Who times Two!

Yes, I'm well aware, that I'm super behind on my Doctor Who posts already, that being said, I'm going to give you a Who double feature for today's post (plus it gets me almost caught up! yay! we're both winners!) Also be forewarned! Spoilers ahead for the new episodes of Doctor Who!

 

First up: The Rings of Akhaten, check out this kick ass poster!

 

Where would you want to go if you landed in the TARDIS and the Doctor offered you a journey to anywhere in space and time? Yeah, I don't know either. There are so many amazing options, some point in Earth's history? Someplace in the universe no one's been?
Our new companion comes up with a suitable alternative: "somewhere awesome" Man, I like this girl already (and I also enjoy that she seems convinced that the TARDIS isn't fond of her). After last week's slightly disappointing outing, Steven Moffat&Co, have certainly stepped it up in this episode. 'Somewhere awesome' is the titular Rings of Akhaten, asteroid belts around a huge glowing star and not too far off, an amazing alien market that puts the Cantina in Star Wars to shame with its quirky amazingness. Of course, the Doctor and his companions can't ever just enjoy an alien market, they find a problem to be solved. We get to see Clara in her element in this episode, it may have been a past life (or something) but she's definitely got that governess bone in her. So, obviously, when she sees a little girl in trouble, her first instinct is to help. Merry is the Queen of Years, tasked with knowing all the legends, stories and songs of her people, but she's also a little girl with stage fright. Clara comforts her and we get some exposition about her childhood and the love of a mother now lost.
After eluding some creepy whispery things and chatting with Clara, Merry is ready to take on the world...or the song. Little Emilia Jones who plays Merry can certainly sing like an angel, I totally buy that this joyful song would keep a restless god slumbering. That is until the dude she's singing with's voice breaks. Dummy, didn't he warm up first?!
While the Doctor and Clara had been enjoying the concert up until then, Merry gets snatched, and we all know that means the Doctor launches into action! Although Clara wasn't sure of this, but he explains it perfectly: "We don't walk away". There's something about this phrase that is so purely the Doctor. No matter how tricky or ridiculous a situation may seem, he never abadons those in need.
After rescuing Merry, it turns out there's a lot more to 'grandfather' than meets the eye, he's an insatiable sentient planet (I think) that feeds on stories, or souls, since our souls are made of stories. (I love this, what a perfect way to put it!). Here Matt Smith broke my heart a little bit. The Doctor is an old man, who's experienced unbelievable joy and untold pain in his lifetime and Smith put that all out there in his monologue. Luckily he didn't have to sacrifice himself, Clara came to save the day. She has to give up 'the most important leaf in the history of mankind' the leaf that caused her parents to meet. Within that leaf though was a life unlived, and as we all know from the Weeping Angels, the potential in a life unlived is exponentially strong, with all the possible ways it could have gone.
The lovely thing about this episode is that it encapsulates everything I love about Doctor Who, strange lands, strong storytelling, a little bit of comedy, a little bit of tragedy and in the end, the day is saved all the while reinforcing the ol' Doctor Who adage that "everyone's important"
Some other fun things in this episode:
The Doctor says,  "I came here once before, with my granddaughter" - an illusion to the First Doctor in this 50th annivesary year?
He gets to use his sonic screwdriver on stone - it's generally rubbish on that type of matter

Next up we were back on Earth, but back in time! I love that this is now kind of standard for new companions, somewhere in space and then somewhere in time. Not only is the Doctor showing off for his new friend, but it's also SUPER fun for us as an audience. Not only have we gone back in time, but an old foe resurfaced in this episode, the Ice Warrior! (I'd never heard of them before, but apparently they first appeared way back in 1967 with the Second Doctor)

The Doctor and Clara are attempting to get to an Elvis show in Vegas, but of course they end up on a Soviet nuclear submarine, in the Arctic, in 1983. This episode is great for many reasons, first and foremost it was written by Mark Gatiss, you might best recognise him as Mycroft Holmes from Moffat's other great BBC show, Sherlock. (on which Gatiss, is also a creator) But he's written a good chunk of the 'historical' Who episodes of late, 'The Idiot's Lantern', 'Victory of the Daleks', and 'The Unquiet Dead'. Needless to say, he can combine the Doctor and history like nobody's business! One great thing about having Who to write for must be that it gives writers opportunities to do fun little things like Gatiss does with the language. Obviously everyone on the sub is Russian, calling each other comrade and such, but since the Doctor and Clara are time travellers in the TARDIS they hear everything as the Queen's English, but the Soviets hear them speaking Russian. This little scene is hilarious.They then combine the top-notch writing of Gatiss, with some kick ass cinematography makes this episode stunning. Seriously, if you've already watched it, go back and have a look at how beautifully the enclosed space of the submarine is lit and shot, cool angles, lots of atmosphere, it's just awesome. Way to go Suzie Lavelle, I've never heard of you before, but I'll be on the look out for you from now on!
Back to the Doctor and Clara, onboard the sub they encounter Davos and Edmure Tully, oh! Sorry, wrong show, but seriously, how hilarious was it to have two Game of Thrones actors feature so prominently?! Liam Cunningham and Tobias Menzies are the Soviet Captain and Lieutenant on board the sub, and they don't take kindly to folks just appearing out of thin air in big blue boxes.
The TARDIS is acting up again and disappears as the sub plummets toward the Arctic sea floor. interestingly the Doctor decides time is of the essence and decides on honesty. No fooling, no psychic paper, straight out with the truth; he and Clara are time travellers. Not that it helps their case too much, but it does save them from dying frozen in the Arctic.
Prior to their arrival, the crew had found what they thought to be a remnant of the Ice Age and brought it on board. Unluckily for them, it was in fact Grand Marshall Skaldak, Ice Warrior from Mars. Once freed from the ice he may have been their ally, but the Lieutenant electrocutes him instead, labelling them as enemies. *eyeroll* Russians.
During the inevitable drama that ensues, someone is going to have to talk to the now imprisoned Skaldak. Knowing that everyone else would be identified as a soldier, Clara volunteers. There's this really wonderful moment where the Doctor is smiling because he's so proud of his new companion, but then quickly switches to appropriate indignation. It says a lot about the type of people the Doctor likes to travel with. Of course, it's for naught a Skaldak is now loose on the sub. And they do this wonderful thing where we only see glimpses of him as he races past the camera. It may be an old horror movie trick, but it's very effective.
I love the parallels in the episode, once the Soviets crash, they become exactly like Skaldak, waiting for their people to find and rescue them. However, once Skaldak believes no one is coming for him, he goes for all out destruction, lucky for him he's on a nuclear sub, eh?
Not so fast though, the Doctor is on board, and he may have a thing or two to say about blowing up the world. He and Skaldak are very much alike (parallel #2!). He explains that while Skaldak may be the last Ice Warrior, there's no need for revenge, but for mercy, something the Doctor knows a lot about. He asks 'Is this how you want to be remembered?' Which says a lot about the Doctor, I think, he's well aware of perception and the power it can haveNothing doing though, Skaldak's on the war path, so the Doctor gets a little angry, saying he'll blow up the sub before he allows the world to be destroyed. Before we can find out if the Doctor's act is convincing enough, the cavalry comes for Skaldak and beams him aboard their ship-but Skaldak leaves the nukes armed.Then we get the best part, the world is literally saved by a little Duran Duran. Clara sings a few bars of 'Hungry like the Wolf'. And the nukes are disarmed. It may seem random, but Skaldak emotionally recounted to them how he used to sing songs with his daughter on Mars, and our clever girl put two and two together. Day saved!
Fun things in this episode:
-whether it's purposefully or not (and with Moffat there's a good chance it's on purpose) there's a continuation of music and its importance going through these new episodes.
-Most excitingly we got to see the red setting on the sonic screwdriver. For those who may not remember when the Tenth Doctor meets River for the first time, she tells him to use the red setting on his sonic screwdriver, to which he exlaimed there wasn't one, and she responded "There will do." Oh Moffat, you're a mad genius.
That's all for now....and looking back, that's a whole LOT for now. Jeesh, no wonder it took me so long to get out.

Trailer Time!!! Thor: The Dark World

Time for another Marvel trailer! Since launching the Iron Man franchise back in 2008, Marvel has been a force to be reckoned with in the comic book movie genre. And for good reason, they continually make great flicks, that are just as fun for Marvel fanboys (or fangirls) as they are for the rest of the moviegoing public. Thor: The Dark World looks to be no different. Where Kenneth Branagh may have directed the first one a bit slapsticky, it looks like new director Alan Taylor has brought us action, action and some more action.

 

Yay! More Thor/Loki bickering, always entertaining! Also, I don't know if my fellow Whovians noticed, but the baddy of the tale is none other than the Ninth Doctor himself! Christopher Eccleston!
Are you pumped for this new Marvel movie? Let me know in the comments!

Jurassic Park!

I remember seeing Jurassic Park in theatres the first time very vividly. When you're young and go to movies, often they can be ta bit forgettable. You don't have the brain for movie quotes yet and there are so many more important things to concern yourself with, like whether you're going to be able to convince your parent to get you popcorn AND candy. That was not the case with Jurassic Park. I was 9, and as the movie was rated PG-13, my friend's dad took us. I was going through my paleontologist phase; reading everything I could about them, laughing at my dad's feeble attempts to read their name (I mean come on, Parasauralophus isn't really that tricky is it?). Needless to say, I was beside myself excited to see this movie.
It scared the pants off of me. Don't get me wrong, there were so many amazing things about the movie, but the climax of the movie, at the time, was probably the scariest thing I'd ever seen.


These velociraptors definitely gave me nightmares when I was 9.

When I found out it was coming out to theatres again, I could feel myself getting all giddy again, so I, obviously, jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen again....even though it's been re-released in 3D and I think I have well-documented my loathing for that particular format on this blog. Actually, I'll get it out of the way right now, and tell you that the 3D was useless. There was no reason for it to be in 3D, but if that's the only way for me to see it on the big screen again, well then, I guess I'll take it.
The movie overall, however, most definitely stands the test of time. I'll grant you, the technology is super dated, but it certainly doesn't distract from the general awesomeness of the movie.
I have to admit, the CGI they must have used for the dinosaurs must have been lightyears ahead of its time. Because it still looks AMAZING. The brachiosaurs in the first scene, I don't even have words, just like the paleontologists in said scene.
When I was kid I wasn't quite able to appreciate how phenomenal the cast of this movie was, but it really is amazing. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Wayne Knight (that's Newman folks!) and Samuel L. freakin' Jackson. Seeing this movie now, when I'm used to Sam Jackson being a badass all the time, I have to admit it's fairly entertaining to see him as this computer guy who can't quite figure stuff out and then *spoiler* have him devoured by one of the still terrifying velociraptors.
John Williams scored this flick, and the music is outstanding. He writes many a memorable score, and the one for Jurassic Park is definitely one more. The suite at the end of the movie as they ride away from the island in the helicopter is still one my all-time favourites.
I don't really know what else I can say about this movie. I loved it when I was a kid, and I love it now. I suppose it's a testament to good filmmaking, that a movie that's 20 years old really loses nothing in translation across the decades.
Last but not least does anyone else kind of wish they could go on the 'Mr. DNA' ride? It seems kind of random in the middle of the movie, especially after seeing REAL LIVE DINOSAURS on screen, but it honestly looks like it would be super fun.

Trailer Time! Superman

Sweet. Baby. Jeebus. Are you spending your summer at the theatre? 'Cause after the new 'Star Trek Into Darkness' trailer earlier today and then this freakin' amazing trailer for the new Superman flick, 'Man of Steel', I'm pretty sure I will be. Looks like the summer is going to be full of heroes (Iron Man 3 as well folks!) and their kick-ass movies! What hero movie are you most looking forward to?! Let me know in the comments!

Trailer Time: Star Trek Into Darkness

Wow. You guys I'm super psyched for this new Star Trek movie, and not just becuase it will be featuring the amazing cheerkbones of Benedict Cumberbatch, but because it looks all out AWESOME! Agree, disagree? Discuss! (also did you notice the surprising lack of lens flares?)

The Greatest Weekend of All!

This past weekend [author's note: I did actually start writing this shortly after Easter weekend] was the holy triumverate if you are a fan of awesome television. I kid you not. On Saturday the hotly anticipated spring premiere of Doctor Who and then on Sunday we got the finale of the third season of The Walking Dead and (FINALLY!) the premiere of the third season of Game of Thrones. If there was ever a weekend to just hangout and watch TV, this was most certainly it. But then again, it was also the Easter long weekend. And if you, despite being a mega-geek, decided to perhaps enjoy some sunshine and hang out with your family, then you may have had to delay some of the watching of these shows until the weekend was over....like I did.

BE WARNED! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John
I have to admit, while I was REALLY excited for the spring premiere of Doctor Who, I was kinda disappointed with this episode. Don't get me wrong, I am intrigued with the new villain, the Great Intelligence, and what his (its?) whole deal is, however, I am a bit tired of being introduced to Clara. I like her. Heck! I've liked her since she was unofficially introduced in the season opener "Asylum of the Daleks", I would've been happy for us to get to her WAY sooner. Instead we went on this long, kinda boring, goodbye to the Ponds. Before my fellow Whovians get all attacky, let me just say I was fond of Amy and Rory and really think about that 'arc' of episodes. In all the past series we've had an overarching theme to tie the episodes together, Bad Wolf, Torchwood, the Crack in the Wall, etc, you get my point. The adventures ran around them. Then, for the first six episodes of this season we got 'aren't we all sad that Amy and Rory are leaving'? Granted there were relationship-y things in there with the Ponds which were interesting I guess, but, at least for me, that's not why I watch the show. I love the far off adventures, the aliens, the awesome planets...I digress!
What do we get in the spring premiere? London. Again. I honestly never thought I could be sick of London, but I am,. Migrating back to my original point, we meet Clara Oswald again (and hopefully for the last time), and this time the Doctor is able to rescue her from the point of almost death, while she's being uploaded. Yup, uploaded. People all over the world are having their consciousnesses uploaded via wi-fi into 'the cloud'. It is a clever way of commenting on our dependency on the internet and the mobile devices through which we access it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we possibly come back to this later in the season, since it featured 'The Great Intelligence" the creepy baddy with Ian McKellan's voice from the Christmas special, who I'm thinking may be the 'big bad' for this season of Who.
Anyways, the Doctor saves Clara, they banter cleverly, the villain grandstands, shows their hand, and manages to fool our new companion, which means the Doctor has to save her again, but this time using his superior computery-technology-y ways. All this and we still have to wait until next episode for her to agree to travel with the Doctor. As I said the episode is a bit 'meh'.
SO! It was a bit of a soft premiere for me, but I'm sure things will pick up! I mean Neil Gaiman wrote another episode this season, so it has to right!?!

Moving on to:
The Walking Dead: Welcome to the Tombs
This episode starts off pretty freakin' intense, but ends on a bit of a whimper, which is a bit of a bummer for a season finale that features 27 (non-zombie) deaths! Quick rundown! The folks at the prison prepare for battle, Carl's mad he has to go to the woods. The Governor stabs Milton and leaves him to die and come back to kill Andrea who's still strapped to that chair in Woodbury. Tyreese and his lady decide to stay behind and not go fight at the prison, as they're starting to see through Woodbury's veneer. After the battle, a kid's running away from the prison, and Carl shoots him while he's trying to hand over his gun, Hershel's worried, so is Rick.
Let's just get this out of the way first and foremost, thank GAWD Andrea's gone! Seriously, there aren't a lot of characters with my name on the big or little screen, but never have I yelled "Come on! Andrea, jeeeeeesus!" while doing a Picard-style facepalm while watching her run around and try to 'save everyone' this season. She got a nice send-off, despite doing almost nothing to save herself (not getting the pliers faster, and stopping to chat to Milton while he's dying, COME ON ANDREA! Jeeeeesus!) and also doing practically nothing to obtain her goal. In fact, it would seem her reluctance to kill the Governor DEFINITELY led to all 27 deaths this episode.
Speaking of the Governor, the man has gone completely off the reservation. After his 'army' of citizens run (like any non-warrior would) away from sure defeat at the prison, he just guns them down. He recognises that he's lost control of them, and decides to mow them down, instead of dealing with them. Except for poor Martinez and other black guy (I'm sorry, I really don't know his name, if you do, let me know in the comments). Watching them give each other "You get in" "No, YOU get in" while the Governor waits behind the wheel was hilarious. That's going to be an extremely awkward road trip.
Carl's definitely not the kid we all wanted to strangle last season (GET IN THE HOUSE, CARL!). He's actually turning into a bit of a badass...or a psychopath. I'm not sure which. He kills that kid, but when Rick confronts him about, the logic he's uses to justify it is surprisingly sound; on all the previous occasions when they've allowed someone to live, it comes back to bite them in the ass. He's not wrong, but still, it's a tad disturbing.
Finally we get to end, after Rick & Co decide to take the battle to Governor, they find that he hasn't returned to Woodbury. He's left all those women, children and old people to fend for themself. So what does Rick do? He brings them back to the prison, much to Carl's dismay. And that's where the season ends. With the sun shining warmly on the shambling zombies outside the prison.
I'm curious to see where they're going to go with this next season. I feel like there's going to be a lot of Carl/Rick tension, along with more crazy Governor and many moral decisions that come with living in a community during the zombie apocalypse.


Last, but most definitely not least, let's get back to Westeros, with:
Game of Thrones: Valar Dohaeris
The folks at HBO are geniuses, or crazy...probably a little of both. The fact that they can make 12 episode seasons that we clamber over each other to watch is evidence of this. When season 2 ended last spring my friends and I were already moaning about waiting for the next season...and there wasn't even a release date yet!! A YEAR later, we've finally returned to Westeros and all the drama that that entails.
Let's start in the North. It looks like some men of the Night's Watch managed to survive the White Walkers that arrived at the end of Season 2. Surprisingly, one of them is Samwell Tarly, not so surprisingly he's let his brothers down by not sending the ravens to (presumably) warn the rest of Westeros of what they'd seen. It wouldn't be so bad if he had his buddy Jon Snow around to have his back, but Jon's off on a whole new adventure. You gotta feel for the guy, his dad's dead, the rest of the family's spread out across the land getting into all kinds of trouble, and here he is freezing his ass off Beyond the Wall. But then again Ygritte is totally gonna pop his cherry this season, so don't feel too bad for him. (It's gonna happen, I guarantee it!) On the less salacious side of things he's convinced Mance Rayder to let him fight on his side of things. The conviction with which Jon told the story of (horrible) Craster, the baby boys and the Lord Commander doing nothing makes me think that this 'joining the Wildlings' is more than just an act. "I want to fight for the side of the living. Did I come to right place?" Good question Lord Snow, I sure hope so. Maybe you won't have to frown so much this season, that would be a nice change...'cause you're one of my favourites...'cause you're a Stark.
Across the Narrows Sea Danaerys and her motley band of Dothraki have traveled across the 'poison sea' to try and muster up an army so our fiesty Mother of Dragons can take back the Iron Throne. Although, with the rate her dragons are growing, is it really that important? Can't she just hop on one of those, fly over there and burn her enemies to the ground? I mean it worked with that creepy purple lipped warlock. Speaking of which, after a surprisingly funny presentation of a slave army, Dany was almost killed by a 'gift' from one of them. Only to be saved by ex-gold cloak Barristan Selmy! Take that Joffrey! Now the people you've pissed off are actively searching out your opponents!
We take a quick jaunt to Dragonstone, where, after just barely surviving the Battle of Blackwater Bay, our buddy Davos 'the Onion Knight' Seaworth, returns to finally put an end to Melisandre. Moron. I like this guy, but he's got the same amount of sneakiness as Ned Stark (I loved the man, but there's a reason he died in book one), and Melisandre is all about the sneaky and mysterious, it's her jam. Needless to say, she's been whispering in sour Stannis' ear, so when he tries sloppily to take her out, he's sent to the dungeon. I suppose he should feel lucky she didn't summon a creepy smoke baby to take him out then and there....but I guess that could come later.
There's all kinds of drama happening in Lannisport, but we're not surprised are we? Tyrion wins for scene of the night in the showdown against his father. (And second place, for the one with his sister shortly before).Tywin clearly knows very little about his youngest child. I mean, honestly, who in their right mind would think that Tyrion has no mind for politics? But then again, he really hates the child who killed his wife and then had the audacity to be so 'disformed' You can see the fury as Tyrion leaves the room, he'll show his father that he's much more than drinking and bedding whores!
While Sansa's busy making plans with Little Finger (IT'S A TRAP!) her replacement is busy getting on the bad side of her new future mother-in-law. Margery makes a trip to an orphanage, which endears her to us, but pisses the royal hell out of Cersei. As she, Joffrey, Loras and Margery are sitting at the dinner table later that night you could see how much Cersei wanted to just jump across the table and throttle Margery's throat. This storyline is going to be thouroughly entertaining to follow.
Last but not least we come to Harrenhal where Robb and Lady Stark come across massacred Stark troops courtesy of the Mountain. Robb, still trying to live up to the title of King in the North, is disgusted, and even though it's not really her fault, has his mother sent to a dungeon. Sure, she set Jamie Lannister free with Brienne (PS: THAT was the storyline I wanted to see this ep!) but it's not like she conspired with the Mountain to murder her family's bannermen. Alas, kings trying to maintain power need to garner respect from those around him, and there aren't any people from the opposing side for him to imprison, so his mother it is.

That's all for now!! I know, super later, and now I'm behind for last week's eps of Doctor Who and Game of Thrones, but I'll get caught eventually....before the end of the season....probably. Thanks for putting up with this extremely long post and go out and enjoy some great TV!