Collecting

When I was around 11 years old, I was all about collecting action figures. That's nothing unusual, most 11 year old boys are. And that time period was pretty good for it too, thanks to the Star Wars action figure boom. We also got action figures for Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Black Hole, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, not to mention the Micronauts, and all in 3 3/4" scale. To this day that remains my favorite scale for action figures, and I have no doubt that it's due to that childhood influence.

One day my local Toyco got in a box of Battlestar Galactica Series 2 action figures. This was around 1979 (possibly 1980) and back then of course there was no internet to let us know new toys were coming; it was just the thrill of discovering them at the toy store. So I had no idea that these action figures even existed. I only had enough money for one, so I agonized over whether to get Baltar or Lucifer, and decided on Baltar. Which turned out to be the wrong choice; when I went back the next week to buy Lucifer after getting my allowance he was gone, but there was still another Baltar left. I never did get that Lucifer figure. Oh well.

But I loved the packaging as much as the figure itself, because the back of the toy card had drawings of all the new action figures pictured on it. I could look at all those other new figures and still feel that rush of excitement I had when I discovered them, and plan out which ones I was going to get next.

The card with the new Battlestar Galactica figures that I gazed at lovingly for days.
Image swiped from John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV.

This exasperated my mother. "Why can't you just enjoy the ones you have instead of focusing on all the ones you don't?" It was a very valid question that I didn't have a good answer for. I did enjoy the ones I had; I still played with them at that age. I loved looking at all the details on them. And I loved simply lining them up and admiring them all.

But oh, the excitement of the ones I didn't have yet! The thrill of the hunt, trying to save up the money just to get the next figure, planning out which one my next conquest would be, only to change my plans when I got to the toy store and discover the one I wanted had sold out or new figures had been released. These were all things I just couldn't articulate at the time.

Over the years the things I've collected have changed, and so has the game of collecting them. Hasbro puts out the same number of Star Wars action figures in a month that Kenner used to put out in a year, but most of them have become new versions of old figures so it's rare that I'm interested in any of them these days. I was really into the Doctor Who figures for a while, but ironically now that I have 11 Doctors and a bunch of companions and monsters in the 5" scale, I'm not interested in starting all over from scratch with them since manufacturer Character Options has rebooted the line in the 3 3/4" scale. And while the ReAction Figure line has totally pushed my nostalgia button, I have yet to see any outside of the internet and be tempted by holding one in my hands.


But this doesn't mean the collecting bug has gone away by any means.  My new love of collecting has been Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama CDs.

These are great, and if you are a Doctor Who fan, I urge you to check them out. And right now is the perfect time to do it, because they're celebrating their 15th Anniversary of making Doctor Who audios, so if you try them out before August 20, 2014 you'll have the opportunity to download some of their stories for just $1 each. They change the audios they're putting on sale every 48 hours, so go early and go often!


These all feature the original actors performing new stories. Yes, even Tom Baker. Think Paul McGann is a one-off Doctor? Not here-- the Eighth Doctor has no less than 67 stories with five different companions (you may have heard them name-checked in The Night of the Doctor minisode) spread out over 190 episodes. Oh yeah, did I mention they recreate the episode format of the original series? McGann's changes from the 4-episode/ 2-hour serial style to the new series 1-episode/1-hour-with-a-story-arc style about halfway through his run, so it makes the perfect transition into the new series.

But I digress.

A good friend of mine got into the Big Finish audios when they first started making them 15 years ago. He played a few for me, and I started borrowing some from him that I wanted to listen to. Then the real world got in the way and he fell behind on getting them. I wanted to pick up the torch but was unable to do so until the Doctor Who DVD line ended, at which point I started channeling all my money that had been earmarked for DVDs into these CDs. In addition to keeping up with all the new releases Big Finish puts out each month we also had a sizable backlog to get caught up on. While I used my DVD money to keep up on the new releases, I now started selling my old stuff on eBay to make money to catch up.

That's when the lists started. Lists of which ones we needed, wishlists at places that sold them, chronology guides so I could determine the listening order I wanted to use for both listening them and storing them, budget plans figuring out which ones to get next...

Oh, yes. The hunt is alive and well.

And that's when it hit me today-- this isn't just wanting to be able to listen to them all, this has become a collection. It finally clicked when I was looking over those lists, watching my wishlist shrink and my iTunes grow, and I had a flashback to that day with my mother when I was looking at those Battlestar Galactica figures. Can't I just be happy with what I already have? Hmmm... yeah, I think so. I'm loving listening to these. I've been listening to an episode per day since January, in the "order" that they would take place if they were lost episodes of the TV series. But the excitement of closing in on those last couple dozen titles we need, that rush of collecting them, is almost as big a high as -- or is possibly even equal to -- the fun of enjoying them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to listen to episode two of Helicon Prime, starring the Second Doctor as told by Jamie McCrimmon.

Doctor Who - ''The Rebel Flesh,'' Part 1

Spoiler Level: High

I feel like I've only seen half of the episode and therefore can't fairly review it, which is interesting because that doesn't normally happen to me with the Doctor Who two-parters.  More on that later.

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the future, at a factory that makes dopplegangers out of synthetic flesh. Since the synthetic flesh is made from acid, it's dangerous to work with and the staff all use "Gangers" of themselves to do the job.  But once a solar storm hits the factory, the Gangers come to life on their own.  They're confused and frightened, and the original people they're based on are just as frightened of them. The Doctor recognizes them to be real people in their own right, duplicates of the originals right down to every last memory but just as deserving of life as their originals.  And most of the originals, while a bit uncomfortable with this, are open to exploring what to do about it until their leader kills her Ganger, leading to the drawing of battlelines.  Oh, and due to the Doctor's trying to figure out just what the synthetic flesh was, a batch of it has now duplicated itself on the Doctor.  Cue the "time-vortex scream" sound and roll credits.

Now normally at this point I feel like I've been given a lot of questions and it makes me want to speculate.  But in this case, I kind of feel like things progressed along inevitable lines, so while I'm entertained, I don't really have a lot of curiosity on where the story is going to go.  Not so much predictable as just... inevitable.

The Doctor's trying to reconcile the Gangers and their originals together was great; it's so typically optimistic of him.  Now in the old classic Who days the duplicates probably would have automatically been out to kill their originals.  When one of the originals expressed this concern, the Doctor asks him, "Are you prone to violence?"  "No," he replies.  "Then what makes you think your Ganger would be?" And it's a great point. And it made me think what I'd do in that situation.  I think I'd actually like to sit down and have a talk with myself!  Would it be enlightening?  Would it be annoying?  Would it be like finding a long-lost twin, or would getting to see all the little imperfections that my mind's eye leaves out be too disturbing? But no one seems to really look at this way; the Doctor is more concerned about preserving new life, and the originals are more creeped out by having duplicates of themselves.  It's never stated outright, but it's obvious they feel threatened that they will lose their individuality to what they consider nothing more than a technological glitch.

So the leader turning on her Ganger and killing her ("That is so like me," she says before she dies) feels inevitable; the complete breakdown of trust between the two sides becomes inevitable; and even the Ganger of the Doctor showing up at the end felt inevitable. I feel like the second half's outcome is going to be inevitable as well-- both sides fighting each other until everyone is lost, a tragedy tale of humanity's inability to accept itself.

Hopefully I'm wrong; it would be nice to be surprised.  And that's why I feel like it's unfair to review this story at this point. The intention may very well be to make me feel like it's inevitable to deliberately set up for a surprise at the end.  I won't know until I see it.

Speaking of which, I'll have to wait an extra week to see it, since BBC America is skipping Doctor Who next week because it's Memorial Day weekend.  Which really bugs me, because (a) it airs on Saturday and Memorial Day isn't until Monday; do that many people really travel that far for their backyard barbecues? And (b) we live in the age of Tivo. Okay, I suppose it might impact actual live ratings but it's not like it's going to make it harder for anyone to catch it.  And (c), by losing the same-day airing (especially in the middle of a two-parter!) they're going to lose more people to illegal downloads. At least we'll only be behind the UK for two episodes and not for eight due to the show taking a summer break this year, but for some people that one-week delay is just too much  They've proven that same-day airings boosts the ratings, so I presume it also cuts down on downloading; I guess this will reinforce that one way or the other.  A nice compromise would be to offer the legal download on iTunes and Amazon at the same time as it airs in the UK, and then just air the episode a week later on BBC America, but I sincerely doubt they'll do that.

And lastly, I do rather like the feel of the story, as it feels very much like a classic series story, and it being shot in a castle helps that.  I also like Rory getting a moment to shine with Jenny; someone's appreciating him from the get go, and it's obviously boosting his ego. Looking forward to the (perhaps not so inevitable?) conclusion.

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K9 - ''Mutant Copper''

Spoiler Level: High

The Good:

* The story has a very good premise. One of the CCPCs has been implanted with human DNA.  The implantation doesn't take well and the CCPC goes rogue, becoming an unlikely ally to K9 and company.

* We get a good look at the future totalitarian England, as it's announced the CCPCs now have the right to enter homes without permission and to search without a warrant, "to make the world a safer place for everyone who isn't guilty," and we actually see citizens protesting.

* The "mutated" CCPC has some amusing dialogue, as he continues to talk in the stereotypical "English Bobby" style and actually has quite a few amusing scenes.

* New character Marcus, who also believes in rebelling against the system.  He's likable and adds a nice mix to the Starkey-Jorjie-Darius love triangle; it's even nice to see Starkey and Darius allied in their mutual jealousy of the newcomer's closeness with Jorjie.

* We get some explanations as to what the CCPCs really are and how they work.

The Bad:

* Just as I suspected, the people making this show don't understand the difference between a cyborg and a robot. I'm gathering they think "cybernetic organism" means an artificial organism made out of cybernetics, as opposed to a living organism fused with cybernetics. This mistake wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so crucial to the plot.  By infusing a CCPC with human DNA, they really have turned him into an actual cyborg.  The real problem with this is when they keep discussing whether or not to remove the human elements and return him to being a cyborg, which kept driving us nuts, because if you remove the human elements then he's no longer a cyborg!  And this wasn't just one or two lines, this was all throughout the show.  Thorne even refers to K9 as a cyborg at one point. Once I hit on the "artificial organism made out of cybernetics" theory I tried really hard to rewrite my brain to process their use of the word "cyborg" to mean that, but I didn't have much success.  So the lack of understanding basic science fiction terms totally undermined what was an otherwise good premise.  (It also shows a lack of understanding of the term "mutation," but I won't even get into that.)

* The "mutant" copper's voice is on a ridiculously higher pitch, so I had to strain to understand anything he was saying.

* Marcus's eventual betrayal was way too obvious; halfway through the episode I just thought out of the blue, "this guy's going to turn out to be a traitor."  And he was. He didn't do anything obvious to tip the viewer off; it was just the obvious formula. On the plus side, at least he wasn't evil, just more of a hypocrite.

* The biggest sin of all: When trying to decide what to do with him, K9 and crew come to the conclusion that the attempt to fuse human and robot hasn't worked, and they need to make him completely one or the other.  Since they can't make him completely human, they opt for returning him back to a completely robotic state.  (Which of course they keep referring to as "make him a cyborg again."  Arrrrghh!)  Then just as Professor Gryffen is ready to start, Thorne shows up at the door.  Now that the bad guys are here, everyone starts shouting "We're not going to let you take him and turn him back into a [robot]!"  Hello?!?  That's exactly what you were about to do!!!  There's absolutely no reason given for this.  It's this complete and total reversal defying all logic that pushes this episode over the edge.  I could overlook the other flaws in the episode (if I tried really hard, and believe me, I did) but this point just sunk it.

The Ugly:

* K9 laughs again.

This one does have a lot going for it, so I really wanted to put this one in the win column, but I just can't.  So K9's total to date is 11 wins, 7 losses.

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Sadly, K9 is still not available in the US, but Amazon has now started listing import DVDs. While they are region free, these are in PAL format, so you'll need a player that can convert them to NTSC to play them here in America. Oh, and they're out of stock. But hey, it's a start.

Doctor Who - ''The Doctor's Wife''

Spoiler Level: High

Wow.  One expects big things when you hear the name "Neil Gaiman," but this was just magical.

Since Steven Moffat said we were going to learn a lot about River Song this season, when the title "The Doctor's Wife" was announced I figured that meant this episode would be focusing on her.  Then we saw the previews and River was nowhere to be found and I thought, "Oh, no, not another fake-out like Jenny Who." But Neil Gaiman delivered the goods big time.  Who's truly the Doctor's wife?  Well, who else but the TARDIS?

Having the soul of the TARDIS being deposited into a human body so we can hear the TARDIS's point of view is just pure genius. I loved that she started out immediately calling the Doctor "Thief!" since he stole her in the first place, and then the twist that she looks at it as she was stealing a Time Lord so she could see the universe was just absolutely wonderful.  They were both destined to go on this trip together.

So, time for me to get nerdy on the age issue again!  Idris (and I love that name-- it's like an abbreviation of "I, TARDIS." Anyway, I/DRIS) states that she and the Doctor have been traveling together for 700 years.  So the Doctor must have stolen her and fled Gallifrey when he was around 200 years old, which makes sense.  I would have loved a Susan reference in there as well, but I'll have to settle for the flood of other delicious references, such as the previous control rooms, the way the Doctor has always referred to her as "old girl" in the past and "sexy" more recently, and their argument on why she rarely takes him where he actually wants to go.

And corridors!!  We get to see some TARDIS corridors!  I was very pleased with that.  I have mixed feelings about the secondary control room being the previous one.  On the one hand, I was genuinely surprised, since I had thought that they'd literally destroyed that set, so that was really cool.  On the other hand, it's a bit soon to evoke much nostalgia for me, so I was hoping to see one of the earlier classic control rooms. No matter-- this way still worked great.

This is my favorite episode of the season so far, and it may end up being the best episode of this season, period.

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K9 - ''Lost Library of Ukko''

Spoiler Level: Medium

An excellent episode! Thorne is a huge improve- ment over Drake.  Just as his first episode was about prisons, Thorne is still thinking of good ways to lock up those he considers a threat, and he sets up a trap to try out a new one on Starkey.

Darius isn't annoying, Starkey is more of the angry rebel, Thorne is actually menacing, and while K9 is still talking on the casual side he never crosses the line. The alien Librarian from Ukko may look a bit silly with her librarian glasses, but her sharp demeanor makes her interesting to watch. And there's the added revelation that The Department isn't only based in England, but is spread out around the entire world, making it a bit more ominous.

This episode is an unequivocal win, making K9's total score to date 11 wins, 6 losses.

---

Sadly, K9 is still not available in the US, but Amazon has now started listing import DVDs. While they are region free, these are in PAL format, so you'll need a player that can convert them to NTSC to play them here in America. Oh, and they're out of stock. But hey, it's a start.

Doctor Who - ''Curse of the Black Spot''

Spoiler Level: High 

The new season continues to be lots of fun. I can enjoy pirate stories more than, say, zombies or vampire stories, but when I saw the preview for this episode and saw that this was going to be a pirate story, I wasn't really excited.  I thought the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were okay, but after seeing them once I never cared if I saw them again.  To be honest, the only reason I saw them at all was because my daughter wanted to see them, and I was doing the responsible parent thing of monitoring what my kid watches.  But really I just didn't care.  You know what I'm going to say by now... not enough spaceships in them.

So, leave it to Doctor Who to have a pirate story... with a spaceship in it!  That was awesome!  That closing shot of Captain Avery and Toby watching the stars fly past them, as the crew all walked in and lined up behind them for the hero shot... now THAT'S what more pirate movies need! Spaceships!!!

I'm not kidding about this, by the way.

It's nice to see the Doctor having to keep revising his theories on what's going on.  I like it when the Doctor's the one who understands what's Really Going On, but that makes it all the more fun when he realizes he was wrong. When Rich and I were discussing the episode after it ended, we both agreed that the two most out-of-place moments were when the Doctor abandoned the TARDIS and when he did a 180 and decided that everyone wasn't being killed, they were probably being taken somewhere instead. At the time I said to Rich "It's probably one of those things that would have been better explained if this had been a 90-minute story."  And now that the episode has a day or two to percolate in my brain, I think I understand what changed the Doctor's mind in both cases.

Now usually when the Doctor says "I have no idea where the TARDIS is going to land!" it means he needs to stay with the ship, or risk losing it forever.  But in this case he (literally) says "Abandon ship!"  Why? Well, I got to thinking about how he told Amy "It's been towed" as opposed to "It ran away." He could tell there was something wrong with the dimensional planes when he tried to take off; maybe that was the key moment that caused him to start revising his theory again. So if the TARDIS was sliding into this parallel plane, then maybe the people were being taken as well.  Again, following the Doctor's train of thought might have been easier if this story had taken more time to be fleshed out.  But then again, the 11th Doctor tends to ramble on quite quickly and then throw in a "completely disregard what I just said," which can make following his train of thought difficult at the best of times.

And even though Rory's got full companion status now, I was still afraid he really might die. (Again.) Some nice little teases about the overall arc, as well. Nothing new on the pregnancy/future Doctor/glowing-little-girl front, but the return of Amy's dreamworld woman with the silver eyepatch.  Hmmm....

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K9 - ''The Cambridge Spy''

Spoiler Level: High

A very good episode of K9!  Professor Gryffen is playing about with his Space Time Manipulator, and Jorjie gets zapped back into the past, arriving in 1963.  There she meets Darius's great-grandfather (also played by Daniel Webber) who's a very nice stand-up kind of guy.  Unfortunately she interferes with his timeline, so Darius is starting to pull a Back to the Future and fade away.  Starkey and K9 have to enter the Space Time Manipulator, go back to 1963, rescue Jorjie, and try to repair the damage to the timeline.

It works great.  Dairus is brusque but not whiney, cowardly or otherwise annoying, and Daniel Webber does a great job of coming across as a completely different person playing Darius' grandfather Bill.  Most of the dialogue works well, even K9's attempts at 1960's slang.  (Well, most of them.  A few are cringe-worthy, but a few of them work great, especially when he gets them wrong.) And there's even an implication made that Thorne's ancestor is partially responsible for the totalitarian state we see as England's future.

The kids also recognize Thorne's ancestor, who's played by Jared Robinsen, the same actor who plays Thorne.  Since Thorne was only brought in at the end of the previous episode on a viewscreen with Jorjie's mother I originally thought that this episode must somehow be out of order;  but after doing a search on Thorne to find the actor's name I realized they met him way back in episode 2, "Liberation."  So even that works.

So this episode goes firmly in the win column, making K9's score to date 10 wins, 6 losses.

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Sadly, K9 is still not available in the US, but Amazon has now started listing import DVDs. While they are region free, these are in PAL format, so you'll need a player that can convert them to NTSC to play them here in America. Oh, and they're out of stock. But hey, it's a start.

Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut, Part 2: ''Day of the Moon''

Spoiler Level: Very, Very High

First off, let me just say "Wow" and scrape my jaw up off of the floor.  This season is really taking the long view for its story arc, following up on unresolved plot threads from last season and laying lots more for the rest of this season.  At least, I hope they're going to be resolved this season.  I think this episode raised more questions than it answered.

So okay, "Silence will fall" is referring to this species, the Silence, who have been running the human race for thousands of years.  I've got mixed feelings on that; on the one hand, I hate it when SF attributes all of humanity's achievements to alien influences. I feel like it cheapens us as a species, and takes away the pride in our accomplishments.  This episode is a perfect example-- we didn't go to the moon because we wanted to, but because the Silence wanted us to.  Heck, did we even develop the technology to do it on our own?  But on the other hand, the concept that they've been in control of humanity for all of recorded time is truly terrifying.  The concept that we could be being controlled, rise up in revolution, overthrow our controllers and then never remember any of it because it all happens "between the scenes" of our normal lives is just mind-blowing.

But all that leads to another unresolved point: Why did the Silence want us to go to the moon?  Is it only so they could create the Impossible Astronaut's space suit?

Along those lines, we now know that the Impossible Astronaut is a self-controlled, self-healing spacesuit, presumably created by the Silence, created for the purpose of containing the little girl.  And... that's it.

Unanswered questions: why?  Which I guess leads us to...

Amy's pregnancy:  Okay, she didn't tell Rory because she was afraid there might be something wrong with the baby.  Nice answer.  Now to the implied answers-- I was under the impression that the Silence took her baby, and she has no memory of it, and the little girl was in fact her child, based on the photos Amy found in the orphanage. Then the kid goes and regenerates, and the TARDIS keeps reading Amy as both pregnant and not pregnant.  Oookay.  A "time head" indeed.  As we were discussing the episode after wards, a friend of mine hit upon the idea that the little girl might be The Doctor's and River's daughter, and that the photo was actually of Amy holding their baby.  I rather like that idea, but I suspect it won't be as simple as that (if that is at all simple).

So the unresolved questions are who is the little girl, who are her parents, and what's Really Going On with Amy's pregnancy?

Poor River.  The Doctor's really getting comfortable with her, even falling in love with her, and as it's beginning for him it's ending for her.  I have to say I'm not totally thrilled with the idea that they're always moving in reverse order; I rather liked the idea that it's more of a jumble. Maybe she only thinks it's in reverse during this meeting? Or perhaps Steven Moffat prefers to do it in reverse order so it's easier for him to keep it all straight in his head.  All I know is that he better have this all written down somewhere so it all makes sense when he's all done!  I look forward to rewatching all of River's stories in order from her perspective when that day comes.

Nothing really new about the unanswered questions about River; it's the usual stuff, is she really the Doctor's wife, and who did she kill and why did she kill him/her?

As to which episode title should be considered the story title-- that's a bit of a tough one with this story.  On the one hand, the actual "Day of the Moon" refers to July 20, 1969, where the bulk of this episode takes place, which would seem to make it a more episode specific title, whereas the Impossible Astronaut was very prominent in both halves and is the catalyst for the entire thing.  Put all that together and "The Impossible Astronaut" should probably be the story title.  On the other hand, The Apollo 11 and Silence stories are the only plot lines that are wrapped up, and we're still not really any closer to understanding just what the Impossible Astronaut itself is, so from that perspective "Day of the Moon" might make a better story title.  But for me personally, since "Day of the Moon" is more episode specific, "Impossible Astronaut" wins out.

And now I'm off to read Jonathan's latest "Eleven for Eleven" installment for this episode over at Dislocated Life.  Yeah, I'm recommending it sight-unseen, but you can always trust Captain JLS.  I generally try to do my own write-ups before reading anyone else's so I can be sure my opinions are really mine.  You never knew when some outside force is influencing you...

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Doctor Who - ''The Impossible Astronaut,'' Part 1

Spoiler Level: High

Doctor Who returns in style, with the new show's first-ever two-part opening story!  And as always, the Moff delivers more time travel themed goodness.

I was so thrilled with the beginning of this story that the Doctor was now 1103 years old. I know this is horribly fanboy nitpicky of me, but I always hated that the Doctor's age in the new show is younger than his age in the original show.  The 7th Doctor gave his age as 953 in "Time and the Rani," so for the 10th Doctor to be 903 in "Voyage of the Damned" just always bugged the hell out of me.  Now true, the original show has been inconsistent about the Doctor's age before, but they started getting pretty consistent from the 4th Doctor on.  And I can get all apologist and say well maybe he's counting it in different ways, Gallifrey years vs Earth years or what have you, but really... they just decided to change his age for the new show and I just need to let it go.  But if he's 1103 now, then I can just say he aged 150 years between Doctors 7 through 11 and the rest is all just wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

But then he goes and gets himself killed. And man, what a death.  Shot twice, starts to regenerate (which was shocking enough), and then shot again in the middle of regeneration.  Damn.

...So now we're back to a 908 year old Doctor, who doesn't know he's going to get shot 200 years into his future, traveling with three companions who all know.  That's the kind of time-traveling Moff goodness I'm talking about!  (I still hope by the time this is all resolved that the Doctor will again be 1103, but I doubt it.)

Amy's announcement that she was pregnant didn't come as too much of a surprise-- if the nausea hadn't been enough of a giveaway, the Doctor's comment that she'd put on weight and "you and Rory go back to making babies" all made me think that was the direction they were heading.  A pair of married companions was already a first, but a pregnant companion is really something different!  And again, I can't wait to see how this ties in to everything over all.

Speaking of parents, having W. Morgan Sheppard play an old Mark Sheppard is brilliant.  Did I mention the first time I saw Mark Sheppard it was driving me nuts, because he seemed so familiar and yet not familiar?  Once I saw his last name was Sheppard I began to make the connection, and eventually found that yes, Mark Sheppard is indeed W. Morgan Sheppard's son.  No wonder he seemed so familiar, he had his father's accent. So having the two of them playing the same character is just fantastic.  (Yet ironically, the character they're playing is American, so the have to use American accents!)

So, the big question isn't so much "Is the Doctor going to stay dead?" as it is "How long is he going to stay dead?"  I'm betting that won't be resolved until the end of this season.  The summer break is going to be downright painful!

And for a much more in-depth look at the episode, I highly recommend "Eleven for Eleven" over at Dislocated Life, where Jonathan L. Switzer touches on the top eleven points of the episode.

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K9 - ''Black Hunger''

Spoiler Level: High

Back to K9! I haven't been watching K9 as much this last month, because I've been going to the movies instead.  But there's nothing at the theater I want to see this week, so it's back to K9 instead.

This episode starts off pretty well.   K9's dialogue has gotten a bit silly of late, something that in a previous episode was chalked up to his memory banks having been filled up with a large library of movies.  Most of the time it's not bad, but sometimes (such as when he laughs or goes "Wheee!") it's just way too much.  So I was very happy that he was talking very technical and more like his old self when this episode started.

Darius stumbles across an aggressive microcellular cleaning system called "Black Hunger,"and makes off with it.  What he missed was the little fact that it just want wrong and killed one of the workers that was using it.  The system itself is pretty interesting-- it releases a swarm of black alien-augmented yeast that eats up anything organic, and then you suck it all back up into the containment unit.  But when Darius gets caught, he refuses to help return it (what a guy), leaving it up to K9, Starkey and Jorjie.

From there the episode veers off course and makes a fast ninety degree turn straight into the dirt.  K9 and company run into a CCPC, and K9 decides to bluff their way past it by telling it he's taking the kids out for a walk.  Now a dog taking his kids out for walkies is funny, but the kids then start actually barking and jumping around like dogs.  Say what? It's revealed that Black Hunger is a project of Drake's, so Drake orders all the CCPCs after the kids. K9 tries to lure the CCPCs away by yelling "Can't catch me!  Wheeeee!" and flying away.  Uh, oh. Starkey runs into a dead end of garbage and tree brush, so he unleashes the Black Hunger microbes, and then decides he doesn't have time to gather them up again.  What, now?!?  Wasn't he the one saying how dangerous it was? And they finally evade the CCPCs by standing still and hiding behind a twig. Ugggh.

It's almost like the episode was written by two different people, and you can tell right where the script was handed off.  (But it wasn't; for the record, the entire thing is credited to Chris Roache.  It's also his only episode of the season.)  It goes from being intelligent, well-thought out and even a bit creepy straight into being campy, idiotic and ludicrous, and it's not a subtle or gradual transition either.  You hit that scene of the kids acting like dogs, and it's like the episode jumped the shark and landed right in the tank.

We do get an interesting ending, as Drake has finally screwed up one time too many, and is now being replaced by Inspector Thorne.  Thorne's one line comes across better than Drake's entire run, so I'm hoping for some good things from him.

So despite a very good start, the whole last half of this episode falls apart too much to consider this a good episode.  K9's score to date: 9 wins, 6 losses.

Doctor Who - ''Space'' and ''Time''

Spoiler Level : Low

I really don't want to give too much away on this one, partially because it's less than 48 hours old, and partially because the BBC is actually allowing a Doctor Who video to stream outside the UK!

This year's Red Nose Day featured one story broken into two four-minute mini episodes, "Space" and "Time."  So be sure to check out the link below to watch them.  And if you're so inclined, it wouldn't hurt to make a donation and let them know that sharing a charity event like this worldwide will result in worlwide donations.  And yes, they do take PayPal in US Dollars.

Even though it's only eight minutes, these "minisodes" still capture the heart of modern Doctor Who, with lots of flirtatious fun between the characters, lots of good laughs, and the trademark Moffatt timey-wimey temporal dillemmas.  If this is any sign of whats to come with a married couple in the TARDIS, then we're in for a great season this Easter!

(Oh, come on.  Like there was ever any doubt.)

The Doctor Who segments, along with tons of other Comic Relief / Red Nose Day material, is available worldwide on the official Red Nose Day YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/rednoseday.  Just the Doctor Who segments (along with a link to make a donation) are available at the Doctor Who News Page at http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/03/dwn180311200008-space-and-time.html.

K9 - ''The Last Oak Tree''

Spoiler Level: High

Another good episode.  I've checked the writers on the Wikipedia List of K9 Episodes, and I've found that I consistently like the episodes written by Jim Noble, and consistently dislike the episodes written by Graeme Farmer.  This is one of Jim Noble's.

While the gang are visiting the last oak tree in a museum (one has to wonder if they paid a dollar and a half to see it),  the tree itself is stolen by aliens.  The gang investigate the disappearance, and discover the tree was stolen by an alien Centurapede -- kind of a cross between a giant caterpillar and a giant centipede -- who needs it for its own purposes.  Things aren't quite what they seem however, as it turns out the Centurapedes have been using Earth's oak trees as a hatchery for centuries, and transform into beautiful, shining butterfly people, who leave Starkey with a gift-- acorns, so the oak trees can be brought back again.  It's a very beautiful, uplifting, Star-Trek-y ending, which makes me happy.

We also get some good reminders in this episode about London being a totalitarian state, with a brief line about how the government controls all communications, and a closing shot of the floating propaganda billboards.  It's an element I'd really love to see explored in more detail, but I doubt will be, for reasons I'll get to in a minute.

On the downside, Darius is back to being a selfish jerk who only thinks of ways to line his pockets.  After last episode's scene between him and Jorjie I was hoping we were going to get a little more development on the romance side of these characters; but no, apparently Jorjie still hasn't asked Starkey out like she planned to, and Darius hasn't tried to win Jorjie over.  What's most disappointing about that isn't so much the way the characters are handled in this episode, but rather that it's become evident these are interchangeable stories, and we aren't getting any kind of story arc.  Which, considering the kind of story arcs I see on the kids show my daughter watches (such as, say, Wizards of Waverly Place), it's a shame that K9 has chosen to take the easier way out.

K9's score to date: 9 wins, 5 losses.

K9 - ''Aeolian''

Spoiler Level: High

Well, this episode wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either.

The basic plot: weather conditions have gone crazy, and Professor Gryffen determines that the storms are being caused by intense music.  K9 identifies the music as being from an extinct race called the Aeolians.  K9 and Starkey track down the source of the music to one lone surviving Aeolian, who is sending one final desperate mating call out into the universe; she's so distraught about being alone that the fact that her music has the side effect of destroying Earth doesn't particularly bother her.  Luckily, she receives a reply from her husband, who comes to her.  Both leave Earth happily reunited.  Meanwhile, the storm has caused a wall to collapse on top of Jorjie, and Darius attempts to rescue her.

Let's get the bad out of the way first-- the science here is not only bad, it's internally inconsistent. When Starkey and K9 first find the Aeolian, she's set up her music to continue playing on its own, but when she gets stunned by CCPC troopers, the music stops. Now I can be apologist about this and say she switched off the auto-play function when she heard from her husband, because she had to give him a specific reply to let him know her signal was coming from his wife.  But that leads to the second problem:  When she's stunned, Starkey has to take over and K9 has him play a tune that's been in his head all day. "Play anything!" K9 says, in direct contradiction to his previous statement a minute earlier that she had to get every note exactly right.  Although Starkey picked up the tune from K9, who knows how to speak Aeolian, so perhaps the tune K9 gave Starkey was actually Aeolian for "Hold on, she'll be right back."  Which leads me to the third problem:  Professor Gryffen says her husbands reply is coming from 10,000 light-years away.  Which of course means that traveling at the speed of light, it would take 10,000 years for her song to reach him, and then another 10,000 years for his song to get back to her-- but of course music doesn't travel at the speed of light, it travels at the speed of sound, which is much slower.  But I guess you could say that whatever makes this music powerful enough to cause hurricanes also makes it travel faster than light.  And then there's the fact that the only other surviving Aeolian turns out to be her husband, but that could be like a Superman thing-- maybe her husband was able to only save his wife, and she didn't know he saved himself as well.

So really, with a little tighter writing and a few more explanations, it could have worked.

Now for the good:  The design for the Aeolian is pretty cool.  I like that K9 has very alien-looking aliens.  The scenes between Jorjie and Darius were actually pretty good; Darius thinks that he and Jorjie are coming clean on their feelings for each other, but it turns out that Jorjie is admitting her feelings to Darius about Starkey.  I think most people can relate to that having happened to them at some point. Darius isn't annoying this episode, he's actually rather sympathetic. And it's nice to see the CCPCs actually do something positive for once, such as when they lift the plasterboard-- er, I mean the wall and support beams-- off of Jorjie.

So the final verdict is that this episode --barely-- makes it into the win column, making K9's score to date 8 wins, 5 losses.

Nicholas Courtney, ''The Brigadier,'' 1929-2011

Damn.  What can I say?  This saddens me deeply.

Nicholas Courtney was of course best known for playing Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart on Doctor Who. He played alongside the first 8 Doctors, although he didn't get his scene with Colin Baker (#6) until the "Dimensions in Time" charity special, and Paul McGann (#8) as an audio drama.  He was supposed to appear alongside David Tennant (#10) in the Sarah Jane Adventures story "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith," but sadly wasn't able to due to health issues.

Rich is already rearranging the Whofest picks for this year so we can make it a tribute to him.

Thanks for doing so much for us over the years, Mr. Courtney.  We're all saddened to see you go.  We salute you, Brigadier.

K9 - ''Alien Avatar''

Spoiler Level: High

This episode starts off really well, with Starkey on his way to go fishing and trying to explain the concept to K9, who of course doesn't get it.  They run into a pair of CCPC Robo Fuzz, and K9 has a humorous moment with them in their mutual incomprehension of humanity. It's a great opening scene.

Sadly, from there the dialogue takes a nose dive.  A lot of it was very reminiscent of "Liberation," in that it was cliched, predictable and fairly tedious.  Which is a shame, because the plot itself is pretty decent.  The fish are all dead, poisoned by something which can also affect K9, and everyone's started seeing alien ghosts.  It's all connected of course, and in a way that makes sense and works well.  It's a shame that the story is dragged down by so many cliches.

To be fair, there are a few other good lines in it.  Starkey tells Darius to be a man, and Jorjie quips "He doesn't do impressions."  That was witty.  K9 gets a great line in when he comes across Darius trying to untie Jorjie.  And Professor Gryfen hollers "Blood of Pythagoras!"and "What the Heisenberg...?!?"  I don't know if those are good or bad, but either way they made me laugh so I'll go with good.  Actually, there are quite a few good bits in here.  But it flip-flops between good moments and tiring moments in the same scene, making the end product come across as unbalanced.

An interesting note, K9 refers to the CCPC as cyborgs.  So are there actually organic parts in there, or are the writers just confused between the difference between cyborgs and robots?  It's something I'd like to know more about, but I suspect this show isn't going to go into depth into the CCPC's origins.

So while this episode does have some good qualities, overall I just didn't enjoy it. So, K9's score to date: 7 wins, 5 losses.

K9 - ''Oroborus''

Spoiler Level: High

Another episode in the plus column.  Not great, but not bad, and definitely enjoyable.

Everyone is experiencing time distortions.  Once the distortions have passed, the people affected by them have lost a small bit of time.   K9 can tell the distortions are happening, but since he's being affecting by them as well he can't figure out the details of why they're happening.  Starkey seems to be the only one who can remember the missing segments of time. Professor Gryffen discovers it's because he's received alien immunizations, something only done by a controversial married scientist couple who disappeared years ago. They discover the culprit to the time distortions is an Oroborus, a snake that can eat time itself.

It's nice to get some clues to Starkey's past.  Darius is his usual antagonistic self, but doesn't come across as a jerk this time.  K9 doesn't get to save the day this time, but instead plays a great role as Starkey's friend and confidant, which makes him more endearing. (Although I hope he doesn't make laughing a regular thing; it doesn't really work on him.)

K9's score to date: 7 wins, 4 losses.

K9 - "Curse of Anubis"

Spoiler Level: High

Chalk up another one in the "win" column!  This episode of K9 is a classic alien invasion story.  The Anubians arrive on Earth in their spaceship pyramid, and immediately fall down in worship of the Almighty K9, who liberated them many millennia ago against another race that was enslaving them.

K9 of course has no memory of this, but since his memory has been scrambled ever since arriving back on Earth he thinks there might be something to their claim, especially when they provide their Book of Anubis as evidence:

I for one was very happy that the K9 pictured in the Book of Anubis was the classic K9.  I was afraid it would end up being the new K9, because (a) the producers of the show might not trust the audience to remember that K9 originally looked different, or (b) while Bob Baker may have co-ownership of the K9 character, this likeness of K9 is owned by the BBC, so this show might not have been allowed to use it beyond the first episode.  Not that it couldn't have been explained away if it had been the new K9 in the book; you could say that the regenerated K9 would end up traveling back in time or some other timey-wimey thing.  But thankfully, they didn't do any of that.  The pictures of K9's past were of his original look, as it should be.  So major points to a story that was already going well for that touch.
 
Upon seeing this, K9 immediately starts burying himself in trying to restore his memory, to the extent of tuning out everyone else.  In the meantime, the Anubians start their takeover of Earth, starting with Professor Gryffen.  Their mind control over him is subtle at first, but when he banishes Darius from his home, Starkey and Jorjie immediately realize that something's wrong.  Which is good on two levels; firstly, because they didn't miss the obvious like they did in "Jaws of Orthrus," and secondly, because all I did was cheer, I didn't particularly care if the Anubians had done something to Professor Gryffen if it meant that Darius got kicked out.

So Starkey and Jorjie swipe the Book of Anubis to get a better look at it, and discover-- no, it's not a cook book-- that after K9 freed them, the Anubians went out into space and started taking over other races.  Including Alpha Centauri!

Now is that awesome, or what?!?  How's that for connecting this show to the Doctor Who universe?!?

So of course the Anubians catch Starkey and Jorjie, and it's up to the banished Darius to save the day.  Which he does quite nicely, and not in the least bit annoyingly.  I mean that in all seriousness.  If the show would flesh out his clever side more like they did here and toned down his annoying side (which they didn't do in the first half of the episode), he might become a likable character.

Another thought occurs to me that the reason K9 doesn't remember the Anubians might not be because of his memory being scrambled; he might have never met them.  Perhaps that happened to K9 Mk II?  (K9 Mk III or IV are more unlikely, since they seem to have never left Earth.)  Probably not, since this show is supposed to be following the adventures of K9 Mk I, but it occurs to me as a possibility.

So if you're keeping score (and I am), this makes 6 good episodes out of 10 for the new K9 show.  That's over half, and I'm willing to forgive a bumpy start if the quality keeps up like it has for the last two episodes.

K9 - "Dream-Eaters"

Spoiler Level: High

Hurray!  Another good episode of K9!!

In this episode, a recently uncovered monolith is emitting a signal that's put all of London to sleep and feeds off of their nightmares.  The monolith's avatar assembles an army of yawning, sleepy zombies to stop the only ones who haven't fallen under its spell-- K9 & Company!

It helps that this episode is played for laughs.  What's the best way to keep the signal from putting the gang to sleep?  Why tin foil hats, of course!  Jorjie wakes her mother by sharing a dream with her where she's gotten a tattoo with Darius's name on it.  K9 takes great delight in Darius's nightmares of clowns, which, let's face it, is pretty funny in its own right. And the sleepy zombies are just great.  And yes, when K9 does get to dream, he dreams of electric sheep.  How cool is that?

I realize the quality of this show does change dramatically from episode to episode, but really, I'm surprised it's not more popular.  It is a Doctor Who spin-off after all, and even if the BBC doesn't have any involvement it's still the same K9.  John Leeson still delivers a great performance for his voice. The effects are decent.  I've heard people complain about the acting, but it seems fine to me.  The character of Darius may be a bit annoying, but I rather like Starky, Jorjie and Professor Gryffen.

I've been getting quite a few hits for my reviews of K9, mostly because my screen captures seem to be some of the only ones on the web.  I had a tough time picking which picture I wanted to use this time, so in the spirit of giving this show a boost, here's a gallery of all the other K9 screen captures I made.  Enjoy!

K9 wakes Starkey

Can't sleep... Clowns will eat me.

Darius... Still Strange

Darius Acting Strange

Sleepy Zombies & Future London

Sleepy Zombies

Well, this would scare ANY parent.

Yes, Androids DO Dream of Electric Sheep.

Tin Foil Hats!

The Whole Gang with Tin Foil Hats.

K9 Flies Over Future London

K9 circles in for a landing

K9 on the ground

K9 Shoots

K9 Hovering

BONUS: K9 Growls at Darius

Starkey's Shirt Design