Game of Thrones: To Read, or Not to Read, That is the Question

There are many varieties of Game of Thrones fans; read the books and then watched the show, watched the show and then read the books, read the books and won't watch the show, watched the show and won't read the books, etc. I fall into the second group which is rare for me but has worked out very well. That feels like blasphemy as a bookworm but really it is probably the more logical approach for me because I'm that Lord of the Rings fan that is still mad that Tom Bombadil wasn't in Fellowship. I read Jaws years after seeing it and loved the added nuance to a perfect film (highly recommend it). If I'd read the book first I know I would have been pissed that spoiler and spoiler didn't spoiler.

Back to Game of Thrones though. I had never read any of the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series but I was very interested in the show when it originally aired. The problem was, I didn't have HBO. Subsequent seasons continued to pique my interest but then, on top of not having HBO, I felt like it would be difficult to catch up. I finally binge watched seasons 1-5 earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. I had to wait months for season 6 so I decided to read the books to fill the void. I bought all of them and began to read very quickly at first, delighting in those moments that the show had taken directly from the page because they were perfect. My reason for reading was to see the scenes that made me punch the air or cry in greater detail, with the characters thoughts and emotions behind them and in the first and second book that occurred often and I ate it up.

Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World ::Spoilers!::

WARNING: If you have ear plugs for reading you may need to insert them before reading this because the squeeing about this episode is going to be loud.

Yes, I know, that makes very little, if any, sense but, my excitement about this episode cannot be explained/contained with rational thought so why should the opening line of this post make any sense? That seems as though it would just be false advertising. I don't want to trick you into thinking this is going to be anything other than a completely disordered ramble-fest.

As you may already know, I am a bit of a geek, nerd, what have you. I may do some grownup things, like housework, half-assed but, "unimportant" things like getting acquainted with a TV show? I whole-ass that! It is normally easy, you catch an episode of Parks and Rec, realize you like it, run to Netflix or Hulu+ and stream every episode starting from the beginning. It can be time consuming but, oh so worth it in my opinion and I do it with any show that I enjoy.

When I fell in love with Doctor Who (see My #newtowho Story for more background), my geeky or selective OCD tendencies were put to the test. Starting from the beginning of Classic Doctor Who was and is incredibly difficult, right down to getting the first episode on DVD from Netflix. You see, Netflix has very little Classic Doctor Who available to stream. Thankfully I still get DVDs from them and they have the Doctor Who: The Beginning box set but, the discs are numbered incorrectly so, when I began my Classic Doctor Who journey I ordered disc 1 which should've been An Unearthly Child, but, was actually The Daleks. I got impatient, it was Friday, I would have had to wait until Tuesday to get it and then wait to get The Daleks disc back which I was just itching to watch.

It was frustrating but, if that hadn't happened I never would have found Dailymotion which is just a treasure trove of Classic Doctor Who. Making use of Dailymotion, Netflix streaming, and Netflix DVDs I've watched every story in order from the beginning. This includes reconstructions of all the missing episodes, ahh now you see why I'm telling you all of this, don't you? You don't? Oh my! I should explain.

Well, I suppose I should start with the fact that there are missing episodes. If you aren't a Doctor Who fan you must be a relative who just thinks I'm grand and loves reading my blog so I should explain or this won't be very enjoyable. Actually I think Richard Molesworth does a better job so here's a bit of the synopsis of his book Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes...

In the 1960s, the BBC screened 253 episodes of its cult science fiction show Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell and then Patrick Troughton as the time travelling Doctor. Yet by 1975, the Corporation had wiped the master tapes of every single one of these episodes. Of the 124 Doctor Who episodes starring Jon Pertwee shown between 1970 and 1974, the BBC destroyed over half of the original transmission tapes within two years of their original broadcast. 

In the years that followed, the BBC, along with dedicated fans of the series, began the arduous task of trying to track down copies of as many missing Doctor Who episodes as possible. The search covered BBC sales vaults, foreign television stations, overseas archives, and numerous networks of private film collectors, until the tally of missing programmes was reduced to just 108 episodes. 

Luckily his book is a little out of date and the number of missing episodes had decreased to 106, that was until October 10, 2013 when the BBC announced that 9 more episodes had been found; episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, & 6 of The Enemy of the World (which completed the story) and episodes 2, 4, 5, & 6 of The Web of Fear (now we're just missing ep 3)! Here is the official and current list of missing episodes. The BBC put the episodes up on iTunes that evening and I snapped them up as soon as I got home. Today I want to write about The Enemy of the World it will contain spoilers so if you intend to watch it you may want to come back and read this after you've done so.

Let me be completely honest, when I first heard that this was one of the stories they found I was excited but, more in an 'OMG "new" Troughton episodes!' state of glee than excitement about this story in particular. I had watched the reconstruction (which is the audio played over still images) and I didn't remember being wowed by it. Nevertheless, I very happily hit play that evening on episode 1 and I immediately remembered how badly I had wished that this was an episode that I could have seen. There are at least three things I clearly remember in the Troughton era that made me very sad to be listening to rather than watching and Troughton playing on the beach in this episose was one of them, Troughton playing with childlike Daleks in Evil of the Daleks is the second, and the third thing I still have my fingers crossed for is Troughton's makeover and his subsequent undoing of said makeover in The Macra Terror..."Who wants to see their face in a pair of suede shoes?". All three of these scenes just sounded like endearing, comedy gold to me and if the beginning of The Enemy of the World is any indication I doubt I'll be disappointed if Evil of the Daleks or The Macra Terror ever turn up.

So, I'm worried I'm getting off track here, how do I concisely review this episode without going off on tangents about what I now realize is amazing about this story that I did not notice when "watching" the reconstruction? Carefully? Oh well, stick with me, it might be worth it. Mind you, I'm not making any promises.

The Beach Scene

So, as I started explaining before I rudely interrupted myself, the episode begins with the TARDIS landing on a beach and before this episode was found I could only imagine how great this scene was. There is the fabulous lovely moment with Troughton rushing about like a kid, asking Jamie and Victoria to fetch some buckets and spades so they can make sandcastles, and frolicking in the waves. It's all fun until the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria notice the 3 men in the hovercraft who are coming toward them with guns drawn at which point a very Pertwee-esque chase ensues. There are guns and a hovercraft and a helicopter piloted by the fabulous Astrid Ferrier.

TO BE CONTINUED...
I'm posting this ridiculousness just to show how much I love this story and how off the wall with glee I was after watching it. I plan to finish this post in the near future but, for now enjoy my crazy fangirling.

Happy Mrs Rory is not an accredited TV critic nor does she hold an advanced degree in journalism or film studies. She is simply an enthusiastic young woman with an unfinished community college education and an abiding love for television. Share her love tonight on iguessijustlikelikingthings.blogspot.com.

The Boyfriend in Space AKA Help Pick Jeff's Next Doctor Who Story

For every 5 lbs I lose, my boyfriend, Jeff (shockingly not a Doctor Who fan), watches one Doctor Who story with me. This is the concession I have made to my wallet. My original plan, which he dubbed the geekiest weight loss plan ever devised, consisted of me buying one Doctor Who DVD for every 5 lbs lost but, after looking more closely at the prices of said DVDs that plan was scrapped. I was quite bummed but, being a quick thinker, I just performed a little jiggery pokery and voila! New and improved incentive program.

I love sharing the the things I love with the people I love and there's a line from the Malcolm in the Middle episode Flashback that sums up that sentiment wonderfully. Hal and Lois are fighting and she asks him to tell her seven things that he loves about her, his last thing really hit home: "I love that nothing in my life, not cribbage with my dad, not a new Van Halen album, not even an old Van Halen album for that matter, or any of their solo albums...I love that nothing in my life is complete until I've shared it with you." That's just a fabulous description of love that really resonates with me.

Buying Donuts from my Hero, Liz Lemon

In the midst of the 2008 Presidential election I had a dream that the company I worked for held a prom and Barack Obama and his lovely wife Michelle were invited. For dream reasons which defy all logic, they accepted the invitation and came to our little company prom, in Massachusetts, which isn't exactly a battleground state. During the prom a coworker of mine aggressively hit on Michelle and Barack punched him in the face at which point I began freaking out. I was worried that it would hurt his chances in the election if word got out and I'm nearly positive that when I woke up I went to check if it had made the news...I realized before I actually did so but, it took a minute.

I realize that I've outed myself as a democrat but, oh well, maybe my Rush Limbaugh loving facebook friends won't read this or maybe they'll just ignore it. I tend to avoid revealing my political leanings because I don't like to argue politics with anyone other than my Dad...he has to love me unconditionally, even if I listen to NPR.

So, why did I take the risk of incurring the wrath of Bill O'Reilly (AKA Papa Bear) fans by telling you about a 5 year old dream? Because it is my favorite example of the kind of weird dreams I tend to have. Believe me I've had a hundred weird dreams since then, like the dream I had that I was dating Daniel Tosh and got into a fight with offended audience members or the time Scott Aukerman, a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Ed Helms wanted to take me bowling but, I had to attend a Seder and no I'm not Jewish. Now that I think of it, that dream deserves its own post but, back to the point, some dreams are more worthy of recapping than others and a dream starring Tina Fey that caused me to second guess my life choices seems more worthy of your attention than my brief affair with a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.

My #newtowho Story

Well, it has been awhile hasn't it? I've had a touch of the ADD lately. You see, I just like liking too many things and don't have enough time, or brain capacity after a crazy day at work, to like them and write about them.

Lately I've been busy killing dragons,practicing alchemy, buying/making Christmas gifts, presenting awards and scholarships, failing at arts and crafts, obsessing over Felicia Day/Geek &Sundry, watching a lot of British Quiz Shows especially those that feature NoelFielding and/or Alan Davies, playing Gloom or Rory's Story Cubes with the family, enjoying the final season of The Office (Belsnickel was the best!), watching other sitcoms (Go On, Parks and Rec), loving The Snowmen and as always rewatching new Who and watching new to me classic Doctor Who.

See? You have to admit, that is a lot of stuff and I’m sure I left something out. I’m still busy but, I feel compelled to write this post because an odd thing happened on the way to the Baker era, I wasn’t an instant fan and that’s puzzling since I know that he is the most iconic Doctor and the safest and most common answer to the question, “Who’s your Doctor?” (My answer? I love them all. They all play the same man, don’t make me choose!) I feel like I accepted the other Doctors very early on and I couldn’t put my finger on why it was taking me so long to warm up to him. In order to explore this properly I’ve decided to tell my #newtowho story first and since time is a big ball of Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey stuff, I'll start in the middle.

The first time I really became aware that my father liked Doctor Who must have been in about 2006 which is when new Who first started airing in America. I am pretty sure he was trying to connect with my then boyfriend who he had lovingly but, correctly dubbed my "future ex” by dropping a Doctor Who reference. He must have thought he looked a little geeky (sorry Jeff but…) and would get the reference. He did not. My Dad began talking more about the show but, as David Tennant put it, “it’s very hard to explain and not sound like a lunatic.” I never looked into it and I had no clue what it was until I saw a Doctor Who related article on geekologie.com which had a picture of Tom Baker and then I remembered. I had definitely seen that guy before...come with me to the 80’s.

I Need Help Reacting to Something #sixseasonsandamovie

I assume that you're reading this because you love Community, unless you're my Aunt or my friend Kate, who'll read this because they love me. If you are a fan and you have a twitter account, the delay of season 4 must be old news by now. If you haven't heard, here's Entertainment Weekly’s article on the matter. This depressing news has inspired me to express how much I love this show in the best way possible, a list of favorites with clips and polls. Before we begin the interactive portion of this post I’d like to give a brief rundown of how I came to love Community and why.

My friend told me I should start watching the show but, ultimately it took a tweet from Karen Gillan (Amy Pond - Doctor Who) to make me stop what I was doing and start watching immediately. I should have listened to my friend straight away and it was on my to do list but it wasn't a priority until I read that tweet from Amy Pond herself referencing the show and more specifically, Inspector Spacetime. I’m glad she did because Community is amazing. It is smart, funny and inventive and it is really hard to swallow the fact that this show is in jeopardy while Two and a Half Men is still on the air (I’m sorry if you like it, I am just not a fan).Without further ado, let’s delve into what makes Community great.

There are so many things to love about Community so I had to narrow this down. There are five categories and I've chosen five favorites for each category. I told you in my 90's post, picking favorites gives me agita. Narrowing each category down to five options was very hard and picking one from each was even harder so, in the case of a tie, I used random.org to pick the winner for me. If there is anything I didn't list, please leave a comment because I love talking about this show.

Favorite Parody

Basic Lupine Urology

The explanation is not the issue!

The art of the parody is where Community really shines and they are all great so I had to go to random.org here. This episode was a perfect parody of Law & Order. Every element was there, from the blue collar workers finding the “victim” to that unmistakable Dung! Dung! Troy and Abed as the detectives were so good and they just played it so straight while wearing an Inspector Spacetime badge and a Spiderman tie. Britta’s role may have been small but, it fit her character well. Annie may be majoring in health care administration but, she made a pretty good lawyer. I especially enjoyed the outlandish portion of her cross examination. “Is that why you hit your wife? Withdrawn. Is that why you dink and pop pills? Withdrawn.” Also Starburns’, death was a surprise and I didn’t think it was the last of him. I was happy to be proven right at the end of the season.

Please vote for your favorite parody episode.

Doctor Who The Angels Take Manhattan S7E5 ::Spoilers::

After my mad dash to review every episode of series 7 in 6 hours last week I needed a bit of downtime. Looking back it was unnecessary because the theory and reason for the rush hasn't been proven, yet if it will at all. See my Pond Life review for why I felt the need to get the reviews out before The Angels Take Manhattan. It was a terrible idea as my writing just got consistently worse in each review. By the time I got to A Town Called Mercy it was clear I was burnt out. I will not be doing that again. But, enough about my lackluster writing, onto The Angels Take Manhattan.

The Bad

I will start with what I view as the only serious negative aspect of this episode, which wasn't really part of the episode itself and that is, of course, the telegraphing of the good-bye. I understand that it would have been hard to keep the fact that the Ponds were leaving under wraps but, I wish they hadn't over-advertised it like they did. They kept telling us they were leaving, not just on the internet where you had to be on the look out for it, it was in the trailers and they kept hyping the heartbreak. Before/during the episode on BBC America, we had Matt Smith telling us that if we didn't have a lump in our throats by the end, we might be aliens.

In the grand scheme of things I sobbed but, knowing the outcome dramatically reduced the butterflies in the tummy effect of the emotional roller coaster the episode seemed to want us to ride. You know, "phew! They made it. ::ten seconds later:: Oh no! Rory!!!" If we didn't know or if it had just been a rumor on the internet rather than the focal point of all official promotions for the season, the impact would have been far greater.