Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song

Sooo, the long-awaited season finale, which explains what happened in the first seven minutes or so of episode 1, has been screened. Needless to say, spoilers lie ahead.

New Who has typically had wildly overblown and often quite bad season finales. (Yes, RTD, turning the Master into a crying nancy-boy whose ‘revenge’ is to refuse to regenerate and die [totally contrary to past history as well as being lame in its own right] is rubbish).

So, how did Moffat do with his first season finale as New Who overlord?

Bit mixed. There’s a lot to like. First and foremost, Amy Pond in a trouser suit. I also liked the marvellously bonkers imagery at the start, in particular, showing bits of time melding together (Roman chariot waiting at a red light, steam engines leaving the stock exchange and so on).

I also loved Amy, in her foxy trouser suit, taking revenge upon the creepiest midwife in the universe.

Annoyingly, there was a reasonable plot emerging but two things irritated me a bit. Firstly, two different scenarios (River Song killing and not killing the Doctor) taking place somehow ending time. Leaving aside the strange irrational plot twist, why would that end time? Why not just splinter the universe into two parallel dimensions? [Regarding the fixed point: if it’s fixed, it can’t be changed, making the ‘not killing’ bit impossible]. Secondly, a load of gobbledegook and nonsense apparently means that them kissing would reset everything and she could kill him (as she knew he was the Teselecta[sp] robot).

But why not just have that in the first place, without the nonsense in between? Moffat’s tenure has seen some great dark moments (I still think the excellent two-parter at the start of the season was the best of the series) but there are times when the season’s decided plot and reason are optional extras.

Overall, the finale was pretty good, and easily better than all (perhaps excepting the daleks versus cybermen) that have gone before.

I hope River Song does not feature anywhere near as prominently next season. Pretty pleased with the Doctor speaking of going back into the shadows. Shouty, cocky New Who Doctor is less likeable than understated Old Who Doctor.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: Closing Time

Yes, in the week neutrinos broke the speed of light I’ve managed to write this post on time. There are rather significant spoilers regarding the next (and final, of this series) episode contained below.

Continuing New Who’s penchant for irritating sentimentality, the Doctor, having ditched the Ponds last episode, paid a farewell visit to James Corden, whom he saw last season (I missed that episode). Corden, whose character is named Craig, realises the Doctor’s recognised some strange occurrences and nags his way into helping out (despite having to look after his very young son Alfie/Stormageddon).

It soon transpires that someone has spotted a silver rat with glowing red eyes. In a welcome nod to the… Troughton era, I think, it turns out to be a cybermat (think a computer mouse, but silvery, with a tail and equipped with snapping jaws). The cybermat has been gnawing on electrical cables, causing power cuts and feeding the energy to a group of cybermen (still New Who rather than the Mondas originals).

Oddly, the Doctor stumbles across a cyberman and merely gets knocked out rather than killed, but discovers that they’re a bit old and knackered and using spare parts. He finds out that a changing room leads to their ship, which landed centuries ago, is buried underground and was powerless until the council put a load of electrical cables right next to it. The cybermat reactivated and began feeding power to the ship. Only six cybermen have been created, but when Craig follows the Doctor they begin to convert him.

However (and it’s a strain not to break into four letter words) Craig hears his son crying, and magically resists the conversion. The cybermen, who are apparently all psychic, then suffer a ‘feedback loop’ from this emotion and their heads start exploding. Deus ex machina indeed. Only, this always bloody happens with the New Who cybermen. When they were first created the Doctor made some remember emotion and they killed themselves (I think), and when Dervla Kirwan got made into the cyberleader she ‘resisted’ and defeated them.

It’s not exactly a great villain anymore if the ending can be predicted the moment their identity’s known.

End rant [until they appear next time].

Anyway, the last five minutes was much more interesting. It showed River Song just after she received her doctorate. Evil Eye-patch Woman and two of the Silence creatures accosted her, and she was brainwashed and placed in an astronaut outfit.

It’s pretty unlikely the Doctor will properly die next episode, not least because the next two series have been confirmed. So, how will he escape it? The Flesh is the most obvious answer, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway, the episode was average, I liked the cybermat, but the cybermen are becoming pretty bloody pointless. They’re a step away from being hugged to death, or slain with snuggles.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: The God Complex

Apologies for the absence of bloggery and blogcraft. My computer suffered a severe maiming and a new hard drive was required, hence me reviewing a Saturday night show on Tuesday. [Spoilers lie herein, by the way].

This was much more to my liking than the previous episode. The Doctor and Ponds arrive, unexpectedly, in a rather bland hotel with irritating lobby music and three terrified, paranoid people (a conspiracy theorist geek, a mostly normal Muslim nurse and a habitually surrendering alien played very well by David Walliams).

It soon transpires that the hotel is filled with rooms, and in each room is a bad dream. After someone finds their specific worst nightmare they end up praising a minotaur, which then feeds (metaphorically) upon them, leaving the body intact but killing the worshipper.

The Doctor manages to chat, briefly, with the minotaur, and discovers that the beast is running on instinct, feeding when it can but not desiring life any more.

The Doctor initially advises everyone to focus upon their faith, but shortly thereafter realises that that’s the problem. Most of the people captured (Rory being an exception) have strong faith systems, whether luck* (one of the early victims was a gambler), religion or, in Amy’s case, in the Doctor.

Amy starts to praise the minotaur, and they manage to manhandle her into a room, which happens to be her own (with a young Amy Pond). The Doctor tells her that he didn’t want her, he just wanted someone to admire him because he was vain, and destroys her faith in him. The minotaur collapses due to lack of food and slowly dies, as the hotel around it is revealed to be a kind of holo-deck in a floating prison.

The minotaur tells the Doctor of an ancient creature travelling the universe in a shifting maze prison, desiring nothing but an end and suggesting that it speaks not only of itself, but of the Doctor too. At the end of the episode the Doctor drops off the Ponds at a nice little house with Rory’s favourite car, and leaves them because, as he tells Amy, “You’re still… breathing”.

There’s a lot to like in this episode. The concept was simple but quite cool, and it was moderately disturbing to see the sensible, intelligent nurse descend into a mindless, rapture-ridden worshipper, eager for her own death. Serious questions were raised about faith and the Doctor, and I rather liked it.

But, there are some flaws as well.

*Firstly, I’d disagree that gamblers believe in luck. I’d say they believe in analysis, knowledge, and weighing up of probabilities.

Secondly, it was suggested that the minotaur was imprisoned and ejected from its original home because the people became more secular and scientific, but a liberal religious perspective is entirely compatible with a scientific way of thinking.

However, those didn’t materially affect anything and I did enjoy the episode. It’s the best one since the mid-season break, I think.

Thaddeus

Dr Who: The Girl Who Waited

Apologies for the later than usual review. I was feeling a bit under the weather at the weekend, (hence the last entry being a copy and paste rather than something written then posted), but John O the Benevolent has prodded me into action with the Pointy Stick of Admonishment.

As with last week, this episode was a self-contained adventure, blissfully free of River Song or suchlike. The Doctor takes the Ponds to the second most splendid holiday planet in the Universe. However, it turns out to be rather sterile, with just a few white rooms and two buttons in the entry hall.

Amy returns to the TARDIS for her camera-phone, whilst the Doctor and Rory press the green button and enter another small, white room featuring only a large magnifying glass. Amy knocks on the door and is told to press the button, but she hits the red one. Curiously, she enters the room but neither of the chaps are there.

However, they discover they can communicate through the magnifying glasses, which leads the Doctor to realise that Amy is in another time-stream, which is progressing at a significantly faster rate. A robot appears and the Doctor discovers the whole planet is under quarantine for a disease which only kills double-hearted species, but that if Pond (in the treatment time-stream rather than the visitor time-stream) gets the treatment it will kill her.

Heroically, the Doctor runs back to the TARDIS, along with Rory, and tells Amy to hide and he’ll rescue her. The Doctor gives Rory a big magnifying glass (which he nicked) to keep in touch and, after getting a lock on Amy’s position, lands the TARDIS in her time-stream.

Unfortunately, the Doctor gets his landing a bit out, and Amy’s been trapped there for thirty-six years. She’s constantly evaded the ‘nice’ robots that try and treat her with fatal injections (as she’s single-hearted), become a computer hacker, sonic screwdriver-creator and katana-wielding fiftysomething. Understandably, she’s rather pissed off with the Doctor.

Old Amy then has a destined discussion with her younger self (which she remembers from the other perspective) and, as the writer decides paradoxes can exist, decides to change her mind and help her younger self escape if she can go to. Lots of technobabble and bad science later the two time-streams converge and Old Amy, Young Amy and Confused Rory are reunited. The three of them just about make it to the TARDIS, but Young Amy gets anaesthetised by a robot and the Doctor locks Old Amy outside.

He tells Rory that the two of them cannot exist together permanently, and that if she enters the TARDIS Young Amy will disappear. Old Amy allows herself to be killed by the robots, who believe they’re curing her, and Young Amy wakes up, oblivious.

I thought this was quite an interesting episode, with some good ideas but a few flaws. I dislike the idea (and it’s the second time this season) that something [the disease in this case] can permanently kill the Doctor, no regenerations allowed. The two time-streams idea was a good one, and the questions it raised were very interesting, but the end result was a Grandmother Paradox where the trigger gets pulled and yet the murderer survives. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox)

So, quite good, but not stellar. Glad to see no River Song nonsense, and the next episode looks similarly blessed.

There’s also some sad news I heard today. Andy Whitfield, the lead in the excellent Spartacus: Blood and Sand, has died at the age of 39. He had cancer, and a successor to the role for the next series had been selected some time ago, (to whom he had given his blessing). He leaves behind a wife and two children. Very sad news, especially for someone so young and with a family.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: Night Terrors

Hurrah, a New Who episode without River Song.

Night Terrors is a self-contained episode, so no plot arc implications for the Silence or suchlike. It also features guest star Daniel Mays, who was excellent as Keats in the last Ashes to Ashes series.

An eight year old chap called George is scared of monsters at night, specifically in his wardrobe. So terrified, in fact, that his fear manifests itself on the Doctor’s psychic paper, and the Time Lord and the Ponds go hunting for the boy.

They go door-knocking in a tower block. The Doctor finds the right place, and Amy and Rory have a fright in a lift and wake up in a dark, old house.

The old house is a bit strange. There’s a giant glass eye in a drawer, the kitchen utensils are wooden and made to look like copper and the hands of clocks are painted on.

Meanwhile, the Doctor discovered, by playing with his sonic screwdriver, that the wardrobe is actually ‘off the scale’ [for something or other] and becomes almost as worried as George about it. He prevaricates about opening it, eventually does so and learns that George is not actually human as his parents couldn’t have children. He’s a Tenza, an alien cuckoo in the nest that adapts to suit his foster parents’ needs. However, as George is consumed with terror the Doctor and George’s father get sucked into the wardrobe.

Rory and Amy find out they’re not alone, and get cornered by some particularly creepy dolls. Rory escapes but Amy gets caught and transforms into one of the dolls. He and the Doctor, along with the father, are reunited, but surrounded by the dolls. The doll house is inside the wardrobe as is everything (and there’s a lot) George is afraid of. The Doctor calls to George to open the wardrobe, which he does, and ends up inside the doll house. It transpires that George was terrified of rejection, and when his father reassures him the fear disappears and the creepy doll house is no more. Even better, Amy Pond stops being a creepy wooden-head.

Pretty good episode. Especially for young kids it would have been a bit scary, and it’s easy to relate to a kid who’s scared at night, or of monsters, and a parent worried about their child. Definitely better than last week’s.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: Let’s Kill Hitler

Woe, disappointment and spoilers lie ahead.

Unfortunately, after a prolonged wait following an unusual mid-season break of a few months, Dr Who returned with an episode as anti-climactic as can reasonably be imagined. It wasn’t awful. There was no Dobbie the House Doctor moment (cf the Master’s first, and horrendous reappearance), but it was just a bit tedious.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory together with a stranger they’re immensely close to (and we’ve never met before called Mels) take the TARDIS to Berlin in 1938. Mels gets shot by Hitler (imprisoned by Rory in a cabinet) and regenerates, as she’s River Song (something her parents managed not to notice). She then assassinates the Doctor, poisoning him with lipstick.

It’s quite hard to write up, because although there is a justice robot that effectively has a chameleon circuit and is populated with miniaturised time-travelling humans, nothing much happens. The Doctor eventually dies, and River saves him by sacrificing all her future regenerations, but there’s no sense of tension, only a few (not especially good) comedy moments early on and no vicious villain (Hitler’s in briefly and is a character of light relief rather than tyranny).

Almost the only thing of interest is that we learnt that the Silence is not actually a species, but a religious order.

Anyway, let’s hope the next episode’s better.

Thaddeus

Dr Who Preview and Trailer

Yes, I’ve resorted to stealing ideas from Mr. Burdett, not unlike Davros stealing the Hand of Omega (only without the dreams of universal domination, genocide and unlimited rice pudding). Obviously, there are spoilers in the trailer itself and the bit below it.

Rather a good trailer, with plenty of interesting hints and some more obvious shots of various villains. I love the Weeping Angels, but I hope they don’t get overused.

River Song appears to either be the creepy eye-patch lady or plan to impersonate her.

The cybermen (still the New Who ones rather than the Mondas ones, alas) make a reappearance. Hopefully this is for a reason beyond getting massacred, as happened in the last episode.

The Silence are back.

The strange beast creature reminds me a bit of the description of the Royal Beast of Peladon in The Curse of Peladon. It was an old serial (Jon Pertwee was the Doctor). I never actually saw it, but did have the book.

As has been widely trailed, Adolf Hitler (whose life is apparently saved the Doctor et al.) features. I wonder if they’ll end up making a Downfall spoof of the meeting on Youtube.

There are quite a few creepy doll-like/automaton creatures, reminiscent of (but distinct to) the clockwork robots.

Guest stars include James Corden, and Daniel Mays (I think) who played the diabolical Keats in the final Ashes to Ashes series.

So, it looks pretty good, and is due to return in a little over a month. The psycho-dolls, Silence and Weeping Angels suggest (to me anyway) that we might see some darker episodes, like the excellent two-parter that opened the series.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: mid-season musings

Well, we’ve fallen into the gap between the two halves of this season of Doctor Who, so it’s a pretty good time to consider what’s going to happen next. Naturally, spoilers for the first half of the season abound, and rumours regarding the future likewise.

The mid-season finale was slightly disappointing in that the rather lovely Lorna and the amusing Strax ended up mortally wounded. In a not-very-surprising twist River Song was revealed to be the offspring of Amy and Rory, and was probably the kiddiwink seen in the first two episodes of the season. She also has some Time Lord DNA and is able to, at least partially, regenerate.

The actual ending was slightly strange. The Doctor ran off in the TARDIS, leaving his companions and River behind, searching for young River. At the end of the episode it showed a skeleton at the bottom of a body of water, clutching a sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor’s ‘death’ in episode 1 also needs to be explained. The most obvious solution is that the ganger Doctor gets reconstituted and allows himself to be killed. That said, the real Doctor could do that, and fake Doctor could be made permanent (this could provide a handy get-out clause for the 13 incarnations limit Time Lords have, although this is more of a law of man than nature [see: The Deadly Assassin]).

The first half of the season was generally good, especially the excellent first two episodes, though the finale was a little lacking in tension. There are rumours that Rory and Amy will leave the Doctor at the end of the season, presumably to look after the young version of River.

Matt Smith should be around for another few seasons at least, (I think he’s guaranteed to be there in 2012, and maybe 2013). It’d be good if they got him a companion (or two) from the past instead of a modern day girl. Well. That, or Sally Sparrow, obviously.

It also appears that Moffat’s taking a different line to RTD regarding the daleks. Specifically, they’re going to be used less often, which I think is a damned good thing. They’re great villains, but were being over-used. I hope that the increasingly overblown season finales get binned too. Dobby the House Doctor was not a good look.

Lastly, 2012 is going to see fewer episodes. The BBC first claimed this was because Moffat, who also writes Sherlock, was too busy, a claim the man himself refuted in plain terms quite quickly : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13784334

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes To War

So, the final episode of the first half of the season is upon us. Big spoilers lie herein, as might be expected.

The previous episode gave us a fantastic cliff hanger, with Flamy (Flesh Amy) being disintegrated and Real Amy waking up to discover she’s heavily pregnant and has the creepiest midwife in the universe.

The story begins by setting the scene: Amy’s being held on Demon’s Run, a fortress on an asteroid, which is defended by an army of humans and some dodgy characters by the name of the Headless Monks. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Rory (back in his Roman gear) are busy rounding up old allies to help them rescue Amy.

The Welsh Sontaran (Strax, I think his name was) sentenced to being a nurse was hilarious and provided some light relief. Cockney assistant to the Silurian (I didn’t catch her name) was rather lovely, and I liked Christina Chong as Lorna. The pirates previously terrorised by the Siren also made a brief appearance.

Anyway, the Doctor thwarted the Headless Monks (whose description is gruesomely literal) and the human army and rescued Amy and the baby (named Melody). However, creepy eye-patch woman proved too cunning. The baby that was rescued was Flesh, leaving Amy and Rory bereft of their child. In addition, its genes were Human-Plus, with the effect of the TARDIS making it a human-Time Lord hybrid.

The Headless Monks launched a sudden attack and, although they were defeated, the lovely Lorna bit the dust and Strax was probably dying too, alas.

River Song appeared only at the end, revealing that “The only water in the forest is the river” referred to a gift Lorna had given Amy. Lorna was from the forest, and the TARDIS translated her language’s version of Melody Pond into River Song. So, River Song was Amy and Rory’s daughter all the time, and perhaps halfway to being a Time Lord.

It was a nice twist but not hugely unexpected given earlier pointers.

The episode had a large cast of secondary characters which were very good, especially the comedy Sontaran and lovely Lorna/cockney girl. The build up was good as well, but there was a certain lack of tension after the Doctor began the rescue. It didn’t quite work, but Amy’s safe, the Doctor seemed to know where to find Melody (quite possibly Earth, 1969) and River Song was there. For a moment I thought she was going to try and kill the Doctor, given the baby was stolen to be made into a weapon, but the only twist at the end was the not entirely unexpected identity of River Song.

Although not quite a five star episode, the first half of the series has generally been very enjoyable. Three months to go now until the latter six episodes.

Thaddeus

Fantastic Davros video

One of the best Who villains (although the New Who version was a bit rubbish). The background music is Diem Ex Dei, by Globus.

Some of the sound is taken from the various radio productions that feature Davros. I can heartily recommend Genesis of the Daleks to those yet to see it, in which the character is brilliantly introduced.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: The Almost People

The concluding part of the adventure featuring the Flesh (programmable matter) was quite entertaining, until the end, which was staggeringly good.

The gangers and their human counterparts continued to plot one another’s demise, whilst the Doctor and Smith (I think John Smith was a name the Third Doctor sometimes used) tried to confound them and keep everyone alive.

Rory got tricked by Fleshy Jen who, in stark contrast to her sickly sweet human counterpart, was a bloodthirsty lunatic. Rather stupidly, even given his ignorance, he allowed her to trick him into locking the Doctor et al. in a room that would burst with acid. The Doctor and Smith worked together to ensure their freedom, and the gangers and humans ended up both fleeing the twisted monster Jen became.

It’s possible Smith survived his self-sacrifice (he used the sonic screwdriver to dissolve Monster Jen but it destroyed him as well), and that would prove a useful turn of events when it comes to explaining the first episode of the season.

Very much enjoyed the two Doctors collaborating, and the odd reference to the earlier incarnations (especially reverting the polarity of the neutron flow).

However, what made the episode particularly good was the ending. The Doctor had deliberately sought out the Flesh and his knowledge of it was alluded to in the previous episode. I’d thought it might be the forerunner of Time Lord regeneration technology, others have suggested it could be Sontaran cloning technology.

In fact, the truth was that Amy was a ganger. Her real self was pregnant, which explained her strange quantum physics approach to procreation. The creepy eye-patch lady really was a midwife, and a rather horrid one. When the Doctor dissolved the ganger Amy awoke in confinement, about to give birth.

It seems that she’s been a ganger for the entire season, raising the question of when she was taken, how, and by whom.

Very exciting and excellent ending, and we have just one more episode before the mid-season interval of about three months.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: The Rebel Flesh

First off: I made a mistake last time out, and this was the first of a two-parter, not a stand-alone thingummyjig.

Anyway, this episode saw the Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory the Part-time Corpse get caught in a solar storm that effectively washed them up on a strange, small island in the 22^nd century.

A bunch of contractors are doing work on behalf of the military, fiddling about with particularly potent acid. Instead of using actual slave labour to handle the dangerous stuff, they’ve got a swanky hi-tech alternative. They use something called the Flesh, which is programmable matter, to create duplicates of themselves to do the work with the acid.

Unfortunately, the facility is powered by solar energy, and the two solar storms cause power problems. This leads to the doppelgangers becoming free, rather than remote control clones. Naturally, both sides distrust one another, a situation not helped when the original team leader kills one of the doppelgangers.

The episode ended with the highly expected sight of the Doctor’s doppelganger greeting the real Time Lord.

I quite like the premise of this, and the Doctor seems to know something about the Flesh. It’s a little bit similar to how Time Lords are meant to reproduce (effectively being knit on genetic looms), but that creates genuinely new individuals rather than copies. Freaky eye-patch lady made a predictably brief reappearance, and Amy is still pregnant with Schrödinger’s Cat.

The clone-Doctor could easily be used to explain the early season death of the Doctor, although that would be a shade obvious.

The conclusion to this two-parter is also the final episode before the mid-season interval, so hopefully it’ll provide a tasty cliff-hanger.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: The Doctor’s Wife

This episode was written by the fantasy author Neil Gaiman and is the fourth in the first half of the season. So, there’s only two more to go before the mid-season interval. As usual, spoilers abound.

Another filler episode, albeit more substantial, if less lovely, than the Siren. It was definitely darker than the previous episode, less swashbuckling and grimmer. I do like darker episodes, but certain parts of the episode irked me.

The Corsair is a cool name for a Time Lord. However, we didn’t get to see him [well, except for a harvested forearm] or any other Time Lord because, once again, it was just a teensy tease with no payoff. Can’t really fault Gaiman for this, as the restoration of the Time Lords would be a huge storyline and not something for a single episode, but it does annoy me that the Time Lords are often alluded to and sometimes half-come back only to disappear once again.

Stop messing about, and bring them back. Given the daleks are properly returned, it should only be a matter of time (ahem). Well, I hope so.

I very much enjoyed the psychopathic House and his mental torture of Amy in the TARDIS, plus it was nice to see everybody’s favourite tentacle-faced telepaths, the Ood, return. They’re almost like the red-uniformed expendable chaps from Star Trek now.

The storyline of a distress call summoning Time Lords to House (essentially a sentient planet beyond the universe) who then ate their TARDISes and used their bodies as spare parts for his minions is pretty cunning. Then the Doctor used the human-TARDIS (the TARDIS’ matrix was stored in a human body so House could occupy the TARDIS itself) and various parts of previously destroyed TARDISes to make a new one. Hmm. Lots of TARDISey references there.

Quite liked the interaction between human-TARDIS and the Doctor, but I think the emotional parts (most obviously when the shell died and the TARDIS matrix returned to the TARDIS and slew House) was unnecessary and overdone. I’m not a fan of melodrama, and although it’s been less pronounced with Moffat at the helm it’s one facet of New Who of which I am not fond.

I think that the next episode is also a stand-alone one, and then we have the first of a two-parter which will be separated by the three month mid-season interval. I’ll write more on that later, but a few potential storylines present themselves:

• Amy’s Schrodinger’s Cat pregnancy comes to fruition
• River Song does her incredibly horrid thing (murdering the Doctor?)
• The Time Lords return (wishful thinking)

Given that the human-TARDIS told the Doctor that “The only water in the forest is the River” it seems likely that the mid-season two-parter will involve River Song heavily.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: The Curse of the Black Spot.

After the good two-part season opener, I thought this was a bit of a filler episode. However, after the more convoluted plot and darker moments of the previous episodes it will be a bit easier for the kids watching to enjoy.

A ship is having its crew whittled down by a rather lovely Siren, played by Lily Cole. When a chap is wounded or ill she appears, lulls him into ecstasy with her song and then makes him disappear.

The Doctor arrives and finds himself made to walk the plank by the captain, played well by Hugh Bonneville. Due to being escorted by the most inept pirate in the seven seas, Amy stumbles upon a cutlass, displays a rather odd proficiency with the blade, and saves the Doctor (but not without accidentally cutting a pirate and Rory).

The Doctor manages to rattle through a number of theories before realising the Siren comes through reflections. After she saves Rory from drowning, the Doctor, the captain and Amy voluntarily prick their skin to summon her.

They’re transported to an advanced alien vessel the crew of which has long since perished. The writer decides that scientific explanations are unnecessary (although it doesn’t drift into the awful realms of the Doctor-Donna, thankfully) and the approximate reasoning the Doctor comes up with is that the ship’s in a parallel dimension but close to this one, occupying the same space(ish) as the pirate ship.

The Siren turns out to be a kind of automated doctor, like a pretty version of Voyager’s EMH. Now her crew are dead she’s been trying to heal the sick and injured from the pirate ship.

The surviving pirates stay on board the vessel and pilot it away from our world, and the Doctor et al., after a brief spot of tension where Rory might have died, fly off.

Not a terrible episode, but most definitely filler. One of the most interesting bits was a few seconds when Amy saw the woman with the futuristic eye-patch again. That suggests she might be in a coma, possibly, but my own suspicion is that she’s in two parallel universes, hence her Schrodinger’s Cat approach to being pregnant.

That’s the review over with, below is a preview of the next episode.

The Doctor’s Wife suggests River Song might be involved, but she wasn’t in the preview shown after The Curse of the Black Spot.

There is another Time Lord alive. Those we know of include Rassilon, the Rani, the Master and Romana. I doubt it’s any of those, based on the preview clip. In a strange world some being (presumably the Time Lord) has effective control of an unknown number of minions, and seems pretty evil from the little that was shown. The Ood make a reappearance. In addition, tthe Time Lord/villain’s voice slightly reminded me of The Beast, one of my favourite New Who villains, though I doubt it’s come back.

Anyway, rather looking forward to the next episode, which is written by Neil Gaiman.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: Day of the Moon

As before, spoilers throughout. This is posted a little later than I would’ve liked, due to connection-related woe.

I liked this quite a lot, though it wasn’t quite as good as the first part. The strangely inexplicable hunting of the Doctor et al. at the start and the unexplained possession of the densest material in the universe (still light enough for humans to move by hand) did detract in a minor way.

However, the story generally was good. Moffat’s excellent at taking advantage of the show’s basis to create complicated and creative plots using time-travel. In addition to the future and younger Doctor, the use of the Silence’s own powers of hypnotic suggestion being used against them was a cunning plot twist, if perhaps contrary to the Doctor’s typically pacific inclinations.

I also loved the clever use of the markings and Amy suddenly discovering she’d scrawled all over herself. Bringing in the viewer by showing the markings but not the initial moments of seeing the Silence (for her and, earlier, Canton) was a good move.

There was less comic relief than the first part, and River Song’s slightly silly massacring of the Silence was a bit over the top. I did miss, previously, that the machine was the same as the one in The Lodger, for the very good reason that I didn’t see The Lodger.

Amy’s pregnancy wasn’t resolved. She both is and isn’t pregnant, it seems, and the little girl (still unidentified but possibly the daughter of Amy, or the Doctor or, scandalously, both) has some sort of regenerative power.

It also seems likely that River Song’s dastardly deed will soon be revealed, given the closing scenes. She also seemed surprised that the Doctor had never kissed her before, raising the interesting possibility that he’s an even earlier version that he ought to be.

Next episode sees swashbuckling pirates, a siren and Amy Pond with a cutlass.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut

Enormous spoilers right from the off, so stop reading if you’re trying to avoid them.

I really enjoyed this episode. The Doctor, River Song, Amy and Rory are invited to the middle of nowhere (in America) by a mysterious chap, who turns out to be a Doctor from the future. Shortly thereafter, the future Doctor gets promptly murdered by a strange astronaut that emerges from (and then returns to) a lake.

His companions burn his body, only to bump into an earlier Doctor (still played by Matt Smith) later that day. Earlier Doctor has no idea who summoned them (he also got an invite) nor what’s happened previously (or later, in his timeline).

The scant information future Doctor provided before getting crispy allows earlier Doctor to take the TARDIS to the Oval office, where President Nixon is trying to enlist an ex-FBI agent’s assistance. Nixon’s being hassled, via phone daily, by a little girl and wants the agent, distinctively named as Canton Delaware, to find out how she manages to call him directly, wherever he is.

The Doctor’s cunning (and the President’s impatience) affords him the opportunity to discover the girl’s whereabouts and he takes off in the TARDIS, along with Delaware. Whilst in the White House, Amy encountered a creepy alien, the Silence, who cannot be remembered once you stop looking at him.

River Song and Rory explore underneath the building, which is filled with ancient tunnels inhabited by other Silence type aliens. They seem to be in some sort of trouble at the end, though it’s a little vague.

In the abandoned building the little girl is supposedly in the Doctor and Amy come across the unconscious body of Delaware, and are stumbled upon by an astronaut. Without thinking, Amy shoots him, only he turns out to be the little girl. At which point, the first part of the double bill draws to a close.

The episode was fast paced, made good use of the show’s temporal potential and was nice and dark, lightened by numerous witty moments throughout. I’m not generally a River Song fan, but rather liked all the main cast in this one. Looking forward to next week.

Thaddeus

Elisabeth Sladen RIP

Elisabeth Sladen was one of the best known faces of Dr Who, featuring in the original series for a prolonged period, returning in New Who and then getting her own spin-off series.

She played Sarah Jane Smith, opposite Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and was in The Five Doctors. Sladen was also in arguably the best ever Dr Who serial, Genesis of the Daleks, which introduced Davros and saw some of the best dialogue and acting of the series.

Sladen’s draw as Sarah Jane was a combination of being a very normal sort of person in a rather extraordinary situation, and also marked a shift away from the companion as the aesthetically pleasing woman who screams quite a lot. She also appeared in the show with probably the best of all Doctors, Tom Baker, and was very popular with the audience.

Sadly, her death from cancer comes shortly after the departure of Nicholas Courtney, who died in February of this year. Courtney played Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the head of UNIT. Courtney featured with just about every one of the original Doctors (he was introduced as Lethbridge-Stewart with Troughton but played a different role when Hartnell was the Doctor).

UNIT has made a reappearance in New Who, but I think the lack of a Brigadier type character is an obvious gap that ought to be filled.

Sladen and Courtney were both very likeable and played significant characters in the series, and will be sadly missed.

Thaddeus

Dr Who, comparing old and new

I’m not old enough to remember much of the original series when it was still going. The theme tune was etched in my mind at an early age, as was a liking of cybermen and Ace (still my favourite companion).

The BBC used to run repeats, particularly of the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker era, on BBC2 which I used to watch regularly. I also had quite a few Dr Who books, though in a fit of philanthropic delight (and not at all because I needed the shelf space) I donated them all to a local hospice.

I like Old Who, but then, I like New Who. But which is better? There’s only one way to find out! A point-by-point comparison, with a brief summary of why I prefer one of the other in a given category.

Theme tune/intro:

This is the easiest one. The New Who intros and theme are rubbish compared to the otherworldly synthesised original theme(s).

Writing:

Hmmm. Tricky, especially as most Old Who I saw was repeated, which would mean only the best got shown. New Who has had some howlers (the Master, the Abzorbaloff [sp] etc), but also some great episodes (Blink, The Impossible Planet). I’d give it to Old Who, based on the unrivalled excellence of Genesis of the Daleks.

Special effects:

New Who, without a doubt. Old Who gets a comedy bonus point for the extreme ropeyness of some of its effects.

Villains:

Old Who. The Weeping Angels are fantastic, but also the only New Who aliens that are, and have been featured repeatedly. I dislike the Slitheen, and whilst the Beast and the clockwork robots were both excellent I’m not sure if they’ll be seen again. The Master and Davros are Old Who creations that have been worsened in the new series, and other New Who creatures do not stand out so much.

Well-known spoiler about the episodes of the forthcoming series 6 below:

I do think the series has been better under Moffat than RTD. The decision to have a split series with a calamitous event in the middle, and the latter half following three months later, could prove quite clever. With luck, we’ll get more menacing new villains, a Master with an evil beard, and a rather more impressive Davros.

The new series starts on 23^rd April.

Thaddeus

Doctor Who: season 6 preview

In a few weeks the sixth series of New Who will be upon us. As you might expect, this post will probably have spoilers so if you’d prefer to stay spoiler-free, don’t read beyond this point.

I’ve got pretty mixed views about New Who. Sometimes it’s laughably bad (Dobby the house doctor and the appalling Master probably being the lowlight of the new series so far) and sometimes it’s fantastic (The Impossible Planet, Blink).

I think Matt Smith’s a pretty good Doctor. He’s good at sarcasm, which is important, but is not so good at menace or rage. He’s helped by the fact that Moffat’s a far better writer than RTD, who deserves kudos for resurrecting the series and little for some of the deus ex machina storylines and retconning he dreamt up.

Amy Pond and Rory (who I loathed initially as another stereotypical idiotic bloke to Amy’s smart girl, but has rather grown on me) also come back, as does the smarmy River Song.

The season is split in two by a three month break, suggesting a climactic event in the middle of the season, possibly leading to a storyline that’s resolved at the end. Fingers crossed that River Song gets fed into a giant mincing machine.

Rumours regarding the daleks and cybermen abound, with some suggesting the old-style daleks (the gold ones, rather than the New Paradigm teletubby daleks) will come back. I don’t know if this will happen but I’d like to see the Mondas cybermen return.

The fantasy author Neil Gaiman has written a stand-alone episode to be aired in the first half of the season, and the series will continue the cracks in the universe/TARDIS exploding storyline from season 5.

The TARDIS explosion causing the cracks in the universe suggests someone (or thing) highly intelligent. So, the Master or another evil Time Lord (most of them seem to be evil, now I come to think of it), the daleks, or possibly another race, whether new or an obscure old one, seems likeliest.

If I could dictate the plot, I’d have the Time Lords properly return at the end of the first half of the season. I think the Time War was a decent idea but locking away both sides was foolish. Why apparently deprive the series of its two most important species and then force the writers to constantly contrive reasons for how this dalek or that dalek magically escaped?

Speculation has suggested Amy Pond might get slightly murdered just before the season splits. I’m not so sure about that. My own preference would be the permanent axing of River Song.

Matt Smith is not thought likely to go at the end (or in the middle) of the series.

I hope the season of two halves approach works. It should make a nice change from the overblown End Of The Cosmos finales that were becoming rather predictable and obvious.

Thaddeus

Spotlight on: Davros

People into Dr Who but who don’t know much about Davros and would prefer to find out by buying Old Who episodes should stop reading now, as this post will be crammed with potential spoilers.

Davros is an evil genius, and one of the Doctor’s most sinister and long-running enemies. He played a significant role in the very prolonged Kaled-Thal war on Skaro, acting as chief weapons scientist for the Kaleds. Very little oversight was paid to the wheelchair-bound nutcase and his ultra-loyal lackey Nyder (who bore an uncanny resemblance to one of my teachers). This proved to be a bit of a faux pas by the Kaled leadership, as Davros gave away military secrets which enabled the Thals to destroy the Kaled city, and then used his newest weapon to annihilate most of the Thals as well.

Davros’ newest weapon was the dalek, of which there was quite a limited number. As you might expect, they rebelled rather quickly and shot their creator at point blank range, after murdering Nyder.

This happened during the excellent Genesis of the Daleks serial, starring Tom Baker as the Doctor. Davros was played by Michael Wisher (still my favourite actor to play him) and was shown to be an intelligent, thoughtful lunatic.

After this, Davros was at the heart of the dalek narrative and made numerous further appearances (of which one has been during New Who).

The daleks sought to retrieve their erstwhile master when they took on the Movellans (another robotic race, although not cyborgs as the daleks could be described), who found a logical impasse had reduced the two war-like sides to everlasting peace. Once again, the Doctor thwarted Davros’ designs and saw the Kaled reduced to a cryo-prison, locked in ice.

The organic element to the daleks (each one is basically a rubbish little organism inside a metal war machine) proved their undoing. The Movellans created a biological weapon which wreaked havoc upon the cyclopean pepper pots of doom, reducing the daleks to dire straits (in stark contrast to their superpower status in New Who).

The daleks resolved to rescue Davros, aided by some human mercenaries, from his prison (in Resurrection of the Daleks). The serial was a bit complicated but quite enjoyable. Davros set about reprogramming the daleks (and the odd East End bartender) to do his bidding. When the daleks decide to exterminate him (again) he releases the virus upon them, only to apparently suffer the same fate as his wayward creations. (This story saw Terry Molloy take up the role, which he then held until the end of Old Who, including some radio stories).

After this, Davros created a new breed of dalek, the imperial (white with gold spots). This began a dalek civil war (they’re big on eugenics and the new daleks were more extensively modified than the simpler ‘renegade’ daleks).

The Seventh Doctor used the Hand of Omega to destroy the imperial dalek mothership, but Davros (unsurprisingly) managed to escape to wreak more vengeance upon the universe and deliver some more enjoyable foam-flecked megalomaniacal ranting.

Although New Who has featured many dalek episodes, Davros has only appeared in a single two-parter at the end of season 4, when he was played by Julian Bleach. I did not like this portrayal, as it showed Davros content to accept a status of servitude, in exchange for his life. In the past, he always worked to escape the dominion of the daleks and reassert his own supremacy. In addition, the dalek leader was an ‘enhanced’ version, but was more emotional than the others (Davros had stripped the daleks of almost all emotions as he believed they were a weakness).

I’m sure he will return, but I hope it’s in a more conniving, megalomaniacal guise.

Thaddeus