Heaven Sent

The penultimate episode of this highly enjoyable series is a unique one. It’s unique because Peter Capaldi is the only person in the episode. I’m not really counting Jenna Coleman’s cameo appearance because then it takes away the shine of my previous statement. To have just the Doctor and no one else is rather brave thing to do and would require a good plot to keep everyones attention for the extended 55 minute running time. With this episode, Steven Moffat becomes the fourth highest credited writer in Doctor Who.

Peter Capaldi has put in some great performances since he became the Doctor and even when the episodes haven’t been the greatest, I have thought that Capaldi’s performances in the episodes were what saved them. Watching Heaven Sent, its clear that he has been drastically under rated. He gets to show us what he can do when he doesn’t have anyone to act against.

The Doctor spends the episode in a castle where there is the slowest creature following the Doctor. It manages to catch up with the Doctor and the only way that the Doctor can escape it is by telling it a truth. There are moments where the Doctor ‘escapes’ into the TARDIS and I thought that these brief scenes were good because it broke up the pace in the castle and just gave a different feel to the episode. This is where we see the back of Clara who is writing on a blackboard and this is the closest that the Doctor comes to interacting with someone.

The Doctor has to find room 12 and this is where the episode really feels like it heading towards something and there is some made up diamond type thing between the Doctor and what at first I thought was the TARDIS and he punches his way through and it takes two billion years to punch his way through which is a crazy thing but the repetitive shots of his time in the castle getting quicker and quicker helps to build up to the ultimate moment where he breaks through and where he ends up in the place that I think most people knew would make an appearance at some point.

The creature that is chasing the Doctor turns out to be the Hybrid which has been mentioned throughout this series and the Hybrid kills the Doctor leading to the rather horrific point that the skulls at the bottom of the sea all belong to the Doctor and are the times when the Hybrid has killed the Doctor.

When the Doctor makes it back to Gallifrey this was a very important moment because after 10 years of thinking that Gallifrey was never going to be visited again that we have a series finale that will be set on it and not in a retrospective way as has been the case before. This will be the first time since Arc of Infinity that a story takes place on Gallifrey and I am really excited that we have got round the big roadblock that Russell T Davies set up a decade ago. Some people are calling this a classic. I don’t think that it is but it is certainly the best story of the series and in years to come this may come close to that classic tag but I think that if the final episode has potential to be the best story of the series but time will tell.

Criss-Cross

Criss-Cross is the first official story for Miranda Raison as Constance Clarke. I say official because this was supposed to be the first story for her but then Big Finish decided to release The Last Adventure early and so we got to hear what the character would be like earlier than expected and it was difficult to know what to make of the companion based on just one out of context story. This was going to be the story that would decide whether the character would work or not. After the rather dramatic way that Flip’s last story was and the passing of Maggie Stables, it was perhaps time for Sixie to have a new companion and Constance Clarke is a strong minded woman from the 1940’s which is quite a clever choice from Big Finish because we’ve never had a companion from that period.

Lets dispel any suspense by saying that I like the character of Constance. She is strong minded as I said but what I think works is that Miranda Raison plays the role perfectly and is likeable despite butting heads with the Doctor at first. I think that her sudden decision to join the Doctor could have been handled slightly better but on the whole I think that the combination of the Doctor and Constance is going to work very well. Colin Baker rarely puts a foot wrong in Doctor Who stories anymore. In fact I cant remember the last time he blundered and he seems to have new life having teamed up with Raison. The two appears in 2010’s The Wreck of the Titan together but this time they are working together and Baker is enjoying himself with the story and now that he has a new companion that has brains but also is lacking in some aspects of life due her time period.

As far as the story is concerned, I liked it very much. I have to confess that I haven’t always been the biggest fan of Matt Fitton’s writing. It’s not that he is a terrible writer – far from it – but there was just something that didn’t quite work all the time. I have enjoyed stories such as Afterlife (2013), Survivors: Revelation (2014) and his Early Adventures An Ordinary Life (2014) is his best work. I think that he has written a story with a great setting and a threat that is easy to understand and its easy to understand why it’s doing what it is doing. I don’t think that this is quite as good as An Ordinary Life but it is a highly enjoyable story and its got to be in my top three of the year.  

Criss-Cross is a good start to the series and I have to say that I am loking forward to the remaining two stories in the series. The steady improvement of the main range continues and I think that this is one of those stories that will grow on me and I could easily see this story doing well in this years Tomstardis Awards. Time will tell.

Face The Raven

This was hinted at being the final episode for Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald and despite it being public knowledge that Coleman was leaving, there is just some nagging doubt that this might not be the case in tonight’s episodes. Lets just assume that this is the final episode for Clara then it was clear that things weren’t going to end well because at the beginning of the episode the Doctor and Clara are laughing and having fun. That’s always a bad sign when its not the norm.

The episode sees the return of Rigsy who was the slightly irritating character from last years Flatline episode and more importantly the return of Maisie Williams who we saw in the less than exciting Girl Who Died/Woman Who Lived two parter. If there is one aspect of the story that I don’t think worked that well it’s the return of Rigsy. Quite why the decision was made to bring him back is beyond me because he didn’t really bring anything to the story. It’s not the fault of Joivan Wade but more the person who had the idea of bringing him back. The return of Ashildr was more successful as it felt that there was a purpose to it and I thought that there was a nice underlying menace to Williams’ performance because she was running the little village that the story was set in and yet had someone above her to serve.

I thought that the death scene for Clara was very good. Whilst it was an insanely stupid thing to do with an almost 0% chance of success, it was the perfect opportunity for Clara to sacrifice herself for the sake of the Doctor and Rigsy. Clara has been in the background for most of this series and it seemed like she was being saved until this episode. I think that the character of Clara has been a good one overall although I do hope whoever replaces her isn’t saddle with the mystery backstory that she was. Hopefully Moffat will just let a companion be a companion. The final scene between Clara and the Doctor was one of the strongest emotional scenes for quite sometime. Some people have compared it to Donna’s final scene in Journeys End but I think this was better. You could actually see Capaldi’s face show warmth in this scene and bearing in mind how he wasn’t a hugger in Deep Breath, its funny how close they ended up.

The big mystery is where the Doctor is going to end up and also who Ashildr is working for. I think we all know where the Doctor is going to end up but Im not going to say anything until it happens cause I don’t want to end up with egg all over my face. If it is where I think it then it will end a story arc that has been 10 years in the making.

Sarah Dollard’s first script for the show is very good and she should be praised for writing a tense and dark story that ratches up the tension and I thought that the whole episode worked well and when she needed to do the emotional scenes she did them rather well. I look forward to more stories from her in the future. Justin Molotnikov’s second episode is just as good as the first. The fact that they film on real streets in a real London bought a freshness that the series had been missing. I think he captured the mood rather well and is another of this series’ successes.

Face The Raven is a highly enjoyable story with some highly enjoyable performances. It might not be setting the world alight due to ratings but it shows that even 10 years after it returned, it can still entertain and show that it has just as much imagination as it did in 2005. Just days before the shows 52^nd anniversary, the show is in just as good health as it was in 1963. Now onto the final two episodes.

Jago and Litefoot and Strax

Even though Jago and Litefoot and Strax wasn’t the first release featuring new series characters to be released by Big Finish, it was the first that I listened to. I thought that after just finishing the tenth series, I would strike while the iron is hot. The idea of Strax appearing with Jago and Litefoot is an obvious one because of the period that Strax along with Vastra and Jenny are in on the TV. It’s also an idea that has endless possibilities. These are two worlds being thrust together and it could only go well.  The thing about this story is that I think it should be treated very much like Voyage to the New World and Voyage to Venus from 2012. They are canon as far as I am concerned but they are like the Christmas specials on TV, they are canon but not really part of the timeline for the characters.

The plot for this story isn’t terribly complicated and that is what I like about Justin Richards’ writing because it means that characters and their situations are allowed to be the centre of attention. This means there are several good scenes between the trio and from time to time with Ellie and Quick. The way that Strax is integrated into the story is very clever as due to a bump on the head he thinks that Jago and Litefoot are Vastra and Jenny. It’s as close to them being in the story as we are likely to get at the moment but I got the feeling that these two worlds are taking place at the same time. One part I found amusing was the reaction of Jago and Litefoot when they realise that Jenny and Vastra were married which is something that wasn’t acceptable back then.

The performances from Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter were as they always are and that is enjoyable. Lisa Bowerman’s double duty as director and Ellie are a credit to the story and I thought that Ellie was very good in this story and I like how she pushed herself in going along with the new trio. I would have liked more of Quick because he didn’t seem to be in the story as much as he normally would be but that is probably the only thing I would change. Caroline Seymour also appears in this story and as I am a fan of the Survivors range, instantly recognised her voice and thought that it was good for Seymour to have something different to do other than Abby looking for her son.

It was commented on in the interviews at the end of the story where I think its Trevor Baxter who said that bringing in Strax bought a freshness to things. I don’t think he meant that after 10 series, the range has started to get a bit repetitive but I think that including someone like Strax means that for a short period you can have a bit of fun with the dynamic. I really enjoyed this story and felt that the mixing of new and old Who has worked well and I look forward to listening to UNIT: Extinction but hopefully this story will be popular enough that the rest of the Paternoster Gang wont be too far away. I hope that future stories with Strax will allow for more Jago and Litefoot type plots because the dynamic of Jago and Litefoot and Strax could cope with it.

Sleep No More

Sleep No More is the first single part episode of the series. The NEXT TIME trailer at the end of the previous episode gave the impression that it was a dark story and after having several episodes where this was the case, I wondered whether this was the right thing to do.

The most noticeable thing about the episode is that there wasn’t a theme tune. There was a caption that had the words DOCTOR WHO on it but that was about it. The information about the writer and director and producer was put on at the end. This was the first time that no theme tune played at the beginning of an episode. Yet in the history of the show I suspect that this information will get overlooked.

The whole set up of the episode is that the Doctor and Clara find themselves on a spaceship above Neptune where they (and others) are being hunted by strange looking creatures. That is as standard a Doctor Who story as you need but being a Mark Gatiss script, its going to be a bit more interesting than that. I worked out that that the monsters were made of sand just before it was revealed but I thought that the whole episode was more about what we saw on screen as opposed to the context of the plot. To be honest I don’t think that it was one of the strongest stories for Gatiss in terms of plot. I liked the found footage take on the episode as it feels very much of its time. I wonder if people will appreciate this in 10 or 20 years time. I thought that this episode was well directed by newbie Justin Molotnikov. It was very dark, very claustrophobic and also moved along at a good pace. I think having got use to two parters and the pace that those stories bring, it was nice to have a story that moved a bit quicker.

The idea that someone has created a machine that condense a month sleep into a few minutes is something that is pure SF. The beauty of the idea is that everyone but the person who ‘creates it’ knows that its going to fail. In this case we are talking about Rassmussen who is played superbly by Reece Shearsmith. The best bit from Shearsmith comes at the end when he is talking to the camera and says that we as viewers have been duped into watching and he rubs his eye and it starts to crumble.

The performances from Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman were ok. They weren’t as strong as in previous episodes. I think that the style of the episode meant that there wasn’t the possibility for anyone one person to stand out. Quite unusual for a Doctor Who story.

I think that this story is designed to be followed by sequels. If not then the ending doesn’t quite work but when watching it I found myself being impressed with it.  It’s not the greatest episode of the series but I think that it tried to do something different and that should always be praised. The next episode looks like quite an interesting and the ending for Clara is coming.

Jago and Litefoot: Series 10

It’s amazing that we are now on series ten of Jago and Litefoot. It was only five years ago that there was the pilot in the Companion Chronicles and the setup of two series a year would have hurt other series yet this style seems to have suited this range. The ninth series was somewhat of a disappointment if I am being honest. I think that it might require a second listen but my immediate impression was that Jago and Litefoot on a cruise was a missed opportunity. Including The Mahogany Murderers and the two Voyage stories that Jago and Litefoot had with the Sixth Doctor in 2012, there have been 39 adventures with our favourite dynamic duo. Part of me was hoping that this series would show that the previous series was a blip which does seem the case because on the whole the first eight series have all been very good.

The opening story of this series is The Case of the Missing Gasogene and first off there is the question of what a Gasogene actually is. I thought that it was something that has been made up but thanks to the wonder of Wikipedia it confirms that it was a late Victorian device for producing Carbonated water. The story introduces Carruthers Summerton played superbly by Toby Hadoke. Summerton is following Jago and Litefoot around while they investigate the death of some rich guy’s manservant. It was a good opening story and comforted me to know that the series was back on track. With this being the 39^th story for these two, both Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin are allowed to have fun with their characters as they have differing opinions as to how to proceed with Summerton volleying between the two camps. What Simon Barnard & Paul Morris have managed to do is to write a story that feels like it has some new ideas yet slot it perfectly well into a traditional setting like Jago and Litefoot. Had I not known that the character of Summerton would be back in the series then I would have said that his use was rather disappointing because there was clearly something more to him. Thankfully there is going to be more and so there is the potential for a new story arc involving this character. There was something that reminded me of the character Huxley from the companion chronicle stories Ringpullworld (2009) and Find and Replace (2010).

The second part is The Year of the Bat which sees Jago and Litefoot send letters to themselves in an attempt to change certain things in their pasts. Now there is argument that could be made that changing the events of your history is a dangerous thing but that sort of thought should be left to the main Doctor Who range. As long as you don’t give this too much thought then the story is another highly enjoyable story. The performances from Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter are great as usual but credit should go to Blake Ritson and Alex Lowe who play Young Litefoot and Young Jago respectively. They give an idea of what a companion chronicle with these two would be like if they weren’t with us.

The third story was the weakest in my opinion. The Mourning After has a cracking pre-title scene where Litefoot and Ellie are at the funeral of Jago but the twist is that Jago has been buried alive and when the theme tune ends he is released from his torture but is rather distressed to be in the year 2000. I am a little disappointed because I felt that there was some potential to have this linked with the previous story because of the history that they messed around with in that story it could quite easily have been an easy story to write. It wasn’t a terrible story by any means because it was written by James Goss who is a writer that I like because he can tell good stories. The fact that David Warner made a return was one of the things that I liked because David Warner is never rubbish and I liked how there was a mystery as to whether his character could be trusted. It’s clear that he isn’t being as honest as he could be. There are zombies in this story which is being linked to Betterman but beyond that there doesn’t seem to be much to take from this story.

The final story of the series is arguably the best because it feels like a greatest hits album. The Museum of Curiosities sees the true intentions of Carrthurs Summerton. I like how he has set up a museum with all the bits and pieces associated with previous adventures and various villains that they have encountered. It’s a story that builds up to a great conclusion and its towards the end that Betterman’s true colours are shown and that he has been manipulated. I thought that this episode did a great job of ending the character of Summerton. It seemed like Toby Hadoke was having the time of his life playing this role. As various references to previous stories kept popping up it was fun trying to remember which story it was referring to and what happened in that particular story. It was another sound story and it had a great cliffhanger which saw the appearance of the Master which totally had me shocked and made me wish that Series 11 was released tomorrow.

Overall this series has been a return to form. This series felt like classic Jago and Litefoot and the stories have all felt like new ideas and what is a relief is that even after ten series it doesn’t feel like the series is running out of ideas and coming across as stale. Another success for Big Finish.