Doctor Who: Journey to the Centre of the Tardis

That was pretty good. I mean we only got to see the library, the Eye of Harmony and some corridors, but still more than enough.

The story of a ship being damaged and becoming death trap has been used many time in Science Fiction, from Star trek to Firefly. It’s a really effective way to throw the audience out; the vessel that has always shielded the main characters is now (however inadvertently) trying to kill them.

The difference here? You're dealing with a ship that’s infinitely large and sentient. This is a challenge that met in so far as the TARDIS is turned into a very scary place and monsters that lurk within it are very well made up. The true horror of them comes in the reveal of what they really are. Though with that comes the question of why they were attacking the main cast.

Now, the ending  - magic reset button. To be honest I’m sure there’s a lot of people who are pissed off about how the Doctor just resets time with one piece of technology but when you think about it, this episode was more about the journey and giving some fan service by exploring other parts of the ship.

The ending isn’t especially important, when you consider the journey that led there.

Don’t really have much more to say than that  - I liked this episode; it was fun to watch, even if the ending was a bot of deus ex machina. 

Doctor Who: Hide - Spoiler warning

Well that was awesome…right up until it became Doctor Who…

So this wasn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination, but the central problem with it is that it starts with a kind of creepy, scary atmosphere that completely evaporates as soon as the Doctor figures out what’s going on.

There is a measurable point in the episode when you can say “ok, the scary stuff’s over now”. This jumping in tones doesn’t destroy the episode, but it does definitely have an irritating effect, in the way that it goes so quickly from dark to light.

Also, I have absolutely no love for the reveal at the end. It wasn’t a bad guy it was just trying to find it’s wife. While this kind of ending does serve to deliver a message of not judging things on first appearance, it does beg the question of why the alien THAT IN NO WAY RESEMBLES ANYTHING FROM THE EVIL DEAD didn’t attempt some form of communication rather than chasing people round a pocket universe. It’s like Sirius Black from the Harry Potter series  - why don’t you just tell a couple people about your motives instead of acting like a villain all the time?

Moving on, I liked the interaction between the TARDIS and Clara. It clearly doesn’t like her for some reason. It also shows her herself (in the form of it’s visual interaction hologram) as the only person it could find in the universe who she could empathise with. Is it being catty, or it is showing another version of her that it’s found in history?

But she does manage to convince the TARDIS to enter the pocket universe, risking it’s own life twice…I mean I assume she convinced it the second time, as they seem to have reused exactly the same footage for it. Does the budgeting oversight guy from the BBC sit in on the filming and editing?

Overall, a good episode that could have been better had the original atmosphere been maintained throughout.

Doctor Who: Cold War

So what does Red October look like with aliens in it? 

Not too bad to be fair. It was at this point in the previous half of the series that there was a definite drop in quality, but happily, the kinks have been worked out this time round.

This episode is pretty good, using a confined setting a pretty decent villain to run through a pretty solid story.

One point to note is that it’s set on a Soviet submarine (although everyone speaks English), a move that would never take place in the workings of most T.V shows. Politics doesn’t come into it very much despite there being rather a lot of communists involved, which I’m counting as a plus, as it means we get to focus on the sci-fi without anyone trying to push a particular view point throughout the episode (aside from the first officer of the ship, who’s viewpoint seems to “lets do the most stupid/suicidal thing possible”). Not sure if that actually reflects attitudes at the time or whether he was just like that for the convenience of the plot.

They’ve also splashed out on the special effects…for the Submarine at least. The Ice Warrior without his armour doesn’t look especially realistic and it is sort of a let down that they even showed it. I could have made for quite a good tease to never show him outside his armour, as well as a call back to earlier series.

The Ice Warrior himself does get a bit clichéd at times and the resolution at the end, involving his daughter it slightly unexplored.

Overall a good episode; I’m looking forward to more.

Doctor Who: The Rings of Akhaten

Well that was way better than Les mis!

I’m not normally one for singing in science fiction, but this really worked. The key was that the singing complimented the story and wasn’t just there to pull in fans of musicals or the Voice.

Turning to the story, it was a pretty good one which managed to keep some of the mysteries from the previous episodes going. It also gives the make up and props department a lot to play with, given the Star Wars-esque setting, diverse range of aliens and weird looking fruit.

The plot is pretty straightforward and involves commentary on religion, hubris and the importance of sentiment.

We learn a bit more about Clara, but nothing substantial, just some hints…why doesn't the TARDIS like her?

On the downside, while the supporting villains are suitably creepy, the god (or grandfather) is a bit un-emotive and Neil Cross seems to blur just how his powers of absorbing things work, ergo, does it have to be via a sentimental object, or can it just anything that’s important in someone’s mind?

The villain is also very similar to the Great Intelligence in nature, which would be a criticism, except I’m fairly sure that this is a deliberate move by the writing team.

Not really much else to say, this was a good episode, which dealt good subject material. It has some problems with the villain, but allows for much and fun and more character development of the new companion.

So legal aid’s gone then…

Legal aid has disappeared as of a few days ago (yeah, I got caught up watching Doctor Who and wrote about that instead).

Ok, before I get into this, let’s talk about what legal aid is. In basic terms, if you can't pay for a legal proceeding and you’re substantially low and thus qualify, the state will assist you with funding a case. 

If you win or gain, you pay what’s called the statutory charge back to the state. The amount of the statutory charge will be the amount of money that the state provided you with to fund your claim and if you don’t pay it off in one payment, you get slapped with interest on top of any smaller payments you make.

The biggest “change” (as the government have been calling it) to legal aid is that it has been withdrawn from the area Family law, unless there is an allegation of violence.

Well that’s perfect, if there’s violence, people are still protected…or not…people who engage in domestic violence tend to be very good at hiding it and proving it is very difficult. So what are we going to do about those being abused who can’t prove it immediately? Is the level of proof required for violence in marriage going to have to go down?

Another side effect of this could be people who haven’t been subjected to violence, but still don’t have enough money to fund a claim in Family law. I have been repeatedly told by Solicitors and law lecturers alike to never underestimate how bitter people can become during family law matters. With this in mind would it be so incredible to assume that people would turn to falsely claiming violence or even harming themselves (so as to provide evidence) in order to get some money for a claim.

Regardless of this, the overriding question that springs to mind in this whole affair, is why the government cut a fund that gets paid back. If you win your case, you have to give back the money you take out of the system and if you don't pay it back straight away, you get charged interest; it earns money for the state.

The answer to this question is actually very simple. The government knows that the money comes back, they know this is a cut that won’t make the slightest bit of difference. But how many of their supporters know about the statutory charge? How many people can be convinced that this is a wholly necessary cut to national spending?

The loss of legal aid in Family Law is nothing more than one of many PR stunts by the Coalition government to appear as though it’s doing something to save the country’s economy. Anyone who agrees can feel free to add a “yay” in the comments. Here’s hoping that Doctor Who’s good tonight!