Doctor Who – Thin Ice Review

The first trip into the past for Bill delivered yet another solid Doctor Who adventure.

I compared last week’s episode to 2010’s The Beast Below, however with a creature being held captive for the gains of the human characters Thin Ice managed to echo The Beast Below more in some ways!

Peter Capaldi once more shines as the Doctor. This series is just proving that – as I know some people have said – he was always going to be an amazing Doctor if he was just given good scripts. There’s a speech that the Doctor gives in this episode that I feel is going to end up ranking right up there amongst the very best of the Doctor’s speeches.

Thin Ice managed to balance how to show the Doctor’s guilt and shame over killing with the optimistic hero that he should be. I really don’t like it when the Doctor is written as a tortured hero, that’s not who he is! Yes he can get grumpy and angry but at the end of the day he is always a hero and an optimist. I know the counterargument is that because he’s lived so long and fought in the Time War he should be tortured however I think Thin Ice showed perfectly how to get the right balance.

Doctor Who has always been at its very best when the companion is allowed to shine and show off their strengths. Bill continues to be an interesting character to watch and a refreshing change after Clara Oswald’s more smug tendencies. She has some great one-liners that made me genuinely laugh out loud, however I think her strongest traits are her enquiring mind and her strong sense of compassion. It was interesting to see a companion actually struggling to deal with the fact that the Doctor’s adventures often involve death. I might be wrong, but I think this is one of the first times we have ever seen a companion be shocked at a death in Doctor Who.

Another thing that was refreshing to see in an episode of Doctor Who was an acknowledgement that racism is a thing that existed in the past. This episode wasn’t defined by dealing with racism but it was referenced and acknowledged. It makes sense to at least address racism in the past given that Bill is a black woman in Regency England.

Episodes where it’s the humans who are the real monsters are quite common within Doctor Who, 2008’s Planet of the Ood or the various Silurian stories being a couple of examples of that type of story. Thin Ice certainly falls into that bracket. This style of episode can either be really well done or come across as too heavy handed in its message, fortunately Thin Ice managed to do this story well. However I do still hope that soon we get an episode with a proper big bad monster.

The way that this series is all set around (or keeps referencing) the university that the Doctor is teaching at feels quite reminiscent of the way that UNIT kept reoccurring throughout the 3^rd Doctor era to me. In the 3^rd Doctor era the Doctor worked for UNIT as their scientific advisor and many stories would partially revolve around UNIT. This similarity to the UNIT era of Doctor Who is further heightened with Nardole’s frequent appearances and the way that Smile and Thin Ice followed on from each other. I personally am all for this sort of grounding and connectedness between the episodes.

I think that Thin Ice was another solid episode for this series that delivered on the emotional potential of its context and managed to rise beyond being just another historical episode.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

Today is National Superhero Day and I saw the latest offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe today. I’m going to try keep low on spoilers throughout review but I apologise in advance if I accidentally reveal something that you didn’t want to know.

In my opinion this movie has succeeded at that rare thing, creating a sequel that betters the original. The things that everyone loves about the first one – like the humour, the music and Groot – are all back. Marvel seem to have thought about what made the first movie work and then given us more of that for the sequel.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a very funny movie – there were lots of moments that made all the cinema laugh out loud. But this movie is also one of the most emotionally charged superhero/comic book movies that I think I have ever seen. There were a couple of moments in the cinema that I was actually very close to tears. If things about families make you emotional then I won’t be surprised if it makes you cry too.

With the main team already established in the first film this one has a lot more chance to develop the characters. This is really obvious with Drax, in the first movie he did little more than deliver one-liners, however this time it actually feels like he has become a fully rounded character.

I was pleased to see that Gamora has also been given a lot more character development this time round. In the first film it felt like (at times) she was only there as little more than the token woman on the team. However for Vol. 2 she has a very compelling character arc which also involves some interesting stuff about the nature of her relationship with her sister Nebula.

Nebula and Gamora aren’t the only women in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, this time we are also introduced to Mantis. She’s a bit unique amongst big screen female superheroes in that she is actually allowed to be a more emotional character instead of a battle hardened badass. Mantis is an empath, however unlike most on screen empaths she doesn’t just sense things in vague ways (looking at Deanna Troi from Star Trek The Next Generation), Mantis gets to be involved in the action. I’m intrigued to see more of her in subsequent Guardians films.

Another thing I like about the Guardians of the Galaxy films is how they exist (comparatively) separately from the rest of the Marvel universe. Yes they are a part of everything else, yes things are set up for subsequent film. But for the most part these movies don’t require you to have an in-depth knowledge of all that came before.

I realise that I’ve got quite far into this review without discussing much about the plot. I’m not sure how much I can actually say about this movie’s plot without actually giving something majorly important away. But I will say that it involves the Guardians saving the Galaxy again and the villain is one of the best we have seen from Marvel for a long time.

Basically if you didn’t like the first Guardians of the Galaxy you won’t like this one. However if you did enjoy the first one then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this second outing for the team.  It’s awesome!

April Life Update

I’ve neglected updating the blog again, I am sorry. It just sort of happens that I lose track of it so I thought that I would do a life update post – like I did last month.

• I am currently back at uni and straight back into student life. However whilst I’m still making time for my friends it’s also very busy at the moment as my coursework deadlines are rapidly approaching.
• I spent part of my spring break working on my scriptwriting coursework, it’s been an interesting experience working on this particular coursework.
• I also ended up reading quite a lot of comics during the spring break, I’m pretty sure that comics are the only off course reading I can manage to do whilst I’m in Uni mode!
• If you haven’t been able to tell from my reviews of Episode 1 and Episode 2 I am enjoying the new series of Doctor Who so far.

• My doll collection has rapidly expanded this month to a total of 20 dolls. The latest additions to my collection are the DC Superhero Girls Wonder Woman (I’ve been searching for that specific version of her for a while), Boo from Monsters Inc. and Ariel from The Little Mermaid (a bargain charity shop find for just £2.99).
• My year abroad to Canada is getting ever closer, I’m getting further along in the process of getting ready to go out there. The process is kind of slow moving but it’s reassuring to know that more or less everyone is moving at a similar speed to me.
• Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema to see the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’ll probably also do a review.

Doctor Who – Smile Review

The new series of Doctor Who is continuing to make me smile.

The future human colony where something has gone wrong. It’s a classic story line that has appeared countless times in the sci-fi genre. It’s a story that Doctor Who has frequently used before (from 1977’s The Face of Evil to 2008’s The Doctor’s Daughter). However even though we’ve seen this type of story done before it’s a story archetype that can still work if it’s done well, Smile manages to do it well.

The real strength of this episode was watching the relationship and friendship between Bill and the Doctor develop. The Doctor is pushing Bill and she’s pushing him back. I love how Bill keeps asking questions and is very curious about all the new situations that she’s encountering each week. The way Bill reacts to stuff with enthusiasm and curiosity is really interesting to watch, because let’s be honest going to a city in the future on another planet would be cool! Peter Capaldi’s 12^th Doctor and Pearl Mackie’s Bill Potts are just such a good companion/Doctor team, in the same sort of way that it was always a joy to watch David Tennant and Catherine Tate sparking off each other.

I think one of the weakest aspects of this story were the aliens/monsters. The Vardy were an interesting concept though I feel that they would have been even stronger if they’d had chance to be a little bit more developed. And whilst moral ambiguity is interesting to play with, this is Doctor Who and sometimes you just want a big bad monster. When I first saw the Emojibots I thought that they were designed to sell toys, I definitely think that is the case after having seen the episode! However cool robots are a staple of Doctor Who – from K1 to K9 – so I’m not complaining too much about them!

In terms of the ongoing story arc I’m pretty happy with the level that they’re setting it at so far. There was another reference to the vault that the Doctor is protecting and another mention of the Doctor making an oath but otherwise it wasn’t touched on to heavily. Enough to tease but not enough to dominate the plot of this episode.

This episode was always going to be defined as the ‘Bill Potts takes her first proper trip in the TARDIS’ episode. To that end it works well in helping us get to know Bill more. This episode certainly had a few tonal similarities with The End of The World and The Beast Below, the first proper trips in the TARDIS for Rose Tyler and Amy Pond. There was even a brief allusion to Starship UK which featured in The Beast Bellow! I suspect that Smile much like those episodes won’t come to be an all-time favourite but it was an episode that epitomised much of what makes Doctor Who great.

Basically, it’s not an all-time classic episode but there’s a lot to like in Smile.

Also, I am definitely going to be reviewing the episodes of this series of Doctor Who each week. But I promise that I am going to be getting out some more non-Doctor Who blog posts soon!

Doctor Who – The Pilot Review

Doctor Who is back, and it’s good!

Last night the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who aired and it was good, it feels like the show is back on track where it should be. I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed by The Pilot.

Peter Capaldi is the Doctor! After two seasons of doubting him I finally feel like Capaldi has become the Doctor that he should have been from the start. I won’t go into detail this time about all my problems with the 12^th Doctor, I already talked about that in my Return of Doctor Mysterio review and my pre-Series 10 post. However I felt like in The Pilot we got to see the full range of who the Doctor can and should be instead of just some grumpy guy moping around which is what he has been for the past couple of series. This is finally the 12^th Doctor as he should be, someone who is strange but funny and also compassionate. I particularly liked the little touch of having a picture of River Song and Susan on his desk, it helped to make the Doctor feel like he was still a part of what has come before him.

Setting the episode in a university was a brilliant idea. It just makes so much sense to see the Doctor in that environment. The scene were the Doctor was lecturing at the university was great, that speech felt reminiscent of some of the epic speeches that Matt Smith used to give. I think I agree with the Doctor’s summation that being a student is about texting, snogging and vegan wraps! (Even though I’m not out snogging!)

I liked how this episode was setting up some of the later series. The Doctor was at the university because he is protecting something that is hidden in a vault, it wasn’t specified what was lurking in the vault but I bet that whatever it is will become relevant later on in this series. The brief appearance from a Dalek was good. I hope that was it for the Daleks in this series. I don’t want them to be a big bad in yet another series but it was good to see the Daleks briefly appear as a reminder that they are still lurking out there.

Let’s talk about Bill Potts now. This was the first episode for her she shone as the new companion, I’m looking forward to getting to know her more over the coming weeks. To me it feels like there is something about Bill that is reminisicent of both Rose Tyler and Donna Nobel. I think Bill is going to be a welcome addition to the TARDIS. Bill is particularly notable as the first LGBT companion, I thought her sexuality was well handled in this episode as part of the plot revolved around her having a crush on a woman. Bill is definitely a lesbian, it is part of who she is however – at this point - it’s neither being ignored or defining her. Also she got even cooler when it turned out that she’s into sci-fi!

Tonally I think The Pilot was closest to 2008’s series opener Partners In Crime. In some ways it was a fairly standard new companion episode. We had the glimpse into her life, then the weird thing happening, the meeting with the Doctor and of course the ‘it’s bigger on the inside moment’. But most importantly this episode was about the Doctor meeting his new best friend.

My Disneyland Paris Doll Room

I’ve been busy crafting today and this time I made a Disneyland Paris doll room, I thought I’d do a brief post about how I made it. As with the Superhero Hang Out I made back in October this craft was inspired by tutorials from My Froggy Stuff on YouTube combined with my own creativity.

First off I took a cereal box, cut it down the centre and covered the edges and base with paper. This part is a little tedious so I had a cup of tea whilst doing it. The wonderful thing about using cereal boxes to make doll rooms is that they can be folded up for easy storage.

I next covered the main section of the box with a floral scrapbook paper. I chose a floral print as I have mainly been to Disneyland Paris during spring. The roses in this pattern also suggest a small reference to Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty.  I cut out the Disneyland Park map (I picked up a spare when I was there a few weeks back) and glued that into the box.

The side walls got covered in a snowflake patterned paper. I chose a snowflake pattern as a little visual reference to Frozen, appropriate given Elsa and Anna are regulars at Disneyland Paris these days.

With the main wallpapering done it was time to add the details. I mounted a picture of Olaf in a Disneyland Paris firework show to look like a window. I trimmed the bottom of the box with a gold tape to act as a shiny skirting board.

The room needed a piece of furniture. I made a little side table to go in this room by hot gluing an empty cotton reel, the lid from a coffee jar and an old candle stick together. I used left over images from the park map to make doll sized park maps to go on the table.

Some small finishing details were then needed to complete the room. I stuck a cut out from the back of my Frozen calendar from last year on to the wall to create a doll sized calendar. I used a length of netting with green stars to look like a curtain and secured it behind the box. I also placed a Vinylmation figure - which I bought from my first visit to Disneyland Paris – in front of either side wall.

And that’s it! Not my most advanced project ever but certainly an effective one. This space feels to me like it could be a room in Main Street or Fantasyland where people can pop into for a break whilst exploring Disneyland Paris. It’s certainly a good backdrop from characters who are often found at Disneyland Paris – as Elsa, Flynn, Rapunzel and Tiana are proving there!

A New Series of Doctor Who is Coming

As you probably know a new series of Doctor Who is starting soon. This is the 10^th series since Doctor Who returned back in 2005 and the last series for Peter Capaldi’s 12^th Doctor. I became a Doctor Who fan back when I was 8 and saw the episode Rose when it originally aired. However I have been getting increasingly cold on Doctor Who since the mess that was Series 8 aired. I have been a very loyal fan for a large chunk of my life so this isn’t just me spewing out negativity. I really want this new series to be good.

This series is bringing us a brand new companion, Bill. I’m still trying to make my mind up on Bill however in terms of personality it looks like she is going to be a distinct departure from Amy Pond and Clara Oswald. Also Bill has a girlfriend! This is tremendously exciting to finally be seeing a full time LGBT companion in the TARDIS, especially an LGBT Woman of Colour. LGBT characters in sci-fi/fantasy are rare and LGBT Women of Colour are even rarer, so long as her story is well handled I think we should be applauding the BBC for this move.

From a story point of view it’s also a very promising sign that Bill already has a partner when she meets the Doctor. Part of what made the Russel T Davis era of Doctor Who so good was that Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Nobel all had people they cared about. The companions having lives outside of the TARDIS was a new development when Doctor Who came back in 2005 but it was something that helped make the new series even richer. In this way I hope that Bill will follow the mold set by Rose, Martha and Donna.

Another element that I hope is revived from the 2005 series for this new series is the way that story arcs are handled. The Bad Wolf and Torchwood arcs from Series 1 and 2 are perfect examples of how a story arc should unfold within Doctor Who. Week by week there were little hints which built towards the finale. If you missed them it didn’t matter but if you went back and viewed the whole series you could see the arc being foreshadowed. This is how a story arc should be done as opposed to the mess of unanswered questions and needlessly complex back and forth plotting that has become the norm since 2010.

The Ice Warriors are back! This has me excited as the Ice Warriors rank pretty highly amongst my favourite Doctor Who monsters. The race of warriors from Mars are arguably one of the most complex alien races in Doctor Who. They are a military race who have a strong code of honour – not unlike the Klingons in Star Trek. However what makes the Ice Warriors so interesting to me is that they are allowed to be morally ambiguous, some of them are pacifistic scientists whilst others are completely evil warmongers. The trailers for the new series also seem to be teasing that the Ice Warrior story is going to be set on Mars. This is a new take for the Ice Warriors as they have never had a TV episode set on Mars. In the Doctor Who expanded universe there have been many Ice Warrior stories that have delved into the culture of their home world I hope we get to see this on TV.

I’m disappointed that the Daleks are coming back, however I am intrigued by the return of the Cybermen. The Daleks have become overused and in my opinion they need a significant break before they next return. The Cybermen have also been overused in recent years, let’s be honest the last good Cyberman story was 2006’s Doomsday. But what I find interesting about them retuning this time is that the production team has decided to bring back the very original designs of the Cybermen from their 1966 debut. Bringing back the original Cybermen allows for a fresh start and provides a convenient excuse to drop the mess of continuity and bad storylines from the past decade of Doctor Who.

Basically at the moment I’m expecting the best but preparing for the worst. I really want this new series of Doctor Who to be good but I am worried that it might let me down again.

Missed It Again!

I’ve forgotten to update my blog for a while and I am really sorry about that. It turns out that writing a blog and keeping it updated regularly is a lot harder than it sometimes seems! I had planned to keep it regularly updated but, between going to Disneyland Paris and then returning home for Spring Break, blogging has just sort of slipped down in my priorities at the moment.

I am aware that I missed out on doing a Disney Movie of the Month at the start of April, I’m currently unsure which film I want to pick as my next choice. There will be a Disney Movie of the Month for April but on this occasion it’s going to be later on in the month instead of right at the start of the month.

I also had planned to write a post about the highlights of my Disneyland Paris trip. The trip was amazing and I loved it but it also flew by and then once I was back in England I was quickly heading home for Spring Break. I might still do a post of my five favourite things at some point soon though.

It’s always slightly strange to come home for Spring Break. When I’m away from uni and student life I fully appreciate just how much I love it. I feel incredibly lucky that because of my year abroad I am going to be spending four years instead of three years on my undergrad degree. I get an extra year of being a student!