The best fan video I have seen in a long long time.

This video, to me, is on a par with the Tenth Doctor's Musical, which you should watch if you haven't already.

I may be hugely biased because they used "This is Gallifrey", which is my favourite soundtrack song EVER, but...just watch.

Happy New Year.

In which I review A Christmas Carol: the Series 5 Christmas Special

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without the TARDIS. Last night I got my (poncho-wearing) boys over, put a fresh log on the fire, lit up the Christmas tree and took a trip with the Doctor on my new HD TV. And, of course, here are my thoughts on our evening in Sardicktown.

SPOILERS BEWARE THERE BE SPOILERS IN THESE WATERS

THIS IS A SPOILER SHARK

Long story short: I liked it. 7/10.

Short story long: It started off with a bang. I squeed SO HARD when I saw the Trek-ish bridge and the special effects. Not only was it amazing to finally get to watch DW on an honest-to-God TV (as opposed to my 13" MacBook) but the effects themselves far outmatched any I've ever seen on the show. 

So the beginning was great - we saw a crashing ship, "Come along Pond", and a brilliantly bitter Dumbledore Michael Gambon as Scrooge. And then it got slow. Maybe it's just because I was watching it with commercial breaks for the first time, but the urgency of the crashing ship just didn't cut it while the Doctor was off gallivanting through Christmas Eve after Christmas Eve and gabbling on about pretty fishies. Amy and Rory on a burning space liner just seemed so disconnected from the Doctor's romps through Kazran's past. Not saying this is a bad thing per se - Christmas specials are not supposed to have the same suspenseful vibe as regular episodes, anyway - but it just seemed weird and peripheral to the entire story.

Speaking of which, the story itself was paper-thin in places. Obviously the Christmas Carol theme took precedence over any timey-wimey stuff, but still - the Doctor rewriting memories as the present Kazran remembers them? I mean, the duality of the timelines gave me a headache in itself. And how ethical is it exactly for the Doctor to just decide to do that to someone? I mean, can you imagine what it must be like to have someone changing your memories at this second, knowing there's nothing you can do about it? Yes, it was to save his humanity and the 4003 people on the ship. But...maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I don't like that.

Also, the ending of the story was obvious from a mile off. Abigail can sing, the space fishies like singing, singing helps stabilize the cloud layer and save the ship, therefore Abigail has to come out one last time and sing to save the ship. 

Alsoalso, what on Earth (or what on Sardicktown) happened to the whole don't-touch-yourself-from-another-point-in-your-own-timeline thing? I know the Moff ignores a lot of RTD's canon, but seriously, we all remember this:

GODDAMMIT ROSE

But these are all picky critiques. At the end of the day, I liked it. It was chock-full of great lines ("900 years of time and space and I never met someone who wasn't important"), it was Christmassy as a Yule log warming by the fire next to a pine tree, and the Christmas Eves with Kazran and Abigail were very sweet. 

Things I liked: 

- "Mommy, why are Amy and Rory in costumes?" "They're...they're just playing games, darling." "What kind of games?" "Er...grownup games."

- Space shark. Nuff said.

- Katherine Jenkins. Mediocre acting at best, but she tried well and was very sweet. Great voice, too.

- Young Kazran. Hello.

- The Doctor marrying Marilyn Monroe.

- "It’s either kiss her or go and design a new kind of screwdriver. Don’t make my mistakes.”

- Special effects, obviously.

- Michael Gambon in a very obvious fake moustache.

Things I disliked:

- Does it always have to be father issues?

- Yes, we know Abigail's going to have some tragedy. No really, we do. No really, you do not have to keep hammering that in.

- Jesus, Doctor, I love your one-liners, but you could talk a wee bit slower and not make me hunt through Megavideo for all the quotes I missed.

- Not enough Pond.

Overall: 7/10

Best Christmas special of the lot, nice and cozy, looking forward SO HARD TO SERIES 6 LIKE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW.

Hope you all had a very Merry Smithmas!

MERRY SMITHMAS EVERYONE

AND A TENNANTY NEW YEAR

OR SOMETHING

 

I will blag about the Christmas Special tomorrow.

A big fat River Song speculation post.

River goddamn Song. What a frustratingly enigmatic woman. I love her, I really do, but every time she says "Spoilers!" in that sing-song voice, I want to...well, I want to speculate for another two hours, really. 

I love this gif.

So that's what I do.

Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts on a bunch of different River Song fan theories that I've picked up on the Pointless Waste of Time forum, the Digital Spy forum, and other places. (Yes, I'm a dork.)

1). River Song is the Doctor's wife.

 I've started with the most obvious one, which (to me) means that it has to be the least likely one. This theory has been bandied around so much that Amy even jokes about it in Series 5: "Are you two married in the future? She's very...'heel, boy'". Well, River may be very 'heel, boy', but unless the Moff likes to indulge in some pretty convoluted reverse psychology, I highly doubt this is actually it.

That doesn't preclude the possibility of River and the Doctor getting their smooches on, though. I mean, really...

Come on now.

2). River Song is a later regen of the Doctor.

Unless the Doctor becomes enough of a narcissist to be attracted to himself - and, to be honest, that's not entirely impossible - I wouldn't put money on this.  And it's not just because of the romancey stuff (eww cooties). I dunno, I don't think the Doctor would have a female regeneration at all. A lot of fans seem to want that, but...he doesn't show any signs of being from a hermaphroditic species, and a lot of his experiences are uniquely male (read: Rose). 

I wouldn't mind seeing a female Time Lord sometime though. I keep hearing about the Rani - how about we see some of her?

3). River Song is Amy from the future.

Now this one I do like. The big clue that a lot of people seem to focus on is the aquatic theme of both their names: "River" Song, Amy "Pond". When River first meets Amy in Time of the Angels, she says "Oh, you are good" - she seems to have a high degree of respect and awareness of Amy as a companion, more than she ever had in her interaction with Donna. Amy's and the Doctor's ambiguously pseudo-romantic bits (basically Amy wanting to bone him, not marry him) could very well fit with River's wifey-but-not-really vibe. 

And - this is my favourite bit - this would explain my one big problem with the end of Big Bang, where River gave Amy her TARDIS diary, even though she wouldn't have remembered the Doctor/met Amy/known why the blankness of the diary was significant at all. Because if River is Amy, then she's special, and she has the power to remember the Doctor. Sure, there would be another couple tiny holes, but I'd be satisfied with wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey for those.

Also, read the text under Amy's picture. River can fly the TARDIS even better than the Doctor can.

God damn, the more I think about this the more I like it. If I'm right YOU READ IT HERE, FOLKS.

Cue the timeline-crossing slashfic.

4). River Song is the Doctor's daughter.

Refer to #1 and add a big "EWWWWWWW".

5). River Song is the Doctor's mother.

Refer to #1 and add a big "NO NO NO".

6). River Song is a personification of the TARDIS.

Now this is interesting. I came across this on Digital Spy and had to blink and read again, because my first instinct was "LOLWUT". Then I read this:

"The Tardis is female. The Doctor talks to it like a wife or partner. (Thanks dear). When Churchill calls the Tardis, River gets the call.
River knows more about how the Tardis works than the Doctor (blue boringers)" (from a Digital Spy forum member)

Obviously I can't take credit for any speculation about this, but it does make a strange kind of sense. There are alternate explanations for every statement up there, but still. I like it a hell of a lot more than "River is the Doctor's daughter/wife", anyway. Yeuch. 

What do you think? Did I miss out anything?

Brighly coloured socks.

As part of my annoyingly enthusiastic countdown to the Christmas Special (five days till it airs in Canada, folks!) here are some interviews with Matt Smith (the Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy), Katherine Jenkins (Abigail), and Arthur Darvill (Rory) of A Christmas Carol. Courtesy of Doctor Who TV.

PS - Just TRY and tell me that Karen Gillan is not the most adorable thing. Seriously, she is my new girl crush.

Enjoy!

Arthur Darvill's text interview can be found here.

Get your tissues out.

50 reasons to ship the (Tenth) Doctor and Rose:

1-25 

26-50 

My personal favourite?

"33.  The first and the last smiles that the tenth Doctor ever gives are both to Rose.  When he first comes into the world, Rose is by his side, and will remain there as long as she possibly can, and he smiles blissfully at her.  Because even in his new body, he loves her to pieces.  Then, when knows he’s dying, he visits all of the people he cared about in this body.  But Rose is lost, Rose is happy, Rose is in a parallel universe without him yet still with him.  He wouldn’t upset her happiness even if he could, but he still couldn’t die without seeing her one final time.  So, as his last trip before he falls, he goes to see Rose before she even knew him.  He loves her so much that, despite how heartbreaking is it for him, he has to see some version of Rose, any version of Rose, before he dies.  And he smiles at her.  The last thing he does before he goes is smile.  And the last smile that those lips ever form is at Rose."

Also: For #40, if you don't see it, look in the lower right corner.

I think I'll just weep silently into my study notes now.

(reposted from Whospam)

WHAT IS THIS CREATION I MUST HAVE IT NOW

A Who fan on Youtube created this absolutely pants-melting mashup of Doctor Who and Star Wars:




I have to say, the sight of the Doctor wielding a lightsaber made me pass out for a moment due to sheer fansqueecitement. DEAR GOD I WOULD WATCH THIS, I WOULD WATCH THIS SO HARD.