The Time of the Doctor aired on Christmas Day and I sat with my feet up and a mug of milky tea and watched it from beginning to end. This was Matt Smith's last outing as the Doctor and safe enough to say there has been a lot of anticipation building up to this moment. There was a lot in this one episode that was worth talking about and events of this one episode have a lot of implication for the series as a whole.
I want to establish that I liked the episode, I thought it was good, but only good, not great though. Just to make sure we're clear on that. And also I'm only dealing with what happened in this episode not the series wide implacations.
Something that struck me in particular was a problem I think that has plagued the recent episodes of the series. It is the fact that despite a great premise and great idea being established these ideas are executed poorly. I feel this prevented the episode from reaching its full potential and being a fabulous send off for Doctor number eleven. Let's run through this from the beginning,
Personally I'm not a big fan of the voice over explaining where we are and what's happening, show don't tell should apply. The encounters with the Cybermen and the Daleks does really give weight to the situation, we do get a sense that every player in the universe is here. This is good storytelling so far, Doctor Eleven's last outing is going to be something massive that everyone is there for. The fact that no one has gone down to the planet and the prevalence of fear also adds to it too.
Skipping ahead the Doctor and Clara land on the planet and are attacked by the Weeping Angles, the use of the snow make very a very good moment here however the angels are not really heard from again. The Angels work best in tight claustrophobic environments where they are
difficult to get away from and it does make sense why they aren't
focused on more. This is where the execution does falls down as the Angels were their for their own sake. I understand why there we put in but it is worth consider if they are really necessary.
Examining the town the idea of the truth field is nice but I really don't think it adds to the story, it's used once and doesn't come up again really. Another good idea gone to waste. I did like the idea of using the crack in the universe again, it ties together some of the elements of the Eleventh Doctor's story and the Time Lords returning harks back to the send off given to the Tenth Doctor. The fact that they are returning in peace as opposed to as warriors is also a nice touch. It sets up a moral dilemma for the Doctor, rescue his lost people but in doing so he will restart the Time War. The Doctor, knowing that this planet is the one where he will die, the Doctor resolves to stay with the people of the town and hold out for as long as possible.
A great set up? Absolutely, the Doctor having his last stand, knowing he is out of regenerations. This should be a battle of epic proportions, an emotional roller coaster from start to finish. But here's the problem it falls flat. The Doctor remains unchanged by centuries of fighting, the townspeople come and come and there is no real sense of danger. Every fight the Doctor wins and wins easily, his character doesn't grow more jaded as the fighting continues. We are not made care about the people the doctor is protecting and we know the end result so therefore the fighting is inconsequential.
I suppose this is a problem when you know that the doctor is regenerating and will survive but when we are watching only to figure out how he will move on and know that the world will go on unaffected by the events we can't get involved and me moved by it (as much as we possibly could).
The episode does tug at the heartstrings a few times, when the Doctor send Clara away (harking back to The Ninth Doctor send Rose away) and him seeing Amy again. This was a nice touch, and I thought a better way to handle the send off than was displayed with the Tenth Doctors send off. Here it's simple, the first face the Eleventh Doctor saw, not a celebration dance of all of his achievements.
To conclude I think, the episode concluded well, the resolution of the new regeneration cycle I fell fitted well although it had a bit of Deus Ex hanging about it. A nice send off, nothing great though. I'm hopeful for the new series.
Just more thoughts from nowhere.
Thanks for reading.
Thursday 26 December 2013
Saturday 14 December 2013
Books from Nowhere: The Perks of being a Wallflower
I picked up the Perks of being a Wallflower on the cheap, thank you DCU Book Society, over a month ago. It's a book that's been on my list for a long time and the opportunity to purchase it for four euro was too good to pass up. It was time to see if the book would live up to the very positive recommendations that came from several of my friends.
The novel centres around Charlie, a socially awkward 15 year old who's best friend Michael committed suicide. Charlie begins High School with no friends, many of the people he knew from middle school have drifted away or joined different social groups. He is eventually befriended by an older student, Patrick who then introduces Charlie to his social group. The story then goes on to chart Charlies adventures with a new group of friends, and dealing with feelings he has never had before, particularly for Sam, Patrick's step sister, with whom he is immediately smitten with.
The narrative is revealed to the reader through letters that Charlie writes to an unknown recipient. This affords the reader the opportunity to experience the narrative on the same level as Charlie. It also is effective at conveying his innocence in the presence of his peers who are older had have considerably more worldly experience. On reflection, the fact that Charlie is addressing the reader upfront, making them the intended audience of his writings makes Charlies even more sympathetic. The reader, almost immediately, feels like Charlies only friend as a result. This creates a bond between reader and narrator that is seldom seen in fiction and often takes a long time to build up when it does happen. It also provides for some brilliant moments of humour in the novel, Charlies naivety will provide the more worldly reader with many a chuckle.
The Perks of being a Wallflower, is a great coming of age story. Charlie is an instantly likable a memorable protagonist a product of great thought on the author's part. The journey from innocence to experience, is conveyed through the relationships Charlies has with the different characters in the novel. The relationship he has with his family, the individual members of his new group of friends and with his English teacher, all allow us to see Charlies growth as a person. Special praise is reserved for the author, in how he can manage to treat all the individual threads of the different relationships with as much care as the other and make them all seem significant no matter how small they really are.
That's really the main message I took from this book, that it's our relationships with other people that make us. Others can change us, shape us, introduce us to new and wonderful things, help appreciate the past and above all help us through difficult time.
The book is definitely worth a read. It has a cast of distinct and colourful characters, each with their own personality and such detail, I find, is seldom seen elsewhere. It's got a compelling story, that take you through the entire emotional spectrum and it boasts an almost Tarantino like quality in it's pop culture references (albeit here it's referencing books and late 1980's early 1990's music and trends).
Just more thoughts from nowhere.
Thanks for reading.
The novel centres around Charlie, a socially awkward 15 year old who's best friend Michael committed suicide. Charlie begins High School with no friends, many of the people he knew from middle school have drifted away or joined different social groups. He is eventually befriended by an older student, Patrick who then introduces Charlie to his social group. The story then goes on to chart Charlies adventures with a new group of friends, and dealing with feelings he has never had before, particularly for Sam, Patrick's step sister, with whom he is immediately smitten with.
The narrative is revealed to the reader through letters that Charlie writes to an unknown recipient. This affords the reader the opportunity to experience the narrative on the same level as Charlie. It also is effective at conveying his innocence in the presence of his peers who are older had have considerably more worldly experience. On reflection, the fact that Charlie is addressing the reader upfront, making them the intended audience of his writings makes Charlies even more sympathetic. The reader, almost immediately, feels like Charlies only friend as a result. This creates a bond between reader and narrator that is seldom seen in fiction and often takes a long time to build up when it does happen. It also provides for some brilliant moments of humour in the novel, Charlies naivety will provide the more worldly reader with many a chuckle.
The Perks of being a Wallflower, is a great coming of age story. Charlie is an instantly likable a memorable protagonist a product of great thought on the author's part. The journey from innocence to experience, is conveyed through the relationships Charlies has with the different characters in the novel. The relationship he has with his family, the individual members of his new group of friends and with his English teacher, all allow us to see Charlies growth as a person. Special praise is reserved for the author, in how he can manage to treat all the individual threads of the different relationships with as much care as the other and make them all seem significant no matter how small they really are.
That's really the main message I took from this book, that it's our relationships with other people that make us. Others can change us, shape us, introduce us to new and wonderful things, help appreciate the past and above all help us through difficult time.
The book is definitely worth a read. It has a cast of distinct and colourful characters, each with their own personality and such detail, I find, is seldom seen elsewhere. It's got a compelling story, that take you through the entire emotional spectrum and it boasts an almost Tarantino like quality in it's pop culture references (albeit here it's referencing books and late 1980's early 1990's music and trends).
Just more thoughts from nowhere.
Thanks for reading.
Sunday 24 November 2013
Books from Nowhere: Ender's Game
I emerged from the cinema blinking, the cold light of day burning my eyes, fresh air burning my lungs. That was several months ago. I haven't been to the cinema in a while but recently enough Ender's Game was released where I live and I recon I've hit the sweet spot where enough time has elapsed for the dust to have settled but for it to be still fresh in the memory of people that I can talk about it. You also may have guessed from the title that I'm reviewing the book "Ender's Game", not the film. I've seen both but I feel the book warrants more talking about (and I think I can get more material out of reviewing books that film as one habit is significantly cheaper to fund than the other). Let's dive in:
The basic premise is this, Earth has been invaded twice before by an alien race know as the "buggers" and in anticipation for a third invasion to wipe out all of humanity, the combined forces of Earth have launched a program to find the brightest young minds and train them to become commanders to defend the planet. I
Earth's greatest hope is Andrew "Ender" Wiggan, who is forced to leave home for "Battle School" to train in mock battles against fellow children as training for their future careers as soldiers.
If this is sounding somewhat cliched you have to remember this book came out in 1985, and all forms of science fiction media have been borrowing elements from it in one form or another ever since.
Basic premise aside, Ender's Game in my view is first an foremost about individual greatness. It's the almost archaic view that history is the study of great men and their actions transplanted into space. Ender has been bred to be great, every action he displays, no matter how mundane, shown to be an example of his superior intellect and understanding of the world.
Of course greatness has its drawbacks, the sword of Damocles is ever present. As a result of his "greatness" and gifted nature, Ender is subjected to severe isolation from the rest of the students. Even those he would view as being closest to him, don't view him as being fully their friend, he is not someone they can have fun with. This point is brought to the extreme as one student even tries to kill Ender. Furthermore, as the novel progress and Ender graduates from battle school, his greatness is recognised and this dangles the sword even closer to his head. Greater things are demanded of him and he is put through a relentless training program.
It's an interesting observation, that greatness, is ultimately not worth the rewards it brings. Total isolation from our peers and overly high expectation from those who do see our greatness push us to the brink, even to death.
Philosophical ravings aside, on a technical level the book is very good, maybe even great but by no means brilliant. The narrative is it's main selling point the story being incredibly compelling and with nearly ever chapter prefaced with dialogue spoken by persons unknown we're left guessing at to who's hidden agenda's are at play here. The portrayal of Ender's isolation is done phenomenally well as are the characters mental struggles. However, the books strengths are kneecapped by it's almost utter lack of pacing and mismanagement of it's sup plots. Chapters will take place over a few a few hours and then jump ahead several months almost as if the author devised the key plot points and moments of development and then stung them together with as little filler as possible. In addition to this, an entire sub plot regarding Ender's siblings plot to take over the world (I kid you not) is introduced, forgotten about and then brought up again once and then again at the end of the novel, in an overly stretched out denouement.
Overall, Ender's Game get's a recommendation, the author's personal opinions aside, it's a damn good read and great piece of modern science fiction. Check it out if you can.
Just more thoughts from nowhere.
Thanks for reading.
The basic premise is this, Earth has been invaded twice before by an alien race know as the "buggers" and in anticipation for a third invasion to wipe out all of humanity, the combined forces of Earth have launched a program to find the brightest young minds and train them to become commanders to defend the planet. I
Earth's greatest hope is Andrew "Ender" Wiggan, who is forced to leave home for "Battle School" to train in mock battles against fellow children as training for their future careers as soldiers.
If this is sounding somewhat cliched you have to remember this book came out in 1985, and all forms of science fiction media have been borrowing elements from it in one form or another ever since.
Basic premise aside, Ender's Game in my view is first an foremost about individual greatness. It's the almost archaic view that history is the study of great men and their actions transplanted into space. Ender has been bred to be great, every action he displays, no matter how mundane, shown to be an example of his superior intellect and understanding of the world.
Of course greatness has its drawbacks, the sword of Damocles is ever present. As a result of his "greatness" and gifted nature, Ender is subjected to severe isolation from the rest of the students. Even those he would view as being closest to him, don't view him as being fully their friend, he is not someone they can have fun with. This point is brought to the extreme as one student even tries to kill Ender. Furthermore, as the novel progress and Ender graduates from battle school, his greatness is recognised and this dangles the sword even closer to his head. Greater things are demanded of him and he is put through a relentless training program.
It's an interesting observation, that greatness, is ultimately not worth the rewards it brings. Total isolation from our peers and overly high expectation from those who do see our greatness push us to the brink, even to death.
Philosophical ravings aside, on a technical level the book is very good, maybe even great but by no means brilliant. The narrative is it's main selling point the story being incredibly compelling and with nearly ever chapter prefaced with dialogue spoken by persons unknown we're left guessing at to who's hidden agenda's are at play here. The portrayal of Ender's isolation is done phenomenally well as are the characters mental struggles. However, the books strengths are kneecapped by it's almost utter lack of pacing and mismanagement of it's sup plots. Chapters will take place over a few a few hours and then jump ahead several months almost as if the author devised the key plot points and moments of development and then stung them together with as little filler as possible. In addition to this, an entire sub plot regarding Ender's siblings plot to take over the world (I kid you not) is introduced, forgotten about and then brought up again once and then again at the end of the novel, in an overly stretched out denouement.
Overall, Ender's Game get's a recommendation, the author's personal opinions aside, it's a damn good read and great piece of modern science fiction. Check it out if you can.
Just more thoughts from nowhere.
Thanks for reading.
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