shadowhive | Entries tagged with doctor who season 9

So I’m making this post on the documents thing on the pad while at the library, in between reading things because I know once I’m home I’ll be too busy flitting around to do this otherwise.

Yesterday I had planned to make the call about the appointment, but I woke up with a terrible headache and didn’t want to deal with it. I suspect it’s at least in part due to switching to the older glasses as my eyes have been achy too. It’s annoying that this happened at a time when I need to use them for Zelda (and Eurovision this past weekend). Maybe I’ll take a day off from Zelda just to use to the switch handheld for Fall Guys and Fortnite, because those do have events that need doing.

On Sunday I watched the first four parts of The Time Monster (until I got too tired) and then I finished it last night so now that’s the last ep of the Who Ray boxset watched. It’s one of those eps that definitely feels like it shouldn’t have been a six parter. So many six part episodes feel too long and this was definitely one of them.

It’s not that it’s a bad idea per se it’s that it feels like it takes a while to get going (perhaps the first part should have definitely ended with Kronos coming back like the Master hoped). Some of the ideas are interesting as are the side characters (including a shirtless Atlantean guy that was quite pretty) but some parts are less so. The Minotaur, for example, very much feels shoehorned in and is only a minor threat despite the billed up.

The presence of the Master definitely elevates the ep, as if it was someone else filling the role I don’t think it would’ve been as entertaining. But as a whole it’s just kinda… I dunno. It feels a bit forgettable?

(And reading the Who Ray magazine before this, which has the poll results from the third and fourth doctor’s, Time Monster comes in last)

So my ranking of the season now that it’s over is:
The Sea Devils
The Curse Of Peladon
Day Of The Daleks
The Time Monster
The Mutants

Also Who related we finally had a proper trailer for the specials just before Eurovision, there’s gonna be three and it gave titles and some new clips but no exact date other than Autumn, which feels so far away. It looks great though and I’m excited that Donna seems to be back in all three.

After writing most of this post I read Heralds Of Destruction which is the Who graphic novel I picked up at free comic book day and damn it’s so great. It’s like a love letter to the ThirdDoctor era (there’s references to at least half a dozen eps) and it captures everyone’s voices so well. I’m so glad I was able to get it

The Lovejoy ep is apparently at number 2 in the midweek charts in the uk which is so surprising to me. I’m so glad for them! Even if it drops (which it might) getting so high is still an achievement (I know Wilbur acts like he doesn’t care but I’m sure he does really).

And speaking of streamers doing things Generation Loss is next week and Ranboo put up another teaser but, as always, I’m still not sure what it means. It has analog vibes, but also Saw vibes and I have no idea what it’s gonna be. It’s on next week on his channel on the 24th, 26th and 28th.

I’ve done more on Zelda, still mostly shrines, towers and koroks but I did arrive at Zora’s domain last night so I’m close to seeing Prince Sidon yay! (Although I had to stop because my eyes were aching.) On the way to the Domain there were two things I saw written by him (there might be more) and one was about him meeting Zelda (which was sweet) while the other one was about Link and it was honestly so swoon worthy! He’s so sweet and in love and ahhh! I’m so excited to finally see him again!

We were meant to drop the paperwork at the doctors today but at the last minute (just as we were about to leave) mum decided not to which is infuriating, as mum kept saying we’d do it on a library day and now, apparently, there’s no time. So I guess we’ll be bringing it up a separate day.

After having noms the rest of the day is going be a bit tiring. I wanna do more Zelda, but I also wanna do the star path on Dreamlight Valley (to see if I can get more of the star path rewards since there’s only a day or so left, but I’ve got the main rewards already so I don’t have to do more) plus there’s the food delivery which is tiring and then there’s the French speakers being added to the qsmp tonight.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Tv

So in my recent post I said I felt better but it turns out I spoke too soon.that night my eye went funny, first aching a bit and then there was this irritation and pain. I thought it was an eyelash or something but it was still there after sleeping. The irritation feeling has been there ever since, going on and off in an annoying way.

I guess it hasn’t helped that my mindset has felt odd, ranging from scattered to randomly sad to tired. Blah.

Today some mail came. On Friday I won plushie from a stream and I was surprised it came so fast (and in a nice little box too). It’s a small plush of a shark called Carver, who is apparently a mascot in the new Dead Island game (which looks like it might be fun but I’ve no real intention of getting it)

I did plan to do some things today, namely wrapping mum’s presents and looking for the new pod thing which has been awol since I got back from the gig. The former I couldn’t do because I couldn’t find tape and the latter I did a small search but couldn’t find it.

Instead thought Midna came and curled on my lap when I sat down to drink and I couldn’t do too much so I ended up going on the new cult of the lamb update. I did two runs of anchordeep, the first was more sucessful than the latter, though I did met new friends and unlocked a new area. I did get two relic hints but instantly forgot them. Oops. And I’ve moved on to naming new cult followers qsmp people but I’ve already used most of the names already.

I did watch a few streams recently too. Wilbur was cute with his Tallulah day (though the eggs having six days is ominous), I did watch the vod of Bad’s stream with Mariana that was pretty wild as was James’ agony aunt stream because he wore a wig that was surprisingly cute for him.

I finally decided to back to the Who ray run with The Mutants and ugh. It’s got some interesting ideas (like the unique Solosian life cycle) but it’s also a bit heavy handed. And it’s definitely at least two episodes too long. And the Marshal is just an unlikeable you have to wonder why anyone would follow him.

Plus the entire thing could have been avoided up if the Solosians left clear records of what their life cycle actually was, so future generations would know and not get scared when the changes happened. It’s also odd that the seemingly only tablets with that info was with the time lords… and they saw fit to send the doctor to deliver them…. While providing him with neither information, context or who he was supposed to be delivering these tablets too.

I definitely think it’s gonna be the episode that I think will be the weakest of the season. I only have The Time Monster left and while it’s another long one, at least it has the master to add an entertainment factor.

I’m gonna flop and do more cult of the lamb now.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Cult of the lamb

Yesterday resulted in me being low energy last night to the point of me heading up and dozing as soon as MCC finished. (I ended up watching Ranboo for it which was pretty fun)

The low energy ness continued to today which has been a bit annoying. We walked Naryu and she somehow found another, smaller, ball as well as her own. Mum did noms in the form of sushi but for some reason the rice went strange this time and wouldn’t hold together. It was still nice just odd that this happened.

This afternoon I watched The Sea Devils, which is the next ep of the Who ray run.

In some ways the ep feels strange because it feels like a UNIT ep but instead it’s with the Royal Navy. Somehow (I’m guessing the making of will reveal in detail) they got help from the actual navy so that explains why it’s more focussed on them. (Although apparently the model of the sub they used was so close to an actual submarine the navy were working on they got a visit from MI5)

While the it is called The Sea Devils, it’s actually more Master focussed, since him being in prison is what beings the doctor into the story. Cept while the master is in prison he’s not really cause he has the warden under his thrall and is working with the titular sea devils. (However it’s not exactly clear when he made contact with them, so how much of what they’re doing were things they decided to do anyway?) the poor sea devils though, I just feel sorry for them (thought they do look great). I hope one day we get a Silurian/Sea Devil ep where they’re working with people in peace.

Plus we get a Doctor/ Master sword fight and the master does watch the Clangers.

Jo gets a lot to do and rides a bike and even saves the Doctor, which is pretty cool. And the navy guest cast were nice enough (Blythe was my fav, especially how annoyed she was at Walker, the irritating government guy who could be argued to be a villain as well as a prick).

I’m sure I’ve missed something, but it was the ep I was most looking forward to and definitely was my fav so far (and will perhaps be my fav of the season)

After that I had a doze and now I’m watching Recipe for disaster. I meant to go on splatoon 3 for the splatfest but I might’ve missed it as I tend to do (I am gonna build the Lego Minecraft bee house now though first, which I meant to do last night but got too tired)

Tonight is the Celebrity bake off and then I’ll see if my low energy sho9s so I can do some things.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Recipe For Disaster finale stream

So today I decided to continue the Who Ray run with Curse Of Peladon.

I think this is the first 3rd Doctor ep with no scenes on Earth, as it’s solely set on the titular planet along with a tardis scene. it’s there the Doctor says they’ve made a perfect landing (apparently while attempting to fix the tardis again) although of course they’re not. Like in The Romans on the previous boxset the Tardis is on the edge of a cliff, albeit this time they get out before it falls. That means Jo, who’s dressed in a nice outfit, has to climb up a cliff to get into the peladon castle (where at least she gets to play the role of a princess).

Once there they meet the group of Galactic Federation representatives. At he three representatives arrived separately and don’t seem to have known each other beforehand which seems odd from a security standpoint of nothing else, but it does enable the doctor to take on the earth representative role.

What this does mean though is there’s a subversion. Of the three representative races only one is familiar: the ice warriors. And, as they were antogonistic in all previous appearances you expect that here. However they’re actually good guys and turn out to be pretty level headed. It makes me hope that they appear in a similar role in new who at some point because I loved that (and come on, do the same with the Silurians/Sea Devils).

It’s pretty obvious from the start who is behind everything on the Peladon side (the high priest us shady from his very first scene) that which representative is working with him is much less obvious at first. Although it made me wonder how they actually worked together, what with the high priest being obviously xenophobic and Arcturus obviously wanting to use him for the planets wealth.

Other things:
*Why are the guards essentially shirtless? That seems like an odd decision (both in universe and out) though at least it gives eye candy
*Why is the castle riddled with tunnels yet the King has absolutely no idea? You’d think the royal family would know their castle had such tunnels
*The representatives had ships in orbit… weren’t they worried they’d not heard from them the whole time? And what happened to the earth representative to make her late?
*Theres something oddly adorable about Alpha Centauri, though they are so panicked and terrified

(I’m sure I’m missing something too Oop)

All in all though I enjoyed it.

later tonight I’m gonna watch the special features on the disc (hopefully watching a,l or at least most) and then tomorrow night it’s the last lost symbol and Karl and foolish ghost hunting.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Bettany Hughes Treasures Of The World

So the Doctor Who season 9 boxset did come today, albeit late in the afternoon. Thanks to the tracking I did realise it had been delivered not here but to the other house with the same number so I was able to pick it up before the van even left the square.

If it had come earlier I’d have started watching this afternoon (though I’m glad it didn’t it meant I could watch Shoto get to 1 million which was cute) but instead I watched it tonight.

However I did read some of the info booklet for the season this afternoon. Usually these are pretty interesting but this one seemed a bit odd. Not only did it not mark which disc had the special edition of the first ep, but I also noticed a bunch of typos which felt strange. I only read about the first two stories before it got too dark so hopefully there’s not more issues.

So tonight I watched the first ep which was Day Of The Daleks. The two discs dedicated to the story has three versions: the original broadcast eps, an omnibus addition (new to the boxset since the original version was lost) and the special edition. The special edition was the one I chose to watch.

Day Of The Daleks is an odd episode in that it’s the first Dalek episode in colour and yet…. It doesn’t feel like a Dalek ep. This is for good reason, while I’ve not yet watched the special features the booklet (and tardis wiki) notes that this wasn’t written as a Dalek episode, they were added in at the last minute when the ep that was supposed to have them fell through. As such it’s a Dalek episode in name only.

This is shown by the fact that they hardly appear and that they hardly interact with the doctor.

However that doesn’t mean the episode is necessarily a bad one. In fact in some ways it’s got some interesting ideas. Mainly that the whole thing is actually a temporal paradox. Also it marks the first appearance of the ogrons which are pretty effective as mooks go. Also the ep made me realise how much I’ve missed the third Doctor as it’s been awhile since the last boxset. (And Jo is so sweet and naive.) also the controller is a dick.

As I mentioned the version of the ep is the special edition one originally made for the dvd. Most of the time episodes don’t get changed when they get released on dvd, though occasionally effects are updated. Usually it’s just one or two things but for this one? It’s pretty obvious a LOT was done to it. I have to wonder why it was given so much attention (maybe the special edition making of will explain why). The effects all look great and they do seem to improve things but it does seem strange an ep gets this much attention (and makes it especially annoying invasion of dinosaurs didnt, though hopefully the blu ray ep does).

In short it’s a decent enough ep, with an interesting idea, but it’s not one of the best. Although I am glad to be back with the third doctor again.

I’ll go through the special features tomorrow (or maybe later tonight) and then the curse of peladon is this weekend.