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The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Initially planned by Peter Davison as an independent project to be released for us Whovians online, after telling Steven Moffat he was producing this short film The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot quickly became an official BBC production as a part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. It's easy to see why; Peter Davison proves himself a hugely talented comedy director and writer.

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot sees former Doctors Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and (in a brief cameo) Paul McGann try to force their way into the 50th anniversary special after failing to receive a phone call to appear from Steven Moffat. This short film is quite simply hilarious; there are so many great moments such as Colin Baker forcing his family to watch Vengeance on Varos despite their obvious disinterest and John Barrowman driving the Doctors to Cardiff whilst singing and offering them CDs upon arrival as a result of a comically exaggerated inflated ego.

There are so many cameos in this short film that this is well and truly a love letter for the Whovian fandom. David Tennant, Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Georgia Tennant, Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat.... The list goes on. To list all the cameos would take all day. This feels like Peter Davison's own celebration of 50 years (1963 to 2013) and it's amazing that all these people agreed to appear especially when some were busy working on Day of the Doctor. There's even a brilliant cameo at the start nearly unconnected with Doctor Who where Sean Pertwee (who has never been in the show before) and Olivia Colman (who played Prisoner Zero in The Eleventh Hour) complain that they're not in Day of the Doctor despite usually being in everything.

All the comedy is spot-on. Peter Davison is brilliant but by far the standout star is Colin Baker. Colin Baker gives a true comedy performance as himself, the Doctor who wants his era to be appreciated but can't look past how to the general public and even his own family it is sadly either regarded as an 'embarrassment' or forgotten about. Colin Baker has some great lines like 'Oh, for heaven's sake! I've eaten possum's anus on live television. Couldn't be worse than that. I'LL call him!' and he delivers them effortlessly. Peter Davison may arguably be the lead of his short film but Colin Baker is the real one to watch.

Overall, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot is a hilarious love letter to Doctor Who and one that any Whovian simply must watch. It's jam packed with cameos and features a brilliant performance from Colin Baker alongside some great writing and directing from Peter Davison. It's not hard to see why this became an official part of the 50th anniversary celebrations in 2013.

That was good.

Olivia Colman complains that she's surprised she's not in it because "I'm usually in everything". At the time, she was and it doesn't seem any different now.

And what about Ian McKellen's cameo?

I loved both that and Peter Jackson's cameo. I have no idea how Peter Davison managed to get them to appear. Maybe Sylvester McCoy put in a good word?

Peter Jackson's a massive Doctor Who fan though isn't he? Plus, Ian McKellen would have already done The Snowmen and he worked with Sylvester McCoy on King Lear, so there'd be enough contact there already I think to make it straightforward. I thought it was the best bit.

The Intouchables

I usually hate foreign films. Not all the time of course, just very often. I despise them. I hate having to read subtitles instead of being able to understand what they're saying without the need for them. So I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying The Intouchables; a 2011 French comedy about recently released working class man Dress (Omar Sy) who becomes rich man Philippe (Francois Culzet)'s personal assistant in order to claim a benefit.

Philippe was injured in a paragliding accident and is stuck to a wheelchair, unable to move his hands or feet. It is Dress's job to feed, shower and do anything else for him that requires the use of hands. The pair quickly become good friends. Not only is The Intouchables a great comedy but it is also a heartwalming, feel-good story about what it means to be a friend. If this comedy says anything, it's that you don't choose who your friends are; your friends may be in the most unlikely of places. What's even more impressive is that this was based on a true story, which helps the friendship to feel real and not forced. There are a lot of great comedic moments in this film such as Dress shaving Philippe's facial hair so he looks like Hitler and the whole live classical music VS. iPod tunes scene (brilliantly staged by director Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano) but equally this is a film that's as much about the drama as it is about the comedy. There are a few touching moments such as when Dress first takes Philippe out for some air and . To say this is only a comedy film would be unfair. This is a comedy drama.

The film is helped a lot by the acting. French comedian Omar Sy is a brilliant casting choice as Dree: hilarious during the right moments and truthful during the more dramatic scenes. By far his most memorable scene is when Magalie (Audrey Fleurot) tricks Dree into stripping off. That scene is one of the funniest moments in the film and it's partly down to Omar's performance. Of course, with any good comedy partnership you need a great straight man and Francois Culzet is just that as Philipee. At first, he seems somewhat unlikeable but once you get to know the character you start to care and sympathise with him. First appearances can also be deceptive; on the outside he comes across like your typical rich man but what's inside is more interesting, as within the character of Philipee is a man who finds a lot of the luxurious lifestyle boring and prefers to speak what the rich would call 'more common' with phrases like 'I don't give a ****' (in response to a warning about Dress being a dangerous man that Philipee chooses to ignore), also claiming the household secretly find the annual violin music for his birthday party' boring' and 'pretend to be interested'. Philipee's performance is so good throughout that you hope he finally finds a new love interest after his late wife; indeed, .

The soundtrack has to be one of the best for any film especially during the beginning. There's some great violin music and some fantastic tracks by band Earth, Wind and Fire called September and Boogie Wonderland. The violin music also introduces one of the best gags in the film where Dree recognises one of the music from an advert. That's what makes this film work so well despite the language barrier: gags anyone can relate to. Oliver and Eric know exactly how to make a French comedy universal; I would be interested to see what they would bring to a Hollywood film. Indeed, one of the stars Omar Sy was in Jurassic World so it's not impossible.

Overall, The Intouchables is a hilarious French Comedy Drama about a very real, very touching and very convincing friendship between the most unlikely of people. Even if you hate reading subtitles like me, it's well worth a watch and will more than likely leave you wanting to buy the Bluray.

Earthshock

A companion's departure is always sad, although Adric wasn't exactly the most popular one. It doesn't help when the Doctor doesn't seem to like him either. It's almost like when writing him the writers realised he wasn't working and wrote their opinion into the way the Doctor treated him. In fact, that probably is what happened. It's what the writers of Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain did when they didn't like Elmyra's inclusion so there has been evidence of it happening within the industry.

It's a surprise, then, that we care so much for Adric during his departure story. We can't help but feel sorry for the way the Doctor treats him at the beginning of the story and Whilst the narrative is always important, it's more the tragedy that befalls one of the lead characters that's the most essential here rather than what the story is about. Not to say that it doesn't have a good story. The idea of the Cybermen trying to crash a space freighter into the Earth and is an interesting one and a solid appearance for the Cybermen.

The Cybermen would likely have had more impact at the time of broadcast though when their return was kept a secret. It would have been a nice surprise for the audience...which would then have immediately been followed by a nasty one (if you want to know what I mean by that and don't mind spoilers, look at the first spoiler tag). The problem with watching this story now is that we know that it's the Adric departure story and we know it features the Cybermen. It will never be able to be exactly as writer Eric Saward intended the audience to feel. That doesn't stop it from being a brilliant story though and it is still hugely enjoyable to watch.

A lot of it comes down to the performances from the leads. Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse totally sell their TARDIS crew as the dysfunctional unit. You really feel for the Doctor when he sees . This wasn't the best TARDIS crew the show had seen but they did feel like a unit. The choice to cut to silent credits is also a wide decision by the serial's editor Peter Grimwade as it helps add to the emotion intended from the viewer.

Oh, and isn't it great to have a strong female character in the form of space freighter commander Briggs? Beryl Reid is brilliant in the role and feels naturally authorative. In fact, she's so great that I couldn't possibly imagine a male actor in the role. This is a great example of a strong female character in the classic series; she's so good, perhaps, that maybe even showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat might have used her as a template for their female characters? There's not one female character in the new series who isn't a strong character in my opinion after all.

Overall, Earthshock is one of the show's best companion departure stories with great performances from the main cast and Beryl Reid as Briggs. It is a hugely recommended story, even if it no longer has the impact it probably had during its broadcast.

They did.

"The enemy's outside Mister!"

I should ask you as well: what do you think of the then brand new Cybermen in Earthshock? We used to love them and thought they were the best ones, but in retrospect my favourites are the ones in The Invasion. Apparently the original idea for the new Eighties Cybermen was to have them with transparent bits where you could see things working inside – if only that had been possible.

I like every design of Cyberman; the Earthshock Cybermen in particular are great but personally I prefer (and I know this is quite controversial) the Neil Gaiman Cybermen. Yes, they look they were built by an evil Tony Stark but it feels like a natural upgrade for the Cybermen from their Cybus Industries design.

Streetdance 3D

Released in 2010 to capitalise on the success of Diversity on the 2009 series of Britain's Got Talent, Streetdance 3D saw the likes of George Sampson and Diversity on the big screen at the same time. Its main selling point? Not streetdancing, not dance in general but 3D (hence the reference to it in the title).

The film sees a street dance crew forced to work with a bunch of ballet dancers in order to win the Street Dance Championships. There's nothing you haven't seen before here; it's a cliche, by-the-numbers plot that offers no surprises and has been seen by audiences numerous times before in other dance movies. In fact, the writers don't seem to have put any effort into this film whatsoever; it just feels like they wrote it merely for BBC Films to make money than to tell a good story. The characters are all forgettable (bar George Sampson's Eddie) and the story's so boring that you find yourself wishing the dance troupe would just decide to stuff the streetdance championships and go work in a McDonalds instead. If you own a copy of this on DVD or Bluray, you should take the disc out and chuck it in a fire to burn to death. It would be much more pleasurable than actually watching the movie.

The thing that annoys me the most about the film is that they made a massive deal of Diversity being in the film; they pushed them to the front of the advertising campaign as if they had a large role in the film. It was the reason why I decided to see it at the cinema in 2010. Despite all the fuss of the 2009 BGT winners in Streetdance 3D, they turned out to only be in it for five minutes.

Imagine that: you go to the cinema expecting to see what's being advertised as a 3D film with Diversity and then the very stars who have been billed to feature in it only appear for five minutes out of 98. This film is nothing more than a cynical cash grab, trying to claim the money of the thousands of people who watched as Diversity beat Susan Boyle in the BGT finale. Fair enough if this film had been open by claiming it was only a cameo by Diversity but the fact is they massively overhyped their appearance. If they wanted to capitalise on their success, then Diversity should have been the lead characters. They weren't.

They may as well have been. The acting couldn't have been any more atrocious than it was here. None of them feel like real people, just dull and lifeless. In fact, they're so bad that George Sampson outshines them all and he's not that brilliant either. I'm guessing all the good actors were put off by the bad script; either that or they all called in sick and had to be replaced with random people off the street. There's no reason why you couldn't have interesting streetdance characters but this film doesn't even want to try with either its actors or the characterisation in the script.

There is one thing good about this film however. The 3D is absolutely brilliant; you can tell this film was made with it in mind. There are a few nice pop-out moments and you never feel like you're watching a 2D film as with some so-called '3D' movies. Its main selling point therefore is a quality one. It seems like they spent more effort on the 3D effects than anything else. This movie is more about the visual spectacle than having a good narrative. It's a wonder they didn't use the 'art film' excuse.

Overall, Streetdance 3D is a terrible film that wrongly attempts to trick viewers into believing they're watching a 3D Diversity movie. Its cliche story, bad characterization and woeful actors make for a painful viewing experience; however the 3D is spot-on and offers plenty of visual spectacle.

Yeah, they're much more streamlined aren't they? I think I've seen them more or less in action but I remember liking the fact that they were less like walking tin cans as the Cybus ones had been. Not a great period in Cybermen history, that.

I liked the Cybus Cybermen but whilst in-universe it made sense, I thought the ugly Cybus logo in the middle of their metallic body spoilt the design somewhat.

Aliens of London/World War Three

Aliens of London/World War Three is likely a landmark two parter for the show. Whilst aliens have invaded London before, this is the story where humanity wakes up and realises there are aliens out there. It also introduces one of the new series' most iconic monsters in the Slitheen and introduces the domestic side being a major part of the Russell T Davies Era of the show. Whilst we had seen this side in Rose, it wasn't evident it would be important until this two parter. Yet despite all this, this story is among the weakest of series 1.

Aliens of London/World War Three is actually quite dark for a family primetime drama when you strip it down. It features aliens stripping the skin of their victims in order to wear them like a sort of strange fancy dress costume. Yet bizarrely Russell T Davies decided to underplay this by adding farting effects and essentially making the Slitheen kid-friendly. It's impossible to take them seriously, yet if done right the Slitheen could have been a much more powerful monster that would have earned its iconic status rather than claiming it through their popularity with children. It's a shame that they were a monster introduced in the Russell T Davies Era as Steven Moffat (being a writer known for his dark stories) would have done the concept more justice given that it would have fit more in-line with his ideas. The Russell T Davies Era was great but it was better at the lighter ideas than the potentially dark ones.

The concept of a criminal family of aliens trying to sell the Earth as fuel is a great one and could have been well-realised if it wasn't for these poor decisions. Annette Badland is suitably menacing as Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen though and does great with the material she has. It's easy to see why Russell T Davies decided to bring her back in the much superior episode Boom Town. She's one of the new series' best villains and one that deserved to be a recurring one. Annette Badland comes close to saving the Slitheen and making them a race to be feared but ultimately can't overcome the silliness of the fart effects. The Slitheen have a great look too; there's something undeniably alien about this design:



And that's what's most important about this story: as the Doctor says, it's our race's first concrete proof of alien existence. Other alien invasions in the show's history have had some way or other they can be brushed off by governments...but a spaceship crashing into Big Ben? That's different. Nobody would purposely fly a military unidentified flying object into Big Ben unless they hate London landmarks for some reason and they find an alien pig in a spacesuit in the ship. This is a story about what happens when humanity stops being ignorant as they must have during the events of stories such as The Invasion (never referred to by anyone post-1968 unless they're UNIT personnel) and on that angle it succeeds. If it wasn't for the poor choices with the Slitheen, this would be a great story about what may one day hopefully become a landmark in real life history. I'm a believer that we're not alone and aliens are out there somewhere and I fully believe we will experience a real-life Aliens of London (although hopefully with friendly aliens rather than a criminal family). I think it's just a question of when. I think this story also nails it on the head on how we would react, with spaceships being made on Blue Peter, wall-to-wall news coverage and taking the alien occupant (in this case, a space pig) to an autopsy.

It's also interesting how we see Rose's mother Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) react to Rose being missing for an entire year due to a miscalculation on the Doctor's part. Mickey has been accused of murder and Jackie being her mother is just naturally very worried about her whereabouts. Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri both deliver powerful performances and help cement this as a take on the show where consequences to domestic life matter. Those companions' family and friends matter now. They're arguably just as important as the companion now and quite right too. Of course, Billie Piper is great too and Christopher Eccleston's...alright but doesn't feel entirely comfortable in the role of the Doctor but this is arguably more about Jackie and Mickey (at least at first).

Overall, Aliens of London/World War Three is a fairly average two parter spoilt by poor decisions in regards to the Slitheen, ignoring the darker aspects of the ideas. Annette Badland makes for a brilliant villain though and Camille Coduri and Noel Clarke are great.

I think you're right, they are iconic new series monsters and probably one of the few creations that stand out, including the Ood. It's interesting that aside from the Weeping Angels the new series hasn't created any really successful, recurring monsters to compare to the classic era.

When the Slitheen came along I liked them, along with the humour. They could also be pretty scary but it's a shame that the CGI versions didn't match up properly with the suits.

Yeah but the series has previous in that respect. If you add some humour to horrific things it offsets the horror. Take the Kandy Man as an example – originally he was supposed to be a chubby, pale-skinned individual in liquorice spectacles and wearing a white lab coat. Once you saw that on set you'd probably start thinking of Joseph Mengele and that's where things would get too close for comfort – so making him into a Bertie Bassett robot was, I think, a good move.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

And the space pig's a pretty grisly episode too. Given that the Slitheen have genetically altered a pig to essentially act as a suicide bomber, it's grim stuff.

Some of this was filmed on his first day too I understand. I thought he was getting more comfortable by the end of his season, which made it more of a shame that he was going.

Yeah, there aren't as many iconic monsters from the new series so far. The Slitheen, Ood and Weeping Angels as mentioned are the only ones really. The Silence are kind of iconic but don't have enough reason to return years into the future.



True. I just think with the Slitheen they'd have been better off pulling a Moffat and making them totally creepy rather than trying to add humour to them.

And it feels very real. This is something you could imagine terrorists doing if they had the means to alter genetics.

Yeah, his later performances in the series are better. As previously said, he was fantastic in the episode Dalek.

Bolt

Bolt is a film that has been given a certain significance by movie critics. It is often heralded as the one that led the way to what many refer to as the 'Disney Revival' due to it being the first Walt Disney Studios animated film Pixar director John Lasseter worked on (he was executive producer on Bolt, later given creative control in 2009).

It's clear when watching the film that John Lasseter had a lot of involvement in production of the animated feature. The visuals represent more of a Pixar look than the Disney animation used in other 3D Disney animated movies. For example, compare this:



to this:



The latter looks much more visually pleasing; a lot more pleasant to look at. With Meet The Robinsons, everything resembles more of a Saturday morning cartoon whereas Bolt actually looks like a modern day animated feature. This is a massive improvement over modern day Disney animation and shows the beginning of an upwards spiral from Bolt to the visual aesthetics of Zootopia (which I haven't seen but the visuals in the trailer look stunning).

As for the story itself, Bolt has an interesting premise; it tells the story of a dog (John Travolta) who believes he is the character he plays in a TV show. When he is seperated from his owner Penny (Miley Cirus), he must find his way home with the help of number one fan Rhino (Mark Walton) and Mittens (Susie Essman). Unfortunately, the premise doesn't quite follow through and a lot of the film tends to drag. It's generally not very well-paced, especially when compared to the Walt Disney Classics. The most interesting sequence is at the beginning of the film when Bolt is in the middle of filming on his TV show leading up to his attempt to rescue Penny when he wrongly believes she has actually been kidnapped by the villain (hence his becoming lost and having to find his way home).

It doesn't help that some of it feels it has been done before, especially Bolt believing he is actually the super-dog Bolt from the TV show. We've already seen it with Buzz Lightyear; that was his exact character arc. We don't need to see it again. Similarly, how Bolt is mentored by Mittens on how to beg carries shades of Bambi where Thumper pretty much acted as Bambi's mentor. Thankfully Rhino offers plenty of humour to occasionally distract from the blatant similarities though and Bolt makes for one of Disney's most loveable protagonists.

That is partly helped by John Travolta's brilliant voice acting. John Travolta is a brilliant casting choice; he feels totally right for the role. As does Miley Cirus as Penny, who seemed like an odd choice at the time but soon won me over when I saw this film at the cinema in 2008. Mark Walton is by far my favourite as Rhino though; he provides a lot of the comedy relief and is brilliantly funny in the role. Susan Essman is alright as Mittens but not very memorable. As for the 3D, the 3D effects are not the greatest but they still add something to the film. You never feel like you're watching a 2D movie but the 3D never feels essential either. It's just there.

Overall, Bolt is a very average film with average 3D effects that suffers from including ideas that have been used before. It has some great voice acting though, as well as an interesting premise and amazing animation. Bolt is not an essential watch but it is an enjoyable film nonetheless.

I haven't seen them in action properly – maybe never will.

The humour's more native to them than it was with the Autons, i.e. the burping dustbin in Rose, but again I didn't mind that. It's just the tone of Davies's version of the show.

Yeah, and the Dalek have pig slaves later too. It's all animals with Davies isn't it?

They're great monsters but were heavily tied to the 11th Doctor's era of the show so now have little reason to return.

Yeah, maybe that's the drawback? For some reason when Big Finish brought the Mara back (again, in a story I haven't listened to) they opted to use the Fifth Doctor and virtually the same TARDIS team. I didn't see why that was necessary, and the same approach seems to have been taken with bringing Sil back. They look at them as specific to the Doctor they first appeared with, but I'd love to see Colin Baker's Doctor with the Mara or McGann's with Sil. Why not?

The problem is deeper than that with the Silence. They were created purely for the Trenzalore/Silence Will Fall/crack in time three year arc so would take the work of a genius for there to be a believable reason for their return.

Who knows, maybe Big Finish could think of something though?