Steven Helmer Publications

While I would describe myself more as casual than die-hard, I have been a Doctor Who fan since first discovering Tom Baker (Doctor Number 4) in the title role when I was a kid. That's why I am more than a little sad to see the fate of the series, which was already cancelled once in the late 1980s, up in the air. In a way though, I do get it. The show, minus the roughly 16-year hiatus, has been around since 1963 with nearly 900 episodes and one movie, as well as various other media. At some point, you start running out of ideas that are new but also stick to an established narrative that is both extensive and, at times, has had conflicting stories. That's why I think the best thing the show can do is start over from scratch with a complete and total reboot. To be clear, this wouldn't be a soft reboot of the show, like in 2005. What I am suggesting is something much more daring - scrapping 62 years of canon and starting fresh, but while still paying the proper amount of resp...

My wife and I finally had a Doctor Who binge watch the past couple days and are now caught up on the series and said our goodbyes to Ncuti Gatwa as the title character/Doctor 15. While I am intrigued at the possible return of Billie Pipe r as Doctor 16, it is clear to see why another season isn't necessarily guaranteed. I am, without a doubt, among those who think the show's quality has gone downhill since Disney's acquisition and am not convinced Billie Piper's return isn't anything more than a desperate attempt to save a sinking ship. So, if there is another season, I would like to offer some suggestions: First, bring back the favorites. Look, I'm all for throwback episodes that revive lesser-known characters from 30-40 years ago. However, not everyone watching this show is a diehard fan. A lot of us are casual fans who occasionally watched it if we stayed up late in the 1980s and only began watching it regularly after the 2005 reboot.  Those characters, li...

Synopsis: Arriving back in present-day London, the Doctor ( Ncuti Gatwa ) seeks help from UNIT to track down the identity of a mysterious woman ( Susan Twist ) who has appeared as multiple incarnations during his travels with Ruby Sunday ( Millie Gibson ). At the same time, he also enlists UNIT's help in tracking down Ruby's long-lost birth mother. In doing so, he inadvertently releases Sutekh, who immediately begins wiping out all life in the universe. Review: As I mentioned previously, my wife and I spent part of this past weekend getting caught up on the previous Doctor Who season so we can start watching the newer episodes that just started airing this month. This included watching the two episodes, The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death , which I'm going to lump together since they were basically a two-part season finale. After watching them, I would describe my opinion as being a bit disappointed. My biggest problem with these episodes is the same one I had ...

Synopsis: Lindy Pepper-Bean ( Callie Cooke ) lives in Finetime, a community populated by wealthy young adults who spend their entire day living and interacting with each other in a social media bubble generated by a floating robot "Dot." When her social group is infiltrated by two strangers calling themselves the Doctor ( Ncuti Gatwa ) and Ruby Sunday ( Millie Gibson ), she believes they are just spam. However, when they finally convince her to lower her bubble, she learns she and the other Finetime residents are being hunted and eaten by alien creatures. Review: With the new season of Doctor Who coming out in just a couple months, I am trying to get my wife and myself caught up and watched Dot and Bubble last night. It ended up being an interesting choice. The whole social commentary on social media taking over young people's lives wasn't exactly subtle but the believable extreme the episode took it to certainly was entertaining and, at times, even humorous. My wi...

Synopsis: The Doctor ( Ncuti Gatwa ) and Ruby Sunday ( Millie Gibson ) land the TARDIS in present-day Wales. Shortly after arrival, the Doctor accidentally steps in and breaks a fairy circle then soon disappears inside the TARDIS, locking Ruby out. Ruby then notices a mysterious woman in black who begins following her wherever she goes, always staying exactly 73 yards away. Anyone else who attempts to approach the woman flees in panic, leaving Ruby on her own as she attempts to figure out who the woman is and what she wants. Review: I had a long day yesterday, to the point I decided to just pick up some frozen dinners and crash on the couch when I got home. This resulted in my wife and me watching the Doctor Who episode 73 Yards . It ended up being the highlight of my day. As I've mentioned in the past, I am a big horror movie fan. One of the things I like about this series is there are a lot of episodes that have plots that would make great horror films. This was one of those. ...

Synopsis: The Doctor ( Ncuti Gatwa ) and Ruby Sunday ( Millie Gibson ) land the TARDIS on a war-torn planet. Hearing a scream, the Doctor rushes toward the sound to lend his assistance, only to step on a landmine. Unable to move out of fear of setting the mine off, the Doctor's only hope is to convince a war-weary soldier she and the others are being tricked into fighting a war against a non-existent enemy and surrender. To make matters worse, Ruby is fatally wounded. Review: I wasn't in the mood to watch the president's speech before Congress last night (nothing political, I just didn't want to sit through a 90-minute speech after being at work all day). So, since our other favorite shows were being pre-empted, I brought up Disney Plus and watched the Doctor Who episode Boom . I didn't regret that decision. This was a well-written, suspenseful episode. While the Doctor has been known to pull off miraculous things, including stopping wars, doing so while unable t...

Synopsis: The Doctor ( Ncuti Gatwa ) and Ruby ( Millie Gibson ) travel to 1960s London to watch the Beatles record together for the first time. However, they instead discover a world that has lost its taste for music and one of the Toymaker's minions, Maestro ( Jinkx Monsoon ) is behind it.  If Maestro isn't stopped, humans will destroy themselves in nuclear war but the Doctor, still traumatized from the events of The Giggle , doesn't believe he can stop Maestro. Review: My wife spent most of yesterday evening working on an outfit she designed/is sewing so instead of watching a movie, we ended up watching another Doctor Who episode, The Devil's Chord. Overall, I think can say I liked this one. Maestro is an intriguing character though, much like some others from the newer episodes, they did remind me a bit of a character from a movie (my first thought was the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland ). The fact Maestro was one of Toymaker's minions and had similar god-l...

Synopsis: The Doctor ( Ncuti Gatwa ) and Ruby's ( Millie Gibson ) first adventure together takes them to a "baby factory" in space. The factory, which was designed to repopulate planets after a catastrophic event, has been abandoned by and is instead run by talking children in strollers while a "Nan-E" ( Golda Rosheuvel ) cares for them in secret. In addition to the ship slowly running out of oxygen, the babies are terrorized by a mysterious monster, living in the lower decks. To the Doctor's surprise, the monster, which the babies refer to as the Bogeyman, even scares him. Review: After watching The Church on Ruby Road and deciding the Christmas episode likely wasn't giving a fair representation of what to expect from the Fifteenth Doctor, my wife and I decided to watch the next episode, Space Babies , to give him one more chance. This proved to be a somewhat weird episode but one I thought was both unique and entertaining. The thing I liked about th...

Synopsis: After being abandoned on the steps of a church as a newborn and later adopted by her foster mother, Ruby Sunday ( Millie Gibson ) is ready to celebrate her 19th birthday on Christmas Eve as well as her foster mother, Carla's ( Michelle Greenidge ) 33rd foster child, an infant that also was born on Christmas Eve. However, those celebrations are interrupted when the baby is abducted by goblins. As she is chasing after them, she receives help from a stranger ( Ncuti Gatwa ) calling himself "the Doctor." Review: After watching the three Doctor Who specials leading up to the Fifteenth Doctor being introduced, my wife and I decided to watch The Church on Ruby Road to learn a bit more about the Gatwa-played character. After watching it, we still hadn't formed an opinion about the new Doctor. However, we both agreed we weren't huge fans of the episode. Christmas episodes from this series are always a little goofy, especially when new characters are being int...

Synopsis: The Doctor ( David Tennant ) and Donna Noble ( Catherine Tate ) arrive back on Earth and discover everyone seems to be going crazy. With help from UNIT, they learn the human race is being driven insane by a subliminal noise known as "the Giggle." Further investigation reveals long-time Doctor nemesis, the Toymaker ( Neil Patrick Harris ) is behind it. Unfortunately, after thousands of years traveling time and space without a break, the Doctor might be too exhausted to win. Review: My wife and I still had some time before bed last night after watching the Doctor Who episode Wild Blue Yonder and decided to watch The Giggle as well, knowing it was the last one (at least for now) with David Tennant. After watching it, my opinion was honestly a bit mixed. While I didn't necessarily hate the episode, it also wasn't among my favorites either. The Toymaker is one of the oldest Doctor Who villains, dating all the way back to when the show was still relatively n...

Synopsis: After Donna Noble ( Catherine Tate ) spills coffee on the TARDIS control panel, she and the Doctor ( David Tennant ) are sent spiraling out of control across time and space before coming to a stop onboard a spaceship at the far edge of the universe. While waiting for the TARDIS to make repairs, it suddenly leaves them stranded in what the Doctor believes to be a built-in flight response to danger despite the mysterious ship they discovered seeming to be abandoned. They soon learn they aren't alone, however, when a pair of aliens appear and try to duplicate their form so they can be the ones to leave when the TARDIS returns. Review: After re-discovering this series on Disney Plus earlier this week and watching The Star Beast a couple days ago, my wife and I decided to see the next installment in the Doctor/Donna adventure, Wild Blue Yonder . The episode more than exceeded our expectations. As I mentioned before, Donna remains my favorite Doctor companion, and this episo...

Synopsis: After regenerating into a form almost identical to one he once had, the Doctor ( David Tennant ) returns to London and inadvertently crosses paths with his former companion, Donna Noble ( Catherine Tate ), who still does not remember him after having her memory erased to keep her exposure to Time Lord knowledge from killing her. The Doctor's attempts to keep his friend safe are soon put in jeopardy when an alien craft crashes in London and an alien refugee, Meep ( Cecily Fay ), is discovered by Donna's daughter, Rose ( Yasmin Finney ), putting them all in danger as another group of aliens known as the Wrarth continue to hunt Meep down. Review: My wife and I used to watch Doctor Who together on a regular basis after the series was rebooted in 2005. However, we both started to lose interest around Doctor 12 ( Peter Capaldi ) and just stopped watching it about midway through Doctor 13 ( Jodie Whittaker ). To clarify, the latter had less to do with the actor playing th...

Synopsis: A newly-regenerated Doctor ( Jodie Whittaker ) struggles to remember her name and other details about who she is but, with an assist from some new companions, still helps save humans from a tooth-collecting alien hunter ( Samuel Oatley ). Review: The Green Bay Packers weren't doing so hot yesterday afternoon so, instead of watching the game, my wife, oldest daughter and I wound up tuning in to the global broadcast of this season 11 premiere. And, I have to say, overall, I was very impressed with what I saw. As I've mentioned in the past, I was excited to see a female version of the Doctor but also was curious in what sort of direction they would take the character. After watching last night's episode, I can honestly say I'm happy with how they are using Whittaker in this role. In many ways, she reminded me a bit of Matt Smith 's Doctor. She was quirky enough to be interesting and that quirkiness, in turn, disguised the fact she was still very in...

Synopsis: Dying and longer wanting to go on, the Doctor ( Peter Capaldi ) refuses to regenerate and is brought by his TARDIS to the South Pole. There, he meets his original self ( David Bradley ), who is also refusing to change and, together, they encounter a World War I soldier ( Mark Gatiss ) who has been displaced in time and a group known as the Testimony, charged with recording memories from people in history moments before they die. My Thoughts: 1. I will admit, Bradley looks a lot like the First Doctor, William Hartnell and, at least from the appearance aspect of the character, was believable. I was not, however, a fan of the way the First Doctor was portrayed. I have only seen a limited number of Hartnell episodes, but I don't remember him being anywhere near as sexist as Bradley's version was. If anything, I would think a Time Lord (regardless of which version it is) would be much more progressive toward gender roles, especially since there's no gender res...

Synopsis: The Doctor ( David Tennant ) decides to travel via tourist shuttle to see a sapphire waterfall on a planet that is bathed by a highly toxic radiation. The planet is believed to be uninhabited. But, the shuttle is soon invaded by a life form that is capable of inhabiting other bodies, leading to confusion and panic. Review: This episode was on TV when I got up this morning and I wound up watching it. I've seen this episode one more than one occasion and, each time, I become more and more impressed with it. I'm a big fan of horror movies, especially psychological thrillers, and this episode is as good as any of the films I've seen in that genre. At first, it is hard to tell if the creature is evil or just misunderstood. But, as it purposely tries to create confusion and manipulate the passengers on board the shuttle, it becomes very easy not to like it very much. The thing that really impresses me about this episode is the non-stop intensity. The Doctor ca...

Here are my thought's from last night's season finale: 1. I don't know what direction the writers plan on taking this series now that Peter Capaldi's run as the Doctor is coming to an end. But, this episode sure was dropping a lot of hints the next Doctor will be female. Of course, that could just be an effort to throw us off too. 2. I'm not convinced we've seen the last of the Master. Sure, Missy ( Michelle Gomez ) looked dead at the end of this episode and her previous self ( John Simm ) made sure to kill her in a way that prevented her from regenerating. But, I just don't think this is the same series without the Doctor's arch rival and suspect we'll see the character (in a different form) again. 3. Speaking of Missy/the Master, if that character is gone for good, I don't think I could think of a better way to kill him/her off. And, if nothing else, at least now we know what prompted that character's regeneration into Missy in t...