(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.

(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.

(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.

(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 6^th 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 50^th Anniversary year and the mid-way point of the 33^rd 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.

(790) The Snowmen

I have now arrived at the eighth Christmas Special of the new era and one thing is clear and it’s that the Moffat Christmas Specials feel more Christmassy than the RTD ones. We get a new title sequence which is rather good and sees Matt Smith’s face in the credits. That is the first time since Sylvester McCoy’s era that a face has appeared. We also get a new TARDIS console room and I quite like it. There is a small glimpse in the middle of the story but its not until towards the end that we get to see it in all its splendour.

In this story we get not one but two big names in this Christmas Special. The first is Gandalf. Ian McKellen is one of the big names in the world at the moment and obviously famous recently for the Hobbit and Lord of the Ring films and he does the voice of the Great Intelligence. I think that McKellen probably deserved a better role than just being a voice. It’s becoming a regular theme for casting big names and giving them less than ideal character. Someone that this doesn’t apply to is Richard E Grant who ironically played the Doctor in Scream of the Shalka. His first scene ends with him watching over a group of workers being killed by Snowmen and it’s a great opening bit. He was superbly cast and played it brilliantly.

Jenna Coleman makes her second appearance in Doctor Who although its as Clara. Coleman is rather good as she seems quite confident in the role so soon after joining. In this story she has to play two different version of the character and does it quite well. Oddly she dies and its only when she dies that we know that she is called Clara Oswin Oswald who was born on November 23^rd. As much as I have enjoyed the character of Clara/Oswin, I would like a companion to be introduced to Doctor Who that didn’t have some backstory

There are great visual in this story. The first is obviously the killer Snowmen who look quite scary and not the sort of Snowmen that you would want to stick a carrot in the middle of its face. The next is when Clara climbs the staircase and sees the TARDIS on the clouds. Another was the Ice Nanny

Ok I have been whinging about how the Strax/Jenny and Madame Vastra gang and how its terrible but watching this story I found myself liking it and in particular Strax. I thought that Dan Starkey played the role perfectly and there was a nice vibe from the character. Strax’s interaction with the Doctor was highly amusing because they were quite dysfunctional.

There is a funny moment where the Doctor is pretending to be Sherlock Holmes and its funny because of Steven Moffat’s involvement with the current BBC version of Sherlock. There is another funny (not ha ha funny) bit where the Doctor pretty much sets up the events of what will happen in The Web of Fear. He has a lunch box with markings of the underground and the Great Intelligence says he doesn’t recognise the markings and the Doctor tells him that is it strategic weakness

I liked this story a lot more than I thought I would. It was a Christmas special that was more about the characters than the actual story. Despite this it’s still a better Christmas story than the previous one and somehow I think its better than Smith’s first Christmas Special. Even though there will be less than twelve hours between todays episode and tomorrows, when the shows aired there was three months before Clara would return properly. The show is now entering its 50^th year and the build up to the Anniversary special starts now.

(789) The Angels Take Manhattan

Today is the end of the first half of the 33^rd series of Doctor Who. Matt Smith has now been Doctor for 1,002 days and this is also his 33^rd episode as the Doctor which means that he is tied with Colin Baker. This is the fifth story of 2012 and this will be the second lowest number of episodes that have aired in Doctor Who ever. Only 2009 broadcast less episodes where four episodes aired, there is one more to come but this is arguably the most important because it writes out Amy Pond and Rory Williams.

The pre-title scene is very good cause it shows the Private Detective encountering his older self and being surrounded by Angels and the last show is of the Statue of Liberty looking really cross. The Doctor, Amy and Rory start off in Central Park and are reading a book that turns out to be written by River Song. One of the successes that happens in this story is that there is a new use for the Angels. It now seems that any Angels can touch you and you go back in time. Even baby statues are able to have the same effect and the idea that the Angels run/own a hotel that they use to keep transporting people to the past is something that Moffat doesn’t get enough credit for.

The last time the show went to Manhattan, it was Cardiff but with a few CGI shot of old Manhattan. This time they go to the trouble of going over there and filming all the familiar landmarks. True, a lot of it is still filmed in this country but you cant fake Times Square and due to the quite creative cinematography that is used, for most of the story I can believe that they are in New York.

Karen Gillan has become the longest serving companion of the new era, having overtaken Billie Piper a few episodes ago. Arthur Darvill is tied with Mary Tamm and Caroline John on 26 episodes. It would be quite easy to argue that Gillan has been the best companion of the new series and certainly has had better stories than Rose.

I thought that both Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were on fine form in this story and the scene where they are standing on top of the building about to jump was a lovely moment between the two. It’s great how Moffat tries to throw a curve in the story because when we think that Rory and Amy have survived it’s a great moment that doesn’t last long because the Angel takes Rory right in the graveyard. Amy’s final scene as she is about to leave the Doctor is really quite sad and a much better goodbye than Rose’s first goodbye in Doomsday. It was sad but not slushy and when the episode ends I kind of wished that there was more of those two. They have been a huge part of the Matt Smith era but I suppose the old adage is true and that is leave people wanting more.

As a story it was very good and said goodbye to two very well liked and well performed characters. The story itself didn’t really do a lot for the character or River Song as everything that happened in The Wedding of River Song pretty much meant that the character had run its course. Beside that this story served its purpose as a mid season finale. It’s weird to think that it would be another six months before the series would return (apart from the Christmas Special). This half of the season has been very impressive and I hope that the second half will be just as impressive.

(785) Asylum of the Daleks

Everyone was told that Jenna Coleman would be joining the show however no one expected her to join in this episode. It was something that was hidden from most of the internet and the TV guides. I think that more attention was given that the show was returning and so were the Daleks. Today is the 974th day for Matt Smith as Doctor and he overtaken Sylvester McCoy, Patrick Troughton and Peter Davison and is just fifteen days away from overtaking Colin Baker and become the fifth longest serving Doctor.

This is a season that is split over two years. The first run of episodes is five episodes long and finished at the end of September 2012. There is a Christmas Special and then the series resumes at the end of March where the show has traditionally being. This is the Amy/Rory part of the season although it is memorable for the introduction of Oswin Oswald.

The episode opens with a huge building that looks like a Dalek and it’s revealed to be Skaro and this is the first time we visit Skaro since 1979’s Destiny of the Daleks. The Doctor is lured to meet someone who has a eye stalk coming out of their head. When Amy and Rory appear they are on the brink of divorcing and both Amy and Rory suffer the same fate. They soon find themselves in the Parliament of the Daleks which I think is a wonderful idea. An even better idea is that the Daleks want the Doctor to help them instead of exterminating the Doctor. They want the Doctor to turn off the force field surrounding the Asylum so they can destroy it.

The Daleks in the Parliament are the pre-2010 Daleks but there are also a few of the 2010 versions which shows that they are slowly being wiped out of the shows history. One of the reasons I was looking forward to this episode was that it would feature all the different versions of the Daleks going right back to the 1963 version. My favourite is also in this story as it’s the 1988 Gold and White livery.  There is a room called intensive care and it features Daleks from Spiridon (Planet of the Daleks), Kembel (Daleks Master Plan), Aridius (The Chase), Vulcan (Power of the Daleks), Exxilon (Death to the Daleks). They are Daleks that survived an encounter from the Doctor.

This episode is a lot lighter in tone than the previous series but that doesn’t mean that the story doesn’t have creepy moments. The first being all the skeletons that have become Daleks. The next being rusty Daleks moving around which is helped by the low lighting. Dalek stories should always have this level of creepiness and one of the most creative Dalek stories of the new era.  

There is a nice mystery about Oswin because she seems to know everything and all the schematics of the underground Asylum. The revelation that she is actually a Dalek is one that I didn’t see coming although its rather clever. It was a great performance from Jenna Coleman (or Jenna Louise Coleman as she’s credited at this time). She takes the unexpectedness of her debut and shows us how good she can be. I remember thinking that it’s a shame that she wont appear until the Christmas Special because she has been so good. It seems like Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are halfway out of the door because they don’t seem entirely there in terms of their performances. There is definelty something different about them but it feels like they are slowly being phased out.

Nicholas Briggs does a good job in making the Dalek sound more human and he is the only one who could do it bearing in mind he’s being doing it for over a decade.

Amy and Rory’s situation isn’t explained until towards the end when it’s revealed that Amy can’t have kids because of whatever happened at Demons Run. The scene where they discuss this is one of the few good moments involving these two during this part of the series.

This episode did what it should do and that is start the series with a bang. It is also the best use of the Daleks for quite sometime. I think that when people are hating on Steven Moffat, they clearly conveniently forget stories like this. Ok so there is a horrible reminder of his Dalek mistake but he shows that this was a blip and the story is a great one. The NEXT TIME trailer shows Dinosaurs (which on previous experience doesn’t generate warm confidence) and also the First Doctor (sort of!).

(784) The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

The Seventh Christmas Special of the new series marks the first time since Matt Smith became the Doctor that Karen Gillan’s name wasn’t featured in the title sequence. Instead it was Claire Skinner who gets the co-star credit. The episode starts with a bang and the Doctor flying towards the earth whilst trying to put on a spacesuit. This suggests to me that Steven Moffat sometimes doesn’t care about the laws of space.

Claire Skinner plays a widower called Madge who loses her husband in the war and is trying to protect her children from the news. I thought that it was a lovely performance from Skinner and thought that she bought something different to the story. Alexander Armstrong makes a physical appearance in Doctor Who after voicing Mr Smith in the Sarah Jane Adventure and in the Journeys End/Stolen Earth two-parter in 2008. He doesn’t feature too much in the story but when he does then he is rather good and I liked how they got reunited in the end and that it was Madge that unknowingly got him back home alive. Madge opens the TARDIS with a hair pin and this works and the Doctor makes a joke that 900 years of time-travel seems less secure. I would expect this got a lot of Doctor Who fans in a lather as it writes off nearly 50 years of history. I remember in The Sensorites (1964) that it was mentioned that the TARDIS lock has millions of combinations and the wrong turn could melt the lock so it seems that in the intervening years that the lock was changed.

It takes about 20 minutes for the story to get going. It doesn’t really begin until Cyril goes into the box and ends up on a snowy world. The world is rather impressive and looks lovely. Even in early July it still looks like a nice place to visit and is very Christmassy. The look of the entire episode was quite nice and showed that a decent amount of money was spent on making it look nice.

If there is one aspect of this story that is a bit disappointing then it’s the inclusion of Bill Bailey and Anabella Weir who are underused. Now sooner had they arrived then they had to leave and it seemed to me to be of a waster because you could have given these roles to less known actors. The performances from Matt Smith and Caroline Skinner were good and they worked well together and the dynamic was different. Normally when I write this I would say that Madge has potential as a future companion but on this occasion that isn’t the case because the usefulness of the character wouldn’t work in a normal circumstance.

Amy & Rory don’t appear until the end of the episode. The Doctor arrives at her door two years after the previous story. It’s a nice reunion and ends with the Doctor wiping away a tear which I suppose is something different for the Doctor to do at Christmas. I have liked the fact that Amy and Rory didn’t feature until the very end because it meant that the show got to have a different feel to it. I thought that the episode wasn’t the greatest Christmas Special but I have enjoyed it more than I did back in 2011. The thing is that the next series is one of change and one that for the first time since the Tom Baker era would take place over two years.

(778) Let's Kill Hitler

Just 84 days had passed since the world learned that River Song was Amy and Rory’s daughter. Three years since River had made her debut, the answers were answered (sort of) but after an unprecedented mid-season break we finally get to see the second half of the series. The reason why I had preferred the series to air like it had done since 2005 from March/April onwards is that it was pretty much unopposed with only Britain’s Got Talent being the competition and often that would air at a different time. When you air a show in September then the competition comes in the form of The X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. I wondered whether this was an experiment like when the show was moved from Saturdays to twice weekly during the Peter Davison era. This was the first time that an episode of Doctor Who had aired in August since the first episode of The Leisure Hive on August 30, 1980. August is a dry month for Doctor Who with only 14 episode having aired in this month.

The title is a curious one because it suggests that Hitler is going to feature quite prominently in the story and he appears for a little while and then gets locked in a cupboard. So not only is Hitler not killed but he doesn’t even feature very much in the episode. The moment when the Doctor realises that he saved Hitler is the sort of thing that I would imagine that the Daily Mail would get its knickers in a twist over.

The episode starts with Amy and Rory creating a message in a crop field and Mel is introduced into the story and she gets the last line of the pre-title scene where she names the title. We get a lot of back story in this episode where we see Amelia, Young Mel and Young Rory. His is slightly odd because Amelia is best friends with her daughter. Mels doesn’t last very long and is soon replaced by River Song so River is the third incarnation of Melody. I like how River is now a psychopath and is determined to kill the Doctor. Alex Kingston gets to do something different with the character and I think that she is enjoying it.

The Doctor spends quite a while dying and there is a great scene where stills of Rose, Martha and Donna appear. The Doctor is told that he has 32 minutes to live and is also told that he can’t regenerate. This boxes the Doctor into quite the corner. He is saved by the woman that tried to kill him at the beginning of the episode. In doing this she uses all her regenerations which is why she doesn’t live when she does that thing in her debut story. Despite not being as involved in the story as he usually is, this was a good performance from Matt Smith. He has to tread a fine line between being a confident character yet somewhat restricted by his current predicament and he deals with that well.

The idea of people inside a body controlling it is a really good one and one that is used quite a lot in future stories. It effect of people changing their appearances is one that is a subtle but quite impressive visual wise. The people that operate the robots are people who think that they are doing the right things in killing those who commit horrible crimes. In reality they aren’t any better than those they are trying to destroy.

The state of temporal grace is said to be a lie after years of people bickering about it. Gunfire was never seen in the TARDIS until Attack of the Cybermen and from that point onwards the whole idea about whether the TARDIS does have temporal grace thing is a rule that some people stick to religiously and others aren’t that bothered by it. I personally think that like most stuff in Doctor Who its not to be taken too seriously and will be used at the whim of the writer/producer.

Ok its clear that River kills the Doctor but there is a bit more given in a rather lengthy speech given by Robot Amy. River kills the Doctor on the orders of the movement known as the silence and Academy of the Question. I love the idea that there is an academy for the Question which is something that is built up and won’t get answered for quite a while. Silence is a movement and Silence will fall when the question is asked.

This was another episode that was better than I had thought of in the past. Ok some of it is a bit contrived but I enjoyed it and looking at what episodes are yet to come I can honestly say that all the good episodes are still to come. After a shaky start the show is back on good form.

(777) A Good Man Goes to War

Back in 2011 the series was split into two halves with the first half airing between 23 April and June 4 with the second half airing between August 27 and October 1. I never quite understood what the point of this was but here we are with the mid-season finale. A Good Man Goes to War is a great name for an episode and with us all knowing that this would be the last episode until the end of August we knew that it would be a biggie and that is definelty what we got.

The Cybermen make a cameo appearance in the pre-title scene with the Doctor and Rory. It’s fun seeing Rory stand up to the Cybermen and I like the ship that we see the Cybermen on. Judoon also make a cameo later on for some strange reason. No sooner hve they appeared than they leave making sure the headless monks (who really are headless) away from the asteroid.

The Doctor is going around meeting people collecting debts. Neve McIntosh returns to the show but as Vastra. She is the master and her servant is called Jenny. What’s quite fun about this bit is that it implies that Vastra has killed Jack the Ripper. The next familiar race is Strax. He makes a return and starts off as a nurse which is a punishment. The devaluement of the Sontarans and Silurian’s hasn’t reached rock bottom yet but its starting to slide.

The Doctor doesn’t appear until the 19^th minute which is quite a brave thing to do bearing in mind he is so important to the story. To be honest things were happening so quickly that I didn’t clock that he hadn’t appeared until the moment that he appeared. Matt Smith gives a very good performance in this episode and there was a wide range of emotions and he deals with them well. Karen Gillan also does well and gives one of her best performances which bearing in mind how good she has been since her first episode it shows how good I think she was.

The thing about this episode is that its implied that things are going to go spectacularly wrong and then things start to be going too well. Towards the end things the inevitable happens and things go downhill. Melody (the new baby) turns out to be a flesh avatar and this is the point that Amy’s strong connection with the Doctor starts to break down a little.

The baby is being used as a weapon and its until the end that River joins the action and we learn that the baby is Melody and is Amy and Rory’s daughter. It’s a this stage that I wondered whether Steven Moffat had gone off at the deep end and totally lost his mind. However watching it now I just found myself thinking that it all works rather well.

The Doctor will be back in LETS KILL HITLER is one of the last things to appear on screen. It’s an interesting title for a Doctor Who but more about that tomorrow. As for todays episode it was a lot more fun than I remember watching. I think back to 2011 and was so desperate for answers not more questions that I think that I was disappointed with how very little got addressed but more got answered than I thought and the cliffhanger is good enough. This half of the series has been very mixed with only The Doctor’s Wife being better than this. The Curse of the Black Spot and the Rebel Flesh two parter have been notable disappointments but I think that the stronger stories of the series are yet to come. There may be something to salvage this series.

(772) Day of the Moon

As I mentioned in The Big Bang review, Moffat has a problem ending big epic two-parters. Whilst this isn’t the same as The Big Bang, its fair to say that this episode doesn’t suffer from the same problems but it certainly comes close. Doctor Who’s stateside holiday takes a decidedly grim and unexpected twist in this episode. The episode immediately starts with Amy running in the middle of the desert and is seemingly killed. Quite a grim start to the episode, things get grimmer when Rory seems to suffer the same fate. River seems to be jumping off a unbuilt floor and is going to fall to her death but I like how after a while the TARDIS appears and she dives into the TARDIS and seemingly into the infamous swimming pool. For Amy and Rory their fate is revealed because the perfect prison that has been built for the Doctor and Amy and Rory are alive and the TARDIS has been placed inside the prison but is invisible.

Action moves to a creepy abandoned children’s home. It’s very creepy indeed and one this is where some of the best stuff in the episode happens. When Amy is looking at all the silences hanging from the ceiling I thought that it was a great moment. Another great moment comes when Amy sees a woman called the Eye Patch Lady and she opens a slot in a door and then disappears. It’s unclear whether this is relevant to this part of the story but obviously as the series progresses it becomes more interesting.

The big scene comes when the Doctor has moment with the silence which leads to the death of the silence. The use of the moon landing is teased throughout these two episodes and the moment when it actually happens comes at the peak of the episode. When everyone is watching the moon landing they can suddenly see the silence which leads to their deaths. It’s quite a way of getting out of the current situation and does lead to a great shootout with River showing that she’s more than a match for the Doctor.

Nixon asks the Doctor if he will be remembered which is quite an amusing question and when the Doctor says “say hello to David Frost” that also made me chuckle. Milligan has portrayed Nixon as a bit of a comedy character in this episode which is a bit odd but after a while I got use to it and whilst it was clear that Nixon wasn’t the greatest person in the world. In the context of this story he was someone that the Doctor could trust

The final shot in the TARDIS is of the scanner checking to see if Amy is pregnant and it doesn’t make a decision. I’ll be honest and say I don’t really care about this and the only reason its getting a mention is that at least later on it becomes relevant but at the moment I just can’t get worked up about whether she’s pregnant or not.

The final shot of the episode is arguably the most intriguing because it’s the girl from the astronauts costume and she regenerates. There are too many loose ends in this story which are left frustratingly open. The opening story of the season should have a gentle open to the story arc and it feels like they have just gone overboard with it. It’s a good two parter but I think that they have started to high and the rest of the series will be poorer as a result.

(771) The Impossible Astronaut

This is where the Matt Smith era really starts to get dark. Unlike David Tennant’s first series, Matt Smith enjoyed quite a lot of success in his debut year and so there was some renewed excitement when the trailers started to air showing what looked like an awesome series. The trailer showed that the Doctor was going stateside for the first time since 1996 and unusually, the series was going to start with a two-parter. This was the first time that a series had started with a two-parter since Attack of the Cybermen in 1985. If this didn’t make it clear that they were aiming for epic this series then nothing would.

Amy and Rory start the episode in what seems like a normal life, River Song is in prison and they have been invited to a meeting with the Doctor. It’s an interesting sort of prison where River can seemingly leave at any time. In the real world that’s not a prison but that not important at the moment.

The Doctor mentions that Amy has put on a couple of pounds which seems like a horrible dig but comes on to take on significant importance.

The Silence makes it debut in this episode. It’s first appearance is far away and is a silhouette. It’s not until the 25^th minute before one appears in the oval office of the White House. The design of the Silecne is rather well done although it has similarities to the Slenderman. The cool thing about the Silence though is that the moment anyone sees them and looks away they forget.

The first big scene happens quite early on in the episode when Amy, River and Rory witness the Doctor being shot by someone in a spacesuit. We don’t see who it is even though the Doctor knows who it is. There is a nice sense of us not being in on the plan. No one could know that the Doctor would be killed so early on in the first episode of a brand new series. This shock only lasted a few minutes when he wanders out of the toilets.

The idea to use Richard Nixon is something that perhaps couldn’t be avoided so he is used to the advantage of the story. Stuart Milligan plays Nixon and I thought that it wasn’t that bad an impression. I cant help but think about the character he plays in Jonathan Creek but that aside I thought that it was a good performance from him.

I like how the control room of the Silence is the same as the one seen in The Lodger. I don’t know whether we are supposed to put two and two together but that episode aired quite soon before this one so people would still remember it.

This story has an end of series finale feel to it which is why this episode feels so different to pervious opening episodes. The episode ends with Amy (who has been on a weird mind trip) shoot at the astronaut who turns out to be a young girl. The mystery doesn’t end here because the question remains as to who the girl is and why did she kill the Doctor.

This was a very good opening episode. The good form that the show had during the previous series has continued with this episode. The setting has helped make this story seem more epic than it would have done had it happened in London or Cardiff. It gives it a truly international experience and I just hope that things continue.