Mother's Day Shout-outs

Happy Mother's Day to those on my friends list who qualify! (I believe that'd be marag, pinky_ki and hippybngstockng, sorry if I've forgotten anyone!)

And an additional shout-out congratulations to wings2speak for making it through 3 grueling years and graduating from law school today! :-)

Doctor Who 28.5--"Rise of the Cybermen" by Tom MacRae

Before we begin, a couple of things not directly related to this week's episode. First of all, as usual, I watched last week's episode of "Doctor Who Confidential," the behind-the-scenes documentary aired on BBC3 after every episode. If you've been watching the new show, you owe it to yourself to try and see each Confidential episode--they're great and they add an interesting perspective to each new show. (Last year's Confidential--which I have not seen--was included on the DVD set release, but in a highly edited form. So much so, so I'm told, that they're no longer, er, all that. Presumably, the same thing will be done with this year's crop.) Anyway, last week's was called "From Script to Screen" and looked at the entire process of the making of "The Girl in the Fireplace." It was really neat to see the entire process--well, truncated to a half hour of footage and interviews, anyway! And I was left with at least one thought: Wow, that Sophia Myles is sure pretty. And she seems smart and nice, too. That David Tennant is one lucky guy....but we already knew that, right? ;-)

The other point is more of a regret. In celebration of this week's return of one of the Doctor's worst baddies, BBC4 put together and showed a documentary last night called "Man Machines" about robots, cyborgs, etc. in media SF. It sounded like a lot of fun...but it doesn't look like anyone grabbed it, so it doesn't look like I'm gonna see it. Ah well.

Anyway, on to this week's episode!

This was the beginning of the season's first two-parter and saw (eventually) the "return" of one of the Doctor's most persistant enemies. I have to admit having problems writing a review of this episode because...well....there was nothing wrong with it. I mean, the production was good, the acting was mostly good, everything looked slick and worked...but it left me somehow a little cold. There were a bunch of great bits and certainly the cliffhanger was excellent, but for some reason the story as a whole felt kind of, I don't know, off. It might just be that last week's episode was so damn good, plot-wise, character-wise, emotionally, etc., that this week didn't quite measure up. It might also be that I need to wait until the story is complete to have a real opinion about it. Thus far, I guess, I liked it but I didn't love it.

This is also the first episode I don't feel the need to immediately go into spoilers; maybe after next week. However, if folks want to discuss spoilers in the comments, I'll be happy to participate. :-) So, go to, folks!