Tag Archives: river song

Behind the Scenes of “Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock”

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The BBC recently released Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock for the PS3 and Vita, and I can’t wait to play it. The video below, which came from Doctor Who Online, shows some behind the scenes footage on the making of the game. Apparently, they brought in Matt Smith and Alex Kingston to record their scenes with motion capture, meaning we get to see the Doctor in all his delightfully goofy glory. From what I’ve read, it’s a relatively short game (this IGN article clocks it in at about 8 to 10 hours), but there is local multiplayer, which will hopefully give it some added replay value. I just picked it up today, so stay tuned for the inevitable review. :)

 

Looks pretty awesome, right? Is anyone else planning on playing this? If you’re in the UK, you can even get a physical copy! I’m kind of jealous about that one. One of these days, I really might just move there.

Whosday: Why I Love Doctor Who

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Doctor Who is, without a doubt, awesome. Despite this, when a friend of mine asked me why I liked the show a while back, I wasn’t sure what to say. After mulling over this for a bit, I realized that there are a lot of reasons I care about it so much. Somehow, Doctor Who became one of my favorite shows of all time, and here’s why. (At least, part of why…I’ll probably think of more reasons later.)

11 Doctors wallpaper. Click for DustinVonDoom's DeviantArt page.

Time travel: Yes, I’m going to start off with one of the most obvious reasons. I’ve always had a thing for stories involving time travel, and Doctor Who just does it really darned well. That is, it does time travel well if you don’t ask it to always make sense. But what would be the fun if everything made sense, anyway?

Great characters: The Doctor and his companions just feel very well thought out. Each new Doctor and each new companion brings a different perspective to the table. It’s just so easy to care about them, and that just makes you want to keep watching, hoping all the while that nothing bad happens to them.

River and the Doctor's exchange about the sonic screwdriver in "Day of the Moon." Click for more of LetsSaveTheUniverse's cartoons! :)

Humor: Doctor Who doesn’t take things too seriously to make fun of itself. For example, I love the time when River Song was shooting enemies with her blaster and the Doctor couldn’t do anything but wave his sonic screwdriver around. For once, the ultimate plot device couldn’t save the day, and the pair’s exchange was just hilarious.

Lack of stagnation: With the Doctor able to change at any time, his friends coming and going as they please, time travel, aliens, different planets, and parallel universes, there’s no room for anything boring. The writers can dream up pretty much anything, and most of the time the stories they spin are a roller coaster ride of fun.

The fandom: Seriously, being a Whovian is like belonging to one of the coolest clubs in the universe. Unless you’re debating about the best Doctor–probably best to avoid that topic the way most people do politics and religion–everyone is really friendly and welcoming. It’s incredible that there are entire conventions dedicated to Doctor Who. Whovians will cosplay, build life-sized TARDISes, and form Time Lord rock bands, all just to show their love of this amazing show.

The show’s whimsical nature: Doctor Who is a huge flight of fancy every time I watch. I think this might be the initial reason I kept going after I saw my first few episodes. Most of the time, I have no idea where the Doctor will end up next or who he’ll end up fighting, but I know it will be a grand adventure with plenty of laughs and a good deal of running along the way. I love the sense of something bigger than myself that I get when watching Doctor Who. I know it’s not real, but a part of me wants to believe it is.

Adorable Doctor Who chibi fan art. Check out Alikurai's page for more!

I think that pretty much sums up why I became a Whovian. What about you? If you are a Doctor Who fan, why do you enjoy the series? What made you keep watching after your first episode?

Whosday: “The Eternity Clock” Trailer

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The BBC is putting out a Doctor Who video game on the PSN and the PC called Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. They recently released a new trailer on their YouTube channel, and after watching that, I’m even more excited because the game actually looks like it will be good. You’ll be able to control both River Song and the Doctor on this platforming adventure. The trailer below shows Daleks, Cybermen, Silents, and Silurians among the enemies present in the game.

 

 

Looks like the game is set for a March 2012 release. I can’t wait! Also, it’s interesting that they played the “Tick tock, goes the clock” bit at the end of the trailer. Will this game tell us what that song is all about?

Are you looking forward to The Eternity Clock? What kind of expectations do you have for the game?

Whosday: My Top 11 Doctor Who Episodes (Revived Series)

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I love lists, and I’m pretty excited about this one. It was tough to narrow my list of favorite recent Doctor Who episodes to 11, but since there are 11 Doctors, it seemed like a good number to shoot for. Sometime I’ll turn this list into a Top 20 because there are probably 9 more episodes I could consider favorites. I tried to be fair to all 3 revived series Doctors and their respective companions since I really do love them all.

I realized while writing this list that I really like Steven Moffat. He is the mode for episode writers in my Top 11. I may bash on him every now and again as head writer and question his overall direction for the series sometimes, but the episodes he’s written are top notch.

In any case, these are my Top 11 episodes of Doctor Who, in order of air date. (What, did you expect me to rank them? It was hard enough just making the list only 11 entries long!)

  • The Unquiet Dead (Writer: Mark Gatiss)
    Corpses are coming back to life in Victorian-era Cardiff. The Doctor and Rose join Charles Dickens himself along with a medium named Gwyneth to investigate.

    The Doctor and company hold a seance.

  • The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (Writer: Steven Moffat)
    Rose and the Doctor follow a bit of space junk through the vortex to find out what it is. They end up in London during WWII, where people are being infected by a disease that turns them into injured shadows of human beings with gas masks fused to their faces. Can the Doctor, Rose, a man with a spaceship tethered to Big Ben, and a young woman with a secret save the human race?

    Who is the little boy, and where is his mummy?

  • The Girl in the Fireplace (Writer: Steven Moffat)
    The TARDIS lands on a crewless spaceship to find androids stalking Madame de Pompadour through time windows. What do they want with her? With mere minutes on the ship equal to months in Madame de Pompadour’s life, the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey must work quickly to find out before something more sinister occurs.

    Can the Doctor save the girl in the fireplace?

  • The Shakespeare Code (Writer: Gareth Roberts)
    The Doctor and Martha travel to Elizabethan England, where Shakespeare’s latest play may just be the end of the world if the Carrionites have their say. There’s a power in words, and the Bard himself is put to the test when words are the only weapons left that can save the Earth.

    The Doctor and Martha in "The Shakespeare Code"

  • Blink (Writer: Steven Moffat)
    Sally Sparrow must solve the mystery behind an easter egg on 17 DVDs and how it relates to the mysterious weeping angel statues at an old house she explored. If she can’t, the Doctor and Martha will remain trapped in the past while aliens consume the energy in the TARDIS.

    Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck.

  • Partners in Crime (Writer: Russell T Davies)
    The Doctor and Donna independently investigate a fishy diet pill called Adipose. With the fat just walking away for so many people, something isn’t right. Can our intrepid time travelers save the people of London from the alien threat behind Adipose?

    The fat just walks away...

  • The Unicorn and the Wasp (Writer: Gareth Roberts)
    The Doctor and Donna travel through time to the day of Agatha Christie’s disappearance. They get more than a garden party when a giant alien wasp shows up, wreaking havoc on the guests. It’s a mystery straight out of a novel, and who better to help them solve it than Christie herself?

    Did someone say "tea time"?

  • Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (Writer: Steven Moffat)
    When the Doctor gets a message on his psychic paper calling him to the library, how can he resist checking it out? An expedition led by an archaeologist goes wrong when it turns out the library is inhabited by the Vashta Nerada, a species of invisible aliens who haunt the shadows and devour flesh. Who is this archaeologist, and how does she know the Doctor? Will they escape the library alive?

    Count the shadows...

  • Vincent and the Doctor (Writer: Richard Curtis)
    Amy and the Doctor pay a visit to Vincent Van Gogh after noticing something odd in one of his paintings in the future. They team up with the artist to investigate an invisible creature that has been killing the locals, who shun Vincent and his art and consider him a madman.

    Watching Van Gogh paint.

  • The Doctor’s Wife (Writer: Neil Gaiman)
    The Doctor receives a distress call from a fellow Time Lord, the Corsair, so he, Amy, and Rory, head off to check it out. They land on an asteroid, and the power goes out in the TARDIS. It turns out an alien has been luring Time Lords in for a long time, devouring the energy stored in their TARDISes to survive. It’s a race against time as the Doctor and company, including the TARDIS herself, try to stop the alien’s evil plan.

    The Doctor meets Idris...

  • Closing Time (Writer: Gareth Roberts)
    After leaving Amy and Rory safe in a new home, the Doctor tries making a house call…to Craig. Now a dad, Craig has been tasked with caring for his and Sophie’s baby, Alfie, while mum is away. Hilarity ensues when the Doctor takes a job at a toy store in the mall to investigate power fluctuations in the area. As he and Craig investigate further, it looks like an old enemy has returned…

There you have it, my top 11 episodes of the new Doctor Who. If you want me to pick a number one favorite, I’m going to have to go with Blink. It was the first episode of Doctor Who that I ever watched, and it’s the one I show people I want to bring into the series for the first time. For what it’s worth, I think Sally Sparrow deserved some time as a companion.

Do you have any additions, disagreements, or general comments? Share your thoughts in the comments, and remember:

Don’t blink. Blink and you’re dead. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away. And don’t blink. Good Luck.

Doctor Who Series 6 Finale Thoughts (Spoilers!)

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Doctor Who Series 6 Finale Wallpaper (via BBC)

Doctor Who Series 6 Finale Wallpaper (via BBC)

Oh, Doctor Who, you crazy, wonderful, awful, timey-wimey show. You’ve done it again–and yet, you’ve not done enough. You’ve tied up some loose ends that I really wanted tied up, but not necessarily in a satisfactory manner, and you’ve left questions unanswered. Though perhaps that was on purpose…is Moffat working for the Silence?

Let’s start with plot points that have been “resolved” (I use the term loosely.)

1. River Song’s timeline. Remember rule #1? “The Doctor lies.” Well, that rule applies to River, too. Apparently, according to Amy and River’s conversation at the end of “The Wedding of River Song,” River’s just a reeeeally good liar. She knew about the little girl in the spacesuit in Florida, meaning she knew that was her killing “the Doctor” at Lake Silencio. So her timeline’s not that screwed up; she had to keep her lips sealed for the sake of the universe. Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, foo. I’m content with this explanation.

2. If the Doctor dies, how can there be another season? Well, I was personally hoping for one of the flesh gangers, a time paradox duplicate, or one of those person/ships (I forget the name) from “Let’s Kill Hitler” to masquerade as the Doctor and help him cheat death. As soon as the captain of the robot ship asked the Doctor if there was anything they could do to help, I had my answer. The Doctor never died at the lake; he had his TARDIS on board that robot ship, and he beamed out while River killed him. I’d like to note this makes twice now he’s dodged dying at her hands. Could the third time be the charm for the Silence’s attempts at having River kill the Doctor?

3. The eye patches. Called it! They help you remember the Silence creatures. (What are those guys, really, species-wise?) They’re not mind-control devices, but they can be used to pretty much kill you when the Silence are done waiting for the Doctor to show up.

4. What is River to the Doctor? Now we have it confirmed: she’s his wife. Making Amy and Rory his in-laws. May much amusement ensue. :D

5. What is the question that, when answered, will cause silence to fall? If the blue guy is to be believed, the question is “Doctor who?”

——————————————

Despite these nicely tied plot threads, there are still some gaping holes in this thing.

1. Who is Madame Kovarian? They stole the eye patch design from her in the reality that never happened, but who is she? Why do the Silence need her? And where the heck is she?

2. Is River’s mind okay now? She could still be brainwashed. I guess we’ll just have to see.

3. When did the Doctor tell River his name? Or did he even have to? Maybe they have telepathy or something. We know from the Library arc that she knows his name, but now we may or may not know that at the wedding, the Doctor did not tell River his name like he said he did. Of course, the Doctor and River both lie, so there’s no guarantee that he did or did not tell River his name in that scene. What is the Doctor’s name, anyway? I’m fine with not knowing, but they’re building it up like it’s important.

4. How does this “silence will fall” bit even have to work? Will the Doctor be forced to reveal his name later on screen, out loud? Or is it just that the question needs to be answered in the right place and at the right time, regardless of the response, for silence to fall? So…confusing…and frankly, a little disappointing. I know “Doctor who?” is the single most obvious question in the entire history of the show, but really?

5. What are the creatures in suits? If the Silence is a religious organization that the headless monks are also part of, then who in time and space are the suited creatures that you can’t remember once you look away? They’re just a part of the order. What species are they?

Doctor Who Series 6 Silence Wallpaper (via BBC)

Doctor Who Series 6 Silence Wallpaper (via BBC)

6. Do the Silence know the Doctor is alive? Maybe all of this was planned. They could certainly know and just be driving the Doctor to the point where the question has to be answered. Maybe “Doctor who?” isn’t the real question, but a planted one, designed to lure him out. It is supposed to be the “oldest question in the universe,” right? The Doctor is old, but not that old. Though if he’s a time traveler, he could have gone back to the beginning of the universe, causing that to be the first question asked…

7. How does River always get out of Stormcage? Not exactly that important, but I personally think that the robot ship police must run Stormcage Prison, which would account for how River gets to sneak out and not get punished. They know she didn’t really kill the Doctor. At least, not yet, right?

8. Why don’t people kill the Silence on sight anymore during the alternate reality? Why on earth would you just capture a bunch of them? You’re supposed to want to kill them! They’re much too clever to have just let themselves be rounded up like that. Perhaps the order the Doctor put into the moon landing video got reversed somehow?

9. Why don’t Amy and Rory know about the alternate reality until the point in time that we see them in “The Wedding of River Song”? Back at Lake Silencio, why didn’t they know? My only explanation is that it just hadn’t happened for them yet. Their timeline is in sync with the Doctor that went to 1969 with them, so the alternate reality couldn’t have happened for them until that version of the Doctor encountered it.

10. How is River “the child of the TARDIS”? What is she, really? Is she actually human? Are Amy and Rory really her parents? I’m reasonably certain they are, but in this mad universe of Doctor Who, anything is possible.

————————————

Last questions: when does the next season start? As far as finales go, this one was entertaining, but overall a little lackluster. It lacked…finality. Sure, the Doctor escapes death yet again, but to what end? And really, was it necessary to throw that Dalek in there? I thought there wouldn’t be even a single trace of a Dalek in this season.

My brain hurts a bit from thinking about this too much, so I think I’ll stop my speculating here. I’m sad this season’s over because it doesn’t feel done, but hey, at least there’s a Christmas special to look forward to. :)

Care to speculate with me? Comment away!

Doctor Who Series 6 Speculations (Spoilers!)

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Series 6 of Doctor Who comes to a close this Saturday (if you don’t count the upcoming Christmas special). So far, there are so many questions buzzing around in my head that I have a nasty suspicion we’ll have a cliffhanger pulled on us, leaving most of those queries unanswered. I thought with the season finale so close, I’d share some of my questions. Be warned: if you haven’t seen Series 6, you shall be spoiled if you choose to read on!

Doctor Who Series 6 Wallpaper (via BBC)

Doctor Who Series 6 Wallpaper (via BBC). Click through for more wallpapers from BBC. :D

Well, let’s jump right into the nagging questions. Geronimo!

1. How in the world does River Song’s timeline work out?
This is my biggest question so far. Here’s her timeline as I perceive it:

  • Born while Amy is held hostage by Madame Kovarian
  • Kidnapped, raised in that orphanage from the first two episodes of series 6, brainwashed. Sometime here, placed in the space suit for a while before she breaks free. Sometime later, she regenerates into the girl Amy knows as her friend Mels. (We see the beginning of her regeneration at the end of “Day of the Moon.”)
  • Grows up as Mels with Amy and Rory, becoming her own namesake. (So, ironically, they do get to see their daughter grow up…)
  • Ambushes the Doctor, Amy, and Rory in the cornfield and makes them go back to WWII Germany in “Let’s Kill Hitler.” Gets shot and regenerates into the woman we know as River Song. Kills the Doctor, uses her remaining regenerations to un-kill him, thus becoming a “normal” (this is questionable) human. Gets left…somewhere, somewhen…to recuperate.
  • Some amount of time later, she takes on the name of River Song and goes into archaeology. Stated reason for this: she’s looking “for a good man.”
  • Still looking for the Doctor, she eventually finds the info on his death and puts it in the journal.
  • Eventually earns her Doctorate, becoming a Doctor herself. She’s still wearing her graduation robes when Madame Kovarian and the Silence show up again to put her in the space suit and dump her at the bottom of Lake Silencio, where she will rise from the deep and “shoot the time lord dead.”
  • At the same moment she kills the Doctor, River Song herself is standing on the shores of Lake Silencio, sometime after having found the Doctor again. She watches herself kill the Doctor…but she’s genuinely surprised. She’s been in prison, knows she killed someone…but she doesn’t seem to know she’s the astronaut. She doesn’t even seem to know the super-human little girl who broke free from the Silence was her. Strange, no?
  • We don’t know just what happens to River after she kills the Doctor while wearing the space suit.
  • Sometime after this, the River who wasn’t in the spacesuit has all those adventures with the Doctor that end up in her diary. She refuses Rory’s request to go to Demon’s Run, calls the Doctor to help out with the Weeping Angels, etc.
  • Finally, she calls the Doctor to the Library, where she realizes this will be the last she sees him since he doesn’t know her yet. She dies here, and her consciousness is preserved in the computer.

Okay, there is at least one major problem with this timeline. There are two River Songs at Lake Silencio at the same time, which happens to be a paradox! Assuming I can live with Amy and Rory seeing themselves from afar during “The Hungry Earth,” the only way this could make any sense at all is if after River kills the Doctor, she gets brainwashed again. But when? And who does she think she killed? (Maybe she thinks it was Churchill or something…she does know she killed “a good man.”) Maybe she’s just really good at pretending she has know idea it’s her, but I doubt it. Gah, this is driving me crazy!

2. Who is the creepy song that keeps popping up meant for? Here’s the song, for reference:


“Tick, tock, goes the clock, and what things shall we see?
  Tick, tock, until the day, that thou shall marry me.
  Tick, tock, goes the clock, and all the years they fly.
  Tick, tock, and all too soon, you and I must die.
  Tick, tock, goes the clock, we laughed at fate and mourned her.
  Tick, tock, goes the clock, even for the Doc…
  Tick, tock, goes the clock, he cradled and he rocked her.
  Tick, tock, goes the clock, even for the Doctor.”


Just imagine it sung in a creepy kid’s voice. *shivers* But to whom does it refer? Could it be the Doctor, who says his “time is running out,” or River, who is herself a Doctor of Archaeology?

3. Why is everyone wearing eye patches? First it was just Kovarian, but in the trailer and in recent episode previews, there are way more people wearing them: River, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, some other guy…why do they have them? Could it be a brainwashing tool? Perhaps a way to stop you from forgetting the Silence?

4. What was in the Doctor’s room in “The God Complex”? I really want to know! He said something like “of course, it would be you.” To whom did he speak?

5. Do Amy and Rory still like the Doctor? Probably silly to ask, but after that perfume ad in “Closing Time” (“For the girl who’s tired of waiting”), I sorta wondered. I hope they do.

6. Where and when are Amy and Rory when they receive the blue envelopes? The doctor shows up on TV several times during “The Impossible Astronaut”, looking as he does in some of the teaser clips for the season finale. He did drop them off at a house at the end of “The God Complex”, but they have already seen him die and gotten the envelopes at this point. So, did he leave them previously and tell them to look out for him and we just don’t know? I personally think somebody has been messing with time.

7. Where’d the Doctor’s new jacket come from? Seriously, he’s not wearing the tweed thing with elbow patches anymore. I like the new one ,but why the change?

Those are the questions I have rattling around in my brain at the moment. At least now we know where the blue stationary and the Stetson came from, though. :) (I loved “Closing Time”! Brilliant episode, that. Just the humorous Doctor Who episode I’ve wanted lately.)

Do you have questions burning in your brain that you hope the finale will answer? Feel free to share in the comments, and we’ll speculate together. :D

Whosday: Geek-ly Roundup

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I missed last week’s roundup because I had a lot of school things going on, so I wanted to make up for it by doing a Doctor Who roundup for this Whosday. I’ve been stockpiling Doctor Who links for a while now anyway, so it’s about time I shared them.

  • I want to start with a couple of Etsy treasuries I’ve made. This time I’m including pictures! The first one is a general Doctor Who-themed treasury with lots of timey-wimey bits and bobs that I’ve fallen in love with. The second one is a tribute to one of my favorite characters: River Song. I just adore her, and Etsy has lots of cool River goodies I wanted to share. There’s even a good start to a River cosplay in there. Clicking a picture will take you to the actual treasury page on Etsy.
Doctor Who Etsy Treasury

Doctor Who Etsy Treasury

River Song Etsy Treasury

River Song Etsy Treasury

  • Whovians are truly good people. Check out this article on how someone stole a girl’s TARDIS replica and what some very good people did to help her replace it.
  • Have you seen the adorable little boy who memorized and performed the Pandorica speech for his talent show? It’s absolutely heart melting.

 

  • Just in case you haven’t seen the Series 6, Part 2 trailer, here’s that, too.

 

  • Ever wanted your own Adipose? I lost my process photos from my plushie, but here’s a cute how-to from Cut Out + Keep on how to make one.
  • I believe I linked to the Harry Potter puppet pals in my Potter roundup a while back. Well, now someone’s gone and made “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” with Doctor Who characters. It’s wonderful.

 

  • What if the TARDIS could be your bed? Some awesome person built a Murphy bed that is the TARDIS. Brilliant! Check it out here.
  • I definitely want to go to this Doctor Who convention. With a name like Hurricane Who, how could anyone pass it up?
  • Looking to cosplay as the Doctor? Anglophenia did a series of articles on how to dress as each doctor. Here’s the one for eleven.
  • Check out this super cute Doctor Who shrinky dink jewelry how-to on Cut Out + Keep.
  • I think I’ll close with this hilarious Red Nose day video where David Tennant shows up on The Catherine Tate Show.

 

Hope you enjoyed this roundup! Feel free to share more Who links, discuss episodes, etc. :)