All – Page 27 – A Book & A Beer

Headless Monks vs. Doctor Who

Posted on April 9, 2016by J.W. Martin

The Headless Monks are also known as the Order of the Headless. How badass is that? Name aside, these are some badass warriors.

They started out as a group of religious, humanoid monks, as far as anyone can tell. Their beliefs encouraged listening to their hearts over their minds. Take this too literally and BAM! Headless Monks.

Now these menacing monks can run around and convert anyone they want into one of them, usually by putting a severed head into a box-like device. Though that’s only for the wealthy. Many heads just sit around on shelves somewhere rotting and trying to bite things. Yum.

Though they can die as easily as any humanoid, they have badass abilities. (I’m sorry for the overuse of the word ‘badass’ in this post, but these guys are just so…badass!)

They are incapable of being tricked or feeling fear. They can sense a person no matter where they are, which is probably the most useful of their abilities on account of the no head thing.

They also wield a red lightning energy that they can throw from their hands or channel into the swords they carry. And they don’t carry some kind of weird looking space sword. It’s an old school, badass broadsword.

Their most impressive ability? They wear a hood, and it sits the same way it would sit on someone who has a head. When the hood is up, no one can even tell they’re headless. The opening is just pitch black. Pull back the hood—which the monks consider punishable by death—there’s just a weird little knot of skin. That part…not so badass.

This is a great villain that has lots of potential. So far, there are only two episodes with the monks. One and a half, really. Maybe even less, depending on your definition. I want to see more. A lot more.

What do you think of the monks? What’s your favourite underrated baddie of the Whoniverse?

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

Gallifrey Falls No More

Posted on April 8, 2016by J.W. Martin

Gallifrey is a planet located in the constellation of Kasterborous—which resides in the binary star system—and the home planet of the Time Lords.

In the original series, the Doctor travels back to his home world often. It’s exact existence is a bit cloudy since time travel was always used to get there, leaving it unknown whether the planet was in the past or the future in comparison to the Earth.

In the new series, some shit has gone down.

War doctor day of the doctor — I love buttons.

We find out about it in bits and pieces. Gallifrey is now a dead planet, but it takes a little while before we discover that it’s dead because of a war between the Daleks and the Time Lords.

The Doctor himself was the one who ended the war. He saw an opportunity to defeat the Daleks once and forever, but it meant the demise of his own people as well. A difficult decision, one that leaves the Doctor haunted throughout 7 seasons of the new series.

Enter special episode, The Day of the Doctor. The 10th and 11th Doctor meet through some kind of timey wimey wibbly wobbly vortex thing, and then we’re introduced to a new Doctor, referred to as the War Doctor. The War Doctor is the one that destroyed Gallifrey. Or so he thought.

In one of the greatest moments in all of Doctor Who, the three Doctors figure out a way to save Gallifrey by summoning every other Doctor from their separate timelines and gathering them, and even one future Doctor…

Thirteen Doctors, each with his own TARDIS, using their collective abilities, Gallifrey is hidden away into a pocket universe, escaping total destruction.

What’s your impression of Gallifrey? And is there any episode better than The Day of the Doctor?

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

Fires of Pompeii

Posted on April 7, 2016by J.W. Martin

Fires of Pompeii is an important episode in the Tenth Doctor’s run.

Generally, the episode revolves around The Doctor and companion Donna landing in Pompeii on the day of it’s destruction.

They meet a few locals, who the immediately bond with, and that’s when they discover it’s d-day for Pompeii.

The Doctor hurries Donna along to the Tardis so they can get back home before they become just another part of the death toll. Donna has other ideas. She wants to find a way to save the city. Admirable, if a bit cocky.

The Doctor explains about fixed points in time. It’s a story we’ve heard before—and accepted. Donna, however, is not willing to accept it. A rebel, shouting ‘why?’ Shouting. Hollering. Nagging.

The Doctor offers his hand — Come with me if you want to…not die

When he doesn’t give in to changing history, she begs him to at least save the family they met. He’s reluctant. Even their end is part of the fixed point in time.

And that’s one of the unique elements of this episode. He goes against his judgement. He saves the family.

The other aspect of this episode that makes it important is the casting. An extra on the streets of Pompeii turns out to be Karen Gillan, who will later go on to fill the role of Amy Pond. That’s an easy one to miss. The role is small and there’s make-up involved.

Even bigger than that, Pete Capaldi is in the episode as the father of the family they save. Four seasons later, he’d take the roll of the 12th Doctor.

Unlike the connection between Amy Pond and her role as an extra, the show addresses Capaldi’s double role.

In the middle of some inner turmoil, the 12th Doctor begins rambling about his face. Why was it chosen? It wasn’t random. He had it for a reason, etc, etc. He puzzles out that he chose that face to remind him of the time he saved a family from dying in Pompeii. It was a reminder that he saved people, and that he should save people.

It’s a clever connection, but I wonder if they had that in mind when the offered Capaldi the role. Perhaps they didn’t think anyone would notice…

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

Earth’s Protector

Posted on April 6, 2016by J.W. Martin

It’s funny to think that with all the places and times The Doctor can visit, he spends an awful lot of time on Earth. More specifically, London. The Eleventh Doctor even goes as far as to say, “This planet, these people are precious to me.” What’s that all about?

It would be easy to argue that Eleven—and many other Doctors—consider all life to be precious, but all the Doctors before eleven have also acted as guardian of Earth.

We’re not the only place or the only people he protects, but we do seem to be a favorite. Why do you think that is? I’ve heard some theories.

the eighth Doctor in the tardis — What’s with the creepy eyes, Doc?

The Half-human Theory
In the Doctor Who movie (1996) the Eighth claims to be half human on his mother’s side. There could be truth to that. It’s never been confirmed or denied, or really brought up at all since. Many speculate this was just part of a ruse to fool The Master.

A Doctor Who novel called Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles suggests that only the Eighth Doctor is half human. No offense to Mr. Miles, but that seems pretty flimsy. I realize almost anything is possible in the Whoniverse, but that seems like a load of Adipose. Let’s go back further.

third doctor working — From creepy to angry…

The Home in Exile Theory
The Third Doctor was exiled to Earth for a time. It would be easy to understand him developing a connection as a second home. However, he’s exiled to Earth because he’s already shown a special interest in the planet, visiting it often. His fondness must have started somewhere else.

The Centre of it All Theory
Earth has been referred to a “temporal nexus point.” There’s very little detail beyond that, but the general idea is that things that happen on Earth have a much bigger impact on the rest of existence.

The Future Empire Theory
The Ninth Doctor remarks that the human race eventually spreads out into every known universe. Protecting Earth is a way of making sure an awful lot of timelines stay in tact.

The We’re just that Awesome Theory
Earth has often been praised by various Doctors for things like our survivability and our spirit. The Doctor has a lot of friends, and many of them have been humans. We rule.

I want to read about YOUR theory in the comments below.

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

The Doctors of the NuWho

Posted on April 5, 2016by J.W. Martin

If you’ve ever watched more than a few episodes of Doctor Who, you know that the character isn’t even called Doctor Who. He’s just The Doctor. And if you become a Whovian you’ll find yourself yelling at people that call him Doctor Who.

“It’s just The Doctor, damn it!”

The Doctor is from an alien race called the Time Lords, and he’s the last of his kind. Or is he?

He travels through time and space as the last Time Lord with the last existing TARDIS—his spaceship which I’ll get into in another post.

Beyond being an alien with a magic box and a sonic screwdriver that comes in pretty handy, he doesn’t actually have any powers. He’s brilliant, but so was Columbo. He’s really not that different from humans, except for regeneration.

Any time the Doctor suffers an injury that would end a lowly human life, he regenerates. This is a natural defence built into all Time Lords.

The side-effects to the regeneration are severe. His appearance changes completely—at which time a new actor takes the role. This is why when most Whovians meet, the first question they ask each other is, “Who’s your favourite Doctor?”

With the change of appearance comes an almost complete change in personality. Most of the time it really does seem like one Doctor dies and another comes to take his place. The only aspect that seems to cross over is memory, and even that can be sketchy.

I’m only going to touch on “NuWho” Doctors, which only covers four of the twelve, but I don’t want this post to turn into a novella.

The 9th Doctor (Christopher Ecclestone) had trouble taking anything seriously. He could deliver the worst possible news with a smile on his face. The death of others was the only thing that upset him, and he did whatever he could to avoid it, even for his enemies.

One of the fan favourites, David Tennant, took over the role as the 10th Doctor. He was much more serious. Vengeful even. He gave his enemies a chance—one chance—then he was coming down on them hard. He also liked to answer questions by starting with, “Well…”

Three seasons later, we got Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor. This is my Doctor. Fun loving. Peaceful to a fault. Goofy. He’s what the nutty professor would have been if he stopped screwing everything up; or the Joker if the evil was removed. Every Doctor who had less of a conscience (or none at all) off-loaded it with number 11.

But he also had the child-like smile that was infectious to those around him and those watching him on TV.

Currently, we have Peter Capaldi with his representation of the 12th Doctor. I didn’t like him at all at first. He’s cranky. Cold. At times he seems as much a villain as he is a hero. Not to mention the fact that he ditched the screwdriver for sonic sunglasses. What in the TARDIS is that all about?

He grew on me (the sunglasses have not.) He’s still not my favourite, and I doubt he ever will be, but I now appreciate his take on the character.

Still, I may not be upset when the next regeneration comes along.

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

Cybermen

Posted on April 4, 2016by J.W. Martin

Originally appearing in 1966, Cybermen are one of the longest-standing and one of the most fearsome of the Doctor’s enemies.

Their origin has been told and retold a few times, but consistencies say that they were once completely organic. As their race advances technologically, they started replacing failing parts of their body with cybernetics. Rinse and repeat for a century or two and you get Cybermen.

They look like a bit like a grumpy version of the tin man from The Wizard of Oz. They have the appearance of a robot, but these babies don’t run on diesel. They run on human bodies, which has got to be more environmentally friendly.

If you found yourself running away from a Cyberman that was trying to make you its next victim/meal, at one point during the chase it would pop its head open and eject the skull of the previous victim. Cause the walking death robot isn’t intimidating enough on its own.

Even if you refused to go down without a fight, Cyberman are damn near impossible to kill or even stop. If a Cyberman’s body comes apart, each part can move independently. Even the head. The head grows tentacle like legs so it can still move around and freak everyone out. Instant party kill.

Let’s say you get somewhere relatively safe, like a Fallout grade vault. Hermetically sealed. Underground. Massive amounts of thick lead between you and them. Good job on making it that far. Now you’re going to have to deal with Cybermats.

Small pets/weapons, which look like metallic tadpoles, that can make their way through any kind of pipe, ventilation shaft, etc. They could find a way to open the doors for the Cybermen, or they might just attack you themselves.

Then there are also Cybermites. Similar to cybermats but smaller, and can attack or start turning a human into a brand new Cyberman. I guess those little guys have more hidden parts than Tony Stark’s watch!

The good news is they’re slow. You can outrun them with a swift walk. The bad news is, if they’re after you they’re going to be around every corner, like zombies.

Wait…slow, strength in numbers, after your brain. Cyberman are space zombies! Smart space zombies! I think I might have a script to write…

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

Face of Boe

Posted on April 2, 2016by J.W. Martin

One of the strangest and most fascinating characters introduced into the Whoniverse is the Face of Boe: a giant head that lives in an equally huge jar of some kind of space juice.

The age of the Face is never specified, though the Doctor once mentions that he could be over 5 Billion years old.

There are three encounters between The Doctor and the Face of Boe. The first time, in the episode The End of the World, old Facey takes a spaceship full of people 5 billion years into the future to watch the Sun destroy Earth. The ship is sabotaged to be destroyed, but the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) steps in and saves the day.

In the second, episode New Earth, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) finds the Face of Boe in a hospital on his deathbed… or death jar? He reveals that he has a “great secret” to tell the Doctor but will wait until their third and final meeting. Then he just teleports away. Wait, what?

Cool foreshadowing, but what happened to being on the edge of death? I’ve never teleported before, but I imagine doing it without any kind of machine is exhausting. And why teleport away from a hospital if you’re in rough shape? I understand you want to remain a mysterious guy (or… face) but at what cost?

In their final meeting, the message the Face of Boe gives the Doctor is: “You’re not alone.” Faces love to be mysterious, don’t they? As vague as it was, that message leads to a great episode, Last of the Time Lords, which I’ll be touching on later in the month.

Also, in that episode, there’s a big intimation of the Face’s biggest mystery: his identity. Captain Jack Harkness—another great character that will have his own post—tells the Doctor, “Used to be a poster boy, when I was a kid, living in the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me.”

Don’t get too excited. According to writer Russell T. Davies, this is just onetheory. One that, if he has his way, will never be officially admitted or denied.

But isn’t it fun to believe?

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Amy Pond’s Best Episodes

Posted on April 1, 2016by J.W. Martin

Step out of my dreams and into my TARDIS!

I should note that the posts I’ll be making over the month of April may be spoilerific depending where you are in the show. If you’ve seen all of series seven, you should be fine. I won’t be spoiling anything from season eight or nine.

With that out of the way, I can’t think of a better way to start this little Doctor Who/blog challenge than with one of the best characters to ever come out of the show.

Amy Pond was a companion to the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) through series five and six, but only part of seven. Stupid weeping angels.

The general consensus among Whovians is that Amy Pond is the sexiest companion that there’s ever been. But that was only a small part of what made her such a pleasure to watch.

Amy Pond was someone that we all wanted to have as a companion. Literally. Like a friend. She’s funny, and goofy. Just as likely to be the butt of someone else’s joke as she is to hit someone with a witty zinger. She’s balanced.

I could go on for far too long. Instead I’ll give some proof in my personal five favorite Amy Pond episodes:

The Eleventh Hour
The very first Amy Pond episode. Amy is only a girl when she meets the Doctor and her childlike wonder at the madman in a box is adorable. The next time we see her, she’s grown up and she’s strong and sassy. It’s the first, but not that last time, we see her stop the Doctor mid-sentence because she’s not willing to put up with his crap at that moment.

The Girl Who Waited
This fantastic episode shows many different levels of Amy. Without going into too much detail, we get to see an older, self-sufficient, loner version of Amy face off against an Amy who is young, hopeful, and kind of confused. We get to see Amy be both the damsel in distress and the knight in shining armor. We get to see one Amy sacrifice herself for the sake of the other in a speech that evokes so much emotion it could make a Cyberman cry. (Okay, probably not.)

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
Okay. I’m cheating a little on this one. It’s two episodes, but they tell one story. Amy dies (almost), gets put into suspended animation for almost 2,000 years, meets her younger self, helps remake the entire universe, gets married, and then brings the Doctor back from non-existence.

Asylum of the Daleks
At the end of the sixth series, Amy and Rory are happily married. This episode starts the seventh series, at which time we find out Amy and Rory are just about to get divorced. Not cool. The story that unfolds gives us some very emotional moments of professed love, near deaths, and a passing of the torch (though we won’t realize that for a few more episodes.)

The Angels Take Manhattan
This is a tough one. It’s the one I love, and the one I hate. She’s so strong in this episode, she makes everyone else seem like bawling infants, which is probably how most of the audience was left by the end. Her sheer willpower moves the episode along, thwarting death at its every chance until she meets it on her terms. The episode hints at her death so much that you can’t help wincing at every close call, fearing it will be her last. Then a cruel joke is played when her death turns into a rebirth that saved everyone, including herself. Everyone celebrates…for a moment. The moment is pulled out from under us and she’s gone again, this time for good. Stupid angels.

Amy Pond is a wonderful character that doesn’t come along very often in any show. As a Whovian, I can only hope the future will bring us another. But if there isn’t, there’s always Netflix.

A to Z All Misc Uncategorized

This all seems so familiar (A to Z 2016)

Posted on March 29, 2016by J.W. Martin

Close to this time last year, I posted about wanting to train myself to post more often on this very blog. With that thought, I took part in the A-Z Blog Challenge. I wanted to start and complete the challenge within the designated month, and I hoped the result would be more consistent posting afterwards.

Well… those are still things that I want, and the A-Z Challenge is upon us again!

If you’ve never heard of the A-Z challenge, it’s a blogging challenge that runs the month of April. Each day—excluding Sundays—a post is made with the subject starting with the letter of the day. April 1st is A, 2nd is B, etc, etc.

Also like last year, I’m late in announcing my theme. Mainly because I had a real hard time deciding what my theme was going to be.

A part of me wanted to do something fiction based. I thought about a story where each day would be a scene from the perspective of a different character. The name of the character would correspond with the letter of the day.

I liked the idea, but it felt a little like cheating. It’s too simple to make a character’s name start with any letter I want. The challenge of posting every day would still be there, but the challenge of the theme wouldn’t exist.

One of my most recent obsessions kind of came out of nowhere and became one of my strongest obsessions. For the past two years, I’m considered myself a fully assimilated Whovian.

My 2016 A-Z Challenge theme is Doctor Who!

All Living Legend Uncategorized Writing

Legendary Contest

Posted on September 13, 2015by J.W. Martin

With the release of Living Legend approaching (September 19th) we’re getting into all kinds of preparation for the launch party. All of our efforts have been to make it something fun and entertaining for those who come out to support. This launch isn’t just for me. I want it to be for everyone.

The only thing I want for me is for people to show up and read the book.

For everyone else, we’ve been looking into snacks, drinks, entertainment, and prizes. We always seem to be looking for more. One more thing to add. One more reason to come out. One more thing to make this launch really cool. And I just recently came up with possibly the most unique one, and I needed to share.

Anyone who signs up for my mailing list at jwmartin.com will automatically be entered in a draw. The winner of the draw gets to name a character in an upcoming novel. You can use your own name, the name of a loved one, or just a name you really, really like.

This is NOT limited to those who come to the physical launch party. You can take part no matter where you are in the world. All you need is to access jwmartin.com.

The contest will run retroactively (so if you’ve already signed up, you’re already entered) and the draw will take place on Sunday, September 27th.

Good luck everyone!