{"id":1884,"date":"2015-07-17T23:38:59","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T03:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2015-07-17T23:38:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T03:38:59","slug":"analyzing-doctor-whos-series-nine-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/analyzing-doctor-whos-series-nine-trailer\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing Doctor Who\u2019s Series Nine Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of Channel Chaser! Well, it\u2019s that time of year again: time to speculate on what could be coming next on that wackiest of sci-fi shows, the long-running British series Doctor Who<\/em>. The creators of the show recently put out a trailer for the new series to start in September, and oh my, is it exciting.<\/p>\n

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First and foremost, I\u2019m going to skip right to the part that everyone\u2019s talking about: the identity of Maisie Williams. She pops up at the very end of the trailer, where she questions the Doctor, \u201cWhat took you so long, old man?\u201d To which the Doctor replies, \u201cYou!\u201d as if he knows who she is. There\u2019s many, many theories flying around about the identity of the Game of Thrones star, from a younger incarnation of River Song to the Master, or another Time Lord from the old series like the Rani or Romana, or even the Doctor\u2019s long-lost daughter Susan.<\/p>\n

Personally though, I\u2019m really pulling for Williams to be a post-regeneration version of Jenny, the young female clone from David Tennant\u2019s episode \u201cThe Doctor\u2019s Daughter.\u201d The end of that episode established that despite appearing mostly human, Jenny had indeed picked up a Time Lord\u2019s power to return from death, and while she didn\u2019t actually change her face, who\u2019s to say it couldn\u2019t happen? Also, I\u2019m not really seeing anyone else, especially River or the Master, call the Doctor \u201cold man\u201d in such a flip way. Jenny was an awesome character who I\u2019ve been waiting to see again for a while, and as such I think her whole story has been criminally neglected thus far. Her fun and feisty spunk might even inject some much-needed light-heartedness into the series.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of which, a few other shots from this trailer seem to indicate things may be headed in that direction anyway. First of all, Peter Capaldi has visually changed, wearing less severe clothing and noticeably longer and wilder hair than we\u2019re used to. It\u2019s almost a throwback to a more Tom Baker\/Jon Pertwee look for the Doctor, and it hints at a character who\u2019s maybe a bit more keen on taking risks or having adventures than Capaldi\u2019s so far stuffy, no-fun Doctor has been.<\/p>\n

SIDEBAR: I apologize for my criticism of Peter Capaldi. Please understand it is in no way a reflection on the fine job he\u2019s done as the Doctor so far. It\u2019s just that the now-departed Matt Smith will always and forever be my Doctor, and his departure hurt in a very big way. Add to that the fact that Capaldi\u2019s Doctor is pretty much the antithesis of everything Matt Smith was, and this has been a difficult transition to say the least. END OF SIDEBAR.<\/p>\n

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Anyway, about the Doctor\u2019s Marty McFly moment where he\u2019s rocking the sunglasses and jamming on the guitar…bizarre, yet incredibly awesome. If Capaldi\u2019s first season as the Doctor was all about the character finding himself again after some post-regeneration angst, I\u2019m very much looking forward to him loosening up and letting his inner quirks out more this season. We could all definitely use more moments like that.<\/p>\n

From the looks of things, it actually appears Clara could be the one going to some dark places this season. Remember, she\u2019s just coming off of losing Danny Pink, the love of her life, at the end of last season, so she\u2019s probably still pretty devastated. Most of her shots show her looking pretty freaked out, and in places with creepy lighting to boot. And now she\u2019s hanging out with the Master…what\u2019s with that? Although the one shot of her and the Doctor hugging is sort of heartwarming. Maybe we\u2019ll see their relationship thaw a bit as well this year. But it\u2019s also true that Clara at this point is a super long-running companion, which more than likely makes this season her last. Will she get a sweet farewell, or a tragic departure like so many others before?<\/p>\n

Yet another indicator of a tone shift this season is the near-end line from Peter Capaldi, as he shouts defiantly: \u201cI am the Doctor, and I save people!\u201d This sort of indicates that maybe Twelve has gotten over his aloof, hands-off attitude that dominated last season, and that maybe he\u2019s going to be a bit more traditional hero and willing to get his hands dirty this year. As I said before, I can\u2019t wait to see this Doctor come out of his shell and just be amazing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Other brief notes:<\/h3>\n

-Well, we\u2019ve got some of the usual suspects in terms of villains, including Daleks and Zygons…and that\u2019s pretty much it. Huh. Most tellingly, no Cybermen. Although I\u2019m sort of okay with that given how the Cyberiad\u2019s been butchered recently by mediocre episodes like \u201cDark Water\u201d and \u201cDeath in Heaven\u201d. Sorry, boys. But it looks like there\u2019s a whole bunch of new monsters, including walking trashcans, zombie Abraham Lincoln and others, and a shadowy thing with glowing eyes. Creepy.<\/p>\n

-Zombie hands sticking up out of the ground…great. Didn\u2019t we just do this in last season\u2019s finale?<\/p>\n

-Super delayed reaction: holy crap, the Master…I mean, the Mistress…is back! So how did she survive getting apparently blasted into atoms by the Cybermen last season? I guess we\u2019ll find out, and I\u2019m looking forward to it. Michelle Gomez was a delightful villain, and we need more of her on this show. Also, she and the Doctor seem to be getting weirdly tight this series, especially given the Doctor\u2019s opening monologue about loving\/hating something sounds suspiciously like it\u2019s directed at her. A season-long struggle between these two titans would be seriously cool.<\/p>\n

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-In other returning character news, apparently UNIT techie Osgood will be back this season as well! Seems to be a bit at odds with how she was killed by Missy last season, though, but since the Zygons are apparently back this season and given their role in the \u201cDay of the Doctor\u201d story, my guess is that it\u2019s not actually Osgood who\u2019s returning, but the Zygon infiltrator posing as her. We\u2019ll just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Channel Chaser is written by Kyle Robertson. You can check out more of his work on his\u00a0<\/span>website<\/a>. Check back every Wednesday\u00a0for new articles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of Channel Chaser! Well, it\u2019s that time of year again: time to speculate on what could be coming next on that wackiest of sci-fi shows, the long-running British series Doctor Who. The creators of the show recently put out a trailer for the new series to start in September, and oh [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1887,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions\/1887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}