Connection Conjecture ~ Farewell to #12

With the oncoming return of The Doctor, I’ve wanted to revisit some of Peter Capaldi’s episodes. It was in scrolling through those, that I realized there weren’t any that stood out. "Heaven Sent" was a favorite but ruined by "Hell Bent". I consider him to be the most Doctorish of the new Doctors but his tenure was tarnished by two things, lackluster writing and Clara Oswald.

A lot of the stories seemed to reach for the lowest hanging fruit on the tree or absurd suspensions of reality. We save Robin Hood by shooting a golden arrow with a long bow through a window of a moving space ship...yes we are dealing with science fiction but this is a stretch. Another example was the season leading up to Missy. We spent all season wondering who this new character is, only to be not only given the obvious but also a grand finale that miraculously gives armor to the dead and buried out of thin air (or dirt?).

Awesome Con 2018 Review

As Dr Who fans, we have become extremely spoiled attending Awesome Con. We have had the pleasure to meet, Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, Billie Piper, Catherine Tate, Jenna Coleman, John Barrowman, etc at previous incarnations of Awesome Con. Those are some pretty big names for a convention that is not geared soley toward Dr Who, but rather geared toward everything that is pop culture. With this being said, I only give my reviews as it relates to Dr Who and the Dr Who Universe. I do not take in consideration anything that is not Dr Who. Is this fair? Probably not, but that's why I'm stating this here right up front. 2018 Awesome Con was geared more toward fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, Arrow, Star Wars and not Dr Who fans. I always review each Con based on Guests, Vendors & Programming.

Guests:

This is was by far the worst Dr Who guest lineup that Awesome Con has ever had since I have been covering them. The guest line-up would have been a little different if Karen Gillan had not backed out. As it was, John Barrowman was probably the biggest Dr Who star at the show and this was his 3rd straight appearance at Awesome Con. I'm guessing they brought him back since this year they included lots of other actors from the Arrow Universe. But 3 years in a row is getting to be a little bit much for me.

ReGeneration Who Review

ReGeneration Who took place March 23rd-25th in Baltimore, MD right next door to the Inner Harbor. This was my first time attending ReGeneration Who since their inaugural convention back in 2015. A lot has changed and some things have stayed the same. Now when I'm reviewing a convention, I like to look at Guests, Programing and Vendors. Just an FYI, I only attended the first 2 days of the Con.

Guests:

ReGeneration Who went all out this year in the quantity and quality of Dr Who guests. The headliners were clearly Peter Capaldi and Michelle Gomez. These two were fresh off their final appearances on the show and the attendees were certainly glad to see them in a smaller setting. Not only were Peter Capaldi and Michelle Gomez there, but ReGeneration Who brought in a slew of more guests like Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and the list goes on and on. The 2 guests that I was particular interested in were Matthew Waterhouse who played Adric and William Russell who played Ian Chesterton. Out of all the conventions I have attended, this was my first time meeting both of them. The character of Adric might take a lot of flack from fans, but as kid of about the same age when I started watching Dr Who, he was the character that I could most relate to. Then what can you say about William Russell? He was there from the beginning and was an intrical part in the early success of the show and it was a honor to meet and thank him for his excellent work on the show.

"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.