News Round Up: Doctor Who and other Dark Materials

 

According to showrunner Steven Moffat, Doctor Who has the potential to last five more years. Apparently there’s this whole ‘business plan’ which I guess must outline the next five years. In fact Moffat is saying that the sci-fi series could last a lot longer.

 

Which brings me onto a semi-related subject. As you may have guessed from my review of the series opener, I haven’t been feeling the magic this series. I’ve been watching as many as I can so far but that was down to loyalty than anything else. I’ve been watching the revived series for just over ten years now; I’m not going to abandon it easily!

 

But alas the time has come to do just that. When Doctor Who started, it wasn’t the complex pyschological state of the Doctor or the unanswerable questions that got me hooked. It was the fun and the craziness of alien invasion after alien invasion, visiting new planets, meeting new monsters, exploring world after world. I’m not saying it was perfect - there were moments under Russell T. Davies that left me scratching my head - but it was gripping.

 

Today the fun has gone out of the series and not even Peter Capaldi’s ‘rockin’ sunglasses can save it. Please note, I have nothing against either Capaldi or Jenna Coleman who are both more than capable actors and great in the roles they are playing. My issue lies solely with the writing. And quite frankly five more years of the same thing depresses me more than excites me. Time to switch off.

 

 

In some genuinely exciting fantasy news, Philip Pullman’s famous series ‘His Dark Materials’ is set to get a BBC adaptation. The trilogy of books are a fantastic read but unfortunately the movie adaptation of the first book released nearly ten years ago now(!) just didn’t live up to expectations.

 

If done right, the BBC have another classic hit on its hands and unlike certain other series *coughcoughTheLastKingdomcough*,  might actually be comparable to Game of Thrones in terms of how many people could tune in.

 

For those who don’t know, the series follows Lyra and later Will as they battle fantastical creatures, explore parallel world and experience the paranormal phenomenon known as Dust. Some aspects of the series are a little bewildering - Lord Asriel getting it into his head that he can kill God (honestly some people are so ungrateful!) - but if you can get past the vaguely anti-Christian sentiments, what you get is a classic sit-down fantasy series for all the family.

 

 

 

 

First Christmas started when the decoration went up. Then it started when Coca-Cola began showing their Christmas ad. But the last few years, festivities have begun with the weepfest that is the John Lewis Christmas Ad.

 

Remember two years ago when a bear and a rabbit were the star of the Christmas advert while Lily Allen warbled ‘Somewhere Only We Know’? Or last year when Tom Odell lent his freakishly high vocal tones to Real Love by The Beatles while we wept over penguins? Yeah it’s going to happen again this year. 

 

This time we get the emotional rollercoaster of a young girl trying to contact an old man living on the moon while a Norwegian newcomer appropriately named Aurora covers Oasis song ‘Half the World Away’.

 

 

So as Christmas approaches (yes already!), we’ll see if any adverts can compete with John Lewis this year while sane people mutter cynically over the nature of the media campaign. Plus news on what’s on this Christmas should come soon! And if you’re not ready for Christmas news yet, I’d… avoid media, social and otherwise, for the next few weeks.