Doctor Who Review - 6x02: Day of the Moon

Dialogue Triumphs

The Doctor: “As long as there’s been something in the corner of your eye, or a creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through your wall. They’ve been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head: we are not fighting an alien invasion – we’re leading a revolution. And today the battle begins.”

***

Amy: “I love you. I know you think it’s him. I know you think it ought to be him, but it’s not – it’s you. And when I see you again, I’m going to tell you properly just to see your stupid face. My life was so boring before you dropped out of the sky. So just get your stupid face where I can see it, okay? Okay.”

***

The Silence: “You should kill us all onsight!”

The Doctor: “You have given the order for your own execution, and the whole planet just heard you. And one whacking great kick up the backside for the Silence. You just raised an army against yourself! And now, for a thousand generations, you’re going to be ordering them to destroy you every day. How fast can you run? Because today is the day the human race through you off their planet, and they won’t even know they’re doing it. I think the word you’re looking for is ‘Oops’.”

***
River: “What are you doing?”

The Doctor: “Helping!”

River: “You got a screwdriver! Go build a cabinet!”

The Doctor: “That’s really rude!”

***

Amy: “What’s the matter with you?”

Rory: “You called me stupid.”

Amy: “I always call you stupid.”

Rory: “No, but… my face. I wasn’t sure who you were talking about… me… or…”

Amy: “…him?” (referring to the Doctor)

Rory: “You did say ‘dropped out of the sky’.”

Amy: “It’s a figure of speech, moron!”

***

The Doctor: “You know what they say: ‘there’s a first time for everything’!”

River: “And a last time.”

***

Mysterious Little Girl: “It’s alright… it’s quite alright… I’m dying. But I can fix that. It’s easy really… see?”

Dialogue Disasters

N/A

Double Entendres

Nixon: “This person you want to marry… black?”

Canton: “Yes…”

Nixon: “I know what people think of me, but perhaps I’m a little more liberal than…”

Canton: “…he is.”

Nixon: “I think the moon is far enough for now, don’t you, Mr. Delaware?”

Canton: “I figured it might be.”

***

Rory: “You should have told me that you thought you were pregnant! I’m a nurse, I’m good with pregnancy!”

Amy: “Not, as it turns out, that good.”

Review

Three months after the events of The Impossible Astronaut, The Doctor and his companions discover that the mysterious, black suited aliens, who reveal their names to be “The Silence”, secretly inhabit the entire planet Earth, and have manipulated human history for thousands of years. The Doctor immediately concocts a daring plan to defeat them, using the Apollo 11’s mission to the moon. Meanwhile, Amy has another strange encounter with the little girl in the astronaut suit from the previous episode, but it’s cut short when The Silence kidnap Amy and hold her hostage. Now The Doctor must save the Earth, and Amy, from the enigmatic designs of the Silence before it’s too late.

As far as two-parters go, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon has been a hell of a fun ride. I’m beginning to think that the reason season five was so uneven, and ultimately unsatisfying, was because it was Moffat’s warm-up – a year for him to get used to the new responsibilities as showrunner, and to give Doctor Who fans time to get used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor. Season six is shaping up to be where the real shit hits the fan, and Moffat gets to remind everyone why he inherited the reigns in the first place.

The story of Day of the Moon was fast-paced, suspenseful, and did a great job of wrapping up most of the events set up by The Impossible Astronaut. I must admit, I am a little confused as to the point of the first act though – why the charade involving FBI agent, Canton Delaware, pretending to kill the Doctor’s companions, while The Doctor is imprisoned for three months in Area 51? In the previous episode, it seemed that the US government was fully in support of the Doctor’s assistance, and suddenly they’re being hunted down? Was the entire ruse for the sake of fooling The Silence? Also, there were a lot of cliffhanger elements that just weren’t entirely wrapped up from the last episode. The last we saw Rory and River, they were about to get blasted by the The Silence. Amy had just show the Astronaut, much to the dismay of The Doctor. Now, without explanation, they’re all getting hunted by the government, one-by-one, as a clever trick set up by The Doctor? It just seemed like a strange way to link both episodes together. However, I did love the Doctor’s solution to defeating The Silence, which is Doctor Who at its best. I also loved the plot device of the marks on the skin, or the blinking light of a voice recorder, for whenever The Doctor and his companions encounter The Silence. You see, The Silence have ruled Earth for so long because whenever one takes their eyes off them, one immediately forgets one saw them. So, that makes for a very difficult enemy to face.

Once again, the acting was top-notch. All the principle actors turned in great performances, especially Matt Smith, who seems completely familiar with his Doctor by now. The guy who played Nixon stretches believability though, and the goofy “Hail to the Chief” music that played whenever he entered a scene began to get silly. I was also kind of annoyed by the strange housekeeper for the children’s home the mystery girl apparently lives at.

While that summary covers the main plot of the episode, there are so many other pieces of the larger puzzle going on. For example, while searching for the astronaut girl, Amy comes across a strange woman, with an eye patch, who glares coldly at Amy through a hatch before dismissively saying, “No, I think she’s just dreaming” and closing the hatch. When Amy opens the door to confront the woman, nobody is in the room. Hmm…

Then there is Amy’s confession to The Doctor of being pregnant, which, in this episode, she denies. When The Doctor scans her, he gets mixed readings, which suggest some kind of trippy time/space situation is going on in Amy’s sexy womb (did… did I just call Amy’s womb sexy? Yes. Yes I did.) Hmm…

Just what was The Silences’ ultimate objective, and why did it involve installing a little girl into an astronaut suit brimming with alien tech? Why does, presumably, this same girl show up in the aforementioned suit, in 2011, to murder the Doctor in cold blood?

As if these mysteries weren’t enough, the last 2-minutes of the episode will leave your jaw hanging open. However, I most certainly do not want to spoil this ending. Needless to say, Moffat seems to have gone to the school of Lost when it comes to setting up fascinating puzzles to entice audiences to keep watching. Let’s hope this season ends with more satisfying plot resolutions than the entire series of Lost did.

Next time... "Curse of the Black Spot"

Doctor Who Review - 6x01: The Impossible Astronaut

Dialogue Triumphs

The Doctor: “I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool.”

***

River: “Whatever that was, it killed him in the middle of his regeneration cycle. His body was already dead. He didn’t make it to the next one.”

***

River: “A Time Lord’s body is a miracle – even a dead one. There are entire empires out there that would rip this world apart for just one cell. We can’t leave him here, or anywhere.”

***

Amy: “You’re okay!”

The Doctor: “Of course, I’m okay, I’m always okay, I’m the king of okay… no, that’s a rubbish title, forget that title.”

***

River: “We’ve told him all we can. We can’t even tell him we’ve seen his future self. He’s interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the universe.”

Amy: “Yeah, but he’s done it before.”

Rory: “And in all fairness, the universe did blow up.”

***

The Doctor: “Time isn’t a straight line – it’s all bumpy-wumpy. There’s loads of boring stuff, like Sundays, and Tuesdays, and Thursday afternoons; and every now and then, there are Saturdays – big, temporal tipping points where anything’s possible. The TARDIS can’t resist them, like a moth to a flame.”

***

The Doctor: “Swear to me – swear to me on something that matters.”

Amy: “Fish fingers and custard.”

The Doctor: “My life in your hands, Amelia Pond.”

***

Rory: “What did you mean, what you said to Amy, ‘there’s a worse day coming’ for you?”

River: “When I first met the Doctor, a long time ago, he knew all about me. Think about that – an impressionable, young girl and suddenly this man just drops out of the sky. He’s clever, and mad, and wonderful, and knows every last thing about her. Imagine what that does to a young girl.”

Rory: “I don’t really have to.”

River: “The trouble is, it’s all back-to-front. My past is his future. We’re traveling in opposite directions. Every time we meet, I know him more, and he knows me less. I live for the days when I see him, but I know that every time I do, he’ll be one step further away. The day is coming when I’ll look into that man’s eyes, my Doctor, and he won’t have the faintest idea who I am… and I think it’s going to kill me.”

Dialogue Disasters

The Doctors: “Fellas, the guns? Really? I just walked into the highest security office in the United State, parked a big blue box on the rug, and you think you can just shoot me?”

River: “They’re Americans!”

Double Entendres

The Doctor: “I’m your new undercover agent, along from Scotland Yard, codename The Doctor. These are my top operatives: The Legs, The Nose, and Mrs. Robinson.”

River: “I hate you.”

The Doctor: “No, you don’t.”

***

The Doctor: “Dr. Song, you’ve got that face on again.”

River: “What face?”

The Doctor: “The ‘he’s-hot-when-he’s-clever’ face.”

River: “This is my normal face.”

The Doctor: “Yes, it is.”

River: “Oh, shut up!”

The Doctor: “Not a chance.”

***

The Doctor: “Shout if you get in trouble.”

River: “Don’t worry – I’m quite the screamer.”

The Review

Doctor Who returns for its much anticipated sixth season, and boy does it return with a vengeance. Showrunner, Stephen Moffat, wasn’t kidding around when he teased that he had some big plans to shake up the Whoniverse, if just the first 10 minutes of this episode is any indication. I can’t even begin to imagine what the BIG cliffhanger is going to be midseason.

Before I go into the plot summary, I will warn you that spoilers are unavoidable. I major event happens at the beginning of the episode that sets off the entire story. So, if you haven’t watched the episode yet, I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend you don’t read this review.

The episode begins with Rory and Amy, getting used to domestic life, as they wonder what has become of The Doctor, who has left them travel solo for awhile. With the kind of timing only a Time Lord is capable of, they receive a mysterious TARDIS blue invitation to meet somewhere in the middle of the Utah desert. Unbeknownst to them, River Song receives a similar invitation, and the three of them converge to meet with, whom else but The Doctor. Their reunion gets cut short when, during a picnic by the lake, a mysterious figure, dressed in an astronaut outfit, emerges from the water, kills The Doctor stone-cold-dead, and then silently walks back into the lake.

The group doesn’t even have time to mourn him before they run into… The Doctor, who himself, received a mysterious invitation. River surmises that The Doctor they witnessed get killed was from the future, and for reasons unknown, orchestrated their meeting. They all decide not to tell The Doctor about this, as it would create a paradox. Meanwhile, they chase their only lead to the entire affair to the 1969 White House, where President Nixon has been receiving strange phone calls from a little girl on a nightly basis. Naturally, The Doctor immediately gets involved, pinpointing the girl’s location to an abandoned warehouse in Florida. Throughout all of this, Amy keeps catching glimpses of odd looking aliens in black suits, who have the ability to make people forget their presence the moment the person stops looking at them, making them essentially invisible. They are omnipresent the entire episode, but none of the characters can maintain the memory of their respective encounters with them. Who are these enigmatic aliens? Who is the little girl? What does all of this have to do with the murderous astronaut in the future? It looks like we won’t know until next week’s episode, Day of the Moon.

The episode is satisfying in every sense of the word. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I certainly wasn’t expecting The Doctor to die within the first Act. It certainly served as a riveting mystery to be solved, and one that could quite possibly not be solved until the end of the whole season. In the previous season, Moffat has shown that he is willing, and very able, to throw us some curveball subplots, some of which, from as far back as season four, have yet to be resolved (the big one being – just who the hell is River Song anyway?). Moffat is known for his propensity at utilizing the show’s time traveling aspects to tell some innovative and clever stories. It isn’t crazy to think that perhaps, although it may be several episodes, even two more seasons away, we may have just witnessed the Eleventh Doctor’s final moments within this very episode. Although, I very much doubt that – there’s probably a much bigger game afoot.

While the writing was top notch, the acting backs it up considerably. Matt Smith owns the role of The Doctor by this point, and if anyone still doubts it, they’re either blind or stupid. He plays the role with incredible subtly – so much so, that I didn’t suspect anything was amiss with The Doctor until his death. When I rewatched the episode, though, it was more evident to me that The Doctor’s behavior was odd, even for him. He seemed distant, reflective, and somewhat somber, very similar to the 10^th Doctor’s attitude when he sensed his end was near. My point is, Matt does a remarkable job hiding that just under the surface of the Doctor’s usual, manic, “happy-go-lucky” personality. Karen Gillan is ten times better in this episode than she was all of last season. She seems to be finally bringing the headstrong, surliness of Amy’s character down a notch, while managing to not compromise the aspects of her character that are likable. The supporting casts of Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston have some great lines, which they make the most with. Even the guy playing Nixon does a decent enough job.

It’s worth noting, as well, that the creature effects are great. The Silence, as the mysterious, black suited aliens have been named by the BBC website, seem to be heavily influenced by the alien abduction stories of the early 60s, wherein the supposed victims describe their captors as “tall, gray men”. The most creepy of all, though, is the titular astronaut, who only appears at the beginning and end of the episode, but is a pervasive, and ominous, threat all throughout. Moffat has always had a knack for taking everyday imagery, or objects, and making them terrifying.

The Impossible Astronaut is a very strong season opener, with nary a flaw. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time the season opener of Doctor Who has been so gripping. Hopefully, this bodes well for the rest of the season!

Verdict: Fucking Awesome!

Next time… 6x02: “Day of the Moon”

Doctor Who Retrospective - Villains: Omega

Omega debuted in the 1973 episode "The Three Doctors", which was the first episode that featured past incarnations of The Doctor working with the current one. Omega is a legendary Time Lord who worked alongside Rassilon, another Time Lord hero and the very first President of Gallifrey, to develop time travel. However, during an experiment to use a star as a power source for time travel, Omega was caught up in a supernova and was presumed to have died a hero's death. It turns out, though, that he had actually fallen through into an anti-matter universe, where he has the ability to create anything he desires with his mind. The isolation slowly drives him insane, and he decides to concentrate on returning to the positive matter universe to get revenge on the Time Lords who, in his deranged mind, abandoned him. The Time Lords bring together the first three incarnations of The Doctor to stop him before he breaks free into the positive universe, which would destroy the very fabric of existence.



The second, and final, appearance of Omega is during the 5th Doctor's era in the 1983 episode "Arc of Infinity". Omega is freed of his exile in the anti-matter universe by using The Doctor's DNA to construct a positive matter body as a vessel for his consciousness. The body is not permanent, though, and The Doctor must find a way to send Omega back before any of his anti-matter energy makes contact with our universe.



Omega hasn't returned, or even been mentioned, in the new series, but I think it'd be interesting to see him return - especially if he is still using the Fifth Doctor's form (which would be a great way to have Peter Davison return to the series as a villain!). I mean, for godsakes, they brought back the Macra in "Gridlock", and they were uber minor villains that haven't been seen since the 60s! Anyway, even though Omega has only been in two Doctor Who stories, he's an interesting villain, and one I'm sure we'll probably eventually see again!

Coming up next: The Rani

Doctor Who Review: Christmas Special - "A Christmas Carol"

Dialogue Triumphs

(After splashing down through a chimney.)

The Doctor: “Cough, cough, blimey, sorry, Christmas Eve on a rooftop, saw a chimney, and my whole brain went ‘What the hell!’”

***

The Doctor: “Who’s she?”

Kazran: “Nobody important.”

The Doctor: “Nobody important? Blimey, that’s amazing. You know, in 900 years of traveling in time and space, I’ve never met anybody that wasn’t important before.”

***

The Doctor: “Fish? Fish… fish that can swim in fog. I love new planets.”

***

The Doctor: “And I bet I get some very interesting readings from my sonic screwdriver when I get it back from the shark that’s in your bedroom.”

Young Kazran: “There’s a shark in my bedroom?”

The Doctor: “Oh fine! Focus on that part!”

***

Amy: “Why is she still in there? You can let her out anytime.”

Kazran: “Oh yes, anytime at all… anytime I choose.”

Amy: “Then why don’t you?”

Kazran: “This is what the Doctor did to me. Abigail was ill when she went into the ice, to the point of death. I suppose lying in the ice helped her… but she’s used up her time - all those Christmas Eves with me. I could release her anytime I want… and she would live a single day. So tell me, Ghost of Christmas Present, how do I choose which day?”

Double Entendres

Rory: “Amy! The light stopped flashing; does that mean he’s coming?”

***

Kazran: “I cried all night, and I learned life’s most valuable lesson.”

The Doctor: “Which is?”

Kazran: “Nobody comes!”

The Review

Amy and Rory, while on their honeymoon, get trapped on an intergalactic cruise liner plunging on a crash course to a planet shrouded in thick, icy clouds that are populated by fish. It's up to the Doctor to save them, but the only way he can is by convincing a cruel, wealthy industrialist, named Kazran Sardick, who has a machine that controls the ice clouds, to help steer the ship to safety. However, Kazran, truly living up to the last four letters in his last name, is content to let the ship just crash. So, the Doctor takes Kazran on a Scrooge-like journey through his past, present, and future, with the hopes of thawing Kazran's icy heart, before the planet's icy clouds doom a ship of 4,000+ people.

You know, silly me, I actually doubted that this episode would be very good. The Doctor Who Christmas Specials can be kind of dodgy sometimes. Sure, they're almost always entertaining, but, with the exception of David Tennant's debut episode, "The Christmas Invasion", they're usually pretty forgettable. "The Runaway Bride", while bombastic and funny, wasn't even Christmas related, and the less said about "Voyage of the Damned" and "The Next Doctor", the better. Mind you, none of these are bad episodes, just not as good as the show is usually capable.

When I heard that showrunner, and all around genius, Steven Moffat, was writing a Doctor Who version of "A Christmas Carol", I kind of sighed irritably. The story of "A Christmas Carol" has been fucked out considerably, and I really didn't know how a Doctor Who version of it would be all that great.

I really ought to learn to trust the Moffat.

Sure, with the exception of a few minor quibbles about last season, many of which will probably be dealt with next season, Moffat has seldom ever let me down. He most certainly blew my mind this time.

While "A Christmas Carol" borrows the basic theme and formula of the Charles Dickens classic, it's done very cleverly, utilizing the Doctor's ability to travel in time to great effect. I clapped in utter joy when the Doctor went back to Kazran's childhood, while adult Kazran watched on in an old video log he recorded as a child (just like in "The Beast Below", the Doctor can't resist helping a weeping child). That's one thing I love about Moffat - he really takes advantage of the time travel aspect of the show to tell some really cool stories. Most writers, even throughout the classic era, spent more time focusing on the Doctor fighting monsters from outer space, or traveling to strange planets.

Speaking of strange planets, I also loved the concept of whatever planet this takes place on. The idea of fish that swim through fog is delightfully absurd, and serves to set the perfect, fairytale tone for the episode. I also like how, even though this is clearly the future, the people on this planet still dress like Charles Dickens characters. I suppose it stands to reason that such fashion could make a come back in the distant future, right?

The story is a very sweet departure from the normal Christmas Special fare, wherein the Doctor is usually pitted against some alien threat. Instead, the only the threat is the callous nature of Kazran, a trait which he inherited from his abusive father, and all the Doctor can do is try his best so show Kazran that there is another way of living his life. I absolutely loved the multiple Christmas Eves montage, where the Doctor comes back to spend every Christmas with young Kazran, and a beautiful cryogenically frozen woman named Abigail (who becomes Kazran's love interest as he grows older).

Naturally, as always, the performances are excellent. Unfortunately, Karen Gillan (Amy) and Arthur Darvill (Rory) didn't have much to do but scream for help most of the episode, but I do like how much Gillan seems to have toned down her character. Something about Amy bugged me all last season (and it certainly wasn't the looks, grrrrowl!) - it just seemed like none of the writers, except for Moffat, knew how to write for the character, and Gillan didn't really know how to play the character. It was good to see her again, especially in that sexy policewoman's uniform! Meanwhile, Matt Smith as the Doctor is, as always, a joy to watch. He crackles with energy all throughout the episode with the confidence of someone who has positively taken ownership of the role now. Lastly, veteran actor Michael Gambon turns in a superb performance as Kazran Sardick, which is hardly surprising considering that this is Michael Gambon we're talking about here.

Complaints? There aren't any. I found this to be an incredibly entertaining hour of television, and I came away not only feeling the Christmas spirit, but also looking forward to season six with an almost feverish enthusiasm.

Verdict: Fucking Awesome

Speaking of season six...



"I wear a Stetson now. Stetsons are cool."

DVD BlitzCraig: Punchline (1988), Superman: The Animated Series Volume 3, Scrubs - Season 8

I'm so far behind in this, but you got to understand, I watch a shitload of DVDs... like, tons and tons and tons. I'm a single guy, with virtually no prospects over the horizon, so I'm sort of locked in with my bachelor lifestyle of "wake up, eat, shit, masturbate, watch a DVD, go to sleep" (not in that particular order, either). The routine sustains me. So, when trapped in a routine like this, the DVDs begin to accumulate, and when the movies are shit like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, well, I'm sorry, I just don't feel like writing about it. I mean, what more can be said about Prince of Persia that hasn't been said about dogshit?

Anyway, I'm going to try my best to catch up, because another part of the routine that sustains me is writing - whether it be in this blog, writing comedy for my stand-up, or just writing my grocery list.


Punchline (1988)

Tom Hanks stars as Steven Gold, a talented stand-up comedian who is the rising star at his home comedy club in New York City. He reluctantly takes amateur comic, and house mom, Lilah Krystick (Sally Field), under his wing and teaches her the ropes of comedy.

I found this movie to be really enjoyable, and an insightful look into the richly rewarding, but often profoundly lonely, world of stand-up comedy. I like how much the lifestyles of the two main characters completely clashed, but they both want the same thing: to succeed in comedy. Steven Gold is an intelligent, rapier witted individual, with a gift for comedy that is so natural, everyone knows he'll eventually break out big, but he is also a deeply lonely person, mostly due to his lack of social skills, and comedy is all that he's got. Meanwhile, you have Lilah, who is also a naturally gifted comic, but she is so devoted to her family, she doesn't have the time, or the inclination, to write her own material, and barely gets laughs rigidly delivering jokes that she bought from someone else using her family's vacation fund. She is anything but lonely, but nevertheless, has the same drive to make it in comedy as Steven.

These characters work so well because Tom Hanks and Sally Field give really strong performances. The solid performances create several great moments in the movie, one of my favorites being a scene where Steven completely bombs, and has an emotional meltdown, after discovering that his overbearing father, from whom he has kept his stand-up career a secret, is in the crowd:



Yikes. Every comic has had that experience, though few have been so grotesque. The worst I've ever bombed was the one and only time I got drunk before going onstage and promptly forgot my entire set. I just stood there, swaying on my feet, staring at the lights, desperately reaching into the murky cow pond that my mind had become, and retrieving nothing for my troubles. It was pretty god awful, but I didn't end up crying at least. Nope, I just burped, stumbled off the stage and into polite silence.

The only bad part of the movie is the clumsy and unnecessary subplot of Gold falling in love with Lilah. This development didn't feel natural at all, and while it certainly added a layer of neurosis to Gold's already neurotic character, it also just seemed way too forced. For one thing, Lilah never comes across as sexually alluring at all. Secondly, at no point during their time spent together, did it seem like Lilah and Steven were hitting it off romantically. It felt like the tone of the movie just kind of shifted dramatically - kind of like in Funny People, when the movie takes a complete left turn, and the plot is suddenly about Adam Sandler trying to reunite with his ex. I just sat there watching, thinking, "Where the hell did this come from???" I guess it did serve to emphasize the depth of Gold's loneliness, juxtaposed with the depth of Lilah's love for her family. Still, I wish it was developed better. Plus, considering that the same actors eventually play mother and son in Forest Gump, it was a little disturbing seeing the two kiss. Blegh.

Ultimately, the movie was enjoyable, and I'd hardily recommend it to anyone who is interested in comedy, along with the following films: Comedian, Heckler, I Am Comic,When Stand-up Stood Out, and that should be enough to get you going.

Verdict: Fucking Awesome



Superman: The Animated Series - Volume 3

Superman finishes up his adventures in the final season of this amazing series by Batman: The Animated Series masterminds, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. Most of this season involves Superman fending of invasion by the forces of Apokolips, led by the evil, godlike ruler, Darkseid. However, interspersed throughout the season are appearances by characters such as Mr. Mxyzsptlk, Bizarro, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Metallo, Supergirl, Batman, and Braniac.

I can't say enough about how amazing this series is. If you follow my blog, you already know there is a very large place in my heart for any animated series by Dini and Timm, so it shouldn't surprise you that my review of this series would be absolutely glowing. The season long epic involving Darkseid is handled extremely well, top-to-bottom, especially in this shocking scene when a heroic cop, named Dan Turpin, is murdered in cold blood by Darkseid to prove a point:



Good lord... remember, this was a cartoon that came on in the afternoons for kids just getting out of school. You just don't get scenes like that anymore. My only regret is that it didn't continue on longer, especially considering how the series ends with the world hating and fearing Superman after he is brainwashed to attack Earth by Darkseid... and, my god, is the fight he has with Darkseid later awesome:



Sure, it's not as good as the one he has with Darkseid later in Justice League Unlimited, but we'll discuss that one at a later time. So, yeah, as a whole, the Superman animated series is a work of art, and if you've never seen it, or have only watched bits and pieces, you really owe it to yourself to watch the entire thing. After you watch it, you'll be pissed that they still haven't managed to make a decent Superman movie yet.

Verdict: Fucking Awesome



Scrubs - Season 8

The hilarious hospital series closes it doors, as J.D. (Zach Braff) decides to leave Sacred Heart for new horizons and... wait, what? What do you mean there's a season 9? How can there be a season 9??? The main character friggin' left!

You know what sucks? When people don't get the simple concept of leaving on a high note. It's one of the oldest rules of showbusiness. Although this series isn't perfect, it was still really well written and enjoyable enough where, had it bowed out at the appropriate time, it would have been revered as one of the best television comedies ever. Instead, its legacy is one of being canceled, only to be renewed, have what was supposed to be the final season, only to have one more season, before being canceled again in disgrace.

But this isn't a review of season 9... sigh... I'll cross that minefield when I get to it. Let's pretend, for the sake of this review, that this actually were the final season of Scrubs. If such were the case, I'd say that it was a fantastic send off for a truly great show. The jokes are still sharp, the characters still likable, and the actors still giving it their best. All the characters end up right where I'd imagined them to be, so no surprises there, but it still works well for the series. The final sequence, where J.D. walks down the hallway one last time, and sees the familiar faces of all the characters he encountered during the series is actually quite touching.

It would have been the perfect end to a wonderful series... but noooooooo! Ugh... well, anyway, good season, and if you made it this far into the series, you'll enjoy it.

Verdict: Fucking Awesome

Doctor Who Retrospective - Villains: The Autons

By this point, I've covered all of the The Doctor's most dangerous adversaries: the Daleks, the Cybermen, The Master, the Ice Warriors, and the Sontarans. As far as The Doctor's gallery of villains is concerned, the Autons are certainly not very high up there, but since they have been involved in some of the series' milestone episodes, I felt it prudent to at least give them a passing mention.

The Autons are actually drones of living plastic, brought to life by a central intelligence called the Nestene Consciousness. The Nestene, itself, is mostly created out of living plastic, and animate anything else that is made of plastic by transmitting a psychic signal. However, commonly, the Nestene utilizes shop window dummies to do its bidding, although it can also create passable human replicates out of plastic and control those as well. All Autons are equipped with powerful projectile weapons, capable of completely vaporizing their victims, hidden in their hands. However, like I said before, the Autons are only drones, and when cut off from the Nestene Consciousness, which can be done with The Doctor's ever useful sonic screwdriver, they are rendered completely useless.

The Autons were introduced, along with John Pertwee as the Third Doctor, in the 1970 episode "Spearhead from Space":



Eww... for a second there, I thought Doctor Who was going to go into hentai territory... Anyway, they return the very next season in "Terror of the Autons", in which The Master collaborates with the Nestene in his debut episode:



The Autons were benched for the rest of the classic Who era, only to resurface in the very first episode of the new series, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, entitled "Rose":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaNbFgJsv1g

Lousy disabled embeds... anyway, the Autons haven't been featured since "Rose", also they do play a fairly significant role in season five's 2-part finale "The Pandorica Opens", but no significant enough for me to go into full detail (especially without revealing spoilers). Nevertheless, even though they are very minor villains in the Whoverse, since they were the main villains in three major Doctor Who episodes, I felt it prudent to give them a nod, and anyway, who knows - maybe they'll grow to be a larger threat in future episodes!

Besides, the whole point of this retrospective is to not only cover the major villains, but to also dover interesting, if obscure, villains casual fans might not be aware of. Speaking of which...

Next time: Omega!