Thought on Doctor Who

I'm not sure what to think about the newest season of Doctor Who and the newest incarnation of said TARDIS driving Time Lord.  I'm just not finding Peter Capaldi quite believable as the Doctor.  I feel like he is just too confused to be the Doctor.  With the way that he keeps getting confused about things, and apparently thinking things to be their opposite (Clara is old, not wearing make-up when she is, that sort of thing) it makes him seem more like Strax than the Doctor.  It is fine for Strax to be that way, not so fine for the Doctor to be the way, in my opinion anyway.  I guess that is more the writing than Capaldi himself, but somehow he just doesn't seem to be selling it to me very well, either.

And also, I know that the Doctor doesn't know everything, but when it comes to history (past, present, and future), as a Time Lord, he is supposed to be "in the know" on most thing.  I found it odd that he did not know that Robin Hood was a real person.  At first I thought that his disbelief at there being a "real" Robin Hood was because the legend was actually built about the Doctor himself.  But that did not turn out to be the case.  It was just that the Doctor doesn't believe in heroes.  I wasn't real taken with that explanation, but at least I did find that episode amusing. 

And what was with last night's episode anyway?  Moffat takes an interesting idea - that there is really something under the bed - and then seems to leave it hanging.  The episode seemed to become more about foreshadowing Clara and Danny being together than about these being that have evolved to be the perfect hiders.  Was that really something alien or supernatural under the bed covers in Rupert/Danny's bedroom?  What did the Doctor see when he opened the door?  Are we going to find out?  And I wasn't especially taken with the scene of Clara talking to a scared little Doctor hiding in his bed in the barn either.  What exactly was that all about?  I feel like Moffat is trying to explore the darker side of the Doctor and look at some of his fears and weaknesses, but I just don't think he is doing a very good job of.

My Take on the HIMYM finale

I haven't read a lot of commentary on the How I Met Your Mother finale from Monday night, but I've a heard a little bit here and there.  A lot of people don't like that they killed off Mom and put Ted with Robin in the end.  I'm not really fond of the idea either, but that's not really my main complaint with the episode. 

To me, the problem was that it just wasn't funny.  HIMYM was a funny show.  The finale was sad, not funny.  There were so many comedic turns they could have taken to end the show on, but instead they go with the almost too obvious twist of putting Ted with Robin.  Yes, it makes sense, and, honestly, makes the majority of the series make more sense, but it makes the whole last season leading up to the finale make no sense at all.  Why spend this whole last season making us believe Barney has changed and Robin and Barney should be together, to then just have them get divorced?  Why make Tracy (Mom) be so perfect for Ted and then just kill her off?  And why have everyone's life be semi miserable after the wedding?  True, it may be more realistic to show that not everyone is happy in middle age, but since when was HIMYM based on realism? 

I'm all for twists and original endings, but for a comedy, the ending should be clever and, most of all, funny.  To me, this one just wasn't.  It was disappointing and sad. 

I finally went digital

The question is, was it worth it? It certainly shouldn't have been as difficult a process as it turned out to be. But ultimately I did get to watch tonight's premiere of Doctor Who, so it all worked out okay. I do, however, find myself much less enamored with both TiVo and my cable company than I was when the process started.

We talked to the people at our cable company and told them what equipment we had, told them we want to upgrade to digital cable and asked what we needed to do. They insisted we needed a cable box. I set up an appointment to get the installation done the following Monday, this was last Thursday. The guy comes out, and after an hour fiddling with my cable wires and TiVo, realizes that I can't use a digital box with a TiVo DVR. He takes the box in to install a cable card only to realize that my Series 2 doesn't have a slot for a cable card. He brings it back to me and tells me that I will have to upgrade my TiVo or get one of their DVRs. Okay, partially my fault. I should have remembered that my TiVo was not digitial compatible.

Enter TiVo. I go online to the TiVo store to upgrade and get a new TiVo that will accept a cable card. I order a TiVo Premiere and transfer my service to the new box. It says that it will ship the same day and that I will have 60 days (I think) of service on my old box in order to get my new box set up. It even says I will be able to transfer my season passes to the new box. Great right? Wrong!

I'm supposed to get an email when the box ships, but I don't get one. 24 hours later I still have not received an email saying it has shipped. So I call customer service. They say that there was a technical problem with the previous days orders: they shipped, but the emails weren't sent out. Okay, great! Again, wrong! It didn't ship on Monday, it shipped late afternoon on Tuesday. Still no major problem, it should still get to me before the weekend. And, great (for real this time) it actually does. It get to me after 5 pm on Thursday. My cable company is going to be open on Good Friday, so I'm still in luck.

From what I can gather looking at the instruction a cable card is no big deal to install, so I ask if they will just give me a card to install myself. Well, of course not, they have to do it themselves. At a cost of either $50 or possibly $60, I was told two different amounts by two different people on two different days. I was also told two different amounts for how much the service would cost per month. I still don't know how much I'll be paying. . .

Finally, after the cable people had the TiVo for about 5 and a half hours, I got it back and could bring it home and set it up. I get it set up and there are no directions for how to hook the darn thing up with a DVD player. I contact TiVo again, and they tell me that it can only be hooked up to one output source at a time, which I take to mean that I would have to disconnect it from my TV to connect it to my DVD player.

I did finally get everything connected and working properly - the TiVo connects to the DVD player, which then connects to the TV. I try going online to transfer my season passes from the old box to the new, and you guessed it, I can't! The only box it shows for me is the new one. So I have to manually reset all of my season passes. Well, the ones that I can set, because, of course, not all shows that I have season passes for are going to be showing in the next two weeks. So now I will have to remember to reset them before the shows come back on in the summer or fall.

All is fine and good, and my Now Playing shows are transferred and my Season Passes are set. But it was WAY more expensive and WAY more of a headache than I ever anticipated when I set out on my quest to watch the season premiere of Doctor Who. All I've got to say now is that it better be a damn good season of Doctor Who!

Enjoying Number 11

I have finally gotten around to watching the newest series of Doctor Who with the eleventh Doctor. I wondered how I would feel about the new Doctor because I was so accustomed to David Tennant and I didn't know how the show would be with a new writer. I have been very pleasantly surprised. Matt Smith is great and the writing is really good, too. I love Steven Moffat's sense of humor and I find myself laughing out loud much more often that I remember doing with the most recent episodes written by Davies. In fact, I was beginning to grow a bit tired of the final episodes with Davies and Tennant.

I'm not all the way through this series yet and my next DVD won't come from Netflix until tomorrow, but we have been ripping through them just a quickly as we can get them. In fact, I'm so taken with it that I'm considering signing up for digital cable just so that I can get BBC America (only available on digital cable through my provider) and watch the next series without having to wait for it to come to DVD. But I do like British comedy in general so I'm sure I would watch more on BBC American than just Doctor Who.

What the heck was that? - Bones edition

I don't know what last night's season finale of Bones was supposed to be, but I was very disappointed with it. Oh, it was funny and all, but certainly not what I had hoped for in a season finale. The only thing I can figure is that the writers wanted to find a way to give the die-hard fans some of the things they have been longing for (Booth and Bones in bed together, Zack back on the show) and they couldn't think of a normal way to do it. I don't know.

I do wonder if there was supposed to be any significance to anything that played out in the show. Plus, there is the question of whether that was all Booth's dream or was it Brennen's story that she deleted, or what.

I sure hope they get there act together by next season. If they don't, you can forget jumping the shark, they will just fall into the shark tank and be devoured.

Speaking of Jumping the Shark...

Apparently JumptheShark.com has jumped the shark. What was once a great site full of user comments and feedback on tv shows, etc. is now just another page on tvguide.com. It is nothing like the old site. The good news is, there is a new website out there is picking up where jumptheshark.com left off. It is called Bone the Fish. It is just starting up, so go check it out, sign up and starting adding content to make this a great site like the old Jump the Shark used to be.

Bones Jumping the Shark?

Some say that Bones jumped the shark by making Zach the Gormogon's apprentice, but I could deal with that because I had just started watching the show at that time and Zach was already seeming creepy at that point. But if any of what is in this article is true, the shark tank is filled and the ramps are in place.

P.S. If Booth keeps hallucinating somebody needs to make him pee in cup.

I think I've had all I can take

After tonight's episode of Heroes I think I'm done with it. Ever since the new season started I've had the feeling that Heroes was more like a Soap Opera than anything else. In fact, I've been calling it "Days of Our Lives with super powers." At least tonight they did explain why Linderman was able to still be alive (illusion created by Daddy Parkman), but when they had Hiro kill Ando that was more than I could take. Even if they explain it away as an illusion or some other lame excuse, it is just not something that I want to watch. It is just not enjoyable anymore. It seemed like something new and interesting when it started. It went downhill some last season, but was still interesting. This time around it is just stupid. They are suggesting things that just don't follow from previous episodes. And the fact that they are turning the good-guys into bad-guys, and vise-vera, is also very soap-opera-esque. I didn't like it on Days of our Lives and I don't like it on Heroes.

This article over at MSN.com ("How to Heal 'Heroes'") has some interesting ideas of how to fix it, but I just don't think I can stomach the trip there even if they decided to try. I particularly liked this comment from the article

If someone were to try hard enough, you could "fanwank" an explanation for these and the various other elements of bizarre behavior on the show. But the point is that you shouldn't have to fanwank anything.

To that I can only say, "Amen, brother"

Full Circle and Beyond

Well, I've finally come full circle in my exposure to Dr. Who and gone a few episodes beyond. I had heard about Dr. Who, of course, and was vaguely familiar with the character from the first incarnation of show, but had never watched it, neither the original series or the new series. Then one day I watched this clip on a scifi blog:

I thought that David Tennant was pretty funny in the clip and decided that I would give the show a try. A colleague told me that the SciFi channel was going to be running a marathon of the first season of the new incarnation of Who and that I should start there so I gave it a try.

I actually quite liked Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor and thought that there was a good dynamic between him and Billy Piper as Rose. My favorite Eccleston episode is the two parter, "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances".

When Tennant took over at the beginning of season 2 it was a little difficult getting accustomed to the new Doctor. If nothing else, Tennant is just a little harder to understand at times than Eccleston was. But also, I never really liked the dynamic between the 10th Doctor and Rose. It just didn't seem to play as well it had with Eccleston. And in fact, I like Martha better than Rose in general, I think. But I will say, that my favorite Tennant episode so far is "The Girl in the Fireplace", but that was because I thought he played exceptionally well with his then-girlfriend, Sophia Miles.

I hated that they had Martha leave at the end of season 3, but I'm glad that they wrote in her leaving in the way that they did. It preserved the strength that I felt they had given the character to that point, and it makes it possible for her to have guest appearances in the future without the creepiness that went along with Rose's reappearance at the end of "Partners in Crime".

So anyway, I've made it full circle. I started with "Timecrash" and have finally made it back around to "Timecrash" in sequence after the last episode of season 3. I've watched a little into season 4 (I've seen through "The Planet of the Ood") and I'm not sure yet how I'm going to feel about Donna. She's a little annoying, but I'm reserving judgment at this point.

The end of the strike

Via CNN - Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work

Striking Hollywood writers will be back at their keyboards Wednesday after voting overwhelmingly to end a 100-day walkout that essentially shut down the entertainment industry.

[...]

"The strike is over. Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work," said Patric Verrone, president of the WGA's West chapter.

[...]

It's unclear how soon new episodes of scripted programs will start appearing, because production won't begin until scripts are completed, the AP reported.

It will take at least four weeks for producers to get the first post-strike episodes of comedies back on the air; dramas will take six to eight weeks, the AP said.

Honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about the strike being over. On the one hand, there are some shows that I will be happy to see return with new episodes, but on the other hand, I have so little time to watch t.v. as it is, it will just put me that much farther behind. Good thing I have TiVo!

"The Girl in the Fireplace," Hillary Clinton and feminism

Despite the assumptions of some, due to the name of my blog or from posts I've written here, I have never really considered myself a feminist. I have, however, tended to admire strong, independent women ever since I was a young girl. The two in particular that come to mind are my great-grandmother and Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth I because she never married, largely due to the fact that she did not want power to pass to a husband. And my great-grandmother, because even though she did marry (and at a very young age), she lived alone for 31 years after my great-grandfather passed away. She never remarried and lived by herself until her health made it impossible to continue to do so. So, what does this have to do with Hillary Clinton or an episode of Dr. Who? Well, I'll tell you.

A couple of nights ago, I watched the episode of Dr. Who entitled "The Girl in the Fireplace". I thought it was a very good episode and particularly interesting in terms of insight into the character of The Doctor. In fact, I saw it as something of a microcosm of what The Doctor's relationships are like because, in the story, Reinette knows The Doctor for her whole life (practically), but for The Doctor, the events all take place within the span of about one day.

Anyway, since the character in the story, Reinette, was actually an historical figure, Madame de Pompadour of 18th Century France, I decided to look up Madame de Pompadour. I found this site which had some information on her life. It includes two brief articles written by different people about Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress. The site seemed to be in conjunction with a women's history class. I found it striking how the first of the two articles ended:

The Marquise de Pompadour, who had put all of her energy towards the affairs of the state, was physically fatigued and became quite ill. She died on April 15, 1764. Through her influential twenty years at court, she truly became an example of rising above the traditions given to women.

Why I find this so interesting is because she received this position due to the fact that she was the mistress of a powerful man. That does not mean that she did not have talent and skill that helped her achieve her goals, because certainly she did. But what it boils down to is that her power came from her relationship, and a sexual relationship at that, with a powerful man. And in fact, if you actually read the articles, it would seem that much of how she gained favor with the king was through throwing parties and arranging dinners. If that is stepping out of the traditional roles of women, I'd like for someone to explain to me how.

So anyway, this brings me around to Hillary Clinton. I am not a supporter of Hillary Clinton and I never have been. I would hate to see her win the Democratic Presidential nomination for multiple reasons that I won't get into at the moment. But the thing that strikes me at the moment is the fact that so many people seem to think that a Hillary Clinton victory would be such a great feminist victory, but I disagree. It is certainly true that, if elected, she would be the first female president of the United States and it would be a great accomplishment. But until we can elect a woman who is capable and accomplished in her own right and not mostly known and seen as electable and experienced because of the accomplishment of her powerful husband, I really feel like we, as a country, have not accomplished some great feminist victory. I thought that dynasties were an old idea, not something that we should look to establish in this country.

Kring speaks about Heroes Volume 3

Caution - Very slight spoiler alert

Via TV Guide - Exclusive: Tim Kring Explains Heroes' "Generations" Finale

The fate of Nathan, who was shot during a TV press conference, and of Niki, who may have died in an abandoned building explosion, are "up in the air and will be determined when we come back after the strike," Kring says.

[. . .]

Not to worry. There are plenty more baddies coming after the writers' strike concludes. In fact, the title of Volume 3 — "Villains" — says it all.

"We've introduced a cadre of them over the course of the show and we're going to see them rise up," Kring says. "Just as the heroes have found each other to save the world, the villains will do the same with the opposite intent." And their numbers may be legion. "The Company has catalogued many of these people over the years. There may be more of them down in that basement than we have alluded to so far."

And there is an upside to the writers' strike:

Originally, Quinto was not going to be available for much of Volume 3 because of his commitment to the new Star Trek film. Now, with the strike dragging on, he'll likely be done playing young Spock by the time Heroes returns to production.

Christianity and Heroes

On last night's episode of Heroes, Adam/Kensei said that God had wiped the Earth clean with the flood and that he was trying to do the same thing with the virus.

Prior to that, my middle son and I were discussing the use of Biblical names for characters in the show. And my sister had previously suggested that maybe Kensei had taken the name Adam because he was the first person to have a power like the current "heroes" and we discussed the possibility that he could actually be the common ancestor of all the current characters that have powers, considering that he has been around for 400 years.

So, anyway, my son and I came up with a list of several characters with Biblical names including: Peter, Isaac, Noah, Micah, Matt (if his name is Matthew), Nathan, Gabriel (aka Sylar), Eden. Then after Adam made the reference to the flood, I really wondered if Mr. Bennett being named Noah had any significance.

So, what do you think? Does it mean anything?

The Strike is On

Via CNN - Hollywood writers go on strike

The strike by Hollywood writers is on. Writers and studios broke off talks late Sunday after 11 hours of negotiations.

The talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were called by a federal mediator. The producers said a deal couldn't be reached.

The writers want more money from the sale of DVDs and a share of revenue generated by the sale of TV shows and films over the Internet. The studios say the demands are unreasonable and will hamper attempts to experiment with new media.

Picketing starts in the morning in New York and Los Angeles.

The walkout will affect late-night talk shows first, then daytime talk shows and soap operas. Studios have stockpiled movie scripts and prime-time TV has completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

As it won't affect things like reality shows and sports broadcast, I guess people won't have to go back to reading books right away. Who knows, if it goes on too long maybe the producers will turn to buying the rights to film fan fiction.

More TV News

This should come as no surprise to anyone who struggled through watching the first episode of Viva Laughlin, the show was canceled after only 2 episodes. I have to think that if the show had debuted in its intended normal time slot and the next episode had been a week away instead of just 3 days away it wouldn't have made it to two episodes. I really hadn't intended to watch the show at all, but I was out of town and in the hotel room for the night and wanted to stay up to watch the local news. The musical-type nature of the show was something I couldn't imagine would last. There was a point when my husband thought that the two cops were going to bust out into song, but thankfully they did not. It was just so totally lame and the main character was such an ass, I would have been greatly surprised if it had lasted any longer than it did.

My thoughts on Bionic Woman

I finally got around to watching Wednesday's episode of Bionic Woman (full episodes available here). It is probably my favorite episode so far. As I was watching it I was thinking that I liked it better but I couldn't put a finger on why. Then about 3/4 of the way through it I realized what it was: no Sarah Corvus. In the last episode or so I've just felt like Sarah confused the storyline instead of adding anything positive to it. I don't have anything against Katee Sackhoff and I think the character of Sarah could be an asset to the show if they could ever decide how they want to play it. Until they do, however, I'd be happy for them to keep her written out.

Another thing I liked about this episode was the fact that there were not problems with the bionics. She's brand new for heaven's sake, just let her use the bionics and discover all that she can do. If they want to have the bionics start failing, they should really wait till the end of the season and have it be some kind of cliff hanger. I feel like they are doing it at this stage to try to make some sense of what they've done with the Sarah character, but it really just isn't working for me.

I do still have a few issues with the writing in this episode. They just make Jaime seem so naive. It would seem to me that someone with her life experiences wouldn't be quite so trusting at this point in her life.

Also, the scene with Antonio and the terrorist currier in the apartment didn't seem too realistic to me either. If he was willing to kill an American citizen just because he knew about bionics, it seems unlikely to me that he would be so understanding of a terrorist who is doing what he's does because his family was killed.

There is definitely some moral ambiguity in the practices of the company that Jaime now works for, but that doesn't really bother me at this point. It is sorta like HRG (Claire's dad) on Heroes. Sometimes he seems like a bad guy and you are rooting against him and then the next thing you know you are rooting for him. I think that is how the company is going to be on here too. I think it is illustrative of the ambiguities in real life. No one is all good or all bad.

If you just can't wait for more Heroes

I found a site that has a little info on the next 3 episodes of Heroes. Not really spoilers, more like what the TV Guide might have as a description. And it does say that the info could change. For all of you Star Trek fans out there, Nichelle Nichols is scheduled to be on the Oct. 15th episode. Enjoy!

So soon?

It is hard to believe that tonight is the season finales for Monk and Psych. It seems like they just started back, and in the grand scheme of things they did. The "new season" that is now ending just started in July. Oh well, I guess I'll have something to look forward to in January. Maybe I'll buy the first season of Psych on DVD so I can at least see the reruns, and I'm not normally a rerun type person.

Rumor has it. . .

Via the International Herald Tribune - Sam Waterston negotiating for 'Law & Order' promotion to replace departing Fred Thompson

Sam Waterston may be a getting a "Law & Order" promotion.

The actor is negotiating to step in as the show's New York district attorney, replacing co-star Fred Thompson, a source close to the production said Monday. Thompson, a former U.S. senator, is weighing a presidential run and asked to be released from the NBC drama.

That's an interesting development. Watching the show for several years, I always got the impression that Waterston's character (Jack McCoy) didn't like the politics associated with the elected position that Thompson's character holds. It is interesting that Jack would want that position. It is also interesting to me that Waterston would want that position, as it is a role that seems to get much less airtime per episode.

Anyway, it is interesting to see how life influences art, so to speak. To me, the best thing about Fred Thompson running for president is that I won't have to see him on Law and Order anymore. I never did like him very much.

Protecting Free Speech or lazy vocabularies?

Via the NYT - Court Rebuffs F.C.C. on Fines for Indecency

If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can blurt out vulgar language, then the government cannot punish broadcast television stations for broadcasting the same words in similarly fleeting contexts.

That, in essence, was the decision on Monday, when a federal appeals panel struck down the government policy that allows stations and networks to be fined if they broadcast shows containing obscene language.

Although the case was primarily concerned with what is known as “fleeting expletives,” or blurted obscenities, on television, both network executives and top officials at the Federal Communications Commission said the opinion could gut the ability of the commission to regulate any speech on television or radio.

It does legitimately seem to me that the networks have no control over what guests in particular say on a live broadcast. The only way to be sure that the networks control what is being broadcast would be to ditch truly live broadcasts all together and always have at least a few seconds lag time to allow the censors to press their little buzzers.

There are more issues here than just fleeting expletives, however.

The case involved findings that the networks had violated the indecency rules for comments by Cher and Nicole Richie on the Billboard Music Awards, the use of expletives by the character Andy Sipowicz on “NYPD Blue” and a comment on “The Early Show” by a contestant from CBS’s reality show “Survivor.”

The commission did not issue fines in any of the cases because the programs were broadcast before the agency changed its policy. But the networks were concerned about the new interpretation of the rules, particularly since the agency has been issuing a record number of fines.

Two years ago, Congress increased the potential maximum penalty for each indecency infraction to $325,000, from $32,500. Producers and writers have complained that the prospect of stiff fines had begun to chill their creative efforts.

Okay, if we are a country that believes in free speech, then certain forms of speech shouldn't potentially cost $325,000 (with the exception of liable, etc.). However, to say that the fact that they can't just use any expletive they please has "begun to chill their creative efforts" seems like something of a cop out to me. And I'm not really sure what makes the use of expletives so creative. I use them from time to time, but in reality they are simply a sign of a lazy vocabulary in most cases.

Ultimately, the government should not be able to regulate free speech. Particularly, if they are not imposing the same regulations on cable and satellite networks I'm not sure why they should be able to impose them on "network" television, whatever that means anymore.

Ultimately, if we are a liberal society, in the traditional meaning of the term, we will be good consumers and vote with our time and money. If the majority of people do not want to hear "bad words" during prime time, then the shows that use them will lose viewers and be taken off the air. If that is what people want to hear, then it is not really the government's place to stop them. I don't like a lot of what is on T.V. these days. I think most all shows that come on the network channels during prime time are inappropriate for children, even the shows that come on kids' channels for that matter. But if I feel that way, it is my responsibility to see to it that they don't watch it. If I'm not willing to do that, then no one is really to blame but me.