Doctor Who, Series 6: A Review

Well, another year has gone by and another season of Doctor Who has ended. With the finale airing this past weekend, I thought it'd be appropriate look back on each episode and contribute my final selected thoughts now that we have all thirteen episodes in front of us. I'll give my grade for each one, before finally calculating a final grade for the season as a whole. Just look at it as something to argue about until the Christmas special...

EP 01: "The Impossible Astronaut"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Toby Haynes

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor brings his friends together to watch his own death, only to reemerge from the dead and lead them all back to 1960s America, investigating the astronaut that shot him.

Thoughts: The first thing that stands out about this season is the stunning cinematography and "Astronaut" showcased that early. The epic shots of Monument Valley were an immense step up from the "quarry-in-Cardiff" style we're used to. Plus, there's that shot right above this blurb. Wow. All in all, a strong episode, which introduced the ominous Silence and set up the narrative framework for the rest of the season. Frenetic pacing at times, but not without reason.

Grade: A-


EP 02: "Day of the Moon"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Toby Haynes

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor continues to investigates the Silence, a mysterious alien race who can edit themselves out of memory and are somehow connected with the Doctor's death on the beach.

Thoughts: Much more exposition-heavy than "Astronaut," "Moon" hurls you into the plot from the beginning and never lets up. Lots of cool things happen (most of them involving Richard Nixon), but the conclusion to the episode leaves a great deal of contradictory and unexplained plot holes hanging in the air. Overall, the episode feels like too many ideas trying to be told at the same time. The Silence are still a powerful concept for a villain, though, and this episode is a great showcase for their specific brand of terror.

Grade: B


EP 03: "The Curse of the Black Spot"
Writer: Steve Thompson
Director: Jeremy Webb

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor and Co. find themselves marooned on a pirate ship, while a beautiful siren menaces the crew and assorted stowaways.

Thoughts: A complete disaster. A weak concept (an episode of pirate tropes) is made even worse by dismal writing from Sherlock contributor Thompson. Plot holes galore, along with clunky dialogue, hamfisted sentiment and some truly ridiculous pirates. The cast does their best to sell the story, but are betrayed by their flimsy script and Webb's uneasy directorial debut for the show. Easily the worst episode of the Moffat era.

Grade: D


EP 04: "The Doctor's Wife"
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Director: Richard Clark

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor travels beyond the universe to a sentient asteroid, which sucks the soul of the TARDIS out of the blue box and into the body of a woman.

Thoughts: This episode is as good as "Black Spot" is bad. Gaiman's much-awaited contribution to the show does not even remotely disappoint, nor does Clark's bold directorial style. The episode's simple concept is executed beautifully and poetically, while Matt Smith delivers some of his best work opposite Suranne Jones. There's even an Ood! Love an Ood... All in all, a complete triumph.

Grade: A


EP 05: "The Rebel Flesh"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

Plot-in-a-Sentence: A group of miners use a substance known as the Flesh to create copies, or Gangers, of themselves, before a storm gives the Gangers their independence.

Thoughts: Strongly reminiscent of Series 5's humdrum Silurian arc, the first half of this two-part episode is surprisingly strong, getting far with a bit of atmosphere and great location scouting. Murray Gold's score is impressive throughout and the Gangers conflicts with their original versions is interesting, no matter how many cliches Graham tries to throw in the way. Solid acting from the guest stars works wonders.

Grade: B


EP 06: "The Almost People"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Gangers war against the miners becomes deadly, while two Doctors struggle to keep the two groups from tearing each other apart.

Thoughts: The Flesh arc loses steam in its second half, as the reasons for conflict become increasingly forced. Matt Smith again steals the show, this time by playing two versions of himself, but Graham cannot account for assorted plot holes and glaring questions opened up by these antics. A weak, disappointing episode overall, by the last ten minutes cannot be missed.

Grade: C+


EP 07: "A Good Man Goes to War"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Peter Hoar

Plot-in-a-Sentence: Old friends come to the Doctor's side as he brings the fight to his enemies in an attempt to rescue the kidnapped Amy and her newborn daughter.

Thoughts: The midseason cliffhanger aims absurdly high and somehow more-or-less hits its mark. Almost certainly Smith's finest episode to date, with innumerable great quotes and line readings. Moffat manages to cram so many different things into a brisk fifty minutes, while ensuring that almost every one feels necessary and satisfying. A truly great episode that strongly reveals the season's dark themes while providing a great deal of old-fashioned sci-fi fun. Oh, and the identity of River Song. I guess that's a big deal.

Grade: A


EP 08: "Let's Kill Hitler"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Richard Senior

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The TARDIS finds itself in Nazi Germany, but new revelations about River Song and a mysterious, shape-changing vessel prove to be much bigger problems.

Thoughts: This episode never feels like it truly got past its hilarious title. In the most concentrated dose of exposition the show has done since the Davies years, the episode answers questions by revealing dozens more that need answering. The actors give it their best, but the script feels too crammed to be executed easily in forty-five minutes. Major props to the creation of the Tesselecta, though, especially the hilarious Antibodies. "You will experience a tingling sensation and then death." Indeed.

Grade: B-


EP 09: "Night Terrors"
Writer: Mark Gatiss
Director: Richard Clark

Plot-in-a-Sentence: A young boy requires the Doctor's help after being plagued by fears of monsters in the night.

Thoughts: Gorgeous directing and a passable script from Doctor Who/Sherlock stalwart Gatiss can't completely save this episode from unavoidable Who cliches. There's the adorable child with mysterious power. Amy and Rory get trapped somewhere. And finally, the redemptive power of emotion solves all the problems. Perhaps, in a vacuum, this episode is stronger than it feels here, but after seasons of these types of things, its all starting to feel a bit boring. Creepy? Yes. Memorable? Not so much.

Grade: C+


EP 10: "The Girl Who Waited"
Writer: Tom MacRae
Director: Nick Hurran

Plot-in-a-Sentence: Amy gets stuck in a faster time stream, aging forty difficult years before Rory and the Doctor can find her.

Thoughts: In writing these reviews, I've realized how important each script is to my final grades. Make no mistake: "Girl Who Waited" looks quite stunning. However, MacRae's script is simply dreadful. Karen Gillan is a bit out-of-her-league playing Future Amy, but she's trying her damnedest and most of the blame should fall on the ridiculous lines that are being put in her mouth. A powerful visual aesthetic, complete with enemies that look like they evolved from iPods, makes this episode worth watching. Just get ready for some groaning every time Amy says "probe."

Grade: C


EP 11: "The God Complex"
Writer: Toby Whithouse
Director: Nick Hurran

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The gang are trapped in a hotel-like maze, complete with minotaur, while rooms with their deepest fears line the hallways.

Thoughts: The season's late-episode redemption begins here, as the seemingly inexorable slide toward mediocrity is finally stopped by this strong addition. The show gets a lot of millage of the rooms-with-fears-in-them stuff, which the cinematography and production design get to flex their muscles. The conclusion is all a bit rushed, with the Doctor reduced to rapid-fire yammering before everything settles down, but the process of getting there remains interesting, even after repeated viewings.

Grade: B+


EP 12: "Closing Time"
Writer: Gareth Roberts
Director: Steve Hughes

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor calls upon Craig Owens once again, this time investigating a group of Cybermen hidden beneath a shopping mall.

Thoughts: As seemingly the only person on Earth who wasn't completely in love with Series 5's "The Lodger," I was skeptical about bringing back Craig for another adventure. Thankfully, this episode was wonderful, in the most ridiculous of ways. Adding Craig's infant son to the mix provides endless jokes and hilarious moments, contributing some needed levity to this dark season. Again, the episode's end borders on absurd, but it's all so much fun that you can look past that. A great example of what this show could look like without a regular companion attached.

Grade: A-


EP 13: "The Wedding of River Song"
Writer: Steven Moffat
Director: Jeremy Webb

Plot-in-a-Sentence: The Doctor prepares to face his death, only for River to disrupt a fixed point in time, thus forcing all of history to happen simultaneously.

Thoughts: The show's first single-episode finale continues the trend of heavy exposition and blistering pacing found in Moffat's other contributions this season. Unfortunately, where "Good Man" was thrilling and surprising, "Wedding" feels all too predictable and doesn't hold up to detailed plot analysis. Question after question pops up if you try to untangle the timeline the show has created for itself and the episode indicates that Moffat and his writers might not take the time to solve this mess. Watching all of time happen at once is a great deal of fun, but I would have preferred the show to deal with its own plotlines first before making grand, absurd gestures.

Grade: B

Final Season Grade: B. Series 6 tried to explore the Doctor's darker side, showing the side effects of his intergalactic celebrity and responsibilities to his friends. In doing so, however, the writers seemingly lost the ability to tell consistently compelling stories. There are many great things to take away from these thirteen episodes: Matt Smith has truly come into his own as the Doctor, as did Arthur Darvill as the impossibly endearing Rory. The production values and visual aesthetic of the show have never been stronger. However, until the writing returns to a higher standard, the show will continue to feel like a slight disappointment in my mind.

The Blog Returns, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zep

(Welcome back to Pretzel Logic! It's that time of year again, when I get the familiar urge to figuratively pick up my imaginary pen and start writing again for an audience that may or may not exist. However, in the past, this drive has always been accompanied by strict personal guidelines and attempts to impose order or schedules on my writing style. This time, I'm throwing that all out the window. I'm going to take a stab at personal and observational essays, mostly on the topic of music but occasionally about completely different things. Hopefully, those of you who've been reading over the past few years will find this change a welcome and interesting one. As always, feedback is welcomed, encouraged and appreciated. - Simon)

I won't beat around the bush here. For the better part of the past decade, I hated Led Zeppelin. If you have even a passing familiarity with this whole, crazy rock music thing the kids have been on about for, oh, the past sixty years, you'll understand why this was such a controversial position for me to take. Led Zeppelin are not merely a rock band. They are The Rock Band, a mythological force of might and justice. The Beatles may be considered the most important band in history, but, in the popular imagination, no one can really compete with Zep when it comes to sheer power and weight. They didn't have a singer; a Golden God graced their (unworthy) microphones. Jimmy Page wasn't just a guitarist. He was a black magician, who harnessed nothing less than the power of sweet, sweet Satan through his six-stringed worship. Hell, sometimes one guitar wasn't enough and Page brought out the dreaded double-necked guitar to pay homage to his Dark Lord. And if this wasn't enough, their drummer was the drummer who essentially ended all other drummers. John Bonham pummeled his way into the psyche of entire generations of stickmen. You want to know how important Bonham was? Watch the episode of Freaks & Geeks where Jason Segal's character learns Bonham died. Now multiply that for every aspiring hard rock musician of the seventies. Heavy shit, right? (Editors note: I guess John Paul Jones was in this band as well. Ho hum.)

So yes. This was the band I hated. Whenever I think about Zeppelin these days, I think of Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood, who declares that he "grew up rebellin' against the music of my high school parking lot" on DBT's masterful 2001 album Southern Rock Opera. Mind you, Hood is talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd and his parking lot happened to be in Alabama, but I know that feeling. When you're removed from the apparent baseline for high school culture (sports, beer and house parties), the lunk-headed soundtrack to those activities takes on a certain negative light. For me, Zep always represented the most conservative approach to music fandom possible. After all, that's what classic rock is, at least in this day and age. Any danger or rebellion that was once present has been steamrolled out through excessive play on radio, television, film and every other medium imaginable. The Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Zeppelin... these aren't primal rock bands any more. They're the soundtrack to our daily lives. They are firmly established chunks of America's cultural history. To listen to their music today isn't a provocative action. In fact, it's expected of you.

Enter high-school-Simon, an awkward theater kid with a voracious appetite for music. After the Red Hot Chili Peppers broke down the dam of popular music for me, it didn't take me long to see through the mainstream veneer of classic rock and zero in on the more bizarre stuff. The jarring politicism of Rage Against the Machine hit more more than other radio rock. The depressive bombast of Alice in Chains was always a bigger draw than fellow local heroes Nirvana. And then I discovered Radiohead and there was no turning back. The irony, of course, is that all of these groups were massive, internationally successful acts, but at the time, such distinctions were important. They set me on a course that I still feel I'm following, searching deeper and deeper into the history of music to find sounds that appeal to me.

There was no room in my pantheon of musical greats for Led Zeppelin. For years, when I heard Zep songs, I heard conformity. I associated the band with guys who were in Youth Republicans groups, who drank beer at house parties with their bros and were destined to become respectable, white-collar corporate employees. I went to college, where my stereotypical associations with Zeppelin were reinforced. The people who liked Zep weren't rebels or iconoclasts or people who truly "rocked." There were the folks who just liked to party a bit, all within the carefully defined historical expectations of partying. Getting drunk, randomly making out with a few girls and listening to Zeppelin have been ingrained into the traditional college experience.

In college, I did none of those things. I didn't get drunk, any making out was most definitely planned and Zeppelin stayed far away from my laptop speakers (although the RIAA did try to take me to court for supposedly downloading "Over the Hills and Far Away"... ironic, considering that I downloaded every other song known to man). Even as I gained academic appreciations for many other bands under the classic rock banner, Zep still sounded like overly libidinous English guys masturbating with their guitars all over the legacies of dozens of unheralded blues musicians. The band remained one of the few bands I could confidently say I had no taste for, whatsoever.

So, how did I get where I am right now, typing away on my blog while "Trampled Under Foot" plays merrily from my iTunes library? About a month ago, two events conspired to forever change my view of Plant, Page and their gang of hooligans. The first, as goofy as it may be, was the release of the trailer for David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. If you haven't seen it yet, do so now (oh look! A link!). Besides being a startlingly well-edited trailer, the soundtrack immediately captured my attention. That's Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O covering Zep's "Immigrant Song." Suddenly, I saw Zep in new light, as a forceful, driving and slightly desperate-sounding band, with songs full of unresolved tension. I like songs with unresolved tension. Now that I think about it, that's just about all I listen to.

The second major event in my rediscovering of Zeppelin was reading Erik Davis' contribution to the glorious 33 1/3 book series, each of which features an author tackling a specific album. Davis chose Led Zeppelin IV, but instead of delivering the expected sermon on the band's unmitigated awesomeness, he hypothetically explored their mythology as if it were fact. Yes, Page really did make a deal with the devil for the riff to "Kashmir" and yes, Bonham really was part caveman. But one passage stuck out for me, when Davis discussed how the endless forward motion of the most rockin' of Zeppelin songs was the musical equivalent of unresolved sexual energy. In Davis' opinion, this positioned Zeppelin against the bands of the 60s, which, if we're being completely honest, were coming to musical climax all over the place.

With these key influences informing my listening, I revisited Zep's catalog. And lo and behold, I heard exactly what Davis was talking about. Or at least, I did across six songs: "Dazed and Confused," "Immigrant Song," "Trampled Under Foot," "Kashmir," "When the Levee Breaks" and, most importantly, "Whole Lotta Love." These six songs represent my reclamation of Zeppelin, away from the beer-soaked hands of my high school parking lot. These six songs allowed me to personally reconceptualize the band as the dangerous, ferocious force that I'd been promised for so long. These are songs driven by monstrous riffs, full of guitar grit and experimental structures. Hell, on "Trampled Under Foot," even the usually insufferable Plant sounds like his vocal chords are being destroyed with sandpaper. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that's awesome!

I'm still not a big Zeppelin fan. Their slow, bluesy songs still do nothing for me, especially now that my college-educated self has a firm understanding of copyright law. Don't even get me talking about the unmitigated disaster that is "Stairway to Heaven." But finally, at long last, I've found my window, however tiny, into something that so many people seem to have been hearing for years. The paths we take to discover music aren't always particularly straight or predictable, but I savor those moments when, after years of being lost in the maze, I finally find the figurative door that leads me into an exciting new musical world. A land of ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow. AhhhhhEEEEEHHHHAAAAaaaaHHH!

It's Whosday! Recaps: "The Almost People"

Series 6, Episode 6
Title: "The Almost People"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

My Mariners just won an incredible game and I'm working without notes, so bear with me as I recap "The Almost People," the second half of the Ganger arc started by last week's "The Rebel Flesh." It's been a frantic week for the Who-niverse, with a long series of promos for the mid-season finale, Steven Moffat's announcement that the Daleks will be retired for a while and finally an insane twist ending to "Almost People." The excitement for this weekend's "A Good Man Goes to War" could not be more palpable, but the expectations of fans are also reaching dangerous levels. We're facing a three-month break without new episodes, we know that we're going to be left with a vicious cliffhanger and, on top of all that, we've been handed so many unanswered questions already this season. In a brief 45 minutes this Saturday, some of those questions will probably be answered. But some won't and other, new ones will be introduced. It's enough to drive a person mad, I tell you.

In "The Almost People," we pick up exactly where "Rebel Flesh" left off, with the Doctor and his human comrades facing off with the newly cloned Ganger-Doctor (who becomes known as John Smith, in good Who tradition). Needless to say, with two Matt Smiths onscreen, the great moments come fast and often. There's some homages to earlier Doctors ("I've reversed the jelly baby of neutron flow!") and a lot of agonized screaming before everyone settles down and runs away from the attacking Gangers. They run to an evac tower to escape choking gas, before running around to find Rory, and finally they all run into a series of catacombs to hunt down the TARDIS. Both episodes in this arc featured lots of running to new locations so people could talk, followed by more running, followed by more talking. So yeah, maybe writer Matthew Graham was just spinning wheels a bit, but at least we had two Matt Smith's this time.

The Gangers go through more of the same "us or them" talk, fueled by the increasingly unstable (both mentally and Flesh-wise) Jennifer. Eventually, most of them realize that they need to reconcile their differences with the human originals, but various forces conspire to pick off both human and Ganger until the only three left are both Cleaves, Ganger-Jimmy and Ganger-Dicken, along with the Doctor, Smith, Amy and Rory. Along the way there are emotional moments (such as when Ganger-Jimmy accepts fatherly responsibilities after the original Jimmy dies), but everything ultimately boils down to holding a door closed to prevent a absurdly mutated Jennifer from killing everyone. Then the Doctor and Smith reveal that they've switched places.

And this, kids, is where it gets complicated. Turns out that the Doctor devised this little plan to test the differences between originals and Gangers, lying to Amy about which was which to see if she placed her trust in the new, but technically identical Smith. Of course she didn't, even revealing to him in an emotional moment that she saw the Doctor die all the way back on the beach. But then he has to go and say that they switched. Seemingly, Amy spilled the beans on the whole "we can't tell him his future" bit, but we don't actually know for sure. The Doctor certainly didn't react in any big way and despite an off-hand reference at the episode's end (he talks to Smith about being invited to his own funeral), no time is spent dealing with something that previous episodes treated like a major plot point. So... I guess we'll find out?

More importantly, we learn that Amy has actually been Ganger-Amy since the beginning of the season and that the real Amy Pond has been controlling this copy mentally while secretly being ensconced in room somewhere to have a baby. The random appearances of the Eyepatch Lady have actually been caused by the image of a woman checking on the real Amy bleeding through her subconscious. Just when we thought everyone had been saved and no one had to die today, the Doctor reveals that he knows far more than he let on and melts Amy into a pile of Flesh-goo. Rory is distraught. The Doctor is stern. The audience is suitably confused.

"A Good Man Goes to War" will wrap up the first half of Series 6 and will be out last taste of new Who until September. The Cybermen, Silurians and Sontarans are all scheduled to make appearances, as will Henry Avery and his son, River, centurion Rory and that random blue guy from the beginning of "The Pandorica Opens." We're left with far too many questions and seemingly very little time for answers. I've all but given up speculating at this point, because I know that Moffat is operating at full evil genius mode right now and is far too pleased with his own wit to be actually predicted. So, we'll see what we get. We've been promised a reveal about River Song's identity. We've been promised an all-star lineup of the Doctor's most famous enemies. And now we've got an insane rescuing-Amy-and-her-newborn-from-doom plot line to contend with. I'm not sure a single episode can deal with all those things in a satisfying way. But I'm sure Moff is going to try. Let's all hope for the best, yeah?

Stray Observations (sans notes)

-This whole arc was a clusterfuck of bad CGI. Blech.
-Any fans of Moffat's Jekyll out there recognize the building where the Doctor drops Cleaves and Dicken off? I think it's the same one as the headquarters for Jekyll's company.
-Again, solid acting from the cast as a whole. Raquel Cassidy particularly had some great moments in this second half.
-Seriously, when do the Doctor and Smith switch? So much depends on this.
-The Doctor's final lines to Smith about how dying might not erase his consciousness seem like a major plant for something later. Please don't tell me the Doctor who died on the beach is a Ganger...
-I'm very interested in the order of the Series 6 episodes. I know I'm not the only one feeling slightly (or perhaps a bit more) disappointed with the season so far, but I wonder if we'll say the same thing after seeing what comes in September. Imagine if Series 5 had gone "The Eleventh Hour" - "The Beast Below" - "Victory of the Daleks" - "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" - "The Vampires of Venice" - "Amy's Choice" before taking a mid-season break. We'd all be whining our heads off.

(Photos courtesy of Emma-Jane)

Seattle Zephyrs Recaps: Week 8, 8-7 Win

On paper, this looked like it was going to be a huge week. With only a two-game lead atop the league standings, the Zephyrs faced off against the second place team, Love Me Ortiz Me. However, what was supposed to be a battle for first place ultimately ended with neither team gaining much ground. Technically, the Zephyrs came out ahead, squeaking out a win when Dustin Pedroia stole a couple bases this morning to carry that category. However, the Zephyrs' lead is still a tiny one and we head off to Week 9 looking to put more distance between us and the competition.

Offense
-Runs: Jose Reyes, 8
-Hits: Reyes, 14
-Home Runs: tie - Carlos Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, 2
-Runs Batted In: tie - C. Gonzalez, Pedroia, 6
-Stolen Bases: Pedroia, 3
-Walks: Pedroia, 3
-Batting Average*: Reyes, .519
-On-base Percentage plus Slugging*: Reyes, 1.313

*minimum 15 at-bats

...and the Week 8 Offensive MVP Award goes to:


JOSE REYES! While the offense certainly wasn't overpowering this week, the Zephyrs managed to put together a balanced attack, with everyone chipping in somewhere. The only truly incredible performance, however, came from Reyes, who batted over .500 and slugged the ball with command. I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked him up on draft day, but Jose probably has the strongest case so far for being my season MVP.

Pitching
-Wins: tie - Dan Haren, Daniel Hudson, 1
-Losses: tie - Daniel Bard, Heath Bell, John Danks, Haren, James Shields, 1
-Saves: J.J. Putz, 4
-Strikeouts: Jered Weaver, 12
-Holds: none recorded
-Earned Run Average*: Weaver, 0.56
-Walks plus Hits Per Inning Pitched*: Weaver, 0.81
-Strikeout-to-Walk Ratio*: tie - Haren, Hudson, 4.00

*minimum 5.0 innings pitched

...and the Week 8 Cy Young Award goes to:


JERED WEAVER! In yet another week where the Zephyrs' offense struggled to keep pace with out opponent, the pitching came through again, doing everything but actually picking up wins. Jered sure pitched like a winner, especially when he threw 9 shutout innings yesterday while giving up only two hits, but even a performance like that couldn't net him a victory. With John Danks being cut from the team and additional setup man David Robertson being added, the Zephyrs will continue to lean heavily on their five starters to keep up our winning ways.

The Week in Albums: May 27

After a week of boring and altogether ignorable releases, The Week in Albums returns with a couple decently reviewed records and one painful reminder of promising talent that has ultimately gone no where. Aww shucks.

#1
Pala
Friendly Fires
XL Records

The past ten years have seen hundreds of English bands mining the post-punk years of the late 70s and early 80s for musical inspiration. However, while most of these groups have gone straight to critically beloved acts like Joy Division or Gang of Four, Hertfordshire trio Friendly Fires have their sights set squarely on Duran Duran. None of that hip moodiness or atmospheric gloom for them, just funky, edgy, dance-friendly pop songs. It's taken the band a while to move past the neseccary imitation stage, but on Pala, their second album, Friendly Fires are finally beginning to sound unique and noteworthy. Singles "Live Those Days Tonight" and "Hawaiian Air" are big, summer-y and quite determined to get parties started. However, the less bombastic tracks (such as the title song) and more experimental attempts ("True Love") hint at an even more promising future for the band. The lyrics throughout are generally horrible, but that hasn't stopped many other bands from turning out high-quality pop. Pala may not be the album of the year, but it's certainly worth hearing and bodes well for a band that was in danger of becoming "just another Brit-rock band."

Simon's Grade:



#2
W
Planningtorock
DFA

Full disclosure time: I know very little about Planningtorock, aka Janine Rostron. This Berlin-based English performer first came to my attention through her collaboration with the Knife on last year's Tomorrow, in a Year, an insanely ambitious electro-opera about Charles Darwin. However, that brief exposure, combined with some positive reviews of her new album W convinced me to check her music out for myself. Long story short, I'm very glad I did. The Knife remains the best comparison here, since Rostron is another female musician who electronically distorts her voice beyond any recognizable gender. Dramatic, artful and perhaps a bit indulgent, this is very theatrical music, far removed from anyone's idea of pop accessibility. However, if you have the patience and/or interest in more avant-garde music, tracks such as "Doorway" and the exceedingly odd "Manifesto" can be quite rewarding. Give W a listen, form your own opinion and decide from there.

Simon's Grade:



#3
Brilliant! Tragic!
Art Brut
Downtown Records

Back in 2005, Art Brut seemed like the next great hope for garage bands. On their debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, frontman Eddie Argos and his band of misfit musicians sang about the simplest things in the simplest ways possible and the result was eighty types of charming. But then we got a second album... and a third... and now we have Brilliant! Tragic!, the latest in a long line of Art Brut albums that are only full of disappointment. This is a band that announced their arrival on the music scene by screaming "formed a band! We formed a band!" but are now recording dreary intro tracks like "Clever, Clever Jazz," where Argos shouts about jazz appreciation for a few directionless minutes. Likewise, the softer tracks, such as "Lost Weekend," can't measure up to the "Emily Kane"s of albums past. It's never fair to constantly measure a band's latest songs against the stuff that made them famous... but in Art Brut's case, each new track only reminds us fans that we're never going to get another Bang Bang Rock & Roll ever again. Forgive me for being bitter about that.

Simon's Grade:

It's Whosday! Recaps: "The Rebel Flesh"

Series 6, Episode 5
Title: "The Rebel Flesh"
Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

I don't know about you, but when I sat down to watch this week's Who, I was still basking in the glory of last week's "The Doctor's Wife." The early episodes of Series 6 have been a frenetic mix of exposition, stunning cinematography and occasional suckitude ("Black Spot," I'm looking at you). Getting one episode where everything seemed to be working was exactly what we all needed. So, I had hoped the good work would continue in "The Rebel Flesh," which is the first half of a two-part arc written by Matthew Graham. His only other Who credit is "Fear Her," an aggressively forgettable episode from Series 2 about a girl who could trap people by drawing them with crayons. Or something like that. Coupled with first time Who director Simpson, I was prepared for the possibility of another clunky, shoddy episode. Thankfully, "Rebel Flesh" is actually quite solid, marred only by some forced plotting and some rehashing of common Who plot devices.

The episode revolves around a 22nd century group of industrial contractors, who've been tasked with pumping dangerously corrosive acid from an island to the mainland. Due to the dangerous nature of the work, the group utilizes a big seething vat of goop known as the Flesh, which can be programmed into perfect replicas of themselves and controlled while the original people lie safely in fancy rigs. Basically, we're talking Avatar here. Should one of of these "gangers" (short for "doppelgangers") get melted into nothingness by an acid spill, the nerve endings just shut off and the worker wakes up in their own body, ready to summon up a new ganger. Unfortunately, the Doctor and Co. arrive on the island thanks to a solar tsunami, which in turn threatens the entire mining operation. One huge electrical freakout later, the gangers have been electrically severed from their masters, creating duplicates of all five members of the contracting team.


Even a casual Doctor Who fan can predict what happens next. After the necessary running around to figure out what just happened, the dramatic tension centers on the struggle between the contractors and their respective gangers over who is the "real" version of each person. The gangers have all the same memories as their original versions... but they're also unstable alien-critters made out of elastic goop. Everyone spends lots of time hiding from each other, before the Doctor tracks everyone down and brings them together. Just when it seems that these two warring factions might be able to cooperate, one of the original contractors blasts a ganger to death with electricity. Everyone panics, both sides declare war on the other and the Doctor, Amy and Rory are forced to mediate everything. The episode ends with the revelation that all this time, the Flesh has been forming into a ganger of the Doctor himself, leaving us with two spastic lunatics who think bowties are cool. Wonderful...

All in all, it's not a bad episode, but it closely resembles too many moments in Who's past to feel truly great. It's especially reminiscent of last season's "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" two-parter, which featured a very similar dynamic between humanity and the reptilian Silurians hiding under the Earth's surface. "The Rebel Flesh" seems to borrow many of the beats from the Silurian arc wholesale, especially once one of the contractors murders a ganger. Mind you, this episode is far better than all the Silurian stuff, which suffered from some horrible acting and ham-fisted Israel-Palestine parallels. All five of the day players here turn in quality performances, full of charming Northern accents and touches that give the sense of a close-knit group who've been working together for years. Rory even gets his own solo b-plot, since he tries to protect one of the gangers and thus finds himself on the wrong side of the battle lines when the episode's cliffhanger arrives. "The Rebel Flesh" will be hard to judge completely until this Saturday's "The Almost People" airs, but for now, I'm satisfied with it. Despite some odd moments and a slightly tired plotline, there's enough great acting and clever artistry to make it one of the better episodes of the series thus far.

Stray Observations

-The TARDIS is still trying to figure out if Amy is pregnant. I really want Moffat to stop shoehorning those scenes into episodes. We know, goddamn it, enough already.
-Same goes for the Eyepatch Lady, who makes another cryptic appearance here without shedding any light on anything whatsoever.
-The episode's intro was quite well done and bodes well for Simpson's future as a Who director. Spooky, mysterious and playful all at the same time. Yay.
-It's weird to hear popular music on Doctor Who. I actually enjoyed the Dusty Springfield jokes throughout. The Muse song playing during the TARDIS intro bit? Not so much.
-Speaking of music, Murray Gold knocks it out of the park this week. Listen to the understated score lurking in the background when we first see the Flesh vat. Great stuff.
-Missing time may or may not be a theme of this series. It rears its ugly head here again during the lost hour following the electrical blowout.
-The elasticly special effects used on the gangers are eight types of ill-advised.
-Matthew Graham cleverly avoids lots of tired sci-fi jargon. "Gangers" is a pretty fun word and I really like that the contractors say "plumbing in" when they take control of their Flesh-selves.
-Every once and a while, the show remembers that Rory is a nurse and those moments are wonderful.
-The Doctor to the TARDIS as she sinks into acid: "What are you doing down there?!" I hope he continues to talk to the TARDIS more and more as the series goes on.
-I'm quite sad there wasn't more cooperation time between the two sides. The moment with the two Jimmys tenatively working together is very well done.
-"Even more insanerer" is this week's addition to the pitch Doctor Who shirt idea collection.

(Photos courtesy of Emma-Jane)

Seattle Zephyrs Recaps: Week 7, 8-7 Win

After a couple dominating weeks, Week 7 went down to the wire, with the Zephyrs finally pulling out the win when Daniel Bard snagged a hold in tonight's Cubs v. Red Sox matchup. Bard's four keys outs allowed the Zephyrs to tie with our opponent in the holds category, breaking an otherwise 8-8 tie. It wasn't easy, but the team walks away with their third straight win and maintains a 2-game lead in the league standings.

The theme of this week was pitching, pitching and more pitching. The Zephyrs set season highs in wins, ERA, WHIP and strikeout-to-walk ratios, while racking up an insane 71 strikeouts in only seven days. All of this was needed to offset the offensive shellacking we were subjected to by the opposing team, Utley's Uglies, who bombarded us with 11 homers and 73 hits overall. The Zephyrs were playing without the injured Grady Sizemore, while Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gonzalez also missed time, but there's no way around the fact that the Zephyr run-producing juggernaut wasn't there this week. Thankfully, a whole new set of games is right around the corner and the team looks poised to continue their run with new pickup Logan Morrison holding down one of the outfield spots.

Off to the stats...

Offense
-Runs: Dustin Pedroia, 5
-Hits: Adrian Gonzalez, 13
-Home Runs: Carlos Gonzalez, 2
-Runs Batted In: tie - A. Gonzalez, C. Gonzalez, 7
-Stolen Bases: Jose Reyes, 3
-Walks: Colby Rasmus, 6
-Batting Average*: A. Gonzalez, .481
-On-base Percentage plus Slugging*: C. Gonzalez, 1.057

*minimum 15 at-bats

...and the Week 7 Offensive MVP Award goes to:


ADRIAN GONZALEZ! I'm starting to wonder if this MVP award is a curse. Every single player I've given it to seems to follow their great week with a lame one, which is exactly what Victor Martinez did here in Week 7. Thankfully, I've got guys like Adrian here to pick up the slack. After narrowly missing out on the top honors last week, Gonzo hammered his opponents this week, leading the team in hitting. Don't fail on me next week, Adrian. We need you to stay awesome.

Pitching
-Wins: tie - Daniel Hudson, Michael Pineda, 2
-Losses: tie - James Shields, Jered Weaver, 1
-Saves: J.J. Putz, 3
-Strikeouts: Shields, 22
-Holds: Daniel Bard, 1
-Earned Run Average*: Pineda, 0.00
-Walks plus Hits Per Inning Pitched*: Pineda, 0.43
-Strikeout-to-Walk Ratio*: Pineda, 16.00

*minimum 5.0 innings pitched

...and the Week 7 Cy Young Award goes to:


MICHAEL PINEDA! What a ridiculous week for the young Mariners rookie, who threw fourteen combined shutout innings over two games, striking out 16 while walking only one batter. Yikes. Although James Shields had another ridiculous week, giving Pineda honors here is the easiest decision I've had yet. Giving up no runs will do that. It's wonderful when my real baseball team and my fantasy team can both win. Thanks, Michael.

[Programming Note: Friday's The Week in Albums post has been skipped, since I was A) traveling from Boston to Seattle at the time and B) no worthwhile albums were released. Shucks. The Week in Albums will return this upcoming Friday.]

It's Whosday! Recaps: "The Doctor's Wife"

Series 6, Episode 4
Title: "The Doctor's Wife"
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Director: Richard Clark

This past Saturday, the moment Doctor Who fans have been waiting ages for finally arrived. After much rumor-mongering, hand-wringing and nerd-tastic speculation, the long-awaited episode written by Neil Gaiman was aired. Being a complete superstar in the fantasy/sci-fi world, Gaiman's writing style seemed like it would be a perfect match for the show's whimsically dark style. Well, lo and behold, we were all absolutely right. "The Doctor's Wife" is an incredibly strong episode, highlighted by some wonderful acting performances anchoring Gaiman's sharp, fan-friendly script. So far, it's the clear favorite from Series 6 and I'm tempted to say that it's my favorite of the Moffat era entirely. Given time, I could even see it becoming my favorite episode of the entire series. Can you tell that I liked it yet...?

Unlike last week's pirate debacle, "The Doctor's Wife" can be summed up fairly quickly. After receiving a distress call from a Time Lord known as the Corsair, the Doctor sends the gang off to beyond the universe in the TARDIS. They land on a sentient asteroid known as the House (or often just "House"), populated by two odd people named Auntie and Uncle, one green-eyed ood named Nephew and finally Idris, a wacky woman who greets the Doctor by charging at him shouting "my thief!" and biting him ("biting's great! It's like kissing but there's a winner!"). After some sleuthing, it's reveled that Idris is actually the TARDIS' soul, which was ripped out of the blue box by House and stuffed inside a human body so that House could devour the TARDIS-shell. The distress call that the Doctor responded to was just one of many dying messages sent by Time Lords who suffered a similar fate.


Well, Amy and Rory get stuck inside the de-souled TARDIS during dinner time, forcing them to run through lots of corridors to avoid the lethal wrath of House. Meanwhile, the Doctor and his wonderful time (and space) machine are finally given the chance to speak face to face. Naturally, they quickly start to sound like an old married couple, jabbing and mocking each other before remembering all of their happy times together. They cobble together a make-shift TARDIS from parts they find on House's surface and intercept the real TARDIS as House drives it back towards the real universe (vaporizing poor Nephew in the process). Idris dies, since her squishy human body can't handle the raw TARDIS energy within her, but the escaping soul charges through the police box and obliterates House. There's a tearful farewell (of sorts) between the Doctor and his personified TARDIS, before she finally fades away.

It's a simple idea for an episode, but Gaiman and director Richard Clark execute it perfectly. The dynamic between Matt Smith and Suranne Jones (who plays Idris) is everything you could possible want between a man who's an semi-immortal alien and a woman who's a spaceship that exists at all moments in time and space simultaneously (or something like that). Even with the slightly boring b-plot involving Amy's and Rory's wacky adventures in the previously unseen TARDIS corridors, the episode zips along, full of quotable one-liners, exciting action sequences and some very emotional, affecting character moments. This is certainly an episode written for the fans (and by a fan, for that matter), since you need some appreciation of the history between the Doctor and his blue box for his conversations with Idris to carry their full weight. That doesn't stop it from being a wonderful episode of Doctor Who, however, and I'd bet it will be one of the most beloved of the new series for years to come.

Stray Observations

-This episode's use of the color green is awesome. Super creepy and far outside the usual DW palate.
-Auntie and Uncle don't get much screen time before they die (quite hilariously, I'll add), but in that short time, Adrian Schiller (who plays Uncle), manages steal all sorts of scenes with his accent alone.
-Idris seems like she was written for Helena Bonham Carter. Certainly Suranne Jones' wild hair seems familiar to anyone who's watching anything by Tim Burton... ever.
-Matt Smith has chemistry with his TARDIS. He also has chemistry with tiny message boxes ("C'mere, you scrumptious little beauty!). This season seems to be milking his flirtatious side for all it's worth.
-"Love an ood" has been added to my list of great DW shirt ideas.
-Not much time is spent on the Doctor's search for forgiveness from any Time Lord survivors, but it's something I'd love to see explored in later episodes/seasons of the show.
-The Doctor calls the TARDIS "Sexy" when they're alone. Because of course he does.
-They sort-of killed Rory again. You bastards!
-Unlike last week's episode, "The Doctor's Wife" seems to have had some money spent on it.
-Oh, by the way, House is voiced by Fake Tony Blair, ie: Michael Sheen. He does a great job.
-"Another ood I failed to save." Again, with the shirts...
-The final scene between Idris and the Doctor should be really corny, but Matt Smith's very honest performance saves everything. Also, it's really sad!
-Finally, the big, serialized plot point of the episode arrives at the end, when Rory tells the Doctor Idris' dying words: "The only water in the forest is the river." Speculate away, guys! This obviously has something to do with River Song... but I'm guessing we're just going to have to wait for Episode 13 to find out anything substantial.

(Photos courtesy of Emma-Jane)

Seattle Zephyrs Recaps: Week 6, 11-3 Win

Last week, the Seattle Zephyrs offense finally came to life, posting their strongest power numbers of the season. However, this week, they went absolutely ballistic. With a combined overall OPS of 0.999 (!!!) and a season-record 12 (!) home runs from the lineup, the Zephyrs obliterated their competition. Led by the ridiculous hitting tandem of Adrian Gonzalez and Victor Martinez, we swept the offensive categories, all by significant margins.

Of course, you can't have everything and the Zephyrs' pitching staff suffered their first truly substandard week, posting lows in virtually all pitching categories. With only one win to the team's credit and the worst group ERA of the season, this simply wasn't their week. Thankfully, the explosive offense bailed them out and the Zephyrs march on to Week 7 with a stronger hold on first place.

Offense
-Runs: Adrian Gonzalez, 7
-Hits: Victor Martinez, 11
-Home Runs: A. Gonzalez, 5
-Runs Batted In: Martinez, 11
-Stolen Bases: Dustin Pedroia, 3
-Walks: Pedroia, 6
-Batting Average*: Martinez, .579
-On-base Percentage plus Slugging*: Martinez, 1.757

*minimum 15 at-bats

...and the Week 6 Offensive MVP Award goes to:


VICTOR MARTINEZ! Make no mistake here: Adrian Gonzalez had an incredible week, smacking 5 dingers, knocking in 10 and leading the team in runs scored. However, Martinez was playing in a different league, posting absurd batting average and OPS numbers during his first full week after returning from injury. The Zephyrs have missed him and we're all so glad he's back in the lineup.

Pitching
-Wins: James Shields, 1
-Losses: tie - John Danks, Dan Hudson, Jered Weaver, 1
-Saves: J.J. Putz, 2
-Strikeouts: Shields, 7
-Holds: Daniel Bard, 2
-Earned Run Average*: Dan Haren, 2.35
-Walks plus Hits Per Inning Pitched*: Haren, 0.78
-Strikeout-to-Walk Ratio*: Haren, infinite (5 Ks, no BBs)

*minimum 5.0 innings pitched

...and the Week 6 Cy Young Award goes to:


DAN HAREN! Good ol' Danny takes home his second weekly Cy Young for the Zephyrs. Yes, yes, James Shields is the only guy on the staff who actually won a game, but Haren's overall numbers were much better. He deserved to win his start, but had it vultured away by Fernando Rodney's poor relief. Jered Weaver started off the season as the ace of the team, but Haren is rapidly turning into the Zephyrs' most consistent starter.

The Week in Albums: May 13

This was another busy week for releases, with at least half a dozen major new albums hitting shelves. Many of them got very good reviews, so the three profiled below are only the tip of the iceberg. I'll try to cover a few more of the highlights over the coming weeks.

#1
Smother
Wild Beasts
Domino Records

First things first: there just aren't any bands out there these days that sound anything like Wild Beasts. With their hypnotizing combination of percussion, silky guitar lines and Hayden Thorpe's falsetto vocal style, this English quartet have carved out a very specific niche for themselves following their 2009 breakthrough, Two Dancers. The past two years have been fairly quiet for the band, but here they are, releasing their much-anticipated third album, Smother. All of the elements that made Two Dancers so memorable have returned, but the album dives even further into the murky, libidinous world hinted at in the band's earlier work. On the album's best tracks, particularly "Bed of Nails" and "Plaything," Wild Beasts find a way to reconcile an indie rock musical sensibility with the palpable sexiness of good R&B. Mind you, it's a complex type of sexuality, where pain and uncertainty seem as important as pleasure, but given the general aversion to sex in most hipster-approved music, Wild Beasts' willingness to create songs this blatantly sexual is both admirable and welcomed. Especially given the vocal interplay between Thorpe and Tom Fleming, the band's secondary vocalist and all-purpose foil to Thorpe's dramatics, Smother recasts the whole genre into a gender-bending, androgynous space of beauty. There are Smiths comparisons to be made here, along with nods to lesser known artists such as the Associates and even a bit of Marc Almond, but much of what Wild Beasts are doing here is completely their own. It's wonderful to see this unique band building upon their established strengths and releasing one of the absolute highlights of the year so far.

[Note: sadly, the songs I want you to hear are not available through YouTube. So, here's the video for Smother's first single, "Albatross," instead.]

Simon's Grade:



#2
Burst Apart
The Antlers
Frenchkiss Records

Speaking of unconventional, uncompromising bands, New York's the Antlers scored big this week with Burst Apart, the follow-up to their own big breakthrough album, Hospice. Despite operating at dangerous levels of earnestness (the whole album is about watching a loved one die of cancer), Hospice succeeded thanks to some breathtaking melodies and an shameless ability to reach for epic musical moments. In lesser hands, such heavily conceptual and overblown antics would feel pretentious or just plain irritating, but the Antlers' leader, Peter Silberman, manages to stick the landings. Burst Apart finds the band scaling back a bit, counting on quality songwriting to carry the weight rather than high concept narratives. For the most part, the songs are up to the task. "Parentheses" is probably my favorite thing the band has ever done, blending queasy atmospherics with sudden, jarring bursts of guitar riffage. Similarly, "No Windows" and "Every Night My Teeth are Falling Out" are catchy and compelling, often referencing electronic dance music more than traditional guitar rock. Only towards the end of the album, when things start drifting into power balladry and corniness, does the album show signs of weakness. The Antlers have proven that they're not afraid of making unusual musical gestures and with the release of Burst Apart, they're looking more and more like a reliably great band.

Simon's Grade:



#3
Goblin
Tyler, the Creator
XL Records

Finally, in keeping with the theme of challenging new albums, we have the difficult case of Tyler, the Creator and his polarizing second album, Goblin. For those who haven't been anywhere near the internet in the past year, Tyler Okonma is the 20-year-old leader of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (or OFWGKTA), a group of extremely young Los Angeles rappers who have achieved substantial popularity. They've developed a well-deserved reputation for making iconoclastic, difficult music, far removed from mainstream hip-hop... or contemporary moral values. Accusations of misogyny and homophobia are certainly justified by their lyrics, while murder and general violence are common themes throughout everything they've released. Ahh, but then we have the Eminem factor: the group possesses immense musical talent. Tyler is definitely the star of the show and here, on Goblin, we see him at his best and worst. On one hand, the music here is powerful and refreshingly direct, best heard on lead single "Yonkers." Tyler's gruff voice is a feat in and of itself, given that he's several years younger than me but sounds as grizzled as they come. Then you've got songs that depict imaginary conversations between Tyler and his therapist, such as the title song, which are fascinating attempts to unravel the relationship Tyler has with the media and his public persona. These songs are dark and insightful... but for every one of these gems, there's something like "Radicals" or "Transylvania," which are just lazy exercises in shock value. Perhaps Goblin needed an editor. Maybe Tyler is just an immature young man. Either way, judging the album and the rest of the OFWGKTA output remains difficult. I won't tell you that there isn't redeeming musical value here, because some of these tracks are incredible. But there's also a lot of pointless hate and anger, and Tyler hasn't yet reached Eminem's level of channeling that energy into interesting music. So, listen at your own risk.

Simon's Grade:



Also this week: Eye Contact by Gang Gang Dance (3.5 pretzels) and I Am Very Far by Okkervil River (3 pretzels)