S06E13 - The Wedding of River Song

With Steven Moffat’s second series of Doctor Who now under wraps, as a regular viewer and fan I have to pose just one simple question to the man: Will the finale of series seven (series three for the Moff) included a complicated plot, an alternative/aborted timeline and an epicenter to a time-explosion of sorts being close to the Doctor? The reason being is that this is the second year in a row to include a similar story, as last year proved with the TARDIS exploding (still not answered/looked into by the way) creating an alternate universe with just the Earth and the time machine’s explosion being the only thing in existence – the TARDIS being the epicenter of that new, lonely, universe. Okay true, the results of this year’s ‘big bang’ meant that all of time converged on one point but again that raised questions for, if all time IS happening at once, the universe would be created and simultaneously destroyed in one go and that would be it.

Moving on… this episode was good to prove what would happen should a fix point in time be changed but in all respects to Steven Moffat, it was completely, utterly pointless. True it gave a few answers with the purpose to Madam Kovarian wearing an eye-patch and created a reason for River to really KNOW the Doctor and also to show the man how much he is loved, but the way the episode was executed was all wrong – very similar to the finale of ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ to be honest. Now, I know many of you will disagree – indeed, two friends of mine whom I discuss this with on a regular basis liked the episode, so no disrespect to them or anyone else who appreciated ‘The Wedding of River Song’ but for me it was a reasonable amount of dung (bar the last five minutes, though).

Given the chance of a rewrite, the episode would for me include the ‘pre’-stuff the Doctor alluded to via flash-backs in the episode aired, then have River finding out of the Teselectra Doctor pretty quickly (before she shoots him obviously), have River and the Doctor (as the Teselectra in disguise as Rory or Amy) running from the Shadow Proclamation (or whomever it was who arrests River for killing the Doctor) so as to get Kovarian and the Silents once and for all. They would most likely get caught in a sticky situation near the end and forced to marry in a comical-yet-binding way with River getting arrested and the Doctor returning Dorium’s head, as seen, in the final moments of the episode with the whole Question thing AND have the same post-Byzantium River meeting her parents bit – as that was done brilliantly. With that idea in mind it would definitely involve less ‘modeling Silents in water tanks’ and more ‘mindless adventure and laughs’ which Doctor Who is actually meant to be about, believe it or not.

Now, one thing I have to wonder from the episode shown though; Alternate-Amy killed Madam Kovarian which real current-Amy can remember, so does that mean Kovarian IS dead now or what? Presumably if she’s not seen again then we have to presume that despite the fact she was killed in an aborted timeline she remains dead, which would be a shame as she was/is such a genius character and an actual rival to the Doctor (think of the implications! Like a newer, better Rani – NOT the SJA’s Rani Chandra - only not Timelord and less… rash) who doesn’t have to be behind everything like ‘Saxon’ was a few series back. That said and wished, Kovarian was/is only one aspect of the larger organization NOW called the Church of Silents, a cult dedicated to destruction of the universe when the Doctor tells someone – obviously River considering the implications of her gaining the Tenth Doctor’s trust in ‘Silence in the Library’ – his real name, and most likely doing that by exploding his very own TARDIS, which is old news now.

A typical Moffat timey-wimey move though, wouldn’t you say? We’ve seen how epically the Silents failed when exploding the TARDIS, so let’s see how they became such failures. It’s like River’s out-of-order Timeline (not VERY back-to-front, but close to). Moffat does like to mess about with things which are good for the show in respect that it has an Executive Producer who’s not scared to playing with fire, but by doing so may very well be driving the audience away with the mad plots and hard-to-describe time frames. An example of this is, knowing Moffat’s recent track record (okay, mainly ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ as Part Two of Series Six was proving a bit of a let-down anyway), as a viewer I went into ‘The Wedding of River Song’ with low expectations and was STILL disappointed – now whether that says something about me as a viewer, Moffat as a writer or the BBC as a production company in general I cannot tell but I hate placing blame on the Moff-ster so will have to leave that thought in the air…

What about the episode can I say? Well firstly they wasted a good use on money bringing back stars whom needn’t have been part of the episode (Simon Callows as Charles Dickens and the Richard Hope as Silurian Doctor Malokeh to name two), then they continued wasting money with ridiculous CGI (cars flying via balloons, trains spiraling around the Gherkin – out of proportion to the real Gherkin might i add – and the pyramid ‘Area 52’) and finally dressed many tall thin actors in uncomfortable suits only for them to point and do… well, very little. With those negative notes out there now, having some strange alternative Amy and Rory (even though this is set AFTER series five for everyone involved) was pretty awesome to see – Karen as a sexy commander and Arthur as an equally sexy solider, bringing back Dorium as just his head-in-a-box was absolutely hilarious and helped move the plot along nicely (I REALLY hope he continues returning as Dorium is a character with a real history to be explored anyway), and the Teselecta’s introduction earlier this series proved not to be a pointless factor but actually one of the most important objects of the series.

I have to admit though that it WAS clever to have the Doctor as a Soothsayer in the aborted timeline, with him bearded and in rags (even though he’s still the Teselectra), telling the story of how he got to where he was then and marking off Silents in the telling – really cleverly done when he notices the tag on his arm and the slow introduction of himself and Churchill’s weapons! Really, despite its many faults, I can see the potential of the episode with the way it was presented, the cleverness of a progressing story and the ability not to give the viewers the straight-up facts and see how the protagonist deals with it (which was kind of my suggestion for the alternative story).

Also to note: the Doctor and Asto-River’s conversation by the lake was a little too long for my liking; that and the lighting of the scene, trying to match to the actual light of Utah during the time of filming the original scene, with a blurry background was terribly done and reminded me of something from old Who done worse than it could be done. But hey, was all about lighting and the ability not to be able to shrink a conversation to a few lines each instead of massive paragraphs per character.

What else is there to say? Oh yes! How could I forget?! With the loving tribute seen to Elizabeth Sladen just before ‘The Impossible Astronaut’, the Doctor Who Team really outdid themselves with a dedication to Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart by having the Doctor call the nursing home where the Brig had must have retired to, only to find the man had passed away, the nurse noting that the Brig never gave up hoping that the Timelord would return for one last visit… so sad yet so lovely – no one could change that bit of script for the world.

And here we are again…

• The Doctor = 10/10 – Although mostly the Tesadoctor, it was a very cleverly scripted episode for the Timelord and explained away a good deal of questions built up throughout the series, though not a lot of back-storage from the previous series…
• Amy = 10/10 – Sexy, stunning and amazing as ever! Now although I do love the Ponds I have to hope that someone new is introduced as fulltime companion next series as it’s starting to get rather…stale with the same lot episode after episode.
• Rory = 10/10 – Poor Rory almost-sacrificing himself again for Amy; he really will do anything for her whether he knows he loves her or not! And that final scene with the three Ponds was lovely, although Rory missed the bulk of it; it was just so beautifully done.
• River = 10/10 – Well it’s official – her mother’s guess way back in ‘The Time of Angels’ was correct and she’s his wife, though I have to wonder by what custom? Would, say, they be married on Clom or Skaro or even Earth with just those few words? How serious WAS the Doctor in marrying this woman or was it all just so he could get back to pretending to be dead? Then again, it did all happen in an aborted timeline AND to the Teselectra…
• Kovarian = 10/10 – I really want to see more of this lady, although I doubt it. Frances Barber is simply a superb actress!

Episodic Rating: 5 out of 10. Disappointing I know, but like I’ve said; it went off on one and couldn’t get back until the end, with the main points of the episode being represented at the start and within the last five/ten minutes. Yes, it was definitely different to  last year’s ‘The Big Bang’, but it wasn’t better – indeed, I preferred last year’s finale to this year’s but you’ve got to take the good with the bad and with such a fantastic mid-series finale, it’s fair to say that nothing could ever follow so greatly in the same complete series.

And so there we have it, another series of Doctor Who complete for the year. With next year only presenting us with half-a-series in preparation for 2013’s fiftieth anniversary (though let us not forget this year’s Christmas Special), and with the rather wobbly series we’ve just had, maybe a cut-down is generally needed; a time to take a breather and assess one’s priorities. Depending on how many episode class as ‘half’, we’re looking at an good five to seven next year, so not a complete Who-draught as 2009 saw, with RTD promising ‘the formula would work’ before scarpering good and proper… anyway, for the Who Review, either a full series review or two half-series reviews will be posted up at some point between now and Christmas, so keep your eyes peeled for updates! But for now… happy soon-to-be-Hallowe’en! 

S06E12 - Closing Time

Closing Time… well what can I say about it? Having waiting impatiently through several half-arsed episode of Doctor Who, I confess myself yet again disappointed, although this time by the lack of Cybermen within the episode as the concentration of the story was set more upon ‘oh no, I’m going to die… again’ from the Doctor, which is understandable, yes, but surely even he knows he’s going to outlive his own death? I’m sure ‘The Wedding of River Song’ is going to be another thrilling episode, most likely similar to ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’, but with Matt Smith already filming the Christmas Who episode, and having signed to another series, the whole arc this series about the Doctor finally dying seems to fall rather flat on its face. Personally this arc should have been used for when Matt Smith finally decided to leave – let the producers leave the casting of the Twelfth Doctor in shadow, film without fans knowing and THEN you can have a brilliant series, with the fan base actually believing it will be over for the Doctor hen suddenly bam, regeneration! Anyway, rant over, back to the episode…

I have to admit, despite my initial disappointment towards a lack of Cybermen, it seems a case of less-is-better, even if less means five or minus, although I would actually like to know one thing: two series in for the new Doctor, the new regime and Moffat himself, it would actually be nice to know if these Cybermen are Cybusmen or the original Mondas/Telos Cybers in their newest form due to the lack of Cybus Industries logo upon their chest plates – perhaps next series might explain something, if not another rant may be in order. Although, come to think of it, the use of Cybermats this time round might in fact be a massive clue, as the Moffat does like to lay down smaller things instead of tell people straight off. Nevertheless, the episode itself was actually much better than most of the rest of the series, probably not AS good as ‘The Doctor’s Wife’, ‘Good Man…’ or ‘The Girl Who Waited’, but definitely higher in rank than most of the others.

What I was most interested to find out, besides Craig and Cybers, was what happened to Amy and Rory once the Doctor left and it was nice, if not a little coincidental, to see that in the form of a one-minute cameo, Amy having become a model, with the fantastic tag line ‘For The Girl Who’s Tired of Waiting’ to the perfume of ‘Petrichor’ – a reference to both the TARDIS, and something that saved the married couple from a troubled Ood…. Ahem. Although I would like to hope that Rory, as seen previously as nurse, has progressed to Doctor, something that obviously couldn’t be mentioned within the latest episode but maybe next week if Moffat doesn’t over-stretch unnecessarily, like in Let’s Kill Hitler.

Craig’s return! Wonderfully done, although the whole ‘checking up on old friends’ thing for the Doctor is definitely so Tennant-era, but an easy way to bring him back AND to see his little baby and the brief appearance of Sophie – the actress whom plays her probably unavailable for more than the tiniest appearance, all of which could have been filmed easily in one day. And adorable as though the Doctor’s Baby Talk can be, as established earlier in the series, it does get rather boring quite quickly, and almost a little repetitive, even with the nickname Stormageddon/Stormy to little Alfie – which even I have to admit, was cute. But it’s been done so don’t overdo it, please… Also, the final few moments of the ‘climatic’ battle, with Craig answering the cry of Alfie, although very emotional and gripping (I honestly thought Craig HAS been converted for a moment) was rather… old. Is that the right wording? It’s one of those things that’s been done over and over again in shows and movies that for it to be done in Who, although inevitable, seemed annoying and almost a letdown.

Lynda Baron! Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in Doctor Who once more (having been in Fifth Doctor episode ‘Enlightenment’ and provide vocals for First Doctor episode ‘The Gunfighters’) was so fantastic to see. I, personally, love Lynda and her character Val, although not important to the episode in general, she was lovely to watch and a character I would love to have a conversation with. Getting the wrong end of Craig and the Doctor’s relationship, thinking them to be an actual couple was just fantastic, especially the Doctor, and eventually Craig’s, reaction, which was a brilliant laugh. In fact the episode had a lot of laughs to it; no doubt in attempt to keep spirit’s high, ready for next week’s doubtlessly mad-cap episode.

And that brings us in an almost full circle to those final few moments, with River and Madam Kovarian, the Silents and the Astronaut. Although a shocking and gripping few moments, the whole River-is-the-Astronaut thing was completely predictable, if even if a little questionable for, if the whole reason River is arrested was because she shot the Doctor as the Astronaut one needs to know who else was there to actually arrest her as there was only the older River, Amy, Rory and a Silent as seen in the first episode. Secondly, the Astronaut with River within went back into the water, most likely transported away and thirdly, as River was set up by higher powers for the purpose of killing the Doctor it would be seriously low, even for the Order of the Silents, to arrest her for something they made her do. Also, surely the River who witnessed the Doctor’s death knew she was within the Astronaut suit, considering the one within was only JUST starting and the River with the rest was much later in her timeline…? But it was lovely seeing Alex Kingston and Frances Barber once again anyway.

And now…

• The Doctor = 9/10 – Matt was fantastic as ever, but he felt repetitive, with regurgitations from the rest of the series like Baby Talk and playing with toys unnecessarily. And the use of the Stetson and the blue envelopes – completely unneeded; one doesn’t need to tie in everything with everything else!
• Craig = 10/10 – Before the Lodger I admit I never liked James Cordon, but he’s just brilliant now, and Craig is the reason why. His return within this episode just boosted my love of Cordon… that is all.

Episodic Rating: 9 out of 10; not good enough for full marks but better than quite a few of the rest of the series, in fact, compared to Series Five, the Sixth has been terribly disappointing, which is a shame as, not only was it Darvill’s first full series but also this was the series where writers officially knew how to write for Matt Smith’s Doctor and despite that it’s still been worse than last series.

Now I shall reserve thoughts towards the finale episode, but having seen pictures from it, the prequel and of course that next time trailer, I feel it’s going to be yet another over-the-top episode with too much action and too less of good plot (including a Dalek even though Moffat promised NO Daleks this series, the stinking liar!). A good view definitely of course, Moffat can always assure viewers and fans of that, but in all it might just be too much for forty-five/fifty minutes of episode. All I shall say now about ‘The Wedding of River Song’ is that Silents are now models and like to strut their stuff in water tanks. Yes, indeed…

S06E11 - The God Complex

For an episode that not only had been highly anticipated since series six began filming but also had contained references to both the Shining and past Who story ‘The Curse of Fenric’, for me, ‘The God Complex’ had a lot of unexplained intentions, confusing plotlines and a resolution in a quick write-off which resolved itself only mere minutes later. What do I mean? Well the story itself was about Amy having too much faith in the Doctor, and said Timelord needed to rid her of that so as to save her life, but only reasserting Amy’s faith by saving her from himself – in all, forty minutes to prove something five minutes could have resolved and a story who’s explanation was rather vague and unknowing; A little like Series Four’s ‘Midnight’.

Now, don’t get me wrong it was a good episode – with Minotaur’s, Doctor Angst, scared faces, long corridors and death aplenty; a really atypical Doctor Who episode and worthy of Toby Whithouse’s rather warped mind, but it never properly explained the how’s, what’s and why’s. An example of this confusion comes from exactly HOW the Minotaur (/alien) could kill/feed from just people’s faith and why the prison ship had been disguised as the hotel of the episode, or indeed how or why it had reverted back from the simulation when the Doctor cut off the Minotaur’s food supply to kill it.

For an episode with a lot seemingly going on, there seemed little actually happening, with the same fate befalling all of the Doctor’s new friends the adventure became seemingly repetitive and had it not been for the acting of all the cast, the episode would had flopped big time. Indeed, one standout performance, for all viewers I hope, was Amara Karan’s performance as Rita, the other companion who never was (after my hopes for Mels before her big reveal). Led on by her religious faith, the Minotaur had a hard time trying to seek out her inner personal faith – a faith of succeeding, if I interpreted that correctly – and by so doing delaying it’s feast from her, allowing Rita the time to help the Doctor and co. and to assert fans and viewers at how good she would have been had she been a companion…

Which leads me to the question of the location of the Minotaur’s victims – we know that it’s previous feeds, such as Officer Lucy, must have been in the prison-hologram-place too, most likely within their own rooms, but even after the Doctor laid the bodies of the creature’s most recent preys to rest, and when the hologram ends, revealing a much smaller place than the hotel had been, there are no signs of the bodies. Could it possibly be that by killing the Minotaur had allowed the programme to reverse? To take the body back to the time and place they had been taken?

Speaking of the Minotaur’s victims, a rather pointless but Potter-ish fact for readers: the guy who played Howie (the geek in glasses) is the older brother of Gryffindor chaser, Katie Bell (from the Half-Blood Prince anyway), so another nice link between my two favourite topics there… Also, wasn’t David Walliams just fantastic as Gibbis; suited the role perfectly and congratulation to him on swimming the Thames and not befalling tragically ill; he’d have needed the inoculations from New Earth to survive what lurks in that river, don’t you think?

Now that ending! Who ever thought that would happen? Obviously the Doctor knew the hell he can put his companions through after nearly nine-hundred years of having them about but still a shock for the viewers and Amy and Rory too! One has to wonder though how the Doctor managed to get Rory the car he always wanted without actually leaving their side AND of course WHERE Amy and Rory now live, because that didn’t look like Leadworth! Best bet is they moved to Gloucester for better work and lives away from the Doctor after he dumped them off sometime after ‘A Christmas Carol’ and before ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ – as both would only have a twenty minute car ride back home to visit their respective families. Although that street reminded me of the one seen at the end of ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ and it probably was in retrospect, considering ninety-five percent of everything is filmed in Wales and after six series they would run out of new locations…

And now…

• The Doctor = 10/10 – Even when he’s smashing up half the holographic kitchen he can still be amazingly brilliant! Also, it was fascinating Rita picking up on the Doctor’s own God Complex (for which the episode was so named), by his need to constantly save people. (Another link to Potter with Harry’s own ‘saving people thing’ Hermione points out in ‘Order of the Phoenix’.)
• Amy = 10/10 – Karen just gets better and better each episode, and how brilliant was it to see Caitlin Blackwood again as little Amelia? – A lovely pleasant shock for myself, being a Caitlin fan.
• Rory = 10/10 – And apparently a man of no, or little faith, unless it’s for a way out, which by the fire exit only he could see might have indeed meant that his faith was in personal freedom (and possibly freedom from the Doctor!).
• Rita = 10/10 – I really loved her! Why do they always have to kill the good ones off? They did in Torchwood and they’re doing it in Doctor Who damnit!
• Gibbis = 10/10 – From a race of cowards, his own cowardly traits help save himself from the Minotaur, although his fear/faith in the Weeping Angels was also questionable…

Episodic Rating: A disappointing 7 out of 10, for it had its moment and a gripping finale, which raised marks, but that didn’t hide the fact that the episode held a lot of confusion, like a Moffat-copy episode, and reflected pointless moment from ‘Midnight’ two series ago. Nevertheless it was a worthy episode, if only a little too over-anticipated by Moffat and co. Here’s to seriously looking forward to Cybermen, Cybermats and the return of Craig next episode! (Yes, tomorrow I know – I’ve been seriously reluctant and lax of reviewing recently, to which I continuously apologize.)

S06E10 - The Girl Who Waited

With the title of ‘The Girl Who Waited’ it was first expected that this episode could cover that of Amy’s life between her seven year old self and the time she met with the Doctor at nineteen (à la Eleventh Hour), yet despite the obvious difference between the expected and the seen, the episode itself proved, to me, to be one of the best within series six so far. It proved not only how brilliant a reasonably simple script can become – are you paying attention Moffat? – this episode also brought forth the exceptional brilliance of both Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill to the forefront once more; their talents, raw emotion and of course the ability to bring script to screen with ease.

Moving into the episode itself, and to proof that a holiday with and for the Doctor is impossible, the episode itself felt – to begin with at least – a rather hard beginning, with the pre-credits scene ending reasonably abruptly and rather underwhelmingly, although with suspicions towards the episode’s main concept with Amy having all of a sudden waited a week, with Rory exasperatedly trying to get to Amy despite the obvious notion that, as it had just been stated, she’d been waiting a week. Thinking towards that though, it’s an interesting concept, from what I could gather, that through the rather elaborate magnifying glass presenting in the ‘waiting room’ one could witness a loved one live through their remaining live via the differencing time ratio presented within containment center – and what a concatenation center that was!

With Delores Umbridge as the Interface, and robots that could kill you out of pure kindness – anyone with a fear of needles watching must have that that fear escalated – not to mention the horror of a life left in isolation, what was obviously, originally, intended to be a kind hospital-like place suddenly has the very ominous feeling surrounding it – even if there are climbable mountains, magnificent endless gardens and even a cinema complex that would make Empire Cinemas cry in a shame. Personally the isolation of it all would drive me insane, and it’s no surprise that when Rory meets up with a fifty-eight (twenty two plus thirty six people) year old Amy that the older Amy has succumbed to some of the madness and horrors of the place, passing her time by outrunning the endless supply of Handbots and, dare I say it, becoming almost Doctor-like.

And must I compliment now what a fantastic makeup team Doctor Who has, not to mention chorographers! With the makeup team giving Karen the look of an almost-sisty year old and the vocal and movement coaching to pull of the complete Older Amy attire, the whole team should be praised – Karen of course more-so, considering she pulled it all off with perfection. In fact I had a very cheeky belief that Karen really enjoyed playing Older Amy, finding the challenge something exciting to experience and of course expanding her own performance repertoire for her future career when she eventually leave she show she very obviously enjoys being part of.

Keeping on the topic of Older Amy though, WHAT a magnificent scene that was between Older and Young! A very clever part of the script and so tastefully done; Older Amy not wanting to rid the thirty-six years she had experienced as the Doctor and Rory try to rescue the Young Amy, but Young Amy convincing, literally, herself to change mind, reminding her Older self of all the things she’s forgotten and thusly lost, mainly about Rory and a rock band, subtly demanding her Older self to reconsider, to get out there young and not live out her life the way she had – all just beautifully constructed. Also, might I add upon this topic that Xena Warrior Princess needs to step aside,  or at least watch her step as Amy Rory-or Princess is on the scene now (get it? ;) ) looking rather disturbingly like Eve Miles in some scenes… so let’s not try to go there shall we…? Heh.

Moving swiftly on now, another rather interesting thought on a title for this episode could have easily been ‘Rory’s Choice’ – a play on a last series episode – for the fact that it’s he who must decide the fate of his wife; take Older Amy or find Younger Amy then of course it’s let Older Amy into the TARDIs and loose Young Amy forever. In fact ‘Rory’s Choice’ would and could have easily fitted the episode as much as ‘The Girl Who Waited’, but neither would have changed the brilliance of the episode and the proof that what could be considered ‘normal’ script writers (that is to say those who don’t specifically write Sci-fi/Who) can do just a fantastic job with what they’re given and my praise goes lovingly towards them, or more specifically to Tom MacRae (who also wrote the Cybermen two-parter of series two).

Let us not forget Rory in the topics of two Amy’s (although with one being just enough, two is a handful even for a review); his desperate craving to keep the Younger Amy but his growing affection towards his Older wife throughout the course of the episode subtly changing his decisions, even leading him to, for a moment at least, want her to stay with him, knowing his wife no matter what age. But it has to be touched upon the classic but emotional thought of ‘growing old together’ for the couple, having travelled with the Doctor for some time now, even Rory’s perception of that theory could be a little cloudy – but please don’t get me wrong as that scene with Rory wanting to have grown old with Amy did still touch me. With all that in mind though, Rory’s own perception of his wife must have changed a little from the events, having glimpsed what she could be like, what she will look like, he has seen into her future (not the one she’s claimed now of course) and can definitely say he knows Amy more than anyone else could ever.

Let us not forget the Doctor amid all this too; unable to find Amy herself due to the one-day plague only affecting species of two-hearts, all he can do is sit back and watch Rory’s progression (through some rather sexy glasses), adventure and emotional journey into the heart of Older Amy’s new-found life. Of course it isn’t AS hard for the Doctor locking Older Amy out of the TARDIS, so to ensure the one he likes (seriously!) stays and the paradox created doesn’t rewrite things that cannot be undone. It shows what sort of a character the Doctor can be, especially with Rory’s line of “You’re turning me into you!” when the Doctor announces that Rory has to choose which Amy he wants to keep – a decision that Older Amy eventually, luckily, decides upon for him.

Now I’m sure there’s probably plenty of little things I could have mentioned – one definitely being Amy and Rory’s lax attitude towards their only daughter being turned into a weapon out there somewhere, and of course the clever Handbots of the episode – but to be honest with you, you can decide on what your thoughts are on those; personally I have covered all I needed and then some, which inevitably leads to this!

• The Doctor = 9/10 – Mainly because there was less of him; Matt Smith is a fabulous actor, back in his long swede coat, but the episode was concentrated for Amy and Rory, and rightly so. No matter though as the scenes he was in, he was simply fantastic, and who wants to hear him say Apalapucia again?
• Amy = 20/10 – An impossibility on this blog but considering Young Amy was a 10 and Older Amy was a 10 it seems right. Karen just loves Amy too much to play her anything but wrong and that shows perfectly on screen. She is just wonderful.
• Rory = 10/10 – I don’t think Arthur will ever get a low score ever again; every episode he just gets better and better. The scene that proves Arthur at his best in this episode, of course, was the final scene, yelling at the Doctor then talking to Older Amy through the TARDIS door while in tears – a brilliant scene for both actor actually.

Episodic Rating: 10 out of 10. It was simply superb with excellent timing, a brilliant script, fantastic acting and of course a much simpler script (for Doctor Who that is) in comparison to some seen over the last two years of the programme. Unless the next three episodes prove otherwise, this has to be the best of the series so far, or maybe second best, no leading hand-in-hand with ‘Good Man Goes to War’. Of course my only jibe at the show more than the episode is the lax attitude, as mentioned, of Amy and Rory towards their daughter – yes they know she’s going to be River Song, yes they ‘grew up with her’ as Mels (a shudder of resentment flows through me at this) but they’ve never managed to parent her properly, but maybe those thoughts are just mine…

S06E09 - Night Terrors

First of all, may I apologize profusely for the lateness of this review? If you hadn’t have guessed, access to Jo Rowling and Sony’s Pottermore for this reviewer became available and it was snapped up, without doubt to anything else, at the first opportunity. Anyway, on with reviewing the show!

After last week’s fiasco of an episode – in retrospect it could have been so much better – ‘Night Terrors’ proved to be a much appreciated continuation of the brilliance of Doctor Who. Of course with Mark Gatiss at the writing helm of this episode, it was bound to have a few typically strange parts: Along with some serious Whovian areas (‘The Seven Keys to Doomsday’), and of course following along with the idea that all aliens look like Humans – then again, the alien involved in this episode had a natural perception filter upon it and had been altered to suit it’s environment, which is fair enough – and with the thankful creepiness presented in this first New Who episode (‘The Unquiet Dead’) which, fair enough to say, has been lacking in the his past episodes.

Scary though parts of this episode were, on a whole it took a serious amount of time to get into. Daniel May’s acting, maybe with the highly emphasized London accent, along with the boy’s accent was slightly a put-off, but on one hand it couldn’t be completely avoided. Moving on, it seemed slightly pointless to include the neighbours such as Mrs. Rossiter with the bin bags and Landlord Purcell and his dog if a story toward them was only half-played out – Purcell and his dog had a good bit of story considering, including him turning into a Peg Doll before Rory and Amy’s eyes, altering the pair and viewers to the dangers of the temporary dangers placed upon them. Also, his sinking into the floor (the floor is made of lava-esque) verily reminded me of a scene from Sixth Doctor Trial of a Timelord, which was nice to connect.

That’s another thing that concerns me: if, as the Doctor said, all of George’s fears come to life in that cupboard, and somehow within the scary dollhouse that represents no fears such as hauntings or destruction, then why would a child dream that a touch from a peg doll would turn them into one of them? I understand that dolls of different types scare different people, but to believe that you must have very odd parents (no offense meant), which May’s character, Alex, and the woman whom played his wife definitely wasn’t. Continuing on from that whole perspective, as George was revealed to be an alien who had hidden himself in plain view as the couple’s child… how did he get there in the first place? If he himself placed himself in their companionship, how could he possibly forget to become ‘fully’ human? It seems a few plot holes were in place within the episode.

Nevertheless, it seems that Mark Gatiss really has a knowledge now as to what Amy, Rory and the Doctor are like – his writing of them, and of course Karen, Arthur and Matt’s portrayals – were spot on, with the perfect amount of Rory-comedy, Amy-bravery and Doctor-ness that has made some of series six the best it can be (although still not that good, indeed ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ has been voted favourite for you readers – see to the right for more detail). With that in mind of course, the dynamic between the two Ponds was hilarious; Rory almost certain that they had died again and still equipped with his little torch first seen in ‘Vampires of Venice’ – a nice link between the two series. Of course one could write Amy in any way and Karen would perform with gusto, so one needs not be concerned for her character, and the same could be said for Matt Smith, although his Doctor’s dynamic with Alex was really well done and obviously properly thought out – and you may also notice that the Doctor was back to his old coat due to the fact that this was meant to be part of the first half of Series Six but was swapped with ‘Curse of the Black Spot’ for variety…

Anyone else think, although disproportioned for obvious reasons, that that dollhouse was really creepy? On a normal day I enjoy the design of dollhouses, the architecture etc., but the perfect way the production team darkened the place, wood-ified it so to speak, made it feel as if a ghost involved wouldn’t have gone amiss? And why SHOULDN’T there have been a ghost? Little George was literally afraid of everything – make up a ghost, maybe an old sheet that resembles one and lock it away in that cupboard and voila. Shame Gatiss didn’t think of THAT one; he was probably too busy considering the peg dolls and their unique way of multiplying.

One thing that did get to me with this episode, although it can be hard as hardcore fan I am, was the reference at the end to the Doctor’s death at Lake Silencio – that was reintroduced last episode, had been a weight on Amy’s shoulders all through Part One AND was the main theme of that half, it seems almost insulting that they had to remind the viewer yet again, but never mind, I suppose it’s a way of keeping viewership and despite everything Moffat IS doing a better job than Russell T did (bar series three…) and don’t get me started on him or his ideas of a good show – speaking of, Torchwood review soon; much sooner than almost a week like this one has been.

And now to bizniz:

• The Doctor = 9/10 – Love Matt Smith, of course, but there was something forced behind this story that’s a slight put-off for the viewer, no matter how Matt Smith tried to cover it.
• Amy = 9.5/10 – As brilliant as ever. Although I WOULD talk about how Amy doesn’t seem to be concerned about Melody at all, but half of that consideration were badly answered last episode, and the other above….
• Rory = 10/10 – Maybe I’m being slightly partisan toward him now, but I really do love Rory. It seems that time and effort have really been put in to the writing of his character and Arthur Darvill does the character more than justice.
• George = 7/10 – Okay, he’s an eight year old boy, the acting wasn’t going to be THAT good, but to place the character in the central rank of the episode was questionable to an extent and the story reflected that. Although that’s not, of course, to say that the episode was bad, as it wasn’t.
• Alex = 7.5/10 – Well Daniel is a great actor, but the use of a heavily incorporated London accent was a put off, especially as the estate was actually a building in Bristol! ;)

Episode Rating: 7 out of 10. For me it took time to get into and when I finally did, when the action really started, it ended quite quickly, which put me off slightly. But still a confortable episode, easier to understand than last week’s and without stupid plot twists like the sudden creation of ‘Mels’. Overall, when comparing this towards the other Gatiss-penned episode, it would sit snugly between the brilliant ‘Unquiet Dead’ and the adequately done ‘Idiots Lantern’, with ‘Victory of the iDalekPlaydoh’s’ coming in, without doubt, at last place.

S06E08 - Let's Kill Hitler

For an episode whose title wasn’t precisely lived up to, ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ was a very enjoyable episode to watch, if just a little confusing. Now don’t get me wrong, this was definitely the best way to reintroduce Doctor Who back to the screens and audience, but it seemed to involve a lot of unnecessary odds and ends that could have been left out and would have still made a worthy mid-series opener AND saved special effects with the Mill and not be a disappointment – not that this episode was, to some at least.

But more about that later, let’s move on to discussions about Mels, a character whom once I heard about, sounded like a brilliant new character and possible future companion, although I did have my suspicions as to her true identity. Now, Mels’ backstory, of being Amy and Rory’s best friend since forever, although a clever and easy way of introduction, seemed to be like a sudden idea considering Moffat claims to have River planned from the beginning, indeed this is the first and most likely only episode to involve or mention Mels, and understandable that she was easily written off from the wedding of Amy and Rory, and yes, maybe the fact that time has now been rewritten that she didn’t even appear or even mentioned in Eleventh Hour – look at Jeff, never mentioned or seen again! – but the whole character definitely felt like a whole last second addition to the plans and don’t get me started on the whole ‘Ponds raising Mels without knowing’ reference as I’m sure as mature as Amy and Rory were compared to Mels, THAT simply doesn’t count.

Anyway, moving smoothly from Mels to Melody, as wonderful and gasp-approving the plotline became as to the murder of the Doctor and revelation of Melody actually being the weapon that began in the last episode, it can be safely said that not even the Doctor is that good as to convert his own assassin into his lover in less than ten minutes. Yes I know the whole ‘Child of the TARDIS’ thing did kind of help sway Melody onto the Doctor’s side, but enough to give him all her regenerations just to resurrect him? On those thoughts, this episode could have worked well and been better explored had either it been a two parter OR not wasted time with the Teselectra and Hitler. Indeed, if they had stayed in Leadworth, had the Doctor harmed by Melody there and even stayed as Mels until the Doctor had swayed her and then have her regenerate when she’d given him all her other regenerations, a fresh start as River Song so to speak, it would have still worked and given a more acceptable and realistic time for Melody to convert from assassin to lover. Still, I’m not Moffat, and am sure he had this episode planned the way it was for a reason.

Now moving on from Timelords and Melody, the Teselectra was, despite almost being completely useless bar turning into River for Melody to realise her true future, a VERY interesting ship, archive and general ‘kind of Villain’ for the episode, indeed it was an extremely clever idea from the partial genius that is Steven Moffat. The whole idea of tiny people inside a person is almost Borrowers-esque, even if THEY just lived in the same residence as a human, but that set for the Teselectra, especially the Eye was brilliant, don’t you think? The special effects were worth it just to see that woman (another link to Who for those whom have seen the Catherine Tate Show – Ella Kenion) look out of the iris and become so small; THAT was just fabulous. But on the whole, the Teseletra and even Adolf Hilter was pointless when it came to the plot of the episode, it could have been called ‘Let’s Kill Osama’ and the plot would have stayed precisely the same, if with just a different location than that of late 1930s Nazi Germany.

The plot, and episode, was simply the beginning of River Song; the change from Melody to River – indeed a better title for the episode aired could have easily been simply ‘Melody Pond’ considering that the episode in the end revolved around her, and rightly so for Alex Kingston’s acting, especially when Melody is first going over her new appearance. Although I am slightly concerned as to the serious lack of reinforcements within Germany itself – in the ten, fifteen minutes it took from hundreds of people running out of the restaurant to saving the Doctor, not one person – soldier or citizen – came to investigate the disturbance, AND with Hitler just down the road?!

Linking nicely from one Pond to two others, the introduction to the episode, filmed in a cornfield and in fact the last scene filmed for series six (a close call might I add!) was the most typical Moffat idea you could ever witness, but just perfect to see Karen and Arthur’s faces of concealed terror of uncontrollable driving while in a mini (or should I say Karen’s fear and Arthur’s unadulterated enjoyment ;) ). Indeed, Karen and Arthur were in top form throughout the entire episode, a joy to watch in fact, especially at Rory’s wit and Amy’s constant ballsy-ness and especially their whole backstory, with Mels bringing the two together. Rory was definitely the stand-out of the episode, punching Hitler and telling him to shut up of course the highlight, along with riding the motorbike (“It’s that sort of day”), explaining to Amy about the miniaturization ray and Arthur’s acting within the flashbacks of his revelation to liking Amy as more than a friend.

The Doctor’s second death within this episode now seemed a little haphazardly created, if only brilliantly performed by Matt Smith. Inside the TARDIS, with the reverences to Rose (*shivers*), Martha and Donna was lovely, but considering that Moffat loves his references to Old Who, it would have been nice to maybe have seen one or two of the old companions, if only Sarah or Jo considering their recent appearances (for Sarah definitely) within the Sarah Jane Adventures, but then one must suppose he wants to keep the current audiences, the ones who continued to watch after Tennant left anyway, in the loop. Ooh, but wasn’t it just fabulous to see lovely Caitlin Blackwood back as Li’l Amelia? She is just so brilliant and adorable and it seemed that her (Amelia’s) suggestion, if only as a Voice Interface, to use Fish Fingers and Custard as an antidote to the pain of death miraculously worked – for a while anyway. Nice…

And a Sonic Cane! Anyone else want one? Sonic Screwdrivers are so last series! Heh… Now, one final note before I mark the main characters as ever, and a serious note at that: Anyone with me for concerns to the continuation beyond the Doctor’s apparently final death? Now we know Matt Smith has signed on for next series, so maybe he does come back, heck another Timelord might be introduced at the last moment and do a River of this episode to bring him back, but with the last episode of this series entitled ‘The Wedding of River Song’, and as we KNOW she and the Doctor are going to get hitched, I worry about the continuation of the series. Now, I love how Moffat is pushing the boundaries of the show, especially by complicating matters and even pushing some audience members away by the simple matter of confusion, but there are boundaries set beyond the ones Moffat is pushing that really shouldn’t be viewed, let alone touched, and with the Doctor soon dead and a wedding imminent, will we soon be seeing the title of the show changed to ‘Son of Doctor Who’…?

• The Doctor = 10/10 – A brilliant way to bring the man crashing back, and with a new trendy coat! Although his untimely death and the plot involved around that was somewhat disappointing, Matt Smith’s superb acting puts script and idea in the background without second thought. And that mention by the Teselecta staff of the ultimate (or was it ‘first’) question from the ‘Church of Silence’ just HAS to be ‘Doctor Who?’ right?
• Amy Pond = 10/10 – Not only did we get Karen playing Amy, but also the Teselecta, a cool emotionless robot, which was funny as heck to see! It was lovely, too, to explore Amy’s background a little more and hilarious to see Karen dressed as a teenager (though many a man’s rowdy enjoyment to see her dressed like that, I suppose).
• Rory Pond = 10/10 – I said all that was needed to say about brilliant Rory and Arthur above, but seriously if one couldn’t fall more in love with the man from Part One of series six, this episode made one fall further down that path. And wasn’t Young Rory so cute!
• Melody Pond = 9/10 – Although both Alex Kingston and Nina Toussaint-White (‘Mels’) gave excellent performances, it couldn’t be helped feel that the episode gives the audience a major overdose of the character, although deservedly so considering the last episode. It’s just a shame that even after finding Melody after all the ‘years’ apart, Amy could never actually hold her daughter again or even have the chance to mother her.

Episodic Rating: A solid 8 out of 10. Although brilliantly and cleverly written, especially with an extremely deceptive title that disappointed many when Hitler himself was only involved in one long scene, the episode gave the strong impression of an overdose of information; the sudden introduction of a character never mentioned or seen before but somehow a major part of Amy and Rory’s life, not to mention the Doctor dying and then dead and a murderous Melody converted into a loving River Song in almost no time at all. And did anyone ever get Hitler out of that cupboard? Nevertheless, the episode did explain many things thoroughly and involved seriously underused characters and objects, but on the whole it was majorly enjoyable and a fantastic way to bring the show back onto the screen.

S06E07 - A Good Man Goes to War

Demon’s run when a good man goes to war.
Night will fall and drown the sun, when a good man goes to war.
Friendship dies and true love lies, night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war.
Demon’s run but count the cost, the battle’s won but the child is lost…

And watching ‘A Good Man Goes to War’ for a second time, just to do this review leaves me on a high greater than the first time round: THAT is the brilliance of Who on a fellow Whovian! That aside, what an episode! One of the greatest secrets since 2008 finally revealed and the first companion to ever have a child on screen (well not literally having it on screen, but I mean the first one to actually HAVE a child and to see said child on screen) and both of these linked in the most brilliant way possible. Although it was speculation in recent months that bordered upon the truth in the comWHOnity (see what I did there?), but to see it actually lived and played out on screen… well, just wow, eh?

Now I know every week I give immense praise and usually, regularly, repeat the words ‘fantastic’ and ‘wow’—the latter of which I have already done so, but they just have to be said, because other words just don’t cover the epic-ness and plot-y-ness of show, the brilliance of Moffat and his ties between, not only episodes, but whole series’ too. What a man… and for once not one of immediate important characters got killed! Okay; Dorium, Commander (Nurse) Strax and Lorna were killed off, but in relation to the main characters, there wasn’t an ‘Oh no they killed…’ moment, which was brilliant. See, brilliance CAN be made WITHOUT killing someone important to the show…

Then again, kidnapping a child, that’s almost as worse, especially since said child was Amy and Rory’s, but the matter remains that the child is SAFE, or at least alive for the moment… Of course we all know what happens to little Melody Pond (Williams, but Amy kept Pond so tough titties to Rory :P ) as per Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon, but the question lies in what happens BETWEEN those times, how Melody came from being with Madam Kovarian (evil but amazing, loving Frances Barber currently) to being kept under lock and key by the Silents. I suppose only time will tell, and in Who, that could be longer than expected…

Now I mentioned Dorium, Strax and Lorna before and have to add for name’s sake Vastra and Jenny to the list, because how brilliant were these secondary cast? Okay, a lot of recurring characters: Strax being played by Dan Starkey who appeared in the double Sontaran episode of 2008; Neve McIntosh portraying Vastra having appeared as the sisters Alaya and Restac in the Silurian two-parter last year; also of course Simon Fisher-Becker reprising that mysterious character Dorium Maldovar, having appeared briefly last year to give River Song a Vortex Manipulator; and to add to the juicy dish of recurrence Henry and Toby Avery (Hugh Bonneville and Oscar Lloyd respectively) turn up for all of five seconds. Then of course there are new actors, new characters, and those in the form of Christina Chong’s Lorna Bucket and Catrin Stewart’s Jenny, whom many feared would be the same Jenny of 2008 (a lot of recurrence from series four here, clever Moffat!) but luckily not so.

Lorna Bucket, now there’s a character we can hope to see again. From the peaceful Gamma Forests where the only exciting thing to ever happen was the Doctor, it seems a brief adventure, one that the Doctor might of course have already gone through, but one suspects a little mental manipulation on what Lorna had witnessed when she met the Doctor might have caused the Doctor to happily improvise on how she knew the Lord. Of course Lorna becomes very much an important character, creating Melody’s prayer leaf that so cleverly reveals Melody’s other identity to the audience and the Ponds right at the end of the episode, but more from that shortly.

What a madcap forty-eight minutes ‘Good Man’ was though, with an appearance too from the rather obtuse fighter planes last seen in Victory of the iDaleks (and the voice of Mark Gatiss as Danny Boy) and the brilliant, albeit petite, airtime for a full on Cyberlegion! One cannot forget the central plot though, which with the many distractions throughout must have been something to do with an army being raised to fight the Doctor, an army I would like to call—thanks to many speculation of certain insignia the men and women were supporting on their barrettes—The Omega Army; maybe something to come back to at a later date, possibly not even later this year but doubtful, considering they are the same army, well a similar one, to the soldiers whom appeared in the Angel two-parter last year. But I digress…

So many twists and turns though, with River’s clever little warnings (“He will rise higher than ever before then fall so much further”) to Silurian relatively living in the ordinary Victorian society, eating Jack the Ripper and all. Speaking of which, not Jack the Ripper, but a lot of sudden gay and lesbian references, not that I for one am complaining in the slightest, but the Thin Fat Gay Married Anglican Marines and Jenny/Vastra (with the long tongue…) were a wonderful look back on all the gay references placed in the RTD series and somewhat lacking in the previous (though not TOO much considering) series.

Headless Monks! What a complete genius idea. Monks… with no head! No, but listen: They’re Monks without a head! The idea being that the heart contains the faith and the head creates doubt, the solution being one should remove the head to rid all doubt, which seems a perfectly adequate theory and solution AND put a new spin on the phrase ‘running around like a headless chicken’ don’t you think? Although their lighting sword things… wow! Not exactly weapons one has to say—their lighting ball hand things do that job—but conversions, converting their victims to their own logical way of headless thinking, as seen executed on Dorium, poor fella. Oh, and let’s not forget the Fat One’s conversion too, but he HAD been selected.

What else have I missed? Oh yes! Anyone else get scared, not twice, but THRICE that Melody was going to be the lovechild of Amy and the Doctor; the first being Amy talking of RORY, using his reputation as the Lone Centurion (altered costume to the one seen previously by the way) to attempt to scare Kovarian and co. from taking Melody, then secondly to Melody’s Timelord DNA (although this was the result of Amy and Rory doing it on their wedding night in the TARDIS), and the third being the Doctor answering a previous question of whom the Timelord cot belonged to while looking like he was answering Amy’s question regarding Melody (Amy: “It our [Amy and Rory’s] baby, tell us something, one little thing.” / Doctor: “It’s mine. The cot, it’s my cot.”)—phew! Damn that Moffat!

OH! And another thing: Regeneration! Now, in the old series it was generally law that a Timelord was given the regeneration cycle AFTER succeeding the Timelord Academy, yet in the new-new series (Moffat-ine) it seems that all Gallifreyian have the regeneration within them. Now, the possibility presented must be that, in fact, all Gallifreyians had the ability, but lying dormant, only after succeeding the Timelord Academy were they able to access that part of them and are taught how to use and control it. River/Melody though must be different. What if the regeneration she has (seen in Day of the Moon) ‘heals’ her, but doesn’t change her? Could it be possible she was taught, to some degree, by Madam Kovarian? And if so, how?

Now as you all know I can’t completely cover everything, so without further ado I need to talk about River Song! Who else knew or suspected of River’s true identity? I had my suspicious but I would never have linked her to the little girl of the opening two parter! Now technically—technically!—by the language of the Gamma Forest, ‘Melody Pond’ (liked the whole ‘kick-arse Geography teacher’ thing; sort of like Archeology, one must suppose) translates directly into ‘Song River’, but one has to presume for a moment that either River herself rearranged the words to the order we now know of, or the Gamma Forestines swap the surname and forename around, and River kept to this law, but informally using ‘River’ AS a forename… oh, the possibilities! Now that’s in the open though, River’s character isn’t exactly over-exposed, is she? So many question left unanswered, so long ‘til Part Two of Series Six—argh!

Now moving on and here we go!

Doctor = 10/10 – Perfect Doctorish entrance, being disguised as a Monk: very Runaway Bride…

Rory = 10/10 – And I quote: “I have a message and a question. A message from the Doctor and a question from me: Where. Is. My. Wife?!”

Amy = 10/10 – We really do see a completely other side to her; the more caring and quite literally mothering side of her which is just, you guessed it, fantastic. One scene really sticks to mind though, horrible though it is, when the Melody Amy’s holding turns to Flesh, and Amy’s reaction… just tear-inducing.

River = 10/10 – Although only briefly seen in adult form, the entire character of Melody Pond is created and subsequently answered in one episode, and River is just SO lovably smarmy it’s impossible not to dislike her!

Madam Kovarian = 10/10 – The older dominatrix, the main villain of the series and finally more answers about her appearance since Day of the Moon.

All the others = 10/10 – Everyone gets a ten! The acting was completely top notch in this episode, nothing was worth looking away from or for, and everyone did just a superb job!

Plot = 9/10 – Not entirely sure WHAT the plot was other than the Doctor gathering an army to fight an army (and find Amy) and Kovarian stealing (shall we say) a weapon to eventually fight the Doctor.

Episode Rating: 10 out of 10. From the moment the episode started to the second the end credits rolled, you could NOT take your eyes or ears off the screen: Simple as that.

And now the wait for Let’s Kill Hitler—a rather daring title considering Hitler and the whole Nazism (nice reference to Christopher and his Kind though), how it’s still a rather sticky topic to some Europeans, but am sure it’s going to be fantastic, and hopefully with more River and no Churchill and Bracewell (à la, Victory of the Playdoh-Daleks). And did anyone catch that trail right after the episode finished airing? It’s below and rather jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching stuff! But NO speculation until some truth is uncovered. Oh, and this isn’t the end of reviews ‘til next month’s Torchwood (delayed first review though ‘cos of personal holidays), no, one hopes that within the next fortnight ‘The Doctor Who Series Six, Part One Review’ will be up for reading! Until then though, ciao caio fer naow!

S06E06 - The Almost People

Well! What an episode what a fantastic twist at the end! Well, when I say ‘what an episode’ I mean that ‘The Almost People’ was pretty much alright. Was better than last weeks, as most second parters are, but pretty meek in content; is that even a word, meek? Never mind, of course it was full of twists and turns as any episode of Who should righty be, to which I cannot get that ending out of my head! But more of that later, one has to concentrate on the main episode, the humanization of the Gangers and the, for lack of better phrase, dramatic mental breakdown of poor sweet Ganger Jennifer.

Actually, let’s concentrate on that for the moment; Jennifer. The real one out in the cold, dying, scared and alone, while Ganger Jennifer creates yet another Ganger of herself, only to fool Rory, to make poor lovely Rory turn against his friends at the worst of hours. It was all rather clever, one of the Gangers obtaining the wound, limping; obviously had most of the audience fooled—definitely got me until about half way through, that ‘hang on…’ moment. Of course, one might ask how, or even why, the Ganger of Jennifer turned insane, well it’s pretty simple: Jen was the only one injured during the Solar Storm, her Ganger, connected to her at the time felt the pain, remembered the pain and this in turn brought back all the times her previous Ganger Jennifer’s were injured or killed during working hours. The memories drove her simply insane.


Of course, Ganger Cleaves and the rest of the crew didn’t remember, how could they? They just wanted a normal life, as Cleaves pointed out, even with the deadly blood clot to the brain. In the end isn’t that what anybody—thing or monster—wants though? A life, normal to their own standards (whether that includes a million worshippers/slaves or just a few gnomes and a fish pond) in which to live out, bar the Doctor of course, but he’s special, isn’t he?

Ganger Doctor! Now wasn’t that simply fantastic? “I reversed the Jelly Baby of the Neutron Flow” has to be the best mix of catchphrase EVER; simple as that. What a fantastic idea though, although slightly similar to the ‘Human Doctor’ of Journey’s End, yet completely different at the same time. Of course another fantastic idea was shoes: the Ganger Doctor, having been formed from a pre-melted shoe Doctor, having the correct shoes, but swapping with the borrowed shoes of the Original Doctor, only just to gain her trust (and lose a fragment of Rory’s) and see if theories, revealed at the end of the episode (squee!) were true. That and to simply have a fantastic banter with himself, get his shoes back free of charge and get Amy to reveal the dreaded secret she had been hiding from him since they were called back together…

Now, was it simply me, but from most of this episode and the whole of the previous, I though there were only a few places using Gangers, and even less WITH Gangers, but as revealed at the end of the episode it’s seen that there are in fact millions of the beings (well not seen, but expressly referenced nonetheless)—it just seemed that there was a slight inconstancy within those pointers, or maybe just the need not the mention them until actually needed. Correct me if I’m wrong of course!


Also, some of the plot points in the episode were almost predictable; the main one being with doubles of the workforce on the island and only one life for each, some Gangers were bound to take over the lives of their Original counterparts, even if extremely reluctantly at first. Jimmy being the main concern of this, with his son making a holo-call to the monastery on his birthday and the Ganger simply not being able to face up to the fatherhood of his Original, only to have the Original die moments later. Talk about a life-changing moment!

Now, just before I move onto THOSE final few minutes, may I take your time to point out something very… familiar about the mutated Ganger Jennifer of the end of the episode? Now according to Matthew Graham, the mutated form was originally inspired by a picture found within an illustrated copy of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, depicting the central character in mid-growth after eating the ‘eat me’ biscuit. In the aforementioned picture, Alice is shown with a rather long neck: a sweet girl’s face upon this rather stretched and horrifying body… now SOMETHING of that was depicted on screen, but I just couldn’t help thinking that the creature looked more like the mutated result of Professor Lazarus from The Lazarus Experiment… just sayin’.


With great excitement I can now move forward to that ‘game-changing’ (certainly for Amy!) final few moments, and to Amy, all I can say is ‘breath’. Following on from Amy’s confusion back in ‘The Impossible Astronaut’, the Silents trying to inform her of the possible through their complex and confusing threats, the poor woman suddenly starts experiencing contractions. Then within the TARDIS, everything changes. Amy, the one we’ve come to know since Impossible Astronaut, is a Ganger, although firmly mentally linked to the Real Amy, envisioning some of the things she sees (the Eye Patch Lady!) and obviously sharing the same thoughts and memories, thusly the Doctor informing the Ganger Amy that he will find her. He always finds her…

• Doctor = 10/10 – Doctor and Doctor, the perfect combination. I recon when all companions have been and gone, the Doctor’s greatest friend will be himself…
• Amy = 10/10 – Wow, that’s all I have to say. And Karen: YOU are fantastic!
• Rory = 10/10 – Poor sweet manipulative Rory, we love you nonetheless.
• Jennifer = 9/10 – Sarah Smart is such a fantastic little actress, and this proves it so still.
• Cleaves = 10/10 – I had to do this for Cleaves, she’s just fantastic and I now love Raquel Cassidy.
• Plot = 8/10 – Predictive in places, gob-smacking in others. Definitely better than last week’s!

Episodic Rating: A solid 9 out of 10; the ending sealed the deal for me, definitely.


And then to wake in a confined strange place, with no knowledge of how she got there, pregnant and in labour with the only form of life being the one thing that’s been popping up and scaring her at the most inconvenient of moments; Amy must be fearing for her life! And of course, there’s the identity of the child to consider… Speculation starts now, people! Will Amy’s child be River Song? Why was/could Amy be force to put her child in the orphanage if the hint in Day of the Moon suggests? If so, how could the girl regenerate, or show the ability to? Is Rory the father? I for one pray it’s in no way the Doctor’s—that would be breaking a barrier too far, companion/Doctor-wise… Anyway, the countdown is on, and next week A Good Man Goes to War.

S06E05- The Rebel Flesh

Well, well, well, here we are again! Another episode of Who under the belt and a rather interesting turn of events for the Doctor personally, but all in good time! Now, what is there to say about this week’s ‘The Rebel Flesh’? Well it was certainly interesting, foretelling of the age old suspicion of ‘who can you trust?’ With quite literal doppelgangers on the loose, who is the real one and are you certain you’ll still be alive if you turn your back on them—an interesting concept indeed! Although in a related thought, one has to wonder how you could call eight people vs. five ‘gangers’ a full blown war—maybe a slight exaggerated use of the word, hm?

Of course with mere wonderings aside, let’s rewind to the beginning, to see former Mars and Ashes star Marshall Lancaster—and definitely the male star of this episode, without counting the usual TARDIS gang—as he pulls the audience into the confusion of events to come; how his character gets quite literally disintegrated in a vat of undisclosed acid (in a manor similarly seen, though not as painful, in the movie ‘Volcano’, starring Tommy Lee Jones, but that’s for another time) only to reappear alive a well moments later, even jokily complaining! A fantastic set up, although slightly slow on the start. That said, most of the episode, to me, falters between moments of fantastic and simple ‘filler’, but more to that shortly.


DARTS! Just brilliant—brilliant!—seeing Rory playing such and EARTH game inside the console room, Amy comically judging and putting her best ‘I wanna win’ expression on as she verses him in the game. Arthur and Karen, as said before, are just fantastic. And then there’s a long-running arc of the series, although two common ones now definitely (points to people who can spot more though), as the Doctor constantly checks for Amy’s false pregnancy on the TARDIS screen. What’s to bet that that element was added just slightly later than the original script? I can see it now: ‘Amy and Rory are playing darts in the control room, Rory is winning—or hope he’s winning—as Amy laughs along, enjoying herself. Suddenly the Doctor comes bounding in down the stairs….’ seems like the thing that would be written more than ‘…the Doctor checks the scanners to see Amy’s positive/negative pregnancy.’ Well, it’s a thought anyway.

Solar flares are another thing to point out. TIDAL solar flares to be precise! Look out sea, there’s a new (and ancient) creator of tidal waves about to make you look like mere ripple in a raindrop! Those effects though: WOW! The Mill (Beeb SFX department for those coming out of their hermit caves for the first time in ten years) really do go all out for Who, although that’s not surprising considering the amount of effects available to such a show, when other programmes only need mild touching up, or a thickening of fog clouds (shut me up, I know NOTHING of CGI bar what I pick up in random behind the scenes stuff and such). The golden ripples, the beauty and yet the knowledge of terrifying danger is just so perfectly transferred to screen that it’s amazing to see. Something I wouldn’t mind as a netbook background after Who finishes for the summer actually…


What scale for the episode though, all the locations used for a ‘monastery’, despite the dodgy dealings going on inside—it really was movie-scale epic-ness within some scenes, two particular standing out in mind being the expanse of the corridor used at the very beginning of the episode; the other being nearer the end, where the ‘Gangers’ go to ‘war’ with the humans, walking across the misty remains of part of the monastery in the darkness: Simply astounding.

NOW we come to part of the review where one takes a closer look at the enemy, this week being the Gangers, whom I don’t personally count as enemies, considering they were simple liquid matter given life by unspecialised, unknowing hands (and minds). Nevertheless, they are an interesting species to observe: their Lord Voldemort-inspired looks, how they were made as demonstrated by the character Jennifer, and even what little is actually known about them. Now that’s an interesting way of putting it, isn’t it? ‘What little is known of them’. It seems a human trait to simply construct a thing before reading the instructions these days doesn’t it? If the characters had taken just a little time to research the stuff essentially cloning them, maybe the whole event could’ve been avoided!


“A lot can happen in an hour”—now isn’t that just true? It wasn’t until second watch did I truly realise, and call me slow if you must, that the Gangers had an HOUR free to plan what they needed. It seems easy now, to realise that Jennifer’s ganger was simply acting with Rory, to see and maybe even confirm, whether their ‘originals’ were trouble to them or not. In fact, it seems more likely that the female Gangers are the planners more, seeing as Ganger-Jennifer and Ganger-Buzzer were the ones who took voice, took charge… And let’s hope that the tormented screams of all the Gangers are explained properly in the next episode, along with that snow globe!

The snow globe, now if you ask me, and let’s face it, who else are you gunna ask (bar the million other Whovians out there…), seemed to help the Doctor indicate the/a solar tidal storm… well, at first. It seems pretty much in similar taste to the Tenth Doctor’s 3D glasses way back in Doomsday; used as a seemingly background prop but suddenly the most important part of the plot, so here’s hoping it has mystery hidden in it’s white-speckled liquid. Ooooh, and let us not forget the Eye Patch Lady—the second common series arc! Missing thankfully in last week’s episode, she’s retuned even briefer than before in the Rebel Flesh, now literally scaring Amy she searched for Rory and his new… friend.


Now I won’t dwell too deeply into the forming relationship of Rory and Jennifer, as we were promised troubles in the Pond relationship and I want to see this thing out before voicing any speculation, but I have to say: Moffat, you may not have RTD’s love of soaps, but a relationship like Amy and Rory share need to be put to more test than what’s been seen so far…

Now anyway, down to the dirty work…

• Doctor = 9/10 – Excellent as ever, but slightly lacking. Think I’m gunna put that down to the absolute sub-zero temperatures the cast had to face when filming in early December last year.
• Amy = 9/10 – More of a background character in this episode, letting Rory shine a little brighter.
• Rory = 10/10 – C’est Fantastique! …or something like that.
• Jennifer = 10/10 – really lovely, sweet and innocent. Or the real Jennifer is anyway…
• Gangers = 8.6/10 – Slightly confusing in a way, their Voldemort-looks did put one off a little bit, but otherwise not too bad, definitely needs some questions answered next week.
• Plot = 8/10 – Lacking in some respects, brilliant in others. It’s definitely one of those episodes where it’s appreciated the more it’s watched.

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10—not disappointing, considering that advertisement to build up the excitement for the episode in question was reasonably lax, but there was potential in itself for the plots and ideas involved, and they were executed reasonably well. Nevertheless, here’s looking forward to next week’s episode: Doctor verses Doctor!!


Now on a completely different topic, though this has to be said… due to the amazing lack of response to the birthday competition (although a million thankyou’s to those who HAVE submitted their own works) I have hereby decided to extend the deadline to midnight Tuesday (the 24th) in my own vain hope that you, the readers, will be able to do SOMETHING to dedicate towards the Who Review’s first birthday. Now, I know there’s no physical prize, no giveaways to the winner, but still, the chance to just write, to ant, to express that what you love (or even hate) in words is enough of a reward. And for others (however sparse) to be able to read those submissions, it’s good. Honestly it is good. So please, PLEASE do something; type and let your fingers do the work and don’t be scared about voicing your thoughts and simply be brilliant. Type and be brilliant. Not for me, but for yourselves…

So remember; the new deadline is at 11:59PM, Tuesday the 24th of May—Please do something!

S06E04 - The Doctor's Wife

Two words, just two: Neil Gaiman. Oh, how my love and respect of that man has upped within the last day. The excitement and spoilers towards the Doctor’s Wife had already greatened my opinion of the critically acclaimed (posh, eh?) writer, and let me just say… the man delivers! As mentioned in last week’s review, this was one of the highest most anticipated episodes of the sixth series, along with the opening two parter at number one and the Curse at number three, and let me tell you, the moment the title of this episode was released to the media, theories were flying! Heck, even I had my own theories as seen only just a few weeks ago on this very blog! But come on, let’s face it; there’s only one true wife of the Doctor’s and that HAS to be the TARDIS, and this episode delivers that very message.

Of course, Wife isn’t the first time the fans have got off their trolleys in both hope and fear over the TARDIS gaining a physical form. Indeed, back in 2006’s Voyage of the Damned did fans believe Kylie Minogue’s characters, Astrid, to be the humanoid incarnation of the Time/Space machine herself, but alas that was not to be true, but that doesn’t mean that Suranne Jones didn’t do well. Indeed, her Helena Bonam Carter-like looks and movement made the for perfect madcap TARDIS that only Carter herself could have been able to achieve, and let’s face it, Helena wouldn’t appear in Who anytime soon, so Jones makes, and indeed made, a perfectly perfect version of the TARDIS.

And of course, the plot that leads to the TARDIS to have her—quite literal—out of body experience, was ever so perfectly constructed, with the being known only as House (let us not get confused with Hugh Laurie’s famous character ‘Doctor Gregory House’, though) and seen as a sentient planet-like asteroid in the bubble-but-not-a-bubble outside the universe, clinging onto life through the devouring of other TARDISes. Such a sorrowful encounter for the Doctor though, especially when he believed there to be a handful of surviving Timelords around and to discover it was only their messages, lost forever. Now here’s an interesting factoid for those Whovians not in the know; those psychic message containers were indeed first and last seen in the second Doctor serial, the War Games, something I wanted to watch before this episode but completely forgot. Whoops!

Finally we get a reference to someone old yet entirely new; the Timelord referred to as the Corsair, and thoughts get answers towards the Timelord regeneration process, or at least in the regards to the Corsair, where by Timelords can regenerate into Timeladies, something in theory could and would be able to work if said Lord or Lady wished to, basically, swap. Talk about a quick sex change! Okay, I’ll shut up now… sorry. Junkyards! Yes, you heard me, Totters Lane, although not as we’ve ever seen it and definitely not on Earth, makes a somewhat reappearance as the surface of House along with its residence, Idris (established above now as the TARDIS), Uncle and Aunty, not to mention the Ood, Nephew—better than Sigma now, I suppose…

What interesting… things Aunty and Uncle were though, Patchwork People, made from other bits and pieces, mostly Timelord (an interesting theory I’d have loved but would have been too complicated and messy would be for one, or both of them, to regenerate, since they have enough Timelord about them) especially Corsair, as seen from Auntie’s arm. A specific reference, any Whovian who’s seen said episode, to the Brain of Morbius, where another Timelord, this one a terrible criminal, had his brain kept in a jar while a body was constructed out of bits and pieces of dead travellers. In fact the whole setting of the TARDIS Graveyard, and bits and pieces of the house on House, was a rather quirky reminder to said Fourth Doctor episode.

What else is there to mention? Oh yes: TARDIS! NOT the one you’re thinking about, although one you should consider. Now, back in 2009, soon after Matt Smith was revealed as number Eleven and when I still watched a bit of children’s television, Blue Peter, the ever association to Who in the CBBC world, started a competition to design what was believed to become the next TARDIS console. A nine year old girl won it, with some help from Matt Smith in the final decision. Yet her specific designs seemed to be lacking in the Eleventh Hour and I for one felt a little hard done by. The poor fan had spent ages coming up with the design, colouring, writing specific information with little arrows and yet nothing had come of it. Well, finally her time to shine beckoned, for that makeshift TARDIS, made from dead scraps of others, was HER design, although seen for the best of ten minutes and latterly deleted by House, it was a design finally come to life. Better than the Absorbaloff anyway…

On a related topic of TARDISes: FINALLY! Finally we get to see the interior of the machine, and although all rather classic-Who corridors (seriously loved the hint of the classics there); it was wonderful to see the use of space and adaptability. One can tell that a lot of serious money had been put into this episode, not to mention those before in series six, and quite rightly so! And how clever to mess with Amy’s head, House that is! Her deep affection for Rory can only get more complicated after the images of both old-Rory and dead-angry-Rory will remain forever in her noggin. Speaking of noggin, another brilliant part of the episode: the TARDIS personally communicating with Rory, getting him and Amy back to the old control room—another interesting factoid, Idris-TARDIS mentioned have thirty models sored in its archive yet the Doctor has only used, according to the Big Man himself, around twelve… so that’s a few more control rooms to come! (Squeee!!!)

Now the interesting thought arrives by the means of the fact that the old control room set has been completely demolished, so did they really go to all the trouble of rebuilding the set or did they go to one already prepared for them, in let’s say the Doctor Who Experience? Now, watching Confidential didn’t exactly help, so if there’s anyone in the ‘know’ out there, please don’t hesitate to inform me for I shall be most interested in your response!

What an emotional ride for the Doctor though, this episode has definitely started a new chapter in his bond with the TARDIS, not to mention such history reveled and a future revelation revealed: The only water in the forest is the river. An obvious connection to River Song it must be said, not to mention an immediate though to ‘FOREST of the Dead’, the Tenth Doctor adventure and River’s final one with the man himself, but could it be that the clue is just a little too obvious? Again, thoughts would be appreciated, am sure there are a few cleverly constructed theories out there!

As ever, am sure there has been a tonne seemingly missed out, and if there are questions regarding the episode, a suggestion of re-watching it wouldn’t go amiss, but in the meantime:

• Doctor = 10/10 – Matt Smith is just the being of perfection, just so fantastic and dare I say it, quirky.
• Amy = 10/10 – She was the heart and soul of the episode as ever; joining the dots when her boys simply couldn’t.
• Rory = 10/10 – He’s getting braver every episode, and Arthur Darvill’s acting: Just astounding!
• Idris (TARDIS) = 9.5/10 – No matter what some people may say (you know who you are), Suranne was just wonderful in the role, adding just the right madness to the role of an ancient being that basically is the universe in a box.
• Plot = 9/10 – Could have involved a few more aspects, and the Ood was just a little pointless if more mind games could have been played on the married couple, but nothing better in Who than a mad chase down a corridor while being pursued by a killer with tentacles.

Overall Episode Rating: 9/10 – Despite some subtle dodgy moments and constant changes in the running flow of the episode, it was simply fantastic. Some amazing acting, loads of new-past references, thoughts towards what the Timelord race could have been should the good ones had run the place, and not to mention some brilliant CGI aspects. A perfectly constructed episode, something you HAVE to have with Gaiman at the helm.

Well, now that the must-see, most talked about episodes are finally locked in the Matrix memory of thousands of fans, it has to be a wonder what the Rebel Flesh has to offer, and one has to look on in sadness, for although there is two parts to this series, part one will soon be at a close as there really are only three more episodes to go already!

Now on a completely different topic, and just as a reminder to readers, there is a competition going towards the Who Review’s first birthday, all of which details can be viewed here, pictures can be included too, but might me edited to fit and suit, but you have SIX days left, so get typing! It is, after all, the perfect opportunity to let your creativity simply flow…