The Tiger Who Came To Tea: Doctor Who and the Fantastic Beasts

Sunday 20 November 2016

Doctor Who and the Fantastic Beasts

It's good news about J.K. Rowling and David Yates' Doctor Who movie - it's great fun and a brilliant start to the series!

Eddie Redmayne's bowtied 13th Doctor is something of a mix of the 11th and 5th Doctors.

His celery can now move around and pick locks and blow raspeberries and other useful stuff like that.

Although K9 is now completely CGI, he's much cuter, and has a penchant for stealing shiny objects. Cash and jewellry, mostly, in a homage to the villainous penguin from Bob Baker's The Wrong Trousers.

The TARDIS' chameleon circuit is now stuck in the form of a suitcase & though (as with the Cushing version) the control room lacks a console, it echoes the Jules Verne wooden look of Season 14 and the TV Movie.

We do get to see other rooms inside the TARDIS, which include completely different environments. Impressive.

Doctor Who arrives in 1920s America & meets new companions Tina & Nardole, who dreams of opening a bakery.

Together they must track down the Great Intelligence, an evil lifeform that uses human hosts to commit some deadly assassinations. The real identity of the host comes as a twist in the tail, that links back to the Doctor's new companion.

There's a really charming subplot with a romance between Nardole and telepath, Cally.

Also at large in 20s New York are Samantha Morton's child-beating Rani & Colin Farrell as "Professor Yana".

The gang travel to art deco Gallifrey, where female President Rasslion sentences Tina to the Mind Probe.

There's also a trip to the Maldovarium, where Quark (Ron Perlman) takes a shine to the Doctor's celery.

Yana takes an interest in the Intelligence & wonders why Cardinal Borusa would have vouched for Doctor Who.

After a showdown, reminiscent of 68's The Web of Fear, Doctor Who controversially forces Yana to regenerate.

No spoilers, but you can probably guess which controversial actor plays Yana's regenerated form but it's a shame we probably won't get to see more of Farrell's more subtle take on the Master.