My Sleep Pattern

Time for bed?  Not yet - first I have to take the
perfect photo of my alarm clock for my blog.

It's late evening, and I'm browsing the internet when I should instead be thinking about getting ready for bed.  What better time to write about the trials and tribulations of my sleep pattern?

I woke at 11am this morning, having slept from 2am.  I suspect this trend will continue tonight, as after I've finished writing this post, I will be drinking a cup of milk on the sofa while reading the Radio Times - seeing what programmes I could have watched.  Once my cup is empty, I will proceed to lie there doing nothing for approximately thirty minutes, too tired to get up.

Having finally summoned the willpower to leave the comfort of the sofa, I will then take my dog out into the garden and gaze up at the stars, pondering if there could be life out there, before coming back inside and filling two large bottles of water in the kitchen.  (I rarely get through more than one bottle of water per night, but have a second one on standby just in case, so I don't have to traipse downstairs to the kitchen to refill the first one.  Although if I wake in the night and need more water, the contents of the second bottle has usually gone warm, so I have to traipse down to the kitchen anyway.)

Once I finally make it up the wooden hill to Bedforshire, my trials are not quite over yet.  Now I must brush my teeth, nearly fall asleep on the toilet, and splash my face with cold water approximately three times.  By the time my head hits the pillow, my calculations predict it will be 2 o'clock.  Cue a leisurely lie-in till eleven.

Now this is all fine and dandy at weekends.  But what about when I have to get to college the next morning?  I try my best to get to bed early - usually 1am.  When my alarm clock goes off at eight, I feel like death.  I lie there, groaning and procrastinating for thirty minutes, which leaves me a further ten minutes to get dressed, go to the loo, have a wash, and find a pair of socks, before my mum chauffeur-drives me through a solid traffic jam while I glance anxiously at my watch every ten seconds.

On a night when I don't have college the next day, I celebrate by surfing the 'net until midnight.  I'm only at college on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays - and that Wednesday gap lets me slip back into bad habits, leaving me feeling like death again Thursday morning.  By the end of the week I'm exhausted, and after my midnight internet celebration, I have a mega lie-in till 11am Saturday morning.  And then I stay up until midnight again writing blog posts.

Believe me, I've tried sorting it out.  My "cup of milk at half nine" schemes rarely last more than a few days - before I know it I'm up at 2am writing blog posts again.  It's a fact of life, wired into my psychology.  The teenage brain is an untameable beast that can never be fully understood - even by the teenagers themselves.

A Review of... Oh, wait.

This blog was intended to be a fun and humorous reflection of life, the universe and everything; a place to write pointless, rambly posts that wouldn't be seen dead on my website.  Instead, it's become a collection of reviews.  Which is fine, except that it's not particularly original.  Who wants to read yet another person's opinion on the latest episode of Doctor Who - a person who doesn't write for a newspaper, and therefore whose opinion doesn't matter?

Some time ago, I wrote a great big long list of topics I could cover in this blog.  Unfortunately, the notepad which contained this list has disappeared deep into the bowels of my untidy bedroom, so I'll have to try and remember them.  The only topic I can remember writing down is Facebook.  Who on Earth would want to write - or read - about Facebook?  Let's face it, you're probably visiting this blog because you want a break from Facebook.

Whatever I write, I'll make sure it isn't a review.  (Except my mum has asked me to review a book she's written, and I have a half-written review of Pokemon Black and White that's been sitting in my Drafts folder for half a year.)  I want to write about what matters to me.  Instead of reviewing people's books and TV programmes, I'm going to review my life.  Or something.  I'm writing for the sake of writing, because I want to, and hopefully you'll enjoy reading it.  In the unlikely event that you don't, I suggest you click the back button on your browser and see if anyone's posted a new Awkward Moment on Facebook.

I've noticed that when I write in the evenings, my style becomes very delirious and whimsical.  On my website this becomes a problem, but here on my Blog, I'm going to deliberately go out of my way to ensure that I write my posts as late in the day as possible (or as early in the day as possible, depending on how you look at it).  I'd better be going for now, got college tomorrow.  They're having a fancy dress day for Children in Need, and I'm going as Ask Ketchum from Pokemon.  Good night!

P.S.
Now that I am finally officially "out" to a close friend of mine, I may write the following statement all over my blog as much as I wish:

I'M GAY!!!

There.  I've been waiting a year to do that.

A Review of Doctor Who Series Six (Part 2)

Here's my verdict on the second half of Doctor Who Series Six, beginning with the Doctor's encounter with Adolf Hitler, and finishing with a very special wedding!  I thought this half of the series was an improvement over the first half, and my enthusiasm seems to show in the length of my reviews!  Be warned: this article contains a few major plot spoilers if you haven't seen the whole series yet...


8. Let's Kill Hitler

Well, that was... weird. And amazing, of course! It was great fun, and had some really good stuff in it, but suffered from the same problem as A Good Man Goes to War, in that it's too deeply rooted in the series story arc, and doesn't feel like a story in its own right. The Doctor meeting Hitler seemed like such an interesting opportunity, but it was very quickly discarded. Still, at least we got the scene of Rory locking Hitler in the cupboard, which kind of made up for it.

I loved the twist of Mels' identity (who saw that coming?!), but at the same time, it changes River as a character and I'm still not sure what to make of it. But even if River's characterisation was slightly wobbly, Amy and Rory continue to get better and better, and I was delighted to see Cailtin Blackwood return.

Overall, very funny and surreal, and full of surprises. It might be a little bit flawed in places, and some of the elements didn't quite "gel", but it was still tremendous fun to watch.


9. Night Terrors

I thought Night Terrors was rather brilliant. After two mind-mending, "arcy-warcy" episodes (as amazing as they were), the return to more traditional storytelling is much welcome. It's bursting with innovative ideas without feeling overcrowded. The Peg Dolls have to be one of the best monsters this series, the Silence aside, and were used sparingly, which ranked up the tention and made them even scarier. The guest stars were all fantastic; I'd been looking forward to seeing Daniel Mays from Outcasts, but his performance was so convincing I completely forgot he was from Outcasts until half way through the episode! And Matt Smith seemed to be even better than usual. Terrific fun!


10. The Girl Who Waited

The Girl Who Waited is INCREDIBLE. Writing, acting, music, set design, make-up, robots... the entire production is beautiful. Although it's mostly filmed in a series of small rooms, it feels epic, more like a mini feature film than a TV episode. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are phenomenal. It's so wonderfully dark, and poetic, and surreal (I keep overusing the word "surreal" in my reviews, but it's a vibe I've been getting a lot from this series). There are some lovely little touches, like the special glasses and the Rory robot, which really bring the story to life. The pacing is perfect; one breathtaking scene after another.

If I had to find a negative point, it would be the moment when the two Amys enter the same time stream. Old Amy's 36 years of solitude, and her conversation across time with her younger self, were suddenly made a little insiginificant as soon as they were seen standing side by side. But the script is so strong that that any tiny flaws fail to leave a dent in an otherwise perfect story.

One of my all-time favourite episodes.


11. The God Complex

Well that was rather brilliant! And who would have thought that a gorilla and a bunch of ventriloquist dummies could be almost as terrifying as the Silence? The only slight problem is that all the scariest concepts were used early in the episode, so the second half lacked the same shock factor. But it was terrific fun and I loved the characters; Gibbis provided a lot of light relief and Rita is the Nasreen Chaudry of this series: the outstanding, memorable guest star who could have been a companion. The guy who was tied up in the dummies' room (forgotten his name) was creepy and brilliantly played; it's a shame he couldn't have stayed around for a bit longer. The direction was impressive, too.

The Minotaur was an original idea for Doctor Who (the horn scrape marks on the ceiling were a nice touch) and it looked great, like something straight out of ancient Greek artwork. But in all honesty the "dreams" were more interesting and I would have liked to have seen them explored in even more depth. It's another example of two very different concepts thrown into a story that don't quite gel, but it didn't detract from the enjoyment of the story at all.

The ending was surprising and beautiful, but... surely Amy and Rory can't be leaving for good, can they? If they don't get an invite to their daughter's wedding I will be very surprised.


12. Closing Time

What's this? A sequel that's actually better than the original? Mind you, if you take everything that was great about The Lodger, and then add Lynda Baron, Cybermen and a Cybermat, it's to be expected really.

This is actually one of my favourite episodes in the series. It's a breath of fresh air, so beautifully simple, and the script sparkles. Gareth Roberts may not be the king of intricate plotting, but in this episode he wrote the Eleventh Doctor better than anyone; full of charm and warmth and wonderfully "Doctor-ish" (well, I can't imagine William Hartnell attempting to kiss someone as a distraction from Cybermen, but that's for another discussion!).

I was really emotionally invested in the story - my heart was in my mouth during Craig's apparent conversion, and I even cared more about the story arc elements than usual. I haven't been entirely convinced by the whole "The Doctor will die" thing up until now, but in this episode it really hit home. The final shot of River in the lake is strangely iconic.

Overall, a very fun, sweet and warm episode - something this series really needed. I hope James Corden comes back again.

(Leading up to this episode's broadcast, I was very excited about Lynda Baron's guest appearance, as she played Auntie Mable in one my favourite children's programmes, Come Outside.  But when I finally sat down to watch Closing Time, I completely forgot that she was in it!  I didn't realise it was her until right at the end, when it occured to me that her voice was oddly familiar...)


13. The Wedding of River Song

I'm really late reviewing this episode, but I didn't really know what to say about it. Other than the fact that it was brilliant, which isn't very imaginative!

In all seriousness though, The Wedding of River Song is brilliant. I loved the return of the "fairytale" element. The story is crammed full of amazing, epic ideas, without feeling over-the-top in any way; something that The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang also achieved to great effect. The CGI shots are breathtaking, and although used sparingly, they are weaved cleverly into the episode to "set the scene".

More than anything, I loved the wedding scene. I was expecting something big and dramatic, the Doctor and River in a massive golden cathedral - but no. The Doctor, River, Amy and Rory, on top of a pyramid with stars twinkling above. As simple as that. And this made so much more effective; the simplicity made it all the more romantic. The dilemma of the Doctor's death felt real (as it did in Closing Time, though for most of the series I didn't care that much), and River's refusal to kill the Doctor was genuinely heartfelt. The central characters are what made this series so special. The story arc is about the characters, and that came to a head in this episode. The scene in Amy and Rory's garden rounded things off nicely.

After so much tension and emotional heartbreak, the resolution to the Doctor's death should have been a cop-out. But somehow it wasn't. The fact that I had absolutely no idea it was coming made it all the more satisfying. People have said that the overuse of the Teselecta in the "previously" segment gave the game away, so maybe it's a good job I was getting a drink of water and putting on a pair of jeans while that bit was broadcast. I literally had no idea that twist was coming at all, and completely loved it.

So in short, an immensely enjoyable story, and a very satisying end to the series. With The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, Steven Moffat essentially wrote The Perfect Finale, so naturally, The Wedding of River Song could never quite compare. But it comes very close.

Oh and I haven't even mentioned the Silence, Madame Kovarian, the cave of skulls, Winston Churchill, the phone call, the chess match, Dorium, pterodactyls, or the "Hell in high heels" line yet...

Just one more thing I will add. It's a shame we never saw Churchill's mammoth.

A Review of Doctor Who Series Six (Part 1)

Over the course of the year, I have written a series of short reviews on Gallifrey Base, a Doctor Who fan forum.  Here are my opinions on the first seven episodes of Doctor Who Series Six, beginning with the Doctor's fateful encounter at Lake Silencio and leading up to the dramatic reveal of River Song's identity.  I wrote these reviews shortly after each episode was broadcast, so they were based on my innitial reactions.

1. The Impossible Astronaut

It took a little while to get into, but from around the point where the Doctor encounters the atronaut in the lake it really started to draw me in. The first thing that struck me was the way the episode was shot and edited; it has a much more "filmic" style than the last series. The main cast all get some nice development and there are some brilliant twists, and priceless comedy moments. And it's actually scary! Aside from the Weeping Angel two-parter, Series Five seemed rather mild and toned-down, but this is a return to form in the scary department. The Silence didn't look all that frightening in the promo pictures, but as soon as you see them on screen the Weeping Angels begin to pale in comparison.

Despite all these good points, The Impossible Astronaut did feel a little bit hollow in the centre, and I can't really work out why. But it's still a cracking series opener, and I'm looking forward to the concluding installment.

2. Day of the Moon

Utterly speechless. I didn't even know a drama could be this good without making my television explode! An epic extravaganza of self-indulgent, fan-pleasing nonsense. Casual viewers were probably left baffled, but who cares?




3. The Curse of the Black Spot

That was rather good actually. Intriguing to begin with, then just when the tension begins to sag, we're whisked off to an alien spaceship and a heart-rending climax! The only thing which spoilt it a little for me was the TARDIS scene tacked onto the end, where we're reminded of the story arc.

While not as dazzling as Day of the Moon, this is an enjoyable, surreal and very haunting episode. 


4. The Doctor's Wife

What a great little episode! With its strikingly original script, it's among the likes of Blink, Midnight and Amy's Choice as a bold, stand-alone episode that does something completely new. The TARDIS in human form - wonderful idea!

The dark, moody element that's been bugging me since the start of the series is still present, but this is my favourite episode of the series so far and has more warmth than the last two stories, even if the "hate/kill Amy" scene was perhaps a little too disturbing for a family audience. The final scene between the Doctor and Idris was beautiful; the dialogue honest and pure. I would have liked to have seen a few things fleshed out more (more of the Ood, and Idris's backstory) but I'm sure I'll enjoy it even more on repeat viewings.

(I was right about the repeat viewings; after seeing this episode again I love it even more.  The script is nigh on perfect.)

5. The Rebel Flesh

That was cracking stuff! It felt very bold and different, with a good central concept and the interest never waned. The guest characters are nothing special, though the scene where Jennifer looks at her photo was lovely and it's great to see Rory take more of a centre stage. Some of the CGI was a little over-the-top for my liking, but didn't stop me from enjoying the story.

Though not as good as The Doctor's Wife in terms of emotion and spectacle, it feels like the most confident episode so far and has given Series Six that extra bit of "oomph" it needed to get fullly off the ground. I'm just starting to get really into this current run and it ends in a few weeks!


6. The Almost People

A fantastic conclusion that somehow manages to be even better than last week, and we're finally given some answers about Amy and the Eye Patch Lady! Still not sure what I think of the cliffhanger, it was utterly brilliant and a bit of a cop-out at the same time. I think I really need to stop picking episodes to pieces and just enjoy the ride. The scenes with the two Doctors were a hoot!



7. A Good Man Goes to War

I knew it! I knew that's who River Song would be! I'd been speculating it since the start of the series, and thinking how cool it would be. I'm really chuffed now.

Oh and the episode was good too! It's weird because half of the time it felt like nothing was really happening, even though absolutely loads of things were happening. But the four main characters made it wonderful. So surreal, such powerful emotion; more like being in a dream than watching a TV episode. And that cliffhanger!!


Stay tuned for my verdict on the second half of the series.