Peace, at last...?

From the Radio Times:

On a flying visit to Cardiff, the Doctor is reintroduced to a familiar face. Shortly after, the Tardis spins out of control and its crew find themselves transported to the end of the universe. There they discover that the remnants of the human race are under threat from the savage Futurekind. Even the Doctor finds the situation rather disconcerting, but a committed science professor (Derek Jacobi) refuses to accept that his people are beyond help.

Derek Jacobi is as great as you'd expect, and there's engaging banter between Jack and the Doctor, but otherwise Utopia is a surprising clunker, seemingly created for its climax alone… thankfully, it's a beauty.

This episode (and the next two) have been hyped to promise great things and I think that what we'll see tonight will have The Professor regenerate at the end into Mr Saxon but we'll find out tonight if I'm right!

Sleep well?

I never thought it would happen, but it did. Last night, I hardly slept - for two reasons!

The first was toothache.

I had had difficulty concentrating during the day and in the early evening, had to take some paracetamol to combat the ache. It was when I was eating a packet of crisps that I broke part of an old, dead tooth and this only made the pain worse.

I went for a short walk and in the park area at the end of my street, there is a war-memorial with a statue of an angel.

That was the second reason.

During the night, I lay awake as the dull thud of my toothache hammered its way further into my brain. Eventually, I got out of bed and looked for some tweezers. The only set I could find were old and rusty but they served well. Shining a torch into the bathroom mirror, I manoeuvred the tweezers onto my broken tooth and after 20 minutes or so of prodding & twisting, finally pulled out the broken part of my tooth.

The pain died down and disappeared after a few minutes so I made a cup of tea before going back to bed.

Then I still could not sleep. The statue of the angel played in my mind, lurching around the house and creeping closer and closer...

All I can say is that last night, I had Doctor-Who-induced nightmare. Thank you to the Doctor Who team for that, especially Steven Moffat (writer) for his fantastic imagination.

Matchsticks on Standby...

OK, so I missed a couple of weeks with the Rdio Times previews - I've been busy!

Never mind, here's the preview for this week.

From the Radio Times:

A young woman called Sally comes to regret breaking into an old, abandoned house. There the Weeping Angels wait. As people begin disappearing, Sally intercepts cryptic messages from a mysterious stranger known as the Doctor, who's trapped in the year 1969. But can she make sense of them before the Angels claim their prize?

Suggestion can be a powerful weapon, and writer Steven Moffat uses it with consummate cunning in this neat little mindbender. Those hoping for a full return to action of Martha and the Doctor may be disappointed; they do appear, but only fleetingly. It doesn't mar enjoyment of a creepy and clever episode, carried well by promising actress Carey Mulligan. It's a real haunted-house special and one that will unsettle impressionable children. This is the story that even made the Duke of Who Russell T Davies "scared to death".

The preview at the close of last week's episode looked really unsettling.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the angels look like they've taken a cast of Steven Moffat's head?

Life, the Universe & Everything.

From the Radio Times:

Having already satirised reality TV, it was only a matter of time before the Doctor Who team turned their attention to the real-time format originated by 24. The Doctor and Martha are trapped aboard a spaceship in a distant galaxy. So far, so typical - but this particular ship is careering towards a boiling sun, and its crew are behaving oddly. The plucky duo have only 42 minutes to identify the saboteurs and save the day.

After the last preview, I (yet again) have high expectations of this episode. Part of the fun of the preview at the end of 'The Lazarus Experiment' was deciding which clips were from tonight's episode.

BBC Closing Credit Sequences

The BBC have decided to adopt a standardised closing credits sequence (similar to ITV & Channel 4) so that they can shrink the credits and play promos for upcoming shows etc.

I don't like this idea. I like to be able to look at the closing credits of a programme to see who's involved and occasionally see if I recognise any names.

This will also limit shows being inventive with the closing credit sequence.

• Monty Python seemed to do something different every week;
• Dead Ringers continue to improvise with them;
• Still Game offer a short snippet after the credits;

The list could go on.

The closing credit sequence is an underused portion of the programme that many producers choose to ignore and fail to explore their creativity for them.

ITV looks boring now as all programmes do this and now, the BBC want to follow suit? I don't think that the Beeb should. They should allow programmes to show their diversity!

If you object to this decision, then please consider signing the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/bbccspt/petition.html

Wasn't He raised from the dead?

From the Radio Times:

Martha comes back down to Earth with a bump - and this time it's got nothing to do with the TARDIS's dodgy propulsion systems. She's paying a visit to the quarrelsome family she left behind in favour of a taste of adventure with the Doctor. But she soon learns her nearest and dearest are embroiled in Professor Lazarus's dastardly plans to manipulate human DNA - and a simple visit home becomes a fight for survival.

Doctor Who continues its game of spot the homage. [This] story is an enjoyable synthesis of She, The Fly and The Quatermass Experiment - even down to the final battle in a London cathedral. But despite some charming interplay between the two leads and an excellent turn from Mark Gatiss as the young and old professor, The Lazarus Experiment is a pretty conventional runaround, though the nightmarish Identikit creature is superbly realised and dedicated Whovians can look out for a "reverse the polarity" reference.

I've been looking forward to the Doctor and Martha's return to the present. Two years ago, a slight miscalculation returned Rose to a point 12 months after her disappearance and not 12 hours as the Doctor had thought. What will happen here, with Martha and her family?

I'm looking forward to seeing Mark Gatiss in Doctor Who as well. He's a talented actor and writer and I'm betting he was overjoyed to finally get the chance to be in Doctor Who itself and not just a comedy sketch in 2003.