(787) A Town Called Mercy

A Western is another thing that Doctor Who has done in the past that didn’t work out quite well. Yesterdays episode was Dinosaurs and todays is the western which was attempted in 1966’s The Gunfighters. In 1966 they filmed in a TV studio in London, this story was filmed in ‘Mini-Hollywood’ in Spain and its incredible just how much location filming can make a story come alive. I honestly believe that if they could have found the budget to film outside then it would have worked. The western town that was used in Red Dwarf 6 would have helped but sadly we have to wait until this story for a Western story to be done right.

The pre-title scene is shorter than usual running at just over a minute. It pretty much sets the tone of the episode and this is another story from Toby Whithouse and another one that has some interesting characters. The gunslinger is rather good although he does a little bit like Kryten at times. The idea that he is someone seeking revenge is good. The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive at Mercy where a psychotic cyborg is watching over the town and the cyborg is after Kahler-Jex. At first Kahler-Jex is seen as an innocent person but quite quickly its revealed that he is infect a bad person. There is a nice moral question in this story and its whether the Doctor sacrifices Jex to save the residents of Mercy. There is a lot of not wanting to give Jex up despite all the bad things he has done so it’s a little surprising when Jex ends up killing himself. It seems like a 180 degree personality turn. It all gets wrapped up neatly at the end because the gunslinger (cyborg) is made the Marshall and looks over the town.

The central performances were good and whilst it still feels slightly odd to have Gillan and Darvill in the story, their presence feels put into the story than it did in Asylum of the Daleks. Smith’s performances continue to be good and his scenes with Jex are very good and the highlights of the episode.

This is a story with a good plot and some good location filming. I thought that despite it being filmed in Spain, it feels like we are in the mid-west. Despite this the story didn’t grab me in the way that I thought it would. It’s certainly not bad but I don’t know if I am not in the mood for today’s episode or what but something hasn’t worked on me in the same way that it did when it was transmitted in September 2012.

Three episodes in and the series is slowly starting to feel like it did in 2010. The dark tone from the previous series has well and truly gone and the humour is starting to get more involved in the stories. Without the silence and River and the heaviness the show is getting its mojo back and its weird to think that there are just two episodes before the Christmas Special. Two more episodes before Jenna Coleman joins the show properly and the Amy and Rory era is coming to an end.

(781) The God Complex

Amazingly this is the 25^th episode for Matt Smith and in the way that I have counted the stories it is the 225^th story.

It really doesn’t take very long for the creepiness factor to star showing in this episode. Even before the titles place the shots of the different part of a hotel make it look like they are in the hotel from The Shining. Nick Hurran (director) loves this set and in particular the spiral staircase because he seems to use it at every opportunity.

The minotaur creature is the monster of the week and is so old it doesn’t know its name and the Doctor does a mercy killing which isn’t the sort oft thing that is seen in Doctor Who. Towards the end its revealed that they are actually on a spaceship and a distant relation of the Nimon (from The Horns of Nimon). I was never quite sure whether we should be feeling sorry for it or scared of it because I never felt convinced about it either way.

There is a nice picture of a Sontaran called Commander Halke and it lists his fear and that is simply Defeat. That is the theme of the story and its about fear and faith. There is a room in the hotel for everyone’s fear and there is even a room for the Doctor. That raises an interesting question as to what the Doctor fears. The Doctor goes into his room (obviously number 11), but we don’t see it and instead just hear the cloister bell. There is one room that have a group of giggling young teenage girls and a room with some weeping angels. There are pictures of a Judoon, Cat Nun from New Earth and I’m sure that fly thing from Planet of the Dead. Trying not to be fearful isn’t the easiest thing that you can do and yet this a great

David Walliams guest stars in this episode. Walliams is best known for Little Britain, swimming in the Thames for Comic Relief and most recently a judge on Britain’s Got Talent. He plays Gibbis who is from a planet that gets invaded and I chuckled when he talks about being a town planner and making a layout easier for an alien invasion.

The thing about this episode is that whilst the characters were good and the directing was quite good from Hurran. The actual plot wasn’t the greatest and the good idea of the plot isn’t really developed as well as it could have done.

The ‘departure’ of Amy and Rory is handled quite well. I am not quite sure what led this departure but the scene where they go their separate ways is quite nice but it was never going to be a permanent end because it’s a rather drama free scene and so it’s clear that it’s a similar attempt to create drama like when Tegan ‘left’ at the end of Time-Flight. This is a story that has its moments and is better than the stories in the first half of series but I don’t think that its quite as good as The Girl Who Waited. Next Up is the return of James Cordon.

(762) The Vampires of Venice

This is the second script from Toby Whithouse who previously wrote the 2006 story School Reunion. This is a story with Vampire in the title and normally this would bore me because I just find vampires to be very dull in terms of storytelling. The end of the previous episode saw Amy trying to know THE Doctor a bit better than was natural on a Saturday evening. This story sees the return of Rory and the introduction of him as a companion. His opening scene comes just before the title sequence and ends with the Doctor bursting out of a cake. The Doctor’s plan to stop Amy from jumping on him is to bring Rory along and take them to Venice in 1580.

It’s fun to see Rory installed into the story as when he appeared in The Eleventh Hour he was a bit of a one dimension but loveable character. Here he develops a slight distrust of the Doctor and Amy’s relationship. The best bit for Rory came when he points out to the Doctor that everyone tries to impress the Doctor and I couldn’t help but think that Rory doesn’t even know half the story.

This story was filmed in Trogir in Croatia and one of the things that I really like about this episode is that it looks stunning. It’s one of the things that works in the episode’s favour. It’s better than the locations used in The Fires of Pompeii which I thought couldn’t be topped but this managed it. I think the locations used in Vincent and the Doctor are just a good but this is the first time in the series that the locations have almost stolen the show.

Helen McCrory (currently in Peaky Blinders) plays Rosanna who is quite the mummy’s boy to Francesco who is played by Alex Price. There is a strange thing going on with this relationship and it’s is this that I quite like about their performances.

I like the moment when the Doctor shows his library card to the vampires and it’s got a picture of the first Doctor. That’s not the first nod that the series will make to the early Doctor’s and it’s something that is subtle but noticeable enough to be enjoyed. This was another good performance from Matt Smith and there were some good comedy moments and Smith does these just as well as Tennant did his.

The twist in the story comes with the fact that Francesco and Rosanna aren’t actually vampires but are from the planet Saturnyne who have Vampire like tendencies. The scene between Rosanna and the Doctor was a nice one because Rosanna is an effective villain and we learn that they were running from the silence thus continuing the story arc. At the very end there was silence and its quite an eerie silence considering that the end of the episode it should be jolly and happy.

It was a good episode which had some lovely locations and also had a good plot. I always thought that School Reunion was more nostalgia than Doctor Who, so it was nice to see what Toby Whithouse could do and I am pleased to say that I liked what I saw. I

(713) School Reunion

This episode is famous for three things. The return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 but perhaps just as importantly, Anthony Stewart Head appears and almost steals the show. When I watched this back in 2006 I was totally preoccupied with her return but fast forward nine years to today, I think that Anthony Stewart Head is probably the best thing in this episode. In time terms, its been 23 years since Elisabeth Sladen had been in Doctor Who but in marathon terms it been about four months.

The Doctor is a teacher and Rose is a dinner lady. Had she not gone off for adventures in time and space I could easily see her cleaning tables and dishing out chips. If Jamie Oliver were writing a Doctor Who story then elements of this would be his. Chips leading to something bad is the sort of thing that he would have come up with.

The thing that was going to determine whether Sarah Jane Smith’s return was how she was bought back and its done rather well. She’s back to do what she does best and that’s by being an investigative journalist. The look on the Doctor’s face when he first sees her is pretty much how every fan was feeling and that is just astonishment. The looks of astonishment continue when Sarah Jane stumbles across that TARDIS and then realises that the person she thought was just a teacher was in fact the Doctor.

The jealousy of Rose when she meets Sarah Jane does seem a bit of a step back for Rose after the progress made in the previous episode. I think that the jealousy isn’t quite as annoying as it was when Lynda was being friends with the Doctor but it’s still a character trait that is becoming annoying and the strop she throws when she thinks that the Doctor will forget about her only adds to the problem.

There is a nice little scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane where the Doctor learns there are consequences about her travels with him. He also learns that she didn’t get dropped off in Croydon but in Aberdeen.

Back to the subject of Anthony Stewart Head. Everytime he is on screen I think that he is superb. His face to face seen with David Tennant is one of my favourite scenes in the entire episode. ASH plays the fine line between villain and pantomime villain. The Krillotaines are a good villain however with the return of Sarah Jane and K9 as well as Anthony Stewart Head, they kind of get lost in the shuffle which is perhaps the one things that the story gets wrong. It is interesting that when they are in human form they walk with their arms behind them. It’s also interesting that they are bits of other races and this is something that could have been looked at more.

I hate writing this but K9 sacrificing himself was a moment that made me like the character. I am still unmoved in my original opinion of the character but it was a lovely moment.

The goodbye scene between the Doctor and Sarah Jane is heart-breaking. It’s because of David Tennant and Elisabeth Sladen that it works and the fact that K9 is hiding behind the TARDIS as a surprise present is the perfect way to end the episode. When Sarah Jane is offered the chance to go back travelling in time and space, I wanted her to say yes but I always get disappointed when this doesn’t happen.  

This has been a lovely episode but it’s one that ultimately seems to purely serve fans who has watched the show for years. New fans might not have taken as much from it as fans like me but it’s another well written episode with some very good performances and it is nice to see Elisabeth Sladen back in Who again.