(Dang it, why do I always find out birthdays AFTER they happen?)
Anyway, yesterday was the 49th birthday of an actor I like: Christopher Eccelston. I've brought him up a lot. He played The Ninth Doctor on Doctor Who, and was my first and favorite Doctor.
I can't wait to see him in Thor: The Dark World as Malekith. I really need to see more stuff with him in it, I feel bad I haven't. Like, I really want to see this biopic he was in about John Lennon called Lennon Naked, as Lennon. (It also has Andrew Scott in it as Paul McCartney, so that's a bonus...) Anyway, I think he's a good actor and I want to see more stuff with him. (Like, say, Sherlock with him as Moran? Please? I heard you want to experiment with original villains, Moffat and Gatiss, but you can still do that and have Moran! Please?)
Anyway, happy (belated) birthday, Eccleston! You fanTAStic actor.
Howdy, y'all! With all my Sherlockian fangirling/critiquing/rambling/etc.-ing, I realized I've neglected Doctor Who. And I've kinda wanted to do a list of my favorite episodes so far. Besides, this month's the new Christmas Special with the new companion and all, so it's great timing.
The personal rules for my list are this:
I obviously can't count episodes I haven't seen yet, so all the "Classic Who" is excluded (though I do plan to someday watch them. But Netflix is keepin' me down, man! They only have a few of the "Classic" series). This will be all "New Who" (Everything from the revival in 2005 to now): from "Rose" to "The Angels Take Manhattan". Thus, the "New" and the "So Far" in the title.
I'm counting all two-parters as one episode. For obvious reasons. So you won't see something like, say, "Aliens in London" on here and "World War Three" not. (Not that I'm even putting that two-parter on here. Heck no! I'm just using an example.)
Okay, with that out of the way, let's start my current list of the Top 9 Doctor Who Episodes. Why top nine? Because Nine is fantastic... Well, Geronimo!
(Beware: Possible Spoilers, read with caution)
9. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (Series/Season 7)
So, a thousand-year old time-traveling alien, a 20th century hunter, an Egyptian queen, a Scotswoman, a roman, and his dad all walk into a spaceship...
This was just a fun episode. I mean, it's The Doctor, The Ponds, Queen Nefertiti, a 20th Century big game hunter, and Rory's dad having an adventure on a spaceship filled with DINOSAURS! How is that not awesome? How? I really enjoyed watching this one. For example, I loved seeing Amy being a sort of pseudo-Doctor when the group gets split up. That alone raised her up a few clicks on my list ranking the companions. (Sorry, Rose, Amy's just better...)
Plus, for me, it was an Anglophile Nerd Menagerie of Squee! First of all, there's Rupert Graves, AKA Sherlock's Lestrade, playing the hunter, Riddell. Who is a character I like and want to see again. Then, there's Mark Williams, who I know from Harry Potter as Mr. Weasley, playing Rory's Dad, Brian. Again, a very likable character. (Though now I have this whole headcanon about Rory secretly being Charlie Weasley.) Oh, and there's David Bradley, another actor who's been in Harry Potter (he was Mr. Flitch), as the villain, Solomon. Solomon was a jerk and deserved his fate. (*sniff* I will never forget you, Tricy...)
Anyway, not much left to say but the obvious joke: I AM SICK OF ALL THESE MOTHERJUMPIN' DINOSAURS ON MY MOTHERJUMPIN' SPACESHIP!
8. New Earth (Series/Season 2)
"Rose, I have a feeling things are going to go wrong..."
This on was just plain fun and funny. It reminds me of the good old fun days of Ten's (David Tennant's) tenure as The Doctor, before "The Waters of Mars" special made me disappointed in him. Anyway, The Doctor and Rose go on their first official adventure together to the future, and the planet New Earth. Specifically, New (New New New New New New New New New New New New New New) New York. The Doctor was called to the hospital to meet someone. And we run into a blast from the first season's past, Cassandra!
The big thing I liked were the bodyswap shenanigans. I'm always a sucker for an episode where characters trade bodies, especially since we get to see the actors get to be "other" characters for a day. And this one was no exception. My favorite scene is when Cassandra takes over The Doctor's body, and Tennant is just hamming it up:
A fun episode for a Doctor I used to admire, "New Earth" is out of this world.
7. Angels Take Manhattan (Series/Season 7)
Seriously, no one was watching The Statue of Liberty in the City That Never Sleeps? YOU HAD ONE JOB, NEW YORK! ONE JOB!
The best way to describe this episode is bittersweet. The final episode with The Ponds, this was the episode every fan I knew was trying to emotionally prepare for. What happens is Rory falls victim to the Weeping Angels while he, Amy, and The Doctor visit New York, and is sent back to the 1930's. Amy and The Doctor go back to save him, natch, and meet up with River. And there's a book detailing the events of the story before they happen in-episode.
Again, it was bittersweet, this episode. First of all, we learn that River is now a professor (anyone who's seen "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" knows why this is sad.), and, of course, The Ponds leave. But I think it's sort of sweet how they left, since at least they were together. And, personally, I think they had the least "terrible" of most of the Official Companion Farewells. Think about it: Rose was left in an alternate universe against her will, Jack got ditched without any explanation from The Doctor until they met again, Martha was driven away by Ten's Rose Angst, Mickey... well, he left voluntarily, but that doesn't count, Adam was kicked out and left a freak of modern science (but he was a jerk, so can't say he didn't deserve it. He's kind of an un-Companion anyway...), and DON'T get me started on how Donna went. The Ponds, however, they at least got to stay together.
"The Angels Take Manhattan", the episode that made the fans weep like The Angels.
6. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon (Series/Season 6)
One of these things is not like the others...
Wow, I have a lot of Eleven episodes here. Anyway, in this episode, Amy, Rory, and River witness the apparent future death of The Doctor. Then The non-future, non-dead Doctor takes them back to 1969 America, around the time of the Moon launch. Its there they meet The mysterious Silence. But they can't remember them once they've seen them.
I feel this is another good opener episode for the show under Moffat's control. (You'll see another example later). The Silence are a legitimately creepy concept. It's awesome.
Speaking of awesome, River Song is freaking awesome in this one. Especially the "Day of the Moon" part. I decided here that she was one of the best companions ever. Also, I really dug Canton Everett Delaware III, the temporary companion this episode. This guy was awesome, too. Again, there's another companion I would love to see pop up in another episode soon. After all, he said in the beginning after the Doctor "died" that it was the last time he'd see them (as in The Ponds), not necessarily The Doctor...
In short, this was awesome.
5. The Doctor's Wife (Series/Season 6)
The Doctor and his oldest and most constant Companion...
Oh, boy, I liked this one. The Doctor, Rory, and Amy go to another dimension, when suddenly, the TARDIS goes dead. That's when we meet a woman who claims to be The TARDIS...
This episode had great writing. I absolutely loved The TARDIS, who was so delightfully quirky. And I loved her interactions with The Doctor. But most of all, I loved that this episode was written by none other than Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite writers and creative idols. I'm really excited that he's coming back to write another episode for season 7. I'm hoping he'll become like Moffat was in the Russel T Davies Era: writing really good episodes once a season, and hopefully becoming head writer next? Please? I'd love to see him with his own Doctor...
Well, nothing else to say but, it's Gaiman, he's never let me down before...
4. Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways (Series/Season 1)
The Last Stand of The Ninth Doctor
Finally, my favorite Doctor appears on here! Anyway, this was the finale to the first season, and the final episode with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. In it, he, Jack, and Rose end up on a series of deadly game shows on Satellite 5, and need to escape. And a familiar enemy returns.
Okay, first of all, this episode had Captain Jack Harkness, my favorite companion, of course that makes this episode 20% cooler. I loved him here. And his part where he says good-bye to Rose and The Doctor, thinking he's going to die, was sweet. Man, I wish he'd gotten a few more episodes.
Plus, he got to kiss The Doctor. Good for him!
Also, I thought it was a fantastic send off to Nine, and Eccleston's acting was superb. It's sad he didn't stay longer, especially since by that time he'd thoroughly grown on me. *sigh* If only I knew for sure why he left, the Internet's no help. In fact, the second time I watched "The Parting of Ways", probably about the "absolutely fantastic" speech, I almost cried! And I can probably count on one hand the times a movie or show has done that to me as far as I can recall. That is impressive. Well done, Davies and Eccleston. Well done.
"Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways": A parting that was sweet sorrow.
3. The Eleventh Hour (Series/Season 5)
Well, you seem like a perfectly fine person to go on an adventure with...
Here's one I've mentioned before! The newly-regenerated Eleventh Doctor arrives at the home of young Amelia Pond, who's having trouble with a mysterious crack in her wall. After the Doctor helps, he decides to make her his companion, but first he needs to leave and go do something. He arrives a wee bit late... A wee twelve years too late... And that's the least of his problems...
It was the first episode with Matt Smith as The Doctor, and Moffat as head writer. I thought it was great kickoff. It was funny, it was cool, and it won me over to Eleven. Moffat's writing was great as usual, and it seemed like nothing could go wrong! The series was in great hands!
Which was also, admittedly a problem for the episode, in retrospect. It was almost too good. Since all the episodes after this one that season seemed to fall flat to me that season.
Well, almost all of them...
2. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (Series/Season 5)
"Come at me, bros! .... Okay, I'm never saying that again, either..."
After what seemed like a fairly so-so season, we get a great season finale. The Doctor and Amy are called back to 102 AD by River Song. There, they find The Pandorica, said to be holding the most fearsome being in the universe. Also, the universe is being destroyed, all of the Doctor's enemies have gathered, and Rory is a Roman now. Romans are cool. Things are about to get real...
It was well-written. And, after seeing the mediocre season and "A Scandal in Belgravia", this episode sort of restored my faith in Moffat as a writer. Plus, even though I knew there were two seasons after this and everyone'd be fine, I still got invested and had to wonder: "How're they going to get out of this?"
River and Rory were brilliant and awesome this episode. I fell in love with both their characters this episode.
And my number one episode... Should come as no surprise to some of my readers, but anyway, here it is...
1. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (Series/Season 1)
:') I miss you...
I love this episode so much! The Doctor and Rose go back to WWII-Era London following a mysterious object. There, they meet the charming rogue Captain Jack Harness, and face a "child" who's infecting everyone with a strange affliction.
There are so many reasons that I love this one. First of all, Captain Jack Harkness. I loved this guy right off the bat. He is still my favorite companion. Second, Moffat's writing. It's a very well-written episode. It's fun, it's dramatic, and it's heartwarming. I remember checking to see how long I had so I could see part two. Something that didn't happen with the first two-parter this season.
A big was one Eccleston's acting. He was fantastic. The "everybody lives" scene was just so amazing. I loved seeing him so happy at the end. It cemented him as my favorite Doctor.
Most of all, it was what officially made me a fan of the show. Up until this episode, I thought Doctor Who was alright, but I wasn't in love with it. Then this came along. I saw how awesome the show could be. I realized I liked this episode. It made me a Whovian. So, of course I'd put it as my favorite episode.
---
So, those are my favorite episodes as of 2012. I hope you enjoyed, and hey, what are some of your favorites?
Last year at Thanksgiving, I wrote some "thank you" notes (in the style of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon). So this year, I'm going to do it again! And boy, do I have a lot of people to thank!
*Que Thank You Note Music*
Thank You, Joss Whedon,
For for making the BEST. SUPERHERO MOVIE. EVER.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, "Final Act" from Sherlock's Soundtrack,
For keeping me sane while fighting freaking Young Xehenort in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. I could've killed someone if not for you!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance,
For making me a fan of Riku.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Skepkitty,
For doing your blog, The Half-World. It's always entertaining to read your MSTs.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Sherlock,
For finally convincing me to read the books, and subsequently making me a Sherlockian.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Robert Downey Jr.,
For being awesome. 'Nuff said.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Guy Ritchie,
For making one of the best movie series EVER!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Hans Zimmer,
For being a fantastic composer!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Joan Watson/Lucy Liu,
For being awesome!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Christopher Eccleston,
For being my favorite Doctor. You, sir, are fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Steven Moffat,
For writing both my favorite Doctor Who episodes and favorite Sherlock episode.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Neil Gaiman,
For being a fantastic writer.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Mark Gatiss,
For writing my second favorite Sherlock episode, and being Mycroft.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Jude Law,
For setting my Watson standards, and just being neat.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Martin Freeman,
For RIPPING MY HEART OUT IN "THE REICHENBACH FALL"! ...Oh, and being charming...
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Benedict Cumberbatch,
For being wonderful.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, buddy2blogger,
For being the closest thing to a regular I have here, following my blog, and reading my Sherlock posts.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, UnicornSlayer,
For reading and commenting on that fanfic of mine. And encouraging my use of gifs. And following me.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Lythium33,
For the commenting conversation on the end of the world. It was really fun talking to you. Oh, and for following me!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Anonymous (however many people you are),
For the comments. Especially my old friend who I know is (one of the) anon(s). I miss you!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, Insane Guy of DOOM,
For killing me off spectacularly in that trollfic of yours! That made my life!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, ASBuisnessMagnet,
For actually commenting here. And the shout-out and cameo in your fanfics!
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, TROXA and xion-puppet,
For more or less reassuring me that my Xion-defending post wasn't a terrible rant-y thing to post after all...
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, abby.spiaggi, OGO, and Neelam Ali,
For following this little blog of mine.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Thank You, My Family and Friends,
For being wonderful family and friends. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be in my life.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
And...
Thank You, All My Readers I Failed To Mention Earlier,
For taking the time to read my ramblings, ravings, and rantings (oh my!).
I appreciate you guys.
Sincerely,
Loveable Freak
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Enjoy your holiday, however you celebrate...
As much as I hate to admit it, I am not perfect. Especially when it comes to typing sometimes. Trust me, Spellcheck is my best friend sometimes. So, I felt like sharing three typos I've had: one general, one that I've corrected, and one mildly hilarious one from a post I did.
-Ah, Mark Gatiss. He's rather awesome. I mean, he writes for (and has appeared quite a few times in) Doctor Who. He's (so far) the most consistent writer on Sherlock, writing two episodes I enjoyed (Steve Thompson having written the "weakest" episode of Series One, "The Blind Banker", then a good one in Series 2, "The Riechenbach Fall" (RIECHEN- nope, not gonna do the gag). And Moffat wrote the fantastic episode "A Study in Pink", then wrote the episode with a rather irksome Adler interpretation known as "A Scandal in Belgravia.") And to top it off, he plays Mycroft on that show as well. And I'm eager to see how he writes "The Empty House". I'm sure it'll be fantastic.
But why on Earth do I have so much trouble with his last name? I mean, it's not that hard!
First, I was somehow under the impression it was "Gatniss". I dunno, there was all that Hunger Games stuff, so my mind must've went: "Gatiss is similar to Katniss, so Gatiss=Gatniss". So for a while, I spelt it like some some of portmanteau crack couple name for him and Katniss. Then, I realized my mistake, and corrected it as best I could. (I'm sure in some of my older posts (around March-ish) still have this mistake if I haven't tried to fix them already).
But the worst part is that I used this misspelling on Pintrest. And a lot of people don't edit what the stuff they're repinning says. So, long story short, there are a lot of repinned Gatiss pics that call him "Gatniss" now. (If anyone has repinned one of those and had it pointed out, I apologize, it's probably my fault.) Maybe if I'm lucky it'll turn into a meme. Then, yay for me... Heh, heh...
Also, I know I've called him "Gattiss" at least once. Ironically, I was fixing the "Gatniss" that time I remember... Oops!
So, I apologize for the misspellings, Mark GatnissGattiss ...Erm... the guy who plays Mycroft! :P
-Ever since he first appeared in "The Empty Child", I have been a fan of Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who. He's my favorite companion of Eccleston's run, was one of my incentives to get through Series 3, and one of my overall favorite companions (along with Donna Noble and Rory Williams "Pond").
But, at first, I forgot he had an "n" in his name, thinking it was "Harkess" (which, is still a cool name, by the way). This one was fixed sooner than the Gatiss fiasco, and I doubt that you'll find the error on this blog. (It was more of an error when I wrote little humor comics with him out of boredom.)
...Now that I think about it, I must've just stole the "n" from his name and gave it to Gatiss... Hmm...
-And now, an error that never came up on any final drafts of my posts, but was just too bizarrely hilarious not to mention. In fact, it's what inspired this post in the first place!
However, I had accidentally put down "Could you be our Moron?" at first. After giggling at my mistake, I quickly fixed it before publishing. But still, I couldn't resist sharing.
Haha. Oh, Eccleston. You know I don't think you're a moron. I think you're brilliant and fantastic! :)
---
So, that's my little bit of self-deprecation. I now return you to your regularly scheduled life...
...Unless you've seen any other mistakes I've made but have been too polite to share...
*UPDATE* Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My screen name, Loveable Freak, is a spelling error. I didn't realize there wasn't an extra "e". Oh well, I like it better this way...
So, one of the minor mysteries of the Sherlock fandom is who will be Sebastian Moran and what will he be like. After all, with where the last series ended, the writers will have to do Moran's story, "The Empty House". I've heard a couple ideas. Heck, I've even heard/seen someone's idea that he will be a woman ("Sabrina" (?) Moran? That could be interesting...) And I've come up with some ideas, too. Here is the one I came up with that I'm currently set on and I'm all for.
Christopher. Eccleston.
Why Christopher Eccleston? Because I think he could do very well as Moran. Granted, I've only really seen (and paid attention to) him in Doctor Who, during his run as The Ninth Doctor (my personal favorite). But he was a very good in his performance.
I think "Dalek" is a very good example. In that episode, he confronted the last of the Daleks. The part where he confronts the Dalek for the first time (and subsequently tortures it) gave me chills. I was seriously freaked out. I mean, he was THE FREAKIN' DOCTOR! (EDIT: I had a clip of the scene up on this post, but the person who originally posted the clip took it down. Sorry. But I do suggest watching the episode. Heck, I highly suggest watching all of the (New Series) Series 1 (Eccleston's run), and the show in general. ;) )
For example, one of his lines when talking to the Dalek is: "And I got your little signal. Help me. You poor little thing..." Somehow, I can totally see Sherlock!Moriarty's equivalent of "Watson" saying something like that in that sort of voice. Yeah, I picture Sherlock!Moran to be a little mentally unstable. They may not be how he behaves in-show, but that's how I picture him for now.
Plus, I saw this picture of Eccleston. (Not sure how recent it is, but...)
Could you be our Moran, sir?
I can picture modern Sebastian Moran looking like that. I saw it and I thought: "That could TOTALLY be Moran!" Yes, it would be a little weird/jarring to see The Doctor playing a sniper working for Moriarty, but I think he could pull it off.
Well, that's who I've mentally cast as Sebastian Moran. Who are your possible candidates for the role?
Ilove Doctor Who. It's a fantastic show. It and Sherlock are my two favorite TV shows right now, and I really enjoy it.
So far, The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) is my favorite. Wait, wait, hear me out, Ten and Eleven fans! Don't get me wrong, I like Ten and Eleven, but Nine has a special place in my heart right now. You see, he was my first Doctor.
At first, I wasn't so fond of Nine, he was alright, but very rough around the edges. Then came "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances". Those are my personal favorite episodes. Why? Well, there was the fact Moffat wrote it, Captain Jack Harkness made his debut...
...And Nine was just so happy at the end:
"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once! Everybody Lives!"
That, and the fantastic smiles, were what finally, completely sold me on the show. I continued to enjoy the series/season after that.
Then, there was his tragic "death" (regeneration, whatever) at the finale:
"....You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I..."
It's very sad to me that he didn't get at least another series. I mean, he seemed to be finally be fully adjusting from the Time War (in a way), and then, FWWOOOOM! New Doctor: "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Barcelona..." (Not that I dislike Ten. I liked him, too. I just didn't like what happened to him towards the end (Specifically, his behavior at the end of "The Waters of Mars" special, that disappointed me), poor guy went through a lot, too.)
(There's also the fact Jack only got a few companion episodes, but that's another post...)
I would love it if Nine got to have another appearance. Like, for example, in the 50th Anniversary Special, or a multi-Doctor story (a la "The Three Doctors" or "The Five Doctors"). I would like to see his reaction to his regenerations. It would most likely have to be a pre-"Rose" Nine, if they did a multi-doctor story, since I think it would cause all sorts of timey-wimey, plot-holey, continuity issues.
Honestly, I think Eccleston should get one last hurrah as The Doctor. After all, I feel we barely got to know him during his brief tenure.
Anyone else want to see a reappearance of Christopher Eccleston's Doctor for a multi-Doctor story?
