Danska: Shadow Master

If anyone saw The Curse of Fatal Death (comic relief Doctor Who parody thing way back, written by Steven Moffat incidentally), Rowan Atkinson played The Doctor in that. Even though it was only for a short time and in something intended to be a spoof more than anything, I think he did an excellent job. I'd love to see him play the role properly. My only concerns are that he might be a bit too old now (though I don't see that as being much of an issue) and he's too well known. I think it would be difficult for a lot of people to see him as The Doctor when they already know him so well as Blackadder or Mr Bean or even just as himself. Still, it could be brilliant if it happened.

People seem to have covered the problems with Love and Monsters and Fear Her quite adequately. Both interesting concepts, but terribly implemented. As Tilius said, compare Fear Her and Night Terrors. When I finished watching the latter, my immediate thought was "and that is what Fear Her would have been if it had been done properly."As far as the Moffat Christmas Specials go, the latest one was terrible. The first one, however, A Christmas Carol, I thought was excellent both as a Christmas episode and as an episode in its own right. I consider it to be one of Smith's finest performances.

I think most of the stories I listed were 4x 25 minute episodes. Might be a few 6 episode stories in there too. 4 or 6 episodes is fairly standard for a classic Who story (although a lot of Colin Baker's stories were 2x 45 minute episodes instead).

SIlver Nemesis, and to a far lesser extent Remembrance of the Daleks, are the only McCoy stories I've seen which I have liked to any extent. I still consider them to be barely above average.Given that McCoy is by far my least favourite Doctor, I guess I'm kinda biased in regard to his stories (though many of them are genuinely awful).

I would definitely recommend The Five Doctors. Not only is it a brilliant episode (one of my favourites), I'd also consider it to be one of the best for newer viewers. I watched it a couple of days ago and it really is excellent.The TV Movie, on the other hand, I would suggest avoiding at all costs. I consider it to be one of the worst things ever to come out of Doctor Who (and there's been some pretty bad stuff). The writing's terrible, it gets just about everything completely wrong and its only redeeming feature is some of the acting (I think McGann makes a very good Doctor).Episodes I'd recommend:An Unearthly Child and/or The Daleks (Hartnell - simply to see where it all started)Tomb of the Cybermen (Troughton)Spearhead from Space and/or Terror of the Autons (Pertwee)The Daemons (Pertwee)Genesis of the Daleks (Tom Baker)Pyramids of Mars (Tom Baker)The Invasion of Time (Tom Baker - very good, but be prepared it is complicated)City of Death (Tom Baker)KInda and/or Snakedance (Peter Davison)Earthshock (Peter Davison)The Caves of Androzani (Peter Davison)I really struggle to recommend any Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy, because most of those stories really weren't very good. SIlver Nemesis (McCoy) was quite good, I suppose. If you really wanted to watch some Colin Baker, I suppose Attack of the Cybermen is passable.There's a far from exhaustive list of classic episodes I consider both worth watching and (in most cases) not too long or difficult to get into. Hope that helps. And if it doesn't, consider it instead to be a list of some of my favourite episodes.

Happy Doctor Who day everyone! Oh, and I hear there's something else happening today which is meant to be important. I'm sure I'll think of it. Well whatever it is, have a happy one of those too!Edit: The grin smiley scares me...

I'm quite pleased to hear that Amy and Rory are leaving, to be honest. I really like them as characters, and they have a great relationship with Smith's Doctor, but companions have to leave. They've had a good run and I'd like to see Smith travelling around with someone else, if only to mix things up in the TARDIS a bit.Kinda dissapointed about the no two-parters thing. Personally I would have gone the other way and made all stories two-parters since it gives a lot more room for actual development of place and characters, which is kind of important when you can potentially be leaping about to a completely new place every story. There are a fair number of episodes I feel would have been greatly improved by being a two-parter. What's more, I'm sure I remember one of Moffat's own arguments for splitting the series in half was to allow for more cliffhangers because they're a vital part of Doctor Who. Removing all two-parters can only mean less, if any, cliffhangers. Not happy about this.

It's not a christmas tale as such, but christmas does feature heavily,. what with it being always winter and never christmas. Then Santa turning up as a sign that the White Witch's power is weakening and giving everybody gifts. You can't really say it's unrelated.And yeah, the classic Who stories can be a bit slow. But then, I also think a lot of modern episodes move too quickly.

Interesting. I personally regard The Armageddon Factor as an absolutely incredible story and the only stand-out one of the Key to Time series. The others, while good, I found to be fairly generic.So this year's special is going to another Who take on a classic christmassy tale. Well, if it's as good as the last one, I'm not going to complain.

Apparantly Rowan Atkinson was actually considered for the role of the Seventh Doctor. On the one hand, that would have been brilliant as he could surely only have improved the role. On the other hand, I'd feel very sorry for him indeed given how terrible almost all the scripts were.I really enjoyed The Curse of Fatal Death. Completely ridiculous, but thoroughly enjoyable. and Atkinson really was good as the Doctor.

Oooh, are we making lists of favourites now? Must join in! Ok then. Favourite Doctors:1. Jon Pertwee2. Peter Davison3. Tom Baker4. Matt Smith5. Patrick Troughton6. Christopher Eccleston7. Paul McGann8. David Tennant9. William Hartnell10. Colin Baker11. Sylvester McCoy Companions (proper multi-story companions from 3rd Doctor onwards. As in, TV companions who travelled with the Doctor for a season or more):1. Romana (1>2)2. Donna Noble3. Jo Grant4. Rory Williams5. Leela6. K97. Amy Pond8. Harry Sullivan9. Sarah Jane Smith10. Liz Shaw11. Turlough12. Nyssa13. Tegan Jovanka14. Peri Brown15. Adric16. Rose Tyler17. Martha Jones18. Ace19. Melanie Bush I didn't mention Grace Holloway because she only appeared in the film, and I am not subjecting myself to that again just to form some kind of opinion of her. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is one of my favourite characters in Doctor Who, but I don't count him as a companion since it's more fair to say the Doctor became part of his life rather than vice versa. River Song I also did not mention since she appears erratically and is not a travelling companion in the same vein as the others. That was fun! Let's do it again sometime.

The Golden Sun games are absolutely brilliant. They are THE reason I originally got a GBA. News of a new GS game was also one of the reasons I got a DS. Dark Dawn was certainly fun, but not in the same league as the first two. There was even more dialogue, the plot didn't feel as strong (especially since, as Lord Kaitan said, it ends up being a distraction), there weren't anything like as many stand-out musical pieces and it was far, far too easy. I got through pretty much every boss battle using nothing more than basic attacks (and the occasional heal). In GS/TLA, boss battles were the times you pulled out all your summons, Djinn and strongest psynergies in order to bring them down and hoped it was enough (which it wasn't against some bosses. Gorram Dullahan!). Oh yes, I also couldn't get all the Djinn in DD because at certain points of the game it disallows any backtracking. I really wasn't happy about this, and still have no conviction to play through the game again in order to find them. A good game, but dissapointing after the first two.

I traded in a bunch of games (including the three seperate Prime games) to get the trilogy. I feel exchanging those three for the trilogy should have been an equal exchange, but the store disagreed.

Oooh, really? Do you have a source for this? I'd like to have a look. One of the reasons I'd also like to see them not return is because, well, they have a life now. A decent, normal life with a nice house, jobs (at least for Amy) and a very shiny car. It's the best position the Doctor's ever left anyone in. It would be nice to see them not wind up with their life ruined. Or dead. And yes. Rory is awesome.

I also agree that Children of Earth is the only good thing to come out of Torchwood. Series 1 was poor and 2 mediocre (though it is sad I found them to be better than Doctor Who of the same era). Miracle Day was truly awful. It might have worked as another 5-part series, though even then I have my doubts. If they make another series of Torchwood, I will not be watching. I think my brain would start dribbling out my ears. I definitely prefer Moffat over Davies and, while he has his faults, it's nice to be be in a situation where I can pick them out rather than having to scrabble around to find anything good (as was the case with Davies). I definitely think he needs to focus a bit more on writing stand-alone (scary) episodes, because that seems to be where his strengths lie. I'm also dissapointed that Amy and Rory are returning in Series 7 (particularly if they return as full-time companions, which will probably be the case). While I like them both, I would dearly love to see Eleven zipping around the universe with someone new at his side.

Cybus 'cybermen' are brains in suits. The original Mondasian Cybermen (and various off-shoots) were the result of a human-like race that, very slowly, began replacing their limbs, organs etc. with mechanical components and eventually took it to the logical extreme. They're a mesh of organic and cybernetic parts, so it's not as clear-cut as just a person or a brain in a mechanical suit. Open a Cyberman up and it'll probably be all kinds of funky. I think Craig's conversion was mentioned as being 'stage 1'. My interpretation of that is that it's a preliminary (perhaps emergency, given the state they were in) process that would make him functional, but not fully converted. I agree, it's a really good idea. My only problem with it is them being called Cybermen. They're not. The Mondasian Cybermen's primary motivation is to survive by any means necessary, This means expanding, converting other species and eliminating ones that pose a threat. The method they came up with for survival is 'make sure nothing else can pose a threat' which basically means conquer everything. They believe organic life is weak, limited by emotions and is 'not to be trusted'. Unlike the Daleks, they believe progress and change are good things if they will benefit the Cyber race and are not on a quest to eliminate all other life because it's different. Because they think logically, it is theoretically possible to reason with the Cybermen (though rarely in practise). You could, theoretically, convince them that conquering the universe is not the best option, though you would probably need 100 Doctors all being super-persuasive each backed up by a significant threat to even begin to make any headway on that front. In case you didn't notice, I kind of like the Cybermen. Agreed, didn't classic who indicate that the classic Cybermen would eventually ascend to another plane? Or was that not canon? Either way, the Cybermen need their own season. One could argue that series 2 was a Cybermen/Torchwood season, but the climax was stolen by the Daleks. The Daleks were like an afterthought, and they didn't even see the Cybermen as a threat.I don't think there was anything about that in the TV series, so I don't regard it as canon. Theoretically they could become all sorts of things. I think in one of the books or radio shows (or something. One of the non-TV sources) they become the most peaceful race in the universe. That's not impossible for the Cybermen, though it would make a very dull story. They definitely need their own series, though I fear if they get one I'll only be annoyed when they deviate even slightly from what I consider to be the 'core concept' of the Cybermen which, as I explained, is a foolish thing to do since they have the potential to change and be radically different from their traditional view. Well, what good has making sense ever done anyone? Nevertheless, I expect them to be a threat worthy of the entire galaxy forming an alliance to destroy them (though ideally without involving some sort of ridiculous galaxy/universe/reality destroying bomb), because that did happen.

Cybus 'cybermen' are brains in suits. The original Mondasian Cybermen (and various off-shoots) were the result of a human-like race that, very slowly, began replacing their limbs, organs etc. with mechanical components and eventually took it to the logical extreme. They're a mesh of organic and cybernetic parts, so it's not as clear-cut as just a person or a brain in a mechanical suit. Open a Cyberman up and it'll probably be all kinds of funky. I think Craig's conversion was mentioned as being 'stage 1'. My interpretation of that is that it's a preliminary (perhaps emergency, given the state they were in) process that would make him functional, but not fully converted. I agree, it's a really good idea. My only problem with it is them being called Cybermen. They're not. The Mondasian Cybermen's primary motivation is to survive by any means necessary, This means expanding, converting other species and eliminating ones that pose a threat. The method they came up with for survival is 'make sure nothing else can pose a threat' which basically means conquer everything. They believe organic life is weak, limited by emotions and is 'not to be trusted'. Unlike the Daleks, they believe progress and change are good things if they will benefit the Cyber race and are not on a quest to eliminate all other life because it's different. Because they think logically, it is theoretically possible to reason with the Cybermen (though rarely in practise). You could, theoretically, convince them that conquering the universe is not the best option, though you would probably need 100 Doctors all being super-persuasive each backed up by a significant threat to even begin to make any headway on that front. In case you didn't notice, I kind of like the Cybermen.

Aaaah, Metroid. I do love those games. My favourite has to be Prime 1 (which is even better with the Wii controls). It had a fantastic atmosphere that really envoked the feel of you being completely alone on a hostile world. The soundtrack was stunning, the graphics and environments are beautiful even now and the gameplay and exploration were both fantastic. It's one of my favourite games of all time. I'm a sucker for games that give you progressive upgrades/improvements, aren't completely shooter-dominated and allow for a balance between linearity and exploration through beautiful environments set in the future with awesome space tech and good music. So, yeah. It was kinda the perfect game for me. =D

I actually bought a 3DS, despite being (mostly) happy with my old DS Lite beforehand. I was always planning to get one eventually, I just didn't see the point until they actually brought out some games I wanted. They've still barely managed that, but I got a really good deal on the console, so thought I'd grab it while I could. Overall, I like. The 3D does impress me. I still don't have any 3D games for it yet, but I shall probably look into that soon. Maybe get OoT or Starfox, or the new Mario game that's coming out.

Perhaps it's due to having much higher expectations since Moffat took over, but I didn't enjoy Series 6 nearly as much as 5. It had some brilliant episodes, sure. Day of the Moon, The Doctor's Wife, A Good Man Goes to War, Night Terrors, and the finale I certainly enjoyed, though it did kind of leave me with a feeling of "well what was the point of all that then?" given that most of it takes place in an alternate/pocket/whatever timeline that affected nothing, and didn't even result in anything changing besides the Doctor and River getting married (which I can't decide if I like or not and could have happened anyway). Overall I just found the series ever so slightly underwhelming. Closing Time really annoyed me. I loved the episode, right up until the ending. The Cybermen have spent centuries perfecting their conversion method, converting thousands of people who, believe it or not, have emotions! Once upon a time, they had emotions to! If the conversion process causes them all to die the moment the person being converted feels love for someone then all the Cybermen would have died as soon as they attempted to convert anyone. There is also no logical reason why the conversion thingy should be linked to the Cybermen. It makes no sense! Apart from that I'd say they got the Cybermen pretty much spot on. Now to wait for Series 7.

What I want to know is, having seen one of their Toa come back yellow and another orange, whether any Po-Matoran have changed their armour colours to follow these new fashion trends.

I've missed these blog entries. ^^ Though now my brain hurts. Probably because I was trying to pay attention to three things at once, this being one of them. I think I agree though...

Aaaw, delayed? This is obviously entirely your fault so I shall angrily blame you for everything! I hate you and lego and bionicle etc. etc. I'm joking btw, for those who hadn't twigged.

Explosions, you say? Well I'm bought!