Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 4: "The Time of Angels"

Finally, the long-awaited return of two of the standouts of the new DW series: the weeping angels and River Song. The weeping angels were first seen in the season 3 (or season 3 as they say in the UK) episode Blink, arguably the best episode of the new series. River Song was last seen in the two-part season 4 episodes Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. All there episodse were penned by Steven Moffat, and I was very excited to see their return with the eleventh doctor.

The episode opened up very interestingly. We started in a very intersting way, seeing River Song call the doctor thousands of years in the future, for a rescue mission. Once she was safe and sound, the doctor realizes that River and a bunch of military guys (who are also from the church) are on the hunt for a lone weeping angel. However, what we find out later makes things a lot more dangerous.

I figured this episode would mark the first time River meets the doctor. However, leave it to Moffat to make things more complicated. How can River fly the TARDIS better than the doctor? And when Amy inqured about this, River said she learned from the best, hinting that the doctor wasn't around at that time. So who did she learn from? A different companion? And the army leader, at one point, inquired whether the doctor knew who River really was, and she said not yet; if he did, he wouldn't help them. So who is she? And what's really going on here?

As for the weeping angels, they're actually a bit creepier. At least last time, they killed you somewhat humanely, sending you back in time. Now, they snap your necks and use your voice to communicate (reminiscent of how the vashta nerada did in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead). And there's not only one, or two, or four; there's dozens, maybe more. Why do they have an army? And why are they killing people outright?

Matt Smith's falling into his own as the doctor now, but there were so many other things happening here, that the focus was no longer squarely on him. I suppose that was the purpose of the first three episodes. Now that we know Amy and we know the doctor, we can move on to more exciting stuff. I really like the quirkiness Smith brings to the role. The eleventh doctor remains a very interesting character to watch in action.

My biggest problem with this episode was that it moved way too fast. One minute, I started watching, and all of a sudden, the episode was over. I don't think I've experienced a faster 40 minute episode of anything. And now, we have to wait a whole week to see what happens. One of the problems with this whole River Song storyline is that it keeps you wanting more. Who is she? Is she his wife? What's her secret? How many of his past selves does she know? And will we find out more next week, or perhaps when she returns for the two-part finale?

Next week: Don't blink!

We're Off To See The Wizard....

So, I recently finished reading Wicked, which chronicles the life and times of Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west. The novel was interesting, but it had a lot of discussions on philosophy and the religions of the people of Oz, which was the one hinderance I felt, in an otherwise fantastic read. I really felt sorry for Elphaba by the end, and it made the entire story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz completely different. There's SPOILERS ahead, so don't read ahead if you care about that stuff.

It was many years since I saw the actual 1939 musical of The Wizard of Oz, so I decided to rewatch it. Also, after realizing that L. Frank Baum's original novel was only around 90 pages, I figured I might as well read that too, on my long commute to Stony Brook.

I realized there are quite a few differences in the basic storyline between these three books. Let's start with the original novel. In the novel, there's only Dorothy, Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry at the start. The tornado takes Dorothy to Oz as usual, and she does land on the wicked witch of the east. However, this witch is not the sister of the wicked witch of the west, hereafter referred to as Elphaba. Elphaba does exist, but she's just a different witch. There are two other witches as well: an elderly good witch of the north, who first encounters Dorothy in Munchkinland, and a good witch of the south named Glinda, whom Dorothy encounters near the very end of the book. Dorothy does get the silver slippers of the wicked witch of the east, and she does use them to travel back to Kansas at the end. We also hear the story of the Tin Man, who used to be a real man, until his lover's mother got the wicked witch of the east to enchant his ax and chop off all his limbs. Hence, the lovestruck woodman became a tin woodman. At the end, after killing Elphaba accidentally, but out of anger it seems, the wizard (who's still a humbug) takes off in the balloon, leaving Dorothy behind. She and her companions visit Glinda, who tells her how to get home. And regarding those flying monkeys: Elphaba possessed this special cap that allowed her to summon the flying monkeys three times, and it later passed to Dorothy and then Glinda. Those monkeys had their own story of how they were bound to captivity after teasing the prince of some place in Oz at some point. So that's the basic stuff in the novel.

In the classic movie, a lot of things changed. Elphaba encounters Dorothy soon after she falls from Kansas. The wicked witch of the east is Elphaba's sister, and there's only one good witch, who's from the north and named Glinda. The silver slippers are now ruby. Those flying monkeys? Apparently they are followers of Elphaba, with no mention of a cap. The Tin Man? Just a mechanical man built by someone. Elphaba also has an army of green people. Who are they? Who knows, the movie offers little in the way of explanation. In the book, each companion visited the wizard seperately and saw him in a different form, but here they all visit him together. Also, once the wizard leaves in the balloon, Dorothy immediately gets a visit from Glinda, who tells her how to get home. And finally, the last sequence in the movie hints that Oz may all have been a dream, especially since so many characters from Oz resemble people Dorothy knew in real life.

Finally, we come to my favorite take on this story, Wicked. It takes the classic story and shows us what really happend behind the scenes. However, it doesn't use the novel or the classic film as the established storyline; rather, it's a mix of both. For instance, as in the film, there is only one "good" witch, Glinda from the north. The slippers are ruby, like in the film. However, there's no green army of the witch. The whole castle scene is different. In the novel and in Wicked, the Tin Man and Scarecrow are left in the forest when the lion and Dorthy visit Elphaba's castle. Not so in the movie.

The winged monkeys? They were experiements by Elphaba, who tried to attach wings to monkeys. The wicked witch of the east? That's Elphaba's sister, Nessarose, who had ruby slippers from their father. They were enchanted by Glinda to help Nessarose walk, as she had no arms (which we see in the Quadlings in the original novel, as Nessarose was probably illegitimately fathered by a Quadling named Turtle Heart). We don't really hear how Dorothy got out of Oz, as it's mostly Elphaba's story. But how did she die? Yes, with wather thrown by Dorothy, but it wasn't from a malicious intent. Dorothy visited Kiamo Ko (the name of Elphaba's home, and castle of her lover Fiyero) to seek forgiveness for killing Nessarose, and tried to save Elphaba, who got caught on fire, by throwing water on her. Also, Elphaba wasn't truly "wicked," Nessarose was more of a religious fanatic than outright evil, and Glinda wasn't necessarilly good nor evil. And the Tin Man's story mirrored that of the novel, except this time, we actually saw the meeting between the Tin Man's lover's mother and Nessarose, and learned how the ax got enchanted. And, as a treat, we also see Brrr, the cowardly lion, as a cub.

Wicked really fleshes out the story of The Wizard of Oz, even if that story is an amalgam of multiple sources. From what I can gather, the broadway play of Wicked alters the story rather significantly. I recommend that, if you're into fantasy and into Oz, give this book a read. It'll make you see this classic story in an entirely new light.

Building a Sonic Screwdriver

After seeing the 11th doctor's new sonic screwdriver, I really wish I had my own. However, a toy version of his screwdriver costs at least $25, and usually more. It comes with sound and all, but I wasn't willing (yet) to spend that much on a plastic toy. I mean, it's not a lightsaber after all. Most of what I'm writing below if for my own future benefit, as I have a bad memory.



So, I decided to go the cheap way and make my own screwdriver, from scratch. I usually hoard a lot of stuff, although I've been trying to get rid of stuff recently. For once, all that hoarding came in handy, as I found a lot of odds and ends with which to craft my personalized screwdriver. First, I checked online to see if anyone else did the same. A few did, but they had some fancy parts that I didn't own, so I went my own route.



After searching around, I found a penlight (from the pack I bought for 3rd year), a pair of rabbit ear TV antennas, a mouse ball (from those old school computer mice), and some red automobile tape. This wasn't really enough to make a screwdriver with, so I opened my tool kit and found one of those right angle screwdriver things, and some other metal screwdriver stuff, which you can see at the bottom part. I also found a washer (I think) from my bathroom and some lego pieces.

I used the red tape to cover the penlight, making the light a fashionable red. I also attached a cap from a different penlight, which made it look cooler. I attached the antenna, the three screwdriver metal pieces, and tried to tape it all together. While it worked, it looked bad, so I instead used a glue gun to put em all together. FOr the black upper handle, I found an old badminton racket and removed the stuff from the handle. I partially glue gunned that as well, and then atttached the washer and mouse ball to the end. Finally, I found some odds and ends from a lego kit, small pieces of my old zen mp3 player (for the soft part where you activate the light), and two key rings, and also a USB connector for an old asian mp3 player. I put them all on, and voila, a completed screwdriver.... complete with rabbit ears!

iPhone iRevealed?

Gizmodo today revealed that they obtained the latest iPhone, the 4th generation model, from a source who found the phone at a bar in Silicon Valley or something. Check out the above link for a full description of gizmodo's findings.

I think the new iPhone design, if this turns out to be legit, is interesting. It's not as sleek and stylish as the old one, but it looks more functional and industrial. Like the hummer version of the iPhone. The front-facing camera and flash are great, and if it really is a higher resolution screen with longer battery life, that's even better! The design looks like it may be sturdier, but I really liked the sleekness of the older model.

I guess we'll see in a few weeks if this was the real deal. Meanwhile, the poor worker who lost this phone is probably in a dark room somewhere awaiting interrogation by Mr. Jobs.... and that poor worker is a 27-year-old Apple software engineer!

Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 3: "Victory of the Daleks"

I wasn't really a big fan of the daleks when the new DW series started. I mean, they're big robots that can't even climb stairs (except when they had that levitation capability). However, after going back and watching a few of the key dalek episode with Tom Baker (especially Genesis of the Daleks), I now understand why they are dangerous. While many aliens in science fiction have morals, no matter how questionable they may be, the daleks do not. They are without morals, without good or evil, they are just here to conquer. And that makes them formidable.

This episode marks the 11th doctor's first encounter with his longtime enemies. Winston Churchill calls the doctor to WWII-era Britain, where the British army has a new weapon, which they called the ironsides. However, the doctor realizes they are actually the daleks. The amount of anger the doctor shows against his enemy was impressive. Whereas the tenth doctor had bouts where he would get angry, this doctor seems a bit more on the angrier side. I feel like there's something unsettling about him, as if one day he's just going to snap. Matt Smith continues to play the doctor very well, and still rather scatter-brained.

Amy Pond is shaping up to be an even stronger companion now. We are seeing, just from the last two episodes, that the doctor needs Amy. She offers a perspective that he sometimes fails to see. Having seen Smith and Gillam this week, it's interesting to watch them on the screen now. During the Q&A session in Manhattan this week, Smith did a lot of two-finger gestures, and the doctor did that in this episode as well.

Again we saw the crack in space, which we've seen in the last two episodes. Moffat said that this season's "big bad" was present in the first episode, but it's not what we suspect. This crack in space isn't the big clue, I think. The fact that Amy doesn't remember a thing about the daleks from Journey's End offers more insight. Something's wrong with time, maybe something's changing the timeline. I'm not sure what prisoner zero meant by silence will fall, but I can't wait to find out, week by week.

This was a decent episode. I like the daleks, but I felt as if this were more of a lead-in for a future episode. It's main purpose seemed to be to introduce these new paradigm daleks, now with all the colors of the rainbow! You know, the doctor keeps destroying the daleks but they keep returning. One would think he'd realize at some point that somewhere out in space, there's probably one dalek still surviving despite his best efforts to eradicate them.

Once again, I feel the need to reiterate how good Matt Smith's acting is. I feel there's a lot of subtlety that the tenth and ninth doctors didn't have. Tennant was very good at showing the sad and upset side of the doctor, which Smith channels as well. However, whereas Tennant was often more manic, Smith is contemplative, which makes him that much more interesting to watch, if not as much outright entertaining. Which I actually prefer now, with this new series.

Next week: River Song! Whatever you do, don't blink (again)!

The Doctor Will See You Now

Today, BBC America sponsored the US premiere of The Eleventh Hour at the Village East Cinema near Union Square. I really didn't think there would be that many DW fans here in the US, but I was quite surprised. I arrived in line at 10:30am for a 7pm showing, but there were already like 40 people ahead of me in line! Some people were even dressed up (some with long Tom Baker scarves, others with sonic screwdrivers and remote control daleks).

I waited in line for quite a while, and was joined by a friend from high school. Eventually BBC America came through for some media coverage. We weren't let in until 6:30pm, so Matt Smith and Karen Gillam came out to placade the crowd. I wasn't near the outer edge of the line, and thus wasn't one of the few to get autographs. However, I was able to see him rather up close! Another guy came dressed as a tenth doctor type without the trenchcoat, but sporting the 3D glasses Tennant wore every so often. The best outfit went to a guy who came dressed very much like the tenth doctor at the beginning of "The End of Time, complete with those Hawaiian flower things around his neck. A bunch of women were also there, dressed as Captain Jack and some random police woman.

We were given these ticket stubs to actually gain entry, and also a magnet featuring the BBC America poster for the new series. Around 6:30pm we were let in, and sent up to the theater. The theater was rather small, but beautifully designed. One guy introduced the event, and the lady next to me and my friend was very gung ho and friendly and talkative. Then, they screened the episode, with much applause from the crowd at the start, especially with the title sequence.

After the screening, this lady who writes some blog or something introduced Steven Moffat, Karen Gillam, and finally Matt Smith. There was much rancorous applause from the crowd of course. The lady started asking them some pretty lame questions about what's next for DW, and how Matt Smith and the rest liked NY, and other stupid questions that they probably answered many times over. Then they turned the questions over to the audience. I tried to ask a question about Matt Smith channeling David Tennant's characteristics in this episode, but I wasn't chosen.

Others asked a bunch of good question, many directed at Steven Moffat and his thoughts on writing. Matt Smith did say that if we liked Blink, the 12th and 13th episodes of the series (basically the series finale I believe) are going to be even better. Karen Gillam looked rather bored/sad during the interview. Maybe it's because she wasn't getting a lot of attention from the questioners, as most were directed to Smith and Moffat.

Overall it was quite enjoyable. I would have liked to have asked a question or gotten an autograph, but overall I was glad to have been able to see them. And to have been able to see the extend of DW fandom. Some people even drove up here from New Hampshire and took two days off from work! Surely there are a lot of Whovians here it seems. Geronimo!

Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 2: "The Beast Below

The Beast Below is the second episode of the new DW series. After last week's very well-constructed and thorougly enjoyable introduction of the eleventh doctor, this episode turns a bit darker. The doctor and Amy visit spaceship UK, where the remnants of Great Britain float around through space.

I'm usually not a fan of this type of DW episode. There've been many episode like this in the past, involving new earth, or the destruction of earth, or the doctor stuck on a spaceship. I can't quite name this sub-genre of episodes, but I can tell it when I see it. That being said, this one was quite enjoyable. This is mostly due, in my opinion, to Matt Smith's doctor. Whereas Tennant's and Eccleston's characteristics seemed quite evident and imitable from the start, Smith's doctor is more subtle. I read in a review of this episode online that the eleventh doctor is scatterbrained, and this really describes him well. At one point in this episode, he mentions that he thinks too fast, and I can see that portrayed in his acting. You feel like something's going on in his head all the time, and his mannerisms seem like he's daydreaming about something and hectic. I find it quite interesting to watch this doctor at work so far.

Amy Pond is also coming across as a very strong companion. She doesn't have the infatuation with the doctor that Rose did, at least not so far. She's also smart and strong-willed, and I think will prove to be a good match for the doctor. She really stands out in this episode, especially at the end.

The episode itself was written by head writer Steven Moffat. I really liked most of his episodes, aside from his series one two-parter. This is one of his weaker ones, which considering that this episode was pretty good, says a lot. I also liked how the ending of The Beast Below alludes to next week's episode.

The running theme of the cracks in space, which we saw twice last week, also appears here at the end. I remember Moffat saying that the clues to the bigger arc were going to be more subtle in this series, but so far, that crack seems to be pretty prevalent. Let's see how it goes as the series progresses, I guess.

Next week: The first episode of this series not written by Steven Moffat! Winston Churchill! Daleks!

Doctor Who Series 5, Episode 1: "The Eleventh Hour"

Doctor Who is one of my favorite shows on television. Unlike American science fiction, DW is very quirky and zany, which really appeals to me. Doctor Who started back in the 1960s, and took a break in the late 1980s. A movie was released in 1996, but the series remained in stasis until Russell T. Davies brought it back in 2005. Since then, he's been the head writer for the ninth (Christopher Eccleston) and tenth (David Tennant) doctors. Last winter, Tennant left the role, and Davies left as head writer, giving the reins to Stephen Moffat, who wrote some of the best episodes of the new series, particularly "Blink."

Today was the premiere of Moffat's new series, complete with a new doctor (Matt Smith), new companion (Karen Gillan), new sonic screwdriver, new TARDIS, new intro sequence, new take on the classic DW theme.... basically a complete revamp. The departing doctor, Tennant, was recently voted the best doctor ever, and that raises some concerns for the new guy. How can he make the role his own, and make people interested in his take, when people are still sad that the last doctor's gone?

If "The Eleventh Hour" is any indication, the new series is going to be stellar! Beware of SPOILERS from here on out. The episode picks off almost immediately after the tenth doctor's regeneration, with the TARDIS hurling through the atmosphere. It rather predictably crashes, and the newly regenerated and hungry doctor encounters a little girl, Amelia Pond. She cooks him some food, all of which disappoints him except fish and custard. Then he goes to investigate a crack in her room, and discovers that prisonser zero has escaped. The doctor leaves, with a promise of returning in five minutes. That promise is kept, although he arrives about 12 years late, and encounters a much more mature Amy Pond. Prisoner zero is still on the run, and the episode follows the doctor as he tries to stop prisoner zero.

One of the things I liked about this episode was how Amy played a big role from the start. Unlike previous companions (read: Rose Tyler), Amy is smart, attractive, and has a nice backstory with the doctor that may serve the story well. We also don't have to deal with any annoying parents (read: Rose Tyler's mom), since Amy's all alone. Her bit of an obession with the doctor as a child is also pretty interesting.

Matt Smith really takes control of the role, and really makes you forget that Tennant just left. Smith's doctor does channel some of Tennant's qualities at times. Certain mannerisms, certain expressions, are reminiscent of the departed doctor. However, this may be due to the fact that he just regenerated. Smith isn't as wild as Tennant was, yet he feels silly, yet grounded, and serious yet lighthearted. It's fun to watch this doctor at work so far, and I have a feeling that things are only going to get better from here.

And the TARDIS! It looks much, much better than last time. The TARDIS of the Davies era had some weird orange lighting, and a totally unappealing organic feel to it. This TARDIS looks more like a circus show. The episode gave us a good look at the console, which is so fun and quirky! There's even an old fashioned hot and cold water faucet handle contraption, and also one of those big horn-like things that the grammy award trophies are based on. It's also much bigger on the inside than the previous TARDIS.

The TARDIS makes up for the very different opening credits. Instead of a funky vortex, the TARDIS is now hurling through some stormy tunnels, complete with lightning. The new theme, also written by Murray Gold, is lacking the strong beat that the series has always had, to my knowledge. It doesn't sound terrible, but I think it'll take some getting used to.

Overall, I'm very excited for where the new series is headed. Moffat already hinted at the arc for this series, something about silence. Matt Smith is a joy to watch, Amy Pond seems to be a strong companion and a pretty sight, and with Moffat at the helm, the stories should be stellar. And in just about a month, we'll be seeing the return of a very familiar face....

Welcome

Welcome to "Sam's Time and Relative Dimension in Space." This is basically a blog dedicated to the stuff I find interesting. Basically a lot of varied entertainment things, ranging from musicals (like "Glee") to comedy (like "Modern Family") to sci-fi (such as "Doctor Who"). And also a few snippets of other stuff such as technology (Apple), and whatever else comes along. Enjoy!