Back To Who: Companions, Assemble!

Although it was somewhat embarrassing to watch the BBC Three After Party special that aired after The Day of the Doctor, as all the former companions were addressed by their character names rather than their real names, it was nice to see a lot of them.

I mean, look! It's Wilf and Ace right next to each other!

Also, hot damn, Sophie Aldred is still looking good.

I promise I'll talk about something else once this week is over.

Back to Who: An Adventure in Space and Time

As part of the celebration for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, the BBC and Mark Gatiss gave a world a wonderful gift: the TV movie An Adventure in Space and Time. About the creation of the show and the amazing legacy that William Hartnell, Verity Lambert, Sydney Newman, and Waris Hussein started.

If you know the name "Mark Gatiss" at all, you know that he is one of the most devoted fans of  Doctor Who- David Tennant often credits Mark Gatiss as being the first adult person he knew that every made frequent casual references to Doctor Who episodes in every day life. And Gatiss's devotion shows in the beauty, respectfulness, and love that comes through in every scene. It's just a shame that it wasn't a longer special and couldn't go more into detail.

The special starts by focusing mostly on Verity Lambert, who should be known as the Mother of Science Fiction Television, if you ask me. She's played brilliantly by Jessica Raines of Call the Midwife and, to show my shallow side, wears the most amazing 1960s clothes all throughout the film. It focuses briefly on how Newman took a risk in making her a producer- the youngest producer ever at the time at the BBC and also the first female producer. But it could go into it more. I hope that one day there will be a biopic entirely about Verity. Wikipedia tells me that there's a student film about her with the amazing name of "Verity: Men, Bitches & Daleks" but that's not enough.

The true focus of the film, however, is William Hartnell. Which is rightly so and also heartbreaking. David Bradley plays him so wonderfully- straddling that line of crotchety and magical- and by the end of the film, I was more misty-eyed than I had been about anything Doctor Who-related than I had been in ages. There's something so lovely about seeing the journey of a cynical man that thought his best days were behind him, only to suddenly find himself to be more adored than Santa Claus.

In many ways, this tv movie was what I was looking forward to for the longest time in reference to the 50th anniversary. And I'm not disappointed by it- I just wish there was more. And I wonder how it would play for those that don't give a damn about Doctor Who. Like my mother, who adores Jessica Raines and would probably love to see anything she's in. But doesn't even know that the shape of my minifridge is a "thing", let along a TARDIS. And the film only barely bothers to stop and explain things that the uninitiated wouldn't know, which makes me think that it might not be the greatest idea to test it out on my mother.

Back To Who: Partners in Crime

Somehow "I want to go more in-depth about the series 7 episodes I just watched" turned into "I wanna rewatch the Donna Noble era."

Donna is my favorite post-2005 companion. By far. Which is saying something since I haaaaated "The Runaway Bride" for the first year it existed and especially the character of Donna in the special.

But after the ultra-depressing "Last of the Time Lords" and the mis-fire of Martha Jones (I'm so thankful for how they redeemed her once she wasn't the regular companion and no longer mooning after the Doctor), Donna was the perfect solution to bring new life to the show.

Or, rather, Catherine Tate was the perfect solution. Donna changed enough between "The Runaway Bride" and "Partners in Crime" that she was now palatable in large doses and I imagine a lot of that had to do with Catherine being Catherine. And also being the perfect pairing with David Tennant, matching his comedic highs and dramatic lows beat for beat. I don't want to slander Billie or Freema, but the truth is that Catherine had more training and more experience than either one of them and it showed. And was greatly appreciated that they chose her.

Also, I vastly prefer when the Doctor and his companion have no hint of a romance happening. Romance is boring. Caring deeply for someone without romantic feelings? That's far more interesting. And Donna and the Doctor's was of rubbing each other the wrong way is so much more entertaining than watching Rose, Martha, or Amy moon embarrassingly after a clueless absent-minded professor. Not to mention how nice it was to have a companion that wasn't ridiculously young and naive. Donna got things.

But back to "Partners in Crime". Good grief, I love this goofy episode. A perfect screwball sci-fi comedy with the absolute cutest alien villains ever in the baby Adipose and their desire to happily wave at the people they just popped out of. It would've made a great movie, with a little adjusting. Even with the silly slapstick ending of the nanny having a Wile E. Coyote fall to her death.

And in the more serious moments, there are some beautiful moments. Wilf and Donna staring at the stars is possibly one of my favorite scenes ever on the show. Such an endearing relationship that you immediately understand and adore. Not to mention Donna's little check-ins with how the Doctor has been since she last saw him and her ability to see that he has had some shit go down.

Plus, it's just great to see a companion take so much initiative. The kind of initiative that the Doctor might normally laugh at as stupid, but was absolutely brilliant in how Donna was pulling it off. Putting her skills to work.

Also, did I mention how adorable the Adipose were?

Back To Who

From 2006 through 2011, I was obsessive about Doctor Who. I have a TARDIS minifridge. I have the minifigures. I taught myself how to torrent files so that I could watch it the day that episodes aired in the UK. I even was saving up to by a Slingbox and pay a friend in England for their TV license for better access to episodes. Obsessed. I brought my laptop with me to my family's Christmas Day party so that I could torrent the Christmas Specials safely to watch when everyone else got boring. I forced the show onto dozens of friends until they loved it.

Then... I fell out of love. The writing when Steven Moffat first took over just didn't do it for me and I was having trouble with how unlikeable the character of Amy Pond was becoming in the fifth series. I was getting bitter.

I also was finally full-time employed in 2011, which took up a lot of my time that had previously been devoted to thinking obsessively about Doctor Who.

In 2012, I sporadically caught up with series 6, but was still having issues with the writing.

And, up until last week, I had not seen the most recent 15 episodes.

I only watched them because my nostalgic brain wanted to at least attempt to enjoy the 50th Anniversary. I want to see Ten and Rose, okay? I also am intrigued to see Peter Capaldi's take on the character (and it's a bit of a trip to realize that Capaldi is the same age as William Hartnell was when the show started), as I'm thrilled that we're returning to having a more mature actor as the character and it allows for characters to react to him in a different way from the previous two Doctors. While I do think that Matt Smith is a good actor and definitely has improved over the years, Capaldi just has an amazing weight to his acting at times. If you've only see him in The Thick of It or Fires of Pompeii, you need to see his performance in Torchwood: Children of Earth. You need to drop everything and go watch it now. He completely steals the show and tops himself with each installment.

It turns out that series 7 was actually much more my speed. More plots that were along the lines of what I considered a "classic" Doctor Who episode type. The Eleventh Doctor was finally very Doctor-y. And Clara wasn't too much of a focus-stealer, while still being an interesting character and a character I could adore (and covet the wardrobe of, yowza).

So, now I have just over a week to sit on my hands about the 50th Anniversary. And the excitement is building. I've already watched the mini episode below and was thrilled with the content of it (despite the slight brain-breaking logic being implied).


I'm really having to suppress my anticipation, though. I'm just going to be disappointed if I let it continue to build. But I think I might do a few Who-related posts in the next week, just to get some thoughts out about the episodes I caught up on.