Sunday 24 August 2014

Deep Breath

James McGrath is a Doctor Who fan as well as a perceptive biblioblogger. Well, I have a couple of minor reservations about his ongoing crusade against all forms of Jesus mythicism, but let's set that aside for a moment.

In his latest post James is gushing about the first episode in the new Whovian series. Yes, there's a new Doctor, an ill-fated dinosaur, missing body parts, spontaneous combustion and a particularly unlikeable cyborg menace. All of this set in a nineteenth century Conan-Doyle version of London. Ugh!

Despite all that, it's not very memorable. I say that because I watched the complete Deep Breath series strung together on the big screen this afternoon, and I've already blanked it out. Riveting? Not quite.

I say series, but I guess I mean the first story line - four or five episodes. There are two more beyond that, beginning with a re-emergence of the Daleks (there was a teaser at the end). Will that appear in the theatres too? Don't know and won't be losing much sleep over it.

Who first had the bright idea of bunging the episodes together and chucking them into a faux-movie format? Dunno. The 'movie' is screening here even before it hits the small screen as "series 8" on Prime. Does it translate well onto the big screen? Well, kind of, as long as you're not expecting panoramic views and zillion dollar effects; this is, after all, British television. Oh, and the interior of the Tardis has had a makeover... tempting to now call it the Retardis... but that would be churlish.

Gotta be honest, Peter Capaldi seems a flaky choice for the new doctor. Perhaps he's supposed to add a dose of gravitas. He's definitely a change from the young blokes on steroids who've featured recently. Capaldi - who has appeared before in Doctor Who, but in a supporting role - is a older, wrinklier retread of the much-morphed Time Lord. Not so much on steroids as double-shot caffeinated.

Anyway, Deep Breath at least provided some light escapist relief from the election campaign...




1 comment:

  1. All that build up and, well...

    It's like Marvin said on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "I've seen it and it's rubbish".

    This is something I suspect will get better after 4 episodes or so.

    So at the end, with that icky woman telling the android he was in heaven -- there is much speculation (especially if you watch the after show with Chris Hardwick) -- just who was that woman? And no one but no one thought of the Rani. Probably not. Too sophisticated even for Stephan Moffet.

    You'd be able to see Mikey's regeneration except that my PC crashed thanks to the incompetence of a certain motherboard maker's software that definitely doesn't AsRock. Rebuild will take awhile as I limp along on my Laptop.

    The best you can do is the 3d movie -- after that it's all down hill. I have the BluRay and saw the movie (the 3d movie was awesome except for the terrible fans with sonic screwdrivers going off everywhere).

    So you think New Zealand election campaigns are bad. Perhaps you should get your Passport and Visa updated and come to the United States for the last half of 2016. You never know: We may end up with a president for life (if some have their way). It's sort of like Herb taking over, except a lot more liberal (and I suspect it will be a lot more brutal). I wonder if New Zealand will be the last free country left -- if it is now.

    Maybe you can comfort yourself with the Almighty Johnsons which has just hit the United States. It's about 4 years behind (and I suspect it was filmed in New Zealand... or that massive land mass 'nearby'). I loathe the show and hope you could give us spoilers to ruin it for everyone. Does Axel find Frigg (not that I care, I just want to wreck plans for Syfy).

    Mysteries abound, like are you able to catch Dominion? Angels have never been more insulted.... I guess the only good angel is a dead angel. And we thought Supernatural did a lot to wreck their reputation.

    Maybe God is holding out for better series with better drama.

    The best part of this is that most of those posting here are going to go, "Huh?". Have to love the inside jokes that never will appear in The Journal.

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