Last Christmas This Year

Here it is, my first Doctor Who related post – a review of the 2014 Christmas Special, Last Christmas. There will be spoilers, so please don’t read until after you’ve watched!

Short version – liked it, didn’t LOVE it, but up in my top 5 (out of the ten made) of the Christmas specials.  My absolute favorite is still A Christmas Carol. That story and the Matt Smith Doctor simply fit the season perfectly.  This one? Well, someone had asked me about about a week prior if I was excited for Nick Frost’s guest starring role.  I was, as long as he wasn’t ACTUALLY playing Santa.  I like Nick Frost, and his portrayal of the jolly old elf was very “Nick Frost-ish” (Frosty??) but until the big reveal about the Dream Crabs I was feeling kind of uncomfortable about Santa’s role in the story. I love all the Fantasy stuff of say, the Mind Robber, I didn’t even have a problem with the Doctor and Clara meeting Robin Hood earlier this season (I had other problems with THAT story, mind you.) But the Santa stuff felt really out of place, initially. Ironically, I found myself at the very beginning wondering if Santa was part of a dream sequence for Clara, but then reconsidered as that wouldn’t be up to Moffatt’s usual trickiness.  First instincts, always go with first instincts!

Once Santa was explained, I was able to get into the story more – I think given a second viewing, I’ll be able not to be so preoccupied with WHY Santa was there and just enjoy the ride. Usually, this isn’t a problem for me with Doctor Who, but until the explanation, Santa and his comedy elves just pulled me out of the story.  It was funny, but I couldn’t see how it fit into Doctor Who.

Does anyone else think that Shona is essentially being set up as a new companion?  Loved her character and she had more depth than pretty much anyone else at the polar base. Who’s Dave, will we find that out NEXT Christmas?  It’s confirmed that Clara is back for Series Nine, so maybe alongside the new girl, or will she end up leaving next year and bring Shona back (kind of a Donna Noble situation, although this time actually planned out. Oh Donna, we do miss you.)

So on a scale of one to twelve, I’ll say about a 7 – 7.5. It’s not Christmas Carol or Time of the Doctor, but far better than End of Time. Santa and his Tangerines (good band name, should have used it in World’s End, Nick) are still secure as not being mythic constructs in the Who Universe, while still leaving a veiled hint as to his reality at the end. But please, don’t have any part of the coming season be part of a continued dream sequence.  You can go that well one time and have it be successful (if done well) (and it was).  Any more and you get Patrick Duffy in the Shower all over again.

On Birthdays and Bagginses

Back in 2001, I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring on opening day, December 19. That was the day after my son’s 1^st birthday. I’ve seen every LOTR/Hobbit movie since then, and as he got older, my son has seen them too. I have two younger girls who are easily spooked, so maybe not quite yet for them. Last night on my son’s 14^th birthday I saw the latest and presumably last of the Middle Earth saga, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

There was nothing unexpected (OK, some *minor* unexpected things – no spoilers here) as it wrapped up the Hobbit, and my wife and I asked each other, as we do after every movie, “So?” My immediate reaction was that I liked it, but I didn’t feel the emotion with this one as I did when Return of the King ended. I still tear up at “You bow to no one”. As I’ve been thinking about it through the night and into today, I still like it, but I didn’t love it. I LOVE the first trilogy – every so often the Extended Editions come off the shelf and the weekend’s viewing is set. The Hobbit trilogy is one that I’ve liked but don’t think I’ll return to as often. 

After 13 years, two more kids, divorce, moving back to my old hometown area, remarriage and the assorted life changes that come with all of those things, I feel safe to say that I have been on my own adventure. There were times – a lot of times – that I simply wanted to stop. Times when I thought I couldn’t push on any further. Other times, I couldn’t WAIT to see what was around the next corner of my life. I sometimes feel I’ve led a very LOTR life, albeit with less swords and wizardry. I’ve been thrust out of my comfort zone a number of times and while I didn’t have a Ring of Power on my person, it sometimes felt difficult to go on. But as I did, I was able to grow. I lost some old friends and family, gained new of both, and came to a clearer understanding of just who I am.  I still haven’t discovered everything, but I know that from the time the first minutes of Fellowship of the Ring unfolded until the end credits rolled on Five Armies, I’m a different man. I’m not in the same part of the Shire as I was when I first started, but it’s still my corner of Hobbiton.

I started this essay thinking about my son’s birthday, watching him grow into an extraordinary young man. Here at the end, I find myself thinking about the journey that I’ve been on at the same time. I’m Bilbo to his Frodo, I think. But he’s not yet ready to head out that door, and there are still a few roads that go ever on that I’m keen to explore.

Welcome

Welcome to Touch the Alien Sand.

I’ve wanted to blog.  I’ve started and given up on blogs before even getting a post out. Reasons? Probably too many to count.  I didn’t feel I had much to say – no, scratch that. I had a LOT to say, but that naggy inner critic told me no one would be interested. I have ideas, I have opinions, I have stories and I plan on expressing them all here somehow.

The title of this blog, and the quote below it, are from the first episode of Doctor Who (1963), to me the greatest TV series in the history of ever. I’ll refer to the show and definitely be writing about it (but not exclusively). For context, the Doctor is asking Ian Chesterton (played by William Russell) what it would take to convince him that the Doctor is indeed an alien and his police box shaped TARDIS a spaceship. I chose that image because it is what this experience is going to be for me – alien sand. I can touch it, hold it, but it will still be amazing to me that it even exists. That sense of wonder, which at 43years old I’m rediscovering, is what I hope to get across here.

I’m a husband, a father, son and brother. I have friends, and acquaintances, some of whom “get me”, some don’t. I’m a Doctor Who fan, I have clinical depression, and I’m crazy about my wife and my kids. All in all, I’m human. Thanks to my glorious medication I understand that being imperfect doesn’t make me wrong or broken, and now I trust myself enough to express myself in a public forum.

I don’t know what to expect, but I’m just going to try.Thanks for reading this intro, and for watching the strange birds wheel above us with me.