amayi23

Since Doctor Who was blasting from our screens finally again three weeks ago, I have decided to do some Who blogging this season.

Series 5 left me kinda unattached, but as far as I can tell Series 6 is off to a much, much better start.

To start the series off with a two parter was a great idea and I absolutely loved the Doctor's trip to 1960s USA. It had a fantastic guest star - Mark Shepard - yeah! The episodes were creepy, fun, and there are soo many questions still open. Who is the little girl? What else will happen with The Silents?

I even started to really like Amy Pond, something which I thought was unimaginable before. Her whole character seems changed, she is likeable, and Karen Gillan's acting has improved greatly. Matt's doctor is superb, and Arthur/Rory is just squeezable.

Of course there was a downside, too. Why would the doctor just put aside the danger that Earth faces from the Silents to travel to pirate times? And why oh why must the third episode be so c*rap? It hat Hugh Bonneville, for God's sakes and I still nearly fell asleep watching it.

But next week we will get Neil Gaiman. The Doctor's Wife. So exciting!!!

Well, well, well....

So much for the posters who went on and on how Doctor Who is sooo much better and sooo much more popular with viewers with Moffat/Smith.

Clearly not! After winning the NTAs drama award every single year since the show has been on air again, and Chris Eccleston and David T. winning best actor/drama performance every single year - even when being up against major competition (David Jason, Philip Glenister, etc.) - it was a massive failure this year with neither Doctor Who nor Matt Smith winning anything at all.

Now the posters come up with their lame excuses of course: the vote was split, since Doctor Who had a real competitor this year with Sherlock (hello? Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes anyone?). The NTAs do not really mean anything. (Well, it is just the public's opinion, that's all. And clearly they meant something to you during the last few years!)

It is clear, had Doctor Who and Matt Smith won they would have talked very differently. "Of course DW wins! And just look, who needs that Tennant bloke? Matt Smith is much more popular!"

In my opinion DW just changed too much this year. While I really loved some of the episodes (Eleventh Hour, Vincent and the Doctor) and found some of the others rather good, it had a long run of consecutive episodes that were truly awful.

I always loved Moffat's episodes when Russell T. was still headwriter. Clearly Moffat is a great writer, but just not a good showrunner. The episodes felt disconnected and the change of tone and character from episode to episode was unsettling. The writing was very uneven.

Add to that a truly horrible companion (badly written and acted, I admit she has great legs, but is this really enough?), a Doctor who is really excellent when he is given a great script and has good direction, but fails when the story and direction is weak (Dalek episode anyone?).

And then you have a good show, but not a great one. With the Davies/Eccleston/Tennant, (and Tate!) combo, I had to watch every episode NOW. I just could not wait. This year, I watched it, but it wasn't a must see it immediately, or I go crazy thing.

Here is hoping that DW reaches its old glory again with series 6!

Quite simple: Desmond Hume. (nom nom)

I just booked tickets for the best, best, best theatre production EVER!!!

I will be seeing David and Catherine doing Much Ado about Nothing on August 11 and 13. Anybody else planning on going to London to see it at that time?

I just read the most incredible thing on the whatsonstage.com forum. At the moment, it is just a rumour, but please, please, please let it come true!

***************
Much ado about nothing, Wyndhams

Rumoured to be co-directed (?!) by Mark Rylance, pre Broadway Jerusalem.

Beatrice: Catherine Tate
Benedick: David Tennant

Running: May - September (once Clybourne Park run ends)
**************

Much ado: one of my fave Shakespeare plays. Directed by the wonderful Mark Rylance. And starring one of my best on TV (and soon on stage?) combos: Tennant and Tate.

I think I am about to faint...

Having finally seen all 4 episodes of Single Father, here are my thoughts on the BBC Scotland Series.




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"1 out of every 10 people are born Gay. That means 1 of every 10 people are instantly put down, given bad labels, left alone, put in a minority and so much more, all for something they didn't ask for.

Gay teens are turning to suicide as a way of escaping.

If you want to tell them that life will get better, & you respect them for who they are, copy & paste this. Most of you won't, but let's see the 5% of you who will."


Snagged from maggi137

Finally autumn is here and with it a whole load of interesting new TV programs. We will not only be getting a new series of Upstairs, Downstairs, but we are already enjoying Downton Abbey - ITV's answer to the turn of the century, master and servant story. Is it any good? ( Read more... )

Wow, I have been very silent in the last few months... but fear not, I am back!

Next week I am off to the U.S. and I am going to post a few updates from there.

What I am really looking forward to - amongst other things - is this:




The new BBC version of Sherlock Holmes, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman - written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. This can only be good!

Yesterday I finally found time to watch the latest Doctor Who episode "The Eleventh Hour". I will be up front and honest here, my mind was not totally open for the new Doctor due to two reasons:

1) I really, really despised Matt Smith in the regeneration scene in The End of Time.  I thought it was terribly written and filmed; the acting was horrible and the guy editing the scene must have been drunk.

2) The constant negativity and RTD and DT bashing on diverse forums. This is really going on my nerves and I have decided to stay away from these forums completely. This also means I will not get any information on upcoming episodes, which might not be such a bad thing after all.

So what did I make of the new Who? Click to find out more!
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