Hello, Hello...Is there anybody out there????

The Co-Pilot & I have been tapping away for many weeks now, blog happy. Just wondering if anybody is actually reading our blogs? We have only really had spam comments thus far. Would any kind souls reading this please just say hello so we know we are not alone in the icy vastness of cyberspace. Just a quick word in the comments for this blog would be ideal. Thanks muchly, L & CP...

Doctor Who - '42' - Lucozer's Wuuhoo!!!

Bravo!! I'll say!!, the Doctor AND a good story!! I have very little to criticise in this most taut & tense of thrillers. Graeme Harper has delivered his finest directorial piece since 'Caves Of Androzani' & that's saying something because his work is always solid at the very least.

I was absolutely stunned at the intensity of Tennant's performance, particularly when he was infected & had to be frozen to -200 degrees. For the first time in the Tennant era he seemed genuinely scared & genuinely in danger. "Martha!...I'm scared" ... David!...I believe you!! Martha put in her best knock thus far as well. What a team it seems we well have to cherish.

The special effects were first rate & I'm delighted to say that we finally have another 'fetishistic gesture' from an iconic Dr Who creation to add to the grand pantheon; Silurian wobbling it's head light... Sontaron taking off its helmet ... Cardinal Borusa arching his eyebrow...now...Red mask creature lifting it's visor & smouldering at its victim. Fantastic! Shame it's a bit close in looks to the 'Empty Child' mask design, but I'll still gladly take it & run away with it to the secret cave where I keep my 'Dr Who precious'!!

The guest cast were uniformly good. The leader was a touch wooden at times, but I feel harsh saying that because she was really more than competent. Riley was it? the guy who was stuck in the escape pod with Martha? Oh my giddy aunt! I would like about an hour with him & the boyfriend kidnapper from 'Gridlock'...no questions asked. Actually, the first victim from '42', the leader's hubby/ boyfriend? can come along too. That'll make four..tag teams..wuundanoogoo!

As the Co-Pilot noted, it was absolutely 'Planet of Evil 2007' (sounds like a sexy dance party actually). Wonderful that the homage/ tip of the hat was inspired & scary. It could have been 'Rose' tainting the Auton legacy all over again, but mercifully it wasn't. I was riveted. Even 'Muzza' Gold managed not to raise the 'BBC Horny Dalek Baritone Men's Choir' fader for minutes at a time. In fact, the score had me in mind of the 'Five Doctors' at times, which is never a bad thing & the silences were truly symphonic!

What a precious little gem this is! & it's only the beginning of the glory road home! I haven't been this excited since 'Doctor Dances', ok, maybe 'Bad Wolf' if you must push me, ok ok, maybe about 3 minutes of 'Army Of Ghosts/ Doomsday' damn you!. Anyway, fab little sweeties, just fab!!!!

Cardinal Borusa minced it best when he waxed through pursed lips;
"Oh Doctor!...9 out of 10"

Love, Lucozer.

Martha's Lookin' Finer..Return To Zeta Minor..Co-Pilot gets moist in '42' different ways!

The Planet of Evil of 2007, 42 takes the cake and doesn't spare on the cream...(and my, how tasty this here cream is....mmmmmm)!

Marvellous it is to see (CHAUVENIST COMMENT ALERT) Martha really sweat it out - literally and figuratively...how fabulously intelligent and action-savvy she is ...and what a total, gob-smacking spunk! RRRAAARRR! Oh to be stuck in any enclosed space with you Ms Jones...RRRAAARRR..I am a BIG, BIG fan, Freema.

It is amply evident after this showing that Martha is turning into the perfect foil for the ever surprising Tennant (who once again puts in an excellent turn in unfamiliar territory for his Doctor...the preening know-it-all of last season is, thank Buddha, a long-forgotten blip on his ever brightening radar). There is much more intrigue to the Tennant Doctor now that he has a Sarah-Jane (Martha) rather than an Ace (Rose) as his companion. He is once again a man of mystery and a fascinatingly vulnerable one at that. No longer is he little more than Rose's domesticated/ emancipated, fey boyfriend, who each episode - on a whim - lept out of character and did ridiculously unconvincing butch things, and then kept boasting about it. Good riddance to that tosser! On this, Eccleston's macho/innocent child-man provided a riveting balance to the young/wise Rose character - the relationship positively sparkled and was full of sexual tension. The Tennant Doctor however was completely suffocated by the Rose (and her family) dynamic and gagged his way through last season in a most cloying way. Not so season 3!

Graeme Harper is the closest thing we are going to get this century to Masters Camfield and Maloney and we love him for it. This is his best showing of the new series so far. He succeeds in stretching the tension out over the full 42(?) minutes. He notably manages to get the best score thus far out of the unpredictable (or should that be predictably bad?) Murray Gold...how wonderful are those 30 odd seconds of silence as Martha raps aimlessly on the glass window of the capsule, while the Doctor delivers some of his best stuff since the 70s? I was gripped my loves, I was gripped!

As well as being thrilled at how serious and compelling this episode was, I was also delighted at the subtelty of its moral message. This is something that new Who has shown it can do well...the theme of nature rebelling against human greed or ignorance is a welcome undercurrant to an excellent action adventure.

Suffice it to say, 42 is the best story of the season thus far. The prospect that this will be only the fourth or fifth best story overall - just look at the potential treasures that await...makes my already whetted appetite most moist indeed. I fully expect this to be the best season since Tom left! I have been licking my lips in juicy anticipation for Human Nature next week...

What a blessing it is to be a Doctor Who fan in 2007!

Lazarus Experiment - Lucozer's Review

Well I've waited two days before reviewing 'Lazarus Experiment' because I haven't had too many free seconds to bang together. I am sober & I have had time to reflect. I'm not sure if those are good things for my review style. Oh well, here goes...

'Lazarus' was more subdued & credible than the trashy & laughable Dalek O-Puss inflicted on us over the last few weeks. It was less stagy & mercifully didn't seem to have been built around melodramatic, glittery set pieces. I do have to question the current preponderance for huge, boney, spider-ish CGI monsters though. It was 'Runaway Bride' all over again in that department & they NEVER look convincing.

Mark Gattis's performance was much like his wiggy blonde hair; not quite believable in my blog. He didn't seem to know whether to play it arch or straight. I feel for him though because the whole show has struggled with the same dilemma since 2005. The humour is often too wet & self concious for the show to be taken absolutely seriously, but Doctor Who is not & should never be the lazy 'topical comedy' show it strays dangerously close to being at times. Leave that role to 'Dead Ringers' who do it well. Not the lazy bit. You know what I mean!

That said, I loved the Doctor turning the organ up to 'eleven'. That is exactly the kind of humorous pop culture reference I was speaking of in a previous review. It is from a cult film that is over 20 years old, not everyone knows it and it's not sucking on the dry, tired teat of the latest mass trash phenomenon (Big Brother, Weakest Link etc etc - although those ones were quite well done).

I like Tish, she's a cutie. Leo is too, but as the Co-Pilot said to me in our post episode de-brief, he doesn't have much of a character to play with yet. Maybe he gets a starring moment later in the season & the part gets fleshed out. I hope so. I'll leave the analysis of the Doctor's relatively avuncular & bloodless attitude to Martha to the Co-Pilot, who I'm sure would like to step into the breach of the Doctor's seeming uncertainty & leave no doubt!

Lazarus in a sentence; not bad, much better, still not good enough.

Love, Lucozer

Lucozer's extra bits! for 'Evolution OTD'

I feel like I was a bit of a nasty pants in my review this week. The episode was dire, but perhaps I got a bit carried away with my haughty snub nosing & didn't really try to find the diamonds in the muck. There were a couple, rough ones perhaps, but diamonds nonetheless.

I very much liked the 'will we see him again' moment when the Dr & Martha paused before getting back into the TARDIS; very much a Doctor Who moment. I can't remember too many 'will we see/ meet XYZ again' moments so far in the new series.

I also liked the Daleks conspiring against Sec like naughty school boys. The eye stalk nervously scanning the tunnel was hilarious. It was silly, I laughed, marvellous!

That'll do..it was still bollocks. Exactly 40 years on ('67 to '07) 'Evolution' is entirely unworthy of sharing the initials of the original 'EOTD', the sublime 'Evil Of The Daleks'.

Warmest fuzzies!, The Lucozer.

Flagellation Of The Daleks!

What a load of rubbish. As the Co-Pilot rightly said, so much of this episode was for pure effect and was lacking in subtlety, originality & inspiration. This was best exemplified by DT's 'just kill me then' speech in Hooverville. Poor Davo, he's been doing so well but even he, when confronted by such melodramatic dialouge, can't make it look behind it's shoulder so he can run away! Dalek Sec was abominable in every respect, the mask looked silly and it might as well have been Eric Roberts' head up the octopuses bum. He might actually have done a better job (gulp!) with this most awkward, wrong footed creation. EOTD, like the 1996 telemovie, is an uncomfortable mix of the Anglo and the American. The mix could work, but once again it's not given a chance because of the peddling of tired cliches and stereotypes. The faux-American elements just come over cheesy, grating and painfully forced. Tallulah being the prime example among many.

EOTD stumbles from set piece to set piece with lashings of 'shock' and 'awe'. Actually, there's not really much shock. It is painfully obvious from the start of each set piece which emotions we are going to be led by the nose to feel. If there is any uncertainty, as the Co-Pilot rightly says, the bombastic incidental music soon leaves little doubt. The dialouge was for the most part so ridiculously overblown and 'plotty' that moments that could potentially mine rich emotional and dramatic veins are laughed out of the loungeroom and out the back door in shame. Dalek Sec too, cow udder for a head (nice one CP), waxing emotional in a dodgy New York drawl? Funny for about two seconds until you realise this is meant to be serious, months were spent creating this tosh and that I expect so much more. The last ten minutes or so seem like an escalating joke among stoned teenagers...and then this could happen..ha ha...and then then that could happen...haha, that's f&*^king ridiculous, no no, how about this...The zenith of the stupidity was the chained Sec being led onto the stage S&M gimp style on his hands and knees. Unspeakable. Daleks as masters and slaves..ooh er!..Oh how they laughed and slapped their thighs in the Production Office!

Doctor Who is eating it's own tail, or maybe it's eating something else's tail? With it's Frankenstein referencing and Back To the Future aping, it seems to perpetually set itself up as the vaguely annoying, idolising geeky younger cousin to these things. Not even as an equal. Doctor Who shouldn't be bowing and scraping to the likes of Buffy or Back To The Future. Doctor Who should be setting it's own standards and needs to come up with new ideas, not fourth-hand rehashes. If it must reference other things, they should be more obscure and more subtly threaded into the story; analogies of tales from mythology, cult movies, it's own rich past even (rather than it's own wobbly previous season as the Co-Pilot pointed out). What is needed is elements with more to offer the story than what the Co-Pilot and I have derogitarily dubbed the 'fabulous effect'. The Simpsons finds a marvellous balance of the obscure and the obvious with its cultural and pop-cultural references. Doctor Who hasn't got the balance right yet.

Last week it looked as if we had a noble failure on our hands with this two parter. This week was so ridiculous that I can no longer give the nobility box a tick. I feel this story had the fractured clunkiness of lots of script editing (or adding) around it's flashy bits. All that said, I'm waving my pom poms for DT right alongside the Co-Pilot and I liked the fact that Laszlo remained half pig. Actually, I can't say that I want my 45 minutes back despite the dressing down I've dished out. Some shameful, twisted part of me still managed to enjoy this mess at some level. It certainly had some whizz bang. I think I should get a cat scan.

Love, Lucozer.

Devolution of the daleks

The worst Dalek story ever...the most 'Schlocktor Who' of all (New Earth and Runaway Bride might be jealous of this 'honour' but f**k them).

This is akin to a cartoon, from the terrible masks to the cardboard dialogue.

The case against:

Soloman was one of the few redeeming features in this debacle, but as he makes his stand against the Daleks one remembers the president from Rise of the Cybermen last year and feels disappointed at the obviousness of the recycling that is going on. New ideas please team.

Why does the Doctor offer his life in a grandstanding moment? It seems that this, like much of this story, exists purely for effect. Subtlety is so much more the domain of Doctor Who and this kind of macho "I am a selfless hero ra ra ra" bollocks, undermines the wonder of the show and its protagonist. If that sounds po-faced and superior, well maybe it is.

Dalek Sec is truly awful. The actor seems intent on evoking the best-forgotten memory of John Lumic. His performance is uncooked, scurvy-inducing ham.

Other evocations of last seasons early Cybermen 'opus' are reflushed through the script - the idea of 'mining' humans, being one obvious example. Another being the re-pillaging of the Frankenstein mythology. Get some new ideas please team - you have the keys to the castle...

Murray Gold as usual fills the space with Hollywood cliches...for Christ's sake man, listen to Brian Eno for a bit...let the audience find the meaning of the scene for themselves...with your pizzicato stabs and outrageously butch choir...stop telling us how to feel!...for the most part we are intelligent viewers. We'll get there ourselves. In all faireness, even the great Dudley Simpson started to run out of ideas, having to write a score every week, so maybe this is a critisism pointed at your superiors Murray. Perhaps they should give you a break. You could write maybe a third of the season's scores (it is true than now and again you have written some absolutely lovely stuff) and bring in a couple of other musical tyros to have a go at the rest.

Ok so it's time to say a few good thing about this episode, because frankly I could go on and on about its flaws.

I never thought I would say this, but the best thing about Doctor Who at the moment (apart of course from the fact that it is on our screens at all - and for that I must praise you my favourite aunty, Russell T.) is David Tennant. David, I am falling in love with you big time. You look like a man constrained by crappy scripts. You look like a man who could do anything with the right material. Please don't leave yet....I am a converted cheerleader to your cause.

Other good stuff...the line: "You told us to imagine, and we have imagined your irrelevance" was a fabulous shaft of gold, where most else was dark.

Other random thoughts:
1) How many himbos can there be in one episode?
2) Did Paul (Showgirls, Basic Instinct) Verhoeven have a hand in this shite? If not, why were the production team trying to emulate his unbelievable drivel?
3) The story was so ridiculous and over the top that I found myself praying that a buxom swiss farm girl (sorry about the sexist stereotype, chums) would come down from the hills and start milking Dalek Sek's teats! Alas no such pleasure.
4) The crap sentimentalism of Tallulah, waxing lyrical about the wonders of New York left me laughing at the shallowness of it all. If you are going to set a story in New York, and go on about how fabulous it is, show us New York's wonders don't tell us in a CGI homage (City of Death lavished Paris upon us and we went away contented)

Anyway. This sucked. Thankfully the trailer for next week looked sexy as!

Kisses

The Co - Pilot