Doctor Who: Series 3 Overview

Well, it's been over a week since another new Doctor Who series concluded (they seem to pass quite quickly now!). Having seen each episode at least once, here is a brief overview and general opinion (though I hope to go into more detailed analysis later).

Having had his friendship with Rose Tyler cut off by parallel worlds, a less-hyper Doctor meets more mature and accomplished Medical student Martha Jones and so starts a new "era" in the new series. Like the previous two series, little clues have gradually built up to a climatic finale. But whereas Series One felt new and Series Two had a set format with a good structure of episodes that fitted the time of the year it was broadcast, Series Three seemed a bit more confused in its structuring and the tone was darker (during the period of Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks one of my friends said it was getting a bit boring).

Interestingly, due to a week's break, it felt like the series were set to two halves (the "Coming Up" trailer showed an exciting group of episodes).

Despite a structure of varying types of episodes, a lot of them have been very good and have dealt with interesting themes.

The Shakespeare Code looked at the power of words and brought up the subject of science vs. the supernatural.

42 shows show the female captain is willing to try an save her sun-possessed husband (marital faithfulness?)

And then of course, the mid-series two-parter Human Nature/The Family of Blood (perhaps a new Classic?) has the Doctor becoming human (a story that writer Paul Cornell said on Doctor Who: Confidential has being in stories like Superman II and the life of Christ). This particular story has moving and had amazing performances from everyone.

I should also mention Blink, a brilliantly original "Doctor-lite" episode which was indeed scary.

And then of course, there was the finale, which turned out to be of three episodes. I thought Utopia would be a pre-finale episode in which the Doctor saves the human race at the end of the universe. But then Derek Jacobi took a Time Lord fob watch out of his pocket and we have a heart-pounding last few minutes in which we find out what the Face of Boe's "You are not alone" meant (which I had nearly forgotten). There had been rumours that at the end, Derek Jacobi would regenerate into John Simm as the Master, and the hints were certainly there early on (the Sound of Drums, the Professor's face on seeing the TARDIS). But what a performance from Derek. From a nice old man to a transformation into his five minutes as the Doctor's arch enemy (helped by another fantasticly exciting music from Murray Gold).

And then there was the regeneration - into John Simm, who had been announced as playing Prime Minister Harold Saxon, a name that was first discreetly hidden in Series Two (a newspaper heading) but I first noticed in Torchwood and I guessed would be the new "arc word". I was able to watch John as the Master and not think of him as being from Life on Mars.

I'll finish this article later...

Finished college.

I have now finished my two-year Media course and am entering into a gap year before doing a three-year Film Studies course at University. It's been a great two years and I may miss going to college.

To celebrate the two years, my friend and fellow Media student Joe O' Keeffe made this video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1urbnLbDrpQ

Amazing Grace

Yesterday, I was able to see Amazing Grace at my local cinema. It's one of those films Christians promote to the friends etc. though perhaps not in the same way as The Passion of the Christ or The Chronicles of Narnia.

I think it is certainly well-filmed (the detail is rather excellent) with more than reasonable performances. But as with most films, there is a flaw or two in it. It wasn't until the film was finished that I realised that there was a lack of depicting the slave trade concerned in the film.

We only get a glimpse of it, with at least only two Africans seen on screen, while African boys are shown in a dream that William Wilberforce has. It would have been nice to at least have seen WHAT was being abolished rather than talkingabout it. There are references to the cruelties but instead of seeing slaves being abused, we see a fallen horse being whipped. I would have settled for seeing how slaves were treated in London without it being gratuitous.

It is essentially a slave trade movie without the slaves. Now, Quentin Tarantino described his film Reservoir Dogs as "a heist movie without the heist", but that film was good in how the heist concerned wasn't important in the plot, but the characters involved and what happened after it all went wrong. The Passion of the Christ is another example, focusing on Jesus' suffering and death, with a few flashbacks to earlier in his life and hinted at the Biblical epic that could of been. This could justify the critics' view that the film was mainly preaching to the converted. It would have been interesting to see why this man was being tortured to death.

Getting back to Amazing Grace, it is faithful to William's Christian faith and I was surprised at the subtle line from a character "I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great Saviour." though some may take it as propaganda.

United 300

I am not normally one to complain about "offensive" material in the Media, but it is interesting to see that the recent MTV Movie Awards awarded the new "Spoof Award" to United 300, effectively a spoof of the claustophobic docu-drama United 93, which reconstructs the 9/11 events on Flight 93, and the comic book epic300.

I have watched the short film on YouTube now and the plot is essentially the same as both films but involves German hi-jackers as opposed to the original terrorists. I admit the low-budget send-up of 300 was creative, with the costumes and the near spot-on impersonation of Gerard Butler. But one would wonder if this film is an insult to those who died on 9/11.

One could adapt the claim against Monty Python's Life of Brian and say that if 9/11 didn't happen then this film couldn't have been made - at least in the way it was.

Then again I included actual footage of 9/11 in my college music video of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

College Final Major Project

I finally got my FMP completely edited and mastered today. It is a ten minute factual programme on the Church's past clashes with cinema (Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ etc.). All I have to do now is finish the paperwork.

Citizen Kane

Today, I finally watched the film that is hailed is [one of] the greatest films of all time. And who am I to argue with that? The techniques used to film Citizen Kane were new back then, so I've heard. The angles, lighting, montages, narrative structure (interviews followed by long flashbacks that make up the film) are excellent, though shouldn't be done too much in filmmaking otherwise a film would be remembered more for how a story is told rather than the story itself.

I was slightly mistified by the final revelation but overall a great piece of filmmaking. And THAT performance by Orson Welles! I knew very little of him before seeing this.

The Family of Blood

Watched "Part Two" of the latest new Doctor Who adventure that began with Human Nature. This is perhaps one of the best new stories so far and perhaps an all-time classic. Performances were excellent and the ending was especially rather moving.

In last week's Doctor Who: Confidential writer Paul Cornell compared the story to past ones such as Superman II (in which the Man of Steel gives up his powers to be with Lois Lane) and the story of Christ. As in THE story? He could be referring to how Jesus as the Son of God gave up his place in Heaven to come and live on Earth as a human being (albeit with his divinity).

But watching this episode, I was reminded of the controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ in which Jesus is tempted (in a vision by Satan) to be completely human and live a normal life with marriage and children. I refer to the scene in the episode where "John Smith" and matron Joan envision a possible marriage, children, and John dying an old man. All this takes place in "The Last Temptation". But in both cases, the characters give up this possibility to face their destiny as saviours - Christ dies on the cross as a sacrifice; John Smith becomes the Doctor (again).