“The Doctor Is In” shirt based off the “You’re The Last of The Time Lords, Charlie Brown” comic is here!
NEW HE PODCAST – Episode 83 “Ass Merkins”
I will save commenting on the Doctor Who season premiere, “The Impossible Astronaut,” until after I see part two. I will say that I really enjoyed what I saw and I think it sets up a great arch for the rest of the season, but I really feel like it cut off right in the middle of the episode, so what I have seen is incomplete.
I have about 40 episodes of Tennant-era Who on my DVR right now, as my wife and I are working our way through the complete re-tooled series (while watching 11 concurrently). Panel 1 above represents my honest reaction to reading the list of recorded eps last night. They really do have FANTASTIC titles. You get the impression Davies and Moffat originally wanted careers naming bands and somehow stumbled into television.
“Voyage Of The Damed” sounds like a Mastodon B-Sides album. “Utopia” is all vast, etherial keyboards and vaguely Celtic moaning. “The Lazarus Experiment” is a stoner granola-fusion trio featuring Les Claypool and Trey Anastasio. They only have one song and it has no beginning or end. “Family Of Blood” is a 90’s clown make up, horror show 9-piece alterna-rap outfit from Norman, Oklahoma. They are obscenely terrible, yet still better than Korn.
COMMENTERS: I will give you two options. Either take a Doctor Who episode title and tell me what the band with the same name is all about, or give me a band name that sounds like a Doctor Who ep. For bonus points, generate a new Doctor Who episode title that could also pass for a band name (ie the name of this particular comic). Oh, and feel free to talk about the premiere. No spoilers, please.
HEY! Check out this interview I did for Hollywood Jane.
ALSO HEY! Check out this interview my friend Tom Brislin did for The Functional Nerds Podcast. He does all the music for the HE Podcast and he’s one of my favorite people.
Real bands that could be a Doctor Who Episode: The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Airborne Toxic Event
New episode/potential band name: Fire on the Black Horizon.
Looking through my iPOD i see what you mean:
Panic at the disco, Toad the wet sprocket, The Black Mages, The Boxer rebellion, The Cave Singers, Cloud Cult, Destiny's child, The Early November etc
Well, I'm going to go for an old, old one and go with "Rider from Shang-Tu" (first aired 21 March 1964), which is clearly an Outlaw Country band with Chinese influences.
Ok dammit, I need to start watching Doctor Who. What were those episodes that got you hooked again?
"Blink" is probably the highest rated episode, though it doesn't actually feature much of the doctor. Otherwise start at the beginning of the reboot.
Yes. Yes, you do. Never where truer TV words spoken. But if you're pressed for time and want to catch up to what the rest of the Whoverse is watching, simply start with series 5, The Eleventh Hour. It's pretty self-contained from there on out as far as plot/character arcs.
Excellent, thanks guys! I'm off to lock myself in my cave with the Doctor until I can show my face again.
If you start with the beginning of the reboot, understand the Eccelston is the weakest of the new Doctors but he's only around for 9 eps or so. I started with Tennant then went back to Eccleston.
I disagree, Eccleston was great as the first doctor for the reboot, because he encapsulates the person the doctor was at that time (end of the time war, what he had to do etc). I just think if you watch him after you watch Tennant, you aren't getting the 'full effect' of how the character progresses from 9 to 10 and then to 11.
Although he was my first doctor and you know what they say, "you never forget your first doctor"
Korri's got a point about never forgetting your first Doctor, and Eccleston was mine, but I think my disagreement goes beyond him being my first.
I do agree that Tennant and Smith are probably better Doctors, but I don't think Eccleston's skippable, and he's certainly not bad. Coming in third place to Tennant and Smith is still pretty good.
I'd also recommend, if you've got time, re-watching the first season. I appreciated Nine a lot more my second time through after watching all of Tennant and Smith's first season (since, at the time, there wasn't any of the sixth season yet)
I dont think 9 is "skippable." I just know that had I started with im I would have given up long before he regenerated.
I don't think Nine was a bad Doctor, but he did get more than his share of episodes that I really didn't like. If I hadn't started with Blink and The Empty Child before I went back to the beginning, I'm pretty sure I would have stopped watching around World War Three.
"No, seriously! The frontman for out band's real name is Jimmy Dalek!"
The Lodger was a reggae/ska band with former members of Madness and UB40
Bad Wolf was an 80s hair metal group who had an almost-hit rock anthem "The Parting of the Ways"
Cold Blood was a Foreigner cover band that tried (unsuccessfully) for irony
Iron and Wine will be in Cleveland, OH this Friday! I'm going to the concert, too! Was excited to see Dr. Who and Iron and Wine mentioned in the same comic! haha
Tears of a Time Lord would be a good band, though a rather unexciting title.
Hey Joel, thanks for the shout-out. You're one of my favorite people too. And now to business:
Utopia was Todd Rundgren's band in the 70s (you know that one had to be taken already)…
I could see "Castrovalva", "The Caves of Androzani", and "The Keeper of Traken" on a bill with Animal Collective, Crystal Castles, and Passion Pit.
The Sound of Drums is the ironic hipster all-wind-instrument Genesis cover band.
From Davison's era, Four to Doomsday is a thrasher band that keeps disbanding but then coming back stronger than ever, best known for their epic "Darkseid of the Moon".
The Robots of Death…pretty much the only band left after the aforementioned apocalypse.
You clearly understand the premise I have set forth and have executed my instructions flawlessly. Bravo.
What I'll never figure out is how Family of Blood managed to wind up with a folk-rock duo like Human Nature as their warmup band…
Last of the Time Lords records orchestral rock so overblown Emerson Lake & Palmer was too embarrassed to touch it.
I found some good episode titles, but fear that I may have missed the point again. I blame my blonde hair and ADD. 😉
In regards to the season premiere….I have watched it a few times. Still an intense season opener – and makes me eager for what it to come.
The new format it definitely better than the old series, where almost everything was "The X of Y", with Y being the name of a villain, and X being some overly dramatic like "Horror" or "Fear" or "Terror".
Or you can add "Rise Of The…" to pretty much any villain.
The Empty Child is an emo band with a Moloko/Portishead sound.
The Age of Steel is a hardcore techno act that makes your ears bleed.
"The Timelords" was an actually band name. The had a no.1 hit in the UK with "Doctorin' the Tardis". They became "The KLF Foundation" who were an awesome dance band in the late 80's. KLF also refers to Dr Who but I can't recall why.
CSI and Dr Who should swap theme songs for a season. "Who are you?" by The Who, I think would work with Dr Who
"Who Made Who?" sounds good, too, no pun intended. Maybe for the "The Origin of…" series!
KLF may (or may not) refer to "Kallisti Liberation Front". Kallisti is also the name of the drug in the Doctor Who book Hope.
Oopsie! Correct spelling: "Van der Graaf Generator".
Not that, you know, I, uh, would ever, uh, you know, misspell their name, myself… No, not at all!
As for bands, one must always remember "Tattooed Vegetables", and "Steel Pole Bathtub". No, those are real names!
Perhaps, going back to @absurdditties, There could be "The Misery of the Tattooed Vegetables"! How would The Doctor deal with that problem? What is their problem?
I saw Steel Pole Bathtub live in San Diego a very long time ago!!!!!
The Beast Below is totally a death metal band, and recently toured with World War III. And Mawydryn Undead, with frontman Vislor Turlough. Meanwhile, Logopolis is an electropop group from France and played the Key to Time festival with Horror of Fang Rock, a tongue-in-cheek musical comedy duo.
And wow, Impossible Astronaut. Way to blow my mind, Moffat! I kind of hate you, and hate that I love you all at once. And River Song… If you don't love River Song by this point then you hate fun, sexiness, and charming rogues. Which means there is something wrong with you.
"River Song" was Impossible Astronaut's biggest hit! It got all the way to #127 on the Billboard charts…
ACTUAL LOL.
I love how accenting the word "river" differently changes the whole meaning.
Damn! I mean to remove "1920's" when I decided it would be #3. That would have been a "contemporary" UNIT adventure.
LOL
Clockwork Palindrome – Either a return of the clockwork robots from the "Madame De Pompadour" episode or France's hottest new electro duo, following in the tradition of Daft Punk and Justice.
The Talons of Weng Chiang – a Wu Tang Clan cover band made up of actual chinese martial artists.
Ark of infinity – 70's prog rock band made up of people thrown out of other 70's prog rock bands for doing waaaay too many drugs.
The Doctor Dances – dangerously over-medicated electronic dance music.
Classic WHO episodes that would make great band names:
* The Happiness Patrol (Christiaan Skaa band)
* Horns of Nimon (British Metal)
* Snakedance (Enya's latest album after she's had a bit too much Bailey's)
* Power of Kroll (Electronica)
* Earthshock (Comeback album by Sting)
* Pyramids of Mars (New Age)
Torchwood episodes too
Ghost Machine A goth-industrial band
They Keep Killing Suzie indy girl duet
Countrycide heavy metal band
Aliens of London – Country-Western group originally from the West End, now at the Grand Ol Opry
The Impossible Planet – Techno/New Age group, all floaty synth with whalesong, rain drops, and bird calls