TV review: Doctor Who Series 1 – “The Unquiet Dead”

One of the few episodes in Series 1 not written by Russell T Davies, in The Unquiet Dead by Mark Gatiss gives us a creepy Christmas ghost story. At a funeral parlour in Victorian Cardiff, poor Mr Sneed is having problems because, as he says, “The stiffs are getting lively again”. It’s Christmas Eve and a visiting Charles Dickens is rudely interrupted during his performance at the local theatre by one of the walking dead, causing the audience to flee. The Doctor and Rose arrive in the city to the sound of screaming panic, and before we know it Rose has been kidnapped by the undertaker and his maid, and The Doctor gives chase with Mr Dickens to investigate the mysterious goings on.

This is a wonderful story, exciting and creepy, full of sparkling dialogue, and brilliantly performed by all. I know we’ve only had two Mark Gatiss scripts in total so far, but both have a pre-title sequence with no Doctor or companion, but that sets up the story beautifully with a great cliffhanger. In this episode, we see the reanimated corpse of a grandmother escaped from the undertakers and screaming as she walks around the snowy streets. This makes a thrilling start to the adventure, our first in to the past, and it’s easy to miss some of the great dialogue in this script, but it means you can find something new each time you watch it. Some of the highlights for me include Rose’s thoughts on travelling into the past, “Christmas 1860. Happens once, just once, then it’s gone. Finished. Will never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone, a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still.” In an atmospheric episode, even the scenes in the TARDIS have a dark feel about them, and this speech just feels like poetry. The whole of the scene with The Doctor and Charles Dickens in the coach is brilliant, with The Doctor explaining the meaning of the word “fan” and both praising and criticising Dickens work within the same sentence. Another one that passed me by initially Gatiss’s play on words when Dickens exclaims “What the Shakespeare is going on?”.

The production team shines when it comes to period design, with excellent sets (the authentic looking parlours in the funeral homes) and then mixed with understated effects of the Gelf. The lighting and cinematography is particularly good and adds to the drama of the story, and the director Euros Lyn has given us a beautifully evocative period piece.

There is not a single weak performance from any of the guest actors in this episode. Although no newcomer to playing Charles Dickens, the great Simon Callow brings him to life, starting as a jaded, lonely man who by the end of the episode has found a new enthusiasm and joy for life. Alan David’s undertaker Sneed could easily have become a hammy caricature, but his portrayal gives us a genuine, honest man overwhelmed by the strange situation he finds himself in. And finally we come to Eve Myles. I’d never seen her before, and what a joy she was. I believe it is from her performance here that Russell T Davies decided to write the part of Gwen Cooper in Torchwood for her. She is amazing as the psychic housemaid, whose innocence and compassion leads to the explosive denouement. Her performance is warm and beautifully understated and a pleasure to watch. As usual, I can’t fault the two leads, both showing the wide range of their acting skills, and both completely enjoyable performances.

Overall, an excellent episode and I give it a rating of 9/10.

Film review: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

I’ll start with the things I liked. The cinematography was fantastic, and the opening scene in the playing field and the two night time journeys across the London skyline were breathtaking. Imelda Staunton stole every scene she was in, as a deliciously ruthless Professor Umbridge, and the casting of Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood was perfect, as she truly brought the character to life. Daniel Radcliffe is definitely maturing as an actor, and gave a strong performance in the lead role.

As this story is the longest of the books but has the shortest running time of the film series so far, I was expecting a fast-paced, action-packed film. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The film was slow and dull, and with so much having to be cut out of the story, and many small details changed for no apparent reason, I felt let down by the script. I also think that due to the cutting of the story to make the film, most of the other main actors were under used, with little or no development of their characters.

Worst of all, what should have been the biggest action scene of the entire film series so far, the battle at the Ministry of Magic was so disappointing. I understand there had to be limitations put in place on the scale and length of this part of the film, but in my imagination when reading the book, this was a fantastical, colourful, truly magical battle scene between members of the DA and the Death Eaters. Somehow the film makers had made the DA seem like just children having to be rescued by The Order, and then with little of the dialogue of the book making it into the confrontation between Dumbledore and Voldemort, this scene relied on effects, and it therefore lacked the emotional depth of the books version of the story.

My favourite Harry Potter film so far has been Prizoner of Azkaban, and The Order of the Phoenix for me, doesn’t even come close. A disappointing 2/5.

Book review: “A Shepherd’s Watch” by David Kennard

I don’t think many people realise how difficult it is to be an small, independent farmer in Britain today, but reading this book should give them some idea. Being a farmer is more than just a job; it takes over your whole life, with long working hours, few days off and then the living you make is, if you’re lucky, just enough to stay solvent.

Despite this, David’s tale of a year on his North Devon farm is a warm, affectionate memoir allowing us to get to know his family, his sheepdogs and his flock, as well as his development as a competitor in sheepdog trials. We learn about how the work on the farm changes throughout the seasons, from tupping through to lambing, and onto the sale of the lambs at market. My suspicions were confirmed that sheep are generally fairly dim characters, and some of the stories involving the escapades of some of the ewes, lambs and rams are really funny.

For me, though, the sheepdogs steal the show. Each dog has its own strengths and weaknesses in how it works the sheep, as well as having their own personalities. I loved hearing how the dogs use their own instincts and experiences to deal with the various situations they find themselves in, and you come to understand just how important they are to a shepherd and how much time they can save him. But, when you read about the sheepdog trials and the lessons David gives other local farmers in training the dogs, you come to understand the skill required to handle sheepdogs successfully.

Overall, a lovely, heart-warming book and I spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening reading it. I will definitely be looking out for David Kennards next book.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 1 – “The End Of The World”

The Doctor is pulling out all the stops to impress his new companion, Rose, and settles on taking her to the day the Earth explodes. From a fully automated space station, invited VIP’s are due to witness the end of the World from their privileged position. But all is not as it seems, as before long, strange robot spiders are taking over the computer systems, threatening the lives of everyone onboard.

The decision to set this, the second story of the first new series, in the future, means Russell T Davies can showcase the talents of all the production departments and give the audience an idea of what they can expect from the programme in the future. We have a whole host of aliens introduced to us, although most prominent are Jabe, who has a human-like form, but is descended from trees, and Lady Cassandra, who is introduced as the last human, but has been modified to such an extent, that she is a piece of skin, with facial features, stretched out in a frame and a brain held in a tank underneath. The prosthetics for Jabe are excellent and very convincing, and the CGI for Cassandra is extremely well done as well. We also see CGI used for the shots of the Earth expanding and exploding, and the external shots of the space station. The design of the space station is good, and the scanner used by Jabe is also a beautifully designed prop. I didn’t like the blue make-up for the staff of the space station, as it wasn’t very realistic and looked like make-up instead of the natural colour of their skin, and I also felt some of the other aliens looked a bit like they were thrown together from whatever was found in the prosthetics and wardrobe departments. Having said that, I can understand that for minor characters that were only there to pad out the number of VIP’s on set, it would have been a waste of money to design and produce more realistic looking costumes, and they don’t play a big part in the story and are rarely on screen, so it was the best place to save money in the budget for this episode.

From a story point of view, the script was good including some comedy, which is always a plus for me, and I liked the annoyance of Rose that The Doctor won’t tell her about his background. In both the writing and the performance, two scenes stood out. Firstly, the scene between Jabe and The Doctor when she tries to talk to him about the Time Lords, and, secondly, the scene at the end where The Doctor has to identify and deal with the villain of the piece, where we really see The Doctor angry for the first time.

Overall though, the story didn’t grab me as much as “Rose”, but I wonder if this was more to do with being put off by the additional aliens, as I did find them distracting and they didn’t add anything to the story either. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first episode, but I will still give this episode a rating of 7/10.

TV review: Doctor Who Series 1 – “Rose”

The episode opens with a montage of shots introducing us to Rose Tyler, a sales assistant in a department store, who is saved by a mysterious man, The Doctor, from mannequins who have come to life. As the story unfolds, we see Rose learn more about The Doctor, and by the time they’ve saved the world, he comes to realise that it’s time he had a companion on his travels through time and space, and the adventures begin.

This episode proves that Russell T Davies was the best person to bring back Doctor Who to our screens, and that he can write excellent scripts. The episode has so many issues to deal with – new Doctor and new companion being the main ones – and yet is fast paced, informative, funny and dramatic. By the end of the episode, you feel you know enough about both The Doctor and Rose to understand why they both decide to make the change in their lives to go with each other.

It’s an extremely optimistic story, giving us a new companion who we find out is leaving an unexciting life where she has lost her job, has few prospects for a career, but we can see she has family and friends who love her, and on balance decides she is willing to travel with a relative stranger through time and space. The character of Rose was perfect for the reintroduction of Doctor Who to our screens. She is young enough for new young viewers to identify with, and because she’s a new companion to The Doctor as well as the viewers, allows the writers to show Rose gradually learning about The Doctor, time travel, space travel, alien races allowing us into The Doctor’s world. Billie Piper was to most people a revelation in this role, and deserves a lot of credit for the popularity of the show from the very first episode.

The casting of Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor was excellent. He is well known and has a reputation as an extremely accomplished actor which attracts older viewers, and yet is able to show the range of his acting from light hearted comedy to action to moving drama. He gives The Doctor a vulnerable edge and yet makes the audience feel they are in safe hands.

I think this episode also has the right balance of prosthetics and effects for a Doctor Who episode. The story has the top priority and although there are special effects, they don’t take over importance from the story, and are a necessary part.

Overall, on rewatching this episode after the conclusion of Series 3, I am extremely impressed, and it is as good as I remembered from my original viewing.

An extremely accomplished 8/10 for the first episode of a brand new series.

Doctor Who

As I mention in my “About me” page, I’m a big fan of the Doctor Who. I’m not so much of a Classic Who fan, but I absolutely love the New Series.

I’m a member of the Doctor Who Online forums and also love their associated podcast, the DWO Whocast, and I’ve contributed a few pre-recorded episode reviews and even been invited on a couple of times for the main episode review discussion.

As the current series has finished, I’m going back and watching all the new series episodes, and I’m going to try and write a review for each one here, probably one a week.

My reading challenges

I decided a couple of years ago to try and start reading more books, as for various reasons, the time I spent reading had dwindled, so I set myself a couple of challenges. The first was to join a reading group, so that I would be encouraged to read a wider variety of books, and hopefully stumble across some new favourite authors, and secondly, I set myself a target number of books to read that year – 100 to be precise.

I joined my local library reading group in February 2006, and have definitely read books that I would never have picked up in the first place. I didn’t reach my target number of books though, and only read 83 books. This year, though, I’m already reading book number 71, so it looks like I’m going to surpass my target this year, but in addition, I’ve also made my mind up to enjoy my reading more, and if I don’t like a book within the first 100 pages, I’m happy to set it aside and pick up something else instead. Life’s too short to read something you’re not enjoying!

Hello!

Hi, my name’s Claire and this is my first entry on my first blog, so forgive me if I’m talking a load of rubbish!

Please click on the “About me” link in the top right of the screen to find out a bit more about me and what I’m hoping to blog about.