“My father Sydney was a watchmaker from Nottingham, and my mother Verity was – well, she was a nurse, actually.” — John Smith/The Doctor, in the episode Human Nature, 2007. For all you did, thank you, Verity.
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Category: Doctor Who
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Doctor Who 2007
So there we go, the series has ended. Some great episodes. The Runaway Bride: Enjoyable enough. Loved the highway chase scene — and the way it captured the excitement of the TV audience in the little kids in the other car. One day the ABC programming people will learn to programme Christmas specials at Christmas, ... [More]
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Jack’s back
The Doctor Who spinoff series Torchwood starts tonight on Channel 10. I’ve seen a few episodes — at first it seems to revel in its adult timeslot, with (arguably gratuitous) use of sex, swearing and violence. Then it settles down a bit and starts telling some good stories, though none seem as deep or well ... [More]
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Our time has come
I have to admit, when I was growing up, Doctor Who was never really one of the cool kid shows. Scifi generally probably wasn’t something the cool kids watched. But now, on the eve of the third series (starts Saturday night in the UK; who knows when we’ll see it in Australia), David Tennant’s Doctor ... [More]
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The zombie dream
Jeremy, Isaac and I were being chased by kind of zombie-type things, that on-touch would change you from human into their kind. It was a bit like a cross between Shaun of the Dead and Rise of the Cybermen. Somehow I knew it was a dream, but we kept on running. Isaac nearly got caught, ... [More]
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Doctor Who 2006: the second half
Here’s my quick reviews of the second half of this year’s Doctor Who. (First half here.) Some spoilers for people who haven’t seen it. (Les, this means you.) The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit — Terrific stuff. The tension in the first episode was fantastic, especially when the beast was stalking the archeologist. Scared the crap ... [More]
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Are you my mummy?
The Doctor Who episodes The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances won the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation, short form, beating other worthy contenders including Battlestar Galactica, much to Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell’s surprise. So how are we all enjoying the 2006 series? Overall, I’m loving it. And in keeping with my one-year-old tradition, here’s ... [More]
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It’s all about the timing
You have to feel some pity for the Australian morning daily papers. All this World Cup excitement, including a game last night won by Australia, but the lead times to get their newspaper onto peoples front lawns by breakfast time means they can’t report the results. They try and make up for it, but there’s ... [More]
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DVD extras: How much is too much?
I got Isaac a Doctor Who DVD for his birthday which has two documentaries on it totalling almost two hours. Is that too much? I haven’t watched the docos yet, but it is a truly classic story (Genesis of the Daleks), with plenty to talk about in terms of how the story was written and ... [More]
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Doctor Hugo
The Doctor Who stories “Dalek”, “Father’s Day” and “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” make up three of the seven nominees for this year’s Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation (short form). Oddly, the Wallace & Gromit movie got nominated in the long form section. The Hugos are for sci-fi and fantasy, which I suppose covers ... [More]
Paul Cornell, who wrote the excellent Father’s Day episode of Doctor Who, has a blog, and remarks that Rose’s father Pete was based on his own dad. The piece is really about me appreciating the sacrifices he made, and how I know he’d do what the Dad in ‘Father’s Day’ does. I think most Dads ... [More]
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A classic comes to an end
“Classic” Doctor Who repeats finish tonight on the ABC, after running almost every episode still in existence over the past 2 1/2 years. It’s funny to think they started just before the new series was announced. It was also a few months after I had introduced my kids to the show (with DVDs and old ... [More]