Doctor Who Sunday: Top Moments of the Doctor Part 4

Welcome to another Doctor Who Sunday! For those of you who may not have realised, I posted another one of these on Friday which you can view by clicking here. In this segment we celebrate all things Doctor Who! Over the first few weeks I will be going through, in chronological order of when it appeared on the show, my favourite moments of Modern Doctor Who! Enjoy. Click here for Part 1, here for Part 2, and here for Part 3.

16. "No POCKETS!" in The Runaway Bride

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-doctor-and-donna-doctordonna/images/8146947/title/doctor-donna-runaway-bride-photo

This was the scene where Donna Noble (portrayed by Catherine Tate) exclaims to the Doctor that she 'forgot' to tell her Wedding Dress designers to add pockets. This is when they are looking for change to pay for a Taxi and call Donna's family. It is a very comedic scene from an episode that is but a taster for the comedic genius that is Catherine Tate and David Tennant combined.

17. Donna Stops the Doctor in The Runaway Bride

This scene from The Runaway Bride is one where we see the Doctor get carried away and give in to his darker side. However, Donna steps in and tells the Doctor to stop after seeing that the monster they are fighting has suffered enough having lost all of its children leaving it the last of its kind. Right at the end of this episode Donna declines travelling with the Doctor but tells him that he must not travel alone because he needs someone to "tell [him] when to stop."

18. The Weeping Angels in Blink

Blink was the episode where many Whovians finally found a reason to be scared of statues. This was the episode where new writer, Steven Moffat, made his grand entrance by creating a monster that would scare Doctor Who fans for many years to come. It is amazing how, in such a short time, this monster has become so popular and among some of the scariest Doctor Who monsters along side the Daleks.

19. The Master and His Companion Dance in The Sound of Drums

It really showed how crazy those two were when they created the end of humanity as we know it and could still dance. It was macabre while also very interesting. It really was one of the best scenes of Series 4 and by far one of the best series finale (it was a two-part episode with this being part 1) of Modern Doctor Who.

20. The Master Dances in The Last of the Timelords

This was the scene that greeted Whovians to the final finale of Season 4. We see a post-apocalyptic world under the rule of a crazed maniac who calls himself the Master. Him and the Doctor are the last remaining Timelords and boy, do they strike a contrast. The Master does do a lot of dancing though. Here we also see the Master's companion growing tired and finally realising who the Master really is. It is a great start to an episode.

I will see you next Sunday with more of my top moments of Doctor Who! See you tomorrow!

Villains

Where would our favourite shows or movies be without their villains? When you think about it, a lot is actually riding on how the audience feels towards the villain. A straight-cut bad person never makes for a good villain as they are too one-dimensional for the audience to connect with. A villain can be bad but they need to have one redeeming factor about them so that people can see the good that was once in them. This can make the job hard for some writers as they need to make a villain so that some people empathise with them while others are against them and still others are in the middle. Sometimes we do not even know who the real villain is until the final moments and that also makes for a great villain. Taking this into account I have made a list of some of my favourite Villains of all time. Oh yeah, it really has been a list weekend over the last three posts has it not?

1. Regina Mills/The Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/villains/images/31394368/title/regina-mills-evil-queen-photo

Regina has been through a lot in her life. Before she was the evil queen she was just your ordinary girl in love with an overbearing mother who had different plans for her daughter. Through Once Upon a Time we see how and why Regina became the Evil Queen and her hatred for Snow White. We also see that there is still good in her and this is why the writers of Once Upon a Time should be commended for their work on creating such an in-depth and confusing villain.

2. The Tet from Oblivion (*SPOILER ALERT*)

Source: http://jaysanalysis.com/2013/04/26/oblivion-2013-esoteric-analysis/

*SPOILER ALERT* The following paragraph will contain spoilers regarding the ending of Oblivion so if you intend to watch the movie and have not yet then you might want to skip this bit and move on to number three. *SPOILER ALERT* Anyway, so the Tet is basically this big machine in the sky that, throughout the majority of the movie, we believe as Earth's final military base before everyone leaves Earth after a devastating war that destroyed the planet and its moon. It is not until the final minutes that we actually find out that the Tet is actually an alien space ship that goes from planet to planet taking all energy. It really is a great shock and the creators of Oblivion created such a hidden and unexpected villain that it is just marvelous. The Tet may be evil but it is still pretty awesome (and I do not use that word nearly enough).

3. "Big" Jim Rennie from Under the Dome

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/box-seat/recap-no-place-like-dome-20130626-2owtq.html

Big Jim is a character that has his fans in a yo-yo. At one point we see a great person and feel some sympathy for him but then a second later he just morphs into a horrible human being. It really comes down to the writing of Stephen King and the other writers from the series. The actor himself, Dean Norris, is fantastic at portraying this character. As much as the character comes down to the writers the actor themselves also plays a big role in how the audience feels towards them. A single twitch in the face can reveal a lot about a character and it takes a skilled actor to pull something like this off.

I am sorry for all the lists this weekend if that has annoyed you, blame it all on Random Thought Friday which sort of spread throughout the whole weekend. Anyway, see you tomorrow!

The Holidays have Arrived

Hooray! Finally, after ten long weeks of school the holidays have arrived. As much as I enjoy school it is always nice to just get away from it all and relax instead of rushing around trying to organise everything and completing homework. It is a nice feeling although this Term has being a great one. I would like to start off with a bit of an update on the fundraising we held this week on behalf of the 'Wyndham Leaders of the Future' program. I am proud to announce that, thanks to the generosity of students we raised over $600 which will all be pooled together before next April to purchase medical supplies to send to the Menari Medical Centre in Papua New Guinea. Over $100 of this came from the lolly-jar raffle and it is great to see so many people rally behind such a great cause. Aside from this however, this term has been full of a lot of highlights (and yes, I am looking at the term calendar to remind myself).

Source: http://www.millerapartments.com.au/_blog/News_and_Events/post/winter-school-holidays---6th---21st-july-2013/

The term started off with the Australian Maths Games Day which I participated in and had a lot of fun. It may have been a long tram ride from Flinders Street Station but it was worth it and going with a friend made the time seem to pass a lot quicker. Especially, when that friend had not realised how long the tram ride actually was. Then came LOTE week shortly after which supplied a lot of daily entertainment and international songs between bells. It was a nice and relaxing week and next year should be a whole lot better with even more students. Science Week followed not too long after and the daily recess trivia competitions with the horrible animations (that were funny because of how bad they were) really made my day (well, several of them actually). Finally, Book Week decided to show up and there were movie screenings in the iCentre (what we call our school library), a Macbeth incursion on the Wednesday (with actors from the Bell Shakespeare Company), a dress up day on the Friday and lots of competitions in between. Melbourne Writer's Festival then followed suit the following Monday which was a lot of fun to participate in and, since I was just an iCentre volunteer, I could just relax and enjoy the day rather than have to worry about doing any related work. The Arts and Technology week then came around with our performance-night on the Tuesday and the House Choral competition which was a blast. Seriously, this school is anything but boring. Finally, to cap it all of, there was this week full of fundraising for a good cause. Not a week goes by at this school without something happening, our Term calendar has barely a blank day anywhere with absolutely no empty week in sight.

It has been a busy term so a holiday is needed, see you tomorrow!

The Melbourne Writers Festival

So today I had a glorious excursion into the city and particularly federation square. Why was it glorious you ask? Aside from the fact I had no classes that day and the weather was near-prefect it was really interesting to get a writer's perspective on how they approach their reading and their writing. Today I attended three sessions. The first was with Morris Gleitzman and two other authors but I cannot remember what the actual topic was other than them reminiscing about their reading techniques. The second session was with two bookdesigners who design the cover for books. It was basically a look at how they approach it and would be interesting for someone looking to work in this area. I therefore did not enjoy it as much. The final session was three people, two of which were authors, recommending books for us to read. It was interesting and I already have a few books that I will be looking out for. It finished with the announcement of the short-listed books for the 'Inkies' which is a literary award chosen by teenagers for teenagers and this was also interesting. The sessions I went to last year were focused more on the authors and their writing processes. For this reason I enjoyed myself more last year but still had a blast this year.
You should really check it out, see you tomorrow.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Can I just warn you guys that today's post is not going to be one of my sane-r ones (yeah, I made up that word, that's where we are at the moment). If you did not know the theatrical trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday (well, for us Australians it was really early this morning) and before I go on you guys just have to watch it. If the videos are not working for you, just click the hyperlink on "THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE" above.


I am actually pretty proud of myself that I worked out how to use this embed thing so I could legally post this video. Anyway, if you have not already just click play and you will not be disappointed. This trailer shows us a preview of all the good parts in the book we really wanted to see in the movie. You will even get to see Katniss' Wedding dress and it turning into the Mockingjay. In true Capitol Style everything is extravagant and over-the-top while the District 12 Victor's Village is portrayed as a place of sadness and emptiness which is basically what the place is as The Games do change you. Hopefully new Director Francis Lawrence creates something different to the previous movie which disappointed fans world-wide (myself not included). If this trailer is anything to go on then it should be a whole lot better. In this movie we get to see more of the Capitol and the other Districts which should provide for more interesting scenes and chances for the creative team to really "show-off" their skills and creative minds. I know it says the 22nd of November as the release date but as movies come out in Australia on a Thursday (compared to Fridays for America) we will be able to see it in our theatres on November 21st. The anticipation is really getting to me as there is only just over 120 days left. I do warn you though that as the date comes closer you may get sick of me going on about Catching Fire but after all the teaser posters and the teaser trailer I think this movie is going to be great. If you have watched the above trailer (which I am sure you have) then why not check out the earlier teaser trailer that was released in April of this year which includes some more scenes but, as teaser trailers generally do, does not give much away.




May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Writers

We all have those television shows or movies we watch over and over again. These are the classics like Love Actually and Doctor Who which continue to draw in the viewers every year. These are the things we watch year after year without getting tired. Sure, the actors play a role but they do not make up their own words do they? Do you think Jack Nicholson just improvised "You can't handle the truth!" in A Few Good Men? Of course he didn't. Always, there were people there telling him what to say. Always behind the scenes creating the characters we have grown to love. Always there were writers and without them where would we be?

Image Source: http://www.diygamer.com/2011/11/volunteer-writers-wanted/

Remember those big television or movie moments that defined a generation of viewers? Remember the edge-of-your-seat writing of the great and glorious Alfred Hitchcock? How about the humorous yet romantic writing in Love Actually? Who could have possibly thought of the shocking plot twists in Revenge? The writers of course! To be able to write such thrilling and hooking drama must really show a skill. Their innate ability to leave clues throughout the movie or series only to be drawn together all in the final moments is a gift. These writers are like a breed of their own. They are one of the many unsung heroes of our world. Without them we would most certainly be lost.

Image Source: http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2011/08/on-importance-of-joining-writers-group.html

Where would we be without these writers? What would our television shows and movies be like? What of all the genres these writers create? With them gone does it all disappear? We would become a society with an entertainment system simply devoid of all entertainment. We would be living on facts without a creative bone in our existence. It would simply be evolved out of us. Someone unable to move for a long time has to teach themselves to move all over again. Our society would simply lose our creativity. We would have less architecture and more squares. Writers are artists and without them our lives become boxes. Boxes no one has even the slightest capacity to think out of. Writers are truly inspiring people and without them we stand to lose so much.

Image Source: http://leedsreads.net/tag/writers-groups/

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!