of memory. Needless to say we were all very impressed, I mean they played their cards just about as perfectly as you can get, a multi-Doctor story based around the one thing we've heard about for nearly a decade, The Time War. Just to see it on the screen at last was a big moment, but it goes deeper than that. To see a war torn Doctor played wonderfully by Sir John Hurt accompanied by our beloved 10th and 11th incarnations was amazing! They work together so well and we've never seen this War Doctor before but they flesh his character out very well in an hour long special, and to see them treat such a massive thing like The Last Great Time War with such weight and importance feels genuine. It took up a position to tell the most epic story in Doctor Who history and make the celebration of 50 golden years truly spectacular. Which is exactly what they did, while throwing in Kate and a new character Osgood who shrieks fangirl like nobody's buisness and I will forever love her, a return of the Zygon's who haven't been seen in 40 odd years, and it all feels just right. It has it's comedy, it's drama, some major surprises and is still a love letter to the series. The fact that it opens with the 1963 titles immediately lets you know what you're in for. It was a huge deal back then 6 years ago and it still holds up even now and will continue to do so. And last but certainly not least we have the 11th Doctor's final adventure, and it does it so well. It juggles being a regeneration story, an actual plot important story, and a Christmas story damn near perfectly. It has a few very sweet and loving moments that make you feel that Christmas warmth even if you don't watch it around December. The story focuses on a mysterious message from a planet that draws every adversary from The Doctor's history to it, forcing the Time Lord to protect the town from an imminent war while slowly dying of old age because he has no more regenerations to use. It's a very good story and one last great hurrah from Matt Smith, my Doctor. His regeneration still brings a tear to my eye, and his last words ring true for any individual. It's a heartbreaking end but I'll always remember when The Doctor was Matt. I really felt he was going to go the distance, topple Tom Baker's incredible 7 year run since he was the youngest actor to play The Doctor and he had that energy and acting talent to do so, but sadly it only lasted 3 years. But I loved those 3 years, I used to watch his series with my mom, she knows Matt's stories best and he really was the reason I went from being a fan to huge fan. My love for Doctor Who has waned slightly since those years but I really was invigorated again despite my nagging, and I cannot wait to see Peter Capaldi rock on in series 8.

Doctor Who: Series 7

Oh I have such mixed opinions on this series.

I really enjoy the majority of it but the things that are wrong really, really, like really ×1000 just infuriates me! It already starts off with a serious headscratching decision for bringing Amy and Rory back. Why? Their story is over, we had that wonderful goodbye in The God Complex for a reason, The Doctor did not want to see them be killed in front of him and they were ready to start a normal life. So why bring them back, and to add insult to injury they decide that they need to be divorced. What?? The reason itself makes no sense and the "divorce" lasts all of one episode, it is both introduced and ended in one single episode. Oh boy that was suuuure a smart decision, oh man that had such weight to the story. It is made of stupid! I still enjoy their company, they bring a unique dynamic to the show, having a home life while still adventuring, they are great fun and how can I hate Mr. Weasley being Rory's dad? But then and I've already talked about it enough, they die. For absolutely zero reason. Less than zero reason! Why bring them back for like 5 episodes then just kill them off? And don't tell me it was for story arc purposes of this series because I've come up with a better chain of events and still keep the continuity! Keep the Doctor travelling on his own, keep the whole asylum of Daleks, have him meet Oswin, and then keep him going solo. Come up with a story where The Doctor gets careless and emotional and comes within a hair's width of destroying the Earth, a second Gallifrey, and he is ashamed of himself because he almost lost the only family he has in the universe, he refuses to ever see Amy and Rory again and basically retires. We go to The Snowmen and buisness as usual. Done! Perfect! No senseless killing for no reason whatsoever. Yet the episodes before that are done well, absolutely superfluous but has good writing, great effects, interesting stories but it all culminates with The Angels Take Manhattan. Their deaths are still a bitter sting but I feel that the Weeping Angels took it full on up the ass, to the point where they lose all mystique and horror. So can they inhabit statues or not? I always saw it as the Angels are well, angels and that there is a possibility that a statue in a major city could be an angel but not all of them are. Yeah this episode has the balls to claim the Statue Of Liberty itself is a Weeping Angel....in the city...that never sleeps, in a city with millions of people in it, regardless of day or night, there is not. One. Single. Ffffff***ing EYEBALL on the Statue Of Liberty!!? Get f***ed! I call infinite amounts of bullshit on that! First the whole Demons Run thing and now this cockamamie waste of time and writing. Ugh, I'll be back.

I just, nevermind. Nevermind. You done f***ed it up and you decided not to unf*** it, just nope! Let sleeping dogs lie, son of a bitch! Okay, got to move on for the sake of my sanity. After that it's all still pretty damn good! Clara is such a good companion, she's just a wonderful match for this Doctor and their relationship and chemistry is flawless. All their episodes are good and the mystery surrounding Clara keeps you guessing until the end. And the payoff is pretty good I think. I love the fact we have Richard E. Grant, a wonderful actor and one I am very fond of gets to be a bit of a recurring villain, he plays this part so well with such malice and becomes an unstoppable and formidable foe. Hell to the yeah! I think they took notes on this for future villains. We even get a sterling addition in my opinion with the daughter of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, oh Kate how I adore thee. She's truly wonderful and fits right in with the cast and stories, and I love it so much! Will admit however the Cybermen just don't work for me, in just about every aspect. Design wise the whole Cybermen style has been based on a progressive format, they gradually became more advanced and better each time we see them, but then they just went a bit off course. Not only do they look like Iron Man, arc reactor and all, but the face design screams more japanese chibi style cuteness than terror. Plus they are way, WAY too overpowered! I mean the whole point of Cybermen is kind of a zombie thing, they get you by their overwhelming mass amounts of numbers, now one single Cybermen can convert or delete the entire human race, Flash style superspeed, ability to adapt to attacks much like the Borg in Star Trek, can detach limbs to kill or convert people, has advanced weapon systems, and they can fly, again very much like Mr. Stark, repulsor hands and all! Now fine, you need to up the badass quality of them, make them more deadly, sleek, and more difficult to destroy, but this goes so far out there I can't even see it anymore. And they only get worse from here. They did the Daleks the same too! Oh my God, I almost forgot! This made me rant for like an hour, okay so the concept of Daleks using human slaves is totally cool, I can see that idea, it has been mentioned many times they use slave labor of some variety, but the way they try to do it here just makes you want to pistol whip the writers in the dick. Oh God...you're going to think I'm just lying straight to your face but it's true! Okay, so they take a human and convert them into essentially a Dalek, not in the shell where they are these gooey tentacle creatures, no no no no no, a fraking eyestalk juts out from their forehead and the death ray erupts from their hand kinda like with Scorpion in the Mortal Kombat movie. Everything else is human. Annnnd my IQ is dropping by the milisecond. Why not just use brainwashed humans? What's with the frankly ridiculous transformations? Why do they have these Dalek/steampunk S&M bodysuits? Why do they act like a Dalek's secretary??! I am dead sucking ferious right now. Oh holy crackers with cheese, this series is a walking nightmare sometimes! Which is odd because the writing is good for the most part, character development and interactions are still great, I still enjoy the majority of episodes, the second half of the series is great! Yet it just keeps shooting itself in the gnards and I will never know why! Screw it, watch the series from The Snowmen onward, it's short but it's sweet. Hardly any stupid nonsense, good moments, great character interactions, fun but interesting stories, and it all leads up to an epic occasion. Join me next time for the 50th anniversary specials!

Doctor Who: Series 6

See this is where and more importantly when I was a big fan.

This is the series I watched from the beginning live every week until the very end, with every twist, revelation, and foreshadowing moment fresh to my eyes. And I do still really enjoy it, for Matt's second series it does do everything on a bigger scale but is it better? Well we first start off with a rather interesting two-parter that was actually filmed in America, the first time in the show's history, set in Utah where The Doctor is rather shockingly killed before his companions and I don't mean regeneration, I mean he's a corpse now. But since we have time travel in the mix the same Doctor from the past appears and we follow the adventures and figure out (kinda) what exactly happened to result in his death. It's a very clever way to start the series because we've seen many movies start off with a huge climax but then we rewind and follow the series of events, so this is a unique take for the show that really hasn't happened since Trial Of A Timelord which is excellent by the way, go watch that, so we know how it ends yet it still grabs you. We kick off with a very interesting story based around the Apollo 11 moon landing which introduces us to a new alien under the monicrum of The Silence, who cannot be remembered if you stop looking at them, a kind of warped Weeping Angels system. We'll get back to them in a bit. After that we have a mixed bag of adventures, Curse Of The Black Spot is a bit of fun with pirates in tow. But the Rebel Flesh is absolute garbage and I have no problem saying it, mainly because it surrounds around clones of people who retain the memories of the original host and they try to fight for survival. This story has been told 10 million times better in many different sci-fi books, with better writing, characters, and dilemmas, it is so shoddily written with no real threat or importance except for pretty much a shock twist ending. It is the only reason it exists, and I can fully say you can skip it because I told you the premise. But it almost gets swept away because of the perfection that is The Doctor's Wife, a wonderful episode written by Neil Gaiman, he of the masterfully written Sandman series and American Gods and he even wrote Coraline. And if you know anything about his writting he is basically the supreme king of personifying ideas and objects, so what if the Tardis itself was infused with a young woman and her and The Doctor have a fun, lovable, and truly heart wrenching adventure? Well I'll give you a hint, I could praise it all damn day. The writing and character interactions are outstanding, going from sweet and loving to surprisingly dark and screwed up. Throw in the villain voiced by Michael Sheen who is quickly becoming one of my boys, an absolutely sublime actress who plays the human version of our beloved time machine, and a quite frankly emotion crushing ending makes this one of the best Doctor Who episodes we've seen so far. You can keep your Girl In The Fireplace, I will take The Doctor's Wife thank you very much. Then we have another new addition to the show format, we have a mid-season break after the really good but also really maddening episode A Good Man Goes To War. Now this hits spoilers a tiny bit but you'll still be fine. So let me lay this out and see if you can spot a problem: So it turns out before Amy and Rory even went to America, Amy was replaced by a clone and while the clone was travelling about, Amy was pregnant and is about to give birth. She has been kidnapped by this.....I don't even know, because she wakes up in like this super secret military base, and there is an army there dedicated to fighting and killing The Doctor and the more I think about it I'm having Arkham Knight flashbacks with this little plot point, like they have intel, are armed to the teeth, and have no doubts about ending this man's life. However! We don't know this militia's name, intention, their origins, or anything. It is literally just an army who want The Doctor dead. No reason why! None. At all. So instead of facing him head on or setting a trap, they kidnap his preggers best friend which shock of all shocks pisses him off! Heavily. So much to the point he starts calling in favors all over in time and space to siege the base and rescue his friend. I'll give you a million bucks if you can guess who loses. Now on paper this sounds awesome, The Doctor calling in favors and amassing an army to battle this unknown force to rescue his friend, but they do precisely dick to explain this opposing force. They handwave it away later on in the last frick fraking episode, but wait there's more! This series is trying soooo hard to CW, 90210, Gossip Girl this f***ing series by eluding that maybe Amy doesn't love Rory and that she and The Doctor made a half Time Lord baby. FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU-

I'm back. Just......really? R-really? Might one inquire as to why this decision was made? Because me in my stupid little ape mind just wanted to watch a fun sci-fi adventure show meant for all ages, but there I go again being a silly old bean!

Okay. I'm fine now. My head hurts, there's a little blood, but I'm completely fine now. So, where was I? Oh right, the episode is okay let's move on to the second half. Let's Kill Hitler is a decent follow up to that episode, good plot stuff there. Night Terrors is an okay episode, just something normal. The Girl Who Waited is kind of fascinating with Amy trapped in a faster timeline so she grows older and older while Rory and The Doctor try to get her back, but the episode is so inhumanely slow that it was really hard for me to stay awake through which is a shame cause Karen acts her heart out in that. The God Complex is outstanding in content, and actually has one of the best and yet depressing endings to an episode ever. I'm serious this episode is like 9/10 just for the ending, it's so reminiscent of classic Doctor Who and the final shot still brings a tear to my eye. We have a lovely return from Craig, taking place a few years after The Lodger before the big series finale. Which they kinda screwed up but nevertheless is a really good ending and sets up future events fairly well. And I'm going to be real with you, I never anticipated the ending but it filled me with theories galore after it was over the first time I saw it. So how was this season? In some places, it was amazing! In some places, it made me want to pour bleach into my brain! Take from that what you will.

I think series 7 is an improvement. But I don't trust anything right now.