TV Review: Doctor Who Christmas Special - "Twice Upon a Time"

"You May Be A Doctor, But I Am 'The' Doctor, The Original You Might Say..."

Introduced briefly within "Day of the Doctor" via the iconic gaze of his distinctive grizzly eyebrows, Peter Capaldi's interpretation of the travelling Time Lord has undeniably been my own personal favourite of the modern incarnation of the series since it began back in 2005 due to a wide collective of reasons including the Scottish actor's personal fondness for the ways of the classic series in which he has both played courteous respect to and adapted upon to become the first real "true" Doctor since the series was revived. Of course, many will undeniably disagree, but for a fan whose introduction to the series began years before talks of a revival even simmered to the surface, the likes of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were critical in identifying the blueprint archetypes for the characteristics of the Gallifreyan, and what Capaldi's tenure has accomplished is the way in which it has brought back these fundamental elements of the classic series in which I hold in such stupendous esteem. With "Twice Upon a Time" therefore, not only do we wave a melancholic goodbye to the Twelfth Doctor, but to showrunner Steven Moffat too, who after seven years at the helm hands the reins over to Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall, and what the two great Scots have left us is a surprisingly low-key tale of two falling Doctors who are unable to cope with the thought of their oncoming, inevitable death, and whilst Capadli's tenure doesn't conclude with as big as bang as previous regeneration tales, "Twice Upon a Time" is a fitting and emotionally engaging final act.

Beginning with a recap which takes the audience to events depicted in William Hartnell's own regeneration story, "The Tenth Planet", David Bradley's uncanny interpretation of the original Time Lord is re-introduced, setting the narrative in motion for a cautionary tale which favours discussion and contemplation over over-zealous nonsense, and an easy to follow secondary plot thread which completely counteracts the rather ploddingly handled Matt Smith finale, "Time of the Doctor" which decided to monkey wrench in as many narrative arcs and plot twists as humanly possible. With a returning Pearl Mackie added to proceedings, her presence is rationally explained and wholly justifiable, resulting in the return of the delicious chemistry between herself and Capaldi which encompassed the entirety of Season Ten, and with David Bradley scarily matching the politically incorrect mannerisms of his respective Doctor, the first three quarters of the episode balances notions of death, both before and after, to a more than entertaining, sombre extent. Of course, with regeneration much publicised, the concluding act of the episode dedicates its' time to Capaldi's farewell tour, with particular returning faces resulting in a fusion of both fan-pleasing giddiness and heart dropping sadness, and with a final speech which not only reinforces Capaldi's merits as a terrific dramatic actor but a truly perfect Doctor, the time inevitably comes for the first sight of Jodie Whittaker as Doctor number Thirteen, and whilst her time on-screen is way too short to make a reputable impression, the future looks bright for a show which is heading in a direction of both freshness and excitement. Farewell, Mr. Capaldi, you were and still are the Doctor we needed. The King is dead, long live the Queen...

Overall Score: 8/10

The Worlds End - Quicky Review - SPOILERS

A triumphant return to the Cornetto trilogy by the threesome? This is certainly debatable.

As far as stories go, The Worlds End is quite an outlandish tale. A typical alien invasion uncovered by the most obtuse group of people on a weekend of downing pints across 12 pubs, or as they call it - The Golden Mile. Throughout this, Simon Pegg causes endless amounts of trouble and uncovers this invasion. Thus leads to them trying to complete the Golden Mile while staving off the hordes of "Blanks". It sounds fairly straightforward, yet the character back stories are fairly complicated. These backgrounds really affect each other and cause endless amounts of trouble, one of which that is most notably is Gary King's (Simon Pegg) drinking problems.

As a comedy, it was fairly good. A collection of jokes which made you giggle and a few made the cinema roar with laughter, yet nothing hugely substantial. The other side of the coin is the action portion of the film. It is dramatically sped up and it easily noticeable, but it is aggressive, full on and just great fun. It's also nice to see that Nick Frost played a different style of character in this instalment. Starting off as a dead beat ass with no job and no life causing controversy among the group in Shaun of The Dead, following it up with a dead beat cop with little understanding of full on police work but a love for violence to end up as a non-alcoholic whose life appears well and is still a strong, tank of a man.

Speaking of actors, the rest of the fairly large cast acted extremely well and it was a present surprise to find out the Pierce Brosnan had a role within the story for a few scenes.

Visually, there are very little special effects apart from the occasional face lighting up, a piece of modern art and a large incident at the end, so for what it is, they are good and stage effects and lighting were executed perfectly, especially at the end with a haze of oranges, blues and blacks that filled the screen and wisp gently across. The music and sound side was also very good. I'm still trying to locate the trailer music for its massive bass drops, but the music kept an powerful roar throughout, that set scenes up perfectly.

As a part of a trilogy, it is certainly the weaker of the bunch. It wasn't as stupid and over the top as the rest of the trilogy and appeared the action side of the story took a lot of the priority and then a few inner squabbles between the group that took the movie from comedy to a drama. I do recommend you see it and many of you will enjoy, but I think it shall get a 7/10. It's funny but takes itself a little too seriously at points and could have done with a few more jokes. Sorry for another quicky review but its been a a few late nights and early mornings!
(PS - It uses the word C**T. If you don't like this, you may have a little trouble dealing with the movie.)

The World's End

 Trailer Analysis: The World's End 

"Analysis is probably a better phrase about what I'm writing about rather then review"   

So here it is, the final movie of Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy "The worlds end". If you haven't seen the other two, I really recommend you do, both "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot-Fuzz" are amazingly entertaining and damn right hilarious.

"20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World's End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realise the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind's. Reaching The World's End is the least of their worries" (The World's end official Facebook page)

Edgar Wright (director), Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are back once again with the final addition to the Corntto trilogy. However this time they are joined by a few more additions to the cast, such as Martin Freeman who was in Hot-Fuzz for a few scenes but luckily he is playing a bigger role this time as Oliver; one of the pub crawlers, I'm greatly looking forward to seeing his performance. Also including Rosamund Pike, Paddy Considine, David Bradley and the talented Eddie Marson. All of these amazing and well known actors in one production, is sure to be an awesome show and I can't wait.

Now it wouldn’t be a Cornetto film if there wasn’t a pub involved and what a way to finish the series with a good old pub-crawl. In an IGN interview, Simon Pegg claimed that their films are very British. Pubs are British and they are a part of our culture, so it makes sense to make films around pubs. 

This film has a lot more computer animated effects then their other films. With all of the glowing eyes and robots this could be influenced by "Paul" which they released back in 2011. The effects are not bad or brilliant by avatar standards but this is a British comedy film, I'm not expecting anything big like that, but its still good to see. 

I am glad that they have kept some of the traditions from there previous films such as the pubs but also some of the comedy scenes, such as the fence hopping at the end of the trailer, which fans of the trilogy would have immediately recognised, but still tweaking it to keep it original, perfect. But they also keep that pub violence against a mass of people which I love, for example in Shaun of the dead it was zombies, hot-fuzz the village cult and now robots looks awesome.

So the film comes out on July 19th and I will defiantly go see it in the cinemas to give you all a full review. "So prepare to get annihilated and a little hungover".  

Also check out this trailer which a bit more dialogue: