TV Review: Doctor Who: The Sun Makers

This is a four-part series which first aired on BBC in 1977.  Tony watched parts of this with me.  He thought it was just too cheesy.  The guns looked like wooden guns for child's play, and then they had laser rays coming out of them.  Also they kept using different words for His Eminence which was almost comical.  The story is based on Pluto.  The Company has  built artificial suns.  However they control them and tax for heat.  You are taxed for being alive.  You are taxed for dying because it takes heat to cremate you.  As a result the workers have to work over time, and have very little free time to sleep.  Finally a worker breaks, and is attempting to commit suicide, on the roof where he can feel the heat and is now subject to a fine.  The Doctor (Tome Baker) arrives at this point and they rescue him from suicide.  The Doctor is joined by Leela (Louise Jameson).  K-9 is also a featured character helping The Doctor.  The Doctor puts a bug in the people's ears which leads to general revolt.  There is a sizable underground community, and they join with the workers.  As trouble brews, Him Eminence gets smaller and smaller.  Several times both The Doctor and Leela are close  to death, or reprograming.
I can't say this is my favorite Doctor Who series.  However it gives us an interesting take on Pluto.  In this film, the inhabitants are form earth, via Mars; both planets have been overused and no longer support life.

TV Review: Doctor Who: Season 8

This was a very fun ride this past weekend.  We have the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Cabaldi) played as a sour old man, and Clara (Jenna Coleman) as a beautiful young woman who is torn between her boyfriend (Samuel Anderson) and the Doctor.  They of course have many adventures.  They start in Victorian England, where many people self combust as well as a time traveling dinosaur.  Turns out a robot race is harvesting human body parts to fix their space ship, when end up on the moon with a decision of whether to kill the egg (the moon is an egg) or let the new creature be hatched.  The decision could have eternal consequences for human kind.  The Doctor takes a Q like stance in this one, testing the humans.  This really gets Clara angry.
A recurring character through out the series is Missy, who is collecting dead bodies.  This leads to a climatic finale involving Cyber-men.  The love between Clara and her boyfriend is tested many times, as Clara runs off with the Doctor.  However the final test is even more dramatic.

T.V. Review: Doctor Who: Season Seven

I had on of those weekends.  I discovered Doctor Who season seven available on Netflix, and had to watch the whole thing right now--sixteen episodes. 
This is great stuff as the Doctor (Matt Smith) battles against the Daleks, and many other old and new enemies.  We are introduced to Oswin Oswald (Jenna Coleman) in "Asylum of the Daleks" who later becomes Doctor Who's side kick in another form.  Rory (Arthur Darville) and Amy (Karen Gillan) are also with the Doctor as they try to turn of the force field so the Daleks can destroy the planet which holds all the deranged Daleks who they fear are gong to escape.  It is with the help of Oswald that the are able to do this, but she dies in the effort.  (She had previously been turned into a Dalek, but had an imaginary life as a continued woman making a souffle.
The Doctor then saves Dinosaurs the the next episode, and fails to slave a man who committed war crimes, but does save his victim, a man told warrior through cybernetics.  This has a western theme, and our half man half robot becomes the sheriff. 
"The Power of Three" is a very interesting episode.  This episode takes place over a year.  Strange black boxes show up, and people put them everywhere.  In the end however, the all activate together; and emit an electrical pulse which kills people by stopping their hearts.  The Doctor discovers the Shakri are behind this.  They have condemned humans to extinction.  He is able to manipulate the boxes so the zap everybody back to life. 
"The Angels Take Manhattan" is the end of the road for the Ponds.  Rory gets zapped back in time, and Amy decides to join him.
We have a precreation of Clara in "The Snowmen."  In this episode we are introduced to the major nemesis for the season, the "Great Intelligence"; in this case snow with intelligence, which is wanting to take over the earth by adding snow and human DNA.  The Doctor is able to intervene,  but Clara dies in the efforts.  However the Doctor realizes this Clara, and the Oswald who previously passed away are the same person. 
The next episode the Doctor find a present day Clara.  She is a nanny, but is attacked by the Wifi.  The Doctor is able to thwart their effort, and get Clara's soul back.  The "Great Intelligence" was using peoples' souls to become stronger. 
Clara decides to join the Doctor, and the go to someplace exciting, "The Rings of Akhaten" where we see a girl, singing her way to be sacrificed by a great monster.  Singing seems to be an important part of this season.  The music is beautiful, but leads to the young girl, princess, being taken by the entity to be sacrificed to the old god, a parasite feeding off people's memories.  Clara and the Doctor team up to defeat the monster, with the help of still more singing.  
The Doctor prevents the Cold War from becoming hot be convincing a long forgotten "Ice warrior" from Mars that a researcher found in the Arctic ice, not to fire nuclear missiles.  He is rescued by the last remains of his own people. 
In "Hide" the Doctor is able to rescue a woman caught between two universes, and also help the monster who is just searching for love. 
The TARDIS is captured for salvage on "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS."  The TARDIS was damaged, and in fact exploded when captured--but this hasn't manifested as the TARDIS froze the explosion.  However then comes the attempt to find Clara who is lost in the TARDIS, confront monsters of yourself, and go back and get a do over.
In the "Crimson Terror" The Doctor needs rescuing, as he has become a rejected victim of the red plague.  Some characters Salurian, her wife, and Strax a Sontaran, help with the rescue,  They have been helping fight the "Great Intelligence."  Our evil witch, under the influence of a parasite plans to release the red plague; however the Doctor and his team intervene.
"Nightmare in Silver" the Doctor and Clara face the Cybermen.  However it is Porridge, the lowest of all it seems, who saves the day.
The season concludes with three episodes, "The Name of the Doctor," "The Day of the Doctor" and "The Time of the Doctor".  In the first we discover why Clara keeps showing up at different spots in the life of the Doctor.  In the "Day of the Doctor" we get to see three different doctors including David Tennant, and many others, although perhaps just in poster form. as he goes back reviews the decision he made to destroy his own people and the Daleks.  The result is not the same.  And finally, someone across the different Universes is asking for the Doctors name, which is a key word, and if given will lead to great war.  The Doctor lives through his live, hundreds of years, defending the people of a town called Christmas.  The Doctor eventually dies, but in that death comes new birth, which rebirth sets many things right.
Doctor Who always entertains. 

Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock

The Tardis takes the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) to a remote light house island.  Their are three employees.  A mysterious comet lands in the water, and the area suddenly turns foggy and cloudy.  One of the crew is electrocuted.  This is unusual as he has used the equipment many times.  The Doctor and Leela show up at the light house just after this.  The Doctor is suspicious, and even more so when the body disappears.  A but runs aground, going too fast in the fog.  It holds several British aristocrats, one of whom is trying to get to London in time for the stock market the next day.  He has inside information to use.  He is a rich brat.  The Doctor becomes convinced something is going to mount an attack.  He locks the doors and the whole in.  One of the seamen brings the third member of the light house crew.  His body has been mutilated.  One by one the people in the light house pass away, electrocuted.  What makes things more difficult, the alien body is a shape shifter, and having studied the human anatomy, he is well prepared to change shapes.  The Doctor figures out the species, Rutan.  They are at war, and plan to use Earth because of its convenient location, to mount an attack against their enemy.  Who cares if all the humans would be killed in counter attack.  The main ship is due to arrive shortly, as the first alien has been sending a signal.  Rutans are hard to kill, but they don't like heat.  They device a cannon type weapon.  However the mother ship is coming.  A diamond is used to magnify the light beam of the light house.  Game over.
This is the fifteenth season of the Doctor, and Tom Baker is the fourth Doctor.  Leela is not from England as most of the Doctor's companions.  She is actually not even from Earth.  This show has plenty of tension, and intrigue, The Doctor trying to think things through.  It also has plenty of screaming and people being electrocuted.  This is an enjoyable series. 

TV Review: Doctor Who: Dreamland

This is an (2005) animated Doctor Who with David Tennant portraying the Doctor.  This movie is intriguing because it deals with Area 51, Dreamland.  When the Doctor hears of Dreamland his response is, "I've always wanted to go there."  This movie portrays the Western Shoshoni and is close to where Sheri and I use to live.  In the script they also mention the Bear River Massacre.  I don't know if this was a mistake, as this involved the Northern Shoshoni.  I digress.  Back to the story.  The Doctor visits a restaurant where they have an old space junk, and men-in-black come for it.  They run, but discover robot men after them, and finally a colonel takes them to Area 51 where he intends to erase their memories. They discover a cockroach type people working with the Colonel in a misguided attempt to save the world from some crashed aliens.  Turns out the device is a genetic bomb--to entirely erase a species.  It was designed to destroy the Viperox, the large cockroaches, who destroyed the world of the crashed aliens.  They are a husband and wife.  The bomb can only be armed by the husband who designed it.  The Doctor and his cohorts escape the Colonel, discover a large invading force of cockroaches, and are rescued by tribal elders.  Again recaptured the Doctor convinces the Colonel he is deceived, which brings on the war.  The Doctor does not use the genetic bomb, but chases the cockroaches away with the noise of his sonic screwdriver, amplified by the TARDIS.  This is a cool exciting ride and yes, I lone the British accents

TV Review: Doctor Who: The Green Death

This series is the last six episodes of season ten.  It features Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant his companion.  At this time for whatever reason, the Doctor is working for UNIT.  This is a unit in England which is designed to deal with strange occurrences.  In this case there is a strange new disease, which infects  a coal miner which makes him shine green before he dies.  It is actually some kind of virus which takes over their DNA.  WE discover that there is a company Global Chemicals, which has been drilling and dumping their wast into the coal mines in the area. 
This ooze infects others, and also has created a nesting plant in which their are maggots, which also can infect people.  Global chemicals is very secretive, and eventually we learn that they in fact are controlled by a computer, which is effecting people's minds, sort of like hypnosis.  The computer is called B.O.S.S. Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor.  Among other people he is controlling the president of Global Chemicals.  UNIT is put under their control, and consequently take steps to fight the maggots, which actually spread them.  They are going to metamorphose into dragon flies which will take the disease throughout the world.  There are three problems, defeating the larva, defeating the illness, and defeating the computer.  They have a friend in Dr. Clifford Jones, a sort of radical, who is developing a fungus to eat which will replace beef he hopes.  Because of an accident they discover the fungus, though good to people kills the illness, as well as the larva.  However the computer is set to launch an attack taking over worldwide computers.  This is averted when Mr. Wilson comes to his senses as the Doctor uses and anti hypnotic rock on him.  He sacrifices himself to cross the generators and blow the computer up.
This program has cheesy special effects, like many of the Doctor Who series.  But the story kept me entertained.  This was the last of Jo as a companion as she becomes engaged to Dr. Jones. 

TV Review: Doctor Who: Infinite Quest (2007)

This animated version of Doctor Who features David Tennant voicing the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones.  They travel together solving cases, and this one is difficult.  I starts with the Doctor thwarting Baltazar (Anthony Head) in his desire to destroy the Earth and turn the life forces in diamonds.  After this event, he swears revenge on the Doctor, and eventually escapes prison intent on this.  He has learned of the Infinite Ship from jail mates, and plans to find it as it grants "your hearts desire."  Their efforts to catch up with Baltazar takes them to several different plants, and eventually to the jail where the Doctor is imprisoned, as the warden has been replaced by inmates and everything is upside down.  The Doctor is abandoned on the planet, with Martha Jones hostage to help find the ship.  They eventually find it, but the Doctor arrives after repairing Baltazar's flying robot and coming to the rescue.  The Infinite Quest turns out just to be another kind of prison.
This was entertaining, but I still am not sure if I am a fan of the animated version of Doctor Who.  But I do like the voices of Tennant and Agyeman.

New Review: ***Doctor Who: The Movie (1996)

As can happen in "The Doctor" this movie stars two doctor, Sylvester McCoy, who is familiar as the doctor, and Paul McGann who is a new doctor.  The Doctor (McCoy) is transporting the body of The Master who was executed for crimes.  However his essence gets into the body of the TARDIS, causing it to breakdown and land in Chinatown, San Francisco.  The first doctor, as he comes out of the TARDIS is shot b y a gang,and wounded.  He gets to the hospital, but the medical profession actually kill him, operating on him before they know what they are actually doing.  The Master inhabits the body of the ambulance driver that took The Doctor to the hospital.  The TARDIS of course is not doing well who he convinces that The Doctor is evil, not him, opens the Eye of Harmony.   The Master,promises power and riches to those who help him.  The Eye must be reclosed, or it will suck the world into itself.  This story takes place at the Millenial celebration, and The Doctor needs an atomic clock to fix the eye.  Many laughs at the New Year's Eve party where they seek out the clock they need.  Great fight in the end, as is common with the Doctor.
This movie was an attempt of seeing how The Doctor would do to an  American audience.  It did not do well, but was a success in England.

TV Review: Classic Doctor Who: The Three Doctors

This is a 1972 opening series of the tenth season of Doctor Who, and is the first in which a prior Doctor comes back.  It features the first three Doctors, who are brought together by the Time Lords as the home world of the Time Lords is under attack, and their energy is being sapped into a black hole. Because of this attack, the Time Lords go against their own rules, and put the three Doctors together to attack the threat.  The Doctors are played by John Pertwee (third and current to movie Doctor) Patrick Troughton (second) and first William Hartnell (First).  The first Doctor is not able to materialize, due to insufficient energy, but appears on a view screen.  He is often the most level headed, and is sent to calm the other two down.  As the first two get together, they become engaged in a rivalry, which hinders their effectiveness.  The stream in the black whole is sent to find a Time Lord.  The Doctors eventually discern that they need to follow the stream, and so they do so.  There the find an old Time Lord Omega, who helped establish the Time Lord realm to begin with, but all thought he had sacrificed himself in an explosion.  His "will" has allowed him to exist where nothing should exist, in a black whole which is made of antimatter.  However as his "will" is what allows him to exist, he cannot leave.  He has brought the Time Lord to force them to use their will so he can leave.  However he has gone made, and actually the particles have destroyed his body, so he is an empty suit of armor.  Omega has accidentally brought many friends and others from Earth to the black whole, in his attempts to find a Time Lord.  He agrees to send them back, if the two Doctor Who's stay.  They agree.  However the use Omega's insanity and anger against him, and are realized, and restored to their natural spot, when Omega is set free through death.  The black hole becomes a star.
I found this entertaining.  The soldiers of the world created have interesting weapons, but they seem to always miss.   Their appearance is somewhat grotesque.  They energy being which is sending everyone to the black hole is a interesting special effect.

TV Review: Doctor Who: ***The Ark in Space

This is a 1975 episode of Doctor Who with Tom Baker as the Doctor and Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.  It pits The Doctor on an ark 4000 years into the future.  The humans on the ark have frozen themselves in sleep as a way of saving the human race, projecting themselves into the future as the Earth is no longer sustainable.  This idea worked well, except that a space fly has gotten into the works.  The queen fly accidentally electrocutes herself, but not before giving birth to her larvae, which are set to inhabit the human bodies.  The timing mechanism for the humans to reemerge has been triggered, and several come back to life.  The commander however touches a larvae, and turns into a fly.  The new commander (ex commanders mate) takes over, and they determine to try to electrocute the rest of the flies, except the lead fly who was the commander, has turned off the power.  This episode only has a happy ending because of the sacrifice of some of the crew, including the commander who has just enough humanity left to safe his mate.
Special effects aren't near as good as current series, and The Doctor and the commander both seem rather stiff and unemotional, while Sarah Jane Smith is too emotional.  But it is Doctor Who.

TV Review: **^ Doctor Who: The Mind Robber

This is a six part Dr Who series which I watched on Instant Netflix Classic Doctor Who.  It originally aired in 1968 with David Troughton as the Doctor and his companions Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury.)  Wendy looks pretty good in her one-piece psychedelic coverall.  This show is based on the premise that they have entered a world of imagination.  We meet Gulliver and Rapunzel and a super hero type person.  The Master is a large brain.  The Controller is someone kidnapped from Earth many years before, who is a writer.  He however has gotten old and needs to be replaced.  The Doctor never gets old, and is the perfect choice for a replacement.  The Doctor's companions get sucked into the story, and become fictional characters, and The Doctor is coerced with their freedom to take over as The Controller.  He is tricked into becoming part of the brain.  Using his control over The Brain, he is able to set his companion free, but not himself.  However his companions overload the computer.
This show has some pretty tense action, but all the same, Zoe screaming at every little thing does not help.  Nor does the spit in the corner of the mouth of The Controller in episode five, which fortunately disappears for episode six.  It was very distracted.

TV Review: *** Doctor Who: The Aztecs

This four part episode stars William Hartnell as The Doctor (first Doctor).  This Doctor Who series is different, as they do not face aliens or any type of monster.  However in this case it is dealing with different customs, as they visit the ancient Aztec civilization, which is built upon superstition, and human sacrifice to appease the sun god.  The Doctor is traveling with his granddaughter and two friends.  One of the friends is mistaken as the reincarnation of a former prophet/god.  She tries to change the custom, and gets the group in trouble with the current priests.
The group is trapped away from the TARDIS which is in the tomb, with a one-way door.  They have to devise a way to get out, while keeping out of trouble dealing with the laws and customs.  At the same time the priest of sacrifice is pushing for more power, and suspects the reincarnation is a false god.  None of the science fiction stuff, other than traveling through time, but an enjoyable story.

Doctor Who: ****Spearhead from Space

This series of four shows is on classic Doctor Who on Netflix.  It aired in 1979 and was the start of the seventh season and introduced the third Doctor played by John Pertwee.  This show also introduces the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness.  The Nestene have a power over plastics, and so this is the first Doctor Who show in which plastic comes to life.  It eventually brings to life all the store dummies, and not only do they come to life, they shoot and kill.  The goal of the Nestene is to colonize Earth, and destroy whatever is already there.

The Doctor has a new face, but he becomes a part of UNIT, an organization responsible to investigate aliens.  They are investigating the mysterious landing of comets in a pattern.  These individual comets have held the consciousness in different parts.  They have all been gathered but one, which was found and hid by a farmer.  It is this move that keeps the Consciousness from becoming fully complete, and starting the conquest of the world.  The Doctor works with Liz Shaw (Caroline John) and Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney).  The Doctor is able to study the last part of the consciousness, and they discover a wax museum with new dummies of prominent world leaders.  The Nestene steal the last piece, and complete themselves, and begin the takeover of the world.  Can the Doctor use what he has learned to make a weapon to combat the Consciousness, because a bullet has no effect on the plastic dummies.
This is a really good, old Doctor Who.  I hate the ones were the dummies come to life.

TV Review: Classic Doctor Who:****The Carnival of Monsters

John Pertwee stars in this series as The Doctor.  He is the third Doctor and this is the tenth season.  He, and his companion, Jo Grant, (Katy Manning) find themselves in trouble when they and the TARDIS get caught by a Miniscope.  This is a device, previously outlawed, which catches things, entraps them, and makes them smaller.  This one is owned by a circus performer and his assistant.   In the machine is the carnival of monsters, which includes, They are visiting a planet with political intrigue, but after making their presentation are told their contraption is illegal as it harbors alien races, Tellurians (humans) on a ship from 1914, Ogra (related to Dalek's), Cybermen and Drasheks (a dinosaur type monster).  All these creatures are in a machine the size of a box, with no way of escaping.   Most of the residents don't realize they are captive, but the Doctor and his companion do, and they start trying to escape, which gums up the works.  They wander into the Drashek's territory, and get the Drasheks chasing them.
The circus performers are showing their machine off to a planet, where the ruling race is very worried about being effected by alien races.  When they see the show, it is declared illegal, and subject to be destroyed.  However the exterminator does not destroy it.  It is intended for organic matter only.  There are a couple men, who are willing to do anything to get ahead.  They want to sabotage the supreme ruler by creating a disaster.  They see that the circus performer are having some problem, with things getting out of their space, and in fact, the Drasheks, which eat anything including metal, are getting out.  These two help them, while sabotaging the exterminator.  When they get out what will happen?
This series was very entertaining.  I enjoyed the story, and the adventure.  The monsters were corny, and the men of the planet had bald spots, with lines showing in their bald wigs. But that is part of Doctor Who.

TV Review: Doctor Who: ***^The Pyramids of Mars

This is from the Tom Baker (1975) era as The Doctor with Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen) as his companion.  It is available through instant Netflix.  I remember this show from when I use to stay up late and watch it on PBS in Utah--television style.  You had to stay up late sometimes to catch all the episodes in a series.  This has four episodes.  The Doctor lands on Earth in the past because of a temporal shift.  This shift is caused by an ancient monster/god of some power named Sutekh who was imprisoned by the other gods of the time on Mars.  There is somehow a connection between Sutekh and and Egyptian pyramid.  He inhabits an archaeologist, at least mentally, when he discovers the ancient tomb in Egypt.  This puts in motion a series of events in which Sutekh plans to fee himself by firing from Earth a rock at Mars to destroy the mechanism which is keeping him captive.  The doctor has to thwart this plan as Sutekh hopes to enslave everyone and take over the universe.  He apparently has power to do so if he were free.  The Doctor is able to destroy the rocket, but only by confronted Sutekh directly, who takes him prisoner and discovers he has a TARDIS which will easily help him in escape.  However the Doctor thwarts him with the control mechanism to the TARDIS which he attaches to the temporal shift machine Sutekh is using to travel to Earth to take control of the TARDIS.  An intriguing story.  Sutekh has some mean robot mummies, and the original archaeologist makes a good monster, looking like Boris Karloff.

TV Review: *****Doctor Who Season Five

Doctor Who keeps getting better and better.  This is another wild ride. This season introduces Matt Smith as the Doctor who loves his bow tie, and Karen Gillam as Amy Pond.  It starts with the Doctor, newly incarnated, coming to help a girl with a crack in her wall.  The crack follows just about every episode this season.  The Doctor says he will be right back, but actually comes back a dozen years later and Amy is now a woman.
My favorite episode included Vincent van Gogh.  I admire his work, and we get to see smatterings of it in the museum, and in Vincent's flat.  Vincent can see a monster others, including the Doctor, cannot see.  The monster has been killing innocents.  It looks like a big chicken.  In the end it is defeated.  In an effort to change Van Gogh's imminent suicide, they show him his legacy.  However it does not prevent his suicide. 
The weeping angels are back in a two part episode.  Only this time there are hundreds of them, and they are out to get them.  However the angels are scared of the crack through which if anything passes they are forgotten and never existed.
Rory, played by Arthur Darvill, Amy's fiance, joins her on the Tardis.  They face off against vampires, an evil dream keeper and they have to choose between two dream sets and pick the real one so as to not die. There is a less serious one where The Doctor takes on as a human and rents a room.  He plays soccer and eats biscuits and tries to be human to fool the entity upstairs, where there really is not an upstairs, but through the powers of a space vehicle one was been created in everyone's mind. 
The show then turns serious as the Tardis blows up, and it is actually this event seeping through time and universes, which has caused the crack. The Doctor has to close the crack, leaving himself on the other side, and can only be brought back if someone remembers him.  This happens at Rory's and Amy's wedding when remembers something blue.

TV Review: *****Doctor Who Season Six

Dr Who Season 6 is now available through Netflix DVD.  The other seasons are on instant Netflix.  This is a terrific ride.  The season starts with Doctor Who's Death, then goes back and explains things on the road to this event.  There are some incredible turns in the general plot, for example we see the Doctor's marriage to River Song, discover who are her parents, and are introduced to the "Silence."  The Silence are evil creatures who you don't remember when you are not looking at them.  They are like a great conspiracy, manipulating things without anyone knowing about them.  They are still around at the end, and it is the Silence who have decided the Doctor must die.

This series has a greater use of poetry which is highly effective.  It also has a way of bringing back old characters.  In this case the characters are often old nemesis who now owe the Doctor.  This is especially true with the kidnapping of Amy and Rorie's baby girl.  She was conceived in the TARDIS which causes her to have time lord characteristics.

This is a show you have to see.  I watched Doctor Who as a youth, staying up late to watch it on PBS.  The plots and stories were fun then, but the special effects were always lacking.  That is no longer a problem, and the stories have just gotten more intriguing.  I LIKE DOCTOR WHO.

TV Review: ****^Doctor Who Season Four

Doctor Who Season Four, including “The End of Time”  I watched  on Netflix Instant.  For some reason the last two episodes of this series are not with the rest of the series, but they are on Netflix Instant.  This season has Donna Noble, portrayed by Catherine Tate, as the regular side-kick to The Doctor, David Tenant.  Much of the series deals with how she became the sidekick even though she is just a “regular person.”  However in a later episode we are introduced to Doctor Donna, in which she is melded with the Doctor and takes on his intelligence combined with human instinct.  Episodes that stood out this season are:  "Silence in the Library/Forests of the Dead" in which the shadows are not shadows but creatures that devour anything with meat.  In this episode The Doctor meets his future wife.  We learn the dark is not always just dark and it is important to count your shadows.  "Midnight" in which a creature takes over The Doctor’s speech, and starts saying things before he does.  This is just creepy.  There is a series with all the old side-kicks as well as a few others, who must find the Earth which has been stolen by the Daleks.  "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End"  is a two-part series in which the Earth with several other planets have been put out of sync with time and thus hidden.  The Daleks are using the stolen planets to create a reality bomb and destroy all universes.  This is the episode where Donna saves the day.  There is also created a human Doctor in the same process that melded Donna with the Doctor.  This Doctor is given to Rose to take care of.  In “The Next Doctor”  episode The Doctor is traveling alone and meets a character in old London who thinks he is The Doctor.  This is a fugue state on his part, and he knows of the Doctor from information tubes the Cyber-men have.  He has made a TARDIS from an air balloon, which in the end the real Doctor uses to save the day.  And finally in “The End of Time” the Doctor is again pitted against The Master in a battle for Earth.  This time the Time Lords are using him to make a return, destroying Earth. This season we also met the Ood, the Doctor's Daughter, and Agatha Christie.  Great fun.

TV Review: Doctor Who: ****Season Three

The first episode has the Doctor (David Tennant) kidnapping, by accident, a bride, Donna Noble portrayed by Catherine Tate.  She ends up on an adventure with The Doctor, as her fiance turns out to be a heal and just using her.  However she does not stay with The Doctor, and the next episode we are introduced to Martha Jones, a medical intern.  Her hospital is taken to the moon, as the intergalactic police are looking for an alien.  Just as everyone is running out of air, they are returned.  However there has been an adventure in the mean time.  There is an episode about Shakespeare, which is fun, but I didn't care for the witches.  William is great however.

There are a couple of great two-part episodes.  The first presents the Daleks in New York.  There is a cute bit of a relationship between a dancer and her boyfriend who is turned into a pig-man.  They genetically engineer Dalek and human combinations.  However this  doesn't work for the Daleks. 

Another is about the Doctor turning himself human in pre WWI England.  He is hiding from a family who want to use he and the Tardis to rule the universe.  This is very similar to "Goodbye Mr Chips" as The Doctor is a school teacher at a boarding school.  The Doctor falls in love in his alternate life, and has to decide if he wants to give up this life to be The Doctor.  He becomes The Doctor and is able to defeat his pursuers.

The season ends with a reintroduction of The Master, who also had hidden himself away, taking human form.  With the arrival of The Doctor, he remembers who he is, and steals The Tardis.  The Doctor pusues him, but not before he has become prime minister, and opens the way for an alien species to help him take over the world.  In this one Martha Jones saves the day.

TV Review: Doctor Who ****^Season Two

Doctor Who Season Two:

I am still going through the Doctor Who Series on Netflix. David Tennant stars as The Doctor and Billie Pyper as Rose Tyler.  I have recently finished season Two.  The episodes are varied, but I think the “Girl in the fireplace” is classic.  This presents The Doctor forming a relationship with Madame Pompadour from France.  She was a real life character who was actually mistress to the King of France.   The Doctor, however, only sees her sporadically in her life, as they are on different time lines.  It is sad, but the Doctor will say, “I’ll be right back,” and it turns to be years in her time line.  However the Doctor is willing to sacrifice all to save her, but it turns out well, relatively so, in the end.  In one of those I’ll be right back, she passes away, and the Doctor arrives to see her driven away in the funeral carriage.  The king presents him a letter, and uses this remark he is said to have said in real life. “The marquise won't have good weather for her journey.”  It was a stormy day, and the roads were mud.  They carriage was taking her to her traditional home for burial.

Another interesting item in this season is the parallel universe, in which Rose’s father is alive.  However, in that world, her mother (the parallel mother not her real mother) is turned into a Cyberman.  In another story the Cybermen gain entrance into our world, and begin to raise havoc, taking over the world.  The Daleks (the four remaining) also show up and are fighting the Cybermen.  However the Doctor sends them all back into “the void.”   However in doing so, Rose and her family end up in the parallel world with no way back.

There are fourteen episodes in all.  This was a very fun ride.  My least favorite were “The Idiot’s Lantern” and the two-part about a Satanic being being freed.  They wove several events into the show including the 2012 Olympics and the coronation of the queen.