Blog Archives
Doctor Who – Season 6 – Episode 7 – A Good Man Goes to War Review
DOCTOR WHO SEASON 6 REVIEWS- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Since I have no good reason or excuse to explain my month long absence from doing anything productive on the internet, let’s just say I fell through a crack in space and time. (The sad truth was more along the lines of me sitting around in boxer shorts with my wife saying “Hey, don’t you have Doctor Who reviews to write and Podcasts to do” and me saying “I don’t wanna, these swiss cake rolls and Blu Rays won’t eat and watch themselves!” and her saying, “But isn’t this the exact rubbish you’d like to get paid for someday?” and me saying…..well nothing constructive with a mouth full of swiss cake roll.
On any account, the mid-season episode was pretty awesome. We even had an end of mid season soiree where my wife made delicious Doctor Who Cookies. Yes Gentlemen: Get Jealous.
I’ve had a lot more time than usual to reflect on “A Good Man Goes to War, which I think has been really helpful to the cause of reviewing it fairly.
A lot happened. A lot was revealed. A lot of my predictions were proved dead wrong. (I could have sworn River was going to turn out to be a sensorite ((that’s for sure a joke, sensorites have those awesome stethoscopes and Abe Lincoln beards).
Let us brave on to the spoiler filled review of “A Good Man Goes to War”….better late than never.
“I have gene-spliced myself for all Spoiling duties. I can produce magnificent quantities of lactic Spoilers!”
THE GOOD
*Rising Higher – As predictable as it was for it to be the Doctor under that third hood, it was really freaking awesome. And how cool was that recruiting sequence when all we see is silhouettes of the TARDIS and Matt Smith? Plus the idea of the Doctor calling in all his favors is a pretty cool one, as more people owe their lives to the Doctor than that Spikey Haired dude that gives away houses on ABC. I wish we could have gotten even more creatures from the past, but I understand the budget reasons for just using what they had lying around. The whole thing was filled with so much bad-assery, which brings me to the next thing….
* RORY IS SO EFFING AWESOME – It’s hard to even put into words the awesomeness that has become Rory. The initial setup is great too, making you think Amy is talking about the Doctor when she’s talking about “The Last Centurion.” The best bit though was the moment when Rory talked to the dying Sontaran nurse. As the Sontaran dies Rory says, “But you’re a great warrior,” and the Sonataran says, “No, Rory, I’m just a nurse,” echoing Rory’s own identity crisis he was probably feeling.
* LIZARD LEZZIES – Some might see this episode as a return of RTD’s “Gay Agenda”, but the show does it so little now it was nice to see a little rainbow in the galaxy again, especially in the case of the awesomely strange Silurian/Human coupling.
THE BAD
* WHAT’S MY MOTIVATION – Still understand very little about why these people care so much about fighting the doctor, or why they need to steal a baby weapon to fight him. I’m hoping it gets revealed later (in Moffat we trust) but I’ve got to say, I’m nervous that Eye Patch lady will never really get fleshed out like I’d like her too.
THE UGLY
*THE WAIT – Seriously…..September? I have to wait until September? *Slits Wrists*
BOLD PREDICTIONS
* A GOOD MAN – This whole season has been about identity, and Moffat has made it his mission for us to constantly mix up the Doctor and Rory. We’ve often assumed that River killing “The Greatest man she ever has known” meant the Doctor, but it could also easily mean her father, Rory. What we know with Moffat is that it won’t be simple, but I am predicting that we will see what put River in prison by the end of episode 12, so that 13 can end on a happy note.
BOLD PREDICTIONS PROVED FALSE
*ITTY BITTY TIMELORD- I think that the little girl is Amy’s Baby (still) and that said baby was engineered by the silence to be the first Time Lord (hence all the stuff with the suit, they had do give her second heart a safe environment to grow). Remember this is all wibly wombly timey wimey. The Doctor could easily take part in his own species’ origin story. And then we would finally know why humans look Timelord.
I made this one in Episode 2….I was actually pretty close, but no ballgame.
* The Only Water in the Forest is a River – These foreboding words of the TARDIS are talking about River’s death, which we have already seen (the library in that original Moffat two-parter was originally referred to as a Forest). The Tardis is looking backwards and forwards, but River’s death will have a great deal to do with the events of this season.
I was wrong about the TARDIS’s words in Episode 4, which I’m glad for, since this was a much cooler reveal.
FINAL SUMMARY
It wasn’t the “HUGE CLIFFHANGER” we were promised (at least it was nothing like last weeks) but it was a great episode to end the summer on. I just wish there wasn’t all this waiting. I’m really excited to see where the series goes on from here, especially in “Let’s Kill Hitler”
This Week in Late Night: May 13th Edition
Hey Off-The-Mikers, Jeff Conolly Here presenting my new segment:
THIS WEEK IN LATE NIGHT
So you wanted to watch Conan, Fallon, or whoever this week but those eye-lids were just oh-so-heavy. So what did you miss in the wonderful world of Late Night Comedy?
CONAN KNOCKS THE TSA
This was Conan’s first full beardless week as a late night host (post the events of 2010’s late night debacle) and in case you were worried that the success of the new show was akin to that of Samson’s (that’s a bible joke) look no further than his awesome ribbing of the TSA this week.
The TSA has long been in the running for the biggest douche-bags award, but they might of take the crown this week when they patted down a baby. Conan’s bit on the subject is gathering almost as much media attention as the Baby Bomb Bananza did itself.
Vodpod videos no longer available.On the Late Late Show Tuesday Night, Craig Ferguson had on Thor Director Kenneth Branagh. What I love about Ferguson is how unscripted it is (especially compared to other Late Night shows). I’ve seen so many of these chats from the Thor cast and crew in the past two weeks, but this is by far my favorite. (Especially since they nerd out together about Doctor Who and James Bond, two of my favorite things ever).
Vodpod videos no longer available.But wait, the coveted prize….what get’s this weeks
CLIP OF THE WEEK
Jimmy Fallon has about the best Act 2 and 3 of Late Night Comedy, and I continue to be impressed. This week he played beer pong with tennis legend John McEnroe, and although there have been funnier clips of Fallon doing this with other guests (Betty WHite for example) there is something very awesome about the competitive edge that shines through both these two as they play a silly game on national television.
Vodpod videos no longer available.COMIC OF THE WEEK
Jen Kirkman had a fabulous set on Conan this week where she did her bits on marriage, murder, and getting older.
Vodpod videos no longer available.Phoo Action!
I was semi-aimlessly searching the web last week and wondered what Spaced co-creator and star Jessica Hynes had done recently. Lo and behold, I found that she was one of the writers on a Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz) created television show called Phoo Action.
I’ve been a fan of Tank Girl since the comics and I’m probably one of three people alive who really liked the movie. I like to imagine that the other two people who liked the movie were the stars Lori Petty and Ice T. Phoo Action looked intriguing so I went about researching.
I’m a huge fan of British television. The aforementioned Spaced is one of my favorites and if you’re a fan of Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, you owe it to yourself to see where the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright relationship began. I think the original Office is far superior to the American one. The Mighty Boosh is bizarrely wonderful. I have no doubt that the upcoming American version of Being Human won’t be able to hold a candle to the original.
I get flack for my television tastes where they’re mistaken for snooty. That’s not the case at all. I like my television like I like my comic books and video games…I like for them to have a beginning, middle and an end. When I find out that a comic is planned to have 60 issues or so, that’s perfect. If someone complains that a video game had a good story, but was only 8 hours long, I’m sold. British shows seem to have a story to tell and they only do enough episodes to tell that story. They don’t care about hitting 100 episodes to get that syndication money. The television show that Christine and I wrote (Deadpan) is planned for three seasons, about six episodes each season. We have the entire story mapped out already.
One of the things I discovered during my Phoo Action research is that the BBC seems to let the audience vote on which shows get launched once pilots are made. In the US, networks order about 20 pilots each season, with only about 6 of those making it to the air. Sometimes if you’re lucky you can find an unaired pilot on the internet, like the one for the infamous Ben Stiller created Heat Vision and Jack starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson.
Unfortunately, even though the pilot for Phoo Action aired and won a handful of awards, enough people didn’t watch to merit giving the show a full season. Coincidentally, that year Being Human was picked up instead.
Here’s the trailer for Phoo Action.
If you look, you can find the entire pilot episode online. I even managed to see it on my iPod. It’s a lot of fun. It’s one part Tank Girl, one part Green Hornet, a dash of the Aquabats, and a pinch of the Gorillaz all mixed up with some Carl Weathers on top! I really enjoyed it, but like I said, I have a predilection for these kinds of things!
Off the Mike 