In Rosa Doctor Who achieved the balance between education, personalisation, new stories, and call backs. The Doctor Calls It's a new era but the comforting sense of continuity um, continues, with call backs to the Storm Cage, Perception Filters and a Vortex Manipulator. New viewers won't care these have a provenance, while everyone else will … Continue reading Doctor Who: Balancing Act
Doctor Who
Doctor Who: Setting Up
I'm going to concentrate on the craft in my commentary of Doctor Who, because: brand differentiation. I'm claiming it. Chris Chibnall is doing a couple of things with this story: cementing relationships and setting up the enemy. Call Backs: Looks like the Stenza have been set up as the Big Bad, first hunting on Earth, … Continue reading Doctor Who: Setting Up
Doctor Who: Salad Days
Shipping steel There was plenty to relish in the first episode to feature Jodie Whittaker's Doctor The Woman Who Fell to Earth. These included the entirety of Whittaker's performance, but also the score, camera work and colour palette, and The Doctor building things, in addition to the sets. Plus Salad Man. The locations for filming … Continue reading Doctor Who: Salad Days
Bread and circuses
News and social media can be like that scene in The Matrix where the dude is looking at the people and only sees lines of glowy green symbols. I feel like I only see, or too readily see, the bad, the sad and the maddening. There's plenty of it. Which is exactly why I resist … Continue reading Bread and circuses
The slow path picked up it’s pace
Aaannnd the really real Doctor Who trailer has appeared. Calloo callay! Like sand through the hour glass, or like grains from the dune featured in one of the scenes... Thanks to Comic-Con 18 we get to see this trailer, which featured some actual dialogue, all the newbie companions and The Doctor being Doctory in two … Continue reading The slow path picked up it’s pace
The path has never seemed more slow
So the first teaser for the upcoming series of Doctor Who has dropped. It isn't really a trailer or preview as much as a taste. The few seconds presented as an entree or Tapas, there are morsels of something that provides a hit of flavour, but they may bear no resemblance to the main course. … Continue reading The path has never seemed more slow
Review: Ant-Man & the Wasp
Some spoilers. Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp is an energetic romp. It's fun, family centric, and well-intentioned. There were laughs thanks to Luis (Michael Pena) and his side kicks. Really Luis stole the show from Paul Rudd's Scott Lang and Evangeline Lilly, as Hope Van Dyne, even with the ant-puns. Having said that Michael Douglas … Continue reading Review: Ant-Man & the Wasp
Gettin’ twitchy
The streaming service Twitch is delivering ancient episodes of Doctor Who for free. So far I have caught a Three Doctors episode featuring Jo Grant in a blue outfit that looks like she butchered a Smurf community, Jon Pertwee's Doctor in full velvet pre-New Romantic costume wandering a Welsh quarry, and the Brigadier getting peevish. … Continue reading Gettin’ twitchy
Review: Infinity War
Obviously, some spoilers, ok? A couple of years ago, I jokingly mentioned that Marvel's heroes don't feature in films that address issues of import, because they largely fight self-created problems (like Stark raving police bots gone bad in Age of Ultron, or themselves in Civil War, or the son of exiled long-lost relatives in Black … Continue reading Review: Infinity War
Review: Double the hot takes
Here's your two for one review of The Last Jedi and Twice Upon A Time Doctor Who Christmas Special. Because, to quote the classics, why can't we do both? If you think, like me, too much about these things the themes of each converge on memory, life and loss, and decisions in quiet moments that change … Continue reading Review: Double the hot takes
Writing Bec 