shadowhive | Entries tagged with doctor who season 7

So after the post yesterday I did end up watching Inferno, to finish season 7 of Doctor Who (which I wanted to do before the new series started).

Inferno is the last ep of season 7 and its main story is about a drilling project that brings up a mysterious green goo. This ooze turns anyone that comes into contact with it into monsters called primords (though that name isn’t actually uttered) who attack others to kill and spread it. The lead scientist of the project wants to keep drilling regardless of the warnings before eventually being infected himself.

About halfway through a secondary story comes in. The doctor ends up in an alternate version of the earth where the project is further along so he sees what happens if the drilling isn’t stop (the end of the world!). But also this world is also populated by alternate versions of everyone. The Brigadier (here Brigade Leader), Liz, Benton and the guest cast are all part of a fascist regime. It’s basically like the Star Trek mirror universe (the Brigade Leader even has an eye patch!).

That second thread is an interesting concept because we often see situations where the doctor is like ‘you have to stop doing this thing because x bad thing will happen’ whereas here we get to actually see it. It’s an interesting concept but, much like the Silurian plague thread in the Silurians, feels like it’s there to bulk out the story. (Which, from the making of, is exactly what it was)

That being said it’s a pretty good ep, especially when the other universe side gets going. It’s clear everyone enjoyed getting a chance to play bad guys.as well as their usual selves. The guest cast also clearly had fun doing double duty too. It’s just a shame the primords are a bit… eh. Like at the start it’s just people that are green and then by the end they look more like werewolves. But others it’s pretty good, though like the rest it’s length is what makes it suffer

Overall though I think season 7 was a good season, but its main flaw lies in 3 of the 4 stories being 7 parts long. I think it’s especially noticeable how much of a problem the lengths are after Spearhead was 4 parts and was well told. Like if those other eps were just a little shorter there could have been a whole other 4 part story there.

(And it’s especially a shame there’s only one season with Liz and that he last ep doesn’t even have her leaving.)

I am wondering what the next boxset will be. Will it be one of the last two fourth Doctor ones or the last fifth Doctor one?

After that I watched something with mum though I wasn’t focussed on it, then I watched the special features on the Inferno disc (a making of and behind the sofa). I have disc switched to watch the Inferno second disc’s special features so might do that tonight depending on energy.

I’m hoping that my social battery and creative energy is gonna be better over the coming days (and energy in general).

Today I managed to watch Moana 2 on Disney+. I had been a bit worried cause if what people said, how it was meant to be a series and had been truncated down to a film. It isn’t quite as noticeable as I expected. There are a few scenes that you can tell would be ‘end of episode scenes’ and some of the new characters (Moana’s journey this time has a crew) clearly would behave got development if it was a show. But it was pretty good overall.

It does seem that there’s gonna be a follow up (some things don’t get resolved and there’s a sequel hook in the credits) so I just hope that the next one is just developed as a show or film instead of switching party way through.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Tv

It’s time for another post that is a mix of things.

First off after the stress of the past weeks the last thing I need is one more and yesterday bought more. I’ve got to go in for another appointment in town and it just feels both annoying and pointless. I sent a message asking about it being a call which I had before, due to the stress, but apparently cause of the transfer the first one has to be in person.

(It also doesn’t help that log in to check messages is dependant on phones, which I always forget to charge so caused extra stress when I got the message and couldn’t check)

The timing isn’t ideal either: it’s on what would be on a food delivery and it’s mums library siting so she’d not be able to come (which she’d insist on and I’ve not told her yet about it at all) I could ask to change the time but I honestly can’t be bothered with the extra hassle (and at least the reply I did get put my mind slightly at ease that I won’t be forced into anything).

But still needless stress that’s just gonna be annoying. Maybe I can make use of the daysaver to do something else but… I dunno. Last time I just wanted to come straight home.

Better things, an eBay order came yesterday too so the books I had ordered came. They’re another set of four from the Agatha Christie partwork I mentioned before so now the total is 30 of the 85 they did.

Also yesterday I managed to get the spark of creativity back so I actualy finished something so hopefully that’s a sign I can work on more stuff. Hopefully I can finish the last of the 5 fics I set for myself post Christmas then switch between WIPs I had and the prompt table stuff.

Last night was also Comic Relief and I’m not sure if anyone else watched but it felt extremely… lacklustre. Only the Not Going Out/Beyond Paradise crossover was really good (the strictly thing was ok though) and we ended up stopping watching at about 9:30. (Right after they replayed the awesome Mamma Mia spoof trailer they did a few years back).

I had hoped to watch something last night but my eyes were achy (possibly from stress, possibly from my low mood lately) so instead of watching anything on tv I listened to a new Magnus Protocol, then put the next Wendigoon cryptid vid I had to watch (damn missing the cool tee he had) and then just laying.

This morning I woke really early, again possibly causa stressing. I watched the new Seapeekay video, about the new smp he’s in Misadventures which was fun. He’s not beating the alcoholic allegations of his characters (as he passed out drunk and got a house right across from the tavern) and he called no less than three men handsome. But it was fun and I’m curious how it’ll go.

We took Naryu for a longer walk and saw that there was a huge amount of frogspawn, as well as two frogs near some (so I assume one or both were parents). Alas I didn’t have anything to take a pic which often happens with this stuff.

When back I put on the new of the Who ray eps, Ambassadors Of Death. As mentioned I had no really memory of it and it was clear to see why. It is a tad… messy. I think the most blatant example of this is that the titular ambassadors get taken by one group to a lab, then they get kidnapped and taken to another lab. The reason that feels messy? Both labs are headed (albeit the second in secret) by the same person.

But you have to admire the optimism of the central concept, that Britain not only has a space command centre (in a base that looks impressive and the entrance of which instantly made me think of the one of Stargate SG-1’s base) but that we have sent a manned mission to Mars. And more than one! You have to admire the optimism of the piece (while at the same time being immensely sad about how it hasn’t come to pass at all)

And you have to admire the ambition of the piece too. The space probe (both as a model and on set) look great and you have to admire the scale. Like at one point the probe is stolen from a convoy and there’s a helicopter involved! And I’m curious for the making of to see where the exterior parts were filmed.

Liz again gets to be sciencey and while she is kidnapped she doesn’t go quietly (and manages to orchestrate her own escape! It fails as she’s caught soon after but still). Again it’s such a shame she’s only in one more ep.

Also it’s so odd seeing the tardis console just… sat in a living room which is such an odd image but gives some laughs. And speaking of laughs the title thing for the eps is so funny with The Ambassadors showing first then ‘of death’ coming with a sting. And speaking of the ambassadors I did feel so sorry for them being used like they were. They just came to make peace and were utterly screwed over (we don’t even learn their species name).

Next time is Inferno which is the last ep of the set already which is a shame. 4 story seasons always feel much too short.

Once I finished I went back to reading Three Act Tragedy which I finished. (Cutting in case anyone else is doing the reading challenge, thoug I’m not revealing anything too major)

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The next book in the readchristie list is The Seven Dials Mystery and I have no idea what to expect from it. It’s not a Poirot or Marple and I’m not sure if it’s even been adapted before. So that means I’m truly going in blind which is gonna be interesting.

(Though I’ll likely go back to Flight Of Icarus first)

Tonight’s plan is to watch the musical thing on bbc 1, which has just started as I made this post, while also watching Seapeekay’s stream and doing Fortnite on the switch. And I wanna see if I can fic some more too.

I do wanna watch a film like I planned last night but I didn’t have anything specific in mind (maybe something on Amazon prime?) but maybe I’ll watch Ambassadors of death’s special features instead cause there’s only three and so could be watched in one go.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Big Night Of Musicals

The last few days have ended up being low energy again which has been annoying, as there’s been intent to do certain things but the will has gone.

First a follow up to the last post. The books did arrive (along with tees from zavvi and dungeons and dragons adventurer) though instead of between 8:45-12:45 they arrived at…. Just before 6pm which was crazy.

My cousin did call the other day and seemed to have realised he’d needlessly caused panic (I’m guessing he’d talked to a doctor/specialist in between) so has offered to have us round this weekend which… I don’t think either of us particularly want (I know I dont’t.) so it remains to be seen what’ll happen there. The whole thing is just… baffling. Why wait so long after we got tested to get tested themselves? And why the sudden care for me when they sure as hell never have before?

Mum said she’d handle the call Friday which I assumed meant she’d cancel it but nope. I still had to deal with it and I didn’t have the focus to bring up things I intended to. But even if I had needed testing it felt pointless cause all she said was ‘oh if you’d need it you’d have to go through them (the people that tested mum) not us’ so the whole thing would have been pointless.

Saturday was a lil tabletop thing up the road so we went up and ended up spending £2 on 7 books (including two veggie cookbooks, one about ancient Egypt, The Iliad and two Stephen kings) and a £2 boxset of parks and recreation season 1-3.

When we got back I watched the next of the Who ray eps which was The Silurians. I usually watch the eps at night but I think for the longer ones (The Silurians is 7 parts long) daytime watching might be better.

Silurians are probably one of my fav races because the concept, an intelligent race that inhabited earth before humans, is just such an interesting one. (I will always maintain we need episodes set in the future with Silurians and humans working together.)

This first ep with them takes awhile for them to show up, but I think that works in their favour and it gives a chance to set up the nuclear facility as a setting as well as the people there. It also sets a few lines going as there’s power drains and things going wrong, along with an evidence of a saboteur but there’s also something in the caves.

When the Silurians do show up (and the doctor asks one point blank if they are a Silurian which they respond with a nod) it introduces the central dilemma of the whole thing. Silurians see themselves as the ‘rightful rulers’ of the planet and humans as pesky apes. Whereas humans see the Silurians either as a threat or something to exploit for their knowledge. The Doctor tries to broker peace and almost succeeds until one of the Silurians turns on his leader, launches a plague and kills him. And then it ends on such a sad note…

As an ep it gives everyone stuff to do, Liz gets to do some more science, the doctor goes off exploring and the brigadier… is the brigadier. Plus Bessie is introduced!

I feel it does suffer, as all of the longer parted stories, with being too long. The plague is introduced in part 5 and feels clearly there to extend the story (I’ve not watched the special features yet, maybe tonight but that seems to be the case). On the one hand at least it’s not padding in how other eps were (which tends to be getting captured, escaping, getting captured again) and it does resonate more now after the pandemic with how people recklessly broke qua native and pretended it wasn’t happening despite having visual symptoms.

However on the other hand it’s something that feels like it deserved its own thing. I mean this plague gets to London, it’s mentioned of getting outside the country, you see people collapsing from it at train stations. And yet it feels it’s both resolved too quickly and forgotten about. Like yes the doctor is able to find the cure and it does get relayed to be distributed but even so it does feel like the damage is done by that point.

Next time is the Ambassadors Of Death which, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve pretty much forgotten. Is that good or bad? Stay tuned to find out.

Yesterday was a mix of watching various things. There was the finale of Towards Zero which felt the best of the three parts, probably because it was the resolution of the whole thing. It’s not a spoiler to say that the whole thing is about how much of a prick Neville is (that’s clear from the opening ep) but damn he just gets worse every time.

Then there was High Potential which is good and seems to be pushing along the mystery of Morgan’s missing ex as well as the ep’s own murder. Then there was a War Of The Worlds thing about life on Mars which was pretty interesting. The show is coming to Bidrmingham but damn th tickets are so much. It’s a shame cause the war machine they have for it looks so damn impressive.

In the night there was the next No dice and while my focus was off towards the start it ended with Owen playing an unsettling Naga that the party had stumbled on. Plus I love that Zee and Martin seem to have a thing going on. Did they more than just sleep together a few nights prior? Only Zee knows for sure.(even the audience don’t as Owen dm’d it to Krow instead of saying it). But the image of an Aasamir and a goblin is so…

Other things the past few days.
*I read more Three Act Tragedy though didn’t on the weekend cause of other things and lack of focus.
*I started the Wendigoon cryptid iceberg (my first vid with him) and damn I just love cryptids so much. I’ve watched the first two and might watch a third tonight.
*One of my games, Star Wars hunters, announced its ending and I’m so sad cause it was so fun and different and it’s just frustrating.
*Found out there’s a Sumerian records spring blow out so may get some stuff from that

Plans this week
*See what the Sleep Token Rock Sound thing is
*Silurians special features (and maybe Ambassadors Of Death)
*Tubbathon - No Dice, Twitchmaster (at least)
*new tv stuff (new series of the Marlowe Murder Club and Madame blanc mysteries)
*Read more Three Act Tragedy
*We’re meant to have a town/Iceland trip tomorrow which I’m not too keen on but…
*Fic, I am determined to finish something this week which I always say but
*finish watching the Wendigoon cryptid iceberg stuff

I’m 100% sure I’m missing something (and something obivious too) but I can’t think what it is.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Sleep Token - Emergence

So as mentioned in the post before last, mum’s friend came yesterday. However I didn’t need to go to town as the ‘big thing’ she wanted wasn’t in stock which was a relief. She did get us to ask if it would be back in stock and left money in case it would be, but personally I’m doubtful.

She did also bring me something, three Poirot dvds. They’re from different seasons of the show, one has four of the hour long episodes, 1 has a two hour one and the last has two 2 hour ones. Oddly the back of them has the same general blurb about the show instead of giving any info on the episodes themselves which feels like an odd choice. Still two are recognisable: Death In The Clouds is the solo ep and Five Little Pigs is on the double one.

After she left we talk Naryu for another walk around the park. There has been building work on one (which hasn’t helped my recent headaches) though it has finished now. They built a basketball court which I thought was a dubious choice, however yesterday kids were playing basketball on it (despite having to climb over the fences which were still up!) so I guess it will be used. More worryingly though was there was a kid who had climbed up onto one of the hoops and honestly I was worried he’d fall, especially when he climbed over the top of it. Hopefully kids don’t decide to follow his lead as I fear if so it’ll only be a matter of time before someone doing it falls.

When we got back I did end up starting the Doctor Who season 7 box set (thoughts below) so maybe for this run it’ll be afternoon instead of night showings.

I’ve not watched too much of the Tubbathon the last days. Watch box felt entertaining at first (it’s like big brother with streamers) but quickly it’s descended into bitchiness and feels like a popularity contest, with people doomed before it even started. It’s a shame cause the first night was entertaining but the rest? Not so much.

Today was Dungeons and Dodongos and I decided to use the laptop for it which was fine… until discord decided to completely crash and then update which was so annoying. It feels every time I try and use the laptop for it it pulls some annoying thing like that.

I did have my eye on a few Agatha Christie collections of the partwork from over 20 years ago, which are nice hardcover copies. I’ve already had two lots now and tried to get a few more today though only succeeded in getting one (I lost most in the last 30 seconds so there was no chance to outbid them). At least this one has both the first and last Poirot book, as well as Murder On The Orient Express.

The plus side on missing out. I got some things from zavvi with the money I’d have used. Namely a set of tees, mostly for a Hlelfire Club tee and more Stranger Things funko cause I have a problem (I need a Vecna and Will though).

Tonight’s plan is to finish the Spearhead From Space special features and maybe fic, but we’ll see. Then tomorrow it’s head out to home bargains to get a few bits and then? I dunno.

****

So like I mentioned I started Season 7, which is Spearhead From Space. Spearhead has a lot to do: it’s the first episode with a new doctor, the first episode in colour and the first episode with the Doctor’s exile on earth. As well as that there’s new enemies and a new companion too. (And also the show almost ended before this ep and only came back when they couldn’t find a show to replace it)

Having said all of that it does succeed really well. First the Third Doctor gets a lot to do, he manages to escape from auton captors, then from the hospital, he gets to be cunning and charming as well as smart. Honestly the third doctor might be my fav of the classic doctors. I often say it’s between him and the fourth but the third feels more consistent if that makes sense.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Liz’s episodes and this one instantly reminded me of just how good she is. From the opening interview with the brigadier to her first meeting with the doctor in the lab and then them going off investigating together she’s such a great character. It’s a shame she’s only in this one season and doesn’t get a proper departure.

Then there’s the Brigadier who I just love his attitude. (Though UNIT’s outfits this ep? Not so much.) one thing that really stood out is how his superior officer made some quip about Liz being a ‘pretty face’ and he was quick to say that isn’t all she is.

And then there’s the autons in this ep, which is just such a terrifying concept. Shop window dummies coming to life, with guns in their hands, walking down the street shooting people. It’s just a classic image. And the fact they can also disguise themselves as other people too, looking almost perfect (if slightly shiny). The Nestene though…. Let’s be honest the sight of it in a tank it looks like something else entirely. Of course I appreciated the tentacles though felt more like a sudden addition than a proper threat.

But again there’s a lot to love. The whole premise is such a great one, the nestene coming by asteroids in formation, the scenes at the hospital (filmed at an actual bbc location due to strikes), the whole creepy vibe of the autons and the factory (and the plastic ‘waxworks’). It’s all such a great ep.i think it helps being just a four parter so it’s not overly long too.

The next time is The Silurians, which I’m curious to watch again, then Ambassador’s Of Death (which I’ve completely forgotten) and Inferno, as well as all the special features which I always love to watch.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Pottery Throw Down