shadowhive | Entries tagged with doctor who season 10

So Monday night I watched The Green Death which is the last episode of season 10. Set in Wales it’s about the titular green death, which is caused by pollution and giant maggots.

The episode’s another 6 parter but unlike others it doesn’t feel like it was padded out. (Certainly it doesn’t feature the usual capture-escape-recapture trope that was common in some of the long stories.) As such there’s a lot to like about it. It’s set in Wales, which I always love, it has a quarry (which is actually used as a quarry for once!) and the ending of it is so bittersweet. It also has a lot of maggots and the effects for them are, for the most part, pretty good as is the effect for the titular green death. The megalomaniacal computer behind it all was funny though, especially towards the end.

As an episode it’s one of the best ones, partly because it has all of the UNIT people back again, but also because of the ending which is so sad. Jo decides to leave the Doctor to stay with Professor Jones (introduced in this episode and played by the actress’ then boyfriend). She gets to show a lot of her best qualities in this, her compassion and drive to do what’s right, plus her resourcefulness and it’s shown just how much she’s grown (though her return to clumsiness seems a little odd). The last scene, with the doctor driving off into the sunset, is such a sad one.

So with that, I’ve watched season 10 fully and it’s been good to actually watch it in order and see how things flow together. I’ve got a few special features to watch (the green death disc seems to have more than the others) including the special features disc which includes Jo’s return in The Sarah Jane Adventures, which’ll be bittersweet too. I’ve not seen SJA in ages but I remember enjoying this one so...

Next week I skip ahead to season 18, which’ll be jarring but should be fine. I’ve not watched any eps from it in ages, though most of them I’ve watched in order due to them being released as sets.

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Other things now. AO3 has won a Hugo award so I guess that makes us Hugo award winners too I guess? I’ve not read anything on there in awhile though, I really should. I’ve been such a fail at reading. And writing too, I’ve not wrote any more either.

I’ve started steamworld quest which is fun but damn the bosses are so tricky. I got to the boss of chapter 4 and ugh it killed me three times already. I might try again later.

Devil May Cry V got added to gamepass so I need to give it a try to thirst over V (I mean have you seen him?), hopefully I’ll go on it before the end of the week.

I squeed last night though while watching The Flash, since it had the exchange with Cisco about bulbasaur which was just awesome to see live.

Last night when I came up to bed I got a visit from Leia who wanted head strokes (why does she only want them at night?) and then not long after that Naryu came to and insisted on licking my face. It didn’t faze Leia though until Naryu bumped against her but it was cute.

I woke up this morning and someone had been liking all my waycest posts on tumblr so I had, like 100 notifications. It was odd, but good cause it reminded me of this. I love the pervy Ways.

I’m sure I had another thing to say, but it’s gone which is a bit annoying. I’m sure it’ll come to me when I’m out,

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Motionless In White - Thoughts And Prayers

So Monday night I watched the next old Who eps, which was Planet Of The Daleks.

The ep is a kind of follow up to Frontier In Space (though really it’s only in the vague sense due to the Daleks appearing). In fact it’s more a follow up from the second ever Doctor Who story, The Daleks (Which goes to show just how long they’ve been around). In fact there’s a lot of similarities to that episode which is noted on the wiki.

So what’s it about?

Well the Daleks have set up a base on the planet Spiridon, where they have enslaved the native population and are trying to learn what makes them invisible to apply it to themselves. A team of Thals (the other race from the Daleks homeworld) have been sent to stop them.

So this story is a six episode one and, I dunno if it’s cause I was tired, but it seemed to be one of those ones that felt a bit too long. But let’s start with the good parts. It’s another ep where Jo gets to show off her quick thinking and sneakiness which is always a good thing. It was nice to see Thals again, as they aren’t seen all that much (in fact I think they only get one more main appearance after this in Genesis of the Daleks). There’s also a nice quote from the Doctor about courage (that I used in the subject) .

Less good things. The invisibility plotline (For The Daleks anyway) is abandoned early on. There’s one dalek shown to be invisible at the start, but that’s it and it’s never really mentioned again. There’s a revelation about halfway through that there’s an army of daleks underground in hibernation, but it’s not clear exactly why they were there (or if they were there before the base was set up or lately). It seems odd that a research facility would need to have an army in stasis like that. (And it’s odd they’d use freezing at all as it comes up that cold can kill one)

It’s also strange seeing the daleks and how, well, short they used to be. We’re so used to the modern post time war daleks which are much larger and more imposing.

I’m gonna watch the special features tonight, since I wasn’t able to last night. But next week is the last story of the season 10 collection, the green death which I’m looking forward to rewatching cause welsh!

***

The last few days have been a little annoying because they threw me off. The chicken mum got out wasn’t ready for Sunday dinner so she put it on Monday and did the cooked lunch then which, ugh, I didn’t really want. It also meant going out earlier, which was annoying since she had wanted to get to the wardrobe so I had just started to move things and then she wanted us going out.

Having a jerk comment anon on my fic being rude just annoyed me too.

Yesterday we ended up going to take a Naryu to the vets for her jabs. I wanted it done another day since the food shop was coming, but she was insistent cause the weather was meant to get bad (and since it’s been raining all morning with thunder she was right). Naryu was good, so we got her some treats, though she has a heart murmur. The vet says it’s nothing to be concerned about but I dunno, I still am.

While down there I popped in TK Maxx to check if there was anything there but there wasn’t (though Halloween stuff is in). I always went in Sainsbury’s and they’ve changed things around which is annoying. I went in to get Professor Cox’s new book since it was there last time but alas it wasn’t now. Instead I got some craft kits, a small Lego set with a dewback and some funkos including two exclusives (flocked Solo Chewie and chrome BB-9E with a sad eyes porg). Since I had points on the nectar card I used them, so the funkos were essentially buy 1 get 2 free.

When I got back I had to grab some butter from up the road and got some books from the charity shop there (and a Star Wars canvas). Rest of the day was spent Lego building then lugging shopping in (Which also included a Lego Overwatch set though I’m not sure why I got it) so I was tired.

After watching the usual tv I ended up watching Freaks Of Nature on horror, simply because it had David Castaneda as a vampire. Alas he’s only in it for a minute (unless he’s in a blink and you’ll miss it crowd appearance, which is odd since his character has a full name in the credits). The film has an interesting concept, since it’s a world where vampires, zombies and humans coexist... until aliens come.

Unfortunately the concept is better than the actual thing, mostly because so many of the characters are just so unlikeable that you don’t care if they live or die. Overall it was disappointing really.

Causa the disruption I’ve not done my usual morning listen to Magnus archives (until today where I marvel at the guy’s stupidity for going into a mausoleum in the middle of nowhere) or afternoon reading. Hopefully I’ll be about to read this afternoon after lunch.

I think that’s covered everything. I have vague fic ideas so I may write this week, but not today I don’t think.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Richard Ashcroft - A Song For The Lovers

(So I started writing this out before heading out, but of course when I got back dreamwidth hadn’t saved it ugh! So this is a rewrite)

So it’s time for the weekly thoughts on Doctor Who as I continue watching the season 10 boxset. Last night was Frontier In Space. Unlike the other two of the season this was a 6 part part story. An issue with old Who stories is that sometimes they could be overly long. This was especially true for the stories that were 6+ parts, but Frontier seemed to hold up better then most.

The story, basically, is that the two great empires of the galaxy, Earth and Draconia, are on the brink of war. Someone is trying to start a war between them, by attacking ships and making people think it’s the other side doing it.

As a story it holds up pretty well (certainly more than I remember). It’s the first of a two story arc, which are loosely connected. It’s only in the last part of the story that the connection to the next story (planet of the Daleks) becomes obvious, with Daleks showing up.

This story is very much a Master one, even though he doesn’t show up until about half way through. He very much owns the scene whenever he’s on screen. Unfortunately this ends up being the last Master episode for several years, as the original actor that played him died suddenly a few months after the episode. (From the booklet included with the boxset, there was a ‘final confrontation’ planned between the Doctor and Master the following year.)

Jo again was pretty good. She even resisted the Master’s hypnosis successfully! (Has anyone else done that?) she’s probably one of my favourite companions, and I realised last night that my favourite ones from old Who follow on from each other (Jo-Sarah Jane-Leela).

It’s a shame that the Draconians didn’t appear in another story after this one. Their design is pretty good and I think it’d be nice to see them in new Who. (To be honest I’d really like to see more eps with humans and aliens co-operating. Too often episodes set in the future are human-centric and I’d love something with humans/hath/ice warriors/Judoon/Silurians etc working together. Please someone give it to me!) It would’ve been nice if the space ships were a bit more distinctive though. (And I liked that the president of Earth was a woman.)

Anyway, it was a pretty good episode and I’ll see the follow-up next week (and then there’s only one The Green Death left before I switch seasons.)

Now to snuggle and try to read some.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Scooby Doo

So it’s been raining again today which is good, as it’s nice and cool which is better than the the irritating heat.

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I did the food shop, started reading Pirate’s Price and generally spent it snuggled. For passing my course, mum got me the new expansion of Elder Scrolls Online, Elsweyr, which I started last night. I completed a dungeon, started an investigation into a missing person and, with the help of others on the game, beat a dragon. You can tell that the expansion is new because there were plenty of people around which was good, especially for the dragon. Hopefully it means I can beat the other dragons and world bosses cause of it too.

I’ve not done much ficcing, though I did a little yesterday. I hate that the weather is making my fic Brain go so slow, this should be a simple enough fic to do (a bottom!Diego fic that I started for the anon hate people got). I want it finished this week, which seems doable.

Last night I watched the next episode of old Who, which was Carnival Of Monsters. Carnival is the first episode since the Doctor has access to the tardis again, so he tried to take Jo to visit a planet... but in true Who fashion, it lands somewhere else entirely. Instead it lands on a boat inside a Miniscope, which is basically like a peep show with different species in it.

As an episode it’s a pretty good one, and, at four parts, it’s a nice enough length. Jo’s fun in it and shows off that she’s smarter than she first appears. As a concept it’s a pretty interesting one and the Inter Minor officials, with their xenophobia that’s so strong their willing to allow some of the beasts free (not caring how many people would die) seems, well, timely even now.

Something strange I realised was the special features. Carnival Of Monsters, like The Three Doctors, were one of the early episodes released on blu ray. As such, they got a later re-release, in boxsets called revisitations (which were three boxsets, each with three episodes, with additional special features). The old thing is that some of those special features are missing from the disc and the same is true about the three doctors ones. That’s odd because most of the features were transferred over (even the coming soon dvd trailers, which are obviously redundant now) so it’s strange. I dunno if they plan to put those features on other boxsets (some where random ones so maybe could be put on somewhere more relevant) or if they were just left off altogether (I don’t think they’re on the bonus disc). It seems odd though.

Today’s been wet again. We took Naryu for a walk and, while talking, mum told me about what she’d been reading. The first was one of the Alex Cross books I got her, which was about terrorists in New York, but the other was a kindle story. About werewolves and it soon became clear what she’d read was an omegaverse based thing which was.... well, awkward.

Plan for the rest of the day? Wait for food shop, watch the smash bros stream, try and fic and then watch some of the Who special features tonight.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Tv

So I didn’t so a proper post yesterday so here it is, though it’s mostly rambling about Who. (I really need to sort my icons tomorrow to add an old Who one)

The second Big Finish stream was Sunday. There were some pretty good stories, but the main issue was still there. Because most were part 1’s of a story you’d just get into it and then it would switch to another one. I did lose focus Part way through but I managed to hear most of them. Like the first day, the better ones were the last few, which were hour long stories (that, although from boxsets, worked on there own). My favourite ones were the UNIT, River and Legacy of time ones, which were all in this format.

Yesterday was, for the most part, a lazy day. When mum went to the library I got really tired and napped. When I woke, I started reading Doom Patrol but just one issue, and found I passed my uni course like I mentioned yesterday.

I then ended up reading the booklet that came with the Doctor Who season 10 boxset and ended up reading it over the course of the night. The booklet had things from each episode and it was fascinating to read about the process (as well as random stories from the set, like a bomb scare that turned out to be due to an effects guy bringing his clock in his bag!).

Reading it, and big finish stream, meant I was eager to start watching so after the usual tv and Stardew (getting to level 65 in the mine, almost finishing a community Center bundle and getting to 7 hearts with Sebastian) I put on the first episode.

The first episode of season 10 is The Three Doctors. Done for the show’s 10th anniversary, as the name implies, it was a show the featured the first three doctors together. (Although the first Doctor’s role was more minor due to William Hartnell’s health.)

It features a lot of stuff over its four parts. The Brigadier gets his first trip to another planet and his reactions to it (and the inside of the tardis) are priceless. We get to see a few other time lords (who reward the doctor for his help by ending his exile on earth) and, of course, we get the Doctors. The banter between the second and third doctor is so funny. And Jo is, as always, so sweet.

Omega is a pretty good villain, as a time lord who was bitter at being forgotten and trapped in an anti matter universe. I’m surprised he hasn’t been bought back in the new series because he could work even now (though with the time lords at the end of time and hiding I dunno how it would work). I quite like his minions too who have a pretty good and alien look to them.

I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the boxset now, I’ve not watched them all in context before (well, apart from frontier in space/planet of the Daleks). I remember carnival of monsters and the green death were pretty good episodes.

I’m not sure if I’ll watch them weekly or more often so we’ll see. Tonight, though, I’m gonna watch some of the special features from the disc (including checking out the behind the sofa thing) after Stardew. I might do Resident Evil 5 soon, cause I need to get an achievement for the horror quest on game pass.

Now though, once I’ve eaten, we might be going to pick up mum’s meds cause they messed up some last time.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Tv