Doctors, dragons and mad scientists

So, the ole work schedule (you know, the writing that pays the bills) has kept me pretty busy as of late, so here are just a few thoughts while I take a quick breather before diving back in full force.

The Doctor Who finale was entertaining, thrilling and pretty emotional -- but I wonder if the real impact will come when I sit down and watch the entire season back to back. Steven Moffat builds complex narratives in whatever he does, be it a single half-hour of Coupling or across a complete series, and I think pieces of the puzzle may have been obscured over the 13 episodes and long summer break. This recap won't happen until the DVDs come out, however. For whatever reason, BBC America isn't in HD, and while the broadcast episodes are certainly tolerable, I miss the sharpness.

One thing I can say for certain is that Matt Smith came into his own this season. I already considered him to be the best pure actor of all the Doctors, but this year the character caught up with talents. The madcap, childish energy is still there, but tempered with enough moments of deep emotions (love, sorrow, pain) that help to remind us that this man child is incredibly ancient.

Fringe should be taking the Doctor Who slot in my obsessions for the coming months. The show has reached the "if I sum up where we are, it's going to sound insane" level, with not just multiple universes, but wonky time lines and characters not-quite erased from history. Still, I usually come to any show, movie or theatrical performance with an eye on the actors, and there are two terrific ones at the core of the show.

John Noble is now playing the third version of Walter Bishop -- one whose madness hasn't been tempered by the time spent with his (now missing) son. There are still the fun quirks that define the character, but there's also such a sense of loss. The same comes in Anna Torv's Olivia, who has lost the years of growth at the side of Peter. The show as a whole hit a new high in the season's second episode ("One Night in October") and promises plenty of twists along the way in what is likely its last season.

And I finally finished up George R.R. Martin's massive Dance with Dragons last night, after re-reading the entire series over the past couple of months. I felt the same way here as I have in the last couple of volumes. There are great characters on great journeys throughout, but too much time is spent in privy and war councils as the characters talk about the politics binding them all together. I know the "game of thrones" is vital to the series, but it's hard to pay attention when I know other characters are learning how to be faceless assassins, how to "fly" or, of course, have trio of dragons at the ready.

It's not a unique problem. The issue that these massive fantasy series often have is that the cast of characters becomes so vast, with so many plots going on, that the main focus gets lost. I'd really love to get back to what brought us to the dance in the first place: the Stark family, trying to survive, and maybe find their way back home. Maybe that will start to happen next time.

Doctor Who: whoooo!

Being an absolute Doctor Who fanboy means that I greet any official (and plenty of semi and non) addition with sheer joy, so I was pretty high on the hog Saturday evening when I sat down to watch the continuation of the Matt Smith's second season, "Let's Kill Hitler."

The title ended up being one of many red herrings in Stephen Mofffat's script. After newly introduced Amy/Rory "best friend" Mels makes that declaration (with a gun to the Doctor's head no less) they do just about everything but kill Hitler. Instead, the Nazi leader ends up locked in a cupboard by Rory a few minutes in, never to be seen again.

That's not the real plot. Instead, Mels is shot and then does the golden-sparkly regeneration thing - and turns into River Song. Or at least, into Alex Kingston. It seem whatever programming that was done to her between the time we last saw baby Melody and now kicks in, and River has it in for the Doctor.

And she succeeds. The Doctor is poisoned, given 30 minutes to find a solution and save his own life.

Oh yeah.

Like most of the modern run of Doctor Who, it's a sprint to the finish from here, as Amy and Rory chase River across Berlin and the Doctor desperately searches for a solution. Oh, and there are mini time-traveling agents of justice inhabiting a human-sized robot thing that are after River as well.

The script twists and turns in the way Moffat excels at, though I don't think we'll feel the final resolution of all of this until the season finale. There are lots of nice touches along the way, like polite-but-murderous robot antibodies in the otherwise absolutely daft robot thingy full of little people.

Matt Smith continues to do remarkable work as the Doctor (who, despite the efforts of his companions, learns the date of his death here). He's still a wild soul, but we're seeing more and more of the weight of 900-plus years of life, love and heartbreak in his performance. It's becoming clear that Smith may be the best pure actor to take on the role. Whether or not he becomes one of the best interpretations of the character (which has a lot of other factors built in beyond talent) is yet to be seen.

And next week we get a creepy looking Mark Gatiss script, who hopefully can make a return to form following last season's disappointing "Victory of the Daleks."