P.S. Arc Words and Bob Barker Is The Key

I have sort of been intrigued with how they introduced the mythology of Darla into Angel during Season Two and there was a mention in one of those episodes (I don’t recall exactly where, maybe in The Trial or before) of Holtz chasing after Darla and Angel, so another shout-out to upcoming events in Season Three. It’s become a touchstone in several shows in recent years, such as Doctor Who or Lost, that they would mention or remark upon future key developments as arc words or teasers, like Mr. Saxon, Bad Wolf, and the Medusa Cascade. Something that attentive fans might pick up on and be eager to speculate about at the time the show was airing, or a way for fans rewatching the show, maybe years later, to reminisce on those glorious or glorificuous moments. And Bob Barker is the Key.

As for the Doctor Who stories I’ve watched since I last posted…well. I mentioned being stuck in the middle of Doctor Who and The Silurians? Maybe even that I had been watching The Two Doctors around that same time? Well, since then, I’ve seen Warriors of The Deep (Okay, pantomine horse, but they tried their best. Could it have been worse? Maybe, if they had not even tried at all. Not the best Doctor Who story by any stretch of the imagination, I agree with the opinion that the Silurians should have gotten the more flexible costumes while the Sea Devils should have been stiffer. Why couldn’t they just do makeup instead of rubber costumes? Was makeup more expensive than rubber costumes? What about face pieces instead of full body pieces?

You know, from what I’ve seen, the Silurians may be ‘advanced’, but they are just as bad as humans at starting wars between the inhabitants of this planet. In Doctor Who and the Silurians, one of them unleashed a plague/epidemic that could have destroyed humanity, for goodness sake! Not to mention the mutually assured destruction ploy of Warriors of the Deep. Okay, not all Silurians are like that, although their leaders certainly have not set a good example in all of their encounters.)

I’ve also seen Timelash. (Cough, again, not exactly the best story, but not the worst story, H.G. Wells is okay, though the Sixth Doctor can be a bit difficult to love. And that triangle Timelash tinsel tunnel [tongue twister] is not the best effect.) I’ve also seen the Awakening, which I pretty much liked, Revelation of the Daleks, an interesting setup/premise, I grant you that, especially after it had time to settle with me and I read/heard some more about it. By coincidence, I had actually seen The Loved One movie just before I saw this story, and it really did remind me somewhat of that movie/story, although the character changes with the funeral director/cosmetician…not exactly sure I liked Doctor Who’s take on that relationship, but there was promise there with those characters.

Besides the first two stories of Trial of a Time Lord, I’ve also seen Frontios (An excellent adventure/premise betrayed by terrible monster costumes. “The Tractators!” as Turlough kept screaming weren’t as scary as he made them out to be. And I still have no idea what they did to him, or should I say, his planet Trion. Ah, well, with Turlough, it seems that we’re glad to get any kind of backstory at all. I thought there would have been more in Frontios, and what was in Planet of Fire…a little too late, I suppose I should say. Like Philip Sandifer said in his own blog about Planet of Fire, there was so much promise in this season/era of Doctor Who that was never delivered upon, just a spark amidst the mess, really.) I tried to watch Resurrection of the Daleks, but the disc was cracked, and so I had to get a new one. In the meantime, I went ahead and saw Planet of Fire. So that’s where I am now with Doctor Who.

I’m going to finish watching Trial of A Time Lord, Discs 3 and 4 are coming soon, then I’m going to go back to watching Doctors 3 and 4 while also finally seeing some of Doctor 7’s first serials, and rewatching some of his that I have already seen. And maybe I really will get into Farscape as well. I tried watching the first two discs of the first season (apparently this was two years ago, surprise, I thought it was a year ago) and never got fully invested in it, or was thrown off, so I will try again to watch Farscape. Wish me luck there.

Puny Master

I just saw ‘Planet of Fire’ and with the last cliffhanger and episode for that story, I couldn’t help laughing and saying, “Puny Master, puny Master, crush him with your shoe, Peri! Why did she have to sneeze just when she was about to crush him? He was running around like a scared little mouse, climbing into and out of his console! I almost wish that he could have been talking with a squeaky little voice when she first uncovered him inside his ‘Master control box’. Ha!

No wonder he needed Kamelion to help him out of that fix. I had wondered why he was using the robot to save him, in that he had to be incapacitated in some way. I never imagined he would be so small, though, until a minute or so before Peri uncovered him.

I’m also in the middle of watching ‘Trial of A Time Lord’, so I happened to just see Peri’s last story before her first story, which is kind of strange, but oh well. I liked The Mysterious Planet well enough, a very good story with some funny/brilliant moments, but Mindwarp sort of dragged a little bit more and I did feel frustrated with it, the back and forth questioning as to whether or not the Raak attacked the Doctor and Peri and the Doctor betraying them, not to mention the fiasco with Sil and his people, the ‘rebellion’, and Peri’s ‘demise’. Brian Blessed was pretty good even with his fairly limited role, and he tried his best to make the guy likeable enough.

As usual, I’m going back and forth between watching the stories and reading Philip Sandifer’s TARDIS Eruditorum blog on the story to see what sort of thoughts he had about it. It’s pretty interesting, and I agree with his opinions most of the time. I have also been checking out An Adventure with the Wife in Time and Space blog as well, just getting into that after hearing about it from Sandifer. Pretty funny and excellent as well, I think on a personal level, I’m somewhere in between the wife and husband in terms of their opinions of the Doctor Who episodes/stories.

I’m still watching Buffy/Angel, although a bit more intermittently, having finished up Angel Season Two (I struggled in the middle of Season Two, but at last I finished watching it. I had not realized that Lorne never revealed his name until the fourth-to-last episode of the season. And there was a bit at the beginning of Reprise…the sound effect of the bleating/crying comes from the goats, but then the camera focuses on the broken baby doll in the shopping cart with Angel in the background, so they were already thinking about Connor! Or at least that’s my opinion there.)

I have not finished watching Buffy Season Five, however. For a while there, I saw quite a few episodes, but then I stopped after I saw The Body and finished up Angel, and it’s a little hard getting back into Buffy. The episode Forever took Forever to watch.

I’ll mention the other recent Doctor Who serials I have seen later.

Buffy and Doctor Who stuff again

So on the Doctor Who front…I am sort of in the middle of Doctor Who and the Silurians, although I’ve sort of stalled there after watching the first disc. It’s been a couple of days, disc number two is lying there, but I haven’t really played it. I should have realized I would get into this problem in the Third Doctor era. I’m not sure, it’s not quite my favorite. Good grief, I think I might even like the Sixth Doctor era better than the Third Doctor era. At least the Sixth Doctor pops out at you a bit more, even if it is more of a garish, ghastly 80s style.

Instead, I’ve been really caught up in Angel/Buffy, although…some of the first season episodes of Angel aren’t as great as they would get. I think, personal opinion, with Angel and Buffy especially, it took a little while for them to really gather up steam and be as great as they could be. I mean, compare Angel season 1 with Buffy season 4, as I am currently doing. (When it comes to watching Buffy and Angel concurrently on DVD, my advice is: watch the Buffy disc and then watch the Angel disc for the first two seasons of Angel and seasons 4&5 of Buffy. It makes perfect sense. See, in those first two seasons on the air, Buffy was the real show-runner on the WB and it would lead straight into Angel during broadcast. I feel like Angel season 1 started off really slow and was really trying to set up the premise of the show for newcomers just tuning in after seeing Buffy or whatever. Later on in Angel’s run, they were able to explore and develop the premise a little bit more, add fan favorite characters like the Host and Fred, after they had developed in that slow starter of a first season.

By the time of season six on Buffy and season three on Angel, switch the disc order around, Angel first and Buffy second, because Angel became a big showrunner on WB and Buffy was trying to recapture ground on UPN. Or something like that…)

People may not like the 4th season of Buffy so much, but I think it’s pretty good, especially in comparison with the first season of Angel. It really made me laugh, like the Something Blue episode when Buffy and Spike plan on getting married. And my heart kinds of sinks/breaks a little bit whenever Tara’s in an episode. Oh boy…why? I know, a writer/show-runner really has to develop their show, and sometimes that means losing a character or two, but it makes me wonder…when Joyce popped up again on Buffy in the middle of season 4, around the time of the Faith two-parter, I think Joss was already thinking about The Body. He had already planned on Dawn joining the cast, maybe he knew that Joyce would be leaving the next season. And maybe he was already thinking ahead towards season 6 and how Willow would go crazy with her magical powers after Tara…yeah. Something like that.

It’s been awhile since I’ve watched Buffy/Angel like this, and it really does interest me. Especially when I had forgotten some bits, and now as I read episode descriptions/watch what happens, I remember…boy. What a show. Can’t wait to watch some of the later stuff, like seasons 2, 3, heck, even 4, but especially 5 of Angel. And Buffy has really interesting, pulse-pounding, oh my gosh, change the disc and let’s watch the next episode already! bits ahead. Yay for marathon rewatches.