The Girl Who Died/The Woman Who Lived

Between Series 6 (32) and 8 (34) there were just three two parters and for series 9 (35) we have now had three two parters so it seems that with the series length reduced to an even number, Moffat has clued on that people want two parters and the previous two parters have been highly enjoyable and had lots of actions. The first part was written by Steven Moffat and Jamie Matthieson. Quite why it took two people to write this script alludes me. The set up for this episode is that the Doctor and Clara arrive on Earth in Viking times and the village they arrive just in time for an attack from the Mire. Things move along and then Ashildr dies and is bought back to live but the thing about the first episode is that it feels an awful lot like padding. It’s the sort of padding which would be seen during the classic era. At the end I just thought that a lot happened but nothing substantial happened.

The second episode is where all the interesting stuff starts to happen. Despite some nice performances, the story was ruined by Rory the lion popping up later in the episode as the main threat and someone that Me is working with.

This story was heavily billed because it featured Maisie Williams who is apparently well known because of her role in Game of Thrones. She is definetly better when she plays Me than Ashidr. Not quite convinced that Me is a good name for a character even though the explanation given was quite clever.

This story and the second episode in particular is very much a character piece because over the course of the two episodes not much happens. You could easily edit these two episodes into one. I think that the second episode tries to explore the idea that immortality is a curse is something that was explored (briefly) in The Five Doctors and also mentioned in School Reunion (2006). I think that its generally perceived that immortality isn’t the great thing that it could be.

One aspect of the second episode that I found good was that I didn’t miss Clara. It was about 15 minutes into the episode before I noticed she hadn’t appeared yet. I think that this shows how good Peter Capaldi was and how good Maisie Williams was. During their scenes together they were both on very good form.

One thing that still makes me chuckle is all the speculation about who Maisie Williams’ character was. Many thought it was Susan or maybe Jenny and it turns out that she was just a normal girl/woman and there wasn’t anything extra terrestrial about her is something that must have annoyed loads of people on Gallifrey Base. It was a relief that there was nothing special about her although for a while I did think that maybe she was Jenny but that didn’t last very long.

I did like the bit where the Doctor finally realises why he chose this face. It was a question he asked back in his first story and its because of the events from Fires of Pompeii when the Tenth Doctor leaves and then has a change of heart and goes back to save Capaldi’s character in that story. It’s not such a barmy idea because Romana second incarnation is based on Princess Astra so with this logic it means that Peter Davison’s Doctor based his sixth incarnation on Commander Maxil from Arc of Infinity.

This two parter is the weakest so far of the season and maybe even of Capaldi’s tenure on the show. There are bits that are quite good but as a two parter it isn’t very exciting.  I think that its because it moves too slowly and after four episodes. It took three people to write these two episodes and to be honest that’s too many. I think that Catherine Treganna had the stronger episode. It would be wrong for me not to acknowledge the directing because Ed Bazalgette did a very good job as he utilises the lovely locations that the story was being filmed in and the house that is used in the second part looked fantastic and the lighting was just perfect. It’s amusing to think that Bazalgette went from lead guitarist of The Vapors who had a hit with Turning Japanese and then ended up directing Doctor Who.

The NEXT TIME trailer shows that the Zygons return to Doctor Who. Typical, you wait nearly forty years for a Zygon story and then we get two in two years.

The Witch's Familiar (2015)

After being very impressed with the opening episode, there was an awful lot riding on this week’s episode. There was a number of new things done in the previous episode that were new and more would appear in this episode but the pre-title scene features just Clara and Missy where we get a scene which basically explains how Clara and Missy managed to get out of the Dalek chamber despite being shot by the Daleks. This allows Missy to be quite humorous whilst telling a story about the Doctor. By the time the music played and Clara and Missy were walking into the distance with Clara wanting the stick I couldn’t help but find myself thinking that this is a potential spin off for Big Finish.

If there is one thing that this episode that will forever stick in my memory it is the part where the Doctor scoops Davros out of his chair and appears in the main chamber sitting in the chair. The sight of the Doctor in that rather distinctive chair is one that may never leave me. The effect used to show that Davros is half the man he used to be is rather good and this is another reason why Steven Moffat deserves more credit that he gets. Other things that are used in this episode include a nostalgia nod to the very first Dalek story. Clara get to sit inside a Dalek and this mirrors what Ian Chesterton did. The difference is that Moffat uses this opportunity to do something different because when Clara tries to say something nice it gets changed by the Dalek and words like Exterminate get shouted. This leads to a nice little scene at the end of the episode where the Clara Dalek is approaching the Doctor and she is trying to convince him that she’s not a proper Dalek whilst Missy is trying to convince otherwise is the last bit of drama in the episode and it’s a nice three hander.

The thing about this episode is that it is definitely Julian Bleach’s episode as he pretty much stole the show. There was always the possibility of Davros not dying but it’s the truth and when the Doctor realises that Davros is being honest it leads to a wonderful bit where Davros opens his real eyes for the first time. A dying Davros along with the sun rising on Skaro is another great moment in the episode. Davros’ return has been a huge success and hopefully it wont be another eight years before the character returns.

There is the whole part in the sewer that is a mix of new and old because they went through tunnels in the first Dalek story and in this episode we get Clara and Missy finding a different way of getting into the Dalek city but the fine mind of Steven Moffat means that the walls of the tunnels in this story are in fact old Daleks that have been reduced to brown goo. I know that this aspect of the story didn’t go down too well especially when it lead to the Daleks being defeated. I admit visually it was a bit gross but in terms of narrative, it works really well and the idea of gooey Daleks being rather angry and in pain is quite clever.

There are aspects of this episode that don’t work quite well and the first being Missy. She was really quite menacing in Deep Water and Death in Heaven but in these two episodes she has lost a lot of the menace. There were glimmers of the old Missy/Master but on the whole it seems that Missy has been reduced to the companion status that was given to Clara. The only good moment was when she was convincing the Doctor about the Dalek with Clara in. That is about as much as I can fault the episode because when I watched the omnibus and it was mixed into one I thought that everything worked really well and it could easily have been a movie. The writing was clever, the directing was superb from Hettie MacDonald and the performances were really strong. The visual effects were all top notch and recreating Skaro in the way that it was seen on screen was stunning and just makes me wish they could have been used in the stories set on Skaro in the past.

This two parter (only the second one for Peter Capaldi) is really enjoyable and shows that the series is going from strength to strength. Watching the next time trailer I think that this could be a potential new classic because it’s the base under water siege type story and I always love them.

The Magicians Apprentice

Doctor Who is back and to be honest, it’s the most exciting start to a series since The Impossible Astronaut. In fact this is only the second time in new Who that the show has started off with a two parter which is surprisingly a rare thing. The opening scene is one that had been used in the trailer so whilst it wasn’t as impressive as it had been in the trailer, this opening scene is memorable for one simple reason and that is the name of the little boy was Davros. I don’t mind admitting that there were a few goose bumps when this happened. The idea that the Doctor then leaves Davros and effectively creates the Davros is a great one.

The early part of this story had quite a lot of surprising cameos. There are too many to mention but ones that stood out were the Ood, The Judoon, the Hath from The Doctor’s Daughter and that red eyed woman from the Shadow Proclamation. As nice as it was to have more references from the RTD era in the show its not really clear why she was bought back in. The strange gliding figure that was after the Doctor was an impressive creation by Steven Moffat and there was a sense when it was revealed that he was a snake seemed to me to try and banish the memories of the awful snake used in Kinda for those who haven’t bought the DVD of that story with the new CGI effect.

It’s great having Davros back in Doctor Who because there was always something slightly underused about Davros in The Stolen Earth/Journeys End in 2008. Julian Bleach was great as Davros in that story and I am so glad that they managed to get him back in this story. The Davros that we see in this story is not very well and has called the Doctor to him but with the Doctor hiding its not an easy thing. Another big thing is the return of Skaro. There have been several mentions on twitter than they knew that it was Skaro but I didn’t see it coming. The room with all the Daleks was again something used in the trailer but there was one moment when the first Dalek style appeared outside which was a wonderful moment.

I cant believe that I have got this far in the review without mentioning Missy. Missy had been such an integral part of the final two episodes of the previous series that it seemed obvious that she would return but just not quite so soon. What I like about her being bought back is that she seems to have been bought back in as a sort of ally to Clara. There is a bit where Missy points to a couple walking a dog and she says that Clara is the dog is a wonderful way of describing the relationship between the three. There has always been something more about the relationship between the Doctor and Missy/Master than a simple good vs bad style. I like when the Doctor says that Davros is his greatest enemy and it annoys Missy. Michelle Gomez does seem to have reigned it back such a little bit but it’s enough.

There was as much Peter Capaldi as I would have liked but once he eventually appeared in the story properly it was full on bonkers. There has never been a moment that comes close the Doctor entering a room on a tank playing the guitar playing I think the Doctor Who theme. There is no explanation given as to why the Doctor is here but in a way it doesn’t matter because it was mad. Now that it has been confirmed that Jenna Coleman is leaving at the end of the series there seems to be little purpose in pretending that Clara has been killed. At the end of the episode its suggested that she has been exterminated by the Daleks which is clearly not the case.

The cliffhanger is rather good and is the sort of cliffhanger that I would have expected towards the end of the series but to get it in the first episode is something of a surprise. It sees the Doctor go back to Young Davros and is about to exterminate him. Like most things in this episode I didn’t see it coming and thought it was a great way to end what has been one of the best series openers. I do hope that someone in the next episode would be able to explain the purpose of the title of this episode because that is the only aspect of the entire thing that doesn’t quite sit right with me. Despite this, the writing from Steven Moffat is on fine form here. Those that hate his time on the show are now shown to be stupid because the whole episode was action packed and the idea of using Davros’ life as a potential story arc is something that no one else would have thought of.

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. 

The Time of the Doctor (2013)

Well as the continuity announcer said during the credits for Call the Midwife, it’s the Regeneration Game. That’s about as funny as this episode would get I suspect. It’s the final episode for Matt Smith as the Doctor and introduces Peter Capaldi as the Doctor (not getting stuck in number cycle issue). This is the 800^th episode of Doctor Who and so that’s another reason to celebrate.

The opening scene where the Doctor lands on the Dalek ship and it goes from darkness around him to all their eyestalk lights appearing is a great opening scene and it immediately goes to the Cybermen and what is most curious of all is that the Doctor has a Cyberman’s head with him and I would have liked an explanation as to why and how he got it. Moffat uses a rather unusual (but festively obvious) way of getting Clara back into the TARDIS. This being a Christmas episode, Clara is trying to cook Christmas dinner and boards the TARDIS with the cold turkey.

It’s like this episode is a greatest hits for the Eleventh Doctor. The first to appear are the Silence. From the moment that the Silence appear its clear they have been to the tailor and it’s a better look for them than the white shirt and black tie they had before. Next up are the Weeping Angels who are now able to fight their way through the snow, they are always good. Next up we have the crack in the wall from his first series and this perhaps has the most significant part of the story. Then of course we have the old school references. I did love the reference to ‘The Five Doctors’. We have the Monoid puppet. These are done in a way that they will make sense to fans like myself yet wont confuse the newer viewer. Finally I have to say that wooden Cybermen are a brilliant idea and they look really creepy.

We get the speech about how many regenerations the Doctor has had though I’m still not convinced.

The eye stalks coming out of peoples head that first appeared in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ return here in another greatest hits nod. Silence with eye stalks are a weird but good look. For the second time in a row there is a very impressive battle sequence and its well shot and looks like a fair amount of money and effort went into it.

As the Doctor was getting older I got a feeling like this was trying to get the newer fan use to the idea of the Doctor being older. As Capaldi is a fair bit older its probably wise thing. I think that at times Smith looked like William Hartnell which I found amusing. I don’t quite get why the crack appeared in the sky and it started the Doctor regeneration. That said I thought that it was a great scene and I liked how the Doctor used the regeneration power to destroy the Dalek spaceship.

The final scene between the Doctor and Clara is really nice and I thought for a moment that when the Doctor appears that it would be Capaldi’s Doctor with a hologram face but thankfully that didn’t happen and Smith got a fine goodbye speech which wasn’t as soppy as Tennant’s final scene. I didn’t expect Amy to return but that was a nice touch.

Capaldi’s opening scene was just as barmy as Smith’s opening scene. I just like the idea that the Doctor doesn’t like the colour of his kidneys. I don’t think anyone and I mean anyone can judge what sort of Doctor Capaldi will be based on this short scene but what I can say is that it will be different to Matt Smith’s performance.

Matt Smith’s performance is very good from start to finish. I’ve always rated Smith as a good Doctor and he shows it again here. For those who disliked him should hopefully have eat their words during this episode. Jenna Coleman’s performance was spot on. She was involved in the story but didn’t try and steal the limelight from Matt Smith. Again she’s been strong in every episode she has been in.

I like the fact that despite their being a giant plot, what we got was a fitting end to the Smith era. I think that it was the perfect way to end. It didn’t feel like it was building itself up to something that it couldn’t live up but knew what it had to do and did it well. Roll on episode 801 but we will probably have to wait until August or September.

Day of the Doctor (2013)

So it finally arrived. After months and years of waiting, I got to see a celebration of my favourite TV show. I knew very little about it and I deliberately avoided any magazines and websites that had rumours and pictures. This was a special celebration and it would be broadcast in over 90 countries and in cinemas and that was where I was watching it. The atmosphere in the cinema was fantastic. There was a wide range of ages and some people were wearing fez’s and there were even one or two people dressed as Matt Smith and Tom Baker. We sat down an hour before it aired and it was fun to see the cinema slowly fill up. I must admit that I was slightly worried that I would be disappointed with this. Partly due to the fact that it’s a special celebration, part because An Adventure is Time and Space was so wonderful and also partly because Night of the Doctor was amazing. The story sees David Tennant returns to the show for the first time since he regenerated into Matt Smith on New Year’s Day 2010. John Hurt joins the show as the War Doctor and after the minisode we are left in no doubt that he is the 9^th Doctor. So that makes Eccleston the 10^th, Tennant the 11^th, Smith the 12^th and Capaldi the 13^th.  

Day of the Doctor was going to address the Time War in a way that it hadn’t done until this episode. Instead of just talking about it we actually got to saw it and we learn that John Hurt’s Doctor is the one who pressed the button and killed the Timelords and Daleks to end the War. This is what Matt Smith’s Doctor meant in ‘The Doctors Wife’ when he said that he’d “killed all of them”. We got more Gallifrey than we could shake a stick at and it looked it became apparent that Doctor Who fans were going to get pretty much everything they have wanted since the show returned in 2005.

The return of Tennant’s Doctor meant that we were going to get more comedy than we’ve ever had in a Steven Moffat produced story. I thought that Tennant was on fine form and some of his best bits came when he was acting opposite Joanna Page’s Elizabeth and against the rabbit. In a story that had quite a lot of dark tones it was good to have some light relief. He had a lot of fun scenes with Matt Smith’s Doctor who worked well with everyone else but still managed to come across as the incumbent Doctor. John Hurt was a supremely brilliant piece of casting and must have been the voice of the older fan when he mocked Smith and Tennant’s Doctor for waving of hands whilst talking and their silly catchphrases. But when he needed to he could be the brilliant actor that we all know he can be and has that gravelly voice which just adds to his greatness. I’m quite glad that Eccleston didn’t want to do this story because he wouldn’t have been as good as Hurt.

As the companion, Jenna Coleman is very good and does well from start to finish. She holds her own several times during this story and I liked how she was the one who showed that the cell door was unlocked and that three Timelords hadn’t tried the lock. It’s easy to see why Clara is such a good companion and whilst the argument continues as to whether she’s the best of the new era, one thing is for sure and that is when you are one of the good things about a celebratory special with other incarnations of the Doctors then you know that she has to be in the top 2.

This story marks the return of the Zygons who have appeared in a couple of Big Finish plays in recent years but this marks their first TV appearance since their debut in the 1975 Tom Baker story ‘Terror of the Zygons’. Not quite sure why they chose to bring this particular monster back but it was a good choice and they did well with it. The look of them was good and the advance in prosthetics since 1975 was good enough that it looked quite creepy and the moment when the copy of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart changed was quite graphic and I was surprised that this was given a PG by the BBFC. Hopefully it won’t be 38 years before the Zygons return because they are a good monster.

One of the main worries that I had was that this was going to be one of those complicated stories that has more questions than answers which is something that Steven Moffat seems so fond of. However that wasn’t the case as what we got was something that resolved the cliffhanger from Name of the Doctor and celebrated this epic milestone in satisfactory. I think that Moffat has had way too much flak from fans over the last couple of years which I think was largely un-necessary.

The moment when Tom Baker appeared was one of those moments that got a reaction from the crowd. There were cheers and there was a good reason for it. There was the Eighth Doctor minisode and there is a special featuring Doctors 5-7. He may be nearly 80 years old but he was able to match Matt Smith in the acting stakes and there were a few instances where it was like the Doctor from 1974 was back on screen. He’s credited as The Curator but it’s basically he’s the Doctor and he’s making up for the mistake he made when he wouldn’t appear in ‘The Five Doctors’. Hopefully in 30 years’ time Christopher Eccleston will have the same change of heart and appear. Another surprise which got a reaction from the crowd was the brief appearance of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. All we got was his hand pulling a lever and him looking at us like he was Malcolm Tucker in the TARDIS.

There were things that didn’t work in this story. Firstly the 3D was awful. I’ve not seen a 3D film since I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and decided after that I would no longer waste money on this stupid technology. However I broke that rule for Doctor Who and whilst wearing the glasses didn’t bother me as much as it use to in other films, I could easily have enjoyed this just as much in standard old fashioned 2D. Secondly was the use of Billie Piper. Her return was hyped up just as much as that of David Tennant’s and despite whether you think she’s a positive influence or not on the series, you would have expected her involvement to be a lot more than it was here. She is the one that makes John Hurt’s Doctor think twice about pressing the red button. To be honest this could have been done by someone else and whilst I don’t dislike Billie Piper’s Rose as much as some people I know, I think that she could have been better used.

Day of the Doctor was everything that I would have wanted from the 50^th Anniversary special. I thought that seeing it in the cinema was a wise choice because sitting in a room with probably 2,000 Doctor Who fans who all applauded what they had seen and that was worth the £12 on its own. As for the story I was so happy that it didn’t disappoint me. I didn’t know what I initially thought but I knew I wasn’t disappointed. Apart from Billie Piper, everyone was well used and raised to the moment. It was the perfect way to celebrate the Doctor’s birthday and effectively performed a reboot at the very end and started the ball rolling with the incoming 12^th/13^th Doctor.

The Name of the Doctor (2013)

The final story of the 33^rd series has an awful lot to live up. Many people thought that we were going to find out the name of the Doctor. I must admit that I thought that it could only disappoint me so I had low expectations.  The pre-title setting is mind blowing. There’s no other way of describing. We get to witness the very moment when the Doctor and Susan run away in the TARDIS. What happens over the course of the next couple of minutes. We get to see the first seven incarnations in some shape or form. This proves that this episode is going to be an epic finale. The course of the second half of the series has been building up to this moment.

Trenzalore is where the Doctor is buried. It’s a place that no one should ever go. It’s always intriguing when something new is mentioned and we are expected to believe that it’s a vital part of the Doctor’s history. It’s a wonderful place (in a weird kind of way).  But its where the TARDIS is now left to rot. I must say that the decaying TARDIS was visually stunning. It’s quite impressive what they managed to do. The beam of light that is where the console once was is a nice bit of effect.

The Whisper Men are strange looking creatures who are conduit for Doctor Simeon (from The Snowmen). They are an effective creature even though they don’t really have much to do apart from the sequence when they are told to stop the hearts of the Doctor and co.

Something that was well known was that ‘The one with the gigantic head’ or River Song as she is known makes a return (not welcome in my mind). I thought that she was actually quite restrained in this. Yes there were some moments of the old River but I thought that this was a very good performance from Alex Kingston.

The Great Intelligence makes a welcome return and so does Richard E Grant. Doctor Simeon may have died but his spirit is being used. To be honest, Steven Moffat could have come up with any excuse to bring Richard E Grant back and I wouldn’t have minded because it was a great piece of casting back in ‘The Snowmen’ and its still a great bit of casting. Every scene that he was in was fun to watch. His final scene was absolutely fantastic and what Simeon is planning on doing is so audacious that its brilliant. Grant plays it exactly as it should be played.

There is a good mix of high tension and humour. The scene where the Doctor is playing Blind Mans Bluff is funny and its made funnier when the Doctor calls the kids ‘the little……Daleks’. It’s perhaps the only real moment of humour in the entire episode.

Matt Smith is fantastic in this episode and shows why he is such as good Doctor. He carries the entire episode. From the moment where he gets emotional talking to Clara to where he is looking at the beam of light in the decaying TARDIS and talking about the light being his own personal timeline was possibly his best moment since becoming the Doctor. Jenna Louise Coleman is very good in this and she plays second fiddle to Matt Smith which is how it should have been but her influence on the story is still important and the fact that Clara has an influence on how the Doctor got into the TARDIS is something that is quite fun to think about. Coleman has been great from the first scene she was in and has continued to be so. Dan Starkey, Catrin Stewart and Neve McIntosh haven’t been people that I have rated highly in the previous episodes but in this episode they have shown me why they are so good. Yes they have largely comedic responsibilities to the narrative but they do have the ability to be convincing when they are required to be serious.

The final few moments were always going to lead into the 50^th Anniversary special and what we

 ge is the best, the very best ending to a series ever. It was spoilt by some newspapers that John Hurt was going to play the Doctor but the excitement comes from wanting to know just exactly who he is. Yes the credit says the Doctor but I think that it should be taken with a pinch of salt because if there is one thing that we should have learnt since Steven Moffat took the reigns of the show is that not everything is what it seems. Despite being in it for just a few moments it’s a great debut from John Hurt who has appeared in Harry Potter and Merlin and now Doctor Who.

There were some important special effects and they are largely bringing people back from the past and making it look right. The moments with William Hartnell are the most impressive shots that we have and its really really well done. They’ve made the picture grainy so that Jenna Louise Coleman shots match and it makes it work. There are a few moments which are a bit ropey such as when the Second Doctor is running. When he runs towards the screen his style changes to the way that it is when it runs away from the camera. Apart from that the special effects should be applauded for what they have managed to pull off.

I think that because I had relatively low expectations (due to not wanting to be disappointed) I have to admit that this is one of the best episodes from a extremely strong series. Everyone was on top form and no one put a foot wrong. It’s bonkers and brilliant in different measures and it sets up the 50^th Anniversary special brilliantly and its just incredible that we got everything from this episode in 45 minutes whereas Russell T Davies would probably have got 70 minutes with 10 minutes of emotional padding that serves no purpose. Moffat uses the time wisely and the result is superb.

The Bells of Saint John (2013)

The 33^rd series of Doctor Who returns and in its 50^th year it’s perhaps the most important start to a series since it began. Despite it effectively being the middle of the series it does very much have the first episode of the series feel to it. The story odes a bit of a juggling act where it deals with the story of the week yet addressing the Clara story arc. The episode begins with the Doctor dressed as a monk and it made me chuckle because I wondered what the Meddling Monk would have made of seeing him dressed up as a monk again. The story of the week deals with Wi-Fi and how it can be used (along with other social media) to pretty much capture your soul and it’s going to be interesting in 20 years explaining to people what Twitter was/is to a new generation. Using current things and turning them into a threat is something that Doctor Who has for years and it continues to do it effectively here.

Matt Smith is back to his usual best and shows why he is a good Doctor. It’s almost like the departure of Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill along with the interesting storyline following Jenna-Louise Coleman’s character seems to have given a new freshness to Smith’s performance and he should have won over any critics by now because this was a good performance. Jenna-Louise Coleman is continuing to be a very good addition to the show. The story of Clara continues to intrigue. Celia Imrie is the big name in this episode and it’s a good piece of casting. Her role did remind me of Ms Foster in the 2008 episode ‘Partners in Crime’. More in terms of style as Imrie plays Miss Kizlet a lot more seriously than Sarah Lancashire did. The character seems like a strong individual until she is returned to normal she shows a vulnerability which shows why Imrie is such a good actress.

There are plenty of things that you chuckle at. The book that Clara looks at in the beginning was written by Amelia Williams (Amy Pond). The Doctor pulls out a fez and opens up a pack of Jammie Dodgers and then there is the phone ringing which it last did in the 2005 episode ‘The Empty Child’. It’s almost like its Steven Moffat’s attempt to calm people down and get them settled into the return of the series after what has been a rather erratic scheduling style over the last two years or so. These little chuckles are always good to put into an episode and they don’t become overbearing.

The return of the Great Intelligence (Richard E Grant) was a fantastic way to end the episode. It was obvious that it would be him but that didn’t make it any less good to see. The way that the Great Intelligence gets Miss Kizlet to hit the factory reset button was quite fun. This was a very good episode and it seems like the rest of the series is going to be as good as it needs to be in the 50^th year.

The Snowmen (2012)

It’s amazing how an episode on Christmas Day has become a tradition just like misery on Eastenders or the Queens speech. This is the ninth time that an episode of Doctor Who has aired on Christmas Day. The Feast of Steven was the first way back in 1965, it wouldn’t be until 2005 when David Tennant debuted as the Tenth Doctor that we got another Christmas Day offering. Since then its been a regular thing and The Snowmen doesn’t just mark Matt Smith’s third Christmas Special but it sees Jenna-Louise Coleman make her official debut after he surprising appearance in Asylum of the Daleks in September. The previous story was what I described as perfectly fine though I do think that there were things wrong with it. Here I had high expectations because

a)      we get a new companion

b)      we get a new TARDIS console

c)       we get killer snowmen at 5.15 on Christmas Day

d)      we get Richard E Grant in a Doctor Who story and finally

e)      Gandalf…sorry Sir Ian McKellen voices the snowmen

Now its quite a good thing that McKellen is voicing the Snowmen as he is currently reprising Gandalf in The Hobbit.  Right, in order to review this story I am going to have start from the beginning. This story seems to mark the beginning of the celebrations for Doctor Who’s 50^th Birthday. We get a new a new title sequence which had a nice brief image of Matt Smith’s face which is clearly a nod to the 1980’s title sequences where Doctors 4-7 had their face appear in the title sequence. I really liked it but then there is the small matter of the new TARDIS console room. I thought I liked the previous console room but when I saw this one I thought that it was much improved. It looks like its leaning towards the past of previous console rooms yet still feeling rather modern. It has the vibe of the original console room because it has a good kind of restrictive sense to it. The revelation was something that was held back. Most people would have known before this episode aired that there would be a new console and the wait was at times unbearable. It was one of those things that you just wanted to be done with so that the story could continue.

Speaking of the story it was nothing outstanding but that might come across as a critiscm. It’s not, sometimes in a Christmas Special I don’t want  an outstanding story because the specials are different from the rest. What we get in this story are killer snowmen which managed to come across as quite sinister everytime they were on screen and an ice sculpture of the Governess was another great creation.  To be honest I was more interested in what was going on with the Doctor and Clara to really worry about the strength or weakness of the plot. The plot does have some comedic moments in particular with the Doctor and Punch. It was a moment that makes you chuckle. Another was when the Doctor came in as Sherlock Holmes which is made all the more funny because of Steven Moffat’s involvement in the revived UK version of Sherlock. I suspect in 20 years time this joke may be lost on people but here and now, it works and works rather well. The humour isn’t over bearing but it does raise the spirits after a rather glum episode where the Ponds leave.

Now, if I have one issue to take with the production team it is the constant dumbing down of the Sontarans and Silurians. Ok they are not the greatest creations ever but I do get frustrated when they come across in the manner that we have in this story. Ok so Madam Vastra comes across rather well in the female equviliant of Jago and Litefoot but Strax is reduced to a comedic prop. I cant say that I didn’t find some of the scenes with him in it funny but I want a story where Strax (or any Sontarans for that matter) come and turn on the Doctor. That would be a good episode for the 50^th year.

Richard E Grant was very good in this as Dr Simeon. Throughout he had a look on his face of disdain for everyone which is what the young Simeon pretty much said in the first scene. It’s a shame that he wasn’t in more of the story but its difficult (impossible) to find fault in his performance. Sir Ian McKellen was great as The Great Intelligence. Is this Great Intelligence the same Great Intelligence from The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear? Time will tell but despite only having a vocal contribution to give to the story I thought that he was very good. He has a very strong voice which worked really well in this story.

Clara hasn’t officially joined the Doctor so when the second half of series 33 returns in a few months then we will know whats going on. I have my theories but time will tell if I am right. What I did like what they did at least acknowledge the fact that Clara looked like Oswin from Asylum. It would have been rather frustrating had this not happened. Overall I really liked this Christmas Special, a much improved addition on last year. The 50^th Anniversary celebrations are officially underway and it looks like its going to be rather good.

The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)

The end here. After over two years, the Ponds have left us. The question that seemed to be in the air was ‘Will the Ponds be killed off?’. It seems impossible now that people can leave the Doctor with a simple goodbye. To my knowledge, only Martha has had a nice exit so I was wondering what sort of exit the Ponds would get. I must admit I was slightly annoyed that River Song was going to be returning as I felt that she had been overused in the previous series. So with that minor niggle I looked forward to this story which saw the return of what I think are the best monsters of the new era of Doctor Who. The Doctor, Amy and Rory appear to be on holiday in New York where the Doctor is reading a book which as we learn is written by his wife (still seems odd to be saying that) and its pretty soon before chaos takes centre stage.

The Angels are just as creepy as they always are. I found the child statues to be more creepy that the fully grown up ones. However what I found most amusing was the Statue of Liberty turning into an angry statue. To be honest it was obvious from the moment that I heard the title because it’s the most famous statue in the world and its in the right part of the world so it would have been silly not to include it. The reason why the Angels seem to have chosen New York was a little bit odd because quite frankly they have chosen any city in the world but the idea that they feed off the energy produced is quite a good one.   

Despite my issues with River Song I thought that Alex Kingston was rather good in this and seemed slightly toned down compared to previous adventures that she has been in. It didn’t distract you from the Ponds’ departure. There was still some amusing flurting between the Doctor and River but it was mild. I did like how its clear that River has been released from prison because she never killed the Doctor as the Doctor has wiped himself pretty much out of people’s memory. It means that everything that happened in the last series can been left there and everything that happens with River from now on is going to be a little less complicated.

Matt Smith was very good and dealt with the various moods that the Doctor had to be in very well.  It’s been a good set of stories for Smith and he dealt with the exit of Amy and Rory very well. In their departing story, both Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan made up for being in the background in previous stories. Yet again Darvill gets given the short straw and is the one that suffering continues with finding out that gets thrown back in time. The scene where he and Amy are going to jump off the roof was possibly the best that he and Karen Gillan have done. Gillan played Amy pretty much the same as she has done since her very first episode and its been one of the reasons why Amy has been so popular.
The way that Amy and Rory were written out of the show was the only way that they could have left. They were never going to leave the Doctor and it wouldn’t have made sense to kill them off so putting them in a situation where the Doctor ‘cant’ meet Amy or Rory again but they get to spend time and die together was the most satisfactory conclusion which might be easily compared to Rose’s exit. The scene where they leave is very unexpected and superbly dramatic. Rory disappearance by the angel was unexpected but Amy’s was different because it was nice how River was pretty much telling Amy to go but the Doctor was trying to talk her out of it which was never going to work.

The Angels of Manhattan was a perfect way to end this part of the series. I would happily argue that this was the best story of the series because it was creepy, action packed and managed to write two very popular characters in a way that did them justice and it was at the end of the episode that it would be interesting to see how Oswin (Jenna Louise Coleman) would compare long term against Amy. Roll on Christmas!!

Asylum of the Daleks (2012)

So its back, after what has felt like an eternity we have the Doctor back. For only the fourth time in Doctor Who history, the series starts off with a Dalek story and we were promised every Dalek design in this story. Whether we got that is unclear but that’s sort of unimportant because the story starts off with the Doctor being captured by the Daleks and the same fate falls upon Amy and Rory who by the start of the episode are about to be ex-Ponds. The plot is that the Daleks wants the Doctor to turn of the forcefield to allow them to blow up this planet which contains the maddest Daleks. There is a wonderful scene where the Daleks talk about the concept of beauty and that is the reason why the Daleks never could kill the Doctor. Lovely little scene.

The fact that there was a scene on Skaro did through me a bit because in Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor destroyed Skaro with the hand of Omega so it does through up a question as to when the opening scene is set. Looked bloody cool though. The development of eye stalks coming out of peoples heads is quite a creepy thing especially when the people appear quite normal but once you get clued up about them then it still manages to work. The ‘parliament’ of the Daleks was an impressive achievement and everytime I see it I think that it’s the best shot of many Daleks since the show returned. The revelation that Oswin was infact a Dalek was something that I didn’t see coming. There was an explanation why she was on her own and didn’t come out of that room but I really didn’t see that one coming. I loved how there were different rooms and in particular the final room with the Daleks which had Oswin roll off a whole list of alien names that the Doctor has faced over the years.

The introduction of Jenna Louise Coleman was another big surprise because I thought that she wouldn’t be appearing until the fifth episode. It’s going to be interesting to see how she becomes the Doctor’s companion and shows that Moffat has a plan/story arc ready. Despite not interacting with anyone I thought that she was very good, she seems like she is going to be different to the previous companions that we have seen before. Matt Smith was very good in this as he starts his third series in the role its clear that he has got a firm handle to the role and the story allowed him to show the more dramatic side of his character which was nice. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were also very good in this but if I’m honest I am finding the whole married thing to be a tad bit problematic. Ok so there was a purpose to it in this episode but usually its not really necersary. 

It’s seems that Steven Moffat has taken on board the critiscm of the last series when people said that it was too complicated and has instead managed to blend the two, it was the sort of Doctor Who story that we would have got in 2010. I thought that it was a very solid story that managed to do something different. We were treated to an opening episode that gave us more Daleks than we have seen for quite sometime with the most recent version of Daleks kept to an almost cameo appearance. Asylum of the Daleks is a welcome return to Doctor Who and it bodes well for the rest of the series.

Rating - 8/10

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (2011)

After using A Christmas Carol as a template for a Christmas special, Steven Moffat has used the same trick for this years Christmas Special. This year he has used ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ as the template for his story. The story is set during the Second World War where a family have moved to a country house to escape the bombing. The mother has a secret that she is trying to hide from her kids until after Christmas. The Doctor is trying to cheer them up but there is a problem with the world that the Doctor is planning on taking the kids too.

The first half of this story is very slow and painfully so. The first 10 minutes or so are ok because of the funny stuff with the Doctor is the space suit and putting the helmet on back to front then it’s a slow and prolonged section before we enter this Narnia-like world. When it moves into Narnia then I think it feels a bit more Christmassy than it did before. There were things that were typically Moffat and by that I mean things which are bonkers. Trees that sprout ball balls which before you know whats what turn into these wooden people. The story seems to be taking a rather sad end as the children learn that their father has died however in keeping with the festive time and realising that all the misery and depressing stuff should be kept until Eastenders, we are told that the light coming from the ‘ship’ helped Reg’s plane land and he is in fact alive. I thought that this was a rather nice thing to do and actually one of the more sensible things that Steven Moffat has done since he took over.

I did like the mention of Androzani Major. That did get a little chuckle of me which got an odd look of my mom and dad who were watching it with me. I really liked the tree people which did seem to be borrowed from the Lord of the Rings films but I thought they looked very good and the scene where the male one is stomping up the stairs was very good indeed. Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir were two other big names that were in this story and they were needed to help bring some comedy to the story. Sadly they weren’t in it for very long and I felt that was a shame but by that point the story had picked up.

It was nice not having Amy and Rory to clog up the story. The one thing that was refreshing was that the Doctor was on his own and just had to deal with the Arwell family. I thought that Claire Skinner was very good as Madge Arwell. Surprisingly she got her name on the credits alongside Matt Smith which was the right thing to do. Madge has a lot to deal with in this story and Skinner’s performance makes us believe that she is a strong yet at times frightened person. She is trying to do the best thing by not telling her kids that their dad is dead but deep down knows it’s the wrong thing. I know her best from her appearance in the BBC show ‘Outnumbered’ and at first I did think of her in that but after a while that changed. Alexander Armstrong was a nice piece of casting as the dad. He is best known in Doctor Who circles as the voice of Mr Smith in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ as he plays Reg Arwell who as we are led to believe has died but despite his relatively brief involvement it’s a very good one. The kids are slightly annoying and are the only things that I would replace.

We couldn’t have an episode of Doctor Who without Amy and Rory and thankfully it was kept to a minimum. I did think it was a bit of a cop out that they already knew that the Doctor was alive as I think it robbed us of a very enjoyable dramatic moment. The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe is an odd story. There are things that are quite good about it but then there are things that don’t quite work. Safe to say that compared to some of the more complicated stories that we have had over the last twelve months its certainly straight forward. It perhaps doesn’t have the same punch that ‘A Christmas Carol’ had twelve months ago but I think that its perfectly fine.

The Wedding of River Song (2011)

So it all comes down to this. The day the Doctor dies. Over the last thirteen episodes we have been heading towards the day that the Doctor meets his end and like the last series finale, there is very little that appears to be done to be able to change things. After the end of the previous episode where we learnt that River was the one in the astronaut suit in ‘The Impossible Astronaut’. I had a theory that it was a red herring and that in fact there was a second Doctor that would swap places with River. That theory didn’t last long though. The story was unusually told in flashback form which is very much like Lost. I did like it in this episode as it made it feel different to previous episodes.

The idea that they have raised River/Melody to kill the Doctor only for her to not want to do it because she loves him is a clever thing. This then causes the universe to be stuck at 5:02pm forever. The Doctor knows what needs to be done but River won’t let it happen. So the story is then about the Doctor trying to convince River to do this and save millions and millions of lives in the universe. River of course won’t because she’s selfish and doesn’t want to kill the man she loves. The Doctor quite cleverly resorts to marrying them (answering the question the Doctor asks in The Big Bang).

One of the worst things that Steven Moffat has ever done was writing the scene which saw us hear the news that the Brigadier had died. Of course it was nice that they acknowledged the character but I thought it was totally wrong to say he had died. I think there were two camps of thinking. Those who (like Steven Moffat) thought that he should be honoured in this way and those (like me) who thought he should be in Geneva forever. Now it’s made the loss even more final. Of course he was never going to come back but it still didn’t make it easier. I thought that the Dalek was a complete waste of time. The money that must have been spent on letting the BBC use the Daleks could have been better spent on say a really good special effect. If they were going to use the Daleks then they should have featured in the story a bit more, rather than to provide the Doctor with information about the Silence.

There were some good things. I say some. The idea that the Doctor we see get killed is one of those Teselecta creatures we saw in Let’s Kill Hitler was brilliant and totally unexpected (by me anyway). It didn’t feel like a cop-out and the way that it was revealed was also quite fun. I’m glad they explained the eye patches. I was hoping that the explanation would make sense and thankfully it did. The idea that the patches would turn on the user was also a clever twisty thing to do. The Silence came back and in a rather marvellous way. I think they are a very good creation and the fact that they were waiting in those water cases to make their captures believe that they were being locked up was a nice clever thing to do.

We are introduced to a weird parallel world where Winston Churchill (played by Ian McNeice) is Caesar and living in Buckingham Place and Charles Dickens is still writing plays (as played by Simon Callow like he did in the 2005 story The Unquiet Dead). The sky of London is filled with cars tied to hot air balloons and trains. There are Pterodactyls in the air. The Doctor is telling his story and every so often odd things happen, now it was the Silence doing that thing they do on the roof which was effective in the first episode and managed to be just as impressive second time around.

This episode did air the most gruesome death scene I can remember seeing in Doctor Who. Gantok falls through a hole and gets consumed by a heck of a lot of skulls. This seems to have been heavily edited as there seems something slow and odd about it. Whether it was designed to try and not scare the kids too much I don’t know but it was certainly impressive. Madam Kovarian met a particularly gruesome death as well. She was effectively left for dead by Amy with the eye patch that she has been wearing about to turn on her just like it did on everyone else.

The performances were all quite good. I thought that Matt Smith was on usual good form but he does need to stop wearing that fake beard because it looks terrible and distracts me from his acting. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill return after their mini break and do their usual thing but it was Alex Kingston who was the one of interest as the episode named her character. I thought that Kingston has played the character with the fun and this episode was no different. This episode was the acting equivalent of polyfiller as we now know everything there is to know about the character but Kingston has been really good in this series and has revelled in what she was given to do. I particularly liked the scene towards the end where Kingston, Gillan and Darvill were in the garden, River had just returned from the events of The Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone. River has just pretended in that story that she didn’t know she was having an adventure with her mom and dad. Next time I watch those episodes it may have a different feeling for me. That scene was a very well directed scene and well acted.

This is one of the most underwhelming stories since the show returned. At the end the question was Doctor Who with the emphasis on Who. Was that it? Was that what we were supposed to get excited about? Ultimately we have spent the last two years building up to this big moment and it never turned up. I think that Steven Moffat needs to do something new with the next series. Stop being focused with this convoluted story arc and do something that was fun and more importantly didn’t make me fell like I’d pissed away the last two years building up my hopes that we would get an epic finale but as I have said in the past with my references to Lost, this episode has kept that comparison because at the end of Lost you were just left going meh!

Overall this has been a mixed series. The idea to separate it into two blocks isn’t one that I am convinced about. No matter how much I think about I don’t think that it really served to the story. It’s reason was that everyone goes on holiday in the summer and so that last four or five episodes are victims of poor ratings, so I think that splitting it into two could be considered a success. At least as I write this (October 2, 2011) there are only 85 days until the Christmas Special (that’s assuming they broadcast it on Christmas Day).

Let's Kill Hitler (2011)

After the mid season break, Doctor Who returns with perhaps the most misjudged title in the shows history. The story sees a pre-title sequence where were reminded of what happened before the break and then the story continues in a corn field where pretty quickly we meet a new person who is a longtime friend of Amy and Rory’s called Melody who is introduced in a quite astonishing way with a big fancy car and pulls a gun on the Doctor uttering the words “Let’s Kill Hitler!”. Now I wasn’t expecting a full-on resolvement from ‘A Good Man Goes To War’ but I think I wasn’t expecting this episode to be as light hearted as previous episodes. The story is set in Berlin in 1938 where we meet possibly the campest version of Hitler ever. After preventing an assisnation attempt Hitler declares that the Doctor saved his life. Now obviously this isnt a good thing but lets be honest we all know how he dies (if not watch Downfall). Now no sooner has he been introduced than he is locked in a cupboard and never heard from again. I do wonder about why they chose Hitler to be the latest historical figure to bring into Doctor Who. His involvement was brief in the extreme and on reflection it was probably the right thing to do because having the most evil man in history in a family show for much longer would probably have caused issue with some of the dumber newspapers such as The Daily Mail etc.

The story sees Melody regenerate into River Song. We learn a lot more about the Silence and also about River Song. Not too much but enough to keep up going for another week. I was glad that first version of Melody we meet didn’t last long as I found her rather annoying. Her death/regeneration scene was her best bit. When River regenerates, she kisses the Doctor but this is psychotic River and so she gives the Doctor some poison and he has 32 minutes before he dies where for some reason he cant regenerate. This leads to a nice little scene where we see a hologram of Rose, Martha, Donna before it settles of young Amy. She uses all her regenerations to save the Doctor. This might be used as an excuse to keep the Doctor from carrying on after his thirteenth incarnation. Regardless it sees the Doctor give River her famous little TARDIS designed book and they leave her to carry on her life.

It does seem like Steven Moffat has been watching the Eddie Murphy film ‘Meet Dave’ where there are a bunch of miniature people inside Eddie Murphy. In LKH, this is done slightly more effectively where the miniature people are some sort of time police who find naughty people in history and towards the end of their timeline ‘give them hell’. What I was more impressed with was how they did their transformation which was a simple effect yet very effective. Also what was quite good was how the people that were copied were zapped inside their android copy and killed by some seaweed like robot who kills them.

All the regulars put in good performances with Rory given the job of punching Adolf Hitler and sticking him the cupboard. However this is really Alex Kingston’s episode as she is the one that poisons the Doctor, escapes on a motorbike (like in The Great Escape) and then storms into a room and forces people to take all of their clothes off. I think that Matt Smith also did a good job but didn’t seem to do a great deal for the first half of the story but once he was in the TARDIS he was back on form and it seems to be another excuse to stick Smith in a Tuxedo but I kind of forgive that because we are introduced to the Sonic Cane. Yes, the show might be 48 years old and the Sonic Screwdriver might be 44 years old but it doesn’t mean that we cant marvel at the Sonic Cane which is just a fabulous Doctor Who creation.

The story is a lot more light hearted story and that’s exactly what we needed. To be honest its nice to have a bit of fun especially considered how dark the stories have been aired so far. It’s nice how we’ve had a bit more background on things and I think that this was the best way the bring back the series. It wasn’t a full-on return and neither did it forget that people would want some more of the story arc. The use of Hitler was limited but if I had an issue with it then it would be that they should have left Hitler out of it because the story would have been just as good without. I get a feeling that the lighter stories have gone for the remainder of the series.

A Good Man Goes to War (2011)

Well finally we get to the point that we’ve been waiting for since we saw the Doctor killed by the Astronaut. I’ve been good in that I haven’t been looking for spoilers or anything. I’ve avoided Doctor Who Magazine which was released on June 2nd and I’ve avoided going on websites. I wanted this episode to be a surprise. I did know that the Cybermen would be back and so would the Silurians but apart from that I knew very little. This is the mid-season finale which the show has never had before so I didn’t quite know how to feel when watching this episode and despite it only being the 7th episode of the series and also a little more interestingly the 777th Episode of Doctor Who, it did feel more like a finale story as opposed to a mid-season story.

The story is set on Demons’ Run. Nope me neither but were expected to belive this is an important place. But it does come with a good rhyme to explain the place.

“Demons run whena 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 is an asteroid where Amy has been held captive for goodness knows how long. There is an army that seems there just to fight the Doctor. The Doctor is planning on fighting as well. It seems like a tradition now in modern Doctor Who stories to bring monsters or characters from previous episodes back into a story. The Doctor goes to 1888 to meet Vastra who previously appeared in the previous years story. Now she is some sort of Victorian Madame who when we first see her has just killed Jack the Ripper. We also see Dorium Maldovar who was the big blue guy who River Song was talking to in The Pandorica Opens. In this we learn a bit more about him and he is quite a likeable character. Also we have the return of Commander Strax the Sontaran who appeared in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky in 2008. The scene where they are all fighting is quite an odd one but it typifies the Doctor’s lack of experience in forming an army. The identity of Melody’s Father is one that I could feel getting me annoyed. I don’t mind that Amy is pregnant and that Rory and Amy are treating the TARDIS like an inter-galatic Travelodge but the idea the idea that the Doctor is the father is one that totally seems wrong to me. Thankfully the father is Rory and all is right with the world.

The thing is that despite how much this story tries to through just about everything at the screen. I found myself wondering at the end of the episode just what the plot was. Ok, the Doctor goes after Amy and Melody and there’s a bit of war of words with the Cyclops lady but apart from that there seemed to be very little in the way of a story. I didn’t notice it whilst watching the episode because to be fair I did get caught up in the action. I also didn’t like that the Sontaran was working with the Doctor. I just think that this weakens the monsters and next time they decide to use the Sontarans they will not have the same effect that they normally have.

The Cyclops lady that we have been seeing in various scenes throughout this series finally gets her day in the spotlight and comes across as an effective villain who seems really nasty and not to be trusted. It would be nice to know a bit more about her when the show returns but on what we saw she was very good and one of the highlights of the episode. I was also impressed with the Headless Monks, another fantastic creation from Steven Moffatt though they could probably have lost the light-sabre inspired swords. That said they were truly creepy and very effective.

I thought all that all the main cast put in superb performances. Karen Gillan did a fantastic job. She does well in playing a character that has to deal with being held captive, being pregnant and being away from Rory and the Doctor. Gillan continues to impress and is possibly the best of the new series companions. Arthur Darvill also puts in a good performance especially at the beginning when he stands up to the Cybermen which is no small feat. Matt Smith puts in a solid outing where he finally learns who River is. The moment when he realises it and darts into the TARDIS his face is priceless and is totally different from what we see earlier when he is talking to Cyclops lady and is very angry. Of course a Series 32 story wouldn’t be complete without Doctor River Song who as we learn in this story is actually Amy and Rory’s daughter. This wasn’t a total surprise but it was one that I liked the most. The bizarre idea did briefly pop into my head that River was the Doctor’s mother but apart from anything else, the flirting (which I forgot about when I came up with the idea) would have just ruined the story.

So the line “The only water in the forest is the River” makes a lot of sense. To me it means that Water must mean Pond and obviously River is a part of the Pond family. But in the story its explained that the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River. My idea sounds more fun.

I tweeted immediately after watching AGMGTW that I didn’t know what to make of it and I still don’t. Like any two parter its difficult to fully appreciate something if you haven’t seen the second half of the story. There is plenty to look forward to especially the title ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ and for anyone who watched after the BBC Wales Cymru titles disappeared will have seen a Skeleton hand with the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. There is a lot to look forward to when the show returns in September. I just hope that it complements this episode so that it makes a bit more sense to me.