"Twice Upon a Time" Review

It's become a Christmas tradition of mine, that after spending the whole day with the family, opening gifts and eating way too much food, that I settle down that evening to watch the Dr Who Christmas Special. Plus, as an added bonus, this episode will be the last of Peter Capaldi and the introduction of Jodie Whittaker. It's also the last episode for Steven Moffat as show-runner, but more about that later. 

In this episode we see the 12th Doctor and the 1st Doctor team-up to stop....well really nothing. This episode is them literally deciding on if they should regenerate or just die. Oh, there is a "glass being" that they are first trying to stop but then realize that the "glass being" is actually good and that really this whole episode is a waste of time. Throw in a couple cameos and a not-so shocking surprise at the end, that the Captain's last name is "Lehtbridge-Stewart", and there you have probably the worst regeneration story ever. The previous episode of series, "The Doctor Falls" is how Peter Capaldi should have went out. That was a fantastic story, with excitement, emotion and the Doctor sacrificing his life to save people he hardly knows. Instead, we got 2 Doctors acting like kids who don't want to clean up there bedrooms. 

Why the Doctor should Not be a Woman

So it's been about 4 hours since the BBC announced that Jodie Whittaker will be the new Doctor. I have had 4 hours to digest it and read plenty of comments about the matter. I am in the, unpopular corner that the Doctor should never be a woman and I will try and explain my position in this post. First, I have nothing against Jodie Whittaker as an actress. She would not have been my first choice for a woman to play the Doctor and she wouldn't have even been my first choice of an actress from the TV show Broadchurch (that would have been Olivia Colman), but she is a fine actress. Secondly, just because I do not want a woman playing the Doctor doesn't make me a male chauvinist pig or sexist as it seems that the world of Twitter Trolls are attacking everyone with that opinion. They remind me of Trump fans, with them yelling "Deal with it".

Before I begin my argument, I think a distinction has to be made between "Dr Who Fans" and "Whovians". There is a difference. Dr Who fans like the show, they might even love the show, but to them it's just a show. Not to Whovians. For Whovians, Dr Who is kind of like a religion. We do not just see this as just a sci-fi TV show, but rather something that we have obsessed over from our early childhood into adulthood. One of the reasons why Whovians love the show so much is because of it's rich history. We can follow this adventure way back to a lonely junkyard. Whovians do take the show too seriously sometimes, but if it wasn't for that obsession we would not have Dr Who today. Whovians are the ones that kept this show alive, when there was no Dr Who. Whovians are the ones who never gave up on the show. Instead of looked down upon, we should be cherished. As you can guess, I consider myself a Whovian. I will continue to watch the show, but it doesn't mean that I have to agree with the choice of changing the Doctor's gender. I have yet to see one good point on why Time Lords should have the ability to change gender.

So here's my simple argument, "what if you were married?" So we know that Time Lords do marry ("Invasion of Time", when Leela stayed on Gallifrey to marry a Time Lord). So what if you are a Time Lord and married to another Time Lord of the opposite sex and you are married for hundreds of years and truly love that person. Then one day, your spouse regenerates and they regenerate into someone of the opposite sex then what you married? That would devastate you and destroy your whole marriage. I know it sounds funny, but it's true. The whole concept of marriage on Gallifrey would be in shambles if they could just regenerate into a different gender. The argument against the Doctor being a woman has nothing to do with us being against women's rights, but has to do with this universe that us Whovians live in. It doesn't make sense to the story.

I would be ok with them killing the Doctor off and starting a whole new show with the lead Time Lord as female. I would watch that in a heartbeat. Dr Who has had some strong women in the past, that "Dr Who Fans" don't know or don't remember. Romana was a Time Lord that travelled with the Doctor. She was smarter then the Doctor and could pilot his TARDIS better then the he could. She even became the President of the High Council of Gallifrey. Don't forget about the Rani, a renegade Time Lord traveling the universe as well and even the Master took a backseat to her. I would have loved to see either of these characters come back to life and be featured prominently, but instead Steven Moffat has decided to go all in with his obsession to make the Doctor a woman. It just seems a like a cheap pop and not addressing the true problem with the shows, the stories.

I hope I am wrong and that Jodi Whittaker does a fantastic job, but it will ultimately come down to stories and being able to explain why this make sense to us Whovians.

Dual Review "World Enough and Time" & "The Doctor Falls"

I thought for these last 2 Dr Who episodes, before we get the Christmas episode, we would do something a little different. I asked our guest reviewer this season, Brice Baker, to write a review of these 2 episodes and I also wanted to write a review. So I figured let's do something funky and post both of them at the same time. So my review will be in "BLUE" and Brice's will be in "RED". I know this might be a little confusing, but sometimes it's worth to try something a little different. I promise you we did not know what each other was going to write. So here you go:

Awesome Con 2017 Review

For the third year in a row we here at East Coast Who were selected to attend and cover the biggest convention in the Washington DC area, Awesome Con. I think every year Awesome Con has gotten bigger and bigger, which creates unique problems for the staff at Awesome Con. This review will break down Awesome Con with a slant toward the Dr Who Universe, because that's what we cover. We will look at guests, vendors, panels and overall feel.

Review "Eaters of the Light"

 The Doctor, Bill & Nardole head to ancient Scotland to settle a bet about the 9th Legion of the Roman Army. You would think that this would happen more often then not. Then again, why would you argue about history with a Time Lord? There they meet some Romans, some savages and a monster that feeds on sunlight. Just your typical Who adventure following in the time held tradition of Classic Dr Who. You now I was thinking how many times have we seen the Doctor get separated from his companion/companions and they each end up on either side of a conflict? It happens a lot in Dr Who.

Review "Empress of Mars" by Brice Baker

"The Empress of Mars" seems to have started the Peter Capaldi victory tour. The proper season with the overlying arc of love and family ended with the monks and finally we have at least one proper Doctor Who episode. There is no long monologue prefacing this episode. There are no basic questions from Bill. It simply jumps right into the action and has witty banter between the Doctor and his companion. 

Review "The Lie of the Land" Episode

So we finally get the conclusion of the story involving the Monks and the only thing I have to say is "Why did this have to be 3 episodes?". I mean really when was the last time we had a 3 part story? Off the top of my head I can't remember any since the show came back in 2001. Is this worth of 3 episodes? I think not. Complete rubbish.

This episode did have some moments like when Bill shot the Doctor and when she sacrificed her life to save humanity, but ultimately these moments didn't really happen and it was a cheap ploy to pull on our emotional strings. There's never a point where the Monks were a real threat to the Doctor and in the end no one except the Doctor, Bill & Nardole even remember what happens. Even brief appearances of Missy couldn't save this train wreck. I really hope that they turn this season around and let Peter Capaldi leave on a high note, because this season has been, for the most part, "BAD".

Review of "Extremis" & "The Pyramid at the End of the World"

So I was going to wait to review the whole story of the Monks, but who knew it goes going to be a 3-parter or maybe more? So, I figured I would review the last 2 episodes before I start forgetting what happened. Now I do realize that this review is incomplete, because we really need the rest of the story to accurately review it.

Let's look at "Extremis", which has starts off as a decent story. The Doctor meets the Pope and gets to solve a mystery of why everyone is killing themselves after translating this document called, "Veritas". Then enter the evil looking Monks, who oddly resemble other Dr Who monsters. I think the special effects guy got kind of lazy and made them look kind of like the Mummy in "Mummy on the Orient Express" crossed with the Sycorax from the "Christmas Invasion". After the Doctor finally figures out what is going out, we learn that this is just a computer simulation that the Monks have been running on our planet with hopes of invading. Well, there's 45 minutes that are pretty much meaningless in the Dr Who World. I mean come on, couldn't they have done that in a shorter time?

Dr Who Review "Oxygen"

Growing up as a kid and watching Classic Dr Who Episodes on my local PBS channel, I always enjoyed the episodes where the Doctor and companions were trapped on a space station with no hope of survival. Who can forget the "Ark in Space" with the deadly Wirn? Or "Revenge of the Cybermen", ""The Invisible Enemy"? And the list goes on and on. "Oxygen" is set in that same Classic Dr Who storytelling and it gave us a twist with some fresh ideas.

So the Doctor faces off with Space Zombies, well sort of. He's basically just fighting the suits. But man did those suits put up a fight. I don't recall the Doctor ever overcoming so many obstacles in one episode before. He's running out of air, fighting space suits that with one touch can kill you, his companion is killed (or so we thought) and to top it off he goes Blind! What the hell? That's why I love this episode. 

"Knock Knock" Guest Review by Brice Baker

Knock knock...who's there....Doctor...Doctor Who, that's who. It's my kids' favorite joke and I'm sure was the beginning of the idea for this episode. 

Finally, in a true Who way, we get a story that turns fun into horror then twists into a love story. I think I will cover the plot quickly today then go into some of the questions I was left with. 

"Thin Ice" Review

Well another week, another new Dr Who episode and another Dud. I truly think that Steven Moffat has run out of story ideas. "Thin Ice" was just another remake of  previous Dr Who episodes, but set in a different time period. "The Beast Below" and even "Kill the Moon" have included the same basic story idea. I think Stevan Moffat's biggest flaw is that he only focuses on the season long story, instead of individual episodes. This season has been bad so far. There's no other way to put it. We need some fresh ideas for the show and I hope we get those with a new producer next year.

"Smile" Guest Review by Brice Baker

We should be excited any time we have a brand new monster introduced. I am very happy when we get a break from Daleks, Cybermen and Angels (oh my). Add to that a perplexing oxymoron of a cute smiling happy robot that is apparently scary and I am ready to go. 

Now to the reality. "Smile" was more disappointing to me than "Pilot". I can excuse the first episode since it was basically an (unnecessary) origin story. Origin stories are always full of prose and relatively slow. I was hoping smile would pick up with the twists and excitement. 

I was sorely disappointed again. First thing they did was dispose of the comic genius of Matt Lucas, making 3 part banter impossible. Next we see the tiny bots ala Big Hero Six and the white emoji bot that strongly resembles the robot from Hitchhiker's Guide. 

Review "The Pilot"

 Welcome back Doctor and welcome back East Coast Who fans. Season 10 is finally here with the episode "The Pilot" and I was psyched for it. Then once the episode was over, I said to myself, "I hope it gets better". It wasn't that the episode was bad, it just wasn't memorable. No one is going to look back and say "The Pilot" was my favorite Dr Who episode this season".  It was just bland. I know not all Dr Who episodes have to be memorable, but I honestly forgot what happened the following day and had to re-watch it. Also, some of you are going to say that I need to look at the episode has a part of a bigger story. I believe that you need to view each episode as a whole and not part of a bigger story. Some of the best episode of the new series have been stand alone stories like, Blink & Time Heist.

RIP John Hurt the "War Doctor"

Last week it was announced that prolific actor, John Hurt had passed away at the age of 77. Everyone here at East Coast Who would like to express our condolences to his family. I am also sad that we will not get the whole story of the War Doctor. The whole idea of another incarnation of the Doctor took everyone by surprise. A part of the Doctor's history, that we knew nothing about. Thankfully, we did get to see him in the 50th anniversary episode, "Day of the Doctor" and some recent releases of Big Finish, but I can't help to feel like we only scratched the surface of this Doctor. Maybe Big Finish will cast a younger actor to play a young version of the War Doctor. If you remember when the 8th Doctor regenerated into the War Doctor, he was significantly younger then the version we saw at the end of his regeneration. So there is hope. I encourage everyone to pick up the War Doctor titles over on Big Finish.