(779) Night Terrors

Night Terrors is another story written by Mark Gatiss who has a good track record in the series. To date I think he is the only person that has appeared and written an episode of Doctor Who. The story takes place on a housing estate which is enough to give anyone night terrors. The thing about this episode is that it feels very claustrophobic. The whole vibe of the episode is creepy and whilst it might seem like a cheap episode, the effectiveness of the episode is down largely to the low lighting.

The dolls are very good and one of the things that works for this story is how they manage to come across as so dangerous even though they don’t have facial expressions but it’s the giggling that makes it seem more crazy than it could have been.

If you think about it the story has a small number of characters. Apart from the regulars the story features just five characters and one appears at the beginning and the end and the old lady spends slightly more time in the story. Really its just the boy and the dad feature in the story and I thought that the boy was actually quite good and its not often that young kids in Doctor Who are anything other than annoying but Jamie Oram did very well as George. Daniel Mays is an actor that I have never really rated highly however in this I thought he was really good and believable as the dad.

When Purcell is turned into a Doll right on screen I thought that this was a great moment and was quite a grim moment to air on BBC One on a Saturday night. Purcell is such an unlikeable character that when he does meet his unfortunate ending then it’s hard to feel sorry for him and instead you end up thinking that it could happen to a nicer bloke. When the change happens to Amy then it’s different because she has been good in this episode.

I really liked this episode but to be honest I haven’t written much because I spent so long enjoying what I was watching. This was a very good episode that had good writing and good directing. This might be Mark Gatiss’ best story that he has come up with and I do love The Unquiet Dead. The next episode looks like they its going to be another corker. There were questions about whether this episode was right to be shown at this stage of the season but I think that it was perfect.

(774) The Doctor's Wife

After being disappointed with the previous story, it was nice to know that there was a really good story coming up. The title is a bit misleading because when the title was revealed it was implied that it would be someone that the Doctor meets and marries but in reality the wife is the TARDIS and this is a marriage that has been going on since 1963 and its only know that the relationship is thrusted into the centre of the story. In the past when the word Doctor has been included in the story then people have been slightly put on the defensive but on this occasion the worries were unfounded.

There are two familiar names in the supporting cast in this episode. The first being Suranne Jones who is perhaps best known for the ITV drama Scott and Bailey (2011-2014) and Coronation Street (1997-2004) and also played Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures (2009). The other name is Michael Sheen who has been in Frost/Nixon (2008), The Twilight Movies and The Damned United (2009). Sadly we don’t get to see Sheen but just hear him as he is the voice of House.

Neil Gaiman is the writer of this episode and to be honest I haven’t read his work before but people seemed to be quite excited by this so it was always going to be interested to see what he would come with. Well by the time the titles played we knew because it was a pre-title scene full of action and ends with the sole of the TARDIS going inside Idris. Gaiman really has come up with a treat and is someone who clearly understands the show and what the show can deal with and whereas I wasn’t a fan of his before I am definelty one now even though I still haven’t actually read anything of his.

It is a great performance from Jones and proves that just because you have been in a soap, doesn’t mean that you aren’t a good actress. The good/bad ratio is still in favour of the bad but Jones is the exception to the rule. I am guessing that some work had to go on Sheen’s voice but the character of House is very good and even though its just a voice, he has the power to move a TARDIS. He wants to use the TARDIS to get some energy because he’s been using the TARDIS that have been lured to absorb the energy. It’s quite a good idea for a creature.

The Doctor is lured onto the asteroid thinking that there are other timelords when in fact there aren’t. The Doctor wants them to be there so he can bring them back and it’s a good moment when the Doctor realises that he has been tricked.

Amy and Rory are separated from the Doctor after a while and spend the rest of the episode running around the TARDIS. This is the first time since the show came back in 2005 that we have seen anything other than the console room. Even if the episode was rubbish, then the saving grace of it would be that we saw more of the TARDIS. This is a great part of the episode where doors shut and Amy and Rory are separated. Rory ends up getting a raw deal because at one point he appears dishevelled and this is where Arthur Darvill really shines.

There is a line where the Idris says (as the TARDIS) that she hasn’t always taken the Doctor where he wanted to go but where he needed to go. This totally changes things when watching other stories because when watching early Doctor stories then it would be cool to think that it wasn’t poor handling on the Doctor’s part but just the TARDIS taken him where he needed to go. I like how the Doctor builds a new TARDIS out of the remains of the junkyard.

For anyone who has watched Doctor Who since the Tom Baker era will know that there is more than one console room and this point is bought to our attention again as the Eccleston/Tennant console room is bought back and this is a wonderful moment although its too brief and soon the action moves back to the new console room. Then there is a lovely scene where the Doctor is crying about the TARDIS leaving Idris and this is one of the strongest moments of the Matt Smith era so far. It still baffles me why people would be so down on Smith even after this episode but that’s for another discussion.

This has been a brilliant story and I have loved it as much as I did in 2011. As a rating, this episode got 8.02 which currently places it in 5^th place and only the seventh story to get in the 8’s and that gives Matt Smith his second top 10 story. Sadly the NEXT TIME trailer shows what is coming and its another two parter but one that I haven’t thought too highly of. At the moment the series is coming off as a bit inconsistent which is troubling.

(730) The Lazarus Experiment

The sixth episode of this series is the first time that Martha has been back in modern day settings. Martha attends an event which sees a man turn back the aging process. The setting of this episode allows the whole Jones clan. There is a nice thing where a lackey of Mr Saxon’s plants a seed of mistrust in Francine’s mind. Whilst Tish and Leo are more willing to go based on what they see but people are whispering in her ear and the final words in the episode are hers because she is warning her about the Doctor because of what Mr Saxon has said. I am going to go on a bit of a rant here about the Jones family and in particular Leo. There is a point to have Adjoa Andoh and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Francine and Tish respectively) but what was the point of casting Reggie Yates. At the time he had a career on Radio 1 and clearly very busy so his involvement in pretty limited as a result. This is the most that we see of him in this series and there is a blink and you’ll miss it in the finale. They could have cast someone else in the role and they would probably have had a greater impact in the series and definelty the finale.

The interesting thing about this episode is how it seems like a lot of superhero moves which sees some smart or rich person who tries to change something or do something that is beyond them and things go badly wrong. That’s not a bad thing and Stephen Greenhorn does well with this idea but it’s one that is split into two parts. The idea of someone wanting to look younger is something that is never going to end well and it’s interesting to see how the Doctor deals with someone else who looks younger despite being very old. It’s almost as if the Doctor is jealous of Lazarus which is quite amusing.

Mark Gatiss stars in this episode instead of writing it. He plays Professor Richard Lazarus who starts the episode as an old man. Gatiss is one of those rare people who is just as good an actor as he is a director. Gatiss’ best scene comes in the church where he’s just wrapped in a blanket talking with the Doctor circling him. Thelma Barlow plays Lady Thaw and is the second person from the BBC sitcom Dinnerladies to feature in this series. Lady Thaw is someone who clearly wants money and power and doesn’t care how she gets it and so when she is killed I can’t find myself feeling sad. When Lazarus dies, there is a bit of sadness because he ends up dying whilst looking the same as he did before the experiment.

I thought that the creature that Lazarus turns into was really good. The only thing that let it down is the face. It looks rather poor but thankfully the close ups are kept to a minimum. The rest of the effects work rather well and there are several moments which look awesome and shows again that the effects department have taken a step in the right direction since the previous series.

There is a cool shot where the creature is chasing the Doctor down a corridor and the camera does a full 360 rotation and that was sadly ruined in the NEXT TIME trailer at the end of the previous episode. Despite this, it’s still a good camera shot. It’s another well directed episode from Richard Clark.

For me the best part of the episode is what takes place in the church. This feels more like new Who and the fact that Tish seems to have joined the Doctor and Martha is something that works well and the way that the creature Lazarus is defeated is quite good and overall I thought that this was a sort of return to form. It’s not a classic of the series but it is another good story that has some impressive moments and there are things that develop the Saxon story arc a bit more. Tomorrow’s episode the second anniversary and it’s a story that not in my Top 10.

(727) Gridlock

Gridlock is one of those stories that I have always had a soft spot for. I don’t know why but I do and this series is going from strength to strength. The Doctor promising Martha with just one trip was never going to be just one trip and he breaks this rule pretty quickly. The first TARDIS scene is quite nice because it is The Doctor trying to tell Martha about Gallifrey is quite sad and it’s the first time that he’s stopped and thought about his home world since that little scene in The End of the World.

Gridlock is a very apt name because people move incredibly slowly. It takes 12 years to move 5 miles. I have days like that going to work.

Martha is kidnapped by Milo and Cheen because it means that their car has three passengers. Your not a Doctor Who companion until you have been kidnapped. This is the first time that Martha has been separated properly and Martha holds her own with Milo and Cheen. The Doctor spends the entire episode trying to find Martha and yet the episode works this way. It’s fun seeing Martha pretty much thrown in at the deep end and at one point comes to the realisation that she could die and her mum and dad wouldn’t know what happened to her.

The car that appears in different guises is the same set. Some credit needs to go to the set designers because it cant have been an easy task but they pulled it off. It helps that the different characters that feature in each car make it seem like a different home. Due to the speed that they are travelling at they are basically living in these cars. I don’t think I could live in them as there isn’t very much room in there and the lack of Bluetooth means that I couldn’t listen to any Big Finish on my phone.

Ardal O’Hanlon is a guest star in this episode and I know him best for playing Dougal McGuire in Father Ted. He is disguised as a cat and plays Thomas Kincade Brannigan. It’s hard not to like Brannigan because he is so cheerful. I think that the character could have featured more but I suppose the restrictions of the plot mean that he is stuck in the one car. It’s another example (Peter Kay being the first) of ideal casting been squandered.

The song Abide with Me is a wonderful addition to the episode and its lovely in the context of this bleak setting. Then again it’s not exactly an uplifting song because everyone (bar the Doctor) gets all emotional. A classic era makes a surprising return in this episode. There was no hint anywhere that this monster was going to return. The Macra last appeared in 1967 so it’s a monster that hardly anyone has ever seen. I don’t know what the point was really because they could have been nameless and it would have worked the same.

This episode sees the third and final appearance of the Face of Boe who as mentioned in New Earth reveals his secret and its that the Doctor is not alone. This is basically telling the Doctor that there are more Timelords. Although the Doctor is convinced he is wrong which will be explained in future episodes. There is a nice explanation about the Time War which is the first time that its been talked about any certain degree. This ending was perhaps a lot more downbeat than I had remembered in the past but overall I thought that the performances were strong and Richard Clark did a great job in directed what was largely a CGI episode and did a great job of making it seem like their were loads of cars instead of just one. The next episode is the first two parter of the series and from memory its not one of my favourites.