Partners in Crime & Fires of Pompeii - 25 August 2008

During the calm before the school year starts, Jacob Klein and I watched the first two "Donna" episodes of the latest season. Partners in crime has an insane plotline with devious alien weight loss plans. Donna tracks down the Doctor and finally finds him, although it is not clear how excited he is about it. I love the return of Wilfred, Donna's grandpa, to the show after a brief appearance in Voyage of the Damned. The Fires of Pompeii episode seemed kind of run-of-the-mill until the ending, where it has some real power. Donna teaches the Doctor (and me) a powerful lesson, that you don't have to save everyone, but that you should try to save someone. The exact nature of the aliens could have been better expressed, but it was a fun episode. I loved the sisterhood and the prophet of Pompeii who, when the Doctor makes fun of him for not being correct in his knowledge, surprises the Doctor by telling him he knows he is from Gallifrey. How did he know that?

Bojana returned from a visit with her students now here in the USA during Fires and was all smiles.

Voyage of the Damned - 18 August 2008

We had a good viewing last night. It was a small house (the dull period when summer is over and before the students come back) but Bojana Skrt and Jacob Klein came over and we had a fine time. Jacob had not seen much from the beginning of this season and Bojana had only seen the latest Christmas episode once, so Voyage of the Damned it was.

While some of the sets looked a bit stiff (the bridge of the ship, for example) the peformances were quite good. One of my favorite lines is between the Doctor and Astrid Perth (Kylie Minogue). She says, "You look pretty good for 903." The Doctor responds, "Well, you should see me in the morning." She smiles and says, "OK."

Some out of town visitors in future weeks should expand the audience. But, it is always fun.

Sarah Jane & Torchwood - 11 August 2008

This Monday we watched a Sarah Jane adventure. I was visited by Pam Peck from Oregon, Jacob Klein and Julia Benjamin from Vermont, and of course Bojana Skrt who is here for the end of the summer.

We wanted to watch a Sarah Jane Adventure because Pam was interested in finding out more so she could share them with her son, Ben, who is 10. We watched "Warriors of Kudlak" and had a lot of fun with it. The Sarah Jane stories, while designed more for children, really interest me because of the themes and the way it includes all age ranges in the action. Sarah Jane got some nice backtalking in to the baddies after she had bested them at a few points in the show.

People got so into it they wanted another, and so we watched the first episode of the second season of Torchwood, called "Kiss,Kiss,Bang,Bang." Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) is very different but also fun even if it is more violent and a lot darker.

Probably back to the Doctor next week.

Doctor Who Theater - A Long Tradition

I started hosting Doctor Who Theater on Monday nights back in 1989. The new episodes that had been produced were just ending and I wanted to keep viewing and enjoying Doctor Who. People were invited and we picked an episode from my (fairly) vast collection and watched it.

It became a real tradition and has gone through some changes at the same time. We used to draw episodes out of a hat, we went through a streak where we watched every episode over a period of years, we strung them together into "themes," and a lot more. We have had as many as 25 and as few as 1 person show up. When I am out of town there may not be a screening but often I appoint a guest host.

Now that there are fabulous new episodes (four seasons worth and two spin-off shows) there is a lot of new stuff to watch.

The viewing group has been dubbed "The High Council" and we have a lot of fun. Because of the nature of Doctor Who there is a lot of room for talking back to the screen, either about bad effects, flubbed lines, clever lines and a number of specific things we look for, such as "hiding in plain sight" or "HIPS" and the ever-popular refrain, "I hate it when that happens."

This new blog will keep track of which episodes we watch. Now, we simply meet, have a discussion and then watch an episode. Or more. We also enjoy viewing episodes of Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures from time to time.

So, follow along! Lots of sessions scheduled for this fall!

As we say, all the excitement and none of the danger. Take some time out this week.