Dr. Who - End of Time pt2

So having seen the last of the David Tennant Doctor I am filled with loss. Seeing the new Doctor I am equally filled with dread and a sense that Twilight has usurped the TARDIS.

The episode The End of Time Part 2 was a mix of really interesting conclusions to virtually every loose end since the 10th Doctor, and perhaps the worst introduction to the 12th Doctor. While I thought that the way the Master was dealt with was a bit short, it was quite fitting. The return of the Time Lords was even more brief, and so much less satisfying.

It's hard to put it all into simple thoughts. The fact that Wilf was the man knocking, that The Master was so inhumane because he was the victim of an even worse atrocity, it all just fit. It was a bit too pat, too simple.

Ok, let me start over. The concept of a Master that was every person in the world was great. The fact that he wanted to use that planetary army to track down the source of the drumming that plagued his life and drove him insane was a bit of a surprise. Then again, his initial intention was to find the source so he could destroy it was very much in line with his character.

I liked how he was acknowledging his need of the Doctor as much as the Doctor needed him. How there was a symbiotic nature to them both, a destiny that required them both in equal parts.

The thought that the Time Lords were as warped and destructive as the Daleks is quite the twist. That they became cruel and homicidal, in fact even more monsters than the Master himself. It does explain why the Doctor used the "Moment" to destroy both races. It explains why he is so guilty and looking for retribution.

Still, the brief introduction of the Time Lords left me wanting to see more. The fact that they were sent back, possibly with The Master does mean they might be able to get back out again (since he was the key to them getting out in the first place). In fact they were almost useless. Though it was nice to see the Doctor's mother, or at least I think the woman appearing to Wilf was the Doctor's mother.

The way the Doctor traveled to give a final gift to all his companions before he regenerated was sweet. It was touching in much the way that Groundhog Day was funny. And his timing seemed ever so much inspired by that movie.

I was surprised by the marriage of Mickey and Martha Jones. Martha looked great with the braids though. Nice to see Captain Jack Harkness again. Though the 2 scenes seem to confirm that Torchwood is over, but since time is not a factor we can't be sure.

Then came the new Doctor.

I really don't like this kid. He looks odd. He acts juvenile. His actions are just not inspiring. Of Course I am over the age of 15 so I don't think they are trying to play this new Doctor to fans like me.

Looking at the scenes of what is to come I think that a clear move away from the old fans is coming. This is the Doctor for fans of Twilight and pre-teens. It's a Doctor that is geared to the fads of the current times and an insult to those that have followed sci-fi and this series for decades.

I hate to say it, but I think that the series has just gone from the most popular Doctor to the least. At least in terms of any fan that has enough maturity and refined taste to prefer quality. From what we have been shown I am left with the thought of how soon we might see the 13th Doctor.

John Simms and David Tennant have done Dr. Who well. As have all the companions. I will miss the series and their characterizations.

Dr. Who - End of Time pt 1 - thoughts

So having seen the Dr. Who episode End of Time Part 1 I am both filled with questions, and potentially filled with dread. But the episode started off to a pace that was way under par, so my feeling now is surprising.

The fact that the Master is back was great. I really like John Simms as the Master. Plus there was the assurance that The Master cannot die off, just as other standards of Dr. Who - the Daleks as an exaple - should not.

But for all the energy that John Simms brought to the episode, literally, the first 20 minutes or so are just flat. We get to see Donna and her grandfather again. Both we find out are integral to the plot. Just how is the real question.

Throughout the episode I was wondering how the Master will cause the death of the David Tennant. Until it hit me that he won't do it. I think that the grandfather is the one that will do it. Though Donna might be a cause, though that seems remote.

Basically we know, fans of Dr. Who that is, that the next episode will be the first appearance of the 11th Doctor. Which is something I'm not looking forward to. But I think that the sum total of the existence of the 10th Doctor will be revealed as well.

In the next episode I believe that we will find out that the 9th Doctor did not kill all the Time Lords. Like the Daleks, just a few escaped. And they have been waiting, judging the Doctor on what he did and has done since killing almost every Time Lord and Dalek. He will be put on trial, a trial that will sure find him guilty (having breached Time in the Water of Mars episode).

But back to the episode at hand.

Some things in this episode just don't make much sense. Like the Doctor walking into the line of fire of the Master. How could he have been so sure the Master wouldn't just kill him? Especially if he is so ravenously hungry that he is eating people regularly. I mean a Time Lord must contain a whole lot more energy than a human right?

What is that damn drumming the Master hears? Is it the judge of the Time Lords (Timothy Dalton) bringing the Doctor and the Master to trial for their crimes? Is it some fixed point in time that the Master fears understanding (like The Architect of The Matrix Reloaded)?

I liked the fact that EVERY human, except Donna and her grandfather, become the Master but it still doesn't make sense. If the device was to fix or heal an entire planet, how did it overwrite the genetic data of all humans to make Master clones? Are all the clones linked to the original Master - thus they all die if he dies? Will Donna, or her grandfather, sarifice their life to resequece all the Master clones back into regular people?

And what about that line that Torchwood is defunct? I know Captain Jack Harkness went to space for a while, but does that mean the show is done? Will the 11th Doctor ever meet up with Jack in the future, and how might that go? Wouldn't UNIT have rushed in to recover everything they could from Torchwood before someone else got their hands on all that potentially deadly alien stuff?

Obviously all of these issues will not be completely resolved in the next episode. Likely the return of the Time Lords, the Doctor being a renegade again, the death of Donna (she is supposed to burn up now that she has her memories, and possibly the power, back) and the eventual escape of the Master are all things that will be left for the 11th Doctor to figure out and deal with.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by this episode. All the hype and anticipation of the departure of David Tennant's Doctor and the arrival of the new, geeky, kid (who am not impressed by) created a huge bar to hurdle. This episode did not do it. The next may, but that's a lot of information to cover in 1 episode.

Either way, I am a Doctor Who fan, and I will be watching next week.

Golden Globes 2010 nominees

Well it's that time of year again. Yes, the nominees for Golden Globes are out, and our first indications of Oscar Award nominees is in. The big question I have every year at this time is has anyone even seen anything that got a nomination?

In movies the top films are:

'Avatar' - too much hype to live up to

'The Hurt Locker' - $16 million, people saw this?

'Inglourious Basterds' - $120 million

'Precious' - $38 million - the winner, it just tugs on liberal heartstrings more than Pitt or Clooney make them swoon

'Up in the Air' - $4 million, who saw this besides reviewers?

Best Comedy/Musical

'500 Days of Summer' - $32 million, seriously?

'The Hangover' - $277 million, it should win but won't

'It's Complicated' - Meryl Streep has to win for something, and it has Alec Baldwin (liberal favorite) and Steve Martin

'Julie & Julia' - $94 million

'Nine' - they're kidding right?

Best Animated

'Coraline' - $75 million

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' - $30 million

'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' - $122 million

'The Princess and the Frog' - $28 million - most likely to win since it's the "first" Black Disney Princess, thank you Obama effect

'Up' - $293 million

And then there is television. While I can't see how the television shows did for the year, I can say that if I were to pick the best shows I'd wind up with NCIS, Eureka, Torchwood and Doctor Who. Of course the last 2 won't count since they are British. Still there is nothing that beats them from what I have seen on tv, especially broadcast. But give it a bit of time and there will be an American copy just like Life on Mars, Hustle and The Office among others.

Best Television

'Big Love'

'Dexter'

'House' - If I had to guess, based on what I have seen, this should be it

'Mad Men' - The sure winner

'True Blood'

Best TV Comedy/Musical (I haven't seen any of these. Would Eureka be comedy?)

'30 Rock' - the winner, Alec Baldwin strikes again

'Entourage'

'Glee'

'Modern Family'

'The Office'

Best TV miniseries

'Grey Gardens'

'Into the Storm'

'Little Dorrit'

'Taking Chance'

'Georgia O'Keeffe'
(Not one of these matches Torchwood's Children of Earth in my opinion. Too bad it's British)

The surprises for me have to be that Michael Jackson's This Is It is not up for a Globe. How this is possible I can't imagine. I am sure that it will win something at the Oscar Awards though. And yes, it's just because he is dead.

The Soloist also missed out. Which is a surprise since it was rumored to have been an early Awards contender. With Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. you would think it would be a shoe in. Then again, the damage from Foxx earlier this year may have been a factor.

On the television front, how did the remake of The Prisoner miss out?? Though it warped a bit of the original shows premise, it was a quality miniseries. It had big stars and I think Sir Ian McKellan was a solid Number 2. Plus the twist at the end was mostly original and unexpected.

But like always, the nominees seem to have little to do with the view from the public.

Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood

So I was watching the BBC America program Torchwood and the current 5 night event, Children of Earth. After the 3rd episode on Wednesday, I got into a bit of an argument with a friend of mine. It gets a bit geeky.

Background first. If you are a fan of Dr. Who, you probably are familiar with the character Captain Jack Harkness (played by John Barrowman). Fans of Torchwood obviously know him. For those that are not, he is a human being from the 51st century that was able to time travel to the past (1939 roughly). He met up with The Doctor, and was brought to the future – around 100,000 or 1 million years in the future, I forget which.

It was at this time, called the Bad Wolf episodes, that Capt Jack is killed. But via forces to long to explain, he is brought back to life. Brought back "wrong" as we later find out.

Jack is virtually immortal. By that I mean that if you shoot him in the head he will die and then get back up. Ditto if you stab, burn, nuke or otherwise blow him up. He has been electrocuted, drowned, buried in cement, shot by lasers, had creatures attempt to drain his lifeforce (killing them via overfeeding) and way more – but he always gets back up. The Doctor describes him as a

“…a fixed point in space and time. You are a fact.”

Now this is critical to my argument. We also find out via Dr. Who that some 10 million (or billion, I again forget) years from nowish, Capt Jack transforms into a being called the Face of Boh, and dies.

If you are not a fan of sci-fi, Dr. Who, or Torchwood I thank you for having read this far. If you are also not a bit of a science geek you really may get lost or hate the rest of this post.

So here is my argument. Does it make sense that Jack dies? Is this a contradiction in the 2 shows?

I think not. Because if you view time and space in terms of the Doctor’s universe, then they are not linear. They are like an enormously big, yet absolutely small ball of string. All points of the sting touch every other point. Thus time is simultaneous and instantaneous. We just see it as linear from our point of view.

That as a given, since Jack Harkness becomes a point AFTER the creation of the universe (and thus the start of time and space) he must not be eternal. Which means the Doctor is correct and the shows are right.

I view it like this:

If we view time as a ball, say that Jack is a point that starts maybe 2/3 into the ball. That is when he became a fact and fixed point. He continues to the end of the ball. But since he is not connected to 1/3 of the ball, he cannot be eternal. Because there is some point that is the beginning and end of time that he does not exist as a fact in. Which is one reason why the Doctor initially finds him repugnant after being brought back to life the wrong way.

My friend disagrees as being a fact implies being eternal in their view. That he must be forever, and since he is not The Doctor is wrong.

I told you this was geeky. But to me it’s on the same level as people arguing who deserves to win American Idol. Only better.

So, I leave it to the fans, and any quantum physicists out there. Am I right or is my friend?