Brief thoughts on Dollhouse: Epitaph One

The above tweet was my initial reaction to Epitaph One, the unaired, thirteenth episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, which it seems everyone on the Internet but me loves.

I'll be posting a (far) more in-depth look at Dollhouse later this week (or possibly next week), but for now here's a comment I posted on the appropriate post over at Whedonesque:

Honestly, I thought it was awful. I don't want to piss in anyone's lemonade, but I hated it so much it made me not want to watch season 2. I've calmed down and decided that I will give season 2 a try after all, but I still didn't like this episode.

I'm not going to go too much into why I hated it. Suffice it to say I thought it was a mess of half-baked ideas that were dropped on us all at once, when a slow build over the course of several seasons would have been so much more satisfying. But I think I understand why Joss did it the way he did. It just wasn't for me. I'm going to write up a longer, more specific review for my own blog later this week.

I'm a little disappointed that I'm one of the very, very few people that feels this way. It makes me feel like I must be crazy. But hey, different people like different things. That's what makes fandom interesting. I'm just glad that Joss is doing work that so many people can enjoy, even if I'm not one of those people.

My upcoming post will discuss not just Epitaph One, but the entire first season of Dollhouse, especially the "season finale," Omega. Whether I'll have anything to say about the unaired pilot, I'm not sure, as I've not seen it yet. Expect that very long post to go up sometime before the end of next week.

Planet of the Dead liveblog on 7/26 at 7:45 PM Eastern

On Sunday, July 26 at 7:45 PM Eastern, I will be hosting a liveblog during BBC America's first airing of Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead, here at tawm.net. You can join me and a bunch of other Doctor Who fans for a live discussion of Planet of the Dead as it happens on air. The chat will open early so people have time to arrive and say hi, then we'll watch the episode until its conclusion at 9:15 and stick around afterward for some discussion.

If you'd like to join us but don't get BBC America, feel free to bring along whatever copy of Planet of the Dead you have and we'll tell you when to start and stop to compensate for the commercial breaks and stay in sync with us.

Thanks to Chip from the Two Minute Time Lord podcast for this lively idea. His Torchwood: Children of Earth liveblogs were great fun. Unlike Chip's liveblogs, this liveblog will take a relaxed attitude toward spoilers as I'm assuming most of us have seen it already. The CoveritLive liveblog service makes it really simple which allows us to focus on having a good time.

I hope you'll join us! Just visit tawm.net at 7:45 and you'll find the liveblog.

UPDATE
Obviously, the liveblog has already happened. Here for archival purposes is what we all had to say.

Doctor Who: The Forgotten.

Just fyi, a review for "Doctor Who: The Forgotten", a graphic novel by Tony Lee and Pia Guerra (among others) has been posted at Behind the Sofa.

Some three months after the book's release.

Ah well. Better late than never.

Catch it here.

Thoughts on the Doctor Who re-numbering

There's been a lot of talk lately on Twitter about the numbering of the upcoming 2010 series of Doctor Who. According to Doctor Who Magazine, the series will be produced and promoted as Series One, which is a surprise as many fans were expecting it to be called Series Five. And there's a minority of fans who would prefer it to be called Season (or series) Thirty-One, continuing the numbering scheme of the classic series. My comment to Chris in a recent videobloggery aside, I'm not one of those who insists on continuing the numbering of the classic series, except in the service of a cheap joke.

It's a brave choice to start the numbering over again, and I think I support it. As I said on Twitter, a while back, I like the way it shatters the dichotomy between the new and the old. It does risk confusing some viewers, but honestly I think we should give the viewers a bit more credit. I think the vast majority of viewers are either (a) so casual that they honestly couldn't care less about numbering or (b) invested in the show enough that they'll understand what's going on with the numbering reset: Russell T Davies' take on the program is over and Steven Moffatt's new direction for the show has begun. And when Moffatt leaves, they may well start back at 1 with someone else.

Perhaps most importantly of all, keeping the numbering in the low single digits has the important effect of welcoming new viewers. While a number like 31 (and even five) is potentially alienating to new viewers, "Series One" makes it clear that new viewers are definitely welcome to start watching the program without worrying about the years and years of continuity they've missed. Keep in mind: Doctor Who is for everyone, not just the hardcore fans.

There is, of course, the danger that some fans will take the reset as an invitation to leave the program, as though the show they loved is over and this is a new one, as Chip mentioned in his recent episode of his Two-Minute Time Lord podcast, but I honestly don't think this is a major issue. Those fans who want to stop watching the show will stop watching it regardless of what the number is. And those fans who have opinions about the numbering will merely call this Series Five, or Season Thirty-One, or the 2010 Season.

Personally, I'll be using the terms "Season x", "Davies Series x", and "Moffatt Series x". But numbering schemes like this are for the existing fans, and this change is for the benefit of potential new fans. And it's always good to have more of those.

Oh, and by the way, the current specials are "Davies Series 4b" for me. Come on, fandom, it's not that hard!

Videobloggery: Tom's Off Day

Chris did not sing a song.

Neither did I.



Comment and whatnot over on youtube!

The Cloister Room 001

In case you weren't aware, I now host a podcast called The Cloister Room. It's about science fiction with a focus on Doctor Who.

Episode 000 and Episode 001 are now up. 000 is a pilot episode, and 001 is about the recent rumors about a Doctor Who feature film.

Hope you enjoy them.

Wedding pictures on flickr

I went to Cape Cod for the weekend to attend my aunt's wedding. Whilst there, I took some crappy cellphone pictures. Here's links to the photo sets:

	Photos from the Wedding
	Photos from the Reception
	Photos of my cousin Riley taken the following day

New videobloggeries!

Good lord I've been neglecting this, haven't I?

Here are the last few editions of videobloggery:

CHRIS:


ME:


CHRIS:


ME:


And we are now up to speed!

Torchwood: Children of Earth

This week is Torchwood week. On BBC One, an episode of the new five-part Torchwood: Children of Earth is being aired each weeknight. In the US, you can catch them on BBC America frm July 20-24, but I'm watching them in sync with the UK airdate to review them for Behind the Sofa.

Although Torchwood has in the past been mediocre at best, this new series really is fantastic. You can find links to the the reviews in this post, which I'll be updating as I post them. Some of the reviews have spoilers, but the first one doesn't.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three
• Day Four
• Day Five

Videobloggery: Tom Sings a Doctor Who Song

Chris did an excellently amusing Twilight review and also a hilarious song.

So I responded with a song of my own. I'm rather proud of it:



Comment and rate over on Youtube!

Duncan Jones's Moon is Rising, or some such silly title

Just a quick post:

I recently joined my buds Steve, Samy, Chris, and NOT Golden for a rather long drive to see a film called Moon, directed by Duncan Jones (AKA "Zowie Bowie", son of David Bowie) and starring Sam Rockwell.

The film was absolutely excellent and I can't help but tell the world. Hence the blogging.

I won't be doing a full fledged review, because there's not much I can tell you about this movie that wouldn't spoil it for you. But I do want to deliver my strong, strong recommendation that you go see if it's playing in a cinema hear you (a list of cinemas and dates for those cinemas is over here). Keep checking as the list updates, because hopefully it'll be rolling out to more cities.

To give you an idea of what the film's about, it stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, the sole crewman of a mining facility on the moon. His only company is an artificial intelligence named GERTY, who communicates with the voice of Kevin Spacey and a smiley avatar. Sam's three-year contract is almost up, and he's eager to get back home to his wife and daughter. But... well, I won't say much more. I'll let you find out for yourself when you see the movie.

The trailer can be found here. If that doesn't get you excited then you have no soul.

Go see it!