Doctor Who etcetera.

Firstly, apologies (again) for later-than-promised updates. Keeping up with all of Euro 2008 for the CDB Pod means about five hours of my day have to be devoted to that (it’s such a hard life, eh?), which has cut into time for the CDB Desk. Fear not, however, as I’m here to cover some things I’d been wanting to, but for the rest of the championships I’ll probably only have time to review Doctor Who each week. So, in about two and a half weeks, I should be able to settle in to a decent steady rhythm on both blogs. Go me.

So, better start with the Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead two-parter that aired over the last two Saturdays. And wasn’t it bloody brilliant! Coming just after the news that writer Steven Moffat is replacing Russell T. Davies as showrunner from season five onwards was released couldn’t have been a better time – we’ve been reassured completely with these two episodes that the show is in safe hands.

Where to start? The shadow monsters, the Vashta Nerada, were genius, playing tricks with lighting rather than huge special effects for maximum scare value. That throwaway line about being able to see the Vashta Nerada as the specks in sunlight was typical Moffat, finding little ways to terrify small children, like he did with statues in last season’s stunning Blink.

I guess we’ve also been successfully hoodwinked, myself included, by the line in Planet of the Ood warning that “the Doctor’s song must end soon”. Originally, as documented here, I’d thought that meant imminent regeneration for the Doctor, but no – clearly, the word song had a capital S, and I’m hugely looking forward to seeing River Song’s next (or technically first?) appearance sometime in the future. Is she a future companion, or, seemingly more likely, a future wife? Brilliantly played by Alex Kingston, her death scene in particular was heart-wrenching.

My favourite episode of the relaunched series ever? Probably.

A quick word on the Britain’s Got Talent and Pushing Daisies finales – I might have done more if I’d had time closer to their broadcasting, but such is life – rather good. I’d been rooting for dance group Signature in BGT since their audition (if you haven’t seen their first audition, YouTube it. It’s hilarious), but considering some of the dross that was in the final (Cheeky Monkeys anyone?), George Sampson was a worthy winner. I may now tune in for 2 minutes of the Royal Variety Show later this year (OK, no I won’t). Pushing Daisies has flown by, though, and I will be tuning in to season two (that’s assuming ITV don’t drop even more episodes). I’d like to see them pushing the format as much as they can, though, as I suspect more of the same may grow tiresome very quickly – mind you, I said that about the series as a whole after watching the pilot, so…we’ll see. I’m still, of course, in love with Anna Friel.

Oh, Christie!

I thought it appropriate that the title of this episode’s entry should be probably the worst joke I’ve done yet, as all I’ve heard in the build-up to The Unicorn and the Wasp seems to be the mind-numbingly poor joke “there’s a sting in the tale”. For crying out loud, is that really the only pun anybody could come up with? Alas, sometimes I worry about the state of our collective state of humour.

So, I suppose I should mention the episode itself. I have to say I enjoyed it a lot, somehow with a greater sense of freedom to do so than in some others this season, mainly because there were considerably less political overtones about the whole thing – Who got back to a plain old romp, and it’s good to see, especially considering that the trailer for the next episode, Stephen Moffat’s two-parter, looks as scary as his season 3 highlight Blink.

I revelled in the constant shoehorning of Christie’s titles into the dialogue, and of course the extension of that homage into the revelatory scene with everyone gathered in the lounge – I thought it was a cheeky, but not too over-the-top, way to send up Poirot and the like. Fenella Woolgar (what a great name) was absolutely superb as Agatha Christie, portraying her strengths and doubts with real conviction, and made an excellent spearhead for the episode in general.

Time for an update, then, on the continued ups and downs of Donna. I thought this was a bit of a mixed bag for Tate, personally, with some scenes that I loved (trying to cure the Doctor’s poisoning, her part in the exposition scene) and others I…didn’t, mostly when she wasn’t around the Doctor, like when she was investigating the locked room. Somehow her comedy abuse of power just didn’t come off for me like some similar jokes in the episode did. Perhaps Tate is best suited to making asides and having attitude while allowing the Doctor centre stage, but when she’s left to carry the scene on her own, she’s not quite able to grab it completely. (Borderline case is her excellent scene in the Sontaran two-parter, but the Doctor was around that time.)

I felt the ending got to be a tad much, what with the “she’s the best-selling author of all time” shpiel and all, but I’m willing to forgive it because I think overall I had more fun with this episode than any other this season. I do have to ask now, though, if the next “historical celebrity” we meet isn’t an author of some kind? We’ve had Dickens, Shakespeare and now Christie. I rather fancy meeting Genghis Khan or somebody else suitably un-Western, for a change of pace.

Oh, one other thing – that Doctor-Donna kiss was painfully gratuitous. A slap would have made much more sense.

Goodnight.