Post Super Bowl

Know what I was doing during The Super Bowl?
Playing Lego Dimensions Doctor Who.

Got past the glitch that had stalled the game last weekend. Then saved the progress and had another glitch.

I love the game dearly, probably the best games ever. But the glitches are very annoying.

But I have The Twelfth Doctor, Cyborg (from the Teen Titans), Smeegal (Lord of The Rings), Batman, and a Cybermen just to name a few in the same game!

Way too much fun.

Oh, and the game isn’t cheap either. So like many things, this hobby isn’t cheap.

But neither has my trips to England or Gallifrey One on THIS Friday… 🙂

Haven’t gotten to this stage yet. But I’m closing in on it.

Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY—mmJZmU

Metro Magazine UK:Although the bottom line here is that the Doctor Who Level Pack is great, and if you have even a passing love for the good Doctor it’s probably the most affectionate homage to the series you’ll ever get as a video game.

It should be pointed out first of all that each of these themes are in the main game as well, including a Doctor Who level. But buying the Level Pack is the only way to play as The Doctor, or use K-9 and the TARDIS. And before you ask which Doctor the answer is all of them. Each one of the 13 Doctors, including John Hurt’s War Doctor, is in the game as their own minifgure, complete with dialogue from the show, their own unique TARDIS interior (even the Jules Verne one from Paul McGann’s TV movie), and their own era appropriate version of the theme tune.

When you die you can chose to regenerate as the next one in line, and many have heir own unique props such as Patrick Troughton’s recorder or Peter Davidson’s cricket bat. Developer Traveller’s Tales are obviously huge Doctor Who fans and at least two of their previous games have featured unofficial cameos of the TARDIS, as well as a Weeping Angel in Lego Batman 3. But here they’ve been able to go all out, with references and characters from the show’s entire 52 year history.

Doctor Who Level Pack – the black & white TARDIS even has glued on wallpaper

What makes the level itself unusual is that using the TARDIS vehicle you can actually travel to the same areas at different points in history, which is used for a couple of neat puzzles involving the passage of time. To do this the TARDIS has to park on special plinths, which are actually dotted around in other levels of the parent game and give access to some surprise homages to other TV franchises not in the rest of the game (we’re trying not to spoil anything).

The downside to all this is that there isn’t really any story – just a sequence of largely unconnected scenes that end with the Daleks being defeated, again. The Doctor Who level in the main game was like that too though, and like all the Level Pack levels there’s a lot of reused assets and backdrops between the two.

What sells the Doctor Who Level Pack though is the hub world, which is gloriously indulgent in terms of its fan service. It’s a series of connected worlds that include two time zones for London, as well as Mars, the Dalek homeworld, and others. Each has the usual range of mini-quests and secrets, most of which are based around recreations of famous episodes – from the first Silurian episode of Nu-Who to 1967 classic Tomb of the Cybermen.

The hub also features voiceovers from Michelle Gomez as Missy, who isn’t in the story levels, as well as Jenna Coleman, Peter Capaldi, and Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks and Cybermen. Whether we’ll ever get a standalone Lego Doctor Who is unclear – the series probably isn’t quite popular enough abroad to justify that yet – but this will do very well in the meantime.

Who Wars

http://www.cultbox.co.uk/features/lists/star-wars-actors-in-doctor-who

http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows//blog/2015/05/6-great-minds-moments-between-doctor-who-and-star-wars

I think one could argue they both have science fantasy and mythological and fairy tale style formats.

Doctor Who and Star Wars are much closer than, say, Star Trek is to Who. Star Trek is a very structured world and very military (even though they don’t like to admit it).

Doctor Who and Star Wars are more fantastical than that.

https://vimeo.com/86788097

Who Is The Only Actor To Appear In Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who?

Answer: Deep Roy

There is only one actor the world over who has achieved the Sci-Fi trifecta of appearing in the three biggest Sci-Fi franchises on earth. Deep Roy, best known to modern movie goers as the face of the Oompa Loompas in Tim Burton’s 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reboot of the Willy Wonka franchise, has appeared in Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who.

He appeared first in Doctor Who, playing Mr. Sin in the 1977 story arc “The Talons of Weng-Chiang”and a Posicarian delegate in the Doctor Who story Mindwarp. He then appeared in 1983’s Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi as Droopy McCool. Finally, he sealed the trifecta with his  Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek:Beyond (2016) appearance as Keenser.

In addition to his roles within the three mega franchises, Roy has always appeared in other Sci-Fi movies and shows such as The X-Files, Planet of the Apes, and Flash Gordon.

 

The Story That Never Was

Storyboards from the 50th Anniversary show of Doctor Who reveal the Ninth Doctor’s role if he had made it into the episode as originally planned.

Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston obtained storyboards from comic and storyboard creator Andrew Wildman at a comic convention, showing the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, in three scenes.

Wildman attributed the changes to the scenes to Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.

“My run on the show spanned three Christmas Specials and most of Matt’s final season include his ‘regeneration’. That was me pretty much done other than the huge privilege of being asked to work – albeit in a small way – on the 50th Anniversary special,” Wildman said.

“There were going to be three Doctors in this one. The current, 11th Doctor and the previous two. Ok, so it didn’t quite work out that way in the end as we all know. Contracts are an odd thing and in the end show runner and writer supreme, Steven Moffat, had to come up with something… slightly different. At my time of working on the show however it was three ‘modern age’ Doctors and the current assistant, Clara.”

Andrew Wildman, comic creator, animator, TV producer and storyboard creator was one of the people who worked on the show, and has released a collection of storyboards that he sells at shows, for The Day Of The Doctor and Nightmare In Silver. I picked up a copy at the Geek Comic Con.

In introduction to the former tells us

My run on the show spanned three Christmas Specials and most of Matt ‘s final season including his ‘regeneration’. That was me pretty much done other than the huge privilege of being asked to work – albeit in a small way – on the 50th Anniversary special. There were going to be three Doctors in this one. The current, 11th Doctor and the previous two. Ok, so it didn’t quite work out that way in the end as we all know. Contracts are an odd thing and in the end show runner and writer supreme, Steven Moffat, had to come up with something… slightly different. At my time of working on the show however it was the three ‘modern age’ Doctors and the current assistant, Clara.

Nip in and take a peek behind the curtain. You may be a little surprised at what you see.

And I was, as well as scenes we do remember, we also get aspects we don’t.

Like Clara popping a wheelie on her runup to the TARDIS.

Then we see the barn on Gallifrey, but instead of the War Doctor played by John Hurt, we get The Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. And instead of The Moment played by Billie Piper, we get a young girl…

And from that point onwards, the Tenth Doctor seems to take the narrative role of the Eleventh…

…after a trip through the time portal…

…and bumping into the Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant…
And two Queen Elizabeth The Firsts…

This is just a smattering of the boards. You can find the rest at any convention that Andrew Wildman attends…

Andrew Wildman will be appearing at Worcester Comic Con 2016(August). Worcester, UK.

 

Jump In

I have gotten this question before myself. Where do you start with a show that has 52 years and 35 seasons?

It’s hard enough to catch up if I’m a season behind.

I personally like the choices by the author below but I would also add :

ARK IN SPACE (1975)

The episode I started with, thjough starting with Episode Two after the main titles like I did is not recommended.

It is an excellent story (bubble wrap aside). It gives you all the basics about the Doctor, Time Travel and the characters, it just will explain some of the other nuisances later.

It’s a classic “base under siege” story also. But it has a lot going for it the plottinga nd the writing and the writing is what can hook people on Classic WHO.

The next story after it is “Genesis of The Daleks”. How’s that for a second bite of WHO?

Then you get the Cybermen in the Next story. Not at their best but still solid. Then The Zygons…And the “Golden Age” of Hinchcliffe/Holmes “Gothic WHO” and the Fourth Doctor and Sarah.

It’s a good start.

So, you want to get in to Doctor Who? Well, you’ve made a fantastic, life-changing choice.

But with 52 years’ worth of material to go through, where is the right place to start?

With almost a year until the BBC’s long-running sci-fi drama returns, it’s not too late to catch up – well, depending on how much else you want to get done this year!

Let’s look at some of the best points in space and time to jump into the vortex as we explore the pros and cons of each story…

 

1. ‘An Unearthly Child’ (1963)

Of course, the very beginning would seem like a good place to start. This story kicks things off with the First Doctor (William Hartnell) back when we didn’t know that regeneration would be a thing. It starts us in a classroom with a young woman, Susan (Carol Ann Ford), who has knowledge of the extraordinary, but not the commonplace.

Her teachers, Ian Chesterson (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jaqueline Hill) follow her home. And where is home? A junkyard. But it’s what is inside that really counts, isn’t it? And inside is the TARDIS.

But here’s the thing: the First Doctor is not a merry man, to put it diplomatically, and he doesn’t take too well to two humans barging in on his TARDIS, or, for that matter, his life.

Pros: You start from the very start. You won’t miss a single reference, in theory.

Cons: You have a lot of catch up to do. It would take around 2 weeks of non-stop watching to catch up, and we’re not sure that even The Last Centurion could go that long without sleep.

2. ‘Spearhead from Space’ (1970)

This is the Third Doctor’s (Jon Pertwee) first story. Aside from that, it is also the first story in colour, which can make watching the classics a bit more palatable for younger audiences.

‘Spearhead from Space’ features the return of UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, later just the Unified Intelligence Taskforce), Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicolas Courtney), and introduces companion Liz Shaw (Caroline John).

In the previous story, ‘The War Games’, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) was forced to regenerate and also exiled to earth by his people, the Time Lords. This total change-of-pace makes it a great place to jump on.

Pros: Stories with new Doctors often do a lot of explanation. Also, it’s still early days – it hadn’t even been around for a decade yet!

Cons: Starting with Pertwee’s Earth-bound era, it’ll take some time for newcomers to really experience the full scope of the show.

3. ‘Rose’ (2005)

The first episode of the show’s 21^st century revamp drops you with a bubbly shop girl named Rose (Billie Piper) and a brooding Doctor (Christopher Eccleston). They don’t sound like the best match, but let me assure you, they are.

Pros: This is where a lot of new fans jumped on, with writer Russell T Davies cleverly opting to name the Ninth Doctor’s run ‘Series 1’ rather than ‘Season 27’ so as not to scare off newcomers. Acting more as a pilot than the 1996 TV Movie (which actually was a pilot for a potential US series), ‘Rose’ seems specifically designed so that one does not need to have watched the classic series to understand things, jettisoning much of the baggier mythology. Because of this, it explains all the basics at breakneck speed. It even tells you what TARDIS stands for.

Cons: The story itself is generally not regarded as a classic by fans, who clearly can’t appreciate a burping wheelie bin when they see one.

4. ‘The Eleventh Hour’ (2010)

A blue box is hurtling over London as a floppy-haired young man dangles from its door before disappearing into the distance. If you’re going for bombastic spectacle, it’s a perfect opening.

Cue a young Scottish girl named Amelia Pond who just asked Santa for a policeman to investigate the crack in her wall and perhaps the most charming introduction to a companion in the show’s history.

Even if its actual threat is forgettable, ‘The Eleventh Hour’ is a thoroughly engaging story, establishing a new Doctor (Matt Smith), a new sidekick (Karen Gillan), a new showrunner (Steven Moffat replaces Russell T Davies) and a new “dark fairytale” tone.

Pros: You start with a whole lot of “new” and an accessible Doctor and companion to ease you in.

Cons: Having missed the Ninth and Tenth Doctors’ eras, you’ll be a bit lost when you get to the 50th anniversary year’s episodes.

 

 

 

5. ‘The Snowmen’ (2012)

Following the departure of the Ponds, Doctor Who returned on Christmas Day 2012 with a new title sequence, a new TARDIS set, a new look for the Doctor and a new companion.

While not as immediately accessible as ‘The Eleventh Hour’, ‘The Snowmen’ is certainly the best jumping-on point for fans who want to get up to date with the story of current companion Clara Oswald as quickly as possible.

Pros: It’s a really fun festive story and the ending will leave you desperate to know more about the mysterious Impossible Girl.

Cons: This is not technically Jenna Coleman’s debut, following her surprise appearance in Season 7’s opener, ‘Asylum of the Daleks’. However, a couple of lines of dialogue and a flashback will recap all you need to know.

This one was my least favorite choice, personally.

So there you have it. Now go binge watch it. 🙂

 

 

Titan Comics Update

I finished the “first Year” of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor by Titan.

Issue #15 was the best of the lot, but that’s not saying much. It was dreadful story. And just didn’t give me that Matt Smith feel. The Characters, and the main villain, were unappealing.

The story essentially boils down to the Snake in the Garden of Eden (The TARDIS) tempting all comers with everything there heart ever wanted but at the price of their soul.

The TARDIS “lost” his way and became a bad guy. Alice, the new companion wallowed in her own grief to manic purportions in a very unlikeable way. Jones was just a boring cypher of a future rock star. ARC was a child-like mind (literally) and spent several issue curled up in a ball just saying “fear”.

It was an evil corportion that was behind it all. I kind of Anti-capitalist Santa Claus (kind of reminded me of Bernie Sanders) :).

YAWN.

BUT  all hope was not Lost!

I read the first couple of “second year” Matt Smith and while they still focus just a bit on torturing THE Eleventh Doctor the story is so much better and they all played well to the Classic WHO era of the 1980s with the return of Absom Daak, Dalek Killer (even though their are no Daleks in the story that was the point).

They dialogue sounded like rapid fire Matt Smith.

Hallelujah!

This one concerns something the War Doctor may have done (but it may also be because the Eleventh interfered later because of it).

It’s night and day. I actually look forward to reading it.

I see after the next issue they have another new writer, so we’ll have to see.

But the future looks brighter than the past.

 

Still a Mess

Just a quick note this morning. I have finished 14 of the first 15 Matt Smith comics from Titan than comprise the “first year”.

As I said awhile back, they suck. Well, on the cusp the finale of this storyline it still sucks.

#14 ended with The Doctor meeting his “Mother”.

Oh GAWD. GAG ME.

I have been avoiding reading it.

And I don’t do that with Doctor Who, unless I just don’t have the time (like the books and audios).

I have read Doctor Who Magazine religiously for over 32 years. The bloody thing now cost 100 pounds a year (approx $160+ a year!). But I couldn’t do without it.

I can’t say the same for the Matt Smith Comic right now.

THE David Tennant one that I’ve read so far has gone for good to very preachy bad and back to good.

Capaldi has been consistently good.

Eccleston, meh…

I have only read 1 issue of Eight and it was good.

So it’s been very inconsistent.

The biggest problem is “voice”.

Sounding like the Doctor. The person doing the first year of Matt Smith missed it 98% of the time.

So if you like them, Why?

As a Who fan I am always all about the story. The effects, even in comics, are just dressing. As a Classically trained WHO fan I can look past the shaky monsters and the wobbly sets to see the passion and the ambition behind the episode (if it exists).

Jenna Coleman was just talking about wobbly sets last weekend in New Orleans in 2016!

It just looks better now and they hide it much easier.

It’s going to be a long Doctor Who winter. So that’s why I hope the comics get better.

I need my WHO. 🙂

FYI: 20 years ago to the day Paul McGann was announced as being the 8th Doctor.

Yes, it was that long ago.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/doctor-who-am-i–4#/

 

Being Human

I watched Hell Bent with a friend last night. While I’m still annoyed by the, what I call, F*ck the Raven bit where Clara’s gloriously heartfelt death is undone for a feel good moment it reminded me just how good this past season was and how good an episode this is DESPITE F*ck the Raven and then I read this article this morning (edited) on “the best of Season 5” which a lot of my friends and me referenced after Hell Bent. Best season since Season 5 they’d say, son would I.

So that bring us to the best episode of Season 5. And the reigning champ in my book for the best serial of all-time to date, Vincent & The Doctor (beating Caves of Androzani, the reigning champ since 1984) I can’t say enough good things about this episode.

Previously: https://mydoctorwhoblog.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/vincent-me/

What’s striking (if unsurprising) about Vincent is how, given the comparative absence of the monster, the gaps are plugged elsewhere. Visual motifs of Van Gogh’s paintings are abundant, constructed carefully but by no means symmetrically, giving the impressionist eye room to work. The light from the reconstructed pavement cafe spills out into the evening, even before Vincent follows it. Shadows linger across the floor of the bedroom where the artist will eventually rest in torment. Crows take flight over a wheat field. And, in one of the most arresting moments, Amy sits outside the cottage, smiling from ear to ear even as her inner, repressed sadness gnaws away, surrounded by sunflowers, which Vincent himself describes as “always somewhere between living and dying”.

I describe myself during most of my 20’s and 30’s as “just existing because I haven’t died yet”. I got over it. 🙂

I was excited when in Paris on a day trip in 2013 that we went to the Musee Dorsey Museum where there is a Van Gogh exhibition instead of the Louvre. The City of Death (Mona Lisa) or Vincent. I’ll take Vincent. 🙂

But ultimately this is a character piece, and Curtis sensibly keeps the characters to a minimum. The scholarly Dr. Black (an uncredited Bill Nighy, on fine form) is the twenty-first century enlightened human, while Van Gogh’s peers are reduced somewhat to sneering stereotypes – but this is necessary, in a way, in order to portray the pain of the artist. And even this has its subtext. The dialogue is comparatively colloquial, and Vincent’s exeunt from the cafe instantly recognisable: what future Van Goghs, Curtis appears to suggest, have we chosen to ridicule and demean in 2010?

Or now?

Discourses on art aside, this is an episode about bipolar disorder, perhaps the only time the series has ever tackled such an area, and certainly the most direct. It would have been comparatively simple to take the sensationalist route, and Curtis deserves nothing but praise for managing to handle it without lapsing into the cliches that haunt some of his other work. This is one of the most sensitively observed depictions of clinical depression I’ve ever seen in a family show – and, despite (or perhaps because of) the evocative, bittersweet finale, one of the most satisfying.

I defy you not to be choked up by the Vincent in the Musee Dorsey 2010. It is the most fantastic scene in Who history to date.

It’s interesting that Van Gogh’s mid-episode breakdown, in which he confines himself to bed and demands that the Doctor leave, is triggered not by a traumatic incident but by a single careless line of dialogue. It’s a testament to the power of words to inflict wounds, and a cutting reminder that even the best of us make mistakes. Had the words come from Capaldi, we would have put it down to his brusqueness. But the Eleventh Doctor, while remote, is still good with people even when they do not understand him (cf. The Lodger), and this knowledge somehow cuts a little deeper – even more so when he tries to comfort the artist, only to simply make things worse.

I can relate, And that’s why it’s the best. It’s me on TV. What could be more telling.

The battle with the Krayafis is the story’s McGuffin, but Curtis gets it out of the way comparatively early in the third act, allowing time for a series of emotional denouements. Perhaps the most beautiful of these takes place as the Doctor, Amy and Vincent lie on their backs looking up at the night sky, which seamlessly transitions into The Starry Night. It is clear that Van Gogh’s ability to see the world the way he does – whatever the repercussions – is unique, but it is his ability to describe what he sees with words as well as with paintings that really comes across here.

A Gift I don’t have. 😦

“Brighter than sunflowers,” declares a tearful Amy in the epilogue, encapsulating both Vincent himself – doomed to burn twice as bright, half as long – and the paintings he created. “It’s colour,” he admits, earlier in the episode. “Colour that holds the key. I can hear the colours. Listen to them. Every time I step outside, I feel nature is shouting at me.”

But the Krayafis – orphaned and blind and fearful – itself becomes a metaphor, a testament both to the power of depression and those who do not understand it. As the three companions gather in silent homage over the creature’s unseen corpse, Van Gogh remarks “He was frightened, and he lashed out… like humans who lash out when they’re frightened”. Curtis fashions a monster that is both victim and antagonist, and as much a part of Vincent, in many ways, as his talent with a brush. It would have been comparatively simple to explain away the monster and, by turns, the artist’s mental state, with pseudoscience, but the writer does neither. There is a rational scientific explanation for the presence of the Krayafis – just as the rational scientific explanation for depression is a chemical imbalance – but this does not detract from its power to torment, or the fact that Vincent is the sole character who is fully aware of it.

Most tellingly of all, the Doctor is not able to ‘cure’ Vincent – nor, it seems, does he particularly want to. His decision to give the artist such a concrete vision of his future seems, at first, more than a little out of character, until the final scene in the gallery where it is revealed that the revelation has made only cosmetic alterations to Vincent’s life, with his suicide and eventual legacy untouched. Amy (and, by turns, the audience) is forced to learn the hardest of lessons: that the differences we make do not always amount to more than the sum of their parts. Crucially, it is Van Gogh himself who foreshadows this, when he admits that “On my own, I fear I may not do as well”.

And it’s a struggle, every day. But I am better for the struggle now than I was. But it is still a struggle. I went through another period at the end of 2015 and had to “snap” out of it. It’s not that easy and today is another battle.

Perhaps one of the nicest things about the episode is the reverence with which Amy and the Doctor greet Van Gogh, without ever lapsing into sycophancy. Even in the final, rather overstated gallery sequence, they’re content to allow Bill Nighy to do the talking. There is none of the giggling of Rose’s encounter with Queen Victoria, or the name-dropping in Donna’s meeting with Agatha Christie. Indeed, for a Curtis script it’s comparatively light on humour, which is perhaps sensible. Smith blunders in and out of the situation with customary Doctorishness (is that a word? It should be a word), making all the usual mistakes that people make when they don’t know how to talk to people with depression.  🙂 Gillan is sensitive and radiant, although it’s Amy’s silent, inner turmoil in this first post-Rory episode – an unspoken sense of grief, without knowing why – that enables her to handle Vincent as well as she does.

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but the fact that Vincent and the Doctor manages to tackle such heavy subject matter and escape with its dignity intact is a credit to absolutely everyone concerned. It’s a credit to the designers and production team, who visualised nineteenth century France so vividly. It’s a credit to Richard Curtis – and Steven Moffat, who knew how to fashion and evolve his ideas into a script that delivers.

Perhaps most of all, it’s a credit to the series regulars, and also Tony Curran, whose portrayal of Vincent is breathtaking. It’s an episode that paints the stark sadness of loneliness and juxtaposes it with the brilliance of inspired creativity – as Dr. Black says, “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.”

Vincent and the Doctor is a reminder that the world is more wondrous than we could possibly hope to imagine – but most of all, it’s a reminder of exactly what it means to be human.

Amen.

 

Titan-ic Failure

I just have to get this off my chest.

The Titan Comics for The Eleventh Doctor that I have read so far (up to Issue #12) are HORRIBLE.

I have hated it from the very beginning with the rainbow “dog” and the manic depressive “companion”.

I can be very manic myself, but this character is deeply unlikable in my book. She’s SO miserable ALL the Time.

Why travel and see the wonders of the universe if you’re just going to bitch and moan the whole time.

Kind of a  Tegan on steroids but without the warmth that Janet Fielding still had.

Then there’s Jones, who is the most useless character since Adric in the Whoniverse and I’d happily watch Adric (and people should know by now how much I dislike Adric).

He changes personality, dress, and mood in between issues for f*cking reason! It drives me crazy!

ARC is a boring deus ex machina plot point character much like “impossible Girl” Clara from Series 7.

And the whole plot of ServeYouInc is tedious.

And also, as I have said, this write just does not have the “voice” of my Eleventh Doctor so he’s very jarring to read.

I know there is a new writer on Year Two coming up. I sure hope he’s better than this person because if this were a regular comic I would have stop buying it long ago. It’s like that really bad movie that you can’t stop watch watching. You want to walk out on it but like a car crash you rubber neck and tough it out to the end just to say you did so.

That is the Car crash that is the Eleventh Doctor Comic at this point.

There, i said it.

Year in Review

The Doctor Who Year for me started with Gallifrey One Season 26.

 

Then it continued in May with my trip to England for the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular Wembley Stadium.

Where there was a bomb scare 2 says prior to the Concert at Wembley. It wasn’t a terrorist attack, it was an unexploded WWII German bomb from the Blitz.

A day trip to Cardiff to see the Capaldi Edition of the Doctor Who Experience.

Just days after getting back from England was Phoenix Comic Con

Then Came Series 9 of the show.

It was one of the best in years.

The Phoenix Fan Fest here in town the same weekend as the Season Finale.

Capped off with the Christmas Special return of River Song.

Overall, a very good year for WHO and me.

2016 will start with a Bang, the weekend after this with New Orleans Comic Con.

The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond & Clara Oswald Reunite @ Wizard World!

Get the New Year off to a good start! 🙂

The Long Dark Winter Begins

No more new WHO for probably 9 months. 😦

I have New Orleans on January 8-10. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Jenna Coleman.

I have Gallifrey One to look forward to in February.

These things to keep me warm for a weekend.

Then it’s back to the long dark winter of no Doctor Who.

So at least in part I will be supplementing my blog with Comic Book reviews. I know they started over a year ago but until recently I hadn’t had the opportunity to read them.

I have not finished the backlog yet. Binge reading at work on my breaks takes time. But I am getting close.

And my over all impression isn’t very good, unfortunately.

Capaldi’s comics are the best so far. Not great, just the best.

David Tennant’s are up and down wildly.

And so far after 8 issues of Matt Smith, I’ve hated every single one of them!

Far to whimsical and too goofy. Just not the right voice for my Eleventh Doctor that I remember not so long ago.

The Four Doctors (which was just really 3 Doctors and a cameo appearance by the War Doctor) was frankly just confusing and I like Paul Cornell a great deal.

I hope it gets better, but right now, it sucks. I wonder why I’m buying them at the moment.

The Eighth Doctor series has only just started so I have only 2 issues and read the first one. It was pretty decent.

The Ninth Doctor Mini-Series is almost over, with him getting his own series in 2016, and it’s not bad at all.

So over all, a 5/10 for the line at the moment.

No exactly Steve Parkhouse  and Alan Ridgway that’s for sure. Or even Tony Lee, who had his issues but was still solid.

So here’s to 2016 and Series 10, the likely end of The Moffat Era and the likely end of the Capaldi Era. But that’s 363 days from now.