vivdunstan

... the final part of my favourite Doctor Who story first aired on TV. "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" immediately overtook "City of Death" as my top Doctor Who story, a position that had held since I first saw it as a youngster in 1979.

Just realised that I didn't blog about rewatching this the other week, 20 years after original broadcast. I haven't got much to say, except that I think it's one of the very best episodes ever, and it totally holds up on rewatch. It was my late Dad's favourite Doctor Who story, and he'd been watching since 1978. It's a little self knowing in places, but that's very Steven Moffat. But it's so very good. And I think it would be a good introductory episode for a new watcher, to see if they might like the programme.

Having finished rewatching the BBC 1988-1990 Narnia TV series we are now happily starting to watch the extended making of documentary covering the full thing. Just learned about the beaver actors constantly falling over in the Scottish snow, and having to be rescued by dedicated “beaver retrievers”.

We watched this last week, another 20-years-on anniversary rewatch. I remembered really liking this story on first watch, with some provisos. And it's still great.

Tightly written, full of content. There's an original Scottish setting, and it was nice to see David Tennant's Doctor use a Scottish accent, and be incorporated into the plot.

Rose is very resourceful and brave, leading the prisoners' defence. But at the same time she is phenomenally irritating re the repeated "We are not amused!", and her Princess Anne jibe was incredibly misjudged by RTD. And I say that as a non royalist.

The episode is full of exciting action scenes, from the opening monk acrobatic hijinks, through to the werewolf transformation, and the final climax.

A strong guest cast, mostly Scottish, helps immensely. Pauline Collins - a Classic Who returnee to Doctor Who - is a memorable Queen Victoria.

Much running along corridors, and more stairs. But effectively done, and not annoyingly repetitive.

Some nice uses of history, and as a book historian I especially liked the woodcut showing something relevant from James V's era. Unlike Jonathan Creek's "Satan's Chimney" episode with Mary Tamm, this story at least got the correct Scottish monarch!

And nods to the future, re both Torchwood and Bad Wolf.

Great stuff, albeit still with a few quibbles. And, yes, incredibly tightly written, which again RTD2 and also Capaldi-era Moffat could take lessons from.

Oh and the early 2000s special effects seemed to hold up well for me watching two decades on.

Continuing our weekly rewatch of 1990 BBC Narnia TV series “The Silver Chair”, and wryly amused at episode 4’s quasi reunion of Blackadder’s Nursie and Captain Rum. “Potato” is my all time favourite episode of Blackadder.

I'm just starting a rewatch of New Who series 9, with "The Magician's Apprentice" / "The Witch's Familiar". And while I'm enjoying it, I'm finding the so very Steven Moffat storytelling exhausting. Admittedly I'm especially tired at the moment, including cognitively, as I recover from my latest neurological illness flare. But the constant jumping around from time and place to somewhere else combined with the big set pieces in between feels way too much for me at the moment. I'd really like a more simple story structure with a more straightforward beginning, middle and end!

To be fair I've seen and enjoyed this era of Doctor Who before, on original broadcast. And I'm very familiar with this style of storytelling, from especially New Who series 5 onwards, as well as some isolated examples before then. It's what we get, for example, in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang", and so many many more Steven Moffat penned stories. But sometimes it's just too much for my taste. And tonight is definitely one of those times.

Harking back to slightly simpler times in Doctor Who history, we're planning to soon rewatch all the Fifth Doctor TV stories in sequence, now that we have all of his season Blu-ray boxes. I saw them all many years ago, and a few again more recently. Martin's only seen a few of the stories. So that will be fun, and hopefully a little more palatable for me when fatigued. That's not to say that they're simplistic, but there should be a certain lack of convolution generally. Which I think I will appreciate. Though we still have to finish watching the final BBC Narnia TV series first.

Just got to Tom Baker appearing in our rewatch of “The Silver Chair” Narnia series from the BBC in 1990. And I’m constantly laughing at everything he says as Puddleglum. Brilliant character, perfectly cast.

Finished watching this, having watched spread out and slowly.

Just beautiful, a gem of a series, that has so much of the feel of Mackenzie Crook's Detectorists, but tells an original story, with brand new characters, with warmth, style and pathos.

The character interactions were magical throughout.

So much of the best bits of the series were the small details, so very carefully observed, acted and directed.

And every character was rounded and sympathetic to an extent. That's top writing.

I especially enjoyed some of the moments in the DIY store.

But the best part was the relationship between Michael and Kacey.

For goodness sake BBC, renew it for a second series! Though I am rather wondering how well that would work. I'll certainly watch.

If you're in the UK and can watch this on iPlayer, I thoroughly recommend doing so.

If you're in another country, I hope it is broadcast where you are and you get a chance to see it!

It really is very special.

Starting to watch a Sky Arts broadcast (recorded, and available on catch up for those with Sky) of Nicola Benedetti and friends (including a classical guitarist and an accordionist) in concert. We had tickets for her Dundee show in the autumn but had to bail out after I was too direly ill with a heavy cold to be able to go. The same tour’s concert in Belfast was filmed, and includes lots of folk-themed music. So yes, we are getting to see it after all!