A Final Word

I will be honest and say that I didn’t think that I was going to make it to the end of this marathon. It seemed like a good idea before I started to watch an episode of Doctor Who a day every day. This wasn’t the first time that I had done this because back in 2011, I had attempted to watch an episode a day but that quickly disappeared and it took me ten months to get through the whole thing right up until The Wedding of River Song. Another difference between the 2011 marathon and this one is that I didn’t write a blog for that one. I didn’t think about doing a blog until quite late in the course of the marathon so it wasn’t a worthwhile idea but I knew that when I started this marathon that I would try and do the same this time.
I knew that there were issues to deal with such as holidays and what if technology let me down and stuff like that but the biggest problem was always going to be the lack of episodes during the black and white era. Whilst it was easy to get an audio copy of episodes, it was always harder to enjoy these episodes as opposed to ones which existed on DVD.

The William Hartnell era was good because it was fun to see how the dynamic of the show changed over the course of just three years. There were more episodes during a season than most Doctors and it yet the quality stayed the same. Ok there was the Web Planet which remains the worst story that I watched during this marathon but Inside the Spaceship is the best story of the marathon and has been since the second story. Towards the end of the Hartnell era the Doctor’s involvement seemed to get less and less noticeable. The change happened at just the right time.
During the Patrick Troughton era I did think that I would lose the energy to do this marathon but I perceived and before too long the Troughton era came to an end. There were too many episodes that didn’t exist and when the stories aren’t that good then it becomes harder to appreciate.
Season 7 has always been my favourite season but in terms of ratings it isn’t the best which is something that I could understand. The Pertwee era was felt like the era I thought it was once Katy Manning joined the show.

The Tom Baker era was always going to be a test in itself because it was 172 episodes long and there are quite some clunkers to contend with. The Key to Time era was a bit tough to watch because the idea of 26 consecutive episodes having a link was a bit much to watch. The Tom Baker era changed many times over the seasons but if I am being honest the era lasted two years longer than it should have done.
Peter Davison’s time on the show was better than I had given it credit for. Yes there were some stories that just didn’t work like Warriors of the Deep but on the whole the quality of stories was quite good and this era saw the biggest surprise when I actually liked Kinda and thought that it was one of the best Davison stories which isn’t something I thought I would be writing at any point.

After the Davison era was over there was a nice dress rehearsal for the new era because season twenty-two was 45 minutes long and I think that 25 minutes is a better length. The Trial of a Timelord season was fun to watch partly because it was interesting to see just how many times the camera zoomed in on Colin Baker’s face. Baker’s time on the show was far too short and I thought that he would have been good had he been allowed to carry on.
Sylvester McCoy’s time on the show was a bit of a mess. The first season was just unbearable, his second season was better and his third was a bit of a mixed bag. Like Colin Baker’s time on the show, McCoy’s era ended too soon.

From the Colin Baker era to end the end of the McCoy era it would take two weeks to get through a season and by the time I got to the end of the McCoy era I was looking forward to the new era because it would be single episode stories and the special effects would be better and there were some absolute classics.

I don’t know why but the new era of the show felt longer than the classic era. Going from 25 minutes a night to 45 minutes a night was a bigger change than I was expecting. There were some night when I was more able to write a lot than other nights. Some nights I wanted to say the bare minimum and other nights I didn’t know when to stop. I always tried to go for 500 minimum and most night I ended up around that mark but there were a few 1960 episodes where I was under and quite a lot of episode where I was well over. Knowing I don’t have to do that anymore is a good feeling.

The Eccleston era was quite good and by the end of his time I had grown to appreciate what a great actor he is and what the show would have been like had he stayed beyond that one series. When David Tennant came along I thought that the marathon was going to be like the Tom Baker one and that is up and down and its true but once Billie Piper left the show things started to improve and it then started to slope off towards the end and I think that the specials in 2009 were a mixed bag. Matt Smith’s tenure was more enjoyable as I think that the whole vibe of the show changed when Russell T Davies handed over the reigns to Steven Moffat. Moffat bought a grungier and perhaps bleaker style to the show and its one that I thought worked well. I would have liked Matt Smith to have stayed a bit longer but as the old saying goes – always leave them wanting more.

It’s difficult to say what I really think about Peter Capaldi’s time on the show because a) it was so recent and b) there were only thirteen episodes to judge him on. I’d dare say that if I ever did this again then I might think differently of Capaldi’s time on the show.
As I write this I have a weird emptiness in me. Today is the first time since May 16, 2013 that I haven’t had to watch a Doctor Who episode and write a review and that’s a long time to feel that. It will be nice to watch whatever story I want whenever I want to and also watch it in one go if I feel like it. To be honest I don’t think that I will be doing this marathon again. It’s too long a journey as it is and time progresses, the number of episodes increase. Maybe if the missing episodes are found I might do it again but that seems unlikely and I can go back to being a normal Doctor Who fan and watch the DVD’s and the superb extras.

Over 813 days, I wrote over 590,000 words words and that has taken 945 pages over 5 volumes. To end this epilogue, here are the ratings for all the stories and let me know if you disagree with them or what.

1 INSIDE THE SPACESHIP 8.60
2 THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR 8.25
3 THE TV MOVIE 8.20
4 THE DEADLY ASSASSIN 8.12
5 BLINK 8.05
6 THE DOCTORS WIFE 8.02
7 HUMAN NATURE/THE FAMILY OF BLOOD 8.01
8 REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS 8.00
9 THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR 7.98
10 DEEP BREATH 7.98
11 THE WATERS OF MARS 7.97
12 VINCENT AND THE DOCTOR 7.95
13 THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI 7.93
14 THE GIRL WHO WAITED 7.93
15 THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN 7.90
16 BAD WOLF/THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 7.88
17 THE END OF TIME - PARTS ONE AND TWO 7.86
18 THE STOLEN EARTH/JOURNEYS END 7.83
19 ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN 7.82
20 THE ELEVENTH HOUR 7.82
21 COLD WAR 7.82
22 TRIAL OF A TIMELORD: THE ULTIMATE FOE 7.81
23 MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN (1965) 7.80
24 AN UNEARTHLY CHILD 7.79
25 BOOM TOWN 7.78
26 RISE OF THE CYBERMEN/THE AGE OF STEEL 7.78
27 THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR 7.78
28 AMY'S CHOICE 7.77
29 THE PANDORICA OPENS/THE BIG BANG 7.77
30 NIGHT TERRORS 7.77
31 ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS 7.77
32 NIGHTMARE IN SILVER 7.77
33 SMITH AND JONES 7.75
34 TERROR OF THE AUTONS 7.75
35 THE CHRISMAS INVASION 7.75
36 JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE TARDIS 7.75
37 THE EMPTY CHILD/THE DOCTOR DANCES 7.74
38 THE INVASION 7.74
39 MIDNIGHT 7.73
40 THE SHAKESPEARE CODE 7.73
41 A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR 7.73
42 THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG 7.73
43 THE POWER OF THREE 7.73
44 DARK WATER/DEATH IN HEAVEN 7.73
45 SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE 7.72
46 SURVIVAL 7.72
47 TOOTH AND CLAW 7.72
48 LETS KILL HITLER 7.72
49 FLATLINE 7.72
50 THE ARK IN SPACE (1975) 7.71
51 THE GREEN DEATH 7.71
52 UTOPIA/THE SOUND OF DRUMS/LAST OF THE TIMELORDS 7.71
53 GRIDLOCK 7.70
54 REVELATION OF THE DALEKS 7.70
55 THE IDIOTS LANTERN 7.70
56 THE WAR GAMES 7.70
57 TURN LEFT 7.70
58 CLOSING TIME 7.70
59 THE SNOWMEN 7.70
60 THE TENTH PLANET 7.69
61 PYRAMIDS OF MARS 7.68
62 RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS 7.68
63 SCHOOL REUNION 7.68
64 THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET/THE SATAN PIT 7.68
65 THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN 7.68
66 THE GOD COMPLEX 7.68
67 THE RINGS OF AKHATEN 7.68
68 THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT/DAY OF THE MOON 7.67
69 INFERNO 7.67
70 KILL THE MOON 7.67
71 GENESIS OF THE DALEKS 7.66
72 THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD 7.66
73 VENGEANCE ON VAROS 7.66
74 THE HAND OF FEAR 7.65
75 INTO THE DALEK 7.65
76 MUMMY ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 7.65
77 THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH 7.63
78 THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE 7.63
79 THE SEA DEVILS 7.63
80 A CHRISTMAS CAROL 7.63
81 HIDE 7.63
82 TIME HEIST 7.63
83 EARTHSHOCK 7.62
84 KINDA 7.62
85 PLANET OF THE OOD 7.62
86 ROSE 7.62
87 TERROR OF THE ZYGONS 7.62
88 THE FIVE DOCTORS 7.62
89 THE NEXT DOCTOR 7.62
90 THE BELLS OF SAINT JOHN 7.62
91 IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT 7.62
92 INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS 7.61
93 THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS 7.61
94 THE FACE OF EVIL 7.60
95 THE RUNAWAY BRIDE 7.60
96 THE THREE DOCTORS 7.60
97 THE CARETAKER 7.60
98 THE MARK OF THE RANI 7.59
99 THE SEEDS OF DEATH 7.59
100 THE VISITATION 7.59
101 CASTROVALVA 7.58
102 THE DAEMONS 7.58
103 THE ICE WARRIORS 7.58
104 TRIAL OF A TIMELORD: MINDWARP 7.58
105 LAST CHRISTMAS 7.58
106 DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS 7.57
107 LOGOPOLIS 7.57
108 PLANET OF THE DALEKS 7.57
109 SILENCE IN THE LIBRARAY/THE FOREST OF THE DEAD 7.57
110 SILVER NEMESIS 7.57
111 THE STONES OF BLOOD 7.57
112 TRIAL OF A TIMELORD: TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS 7.57
113 THE TIME OF ANGELS/FLESH AND STONE 7.56
114 FULL CIRCLE 7.56
115 ROBOT 7.56
116 THE SONTARAN STRATAGEM/THE POISON SKY 7.56
117 THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE 7.55
118 ARMY OF GHOSTS/DOOMSDAY 7.55
119 CITY OF DEATH 7.55
120 THE END OF THE WORLD 7.55
121 THE LODGER 7.55
122 THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH 7.54
123 BLACK ORCHID 7.53
124 FRONTIER IN SPACE 7.53
125 HORROR OF FANG ROCK 7.53
126 THE ANDROIDS OF TARA 7.53
127 ALIENS OF LONDON/WORLD WAR THREE 7.52
128 IMAGE OF THE FENDAHL 7.52
129 STATE OF DECAY 7.52
130 THE INVASION OFTIME 7.52
131 THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT 7.52
132 THE LONG GAME 7.52
133 THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT 7.52
134 THE CRIMSON HORROR 7.52
135 THE LEISURE HIVES 7.51
136 THE TWO DOCTORS 7.51
137 THE WEB OF FEAR 7.51
138 FEAR HER 7.50
139 PLANET OF THE SPIDERS 7.50
140 THE AZTECS 7.50
141 THE MIND ROBBER 7.50
142 THE VAMPIRES OF VENICE 7.50
143 A TOWN CALLED MERCY 7.50
144 THE CURSE OF FENRIC 7.49
145 CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS 7.48
146 ENLIGHTENMENT 7.48
147 THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG 7.48
148 DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP 7.48
149 DRAGONFIRE 7.47
150 THE MIND OF EVIL 7.47
151 THE RESCUE 7.47
152 THE ROBOTS OF DEATH 7.47
153 THE UNQUIET DEAD 7.47
154 VICTORY OF THE DALEKS 7.47
155 FRONTIOS 7.46
156 MEGLOS 7.46
157 THE MONSTER OF PELADON 7.46
158 THE WAR MACHINES 7.46
159 THE CLAWS OF AXOS 7.45
160 THE CURSE OF PELADON 7.45
161 THE DALEKS 7.45
162 THE KROTONS 7.45
163 ROBOT OF SHERWOOD 7.45
164 ARC OF ININITY 7.44
165 TERMINUS 7.44
166 THE TIME MONSTER 7.44
167 BATTLEFIELD 7.43
168 DALEKS IN MANHATTAN/EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS 7.43
169 FATHERS DAY 7.43
170 REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN 7.43
171 THE ANDROID INVASION 7.43
172 THE SEEDS OF DOOM 7.43
173 THE WHEEL IN SPACE 7.43
174 DALEK 7.42
175 DESTINY OF THE DALEKS 7.42
176 PLANET OF GIANTS 7.42
177 THE DALEKS MASTER PLAN 7.42
178 THE FIRES OF POMPEII 7.42
179 THE TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN 7.42
180 COLONY IN SPACE 7.41
181 MAWDRYN UNDEAD 7.41
182 UNDERWORLD 7.41
183 THE HUNGRY EARTH/COLD BLOOD 7.41
184 NIGHTMARE OF EDEN 7.40
185 PLANET OF FIRE 7.40
186 THE FACELESS ONES 7.40
187 THE MOONBASE 7.40
188 THE TIME WARRIOR 7.40
189 THE KEYS OF MARINUS 7.39
190 THE MUTANTS 7.39
191 42 7.38
192 THE SENSORITES 7.38
193 WARRIORS OF THE DEEP 7.38
194 THE ARMAGEDDON FACTOR 7.36
195 GHOSTLIGHT 7.34
196 THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY 7.34
197 THE MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA 7.34
198 DAY OF THE DALEKS 7.33
199 THE SUN MAKERS 7.33
200 THE TIME MEDDLER 7.33
201 NEW EARTH 7.32
202 THE CHASE 7.32
203 TIME-FLIGHT 7.31
204 THE INVISIBLE ENEMY 7.30
205 THE POWER OF KROLL 7.30
206 WARRIORS GATE 7.30
207 THE MASSACRE OF ST BARTHOLOMEWS EVE 7.29
208 SNAKEDANCE 7.28
209 THE ARK 7.27
210 THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER 7.27
211 THE RIBOS OPERATION 7.27
212 THE UNICORN AND THE WASP 7.27
213 TRIAL OF A TIMELORD: THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET 7.27
214 PLANET OF EVIL 7.26
215 MARCO POLO 7.25
216 TIMELASH 7.25
217 THE POWER OF THE DALEKS 7.24
218 THE AWAKENING 7.23
219 THE PIRATE PLANET 7.23
220 THE UNDERWATER MENACE 7.23
221 THE BEAST BELOW 7.23
222 THE KINGS DEMONS 7.21
223 THE SPACE MUSEUM 7.21
224 THE DOCTORS DAUGHTER 7.20
225 THE EVIL OF THE DALEKS 7.19
226 THE HAPPINESS PATROL 7.19
227 FURY FROM THE DEEP 7.17
228 PLANET OF THE DEAD 7.17
229 THE TWIN DILEMMA 7.17
230 VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED 7.17
231 PARTNERS IN CRIME 7.15
232 THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT 7.15
233 THE SAVAGES 7.15
234 LISTEN 7.15
235 THE REIGN OF TERROR 7.14
236 GALAXY 4 7.13
237 THE CURSE OF THE BLACK SPOT 7.13
238 PARADISE TOWERS 7.11
239 THE REBEL FLESH/THE ALMOST PEOPLE 7.10
240 DEATH TO THE DALEKS 7.08
241 FOUR TO DOOMSDAY 7.04
242 TIME AND THE RANI 7.03
243 THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN 7.02
244 THE GUNFIGHTERS 7.02
245 THE MACRA TERROR 6.96
246 THE HORNS OF NIMON 6.91
247 DELTA AND THE BANNERMEN 6.88
248 THE CRUSADE 6.81
249 THE DOMINATORS 6.81
250 THE ROMANS 6.79
251 THE SPACE PIRATES 6.76
252 THE HIGHLANDERS 6.52
253 THE MYTH MAKERS 6.48
254 THE SMUGGLERS 6.38
255 LOVE AND MONSTERS 6.22
256 THE WEB PLANET 6.01

To everyone who has ever visited this blog even if it were just a couple of times or everyday. Thankyou and thankyou to everyone who favorited a tweet or re-tweeted one of my tweets. It was those sort of nice gestures that gave me the motivation to continue when I was considering quitting. Also a thankyou goes to Will Brooks who did his own marathon via Doctor Who Online and was the inspiration for me the do this in the first place. Well on that bombshell, its time to say goodbye …… One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye.

(813) Last Christmas

Now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain. Well that’s enough Frank Sinatra lyrics for now but it is the end and the moment has been prepared for. After 812 days, I get ready to watch the most recent episode of Doctor Who to air on British TV. Episode 813 is another Christmas episode and it’s the 10th Christmas Special. This is the 34th episode to be credited to Steven Moffat, taking him above Russell T Davies and ties him with David Whittaker and Dave Martin. He is at the moment the fourth most prolific writer in the shows history. Also this is the 57th episode for Steven Moffat as Executive Producer and he is three behind Russell T Davies. The episode starts with Nick Frost’s Santa encountering Clara and there is no explanation as to what happened at the end of the previous episode. This episode sees Michael Troughton appear. Michael is the other son of former Doctor Patrick Troughton and its nice to his other son in the show. He plays Albert Smithe who does come across as a bit of a dirty old man. In a way its not the greatest role for Troughton to play as all he does really is eat a chicken leg and gets sucked into a TV screen. That is quite a good way to die and effects wise its well done but I think that the character could have been better served with some better stuff to do. During the scene with Doctor Who’s answer to the facehuggers, the Doctor learns that Danny Pink is dead and that Clara was lying. Clara lied so that the Doctor would leave her and the Doctor lied about finding Gallifrey so that Clara would stay with Danny. They both deserve each other. The facehuggers are called Dreamcrabs which is a cool name for a cool looking monster. Even Smithe calls them facehuggers and references Alien and I like how the Doctor gets annoyed with this. When Clara gets covered with a Dreamcrab, the Doctor decides to be attached to a Dreamcrab to convince Clara that she is in a dream and that Danny is the antidote to stop Clara from screaming. When the Doctor and Clara think they have woken up it was quite obvious that they were all still asleep. There is a line that Clara gives when she says that you cant believe what you see which means that this is an episode where things will happen and there is always going to be a question and to whether they are really awake or still asleep. It does get a bit tiresome after a while as all it seems to do is fill a bit of time. This was due to be Jenna Coleman’s last episode and most people think that she is one of the longest serving companions but in reality she the fourth longest serving companion in terms of episodes. She is two behind Arthur Darvill, seven behind Billie Piper and 10 behind Karen Gillan. This wasn’t the greatest episode for Clara and had it been the last one for her then it would have been a disappointing end for the character. As it isn’t then its possible to be kinder to her and I hope that when she does leave that her departure is better thought out. Her best scene comes at the end when she has aged about sixty years and the prosthetics used to make her look old doesn’t work as well as it could have done. Her performance was good though and it was a nice scene between her and Capaldi. I like how it looks like its real and then Santa comes in a shows that they were dreaming and when the Doctor sees Clara again she is young. I suspect this is the part that got re-written when Coleman decided to stay. Speaking of Peter Capaldi, he was on fine form in this episode despite the story not being as good as it could have been. It’s nice that the Doctor is allowed to smile and be positive and I did smile when the Doctor took control of Santa’s sledge and hopefully the future will see a lighter side to Capaldi’s Doctor. I don’t want a Matt Smith version of the twelfth Doctor but something in between. The problem with this episode is that the show spends an hour saying that nothing is what it seems and whilst I like the idea of doing a Christmas Special with a very dark tone to it, I would rather have a Christmassy plot rather than a nice tone to it. Also I really don’t know what to make of Santa because I can’t quite make my mind up whether Santa was supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy. This might be down to Nick Frost but the confusion is something that did bother me a bit. Well that is the marathon over which ends at 8:48pm on Thursday August 6th. The marathon which started on May 16th 2013 is now over and I am tempted at the moment to regenerate this marathon into a Torchwood marathon. I don’t know at the moment but I am happy now to have completed the marathon and to have watched and listened to every single episode of Doctor Who that has been transmitted. I will post a ending statement tomorrow but at the moment I will say that this wasn’t the best episode to end the marathon but I am convinced that Capaldi is a very good Doctor and the new series starts in just over a month so there is something to look forward to.

(812) Death in Heaven

Today is the penultimate episode of the marathon and the final story of the thirty-fourth series. The revelation that Missy was the Master was a cool way to end the previous episode and things start in quite an interesting way when Jenna Coleman’s name comes before Peter Capaldi’s which is a first and shows just how much the role of the companion/assistant has changed over the years and also how the character of Clara has become just as significant as the Doctor’s. The episode picks up where it left off with Cybermen coming out of St Paul Cathedral and I quite like how the adoring crown around the Cybermen were actually working for UNIT. Kate throws an old Cyberman head which was a nice nostalgia nod. The idea of Water/Rain bringing dead people back to life is quite a fun and grim idea and it’s quite a clever idea from Missy. Yes it has hints of convolution that Delgado and Ainley’s Master would have been proud of but there seems something rather epic about it. On the subject of Missy, I am now convinced that Michelle Gomez’s casting was brilliant. There is the nice coincidence that both the Doctor and Missy are Scottish but they are just as good as each other in acting terms and the scenes they have together are rather good. What is perhaps more interesting than Missy’s plan to turn dead people into Cybermen is the revelation that Missy knows where Gallifrey is or at least makes the Doctor think that she knows. From the moment that this is bought up, I start to lose interest a little bit in the main plot. With UNIT bought into this story it means that it sees the return of Kate Stewart and also Osgood who is now wearing a bow-tie. I miss the fourth Doctor’s scarf that she wore in Day of the Doctor. Quite early on in the story the Doctor is made President of the Earth. The quick way this sort of thing can be arranged is rather implausible and also the mere idea that the US, Australian, Chinese or even French armies would hand themselves over to the Doctor is perhaps a bit of stretch even for a show which encourages you to give you suspend your disbelief. The death of Osgood is a bit of a surprise but slightly undermined by the music played the moments after. Since then it has been revealed that Ingrid Oliver is coming back in the new series so it isn’t the sad moment that it seemed to be at the time. The sight of Cybermen coming out of graves is a very good one and keeps the dark vibe going. It could be argued that the Cybermen are slightly sidelined in this episode and that might be true but in my opinion they are still used in a clever way and I thought that the Cybermen continue to be used in a good way under Steven Moffat’s stewardship. Despite all the good things going on in the episode there is still the matter of Captain Grumpy. I know you could say that waking up after you thought you were dead and then wake up and find yourself as Cyberman isn’t the greatest feeling in the world but its still no good reason to be grumpy. When Danny reveals takes his mask off and shows Clara what he now looks like. Sadly Captain Grumpy returns when he is talking to the Doctor. Just when I think that Grumpy is going to end grumpy he sacrifices himself to save the day and then he uses his one and only opportunity to travel back to Clara with a bracelet to let the boy that he killed in his army days go back to his family. I think that the character has run its course and there isn’t much more that could be done for the character. Samuel Anderson has done well with what is a rather thankless role but I cant say that he has been the worst actor in the show. There is one moment that made me think that Steven Moffat had gone out of his mind and it was when the Doctor is shown flying through the air to meet mid-air to get to the TARDIS. This is a bit like the tank falling to the ground in the recent (ish) A-Team movie. Kate reveals that the Brigadier only wanted the Doctor to salute him once. This leads to a lovely moment when a Cyberman points out that Kate is alive and the Doctor concludes that the Cyberman is the Brigadier and the Doctor salutes him and this was unexpected. It was nice and it was about three years after Nicholas Courntey’s death its impressive how much he is still a part of the programme. That picture of him on the plane is a pretty big indication of his impact on the show. There is one last swerve in the story and that is when Missy reveals the co-ordinates of Gallifrey. I remember watching it and wondering whether Gallifrey was going to be found after being pretty much ignored since Day of the Doctor. The Doctor and Clara both lie to each other. Clara lies that Danny came back and the Doctor lies that he found Gallifrey. It’s a rather grim ending really because there isn’t the cheery ending that there normally is. What we do have just after the credits start is the cliffhanger and the lead up to the Christmas Special where Santa (played by Nick Frost) asks the Doctor what he wants for Christmas. Whilst there were some impressive moments in this episode and in the previous one, I cant help but say that it was a little underwhelming. It didn’t have that end of series finale that most finales have. Well tomorrow is the final episode in the marathon and I am waiting until tomorrow to say the line I have used a few times during this marathon but will be used for the last time. Last Christmas is the last episode and I just hope that the marathon ends on a great note.

(811) Dark Water

Not only is this the finale of the series but it’s the first two parter since The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People story back in the 2011 series. The episode starts off in quite a grim way because Danny was hit by a car and died. I know I have been calling him Captain Grumpy but I can’t say that it was good to know that the character had died. This is a really dark way of starting the episode. It’s fair to say that this sends Clara a bit mad as within minutes she is threatening to throw all the TARDIS keys into molten lava if the Doctor doesn’t bring Danny back. I know she’s grieving I cant help but feel that Clara is a being a bit selfish.

It’s quite amusing when its revealed that Clara was tricked by the Doctor into thinking that she’d thrown away all the keys. Moffat has had a recent track record of misleading people and then revealing what actually happened and its only frustrating when its revealed what has happened. I liked it when the Doctor says that he is going to help Clara find Danny and bring him back despite what she had done. This shows why the Doctor is better than Clara.

There is almost a sense of black comedy in this as the appearance of Chris Addison who worked with Capaldi in The Thick of It and its nice to see him play something different with the right amount of humour. In fact the whole episode is very dark because the Doctor and Clara come across skeletons sitting on thrones. Then there is the moment where Danny meets a young boy that he killed when he was in the army. This isn’t the sort of thing that anyone would expect in Doctor Who.

Missy’s first encounter with the Doctor is quite strange bearing in mind that she is in fact the Master. It’s weird to think that the same role played by Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley has snogged the Doctor. When Missy reveals that her name is short for Mistresses it doesn’t mean anything to the Doctor and then when she says that she couldn’t keep calling herself the Master then the penny finally drops and this has to realise that Missy is the Master. I think that the idea of changing the Master’s gender is a bold move for the role because whenever there is a new Doctor there is always the idea that the Doctor could be a woman so this sort of proves that this could happen. The casting of Michelle Gomez might be one that would raise eyebrows but I cant say that it wasn’t a good piece of casting. She brings the right balance of madness and menace to the role and this is why the episode and in fact the whole series story arc works.

The moment when the water in the tombs empties out of the chambers and reveals that the Cybermen are skeletons.

There is Timelord technology that is being used in Missy’s plans but the question is just how she managed to get it but that is something that will be answered in the next episode. Cybermen walking down the steps of St Paul Cathedral seemed to try and mirror the Cybermen walking around London in the Invasion. Despite it not being original it is an awesome sight and it’s the perfect way to end the episode and the final episode of the series looks like it will be just as good as I remember it and as good as it needs to be. Two more episodes to go.

(810) In the Forest of the Night

In the forest of the Night is the penultimate story of the series and another one that has an interesting idea to it. One day everyone wakes up to find the world has become a huge jungle. Landmarks such as Nelson’s column are now surrounded by trees and shrubs. This story has Captain Grumpy back in the show and not just in one scene but from start to finish and I know I have been saying that he hasn't been as grumpy as he started out as but sadly he seems to have reverted back to his old self again. Quite frankly if I had a kid and captain Grumpy was their teacher then I would be worried. This is because he loses a child quite quickly.

The big mystery is how and where the trees came from and why they have appeared overnight. The explanation that they are protecting the earth from a huge solar flare is quite a good one and it quite a creative way of taking a normal thing like a forest and giving it a hugely sci-fi purpose. I think there maybe some science truth in what happens with trees but I don't know nor understand that so that can be left for another blog. Maybe when I finish this marathon then I could do a science blog…..maybe not. Anyway I thought that the writer did a good job with the script but there were a few things that didn't quite work. First the school kids were just a constant source of irritation because it seemed like just when things were getting somewhere the kids would be there to slow things down. Then there is the small matter of Maebh who is an interesting character and has a interesting back story and its that she lost her sister which at first I thought meant that she had died but turns out she went missing. Now for 99% of the time that she is on screen I thought she was quite interesting (more interesting than Clara) but when it's revealed that her sister was in fact in a shrub in her front garden I thought that it slightly ruined the character for me. It seemed like a bit of a cop-out which might seem a bit harsh but it's how I saw things in this episode.

I've gone quite far into this blog before I mentioned the Doctor and there isn't a particular reason for that because it was a fine performance from Peter Capaldi. He dealt with the kids rather well and was running around with the kind of energy that I don't think I have seen from him so far. Jenna Coleman was just frustrating in this and that is because Clara wanted to be having the adventure but the teacher in her stopped her and she seemed at times to be happy to be saddled with Captain Grumpy.

The appearance of Missy was quite enjoyable but I do wonder what interest she has in the earth covered in trees. She acts surprised when the earth is protected and I can't remember whether this is part of the arc so it will be interesting to see whether it's revealed. 

On the whole I enjoyed this episode because there was enough to maintain my interest and the idea itself is rather good and the directing was good enough. Sadly the whole thing was ruined by Captain Grumpy and his trusty sidekick Clara. Now the series has reached the finale and the trailer is making me look forward to tomorrow's episode. Everything is going to be explained and I now have just three episodes left and I think that two of them are going to be fantastic but which two ?

(809) Flatline

Flatline is the second episode to come from Jamie Mathieson who wrote the previous episode and this is another story that has some good ideas and some good characters. The pre-title scene is of a man on a phone who then disappears and then reappears but stretched out on a wall.

When fan taken photos of this episode were put on the net, this episode took on a new level of interest. The idea of the TARDIS shrinking is one that has never been explored in Doctor Who since Logopolis and even that wasn’t very interesting. The effect of the Doctor handing Clara the Psychic Paper and the Sonic Screwdriver.

The effect of things being flattened is quite good and the effect of the people taken walking is even more impressive and one that I think is a huge success for the show.  The Doctor names the monster as the Boneless which is an average name really but serves the purpose which is all you can really ask for with a name. I just wish that they had come with the name earlier on in the episode

With the Doctor stuck in the TARDIS, it means that Clara is on her own except that she is partnered with Rigsy (who is due to return in the 2015 series). I don’t know why but I quite liked the character of Rigsy. He wasn’t annoying and whilst I don’t think his character that big enough to warrant a return, I don’t hate the idea and that might be down to Joivan Wade who comes across as a likeable person who gets the world he finds himself in really quickly.

The Doctor using his hand to move the TARDIS out of the way of an incoming train is such a fantastically ludicrous thing. It’s amusing to me that Clara comes up with the Adams Family reference and the Doctor instantly knows what to do. The Doctor being stuck in the TARDIS is a brave thing to do really because it means that Clara has drive the story outside of the TARDIS. Clara comes up with the idea to save the Doctor without any help from the Doctor. This has been the strongest episode for Jenna Coleman.

Captain Grumpy makes another appearance and this is another appearance where he isn’t quite as grumpy as he was. I don’t know if he will lose the grumpy title because he becomes quite involved in the next episode but the last couple of appearances have shown Captain Grumpy to be less grumpy than I have implied but I have a suspicion that this will change and he will show me the reason why he deserved to be called Captain Grumpy.

Missy makes an appearance at the end where she is holding a tablet showing Clara and Missy saying that she chose wisely. This is the most that we have got from the Missy story arc for quite sometime. I remember thinking in 2014 (seems like a lifetime ago) that there were a million theories about who Missy was and this was a time when the end was being built up to and there is just one more episode before the series finale starts.

Flatline was another solid episode that flipped the dynamic of the Doctor/Companion relationship and seemed like a relatively cheap episode yet managed to maintain the drama and tension. I now have just four episodes left in the marathon and have to seriously start to think what I will do with my evenings. Maybe a Torchwood or a Sarah Jane Adventures marathon. I don’t know what I will do but the end is almost prepared for.

(808) Mummy on the Orient Express

Like Kill The Moon, todays episode has a rather interesting title. Any title that has the orient express in it is likely to make people think that Agatha Christie isn’t too far away and that would be the wrong because it’s the train orient express and its in space. The pre-title scene is quite good cause it pretty much sums the story up in 66 seconds and has a mummy in it. The friction between the Doctor and Clara does seem to have disappeared a bit because the first time they appear in the episode they act like things are normal. Although there is a line that seems to suggest this might be Clara’s final adventure. I think that it was obvious that she wouldn’t be leaving because some announcement would have been made or an announcement made about her successor so it seems a bit silly to act like she is leaving. There is a moment when Clara lies to Maisie and it seems like she the Doctor.  

There are two names in this episode which are well known. Well I say well known because I had never heard of Foxes who sings ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ at the beginning of the episode. Normally this would mean that she would play a bigger part in the story but that isn’t the case.\The other big name is Frank Skinner who has done a lot of things but at the moment is the host of Room 101. I quite Frank Skinner on that show and most of the things that he has done over the years but sadly I think that he wasn’t very convincing in this. It didn’t seem like he was acting but just giving the sort of performance a fan would give thinking it was a Laurence Olivier type performance. Christopher Villiers plays Professor Moorhouse and this is a return for him after appearing in The Kings Demons as Hugh. Janet Henfrey appears as Mrs Pitt and previously appeared in The Curse of Fenric as Miss Hardaker.

Captain Grumpy plays a small part in this episode and whilst he was quite positive I still think that he is Captain Grumpy but even grumpy people can have a bit of cheeriness in them.

The truth about the train is that everyone on the train is either a hologram or a scientist and the train changes to look like a lab. This is when the episode shifts a gear and really find its feet. The Mummy is a great costume design and despite not saying anything it is quite a good monster. It’s purpose is explained and there is a phrase that makes it stop and it is We Surrender and this means that the mummy is a soldier. There is then a quick burst of tension as the Doctor tries to stop everyone from suffocating. There is sadly no answer to who came up with Gus or why the mystery of the mummy needed solving. There is one visual effect shot where its hand goes through the Doctor’s head and I thought that was one of the coolest shots of the story.

The final scene with the Doctor and Clara is a nice one and one which seems to mend their relationship. By the very end of the episode it seems like they are on the same team and they go on more adventures. It might have taken much longer than it needed to but it seems like things are back to normal. I liked this story but I can’t say that it’s the best story of the series. This was the first story for Jamie Mathieson and he has done well with it. The idea in it was well conceived and worked out really well.

(807) Kill the Moon

As titles go, Kill the Moon is certainly the most interesting. In an attempt to show Courtney that she’s special, the Doctor takes her to the Moon to be the first woman to walk there. This episode is where the Doctor and Clara’s relationship goes through a bit of a rough patch. Being set on the moon it means that this cant be filmed in a field in Cardiff. The filming for this episode took place in Lanzarote where the 1984 story Planet of Fire was filmed and I think a title that was suggested for it was Return to Sarn which was clearly a title designed to mislead. The TARDIS arrives on a shuttle which has a lot of nuclear bombs on it and its clear that things don’t go well in this episode. There is a wonderful base under siege vibe to this episode which if you are a regular reader of this blog, will know that this is my favourite type of story. Apart from the darkness and the isolation, the big success of this story are the spiders that scuttle around the place. The sight of one scuttling around in the dark is quite good and also the image of thousands of them scuttling across the moon is one that works and is one of the lasting image from the episode.

At one point the Doctor decides that he is leaving the fate of the moon to Clara and Lundvik (Hermione Norris) which does seem like a bold thing for the Doctor to do. I honestly cant see Matt Smith’s Doctor or David Tenannt’s Doctor doing this so this is another example if more were needed that Capaldi’s Doctor is a grumpier version of his previous incarnations.

When Captain Grumpy turns up at the end I think that he is going to be Sergeant Smug and pretty much tells Clara to calm down and be less angry. I thought that was quite a good move for him and he is still Captain Grumpy but at least there showed a glimmer of happy.

The big revelation is that the moon is an egg and its about to hatch. This has been a great cause of controversy because people think that it’s a stupid idea. I don’t agree with that simply because what Peter Harness has done is come up with a novel idea for something that is so much apart of the Earth. You see various stages of it at night time and ever since the episode aired, I have looked up and jokingly thought that the moon might have put a bit of weight on. It’s such a Doctor Who idea that I cant understand why people have a problem with this aspect of the story. There were bigger problems with this story. Most notably that of Hermione Norris. The problem is that her character isn’t very well served in this. Her character isn’t very imposing and just blends in with the others. Another problem is Courtney because she wants to be called special, then when they are on the moon and things go wrong she decides she wants to go back home and then when it looks like things are getting interesting again she wants to leave the TARDIS. Never has a character changed so much in one short episode. Thankfully she leaves at the end of this episode and is never seen again and good riddance as far as I am concerned. However the biggest concern that comes up in this episode is the relationship between Clara and the Doctor because we are in the seventh episode of the series and yet there is something that doesn’t quite right between them. I would have expected them to have bonded by now.

There comes a decision about whether to blow it up or let the thing hatch. There is this big deal about the Earth deciding what to do. In the end it’s a bit pointless because the Doctor comes and rescues Lundvik, Courtney & Clara and they arrive on earth just to see the moon hatch. Moments later it seems to hatch a new moon and things seem to be back to normal.

I like Kill The Moon, there are problems with it but ultimately the debut story from Peter Harness has written a story that is effectively in two parts because the first half is scary as anything that has been seen in new Who and the sort of thing that would have been seen in the Philip Hinchcliffe era which is always a good thing. He is returning to write for the new series of Doctor Who and hopefully he will improve on some of the flaws that happened in this episode and the good point suggest that he might just be able to do that.

(806) The Caretaker

If you use the numbering system that I have used in this marathon, then this story is the 250^th story of Doctor Who. The Caretaker is the midway point of the series and one that takes place at Coal Hill School. It’s nice having Coal Hill School feature in the show because after only having two appearances in the first 50 years, it seems to be featuring in the show more and more. Despite the positives of this story being co-written by Steven Moffat and Gareth Roberts there are things that I don’t like about this story. Sadly the biggest problem is that Danny Pink makes a return and I say sadly because this is where he well and truly becomes Mr Grump. He seems to develop a jealousy of the Doctor. There is a bit where he pulls one of the mine things that the Doctor has placed around the school and I think that anyone in their right mind wouldn’t touch them. When the Doctor gives him a ticking off I wanted the Doctor give him more than that. Pink has just turned into a whiney git all of a sudden.

The pre-title scene ends with the Doctor introducing himself as a caretaker so this is another. Most of the pre-title scene is filled with the Doctor and Clara going on many adventures and then Clara having to pick up her normal life with Danny. To be honest if I were Clara and I had the choice of travelling with the Doctor or spending time watching Coronation Street with Private Grumpy then it’s a no brainer really.  

This being a Gareth Roberts story there is more than an average amount of humour and one of the running gags is that the Doctor thinks that Danny Pink is a PE teacher and can’t retain the information in his head that he is in fact a maths teacher. There are plenty of good lines for the Doctor and like the previous story I cant figure out which lines are from Moffat and which ones are from Roberts. Also like the previous story I cant quite understand why it took two people to write this story.

Danny isn’t the only annoying person in this episode. The other is Courtney who is an annoying kid. She hangs around and is just an annoying person to have around. Maybe she is a relative of Danny’s. Speaking of Danny he really becomes an annoying arsehole because he gets really snotty when he is in the TARDIS thinking the Doctor is really pompous. Whenever the Doctor gets to be horrible to Danny I become a happy man. What can’t Danny be like Rory? Just a little bit. The worse crime that Danny commits in this story is by trying to turn Clara against the Doctor just because the Doctor seems like people Danny encountered in the army.

The monster threat of the story is in the form of the Skovox Blitzer which has become stranded on Earth and views everyone as a threat. The Doctor just wants to get it on Earth but he keeps getting distracted and stopped by humans. I could feel and understand the Doctor’s frustration because it just seemed to be either Danny or Courtney.

The final scene sees the police officer from earlier in the episode talking to Chris Addison (someone else from The Thick of It) who plays a character called Seb. He is someone who is working for Missy. Michelle Gomez makes a great cameo appearance in the episode. All she does is walk one way, look at Seb and then walk another way. This is something that exists purely to remind us about the story arc and also introduce Chris Addison into the arc. Seb uses several names to describe to the police officer where they are he uses names like the Promised Land, Nether sphere and Heaven.

When you take Danny and Courtney out of this story then I quite enjoyed this story. I thought that the monster threat was quite good and there was some good dialogue from whoever wrote the story. This time next week I will have finished this marathon and the ending is getting closer and closer which means I need to start think about what I am going to do with my evenings and days off.

(805) Time Heist

After being really let down with Listen, I was hoping that todays episode would be a return to form. My memories of this story is that it would be and it definelty proved to be. It felt more like a Doctor Who story than Listen. One thing that doesn’t quite come out of this story is why it took two people to write this story. Stephen Thompson who had previously written the weak The Curse of the Black Spot and the highly enjoyable Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. He co-wrote this story with Steven Moffat and to be honest its not clear why it took two people or who wrote what. The pre-title scene is where things start to pick up for me. Things look rather normal at first for the Doctor and Clara but by the end of the scene they find themselves with memory worms and two other people.

The set up for the episode is that the Doctor and Clara (along with Psi and Saibra) have to break into a bank. The thing that they are breaking into to get is the thing that they all want. Psi wanted to get his memories back. Saibra came for gene suppressant so she stops morphing into other people. That aspect did seem like it was borrowed from X-Men but it doesn’t bother me too much.

They are left aids by the Architect and it’s someone that the Doctor hates and the revelation that he is the Architect which turns out to be him. There’s nothing like a bit of self-loathing to sooth the soul is there? The teller is a good idea and it works because its an idea that forces people to actually empty their minds. The teller is being mistreated and its not until the end that it finds it’s partner and they are left to roam free. There is something quite obvious about the fact that the Architect but I didn’t mind it.

Keeley Hawes is the big name of the episode as plays Ms Delphox. She runs the bank and she looks very similar in style to Sarah Lancashire in Partners in Crime. Ms Delphox turns out to be a clone of Madame Karabraxos that is there to help with the administrative running of the bank. The bit where an old and dying Madame Karabraxos ringing the Doctor is a bit of an unnecessary part of the story. That was the only thing that really didn’t do the story any benefits. One of the reasons why this story works so well is that the direction is really good. Douglas Mackinnon has done a great job in making it feel at times like an Oceans Eleven movie. The way we learn what happens between being a Clara’s home and finding themselves on with Psi and Saibra seems a bit like the show Hustle.

There was one line that the Doctor said which back in 2014 went unnoticed and was like a beacon today. I went for minimalism but came out with magician is a line which at the time didn’t seem to have much relevance but bearing in mind that the first episode of series 35 is called The Magicians Apprentice, it seems that this line has more relevance now.

This was a much better episode than Listen but that’s not much of a compliment. What is a compliment is that it’s a story that is well written and well directed and also the performances are fun to watch and this episode shows that Listen was just a blip. With there just twelve episodes in the series it means that we are near the half way point of the series and so far it has been a good opening series for Capaldi.

(804) Listen

Listen is a story that I felt in 2014 was the weakest of the series. This could be another example of poor episodes changing and watching it in this marathon would make me appreciate it and think that I was wrong when the episode first aired but I am sad to say that this didn’t happen for todays episode and its one of those rare instances where a story has actually gone down in my previous estimation.

Apparently other people seem to rate it quite highly. They talk about how clever it is and this is the scariest Steven Moffat script and the best episode in years. To be honest, that is all hogwash as I would go so far to say that it’s one of the worst stories of the new series.

I was prepared to give it a try but after about eight minutes I found myself giving up. From this moment on I was just waiting for the end of the episode to come because then it would be over. The pre-title scene is just the Doctor and it’s a very talkie scene which is unusual for most new series stories. That is the most entertaining part of the episode. I think this is the episode where my dislike for Danny Pink starts. Clara and Danny go on a date and it goes wrong quite quickly and to be honest this is all quite boring.

The Doctor and Clara end up in a children’s home in the 1990’s where Clara meets a young Danny and then goes into the future and meets a distance relative of Danny. The young Danny was quite entertaining but sadly that portion of the story didn’t last too long and then we were back to all the less interesting stuff. There are moments which are clearly designed to be the big scary moments but I am so disconnected from this story that they just looked like mildly entertaining scraps of drama.

I honestly thought that things would change watching this episode but nothing has. It might be too clever for me but I found the story to be a bit boring and there is very little chance of me deciding to watch this again outside of a marathon like this one. It’s not a bad story because of Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi but it’s the story in general that didn’t connect with me and I can accept that I am not smart enough to appreciate it but that’s just the way it is.

(803) Robot of Sherwood

I have just realised that this season has followed previous seasons by the first three episodes featuring a modern day story, a futuristic story and a historical story. The Doctor decides to let Clara decide where they go next and that is never a good idea really because its never really interesting. Clara wants to meet Robin Hood despite the Doctor pointing out he doesn’t exist. This is addressed during the course of the episode where he is real but ends up as fiction. This is a nice twist and Mark Gatiss manages to weave enough interesting things into the story to make it watchable. There is a good bit where a bow hits the TARDIS with the Doctor standing right next to it.

It’s quite funny how the Doctor seems to be jealous of Robin Hood. This shows a different side to Capaldi’s Doctor and a more comedic side which wasn’t going to show itself in the previous story. This being a Mark Gatiss story, there are going to be some moments that you wouldn’t get with any other writer and most notably comes when The Doctor is having a sword/spoon fight with Robin Hood.

Ben Miller is the big name star and plays the Sheriff of Nottingham. To be honest I think that Miller is wasted in this role because it doesn’t come across as a convincing villain. It’s like he is trying to channel Alan Rickman’s version of the Sheriff in Prince of Thieves.

The story takes quite a long time to get interesting. It takes about a quarter of an hour before the episode settles down and that’s a strange thing for a Mark Gatiss script because his stories normally get going from the very beginning. It doesn’t get interesting until the Sheriff’s army are revealed to be robots and when their helmets are pulled back their faces are quite good.

There was supposed to be a beheading scene where Robin beheads the Sheriff revealing that he is a robot but due to real life events where people had been beheaded by ISIS meant that the BBC decided to cut this scene which I sort of agree with because it shows good judgement from the BBC and that was one less thing for the Daily Mail to have a go at the BBC. The death of the Sheriff happens when he falls into the vat of gold and all is left is a shot of his gold coloured hand.

There is a picture of Patrick Troughton when he played Robin Hood back in 1953. It was a nice blink and you’ll miss moment.

I cant quite put my finger on the reason why this story didn’t work but it is definelty the weakest story so far. What makes the situation slightly worrying is that Listen is coming up next and that is a story that I haven’t rated too highly on previous watches. Maybe things might change but I doubt it. The end is starting to get closer and closer and part of me feels like the remaining 10 episodes/days will feel like 10 months.  

(802) Into the Dalek

It could be argued that classic monsters are bought into help a new Doctor in their first season. It’s happened with each Doctor so far and so its happened with Capaldi’s Doctor. However instead of a normal Dalek story we get one that is quite inventive. Phil Ford returns to writing for Who after co-writing The Waters of Mars. This time is he co-writing with Steven Moffat and I wonder when he will be allowed to write a story on his own. The Doctor’s story gets started from the very beginning before the title plays and at that point he doesn’t have Clara with him so it’s a nice to see him going solo even if its just for a short while. The scene ends with the Doctor being asked to inside a Dalek and the Dalek saying Doctor which immediately raised a question as to how the Dalek new that the Doctor was standing in front of him. Then the title plays and the action moves back to Coal Hill School. That is an interesting shift in tone and one that works quite well but after a while I wanted the story to go back to the Dalek.

One of the things that doesn’t quite work in this series is the character of Danny Pink (played by Samuel Anderson). Sadly the character is annoying but that is more down to the writing that Anderson himself. Thankfully he starts off less annoying and seems rather amusing.

The Doctor asks Clara if he is a good man and she doesn’t know how to reply. I think that this one of the many good moments that take place in this episode. She doesn’t answer until the end when Clara says that he tries and that is enough which is probably a diplomatic way of saying that he could do better. The Doctor then says that Clara is his carer and she cares so that he doesn’t have to. This is another clear sign that this Doctor is less smiley than before. There is a bit where everyone thinks that the Doctor is saving one of the soldiers when in fact he was just trying to find where he gets dumped. This isn’t the sort of thing that other Doctors would have done or at least would have been a bit warmer about it.

The Doctor and Clara get miniaturised and its very similar to the film Innerspace which is gets referenced to during this episode. For me this is when the episode really starts to get enjoyable because we get to see inside a Dalek. The Dalek is suffering from a radiation leak and that is what the Doctor has to try and fix it and it happens but the clever thing is what happens next because the Dalek goes on a killer rampage and tells the other Daleks where it is and the Doctor is stuck inside the Dalek and cant do anything.

There is another appearance from Missy although Michelle Gomez isn’t credited at the end. She appears when Gretchen is killed by the Antibodies inside the Dalek. It’s a little scene that doesn’t have much impact on the overall story arc but works well for this episode.

As a Dalek story it was very inventive and there were some visually impressive moments and Ben Wheatley continues to show what a great director he is. Two episodes in and the series has settled down a bit with both Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman getting use to the new relationship and the next episode is one that I have had mixed feelings since I saw it last year.

(801) Deep Breath

So now I embark on the final stage of my marathon. Two weeks tonight I will be wondering what to do with my Saturday nights. At least I will be safe in the knowledge that I only have about six or seven weeks to wait until the new series. By the time this episode had aired, Peter Capaldi had been Doctor for 241 days which is longer than Christopher Eccleston had been which is a weird stat for me. This was another Doctor Who episode that was aired at the cinema however unlike the 50^th Anniversary special, I decided not to spend the money on the trip to the cinema. At the end of the episode I was sort of glad that I hadn’t paid £12 or whatever it was for the ticket.

The subject of age is something that was raised when Peter Capaldi was named as the Doctor. Capaldi is the same age (roughly) as William Hartnell when he became the Doctor and some people said they would stop watching Doctor Who because the Doctor was old. Well all I can say to that is good. If you’re the sort of person who stops watching a show because someone is too old then you can quite frankly p**s off and go and watch Eastenders or something equally brain numbing. Capaldi is young enough to be the Doctor and shows it in this episode.

The first shot of the episode was rather tame compared to previous first shots of new Doctor stories. The first shot is of a T-Rex in London. It might seem like the T-Rex would in the story for a while but lasts about twenty minutes after it from a distant burns into flames.

Capaldi’s first proper scene is rather good cause it gets all the mad bonkers stuff out of the way quite quickly. It was quite funny cause he gets Clara and Strax confused and calls Clara the ‘not me one’. I immediately liked Capaldi’s Doctor as it wasn’t the crazy sort that we have become use to since 2005. There was a moment where the Doctor seemed to abandon Clara and I thought that this isn’t something that Smith’s Doctor would have done. His best scene comes with his final scene with the Half-Face Man and there is a nice question as to whether the Half Face Man jumped two his death or did the Doctor push him. It nice that we don’t get a definitive answer about this. Jenna Coleman gives another solid performance although it is still frustrating that we have another companion who witnesses a regeneration and still doesn’t believe that the new Doctor is their Doctor. It was what Rose did in The Christmas Invasion. Matt Smith makes a surprising cameo in this episode and it was a clever move of Moffat to keep us guessing about that. It was a nice moment because it meant we got one final solid speech from Smith and it was basically the Doctor telling Clara to help the new Doctor. This is the closest that Steven Moffat has got to being RTD in the slushy scenes department.

There is a new theme tune and a new title sequence and they are two things that I wasn’t 100% keen on at first but it has grown on me. There is a minor tweak to the console room with roundels being put on the walls (sort of). There is a nice joke about having round things before but not knowing where they went.

I find it amusing how the Doctor assumes that everyone who doesn’t talk Scottish isn’t talking normal. He seems to definelty be a Scottish Doctor and there is a nice bit where he seems to make reference to the Scottish Referendum which was still about a month away when this was transmitted in August 2014.

This still being a Doctor Who episode, it had to actually have a plot and the one that Steven Moffat went with didn’t have an in your face narrative but a slow and inventive one. They are after human parts

The visual effects used to create the clockwork heads is very good and almost looks real. The Clockwork  men are a reused creation from a previous Steven Moffat story (The Girl in the Fireplace) which I thought was a nice nod and an unexpected one.

There is a nice cameo from the widow of Elisabeth Sladen. He plays a tramp and I thought it was a lovely moment and one that Elisabeth Sladen would have liked very much. There is a bit where Vastra and Jenny kiss and there were complaints saying that the BBC had a blatant gay agenda which made me chuckle. One is a human and the other is a lizard so the blatant gay agenda is a bit stupid really.

The bit where the Impossible Girl ad is placed in the newspaper is the start of the Missy storyarc. Its good that Clara thinks that it’s the Doctor but its not. There is talk from one of the clockwork people about the promised land which is a term I think that is used a few times in the series. The final scene of the episode sees the appearance of Missy played by Michelle Gomez and as Missy she refers to her boyfriend implying the Doctor. Missy is a very good and I knew when I watched it (weird that it was last year) and knew she would be a good addition to the cast.

Ben Wheatley directs his first Doctor Who and does a very good job. He manages to make the whole story move along at the sort of pace it needs to at different times. Wheatley is a movie director that somehow has been lured to Doctor Who and his abilities as a good director have allowed this story to have a different feel and I enjoyed the directing immensely.

Despite being glad that I didn’t pay £12, I did enjoy this episode very much. The longer running time was something that allowed things to settle down and for Capaldi to show us just how good of a Doctor he could be. He isn’t going to be the happy cheery running around Doctor like Matt Smith or David Tennant but his Doctor is very similar to Colin Baker and I think that it’s the Timothy Dalton/Daniel Craig thing because Dalton’s Bond is very serious and the films are tough which is what Craig’s Bond and films are like but Dalton wasn’t appreciated at the time and I think that Colin Baker’s Doctor wasn’t appreciated at the time and Capaldi should be able to show that you can have a slightly grumpy Doctor but the trick will be towing the fine line between grumpy and downright bleak. It’s never wise to judge the state of things after one episode but this era of the show is already showing signs of promise.

(800) The Time of the Doctor

So today is the final story for Matt Smith as the Doctor (although not his final appearance). Another thing that is worth noticing is that this is the 800^th episode of Doctor Who. The 700^th episode was Aliens of London and its amazing to think how much the show has changed since then. This story is the final part of the Doctor trilogy and it was always going to be difficult to match what was seen in Day of the Doctor and what I think Steven Moffat has done is to not try but to forget about that story so that this story gets the chance to say goodbye to Matt Smith. Matt Smith up until this day had been Doctor for 1,454 days which is 14 days short of David Tennant and is now the fourth longest serving Doctor in terms of days served and seventh in terms of episodes.

The Doctor starts the episode with a Cyberman head called Handles and it has a different voice to a normal Cyberman. When handles dies later on in the episode its quite a sad moment. I cant quite believe that I find it sad that a head has died. There is a moment where Matt Smith reveals that his hair is in fact a wig and this was because he had to have a buzz cut (shrugs shoulders) for a film he was doing and I didn’t realise this at the time but he isn’t the only one wearing a wig because Karen Gillan wears a wig because she had to shave her head because of being in Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Silence make a returns as do the Weeping Angels and of course there is a final appearance of the crack in the wall. It’s like Matt Smith’s greatest hits which is probably what Smith deserves. The Silence aren’t the Silence that we have seen because now they appear to be religious members of the silence which I don’t understand personally but what the hell. The Weeping Angels get to have their moment to shine and it was short but sweet. There is a wooden Cyberman that appears. I like the look of it but sadly because its impractical it doesn’t last very long in the story but from a visual point of view, it was a success.

The Doctor arrives in a town called Christmas on Trenzalore. The Doctor remains on Trenzalore to defend it from the aliens that are orbiting it. He cant leave without sacrificing Gallifrey and he cant leave because they will destroy the planet and the Timelords chance to come back. The Doctor becomes really old and this is where the Doctor defeats the Daleks but it is also where he is forced to regenerate.

This story deals with the small issue of regenerations because due to the War Doctor and the Doctor using a regeneration back in Journeys end, this is the final Doctor. However Steven Moffat being the smart cookie that he is uses the crack in the wall as a way of basically breaking the rules that have been around since The Deadly Assassin. Even though it was a throwaway line by Robert Holmes, it has become an unbreakable rule until now and I love that it must have annoyed a lot of people. The Timelords using the crack to reset his regenerations and I like that one story after they returned they are interfering.

The final scene is really nice and isn’t overly sentimental like Tennant’s was. Smith’s final speech to Clara about change coming is a good one and it’s the latest in a long line of good speeches from Smith because Smith has a way that makes you forget everything that is going on around him and just focus on him. Its one of the things that I will miss about Matt Smith. Jenna Coleman is quite good in this episode but for large portions of this story she seems to be on her own or at least without the Doctor. On a separate note, Sheila Reid returns to Doctor Who after previously appearing in Vengeance on Varos back in 1985.

It was a surprise that Amy Pond came back for a cameo. For some reason Karen Gillan sounds different and when she says raggedy man she doesn’t sound Scottish. It could be argued that because its in his head, she wouldn’t sound the same but I just think it would have been nice if she had sounded more Scottish which isn’t a line I think has been written in a blog review before.

Some people were quite surprised that the actual regeneration was so short. There is no rule that it has to be long but it was still good that they went with something different because people would probably have complained that the regeneration effect was repetitive. Peter Capaldi’s brief moment in the episode is perhaps a little less bonkers than Matt Smith’s first few moments back in 2010. I think that there was a clearer indication of what Capaldi’s Doctor would be like which wasn’t the case when Matt Smith first appeared.

I don’t think that this story was one that was heavy on a plot and just seemed to try and tie up all the loose ends that Steven Moffat had started during the Matt Smith era. I think that Smith’s era has been a good one and whilst there have been a few bumps along the way (Curse of the Black Spot for example), this era of the show has been a consistently good one and one that is partly down to Matt Smith and partly (perhaps more) down to Steven Moffat. As I embark on the final part of this marathon, I do so knowing that there are some good stories coming up and also a good Doctor coming up.

(799) The Day of the Doctor

The Day of the Doctor had a lot to live up to. When the show has celebrated a milestone it has had mixed results. The 10^th Anniversary ‘special’ The Three Doctors was an enjoyable and well performed story. The 20^th Anniversary was perhaps less successful although it did have its moments. Since then we have lost the chance to celebrate the 30^th and 40^th Anniversaries so this is quite a big moment. I was amazed when it was announced that it would screened at the cinema and I was over the moon when I was able to get a title at my local cinema. It was a great experience because there wasn’t an empty seat and the number of people that had dressed up was quite high and it was a great place to watch the 50^th Anniversary special. There was a nice little video that featured Strax and warned on cinema etiquette. Anyone a fan of Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode’s Film Review will be aware of the Code of Conduct and such videos aren’t necessary. But it was fun to see and also

Like the 20^th Anniversary Special, there was something that got in the way and on this occasion it was the fact that Christopher Eccleston didn’t want to appear in the special and so a War Doctor had to be found and John Hurt was the one chosen. John Hurt was the Doctor during the Time War and is the one that pressed the button on ‘The Moment’ that ended the Time War and wiped out the Timelords. Hurt is great as the Doctor and treats the role with a nice sense of sarcasm. He has a nice time of making certain mannerisms of the Tennant and Smiths Doctors and the Sandshoes and Chin nicknames were spot on. His story was only going to be for this story and the fact he regenerates at the end is just Moffat’s attempt to tidy up the continuity line problem that Eccleston caused. I might make a controversial statement but I just don’t consider Hurt’s Doctor as canon. Due to Hurt’s Doctor, it means that Eccleston is the tenth Doctor, Tennant was the eleventh Doctor and Smith would be the thirteenth but as I don’t count Hurt as a canon Doctor it means that Eccleston, Tennant and Smith are Doctors 8, 9 and 10 respectively.

When his Doctor meets Smith and Tennant’s Doctors it’s a funny moment because they are able to do comedy and seriousness in equal measure and they disappoint. Tennant’s first appearance in the role since 2010 is curious because it was like only a few months had passed and not three years. He looks slightly older but when Tennant is talking and running around its like its 2010 and not 2013. Billie Piper makes her first appearance since The End of Time Part Two and its not Rose that she is playing but an imaginary version. Whilst I have grown weary of her during this marathon, I thought that she did well with what she is given and bearing in mind that she only interacts with John Hurt’s Doctor she manages to make it look like she is actually doing something.

Matt Smith is also good and shares the limelight well and yet doesn’t lose face during the course of the story. He must have had a lot of pressure in not dropping the ball and he manages not to. Jenna Coleman also manages to not get lost in the shuffle which isn’t an easy things to do. The fact that there aren’t 20 companions to have to work with is something that helps Coleman standout.

The start of the episode is impressive because it’s a nice bit of the original theme and it then blends into colour and we learn that Ian Chesterton is the chairman of the governors of Coal Hill School and Clara is now a teacher there. The headteacher is W Coburn which is a reference to Waris Hussein who directed the very first story and Anthony Coburn who wrote that story. There are plenty of nods to the continuity of the show and I think that they were done in such a way that newer fans wouldn’t be confused by it and long time fans like myself would get them.

There are many great moments that occur during this story. The first good bit comes when Clara drives a bike into the TARDIS and the camera follows it in one single edit. The TARDIS bursting through the wall and knocking out a whole load of Daleks is another great moment.

Zygons make their first appearance since 1975’s Terror of the Zygons. I don’t quite know why they haven’t made a return until now but the wait has been worth it. They lost their planet in the first days of the Time War and want Earth as their new home. The transformation of human to Zygon is so much better than in 1975.

The first meeting between Tennant and Smith is very good and its always interesting to see multiple Doctors. They interact with each other very well and the nice bit of jealousy is something that is used at the right times and in the right way. The long running gag about not liking the new TARDIS console is something that was obviously going to be used and if there were a game of bingo then this would be crossed off the list.

The idea that all three Doctors have come up with an idea to hide Gallifrey and destroy the Daleks in the process is such an epic idea and one that could have only worked in a big bonkers special like this. When this start it leads to all twelve incarnations and their TARDIS’s come to save the day. Well actually thirteen because Peter Capaldi makes a very special cameo with just his eyes. That was totally unexpected and a nice treat for the fans. That wasn’t the only treat for the fans because the shock appearance of Tom Baker was one that everyone in the cinema gasped at. It probably p****d off the other Doctors but to be honest I don’t care cause it’s a great scene and it sort of makes up for the fact that Baker didn’t appear in The Five Doctors.

The final shot is of the Doctor walking out of the TARDIS and all the incarnations standing in a nice arrow line with Hartnell’s Doctor standing at the back was the perfect way of ending the special and it sets up a nice story arc about the Doctor finding Gallifrey. There was an awful lot of expectation riding on this story and I had very high expectations and part of me was expecting this to disappoint but I cant tell you how much I enjoyed this story. It was the story I wanted it to be and was well worth the jacked up price that the Cinema charged. This is the eighth story to get rated in the 8’s and becomes the second best story with 8.25. This is only the fourth story of the new era to get in the 8’s and overtakes Blink as the best story. I think that Steven Moffat should be applauded for doing this story and Marcus Wilson (producer) says that this story was a love letter to the fans and that’s the truth because it had loads of elements from the shows past and unlike The Five Doctors, it does it in a way that works and juggles a lot of balls and doesn’t drop a ball. On a related note, two weeks today is when the marathon comes to an end and this will probably be the last true classic story of the run but a lot can happen in two weeks.

(798) The Name of the Doctor

We are now down to the final three episodes of the Matt Smith era and it’s the beginning of the Doctor trilogy which incorporates the 50^th Anniversary Special and the Christmas Special. This is the 42^nd episode for Matt Smith and is now tied with Sylvester McCoy in terms of episodes. The problem when episode names are revealed is that fans (myself including) of jumping to conclusions. When it was revealed that this episode would be called The Name of the Doctor, people would assume that we learn what the Doctor’s name is. Of course things would never be that simple.

The episode starts off fantastically because it starts off with the First Doctor stealing the TARDIS (with Susan). Then we see the remaining Doctors and there is some clever editing used to put Jenna Coleman in with already recorded footage of the previous Doctors. It’s a sign of how good technology has become that this can be achieved and achieved well.

I don’t quite know why, but its good to see River Song again. It’s her first appearance since The Wedding of River Song and it felt like enough time had passed since that story. This is at the time of writing her last appearance in the show and the final scene for her was quite nice and it was good that her last word was her catchphrase.

Trenzalore is a word that has been mentioned occasionally throughout the last year and it becomes quite important to the story which I liked. Trenzalore is a place that a time traveller should never find themselves in. This is where the Doctor is buried. I like the build up to us seeing inside the tomb which is the console room and a bright white light where the console was. I love that look of the TARDIS because it shows the console room in the worst way imaginable.

The mystery about Clara is also revealed. The Clara seen in Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen are splintered versions of Clara. It’s a nice idea from Steven Moffat and it’s the ultimate sacrifice from Clara for the Doctor. It has been another good episode for Jenna Coleman who gets a lot to do and does it rather well.

The Whisper Men are a good creation and very effective in the story. It’s good to have Richard E Grant back because he is clearly loving playing the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence wants to go into the Doctor’s timeline and change every aspect of the Doctor’s timeline which is quite a bold idea. I think that they could be a monster in their own way without needing the Great Intelligence being in the story.

The final scene is fantastic and sees John Hurt introduced as The Doctor. This is a great moment because the Doctor finds Clara and it’s at this point we see the back of John Hurt and the Doctor reveals that this person is the Doctor who ‘broke the promise’ and is the Doctor’s secret. When he turns around and the caption appears INTRODUCING JOHN HURT AS THE DOCTOR. This was at a time when Peter Capaldi hadn’t been announced as the Doctor yet but Matt Smith’s departure had been announced so there was a possibility that John Hurt could be the Doctor.

This was a great ending to a series that has been very good. Even when we include the Amy/Rory part to the series, I have to say that the quality of stories has been better and the whole tone of the series has been better because it’s wallowing in darkness. This story does two things and does them quite well. The first thing is that is ends the series in the best way possible and also it leads up to the 50^th Anniversary. I am looking forward to tomorrows episode and the end seems to be getting closer.

(797) Nightmare in Silver

If you want to make the Cybermen scary then there is only one person that could make this happen in Neil Gaiman. After his wonderful story The Doctor’s Wife, it was fingers crossed than inevitability that he would write for the show again. It doesn’t take long for Gaiman’s magic to work and for him to achieve his objective. The way that the Cybermen are introduced into the story is quite good because its literally unveiled and that forms the end of the pre-title scene. The Cybermen were awesome in this because they look and sound slightly different to what they did in their last story. The fact that they can walk faster than two miles an hour means that they have a new threat because it wasn’t too difficult to outrun a Cyberman. They way they look and move is very good because it seems more mechanical than before even though in previous stories their walk was ok. Gaiman has introduced Cybermites which is a nice introduction. They are small and very difficult to spot unless the camera focused in on them.

The Doctor gets attacked by the Cybermites and there is a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on with both versions of the Doctor seemingly having control over the body. This meant that we got to see another great performance from Matt Smith and he plays both versions rather well and there was a seamless transition between the two which isn’t an easy thing to do. Jenna Coleman has a good time in this episode and gets to act like a boss whilst the Doctor is dealing with the Cybermen. There is a lovely bit inside the Doctors head where the Cyber version of the Doctor talks to the normal Doctor and the whole visual effects used was another highlight.

I must admit that I didn’t find the kids as annoying as I thought I would. The girl was slightly annoying at first but as the episode played out things changed and by the end of the episode I almost (almost) wanted the kids to stay. I don’t know whether that’s because of Gaiman or the child actors but something happened and they were quite good. Now had this been an RTD story then they would have been hair pulling annoying and there would be sentimental slosh running through the story.

The barracks is the same set that was used in The Doctor’s Daughter. It’s not the most interesting thing that’s ever been written but I spotted it and thought it should be included. The whole setting for the story was quite good and it seemed like some of the names were Gaiman having fun which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This was a very enjoyable story and I was impressed with how the episode looked and this is definelty the best Cyberman story that there has been since 2005. After being slightly disappointed with several Cybermen stories in recent years, its nice that we have such a good story and hopefully Gaiman gets to write another Cyberman story in the future.

(796) The Crimson Horror

Yorkshire 1893. Not somewhere that the show has visited often and the pre-title scene ends with an image of the Doctor appearing in someone’s eye. If I am being honest, I thought that this story didn’t quite fit into the range of stories that there have been in this half of the series. This is probably the weakest story of this half of the series and the weakest since A Town Called Mercy in terms of ratings.

This story sees the return of Jenn, Madame Vasta and Strax which in the past is something that wouldn’t have been a good thing just two years ago but since I have been watching these episodes a day at a time, I have grown to like this group. They start the episode and its 14 minutes before the Doctor makes an appearance and a further 3 minutes before Clara appears. The Doctor’s first appearance is rather strange because he is covered in some weird red make up.  Clara first appears via a flashback and a gobby Australian is mentioned and I thought that was a nice nod to Tegan if somewhat unexpected.

Dame Diana Rigg guest stars in this episode and her daughter is also in the episode and actually plays her daughter in the episode as Ada. Rachael Sterling plays Ada as a poor downtrodden young woman and Diana Rigg plays the character of Mrs Gillyflower as a rather unpleasant and at times vile old woman. Gillyflower’s secret has a bloodsucking leech attached to her. The actual leech thing is a bit silly looking and its one of those things that are better left to the imagination.

It’s a story that was ok but I don’t think that it is the best Mark Gatiss script. There are some good moments and I thought that the performances from Diana Rigg and Matt Smith were fun to watch but there was something that didn’t quite work for me. Another that I did like was the directing because it looked very grim and dark and helped added to the style of the episode.

I found the most interesting part when Clara returns home and sees a picture of her from 1974 (Hide) and 1983 (Cold War). It’s good that people who travel with the Doctor and there being physical evidence of their travels. What slightly ruins it is that those annoying kids are blackmailing her into travelling with the Doctor which leads into the penultimate episode of the series. The NEXT TIME trailer is one to get excited about because it features running Cybermen and what I think is the best Cyberman story of the new series.

(795) Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

This is a story which tries to make up for the disappointing Invasion of Time which was the last story that took place in the TARDIS. That story suffered partly from the fact that it was hastily put together and so looks nothing like the control room and as a result it looks like it was filmed in an abandoned hospital (which of course it was). The pre-title scene is quite good because it continues to play the TARDIS as a living thing and for some reason she doesn’t like Clara so in an attempt to get them to bond, the Doctor lets Clara fly on basic mode. The Doctor fiddles with the TARDIS which is never a good thing.

The supporting characters are a salvage crew who just happen to scoop it up and are totally unlikeable although the Doctor does his best to bring them down a peg or two. Sadly Gregor Van Baalen (Ashley Walters) needs to be taken down several more pegs. Tricky (Jahvel Hall) is supposed to be a robot but later on in the episode its revealed that he is human and Gregor told him he was a robot to provide entertainment which I thought that was a bit of an odd thing to introduce especially when events are then forgotten about because of timey-wimey stuff.

The Doctor initiates the self destruction option on the TARDIS and that gives the drama a new sense of tension because the story has to feel like its moving at a quick speed. Of course this is a trick that the Doctor uses to get the Brothers Dim to help him find Clara but it was amusing when after he stops the countdown things continue to get worse when he discovers that its about to blow up.

The beauty of this story is that we see inside the TARDIS in ways that haven’t seen for a very long time. We saw corridors and the old console room in The Doctors Wife but we haven’t seen much more than that and the thing about this story is that all the rooms and corridors look like they are part of the same place (something Invasion of Time didn’t achieve).We get to see that there is a book about the Time War in a lovely looking library. Clara discovers the Doctors name which is something that becomes significant later on. I think when this story aired we knew the final episode of the season would be called The Name of the Doctor so this was the build up to that episode. We also get to see the eye of Harmony and it looks very different to how it did in the 1996 TV Movie. Another room looks like its outside and this isn’t anything new because in several Big Finish plays there are stories which features rooms that seem like small counties. This is a room to stop the Doctor and Clara getting into the next room this doesn’t work and after a bit of jumping they get into the next room. This feels like a computer game with the character having to achieve something to advance. There is a great bit where they enter the heart of the TARDIS and it’s a great room with good effects used to create an explosion stopped in time.

The weird looking creatures are called Time Zombies and one is actually Clara. They weren’t the main focus of the story but they were used enough to make them seem entertaining. There is a lovely bit where we hear sound clips from other stories such as An Unearthly Child, Colony in Space, Robots of Death, Rose, Smith and Jones, The Beast Below and The Doctors Wife.

This was a highly enjoyable episode that gave me the type of story that I wish they did more of and that is a story set entirely inside the TARDIS. At this moment, this story is the 31^st best story of Doctor Who but the first is a story that has been there for all but one story of this story and that is Inside the Spaceship which is a story that takes place inside the TARDIS. The NEXT TIME trailer shows that there is a story which may slightly ruin the good form that this half of the series that has created.