Day 03 – The cast from your favorite show

It took me a minute to come up with my favorite show, but in the end it came down to the fact that I would rather talk about Doctor Who than Spooks. Both are epic and fantabulous, but Doctor Who has River Song. And I love River.

The cast of Doctor Who changes every season, at least in part, so I am going to concentrate on this past season; season 5. We have a new Doctor in Matt Smith, who replaced my Doctor (every Doctor Who fan has “their doctor”), David Tennant. I didn’t really like the new Doctor at first, to the point I even made a blog post about it right before the season finale. But after that final episode (which was amazing), I went back and rewatched the entire season to catch what I had missed. Trust me, you will want to do the same if you want the season all the way through. And this time through, I got it. I don’t know if it was because I stopped comparing Matt to David, or if I noticed the brilliance of how they played all of the character interactions because I already knew the plot or what, but the second time through I really loved the new Doctor. As a credit to the new cast, I have actually watched the newest season more than any of the previous seasons; and I have watched the previous seasons all numerous times.

To the Doctor’s right is Amy Pond. Or Amelia, if your prefer and it doesn’t seem a bit fairytale to you. She is the Doctor’s companion for this season, and I thought she was really good. I’m not sure where she falls on my ranking of all of the companions (I loved Donna and hated to see her go), and I may never really know since the dynamics are always so different. I’ve watched the season opener where she screams “WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES?!?” before immediately collapsing back into worry that she shouldn’t have spoke about a dozen times and it never gets old.

Amy’s fiance, Rory, is not pictured. Mostly because I don’t care about him enough to not use the above pic. I said this in my previous post, but I think he just acts too much like a person really would in such a fantastical situation. I don’t need that in my light hearted adventure drama. He’s fine, but ‘eh’.

That brings us to the woman on the Doctor’s left. Professor River Song (“ooo.. I’m going to be a professor someday! Spoilers!”). We first met River in season 4 for what is the best story of that season. In it we are told that she and the Doctor keep meeting out of order. In this instance, it is the first time the Doctor (Tennant at the time) had ever seen her, but River had an entire diary of their times together. Flash forward to season 5 and here we are again, meeting River in completely the wrong order. We have not been told exactly who River is, though many things are assumed. Is she the Doctor’s lover? His murderer? The best conman of all time? The Doctor him/herself? No one knows except River, because she is the only one who has lived through it all. The rest of us are just catching up.

What we do know is this. She is completely badass. Imagine James Bond merged with Indiana Jones. That. Just as a snarky woman. It’s brilliant. And what is more brilliant is this… for the most part, we are taking her word for it when she tells us who she is and is not. Even with her complete refusal to tell us (or the Doctor) much for fear of giving spoilers into the Doctor’s own life, she has led all of us, Doctor, Amy, and audience alike, down a way of thinking that makes her who we believe her to be. Maybe it is all true. Maybe none of it is true. The writers claim that in season 6 “everything changes” concerning River and the Doctor. If season 5 is any indication, it will be brilliant. I can’t wait.

I’m enjoying the season for the most part. I like the new Doctor (Matt Smith). He’s no Tennant, but Tennant was amazing, so I can only hold that against him so much. My bigger problem is the writers, not the actors.

Love Amy.

Rory is an idiot… or perhaps just reacts more realistically than I want in my campy sci-fi adventure series.

Love that they brought back River (from Season 4, “Silence in the Library”) to play a prominent role this season.

I really like how they have woven the overarching season’s story into almost every episode. That’s much better than past seasons. They have placed small hints throughout the earlier seasons (Bad Wolf, anyone?), but they have gone full out this season, bringing in the main season plot in the first half of the first episode. It really makes the two part season finale seem a continuation and resolution of the story we already know, instead of just another plot that springs up to close out the season.

So mostly I love the season… except for the Doctor. I want the laid back, confident, very wise persona that comes with being 900 years old and a Lord of time. Instead, they have Matt Smith playing a Doctor who doesn’t know what is going on and not quick witted enough to have survived 900 years. They want me to believe this man lead the charge and defeated the Daleks in the greatest war in the history of time? He doesn’t even seem to be able to put 2 and 2 together half the time. This isn’t a problem with Matt Smith. I think he is playing the Doctor they have written. After surviving (winning) over 900 years, the Doctor should be incredibly smart (the most genius in any room of genius), insanely clever, perceptive, and just because it makes for great tv, incredible lucky. We are getting the lucky Doctor (he has to be, he’s an idiot), but he can’t perceive anything even when being blatantly told (see episode 12 where River is trying to get through his thick skull). This is the man humanity and aliens alike are supposed to put their trust in to save the day? Not bloody likely.

That being said, I can’t wait for part two of the season finale.

Ok, perhaps some very basic styling in a moment.

I didn’t move comments over, mostly because I didn’t feel like figuring out a decent way to do it. Sorry if you commented on something previously. Feel free to comment anew.

I also added a Facebook ‘like’ button since Facebook’s goal is to own our lives. Might as well do my part. And I put in an OpenID sign in. Since that is probably gibberish, just know that it means you can leave comments by using your facebook or google account (among anothers), so you don’t have to register an account here.

I suspect most of what will be here will be rants on such evils as politics, religion, and the standard crazy that is people. The standard disclaimers will always apply, in that anything I say is not the opinion of my employer, or friends, or probably even me once I have calmed down about things. In the way that good musicians do, there is a kernel of truth, but I may take artistic license in how far I push things.

I may also pull over some old posts now that I am going to split my other site into two, so if you see something you recognize, that’s why. … Or it’s because you can see the future. Sound good? Awesome, let’s go.

10: an individual who does what is right, even (especially) when not observed by others