Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor - Spoiler warning

Well that was better than the End of Time.

I’m always hesitant to compare different eras of Who, particularly ones that are pretty much right next to each other, but there is no way of denying that Matt Smith’s exit is superior to David Tennant’s. What’s odd is that the driving force of the story in both is the same thing; the Time Lords returning, the thing that elevates The Time of the Doctor is that all of Smith’s series have actually lead up to this point, whereas Tennat’s jumped all over the place then just shoved the Time Lords in at the end, so that they could attempt pretty much the same plan as the Daleks had in the series finale before that one. In this respect they were the generic villains behind the fall of the Tenth Doctor.

I could write pages and pages about what I liked about this episode, but I do actually have a life to get back to at some point. So I’ll pick out the things I liked most.

Old, Old, Old Doctor.

Going on his appearance, Id say the Doctor is probably the best part of 2000 years old by the end of this episode. It’s a really nice touch to have him visibly age on-screen, especially being that Smith is the youngest Doctor in the Shows history. It also means that the big finale (his “last bow”) relies mostly on Smith’s delivery and not his hair.

Dalek trumps Silent

There’s always the worry when Moffat creates a new villain, that it’s going to become the new Dalek; well the Daleks had something to say about his latest creation, the Silents (or the confessional priests). And that thing was; we’re gonna put Dalek eye in their heads, because no matter what powers they may have, we’re still more awesome than them.

The questions are answered.

Ok, we pretty much all thought that Moffat had just changed his mind about the overall narrative half way through and abandoned half the story ideas, but they all make it in here.

Smith’s goodbye sign off:

No self-indulgent monologues about how awesome he is, as nice quiet performance to reassure the audience that it’s still the same show. He also has a nice hallucination of  Amy Pond, to tell him goodnight and presumably provide Twelve with his new accent. For a fun fact, the reason stated that David Tennant didn’t use his own accent as the tenth Doctor was that he imprinted the English accent from Rose Tyler. This means that the third Scottish Doctor  gets to keep his accent for the same reason that the second couldn’t.

Peter Capaldi

Not nearly as explosive as the last new Doctor entrance, but still has the same amount of humour and excitement. A joke about the Scottish to start him off (“I’ve got new kidneys – I don’t like the colour”).

Capaldi then demonstrates his fantastic comic timing, by revealing that he seems to have temporarily forgotten how to pilot the TARDIS…while it’s in the process of crashing.

It is impossible to do this episode justice on paper; it’s a must-see. A very fitting end for the 11^th Doctor and an exciting beginning for a new direction of Who.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

I started watching and then awesomeness happened.

I’m going to be honest, I was expecting to be let down by thus episode. It had a massive task; introduce a new Doctor, while balancing the massive personalities of Ten and Eleven. This is something that could have gone very wrong.

Steven Moffat pulls this off by giving himself enough time to do each. It sounds simplistic to say that, but with this kind of Blockbuster phenomenon that’s built up around the 50^th anniversary, there would have been massive pressure to get straight to the action. But no, Moffat takes his time and sets all the pieces in place.

The real masterstroke is the John Hurt’s War Doctor; rejected by his later selves and then treated like he might pull out an Uzi and let loose as soon as they see him. But the point is, that he is the Doctor. The impression that Eleven gave in “The Name of the Doctor” was that the War Doctor was a complete departure from the Doctor persona, taking no elements whatsoever from his previous incarnations and (even in appearance) having more in common with the Master.

But Hurt’s performance shows elements of at least the First and Sixth Doctors. This could have very easily been about an evil version of the Doctor forcing his later selves to unite to defeat him, but instead Moffat went for the harder job; show the Doctor (not a bitter, bruised or insane version) but someone who could clearly be recognised as the Doctor, by classic fans and new, stooping to the level of mass genocide.

The War Doctor has been misrepresented by his later selves; he is not evil, he is not insane; he is desperate.

The contrast between Ten and Eleven is pretty good as well. Their dislike for each other’s outfits serves as a nice bit of comedy and Eleven’s mocking of Ten’s err investigative techniques is a very nice send up of the Everybody-kisses-David-Tennant convention that built up during his run. On that point, the war Doctor’s reaction to that mirrors Colin Baker’s reaction (outside the show) to the idea of the Doctor and romance. In fact there are too many intertextual references like this to count.

I also like that Rose Tyler wasn’t in this episode, in favour of the Bad Wolf persona. I’ve made my feelings about the Rose love story clear in another post and the last thing that such an important episode needed was that weighing it down.

There really isn’t much else to say; this is a really good episode and more than a fitting 50^th Birthday present for Who. A very well written script, paired with top-notch performances from David Tennant, Matt Smith, John Hurt and Peter Capaldi’s angry eyes.

Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John

Not at all bad. The idea that the wifi could be eating our brains doesn’t initially look good, given the older generation internet hate vibe that it gives off. But, once the reveal comes in at the end, it makes enough sense.

The real strength of this episode comes from the proper introduction of the new companion. As Martha Jones was a welcome relief from the soppiness that Rose Tyler had started bringing to the Tennant years, Clara Oswald is a welcome relief from the outright annoyingness that (while not dominating Amy Pond’s character) had got out of hand.

I particularly like how Clara’s confidence comes across without her having to get into a fight or argument and how she clearly likes the Doctor without worshipping him. These have been massive problems in previous series helmed by Moffat and Davis respectively.

The villain is a returning one, from the Christmas episode, which is welcome and anyone who’s seen the curse of fatal death may be thinking the same thing about what he actually is as I am.

Another strength of this episode is how it really keeps the mystery of who Clara Oswald is alive; at no point do we lose sight of the question and at no point does Moffat attempt to misdirect us from it. Though, knowing Moffat, this probably means that the question isn't overly important and he’s just using it to distract us from the actual issue.

The villainous robot things are very close in nature to the Teselecta, with the directional choice of having their voices and delivery very wooden. This makes them very easy to identify, but the choice to make the Doctor version more lifelike is one I can get behind, as it makes a nice contrast between him and the primary antagonists.

To be honest, there’s not that much to say; the villain follows on directly from the previous episode which is bit rare, but works all the same, the new companion is very refreshing and the new series looks very exciting

Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 4 Review

Well it’s about time!

At last an episode that I enjoyed  - don’t get me wrong it’s got its problems, but it’s more than capable of overcoming them.

The key to it’s success is that it isn’t trying too hard to be about some deep and meaningful, like it’s two immediate prequels. It doesn’t attempt to critically compare the Doctor to a war criminal or paint him as some sort of militant animal lover.

It’s nice to see the Doctor not being burdened with his conscience every five minutes, but exploring the true reason that he travels the universe; boredom.

The idea that Amy and Rory might be getting tired of travelling with him is also quite good; it gives off the impression that while we’re all sure it’d be awesome to go flying round the universe, even that gets tiresome after you’ve figured out how to have a nice life in one place. It goes back to the comment that the Ninth Doctor made in ‘Father’s Day” about the wonders of a normal life that he could never have. It’s nice to see this kind of continuity being shown.

There are some pitfalls  - I don’t quite understand why the bad guys wanted the human race dead and the explanation for what they were seemed to be built off your standard legendary-monster-from-protagonist’s-childhood that who has used more than a few times.

That "Power of Three" line at the end was is the sort of hack writing that belongs in Smallville and kind of put a downer on the end for me.

Also the good idea that Amy and Rory might prefer their normal life to that of the Doctor’s is seemingly just written off for the sake of the plot in the last two minutes.

Overall; not much to say  - it’s an improvement on last week and doesn’t try to shoehorn in issues that don't really fit the show’s tone.

Good supporting cast and a good make up job on the bad guy.

With the exception of the ending line, there’s not much wrong with this episode.