No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on November 24, 2013

With a short review for the short The Night of the Doctor.

I haven’t done one of these in a while but then we haven’t had a new episode in a while so I am going to repeat my requests. No future spoilers. This is for discussion from the episodes that have aired for the past 50 years. There will be spoilers in the comment section. I will have my spoiler free review above the cut and my spoiler filled review below the cut.

There have been, I believe three occasions where the story is that the Doctor meets the Doctor(s) on the TV show. That being the Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors. Each was celebrating a milestone in the show being the 10th anniversary, the 20th anniversary, and I honestly don’t know why the last one exists although it is fun.

My short review of the Night of the Doctor, well he should have had a long run on screen as the Doctor. I am glad that the BBC have owned up to him as being cannon rather than being coy about it for which I am most grateful. My more spoilery thoughts will be behind the cut.

My review for The Day of the Doctor.

That’s how to do a story for a special occasion. I walked away happy and smiling. There was enough for the original Whovians to be grinning about along with the Newhovians. It was a love letter to fans young and old. It also cleaned up a bit of continuity mess along with creating some possibilities for the future. They were very careful about mixing up the past and the present of Doctor Who but I didn’t feel like it was hammering me over the head.

The acting was aces all the way around. Good chemistry with the Doctors by both the other Doctors and the companion(s).

I didn’t notice how fast the time went which is a good sign for me when watching a show. I was engaged and entertained and in the end isn’t that what we want from our TV shows?

Would it be a show that you could sit someone down with no knowledge of the show? To my mind, not really, there is series knowledge that you need to understand what is going on. They might enjoy it but also be horribly confused by it. This is not a knock on the writing. The writer knew his audience and catered to them.

I am grateful that I got to see this episode with the rest of the world.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 23, 2013

Yep, that’s a mouthful but that is what happened on BBC One. A TV show was shown and, without knowing it, created an entertainment juggernaut.

We watched An Adventure in Time and Space last night which was a loving tribute to the beginning of the series.

We will be watching the airing of The Day of the Doctor at 2:50 EST along with the rest of the world.

I have rewatched The Night of the Doctor and will probably do so again. I am so glad that they gave the 8th Doctor his transition. And it just tells us how good McGann would have been if given a chance as the Doctor (and yes I know about the big finish audio plays). If you haven’t seen it and plan to watch The Day of the Doctor, then I suggest you watch this

I am also going to watch Curse of the Fatal Death. If you haven’t see that, you really should. You can find the official version here

According to those who count things, McGann has held onto the mantel the longest in terms of total time before the pass off (regeneration). Tom Baker still has the most episodes (screen time). Longest companion (most screen time) would go to Sarah Jane. Most used villain would be the Daleks.

I am sorry that we will never see the Doctor (John Hurt) verses the Master (Derek Jacobi). Tell me that would not be the ultimate in Master/Doctor banter.

I have managed to stay spoiler free except John Hurt’s costume, which I researched for his puppet. I am glad that we are all watching it at the same time because then I can comment and read comments because we are all on the same page (well minute).

Tomorrow I will probably do a New Who Review for the Day of the Doctor.

Doctor Who has given me hours of entertainment, a slew of friends, and some interesting professional opportunities. It is a touchstone for me. I like a lot of different fandoms but in my heart of hearts I am a Whovian.

I am grateful that we are watching the show at the same airtime as they are in England.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 22, 2013

50 years ago today in Dallas Texas a President was assassinated.

According to my parents, we were in the pediatrician’s office for my wellness check since I was almost 3 months old. They heard it on the radio.

I grew up knowing about John F. Kennedy from my parents and my teachers. I remember that in American History Mr. Morgan saying that our class was the last class that he would teach that was alive when it happened. He said that he had gone from talking to the students about where they were and what they felt to teaching about that day.

I associate President Kennedy with NASA and putting a man on the moon, which I do remember seeing. I grew up during the space race and I took great pride in the fact that we got to the moon.

I knew that he served in the military. I knew he was Catholic which is what my family was. I knew he was from Boston where we were living when we watched a man walk on the moon. I knew he created the Peace Corp. I knew that he called himself a jellied donut in Berlin. I knew that he had a son and a daughter. I loved the pictures of the children in the White House that I saw.

Later I learned about the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis and the other things that he did and didn’t do during his administration. I learned about Camelot Era and how the Kennedys used the social media of the time to their advantage.

One wonders what kind of President he would have made if he had not been killed. Would NASA have been created? Would a scandal have brought him down?

But that is mere speculation. He is who he was and he inspired a country to be the best it could be (ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country). I think we need to remember JFK and his legacy and strive to be the best country we can be.

I am grateful that JFK was President.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 20, 2013

BBC America is running a lot of episodes of Dr. Who and all the specials they have done about Dr. Who leading up to 2:50 on Saturday where we will be watching the 50th anniversary special. It is interesting seeing this much Doctor all at once. They are up to the Donna Noble episodes so I missed all of Martha Jones except when she shows up later. Soon we are getting to Silence in the Library which will be interesting since I haven’t seen it in a couple of years and it turned into such a pivotal episode.

I also didn’t see School Reunion which is hands down my favorite episode of that season. It was so nice to see Sarah Jane again and give the character some closure. I am sure if Liz Sladen were still with us, she would be in Sunday’s episode.

Did you know that K-9 was suppose to be a one off and then they added them to the series which gave the props department a whole new set of headaches since they build it to move on studio floors which are smooth?

Also a warning that there are some things being sold on E-bay as authentic Dr. Who props which are actually things that were created (recreated) for the Doctor Who exhibit. I actually have gotten to play with a couple of props from the show over the years.

I have one of the early TARDIS keys sold to fans.

When creating Caroline’s costume for the Whoville sketch, I knitted the scarf for her based on the knitting pattern of one of the real scarves. I had to reduce the number of rows so it would fit Caroline and not engulf her. It is accurate to the scarf which was not easy to do.

I have a complete set of the Target books and almost all of the Virgin novels with the exception of the first three which Peter has. I also have all the Decalogs. After that I am spotty at best since it was a lot of books and I was not flush with cash.

I have a short story in Qualities of Leadership published by Big Finish. Had a lot of fun with that story. It was entitled “On a Pedestal” and was the 2nd Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria along with William Wallace.

I wrote Doctor Who fanfic for the PMEB which has vanished off the Internet. Writing fanfic and getting feed back was a great learning process that has helped my professional writing.

I am grateful for all the people I have met through Doctor Who fandom.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 19, 2013

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Doctor Who, I thought I would talk about Doctor Who and puppetry.

Back on May 14th 1996 I was with the members of the Terminus TARDIS watching the TV movie at a sports bar in Atlanta. We were enjoying catching up with each other and watching the movie. It was nice because I hadn’t seen a number of these folks in a while since I had gone up to Yale for graduate school for many. I can’t remember who challenged me to make a complete set of Doctor Who puppets for Dragon Con which was a little over a month away at that point. I think it might have been my friend Stephanie who knew my passion for puppets and encouraged me to build them. By this point I was pretty well known in Atlanta for my Star Trek puppets but I hadn’t built a Doctor much less 8 of them.

So I took the challenge and I made 8 puppets in my spare time while I stage managed one show and worked at the comic book shop. I had to learn to knit. I had to figure out what I could do to make each one look like the Doctor it was suppose to be. Fortunately each Doctor did have a distinctive look. Some were easier to recreate than others. I had a heck of a time patterning the 6th Doctor’s coat. I learned a lot about patterning clothes for puppets, different ways to do hair, and a number of other skills that I use to this day.

I presented them at Dragon Con and got a lot of good feedback. I was quite pleased with them. The first puppet to go to his Doctor was 5 to Davison which was delivered to him by Stephanie. She explained that the maker of the puppet was in the middle of a show and couldn’t get away. Since then I have given puppets to McCoy, McGann, and Pertwee (not in that order). Other actors who have played the Doctor know of the puppets existence.

I didn’t do any companions until after I did the second set of Doctor puppets in 2006 which included 9 and 10. In 10 years I had learned a lot about puppet building and this set was a little easier to create. Then I started adding companions to the mix. Sarah Jane being the first.

In 2012 as part of the puppet slam for Dragon Con, I pulled out all 11 puppets and with the help of some friends, we did “For a Lord of Time” to much acclaim. We had done the sketch a couple of times. I had to quickly rebuild a couple of Doctors that were no longer in the collection. That was also the year that I gave John Barrowman his Captain Jack puppet.

Now we are at the 50th anniversary. In the DragonCon art show the year I created “not the Doctor” being the John Hurt version, which I did off of a couple of photos that were leaked on the Internet. He turned out pretty well all things considered.

I have ideas for a few more companions I might make from classic Who. I might also do a Clara from the current show. I owe two actors their puppets.

I have made a lot of friends from these puppets. These puppets have opened doors for me and given me other work. They are very special to me.

Doctor Who and puppetry are intertwined for me at this point in my life and I am grateful for that fact.

Behind the cut I am posting photos of Doctors and Companions I have made over the years.

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