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Doctor Who: The Complete Series 7 (UK - DVD R2)
The Wilson Bros hastily rehash previous reviews to get this one out on time...
Series six of Doctor Who was not exactly our favourite series of New-Who - as a matter of fact, we pretty much despised it, with Let's Kill Hitler being the story we loathed the most. When it was announced that Steven Moffat was taking over from Russell T Davies as Executive Producer on Doctor Who, we were pretty excited, as we had loved the stories he had written during RTD's stewardship. Series five was pretty good, but there was something about it that we couldn't put our finger on, but this was magnified when the following series aired and we were starting to wonder if Moffat had irrevocably steered Doctor Who away from being the show that we have loved for over three decades. When series seven started airing, we fearing the worst, but we were reasonably pleasantly surprised. However, there was something abysmal to endure before then...
It is 1938 and Madge Arwell (Clare Skinner) has taken her two children, Lily (Holly Earl) and Cyril (Maurice Cole) to a relative's expansive house in Dorset after hearing that her husband Reg (Alexander Armstrong) was killed when his Lancaster Bomber was shot down over the English channel. Madge wants to give her children one last great Christmas before breaking the news to them that their father is not going to be coming home. With The Doctor (Matt Smith) masquerading as the caretaker of the house, the Atwells are in for an unforgettable Christmas...
Just what is Steven Moffat's obsession with plundering beloved literally tales and using them as the basic concept for Christmas stories? Last time, he did it with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (cunningly titled "A Christmas Carol") and this time, he's done it with C S Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; though this one isn't as direct as last time, it still copies the basic concept of being set in Britain during wartime and focuses upon children who have been evacuated out of London who find their way into an otherworldly snow-covered that proves to be anything but a winter wonderland.
Just like the basic principle of the charity single, a Christmas special of a television programme doesn't actually have to be any good, it just needs to be able to generate a certain amount of interest and hope that enough goodwill is stirred up to carry it along.
The story isn't a bad one, but it is something that seems far removed from Doctor Who; after this, there were no new stories until late the following summer, many fans were a little miffed that the only story to come in the period of nearly a year between series six and series seven was something so lightweight.
Something has been bugging us about New-Who for the last couple of years now, and The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe has finally hammered home just what the problem is - Doctor Who seems to have veered too far away from the fundamental concept of the show; it's not about the Doctor wandering into situations and helping out, it's now about fairytale situations where the Doctor is passive rather than active, sitting on the side-lines and delivering expository dialogue whilst his companions and other characters resolve situations themselves.
The kids venture through a magical portal into a snowy forest on an alien world and the youngsters encounter the humanoid tree-like creatures, with The Doctor and Madge in tow; our favourite Time Lord seems to be jogging behind the action in story terms, rather than being at the front. Still, you have to hand it to Moffat in his ability to weave an environmental message about deforestation and acid rain into a Christmas story.
Matt Smith is as good as ever, but the sidelining of his character weakens The Doctor and events seem to happen around him, rather than being the prime-mover. Smith injects his usual amount of professor-like enthusiasm and provides bucket-loads of chemistry between him and the two young guest actors; the scenes between these three are the highlight of this particular episode and this chemistry helps paper over some of the other problems with the story.
The trend that has been around for a while on Doctor Who - casting comedians and/or comedy actors in dramatic roles - seems to have paid off reasonably well this time, as Clare Skinner (usually seen on the BBC's Outnumbered) is very good as the heartbroken mother who shields her children from an awful truth just for them to have one last happy Christmas together before childhood innocence has to be shattered. Bill Bailey ( Black Books) and Arabella Weir ( The Fast Show) also appear, but their appearances are comparatively brief.
The two young actors in this special, Maurice Cole and Holly Earl are pretty good, even though their characters are basically just loosely altered versions of the Pevensie kids from that certain popular series of CS Lewis books.
Steven Moffat's The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances story (which was great, we hasten to add) had The Doctor exclaiming at the end of the story "just for once, everybody lives!" - Moffat appears to have taken this to heart, as nobody seems to snuff it much in Doctor Who since he took over the reigns. There has been times when we have felt like yelling "just for once, will somebody fucking-well die?" at the screen.
People die all the time - people used to die in Doctor Who fairly frequently, including companions; remember when many fans rejoiced at the death of Adric? We certainly do. Remember when Katarina was blown out of the airlock whilst an aghast Peter Purves looked on? We have seen the recon. Remember when Peri met her demise at the hands of Lord Kiv? Uh, scratch that one - but you get what we're driving at. Having a ridiculously fairy-tale ending where the supposedly "dead" dad avoids a watery grave is pretty hard to swallow, especially when the groundwork had been laid for the rest of the family to deal with the situation and move on. The most recent Torchwood series, Miracle Day, had the interesting premise of what would happen if the population of Earth suddenly lost the ability to die - well if Matt Smith's Doctor stays on this planet for long enough, we'll probably get to find out...
Things aren't well for Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband, Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) - they have separated and the divorce papers are just about to be signed. Matrimonial issues are the least of their problems when they are unexpectedly whisked away to join The Doctor (Matt Smith) in the Parliament of the Daleks. The Daleks are eager to destroy the fabled planetary asylum where all defective Daleks are dumped and want The Doctor, Amy and Rory to do their dirty work. Whilst on The Asylum, they are helped in their mission by the mysterious Oswin Oswald, who has been stranded on the planet for a year…
The sheer cinematic scale of the story is something to be admired - when the grand announcement came that each story in this series was going to be like a self-contained film, few of them lived up to this premise, but Asylum of the Daleks was one of the ones that actually manage to achieve this lofty ambition, as it has a sense of scope that comes pretty close to being like watch a movie. The production values on this episode are extremely high, what with the impressive Parliament and the snowy location filming; it would appear that they were throwing much of the budget into this - the first episode of series seven - to start things off with a bang and keep viewers hooked.
The set-up is very much like Escape From New York, where the protagonists are roped into doing the dirty work for a fascist society, are dropped into a hostile environment and have devices to ensure their compliance. Who knows, maybe we're just reading too much into it?
Matt Smith is commanding during his scene before the Parliament; when speaking to the Prime Minister (a monotonous megalomaniac who has contempt for anything it views as inferior - Hmm, does sound like another PM you can think of?), there is mention made of why the Daleks have been unable to kill him and that is one of the few times when there seems to be a genuine link between the Classic Series and New-Who, rather than just dropping in an odd reference now and again. Speaking of which, at one point, a line that includes the words "…crawling with Daleks" is spoken, and that just sounds and feels like classic Doctor Who dialogue!
Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill still have a sparky chemistry, even if their characters have separated and there is a lovely line when the break-up of their relationship is questioned by The Doctor - "life is what happens when you aren't around", which seems to echo the abandonment themes explored in Toby Whithouse's School Reunion story.
The big surprise in this one was the appearance of forthcoming companion Jenna Louise Coleman; Steven Moffat had appealed to fans at advance screenings to keep Coleman's appearance in this a secret, and to his - and probably everyone else's - amazement, they did. The fact that it wasn't revealed until the broadcast can be considered a fairly remarkable achievement. The chemistry between Smith and Coleman is already evident in this story. Steven Moffat likes to play the long game and sewing the seeds for Karen Gillan's replacement in this story was quite an ingenious one, but there are those who could look upon this as narcissism on the writer's part.
It's nice to see Arthur Darvill getting some screen time to himself, as he is usually overshadowed by Smith and Gillan. There are some amusing character moments, not least of which comes when Rory confronts a weakened Dalek that is powering itself up, playing on the syllables that make up the word "exterminate"; with the Daleks being so firmly entrenched in Doctor Who mythology, it's easy to forget that companions haven't encountered them before, so when Rory first sees one, he hasn't got a clue what they are, what they look like and that their primary goal is to eradicate anything that is different from itself.
Trying to sneak the name of the show into the dialogue is something that we have always disliked, but Moffat comes up with a way of doing it at the climax that works perfectly and is both amusing and thrilling at the same time.
The only fault we have with it is the distinct lack of classic Doctor Who Daleks; only the truly eagle-eyed will be able to spot some of them. The pre-publicity for the show promised "every single Dalek ever seen", but the reality is that only some of them are shown, and most of them in the background. References are made at one point to several previous encounters with The Doctor, but most - if not all - of the Daleks on view in that scene are New-Who ones. The Special Weapons Dalek from the Sylvester McCoy era is briefly seen, but does nothing - you would have thought that firing that bloody-great cannon mounted on it would have made for a cool sequence, but no, it was a wasted opportunity. You DO get to see a sixties Dalek mindlessly spinning around in the background, looking like it had come straight out of one of those intermission films from the 1960s, but that's about it.
For the rest of the stories in this set, we present capsule reviews that give bullet-points as to what we enjoyed and did not enjoy about each episode...
The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Rory's father, Brian, find themselves on a huge space vessel that has the last of Earth's dinosaurs aboard, but an unscrupulous collector, Solomon, has his eyes on the precious cargo and is prepared to go to any lengths to have them.
WHAT'S GOOD: It's not as nearly bad as the trite (and somewhat belated) title suggests, with some nice CGI dinosaurs and some good guest stars, including Weasley Snr, (and Fast Show reunion hold-out) Mark Williams and Hogwarts caretaker, Filch, David Bradley.
Incorporating the Silurians fairly prominently into the storyline, but without properly featuring them was a pretty cool touch.
We aren't great fans of long-spanning character arcs (over the last couple of decades, American television has effectively forced them into shows all around the world), but the mini-arc that Brian has is rather nice, as he starts out as someone who is not well-travelled and geographically insular and becomes someone who has developed a taste for exploration.
WHAT'S BAD: The bloody velociraptors are of the Jurassic Park variety, i.e., completely physiologically inaccurate (real velociraptors were only about 18 inches high and were covered in feathers).
The decision to have David Mitchell and Robert Webb to provide the voices of bickering robots wasn't the greatest one; Mitchell and Webb are fine comedy performers, but the characters they voice in this story are an obvious riff on R2-D2 and C3-P0 and they present moments of comedy that bring the drama and the pacing to a flying stop.
The characters of big game hunter John Ridell (Rupert Graves) and Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele) are pretty one-dimensional and add little to the story, save for a rather nice explanation for Nefertiti's historical disappearance.
The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in the American Frontier town of Mercy, where they discover the locals are being held prisoner in the town by a robotic Gunslinger who is after one particular resident for a very good reason...
WHAT'S GOOD: Using the same Spanish location where A Fistful of Dollars was filmed caught our attention and seeing such a prominent genre name such as Ben Browder ( Farscape, Stargate SG-1) added quite a bit in terms of prestige.
It was also nice to see Garrick Hagon returning to Doctor Who after four decades - he had previously appeared in the 1972 Jon Pertwee story, The Mutants.
WHAT'S BAD: Pretty much everything else - it was the only story this season that we truly disliked; many of the American accents were pretty dodgy, to the point where it bizarrely made Ben Browder's genuine accent stick out like a sore opposable digit.
The concept of a former war criminal trying to make up for his past is not a new one, but we suppose that it presents an interesting debate as to how much good a bad person can do before he can be pardoned for his past crimes.
Strange black cubes begin arriving everywhere on Earth and The Doctor is instantly suspicious; it is not long before our favourite Time Lord realises that these seemingly benign cubes are about to put every living being on the planet in mortal danger...
WHAT'S GOOD: It was nice to see Mark Williams returning as Rory's father and getting something to do that eventually pays off; Williams is a great actor, with comedy being his speciality and it's great to see him apparently enjoying himself here.
The various aspects of how the general public react to the seemingly inoffensive cubes very much remind you of the Russell T Davies era, when he used to show the mundanities of everyday existence interfered with by extra-terrestrial intervention.
WHAT'S BAD: Not much, apart from the rushed conclusion, the somewhat convenient fact that one of the seven focal places on Earth for the invasion just happened to be in the hospital where Rory works and, of course, the cameo from Alan Sugar.
1930s New York sees the Weeping Angels dropping by, with The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Professor River Song trying to stop them.
WHAT'S GOOD: The send-off for Amy and Rory wasn't nearly as sickly emo-like as we thought it was going to be. There are some pretty suspenseful sequences with the Weeping Angels, something of a return to form after showing them moving the last time they were featured.
As fans of Whose Line is it Anyway?, it was a treat to see a more svelte Mike McShane putting in an appearance as Grayle.
The production values were pretty good; apart from filming in modern-day New York, the look of the 1930's was pretty faithfully reproduced in Wales, with period cars and all manner of accurate set decoration employed to successfully sell the effect.
The final shot brings the Amy Pond time in Doctor Who full circle in a pleasing manner - we won't reveal what it is for those of you who haven't had the chance to see it yet, but it's very nice.
WHAT'S BAD: Whilst it might have not been as overly-emotional, it was still threatening to tip over into excessive sentimentality; we were also able to correctly predict what fate was going to bestow upon Amy and Rory from the outset.
Oh, and don't get us started on that whole 'the Statue of Liberty is a Weeping Angel' rubbish - it's made of metal and it's SO big that do you honestly think that there would be one split-second when NOBODY in New York would be looking at it for it to move? By having that happen twice in the story is pretty lazy.
Depressed after the departure of Amy and Rory, The Doctor (Matt Smith) is hiding out in Victorian London and discovers that his old nemesis, The Great Intelligence, is at large and also finds out that Oswin Oswald (Jenna Louise Coleman) seemingly escaped her fate at the hands of the Daleks and is now calling herself Clara...
WHAT'S GOOD: The new title sequence, which incorporates the image of the actor playing The Doctor for the first time since 1989. Having Ian McKellen voicing the titular characters really adds a touch of class to the whole thing, and his gravely, resonant tones add a level of menace that few other thesps can match. The Beeb always does period drama so well and The Snowmen is no exception, with sumptuous costumes and sets everywhere you look.
WHAT'S BAD: Nothing much to complain about with this one, when we watched it, The Snowmen was great festive fun and a considerable improvement over the previous Christmas special, the truly atrocious The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.
After spending time in a monastery, The Doctor is called back into action and finds another incarnation of Clara in the early 21st century. The Great Intelligence has ordered a technological organisation to upload the souls of the human race via wi-fi and only The Doctor and Clara can save the day...
WHAT'S GOOD: The chemistry between Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman is undeniably good, as they rattle off dialogue with the rapidity of machine-gun fire.
WHAT'S BAD: The whole riding on a motorcycle up the outside of The Shard was fucking ridiculous, with a silly premise and pretty poor CGI execution. Still, you could look upon including The Shard as a tip of the hat to sixties Doctor Who, when the Post Office Tower was included as hi-tech base of evil operations in The War Machines.
The Doctor takes Clara out on her first visit to an alien world, where Clara fights to save the life of a young girl who is due to be sacrificed in the Festival of Offerings to appease the Old God, who is not all he seems...
WHAT'S GOOD: Can't think of anything - for us, this episode truly was the pits, and as bad as New-Who gets. Think of it as being the New-Who equivalent of Timelash or Time and the Rani - if they wanted it in keeping with those who duff Classic Who stories, they should have called this one The Time of Akhaten.
WHAT'S BAD: How long have you got? The claustrophobic-yet-expansive sets, the tiresome singing sequences by the Welsh Male Voice Choir, the lousy CGI pumpkin bad guy, The Doctor's derivative speech that was clearly "inspired" by Rutger Hauer's "tears in rain" soliloquy from Blade Runner; we could go on, but we've made our point.
Earth, 1983 and the TARDIS materialises inside a Russian nuclear submarine, but an old adversary in the form of Ice Warrior Grand Marshall Skaldak is also aboard and intends to raise the temperature of the Cold War by launching a nuclear missile from the submarine...
WHAT'S GOOD: David Warner's performance is fabulous and fairly atypical of his usual sci-fi turns (a genre he has previously confessed to disliking). The redesign of the Ice Warriors is pretty good, staying faithful to the original look, but not messing with it TOO badly. The premise of the story is great, with the idea of a hulking adversary running around in the cramped confines of a submarine being very cool indeed, but...
WHAT'S BAD: The thing starts to come apart about half way through, when Skaldak suddenly decided to take off his armour and reveals himself to be some silly-looking CGI creation. Since when the hell was the exterior of an Ice Warrior armour? We have always taken their exterior to be organic matter similar to that of an armadillo. Oh and why is that that a late 20th century period Doctor Who story has to have pop music from the period in order to establish that it is set in the past, even if such stuff is not appropriate within the context of the story? David Warner's excellent performance gets off to a shaky start when he is seen listening to Ultravox's Vienna on a Sony Walkman, but this soon passes.
It's also inexcusable that this story is essentially a rehash of Rob Shearman's excellent Jubilee/Dalek, as a new companion - unaware of the dangerous nature of The Doctor's foe - attempts to understand and empathise with it, even physically exposing itself in the process.
The Doctor and Clara arrive in 1974 to seek the help of psychic Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine) with Clara's mysterious past, but they find themselves dragged into the investigation of psychic phenomena that have been occuring at the foreboding Caliburn Mansion...
WHAT'S GOOD: It's great to see the man who should have been Wolverine, Dougray Scott, on screen and putting in a impressive performance as Professor Alec Palmer. Though it's set in the seventies, there is still a period feel that holds your attention and the eerie atmosphere that is established early on in the episode makes for compelling viewing.
WHAT'S BAD: There is barely an original idea in the episode, coming across an magpie-like amalgamation of Poltergeist, The Haunting and the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation regarding the love story aspect of the climax.
An intergalactic salvage crew picks up the TARDIS and Clara is plunged into the very heart of the machine and The Doctor has just 30 minutes to rescue her before the self-destruct mechanism goes off...
WHAT'S GOOD: The interior of The Doctor's time and space machine is finally seen in great detail and even the fabled swimming pool is seen, if only for one shot.
WHAT'S BAD: The guys who play the salvage crew put in pretty poor performances, which dilute the potency of the drama. The reinforcing of the notion that the Eye of Harmony is in the TARDIS, first established in the Paul McGann film, rubs us up the wrong way - they'll be saying that he's half-human next...
Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Strax (Dan Starkey) are investigating strange happenings at Sweetville, where Mrs Gillyflower (Diana Rigg) is working with the enigmatic Mr Sweet in a bid to "preserve" the human race in a manner that few would appreciate...
WHAT'S GOOD: Mark Gatiss makes up for several missteps over Cold War with this love-letter to Victoriana and the bygone days of northern chocolate-based industrial communities, presenting an almost satirical look at the early days of Bournville that is as thinly-disguised as the honeycomb under the chocolate on a Crunchie.
WHAT'S BAD: Nothing much, really - it's a very enjoyable episode.
The Doctor takes Clara and her charges, Arte and Angie, to Hedgewicks' World of Wonders, where they discover that upgraded versions of the Cyberman are unleashing themselves upon the universe, and only the quartet, along with a small army unit of misfits and a diminutive man named Porridge (Warwick Davis) can stop them...
WHAT'S GOOD: Warwick Davis puts in quite possible the finest performance of his career; dwarf actors who can act are rare (the late, great David Rappaport was the finest diminutive Thesp), and Davis' abilities really impress here, playing someone to whom there is more than meets the eye. The redesign of the Cybermen is impressive, making them sleeker and they have also largely scrapped the campy stomping in unison that was introduced during the Russell T Davies era. It's equally refreshing to see that the annoying "delete, delete" catchphrase has been scrapped in favour of the slightly less irksome "upgrade" one.
WHAT'S BAD: Having young children as companions in Doctor Who has never been a good idea - Roberta Tovey was cute but irritatingly precocious in the Peter Cushing films, and the sixties annuals that featured the juvenile John and Gillian reinforced this. Arte and Angie are a couple of annoying little sods, who serve little purpose in this story - they were probably included as part of the numerous alterations that Neil Gaiman's original script underwent.
The Doctor is forced to go where he should never venture - to his own burial place on Trenzalore. There, The Great Intelligence (Richard E Grant) plans to open The Doctor's Tomb and corrupt his timeline. The Doctor also faces a past incarnation that he prefers not to think about...
WHAT'S GOOD: There is an epic feeling to this story, as though everything in this series (or at least this half-series) has been building toward; the production values on the planet of Trenzalore are most impressive, which only add to the epic, climactic feeling this episode positively radiates. It's great to see footage of most of the other Doctors included, and the interaction between Clara and the First Doctor (William Hartnell) is wonderful to see.
WHAT'S BAD: The lack of footage of Paul McGann (there was probably some sort of rights issue) and some of the CGI integration of the previous Doctors was a bit ropey. The Whispermen turned out to be a bit of a dud, what with their singsong speak and silly look. They should have just reused The Silence - it would have made more sense. The name Trenzalore is not a bad one for a planet, but it sounds too much like a destination in a Bob Hope and Bing Crosby film - Road To Trenzalore, anyone? Never mind.
Seeing as this series was filmed in high-definition, there a discernable upswing in the image even in these SD transfers.
Presented in 1.78:1, the standard definition image looks pretty good, close to - if not better than - the non-HD broadcast on television. Colours are bold, with the blues used in the period stories helping to set the mood. these look pretty good, with a fair amount of image detail and pleasing black levels.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are pleasing to the ear, as they bombard the viewer with all manner of sonic attacks during the more action-heavy moments in Asylum of the Daleks and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, as well has handling some of the more subtle discrete effects on the character-based stories in this half-series.
The soundtracks makes good use of the surround channels to create an enveloping atmosphere in several of the stories included here. There's also a fair amount of heft to the bass at times, which is no bad thing.
Another nice little inclusion is audio description for the visually-impaired, which has a pleasant male voice describing the visual elements of the story when this option is selected.
Prequel: This 90 second teaser to The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe is a specially-shot scene that helps to put the events of the opening of the story into context, as The Doctor frantically tries to contact Amy Pond before escaping from a ship that it about to explode. It's a short piece of fluff, but very enjoyable fluff that puts you in the mood to watch the story, so it perfectly achieves its objective.
Asylum of the Daleks Prequel: This two-and-a-half minute short has The Doctor confronted by a mysterious hooded figure and the it plays out as a dream-within-a-dream-or-is-it? scenario and sets up the first episode of the series. It's all fairly inconsequential, but it adds a little extra to the story for those who want more from the epic Dalek tale.
Life Cycle of a Dalek: This runs for about 3.5 minutes and is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Asylum of the Daleks, which seems to emphasise the sheer amount of different Daleks that were included in the show, but only shows you them making more of the RTD-era bronze Daleks from scratch. There are shots of some of the Classic era Daleks and you get a much better look at them here than you do in the episode itself. Big Finish good-egg Barnaby Edwards is interviewed about his experiences with playing a Daleks, but this is merely a short PR puff-piece to try and convey how much effort was put into the production design of this story.
Raptors, Robots and a Bumpy Ride: Very similar to the above, really; around four minutes of cast and crew gushing about how great the high-concept idea for the story was, along with some explanations as to how the effects were achieved, both CGI (most of the dinosaurs) and practical (the two god-awful comedy robots). The piece about the practical front half of the triceratops created for the riding scene was pretty impressive, though.
Pond Life: Clocking in at around a minute each, this six-part series of shorts played during the week that led up to the screening of Asylum of the Daleks and features Amy and Rory getting involved in all manner of scrapes with The Doctors that help to give background information concerning important parts of series seven, most notably that the pair are on the brink of divorce. The Doctor has a brush with the Sontarons and gets briefly involved with historical events and people, but this is mainly about how the continual reappearance of The Doctor impacts upon the Williams' domestic lives. They don't amount to much (although the final one adds some welcome pathos), but they will help ease those who are heartbroken with the departure of Amy and Rory from the series.
Doctor Who at Comic-Con: This is eleven minutes of footage covering Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Steven Moffat dropping by the San Diego mega-event, with clips of them taking questions from an enthusiastic audience and each of them being commendably courteous in response to their questioners, who are so excitable that Matt Smith could quietly flatulate under the desk and the whole room would whoop ebulliently like an audience during the recording of an episode of Married... With Children.
There is an atmosphere hanging over the backstage footage of the cast, as their time together was coming to an end and they all knew it. Gillan remarks that she, Smith and Darvill had all come into Doctor Who together and that it was good that they were all together for this event. They speak of Gillian and Darvill's depature on the panel and it just goes to show how much the show and their co-stars mean to them. Smith seems to plant the first seeds for his departure during the Q&A, but what's interesting is that also on the panel is producer Caroline Skinner; she only chimes in with something toward the end of this featurette. Moffat was supposed to have screamed at her "you are erased from Doctor Who!" during a BBC public function; Her fate was similar to that of the War Chief in The War Games and you would have thought that Moffat would have eradicated all traces of her from this.
The Making of The Gunslinger: Running less than two minutes, this plays like a public information film as to how the cyborg character from A Town Called Mercy was created. If you remember the teaser trailer for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, then you'll know what you'll getting from this.
Wild, Wild... Spain?: This is another short (four minutes) and superficial behind-the-scenes, examining the historic location used for A Town Called Mercy. It's nice to see some shots of the place used for Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy (amongst many others), and the cast and crew are all excited about travelling out to Spain to shoot where so many others have filmed. Matt Smith's riding double gets some time in the spotlight as the leading man reveals that he is incapable of making a horse gallop and outgoing producer Caroline Skinner speaks on-camera.
A Writer's Tale: Another short (three minutes this time) promo sees Chris Chibnall on-set for the shooting of his story, The Power of Three. The inclusion of The Brig's daughter is discussed, along with Karen Gillan doing an admittedly terrible impersonation of Jemma Redgrave. Chibnall and Darvill also praise Mark Williams.
A Fall With Grace: This is a four-minute look at the problems with location filming in New York, with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat all frothing about how wonderful filming in the Big Apple is, whilst Alex Kingston seems miffed about how her stuff was filmed in Cardiff. The big rooftop fall performed by Gillan and Darvill is also covered.
The Last Days of the Ponds: The final shooting day with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill is covered in this 11 minute featurette. The pair of them reminisce about their time on Doctor Who - they came in together and they left together. The two of them seem to share an genuine bond (which also extends to Matt Smith) and they all discuss the various moments that resonated with them as Gillan and Darvill's time on the show wound down. Smith and Gillan recount a pivotal scene shot on location in Central Park that required him to be genuinely emotional whilst having several hundred gawkers watching his every move. This is a nice little featurette, with the three leads all rather emotional (to varying degrees) when interviewed on-camera.
Clara's White Christmas: This is a three-and-a-half minute puff-piece, with Jenna Louise Coleman and members of the crew recounting the challenge of shooting on location whilst surrounded by fake snow and hoards of enthusiastic Doctor Who fans. What is most interesting about this is that it has an interview with recently-departed producer Caroline Skinner who fell afoul of Steven Moffat.
Vastra Investigates: The Sapphic interspecial Victorian pair and their Sontaran butler wrap up another investigation; this serves as another prelude to The Snowmen and this little vignette serves to reinforce the nature of Madam Vastra and Jenny.
The Great Detective: This Children in Need special is a prequel to The Snowmen and sees The Doctor trying to be lured out of retirement by Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax; this is predominantly played for laughs, but manages to get serious at the end in order to demonstrate the resolute nature of The Doctor at this particular point in his life.
Audio Commentary - The Snowmen: Art Director Paul Spriggs joins Production Designer Michael Pickwoad to bring you a commentary on this festive episode of Doctor Who. They unsurprisingly talk about fake snow and the challenge of replicating a Winter Wonderland scene in the middle of summer. Fuck me, this is boring stuff. To say that this track is a little on the dry side is an understatement on the scale of saying that Nick Griffin is a slightly objectionable chap. If you listen hard enough to this commentary track you can probably hear the faint cracking sound of paint solidifying on walls. This is principally of interest to those who can appreciate the huge amount of effort that goes into making a period drama, including how sets are constructed, along with the functions of rostrums and flats. There are passages of silence during this commentary (and the sound of non-drip gloss hardening is even more prevalent) but if you are able to stick with it, Spriggs and Pickwoad will help you to understand and achieve a greater appreciation of the enormity of Doctor Who production.
The Bells of Saint John - A Prequel: This prelude to the first episode of the second part of series seven of Doctor Who sees The Doctor speaking to a young girl in a playground about Clara, unaware of the identity of the girl to whom he is speaking. This is great stuff, and the reveal at the end is perfectly written and executed - it's almost certainly the best of the all of the promotional ephemera.
Behind the Scenes of The Bells of Saint John: This is five minutes of hyper-kinetically edited footage, interspersed with interviews with the cast and crew as they go on location in London and film in the studio. The shooting of the ridiculously stupid motorbike sequence is also covered. This is narrated by someone who sounds remarkably like former Blue Peter presenter and (presumably equally former) coke-fiend Richard Bacon and seems to be part of some kids' television show that has been appropriated for the extras on this Series Seven set.
Behind the Scenes of The Rings of Akhatan: This is much the same as the previous making-of (and still seemingly narrated by Richard Bacon) as they spend five minutes taking us through the filming of this particular televisual shit-sandwich. The amount of exotic aliens is praised to the rafters by cast and crew (though the story itself is not really praised - and who could blame them?) Cute young actress Emilia Jones is also interviewed and she seems to light up the screen and her enthusiasm is infectious. The filming of the speeder-bike (or whatever the hell it was) is also discussed, with plenty of green-screen filming to amuse and bemuse.
Doctor Who in the U.S.: "With all of time and space to explore, what keeps bringing The Doctor back to America?" - well, it could be the part-funding with BBC America or just pandering to the American fan-base. Produced in 2012, this 45 minute documentary examines just why more and more stories have been set in America recently, with Moffat coming out with some guff along the lines of "The Doctor being such an iconic character… that he cuts such a different figure against that backdrop" - so making the show more desirable to American television is not a motivating factor at all, then?
The creation of Captain Jack Harkness is discussed, as it was the first recurring American(ish) character to appear in New-Who, with John Barrowman and David Tennant making appearances, and the Tennant interview seems to be a genuinely new one and not just something they had dug out of the archives to use.
What starts up as essentially a puff-piece the show the degree of popularity of Doctor Who in America eventually looks at the incidents of being in America during the Classic Series, starting with the toe-curling encounter with Daleks (and Morton Dill) on top of the Empire State Building and even Peter Purves briefly pops up to lament his own Deep South accent. The Gunfighters is briefly spoken of, with Purves defending the story (singing and everything), and Tennant emphasising that it has been reassessed in recent years, which is his way of saying that people have thought that it was crap for a long time.
Aside from the genuine location filming in America, there is also some coverage of the Tennant-era American excursions, including the trip to New (times fourteen or so) York, along with he duff Dalek two-parter, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks is also spoken of, where everyone admires the production design and Art Deco look of the RTD Daleks and ignores the sheer naffness of the story.
It's great to see actress Lachele Carl (who also narrates this documentary) being interviewed - she was the go-to person when it came to highlighting the global nature of extraterrestrial invasions during the Russell T Davies era, playing newsreader Trinity Wells. She's an amusing interviewee, but defecates in her own nest a somewhat by saying how cool she thought it was to be in Torchwood because "it's the grown-up one". Quite.
Location filming of New-Who takes centre-stage for the last third, with filming of Matt Smith's stories being covered, with plenty of clips, interviews and behind-the-scenes location footage being employed to show the scale of the stories being filmed. The San Deigo Comic-Con closes this interesting look at Doctor Who in America, it's interesting that the footage from a few years back with David Tennant shows a more sedate audience that what would follow during the Matt Smith era (which would see the sort of young, excitable teenage girls who would later be disgusted at the casting of Peter Capaldi); this fairly entertaining PR piece is wrapped up with footage of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat making their first trip to America to publicise series five of Doctor Who.
Audio Commentary - Cold War: Writer Mark Gatiss, Visual Effect Supervisor Murray Barber and Visual Effects Producer Jenna Powell are all on-hand to talk us through the writing and the effects on the Ice Warrior story. Gatiss is - as expected - a great commentator, as he reminisces about the origin of the story and complains that a line about preferring Ultravox' earlier work was cut in the final edit. The two effects people are pretty entertaining (trust us, we have endured our fair share of audio commentaries featuring FX people that have made us agonisingly wish for a swift and sudden death), but Gatiss holds court on this track and his fellow commentators lap up his every word - as will you when you listen to it. Gatiss even mentions that he elaborated on the reason for the defeat of the Ice Warriors back at the end of The Seeds of Death, as it had niggled him that they had been defeated so easily by effectively adjusting the thermostat. Gatiss also addresses the controversial issue of having the Ice Warrior effectively abandoning his armour and becoming a silly gecko-like creature - he apparently pitched that idea of Moffat as a way of being allowed to do an Ice Warrior story, so you can't blame him with coming up with some bollocks in order to get the characters back on screen. David Warner's severed Omen head, eighties music and the death of Margaret Thatcher are all on Gatiss' radar for this commentary and we're sure that you'll find it a pleasure to sit through.
Audio Commentary - Hide: The Doctor himself, Matt Smith joins director Jaime Payne for a rather laid-back, yet engrossing look at this 1970s-set episode. Both Smith and Payne are intelligent people and the refreshing lack of hyperbole means that their words are deliberate and informative. Payne informs the listening audience just how much in love with the script he was, even from the first draft and Smith is more than happy to agree with him. Though there is a LOT of "shop" talk, it's accessible to the layperson, and fascinating to those who are interesting in direction and/or acting. Payne even spins a story about how simple sound effects can make or break a scene (citing a moment during the post-production of Michael Caine's Aflie as an example), as foley and sound design are important factors in this particular story. Smith mentions that actress Jessica Raine (along with David Bradley), is in the Mark Gatiss' An Adventure in Space and Time and Doctor Who in the same year - ish. This is interesting stuff, but younger viewers who might want to listen to it because it's got The Doctor talking on it may be a little disappointed…
Behind the Scenes - Cold War: Richard Bacon narrates this slightly-under-four-minute featurette that briefly examines the making of Mark Gatiss' Ice Warrior story. Cast and crew gush about the redesign of the Ice Warriors, with the genial Gatiss stressing how important it was that it looked like a classic Ice Warrior, before he fucked things up by having that ridiculous "coming out of it's armour" rubbish. Mike Tucker's models are also highlighted - it's always good to praise practical effects.
Behind the Scenes - Hide: Bacon sandwiches this narration gig between other engagements as he introduces a quick (three-and-a-half minutes) look at the making of this supernatural story. The cast and crew speak of the supernatural elements of the locations used to shoot in, along with the shooting in the woods (where you can see that they were filming in broad daylight, but the footage was digitally (de)graded to look have a horrible "movie" teal hue.
Behind the Scenes - Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS: Yup, Bacon's back (or should that be back Bacon?) to provide the narration to a look at this particular story that promised a lot but delivered disappointment. There are brief glimpses at Classic Series incarnations of the TARDIS, along with stills of various Doctors and companions, but this featurette concentrates on the most recent design of the TARDIS interior by Michael Pickwoad (who sports a bow-tie that looks suspiciously like Matt Smith's one); Matt Smith also shows us some of the detail in the new Console Room.
The Science of Doctor Who: This was obviously produced for US television (by BBC America), as it runs for 45 minutes and opens with an excitable American blathering on, but it features contributions from Stephen Moffat and other British persons. This is a fairly standard mixture of clips from New-Who, enthusiastic frothing from professional fans and some observations from people in the scientific arena, who dispel or confirm the hypothetical possibilities seen in Doctor Who. The concept of paradoxes are discussed and Moffat even defends his awful series six story, Let's Kill Hitler, but doesn't justify the storyline he chose particularly convincingly. The sonic screwdriver is touched upon, with a scientific test as to the possibility of one being created being show but the fact that it's a lazy way out of a situation is curious not discussed. Each subject is rated on a scale of one to five, and in keeping with that, we have rated this glorified educational clip-show a solid three.
Good As Gold: This is a short Doctor Who skit that was written by the kids of Ashdene School and originally broadcast in May 2012 to nicely tie-in with Olympic Games. Matt Smith and Karen Gillen reprise their roles as The Doctor and Amy Pond, materialising in the middle of the Olympic Stadium - surely if it's during the opening ceremony there would have been a chance that he would have crossed his own time-stream? If we were to poke hole in the story, why would a Weeping Angel be able to move in the middle of a stadium filled with thousands of people - why, that's nearly as ridiculous as having the Statue of Liberty as a Weeping Angel. It's fairly entertaining stuff, but even though the writing was credited to school kids, the unmistakable fingerprints of Moffat are all over it.
Clarence and the Whispermen: This is a two-minute pre-cursor to The Name of the Doctor and features the silly adversaries menacing Clarence into providing Madam Vastra with vital information. This Moffat-penned minisode is short but reasonably entertaining, even if it does come across as a piece of unnecessary exposition that was nixed from the episode itself.
The Companions: This is another three-quarters-of-an-hour-ish programme that seems geared toward the American market, with the same American voiceover that featured on the Doctor Who in the US documentary. After getting the RTD assistants out of the way, this mainly centres upon the companions who have appeared in the Matt Smith era of Doctor Who. Featuring new interviews with Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, erstwhile producer Caroline Skinner, Steven Moffat and all the others who were in Doctor Who in the US. In fact, it's New-Who all the way, almost as though the original series never existed, save for a brief piece on Sarah Jane Smith. The gulf between the requirements for a companion on the original series and New-Who is pretty much crystallised by Caroline Skinner, who says that a companion needs to have a willing sense of adventure (on New-Who), but we personally preferred the "reluctant traveller" motif that was used fairly often on the original show, which originated with Ian and Barbara.
There's also some behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of Let's Kill Hitler, but you can't pull out a winner every time, now can you? What would have actually happened if the TARDIS had crashed into the Fuehrer's office, would have involved the SS storming the office and putting enough bullets through The Doctor and his companions to prevent them from coming back, no matter how many regenerations any of them had left in them. Oh and when it comes to River Song, it plays that bloody clips that contains the cheap, throwaway quip about the sound the TARDIS makes (de)materialising happening because the brakes are on. FUCK. OFF.
This is fairly predictable stuff, diverting but not exactly groundbreaking, and features some interesting and articulate observations from most of the contributors. There seem to be repeated moments in the interview footage that has been filmed and used for various documentaries on Doctor Who that celebrate the anniversary year -we seem to recall seeing some of this footage on the Watch documentaries that have been playing recently.) Hardened fans of New-Who will enjoy this.
Creating Clara: This is a nine-minute look at how Jenna-Louise Coleman shaped the character based on Steven Moffat's imaginings. From the huge amount of secrecy when she appeared in Asylum of the Daleks, to her full-time debut on the show, even the contrasting sartorial styles between the various incarnations of Clara are explored. Moffat and Matt Smith also put in their two-penneth worth regarding the character and the all-important question (to some) about whether or not The Doctor is attracted to her in a trouser-twitching manner. It's refreshing to hear Coleman's northern tones coming through when she is interviewed here.
Behind-the-Scenes - The Crimson Horror: Yet another Richard Bacon narrated breakneck look at the production of the other Mark Gatiss-penned story in this series. Gatiss is on-hand to give the basis of the story and also the deep-seated reason as to exactly why he wanted to tell this particular story. Some of the stunts are also seen being filmed, with a couple of the participants interviewed, too. It's only four-and-a-half minutes, so don't expect anything TOO in-depth.
Behind-the-Scenes - Nightmare in Silver: The Cyberman story that disappointed many is very briefly looked at here; clocking in at just shy of three minutes, writer Neil Gaiman explains the impact that the Cybermen had on him as a child; it's nice that there are images of many of the older Cybermen here, with Moffat extolling the joys of the redesigned ones here and the way that the ***suppresses yawn*** bullet-time effect was achieved. As old-school Rocky Horror fans, we couldn't help but love the brief behind-the-scenes clip of a couple of Cybermen doing the Time-Warp.
Behind-the-Scenes - The Name of the Doctor: The series seven finale is covered here at breakneck speed, with a nice interview with Dan Starkey, explaining how a dramatic stunt involving the Sontaran and a strapping stuntman came to be filmed. The bitch-slapping between River Song and Vastra is also explored from the points of view from both actresses and the big explosion in the TARDIS is covered, with contributions from Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman. The last part of this four minute featurette appropriately covers the last day of filming, with a slight air of melancholy from Steven Moffat.
The Inforarium: This mini-skit from Steven Moffat runs for less than two minutes and features Matt Smith as The Doctor deleting all references of him from the titular intergalactic database. It's an interesting piece and certainly exists to set up an important plot-point in series seven.
Clara and the TARDIS: This is another two-minute piece written by Moffat and has Jenna Louise Coleman speaking to the TARDIS and the subject of previous female companions is brought up, pleasingly illustrating them with pictures of several previous Classic and New cast members. It ends on an amusing note about the concept of appearing multiple times in one place and would have many hormonal Doctor Who fans drooling at the possibility of numerous Jenna Louise Colemans appearing together.
Rain Gods: Just over a minute-and-a-half is given over to this Moffat-penned skit that involves The Doctor and River Song on their way to be sacrificed to the titular deities. It's snappy, fairly amusing and - appropriately for Doctor Who - looks like it was shot in a quarry somewhere.
He Said/She Said: This is a three-odd minute skit - once again written by Moffat - featuring contrasting points-of-view between Clara and The Doctor. This was used to promote the series seven finale, The Name of the Doctor and also functions as a way of bringing the more casual fans up to speed on what has been happening in the show and also to drop tantalising hints about what will happen in the finale episode. It's well acted and shot in an interesting fashion and certainly achieves it's primary objective.
Audio Commentary - The Crimson Horror: The trio who make up the so-called "Paternostra Gang", Catrin Stewart, Dan Starkey and Neve McIntish are on-hand to give their views on the production of Mark Gatiss' story. McIntosh's original Edinburgh accent is present and is a joy to listen to (one of us is engaged to a woman originally from the Edinburgh era, so we're bias) and the three of them have a fair amount of chemistry and a certain camaraderie between the trio. Predictably, it's all fairly "actorly" and they all seem to be entranced by the magnitude of the production design, with McIntosh in particular being quite taken with the locations used for the story and even remarks that parts of it reminds her of Carry On Screaming.
Christmas episode The Doctor, the Witch and the Wardrobe just wasn't our cup of tea; the predictable storyline (with a predictable climax that even Mr Magoo could have seen coming) along with the hefty dollops of syrupy sentimentality really counted against it.
This aside, we were quite surprised by how much we enjoyed this first half of series seven, with there only being one duffer in the batch ( A Town Called Mercy), and the Ponds are given an fitting send-off. Matt Smith is as good as ever and Karen Gillan demonstrates why she was leaving the show, as her performances have made her very much an actor in demand.
Doctor Who Series Seven has very much been a mixed-bag, with a hit-to-miss ratio that is tipped in favour of the latter. The first half of series seven was more satisfying overall, but The Name of the Doctor went quite some way toward papering over some of the less successful episodes. Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman have the sort of chemistry that most television shows would kill to have in their lead performers, and each episode in this series is handsomely mounted. The final story gives Classic Doctor Who fans a glimmer of hope that Steven Moffat is going to pull something out of the bag in November that will have them ecstatic with pleasure. It probably won't happen now, but we live in hope.
The transfers here are pretty satisfying, accompanied by nice 5.1 soundtracks and there are some interesting extras thrown in for good measure, even if many of them are little more than B-Roll/EPK stuff with Richard "It's the Real Thing" Bacon narrating.
Generally, things have been looking up, and we are cautiously looking forward to the impending 50th anniversary special, Day of the Doctor. Whilst you wait for it, we suppose could do much worse than going out and picking up this set.
Review by Wilson Bros
Really great review, as usual. I have yet to see all of Series 7 but a lot of what you said is spot on. I personally feel it's time to reign in some of the sillier aspects and get back to making Doctor Who a solid drama series. Time to move on, Moffat?
Wilson Bros Reviewer Join Date: August 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1,183
Indeed, Gav - we feel that it's maybe time for Moffat to move it.
In some ways, the show is now having to conform to the American markets and some of the more Emo aspects of New-Who (including Murray Gold's shamelessly manipulative scores, which tell you what to think and when to think it) will have to remain in place.
The Wilson Bros
In some ways, the show is now having to conform to the American markets and some of the more Emo aspects of New-Who (including Murray Gold's shamelessly manipulative scores, which tell you what to think and when to think it) will have to remain in place.
The Wilson Bros
scratch Member Join Date: August 2008 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 84
Moffat and Gold need to be shown the door.
Wilson Bros wrote: In some ways, the show is now having to conform to the American markets and some of the more Emo aspects of New-Who
I agree. Part of the timeless charm for me of the original series is it's quintessential Britishness. I lost interest after Series 5 but I am giving Series 6 a go as we speak. It's not as bad as I thought it would be but it's lacking. I was excited when Moffat was announced as taking over, as I really enjoyed The Empty Child. But Moffat's tenure has been nothing like the promise that episode showed.
I am glad I am not the only one that feels "New Who" has taken a turn for the worst. I compare New Who to something like Inferno and I cannot help but shake my head... In fact, I am almost worried about the anniversary show. An Adventure in Time and Space is what I am really looking forward to!
I agree. Part of the timeless charm for me of the original series is it's quintessential Britishness. I lost interest after Series 5 but I am giving Series 6 a go as we speak. It's not as bad as I thought it would be but it's lacking. I was excited when Moffat was announced as taking over, as I really enjoyed The Empty Child. But Moffat's tenure has been nothing like the promise that episode showed.
I am glad I am not the only one that feels "New Who" has taken a turn for the worst. I compare New Who to something like Inferno and I cannot help but shake my head... In fact, I am almost worried about the anniversary show. An Adventure in Time and Space is what I am really looking forward to!
David Blackwell Senior Member Join Date: February 2004 Location: United States Posts: 2,831
I agree that the new season was a mixed bag. I didn't hate some of the episodes you hated as much, but I can agree the whole Ice Warrior coming out of his suit was really silly. The season finale had some good build-up only to be all made of build-up with no real pay off
One thing I noticed, although I know this is over a year old now:
"Presented in 1.78:1, the standard definition image looks pretty good, close to - if not better than - the non-HD broadcast on television."
In my experience, SD broadcasts (at least on Sky) are terrible - blocky, low-bitrate transfers that do not look all that fantastic. It stands to reason the DVDs will be a lot better than the original over-the-air broadcasts.
"Presented in 1.78:1, the standard definition image looks pretty good, close to - if not better than - the non-HD broadcast on television."
In my experience, SD broadcasts (at least on Sky) are terrible - blocky, low-bitrate transfers that do not look all that fantastic. It stands to reason the DVDs will be a lot better than the original over-the-air broadcasts.
General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children
Disc Details
Release Date: 28th October 2013
Discs: 5
Disc Type: Single side, dual layer
RCE: No
Video: PAL
Aspect: 1.78:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Colour: Yes
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitles: English
Extras: Audio Commentaries, Too many featurettes to list, various Moffat-penned skits, prequels, behind-the-scenes documentaries narrated by an ex-coke-fiend, and many, many more!
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Various
Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna Louise Coleman, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darville
Genre: Sci-Fi
Length: 692 minutes
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With his new movie "Django Unchained" set to hit theaters on Christmas Day, Jamie Foxx pitched in on promotions by covering the December 2012 issue of Men's Health magazine.
The 44-year-old actor showed off his buff bod in a John Varvatos Star USA shirt with nude jeans for the Ture Lillegraven shot front page while opening up about his secrets to success and staying in shape.
Highlights from Mr Foxx's interview are as follows. For more, be sure to pay a visit to Men's Health!
On taking his time after a hit:
"It's all waves. It'll be good for a while, then things will mellow out. Then we'll catch another wave. The Kingdom is another wave. You want to do it; you don't want to overdo it. So lay back after a big thing. That's the hardest part, letting someone else get it on. But then you come back with something that's brand new and different."
On his unlikely mentor, Paul Anka:
"Paul Anka has a very interesting story. When he was 15 or 16, he was hanging out with the Rat Pack. He couldn't get into the clubs, but he'd hang out in the kitchen and write songs for Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra. He wrote 'My Way.' He also wrote the theme song for Johnny Carson. Johnny said, 'I have someone to write it.' Paul said, 'I'll give you 50 percent of the publishing.' And he got the gig. But Paul Anka said to me, 'Jamie, I live life on my own terms.' And you want to reach that point as quickly as you can. You want to be able to say, 'I will go,' not 'I have to go.' So that's all you work for, man."
On his fitness goal:
"I just want to get my tight on. If someone grabs your arm in a club, you want to let 'em know you're sturdy."
Photo Credit: Ture Lillegraven for Men's Health

subset: commoncrawl


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Gastrological Forecast
Closing, closing, closing. What the hell is going on here? Mom 'n' pop restaurants are dropping like flies, while corporate joints squirm like maggots on every corner. I know I've been whining about this same thing for years, but things seem to have changed over the past few months, and it's happening faster and faster. Look, people, you control the future of this city. The potential for change is in your pocketbook. If you don't eat at McAppleSteakhouse, and do eat at Tippy's Taco Shack then you are helping to keep local dollars here, in the hands of your friends and neighbors. You're supporting local chefs, farmers and purveyors. It's like voting: Sometimes it seems pointless and sometimes you don't win, but if you don't do it, you always lose. In fact, think of the loss of one of your favorite little places next time you vote. Call your city councilor, mayor, or state legislator and ask what they're doing to help keep local restaurants alive. I mean, what more can I say? What has that multinational corporate feed lot on I-25 done for you lately? When was they last time you walked in to one of those places and got introduced to everyone in the neighborhood, given a lesson in red or green and made to feel welcome in a strange city?
The Dish
All the News That's Fit to Eat
Tony Nethery is moving to Miami, Fla., to take a job as Sous Chef at Douglas Rodriguez' new restaurant OLA Steak. Nethery had been chef at Monte Vista Fire Station until the end of last year, when he became partners with Johnny Orr in the cheese and sandwich shop Relish (Wyoming between Louisiana and Pennsylvania). Nethery will remain a silent partner in the business after he leaves, which he said will happen before the end of February. Yes, it does seem sudden, but Nethery told me the job was too good to pass up; he couldn't resist the opportunity to work with such a well-known chef (Rodriguez was also behind the popular restaurant Chicama in New York City). Plus, Nethery's wife Melina (who also happens to the be the younger sister of my former coworker Sergio Salvador) is pregnant with their first child, so if they were going to make a move, it would be best to do it before they start hatching chicks. Pastry chef Ted Nicely, who spent the past few years making desserts for Monte Vista and Ambrozia, will join Nethery at OLA Steak. I will cry myself to sleep tonight, knowing I've had the last of Nethery's pork and grits creations and Nicely's awesome ice creams. The city will be way less yummy without the three of them.
Bottoms Up
An Oenophile's Guide to Sideways
The oscar-nominated film captures what we love about wine
When I first heard about a wine movie coming out, I nearly wet my pants. I mean, introducing wine to the mainstream—the Hollywood mainstream—that's the kind of publicity wine really needs in order to penetrate the American psyche.
Restaurant Review
Venezia's New York Style Pizzeria
Rio Rancho transplant brings the flavah of Noo Yoyk to the Duke City
My New York "expat" friends have long been making pilgrimages to Venezia's Pizzeria in Rio Rancho for their New York style pizza fix. I'm happy to report that brothers Renato and Aldo Venturino have opened a sister store in the near Northeast Heights, so we don't have to commute as far for a pie.
Flying Star opens next week in a historic Downtown building
Flying Star is set to open Downtown at Eighth Street and Silver on Monday, Feb. 28. This latest addition to the Flying Star and Satellite family of bakery/restaurants and coffee shops is located in a striking modern structure built in 1950 for Southern Union Gas, a precursor of PNM. The airy and open building with lots of stone, steel and walls of windows, was designed by the late John Gaw Meem, a famous New Mexico-based architect who was best known for his Southwestern style buildings, like UNM's Alumni Memorial Chapel. Flying Star owners Jean and Mark Bernstein worked with landlord Jay Rembe to get national historic status for the building.
Foam to the Dome
Latte Art Throwdown
Chowtown Restaurant Guide
Whether you're more familiar with the French Riviera or the French Quarter, there are plenty of places in Albuquerque to get a taste of authentic French cuisine. Read Hosho McCreesh's review of Le Quiche Parisienne in this issue, and check out these other restaurants in the city that will cater to your wanderlust and make you feel, if only for the evening, that you're dining in the City of Lights. Bon appetit, mes amis.


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Changes taking place in BSHS elective Bible course
Apparently reversing his stance from earlier in the day, Big Spring Independent School District Superintendent Steven Saldivar announced Wednesday afternoon that the elective Bible course offered at the high school will undergo a number of changes, including the instructor teaching it.
According to Saldivar, the school district was notified Dec. 15 by Robert Scott, commissioner of education for the Texas Education Agency, new rules relating to the "Elective Courses on the Bible's Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament and Their Impact on the History and Literature of Western Civilization" were being adopted by TEA.
Saldivar said those rule changes, along with outside pressure believed to be coming from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), led the district to make a number of changes to the course.
"Consequently, beginning Friday the district will begin using The Bible and Its Influence curriculum for its elective Bible courses, which is published by Bible Literacy Project," Saldivar announced in a press release Wednesday afternoon.
"This curriculum is currently being used in more than 100 school districts across Texas. "The course will be taught by Charlie Crisp, who is fully certified to instruct the course in accordance with State Board of Education rules and existing legal precedent. In accordance with the commissioner's adopted rules, student expectations for the courses will align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for 'Special Topics in Social Studies' and/or 'Independent Study in English.'"
For more information, you may subscribe to the Big Spring Herald or purchase an e-edition.


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DAKLLAS, TEXAS -- Wednesday, December 23, 2009. TXU executives enthusiastically embrace and TXU falsely claims, in violation of the Texas DTPA "Clear, straightforward terms of service with billing you can understand and trust" and "Responsive, knowledgeable customer care agents available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." This is a blatant lie, because I had a difficulty understanding, TXU's foreign customer service representatives, lack of familiarity with the billings, and their ineffective responses to my inquiries.
My new electric bill this month went from $ 83.96 to a whopping $ 181.15 without any temperature settings changes and I was not even home for ten days of the month. I proceeded to dispute my bill in accordance with State and Federal laws including charges such as advanced meter surcharge and an Oncor rate change? Why Oncor I am with TXU? So yesterday I tried to call customer service @ 972-791-2888 and for almost two hours their automatic answering service recycled my call, then after three or four cycles I had to redial the number never getting through.
Today 12/23/09 after trying again on my third attempt I got through to three (3) different customer service centers which were located in 1- Guatemala, 2- Manila, then # 3 located in El Salvador to my surprise I was told that there are no call centers located in the US and all TXU customer service operations are at overseas call centers. The fourth agent told me he was in Guatemala. I asked him if he had anybody that could speak better English because his command of the English language was difficult to understand and had a strong accent and was told by him I should redial the phone number and or try 800-242-9113.
After 5 attempts and still not getting anybody that could speak good English the agent told me that he was having a hard time understanding my accent. Then he told me that I could hang up and call again. I said no, I had been on the phone for about 2 hours and 45 minutes and if I called back I would only get someone else with an accent that I could not understand. He then hung up on me!
So I tried again and when I got to the Manila based service desk I told the lady there that I needed to speak with a manager and had hoped it would be an American she asked me the same questions again and told me I would be on hold 3-4 minutes. Guess what I was wrong, the Supervisor manager was also a foreigner and she wanted to know the details of my complaints and I told her the issues and that I wanted to speak to a US customer service person, to which she replied it will take 24 hours for that to happen, agreed and @ 15:23:22 we hung up and I am waiting.
What TXU executives who make these decisions do not realize is that Time is precious, and what customer wants to spend an inordinate amount of time in an often vain attempt to communicate with a company contact employee who is halfway around the world and cannot speak English effectively with having difficulty in navigating their electronic phone response systems, with excessive telephone hold times, and agents improperly trained to adequately handle service problems?
It is easy to measure the savings TXU gets by farming out customer-service jobs to countries whose median income is an eighth of what it is in the U.S. to people that cannot speak our language. It is simply to say that working on the front lines of customer service means, first, being able to understand what the customer needs and then meeting those needs efficiently and TXU is showing profound disrespect for us the Texas consumer by violating their own statements about customer service and they do not understand that this practice does not help their reputation. I hope I will get my callback in the next twenty three hours.
My best advice to anyone thinking about using TXU is not to do it. They smack of false advertising and poor customer service. And I am not prejudiced but I feel that with a recession in progress in the US, with as many people out of jobs, we could and should open Customer Service up to those people here in the USA!
TEXAS -- I currently have one of the new "smart meters" installed in my home. Over the last two billing cycles my electricity usage, according to the meter, more than doubled. During this time period I made no additions or changes in the way of appliances or heating / AC units that would explain the enormous load reported by my meter. I called TXU to request an inspection, and the representative did everything except admit that there might be a problem with my meter. I was quizzed about every appliance in my home, my current water heater and thermostat settings, etc - as if I am oblivious to factors that may affect my electricity usage.
The rep suggested that I did not know how to read the meter correctly, although after a vague and confusing explanation, we agreed that I was reading the meter correctly. (By the way: I was going to post a link to the TXU website explanation of how to read your new "smart meter" but it turns out that no such instructions exist on the web - more outstanding customer service.) The representative on the phone treated me as if she knew more about my home and electricity usage than I do. I was also informed that I would have to pay Oncor myself to have an inspection on the meter.
Finding this answer unacceptable I consulted my own electrician who gave me all the steps to shut off power entirely to my home, which I did. Turns out that even after shutting down each circuit breaker and the main breaker to the home the meter still gives a current load of 28.59 Kw (I was informed that this is enough of a load to adequately power four homes equal to the size of mine at the same time). So much for the "smart meter."
Now, after informing TXU of this new information, I have to wait up to 5 days for an Oncor representative to inspect my meter. They made no effort to apologize for the way I was treated in the initial phone call, and I was told that I may have to pay an additional fee to have the technician inspect the meter. This situation was frustrating enough without the addition of poor customer service. I honestly don't know if I will remain a TXU customer after this - I will update with the end result so that other consumers can see how TXU handled the situation.
Update: TXU sent out a service technician (from Oncor) to inspect the meter. I put in a specific request to be present when the tech was at my home (I gave the TXU phone rep two contact numbers), and what happened? Of course, I got no call. When I called TXU on the 5th day to see why I had not heard from the technician, I was informed that there had already been an inspection and that there was nothing wrong with the meter.
I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor to request another inspection - one where I could supervise the technician and shut the power off in front of him to prove that the meter still shows a usage. Instead, after placing me on hold for an extended amount of time, the TXU phone rep offered to take $400 off of my current bill. Now, why would any company offer to cut the bill by more 60% if nothing was wrong with their equipment??? I immediately went outside to the meter only to find that now it is working properly.
I now have no proof to show that my last month's bill was due to equipment malfunction. This is the single most deceitful situation I have ever experienced from any company. I'm changing providers as soon as possible. Hope this post keeps some other person from signing up with TXU and experiencing a nightmare like mine.
TEXAS -- Read to the end for contact info to get your issues resolved... but their customer service is still just awful! Well my journey through the TXU customer service debacle started some 4 yrs. ago when I moved to Rockport TX. After 2.5 months in my new place I got a phone call from their customer service asking where I would like my bill sent. I suggested it go the same place they were delivering the power!
The bill arrives with, you guessed it, LATE FEES. So I called to have them removed. After a couple hours on the phone and speaking to supervisors, they agreed to remove 1. Turns out, according to them, it is my responsibility to chase down my bill. I kept fighting it and ultimately got them waved and a $50 credit for my time. But after 8 hrs. on the phone with these fools, I was not liking my hourly wage in my new unwanted role as customer service consultant. So I pressed the issue. And I pressed. Well let me assure you you will NEVER get satisfaction calling their customer service toll free line.
So I finally looked up their corporate hdqs online and called their directly. I finally found a guy who cared. They sent me a check for my time and suffering. $200! But it was not over. I have since had issues getting on their website which it only took them like a yr. to fix. Stuck on the phone with all sorts of people on that go round. They are mostly not helpful and mostly incompetent.
Last week was the final straw. I called to find out about a $5.95 monthly fee. I got 2 different answers from the same CSR. He was basically just talking out his ass. Probably made it up. Then I made the mistake of asking him what I paid per kwh last month. OMG! He couldn't tell me. He kept talking about the energy multiplier and told me it was 4 cents. I finally gave up on him and divided the $ by the kw and got just under 12 cents. I asked for his supervisor. I had been on the phone at least 25 min by then. Seriously. I asked her about the monthly fee. Got answer number 3.
I am now demanding an explanation as to why it is OK for their customer service reps to be unable to answer the most rudimentary billing questions. Remember, we are approaching the 1 hr. mark at this point. They are on my clock! This woman kept interrupting and explaining to me how truly competent and excellent their staff is. I had had enough so she transfers me to America!! The escalation dept. at the CEO's office. This gal quickly tells me where to find the cost of a kwh and gives me answer number 4 about the monthly charge.
I complain about how their customer service dept, although admittedly bad now for yrs is still as bad. She told me they have weekly meetings and they talk about fixing it at each meeting. TALK IS CHEAP huh? Well that was 1.5 hrs. of my life I will never get back and so I start climbing the ladder to get compensation for my time. I sent emails which no one will follow up on when they say they will and this time around they REFUSE to give me a credit for my time pain and suffering.
The conclusion I am drawing is that they are very sorry, but they are now OK with stealing my time in spite of their admissions that their CSR that started this whole debacle sucks so bad they yanked him off the phone to train him. Touch crap for me. And I got that during a TWENTY minute call with their COO. I have had it. I sent their CEO an email and his reply was to have his lackey COO call me to placate me with an official apology from way up the food chain. Money talks and ** walks. I am done.
As I told the COO I could probably drag their butts into small claims court and find a very sympathetic jury, but why waste more time. I see I am in good company here! Here is some helpful information. There is a customer service escalation dept. The director is ** at 972.868.8287. Please call him and give him your feedback. He is laboring under the false belief there is a high percentage of customer satisfaction among those dealing with the customer service dept.
One of his people in the escalation dept. is **, TXU Energy, Manager - Office of the CEO. Office: (972) 868-8287. When all else fails, you can email the CEO directly at firstname.lastname@example.com. He seems to think things are just peachy as well. He thinks it isn't broken!! LMAO.
DALLAS, TEXAS -- I view my previous bill with TXU and the KWH 12.5 and I knew if I called them, I would not grant the opportunity to a lower rate. My contract had expired moreover, I did not want to renew with them. I contact other providers and receive a rate of 8.6 without the 150.00 enrollment fee. I was perfectly happy with this rate and would not have considered anymore offer from another company.
On June 6, I receive a call from a TXU representative stating my KWH rate of 5.4 if I enroll within TXU's Plan - Residential Choice 12. On first, I was very concerned about the rate and asked three times to verify the rate. I asked her for a moment while I obtain a pen and paper to write down all the information given me.
I knew her name and three times, she quoted to 5.4 KWH rate. She explains it was special offer for maintaining customers. I was leery about the enrollment, but decided to save money this summer. She stated the enrollment within the Residential Choice 12 program would allow for the 5.4 rate. After the conversation had ended, I immediately retrieved my account to check things out for myself. My account rate of was enrolling for 9.8. When I saw this I went through the roof and called them immediately, first speaking to a representative with an attitude that would make anyone get on a plane and fly to Dallas and smack her between her pearly whites.
She made the comment stating I would have to pay the cancellation fee of $150 if I cancel the account. Under the circumstances, I am receiving unprofessional treatment, especially when TXU has contact me to maintain my business. At this point, the conversation was not getting anywhere, and I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was transferred to a supervisor. I specially asked if she was with the Customer Retention Department. Her response was she was a Supervisor and we agreed that I would not be charged $150 cancellation fee.
I advise I would pay my final payment and discontinue service with TXU. I advise the supervisor of remarks from representatives regarding my account. I also mentioned I was misinformed in addition, training on how to overcome objections is necessary. Again another failure of customer service, representing a huge corporation. I think the way customer service is being handle today I would rather deal with a computer system-taking bids instead of dealing with incompetent and unprofessional representatives.
HOUSTON, TEXAS -- 2007 We terminated service with TXU electric and sent in our final payment. We were never contacted by them again. 2010 They offered a good electric rate and we contacted them for service. We received a letter from them rejecting us. We have never had a credit rejection in 40 years and were shocked. We always pay extra on our electricity to avoid owing a large amount in December. I made 5 or more calls to their foreign customer service office trying to get information. I received answers like we don't know or they hung up on me. I was also left hanging for a supervisor why they laughed and talked in their language and after 10 min I hung up.
I was told they had no home office by their customer service. Finally through the internet I found their home offices in the usa. They claimed we owed a balance of $400. I said we sent you our last payment in 2007 and never received any bills or calls stating we owe money. They asked me if I had the checks. I did have the last one stating final payment, but that was not good enough. They wanted all of the 2007 ones which I no longer had. This is the first business I have ever heard of who fails to send bills or notify a customer about (alleged) money owed.
I asked why if this was a genuine debt they did not do this. They had no answer and we did not trust them and felt their records were incorrect. Txu reported to all the credit bureaus that they wrote off a bad debt in 2010 never mentioning that this alleged bill was a 2007. This has. Brought down our credit ratings and we cannot resolve it. Credit bureaus have no interest in the individual problem. To say we detest TXU is an understatement. Beware***
After 2 weeks of using TXU my electricity was cut off before the first bill even arrived! I signed up for TXU electric, and my credit approved me for a $150 credit gift of service for signing up with them. The terms were $150 of service for free, $0 deposit depending on credit (which the website agreed after entering my social, and having to call to verify over the phone the representative said no deposit, and $0 installation fee. As I was young (20 yrs. old my credit was impt to me.) After 2 weeks of having electricity I come home from work and there is no electricity!
I was outraged and called TXU immediately, they said I failed to pay my first bill. I informed them I had only had their service less than 2 weeks and did not receive a bill. The man continued by saying I never paid my $300 deposit and that is my balance! (Why would they hook up the service before the deposit I asked? LOL.) I told the man I have every email and screenshots and the saved html pages from the website and had the phone conversations recorded to PROVE that I was not lying. That's the FIRST time I was hung up on.
I recorded every conversation on the phone and had all my paperwork bc I would rather take them to court than let them take advantage of me. Eventually one of these people admitted TXU was wrong but they refused to reinstate my service. TXU told me I would have to pay the $300 deposit, a fee for have service disconnected and another fee for having service continued (totaling around $400 then I could resume service within 2 DAYS of paying that!)
Even with all the evidence I had I would have to miss work to go to court and so I sent the deposit and told them NOT to resume my service and if I did not have my deposit back within the 2 weeks that was agreed upon I would go to court. And that is only half of the mess.
Immediately after getting off the phone with TXU I called Reliant energy and had them hook up service within the hour. It's been 2 years now and I have been happy with Reliant but TXU will NEVER get a dime from me or my family EVER. Till this day I still keep any and all copies of agreements and record every conversation with ANY company because next time I won't be a 20 yr. old kid that is too busy working 60 hour weeks and afraid to lose money for missing work for court. Bottom line TXU are liars that try to take advantage of people and I will always tell anyone to never use TXU.
I complained about the bill being way too high for December as I have lived here 28 years. They told me the bill was right and that I had a new advanced meter that could be read with a computer. That was lie. I came home and read the old meter with the dials and called them back today. They then denied the conversation on Jan 14 about the new meter. The guy told me they could read it with binoculars after I informed him my yard has no access due to a pool. Right. So maybe it has never been read.
I told him I read the meter and it would mean I had only used 385 units of power since January 4 (their last reading.) He then told me I don't know how to read a meter. Really, I guess being Phi Beta Kappa and an honors grad means I am an idiot. He kept telling me it was correct. Well, in three hours a guy shows up to install a new meter. I took down his truck number and license number. Let's see them deny this. Was this a coincidence? I think not.
I filed a complaint with the PUC but I am sure I will get a nice form letter back. TXU is crooked as the day is long. I will switch back to Reliant. I also had the highest summer bills in 28 years and have a new air conditioner. I highly doubt they have ever read the meter in all the time I have had this joke of a company (one year.)
I have been a TXU customer for one and half years. Never missed a payment. Today I got a call from the guy that cleans the backyard pool about power being off in my house. I called TXU and asked what's going on. I was told I did not pay my bill in full and they disconnected my service. I was driving and did not have access to bills and payments. So, I went ahead and made payment in full on my cc. The representative that took the payment told me they would restore power by midnight. Just to be sure asked to speak with a supervisor - she told me it would not be restored until tomorrow.
It's about 100 degrees where we live and TXU does not care. They have access to my phone and e-mail - they could have easily given me a heads up before taking the extreme measure of disconnecting power. I pay about $1200/month during summer. Tomorrow we need to throw out about $1000 worth of stuff from the freezer/refrigerator. I came home and saw my dog very uncomfortable and possibly dehydrated now that's very upsetting. I will talk to my state representatives about re-regulating the industry.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS -- In my entire life, I have never seen such BS and double talk from an electric company. I've lived all over the world, so I know what I'm talking about. They LIE, CHEAT, and I swear, double bill their customers. I have spoken to the stupidest people ever to have inhabited earth on their so-called customer service lines. Please, if you're a customer switch services, they're cheating you!!! Call them and see if you are able to get a SIMPLE, STRAIGHT ANSWER FROM THEM. It won't happen, I promise.
We live in a No Soliciting Neighborhood. The TXU people Keep Coming around knocking on my door and ringing the bell. I tried to tell the young man that I'm not interested but he keeps coming around. If I ever do business with this company it won't be with a Door to door sales person, I'll use my computer. My husband and I are ill and we don't want to be bothered with Sales people, even if it's FREE! I've stopped answering the door, but he does not take the hint.


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In a 1970s television commercial, heartburn relief was spelled R-O-L-A-I-D-S. In drought-plagued Arizona on the verge of a 14th consecutive year of moisture deprivation, relief is spelled R-U-N-O-F-F from rain and spring snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains into the mighty Colorado River.
If runoff fails to achieve near normal levels in the Colorado River watershed over the next few years, a shortage could be called on the river for the lower basin states (Arizona, California and Nevada) by 2011. Arizona would take 96 percent of the water loss, Nevada four percent, and none for California. About a third of Arizona's water needs are supplied by the Colorado River.
"The good news is there are tremendous amounts of storage on the Colorado River in Lake Meade and Lake Powell with each about 50 percent full," said Tom Carr, assistant director with the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR).
"The bad news is if we don't get great improvement in water supplies to near normal runoff, we have a good chance of a shortage declaration by 2011." Reduced runoff into the Colorado River has occurred annually since 2000.
Lake Meade is located on the Arizona-Nevada border east of Las Vegas. Lake Powell is bordered by three states — Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
A shortage would be long-term, five to 10 years depending on hydrology, Carr said. U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne would declare a shortage. The Colorado River is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation's regional office in Boulder City, Colo.
Carr explained the impending water shortage's potential impact on Arizona irrigation districts and agriculture in a presentation to farmers at the 2007 Maricopa Agricultural Center Field Day in Maricopa, Ariz. in early October.
"We're trying to help people understand the possibility of a shortage and to start looking for other water sources," Carr said. "People don't need to overreact — they need to look ahead and plan for it," Carr said.
More than half of Arizona's Colorado River draw is delivered to Central Arizona through the Central Arizona Project (CAP). The river is tapped at Lake Havasu, Ariz., where 336 miles of concrete canals slither like a rattlesnake across the low desert into the Phoenix area and then south beyond Tucson. The CAP delivers more than half of the annual water supply to the four million-plus residents in Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties.
For Central Arizona agriculture, the CAP provides irrigation water to about 300,000 acres of farmland. According to Carr, the CAP has dibs on about 1.6 million acre-feet (a-f) from the Colorado River annually, of which 400,000 is set aside in the agricultural pool for contractors, and some water is delivered under Arizona water banking activities.
"If farmers and irrigation districts don't have a full water supply (from a shortage), they need to determine the amount of needed replacement capacity (wells) and the related costs," Carr said. "They need to make the financial investment to ensure adequate water supplies."
Yuma County, Ariz. farmers don't need to break a sweat over the water shortage issue. The five water districts in the Yuma area have higher priority than the CAP. Yuma County borders the Colorado River.
"Yuma won't be shorted under any foreseeable projection we have," Carr said. "According to the 'Law of the River', CAP water would have to dry up completely before Yuma river water supply was affected."
Yuma's five water districts include the Yuma County Water Users' Association, the Wellton Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District (IDD), the North and South Gila Irrigation Districts, and the Yuma Mesa IDD, Carr said.
The "Law of the River" is a compilation of federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act, which authorized the CAP, also mandated junior river rights to the CAP compared to those with pre-1968 water rights. The same law dealt senior lower basin state priority to California over Arizona and Nevada.
Carr has 30-plus years in resource planning and water rights management. At ADWR, he's in charge of water rights adjudication, primarily negotiations on the Colorado River Compact and river operations.
The compact is a 1922 agreement among the seven states in the Colorado River basin. The upper basin state makeup includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Shortages there can be called anytime.
A lower basin shortage call would be a history-setting first. Shortage guidelines are expected from Kempthorne by the end of the year.
Among the secretary's option are the components of a basin state-developed plan for the continued operation of Lake Meade and Lake Powell. If a shortage is called, reductions would be based on Lake Meade water levels.
If Meade's level dips below 1,075 feet but remains above 1,050, deliveries to the lower basin would be cut by 333,000 a-f, including 320,000 a-f less for Ariz.; between 1,050 and 1,025 — a 417,000 a-f reduction (400,000 for Ariz.), and below 1,025 feet — 500,000 a-f (480,000 for Ariz.). At 1,025 feet, Kempthorne and basin state representatives would discuss additional reductions.
Due to statutory priority, California would not lose a single water drop under a shortage. The Golden State enjoys pre-1968 rights for their Colorado River allocation.
Current law affords maximum Colorado River water apportionments to the lower basin states as follows: California - 4.4 million a-f, Arizona - 2.8 million a-f, and Nevada - 300,000 a-f. A 1944 U.S.-Mexico treaty earmarks 1.5 million a-f to Mexico. One AF equals 325,851.42 U.S.gallons.
"When I say the CAP would be shorted, the shortage actually falls first on our water banking activities through the Arizona Water Banking Authority," Carr said. The authority recharges water for long-term municipal and industrial shortages.
Under an Arizona shortage, the first cut would be shared between two cities, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City on the Colorado River (10 percent), and the CAP (90 percent). The next cuts within the CAP would be the Arizona Water Bank (including recharge conducted by the Central Arizona Water Replenishment District), followed by long-term contracts within the same district, and third, contracts for excess water apportionment to the agricultural pool. The bottom line impact of water cuts for farmers in Central Arizona – reduced water to irrigation districts participating with the Arizona Water Bank. In addition, a reduction in hydropower available from Hoover Dam during the shortage period would likely occur, Carr said.
"Individual farmers and irrigation districts should examine backup water supplies from groundwater to replace CAP losses by the district," Carr said. "For Central Arizona farmers, it would be a moderate shortage of water that would impact the number of acres farmed without adequate backup water supplies."
Irrigation districts have been actively planning for a potential shortage for several years, Carr said. His advise to the districts - assess the ability to deliver water to customers and the actions necessary to build capacity for backup supplies.
"There are many hard questions facing us (ADWR)," Carr said. "We're working to establish a system of regulations in case a shortage occurs. The next thing is how do those affected, irrigation districts and producers, adapt in the future."
email: [email protected]


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Town organizing welcome for LCpl Michael Leahy as he returns from a tour in Afghanistan.
HINGHAM – The town is preparing to welcome home a Marine returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Marine LCpl Michael Leahy will be escorted by police officers and firefighters on the final leg of his journey home Tuesday evening, and residents are asked to line the route through town to greet him.
Leahy has been serving with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
He will be met by his escort at Exit 15 off Route 3 near Best Chevrolet between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The motorcade will head down Derby Street to Cushing Street and then onto Main Street. It will turn on to Central Street, then onto North and Beal Streets before ending at Beal Cove Park.
The welcome has been organized by the town's veterans' affairs office.