Tag: doctor who

Suddenly Best Friends

This morning they were chasing each other around like maniacs, each trying desperately to kick the other’s ass.

Now?

In unrelated news, I mentioned earlier that I finished Star Wars: The Bad Batch this morning. Last night I finished Penny Dreadful. The night before I finished Snowpiercer. I’m halfway through season eight of The X-Files. Last night I started season two of Extraordinary. New episodes of Star Trek Discovery come out on Thursdays so there will be a new one tomorrow. I started watching Baby Reindeer on Netflix because I heard it was excellent. I’m halfway through and I think it’s good… maybe? It’s really tough to watch though. By design, I think. I also started re-watching The Last of Us and speaking of tough to watch. It is fantastic but gut wrenching even on the second view.

I feel like I am running out of shows to obsess over. Star Wars: Tales of the Empire comes out on Saturday. The new season of Doctor Who kicks off one week later. Maybe I should get back to Torchwood and Pennyworth again. I don’t know why I stopped watching those shows, but it has been a while. I guess I’ll just have to poke around Netflix and Hulu and find a couple more shows. This is the golden age of television, after all.

Doctor Who Anniversary Episode 1/3

My step daughter and I watched the first of the three 60th anniversary episodes of Doctor Who today. I only started becoming a fan about five months ago, but I’d seen every previous episode in the most epic TV binge watch in history so this was the first time I had to actually wait for a new episode.

No spoilers as far as plot goes. It was definitely a fun watch and it fits right in with the show as it was the last time David Tennant played The Doctor. There was nothing earth shattering in it, but I enjoyed it.

One clear difference was the budget for visual effects. It has definitely been increased in a big way. It seems like they have a truck load of Disney cash to throw around and they made excellent use of it. The episode looked amazing.

I’m looking forward to next week’s second of the three anniversary special episodes. Here’s hoping the bigger budget fun continues. Enjoy.

It Is Finished at Last!

I am done! It’s over! It’s finished! Oh thank the King of England, at last I am through it all!

13 seasons of NuWho, 26 seasons of Classic Who, and one made for TV movie co-starring Julia Roberts’ fairly untalented brother!

My Epic Binge Watch of All Things Doctor Who is Complete! I am Done!

Now what do I do?

The Who Home Stretch

It has been about four months now but I am finally into the home stretch of the most epic Doctor Who binge watch. 13 seasons of new who down and 25 seasons of classic who down too. The next episode I watch will be the season 26 premier. The 26th and final season! I have 14 episodes and one made for TV movie left and then I am done!

60 years of Doctor Who binge watched in four months! Amazing! Incredible! I am so burned out on this freakin’ show I can’t even tell you!

Then new episodes come out at the end of the month! Good heavens there is so much Doctor Who!

Insert maniacal screaming sounds here!

Brian Blessed

So I am watching Doctor Who. Season 23, Serial two, Episodes five through eight. There’s this guy playing a sort of barbarian king type thing. He’s very loud. He’s very operatic. His acting is WAY over the top.

He seemed familiar. I couldn’t place him. It was driving me a little nuts. Then as I was watching episode seven it came to me. He yelled something that brought it all back to me.

Hawk Men! Diiiiiiiiiive!!!!

His name is Brian Blessed and IMDB confirmed for me that he was in a Doctor Who serial in 1986. That’s the guy. I knew it would come to me.

IMDB also told me that he was the voice of the Gungan Boss in Star Wars Episode One. Oh… well that’s too bad, I think. He was Epically Epic in Flash Gordon, so he’s got that going for him forever.

Perfect Timing

I’ve talked a lot over the last few months about my epically absurd Doctor Who binge watch. I started watching the current 13 season series back in June or July, and shortly after also started watching the massive 26 season original series as well. I finished the new show pretty quickly, but the old show is so vast that I am still going.

The reason I started on this ridiculousness was my step kids. They had both become fans of the new show over the last year or so and they inspired me to dig into it. Knowing that the show is currently on hiatus until the 60th anniversary in November made me want to see if I could get through all 436142757 episodes (approximately) before the first of the three anniversary episodes aired.

I think I am going to make it. I’m down to the last four episode serial of season 21. Just minutes ago I watched the fifth doctor regenerate into the sixth doctor. I only have numbers six and seven to go before I am through with the original show, and then there is number eight in a one off made of TV movie. After that I will be finished. I am kinda thinking about giving the David Tennant episodes of the new show a second watch, seeing as he is coming back for the anniversary. That could be interesting to see it all in a new light, you know?

As it turns out, earlier today the BBC announced the dates that the three 60th anniversary episodes will air. The first is November 25th. That is a nice coincidence as both of my step kids will be home that night. We have our planned family Thanksgiving (celebrated) that day. The kids will be at their dad’s on the actual Thanksgiving day so we’re doing an alternate date in our house. Looks like we’ll get to see David Tennant’s triumphant return that night as well. Talk about fortuitous timing, eh? You might even say it’s sort of a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff, right?

Things to Do Tomorrow

I talked it over with my boss and I am not going into the office this week. For the second week in a row Covid is making me work from home for the full week. Even if I test negative I am still working from home this week. Wednesday is the in the office day, and the rest of my staff (with the exception of the guy who is on vacation) is going in, but I am staying home. We’re all in agreement that it’s just not worth the risk and we’re all more comfortable with me staying away, even though the CDC tells me I am not contagious.

So that’s good.

What about music? I’m feeling better so I should get back to that, right? The 50 songs in 90 days challenge ended on October 1st, two days ago, and I was very far from finished. I have a bunch of unfinished songs in the works that I plan on finishing, but I am sort of thinking that 50/90 should become 66/121 this year and I should just keep going through October. Either that or I will just add a 10 songs or 35 minutes of music album in a month on top of finishing off what’s still in the works from 50/90. Something like that. I just watched a bunch of Mahavishnu Orchestra concert videos on YouTube and watching John McLaughlin tear a 12-string guitar a new asshole (figuratively speaking) is making me want to put the focus on any October songs onto my acoustic 12-string… which really would be as far removed from anything McLaughlin did on his electric 12-string as humanly possible, but really the idea of me and John McLaughlin being mentioned in the same paragraph is utterly absurd given that he is possibly the most talented guitarist in history and I am a complete and utter hack. Whatever.

I’m on season 16 of the original Doctor Who. That binge watch continues at a break neck pace. There is also a concurrent binge watch of Good Omens 2, Futurama, Archer, Daryl Dixon, and Ahsoka (which is going to be over before I sleep tonight) with binges of Severance, Silo, and Foundation all being finished within the last few days. There is so much TV out there that needs to be watched. Also, Jen and I are about to finish 90210, which is amazing given how many thousands of episodes of that show there are. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime Video’s license of the show is dreadfully incomplete and nearly half of the episodes of the last few seasons, including the series finale, are missing. Something to do with not being able to secure the music rights? I don’t know. All I know for sure is that the writers and actors strikes are going to push all new shows back for a long time which means we have to enjoy what we have while we have it. Oh yeah, and Loki season 2 kicks off later this week, so that’s yet another show to add to the list. There is so much TV!

Okay, time to hit publish and watch the last episode of Ahsoka. I bet I am going to love it. How can I not love an episode of a Star Wars show?

Right then, see you tomorrow while I work from home and dig my 12-string out of the cellar closet. Good night, friends and neighbors and kind readers.

Caution: This Post is Going to be Ultra Nerdy

Spoiler alert: This post is about to be as nerdy as I can possibly get. Ultra nerdy. Uber nerdy. The zenith of nerdy.

I started my Doctor Who journey with the current series because that’s the one my step kids have watched. I didn’t know it at the time but they actually both skipped the three most resent season due to reviews that state the quality of the writing took quite a dip after season 10. The reviews were accurate, but I still really enjoyed the last three seasons.

My decision to start watching the original show too was based on a laugh. I thought it would be funny if I watched the old show and the kids watched the new show and then we could debate which was better. That was before I knew that the old show was 26 seasons and a TV movie, and that the first bunch of seasons were 40+ episodes each. There are so many seasons and so very many episodes. Suddenly the idea of watching the whole show felt very intimidating.

When I was a kid, the PBS network used to air Doctor Who reruns. Every now and then, when there was nothing else on, I would try to watch an episode. I never got terribly far. I just didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t care to do the background work to figure it out. There was no internet then so I couldn’t go to wikipedia and get the info. I’d just have to piece it together an episode at a time. No, that was too much work for me. My friend Mike was a fan and he encouraged me to try, but I never did.

The actor who played The Doctor on those PBS reruns was Tom Baker. I didn’t know it then, but he was the 4th Doctor. From my point of view he was the only Doctor. None of the other actors were known to me. It was Tom Baker or nothing. When I started my original series binge watch I thought about only watching his episodes and just skipping everyone else. In the end I decided against that, partially because I am a completist, but also because I am an idiot. No, I started with season one, episode one and just put my head down and powered through.

Last night I watched the last episode of season 11. At the very end of that one, Doctor #3, Jon Pertwee, dies and is regenerated into Doctor , Tom Baker. At last, I have arrived. I have now seen every episode (that still exists) with Doctors through 3, and 9 through 13. I have now watched the first eight episodes (two four episode serials) of season 12. The first two serials with the 4th Doctor. Maybe it’s a weird sense of misplaced nostalgia talking, but in those few episodes Tom Baker has catapulted to the top of the list of my favorite Doctors. There’s something about the attitude he brought to the roll. It’s the way he faces the end of universe with a smile and a laugh. He seems like he’s having a blast trying to keep everything around him from falling into chaos. It’s just fun to watch the guy having fun.

So if I had to rank the doctors I’ve seen so far from favorite to least favorite, the list would look something like this:

  • Tom Baker
  • #10 David Tennant
  • #11 Matt Smith
    • Note, second and third place are a dead heat. They could easily be swapped. I enjoyed both of them equally
  • #2 Patrick Troughton
  • Peter Capaldi
  • #3 Jon Pertwee
  • #13 Jodie Whittaker
  • #9 Christopher Eccleston
  • William Hartnell

This doesn’t imply that I did not enjoy the performances of the actors at the bottom of the list. It just means I enjoyed the other folks a little more. If you like your science fiction on the cheesier, campier, budgetarily-challenged side then I would recommend each and every one of these Doctors. They are all worth a try.

Just for completeness sake, I still have the following Doctors left to see. #5 Peter Davison, #6 Colin Baker (no relation), #7 Sylvester McCoy, #8 Paul McGann, #14 David Tennant (again), and #15 Ncuti Gatwa. Doctors #14 and 15 haven’t aired yet so I will have to wait for them. 14 will get three episodes starting in November and 15 will get season 14 starting sometime next year.

So there you have it, the nerdiest post in wordpress.com history. May Tom Baker continue to be the best Doctor for the next 6+ seasons, and may the Doctors I haven’t seen yet live up to the expectations. Nerd.

Zombies and Music

I’m still thinking about an album in a day challenge for tomorrow. I started working on the first song idea at 9:45 this evening. That means I have until 9:45 tomorrow night to finish about half an hour worth of music. It’s already feeling like a failure. I started too late to have enough ready to go for a car music in the morning. that means I’ll probably have to do a late morning car music and maybe an afternoon as well. That doesn’t seem likely.

Another roadblock was having to watch tonight’s new episode of The Walking Dead Daryl Dixon show. Did anyone else notice that the woman who played the nun who sets Daryl on his mission is the same woman who played Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter movies? I guess there are only so many French actresses around but still, she fought the Death Eaters so I bet she can take out zombies with the best of them.

Another impediment to the album in a day thing is the Doctor Who binge watch. I started season 12 tonight. That means I have finally reached the Tom Baker 4th Doctor era. He’s the Doctor I used to see on reruns on PBS back in the 80’s. He’s more or less the reason I wanted to binge watch the original show in the first place.

So I probably won’t finish a full album in a day, but I will add a lot of new stuff for the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. So it’s all good.