Wednesday, 15 July 2015

(791) The Bells of Saint John

There are just 23 days left in my marathon and so I will still be finishing on Thursday August 6th and its weird now to start thinking about what I will do with my evenings when this is finished. In this stage of Doctor Who, I have now reached the 50th Anniversary year and the mid-way point of the 33rd series of Doctor Who. The opening story of this half of the series is one that deals with a very modern technology and that is social media and technology. The story deals with Wi-Fi and that’s a good threat. Wi-Fi is everywhere and we have become so use to it that it could easily take over us.

One of the most interesting moments come when the TARDIS lands on a plane that is about to crash into London and the Doctor has to try and land it. For bonkers moments it certainly up there. Another of the most interesting moments and arguably the best is when the Doctor uses a bike to ride up the top of the Shard.
This story sees the third different version of Clara for Jenna Coleman to play. This however is the version that she sticks with. I don’t quite buy the nanny situation that she starts the story in because it seems like a rather convenient thing and is perhaps the only aspect of the episode that didn’t quite work. During the first conversation between the Doctor and Clara we learn that there is a woman that gave Clara the TARDIS phone number (thinking it was a internet helpline number) and at the time this doesn’t mean anything but would go on to mean that it was the Master/Missy. It’s weird that such a insignificant moment doesn’t get mentioned until towards the end of Peter Capaldi’s first series.

Celia Imrie is one of the big names of this episode where she is playing the sort of role that Sarah Lancashire played in Partners in Crime. I quite liked the character as there were moments when I found her unlikeable. When she is back to normal she starts talking like a child and that suggest that she has been under the control of the Great Intelligence for quite a long time. Richard E Grant makes a surprise return as it seems that he has become the voice of the Great Intelligence taking over from Ian McKellen.
The big scene between the Doctor and Miss Kizlet comes quite late in the episode and was quite good as the Doctor made Miss Kizlet think that she was talking to the Doctor but it the robotic version of him. That was a nice twist which I had forgotten about and to be honest I had forgotten most of this episode when it aired in 2013 so it was nice to see this episode again. The Bells of Saint John was a nice episode that starts the Clara Oswald aspect of the series well. The title is a bit misleading really cause it has very little to do with the story. The Great Intelligence being part of the story arc is something that is a good idea from Steven Moffat and I am looking forward to the second half of the series and the build up to the Anniversary continues.

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