Time Heist (2014)

After being somewhat disappointed with last week’s episode. I was somewhat hoping that this episode would return back to something resembling good form. Certainly the trailer seemed to indicate this and the start of the episode seemed to start off like most episodes this series. The Doctor takes Clara away in the TARDIS and off onto their next adventure but within moments, the normality is disrupted when the Doctor and Clara are in a new room with two complete strangers. The two people that the Doctor and Clara meet are Psi and Saibra who are a augmented human and a shape shifter. There is a recording which in a nutshell sets up the story saying that they have had their memories wiped and it was all of their volition.  

 

I think I like the idea that Clara isn’t always with the Doctor in the TARDIS. I like the idea that she has a life away from the Doctor and the Doctor keeps popping in like a relative. The phone ringing is still a rare thing. I think the last time it rang was in the 2005 story ‘The Empty Child’. The whole theme of the episode (as the title suggests) is that it’s a heist adventure. The episode takes place in a bank which given the current attitude towards the banking community is perhaps the sort of area that deserves to have people of ill repute running it.  

 

The first thing that strikes me about this episode is that there is less of Clara hogging centre stage and the Doctor actually being the lead character. It’s fair to say that Jenna Coleman’s performances in recent weeks have been overshadowing Capaldi’s at a time when he should be striding away with the role. Here Capaldi shows us how good he is and there were moments of Malcolm Tucker in a few lines. Despite my growing frustration at the character of Clara, I think that Jenna Coleman’s performance was very good. I thought that it was good how Clara didn’t go gooey eyed over Psi and even their goodbye hug wasn’t a soppy send off.  

The main name that appears in this episode is Keeley Hawes who plays Ms Delphox. As much as I wanted to like her character I thought that Hawes’ performance was very similar to that of Ms Foster as played by Sarah Lancashire in the 2008 story ‘Partners in Crime’. I think that this Hawes’s character was slightly better because compared to ‘Partners in Crime’, the plot in this one was stronger. 

 

I thought that Psi and Saibra were two very good characters and Jonathan Bailey & Pippa Bennett-Warner did a good job of keeping up with Capaldi and Coleman. Normally I would have found the character of Psi to be irritating and I would instantly hate the actor playing the part but on this occasion I found the performance and the actor to be quite good. I thought that Bennett-Warner gave an understate yet engaging performance and I wanted these two characters to be alright at the end of the episode and thankfully they did.  

If I have an issue with the episode then I think that it runs away with itself in the final few minutes when its revealed that the person calling the TARDIS phone at the very beginning of the episode was Madame Karabraxos as an old woman. On a side note, I thought that the make-up was very good. Certainly better than some of the make up used to make people older that we have seen in previous episodes. The idea that she is ringing the Doctor in her dyeing days was something that clearly had Steven Moffat’s fingerprints all over it because it seemed overly complex. 

 

I’ve managed to get this far without referring to the monster which looked very good and is one of the strongest monster designs for quite sometime. The idea that it’s being forced against its will to do something isn’t terribly original but its used quite well here and the moment when its revealed that the Teller is the last of its kind was quite nice and about as soppy as it got. 

 

I definitely thought that ‘Time Heist’ was miles better than the previous episode because at least it felt like a normal Doctor Who episode. I still think that ‘Into the Dalek’ is the best episode of the series but at least this episode shows that ‘Listen’ was just a blip. Nearly halfway through the series and its been a pretty good run of episode with only one really letting it down. 

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (2013)

One of my favourite Doctor Who stories is ‘Inside the Spaceship’ which for those that don’t know is a two part episode set entirely inside the TARDIS. Part of the reason was because the idea of using the TARDIS as part of the story instead of using it merely as a somewhere for the main characters to leave and arrive in. This story was one that intrigued me just because of the name. The story sees the TARDIS picked up by scavengers and whilst the Doctor manages to escape, Clara isn’t so lucky and so the journey to rescue her begins and to add to the drama there are weird zombie monsters chasing them.

We finally got the swimming pool and the library which was mentioned way back in the Big Bang and I must admit I loved the look of the library. In fact I loved all of the TARDIS, this was the most in depth look inside the TARDIS ever. The Eye of Harmony was a particular highlight as it was much improved on the McGann version. Whereas way back in ‘The Invasion of Time’ it was clear that they filmed in an abandoned hospital where the quality of look of it changed from room to room, in this story it all flowed into one and I bought into the idea that this was in one place and was probably done in a studio. The Zombie monsters were well realised as they were creepy and yet the effect done on screen helped to create a mystery about just what they were. I didn’t guess what they were but when it was revealed I thought that it was the sort of bonkers thinking that Steven Moffat would have come up with.

If I had to find a fault with this story then it would the plausibility of a book about the Time War just being left out in the open. Considering it’s a part of his history that he’s not fond about talking of, then it seems quite odd that he wouldn’t just bury it somewhere. However in its defence it does serve a narrative purpose so this point is more nit-picking than anything else. This felt like it was building up to the end of the series as Clara knows what the Doctor’s name is and we will find out at the end of the series.

Mat King did a top job directing this story and must have thought his numbers had come up when he read the script for this episode. I don’t think he’s done one of these before but he managed to make the corridor scenes seem as action packed as the rest of the scenes. This was Stephen Thompson’s second story for Doctor Who after the 2011 story ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’ which I wasn’t wild about and this was so much better and Thompson has to be praised for this episode.

The central performances are always a joy to watch and this week’s episode was no exception. Jenna-Louise Coleman seemed to me like she was going to have a hard job replacing Karen Gillan but to be fair to her she has excelled in the role and is possibly my favourite new series companion. She’s feisty without being irritating and doesn’t have a boyfriend or family to worry about and so she is the ideal companion and thrives in the episodes that she has been in. Matt Smith has been really strong this series and continues that here. I love how Clara is a mystery to the Doctor and despite his hundreds of year of traveling through time, he still can be baffled with someone or something and Smith does a good job in portraying this.

This is another cracking story. It was well written, well acted and well directed. It’s fair to say that Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS is a fans episode and in the 50^th Anniversary year that’s always a good thing.

The Curse of the Black Spot (2011)

After the dramatic and epic start to the 32nd series of Doctor Who, it’s time top slow things down a bit. In the same year as Pirates of the Caribbean comes out. It seems an opportune moment for the Doctor to visit the high seas. The story is set aboard a ship which is being terrorised by a Siren who seemingly marks your hand with a black spot which the crew thinks is a curse (see what they did with the title?). The Siren is played by Lily Cole (nope, me neither) and the Siren turns out to be a medic who is trying to treat the crew and their primitive minds think that it’s a curse. I did find it funny how she got angry and when it’s revealed she’s a medic then its just that she turns into an over protective matron. Imagine Hattie Jacques with fangs.

There are a few issues that I have with this story and the first being the slow start. I know I wrote at the beginning that it was time to slow things down a bit not to this degree. It takes a while to get the story going and my interest. I also thought that Rory was badly used in this story. He gets marked too quickly and starts acting silly whenever the Siren appears. It was only when the story moved to the sick bay that Rory’s use became sensible. Another issue is with the ending, so Henry Avery (Hugh Bonneville) who is a 17th Century pirate and goes from being reunited with his son (who’s lost his mother), boards the TARDIS which doesn’t blow his mind and then starts to fly the spaceship. This last point would have made more sense if we had seen the Doctor showing Henry (or were the Silence in the room?).

The casting for this story was quite big. Hugh Bonneville (Henry) was the biggest name as he has recently appeared in the ITV1 drama Downton Abbey and the BBC4 mockumentary Twenty-Twelve. As Henry Avery, he is very good and is a believeable character. I did feel that introducing the kid was a bit of a cop-out and slightly humanised the character. Speaking of the kid he was just irrelevant. Played by Oscar Lloyd (recently in Emmerdale), the character was there so that Henry had someone to be with at the end of the episode. Lee Ross is another ex-soap star having previous appeared in Eastenders and his character was fairly standard. According to Wikipedia, Lily Cole is a model and it’s that reason why she didn’t say a word. To be fair it was actually dramatically a good reason for the Siren not to say anything because it gave the character a sense of mystery.

Just in case we were getting withdrawal symptons from last week, there were nods to that story in TCOTBS. The Cyclops lady appears in the timber of the ship when Amy wakes up and the TARDIS scanner is still trying to work out whether Amy is pregnant or not. You get the sense that Amy is going to tell the Doctor that he will be killed by the Astronaut.

Apart from my main concerns about the use of Rory. All three of the cast put in good performances. Another story and another hat for Matt Smith to try on. Thankfully it didn’t last long. Karen Gillan unusually got to do some sword fighting but apart from had to do the loving wife bit who was teary eyed over Amy possibly losing Rory.

Whilst TCOTBS isn’t the best story of the series, it’s a good single episode. Yes it takes a while to get going and they use Rory badly but everything else is very good. It’s good that they filmed on a ship as it gave the clostrophic feel that you need if your filming this sort of thing. Visually the story was also another strong one and credit should go to everyone involved. TCOTBS is sadly going to be regarded as the least favourite not because its rubbish but compared to other stories it doesn’t have the dramatic punch that other stories will have. Take next week’s episode with the curious title ‘The Doctor’s Wife’. Oh boy!!!