Let's Kill Hitler (Or Just Put Him in the Cupboard): Doctor Who Review

** CONTAINS SPOILERS **

For those who were not aware, as well as being a huge Potterhead I also consider myself to be a fairly hardcore Doctor Who fan (or ‘Whovian’ for those familiar with the term).  I recently commissioned a very cool charm bracelet off of Etsy.com on a Doctor Who theme. You can call me a geek all you like, but I have already received several compliments and I love it to pieces.

Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, TARDIS, Weeping Angel, Dalek

Seeing as my blog has been distinctly inactive all summer (I know, I’m sorry) and that the second half of Doctor Who series 6  started on Saturday, I thought I’d give the internet the benefit of my thoughts on each episode. This is mostly to get myself back into blogging regularly, but also because I think if I try and talk to my friends about my opinions on the subject one more time they might disown me.

Kicking off with episode one, “Let’s Kill Hitler”, and I’m sorry to say I was actually less than impressed.

There were three main things I took issue with in this episode, the first being that the entire episode was answer, answer, answer. For me the only redeeming thing about the character of River Song was the air of mystery that surrounded her. It was endearing, and put the Doctor on edge in a way he usually isn’t. He didn’t know who she was, and that made for some excellent chemistry between the two characters. I really love the idea of River… but aside the series 4 double episodes “Silence in the Library” and “Forrest of the Dead”, her personality really grates on me. I’m not even going to get started on the inappropriate and, for the Doctor, out-of-character flirting that goes on. In front of her parents no less, something that they may not know but she sure does. Now her mystery is almost entirely gone. We know she’s Amy and Rory’s daughter, we know that she has Time Lord DNA, we know the reason we never see her regenerate after she does from Mels (a character I will come to shortly). There’s hardly any mystery left in her anymore, and for a character I have a love/hate relationship with anyway, this just pushes her more in the red.



Can't help but question if this shot was really necessary...

 Another thing about the opening episode that I really disliked was the character of Mels. Or rather, not the character but the way that she was simply thrown in for this episode but is shown to be a friend to Amy and Rory from very early on. The flashback scenes of young Amy and Rory were wonderful for the most part, exactly how you’d have imagined their childhood days to have been like. A particular favourite of mine was a young Rory coming into Amy’s bedroom, dejectedly stating “I thought we were playing hide and seek. I’ve been hiding for hours.” The character of Mels herself wasn’t bad. A sassy, over-confident and rebellious friend to both Amy and Rory, not to mention a perfect fit to regenerate into who we know as River Song. But the revelation that she indeed was Amy’s daughter Melody all along sort of flops on screen as she is not an established character. There has been absolutely no mention of her before this episode, but she is supposedly a lifelong friend of the two companions. It wasn’t so much “Oh my goodness!” as “What just happened here?” This would have worked so much better if it had been thought of last series, so we could catch a glimpse of her (even a mention would have been nice) before this “big” revelation.

Finally, this episode is another classic example of how Head Writer Moffat tries to cram in too much at once. With such a striking, speculation inducing title and a very delicate interesting concept to play with, fans of the show were probably expecting to see more of Hitler than about five minutes at the beginning before Rory is told to “put Hitler in that cupboard”. While this was indeed comical, this is the last we see of him. The idea of the Doctor meeting Hitler had the potential to be another brilliant utilitarian versus deontological head battle, after series 4’s “The Fires of Pompeii”, but was reduced to a couple of one-liners for the sake of comedy. A better developed storyline was sacrificed for the sake of the anti-body robots and miniature space police inside a human-sized morphing robot. I’m not saying this idea wasn’t good; on the contrary. It was so good it could have held itself in its own episode, with a more developed plotline. I don’t know what happened on the cutting room floor for this episode, but it almost felt like two storylines had accidentally been spliced together.



I still wonder who let him out of the cupboard in the end



As I have said many times to literally anybody that will listen (and even to those whose eyes glaze over as soon as I approach the subject), I love Moffat for his plots, his characters, his villains and his hilarious one-liners. He’s a fantastic ideas man, and his stand alone episodes in past series (Blink, and the Weeping Angels? Genius) are some of my absolute favorites. But unfortunately, for me, his writing is jerky, flows poorly, and leaves a lot to be desired. “Let’s Kill Hitler” is a classic example of this. Aside from the one-liners, for me this episode’s only plus point was the fact that Matt Smith’s Doctor finally seems to remember his past companions, in the form of the TARDIS’s hologram. Most fans were beginning to wonder if he’d suffered a hit to the head shortly after regenerating causing him to forget about Rose, Martha and Donna completely.

The trailer for this Saturday’s (3^rd September) episode “Night Terrors” looks a lot more promising, looking like it will play to Moffat’s strengths; one-shot episodes about things that go bump in the night. He always creates wonderfully scary Who monsters, and your classic hide-behind-the-sofa episodes. I am a huge fan of the Silence and the Weeping Angels, so am very much looking forward to this Saturday evening!

Pottermore, What Are You?

Okay, even though I’m nearly done with my Beach Break Live blog (alternatively, How Not to Camp) I feel as a loyal and long-time Potter Nerd I need to say something about Pottermore.

For anyone living under a rock/without internet access (same thing really?), J.K. Rowling released a teaser website about a week ago called Pottermore. Instant hype, with all us hopefuls thinking, “Pottermore? MORE POTTER! She’s writing new books!” and dusting off our robes/wands etc. (NB. I do not actually own robes and a wand… sadface). However today, this is the video announcement that was released.

First thoughts from a Harry Potter lover since she was eight years old? Sadly not superexcitementohmygodthisissofantastic.  More like, “Wait… what?” From what I can gather this website (because at the end of a day, it really will just be the website) is going to combine fan fiction, extra information and backstories from J.K., the change to get a (I presume digital) wand and get sorted into a house.

Now, all of this is great. 18,000 words worth of new material and more to come? Brilliant! However I think giving everyone a week to speculate and dream up bigger and more groundbreaking announcements was a bad idea. And that’s really all I have to say on the subject while I still technically have no idea what Pottermore is.

And of course all this is not to say I won’t be fighting tooth and nail to be in the first million fans to sign up early. I’ve now been a Potter nerd for over half of my life. And PROUD OF IT!



http://acciohedwig.tumblr.com/tagged/house+pride/page/3



I have tumblr now! http://becki-says-rawr.tumblr.com/

Things I Have Learned As a Uni Fresher

Saturday was my university’s Summer Ball, an event where the tagline “the best night of the year!” actually lived up to its expectations. There was fancy dress, live music tents, a very long queue for a fairground ride and about fifty “where the hell are you?” text messages of varying legibility, depending on how much alcohol the sender had consumed at that point. I’m already planning for next year.

However what this (amazing) event meant was, I have finally come to the end of my first year at university. It was the last official university event of the year and it only really hit me on the bus journey there… I am no longer a fresher. Nor will I ever be. Oh my god, I’ll be twenty at the end of this year too… that’s old.

So for all the uni freshers feeling nostalgic and the freshers-to-be for next year, here’s a list of some of the things I feel I have learnt this year.

1. Freshers Week does not have to be ‘the best week of your uni life’. There’s no saying it can’t be as it’s definitely a lot of fun, but for me some of the best nights out at uni have definitely been the ones in the second or third terms, when I know more people and am closer with the people I met during Freshers Week.  Some people bond with each other instantly, but if you’re not one of those people don’t be put off if Freshers isn’t quite what everyone raved about.

2. Sign up for everything. In your first couple of weeks you will have the opportunity to go to or sign up for hundreds of introductory activities, social groups and sports clubs. Try and find a couple of things from each of those activities to go to, even if you don’t know if it’s really your thing… that’s what it’s there for. Even if the club or activity itself ends up not being something you carry on, you’re out there meeting more people that you would just sat in your new room staring at the wall. I met one of my best friends at university at a meeting for a Leadership Course I never took part in after that first one.  And I made even more new friends (and went to some epic socials) on trying, loving and joining the Climbing Club. I even bought and learnt to play the ukulele in the uni’s Ukulele Orchestra. Get out there and meet people… it really does work.

3. Talk to your house/flat/street mates. When you’re not out trying every new activity under the sun, make an effort to bond with the people you live with, or you’ll spend a large majority of the time at home alone. I know people who didn’t make too much of an effort with the people they lived with and had a horrible uni experience.

4. Locating the best cook is a good idea. If it wasn’t for the fact one of my housemates for next year is the kind of cook that is scandalised at the thought of packet pasta and beans on toast, I’m pretty sure I’d develop scurvy fairly sharpish. I could probably count on both hands the number of meals I have made for myself this year that included vegetables.



Obviously the student aisle

5. Social events don’t have to involve alcohol. There’s an amazing American diner round the corner from my house that my course mates and I (if you’re reading this Harvey, that was for you) can often be found at. And of course, living near a beach definitely provides something to do in the afternoon after classes have finished. A lot of socials are club nights, but you can still have a great time and get to know people during the day.

6. High school is a million million miles away. My previous blog post goes into this in a bit more depth, but in a nutshell everyone has done a lot of growing up since high school. Cliques don’t exist, the ‘cool kids’ are friendly to you and people are judged a lot more on personality than social status. It’s awesome. Make the most of it.

 7. The drunk third years in the club toilets are right. Listen to them, they’ve already lived through what you’re about to. On one of my first nights out at university in fancy dress, we were ambushed in the ladies by a girl asking “Are you freshers?” and then proceeded to give us a stream of useful/uplifting tips on first year. She told us to get ready for the best years of our lives. I’ve only lived through one of them, but already I’m thinking she was right. Maybe next year I’ll be imparting my drunken wisdom on the freshers.

8. Not everyone is a nice guy. This is one of those things you need to trip up on before you learn, but just keep in mind… sometimes the lovely guy you met at the bar who you have tons in common with isn’t telling you the full truth. Someone once said to be that second/third year boys at fresher’s events are there for only one reason. This may not be true of all of them, but just be a wary.

9. Starting a 3,000 word assignment at 10pm the night before is generally a bad idea. Don’t try to re-define ‘last minute’. Just don’t do it. No, really.

10. Take photos of everything, and be in photos at everything. Make memories but don’t forget to be in front of the camera at times. If anything, you’ll need all the photos next year to cover up that disgusting student house wallpaper in your bedroom.

I’m sure there’s more, but part of the fun of first year is learning it all for yourself. Making a lot of mistakes academically, socially, romantically… it’s all part of the experience. If anyone has something to add, post it in the comments.

Also, here’s me at the Summer Ball as the Mad Hatter with that friend from freshers I mentioned as Tweedle Dum. If you make friends as cool as this, you’re sorted.  



Oh, Nostalgia

Title of this blog post quotes a lyric from Patrick Stump’s single “Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia)”. You should totally go and listen to it.

I wouldn’t say I was a particularly ‘musical’ person (I dabble in playing the ukulele and was once spent a brief time being a snare drummer in a marching band, as every aspiring dork must), but I take great joy in filling my life with the musical offerings of others.  Whilst discussing my absolute favourite song with a friend (‘Waterloo Sunset’ by The Kinks. I’m not going to bother going into how much I love this song, it won’t be enough) I started thinking about how someone’s love for a song can be tied to their nostalgia of the time they first heard it.

Some of my favourite songs and artists are ones that are less often come across in popular culture. I don’t say this in an obnoxious, “you’ve probably never heard of it”, Hipster Kitty sort of way. It is through no fault of my own that I came across these songs, as they were favourites of my mother during my childhood and were often heard in the car or floating from Mum’s bedroom. It was as a result of this influence that when my sister and I received a mix tape of children’s songs such as “Agadoo” and “The Music Man” for Christmas, the first two songs were our ultimate favourites… “I Love You (Always Forever)” by Donna Lewis and “You’re Gorgeous” by Babybird (which I now realise was probably an odd choice for a three year old).

The previously mentioned “Waterloo Sunset” is a song which I can attach to a certain batch of childhood memories. This song, amongst other of my favourites, was on one of the rarely rotated holiday CDs that would blast through the car anytime my family went camping, in the UK or later France and the Canary Islands. A portion of these holidays would be spent driving round and round and round looking for the perfect secluded beach. I can only assume we never succeeded, because we never returned to any of the beaches we visited. But I digress. The point is, although I have many wonderful and eventful holiday memories, there are also the memories of being stuck in the car bound by the law that asking “are we there yet?” was punishable by being dropped at the side of the foreign road. So what was I to do? Loose myself in the music. I believe it is these holidays that infected me with the deep love of 70s/80s music that I still harbor today.

And it’s not just the old songs I have attached events to. Various events through my teens, for example attending the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) with Air Cadets, come flooding back to me whenever I hear a particular piece of music, in this case “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic! At The Disco. I can’t hear this song without envisioning the packed mini-bus trundling down the motorway, being squashed up in the front with my then best friend and sharing her mp3 player. Good times.

There are possibly some songs in my long list of favourites I may not have liked under different circumstances. Would I be such a huge Sweet fan had that CD not been playing in the car every time we drove somewhere? If it had been The Smiths instead of The Beach Boys playing on every childhood camping trip, would I be able to name more than none of their songs? While it baffles me when people do not immediately drop to the ground and proclaim their everlasting love for my favourite song, maybe this is because the first time they hear it is in the university library surrounded by revision as opposed to on holiday in the South of France.  

Here’s a list of some my nostalgic songs that I think are absolutely brilliant. Have a listen to the ones you haven’t heard of, and I’d be really interested to know in the comments what you think about them without the nostalgic attachment.

Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks

I Love You (Always Forever) – Donna Lewis

Windy – The Association

Friday On My Mind – The Easybeats

California Dreaming – The Mamas and Papas

Itchycoo Park – Small Faces

Carrie Ann – The Hollies

You’re Gorgeous – Babybird

Sunshine Superman – Donovan

59^th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy) – Harpers Bizarre

18:00 May 21st 2011

Watch from 4.43 for clearer interview with Robert Fitzpatrick

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsN50hB8x_M&feature=player_embedded#at=105

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6hr8RdCxzM&feature=related

For the past week, or more for some, we have been very aware through various news reports, YouTube proclamations and mocking articles, of what was being called the Rapture. The belief of some was that at 6pm New York Time (appx. 11pm British time) 21^st May 2011, believers and followers of God would be taken up to heaven whilst the rest endured 5 months of “hell on earth” until 21^st October when the world would come to an end.

I would like to say before I go on that I am not a religious person, and try to be more ethically and morally lead as opposed to religiously lead. However saying that I have an awful lot of respect for people with faith. Whether it’s a gay teenage boy who believes despite his peers both atheist and religious, or a Nun who gives up her entire life to prayer and humility, I think to believe in something so strongly and purely is nothing short of amazing.  And for the people who believed in the Rapture, I can only imagine what kind of a blow this must have been for them.

The man in the video links above is Robert Fitzpatrick, a man who famously gave his life savings ($140,000) towards the campaign to make people aware of the Rapture. The video shows him surrounded by people looking very, very confused and trying to answer accusatory questions put to him by various news teams. People can be heard laughing at him and openly mocking his confusion at why nothing appears to have happened. Whilst I didn’t believe in the Rapture any more than they did, I still this it was hateful and wrong to cajole him in such a way. He hadn’t done anything wrong; simply try to spread the word about what was perceived to be the impending Judgment Day and urge people to turn to God. This is no more than what most churches and religious groups do anyway, just this time they had a deadline.

For some logical and religious minds (I by no means mean all, as many Christians were non-believers of the Rapture being May 21st), it seems understandable that they could have calculated a date to be the Rapture. When asked if he was embarrassed about the non-Rapture, Mr. Fitzpatrick simply says “I did what I had to do. That’s all I can say.”

So this short post is just my way of saying, I will no longer be mocking the believers, and making fun of their precise accuracy about the date and time of Judgment. I have always had respect for (peaceful) religious believers, and will continue to do.

Believers and Skeptics Reactions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BATBmYxOM&feature=related

Prologue to Adventures in Canadia

I am disgusted with myself that it's been so long since I blogged. I was supposed to be keeping this up.

I am currently working on a post about my recent trip to the beautiful country of Canada, but in an attempt to update more regularly, here is are a couple of poems inspired by my trip. That may not appear to be inspired specifically by Canadian happenings, but they are. Honest. I never write poetry (I always feel way too pretentious, though I do enjoy reading poetry. William Blake is brilliant) but this was an assignment for my English degree and I don't think it's these two are too embaressing to share. However if you think they're terrible don't worry. Poetry is not usually my thing. This shan't happen again.

Fireplace

Leaping, turning

Twisting, burning

Trapped by wire

Captured fire

Hands are warming

Cold clear morning

When at zero

Winter’s hero

A Walk in the Woods

Falling, falling, from the night

Winter’s kisses, sharp and bright

Scent of pine and crunch of snow

Treading where the grizzlies go

Fingers numb in frozen air

Casualties of this love affair

With bracing walks on untouched trails

Against nothing else this pastime fails

Silence now; no one around

Only the sound of foot on ground

Catch a snowflake, hold it tight

Just embrace the winter’s bite

Also, here is a teaser photograph for my next post. There will be hospitalisation, Canadian accents, a mermaid, too much food and the love of my life, Bradley.



Banff, Alberta



The FanGirl Phenomenon

FanGirl: (n) Typically pre-teen but in some cases can be older. Found at pop concerts, loitering around stage doors and clogging up band message boards. Emit high pitched noises such as squeaks, shrieks and cries of “OHMYGODILOVEYOUMARRYMEEEEE!!” Highly annoying.

I am suitably ashamed to admit that when attending certain band’s gigs, I tend to be unrecognizable from the type of person described above. Outside of a gig situation I refrain from posting on message boards and papering my bedroom with the faces of my favourite band members, but if my conduct at pop band McFly’s concert last Saturday (19.03.11) is anything to go by, when in the vicinity of certain celebrities I have a tendency to shriek, squeak and all the rest. However after encountering other (female) members of the audience, I realised that I am nowhere near as bad as I could be.

Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones - Photo Courtesy of Louise

After the show on Saturday (which was amazing by the way) a girl in a plastic tiara was shouting over the barrier to the roadies clearing up the stage, trying to get one of them to throw her one of the plectrums attached to the microphone stand that guitarist and lead singer Danny Jones had used. I should mention at this point, that these were unused plectrums, untouched by anyone but the roadies that put them there at the beginning of the show. One of the roadies threw one out to her, but it sailed over her head and landed in the row in front of me, two rows behind her. Suddenly she was shrieking for her friends to grab it, lest someone else get it before her. In the nicest way possible I looked at her and saw she wasn’t going to be able to easily lean or climb over the chairs to get to it herself, so I leaned over and picked it off the floor for her. I straightened up see a look of sheer desperation in her eyes… she thought that I’d keep it for myself. As it was I handed it to her with a smile, and she gushed that I was “way too nice for a McFly concert”. I don’t know about the McFly boys, but if I was a musician I would be pretty disappointed to discover that my fan base was inherently mean.

Sadly this is not the first time I have witnessed desperation for something a band member has thrown off stage. Lead singer of Scouting for Girls Roy Stride threw a towel offstage at one concert, and fifteen minutes after they had left the stage two girls were still stubbornly gripping onto it, refusing to sacrifice it to the other. I felt pretty sorry for the one of the girl’s boyfriend, stood behind her saying “please let go so we can go home…”. Again I have to confess to getting involved in this kind of thing, only I politely asked a roadie if he could give me the set list taped to the stage. I doubt I’d have fought tooth and nail with some other girl for it; I just wanted a souvenir to stick on my wall.

Set list from Scouting For Girls 2010 Tour

These are the kind of girls that profess to be “[insert band/artist name]’s Biggest Fan”. And I have to question if this level of obsession really counts as fandom. The main attraction for these kinds of FanGirls seems to be predominantly aesthetic, placing much more emphasis on how attractive the band is as opposed to their ability to play a good show. So it was interesting at this gig to meet a different kind of fan. Before my friends and I even took our seats on Saturday (three rows from the front, for anyone who’s interested…), we met up with some of Louise’s friends also attending the concert. One girl did not at first appear to be a rabid fan, especially compared to some of the other girls walking past decked out in McFly’s last tour t-shirt and with “<3 Dougie/Tom/Harry/Danny” scrawled on their faces. But suddenly she mentioned that “the support acts only do about three songs each”. How did she know this? She’d been to see the show in Sheffield the night before. This seemed like dedication, until she said that she would also be seeing the show in Glasgow, Birmingham, London and Nottingham. That’s six tour dates, on one tour. Now I’m a big fan of McFly, but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t handle (much less afford) the exact same show and set list six times over, especially in a short space of time.

Is this a true fan? Or the shrieking, near-sobbing girls fighting over objects the band may or may not have touched?