Doctor Who: The Rings of Akhaten

I used to write Doctor Who episode reviews a life time ago when I ran a Doctor Who fan forum. Times have changed and I have become increasingly busy, but I still I have huge love for Doctor Who and thought I might get back into the habit of writing reviews. This blog has gone a bit unloved of late. I wish I could discuss my up and coming projects, but the one I am most excited about is top secret. There's also stuff involving rampaging elephants, and a short Film Festival entry which I shall probably blog about soon once I have the OK to show clips and pictures and what not. In the mean time. Doctor Who.

Matt Smith as a Doctor has grown on me considerably. I never really gelled with him in my post Tennant depression, though in hindsight that is mostly because I found the character of Amy Pond incredibly annoying (That isn't a dig at Karen Gillan by the way, who is a fantastic actress, but the character of Amy Pond) . Now she is out of the picture, and we have the fantastic Clara Oswald, who I love and a darker more brooding Doctor, I can fully appreciate the acting capability of Matt Smith. He's incredible.

So onto The Rings of Akhaten.

I had so much hope for this episode. The look of the episode seemed to be like the love child of Star Wars and John Carter of Mars, and really the first 20 minutes or so was stunning. Just take a moment to appreciate these VFX.

Really, I must shake the Concept Artist by the hand because, this is like nothing I've seen before. In fact the entire premise is original and completely alien, which is something New Who seems to have shied away from in the past. I just love the idea of using sentiment as a currency, and praying to keep the Gods asleep using what is effectively lullabies and bed time stories is just inspired. There were a few minor niggles (like why can't Clara understand some of the aliens the Tardis should translate for her?) which I let go of because, well it is a show aimed at children and the barking alien was quite funny, but then it started to go down hill.

The Doctors Sonic Screwdriver needs to go. I actually thought for a moment he would sell it and I rubbed my hands together with glee at the thought of him saving the day with nothing but his good looks and wits, but no. It has stopped being the device that opens doors (though it did open a rather large door) but in fact the all singing all dancing magical save the day device that gets the Doctor out of any sticky situation. It's a magic wand, he waves it and the bad things go away. It's an unsatisfying conclusion. It's a far cry from Christopher Eccleston trying to resonate concrete and then the humiliation of being saved by Captain Jack. Perhaps the Doctor has obtained a little too much alien tech.

It was all a bit down hill from there in my opinion. It's a real shame because it started out so well. Perhaps next week will be better.

Doctor Who - My Inspirations

Today I read that fans on twitter are sending abusive messages to Steven Moffat. Honestly I don't understand this. Generally I don't understand abusive behaviour at the best of times but this took the biscuit.

For me Doctor Who was a major inspiration, and one of the reasons I decided to enter into the world of Visual Effects. As a six former, young and somewhat naive, I was studying chemistry and opting for a very safe career path as a science teacher. This was who I was when the announcement that Doctor Who was returning to our screens. As a much younger person, I had grown up on classic science fiction reruns, Doctor Who included, so this breaking news sent me into a giddy overload which ultimately resulted in my exclusion from most social groupings. At this point in time I had a love for film particularly visual effects, but to me it was "computer magic" that I would never understand, let alone be able to one day do.

Fast forward a few years and I'm at university, a very good one, studying chemistry and generally unhappy with my life. It was at this time I started building websites for fun and sometimes money, and managed to get sucked into the magical world of the Doctor Who online community. My levels of Geekery massively increased ten fold, but something amazing happened. I discovered photoshop. With this knowledge, practice and development of artistic flare, I learned I could thrill people with my digital art work. I started making banners for other people's websites, members of the Doctor Who community would set me challenges to create wallpapers and blends to meet certain criteria. It was then that I realised chemistry was not the way forward.

The rest as they say, is history. I got myself some formal IT qualifications and went back to university to study visual effects. One day I hope to work on the Doctor Who series. That is my ultimate goal. Of course I would like to work on film and become a millionaire, swan around in a convertible and generally be loved by all, but honestly I would trade this just for one day working on this iconic show.

Doctor Who is a show for the whole family, it frightens children, stuns us with it's beauty and takes us on a moral and emotional roller coaster on a week by week basis. What other show in the world could do that? Russell T Davis brought this show back from the dead. Steven Moffat took it like an olympic relay baton and is racing to take it to new heights of incredible. If haters bring down this show, they would have destroyed something monumental. There are so many of us out here who still love it.