In order for this to make sense, you will have to be a fan of 2 different UK TV shows: Doctor Who and Top Gear. In this episode Matt Smith not only becomes the fastest Doctor Who ever on the Top Gear Star in a Reasonably Priced Car test track, he does it while channeling Malcolm McDowell in his A Clockwork Orange persona. This gets even funnier when you see Matt go head to head with The Stig!
The first Official Doctor Who Convention will be held in Cardiff the weekend of March 24th and 25th. The guest list is every bit as impressive as you would expect, and since they actually film in Cardiff there will be outrageous new opportunities, including a TARDIS set tour on the actual sound stage. Pretty much every special presentation ever held at the Doctor Who Experience will be part of the weekend, which makes sense when you realize they have already closed in London and moved it to Cardiff, where they are now putting it back together, along with various new bits. I feel the need for another excursion to the UK coming on…
This absolutely has to be my favorite video of a schoolteacher (specifically a German teacher) building a Tardis. This was obviously a true labor of love, appropriate for the month that contains both Valentines Day and Leap Year.
The only US live action movie selection this time around is good, but isn’t genre: The Rum Diary, where once more Johnny Depp channels Hunter S. Thompson. Sword of Desperation from Japan tells the tale of a Swordsman who tries to raise his niece after the death of his wife and his release from prison while developing his own school of fighting. Also out is the classic film Three Outlaw Samurai, more of an origin story than a pilot for the TV series of the same name. And I am going to mention Nude Nuns With Big Guns because I figure that has to have some kind of a bizarre effect on my search engine results.
The top TV choice this time around is the Dr. Who show The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe which I am sure everyone recognizes as the 2011 Christmas Special. Like all that went before, this one has its own special moments. To counterbalance that, They Came From Outer Space: The Complete Television Series lasted on the air for nearly a season back in 1990, being the story of two alien brothers touring California in a classic corvette while government agents tried to capture them.
There are several western animations offerings this time around, but all spinoffs or direct to disc sequels. From Dreamworks, Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury is a sequel to How To Train Your Dragon. The other two are from a single source, the Penguins of Madagascar TV show, with the titles New to the Zoo and Operation Get Ducky being released separately.
In Anime, Chrome Shelled Regios – The Complete Series brings it out in a single package now, and drops the price from the $60 of the Part 1 and Part 2 release down to $45 or less if you shop around. In addition the Hell Girl: Three Vessels – Complete Collection does pretty much the same thing, but with different price points for each package.
In November of 2013 Doctor Who will be 50 years old, having first aired in November, 1963. Moffat and company have been doing a great job of building up to it, and promise a really exciting series of events throughout the year. In honor of that, a trailer for the last question, and a snippet of an interview with Aldred and McCoy about their interest in joining in on the fun.
With the full title Every Doctor Who Story 1963 to Now – A Babelcolour Tribute, this is a wonderful little video. And while any given show generally gets around 5 seconds of video, he really did manage to cover at least all the surviving stories, and gave the name and number of the ones that didn’t survive. Also included were various spinoffs, Children In Need specials, movies, parodies, games, and animations. There are a number of other Who tributes on the site you should check out; since I particularly like the Sarah Jane tribute, I am including that one as well.