"...doesn't your balloon ever land...?"

It's been a rather hectic week and a half for Doctor Who fans, with two rather important things. First up was the fourth, now annual, Christmas special. Entitled The Next Doctor, the plot teased us to think that the Doctor had met a future incarnation of himself in the shape of David Morrissey. Initial speculation centred on how the episode was absolutely certain to be an adaptation in some form of the Big Finish audio CD, in which the Doctor bumps in to a person claiming to be a future incarnation of himself in the shape of, erm, Christopher Biggins. In this story, called The One Doctor, the other Doctor is revealed to be a con man called Banto Zane (Panto Dame, anyone...?). However, it was soon obvious that the only similarity the stories shared was that each had an alternative Doctor.

Prior to its broadcast, there was also much speculation (once the "One Doctor" theory had been explcitly denied by Russell T Davies) that Morrissey's Doctor was truly a future Doctor and was in fact, literally, going to be the next Doctor, the one to take over from David Tennant. Again, this was not to be the case.

Anyhow... enough of the speculatory talk.

What we ended up with was, to my mind, the best of the four Christmas specials thus far. It's apparent early on that Morrissey is not a real Doctor; the only question is that if he's not the Doctor, who is he? Like all good mysteries, the clues are seeded throughout and in hindsight, once you know the answer, it's rather obvious. Blatant even. But that first time you see it, when Tennant says "I think I've worked it out...", and it's only halfway through the episode (I was convinced Russell would keep us waiting until the end...), it's such a wonderful moment. As Tennant explains everything to Morrissey, you can see the latter is really struggling to come to terms with what he's being told; the sheer strength of the performances of both Doctors is what really elevates this episode up. I really wanted Morrissey to be a real Doctor, to be the next Doctor, but it was not to be. His performance is one of the very best guest appearances throughout RTD Who. 

The episode is not without its faults, however; the most notable and glaring one is the Morrissey plays no part in the climactic scenes with the Cyber-KIng. Yes, he's there on the ground; but frankly he should have been up there in the Ballon with Tennant. Given that he had previously stated that he'd never been up in the balloon - his Tardis (Tethered Arial Release Developed In Style!!!) - and that was one of his ambitions, you really would have thought that Russell could have come up with a conclusion that put him there, in the thick of the action once again showing how it was his own courage that made him do the brave things he did, rather than just from the memories he had gleaned from the info-stamp about the Doctor. Really, the more scenes with DT and DM together, the better I say.

Anyhow, despite this minor qualm, it made for a great episode, and as I said earlier, the best of the Christmas Specials to date.

But... if David Morrissey was not to take over from David Tennant... then who? We did not have to wait for long.

The sudden announcement that the Eleventh Doctor would be announced during an edition of Doctor Who Confidential sent Dr Who forums in to meltdown. The OG forums spent the best part of a couple of days going in to, and out of, and back in to "patron only" lock down mode. Speculation became rife again as to who it would be with most commentators seeming to think it was a two horse race between Paterson Joseph and Chiwitel Ejiofor. Either of which who would have been great.

Meanwhile, over at the betting exchange website, Betfair, out of nowhere a new favourite emerged. Someone whose odds, at the time betting on the site closed at about half four on Saturday, were down to 1-10 (that is; bet a quid, and your winnings would be 10p...). Could this have been because people "in the know" as to the new Doctor's identity were out to make a few quid by putting money on to, what was to them, a dead certainty?

This person's name was Matt Smith, and sure enough shortly before 6pm on Saturday January 4th, he was announced as the eleventh Doctor.

Dr Who forums, once again, went in to meltdown. The reaction to his casting was somewhat mixed, most notably relating to his looks. Many people were whinging because "I can't believe they cast such a pretty-boy as the Doctor" and equally as many were whinging because "I can't believe they cast such an ugmo as the Doctor". Some of the vitriol and hate that spewed out was, to my mind, somewhat sickening, and went far beyond jovial mickey taking and in to the realms of out and out abuse. 

What abuse there was that wasn't centred on his looks was instead heaped on his age. So, he's 26. Get a grip. This is the actor that has been chosen for the part by Steven Moffatt, and frankly I trust his opinion a lot more than any of the nay-sayers who seem to think his young age and his pretty/ugly looks automatically mean he's unsuitable to play the Doctor. There have been several people claiming they will never watch the show again calling the casting things like "absolute bullshit" and "the worst decision ever" and various other things like that. 

I mean, give the chap a chance. At least wait until you've seen at least his regeneration scene, or even better, his first episode, before saying such things. But, I guess this is Doctor Who fandom we're talking about here where given all the spiel about how this is a show that can go anywhere and do anything, how the Doctor is always fighting for the underdog and for giving people a chance, that so many people who purport to be fans have such closed minds. It's sad really. You can see why Russell referred to some sections of fandom as "mosquitoes"...

I'm optimistic about how he'll turn out. I trust Steven Moffatt to get it right, and for him to place the future of the show on the shoulders of Matt Smith, then I have no doubt he knows exactly what he's doing. If I was casting, I can't say I'd have picked Smith - I'd have gone for either Adrian Lester or Stefan Dennis - but that's part of the fun of the announcement of each new Doctor, the surprise, and wondering how he'll turn out. Smith was certainly a surprise - well, until the Betfair betting patterns made him a dead cert - and it's surprise like these that make being a Doctor Who fan so exciting. It's hard to imagine how Smith will approach the role at this stage, but it's going to be fun finding out. 

Spring 2010 is going to be a great time for telly as not only is that when this new era of Doctor Who will start, but also when Lost ends... 

Epilogue:

• I have now passed a milestone in that for the first time in my life the incumbent Doctor is younger than I am. Makes me feel so old...!
• And how long will it be before we find out who Smith's companion will be... I reckon it should be Hannah Murray. She would be great! 

"...and a happy new year; let's hope it's a good one..." part 2

There was a decent amount of damn fine movies in 2008. Most notable was The Dark Knight, press about which was dominated by the untimely death of Heath Ledger. This had the unfortunate effect of various people claiming that the movie was only being praised so highly as he had died out of some sort of misplaced sympathy. This is, of course, a bunch of Tottenham. It was praised so highly as it was a damn fine movie, and Heath's role in it as The Joker was a wonderful scene-stealing performance which was the first time a movie Batman villain has been superior to their 60s TV series counterpart. You could see elements of Cesar Romero's performance in Heath's - most notably the laugh at time, and the way he keeps bobbing about. But, the best thing was that on first watching you really have no idea what he's going to do next. His very last scene in the movie, hanging upside down, where he tells Batman that they're going to keep on doing this for the rest of their lives - Batman won't kill him due to his moral code, and he won't kill Batman as he's too much fun to have around - is a neat reversal of a scene in what had previously been the key text on the Joker - Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. It's all the more saddening that at the end of the movie, The Joker is still alive, presumably carted off to Arkham; a scene in the asylum with the Joker in the third in this series of movies would have been a certainty had Heath not died. 

Other good movies:

• I Am Legend: probably the best film Will Smith has ever made. That he spends about half the movie acting pretty much on his own, with just a dog for company and manages to make it entirely captivating and convincing is quite a feat. 
• Wall-E: probably the best CGI cartoon since Toy Story. Even after you've seen it about a gazillion times due to a small child insisting they see it again. And again. And again.
• The Mist: a rather engaging "base under siege" horror movie set in a supermarket. You never really learn the true nature of the threat, and the ending has to be seen to be believed. The DVD version has a black & white version of the film on it. Sounds intriguing...
• Hellboy 2: the first movie was somewhat underwhelming, but this sequel takes all the things that were good about the first, expands them, and makes a movie that's much better than I expected. I love the smoke guy...

Best reads of the year were T is for Television by Mark Aldridge & Andy Murray, and Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre. 

The former is a marvellous book all about "The small screen adventures of Russell T Davies" which looks at RTD's writing career right from the start, including all the obscure things you probably never knew he wrote, up to the latest season of Dr Who. There are loads of nuggets of information there, uncovering all sorts of things about his career. 

The latter is an exploration of various misunderstandings, or outright lies, about matters scientific; things like so called miracle pills, the work of Gillian McKeith, bad stats, the media's misuse of science, and the MMR scare. The approach is one suitable for all, as complex topics are discussed in a manner that all should be able to understand. 

You should own both books. 

"...and a happy new year; let's hope it's a good one..."

I guess it's a tradition, or an old charter, or something that everyone doing a blog should do a post reviewing the previous year. So this be mine.

The year started with the US writers' strike in full flow. This had a massive impact on pretty much every TV show, and meant truncated seasons, postponed episodes, and even in some cases shows being axed. My initial assessment that Heroes would be the show that suffered least proved somewhat wrong. The theory went that as Volume 2 was going to be the first 11 episodes of Season 2, and these 11 episodes were completed that this would merely mean Volume 3 was delayed. However, when they made V2 Ep11, they completely reshot the ending, ensuring the Volume 3 we had was completely different from that which was initally intended. Then, when Volume 3 did arrive, as good as it was there were some rather strong feelings of deja-vu with many re-treads of previously well worn ground. On top of that, there was some really quite bad continuity flubs (most notably the Sylar & Elle flashback). 

Lost probably suffered least in that its fourth season was truncated by just 2 episodes, from 16 to 14, and these removed episodes will be added to Seasons 5 & 6. It also happened that Season 4 of Lost was the best telly all year. This season managed to answer questions, and heap on more layers of mystery, and managed to do both seamlessly and without appearing forced. The new characters - the freighter folk - slotted in really well, and now it's as if they've been there all along. Michael Emerson deserves special mention for his performance as Ben. He's really been through the wringer this season, and he always makes for compelling watching. The scene where Keamy is holding Alex, Ben's adoptive daughter, hostage with a gun to her head is on the face of it a typical "Ben in a problem" scene. You know he'll find a way out of the predicament, save Alex and whup Keamy's arse... It's what he does. As he later says to Locke; "Don't you ever learn, John, I always have a plan." But then it all goes wrong, and Keamy shoots her, at point blank range, in the head... We then cut to a shot of Ben, shocked, stunned, thinking. The expression on his face... oh, it says more than any line of dialogue ever could. 

BSG had only ten episodes of its final, fourth, season shown, and really it wasn't that great for the most part. Early episodes trundled on by, and frankly had I been watching Season 1 of a show, rather than its last, I would have stopped watching. This is the main trouble with BSG; it's a show of extremes. Episodes like 33, and the New Caprica episodes, and Pegasus are wonderful slices of telly. But there are also depths like most of Season 4 thus far. It just seemed to meander along, and it wasn't until the last three episodes where it finally kicked in to gear... leading to one of the biggest surprises, the arrival on Earth. Now, everyone thought that would be in the very last episode. But, no, ten more to go. Question is, will these last ten be a high or a low...? And who is the twelfth Cylon? It's either someone dead, or someone on that Cylon ship right near the end of the last run...

Doctor Who had another great run of episodes. The new Davros was performed really well (although he does make my three year old daughter fall to the floor in spasms of laughter every time she sees him), and the big finale this year was essentially a celebration of Russell T Davies' Greatest Hits. But the best episode this year was Midnight, which was more or less a ghost story set in a single room. It was spooky, atmospheric, and kept you guessing until the very end. And even then it didn't really explain what the monster was... just wonderful. 

Other random TV bits:

• Diana should clearly have won the X-Factor. Cloth eared buffoons.
• Knight Rider came back, and it was as cheesy as ever.
• John Sergeant shouldn't have quit Strictly Come Dancing, and Rachel should have won.
• Stefan Dennis remains the best thing in Neighbours. 

Possibly the most surprising thing to happen this year was Guns 'n' Roses releasing their much awaited album, Chinese Democracy. The only other thing that was possibly so surprising was that it turned out to be a damn good album. It had been something like 14-15 years in the making so should have been a complete mess, but in the end it turned out really well, and is probably the second best of the four proper GNR albums. It started with a siren, a warning almost; and the first time we hear Axl's voice he is literally screaming. It's great. It's a damn fine collection of songs, with a couple more potential singles on there. It's really much better than anyone could have hoped for. If rumours are true there is a chance of a GNR tour next year... but with most of the original line up together again. Including Slash. But I'll believe it when I see them walk out on stage.

Another band returning after a long absence was Even As We Speak who performed a one-off gig earlier in the year. To see them was a truly great sight to behold. They even had Shelley/Orlando's Tim Chipping filling in for absent members. One of the very best performances I have ever seen was at the start of the gig when Mary did a few songs on her own, accompanied only by her guitar. The performance she did of Bizarre Love Triangle was so perfectly judged, with an eerie haunting voice... just bliss, sheer bliss. 

More tomorrow...