Morgan Drake Eckstein is a geek and a nerd

Yes, I---the wonderful Morgan Drake Eckstein---am both a geek and a nerd. Probably less geek than nerd, but that is only due to the lack of monetary funds. In this picture, you can see one of my cats, Merlin (actually, he is my wife's cat), a book and mediation and the kabbalah, a book on Freemasonry. a collection of Tomb Raider comics, the first volume of the Mage saga by Matt Wagner, a thumb-drive, a digitual (tape) recorder, my trusty Neo (think keyboard with a primitive word processing program), and a Doctor Who scarf that one of my sisters made me. This blog entry is a contest entry---I am trying to prove that I am a geek. Wish me luck.

Quick review Doctor Who The Doctor's Wife

While I have never put together a list of my top ten favorite Doctor Who stories, The Doctor's Wife would make the list.
Before watching the episode, I was worried---after all, there was a lot of hype surrounding this one. People have high hopes for a Neil Gaiman written episode, and occasionally even the writing gods fail to love up to their standards (not that I am saying that Gaiman is a writing god, but some people seem to think that he is).

This story was a treat. It is one of those stories that take us to the very beginning of the series. This is going to be one of those episodes that die-hard fans are going to watch again and again, for it throws light on a lot of the mysteries of the series.

Reading the various reviews on the web of the episode, the one thing I have yet to see mentioned is the fact that the Tardis' energy appears to be the same as the regeneration energy. For those who have watched the entire season so far, think about where else we have seen these energies---is there a connection here that is still unclear?

The backward life of River Song

*no spoilers*

Watched the second episode of the current Doctor Who season, Day of the Moon, last night. Also rewatched the first episode, The Impossible Astronaut.

And I realized that I feel sorry for River Song. Each time, we encounter her (because we are following the story from the Doctor's timeline) it is earlier in her life. She is really a tragic character.

The first time, we encounter her, the Doctor does not know her. Obviously she has feelings for our beloved Time Lord. How heart-breaking that must be, to know everything about someone and not have them know (remember) you.

How terrible her interactions with the Doctor must be. Each additional time (from her viewpoint) she encounters him, he knows her less and she knows him more.

And how soon before the balance point is reached, and it is the Doctor who becomes the tragic character---knowing her more and she knowing less of him?

Quick commentary about Day of the Moon: There were some great lines. The first episode did not feel so choppy when watched back to back with the second. And there was the moment (if you saw the episode you know what I mean) that really drives home the point that River Song's is a tragic one.

If you have seen Day of the Moon, and want to see a chart of the Doctor's and River Song's timelines as they currently stand, check out this neat chart that someone made. (Sorry, I forgot the creator's name as news broke that Osama Bin Laden was officially dead.)

Quick review Doctor Who The Impossible Astronaut Pt 1

*no spoilers* I watched the Impossible Astronaut Part 1, the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who, last night. Also watched the Confidential that went along with the episode.
Honestly, this is an episode that is hard to review. It felt choppy. It is also one of those episodes that you really need to see the entire season first to correctly judge.

And that is the rub. In the first ten minutes of the episode, basically the various elements of the entire season were introduced. The sinister aliens, the master mind guiding the characters actions, the baseline of the Doctor and companions personalities (for those viewers new to this group of characters), the opening puzzle, the local who is going to be a major player in the action, and the event that is going to drive the entire plot. All that was introduced in the first ten minutes.

Ironically, the first ten minutes---much like the rest of the episode---seemed to move slowly. This may not be the episode's fault. Over the last couple of days, I have re-watched both parts of The End of Time, The Eleventh Hour, The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. Given at what is hinted about in this episode, it may have been moving fast without me being aware of the speed.

(The Confidential seemed to move quicker. Loved the parts where they talked about building the Oval Office set and the look at what a director's day is like.)

What gives me hope about this season, given this slow first episode, is that the alien menace is really scary, especially if you stop and think about the possibility that they might actually exist without your conscious awareness of them, and the fact that the Doctor and his companions are being manipulated.

So this is one of those episodes, much like some from classical Doctor Who, that one needs to look at again after the dust clears to decide whether it was worth the film that was used. Here is to the new season of Doctor Who---it can only speed up from this point.

Quick comment on My Sarah Jane

I just got done watching My Sarah Jane: A Tribute to Elizabeth Sladen. And I agree with David Tennatt that "She was the ultimate Doctor Who girl." I will admit that she is one of my baselines for what a companion should be like (I write Doctor Who fan fiction on occasion). Sladen (1948-2011) will be missed.

Doctor Who on iTunes

iTunes, the Devil's Music Service (trademark pending *wink*), is selling Season Passes for Season Six of Doctor Who in their American virtual storefront for $19.99 plus tax. The only reason I discovered this is that I was downloading the free music of the week, and spotted the fact that iTunes were pimping a couple free two-minutes peeks of the new season.

And speaking of sneak peeks, does anyone else find the line "There are no monsters in the White House" being uttered by (I presume) President Nixon to be utterly amusing---or is it just me?

Catnip abuse Facebook meme

For fun, I wrote the following Facebook status and am trying to see how many of my friends I can get to copy and paste it to their status.

Please copy and paste this as your status if you know cat who is doing too much catnip. There are many cats who are afflicted with this habit, causing them to act wild, then sleep off their nip-high. Catnip makes cats less productive and sometimes makes dogs look more intelligent (dogs really are not intelligent at all). Encourage all cats to give up the nip.

Why? Because I too want to be an evil FB meme god.