Category Archives: television
Bates Motel, Season Finale, Episode 10: Midnight
Don’t order the muffins with your continental breakfast at the Bates Motel. The chef has included a special ingredient; just ask little Emma. While Norman is planning something nasty for Bradley, Dylan may have risked his life in helping her find closure over her father’s death. Mr. Abernathy wants his money and he wants it now! Sounds like a JG Wentworth commercial to me. Norma doesn’t have it. Who does? Find out after the jump.
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Orphan Black, Episode 8: Entangled Bank
Last week, we peeked into the future of genetic manipulation. When Felix and Sarah/Beth visit Club Neolution, or what I like to call Club Clones; they witness first hand, the extremes of body altering; Olivier has a tail, Astra, weird eyes. The girls might very well be part of an experiment that seeks to improve on nature. Dr. Leekie believes that technology can improve the human condition, but what makes him the expert? What is the ultimate reason for altering a human; designer babies or enslaved workforce? Our clones don’t know who to trust; can we blame them? Meet me after the jump. Read the rest of this entry
Doctor Who S07 E14: The Name of The Doctor
The Doctor has many secrets, but not the least of them is his real name. Other than The Master and other Gallifreyans, few folks are aware of it. River Song knows it, and she’s back in tonight’s season finale. Will we at last learn “The Name of The Doctor”? Find out in my review, after the jump…
The Impossible Girl
Did you hear that “squeeeee”? Yeah, that was me watching the pre-credit sequence of this episode. We see The First Doctor, yeah baby, William Hartnell, and his granddaughter stealing a faulty TARDIS on Gallifrey… before being stopped by Clara Oswald. Then it gets better.
Her voiceover claims she was made to save The Doctor, and then encounters the Colin Baker version, Tom Baker, then Sylvester McCoy, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, Peter Davison, then finally Matt Smith, then the other shoe drops.
She says she entered the world on a leaf, the leaf that caused her parents to meet, fall in love, and have her. She’s the Impossible Girl who was born to save The Doctor. Roll credits. If the rest of the episode holds up to the opening, Steven Moffat, you are The Man.
The Conference Call
Through the magic of dreams, ‘where time travel has always been possible,’ several old friends return in a magical unconscious conference call. Among them are Madam Vastra, Jenny, and Commander Strax (where’s our spin-off??!), as well as Professor River Song and Clara Oswald.
A murderer has traded his life for a secret to Vastra, one of The Doctor’s secrets. Unfortunately, new monsters, called The Whisper Men, attack the conference call and capture our Victorian London trio. Once again, Moffet has created couchworthy monsters.
Trenzalore
Clara returns to The Doctor, relates the tale of a secret The Doctor will take to the grave, that is discovered, and of the place called Trenzalore. It upsets him greatly. Of course he’s upset. When you’re a time traveller, there is one place you must never go. Trenzalore is where The Doctor’s grave is. Whoa.
Hard to get there, as the TARDIS refuses to go, but eventually The Doctor and Clara arrive on Trenzalore. There, surprise surprise, the villain of the second half of season seven reveals himself, Dr. Simian, possessed by the Great Intelligence. He’s holding Vastra, Jenny, and Strax captive in the tomb of The Doctor.
The Open Wound
Once inside the tomb, which is the TARDIS of course, albeit super-sized because all the paradoxes that make it bigger on the inside are broken, they encounter The Doctor’s corpse. It’s not a body, but an energy signature of all his trips through time, an open wound in the fabric of time itself.
The Great Intelligence, in a bid to destroy The Doctor once and for all, enters the wound, destroying all of The Doctors all at once, reversing all of his victories into defeats, and erasing The Doctor from history. If you’re following along, you know what happens next.
Yeah, enter the Impossible Girl. She counteracts the Great Intelligence at every turn, saving The Doctor as we’ve seen her do multiple times in different incarnations – and as we saw in the pre-credits scenes of this very episode.
Goodbyes and Hellos
Just when we thought even in death, River Song gets the short end of the stick, she gets a proper goodbye and a hot goodbye kiss, along with a juicy ‘spoilers’ line. Then The Doctor jumps into his own timeline after Clara. Yeah, crazy sumbitch thinks he’s going to save her.
That’s when things get bad. While The Doctor is looking for her, she keeps seeing ghosts of old Doctors. These visions, as well as those in the beginning, including colorized versions of the first two, are very well done by the way.
The Doctor finds her, inside his own time stream, haunted by ghosts of the past and the future. That’s when they encounter John Hurt, credited as The Doctor, and whom Matt Smith names as not acting in the name of The Doctor. Could this be another evil future incarnation of The Doctor, like The Valeyard referenced earlier this episode? Or could it be the incarnation who performed unspeakable acts in the Time War? Time will tell.
Next
The Doctor (perhaps several different ones) returns in November for the big 50th anniversary, and hopefully some answers… And if you can’t wait until then, you could always go see Star Trek. What’s that you say? You missed Noel (Mickey Smith) Clarke in Star Trek Into Darkness? You better get to the theater and see him, great flick!
Bates Motel, Episode 9: Underwater
Holy Hippies in a Van! When you have sons, you never know what the hell they’re going to drag home. Norma has lots of surprises with her boys. Norman has a new hobby, and although, I guess it’s a step up from a pet rock; it’s still gross. Dylan brings home some new friends who will be staying at the motel. An angry, former renter has left Norma a little thank you gift, but Norma prefers her lovers; alive and breathing. What possibly could go wrong this week? In the town of White Pine Bay; your guess is as good as mine. Meet me after the jump. Read the rest of this entry
Trailer Time: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This week, the network television new season line-ups were revealed, and at the front of ABC’s offerings was the Avengers television spin-off “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” And we have not one, but two sneak peeks!
Orphan Black, Episode 7: Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner
Did you ever wonder about the title of each episode on “Orphan Black”? I did! Do the titles hint at the science behind the human genome project, or possibly the future of cloning? Maybe the titles describe the pros and cons expected when a government or group of scientists decide to play Creator. Maybe, that person at the mall that looked just like you; wasn’t a doppelganger; maybe, it was your clone? Would a clone have the same rights as you? Let’s find out after the jump. Read the rest of this entry
Doctor Who S07 E13: Nightmare in Silver
Last year, fan favorite genre writer Neil Gaiman brought the TARDIS to life in the episode “The Doctor’s Wife.” Now Gaiman not only breathes new life into classic “Doctor Who” villains/monsters the Cybermen, but he also introduces The Doctor himself as a new Who foe. It’s Matt Smith vs. Matt Smith! Check out my spoiler-filled review of “Nightmare in Silver” after the jump…
Bates Motel, Episode 8: A Boy and His Dog
Norman has a mean streak; the man in room 9, a freak; Norma’s paddling up a creek. What am I talking about? Last week’s episode was revealing, especially how Norman handles disappointments; don’t let him dog sit for you. The townsfolk know everything that happened at the motel and are shunning Norma big time. I’ve heard of small town gossip, but how did the residents of White Pine Bay learn about Norma’s secrets? Mr. Abernathy is a strange duck, kind of slimy. Will he bring more trouble to the Bates? Let’s find out together after the jump. Read the rest of this entry
