Well, Brandi and I rolled into the New Year with a Doctor Who marathon. Over the last few days, we finished watching Year Four of the "new" Who show on DVD, and it was an exhilarating ride, with the biggest, most explosive season finale yet – and considering that every one of the last three series have had huge conclusions, that's saying something.Hell, the last hour was a giant Whovian orgy of guest stars, references and fan serving moments, and still, somehow, managed to carry a tremendous amount of dramatic weight and emotional resonance. Russell T. Davies delivered his best script ever, and David Tennant cemented his position as my second-favorite Doctor, with a bravura performance as the last Time Lord.
I wasn't a big fan of Catherine Tate's "Donna Noble" when she made her first appearance in Year Three's Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride," but over the course of Year Four, she grew on me very quickly, becoming one of my favorite "companions" ever. She deserved a better farewell than she got, but knowing the Who team and their reluctance to let any character go, I suspect we'll be seeing her again.
Aside from the epic season finale, other high points of Year Four included the two-part Sontaran story, which not only brought back one of my personal favorite alien menaces, but also briefly returned to the style of story prominent during the Jon Pertwee (my favorite Doctor) era – with The Doctor fending off an alien invasion of Earth alongside the forces of UNIT – a multinational paramilitary task force. And then there was the delightful meeting with author Agatha Christie in an amusing parody of her drawing room mystery novels.
On New Year's Eve, we watched two "classic" Doctor Who episodes: "Warriors of The Deep" with Peter Davison and "Timelash" with Colin Baker. Neither of them are among the original series' best productions, but both were fun.
So... 2009 began well.
Here's hoping that the year is an improvement over '08 for everyone. The world's in rough shape, pretty much everyone's having a rough time of things these days (well, everyone except the CEOs), and the only things I'm good at aren't in much demand in this economy... still, I'm trying to remain hopeful. I do have a few things on the table that might see daylight in '09, and I've got good friends, a few fans, and an inexplicably supportive spouse who believes in me and my talents. Things could be worse. ;)
Happy New Year, everyone.
I missed out a big chunk of the Dr. Who year 3 & 4. I saw bits of them, and I thought Tate's character was sort of an acquired taste, but I hand it to the Brits to have characters that are a bit out of the norm & older in age (by USA standards: young, beautiful, etc.).
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you enjoyed the 007ish, Joh Pertwee era, but since you like detective fiction so well, shouldn't come as a surprise.