For us poor slobs in the U.S. who’ll be chomping at the bit to see the Matt Smith Doctor Who Christmas Special, thank the BBC they’ll be torturing us for only a couple of hours lag-time. The special will appear on BBC America Christmas Day only hours after its showing in the UK. Thank you, BEEB, for being merciful to us.
Now I’m going to torture the rest of you and make you watch a preview (only if you click on it) ’cause misery loves company, eh?
Catching up on Doctor Who news after being sick and flat on your back five days can be a good thing when you find little gems in your video stash that haven’t seen the light of day in a while. I still love this one and am sure not everyone has seen it yet. This is for my Sister and her kids who have been asking me for favorite Doctor Who blogs they might enjoy.
The Place – Facebook
The Phenomena – 180 comments in 2 hours on a single post…this is what I love about the internet.
Here are some of the best of those comments…
” You Know your addicted to Doctor Who when …………….”
…You’ve made up your own Time Lord. Complete with name, outfit, personal history, etc.
…you’re looking forward to Christmas not because of the gifts but because of the Doctor Who Special XD
…you go without any episodes for a long time, and you start to get hives.
…You never blink. (a personal favorite)
…You want the internet soley cause you want to download Doctor Who stuff. The rest of the net? Who cares?
…You mistake bulky headphones for Cyberman headgear.
…When you wish it was christmas for the start of a new season.
…you swear that noise you just heard was the Tardis landing in your back yard.
…you name your only child after a character on the show!
…When u get drunk and Introduce yourself by saying, “Hello I’m the Doctor”.”
…he’s your profile picture
…When your profile picture is you dressed as the Doctor :P
…You start a conversation with: “One time on Doctor Who….”
…You look forward to having a cough so that your wheezing sounds like a TARDIS landing.
…You eat fishsticks and custard.
…You wait patiently for someone to post the current episode on You-Tube in ten minute segments because you live in KY.
…You have the Seal of Rassilon tattoo’d on your shoulder.. just saying…
…You have your own scarf, personally signed by Tom Baker. (how do you sign a scarf?)
…you dress salt shakers up like daleks.
…When removing files from your computer, you say “Delete! Delete! Delete!”
…When every time your friend tries to set you up on a date, your first question is, “Does he like Doctor Who?”
…your waiting for the 2012 Olympics to see if David Tennant appears.
… When all you want for Christmas is a screwdriver.
…when your laptop is stolen and the first thing you think about is all the Doctor Who episodes and images you’ve lost!
…When you build a replica tardis in your backyard complete with a phone that doesn’t work in case a kids with a gas mask comes by…
…When you are attempting to knit a 12 foot long scarf.
…When you know how terrible the Wii game is, but you want to buy it anyway
…when you leave a music festival early so you won’t miss an episode.
…you like to use the “it’s bigger on the inside” phrase a little too much.
…when Christmas becomes “Whomas”.
…when your basement is full of Dr. Who action figures.
…When all the items on your Christmas list to your husband are Dr. Who themed, not diamonds :) it’s true…
…When drunk, you use the sonic screwdriver app on ur phone & point it @ random objects (ie. ATM, drinks, park benches & bouncers)
…You judge British actors based solely on how well you think they could play the Doctor.
…when you cried or almost cried when David Tennant regenerated
…When you pop in a Doctor Who DVD and the theme song starts to play your husband yells down the stars “Hon, is that my phone or yours?
…you buy a fez and a bow tie!
…When you think to yourself, “Hmmmm… If I get a physics degree, I might be able to actually pull off building a sonic screwdriver!”
…When you’re watching the latest Harry Potter movie and you see that the “bad guys” can’t see the good guys and you think, “Well, duh, there’s a perception filter.”
…When you start writing Doctor Who fanfic!” (no one around here does that…uh, no one…)
…when you wake up making a decision to build a small scale model of stonehenge for your action figures…..
…When you try to make your own sonic screwdriver.
…when you try to open your front door with a sonic srewdriver toy on the off chance it will work for real!
…When you see somebody wearing a Bluetooth ear peace and scream “Cyberman” at them.
…when you want your own blue box that’s bigger on the inside.
…When you stalk 10th Doctor cosplayers.
There are few more painful choices in life than this
My favorite track is the last track, “Impossible Choice” from the episode “Amy’s Choice” – a very lucky break for all of us that it ended up as a bonus track. The agony of Amy’s choice between her childhood sweetheart and the “handsome hero” can only be told by the beautiful violin section that seems to cry with us. I was in tears and still cry when I see this scene and hearing the music has the same effect on me every time. Who could make such a heartbreaking choice? Giving your heart to the Doctor will never be reciprocated, yet it pulls at us and at Amy in the way only a three-way love triangle can tear apart the human heart.
This might be the best Doctor Who album to date. With a whopping 65 tracks on a double CD, every, single track is amazing in its own right while adding to the background and beauty of the story woven through this first season with our new 11th Doctor, Matt Smith.
Beginning with the chaos of an exploding TARDIS rapidly descending on London, we plummet to earth with a newly regenerated Time Lord, yet plummet into the depth of power of the music of this sequence. Once down, forever leaving the embittered last adventures of the lonely last-of-the-Gallifreyans, we enter the world of the new Doctor via a little girl’s time crack in her bedroom wall and the magic, raggedy-Doctor that comes to save her. Little Amy’s theme is always interwoven with this impossible fairy tale dreamscape music that pulls us into her fantasy – seeing the last of the Time Lords as only a child can.
Believing for more than 20 minutes
And after 12 years suffering the disbelief of everyone around her, the track “Little Amy – The Apple” calls to mind the beautiful revelation of light that plays over her and the Doctor as she realizes that her magic Doctor has come back to her.
I could go on and on and on describing the amazing qualities of each track and how they move us right back into The Eleventh Hour, recalling its fantastic moments and imagery back into our brains, but it has to be heard, and thus relived by all soundtrack, music and Doctor Who fans firsthand. I will, however, if you care to read on, review the other highlights of these amazing pieces and celebrate them with you:
Track 5 – “Can I Come With You?” – oh how we wish we could have too, Amy!
Track 9 – “I am The Doctor” – the heart of a hero shines in this track like never before.
Track 17 – “Battle in the Sky” – I can still see British war planes zoom past me in space. What an awesome thought.
Track 18 – “River’s Path” – the exciting reentry of River Song. This woman does the amazing and does it with class – even when she blows herself out an airlock and into space!
Track 24 – “The Vampires of Venice” – My roomie is right…this track rocks!
Track 26 – “This is the Dream” – creepy revelations in store for our heroes in “Amy’s Choice” and they have the music to back it up.
Track 50 – “Amy’s Starless Life” – it’s sad and you feel sad with her listening to this piece.
Track 56 – “Honey, I’m Home” – check out the last section of this track…River caught in a time loop. It’s powerful.
A Teadrop Can Bring You Back Home
Track 62 – “I Remember You” – the power of a little girl no long little, to bring the most important hero in our world through a crack in time and back into our reality.
My Favorite track of all? Read the blog post that follows. It says it all.
We LOVE Murray Gold Doctor Who music in this house…don’t get me wrong, but this album is by far the weakest of all his works. The only strong, good tracks are those in the Christmas special and surrounding David Tennant’s regeneration. Sad, really, because my roomie and I have been waiting for seemingly forever for this album. What a bummer, but wow, does the Series 5 Matt Smith album make up for it! Check out our review of that one next.
At last, the soundtrack to the Tenth Doctor’s specials The Next Doctor, Planet Of The Dead, The Waters Of Mars and The End Of Time will be released in a 2 CD set on 20th September 2010. Thanks to my friend April for letting me know. Passing on the good news!
Our TARDIS cookies...note the "cracked" one. It was too brilliant an idea to throw out, given the theme of this year's season.
A "blown apart" TARDIS cookie. This one self-imploded when we tried to scoop it off the hot cookie sheet. I think it wanted to be broken. Our stencil is to the right of the finished product. It's startling how much bigger they get when you bake them!
Wednesday was a busy day for Doctor Who news. I awoke to this amusing article on Facebook & LIve Journal – “NASA discovers Doctor Who’s crack in the middle of the Milky Way” and several new trailers for this Saturday’s episode, “The Pandorica Opens”. For those of you who don’t want spoilers, the YouTube videos will be hosted in a separate blog post here.
