It’s the Doctor Who series finale tonight!

Today marks the end of the seventh series of Doctor Who, and promises to reveal not only who Clara Oswald really is, but also the Doctor’s name (spoiler: the latter most likely isn’t actually revealed). Whether or not the question of all questions (Doctor Who?!) is answered, it promises to be a brilliant episode, one that will change the show forever. I certainly hope it does, because most of Series 7 has been quite disappointing. The first half was ok, but with only five episodes not much could be developed. The second half has been a bit longer, but apart from The Bells of Saint John and a couple of others, the writing hasn’t been at its best. Without the mystery of Clara, it might be the worst series in the recent years. I’m hoping that next year we’ll have a full thirteen episode run with no long breaks, a great story arc and two part episodes. One part episodes are good, but especially for finales they don’t allow writers to develop the story much.

So, make sure you’re watching BBC One tonight at 7pm! There’s going to be a clip from the 50th anniversary special featuring both the tenth and eleventh Doctors posted online straightaway afterwards, so head to the Doctor Who website once the episode is over.

Watch the TV trailer now!

Oh, and yes I’ve changed the theme of my blog. Thought it could do with a bit of a new look.

Exactly how fast Windows 8 boots on an SSD and news of a TARDIS redesign

WOW! Mine will be a little longer because I will need to dismiss the lock screen and enter my PIN, it’s going to be amazing when I get my SSD. The BIOS will be the only thing slowing it down!

16 days until Christmas…

In a completely irrelevant topic (other than the fact that’s it’s to do with Christmas), the TARDIS interior is getting a redesign in the Christmas episode. What?! How can they do that? They didn’t change it that long ago… well, it was April 2010 when they last changed it, but the last TARDIS design lasted for five years. Plus, the new design looks kind of dull:

I suppose that they want to remove everything relevant to the Pond era, but that’s a lot. Will we never see River again? Will the sonic screwdriver be re-designed? Will they change the Doctor Who logo? Will they give the eleventh Doctor a different outfit (actually, we already know that’s going to happen)? I can understand that they want to show that it’s a new era, but it’s not all changed like it did when the tenth doctor and his companions left – the eleventh doctor is the same as ever, though a little scarred by the death of the Ponds.

I guess we’ll just have to see how much the BBC have changed, and whether the new TARDIS interior is as dull as the first image shows…

 

New Doctor Who video shows what happened to Brian…

A new video on the Doctor Who website (and on YouTube) shows how Brian finds out about the Ponds being stuck in the past and how they’re doing. Unfortunately, this was never filmed so the video consists of a storyboard with some text and a narration by Arthur Darvill, who plays Rory. You can watch the video below:

New Doctor Who series 7 trailer out now!

Do I need to say any more?

Do you like Doctor Who? – Poll

A quick poll for this week:

The Doctor’s next companion… revealed!

A short post this week, but one with very big Doctor Who news (that was in fact revealed on 21 March) – the new companion’s actress has been revealed. Not the name of the companion (at least not yet), but see the article below for more information…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17456505

And this one as well…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_120321_02/Jenna-Louise_Coleman_Announced_as_New_Companion

So, Jenna-Louise Coleman will be the new companion, replacing Amy and Rory Pond. Here’s a timeline:

• Autumn 2012 – Doctor Who Series 7 starts
• Autumn 2012 – Amy and Rory Pond leave the series
• Christmas 2012 – the companion arrives!
• Spring 2013 (Date TBC) - Series 7 part 2, or Series 8 (TBC)

That’s basically the known future of Doctor Who in a few sentences. So, what do you think about the new companion?

Will the Ponds survive? And who, exactly, will the Doctor’s new companion be?

A bit of Doctor Who news for you today (well, rumours). Don’t carry on reading if you don’t want possible spoilers. Or do. Anyway, click the link below and read…

http://nerdbastards.com/2012/03/14/who-news-survival-of-the-ponds-and-new-companion-revealed/

Yes, the web address isn’t that nice. Ah, well. On a different note, make sure you ‘Like’ the following Facebook pages for the latest Doctor Who news. The latter is admittedly not official (I am actually the admin), but it will still bring you the latest news:

• Doctor Who
• The Doctor (you can also like this page using the widget in the sidebar of my blog)

On a final note, regarding the huge amounts of deliberate spam attempted at being posted on this blog recently (I didn’t allow it of course, but the annoying thing was the Spam filter didn’t catch it and I got >10 emails a day requesting comment moderation), I have changed it so, to post a comment, you need to log in with one of the following accounts:

• WordPress
• Facebook
• Twitter

I apologise if you posted comments and didn’t have one of these accounts (you can easily create a WP account here), but this change will stop people using fake emails to post comments, and it will be a hassle for them to create a new email, create an account and then post a comment.

I hope you’ve all had/are having a good day!

Sherlock – my thoughts

Image via Wikipedia

With a severe lack of Doctor Who in the next few months, I wondered what to write for this post. I mean, it’s a Doctor Who themed blog, isn’t it? Then I realised I haven’t reviewed Sherlock yet. So here’s my review (or ‘my thoughts’) on my second favourite TV show of all time… Sherlock.

You probably know who Sherlock Holmes is, so I won’t go into detail (if you don’t, click here). Same for Dr. Watson (again, click here if you don’t know who that is). Well, imagine that but in a modern day setting, with computers, cars etc. No more late 1800s/early 1900s for Sherlock – he’s in the 21st century. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock is the same in some ways but different in others.

But does it work? Yes, I think so. And very well. The series was made by Steven Moffat (who is currently Doctor Who’s head writer, so he writes all the openers/finales and the scary ones) and Mark Gatiss (who writes at least one Doctor Who episode every year). So the fact that I like Doctor Who and Sherlock is either a very big coincidence or the writers are very good. Not every Sherlock story is made for the 21st century – there are only 3 (yes, just 3! Versus 13 DW episodes! It’s not fair!) 90 minute (well, at least the episodes are long) episodes per series, and there have been 2 series so far (in 2010 and 2012), with a third coming hopefully next year. And the stories aren’t exactly the same as their Arthur Conan Doyle originals, they’re just loosely based upon them. But they’re brilliant. And scary.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing at least (it’s 25/2/12 now, but you’ll be reading this on 3/3/12 at the earliest) there are no Sherlock episodes on iPlayer for you to watch. However, the good news is that DVDs are available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Box-Set-Benedict-Cumberbatch/dp/B006K1IIAC/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I recommend you give it a try.

On a different note, it’s amazing how fast 2012 is going. When you’re reading this, you’re a sixth of the way through it… already!!

The Life and Death of Doctor Who

Ok, that seems a bit dramatic. But it is kinda true. Look at it this way:

In 2011, Doctor Who had a full series (though it was split), plus a Christmas special. Not only that, it had three, yes three, spin-off shows (DW Confidential, Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood). 2011 was a great year for perhaps the best TV show in existence. As was 2005, 2006, 2007 etc.

And now we’re in 2012, there just isn’t as much Doctor Who stuff as before. Firstly, there are no spin-off shows whatsoever. Below are the fates…

• Doctor Who Confidential – price cuts
• Torchwood – low ratings, American version didn’t work
• Sarah Jane Adventures – Elisabeth Sladen passed away

It’s not just that – Doctor Who starts in the Autumn this year, and, from what is currently known, there will only be about 7 eps., inc. the Christmas special. The remaining eps. are going to be next year. In case you didn’t know, it’s Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary next year. We were told that the BBC were fully committed to the big event. What a way to celebrate – less episodes. And did I mentioned that there’s no planned 2-parters for this year (or next)? I like 2-parters! You can have longer stories!

So though people are saying that Doctor Who’s going to keep being on our TVs every year, I’m worried about it. True, it has good ratings (bad ratings killed it off in 1989), but they’re not that amazing now compared to other shows (e.g. soaps get way more, X-factor gets way more, even Sherlock - which is amazing – is getting the same viewings). I really hope that DW survives for many more years. But, to be honest, it’ll need more eps., and at least one spin-off show to do that.

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe – Review

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone (actually, as I write this, it’s Christmas Day), I can’t believe how fast 2011 has gone. And I present to you today a review of the Doctor Who Series 7/2011 Christmas special.

I’ll start by saying Doctor Who certainly knows how to do Christmas specials. This is the seventh Christmas special (eighth if you include the 2010 New Year special), and each one has been amazing. My favourites are:

• The Voyage of the Damned (2007)
• The End of Time (2009)
• A Christmas Carol (2010)

You may notice that this year’s episode isn’t on that list. It isn’t that it’s a bad episode. Not at all. There isn’t a single episode by Steven Moffat that isn’t great. It’s just that, well, the plot is perhaps too simple. Last year’s was complicated, and sad, yet happy at some places. It had also got some amazing music. This year’s was kinda predictable, the music was good but not amazing, and not complicated.

Enough of the negatives. On to the positives – Amy and Rory are back! I probably should have put a spoiler alert before writing that. Ah, well. The only thing that’s sad about that is that you know those two are going to come to an unfortunate yet unknown end in the next series. And also that the Doctor left it two years before coming back to them.

Overall, a good, reasonable episode. Worth watching, but not my favourite episode by a long shot.

I hope you’ve all had a great Christmas (if you celebrate Christmas, if not than I hope you’ve had a great holiday). I’m now an owner of a Kindle, which I now think is this future of reading, though my family disagree. Have a great new year, and I hope 2012 is a good year for you all!