A Little Insight Into My Brain

Hello, just thought I would do a special post to say why I am not very critical when I should, it is simply fear. Fear of being mean to a person who might be nice or who might beat me up, and fear of ruining their lives in some way or contributing to that happening. And no you are reading, thinking "Hey Mr MadMan (See what I did there) With a Box, without a box, who never had a box to begin with, you slate children in films and telly, and thats harsh", well person, yes, but the children are too young to understand what I'm on about or have time to change their career choice, adults don't, and thats part of the fear, they chose whatever they do as a career and it reels weird to destroy what they, presumably, love.

So I want to set a few ground rules so I can be a better reviewer and thus, critic, I am only saying what I do with good intentions, and it is not personal, you could be a  really nice person, I just didn't like you in something etc. I am only giving an opinion, something others do much less nicely than is normally accepted in society, and they get away with it and are sometimes praised for it, so I should get to voice my opinion really.

Thanks guys!

The Doctors Wife Review

There are many kinds of love, there is mutual, sexual, unrequited, you get my drift, but I think the best is the love a man has for his car, not the weird I love her and want to marry her love, but the subtle, caring and soft love a man shows to his prized car, which is really what this episode was really about, a man and his greatest love, his car.

Of course, the Doctor isn’t soft or subtle with his car, in fact it is very much the opposite, he is brash and harsh and rather rude sometimes with his equivalent of his car, the TARDIS, which is what makes that love all the more special really, it’s a love-hate relationship, where she loves it when he hates her. And we have finally got to hear it from her side within this episode, where the TARDIS is in the body of Idris, played brilliantly by Suranne Jones who gave a personality to the TARDIS which echoed all of the Doctors maddest moments in one little body, she pulled off what many could have failed so badly at, being more Doctor that the Doctor and not upstaging him.

The setting was actually beautiful, you can see the BBC gave these episodes a huge budget, one minute we’re in America, the next we’re on a ship, and then there are TARDIS corridors and on a junkyard planet, WHICH TALKS! Hats off to Martin Sheen for voicing house, he brought more of a calm maniacal sense of the character than Gabriel Wolf with the Devil creature and Sutekh, which fitted the character and the mood of the piece superbly.

NO CHILDREN! HOORAY! I was so pleased with the cast, and very surprised a small cast were so good, but then again this show had been working with small casts for 26 years, so it was no surprise really that the episode felt like one of the best in recent years, if not within the history of the show, that’s it, I’ve said it. I do love the direction this series is going in at the moment though, it has a classic Who feel which I, personally enjoy because, well I'm a huge nerd, all the references just put huge grins on my face, especially the little tiff between the Doctor and the TARDIS, but those moments just made it even more sour when she actually said "Hello" and "Goodbye", but the hello was the one which killed you most, because you know that out of all the companions, from Susan to Romana to Sarah-Jane, to Rose to Donna, only the TARDIS would ever be able to truly stay with the Doctor forever.

One thing I was most pleased about, which shows that this was a true highlight for recent years on DW, is that my dad said that he didn’t fall asleep when he watched that one, because my parents have had a bit of trouble with liking the stories, calling it Amy Pond, instead of Doctor Who, which I protest to with the simple Martha era was more needy and annoying and about her than Amy and Rory could ever be. Because that’s the thing, it has to be about them because they are main characters, I agree that they shouldn’t save the day, but the Doctor is getting on a bit, he doesn’t look it, but he is.

In short, this was a hugely successful story in my eves, and on one of the simplest ideas you could have with the show, executed perfectly.

The Curse Of The Black Spot Review

The last time I remember a pirate story being done was in “The Pirate Planet” and it was a rather fun story, but this was set in the future, on a different planet and with a very scary parrot, but the last proper story set with pirates was way back in 1965 in “The Smugglers” I think, with the good ol’ Bill Hartnell, and unfortunately it was good but wasn’t the best story in the world; so when I heard that this was going to be a pirate story, I was a bit concerned that it would take one of these routes, a weird, but fun space adventure, or a normal pirate story where the characters talk more than swashbuckler. I however was wrong, yes there was a LOT more talking than swashbuckling, but with good reason, the baddie in all this, the siren, played oddly serenely by the lovely Lily Cole, because, if someone was injured in any way, she would, apparently blow them up, to be blunt.

Of course, with a pirate story, you had all the clichés, but they worked, except the child, I am sorry, but there was just something about him, or was it her, really there was something more supernatural about the boy/girl than the bleeding great glowing alien! Also it was a waste of talent with guest star Hugh Bonneville having to act against a rather inanimate and frankly just naturally annoying child.

What I liked about this story is that it felt like a classic romp, where the Doctor doesn’t have a “moral obligation” to help people, its one where he actually has to help and figure out the mystery because he is trapped. It felt very much like a remake or a tribute to “The Smugglers” in the sense that it had the Doctor, trapped, a young couple, Amy and Rory (Ben and Polly), and a bunch of pirates, swashbuckling and talking a LOT about their problems. The twist at the end was very Davies era as well, which I think helped people realise that the show is the same, and it is still a good show, even after quite a bit of scepticism many fans have shown towards the show that it has lost its spark, this episode shows that the spark is still there, but not quite shining how it used to.

Doctor Who Series 6 Opening Two Parter Review

I must say, I was bemused at these episodes from the offset, but I couldn’t look away, I am an avid fan of Doctor Who and know it has random quirks that can be explained rather really rationally when you look at it, but Mr Moffatt must be hiding this rational explanation from us for a while because I can’t quite make out the reasons for what he has planned yet.

Alex Kingston is just perfect as River, giving her character a bit more personality every time we see her, but keeping us guessing who, and what, she is, we can tell she has a past with the Doctor, and from the end of The Day Of The Moon, we can see it is not simple, but nothing is with her. I have to say that Arthur Darvill as Rory needs more space to grow though, and he has been given some lately, but, for someone like me, I want more from him as a character, and not just comic relief and to show Amy does care for someone.

I am going to complain now, and to anyone who enjoys the series, I am sorry, but the astronaut, I can deal with, the Silence, maybe or maybe not being killed, I can deal with, I can even deal with the Doctor dying and not telling the others his plan, but having a little girl REGENERATE! Out of the blue and completely randomly, I cannot deal with. I found her annoying, stupid and pointless except to get Amy caught and for her to show how much she really loves Rory, just in case we forgot she was there for the dads watching, “wink, wink”, but this child just enforces my hatred for children in film and now television, because she is going to be such an annoying character, I just know it. The Silence were a good monster, if a bit vague, but that was meant to be part of the appeal, which is good, but when we know Moffatt can bring out the Angels with huge backstories, which terrify kids before they even see them, and we know the Daleks work incredibly well, in part because of their history, their backstory, which is what annoyed me about the Silence, they seemed to be a get out clause within a get out clause so we can see a whole load of technobabble and not have to have any reason for it.

Of course, I enjoyed the conclusion; the Silence condemning themselves to death was fitting and the video clip while watching the space landing was clever, funny and inventive. I enjoyed this opening two parter, but with the final scheduled to be just one episode long, I am worried that, like we saw in the beginning of The Impossible Astronaut, this was the end of something, I just hope it isn’t the end of common sense and good plots with good, non-annoying characters, and is the end of lots of random plot holes.