Torchwood: Children of Earth: BRILLIANT

SPOILER HEAVY. So watch it.

Damn you Russell T. Davies. Damn you to hell. But for you there is no hell, so what the hell. You are a brilliant, brilliant man. You and your entire Torchwood team. You have created 5 magnificent hours of the highest peak television has ever reached.

There was a moment in episode 1 where you pissed me off, though. "Adopt a Filipino to clean the chimneys."? What the fuck kind of line is that? And you had sweet sweet Gwen say it. What the fuck man? As a Filipino viewer of your show, it really didn't go down well, and I wasn't able to fully concentrate on the rest of the episode. I was that bothered by it.

I had thought, well, Russell T. Davies can't possibly be THAT unenlightened. I mean, he writes Doctor Who. Being gay, he's a man who's had to fight many prejudices in his life. He's the last person I would think would write such a racially derogatory line. I thought well, it's GOT to be part of the plot, somehow. Something in the air is turning people into racists. That would be a cool plot.

But after seeing all 5 episodes, I see there is no racist plot. Russel T. Davies just wrote a very unenlightened line. And I just can't believe it.

Although I was able to enjoy the series as a whole, that single line keeps coming back to haunt me.

But It was indeed a brilliantly made Torchwood series. The best so far. It went beyond my expectations, and went beyond literally anything that Russell T. Davies has written before. Doctor Who was good, but this was just sheer brilliance.

The story was absolutely unflinching from beginning to end. It took some of the bravest moves I've seen in any kind of TV show. Blowing up the hero and his HQ at the very first episode. The killing of a major character in Ep 4. The horrifying deaths in Ep 5 were simply harrowing and heartbreaking. My wife was sobbing beside me while I sat there, stupefied, shocked and speechless, cursing Russell T. Davies and everyone who worked on the show.

Aliens drop on Torchwood all the time. But the brilliant thing was they made the arrival of one alien such a huge deal. They placed so much depth and gravitas to it, bringing more realistic treatments of such elements that have never been used before in the show.

And the actors, holy crap on a stick, these actors are breathtakingly talented. Peter Capaldi was brilliant. Liz May Brice as the government operative was such a hard ass, but in the end, a hard ass with heart. Cush Jumbo as the naive innocent caught in the stream of events. I wish Liz and Cush join Torchwood in the next season. That would be awesome. All of them were just stunning.

Will there be a next season what with Jack jumping ship and leaving earth seemingly for good?

Of course there will be. Are you kidding? Specially now that Russell T. Davies has finally cracked the formula for making a brilliant Torchwood series. We saw the potential for this show towards the end of the last series. We saw the potential fulfilled, and then some, with Series 3.

John Barrowman was complaining that the show got reduced to 5 episodes after enjoying 13 in previous seasons.

You know, if BBC wanted to stick with this format, why not do TWO 5-episode story arcs at different times of the year? Than have 2 or 3 specials at the end of the year? I think that could work.

Congratulations to everyone who worked on the show. Great job! This is an absolutely brilliant season.

But that Filipino crack. WTF?!

A Lot of Passings

I just wanted to post something about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Although I'm not a huge fan of both, their work has been part of my childhood growing up. The earliest TV shows I remember watching as a kid included Charlie's Angels. Farrah represented to me the immortality of beauty and youth. As a youngster I could afford to think that way. In a way, she has become immortal to anyone who would watch the show again.

Michael Jackson... this bit of news was a shocker. There was a time in my life that I really liked his music. The entire THRILLER album was a huge part of my life back in a particular turbulent period in the Philippines in the 80's. For many years, tapes and records of musical acts from Columbia did not enter the Philippines. What I mean is, record labels in the US usually had a local counterpart which published local pressings and recordings. There was a time that Columbia acts were not republished locally. If one wanted a Columbia record or tape, one had to find an imported one, which was difficult to find.

My brother managed to get an imported copy of the Thriller cassette tape and oh man, we played that thing over and over. I still remember the days when power outages left us with power for only a few hours a day in the waning years of Marcos. When the power went out, we played Thriller on our cassette player until the batteries ran out.

On TV, the music video to "Beat It" literally blew me away. It remains as one of the greatest music videos ever made for the impact that it had on music videos from that time forward.

Over the years I've grown distant from Michael Jackson and his music, specially with regards to all the troubles that he found himself in.

Regardless, a death is a death, I feel sad at his passing. I firmly believed that he still had it in him for that one last great album. Unfortunately, we will never know.

*GASP* Russell T. Davies Takes Over Star Trek on Television!

Ok, NOT true (yet), but I almost had a heart attack when I fantasized about that. Am I wishful thinking? I wish I'm not!

Recently, someone spotted Russell T. Davies in line to get a working visa for the USA. Well, what else could I think? He said in recent interviews that he was offered a "sci fi" thing and said nothing more about it.

What sci-fi show in the US is worthy of a Russell T. Davies, a sci-fi show that's hurting enough to deserve such a high profile reboot?

After being cancelled after only 4 seasons, ENTERPRISE (A series I liked) seemed to have sealed the fate of Star Trek on TV.

But the insane success of JJ Abrams' reboot of Star Trek in film all but ensures that Star Trek will now continue on TV. All it needs is the right person to do it.

At the time of Enterprise's cancellation, Russel T. Davies was thinking about doing a crossover with Star Trek and Doctor Who. I don't know how serious he was when he talked about this during a Doctor Who episode commentary, but he seemed serious enough to me. That would have been awesome.

And how often has Star Trek been referenced in Doctor Who? LOTS! At one point Doctor Who companion Rose Tyler even called The Doctor "Mr. Spock". and "Give me some Spock" was a phrase used to ask the Doctor to do some techie jiggery pokery.

Russell T. Davies' Doctor Who revival began in 2005, shortly after Enterprise was cancelled in 2004. It was a time when Enterprise show runner Brannon Braga blamed "Franchise Rot" for the failure of the show. Others speculated that people didn't like sci-fi anymore and were more on a Fantasy trip, specially coming off the end of the mighty Lord of The Rings movies which ended in 2003.

Russell T. Davies proved there was no such thing as franchise rot, or genre rot or sci-fi rot. He proved that all Doctor Who needed was someone who believed in the show, someone who is talented enough and had enough balls to see it through. Russell T. Davies was all of that and more. And now Doctor Who is one of the biggest TV properties in the world.

Imagine what he can do with Star Trek.

Star Trek (and IMAX) Review

Thanks to Azrael, me and Ilyn were able to watch Star Trek last night at the IMAX cinema at the SM Mall of Asia. When Az first sent the email asking if I wanted tickets to an IMAX showing of the movie, I immediately said yes. How could I not? I’ve been a life long Star Trek fan. It was one of the very first shows I ever saw as a youngster. I still remember our old black and white TV, and peering out of it was William Shatner as Kirk, fighting with Romulans in the original episode “Balance of Terror”.

The tickets were for an advance screening courtesy of SciFi and other sponsors. Apparently SciFi channel is launching on local cable. Will there be Star Trek on the channel? I’m assuming there would be since they carry it in the US. I hope they carry Doctor Who as well. It’s about time the good Doctor made it to our shores, at least the new Doctors. Ah, Doctor Who, the things I can write about it, but that’s for another article. At any rate, it ultimately won’t matter to me because we don’t have cable.

It’s my first time at an IMAX theater and I was astounded at how huge the screen was. Almost equally astounding was how close we were to the screen. Our seats were on the third row, and I wondered what it would be like watching from that close. The last time I was that close to a screen was when my friend Eclipse and I watched Tango and Cash in 1990 from the first row at SM Centerpoint. It wasn’t a nice experience.

SPOILERS

The Star Trek movie itself, well, oh my God, the movie was simply magnificent. Truly, absolutely magnificent. As a Star Trek fan, I’m completely happy with it. I initially had concerns about continuity issues, but that went out the window when I realized continuity was perfectly preserved. Yeah, in spite of George Kirk dying before his time, in spite of Amanda dying before her time, and in spite of Vulcan being completely destroyed by a black hole, the continuity of Shatner and Nimoy’s Star Trek is untouched. That’s the beauty of it. As any Trek fan who has already seen it would know, with the entry of a future Romulan ship into the past, an alternate reality was created.

It’s a reality that’s very very similar to the original series, with characters that are very very similar to the original characters, but as far as storytelling goes, anything can happen from now on. It’s an alternate reality, a parallel universe. The fact that old Spock remains, he represents the old continuity and that it it’s still valid and true, somehow, somewhere.

Alternate realities are nothing new to Star Trek of the original series. There’s the mirror universe in Mirror, Mirror. In TNG there’s the darker universe in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and infinite parallel universes in “Parallels”.

It’s an old trick, and old gimmick but it’s very well done, and it’s a brilliant move by the filmmakers to allow them to continue unhampered by what has gone before. What’s great about this is that they don’t make it an excuse to change things. There are many things here that a long term fan like myself can recognize and appreciate. Kirk was Kirk, Spock was Spock and oh boy, McCoy was McCoy! Bruce Greenwood was awesome as Captain Pike.

The only thing strange that I noticed was Uhura as Spock’s girlfriend. What? What about T’Pring? Oh right, she might already be dead.

After the screening I was kinda speechless. I didn’t know how to react right away. I was in a kind of daze. I didn’t realize I was just completely stupefied. A brilliant film, and I can’t wait for future sequels. And I’m sure there will be.

So really, apologies to Brannon Braga. Franchise Rot, Genre Rot, Sci Fi Rot had nothing to do with it. Trek just needed better creators. Period.

All right then. IMAX. Whoever thought having seats that close to the screen in an IMAX theater should have his brain shrunk. As much as I loved the movie, I was struggling all throughout with the size of the screen. I could only focus on, at the very best, one third of the screen at any one time. There were many things I missed. The storytelling on the more fast paced scenes became somewhat incomprehensible to me. I have better than 20/20 vision but there were times when all I could see were fast moving colors and shapes.

The nurse/doctor that delivered Jim Kirk at the start of the movie was an alien with big eyes. And I didn’t know that at the time because everything else was so distorted.

Apart from being a comic book creator, I’m an Architect as well. And as far as acceptable design goes, that theater is a failure. I would not design a cinema in that way. Never mind the “standards” if the standards still fail. How much of a success is a cinema design if it doesn’t fulfill the primary and most basic goal of a cinema? Which is to properly show the audience a movie?

I should have gotten a better seat? The thing is, I shouldn’t have to get a better seat. All the seats should give a good and comprehensible view of the movie. If you have seats there that interferes with the message that the filmmakers want to give the viewer, then it’s not very good, is it?

New Series! Doctor Who: TIME WAR

A new Doctor Who spinoff! An entire 13 episode series called DOCTOR WHO: TIME WAR, depicting in detail the events that led to and the events that make up what has been known to be the greatest war in the history of the universe.

Starring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor, the series ends with the Doctor, upon ending the Time War and causing the deaths of all Daleks and Time Lords, dies and regenerates into the 9th Doctor, to be played by a returning Christopher Eccleston.

The series will be written by Russel T. Davies and Stephen Moffat.

Of course, this is all fantasy on my part. But it would have been AWESOME.

The Atheist Agenda of Doctor Who and Torchwood

Accusations of Doctor Who and Torchwood as having a gay agenda has driven head writer Russel T. Davies up the wall. For the most part, he's justified in his frustration. As a fan of both Doctor Who and Torchwood, I myself don't see a gay agenda, but rather a much more open acceptance of sexuality in all its forms. And I think that's just great!

However, it is my firm belief that the show has an unabashed Atheist agenda. It's simmering under the surface of Doctor Who, but more apparent, and more pronounced in Torchwood.

I make no judgment about it. I am simply pointing it out. Being an Atheist, Russel T. Davies cannot help but imbue the show with his own personal view of the world. Although it is refreshing to see a different point of view on TV populated by religious beliefs of all kinds, I am somewhat perturbed at the fact that Doctor Who and Torchwood are unflinchingly Atheist in all its stories, and all it's characters. There's not a single person in both Doctor Who or Torchwood who has been shown to have a religious belief of any sort. For forward looking shows that travel the galaxies encountering aliens and cultures of all sorts, I do question why there is distinct lack of representation from what is an indelible part of human culture.

I am by no means espousing that religion and spiritual beliefs be a huge part of the show, but merely acknowledgment that these beliefs and those who believe in them exist. And they do. They are part of our history, our culture, and I have no doubt, part of the cultures of millions of civilizations "out there".

If a writer chooses to ignore religion in his interpretation of life and humanity in his writings, he is not being an objective writer. He becomes a subjective writer who pushes an agenda, whether he realizes it or not.

David Tennant Leaving Doctor Who? PFFT!

Photo by Mark C. O'Flaherty


What a bunch of liars. I mean that in a loving way. I mean, Russell T. Davies called himself a a liar in podcats past while he was trying to keep a secret.

AND THEY'RE KEEPING A BIG SECRET NOW.

Well, what is it? I have to say, I don't know, but I can guess.

And I guess David Tennant ain't leaving. Have you heard anything significant that David is working on after Doctor Who? NO. How about Russell T. Davies? NO, Nothing. Well, how about Billie Piper. No, NOTHING!

So what does that tell you? All three people don't have a single significant project announced after Doctor Who.

It is widely known that Doctor Who fans have been severely disappointed by the end of Rose's story in Series 4. I agree. What kind of fucked up ending is that? The Doctor might be a genius, but he's an in idiot when it comes to love.

How can the Doctor expect Rose to love a clone? Or whatever that double is. And why did she accept him just because the double said "I Love You?" Squirm, squirm, SQUIRM, ew and bother!

But there is an OUT, and it's probably the only way this can be rectified, at least to my eyes.

One of the specials open to the Doctor building a Tardis. Then Rose Tyler come from behind to help him. It's the Human Doctor! What's wrong with this? NOTHING. It's still David Tennant, isn't it? So why could it not be possible that one of the specials be about the Human Doctor? For Rose to accept this double, it takes more than the Doctor's face and an "I LOVE YOU." This Human Doctor has to work for it. He has to prove to be worthy of Rose's love. She's Rose Tyler, gods damn it! She saved the Universe more than once. She deserves more than that! The Human Doctor builds a new Tardis, and she and Rose go off on adventures into Space and Time right into the sunset!

So yeah, it might NOT be a special. It could be a whole new series!

A Doctor Who spin off, probably titled The HUMAN DOCTOR, with David Tennant, Billie Piper, playing John Smith and Rose Tyler respectively, with Russell T. Davies as the writer.

Come on, David Tennant ain't gonna leave. The Doctor Who geek who has the remote control Dalek Toys? The Doctor Who geek knows every single little trivia about the show including the name of William Hartnell's dentist? (Assuming he had one.) Come on!

MORE SPECULATION.

They're all coming back at the end of the specials. Donna, Rose, Martha Jones, Mickey, Jackie, Captain Jack. We already know Bernard Cribbins is back, as well as Sylvia. Jessica Hynes is back, presumably as a descendant of Joan Redfern.

My gut feel is, the Doctor KNOWS he's gonna die. So he starts to go around saying goodbye. And all the former companions are with him when he regenerates. He does what he did for Rose in Series 1 which he never did for Donna (which he could have): absorb whatever time lord thingie Donna has in her brain that's killing her. Donna now remembers, and like Martha, and Rose, they all want to stay with the Doctor now. I'm sure they would. I mean, look at him!

David goes, Matt Smith comes in, and Martha, Rose and Donna change their minds in unison. Martha suddenly remembers what a hunk Doctor Tom Milligan is, Rose still has David Tennant (in their new series) and Donna, well, I'm on the fence on this one. She could go with Matt, but she might seem too motherly. And Matt doesn't want his mom hanging out at his Tardis, so he ditches her for Sally Sparrow.

The first words out of Captain Jack's mouth when he sees David regenerate into Matt Smith?

"Oh, that's just not fair."

And after making sure this new Doctor is OK, Captain Jack leaves for a new Torchwood series, which will now have Mickey as a new member! And well, maybe Jackie. Well, maybe not.

The one thing I'm most saddest about?



JULIE GARDNER IS LEAVING! What the? Why? I look forward to watching the confidentials and look at her pretty pretty face and listen to her lovely voice and gorgeous accent, and when she's gone we're left with... Piers Wenger? (See post below). With Martha gone, Rose gone, David gone, and with Piers and Matt coming in, I really REALLY hope they keep Euros Lyn to direct. I mean, I'm straight and all, but seeing a pretty face once in a while can't hurt?

At least there's Torchwood.... and Eve Myles. Oh boy!

I'm so bad. Yes, I am. Sorry.