TV Review: Doctor Who 7.01 - Asylum of the Daleks

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Doctor Who is a programme about change. It's always been critically acclaimed in some form or another, and it's also been a key part of British heritage and culture for many years. But, like the main protagonist himself; the characterised glue that has constantly kept the show stuck together; the time traveler whose personality and appearance has taken eleven different official forms and even more unofficial ones over the past near-50 years, the show constantly changes. It changes with new lead writers, it changes with the times and it most definitely changes with The Doctor himself, not to mention his countless companions. In the midst of all this change a number of problems have popped up over the years: plot-holes, continuity errors and such, which can let the self-proclaimed 'hardcore' viewer down if taken to heart. Fans of classic Doctor Who and even the Russell T. Davies era will find a fair few problems with the recently broadcasted series 7 (or 32, if you will) opener, titled Asylum of the Daleks - Errors which are most evident in the form of issues to do with the Doctor's greatest adversary themselves.

Now let's get one thing perfectly clear: I absolutely adore Doctor Who and I adore it now more than I ever did before current lead writer Steven Moffat took over, but I don't take it too seriously. A lead writer can't write a story of his own based around an adversary that has been present in a show since its second serial without creating continuity issues, and that's a fact, but so-called die-hards feel the need to point out unobvious errors and see them as episode ruiners. Fans who expected SteeMo to watch every Dalek story ever broadcast before writing his Dalek debut are quite foolish, to say the least, because when you look past the slightly botched continuity there is an absolutely fantastic story in Asylum of the Daleks, paired with fantastic production values (especially for a BBC budget) and a personal adoration of mine which comes in the form of some truly phenomenal direction from Nick Hurran, who also worked on two stellar hits from last year, The Girl who Waited and The God Complex. Speaking of last year, Doctor Who's sixth revived series saw a lot more head-scratching than most with its complex plot lines and timey-wimey madness, but thankfully with series 7 Moffat has wiped the slate clean and gone back to the basics with a very sophisticated, easy to understand script that worked wonders on our TV screens. The Doctor is back and he's made his return with a particularly explodey-wodey bang.

Update 15/09/12: Explanation for my Hiatus / Progress Updates

It's been exactly a month since I last updated, and not much less since I actually posted any artcles, so I thought now would be a good time to initiate writing a little progress update. Naturally, this post will give a little more insightfulness on my current writing projects (of which there are many quite literally ready to be published) as well as the redesign me and ONM forum member TJ HipHop have been working on. Well, he's doing most of the work but regardless, the redesign is still coming and will hopefully be in public view by the month of September's end. The graphics I've seen thus far, as well as the template I've created with Blogger's admittedly rather fiddly template designer tool are looking a lot more professional than the site does at this moment in time, and I'm just as excited to see the finished product as you might well be. Again, apologies for the delays (I was hoping to get it done and dusted a little earlier, but never mind) but, while I can't promise anything, I am hoping to start publishing posts on the brand-new Noodle's Blog before the month ends.

Speaking of the publishing of posts, I do actually have a few things ready to be unleashed as aforementioned. The thing is, I originally wanted to post all my articles in regards to previously unexplored mediums - TV, film and music - after the redesign was to be launched in order to compliment the freshness of the new-look site. While I'll be sticking by this with my film and music reviews, namely The Dictator and Blur's 13 respectively (apologies in advance for the poor quality of the latter article, it is my first music review after all), I do plan on posting my TV reviews ASAP, along with a new ratings graphic. Speaking of which, I haven't actually mentioned said TV reviews until given the chance right now. So, yeah, the seventh revived series of Doctor Who started a few weeks back and I've already reviewed the first episode. Not to mentioned the fact that my review of episode 2 is in the writing process and will hopefully be completed this weekend. Episode 3 is airing today and I'll also be reviewing that sometime the following week. In other words, I'll be reviewing all five episodes each in a 1000-word shell and publishing them both on here and in Stream, the graphics, arts and writing magazine I've already mentioned numerous times in these updates post (the new design will feature an Affiliates page linking to Stream and a few other things, as if I don't advertise it enough). If you want to read my aforementioned film and music reviews, don't hesitate to check out the free online magazine right here.

Back to the medium I typically cover on this blog and will continue to mainly focus on following my expansion of media coverage, you may remember that I promised my review of the absolutely phenomenal Kid Icarus: Uprising on 3DS would be posted last month. Unfortunately, I also noted that the new design would be up last month, and I was all set to tie in my latest game review with the launch of the new design. Sorry about that, but it's all in the past. I plan on posting this review (which, if you don't mind one blowing his own trumpet, might well be my best yet) before the month ends, hopefully to tie-in with the redesign's launch. On the topic of gaming, I've had a fair few posts in the pipeline over the past few weeks but haven't finished any of them, although I'm close to doing so. Firstly, a synopsis of the gorgeous Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and secondly my thoughts on that fiasco surrounding The World Ends with You that spanned a fortnight a few weeks back. Both will be up this month, redesign or no. Back to reviews, the next one I plan on writing up after all of the above is over and done with is Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on both PS2 and 3DS (yes, I'll be analysing each seperately) which should be exciting. Finally, my Top Ten Favourite Games Feature is gradually being worked on and has been for the past few months, but I can promise it is coming and will hopefully be up before the end of next month.

And so, this concludes another update. Apologies for a lack of posts lately but I hope my explanation has sufficed. I haven't even mentioned the fact that I'm in my most important (and stressful) year of school now and revision naturally takes priority over my personal projects, but I will continue to fit these things in. You can expect a few new posts before the end of the month, and maybe even the redesign I'm so pumped to launch. Thank you, and goodnight/afternoon/morning (I think I've covered everything, there).

Hope Piqued for a Sequel to The World Ends with You... But don't get too excited.

It's been a fairly exciting week for gamers these past few seven days, and for good reason. Some speculative screenshots for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V have been released, a number of minor bits and pieces regarding the next Smash Bros. game have found their way from Sakurai's mouth to the web... But, despite these exciting, mainstream games being reported on these past few days, one teaser site spawned from a 2008 underground hit has been the most exciting for yours truly. If, like me, you're a fan of The World Ends with You (well, I'd consider myself more than a fan but that's beside the point) then you'll have most definitely heard the big news in relation to this teaser website. Yes, the time has finally come: In just under seven days time we'll be seeing the announcement of the next installment in the vast lore of The World Ends with You... Hopefully.

The teaser website, featuring a countdown much reminiscent of The World Ends with You's erasure clocks, as well as a remixed version of the song 'Calling', point in the direction of a new installment. However, various sources state otherwise. Here's hoping said sources are wrong...

At this enthralling teaser website, you'll find what started out as a seven day countdown for something clearly related to The World Ends with You. Various things have 100% confirmed this: The site features a remixed version of a song from the original game's soundtrack, titled Calling, as well as an unfinished logo that shows the stylish silhouette of Shibuya's 104 district, also featured in the original game along with its logo. The original game's art and character designers, Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi, are also credited at the footer of the site. Something all-new in relation to The World Ends with You is definitely coming, but don't get your hopes up for a sequel just yet. Why? Well, various sources have all but confirmed something else; Something that practically forced me to grab some metaphorical hype paint remover upon painting myself hyped when I initially discovered the site this morrow. You see, there's a good chance that this much-proclaimed sequel, one I'm sure we're all hoping to see on 3DS or Wii U, is actually some kind of social game or network for PCs and various smartphone devices. Bummer, I know. What exactly points in this direction? First off, the Twitter account of a Japanese Square-Enix representative posted a link to the site alongside a number of words which lead one to believe the prospect of a PC and smartphone release as opposed to what we actually want: A proper sequel or prequel, or at least a remake. In fact, I'd be more excited for the latter in the event that they screw up the continuity like they did with Kingdom Hearts upon developing a sequel.

Secondly are more speculative hints that the game, or whatever it is, will be on the wrong platforms. The site features a link to Square's mobile gaming partner, GREE, alongside various links to other social networks in order to share the news of the teaser. The source code of the website also includes hints at GREE's involvement in the project, as well as a mobile site. I'm hoping that this is merely an extra feature in ties with what we're all hoping is a brand-new game on 'proper' gaming platforms, but we'll just have to wait and see. The mobile site found in the source code might be just that: a mobile version of the site. Really, in basic terms, we don't know whether this teaser site will reveal a brand-new game set in The World Ends with You's stunning Shibuya-based universe, or just some odd social networking game that everyone's going to ignore outside of Japan (Square-Enix have been doing this sort of thing lately, after all) and all we can do is wait.

Here's hoping one of my favourite games of all time - my most beloved RPG and number one handheld game, no less - is getting a proper sequel and not some ridiculous smartphone sub-game.

Despite the disappointing prospect that this big reveal won't be what I truly want, I am excited for the high possibility of new artwork and music. After all, we've already got the remixed version of Calling, not to mention a fancy new logo, so there's a much higher chance that we'll at least be seeing more of these mediums in relation to The World Ends with You, whether this new project happens to be a PC and smartphone exclusive game or not. When it comes down to it, nothing is confirmed and we don't know squat as of yet. All we can do is wait, unlike the original's players who fought against an ever-ticking time limit on a daily basis. For us, just under seven days remain. Hopefully we're in for one hell of a prize after this wait...

Update 15/08/12: Noodle's Blog Is Evolving... / Stream Launch / Upcoming Posts

The first thing you'll most definitely notice about this post is its title. Typically I'd title these progressive update posts with a previously standardised format of 'Update: insert whatever I'll be discussing within this post'. Well, while this format hasn't really changed too much with this update I have indeed modified it for a reason, and that's to amplify the key element of this update as well as what's to come in the not too distant future: change. Change is good, especially when it's the kind of modification that will hopefully soon be made to this blog, one I've been independently running with little real change over the past few years. Of course, you only have to compare my posts from back when I started to my latest to tell that my skill in writing and opinionated journalism has improved, but structurally this site hasn't changed a bit since its genesis. In fact, I probably shouldn't  There's not a whole lot that sets this site apart from any other typical collection of articulate thoughts here on Blogger. Sure, I've designed and painstakingly pieced together an original design and developed my skills over the years, but I feel that now would be the perfect time to make an upgrade with a little help from people who are basically better at graphic arts than yours truly. Yes, it's time for another redesign, and not just in the sense of the appearance of this blog.

This evolution links in with the other major topic I'll be detailing in this post, which I might as well discuss now. In the last update post (or was it the one before?) I dictated my involvements in an ONM Forum project, the online magazine titled Stream. Well, in case you're not keeping up with the times in regards to this enthralling project, it has now launched along with the first issue of this free, fantastically designed web-mag. A special mention goes out to all involved, forum members Conorr and TJ HipHop in particular for piecing together what has turned out a gleaming success and then some. And who knows, this success might lead to something big. Anyway, the main thing outside of the magazine's launch that I wanted to discuss is my involvement in the project. I've already contributed my Super Mario 3D Land review from a few months back to the launch issue of Stream, but in the same issue an exclusive article produced by moi is also included. As I detailed in the last update here on the blog while I was still writing the thing, I reviewed Sacha Baron Cohen's latest, The Dictator, to be exclusively featured in the magazine for at least some time. Anyway, I'm waffling, so let's swiftly get into the meat of things, here: Do I plan on posting my first non-game review here on the blog? Certainly. You see, as much as I love video games, I don't really see as much success in writing journalism for this medium as I do for, say, reviewing albums and films. This isn't to say that I'm dropping games journalism, it will definitely still be the main focus of this journalistic abode, just with reviews and opinions in relation to other forms of media as a metaphorical side-dish every now and again. Aside from my first published film review, I've got a critical synopsis of Blur's album 13 on the way, too. This album review will be included in the second issue of Stream and on this site several weeks after. I only plan on publishing these reviews on here following the launch of the new design, however, to mark the occasion with even more change.

Speaking of which, let's get back to the second re-design. I won't be working on the design I have planned in a graphical sense this time around, as I've never been that skilled in graphic design and I don't even own any software to develop something great. I actually used an online service, Fotoflexer, to piece together the design you'll see surrounding this post at the time of writing. I already mentioned TJ Hiphop, whose contribution to Stream excited me and made me think, 'This is the guy for the job' as I was planning this revolution. Thankfully, he's shown interest in helping me out in this regard and I'll be willing to credit him as much as possible if he goes all the way with it. We're probably looking at a September-time launch for the redesign, so look forward to that.

Finally, allow me to close off this update with the usual news I stick into these posts; what exactly is coming up article-wise in the coming months? Well, the next thing you'll see, either before or after the redesign has launched, is my review of 3DS gem Kid Icarus: Uprising. Honestly, as things are progressing at this moment in time, I think this might just be my best review yet, especially after my review of Mario Kart 7, which I was honestly a little disappointed with. Even better is the news that it's almost finished, and you'll see it published on here very soon. Following that, I'm going back to home console game reviews after a fairly lengthy hiatus. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on PS2 is the game in question, and following that, something massive: My review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which I'm currently replaying and still loving to bits. After that, possibly the last review you'll see from me this year will be of the excellent Persona 4,which I'm planning on also replaying after I'm done with the aforementioned projects. In terms of features, I'm currently working on my Top Ten Personal Favourite Games list, which will be up before the end of september, probably. And, for this update at least, that's just about everything. So, for now, look forward to the redesign as well as all these upcoming posts and have a nice day!

Note: If this post feels rushed, so be it. It's only an update and I wanted to get this out ASAP. At least I'm getting the news across, right?