Exile in Geeksville

Doctor Who Season 4 Episodes 12
The Stolen Earth

If you are currently watching Doctor Who on the Sci Fi Channel  stop reading this now, because this is my review of the 2 part season finale, and it will contain spoilers.

PUT THAT BOOK DOWN, SPOILERS!

So lets talk about what has come before first.  The fourth series of Doctor Who has been very good, if some what uneven,  I was glad to see the Sontarans, but thought the story was a bit stretched over 2 parts.  The Doctor’s Daughter was full of promise, but didn’t fully deliver (but wasn’t she just cute as a button, always running)  I knew from the beginning that I would like Donna Noble as a companion, unlike many others who openly slammed the idea of the Donna Noble’s return to the series.  She brought a freshness to the Doctor/Companion relationship, someone who wants to be with the Doctor, not out of some gooey romantic motivation, but out of love simply of the life, she has truly been a match for the Doctor, a companion more in the mold of Tegan Jovanka (another companion who did not originally choose to travel with the Doctor, but someone who stumbled into the TARDIS.

Now Lets talk about these episodes - The Stolen Earth was really just setting up for Journey’s End, and there was a lot to set up - Torchwood in Cardiff, introducing Gwen and Ianto to the pre-watershed audience, Sarah Jane and her son, Luke to the parents, reminding everyone who Harriet Jones is (Former Prime Minister)  and then getting everyone together in to find the Doctor, who has gone of to the Shadow Proclamation to find help (and the Judoon! Ma Ho!)  The Subwave Network, financed by the Mr.Copper foundation (so much for laying low, eh Mr. Copper?) brings together everyone who can help find the Doctor.  I was kind of disappointed,  by it, because it could have been a nice nod for older fans-  maybe a display screen that listed former companions that could not be reached (Tegan in Australia? Harry Sullivan?  The Brig?  Jo Grant? Ace?  Even their names on a screen would have been a nice touch.)  The reveal of Davros, was a fairly poorly kept secret - but Julian Beach was fantastic at recreating the character, and bravo to the production team. The real surprise came at the end, just as the Doctor and Rose finally see one another and they are about to re-unite, tradgey strikes in the form of a lone Dalek, and a single shot fired, and it appears that David Tennant’s time as the Doctor is coming to an abrupt stop as his body coarses with yellow energy and the words come out of his mouth “I’m regenerating….”  Then the three most obivious and at same time frustrating word….  “TO BE CONTINUED”

On to part 2, and on to the Journey’s End tomorrow…..

No, I have not started a a new career. Nor is it the story of my search for a social life either, wise guys

It’s a new show from England that I have found online. It chronicles the story of Belle, a young escort working in London. From the ITV website,

It’s the sexually explicit story of a beautiful prostitute who leads the ultimate double life.

To her parents she’s Hannah, the legal secretary. Hannah has a responsible job that involves working lots of unsocial hours in the evening. Hannah has her own set of clothes and her own friends. Even her closest pal has no idea about her working life.

To her clients Belle is…whatever they want her to be. She can be the quiet girl-next-door. Or she can be the high-heeled dominatrix who whips them into submission. Her mission is to make money by satisfying male fantasies.

As she tells us in the first episode: “Work out what the client wants as fast as you can and give it to him.”

The show is based a memoir of a real London call girl. I have seen the first three episodes so far, and its a fun, sexy, dangerous look at the life of sex for a £1500 a night “working woman” in the city. She is no ordinary “pretty woman” working the street corner - she is a consuminate professional. If she is to be believed, she does what she does, simply because she can.

Belle/Hannah narrates her own story directly to audience, breaking the forth wall in scene to inform the viewer of her thoughts or of some important piece of information they need to know. She explains why she does what she does while getting ready for a new client. She tells us she could do anything if she wanted to, but she does what she does because she’s “lazy”, and she loves sex.

The real appeal of the show is Billie Piper, the former Birtish Pop Star who’s become famous for her role as Rose, in the first two seasons of the new Doctor Who series, opposite both Christopher Eccelston, and David Tennant. Billie plays Belle/Hannah, living her double life. She is the proverbial girl next door, blonde, sweet and sexy, everything that made Rose such a fan favorite to millions of kids and their fathers watchin Doctor Who. Only here she gets naked and performs oral sex while putting a condom on her client.

The sex scenes are very frank but it is by no means sordid. There is no romatinizing that part, but neither is Belle apologetic for it. Its all business. As she is working a an all night GFE for one of her oldest customers (the man who was her first, professionally anyway, actually she informs us) she sneaks off for a drink while he sleeps post coitally. While in the bar she manages to find another John. She admits, to herself as well as to the audience, that she was always a horrible girlfriend, its all exciting at first, but she eventually gets bored and sleeps with someone else.

The show is not for the timid, but if you enjoy the HBO or Showtime originals, you may enjoy the Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Either network should jump at the chance to air the series in America soon.