Jayne Gudkov Review: The Rebel Flesh

The Rebel Flesh – Episode 6.5

Episode 5 of Season 6 (I am American – we have seasons – as is natural), on the face (no pun intended) of it, seemed like a straight forward ripping off of a story that's been done over and over, in my mind I think of Heinlein's “Starship Troopers”, the story being that of “natural” humans versus clones and whether clones are actual beings or merely easily disposed of copies. I mean in the opening scene we see what they think of clones when they let D C Chris Skelton, I mean, Buzzer's clone just melt away in a vat of acid while making jokes about his lack of balance.

Anyway – onto my likes and dislikes.

What I liked:

A dart board in the Tardis. There seems to be an effort to make the Tardis more of a home, from the bunk beds in Amy and Rory's room to

Crazy Eye Patch Lady!!!!!!!

“What are you doing down there?” to the Tardis slowly sinking into the acid soaked ground.

Rory finally finding a damsel in distress that he could be a knight in shining armor for (Jennifer). I mean Amy has totally emasculated Rory from making him take her surname at their wedding (not that there's anything wrong with that) to her boldly going wherever she wants to go and dragging him along no matter how dangerous the situation. It was in interesting study in their roles versus the standard roles of women and men (men defenders of women).

What I didn't like:

That this story has been done 1000 times, but it does set up a moral dilemma for the Doctor, so maybe the story will redeem itself in Part 2, “The Almost People”. The moral dilemma here is whether, after making his stand that Clones are People Too, does he allow the clone of himself to live? (more on that in the Theory section).

That I knew from the second that the vat of “Flesh” blathered on with a “Trust Me” I knew that a clone of the Doctor would be showing up.

“I have very wide feet.” Something tells me that that statement was the Gallifrey version of the “Big Shoe Theory”, that if a guy has big feet he is well endowed in other areas. Wide feet on Gallifrey meant the same thing???? For a guy who's not all that into kissing, he's making penis size jokes?? This would have been funny from Captain Jack, not the Doctor.

The Overall Story of the Season:

We had a “blink and you missed it” appearance by the Crazy Eye Patch Lady, the story starting with The Doctor wanting to drop Rory and Amy off for some fish and chips so that he could go do things, evidently I assume, related to either Amy's pregnancy or The Girl In The Space Suit.

I am going to go out on a limb here, and this is NOT based on any spoilers that I have read. I have actually been trying to stay away from spoilers for a change this season, so this is totally supposition on my part.

My going out on a limb is that I am going to make a prediction here, the prediction being that The Doctor that we saw being killed in the very first episode, “The Impossible Astronaut” is the clone we saw made in “The Rebel Flesh”.

THE CRACKPOT THEORY

I'm sure that like most of the theories and predictions I made over the course of the run of “LOST”, where 99.8 percent were wrong (the one I got right was that Hurley would eventually become the “Jacob” of the island), this will probably be wrong, but I have a strong feeling about it. Something down the line, be it nature, the universe, the Guardians, whatever, may manipulate the companions to Utah and the killing of the clone, for while the universe is a better place with The Doctor, having two is a problem.

So the basic theory is that the clone of the Doctor we saw at the end of “The Rebel Flesh” was the Doctor that was killed in Utah.

Yes, I know this raises questions, like why did Canton Everett Delaware III need to be there to identify the Doctor and assure River, Rory and Amy that it was actually him is a bit of a mystery, and how the clone was about 200 years older than the real Doctor. It's just a gut feeling, but I think that with all of the effort that River, Amy and Rory are making to be sure that they don't tell the Doctor about his future, I get the feeling that it's the Doctor who is actually holding out on them and Delaware is in on the scam.

That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it (probably until next week LOL).

Doctor Who Second Life

As Doctor Who airs across the world, fans are making their own variations - "Doctor Who Second Life" is one such variation, and it takes place in, you've guessed it, Second Life!

Doctor Who Second Life

This is Doctor Who like you have never seen it before set inside the world of second life. Join the Doctor and his faithful companion as they explore whole new worlds and go on existing new adventures together.

So join them for an all new series Doctor Who Second Life - Episode One: A Knock at the door is out June 2011.

For more information visit are website -

http://drwhosl.blogspot.com/

Trailer:

Updates to the webseries will appear on our update section down the right hand side of this page!

Jayne Gudkov Review: The Doctor's Wife

Doctor Who – 6.4 – The Doctor's Wife

Wow, where to start on this one? I had my misgivings when I had heard that Neil Gaiman was writing an episode of “Doctor Who”, I always have misgivings when established television series have episodes written by people better known for their novel writing skills than their TV skills. I call it “Stunt Writing”, a way to boost the show's ratings for an episode. It's like fan-fiction by established writers who happen to be fans of the show they wrote the episode for. Granted, it would be better written, grammar wise at least, but fan fiction nonetheless.

That's what I was expecting with “The Doctor's Wife”, but I was , if I am being totally honest, when I really shouldn't have. This is Neil Gaiman we're talking about, someone who is weird enough to treat “Doctor Who” with the reverence that it deserves and still write a story that abounds, at times, with total silliness, while being totally scary in some sections.

This was, to use an American-ism, fan fiction on steroids and I loved it. The only down point is that you can tell that this story just didn't fit into the current overall story arc, with the Crazy Eye Patch Lady popping up, but they had to throw that line in about the river in the forest, which, to me, harkens back to River Song in the Forest of the Dead. Was Idris/The TARDIS reminding him of River's death for some reason? It's interesting that both the Doctor and River both know how each other will die but, quite obviously, can't tell each other.

What I Loved:

That this was obviously a love story, the love between the TARDIS and The Doctor and that love, of course, triumphs over all, even maniacal disembodied former asteroid sized spirit known as “House”. Hmmmm, I wonder if that's some sort of reference to fellow Brit Hugh Laurie's character on American TV.

Yeah I got kind of teary eyed near the end as the Doctor said his “good-bye” to Idris/TARDIS

Sexy! Only Neil Gaiman would have that as the Doctor' secret name for the old girl. Dare I hope that there will be an episode where the Doctor brings Sexy back??? (sorry - just had to).

Bunk Beds!!!!! That was too funny and totally believable that the Doctor would give a married couple a room with bunk beds because, of course, they are cool. I had them as a kid for when my cousin would come for sleepovers.

That the TARDIS chose the Doctor as much as the Doctor chose the TARDIS

Type 40's were museum pieces 700 years ago, meaning that the Doctor was about 200 years old when he “borrowed” the TARDIS.

The last, we assume, appearance of the “Eccleston/Tennant Era” console room. It was VERY cool to see that again. It would have been an old series fan's wet dream if Idris/TARDIS had directed “the cute one” (evidently the TARDIS is a heterosexual lady LOL) to maybe the Sylvester Mc Coy console room (no, not the one from

the movie, though that evidently laid the groundwork for a non-white, full of roundels, console room)

The reference to “Time Crash” and the “desktop themes” of the TARDIS console rooms, knowing that even the concept of a “desktop theme” when the original series ran would make almost no sense to the audience at that time.

“I take you where you're needed.”

Almost coming full circle, he landed in a junk yard, granted a TARDIS junk yard, but there is a poetic sort of symmetry there.

I saw a comment on the message boards today that some one was disappointed that the

TARDIS halls all looked the same. I'll grant you that I was a little disappointed that we didn't see the now legendary TARDIS swimming pool, but the TARDIS hallways have always had that “sameness” about them. Go look at Peter Davison stumbling around in the halls of the TARDIS, letting out the famous 23 foot long Tom Baker scarf as he stumbled around trying to get his head together after his regeneration in “Castrovalva” while roaming halls that all looked exactly the same.

The Doctor tricking “House” into getting them all back

into the Console Room and then sicking Idris/TARDIS on him, showing that he still has a bit of a mean streak in him.

There's not much more I can say about this episode other than:

What I hated:

Actually, there was nothing I hated in this episode, other than it was too short and we have to wait another week for more

I didn't see any kind of trailer for next week's episode, “The Rebel Flesh” another 2 parter.

See you next week,

Jayne

The Gudkov Review: The Curse of the Black Spot!

Dr Who 6.3 Review - “The Curse of the Black Spot”

I think I have decided to keep these reviews simple and to the point, specifically, what I liked, what I hated and “The Ongoing Mystery of the Little Girl and The Crazy Eye Patch Lady”.

So avast ye mateys and sail with me into this week's episode, “Curse of the Black Spot”.

What I Liked:

The Tardis once again referred to as a ship (I think that not since the William Hartnell days has the Tardis been referred to as a “ship” - I could be wrong though).

“Where is it (the Tardis)?”

“It was towed.”

To be totally honest, aside from the Doctor satisfying his ongoing hat fetish by wearing a tri-corner pirate hat for a little bit. There really wasn't too much to like about this one. It was an OK episode, not horrible and not great either.

What I hated:

Evidently it (along with the Doctor's 11's hat fetish) is to be a running joke this season, but the Doctor not knowing how to fly the Tardis, or at least not knowing how to fly it very well works fine when River is there to throw the right switch, but a 17th century pirate captain? A 17th century pirate captain who doesn't seem all that overwhelmed with what he just walked into? A compass is a compass and an astrolabe is an astrolabe huh? I mean they are making it look like the only one who can't fly the flippin' Tardis is the Doctor.

The little boy being killed. Yeah yeah yeah I know he wasn't killed, but at the time that “The Siren” touched him and he disappeared everyone who had done that was assumed to be dead.

Pirates in Space!!!!!!!!

The whole Rory almost dying thing. Was there really any chance that he was actually going to die?????? I almost had a flashback to “Lost” when Jack Shepard went crazy and started beating on Charlie Pace's chest in his effort to bring him back to life. I was waiting for Amy to start the same thing. Maybe it was the fact that both dead guys had British accents. It was not a good flashback.

Anyway, onto The Ongoing Theory of the Little Girl and the Crazy Eye Patch Lady

Here's my theory at this point. The Crazy Eye Patch Lady is Amy and the Little Girl is her daughter. OK, maybe the little girl being Amy's daughter is not that big of a surprise, I mean that was a picture of her in that bedroom surrounded by pictures of that little girl. But I think that the Crazy Eye Patch Lady is being generally supportive of Amy in a way that, to me, seems like she is talking to her younger self. It's pretty obvious that she knows where/when Amy is.

What scares me is this:

That the Crazy Eye Patch Lady will turn out to be the daughter. That she is what the daughter looks like after the regeneration and 1000 years in the future (my time frame of choice). How this fits into the killing of The Doctor back in Utah 2011 I haven't even begun to try to figure out. But here's what she has said so far:

Episode 2

No, I think she's just dreaming (seems like she is telling someone who is behind her).

Episode 3

It's done (slightly garbled and I could be wrong). You're doing fine. Just stay calm.

It could go either way, Amy's Daughter or Amy, I am really thinking it's the little girl by her reference to Amy as “she”.

I am getting a VERY weird feeling that, much like The Master was able to turn off his regeneration process after being shot by his wife, the Doctor did much the same thing, but instead of actually dying, he put himself into a state of suspended animation and will be able to wake up, even with the fire burning all around him. This leads to a very silly joke with him jumping up off of the pyre and into the Tardis swimming pool, which we will finally get to see.

As to who actually kills the Doctor, I think it's Amy's daughter, but in adult, eye patch wearing form. He just went about that whole thing a little too knowingly. The apology, to me , felt like he was apologizing for what they were about to go through, but he had a bigger purpose behind his charade.

I know that only one thing will make me almost give up on Dr Who and that is this, that somehow this entire season is nothing but “The Dream of the Fetus”. I just have this sneaking suspicion, and I am not the only one, that what we are seeing is Amy's fetus' “time head” for lack of a better way to explain it, getting into the heads of our heroes, much the way that the Dream Lord messed around with the in “Amy's Choice” and that we are witnessing he dreams.

If this season turns out to be that I will personally go to England and revoke Steven Moffats's BBC Writer's membership card – and that will take a lot since I loved “Coupling”, “Hyde” and “The Curse of the Fatal Death” LOL.

The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon Review!

The Jayne Gudkov Review – The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

The Doctor and crew come to the United States once again, but this time they are actually running through the Utah Desert as opposed to reanimating a Dalek in a museum beneath Salt Lake City... jumping out of a building in Manhattan instead of fighting off Daleks in the sewers beneath the island. Our heroes are visiting Cape Kennedy, the former (and present) Cape Canaveral - renamed in honor of the American President who had the vision that America could put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's.

In fact, the Doctor had visited America on a few other occasions throughout the show's history. The first Doctor visited Tombstone in the Arizona Territory just in time to witness the famous Gunfight it the OK Corral, as well as the Seventh Doctor landing in San Francisco on the eve of the new Millennia only to be shot in another gunfight and regenerate into the Eighth Doctor in San Francisco.

I have to say that I was proud that the BBC, in conjunction with BBC America, came here to the US to film this story. To the best of my knowledge (and that of Wikipedia), this is only the third time that the show has been filmed outside of the UK, the first being the Fifth Doctor story “Arc of Infinity” filmed in Amsterdam and the second being the 10th Doctor story “The Fires of Pompeii”, filmed in Rome [Tom Baker's "City of Death" is another, Planet of the Death another again - congratulations Wikipedia - Ed].

OK, enough of that and on to the story.

What I loved (other than the story being filmed in the US):

- An enemy that is forgotten as soon as they are out of sight

- Canton Everett Delaware III (the home of the American Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio, the State of Delaware, no sure about what the “Everett” means) - the character played in 2011 by William Morgan Sheppard, father of Mark Sheppard, who played him in 1969 – very cool

- Stetsons – always cool – even when being shot off of your head.

- A 9 year old girl regenerating in the streets of New York in January, 1970, thus setting up the BIG MYSTERY for this season as in “Who is this little girl”?

- That the cell they were building for the Doctor in Area 51 was made of Dwarf Star Alloy, something not heard of since the 4th Doctor's travels in E-space

- River's line about being quite the screamer – VERY saucy

- The Doctor telling Richard Nixon that he needed to tape everything that went on in his office, which he did, as history tells us

- Slipping in the subliminal message in the static burst in Neil Armstrong's historic “That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind” quote. It does explain why there was static break in the middle of his famous quote

- That they used actual American TV footage from the broadcasts of the moon landing featuring iconic American news anchorman Walter Chronkite


What I hated:

- After all the build-up last season with the “Silence will Fall” silliness with Prisoner 0 and Rosanna Calvierri spouting about it in a threatening way, it ended up being a prediction that the Doctor would defeat The Silents, at least that's how I take it now, in hindsight

- Yet another appearance by the Tardis-like console room first seen in “The Lodger”. I don't think The Silents in 1969 had any more to do with it than whoever dropped it on top of Craig Owens' flat in 2011, both alien forces trying to use it for their own means.

- That the Doctor tells everyone that The Silents need a spacesuit and that the only place to get it is in Florida in 1969 – what do they need it for and why only then? And what did they use it for? Spacesuits built like that are still being used by American astronauts to this day and the whole thing with trapping the little girl in there, what's that all about?

Here's what I think:

- There has been much speculation out there in Internet Land that The Rani, last seen during the Seventh Doctor days, is set to make a comeback, much the same way The Master did during the Tenth Doctor's time. What with the Universe basically being re-created last season, I guess it's possible for The Rani to be re-created, or some other Master-like female enemy to come on the scene.

- At first I thought that maybe Amy was River's mother. That would have been cool in a kind of timey-wimey, yet symmetrical way. Things seemed to be heading that way, for me at least, until the girl goes on regenerating (6 months later and in an alley in New York City, some 930 miles away) something she evidently has some sort of knowledge of since she says, “I'm dying, I have to fix that, it's easy really. See?” To me that tells me she has some previous knowledge of regeneration, not something that we have ever heard River talk about in relation to herself.

- I think there was a huge clue about the nature of the little girl when Amy was babbling about being afraid of the effects the Tardis could have on the embryo, something about having a “time head”. I think that the Doctor's scan of Amy lends credence to this one theory of mine, that her unborn child is time traveling as a result of its exposure to the Tardis. Remember that the Tardis is a living being and might be reaching out to this new life in some way we don't know yet and it would explain why she has a knowledge of regeneration

- Whoever this child is (the lady with the eye patch????), it will not become evident until the very end of this season, some time in the Fall

Two last points to make you all nuts, if you are into trying to figure out the bigger mysteries of the season. In a “Confidential”-like special shown after the second episode called “Dr Who in America” there were two statements made regarding the upcoming season:

1) that the crew who came over here were given a scene to shoot that made no sense, but they were told it would make sense later...

and

2) there was something that happened in “The 11th Hour” that would be explained in either the 11th or 12th episode this season.

That's one serious story arc!