Version 6.0ish. Digital Humanities. Running. Linux.

• Childhood bummer: Tried to watch Star Blazers yesterday…has not held up well =(
• Heh, the locker the Cylons are meeting in on BSG is “1701D”

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The debut serial for The Fifth Doctor, Castrovalva, is a little light on action, but a great introduction to how Peter Davison will be playing the role. Davison’s parodies of previous incarnations of The Doctor are spot on. There are some interesting documentaries and interviews with the cast and crew on the DVD that offer insight into the process behind the change from Tom Baker (who is hilarious in his parts) to Davison.

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I recently watched the newly released Forth Doctor adventure, Planet Of Evil. I am always happy to view another serial with The Forth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, but this serial was not that impressive. There is a lot of filler and a very boring villain with really cheesy, even for Doctor Who, special effects.

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I recently viewed the newly released Destiny Of The Daleks DVD. This serial serves as a sequel to perhaps the finest Doctor Who serial, Genesis Of The Daleks. The serial begins with Romana freshly regenerating into Romana II, played by the stunning Lalla Ward. The playful relationship between The Doctor and Romana II gets off to a great start here, including the matching (but pink, ugh) outfit Romana picks out to match The Forth Doctor’s trademark outfit.

Overall the story is pretty solid-The Daleks return to Skaro in an attempt to find their leader Davros. There is a humorous reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy when The Forth Doctor is seen reading The Origins Of The Universe.

The best part of this serial is Romana II and The Forth Doctor playing rock/paper/scissor to try to teach the Movellan a lesson about endless war. By far, however, the highlight of this DVD is the bonus Prime Computer ads starring Lalla Ward and Tom Baker, which includes parodying their recent marriage.

Overall, not the best adventure for The Forth Doctor, however very significant because my favorite companion is introduced. It is hard to go wrong with Daleks as well, although the Movellans are pretty bland.

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Last week I watched the newly released third series of Battlestar Galactica. The third series began very strong on Cylon occupied New Caprica. The middle of the series had a lot of boring standalone episodes, which apparently was the network’s idea, ugh, that were barely worth watching. However, the final four or five episodes were very strong again with a lot of surprises and interesting twists. I am looking forward to the final series, which begins next Friday evening.

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(No pictures this week…forgot to take them!)

This week’s I received and watched, The Keeper Of Traken and Logopolis, the final two serials for The Forth Doctor.

I really enjoyed The Keeper Of Traken. The opening banter between The Doctor and Adric is hilarious. Tom Baker is especially good in this scene. This serials also introduces Nyssa as a new companion. Nyssa is smart and, while she does fall into peril, keeps up with and challenges The Doctor. Oh, and you cannot forget the big surprise of the serial’s villain being The Master in disguise. Actually, it is not that big of a surprise, at least to me, and is significantly downplayed surprisingly. The bonus documentary confirms that The Master’s appearance was added late in the script writing process and would serve to introduce his newest incarnation. His possession of the body of Nyssa’s father so he could regenerate seems to be the main reason for his being in the script at all. Nyssa looking for her absent father is a well done, and pretty sad, way to finish the serial.

Overall, this is one of the better Forth Doctor serials in the later years. Anthony Ainley is wonderful as The Master and is my favorite incarnation of him until the most recent at the end of the 2007 series. Something cool in the extras: At one point the actors are discussing Tom Baker’s leaving the series and a news clip is shown on the screen announcing a rumor that the next incarnation of The Doctor would be played by a woman! How cool would that have been? I remember rumors when Billie Piper left a few years back that she has desires on becoming an incarnation of The Doctor (which I think could be amazing…or pretty horrible…but I do see a lot of potential) but I had never heard anything going back that far. I think it is about time for a female Doctor.

As an aside, speaking of The Master, and female Time Lords, I don’t think The Doctor and The Master are the only Time Lords to survive the Time War. There have to be more Chameleon Arches out there…perhaps Romana? Some have speculated The Rani was the woman who picked up the remains of The Master at the end of Last Of The Time Lords. Since the new series seems to have a lot of focus on Forth Doctor serials and companions (although the Children In Need special for this year with was quite lovely) it would make sense for Romana to appear someday.

Anyway.

Immediately following the events of The Keeper Of Traken comes Logopolis, which becomes the final serial for Tom Baker as The Forth Doctor and introduces yet another new companion, Tegan Jovanka. I have not seen many serials with Tegan but she has never impressed me that much. Anthony Ainley’s Master returns in this serial and does quite well, as does Tom Baker in his send off. The story is fine, but perhaps a little slow. It is quite amusing that years and years later The Doctor still has not fixed his Chameleon Circuit.

The Forth Doctor is done, but we move onto Peter Davison’s portrayal of The Fifth Doctor next. I will get to that soon. In fact, it may be a short while because the freshly released Forth Doctor, with the lovely Romana II, serial Destiny Of The Daleks came in the mail from Netflix today. Stay tuned.

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This week I finished up series one of Torchwood. As the series went on, I began to enjoy it more and more. I caught up with the first two episodes of series two this weekend and continue to be interested in seeing more.

This week I will begin watching Neon Genesis Evangelion.

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