Doctor's Regeneration Week: Twin Dilemma

Welcome to Day 1 of Doctor’s Regenerations Week.  I will be skipping around throughout the years and reincarnations if you will just to give you folks a bit of a headache or possibly just a slight case of heartburn but I will be succinct as humanly possible.  In this episode particularly we get to see a completely different Doctor not merely just in body but also spirit so check the atmosphere,  try to not get separated and for crying out loud fix that chameleon circuit this is Doctor Who: Twin Dilemma.

 

So which one of us will be Horton then?

The Doctor: I am a living spoiler to the universe!

Moments from dying of Spectrox formula the Doctor (Peter Davison of Doctor Who, Anna of the Five Towns, Mystery!: Campion, The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries and The Last Detective) managed to crash land a large vessel, free its captors and come up with an antidote for the Spectrox poison that both he and his companion Peri (Nicola Byrant of Doctor Who, Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, More Than a Messiah Holby City and Doctors) were to perish.  As always, he tended to her first only to die from the poison and was regenerated in the process.  Peri regains consciousness and tries to rouse the Doctor when he changes before her eyes.

Elsewhere in the universe a pair of identical twins computate formulae to the likes that have not been seen before.  Their complex calculations would provide a means for immeasurable power on a catastrophic level.   The power to collapse a sun and use that energy as you see fit.   The possibilities are mind boggling as these young lads are kidnapped by a former Timelord, Edgeworth (Maurice Denham of Animal Farm, Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Day of the Jackal and 84 Charing Cross Road) in order to save the people he cares for.

No, I did not spill salt in your way and that will be the last of it!

The Doctor proceeds to change his wardrobe and is annoyed of Peri’s prattling on as he puts it and explains that he is quite happy with his change as his previous life was a load of rubbish and nicety.  Peri defends his former self in explaining he was nice and thoughtful and the Doctor not fully in control of his faculties, attempts to throttle her.   Hey I think we have all been there at least once.

The twins have been concealed on a dilapidated asteroid known as Titan 3 which by a strange coincidence the Doctor feels he must now go to as well in order to purify these sudden outbursts of deranged rage.   I thought he could just expel Peri out into space just as easily too but hey my opinion clearly did not matter in the course of this seemingly innocent plot device.

Soon the young ones find that their equations are being put to use by an order of ancient beings evolved from the common gastropod (slug) for the survival of the species.

I think you need to hit Radio Shack for a new rabbit ears set.

The Doctor and Peri find the wreckage of a star vessel and find a young pilot who joins them in pursuit of the twins but all the while the Doctor seems very out of sorts from being brilliant one moment, petulant the next and finally a degree of cowardice.  As it is with every regeneration, it takes the Doctor a few to regain his space and time legs.

Doctor's Regeneration Week

Howdy folks and welcome back to this madcap blog.  I thought I would tackle some more of Doctor Who given the impending 50^th Anniversary celebration on its way.  This time around I will be focused on the stories leading up to or directly after one of the Doctor’s lives is spent.  So with that in mind I welcome you to The Doctor’s Regeneration Week!

For those that are not aware of this particular aspect of the Doctor, as a Timelord they can cheat death by rearranging all the atoms in their body giving them a chance at another life.  The only reason why the Doctor has little to no control over this simple and basic Timelord ability is he didn’t pay attention in his university classes as a young cadet of 325 years of age.

From a dwarf...to...

to a bit of a dandy!

Babylon 5 Movie Week: Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Welcome back my blooming observers of the Omniverse.    It was hinted that the Minbari were a peaceful race but proud and willfull as well.  The year is 2245 and EarthForce has just managed to fend off their first threat; a species known as the Dilgar and EarthForce handed them their heads. So prime the main guns, set the twin particle arrays to stun and keep the commerce going.  This is Babylon 5: In the Beginning.

Mardi Gras got out of hand.

Delenn:  It is said that in every age, there is one singular spoiler that forever changes the world around us. A nexus if you will.

Our movie opens with the remains of Centauri Prime up in flames and tattered buildings, a young Centauri boy and girl play in the royal throne room. An aged Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik of Hill Street Blues, Problem Child, Dear John, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Babylon 5, Sliders and 42) lets the boy be Emperor of all the Centauri Republic for 5 minutes, during this time the lad can give any order he wants.  The lad demands a story of epic battles between heroes and villains.  The young girl asks for a true story.  Mollari sighs with a heavy burden but decides to give the children both what they want and speaks of the Earth-Minbari war which occurred 35 years priop when he was still the ambassador to Earth.

 Before the war, Earthgov is cocky as hell due to their triumph over the Dilgar and they are expanding out into space, creating colonies and pushing their ships and cruisers in the reaches of space. 

You will bow before me Jor-El!!!

Meanwhile the Grey Council of the Minbari are ever vigilant to the resurrection of the Shadows and chose to investigate Z’ha’dum (the planet of the Shadows’ origin) when they encounter the Earth ships.  As a sign of respect, the Minbari open their ship’s gunports and the Prometheus (Earthgov ship) assuming this is the beginning of an attack and fires at the Minbaris’ flag ship.  With their leader Dukhat dead, The Grey Council consists of three casts or clans if you will.  The warrior cast, workers cast and religious cast are comprised bringing order to their people and speak for each cast in the wider picture of things.  The Grey Council screams for blood demanding a holy war against all of humanity. A war lasting over ten years writing the battles in space with gallons of blood; the Minbari are a deeply spiritual people discover that their fellow souls are being shared with the Earthlings.  Minbari must never kill Minbari creating an immediate cease fire. 

I just have a quick couple of concerns about this film in the grand scope of the series.   Even if you are not a Babylon 5 fan, this is a compelling story of battle, potential dark days and overtly prideful peoples.  G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas of True Identity, Blame It on the Bellboy, Babylon 5: The Gathering, The Fugitive and Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Dr. Franklin (Richard Biggs of Walk Like a Man, Days of Our Lives, Babylon 5: The River of Souls and Crusade) seemed relegated to cameo appearances and that just don’t fly with the fans, man and while a few scenes establish the pasts of most of our characters, Garibaldi is nowhere at the station or in the war.  A mild annoyance at best this film does cover almost every facet of the war. There is triumph, good humor, mass explosions and more than a fair share of tragedy.

Annual chili cookout ends in tears.

Farscape Week: Farscape Season 1

Well readers welcome back to the blog.  I thought we would do something a little different this time around to wit I will talk about multiple seasons of one show.   Is such a thing possible you may ask?  You may indeed…I’ll wait.    I will wager you asked and yes such a thing is indeed possible with the science fiction series I speak of.   Jim Henson Productions (Sesame Street, The Muppets, Dark Crystal and Labyrinth) under the yoke of Jim’s son Brian Henson (director/producer of The Muppets Christmas Carol, Dinosaurs, Muppets Tonight, Muppets Treasure Island and Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King) comes a tale of science fiction to the likes this critic had not seen before nor has it been duplicated.  So prim your pulse pistols, strap in for starburst and hold on to your mivonks.  This is Farscape Season 1

 

Bad place to go cruising.

Aeryn Sun: No offense, human, but what can 

I possibly need from you?  

John Crichton: (under his breath) Oh, I don’t know.  Manners? Personality?  Spoiler Tips?

Writer Rockne S. O’Bannon (The Twilight Zone, Alien Nation, Fear, SeaQuest 2032, Defiance and Cult ) brings us a story of a young astronaut scientist John Crichton (Ben Browder of Memphis Belle, Party of Five, Stargate SG-1, Bad Kids Go to Hell and Doctor Who) has a theory of using gravitational waves from Earth as a means of propulsion being a sub-orbital maneuver and if this theory is sound will revolutionize existing space travel.  His module is prepped and awaiting launch, recording telemetry and cameras’ catching this experiment for posterity, a wormhole opens up and shoots John into the far recesses of deep space.

Hmm exhaustion or boredom on that girl's face?

John finds himself in the midst of a space battle as 30 some starfighters are attacking a much larger vessel.    The module is dragged aboard the larger vessel with some sort of tractor beam.  John is lead from the cargo bay by gun point from a technorganic droid no bigger than a dust buster.    He is lead to the bridge of this ship to find 3 different aliens all shouting and John cannot understand a single one of them.   After the droid injects a translation biological program into him he can decipher everything they are saying.   He learns that this ship is a living entity and the three aliens are escaped prisoners fleeing the authorities.

To make matters even worse, Crichton has a near miss with one of this starfighters which caused the death of the pilot.   The commanding officer of this flagship and squadron’s younger brother and he swears Crichton will pay for that in blood. 

Yeah I do have a bit to talk about in my notes.

Combining green screen EFX, with Henson puppetry and an amazing cast, this show is not the typical science fiction we are used to.  Everyone has their own agenda, they work with one another only because they have to and these different species do not know how to cope with the distinct differences in language and culture.  

That really furrows my bone brows!

John is the voice of humanity in the fact he is a sci-fi and sports nerd so plenty of pop culture comments from him that I bet you were thinking the same thing when seeing the episodes.   There is no drawn line in the sand over what is a good and evil but myriad shade of grey which makes for excellent writing.   The story will keep you coming back for more as everyone is attempting to get their way back to their various homes, avoid Peacekeeper entanglement and whenever possible enjoy a hot cup of tea.   Well maybe tea isn’t the highest priority.

Doctor Who Week: Peter Davison

Hello all and welcome to Day 5 of Doctor Who Week and we shall end this endeavor on the final entry of the week playing catch up with the Doctor and his on growing collection of companions from here and there.  When we last left the Doctor he had taken on 3 new companions Adric (Matthew Waterhouse of To Serve Them All My Days and The Killing Edge), a brilliant mathematician from an dimension outside of normal space and time known as E-Space, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton of Menace, Play for Today, Oil Strike North and The Moon Stallion) daughter of an aristocrat consul Tremas (later to become the Master’s new life vessel) and lastly Teegan (Janet Fielding of Hammer House of Horror, Shelley, Minder and Jim’ll Fix It), an aspiring flight attendant from 1981…she got roped in by faith playing silly buggers with everyone.   The Doctor (Tom Baker of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Nicholas and Alexandra, Max Bear, And Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising) and the Master were required to join forces in order to stop total universal entropy from occurring.  In doing so, the Doctor pummeled to his death…or did he?  So grab your cricketer outfit, dust off the TARDIS and ordain your lapel with a decorative vegetable.  This is Dr. Who: The Visitation.

 

The Doctor has joint custody of the universe.

Try to understand, Spoiler: because you can get away with something, it doesn’t justify it.

After escaping the insane paradise planet Deva Loka and the indigenous tribes and colonists squabbling, it is time to get Teegan back for her career as an air hostess.  Yeah she is a striver that one. The Doctor (Peter Davison of A Very Peculiar Practice, Mystery!: Campion, All Creatures Great and Small and The Complete Guide to Parenting) calculates his trusty TARDIS and heads back to Heathrow Airport only to be a bit off in his time coordinates…by three hundred years.  Probably due to nothing more than a temperamental cellanoid on the lateral balance cones.  Nothing one should get their feathers ruffled about.

The four gather outside to scoop things out and then are almost overwhelmed by the smell of sulphur and proceed to investigate like some space and time traveling Scooby gang.  

Oh your singing wasn't that bad Teegan.

Adric of sound mind brings a homing device to find the TARDIS.  No sooner as they mill about in the lust forest they are attacked by villagers but manage to escape only to break up the group.  A highwayman name of Richard Mace encounters the Doctor and companions, leading them to safety inside a disused barn.   It is there that the Doctor proceeds to question a few things for example: Richard tells the Doctor of a comet that landed nearby and the rest of the team notices power packs for laser weapons and a scorch mark embedded in stone.  All accounts most peculiar for medieval England.

And now comes the part where I amaze and annoy you with fun filled facts.  Writer Eric Saward’s first writing for Television experience is this episode and went on to write 83 more episodes afterwards.  The initial story arc feels similar to some of the Tom Bakers at the time but over the course of the four episodes serial mark you get the feeling that Adric and Nyssa actually get more depth in their collective characters and they both become closer. 

NEVER QUESTION THE CELERY!!!!

In fact the only creature of this party that needs to be taken out in the street and drawn and quartered is Teegan.  She is virtually useless apart if you need a scream queen, gets captured more often than Daphne of Scooby Doo and frankly has a voice that feels like nails on a chalkboard.  The Doctor’s adventures shall continue on but not this week…perhaps in the future or maybe the past.