Sunday, June 2, 2013

Matt Smith exits after Christmas and the 12th Doctor Hunt Begins


Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!

My exact words when I saw the headline ranging from Gallifrey Base to Bleeding Cool. It really feels like a kick in the nuts because Matt Smith was/still is the only New Series Doctor I've always looked forward to seeing.  I barely knew Christopher Eccleston's despite the coming into his era midway when the SyFy (formally Sci-Fi) aired his run in 2006 and I was happy to see the back of David Tennant's flippant, egotistical crybaby caricature and Russell T. Davies. Despite the unsettling behind the scenes info prior to the announcement, I've always thought the words "Matt Smith (2010-2014)" sounded not only cool but he'd be the only Doctor to match his time with Jon Pertwee's four year run.

When Smith was announced as the new Doctor, I was just as surprised as the rest of the denizens of cyberspace. Many comments on many a forum ranged from optimistic and supportive to the most mean-spirited; the latter came from immature girls who could care less about what Doctor Who's history pre-2005 as long as the sight of David Tennant set their ovaries ablaze that's all that really mattered. Plus complants about his age (Smith was 26 when he was cast; Peter Davison was 29 when he got the role the thirty odd years before) By the time we got our first pictures of Matt in costume, I had that feeling his Doctor would be more "the old soul in a young man's body" his predecessor never was. Boy, was I proven right by the time the 2010 season arrived. The Mad Man In A Box had arrived!

For three years, we've seen the bow-tie wearing "Raggedy Man" and his companion, the Legs/Amy Pond, the Nose/Rory Williams, and the recent Impossible Girl/ Clara Oswald battling Daleks, Silurians (despite the Trek-esque makeup), Ice Warriors, Cybermen, and many more. The fun comes to an end this December as noted and Clara's words may ring true than ever realized. Of course, there won't be a smug victory lap we all were subjected to with Tennant and RTD'S exit in The End of Time.



At the same time, the race for the role of the 12th Doctor's on and a new series is set to kick off August 2014...Who will become 12? How will his new outfit look, And What would his personality like? To all these questions and more, we won't get the answer from Steven Moffat or newly appointed co-Executive Producer Brian Minchin til either later this summer or by the time the Anniversary Special airs. Whoever they pick truly has big shoes to fill...and a even bigger TARDIS
.
Good on you, Matt! Here's to How to Catch a Monster becoming a success and many more to come.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

Matrix Databank (Part 5): The 5th Doctor


The 5th Doctor: To all who knew him, he was a vulnerable but noble, friendly yet snarky type of gent, an ace cricketer, and a man who gives second chances. To the Master, he's pleasant, open-faced dolt. His birth was a moment that was prepared for as the Watcher and the Doctor's fourth incarnation merged to begin the regeneration process.  
Upon unraveling his previous self's burgundy scarf and tearing the waistcoat apart, he found a room containing what would be his new outfit: cricket outfit with a beige colored coat and a panama hat. However, the post-regeneration effects posed a major problem that was adverted when taken to the Zero Room. Amist this, he received a message from Adric (who was held captive by the Master) regarding Event One. Aside from the Zero Room being jettisoned, the Doctor traveled to Castrovalva to continue to heal only to find the city was artificially created by The Master (who disguised as the Portreeve) using Adric's mind. Once the Master was thwarted and the fake city destroyed, the Doctor reassured his three friends that he feels "absolutely splendid".


The TARDIS crew resumed their travels; however, Tegan wanted to return to Earth since joined his company by accident (plus her aunt was killed by The Master). Much to her vocal displeasure, the trip to Heathrow would take a very long time. Shortly after, the four traveled to a 30th Century colony only to encounter the Ferutu as well as his seventh incarnation; it was there it also met a old woman with  a strong ties to the Doctor's past life on Gallifrey. Later travels involved the spaceship belonging to the Monarch, Deva Loca where the travelers (particularly
Tegan) crossed paths with The Mara, London 1666: The Great Fire of London. It was this event during his encounter with the Terilepitils, his sonic screwdriver was destroyed (it would be two regenerations later til he created a new one). Also, the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan landed in England in the 1920s where they met the legendary Harry Houdini (for Houdini, he first met the Doctor in his 11th incarnation, later the 8th and also the 3rd). Things would be pragmatic on board the TARDIS as the Doctor and Adric's relationship was strained when they were on a idyllic planet where he was tempted into becoming one of the statues there. The TARDIS crew landed in 1920s England again where he was invited by Lord Charles Cranleigh to his cricketing match. It was at this adventure that saw Nyssa coming face to face the identical Ann Talbot. Things took a turn for the worst for the Doctor and Adric's friendship to a point where he demanded to return  to E-Space; much to the Doctor's fear of returning to the Pocket Universe. Upon arriving on Earth, the TARDIS crew discovered the Cybermen's plan to use a space freighter as a detonator to destroy the planet. With the Cyberleader holding the Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa hostage, Adric attepted to crack the freighter's codes which lead to it being transported to the outskirts of Earth's past: the time of the dinosaurs. Just as Adric was working on the codes, a dying Cyberman fired at the controls leaving the freighter to hit the planet with the young Alzarian on board. The tragedy would haunt the Doctor for the rest of his existance due to his being unable to get Adric out of a fixed point in time. It was this tragedy that he vowed to never let another friend to die. Immediately after, the Doctor took the greiving Tegan and Nyssa to a neutral interplanetary place of mourning.


While still reeling from Adric's death, the TARDIS crew finally arrived at Heathrow in 1981. It was there that the Doctor was recruited by C19 in the search for a missing Concord plane. With the use of another Concord, the travelers found the missing plane and its passengers in 140,000,000 BC where the Doctor saw the Master once again; he sought to use Xeraphin gestalt for his damaged TARDIS. Upon defeating the Master, the Doctor left him to face the wrath of the Xeraphins. Once returning the Concord and its passengers, the Doctor and Nyssa took off much to Tegan's surprise; despite her complaints about getting

to Heathrow, she actually wanted to stay in the TARDIS. During this long period, the Doctor and Nyssa ended up in Earth's past via a teleportation experiment at a school for girls and an alternate timeline where the Dalek Emperor sought to spread a Mutant Phase virus. Later on, Nyssa's illness returned leading to the Doctor taking her back to Traken (a millennium before its demise) where it was revealed that a mysterious god was the cause. Sometime after, the TARDIS landed on Mondas during a time when the Cybermen were being created; he was confronted by the revelation that he may have been a part of the inspiration for them. The duo's later adventures involved a planet inhabited by flightless yet intelligent birds, arrested by Issac Newton for carrying what he believed to be counterfeit coins (coins from Earth's future) and later travels to the little village of Stockbridge for a cricket game while Nyssa worked on a novel and later fell for a local lad named Andrew. Despite her newfound feelings for the young man, she elected to continue her travels with the Doctor. Sometime after, Nyssa took up a solo expedition in Rhodes in the 13th Century while the Doctor resumed his travels alone for the time being. Around this time, he returned to Stockbridge a couple of times: one involving time distortions caused by Melanicus with the use of the Event Synthesizer. With the aid of the young knight Sir Justin and the Celestial Intervention Agent known as Shayde, the Doctor stopped Melanicus and time was restored to normal. The second time in the village saw the Doctor meeting a local UFO spotter named Maxwell Edison while investigating a ghost ship orbiting around Earth. The Doctor and Max would meet up many times; once again with Nyssa and later in his future incarnations. Another Stockbridge adventure involved an encounter with the Elemental Being who was manipulating the TARDIS; the Elemental was defeated with the aid of Shayde. Later, the Doctor ended up in 1963 in an alternate timeline where World War II was still raging on. It was there, he met the soldier Angus "Gus" Goodman. During this event, it was discovered that the Monk was responsible for the alternate timeline with the help of the Ice Warriors. Upon thwarting the Monk's intervention, the Doctor and Gus took off to travels new. Gus' time with the Doctor was short lived when they crossed paths with Josiah W. Dogbolter who captured them in order to buy the TARDIS. Offending Dogbolter, the Doctor and Gus were chased by his hit man the Moderator; Gus died from the gunfire while shooting the hitman. After this, the Doctor reunited with Nyssa while dealing with Daleks from an alternate timeline. Later the duo resumed their travels.

The Doctor and Nyssa went to Gallifrey while investigating a case of anti-matter on the Arc of Infinity. It was this time that the High Council issued a Warrant of Termination. It was revealed during the adventure that Omega was attempting to create a new body with the Doctor's biodata plus reuniting with Tegan in Amsterdam two Earth years after they last saw her. With Omega defeated and the High Council revoking the charges against him, the Doctor continued his travels and welcomed back Tegan. While her and Nyssa remained in Amsterdam to catch up, the Doctor went to the Sector of Forgotten Souls where he found a newly reconstructed Omega now with a split personality due to fusing the Doctor's biodata which resulted in believing himself to be both himself and the Doctor. After defeating Omega once more, the Doctor tried to return to Amsterdam when the TARDIS crashed into his tenth incarnation (who he viewed as a "skinny idiot"). The two Doctor seperated the TARDISes before it could cause a black hole the size of Belgium! After this, the Doctor finally arrived in Amsterdam. He sought to take Nyssa and Tegan to an early period of Florana only to find the planet's population manipulated by the mysterious High Priest who tuned out to be a lone Dalek. Later, while investigating the disappearance of Tegan's childhood friend, the TARDIS crew landed on the planet Luparis which bore a vague resemblance to Tudor London. Further the trio went to Sirius where the Doctor reunited with an old acquaintance and investigated the mysterious Seth. Sometime later, Tegan began having recurring nightmares about the Mara leading the three travelers to confront the Mara at its home-world of Manussa. With the help of a local snake dancer, the Mara was starved to death; relieving Tegan from its influence once again. The Doctor later found himself dealing with vampires once again on two occassions in Manchester and on Gallifrey. In the former, the Doctor was unaware that his old colleague and a vampire were agents of the Black Guardian who the Doctor doublecrossed when the Key to Time was assembled and dispersed....

The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan found themselves in two different time periods due to the TARDIS being caught in a warp eclipse; with the Doctor in 1983 and the girls in 1977. While reuniting with former Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart at Brendan Public School, he met a young exile from Trion name Vislor Turlough who unknown to the Doctor was coerced by the Black Guardian to eliminate him. It was discovered that not only was a space transmat capsule , owned by Mawdryn, was the cause of the warp eclipse but also that Lethbridge-Stewart's memories of UNIT have been distorted. With the two Brigadiers (the one in the present and his self circa 1977) met, courtesy of the Black Guardian whilst forcing Turlough , the UNIT memories were restored and the two men were returned to their respective time periods. With this adventure, Turlough left Brendan School to join the Doctor much to the welcoming surprise to Nyssa and a bemused yet cautious Tegan. Immediately while in the TARDIS, the Black Guardian appeared to Turlough once again ordering the young man to sabotage the ship for it to tear apart. The TARDIS was then locked onto a medical ship going to Terminus carrying patients suffering from Lazer's Disease. Originally, the space station was the cause of the big bang but it was to be undone. The Doctor with the help of the Garm prevented the ship's fate. With the crisis adverted, it came to a shock and saddness to him and Tegan that Nyssa elected to stay on the medical ship so she'd make a difference in curing Lazer's Disease. Shortly after, while fixing the damages to the TARDIS, the White Guardian appeared before the Doctor, Tegan and, Turlough to inform them to go to an Edwardianesque ship piloted by the Eternals in a race for Enlightenment. The TARDIS crew won the race and both the Black and White Guardians offered the prize. When realizing Turlough was the Black Guardians unwilling assassin, the Doctor gave the prize to him as a test of his virtue and made the right decision despite their foe's last minute offer. After everything that happened, the Doctor allowed Turlough to remain in his company much to Tegan's chargrin. Two days after, the TARDIS ended up on Helheim where the trio reunited with a now older Nyssa; for her it been fifty years since she left. It was their that they discovered four corpses in an abandon base bearing a eerie resemblance to the four friends. Upon, going to Helheim's past to find out why their bodies were there, the Doctor found out that the robotic Cractids made the construct clones. After the matter was sorted, Nyssa rejoined the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough in their travels for a brief time before parting company once again.


Sometime after, the TARDIS arrived on Earth during the 13th Century where the Doctor and friends crossed paths with the Master once again. It was this event that he eventually acquired a shapeshifting android called Kamelion (he only remained in the TARDIS to avoid being under the influence by a stronger force). Several travels later, the TARDIS crew went to the Eye of Orion. The trip was cut short when the Doctor's earlier incarnations were taken out of their respective timestreams causing him to fade away on and off. The TARDIS was dragged into the Death Zone on Gallifrey where the Doctor was immediately stabilized due in part to his first incarnation's (accompanied by Susan) presence. As he was ambushed by the Master and the Cybermen, the Doctor took the Master's transmat recall device only to wind up in an alternate version of the Death Zone. It was there that he reunited with not only Nyssa but also Ian Chesterton, Steven Taylor, Sara Kingdom, and Polly Wright whilst battling the Daleks and the Sontarans. Once arriving at the capital while his previous self were heading to the Tomb of Rassilon, the Doctor discovered much to his horror that his old friend Borusa (now Lord President) sought to gain Rassilon's secret of immortality as he used the Doctor's previous incarnations and their companions (save for his fourth and Romana whom were in stasis for the duration) to remove all traps present plus enlisting the Master's involvement. Tricked by the Doctor's first incarnation, Borusa was trapped in Rassilon's tomb. With Borusa indisposed of, the Doctors were told by Rassilon himself to return to their timezones. Despite being declared Lord President once more, the Doctor declined; passing the title to Chancellor Flavia and immediately resumed his travels with Tegan and Turlough. For a time the TARDIS crew found themselves in adventures bordering on the bizarre to the most violent such as encountering three novelizers from Verbatum 6, a war between the Silurian and the Sea Devils, Little Hodcombe where a psychic energy took advantage of the town's war games (with Tegan's uncle caught in the thick of it), and the damaged planet of Frontios where it was in ruins due to the Tractators and the Gravis. After tricking the Gravis into repairing the torn apart TARDIS, the Doctor and Tegan took it to the planet Kolkokron while Turlough stayed behind with the colonists. While on the way to pick up Turlough, the TARDIS ended up crashing on the planet Artaris. Tegan remained inside while the Doctor explored the planet where he encounter the warmongering Lord Grayvorn who was in a middle of a quest for the Relic located in Excelis. When getting a map in the nunnery, the Doctor encounter Iris Wildthyme who was selected by the Mother Superior to accompany him and Grayvorn on the quest (much to his horror). Sometime after, the Doctor and Tegan made a few more detours before finally picking up Turlough. The TARDIS ended up caught in a time corridor leading to another encounter with the Daleks and a newly resurrected Davros using human agents (some were short-lived allies). Despite hesitating to shoot Davros, the Doctor unleahsed the Movellan virus, killing all the Daleks in the process. After the major body count of the event, Tegan decided not to continue travling with the Doctor anymore leaving only him and Turlough to resume their travels.



During this period, the Doctor and Turlough had several adventures. Some of which involved the mysterious highwayman Nikolas Valentine in 1470 London, Brazil 2080 facing ancient werewolves, both Scotland and The Tsiolkovskii crater, Sontarans and Moscow in the late 21st Century. When in Lanzorote, the Doctor and Turlough met a young American girl name Perpugilliam Brown (or Peri for short) whom Turlough saved from drowning. Once the TARDIS landed on Sarn, the Doctor found out Kamelion was under the Master's control. Upon defeating the
Master once again, the Doctor granted Kamelion's request to die by using the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator. During the event, Turlough reunited with his younger brother and learned of the persecution of political prisoners had long been abandoned on their homeworld. With this, Turlough parted company with the Doctor to return to Trion whilst the Time Lord gained a new companion in Peri.  The duo traveled for some time. Their travels included 
a rebellion on the planet N'Tia, Wembley 1936, and Mars. The Doctor and Peri wouldn't be alone for long when they arrived in Egypt 1400 B.C. where the duo found themselves in a struggle with an alien parasite. During the course of this event, the met the pharaoh  Erimemushinteperem whose life was threatened by the rebels. She left with the Doctor and Peri while leaving her throne to a distant family member. The Doctor, Peri, and Erimem had many a adventures together: Paris in the 14th Century, The Axis, 1917 Tibet, a space station in the 29th Century, and 1845 where the trio met Richard III. The Doctor traveled alone briefly when he dropped off Peri and Erimem in Monte Carlo, 1966. When at the Gogglebox on the Moon,  the Doctor came across an energy signature from both 1984 and 2006; he followed the 2006 one to Brisbane where he reunited with Tegan (who was suffering from an alien brain tumor) and encountered the mysterious Katherine Chambers who had close ties to the Cynermen. Another trip saw the Doctor partaking with his three future selves in stopping a time leakage and the Daleks from getting to the Jariden Vault of Interstellar Curios. Afterwards, the Doctor picked up Peri and Erimem and resumed their travels. The trio had a few more short trips before landing in Peladon where they encountered Sekhmet, the last Orsiran. Once the osirian was dealt with, the new king Pellas proposed marriage to Erimem and she agree to marry him; thus parting company from the Doctor and Peri. Later, he Doctor found himself on another quest for the Key To Time; only this time, due to them decaying in the wake of his scattering them back to their  original locations. This time around, he was aided by a sentient tracer he named Amy (she'd renamed herself Abby long after the quest). The two went to Mars during an early period in Ice Warrior society; they encountered her sister Zara who was also collecting the other segments as well. The next destination saw the Doctor and Amy in 19th Century Sudan where they encounter the Black Guardian. Afterwards, the final trip saw the travelers going to the planet Chaos where the final segment was located. While there, he reunited with both Romana and Astra. The Doctor was horrified to learn that Romana became the sixth segment after he scattered all six segments the first time around. Astra sacrificed herself in becoming the sixth segment. In defiance of the Black and White Guardians, the Doctor threw the Key To Time into the Chaos Pool, stopping the further degradation of the universe. With the ordeal over and the Guardians now ticked off, the Doctor went back to the planet he last left Peri at and Romana returned to Gallifrey with Amy and Zara in tow. Shortly after dealing with a Piscon and an older Peri, the Doctor and Peri traveled to Androzani Minor where they were caught in the middle of a mineral struggle. Upon being exposed to raw spectrox and contracting Spectrox toxaemia, they faced gunrunners, political groups and the deformed mad man called Sharaz Jek. In the process, the Doctor sacrificed his life to give Peri the only dose of the cure for the illness. He regenerated from the young man to a loud, bombastic, gentleman.