WHO Doctor?

Did you see the announcement? I'm sure you saw the announcement. You know, the Big Announcement. Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor in Doctor Who!

Capaldi has already appeared in the show, in The Fires of Pompeii. Interestingly, his character didn't die. He met the Doctor and Donna, and lived a successful life in the months following the destruction of Pompeii. His family treated the heroic duo in the TARDIS as gods.

There has been some criticism of the decision, because he's older, and he's well known, and he's not black or a woman, and he's appeared in both Doctor Who and Torchwood already. But what I want to focus on, for just a moment, is his casting in World War Z, notably that he's listed as W.H.O. Doctor.

You can't write that.

Now, only the really important stuff. Is he a good choice for Doctor? Some might argue right away that he is; River's Doctor was "older". If the good Professor Song is still alive - it's hard to keep up, but I believe she must be - then I imagine she'll be quite happy to meet the twelfth Doctor. It's just... well... isn't her first time meeting him the last time he'll meet her? And vice-versa? We know she dies in the Library. We don't know how she met him. (Feel free to correct me on that, but that's how I remember those details, and it's been a while since I might have heard them.)

They also have to get married still, which is kind of a big deal, and this might be why Capaldi has been chosen as the Doctor. He's old enough to not look out-of-place to viewers - or to audiences who don't watch the show and might suddenly see their picture everywhere, because I have no doubt it'll be the TV wedding of the year. Whichever year that might be.

But appearances aside, they need a new Doctor who isn't necessarily going to be Clara's type, and who can at least get along with her as a friend with a new personality and a new way of thinking, and travel with despite her knowing his entire life-story up to the point of his regeneration.

There's a lot to happen during Capaldi's time as the Doctor, and I think they need a new face to bring it all about neatly. But the actor has to be in command of the role. He has to be strong, he has been out-there. He doesn't necessarily have to put on such a physical show as Matt Smith did, but he has to hold the audience's attention just as much.

He won't appear in the 50th anniversary. We know that much. I think it'd be a bit much to have Ten-Two, Eleven and whatever the heck we call John Hurt's Doctor (8.5? Nine-with-an-Extra-Twist-of-Insanity?) all in the episode as well as the regeneration.

So, Christmas. And we don't necessarily know that Clara is going to be in it. We don't know anything about it. All the attention is on November 23rd (50th anniversary episode), with very little of it on the actual episode that will see Matt Smith leave the show.

Capaldi has Christmas; he has a wedding, maybe. If he does, he'll probably meet River for her first time. That could be awkward. All of this might reveal the name of the Doctor, for the first time, or they might keep it a secret. But if what I think is true for River and the Doctor, and Capaldi is the man who meets her first, she'll be leaving the show during his time as the Doctor. And won't that suck?

As for whether or not I'm happy with the casting...well, you'll have to wait and see how I react to him actually playing the role. In season 8. About three episodes in. Because I don't want to judge him based on his first appearance before I can even get used to him!

Complete Pond Life

This week, the BBC has been showing a mini-series online, Pond Life, in anticipation of Season 7 (airing tomorrow, Sept 1st at 7.20pm on BBC 1. Asylum of the Daleks is set to bring the Ponds back in the Doctor's life, and in this enjoyable and often humorous series, we finally get to understand why.

All five parts can be found below. Make sure you check it out!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

Poetry Night, Party Night, Writing Night

It's been a few days since I'm been to this blog... Bad Paul! Anyway, I have three days to tell you about, so I better try make this brief...

Thursday - Poetry Night at the Gutter Bookshop. In case you don't already know, the Gutter Bookshop is a lovely Indie bookshop on Cow's Lane in Temple Bar in Dublin. Not huge, but the right size. Bob, Anne and Sinead are all lovely there, and the Poetry Night was no exception for this loveliness (they didn't even mind that I took up more space than I should have, due to Doctor Who figurines and a Blue Ukulele...).

The night was designed to be a forum for expression of poetry in whatever verbal way the poet chose. There was some wonderful poetry written and read for the night, including some slam poetry from an American girl, and the recitation of Kevin and the Black Birds by another guy, Irish (I saw him recite that same poem in October 2008!) Sophie even got up to recite, and Bob was very kind to her when she was nervous. Go Bob!

Overall, a brilliant night, and I'm delighted to see that they've slotted another one in for next month too! Yahoo! I'll see you there, I hope!

Party Night - that was last night, as Niamh's. It was choir party. We got there at eight-ish, and I got to bed at two. It was a night of singing and talking and laughing, and the odd three-time discovery that I'm a twin (that's three times someone - one person - said, "Oh my God you have a twin!" I got the picture...)

It was fun to meet new people there too. Shane, Niamh's drummer/bongo player, brough two of his friends, and Sorcha brought her boyfriend, who incidenally looks like Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, only with a less weird head... This revelation resulted in much quoting from Doctor Who. Only Sorcha and I got the references!

Writing Night - welcome aboard! This is my big writing night of the week. I have forty minutes to go until Heroes, and I plan on exploiting every last second of it for writing. I've already written a blog post for the Literary Den blog that's around eight hundred words, and a few Doctor Haik-Who! I'll have a video about those on YouTube soon. Yay!

Anyway, this blog post is contributing to my "Wrote Today" Chart that I'm keeping for Lent. So far I'm written a minimum of six hundred words a day. With college work mounting up, this can only get better. See, I'm counting all writing towards it, because any writing is good writing. As for the Drama... well, that's going to eat some valuable time, but it'll be over soon too. *insert sad face here*

While I have you here about the Doctor Haik-Who - I'm emailed the BBC twice about it now, without response. I'll be going for number three next week, unless someone can get me a mailing address to get in touch with the lovely people there... I really want to know if I can publish my Doctor Haik-Who as a book! I might even contact them directly about it, to see if they'll do it! *tempted*

Here's one I wrote earlier, under the subject of Last Words

His very last words
Were reserved for the Doctor:
"You are not alone."

And with that, dear reader, I bid you adieu. I've got some fiction to write on Write Or Die, and a "Wrote Today" Chart to update, with half an hour to go, now. Toodle pip!

Doctor Haik-who

Last week I did some experimenting with some Haiku, themed around Doctor Who. Hence the dreadful title. Anyway, I thought I'd ask for some feedback from y'all. They're posted with the episode or particular element of Doctor Who in mind. The question is, are they any good?

Silence in the Library
Where is the way out?
Why are the shadows moving?
Who turned out the lights?

The Empty Child
Are you my mummy?
Or maybe just a Doctor?
Please help me, Mummy!

The Doctor
Who is this strange man
Always running ‘round about
Through London, and Time?

If the feedback is positive enough, I'll continue writing them. I have a few handwritten and not shared with anyone, even my familia or my friends. If BBC allow it, I'll be making a book out of them. I really hope they allow it!