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Doctor Who The Star Beast Review (Plus Bonus Children in Need Destination: Skaro Review) UPDATE: Oh Please

Posted: November 27, 2023 by datechguy in culture, doctor who, entertainment
Tags: , , , ,

It’s been a long time since I reviewed a Doctor Who Episode and most of those reviews are only found on the wayback machine as I’ve not bothered to retrieve them from the old blog so we’ll make this short and to the point:

Plot: The cute and cuddly Meep fleeing pursuit has fallen right into the hands of the Temple/Noble family. What danger does he bring, besides the Doctor?

Writing: Russell T Davies adapts this story from a 4th Doctor Comic Book story (You can read that here). It had actually been already adapted into a Big Finish audio four years ago by Allen Barnes staring Tom Baker (you can buy that here). Being familiar with both my take might be different than others without that familiarity. Given the limitations of squeezing’s the story down to 60 minutes of TV rather than the much less expensive visuals from the comics or from the imagination generated by the audio AND given the complexities of fitting this into a newly returned David Tennant he does an admirable job. There are a lot of balls in the air and he pretty much keeps them in said air. There is one elephant in the room that needs to be discussed but we’ll deal with that in a bit.

Acting: After four years of limbo David Tennant shows how it’s done again and Catherine Tate has not lost either a comic or a dramatic step. Nor has either lost a tiny bit of the chemistry they exhibited from day 1. The supporting cast does a good job as a whole but Jacqueline King REALLY shines and threatens to steal every scene she is in. I think Miriam Margoles overdid it as Beep but again you have the limits of squeezing a long story into a shorter time frame so the character couldn’t develop so it might not have been a reflection on her.

Best moment: The Trial great stuff very doctory.

Worst moment: The coffee business, seriously he couldn’t come up with better than that? Lame.

Funniest Moment: Donna’s blaming the Doctor for giving the money way

Ah HA Moment: Donna’s realization that she gave away the fortune to be like the Doctor harkened to Rory’s moment in Vampires of Venice where he notes people take stupid risks to impress him.

Oh Brother moment: The Meep pronouns business, was tempted to shut it off right there.

The elephant in the room: I didn’t mind the transgender child nor even how it was handled in the dynamics of the family. It seemed for a moment like Davies was reverting to his 2005-2012 form keeping making his “social agenda” points in the background while concentrating on story but alas no this is 2023 and not 2005 and like the Jew hating anti-Semitic Muslims of England who would not have dreamed of being so open about their “death to Israel, death to Jews” back then Russell Davies apparently feels freed from having to hide is social agenda and thus makes not just Donna having a child the basis for saving day but having a “non-binary” child being it. In fact the whole “you would have gotten this if you were a woman speech” was the type of in your face preaching that Davies would never have tried decades ago. Alas that means no change from the last three years except we get to be preached to with a higher quality writing and a better cast

I strongly suspected this would be the case and thus was not so much disgusted as disappointed.

Bottom line: I really thing The Star Beast suffered from the format. If this has been made as a two part story from the Tennant Era I think Davies would have done a better job with it and given more time to develop characters from the Noble family to Beep itself that would have at least diluted the preaching. An original story would have been a better choice for the reboot but taking it as it was my judgement is this:

If you grade the episode based on the last five years of the series it’s clearly better than anything fans have seen since the last episode of the Capaldi years and many will react accordingly but alas I’ve been following the series for since the I was in high school (graduated in 1981) so I’m grading it on based on actual Doctor Who. It’s pretty much a lower mid range Tennant episode say Unicorn and the Wasp or 42.

You know type you watch once or grab a scene to repeat online but not the one you’re dying to repeat or seek out. Only the return of Tennant & Tate make it memorable.

3 3/4 stars of five but I’d bet real money if Davies had another 30-40 minutes to play with it would have reached 4 or maybe even 4 1/2.

Bonus review Children in Need Doctor Who special Destination: Skaro: (takes place before the Star Beast) As it’s only 5 minutes long I’ll include it in its entirety at the end:

Plot: You all know that the Daleks were the Mark 4 Travel Machines, but what ever happened to the Mark 3?:

Writing: Davies mini episode is as close as a primer to how to write a Doctor Who episode as it gets. If there is a flaw in this mini episode I don’t see it.

Acting: Julian Bleach hits it out of the Park as Davros and plays the straight man to perfection. Mawaan Rizwan was hilarious and David Tennant brings back his Doctor in style. Again as good as it gets.

Best Moment: The look on Mr Castavillian (Rizwan’s) face when Davros re-enters the room and sees the Dalek.

Worst Moment: I really don’t get the liking of “exterminate” as a phrase

Ah HA moment: The “Canons are rupturing” is a playful homage to the fans pissed of at Chibnall redoing the entire canon of the show.

WTF moment: The tip of the multi claw adaptable thing should not pierce the “wood” of the TARDIS shell

Hmmm moment: It’s plain that the Tardis interior redesign revealed in the new show (kind of meh) has not taken place yet from the glimpses we see.

Bottom line: Five Stars, Worth watching again and again and it doesn’t get any less entertaining the 17th time around.

UPDATE: Being a sane and rational man that this episode was set before Davros’ accident that made him into the character we know to cut down on the costs involved in the makeup etc for the Children in need special.

And then I saw this video from the Critical Drinker which had a clip from Russell T Davies saying that this was in fact a Davros redesign:

“There is a problem with the Davros of old in that he’s a wheelchair users who is evil and I had problems with that. “

Seriously?

Don’t Poke the Bear. Catholic Edition

Posted: November 26, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: , ,

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.

Winston Churchill

Two days ago I was taking a quick peek at Youtube in between the work/sleep cycle that the seven to fourteen days that black friday entails when I saw this video from Christine Niles who I recognized from Church Militant:

This was the first I had heard of Michael Voris resignation from Church Militant. I watched his statement when I did it reminded me of something a particular priest once mentioned in passing. That it was during Mass when he prayers the Eucharistic Prayers that he finds himself most attacked by the devil and that brings me to one of the most basic facts about the war for souls, something that my pastor and spiritual advisor has said move and over.

Don’t poke the bear.

One of the real dangers in deciding to take part in the war for souls is that the closer to the front lines you get the more you’re under the fire from the enemy. To a regular person the battle for your soul might be almost invisible. To the faithful and to those who struggle against sin it is more apparent but how much more for a religious?

A novice might be a target and struggle but the nuns are a bigger one and the target an individual nun is nothing compared to a Prioress whose call can bring down others.

A seminarian might struggle but a bigger target is a priest tending his flock or the Bishop who is over dozens of priests or a Cardinal and the biggest target is always the Pope and those who surround him because if you can bring down the top so many may be crushed beneath them by the fall.

It is the same in law ministry or apostolates the higher you go, the more prominent you are in the fight the more vulnerable you are to a fall, and the thing to remember is that it’s a battle of attrition.

And while there is nothing more exhilarating then watching the devil run when you meet him face to face the real victory doesn’t come from that transitory moment, it comes from the persistence in prayer and the trust in Christ that keeps him at bay.

Niles noted that Voris stopped leading the group in prayer as he once regularly did and that one of the first signs of trouble for a soul is when it walks from prayer. For the lay person prayer is an indispensable part of the life of faith how much more so for one on the front lines confronting the works of the enemy daily? That’s when the foothold is established and C. S. Lewis noted the results of such a situation:

If such a feeling is allowed to live, but not allowed to become irresistible and flower into real repentance, it has one invaluable tendency. It increases the patient’s reluctance to think about the Enemy. All humans at nearly all times have some such reluctance; but when thinking of Him involves facing and intensifying a whole vague cloud of half-conscious guilt, this reluctance is increased tenfold. ‘They hate every idea that suggests Him, just as men in financial embarrassment hate the very sight of a pass-book.

Screwtape 13

The first duty of a person is to secure their own soul. Until that is done it’s almost impossible to help secure others as Christ put it:

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Matt: 7:3-5

Based on Voris video and this post that followed:

I suspect he put off with dealing with an issue or tried to do it handle it himself rather than turning to Christ in prayer and the sacraments.

How will it end? I don’t know, there are plenty of people, particularly those who don’t want scrutiny that will enjoy his fall hoping it takes the apostolate with him. For me I’ll be praying for the lot and keeping this as a object lesson to remember the wise words of my pastor.

Don’t poke the bear.

Some Jewish Hostages that We Were Told Did not Exist Released

Posted: November 25, 2023 by datechguy in Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

4th Doctor: You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.

Doctor Who: The Face of Evil pt 4 1977

Got home from work yesterday and saw this:

I’m happy for the families although my gut still thinks a deal might be dangerous but aside from that I’m confused about one thing.

We’ve had reports that Imams in the US and elsewhere have told their congregations that “claims” that Hamas took Jewish hostages on October 7th were false.

We’ve also been assured by college students and others all over the country that any such claim of Israeli women and children being taken hostage was simply propaganda. In fact many such people stated this as the reason why they were pulling down posters of the kidnapped jews.

If we are to believe these people then this hostage deal must not have taken place and our belief that these people have been returned to Israel must at best be a shared delusion or at worse a grand Zionist conspiracy running so deep that even Egypt and parts of Hamas, for reasons that are unclear, are taking part in it.

It will be interesting to see how those folks reconcile these facts with their previous claims.

Cue Tom Baker

Two Interesting Tweets That Speak Volumes

Posted: November 24, 2023 by datechguy in culture, middle east
Tags: ,

Back in the days before Mr. Musk bought twitter wordpress I could tweet and/or retweet something and it would show up on the blog.

But since that avenue is no longer valid here are two tweets that are worth your time.

The first one comes from those favorites of the left. There is nothing the left loves more than Jews who will take the side against Israel. If you are decide to carry that kind of banner odds are you will never be short of funds.

But I do have a bit of advice, if you’re going to actually pretend to believe in the Torah don’t choose verses that you’re afraid to read in public, to wit:

Now if it was me, I would have picked a different verse, but this lady was too obvious, not only does she highlight the verses she wants to ignore making sure that everyone will see this video but by choosing these verses she not only confirms Israel’s historic claim to the holy land predating all others but makes sure that all will see that as a mandate from God.

That one is pretty good but the 2nd one is even better.

Now I’ve argued that when it comes to Transgender people, you can’t assume that because people have a mental illness concerning other things. I speak from the experience of both working with and carpooling to work with such people.

But as this tweet demonstrates, you can’t assume that said mental illness and delusion WON’T cross over to other things:

As a devout straight white Catholic male who has lived in Massachusetts all his live and has worked in Marlborough MA let me tell you that in 2023 I have a better chance of being beheaded here than this person does.

The frightening thing to me isn’t the obvious idiocy on display, but the fact that seeing this over 136 thousand people actually bought it.

Cue John Cleese:

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