Christian's Blog: Mandip Gill

On Thursday I got caught up on my journal. I figured out how to find the flattest surface in my kitchen so that I can weigh myself properly with my new scale. I’m still overweight and so I’ve got to cut back more on proportions.

I used my new pot for the first time. It’s cool to be able to see the food cooking now through the glass lid. I found though while cooking a potato for dinner that I had to add water twice because liquid in it evaporates so quickly.

I watched an interesting and suspenseful episode of Doctor Who.

Spoiler alert!
The Tardis has arrived in the countryside of present day Norway. In a barricaded cottage they find a blind girl named Hanne in her early teens all by herself. Her father Erik has been gone for four days. She says there is a thing that comes out of the woods at night that makes strange noises.

Inside the Doctor discovers that the mirror in the bedroom is a portal to another world. She leaves Ryan to look after Hanne and takes Graham and Yasmin inside. They are in the Antizone between the universe and a world that threatens the universe. The Antizone is a cave with very little light. They find a humanoid creature named Ribbons who when he comments about how clever the Doctor is says, “Your brain must taste so delicious!” Ribbons will trade being a guide in exchange for the Doctor’s sonic device. He betrays them though by cutting the string they've been using to help them get back to the portal. Ribbons gets attacked by flesh eating moths.

Meanwhile Hanne wants to go through the portal to seek out her father. Ryan locks the door to the bedroom to keep her from going. He hears the noises of the thing outside and investigates only to find that the sounds are recorded and that Erik has set speakers up to keep his daughter scared but safe. Ryan comes back into the house and Hanne knocks him out, taking the key to the bedroom and going through the portal.

The Doctor and her friends go through the mirror but it turns out to be the world at the other side of the Antizone. It’s a mirror image of the real world. There they find Erik with Hanne’s dead mother, Trine, who is supposed to be dead. Graham finds his dead wife Grace there as well.

When Ryan regains consciousness he goes through the portal after Hanne. He finds her and takes her toward the portal that the Doctor went through. Ryan sends Hanne through but he stays to distract the birds that have been chasing them. Hanne immediately knows that the version of Trine that Erik is with is not her mother and she rejects her. Trine sends both Yasmin and Hanne back out to the Antizone but Erik is still under her spell. The Doctor is having a hard time convincing Graham that this version of Grace is also fake. Graham asks Grace, “What about Ryan?” When she answers, “He’ll be fine!” Graham knows she’s fake because Grace would never abandon her grandson. Grace sends Graham into the Antizone and then she dissolves. Only the Doctor and Erik are left with Trine. The Doctor convinces Trine that she’s a better choice to keep with her than Erik and so Trine sends Erik through the portal. Trine takes on her favourite form, which is that of a talking frog but she is the consciousness of this entire alternate universe known as the Solitract. The Doctor tells the Solitract that her presence is destabilizing her universe and so she has to send her back. Now the Doctor and all of her friends are in the Antizone but it’s disintegrating. They make it through the portal to their world just in time.

At the end Ryan calls Graham “Granddad” for the first time. Graham can’t believe it and asks, “Did you just call me granddad?” Ryan says, “Why? You goin deaf in your old age?”

Grace is played by Sharon D. Clarke, who is a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She was the lead singer of Nomad and had a top ten hit in 1991 with “Just a Groove”. She originated the role of The Killer Queen in the musical We Will Rock You.