SciFi Weekend: Doctor Who Returns in The Bells of St. John; Hugo and Other Award Nominations for Doctor Who

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 7B EPISODE 1

Doctor Who returned with The Bells of St. John, picking up with the Doctor having gone to a quiet place as advised by a young Clara Oswald as seen in a web-episode prequel. The bells turn out be from the phone on the TARDIS with Clara having received the Doctor’s number from an unidentified person, saying it was  for tech support. I wonder if this is another explained event which sometimes pop up in Moffat’s stories, or if we will find that someone significant (perhaps River Song or another version of Clara) gave it to her.

The plot, as is often the case on Doctor Who, was not terribly compelling but the character interaction more than made up for it. The danger in Moffat’s stories often comes from unexpected, or everyday items. In this case the danger struck over WiFi, so be careful of what you click on. The episode took advantage of the London background to provide a more realistic setting than usual, and a trip in the TARDIS to an out control airplane was more exciting than many of the trips to alien planets in other episodes. It is necessary to watch closely to pick up the many subtle references to other aspects of Doctor Who, such as an old book written by Amelia Williams. Others were more obvious, such as the scene with UNIT.

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 7B SERIES PREVIEW IMAGES

While this season is primarily made up of stand-alone episodes, The Bells of St. John can be seen as part of at least two arcs: the mystery of Clara Oswald and another attempt by the Great Intelligence to fight the Doctor. We learned very little about Clara, but she did have some similarity to the Clara of The Snowmen as she once again was a governess. She also acquired considerable computer skills in this episode, perhaps foreshadowing her abilities in Asylum of the Daleks. We also saw how the Doctor comes up with money and Moffat got in a dig at Twitter.

There is no longer a Doctor Who Confidential, but the BBC did release this behind the scenes video.

Steven Moffat says we will learn who Clara is this season. More from Moffat in the text of a press conference posted here. Other major news from the past week is that David Tennant and Billie Piper will be returning for the 50th anniversary episode. John Hurt will also be appearing in the episode.

Cult Box has a spoiler-free review of next week’s episode, The Rings of Akhaten.

The week of Doctor Who‘s return was also a big week for awards and nominations, including receiving a Peabody Award: “Doctor Who,” the ever-evolving, ever-clever BBC science fiction series now entering its second half century, was awarded an Institutional Peabody.

Doctor Who was also nominated for two BAFTA Awards:

Musical composer Murray Gold was nominated in the Original Television Music category for his, as the ninth Doctor would say, “fantastic” music score featured in the Series 7 episode, Asylum of the Daleks. This is the second time Murray Gold has been nominated for a BAFTA award.

The show was also nominated for a BAFTA in the Visual Effects and Graphic Design category. The Mill, which has recently announced it will be closing, was nominated for the wonderful Craft Visual Effects it has created in their recent episodes.

The Mill has been nominated for a BAFTA every year since 2007. They received a BAFTA in 2009 for their work in The Fires of Pompeii.

Other Doctor Who related BAFTA awards include the Editing Fiction award in 2008, The Television Drama Series in 2005, and the Craft Writer award went to Steven Moffat in 2007.

Three episodes were nominated for Hugo Awards:

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (597 nominating ballots cast)

  • Doctor Who, “The Angels Take Manhattan”, Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
  • Doctor Who, “Asylum of the Daleks”, Written by Steven Moffat; Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
  • Doctor Who, “The Snowmen”, written by Steven Moffat; directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Wales)
  • Fringe, “Letters of Transit”, Written by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Akiva Goldsman, J.H.Wyman, Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Joe Chappelle (Fox)
  • Game of Thrones, “Blackwater”, Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)

The Avengers were among the nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form:

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (787 nominating ballots cast)

  • The Avengers, Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)
  • The Cabin in the Woods, Screenplay by Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon; Directed by Drew Goddard (Mutant Enemy, Lionsgate)
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, Directed by Peter Jackson (WingNut Films, New Line Cinema, MGM, Warner Bros)
  • The Hunger Games, Screenplay by Gary Ross & Suzanne Collins, Directed by Gary Ross (Lionsgate, Color Force)
  • Looper, Screenplay and Directed by Rian Johnson (FilmDistrict, EndGame Entertainment)

 

Science Friday Lives

The first thing I wondered  upon hearing that NPR is ending Talk of the Nation is whether Science Friday would continue, as it fills TOTN‘s Friday time slot. Earlier articles I read talked about an expanded version of Here and Now taking its place but did not say anything about Fridays. I finally found an article at Politico saying that Science Friday will continue in the Friday time slot. I won’t mind losing TOTN as long as Science Friday remains.

Posted in News Media, Science. Tags: . No Comments »

Quote of the Day

“Rush Limbaugh said that lesbians don’t have to worry about their appearance, so they are free to get fat. Moments later, Rush Limbaugh officially come out as a lesbian.” –Conan O’Brien

Quote of the Day: George Clooney on Marriage Equality

George Clooney on Marriage Equality

Doctor Who Wins Peabody Award

Doctor Who has received a Peabody Award for “evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe.”

“Doctor Who” is celebrating 50 years on the air this year, new episodes begin airing Saturday and to top it all off, the good Doctor has just received a Peabody Award for 50 years of “evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe.”

The awards, announced Wednesday by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are selected by a board of judges to highlight the best in electronic media. The honorees were announced at a ceremony on the University of Georgia campus, but the awards won’t be handed out until a luncheon event in New York City on May 20.

The Institutional Peabody to “Doctor Who” was just one of 39 honorees named this year. Other series include “Girls,” “Louie,” “Southland” and “Switched at Birth.”

Ashley Judd Not Running For Senate

Ashley Judd has announced on Twitter that she has decided against running for the Senate:

This means conservatives will have to come up with a new reason for searching for Ashley Judd in nude scenes.

Conservative Opposition To Keeping Government Out Of Our Private Lives

Bert and Ernie Equality

Having arguments brought before the Supreme Court on same sex marriage has highlighted the division in this country over social issues. While liberals respect the rights of individuals to live their lives as they choose, social conservatives demonstrate the fiction of conservative support for small government or individual liberty. It is conservatives who support the use of big government to impose their views upon others.

Differing from conservative views, the posts showing up on my Facebook page are covered with graphics supporting marriage equality, with many people changing their profile pictures to ones such as above and below:

Peanuts Equality

 

There is no rational argument to support using the government to impose one’s religious views upon others. The Founding Fathers certainly frowned upon this when they developed a secular government with separation of church and state. The modern conservative movement, which is both morally bankrupt and out of touch with reality, sees things differently. Here’s the dumb conservative question of the day from  The Brody File: Are Evangelicals Now More Scorned than Homosexuals? Of course Evangelicals who seek to impose their religious views upon others should be scorned. Why does the religious right believe there is a reason that homosexuals should be scorned.

Liberal Family Values

With growing majorities supporting marriage equality, there is even speculation that the Republican Party will give up on this issue. Others will continue to fight modern times and reality. Mike Huckabee responded to the prospect of Republicans supporting same sex marriage: “if they do, they’re going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk.” Of course this would hasten the demise of the Republicans as a national political party.

Some conservatives are supporting continued discrimination based upon biblical reasons, which have no place in our system of government. I’ve even seen some claim that it is their freedom of religion which is being infringed upon. To the religious right, freedom of religion means the “freedom” to impose their religious views upon others.

Drastically Wrong

Quote of the Day

“U.S. officials have revealed that America is ready to launch cyber-attacks of its own. We have a program that can totally crash someone’s computer. It’s called ‘Microsoft Windows.'” –Jimmy Fallon

Conservatives Believe Supreme Court Is Moderate or Liberal

The Pew Research Center found that the Supreme Court’s favorability remains near an all time low: “52% view the court favorably, while 31% view it unfavorably.” They shouldn’t feel too bad about this. They do beat Congress in similar polls, and Obama, coming of his post-reelection bounce, has also fallen below this point.

There is disagreement about the ideology of the court:

The public continues to have mixed perceptions of the Supreme Court’s ideology. A plurality (40%) now say the court is middle of the road, while 24% say it is liberal and about the same share (22%) says it is conservative.

Part of this is due to the lack of knowledge on the part of the public about virtually anything about politics in most polls. This is further promoted by Republicans who do not realize that the court is conservative:

About as many conservative Republicans say the Supreme Court is liberal (45%) as middle of the road (39%). Very few conservative Republicans, just 9%, say the court is conservative.

They might be confused by the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act but that came down to one unexpected vote by one usually conservative Justice. This does not change the overall conservative leanings of the Supreme Court. This might also be affected by the conservative tendency to see anyone who doesn’t toe the extreme right wing line one-hundred percent of the time with no room for any compromise as being too liberal. If Dick Lugar was seen as not being a pure enough conservative by today’s Republican voters, it comes as little surprise that conservatives don’t recognize how conservative the Supreme Court is.

Posted in Courts, Polls, Republicans. Tags: . 1 Comment »

SciFi Weekend: Doctor Who Searching For Clara Oswald; The Bells of St. John; Revolution: Mad Men Returns; Rory Gilmore Engaged to Pete Campbell

A prequel has been released for The Bells of Saint John, next week’s episode of Doctor Who (video above). I bet pretty much everyone guessed how it would end pretty early in the clip, remembering how the Doctor also first met Amelia Pond as a young child.  The Doctor is searching for Clara but I’ve already found her in a couple places:

Here she is on the Titanic.

She has also been sighted in the United States during World War II, going out with Steve Rogers (before he became Captain America).

As can be seen in the above trailer, the Doctor does find Clara. We still do not know who she is, and are unlikely to guess according to Doctor Who Producer Marcus Wilson:

What’s lovely this year is that we’ve also got a thread running through these eight very different, very exciting stories – the mystery of Clara. She’s the impossible girl. The Doctor has met her twice before and both times she died. This time he’s determined to keep her alive and to discover who or what she really is. It’s a riddle that won’t easily be cracked. I defy anybody to guess it. Steven Moffat has found a way to lead everybody down the garden path and then knock them over with surprise at the end.

Above Jenna-Louise Coleman interviews Matt Smith

There’s also talk of revealing the Doctor’s greatest secret, and of a love triangle involving Clara and River Song.

Jenna-Louise Coleman appeared on Craig Ferguson’s show last week (video above).

Doctor Who first made the cover of Entertainment Weekly in July 2012 in a cover story about cult television. Now he is on the cover twice more with two different versions of the cover for this week’s edition on the 50th anniversary. (I was happy to find that my home and office waiting room copies each had the different cover). Here are the two covers:

Doctor WhoEntertainementWeekly1

DoctorWhoEntertainmentWeeklyCover2

But what happens after the anniversary? There’s another round of rumors that Matt Smith will leave the show after the Christmas Special, along with Jenna-Louise Coleman saying there may be a delay until the next season due to Steven Moffat being busy writing the 50th anniversary episode and Sherlock.

Revolution returns on Monday–view the first eight minutes above. Between the action scenes Aaron questions what Elizabeth knows. Now that Elizabeth has been reunited with her family it would not make any sense for her not to explain what is happening. We will see everything revealed in the thirteenth episode, to air April 8. Executive Producer Eric Kripke says this will open the door to new mysteries:

On revealing why the power went out

Kripke: In episode 13 Rachel reveals pretty much every single thing there is to know about why the blackout happened and every time I watch that scene– and she’s brilliant in it — but that scene’s a hard swallow every time because you’re like wow we’re just saying it. And it goes against many of your baked-in sure-weather instincts are not to have the scene that reveals every single thing in three minutes. And so we reveal really why the blackout happened but the card I think we have up our sleeve is I think the explanation really opens the door to much greater story possibility.

On Rachel’s role going forward

So Rachel’s quest is specific and she’s incredibly proactive. She’s making a straight line towards what it is that she needs to do. And the fun part that, you know, Eric had talked about before is that she also unloads everything; the entire secret, the entire history in one crazy conversation in Episode 13.

So I think that people will enjoy the fact that she has a lot to say and that her admonition or her quest is very powerful and proactive which I love in a character. It’s always nice to see women, people, anyone – your protagonist going after what she wants full force. So I think that’s going to be fun.

On what comes after that secret is revealed

Kripke: I don’t think we box ourselves in a corner. I think we open a door to a whole new world. And then we ask more questions. Because for me the story was never about what caused the blackout. I think it’s for me it’s like the show isn’t just based on one particular mystery, it’s based on these characters and this world and this kind of transformed landscape that they have these adventures in.

One of the more disappointing plot lines so far on Revolution was seeing how Aaron left his wife, feeling she would be safer without him. Kripke answered a question on this at PaleyFest2013:

Zac Orth wasn’t in the house, but his character Aaron was a hot topic nonetheless. When an audience member told the panel that he wasn’t a fan of how Aaron abandoned his wife so quickly, Kripke promised that that plotline would be addressed. ”He sees her again, and they’re able to work out their issues, and they do have a face-to-face,” he says. “She’s in the present day and you catch up with what she’s been doing for the past decade or so.”

Mad Men is also returning with a two-hour season premiere on April 7.  Promo above.

Last season  Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell)  and Alexis Bledel (better known as Rory Gilmore) had an affair. Now the two are engaged in real life.  With Bledel’s character undergoing the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind treatment it is doubtful that their  affair will resume on the show. Plus Alexis Bledel is in a new pilot based upon the excellent UK sitcom, Gavin and Stacey, in which she will be dating Jason Ritter of The Event. Ritter was dating Lauren Graham (who previously played Rory Gilmore’s mother) last season on Parenthood. Meanwhile Pete Campbell’s wife on Mad Men, played by Alison Brie, is back on Community with an unknown future.