Altoona Con - Review

Today I had the pleasure of attending the first (hopefully) annual con in Altoona Pennsylvania. Unfortunately the advertising for this was lackluster, but I was pleasantly surprised. 


The space was a corner room in the grand Altoona hotel (formerly Ramada). Thinking positively, all of the tables were filled with a decent variety of artists and regional dealers. However, the room was small and cramped. For $2, we got a gift of free comics and an enjoyable introduction to comic cons for my kids (my 7 year old girl went nuts at any Dr Who stuff). They also got to see a few cos-players as well. 


For a first year, it was nice. Vendors were pleasant and prices looked very reasonable. Hopefully the organizers will realize how needed this is in my area and increase the space. Until then, we have "sci fi in the valley" in May.

Review "Dark Water" & "Death in Heaven"

So the Season has come to end with a two part serial, "Dark Water" and then "Death in Heaven". Since this is one serial, I am going to review both episodes together as one.

There's a lot to take in from both of this serial. First the Master is back as a woman named "Missy". One mystery down. The Cybermen are back. Danny Pink is turned into a Cyberman and is potentially lost forever. The Brigadier is back, well kind of. We learn what the after-life is all about and I now know that I don't want to be cremated. That's a lot to take in. Lets look into each of these.

Review "Flatline" & "In the Forest of the Night"

Reviewing this new season of Dr Who has been trying for me, but I'm plugging away. Since I watched both "Flatline" & "In the Forest of the Night" today, I figured that I would review them both.

"Flatline" is first up and it's a bag of good and bad. The good, the special effects. The shrinking of the Tardis and having the Doctor trapped inside looked awesome and having the hand come out of the Tardis was really well done.  It's the not the first time the Tardis has been shrunken. In "Logopolis", the Master shrinks the Tardis down to a miniature size trying to kill the Doctor. You know the Master, he loves to shrink things. The other special effect that I thought was great was the 3-D versions of the monsters. They were creepy. I mean very creepy. I mean so creepy that if I saw one of them in person, I would crap my pants.

The thing I didn't enjoy at all was the overall lack of depth to the story. Yes, the creatures had some great moments, but they lacked depth (in more then one way). We know absolutely nothing about these creatures. This is the type of story that needed a more drawn out story. We need to know why they are here and their history. I just feel like after watching this episode, I could have skipped this episode and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. It was rather boring.

Review "Mummy on the Orient Express"

"Mummy on the Orient Express" is the eight episode of this season. This episode did nothing for me, it was rather boring. So the Doctor, Clara and some other scientists have the figure out why the Mummy is killing people and why he is there and this was all brought together by an unknown person named "Gus". That has to be the un-scariest name in history. Gus sounds like a car mechanic, not an evil mastermind. Then after all of that, we never find out who Gus is. Disappointing.

"Mummy on the Orient Express" had a decent premise and looked promising, but under delivered. The worse part is watching Clara tell anyone who will listen about her relationship with the Doctor and if she should travel with him anymore. *Yawn*. I need less Clara whining and more Mummy. The Mummy actually looked good. Really good. If they ever reboot the classic Mummy movie franchise, that's how I want the Mummy to look. He was scary and his walk was fantastic.

All New Connection Conjecture

Do you Know this Face?

by Brice Baker

Donna could never remember, the doctor can never forget. In the recent history of Doctor Who, a running (pun intended) theme has been the amount of running, both literal and figurative. The Doctor always runs away from the aftermath of what he has done - never daring to look back at the carnage. Except once. One time, facing a fixed point in time, the most important companion he ever had made him turn around. In the moment he went back to Pompeii, he became more human. He cared for the first time since he was jilted by the loss of Rose. 

Fast forward to the "Stolen Earth". In what should have been wonderful moment, all of his previous companions came together. In the same moment, he saw that he had made them all soldiers. Looking back on what he had done jarred the Doctor to the core. This season has focused on his dislike for soldiers. 

Review of "Kill the Moon"

Sorry for the delay in my review/analysis of the seventh episode from this season, "Kill the Moon". This episode is classic science fiction episode, where we discover that the moon is not really the moon but rather it's an egg. An egg. Let me repeat that, the Moon is an EGG. The Incredible Edible Egg. Ok, so we can't eat this egg. So the Doctor allows Clara, Courtney Woods (I will get to her later) and Lundvick decide what to do with the moon, let it hatch or blow it up. They allow the people of the world to vote on their decision, kind of like Big Brother. Just like American politics, the popular vote doesn't matter and Clara decides for us. Maybe we would be better off if Clara Oswold decided every election for us.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Doctor taking himself out of the decision on whether or not to blow the moon up. I think the Doctor should do this more often. It's not the Doctor's place to decide how humanity lives. He should let us mess up sometimes if we chose to. I totally agree what the Doctor did and for Clara to be so upset at him at the end I think was wrong on her character's part. The other part I really enjoyed was the science fiction part. The whole concept that the moon is an egg is actually pretty cool. We know it's not true, but I wasn't expecting that and never had that idea in my head before this episode. The antibodies looking like spiders was pretty terrifying if you ask me. I hate Spiders and I really hate Moon Spiders.

Connection Conjecture ~ Courtney Woods

The thing I enjoy most about Dr. Who since the reboot is the writing. The way that relatively minor details throughout a season (and sometimes, even many seasons in the past) can come together into something major is amazing storytelling. It always keeps me intent on every line of dialogue, every minor character and every detail in the background. That being said, this week I would like to discuss.....

COURTNEY WOODS

We were introduced to her as a random student in Clara's class in "Deep Breath" when she offered very wise advice to her teacher. Here we see how we need to watch episodes with a mind to the broad story arc of the season and beyond. As of deep breath, she is simply a random nameless student. However, remember--in the Dr. Who universe, people are rarely given lines, especially important ones, without a reason.

Next she pops up , again as a random nameless student, in "Into the Dalek" with one line as she listens in on Danny's conversation with the school secretary. "She wishes" could be a harbinger line for late in the season.

Finally, in "The Caretaker" she literally bursts in as a full fledged character. I would argue that this entire episode was written to introduce us to Courtney, and give her a name. In one episode, we learn her name, meet her parents, see that she is a "disruptive influence" AND she becomes a de facto compaion with ride in the tardis.