The Ood Cast

Ever since we recorded the review of The Big Bang, slightly influenced by fermented grape juice, I’ve been thinking about the finale. Not in an obsessive way, you understand… I do have a job, and a small dependant-type person. But it sort of comes with the territory that as my friends know me as a fan, I get into conversations with people who can watch the show with other people talking throughout, or while they nip in and out of the room being busy with real life things.

The thing is, I can’t do that. It annoys me intensely if someone talks through something I’ve been waiting to see, and when Doctor Who is on, the only thing I do is watch it. There isn’t much that can’t wait 45 minutes, after all.

But neither do I sit there and drink in every detail and process every misplaced shoelace or wrongly-positioned object. I get caught up in the story and I’m far from ashamed to admit that.

So when it comes to a Steven Moffatt finale… I got lost in it. I don’t mean that I didn’t understand it, just that I went into the world and didn’t come out again until the end theme music started. Having watched it again, yes, I think it was a bit over-complex and could possibly have been stretched over 3 episodes to make the little arc work (let’s face it, amusing as it was, I’d not miss “The Lodger”). But, frankly, I don’t care.

There were holes in the plot – I know. I see them too. But the Doctor is a Timelord. They’re as real as Daleks… it really doesn’t matter that there’s a couple of confusing paradoxes in there.

There are things unresolved – I know. Have you never watched a Steven Moffatt story before? That’s par for the course… Unresolved probably means it will be part of the next season. This is, after all, the chap who brought us River Song 2 YEARS AGO and we still don’t know who the chuffing whatsit she is.

Inconsistencies and contradictions? Hmm. I don’t know. The Moff seems to write scripts where you’re left thinking these are inconsistent or blatant contradictions, but a while down the line, we’re shown the significance. I don’t really see that grumbling about them is of any use. But then, I grew up in the 80s, so this is Doctor Who’s Golden Age of Hollywood compared with some of my childhood memories of bubble perms and talking green slugs. When things contradicted then, it was because they cut the episode together wrong – like that time when the 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th and 7th Doctors all appeared in Albert Square…

What do you mean, that wasn’t a continuity error?   Well, it was definitely some kind of error…

All in all, I don’t care about the problems. I don’t even care that Amy is a character that seems unnaturally cold and unemotional and that nothing has made me really like her except that she’s funny.

I think the sketch we did in Episood 16 (“Childish Things”) highlighted the one that actually bothered me – that the Pandorica plan hatched by the Big Book of Doctor Who Baddies was absolutely rubbish. But then, so is every evil plan hatched by balding master criminals in every James Bond film, and it’s still very easy to enjoy them without worrying about it. Which is exactly what I did.

My point being that is doesn’t really matter in any significant way…  I know we on the Ood Cast are usually ridiculously enthusiastic about the show, and it doesn’t matter whether the episodes are top-notch or middling rubbish – we still love it.  But being a bit more level-headed about it here – the episodes that people will undoubtedly judge the Moff’s first season on – it did what everyone wanted: it surprised, entertained, scared (the stone dalek was brilliant – finally there seems to be an end to the ridiculous flying swarms of them) and tied a few things up.  Not everything, but that’s a reason to keep watching rather than whine about it, surely?

And apart from anything else…  Egyptian godesses?  Orient Express?  In Space?  Anyone fancy opening a book on whether we’re about to see “Pyramids of Mars II: Mastaba and Commander”?! (*FULL credit and huge thanks to Mr Ian Smith for that title*)

As long as the time tunnels in this one aren’t London Underground tunnels, sounds like it’ll be great!

Oh, and did we mention I predicted the Fez….?  OK, OK, I’ll stop now.

Basically I’ve got too much time on my hands. So after we’d recorded the winner of the Underground song contest – “Going Underground” by The Jam which was obviously a very worthy winner (and can be heard at the end of Episode 12) – I somehow found myself writing lyrics for the second most popular tune “Sound of the Underground”.

Didn’t I have more important work to do? Shouldn’t I have been writing my Edinburgh show? Did the thought of calling this post Girls Alood make me giggle like a schoolgirl? The answer to all these questions is a resounding YES! Nevertheless, Laura has graciously recorded it and we present it here now as a sort of bonus feature.

And FYI, the song she’s come up with for Episode 13 is pure, unadulterated beautiful brilliance. See you on Wednesday.

Sound of the Underground

In last week’s episode we did a sketch in homage to the late, great Fast Show showcasing Alpha’s jazz voice and picking up on Amy’s apparent love of Peruvian Folk music. The track that eventually went out with that sketch, a kind of punchy Latin dance number, was Laura’s second attempt to create something catchy.

We didn’t include her first attempt because, in Laura’s own words “it made you want to peel your own ears off”.

Arguably closer to to the Peruvian Folk ideal, it is nonetheless a gruelling experience. Click on the following link with care.

Peruvian Folk Disaster

Finally got around to editing together the music video for Laura’s song from our episode “Pond Life”. It’s the one set to the tune of Mark Ronson’s version of “Valerie”, retelling the events of “The Beast Below” from Amy’s point of view.

On top of Laura’s amazing vocals, with the visuals it actually makes a really good summary of the whole plot. Like a musical summation.

If you like these, leave a comment (and a suggestion of which of our songs you’d like to see tackled next) and we’ll get going on it.