Spoilers follow in the words and the videos. Don't watch if you're not finished with the most recent season.
David Tennant // The Doctor faces certain death by the Vashta Nerada in "Forest of the Dead" when he's left alone with one, defenseless. All he does is talk and it retreats.
Matt Smith // A tremendous scene in "A Good Man Goes to War." His angry and spiteful words to Colonel Manton, hereby known as Colonel Runaway, are chilling, and that I cheer. This is the point where Matt Smith finished filling the hole left by David Tennant, and that opinion was cemented with the line, "Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many." Also, in his first episode, he only had to stare down the alien ship, told them to look him up, and they ran.
It's about time for another way past due installment of The Doctor's Moments. I started this as a way to show off my favorite scenes and the incredible talents of David Tennant and Matt Smith. I try to find the most compelling moments, so maybe someone who has never seen Doctor Who before will wonder how they ever lived without it. Of course, those of us who are already fans can also have fun refreshing our memories.
David Tennant// After Donna is lost in "Forest of the Dead," River whispers something to The Doctor that takes his breath away and gains his trust. Was it his name? Matt Smith's Doctor whispers something to River in "Let's Kill Hitler" and "The Wedding of River Song." Was it either of those times she discovered what he would need to hear in The Library?
Matt Smith// In "The Rebel Flesh" a ganger is killed by a human. Smith's unrestrained astonishment in his "real human heart" speech is quite the opposite of Tennant's breathless stillness.
Why haven't you seen Fright Night yet? Do you not like scary movies? Don't worry, it's more tense than scary, and there's a lot of tension-breaking and character-building humor. It has the sexy Colin Farrell and the talented Anton Yelchin. But the special treat is the great David Tennant, who was barely seen in U.S. commercials. He can make you laugh and then break your heart with no more than a look, and you will love him for it. Fright Night won't be in theaters for much longer due to a terrible marketing campaign that almost completely misrepresented it and assured people would stay away in droves, so get to your theater today.
David is always so gracious and seems genuinely happy to be interviewed. Thanks go to TimeGeek at Random Geeky Thoughts for finding this.
Until I heard that David Tennant was going to be in a Fright Night remake I had never heard of it. Never came across it on TV. Never accidentally discovered it in a store. Never read about it anywhere. But now that there's a new one you would think a movie channel would play the original or Best Buy or Target might have it. You'd be wrong. It's times like these I still miss Media Play. They really did have everything. So glad Amazon exists.
Anyway, I loved the movie and will be getting it as soon as it's released on Blu-ray. Tennant was pitch-perfect, full of heart and humor, but when is he not? Colin Farrell was appealing and menacing at the same time, so creepy. And I've loved Yelchin since Hearts in Atlantis. He is definitely a talented actor. The proof is in the scene where Charley is trying to rescue a girl from Jerry's house and Yelchin completely convinced me of his terror. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots, and Toni Collette were also great in their roles.
It left me wanting a bit more, though. I guess that's better than wanting less. It felt about 15 minutes too short. Well, that's what sequels are for. I hope. Sadly, there were only five other people in the theater and just one seemed like he was really having a good time. I haven't ever been so conscious of laughing in my life. It almost messed with my own enjoyment. Maybe it was my mistake going on a Friday, but everywhere else was almost as busy as any weekend. And @TimeGeek has been complaining about the same thing. Maybe it will do better today or bigger markets will eventually pick up the slack. Crossing my fingers. Or maybe they just screwed up in marketing, like not showing enough humor or Tennant. Or maybe it should have come out in October so people would be more in the mood. I'm the only one in my family that had any desire to go. These are the same people who love comedy horror and vampires, so what's wrong with this picture?
So, Fright Night is finally out, and I'm going to try to get there today. Strangely, all the movie theaters close to me have only a couple showtimes each, far fewer than any movie that I remember, even the awful ones. Why? It seems more like it's the last week rather than the first. I have to see it before it's shunted aside to make way for whatever terrible thing comes next.
Reviews are looking good, especially for the always terrific David Tennant, who was described as nailing his role in this TwitchFilm review. SFGate says Farrell is "sexy and funny and a little bit menacing." And Anglotopia syas that the remake is a gem that "builds at a steady pace to a very satisfying and fun end." Sounds like an ass-kickingly great time to me.
Speaking of horror, The Woman in Black is another one that's looks interesting. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as a lawyer who goes to a deceased client's remote house to settle their affairs. Though, as I said at Anglophenia, I would just quit. I think that might be a lot safer. I already miss Harry Potter, but it will be nice to see Radcliffe in something new. Here's hoping it's also something worth watching.
I can hardly belive that I am actually anxiously awaiting two horror movies right now. I have never cared much for them, unless done really well. I was excited for Saw II because I was interested in the warped psyche of Jigsaw, not the actual torture that I watched through my fingers. The original Saw was so interesting, creepy, and full of dread that I just love it, and the "Zepp Overature" (one of my favorite songs) reveal is still chilling, but this is an anomaly with me. The rest of the movies I wish I could re-edit to be quite a bit less disgusting. I absolutely love comedy horror, though: Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland; and I count Hot Fuzz because it's got a Halloween feel and people die horribly. I still cringe over what happens to Tim Messenger.
This is the second in a series that shows Ten and Eleven in one scene each that are similar in emotion or situation. I was mostly done with these for a post that I started back in June. Then I decided it was way too long and split it into manageable chunks, of which I never continued past the first. Work during the week and family stuff on the weekend lead to quite a number of half finished ideas. Ah, well, one day.
Spoilers follow if you haven't seen "Midnight" or "Cold Blood."
David Tennant// In "Midnight," The Doctor is in over his head when an unknown, mimicking, mind-reading entity takes over a passenger. It's a truly nerve-racking episode where Ten is at his most physically vulnerable and Tennant is at his most rivetingly brilliant.
Matt Smith// In "Cold Blood," The Doctor is powerless both to keep Rory from death and from being erased from existence. He then fails in helping Amy keep his memory. I didn't find an unmodified version of the original scene, but the music is beautiful and feels like it belongs.
I'm doing these from memory, so I'm sure there are a lot of moments I won't think of. Please feel free to contribute any scene that fits. And if you can find the clip somewhere (YouTube, Daily Motion, et cetera) that would be even better. You don't even have to constrain yourself to the last two Doctors.
I was going to write a little something about this days ago when I first saw the new trailer, but instead I...um...didn't. I hope Fright Night is really good, if only for the fact that it could make David Tennant a household name here in America for more than just Doctor Who fans. It seems like he has a great part. I've never seen the original, but the great commercials for this new version and the praise I've read for Roddy McDowall's Peter Vincent - such as in this quite excellent review - really make me want to.
I'm happy I didn't get a chance to finish this before, because I got to see a new clip yesterday! Should have seen it on Saturday, but I was busy finding shoes to match my bridesmaid dress. I went to four stores, and three were missing half their stock, and what was left was total crap! But that's a bit off topic. Please watch and enjoy. I'm going just for this, by myself if I have to.
Just as an introduction, this started life as "I Still Miss David Tennant...," but it got way out of control. It was a few days before the mid-season finale of Series 6 in America, and I had inspiration (from an earlier Fringe post) to find videos that would showcase the personalities and emotions of the last two Doctors and the talent of the actors. Why just the last two? Well, it would just be ridiculously difficult to do all of them, and this was going to be about how I still miss Tennant but that Matt Smith is a tremendous replacement.
Well, because of the way some videos are named, and the fact that not every scene I originally wanted had been uploaded, it could take hours just to find one that fit what I had in mind. Over the weeks I was distracted with discovering many other videos that I needed to figure out how to use. It seemed like it would never end. The little post became an unwieldy beast that had to be divided to be conquered.
I've been gathering interviews, audio clips, and articles about my favorite people for years. Why not share them? There is no theme here for the first Interviews post. I just read, listened to, and watched these in the last two days, and they were all interesting.
Random Geeky Thoughts About Random Geeky Things... // A scan of the Fright Night interview in HorrorHound Magazine, "The Not Quite Fearless Vampire Killer" by Jessica Dwyer. The introduction says that the role of Peter Vincent "could only fall to an actor with the same level of talent, heart, genre cred, and just plain likeability [as Roddy McDowall]..." If that's what they were going for, then they couldn't have made a better choice. Hopefully the movie rises to his level.
BenjaminCook.net // An exclusive audio excerpt from the interview in Doctor Who Magazine 436 where David calls Nicholas Courtney a "lovely, warm, generous actor." I don't subscribe, so I can't get this issue, and it's not available nearby. I'll have to find it on eBay...or maybe someone will put a scan online, like the above.
This one's old, from 2007, so maybe you've seen it already. There are five parts, but I've only seen the one so far. I found this first at YouTube but forgot to watch until I came across David Tennant Treat 4 Today. Who doesn't want a daily dose of Tennant? I will be following.
If you'd like to see the other four videos, which include the rest of David's interview - and Amanda Holden, Michael Buble, and David Mitchell - just click through.
Matt Smith is terrific as The Doctor and has picked up the pieces of me that David Tennant - and John Noble from Fringe, Jensen Ackles from Supernatural, and Nathan Fillion from Firefly and Castle - left behind. Smith is exuberant and adorable and has a firm grasp on the depth of the character, seemingly on par with Tennant already. I'm hardly ever so impressed with someone so quickly, except for the above mentioned people and a few others, such as Robert Downey Jr.
Tennant's portrayal was tragic and joyous, kind and vengeful, humble and know-it-all arrogant. He invested his whole heart in such a beautiful, fearless way, making the character and stories feel real and relatable. It seems that Smith has the same level of talent. Hopefully, he'll be with us just as long as the last Doctor, if not longer, the delay into 2013 notwithstanding.
By the way, how awesome is it that DT is in Fright Night? In an ideal world it would be as good as he deserves and he would have a satisfying amount of screen time, which is asking a lot. I probably won't get much for my $10, but I'll be happy to pay it.
I found Muse a few years ago because of the Doctor Who video "Scattered (Tenth Doctor)" from Harmony Vids. The quick editing is perfectly timed to "Map of the Problematique" and nicely combines both the frenetic and quietly dramatic sides of the show. If you've never seen it, David Tennant was an amazing Doctor: so real, hilarious, and heartbreaking. I'll watch him in anything now.
(Update: 10/9/2018) Just going back through all of my posts, updating the fonts and titles. I went through everything and got to this one, my first ever post about Doctor Who. Didn't remember I'd shared "Scattered." I had to update the link because it was broken. Harmony Vids hasn't been online for years. Fortunately, it was at Youtube, where I also rediscovered "Shattered," which I would consider a companion piece. Truly emotional, this one.
Until the series ends, I'll always be behind adding to this playlist. I had to stop for quite a while, so there's a big gap. Still, there are 170 songs to enjoy.
This is the essence of The Blacklist. Probably my favorite is Disturbed's cover of "Sound of Silence." The scene it played over was one of the most devastating ever in the series.
