Giant Freakin Robot

We cover a lot of different stuff here at GFR, because our goal of covering “science and science fiction” covers a wide spectrum, from the fantastic to the fascinating to the frankly indescribable. You can lump this one into that third column, because I have absolutely no idea where this video originated, nor do I have a context to help clarify why it exists. It simply is. If I had to guess at a reason why there’s a video of John Barrowman dancing to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” I would theorize that the universe simply realized that such a thing simply Needed To Happen, and thus it did. If I have any complaints, it’s that the Universe took its sweet time in steering me toward the video. The last three years have, in retrospect, been all the poorer for my not knowing this existed.

Simple expression of Barrowman’s lust for life? Perhaps. Curious enigma that may in fact contain all the secrets of the universe? Quite possibly. Thoroughly enjoyable? You betcha. In the meantime all we can do is watch, and perhaps dance along at home, alone and with the drapes closed. Take it away, John…

And thanks to Mindy for pointing out the existence of this video!

Last year’s Doctor Who fall finale, “The Angels Take Manhattan,” put a capper on the tenure of the Doctor’s then-most-recent companions, Rory and Amy Pond. After a typically convoluted case involving the Weeping Angels, the couple was transported back to — and trapped in — 1930s Manhattan. There was a whole timey-wimey explanation about why the Doctor couldn’t go back and visit them, but the explanation seemed a bit forced for a series that regularly rewrites the rules of time and space to suit its whims. After all, it the problem was the Doctor specifically being unable to return to Manhattan of that era, why couldn’t he just travel back to a different location, same time period, and send the Ponds a letter inviting them to meet him for a picnic or whatever?

As reported by Blogtor Who, a chap named Dan Martin recently posed that very question to Moffat, and actually got a relatively straightforward answer. Not terribly satisfying or convincing one, mind you, but straightforward.

So what would happen if the Doctor and the Ponds met up somewhere other than Manhattan?

New York would still burn. The point being, he can’t interfere. Here’s the ‘fan answer’ — this is not what you’d ever put out on BBC One, because most people watch the show and just think, ‘Well there’s a gravestone so obviously he can’t visit them again’. But the ‘fan answer’ is, in normal circumstances he might have gone back and said, ‘Look we’ll just put a headstone up and we’ll just write the book’. But there is so much scar tissue, and the number of paradoxes that have already been inflicted on that nexus of timelines, that it will rip apart if you try to do one more thing. He has to leave it alone. Normally he could perform some surgery, this time too much surgery has already been performed. But imagine saying that on BBC One!

When Neil Gaiman was enlisted to pen an episode of Doctor Who back in 2011, it was one of those things that, in retrospect, made perfect sense. Gaiman’s style and subject matter are often quite close to that of Doctor Who, and sure enough, his episode — entitled “The Doctor’s Wife” — became an instant classic. Now he’s stepping into the TARDIS again for “The Last Cyberman,” the penultimate episode of the seventh season. What can we expect as the longtime Who baddies are filtered through the lens of Gaiman’s imagination.

“The Doctor’s Wife” put an entirely new spin on the relationship between the Doctor and his time-space vehicle of choice, literally personifying the TARDIS for a brief time before she returned to her unmistakable police box form. According to Who executive producer Caroline Skinner, “The Last Cyberman” takes a similar approach, taking an iconic element from the show and twisting it just so, allowing viewers a new way of looking at the old and familiar. Here’s what Skinner had to say to SFX:

One of the things that Neil was initially really excited about was being given one of the classic Doctor Who monsters and being able to bring a new twist and a new way of looking at them. Certainly when we watched them on set they felt very creepy and the redesign of the masks recalls to a certain extent some of the earlier ‘Moonbase’/‘Tomb Of The Cybermen’ designs. What Neil’s also done in that episode is actually used the notion of being able to write a story about the Doctor in conflict with the Cybermen in a new way, to really make it a huge episode for Matt. It’s a brilliant performance, that one. It’s interesting what Neil does – he always delivers such wonderful visual sequences, as he did with ‘The Doctor’s Wife’, but one of his real strengths is that he gets right to the heart of the characters as well. In many ways that episode is as much about Matt’s Doctor in conflict with one of the most classic and famous Doctor Who monsters as it is about what the Cybermen look like.

Usually when I get a sweet tooth, I’m not picky about what I end up eating. Nutella toast, bread pudding ice cream, caramel banana pie, whatever. I’d even take a Peanut Butter Twix if I can get it on the spot. Something I almost never do is make a dessert that is as pretty as it is tasty. That’s why I usually hand out pieces of birthday pile instead of birthday cake.

Monica Holbert, also known as the Cookie Cowgirl, is as talented an amateur cookie artist as you’ll find, and I promise my opinion isn’t skewed just because she most recently made a batch of cookies themed after Douglas Adams’ science fiction comedy masterpiece, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Yeah, I realize that just because I like all of the designs, especially the dependable towel and the dolphin, it doesn’t mean they taste good. Even so, I still wish I had two heads like Zaphod Beeblebrox so that I could feast on these treats at twice the speed.