(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.

(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.

(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.