Karen Gillan and Matt Smith win Best Actress and Best Actor at the NTAs 2012!

I feel sorry for Merlin, and Colin Morgan and Bradley James, and it’s a little sad that Downton Abbey beat both Merlin and Doctor Who in the Drama category—then again, I love Downton, so, only a little.

And I loved that, when Lara Pulver presented an award, they showed a clip from A Scandal in Belgravia—thank goodness our favourite sleuth will be up and running for, hopefully, several awards next year—and that they chose the one with all the nakedness. I’m glad that the BBC stuck with the un-edited version for the re-runs, and that they didn’t let the critics get them down over pre-watershed nudity. Sherlock is adult drama, deal with it.

“I Was So Alone, and I Owe You So Much”—Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall.

Previous episode: The Hounds of Baskerville.

This is amazing television. This is an emotional rollercoaster like I’ve never been on one. I cried, then I giggled, then I cursed, and then I cried again. A lot. This is writing (I may have been disappointed with Steve Thompson’s Blind Banker last series, but this… this is perfection, and I bow to his script), directing, and acting genius on a silver platter, and if this series of Sherlock does not win just about every award there is to win, then I don’t know what’s wrong with the world. This is the Final Problem.

I’ve Got to See a Man About a Dog—Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville.

Previous episode: A Scandal in Belgravia.

The Case

“They were the footprints of a gigantic hound.”

It’s all in the phrasing, darlings. That single thing, the choice of the archaic term ‘hound’ is what puts Sherlock on the scent. I know, nice choice of words.

This adaptation of one of the most acclaimed Sherlock Holmes stories is much further away from the original than any of the previous ones have been, simply because ghost stories just aren’t as avant-garde anymore as they once were, and because this is a modernization of the stuff, so naturally some of the patina had to go. In this day and age, genetic experimentation in a secret army base named Baskerville makes for more exciting stuff than someone savaging a dog for the purpose of getting a hold on the family fortune. A simple adaptation can be done by anyone—but taking the piece and making it contemporary while retaining all the elements of horror, now, that is the challenge. Mark Gatiss, the resident master of horror, knows how to do it.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

The sequel is always the challenge. Most sequels, to put not too fine a point to it, suck to a certain extent, and only too often you sneak into the cinema with that feeling of Oh Dear Filmmakers, Please Don’t Ruin This For Me. If the first part was good, the second has to be better, or otherwise the characters will feel watered-down, the plots will lose significance, simply because this new world that has been created has lived on in our minds and imaginations for so long that we know it like our own backyards. I would argue that that makes many fans crave a sense of coming home, and yet awakens the thirst for surprises, for something new, for the characters we love have had many an adventure since we last saw them on the screens in our heads already.

Sherlock Holmes, Put Your Trousers On—There’s A Scandal in Belgravia.

Previous episode: The Great Game.

Now, if this isn’t the perfect way to start 2012, I don’t know what is.

What with this episode being so elaborate, so twisty-turny and beautiful, I hardly know where to start. This is amazingly done television, and A Scandal in Belgravia has set out to prove—and has succeeded—that waiting 18 months for Series 2 has been monumentally worth it. There is so much brains, so much joy, so much sheer love for Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation and for this world of characters that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have created that just shines through every bit on screen. The script, which is incredibly tight, incredibly dense and, as per, wonderfully witty, absolutely bloody hilarious, and emotionally demanding; and that has been put on screen by Paul McGuigan, and filled with life by a stunning central cast of Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Mark Gatiss, Una Stubbs, Louise Brealey, and Rupert Graves, and in this episode the powerful guest appearance of Lara Pulver with such enormous effort, skill, and heart. It’s these people that make the programme, and I think Sherlock will go down in history as one of the finest adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and one, if not the best drama production of a long, long time. It spells devotion, and I don’t think anyone could help themselves and not be drawn to that, not be drawn into this world, and not come to love these characters and the stories that they tell. There is murder at the gallop—murder by boomerang, to be precise!—but it is only decoration, as are the twists and the turns and the charade. Decoration to a power play that shall remain unrivalled for many, many generations.

Spoilers under the cut.

Make a Wish–I’m the Caretaker. Doctor Who goes Narnia in: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

Cool guys don't look at explosions

Previous episode: The Wedding of River Song.

The Doctor, in space, diving after a space suit that he desperately needs, ’cause he’s about to crash into Earth—for which he has to pass into the planet’s atmosphere first, though. Getting dressed in a hurry, then. (How exactly is he breathing…?) Oh, never mind: it’s Christmas!

SHERLOCK RETURNS.

Here there be spoilers!

Weird titles, you mean? Think about how Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who… Sherlock returns!

Doctor Who press launch announcement: the Ponds are leaving!

Quoting the BBC News article:

“The final days of the Ponds are coming,” Moffat said.

“I’m not telling you when or how, but that story is going to come to a heartbreaking end.”

He said the Doctor, played by Matt Smith, was going to meet “a new friend”. It is believed that role has not yet been cast.

Oh, dear. I will be sad, and excited at the same time, which really is the worst and yet best feeling that Doctor Who can give you. I will be sad to see Amy and Rory go—I’m just hoping that the Moff means heartbreaking in a good, in a happy way, because otherwise I shall be forced to pick up the pitchfork and chase him through Cardiff in his TARDIS pyjamas. Still, I’m excited that the Doctor will have new company next series, just because Matt Smith’s acting sizzles, and Eleven’s personality has so much more to offer; it will be an absolute treat seeing that bounce off someone else. Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan leave enormous shoes to be filled they have been at the top of their game for two years straight; and I’m sure that, with Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue, and Piers Wenger as casting geniuses, the actor or actress (I’m actually rooting for a guy to get the job, not because I’m a slash fangirl, that’s just a bonus, but because the pretty earth girl routine might be getting old; besides: Donna was his best mate, why not have a matey best mate around?) who is destined to do that will be tremendous. Whoever they are, I’m loving them already. Bring it on, Series 7!

Sherlock promo pictures

One more, because it’s just too brilliant.

Courtesy of Blogtor Who/BBC.

BBC Press Pack for ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special 2011

Read the introduction to the new Christmas Special and in-depth interviews with executive producer and head writer, Steven Moffat, and lead actors, Matt Smith, Claire Skinner, and Alexander Armstrong, HERE.

Also, keep an eye on the BBC Adventure Calendar for news and teasers, one per day ’til Christmas.

 

BBC Press Pack for ‘Sherlock’ Series 2

Read the introduction to the new series and in-depth interviews with the lead actors, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and the show’s co-creators, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, HERE.

 

 

 

Also, keep an eye on the Sherlock homepage for news on Series 2.

Doctor Who Adventure Calendar 2011: Christmas episode prequel

The Doctor thinks he’s going to die, because he’s blowing up a spaceship while he’s still on it, with no chance of escape. Let me rephrase that: with no apparent chance of escape. He’s going to get out of it, it’s a prequel, dammit—but how? A consequence of River using up her regeneration cycle to save him in Let’s Kill Hitler, making him explosion-proof, justifying the line RTD (who, by the way, our hearts and wishes go out to in the light of his boyfriend’s illness) put in in The Sarah Jane Adventures: the Doctor stating that, oh, Time Lords can live forever? Or perhaps the TARDIS saves him, stubborn, sexy girl that she is. And, all questions aside, how does this connect to the Christmas Special itself, being set in England in 1941?

Emergency TARDIS embroidery!

I got hot butter on my brand-new dress, which, of course, you can’t just get out in the laundry, so I sat down with a needle and some twine and put an emergency TARDIS right on top of it! Stitched the contours, filled out the rest with textile marker (remember to iron it through tissue paper so the paint is fixed, then it withstands 40°C in the laundry without cracking or washing out). Also: use darning cotton, it’s thicker, for one thing, and it works better with the stretchy material of the dress.

My first ‘Doctor Who’ fanfiction!

Called When the Skies Return, it features the Tenth Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness, and Donna Noble. It is set in my own little AU after Journey’s End, and it has drama/angst as well as humour and some fun. Posted on my fanfiction.net profile, thegrumblingirl.

What’s your name, Doctor?—DW: The Wedding of River Song.

Previous episode: Closing Time.

I told you. He can’t possibly not have a plan.

This is how the universe does it, boys and girls. In another reality, London has changed a bit—it’s April 22, 2011. It’s the day the Doctor dies, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, and time’s so messed up that in a parallel universe, the War of the Roses is still going on, cars are up in the air, suspended by hot air balloons, and Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) is on the telly, giving clues about the next Christmas special, The Unquiet Dead, while there’s hot Roman soldiers outside, in carriages. Oh, and pterodactyls are the new doves. Oh, and Churchill is the New Roman Emperor, and Malokeh‘s his doctor. It’s nice to have so many people put in a guest appearance, but… Eh?