Doctor Who #9 S01E04 Aliens of London (Part I)

Woahhhhhhh. This was a really good episode. It was intense and funny and crazy and I was all over the place.

So Rose returns home with the Doctor and he tells her that 12 hours had passed in her time while they were traversing time and space. Rose wants to pop in and let her mother know she's alright before they go off again while the Doctor sees a missing person's flyer for Rose. How long was she actually gone for?

TWELVE MONTHS. That's a massive miscalculation there. So Rose's mother is of course furious and happy and frustrated at the same time. She wants to know where Rose has been and Rose tells her that she's been traveling. So she's telling the truth. But of course her mother doesn't believe her and starts going a bit nuts. 

So while Rose talks to the Doctor later about how she's the only one of Earth who knows about so much now, she jinxed it. A spaceship smashes the Big Ben and lands in the water. I had no idea where this episode was going. At the moment, while I understood her anger and frustrations, Rose's mum was irritating the hell out of me. I want her to know what was really going on so that everyone can be happy and fine. Her shrill voice is annoying.

Everyone starts watching the news coverage of the crash on the television and the Doctor gets fed up and wants to investigate, himself. Rose makes him promise not to leave her so he gives he a copy of the keys to the TARDIS to reassure her. You guys, this is the equivalent of a guy giving his serious girlfriend the keys to his apartment. It's freaking adorable and I'm loving it.

But thennnnnnnnnn, we get to the hospital where the body from the spaceship was being held. This whole scene just made me go crazy emotional. I was freaking out about what it might have looked like because of all the horrifying and other strange beings I've seen in previous episodes. And then it's the cutest yet terrifying yet...oaksdhfaiksjvakdsvniksdvn thing. IT'S A MINI PIG SPACEMAN WHO RUNS WITH HIS LITTLE HOOFS IN THE AIR. The noises and things I said when I saw him made my mum burst in the room with worry. Literally.

And then the pig spaceman was shot and my heart is broken. Especially when the Doctor tells us it was just a normal pig that was tampered with and it was scared out of it's mind. 

Meanwhile, Rose's old boyfriend see's the TARDIS disappear and goes to find Rose at her home. He was astoundingly loyal and dedicated to finding Rose for the past 12 months. He's been looking for her and wasn't able to move on. But then when he tells her about the Doctor disappearing, he turns into an irritating, bitter child when talking to Rose. Rose is upset that he's gone but when she sees her keys flashing and realises her mother was still with them, she panics.

At first I was SO happy that her mother finds out. I thought that meant that things would go on fine. Until she ran off without even an explanation and FUCKING CALLS THE GOVERNMENT IN HOPES OF GETTING THE DOCTOR KILLED. I understand she's trying to protect her daughter, but she acted rashly and without hearing anyone out or thinking about the facts. Ughhhhh

So the Doctor finds out that the spaceship came from space originally and as he was about to go, the government escorts him personally to where this whole alien situation was being handled. While all that domestic crap was happening up there, the Prime Minister was missing and by default, the position was given to some random guy who can't control his gas. AND THEN MUM FROM SHAUN OF THE DEAD FINDS EVERYTHING OUT. Three members of parliament are were blindingly blue glowing aliens who use human bodies as skin suits with zips on their foreheads.

As the Doctor gathers with all the other alien experts, he slowly figures out that the whole situation was a trap to get them all there. And then the Prime Minister and some other guy reveal their alien selves. This also happens in another room with Rose, Shaun of the Dead Mum and there's another one with Rose's mother. I actually don't understand what the aliens want or why but HOLY MOTHER OF CHEESE THEY ARE UGLY AND UNNERVING. Anything that blinks sideways is automatically on my list of worst things ever. 

And then to be continued. I really liked this episode. 

• "900 years of time and space and I've never been slapped by someone's mother...IT HURT"
• "Aliens and spaceships and things and I'm the only person on planet earth that knows they exit" -Spaceship crashes in broad daylight in front of all of London- "Oh that's just not fair..."
• "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?"

Doctor Who #9 S01E03 The Unquiet Dead

I didn't sign up for this when I wanted to get into Doctor Who. I didn't know exactly what I was signing up for, per say, BUT IT WASN'T THIS. Within the first 5 minutes I was freaking out. Dead old people suddenly coming to life with white eyes? Yeah, no thank you. Ever.

I don't know what to take from this episode. It shows that Rose's morals, although understandable and is right to us, may have to change. She's now part of this bigger picture where that are hundreds of unknown races of alien beings. She want's to respect the dead yet she could help save an entire race of aliens. She wants to protect Gwyneth (who was on the first episode of Merlin and apparently was in Torchwood) who has the ability to save this race at the risk of her own life.

It's that question: would you kill one person you know in order to save hundreds of strangers?

She also needs to understand her views and morals are not just out of place when it comes to aliens, but to different time periods as well. They were in 1869 and Rose was appalled at Gwyneth's treatment when in fact, Gwyneth had to going pretty well for a female of her status. She had a paying job with a kind employer and even a form of education. But Rose just sees an underpaid, uneducated and poorly treated girl. So she needs to learn to adjust and empathise in a whole new way.

We also met Charles Dickens who is dissatisfied with life. He feels that he's grown to know and be certain about everything around him. He has no more motivation to write and doesn't believe in paranormal/supernatural. His adamant refusal to believe what obviously wasn't normal shows how he is afraid that the beliefs that he had lived his whole life by were wrong; that everything he said and did was pointless and completely wrong. But then this seemingly small gem pops up:

"Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?

"You're not wrong. There's just more to learn."

I like that he doesn't shoot Dickens' down and say that he was wrong about everything but that he just simply didn't know everything. It would have been so easy for the Doctor to just tell his everything he thought and believed was wrong because the Doctor knows so much. How much does the Doctor know, exactly??

Anyways Doctor Who episode three was: scary, wtf, how?, why?, what?, scary, wait...., wth, DON'T DIE

So death count this episode: at least 3, not counting the already dead bodies that exploded at the end. 

• "Sorry I told you to shut up."
• "Who's your friend?"  "Charles Dickens."  "Okay."
• "First you drug me and then you kidnap me. And don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wandering, you dirty old man!" -Doctor just smiles harder-
• I don't understand this joke about it being Cardiff...
• HOLDING OF HANDS "I'm so glad I met you"...YOU GUYYYSSSSSSS

Doctor Who #9 S01E02: End of the World

It's only the second episode and we get to witness the end of the world. It wasn't the earth exploding that was quite dramatic though.

Episode two picks up straight after the end of the first episode. Rose had just left her life to see what it'd be like with the Doctor. If I had the option whether to go forwards or backwards in time, I'd go back first. I don't know why. It probably doesn't matter if you can do both in one day when you're with the Doctor.

So we confirm that the Doctor is an alien who owns a time and space travelling box right off the bat. Rose is so excited to go on this adventure with him and decides to go forward in time. She first says 100 years but that seems to be a cakewalk for the Doctor so he propels them 5 billion years into the future when the Earth was officially going to end. I have to say, if I had spent a long time on my own traversing the planes of space and time, I wouldn't take my latest friend to witness the destruction of their home planet. It's more depressing than impressing.

So this whole galactic meeting for the richest aliens to witness the death of Earth. It was so weird. Watching a joyous and momentous occasion for such a horrible event. And the last human on earth is just a stretch of skin. It was disgusting. 5 Billion years into the future and the ideal image of beauty is flawless flat expanse of skin. It just goes to show and comment on the ludicrous ideas of beauty and perfection in society and what silly extremes people go through to achieve it.

I loved the idea that tree's evolved into sentient, moving beings and eventually a huge race. As soon as Jabe figured out who the Doctor was, I immediately thought "SHE'S GOING TO DIEEEEEE". And lo and behold, she catches on fire. But she was soooo likableeeeee. She also served as a convenient plot mover as she revealed to a noob like me that the Doctor came from a race of Time Lords and that he was the last of his kind. This still doesn't tell me what exactly his purpose in the universe is or what his motivations are.

We also slightly address Rose's rash decision to go with the Doctor. As she's surrounded by these aliens, she finds herself mostly estranged from the other beings and can only connect with a slave/servant-like humanoid. As she explains who she is, realises she left behind everything she was for a stranger on a whim. The weight of her actions finally hit her and she becomes irritated at the aliens, especially that skin thing. She becomes depressed and, as sweet as it was for the Doctor to adjust her phone to call her mum in the past, nothing helps. Especially the almost dying from direct sun exposure or when she got knocked out by hoodie boys. When the Doctor explains the defeat and destruction the war had on his planet and how he's the last remaining of his kind, it comforts Rose that she's empathised with, especially since she's back in London and her own time. But still, there's a lot to emotional addressing that needs to be done. She needs to deal with this and I hope it happens soon.

Oh and guess who fell for the red herring about the hood guys being the villains? I totally did not expect skin girl to be the one who wanted to sabotage the ship.

The Doctor showed a different side as he didn't show mercy to skin girl. I don't know if it's justice or revenge. Rose seemed moral enough to want to help even though she went off at her earlier. INTERESTING

I wonder if there's going to be a major conflict or plot that is evident throughout the series or whether they're stand alone episodes. Anyways, I'm like what I've seen so far. Still don't know jack though...

• "He's blue." "Yeah" "...alright..."
• "I'm just going to go and talk to Michael Jackson over there"
• At least three people died this episode. I did not expect so many people to die already by the second episode. 
• THE WORLD ENDS AS BRITNEY SPEARS' TOXIC PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. IT'S A HORRIFICALLY BEAUTIFUL THING. 

Doctor Who #Nine S01E01: Rose

So change of plans. I've started Doctor Who officially because I went to a friend's place where we had a marathon of good television and Cabin in the Woods. WATCH IT BY THE WAY because that is quality, amazing horror. Usually I'm a massive wimp when it comes to horror movies, but for Joss Whedon I'd do anything. We then watched two episodes of Doctor Who which I shall review right now and soon later. Then I introduced Laura to Firefly, another amazing and wrongly cancelled Whedon program. I strongly recommend all of what I just mentioned especially for sci-fi fans and anyone who loves humour combined with their drama and horror.

I intended recording my first reaction to watching my very first episode of Doctor Who  but something went wrong and it didn't record properly. So sadly this is only a text review of it.

SO my first experience with Doctor Who, played by Christopher Eccleston. It was a great! I really didn't know what to expect with Doctor Who and I still really don't. It was eventful and fast paced and bizarre.

I didn't expect them to start with Rose, who I knew was to be the "companion" of this series. By the way I just have to note, Billie Piper has perfect hair. No matter how you style it, it looks amazing. But I like how they captured London from Rose's perspective as just a boring life that happened in a boring routine, day by day. That's partially what made her so rashly jump into the TARDIS with the Doctor I guess. But I'll touch on that later.

Things became scarier a lot more quickly and a lot more in general than I expected. I didn't think it'd be so creepy with the darkened, lonely halls and those OMFG THOSE MANNEQUINS. I WAS JOKING WHEN I SAID THEY'D COME TO LIFE. JESUS I DIDN'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN. THIS WASN'T PART OF THE BANDWAGON I WANTED TO JUMP O-HOLY SHIT MANNEQUIN CHILDREN. Nup. This is plain scary. They have no faces! And they move like robots. And they somehow shoot crap out of their stiff-plastic-no fingerprinted-murderous hands!

At the moment I still do not have any idea of what the Doctor actually is. His poetic and existential speech about how he could feel the earth and everything did nothing for me except provide romantic tension between him and Rose. Which I'm kind of half digging by the way. Is his role to protect Earth? Why is he speaking on behalf of it to the plastic goop? I wasn't as interested in the main villain of plastic goop as I was in the establishment of characters. I don't think they've mentioned what that blue glow stick thing is. I've seen it around on gifs and tumblrs but I don't know what it is.

By the end when Rose practically runs into the arms of the Doctor and the Tardis, I was pretty shocked she would blatantly go off like that. She had just met man who possesses strange objects, knows about random alien life and lives in a police box thing that can transport anywhere it wants. Why would she leave her albeit boring life that was still full of loved ones including a mother and a boyfriend? Though time travel IS tempting. I hope they explore this a bit more.

In the end though it was a great introduction. I have a lot of questions that probably will go unanswered for a while but I'm excited nonetheless to go on.

• LOL AT THE SHODDY PHOTOSHOP JOB OF THE DOCTOR IN DIFFERENT PHOTOS
• I actually guessed that Wilson was dead and the mannequins would come to life or that the arm would try to kill them. I hated the fact I was right
• I didn't expect the show to get as dark as it sort of did when people died and the mannequins came to life for the first time.
• hahah Google: Doctor. Yeah, because that is specific as it gets. And then the first result: Doctor Who? I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, WRITERS.