The End of Harry Potter

In the space of two days, I watched both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In general, the end of things always make me a little sad, and the last Harry Potter movies were no exception. I thought back to when I first read the Harry Potter books, which was during senior year of high school, when I devoured the first four books in the space of about a month. And then I read those four again during the first year of college around the time the first movie came out. So while I might have been outside of the target age group for the books, I still have an attachment to the series. I was reading them during a point in my life when I was starting to become an adult so it was provided a source of nostalgia while still having a bit of a dark/adult tone to it, especially in the later novels. I cried at the end of the Deathly Hallows the book and both movies. I have to give credit to J.K. Rowling for her excellent series and while there were times when I didn't enjoy every subplot, I still enjoyed the books. And the commitment of the people behind the movies is amazing to see. While the first two movies were a little rough, they really hit their stride by the third movie (my favorite book) all the way until the end. So thanks to all those who worked on the movies, I'm sure I'll revisit them all whenever I need a little reassurance.

Trailer Round-up

I've spent a lot of time at the movie theater today (almost 5 hours). And I saw a lot of trailers:

1. Contagion: Seems like a remake of Outbreak without the monkey but more A-list stars including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow. But it does have Jennifer Ehle and Enrico Colantoni (aka Keith Mars). I might catch it on DVD in about 6 months.
   
2. Planet of Apes: Rise of Apes (I saw the trailer twice!): You know just once I would like a movie in which science did not run amok. Pass!
3. Cowboys and Aliens: I feel like a trailer for this movie is kind of unnecessary because it is all right there in the title. There are cowboys and there are aliens. Carnage ensues.
4. The Adventures of Tintin: Looks kind of interesting, but it uses that weird motion capture from The Polar Express and Beowulf. But I do enjoy the CGI cowlick on Tintin.
5. The Amazing Spiderman: I am totally in the tank for this movie. I love Andrew Garfield a ton and this movie looks pretty good. Plus, Emma Stone is a lot less annoying that Kirsten Dunst!
   
6. John Carter: Meh...looks a little like Disney is trying the whole Prince of Persia thing again.
   
7. Abduction: Taylor Lautner is some sort of asset for a shadowy government organization. It might be more believable if he didn't look like he was thirteen. On the bright side, it does feature Sigourney Weaver which is never a bad thing.
   
8. Arthur Christmas: Some sort of animated movie that has to do with Christmas. The trailer didn't really tell you anything and the animation was pretty run of the mill so it did not peak my interest at all.
   
9. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol: When I saw the Bad Robot vanity card (J.J. Abrams' production company), I was hoping it was the trailer for the next Star Wars movies. Alas, this one featured Tom Cruise. The presence of Simon Pegg sucked me in a little but that Tom Cruise hurdle is a big to clear for me to want to see this movie.
   

That's right, I sat through 9 trailers (well actually 10, but one was a repeat).

Reflections of the Supremes

So I just finished Toobin's "The Nine" and I have to say that I loved it (with no concern about any suggestions that I may be turning into Trey, though Trey would probably really enjoy this book). And here is a list of things I learned in last half of Toobin's book:

- Souter was assaulted by two men while on a run in 2004. And he made it to Court the next day.

- Breyer and O'Connor were BFFs. Ginsburg and Souter were BFFs. I can only hope that friendship bracelets were exchanged.

- O'Connor is/was a Goldwater Republican. Therefore, she was definitely not BFF with G.W. Bush.

- I love this response by Goldwater after Jerry Falwell suggested that "good Christians" should be wary of O'Connor's nomination: "I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass".

- Since O'Connor left the Court, Kennedy is the new swing vote.

-Breyer found about O'Connor leaving the court by hearing about it on NPR. And Toobin made it sound like Breyer was a little heartbroken.

- Stephen Breyer had the Philly Phantic come to a dinner welcoming Alito to the Court (Alito is a huge Phillies fan). Can I tell you again that Breyer is my favorite Justice?

- Thomas really know how to hold a grudge...especially against Nina Totenburg and Harvard.

- Harry Reid might be a evil genius. He was one of the first people to suggest that G.W. Bush nominate Harriet Miers.

- The Rehnquists kind of got screwed by both Bush presidents. Two days after Nan Rehnquist died (William's wife), Bush the elder nominated Thomas to the Court. And then two days after William Rehnquist died, Bush the younger nominated Roberts to be Chief Justice (this was a clear political move, Roberts was already nominated to fill O'Connor's seat, but due to a really bad week that included the fallout of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush White House needed some positive news and Roberts was well liked by most of Congress).

- Ginsburg must have been so happy when Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

-O'Connor continues to be really interesting in her post-Court career. Since she left the Court to care for her husband (suffering from Alzheimer's), she been an advocate for Alzheimer's research (and even public sharing information about the difficulties of caring for an Alzheimer's patient) and working to educate both the youth of America and internationally about the importance of the Judicial branch.

- I think that in the end, O'Connor regretted stepping down from the Court. She left to care for her husband but he deteriorated to fast that she was really only able to take care of him for about 2 years before he entered an assisted living center.

-Stevens served in World War II. Due to his age this of course makes sense, but I had never thought about it before. He enlisted the day before Pearl Harbor and served in naval intelligence and worked on breaking Japanese codes.

Now I'm ready to start a new book. Right now it's a toss up between Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" and John Waters' "Role Models". Or possible Agatha Cristie's "Pale Horse" to coincide with the Masterpiece Mystery adaptation from last week. Any suggestions/recommendations?

Other types of Nerdiness

I've established that I am a science nerd but I have to say living so near DC has expanded my interest in policy, history, and law. Compounding this is the fact that I am reading a book about the Supreme Court that is very well written and makes the Justices relatable (even Thomas to some extent, though I still kind of hate him). So is it weird that I want to attend an oral argument when the Court is back in session?

Supreme Update

I'm continuing to plug along reading the book The Nine and I and through the end of the Clinton years. And my favorite tidbit from this section is about when a snowstorm hit DC and Rehnquist refused to delay or stop the Court proceedings and Jeeps were sent out to pick-up all the justices. Except Souter, who being a New Englander and therefore adept at driving in snow, decided that he would drive his own car and then proceeded to get his car stuck in a snowdrift. As someone who has spent a winter in Vermont, I can't say this story surprises me. A close runner-up is the fact that the other Justices call Scalia "Nino". Oh and that Scalia and O'Connor didn't get along at all.

Reading Supreme

I'm about 100 pages into Jeffrey Toobin's great book "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" and so far I am really enjoying it. I'm reading the section covering the late period of the Rehnquist court, with Breyer just getting appointed to the court. And with all things, this book is really appealing to my nerdy side and I have the opportunity to do one thing that I do a lot which is ranking the justices (I do this all the time with things I enjoy, just ask me about my Jane Austen novel rankings). Now I've also had a soft spot for Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginesburg. But after starting to read this book, Stephen Breyer might be my favorite Supreme Court justice. He was considered for Ginsburg seat but was not selected due to a disastrous interview with Bill Clinton (he was recovering from a serious bicycle crash, so please imagine a Justice on a bike). And once appointed, Toobin says he was the most optimistic justice on the court. Breyer also attended every State of the Union address out of solidarity with the other branches of the government. How can you not like someone who is optimistic in the face of a job like Supreme Court Justice and is still so enthusiastic for his job? Furthermore, Stephen Breyer played Not My Job on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. But beyond letting me pick my favorite Justice, there is a lot of interesting information about the impact of previous justices on the current justices. I really recommend it.

Waiting for it on DVD

I am an unabashed lover of renting TV shows on DVD from Netflix. One drawback of waiting for things to be released on DVD, but the advantage is that you can binge on back-to-back episodes with no waiting. Or for the even more extreme way, you can wait until the entire show is done so there you do have to deal with various hiatuses of the show throughout the year. This was/is my plan for watching the show Lost, which at some point I will do. I loved Lost during the first two seasons and then during the third season there was a lot of hiatuses throughout the season and I forgot plot points (which you really can't do for that show). The reason that I am thinking about this is that I am working my way through 2 TV shows at the same time. The first is Friends which is more for a nostalgic reason but there are parts of the show that hold up really well (i.e. the Beach episode at the beginning of Season 4 is still funny). The second show it the Battlestar Galatica reboot that SciFi made a couple years ago. I never watched it in real time but I always heard good things about it so I decided to bite the bullet and start watching it. And I have to say, so far I am really enjoying it. The show is way more emotional than I thought it would be. The casting it really good, I'm really enjoying Mary McDonnell. There is a total ringer in the cast (for me anyway) in Jamie Bamber, who I love as Matt Devlin on Law & Order:UK (and he was in the Horatio Hornblower movies on A&E, that I weirdly loved as a teenager; Ioan Grufford, I'm still in the tank for you but don't let anyone talk you into any more Fantastic Four movies). And now that I don't have cable, I'm loving Netflix more that ever!

Low Stakes Creativity

A few weeks ago, my roommate and I were at Hobby Lobby and ended up back by the paint-by-number kits. And so spurred on by generally goofiness, we decided that we should all get a paint-by-number to do together. After looking over all the options (there were a lot of animal ones), I picked out a Impressionist-like vista of a Japanese style garden/bridge. So I've spent a lot of hours over the last few weeks working on it (usually with my roommates) and yesterday, I finally finished it. And here it is:

Theater etiquette

I've been going to the AFI Silver theater for the past 3 weeks and so far everyone I've shared the movie-going experience knows to be quite in the theater and not use their phones. Apparently this is not the case at the Alamo Drafthouse which is a theater is Austin with a strict no texting/cellphone use policy. A women used her phone to text and was asked to leave the theater. She followed this up by leaving a nasty voicemail with the theater complaining about being removed from the theater. Then the Alamo Drafthouse used the voicemail as a PSA about theater etiquette. And it is awesome (though there are swearwords).

Just for Funsies

AFI

I've seen this a couple times both on DVDs and at the AFI Silver Theater and I have to say, I love this commercial. Can anyone guess which clip is my favorite? I'll give you a hint, I love Joel McCrea (I think he was a totally underrated actor who was able to seamlessly move from comedy (The More the Merrier) to drama (Foreign Correspondent)).

Thoughts on Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train was the Hitchcock movies this weekend at the AFI Silver Theater, so naturally I went to see it. I've seen the movie once, so I sort of remembered what happened (although apparently I only really remembered the first 30-40 mins). So as I was watching, I started looking at other elements beside the great cinematography. One thing I noticed was that throughout the movie Guy was almost always dressed with a white jacket and Bruno was in a black jacket, like a subtle reminder that Guy is good. And I didn't realize that a lot of the movie is genuinely funny. I never ranked this movie high on my favorite Hitchcock movies, but it improves on repeat viewing. And this made me think of when I got introduced to Hitchcock movies. I'm pretty sure the first one I saw was Psycho, which again is not my favorite Hitchcock movie, but there are definitely elements that are classic Hitchcock (like the excellent use of music and the creative shots like a character being pushed down the stairs). I'm pretty sure the next Hitchcock movie I saw was Rebecca followed by Spellbound and then I was hooked. A few years back (in grad school), I watched every Hitchcock movie available on DVD (except The Birds). I've really enjoyed going to the AFI Silver for the retrospective, and I thought that only people who enjoy Hitchcock were attending the screening. But I was proven wrong when I overheard someone saw "What's this movie? Strangers on a Train? I've never heard of it."

Silver Theater

It's starting to warm up a little here, so I thought I would escape the heat by seeing a movie. So I went to Imdb to see what the movies are showing near me and to my suprise Notorious popped up under the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Springs. Turns out, the theater is doing a Hitchcock retrospective until the end of August. Silver Springs is a relatively short (about 40 min) Metro ride from here, so I decided to go to the screening last night. It short, it was great. Firstly, the main theater (there are 3 screen altogether) is beautiful with an old-fashioned look to it. And the seats are really nice with really wide aisle (so it's really easy for people to get through to the seats in middle). I've never seen a Hitchcock movie with an audience before, so it was a little weird to start out but in the end enjoyable because made for a great atmosphere (including someone doing an audible gasp during Hitchcock's cameo). Since I didn't know when the retrospective started, I missed some of my favorites specifically Rebecca and Spellbound, I still can see Stage Fright and two short propaganda films Hitchcock made during the war. So I found yet another really interesting place to take people if/when they come visit me (even people with kids because they have special screenings for childcare givers with kids)!

Advantage: Osprey

Last weekend, one of my coworkers invited me to go with her to visit osprey nests in southern Maryland. For her research, she finds osprey nests and records number of eggs in the nest as well as watch the osprey hunt for fish (and takes pictures so she can determine what the species of fish the osprey are eating). We went to a state park near Mattawomen Creek (a tributary of the Anacostia and Potomic rivers) to observe the osprey. It was a beautiful day (not too sunny and not too warm) and the osprey were out in force. Now, I've never seen a life osprey before, so I was super excited to see them. They are really amazing to watch because the kind of hover in the air above the water and then dive down to catch a fish. And on top of that, I saw 2 bald eagles but multiple great blue herons. We were just about to leave when this happened:



So one of the ospreys attacked a great blue heron. It was really amazing to watch. And the state park was beautiful so if/when anyone comes to visit, I can take them there for some great bird watching.

Having a Bad Day?

And now your bad day is better.

Don't say toilet

From NPR and How to Do Everything, in honor of the Royal Wedding.

Hopping down the bunny trail

In celebration of Easter, I went to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The two museum share the building (that used to be the patent office), and the building is beautiful. There are three floors so I did my usual routine, which is start at the top and work my way down. The museums are split in a east/west fashion so there are signs to let you know which museum you are visiting. As you might have guessed only portraits are displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, but the portraits are from all over the world. The American Art Museum is limited to the work of American painters and occasionally, (especially during the pre-Revolutionary period), work of European painters that are American subjects or landscapes. I loved these two museums. It was smaller than the National Gallery and a little better laid out (so you could actually work you're way through the gallery without having to backtrack). As usual, I took a lot of pictures, which you can see here, and again, there are captions. There was a wide variety of American Art, from American Impressionism to American folk art (which did contain some pieces that veered toward the world of the probot, but the early 20th century folk was good). The portraits were interesting because there were short biographies of the subject of the painting. However, no pictures were allowed in my favorite exhibit because it was a temporary exhibit and thus no photographs. But, happily, you can see it online. The exhibit was called To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, which was by the folk art portion of the American Art museum. You can check out the exhibit online here. After spending about 5 hours in the museum, I headed back to my apartment to make my Easter dinner of Lemon-Garlic lamb chops, roasted potatoes, and fresh broccoli. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, full of good food, hidden eggs, and time with family.

Thoughts about a world leader

I must admit that I find Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, kind of fascinating. Late last year, I read this really good book review in the New York Review of Books (which you can read here) of the book The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB by Andrei Soldatov and Iriana Borogan. The book is about the recent Russian presidency, specifically the jockeying for position between Medvedev and Vladimir Putin (current prime minister and former president). Medvedev's first term is going to end in 2012 and it seems Putin and Medvedev can't decide who is going to run for president. When Medvedev was elected as president in 2008, it seemed (to me at least) that Medvedev was kind of a puppet to Putin (and I kind of find Putin terrifying, he was ex-KGB). So I've kind of felt sorry for him because he seemed to not have a huge amount of control of what goes on in his political life. You might wonder why I'm thinking about Dmitry Medvedev today. This is why:


I kind of think he is super awesome now because he can't resist a song with a beat.

Ocean Hall, Animal Skeletons, Ruby Slippers, and Grace Coolidge

Since the government did not shut down on Friday night, it meant that not only would I be going to work on Monday, but that my plan to go to the Smithsonian Natural History and American History museum was a go. I headed to the Metro station at about 9:45 which put me on the Mall a little after 10:30. I went first to the Natural History museum which is chock full of cool stuff. I went through the Geology, Gems & Minerals exhibit first which features volcanoes, rock formation, meteorites, a piece of Mars (which I touched), re-creation of mines, and various gems, including the Hope diamond which, it goes without saying is huge. It was start to get a little crowded of eighth-grader, families with strollers, and what seemed like every single high school senior class in the great DC area so I looked for a less popular exhibit to got through next. And I found it in the special exhibit of artifacts from Cypress which led to a small exhibit hall full of beautiful pottery from Korea. From there I went to the exhibit titled "Bones" which was an exhibit featuring reconstructed skeletons of probably 150 different animals including sea turtles, deer, bushbaby, various species of mice, toads, shrews, voles, moles, sea lampreys, crocodiles, storks, ducks, skinks, skunks, snakes, and even a small grey whale. Suffice to say this was probably my favorite exhibit mostly because I recognized some of the skeletons and I appreciated the amount of time it took to assemble each skeleton. Plus there were short discussions of skeletal development across the different species. I walked through the sneak peak of the upcoming exhibit about Egyptian mummies before going through the Insect Zoo (and reminding myself that centipedes still give me the hebby-joe-jebbies) before heading to Ocean Hall which features models of various marine life. Then it was on to the Mammal Hall before (again) getting annoyed with the huge mass of people and heading downstairs to the Birds of DC exhibit which was (shockingly) not very crowded and (not shockingly) full of various birds native to DC (including one of my favorite birds, the Red-Winged Blackbird). It was around noon, so I walked over to the American History museum, got and map, and when to the cafe for a bit to eat and plan out the order of my visit in the museum. The first exhibit I went through was called Invention at Play which was a mix of toys that focus on inventing as well as inventors taking about what toys they like to play with when they were younger (there were a lot of mentions of Legos!). Then I went through Julia Child's kitchen which was so amazing. They literally made her kitchen into a museum exhibit complete with her books (including 2 copies of the Joy of Cooking), her KitchenAid Mixer (in Cobalt Blue) right down to the magnets on her fridge (including a Magnet from King Arthur Flours!). I really enjoyed the part about the marriage between Julia and Paul. The amount of support Paul gave Julia throughout her work was amazing, it's clear that her cookbooks are a labor of love of the both of them. From there I went through Science in American Life which was full of all sorts of interesting artifacts of recent life in America including early modern lab equipment, examining the increasing popularity of various plastics in post-war life, an exhibit on the development of the birth-control pill, and life in modern cities. Then I went to the exhibit on Paper engineering which was all about pop-up books and the various types of pop-ups used, there are some amazing examples in the exhibit. And all this was only on the West part of the first floor! On the East part of the first floor, I walked through an exhibit about America and the rise of the automobile and highway system which featured lots of different cars and trains (and even a horse-drawn wagon) before heading to an exhibit that focused on American maritime pursuits. I then went to the 3rd floor to see the objects from 1939 (including Charlie McCarthy and the Ruby Slippers), Treasure of Pop Culture (which includes Kermit T. Frog and the Catsuit from Batman), and the musical instrument collection. The collection isn't very big, probably around 40 instruments, but they do have a Stradivarius quartet that are absolutely gorgeous and this amazing guitar that comes with a special case. For there I went through exhibits about Abraham Lincoln (crowded but interesting and had clothes from the Lincolns), American Presidency (which was split up into different aspects of the presidency from being commander-in-chief to the president in popular culture), and one about all wars with American involvement (the posters from World War II were my favorite but the section about World War I was surprisingly short). Then I headed to the exhibit that contains the flag that inspired the Star Spangled banner. The flag is huge with 15 stars and 15 stripes, with 1 star cut out of the flag as a souvenir (which was actually done really early in its history, there was a picture of it at the White House during the turn of the 20th century and the star is missing). The flag is stored under low light and so it gives the flag this ethereal quality because it looks like it glows. The last exhibit I went through was The First Ladies of the Smithsonian which features gowns, pictures, and stories about the First Ladies. The Inauguration gowns of recent first ladies are on permanent display (back to Mamie Eisenhower) while clothes belonging to older First Ladies are in rotation to decrease wear on the gowns (also sketches of most of gowns were displayed. The exhibit was really crowded but totally worth it because you could really see changes in fashion based on the gowns of the women. One of my two favorite were Grace Coolidge because she thoroughly embraced the flapper fashion, her Inauguration gown was a red flapper gown (not on display, just a sketch but there was another gown of hers that was a black lace flapper dress). Here is a picture of her evening dress:

My other favorite was Mamie Eisenhower mostly because I was surprised by her gowns. You don't really hear about the fashions of Mamie Eisenhower but her dresses were really beautiful; her Inauguration Gown was pink with rhinestones and her other gown on display was really beautiful red evening gown:


After that, I headed back to the Metro and back home. Again I took lots of pictures, which you can see here (and captioned this time!)

My top 3 Doctor Who episodes

Let me start by saying that it was really hard to rank these 3 episodes.

3) Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 10, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gillam)
Plot: While visiting the Musee D'Orsay to see the painting of Vincent Van Gogh, the Doctor notices a weird creature in the window of a church in one of Van Gogh's paintings. Amy and the Doctor then travel to Arles in Van Gogh's time to determine the origins of the possible alien creature and interact with Van Gogh.
Why I Love this episode: I don't think that the could have picked an artist that appeals to me more than Vincent Van Gogh. I think he is probably the first artist I learned to identify, his style is pretty obvious even to a young child. So for me, the episode is doubly great because if features not only a lot of Van Gogh paintings, but the vistas that inspired the paintings. There is this amazing scene with Amy, the Doctor, and Van Gogh in a field staring up at the sky and as Van Gogh describes his view of the world, the sky becomes "Starry Night". Amy and Van Gogh has some great interactions including a scene were Amy (a redhead) says that if she and Van Gogh every had a child, it would be the ultimate ging. But I think hands down, my favorite scene is an art historian (played by Bill Nighy) says that Van Gogh was not only one of the greatest painters of all time but one the greatest men who every lived because he could turn his inner turmoil into beautiful paintings. I have never enjoyed a Bill Nighy scene so much (and I'm crying a little bit just thinking about it). This episode was written by Benjamen Curtis (who I love), who also wrote Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley.

2) The Unicorn and the Wasp
Episode 7, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble
Plot: The Doctor and Donna land in 1926 England to attend a party in a country house, which kind of sounds like a set up to a Agatha Cristie mystery. And it should because Agatha Cristie is a guest of the party, as the hostess is a fan of her work. Soon people are murdered by some alien force and the Doctor, Agatha, and Donna must unravel the mystery. A further mystery is that this house party occurs a few days before Agatha Cristie's real-life 10 days disappearance.
Why I love this Episode: Agatha Cristie and Doctor Who prove to be two great tastes that taste great together. If I wasn't sure a huge Agatha Cristie fan, I probably won't have enjoyed this episode so much, or at least appreciate the excellent way it pays homage to Agatha Cristie. The set-up and unraveling of the mystery is classic Cristie. And then, the script is chalk full of references to the titles of Cristie novels like Nemesis, N or M, Endless Night, They Do It With Mirror, Cards on the Table, A Cat Among Pigeons, Crooked House, The Moving Finger, and Murder on the Orient Express. And again, Donna proves to be the prefect foil for the Doctor (she might be my favorite companion although Amy is really good too). I think this might have been the first episode of the reboot that I made my mom watch as a way to entice her to watch the rest of the series. If you like Agatha Cristie, you should watch this episode, even if you don't watch any other episode of Doctor Who. And this episode was written by Gareth Roberts, who wrote "The Lodger". Gareth Roberts is a self-admitted fan of Agatha Cristie and it is really obvious in this episode.

1) Blink
Episode 10, Season 3
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
Plot: In modern-day London (2007), a woman named Sally Sparrow (a pre-An Education Carey Mulligan) enter a rundown house looking for photography subjects but instead find angel statues, one holding a Yale key (that she takes) and a message from "the Doctor" behind peeling wall paper warning her to avoid the Weeping Angels. She returns with her friend Kathy to explore the house further. Kathy disappears and at the same time a man claiming to be Kathy's grandson arrives at the house with a letter for Sally from Kathy. Kathy writes that moments after entering the house, Kathy suddenly found herself in the 1920s Hull. She married and had a peaceful life but want Sally to take a letter from her (Kathy) to Larry, her brother, telling him about Kathy's disappearance. When Sally visits Larry at a DVD store, he shows her a hidden message from a man named the Doctor on 17 seemingly unrelated DVDs. Sally then goes to a police station and meets DI Billy Shipton, who tells her that there are have been several disappearances near the rundown house and shows her a police box that was near the house. However, the police box seems to be a fake because it is not the right and it is locked. Sally leaves but then remembers the key she found and return to the police box but Billy has disappeared. She then receives a call from a much older Billy asking her to visit him in the hospital. Billy explains that saw the Weeping Angels trying to get into the police box and then suddenly found himself in 1969 and met the Doctor. He was convinced to start a DVD business that allowed the Doctor to record the hidden message in the 17 DVD. Billy urges Sally to watch the message and then dies. Sally then realizes the connection of the 17 DVDs, she owns a copy of each of them. Sally rejoins Larry at the DVD store to watch the message from the Doctor. In the message, the Doctor tells them that the Weeping Angels sent the Doctor and Martha into the past and now have the TARDIS in hopes of feeding off the huge energy that the TARDIS contains. The Weeping Angels with only move when no one is looking at them, but they move to quickly, that even in the blink of an eye, they can take you. Sally and Larry are the only ones that can help the Doctor recover the TARDIS, as long as they don't blink.
Why I love this episode: This might be the most tense and excellently paced 45 minutes that I have every seen. The fact that you can't close your eyes for any amount of time is so scary and so that aspect is so effectively terrifying (the BBC ran a warning before the episode saying that this was a very scary episode and that if children watch it, they should watch it with the lights on). So much of the episode depends on the acting skill of Carey Mulligan and she does a really fantastic job. And I love the last names of Sally and Larry, Sparrow and Nightingale. This episode was written by Stephen Moffat who really understands how to pace an episode and ratchet up the tension with out going overboard.

So those are my top 3 favorite episodes. All three are actually a good episode to get introduced to Doctor Who because for most part they are stand alone episodes (with maybe the exception of Vincent and Doctor, where there is any scene with Amy that is the fallout of an incident from the previous episode, but it isn't too confusing). All these episodes are more a fusion of science fiction and a mystery/thriller and or dramatic genre. I hope if you haven't seen an episode of Doctor Who yet, these posts have whetted your appetite and encourage you to explore the world of Doctor Who.