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Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood First Impressions

This is late.  I had a long day yesterday and I went to bed right after the episode.  Deal.

  • This felt a bit like a Sixth Doctor episode.  At least, Twelve was acting very Six-ish.
  • The Doctor fights a man wielding a sword with a spoon, I’m really not sure what to make of that.  Also, where did he get that glove?
  • Boy, the Doctor really stuck with that “None of this is real!” thing up until the bitter end, didn’t he.
  • Nice bit of business with the Doctor wondering where Clara got her belief in heroes, and Clara being all “Duh!”  What Clara is doing here is what a companion should do, showing the Doctor the best parts of himself.
  • The sheriff was suitably dickish for the setting.  I liked it.
  • Check out Robin Hood getting all Merida up in here!  Or was Merida getting all Robin Hood?  Whatever.
  • And the Doctor showing off in order to get captured.  Nice plan.  /sarcasm
  • I actually kind of liked the design of the robots.  I’m sure it was just a function of where and when they crashed, but it shows the amount of thought that Gatiss put in to the writing.
  • The part in the dungeon with the Doctor, Robin and Clara was the part that reminded me the most of Six.  With Clara being a much more proactive companion than Perri or Mel were.
  • Props to the Merry Men for figuring out what was so weird about the sheriff’s plundering of the people.
  • This show has a long history of overly ambitious humans allying with bad guy robots, and it never turns out well for the human.  In short, the sheriff really should have known better.
  • There’s a neat little easter egg in all those Robin Hood pictures that the databank on the ship displays.  I didn’t notice it until someone pointed it out; but apparently, Patrick Troughton once played Robin Hood.
  • You have to feel for Robin when he finds out that as far as history is concerned, he never existed.  For a minute there, I was convinced he wasn’t real either.
  • Of course Robin has a sword fight with the sheriff.  Why wouldn’t he?
  • I liked that Robin came to terms with being a legend instead of a slightly flawed real person.  Of course the Doctor has been a legend in the past (the whole Oncoming Storm thing) it didn’t exactly work out well for him.

Overall this really did feel Six-ish to me.  Not that that’s a bad thing, I happen to like Six, but the humor did seem to overwhelm the episode.  But I didn’t hate it by any means.

Next week looks to be really creepy, things grabbing people from under beds and all that, I look forward to it.

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Netflix Picks: Friday Chinese Detective Story

I love a good mystery story, I’m a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and I like Agatha Christie, Midsomer Murders, and the Murdoch Mysteries series from Canada.  So when I found a Chinese version of the kind of thing I like, I figured “why the hell not?”  Enter Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Based on the real life Chancellor of Empress Wu Zetian, the story starts off with the sudden death of an architect working on a giant Buddha commissioned by the Empress.  He dies by what seems to be spontaneous combustion, of course there’s more to it than that; especially when another official dies the same way.  Advised by her Chaplain, the Empress summons Dee (who was imprisoned after opposing the Empress’ rise to power) to take charge of the case.  She doesn’t entirely trust Dee though, so she sends her servant Jing’er to keep an eye on him.  Penal officer Pei Donglai joins the investigation as well, and the trio sets off to find the killer before he can target the Empress.

Unsurprisingly, the movie plays fast and loose with the actual history.  But if you aren’t well versed in Chinese history, I doubt you’ll notice.  There’s also quite a bit of the wire work action sequences that Chinese film has become famous for.  While the movie doesn’t exactly have the budget that a Hollywood backed production would have, the production values are still pretty good.  The costumes and sets are impressive, and while there are a few hiccups where the CGI is a little too prominent, the wire work stuff makes up for it.

The mystery itself is fairly well done, but the reveal of who the Chaplain is seems a bit off to me.  Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, but it really did seem to come out of nowhere.  That said, the acting is pretty good; Andy Lau does well as Dee, but the real stand-outs in my opinion are Carina Lau as Empress Wu and Deng Chao as Pei.  Carina Lau brings a ruthless grace to Wu, making her an interesting character to watch.  Chao makes Pei a relatable character, even if he’s a bit hot-headed.

Overall, it’s a pretty good and fun movie.  If you like Chinese action movies, I think you’ll find a lot to like about this movie.  If you’re a mystery fan, this is an interesting take on the genre.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

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Doctor Who: Into the Dalek First Impressions

To quote Madam Vastra “Well, here we go again.”

  • I don’t like the new version of the theme.  The opening sequence isn’t bad, but the theme just isn’t working for me.
  • Capaldi is growing on me.  Slowly but surely he’s really starting to fill out the role nicely.
  • A Fantastic Voyage reference, a Sherlock Holmes reference, and a Star Trek reference, all in the same episode.  Truly, the nerd is strong with this one.
  • Danny Pink is adorably awkward, I approve.  Also, it will be interesting to see how he and the Doctor react to one another.
  • Is the Doctor a good man?  More on this later.
  • Clara is the Doctor’s carer.  This is something that has come up before with other companions, and I like that it’s come up again.
  • Is the Doctor giving odd nicknames to enemies that he’s using for other purposes a thing now?  If it is, I kind of like it.
  • Concerning not killing the Doctor before he can save you: Oh, Clara.  Honey, that’s as old as the Doctor himself.
  • Clara slaps the Doctor.  Honestly, I’ve been waiting for someone to do that.  He really does seem to need a good whack upside the head.  I mean I know he’s just regenerated, but he really does seem to be forgetting who he really is.
  • Gretchen Alyson Carlyle.  Remember that name, ’cause she was one badass lady.
  • And Missy once again.  Still not sure what her deal is, but it can’t be anything good.
  • The second I saw the Doctor giving Rusty a peak into his mind, I had a feeling it would backfire.  And I was right.
  • The theme of goodness comes up a lot in this episode; is the Doctor a good man?  Can there really be a good Dalek?  In the end, it depends on whether or not you’re willing to work towards being good, no matter how bad you’ve been.
  • And we get a nice callback to the episode “Dalek”.  When it happened I literally said “There it is again!” out loud.  I really do think that the Doctor “making a good Dalek” is something that needs to come up to remind the Doctor that there’s still a lot of anger that he needs to deal with.
  • Would Journey have made a good companion?  Maybe, but I don’t think that the Doctor is ready to deal with all the stuff that she would bring up for him just yet.
  • And to answer the question of whether or not the Doctor is a good man, I’ll just reiterate what Clara said; he tries to be, and that’s the whole point.  He’s not perfect, he doesn’t always do the right thing for the right reason, but he tries and that’s the important part.

So that’s episode 2 in the can.  What did I think overall?  Not bad, better than the last episode in my opinion.  Looking forward to the Doctor meeting Robin Hood, that should be really interesting.

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Netflix Picks: *Sniffle* *Cough*

Ok, so I’ve been sick for the past couple of days.  And consequently, I haven’t wanted to move much from the couch.  So what does one do when you’re in misery and just want something mindless to watch?  Well, I can tell you what I do; I watch Godzilla movies.

I generally prefer the older ones, but I will watch something from the Millennium series if that’s all that’s available.  These movies are a bit like comfort food for me.  I have fond memories of watching marathons of them with my mom on weekends and riffing them a little.  I’m generally not paying much attention to the plot, I’m in it for the monster fights.  And the toy tanks that they use to attack the guys in rubber suits.

Some of my favorites include, pretty much anything involving Ghidorah (or King Ghidorah), Mothra works too, Godzilla vs. Hedorah (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) is fun; if utterly ridiculous.  There’s quite a few on Netflix, mostly from the Showa Era, but you can find a few on Hulu as well including the aforementioned Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster; and Crackle has some as well, mostly the Millennium stuff.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go crawl under a blanket and watch some guys in rubber suits beat each other silly.

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Doctor Who: Deep Breath First Impressions

Mmkay, I’m not sure that I can form a lot of coherent thoughts about Deep Breath right now; but I’m gonna try.  Spoiler warning.

  • Capaldi:  Capaldi is good.  I think it’s going to take me some time to get used to him though.
  • Concerning Moffat’s writing: He could really use a female editor to go over this stuff for him.
  • Clara: I can’t be the only one who hated when the Doctor ran off without her, he doesn’t do that!  Ever!
  • More Clara: On the other hand, Clara was pretty awesome for someone who was scared out of their mind.
  • The Paternoster Gang: Pretty awesome as usual, but see my previous comment about Moffat’s writing.
  • The Marie Antoinette: I’m betting Madame de Pompadour would be pretty pissed that the Doctor doesn’t remember her.
  • Did he jump, or was he pushed: I kind of hate the idea that the Doctor would either straight up kill another sentient being (no matter how much of them is organic), or talking the same being into suicide.
  • The Last of the Eleventh: This I did like.  It was Moffat talking to the fans.  He does want us to keep watching, and he wants us to root for this new Doctor; but I would really like it if he softened the Twelfth up a bit.
  • Missy: Not sure what to make of her yet, but part of me really wants her to be the Rani.

Overall, I’m cautiously optimistic.  We’ll have to see how everything plays out, but I’m willing to give Moffat and the new Doctor the benefit of the doubt.

 

Edit: After thinking about it for a while, I’ve come to think that most of the problems I had with Deep Breath stem from Moffat’s writing.  Strangely enough, I think that Moffat’s problem is similar to RTD’s, in that he doesn’t have someone standing over his shoulder (so to speak) telling him to tone it down.

Also, Missy.  I was listening to Diamanda Hagen’s podcast on the subject, and she said that Missy might be short for Mistress, which is the female version of Master.  As in Master, The.  It’s an interesting theory, and it works well given what we’ve seen of Missy’s behavior and what we know of the Master’s.