A Geeky Soundtrack

So what if you leave us in floods of tears? That's good television. That's great television.
Benjamin Cook, in Doctor Who: A Writer’s Tale

If there’s one thing we love, it’s a movie or show that tugs at our heartstrings, that almost begs us to love it. Of course, there are many of these pieces, and many ways to do it. But we would argue that there is one absolutely brilliant way to do it -- and that is through music. Movies or TV with marvelous, inspiring soundtracks are still not an everyday occurence, so when the brilliant ones come along, we take note. And these are ones that deserve much notice.

Doomsday by Murray Gold
In terms of number of tears shed, it’s hard to beat the series 2 finale of Doctor Who. And a good portion of that is due to Murray Gold’s stunning work here -- so simple, yet so elegant and effective. Starting with a simple piano keeping time alongside vocals perfectly accompanies the devastating moment when the Void closes, the Doctor trapped on one side and Rose on the other. You can almost see their faces pressing up against the wall that won’t let them through. The bass added provides a gorgeous segue to the time that passes for Rose, the driving, the final meeting with the Doctor on Bad Wolf Bay, and the utter heartbreak that happens there.

Song of Freedom by Murray Gold
But Murray Gold can write happy music as well. And if there's anything happier than this, well, I don't know it. The universe has been saved. All the Doctor's companions are flying the TARDIS back home with him. There are hugs, smiles, laughs, and for one moment, one shining moment, you can believe that everything will be alright, and that this show won't tear our hearts to pieces again.

F*ck you, she's awesome -- Part Two

Because our first edition was so successful, and because you can never do enough to cheer for these women.

Also, as we said in the first post--any ladies you think should be on our ever-growing list? Which other women are too awesome for words? Share with us! 

C2E2 - The dream I didn't know I had

I’ve never been to a con before. Why, you ask? The big comic-cons are on the coasts, much too far away. The Harry Potter cons that I thought about going to were always during the summer. All of them are pretty expensive. I always wanted to go -- I was beyond jealous of Suzanne when she made it to the NY Comic-con this year. And yet, when the matter of going to my own comic con came, I was hesitant. I don’t read comics. Would I find anything to enjoy?

Turns out, I needn’t have worried. Three days at C2E2, Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, were some of the best geeky times I’ve ever had. By far the best decision was going in costume. I’d never cosplayed before, and never really dreamed I could. My sewing skills are hopeless, and neither my budget nor my ambitions are big enough to spend the months and hundreds that some people spend gathering together the perfect outfit. So it was a stroke of luck when a wonderful friend, Jorie (who made herself a fantastic Venetian Hooker Dress), offered to make a costume for me less than two weeks before the con. After an evening of brainstorming, we had an idea. A week of late nights of packing and sewing and ironing later, I had a sari.

A TARDIS sari. I rocked it. And my boyfriend rocked the Tenth Doctor suit.

And here is my advice about cons: cosplay. Because there is nothing like people asking to take your picture to make you feel confident and amazing. Over 5 hours on Friday, at least 50 people took our picture. That was before we entered the costume contest, and counting became impossible. And it was equally as enjoyable to admire the costumes that everyone else was wearing. There were plenty of Doctors (Four, Nine, Ten, Eleven), Amy Pond, Craig Owens, and a TARDIS or two (who were not as cool as I was). There was Katniss, Effie and Haymitch, a few Kaylees, a Gandalf, a Princess Tiana, and a Captain Jack Sparrow who looked exactly like Johnny Depp. And those were just the ones that I knew. Hundreds of other people were cosplaying video game and comic characters that I couldn't begin to identify.

But of course, there was way more to this than cosplay.

A Dazzling End

Following this finale, it’s really funny to go back and re-read our Let’s Kill Hitler reaction post, from what seems like so long ago already. In that, our biggest concern with the second half of Series Six was that Moffat had built too large of a house of cards this time around. That, as io9 recently put it, he wouldn’t catch all the balls he was juggling in the finale. He was doing so many wonderful, fascinating, unique things to the show, to the Doctor’s, the Ponds’, and River’s plotlines--but would it all come together in a way that both made sense and was satisfying?

In that sense, this finale did not disappoint in the slightest. Some things felt a bit rushed, yes, but that seemed mostly to be a consequence of the fact that the finale was only one episode long (which we’ll deal with later). And in the end--in those last ten minutes especially--everything felt complete. It made sense. The Doctor evading death was not a hand-waving, timey-wimey thing this time, as it was in The Big Bang last year. His emotional journey--at least for this season--has been completed in a way that actually brings us closure. River’s biggest mysteries were solved in a way that did not feel ret-conned. Sure, there are still some questions, but we were not left with the burning, gaping holes we were left with at the end of Series Five. And after all the doubts we had about Moffat’s ability to pull this off, seeing it all play out in this way was so incredibly satisfying.

F*ck you, she's awesome

The fact is that there aren't enough decent female characters out there. But when they do appear, they inspire. They are something to celebrate, to defend, to admire. The characters that when someone starts to complain about, we can't help but defend. What would the world be without them? We each posit our respective lists of top five (and more) female characters in the sci-fi and fantasy we read/watch.

"What's he doing?" "He's saving us."

It just might be the understatement of the year to say that in this half of the season, the writers are pulling out all of the heartbreaking stops. Last week we were floored and moved by the tragic beauty that was The Girl Who Waited. And this week, we are presented with an extraordinarily fantastic episode that is possibly even more heartbreaking and tragic: The God Complex.

No one comes away from this with a happy ending. By the end of this episode, every character we meet is either dead or forced to say farewell to a dear friend who has changed their lives irrevocably. And that statement applies equally to Amy, Rory, and the Doctor. No one is happy, and everyone’s heart is broken.

Say goodbye, to the world you thought you lived in

The Girl Who Waited was a brilliant example of why we love this show so much. Because when Doctor Who gets it right, it gets it right. At its core, this show is not about time travel or aliens or sci-fi or even saving the world. An episode doesn’t need to have a monster or a villain -- all it needs is a situation that puts the companions and the Doctor in a place where they discover painful things about themselves and have to make difficult choices.



When we first heard the episode title, I naturally assumed it was going to be all about Amy, and perhaps a reflection back on her childhood. It never occurred to me that Amy would have to wait, again. Yet wait she did. "You could spend a lifetime in here.” And she does. It’s progressed from "twelve years, and four psychiatrists,” to thirty-six years, and a lifetime of bitterness and loneliness. To me, the whole episode was an exploration, a magnification, of that small but nonetheless emotionally powerful scene in The Doctor’s Wife, where House manipulates Amy to stumble upon an aged Rory, and then his rotting corpse, surrounded by horrifying graffiti -- HATE AMY.

Sending a child away: or, why the Night Terrors sucked

Clones, as usual, agree completely. It wasn’t that there was anything actually horrible about The Night Terrors. It was just that there wasn’t anything good.

It was terrifying, sure. But that was about all it had going for it. And it never did anything with the terrors - those dolls were creepy to begin with. No new horror for kids, the way gas masks, stone angels, and shadows have been. Whether you consider it scary or not depends on whether you respond to the traditional horror/thriller movie tactics. Laura was terrified, Suzanne was not. But we both were bored. Very bored.

It felt like Fear Him, except that where Fear Her had an interesting alien, a novel way of disappearing a person, and a great child actor, the Night Terrors had... an alien whose capibilities weren’t really discussed or explored, a boring way of disappearing people, and a child actor who didn’t do anything besides look scared. Oh, and there was no wonderful scene of the Doctor carrying the Olympic torch (which he must, by the way), or David and Billie looking cute. On the contrary, Rory and Amy were again shoved away and just got to run around a lot - but unlike Doctor’s Wife, their running scenes were entirely devoid of personality, much less conversation.

In Belated Praise of the Doctor's Wife

“Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?”
“Yea! I’m like, do you two want to be alone?”

Neil Gaiman is a fantastic, prolific writer. Together, we haven’t read as much of him as we should (neither of us have read the Sandman graphic novels. We’re working on it). But that didn’t stop us from being ridiculously excited when we heard he was writing an episode of Who. Perhaps one of Gaiman’s greatest strengths as a writer is that he cannot be pinned down into one genre as critics like to do. And writing this episode was another brilliant example of this. Yet though he may not have a genre, he definitely has a style. And though I can’t define it in words, this episode had Gaiman written all over it.

Needless to say, he did not disappoint. In one episode, he took an idea that had been circulating in the backwaters of the fandom since the very beginning and make it canon. Not only did he make it canon, he made it brilliant, funny, inspiring, and heartbreaking canon. The Doctor’s Wife was certainly the best episode so far this season. The concept of the TARDIS as the thing that the Doctor has and always will love best, through all his companions, is awesome. But to take that concept and pull it off, while making it seem real, requires genius. And Neil Gaiman has it.

Day of the Moon review

Apologies, dear readers, for the lateness and slight incoherent-ness of this post—it’s finals crunch time for your dear bloggers, and even the Doctor must wait for papers to be written. But anyway…

Laura and I both came away from this episode with mixed feelings. The things that they are setting up have the potential to be brilliant, and the episode ensured that this season is going to be a hell of a ride. But there are some things we are skeptical of, and critical of. Still, let’s start with the brilliancy:

Rory. Oh my GOD how much do I love Rory. His brilliance and awkwardness and just... everything. He is so in love with Amy, and it is so clear with every single breath he takes. I love that they brought up his 2000 years as a Centurion, it is just so essential to proving how wonderful and special he is. And that moment when he is trying to pretend to be an American secret service made me laugh forever more.

My love for River grows exponentially with each passing episode. Superficially: somehow that dress was even hotter than that jean jacket. Non-superficially: I love everything about her. I love the ridiculous flirting that is going on between her and the Doctor, I love the relationship she has fostered with both Amy and Rory. And having just finished a paper about gun-slinging females with empty personalities, I love that she is a strong female character with depth, conflict, and emotion. The kiss between her and the Doctor was both brilliantly funny (Smith looked like he had a Jelly-Arms Jinx on him or something) and heartbreakingly poignant. I’m sad that we’re already leaving her so early in the season, and I hope her return in the fall is just as brilliant.

To Lis Sladen - My Sarah Jane

Lis Sladen, my Sarah Jane, has died. Well, she’s been dead for over a week now. I’ve been wanting to do a post in her honor since I heard the news, but I’ve hesitated. Why? Well, because I don’t feel that she is my Sarah Jane.

I am primarily a fan of New Who. Slowly I’m getting around to watching the Classics, and have mostly seen episodes with Four. But only a few, and only three of those have featured Sarah Jane: Seeds of Doom, Pyramids of Mars, and The Five Doctors. Many of the tributes to Sarah Jane talk about her character, how important she was to the series, to the fans, what it meant to have a Doctor Who girl who wasn’t going to conform to sexist stereotypes. And it’s all true.

And yet, I feel that I’m preaching to the choir - a more experienced choir - when I say those things. After all, I only met Sarah Jane in School Reunion. We saw her again in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. But by then she had her own show, yet the only episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures that I’ve ever seen is The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, primarily because Ten was in it. So even in New Who, how can I claim to know Sarah Jane?

The Impossible Astronaut review

First of all, wow. That was no calm, fun series opener. I’m not going to spend too much of this talking about plot, because I want to see what Moffat does with the second part of this story. Here, he threw an incredible amount of information at us, and while I want to criticize him for that, I think I’ll wait until it’s wrapped up to pass judgement. I also have some huge issues pending with Amy's final statement before the cliffhanger, but I will also leave that till next time.

That said, I have to give him points for sheer nerve. Who kills off the Doctor and ensures that he doesn’t regenerate in the first ten minutes of a season? Yes, this road had been sort of paved by RTD in Turn Left and The Stolen Earth. Yes, in some ways every viewer knows he won’t be dead in the end. But that didn’t stop it from being an incredibly powerful and arresting moment. I sort of cried. The scene where they meet his past self in the diner almost hurts. And the scene in the TARDIS, the companions trying to get the Doctor to trust them instead of the other way around, had incredible acting from all of them. You could almost taste the tension. For once, the audience is in the know, and the Doctor was out, and the reversal of that normal situation is so striking.