Doctor Who – Vampires in Venice – Review

‘Vampires in Venice’ is schlock. Pure and simple. It’s cheesy and silly and daft and sort of naff and everything about it is just brilliant. I really enjoyed this episode.

Now, much like Daleks in World War 2 this is an entire storyline that is entirely set up to appeal to people like me. It’s an entire storyline, much like Werewolves in Scotland, which is perfectly crafted for people who love period creature features. I have a love of alternate history which Doctor Who is a regular vehicle for appeasing. Vampires have a similar place in my heart, being one of those monsters with an iconic set of features that can still be rewritten and crafted to fit the demands of the writer.

There’s almost nothing else that could be so universally malleable as the Vampire. From Anne Rice to Stephanie Meyer, Bram Stoker to Joss Whedon, you have as diverse a range of monsters as is possible. Personally, I don’t care what my Vampires are as long as they suck blood. Make them friendly, let them fly, or walk in daylight, make them mutants, infected, aliens, whatever. Vampires in my book are always cool. It takes a lot more than sparkling in sunlight to turn me away from this.

Making them into fish aliens, yeah, I’ll manage.

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Doctor Who – Amy’s Choice – Review

‘Amy’s Choice’. Right.

They should just have called it ‘Boring’s Boring’. Because it was boring, you see?

Yeah, this was an episode in which Doctor Who finally managed to cross the threshold of common sense and end up in the world of dreams. Not the good world of dreams, mind you, where anything that can happen isn’t just your everyweek Doctor Who plot involving aliens in old people. No, this is the land of boring dreams. Welcome to the land of boring dreams!

Repetition. That’s funny isn’t it. Key to comedy repetition is. Key to comedy repetition is. So it’s a good thing that we get so much repetition in here. It must be funny, right. Here they all fall asleep, here they have a conversation, here they fall asleep again, and then we’ll have that same conversation. Now repeat, through the episode. I guess it saves on them learning new lines, and it makes the writing easier when you can just cut and paste.

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Doctor Who Commentary – 5.05 ‘Flesh and Stone’

The Doctor, Amy and River Song face the threat of the Weeping Angels! But as the crack in time appears, what do the podcast team think of this series’ ongoing storylines, especially that scene with Amy kissing the Doctor? Join us to find out!

This edition’s commentators: Caleb, Swithun and James.

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Doctor Who – ‘Flesh and Stone’ – Review

He looks like a slimmed down Robbie Coltrane in Cracker, and talks like Mike Myers’ Shrek.

I never realised quite how Scottish Moffat actually is.

I watched Dr Who Confidential for the first time tonight. It is HILARIOUS! The first time he spoke, I thought it was a joke. He’s the most Scottish man I’ve ever heard. Even stereotypical Soctsmen have less Burr than that. Amy Pond’s accent is the sexy Scottish Edith Bowman style Scotland, the Scotland of Lochs and mist, and Edinburgh castle. Moffat, good Lord, he’s William Wallace and MacBeth. And the Loch Ness Monster, and Burns Night. Gosh. He’s so very Scottish.

If that threatens to overshadow this episode so be it, but I don’t think that it will. I can already imagine what will overshadow everything else here though. I can hear the screaming reaction to it. Right now, the Internet is ablaze with vitriolic fire. Fandom is tearing itself in two. Welcome, to Kissgate.

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Doctor Who – ‘Time of Angels’ – Review

This week we see the return of one of the best things to have come out of Season Two with the reappearance of the Gravity Globes, previously seen in ‘Impossible Planet’ and ‘Satan Pit’.

I for one was disappointed. Disappointed at the lack of merchandising opportunities, and disappointed that there was only a single new type of villain, instead of a range of plausibly primary-colour-coded ones.

This episode was rubbish, wasn’t it? All that build up and suspense. This wasn’t the Doctor Who I enjoy. Where was all the bad CGI? Almost nothing exploded. Nobody really got a chance to shoot anything. It was all about building character, and frankly, who wants that nonsense. No, it’s just too bad. I want more explosions. This episode needed at least 34 more, and it needed to be faster.

Where was Murray Gold? Was he out of the studio when the soundtrack was recorded? Too quiet this was, no brass bands at all. And it needed to cut around more. Drop all the talking, shoot something. Make River Song into a 100 foot robot of death, and make the Angels fly. And give them laser eyes, and an axe that’s also chainsaw, and the soldiers should have the Holy Grail and be super soldiers, who kill you with fire breath.

Now turn all this into a sugar rich energy drink and inject it into my eyeballs because it took too long for me to get to the end and then the only thing that got shot and blew up was a light that looked like a watermelon, and it looks like it won’t cover everything in napalm goo, just blue paint.*

Oh Doctor Who. Sometimes you can be so surprising. You’re a fickle show. One week you’re ‘Victory of the Daleks’. And the next you’re … well, ‘Time of Angels’.

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Doctor Who Commentary – 5.3 ‘Victory of the Daleks’

Now available in a fetching range of new colours, the Daleks are back! But is this more a victory for merchandise than for storytelling?

Join us as we discuss altering history, WW2 strategy and moral dilemmas in our full-length commentary on Mark Gattiss’s ‘Victory of the Daleks’!

This edition’s commentators: Caleb, Swithun and James.

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