Doctor Who: Closing Time

I liked this Episode for the most part, but it nonetheless suffers from the same problems that last years 'The Lodger' (also featuring Craig) had. There's always that odd episode every Season just before the Finale where the ongoing plot-lines are put to a halt and the primary focus is on someone else that isn't part of the main cast. These 'lite' episodes are generally cheap to make and the roles of the three leads are either sidelined or non-existent. This year was Amy and Rory's turn, which I suppose makes the ending to the last episode fall down a bit because it would seem that the writers only wrote them out of the show so they could save money! Oh well let's hope they come back in time for the expensive looking Finale eh? Anyway not to say that these episodes aren't fun, it's just that they feel a bit filler-y as a result, and the endings are normally a bit on the crappy side.  But did the positives in 'Closing Time' outweigh the negatives?    


If I was the say what was the best bit about the last Episode, it would definitely be the scenes with The Doctor and Craig hands down. Same thing with 'The Lodger' as well, Matt Smith and James Corden work extremely well together (almost too well if you know what I mean), and although I wouldn't like to see Craig become a proper companion he plays the classic straight, average joe so well and so believable that when he meets the zany 'I'M A KID!' alien from outer space sparks just fly off the screen. The addition this time of Alfie (aka Stormageddon) make this Episode one hell of a Triple Act. But everything else that wasn't about the baby, Craig or the Doctor? Either 'meh' or poor in my opinion, but it was nice to see the old lady from 'Come Outside' appear again after all these years. Man, I used to love that T.V show, shame they couldn't have got the dog Pippin in there as well..


Right, now one 'Shuuush!' joke was funny, but two more after that? Perhaps a bit overused? Oh yeah and when the Cybermat sprouted teeth (nice little scene that), I totally saw that coming! And can I just say that I hate whoever does the Doctor Who marketing team? Once again I'll have to get the remote control toy version of the Cybermat when it inevitably  comes out for Christmas...along with the Cyber conversion toy set, the Sonic Cane...and the Silence action figurines...with the Cyber Spaceship playset...*LOOKS AT AMAZON* NOOOOO!!!!!! SO EXPENSIVE BUT SUCH A MUST BUY! OMG, THEY'VE JUST RELEASED A NEW DALEK TOY! WELL WHEN I SAY 'NEW' IT'S MORE LIKE A MINOR COLOUR CHANGE TO THE EYESTALK...BUT STILL! I MUST HAVE THE COMPLETE COLLECTION ARGHHH!!!!    


No I'm just joking, I don't really want a remote control Cybermat toy for Christmas (or do I?). So part of the Episode was obviously dedicated to a toy commercial (complete with the Doctor working in a Toy-store showing off all the new toys to flocks of unsuspecting kids, wow very subtle there producers!) and some of the jokes weren't all that funny, but what about the Cybermen? Wasn't this Episode supposed to be like their 'big' return or something after a few years?


This was an absolute waste of a Cyberman Episode, if you can call it that. The Cybermen were barely in it for crying out loud! And here's me thinking that the brief cameo in A Good Man Goes To War was just a teaser for what's to come? They were a joke, barely showing up til' the end of the Episode and then being swiftly (and easily) defeated with 'love'. BULLSH*T! Never have I seen such a poor ending to an Episode that featured a classic Doctor Who monster in all my life, the Cybermen were defeated by the fat guy from Gavin and Stacey for crying out loud! They were weak to the point of frustration and could have been any other Monster of the Week to be quite frank. And what's annoying is the fact that the writer of this Episode Gareth Roberts obviously KNOWS this, because at the very end even the Doctor blurts out 'Highly sentimental and a bit simplistic I suppose, but yes Craig, you blew them up with love'. Just because you make a joke out of it doesn't make it okay you know?! Up until the bit when Craig miraculously pulled himself out of the Cyber conversion-thingy the Episode was very likable but that monstrosity of a technobable was irredeemable, and highly unoriginal. I mean under Moffat's reign, how many story's have ended with 'love' being the answer to saving the day? Let's count: Victory Of The Daleks, The Lodger, Curse Of The Black Spot, The Big Bang, Night Terrors, and arguably Let's Kill Hitler (but I'll give that one a pass). Okay, now one 'love saves the day' ending is excusable, but seriously it's becoming a bit embarrassing as far as Doctor Who 'get out of there' free cards go. Hopefully the Finale won't cock the ending up big time like this Episode did...


Oh wait, what's THIS? *GASPS* River Song? Mme Kovarian aka Eye-patch Lady? *DOUBLE GASP* The Silence?! YES! Finally they return, and hopefully they clear up ALOT of the dangling plot threads next Episode. Although not necessarily a relevation, I felt that the last 3 minutes had nothing to do with this Episode and felt a bit out of place. Having said that though, it is a darn cool teaser for the Finale!


So 'Closing Time' was a good Episode, up until that ending. It's probably my second least favorite Episode of the Season so far (Curse Of The Black Spot still holds that crown) but that doesn't make it unwatchable at all. Just skip over the bit when they're in the Cyber Ship near the end and you should be fine.  

This Week In School: Praise The Lord!

Last Week was a most tiring Week, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that I'll come home from School, collapse onto bed, sleep for two hours and wake up only to find that I've got another three hours of bloody Homework to do. Whether it's doing an essay on life in the trenches, spending two hours on a Maths Test or revising late into the night just so I can grab another good French Result, I can proudly say that I've worked my ass off this Week, giving it totally 100%. But enough about Homework, how did the individual lessons go? I'm sticking with the template from last Week, because I think it's better to take it lesson by lesson than doing whole days in one never-ending paragraph:


French: God this was the bane of my life last Week, it's just hour after hour of long grammar talks and then pages and pages of rules to learn for a Test the following day. Seriously, every other lesson is a Test that takes at LEAST two hours revision beforehand to grab an excellent Result. Not that I'm any slacker mind, so far my French Test record is spotless, with my lowest score being 7,5/10. The worst day now is by far Wednesday, where for two hours we write down strict grammar rules til' our hands go sore and then at the end the Teacher pretty much says 'Hey, you know of all this stuff you've been writing today? Better know it off by heart tomorrow because guess what? ANOTHER TEST! *CACKLES EVIL-Y' Euuugh, I hate this lesson so much, it keeps forcing me to work hard endlessly. If I'm honest the main bulk of the Homework is always French, it's like it thinks it's the most important lesson or something. Well GO TO HELL FRENCH, YOU MAKE ME FEEL SICK! HAVE YOU NO SHAME?????

Sport: Oh great, another lesson that pushes me to my very limit! Well at least it's only confined to two hours at the start of the Week right? WRONG, because after ten laps of the football field your legs hurt so much that you just want to amputate them the moment you stop jogging. I had to LIMP back to my house on Monday, and by the time Thursday came around it was still difficult to walk without that god-damned aching pain following you around! Yes, just getting out of bed is an effort after Monday because you feel so shattered after Sport. And by the time your legs are healed guess what? IIIII'TS MONDAY AGAIN! HERE THE COMES THAT AWFUL LEG ACHE AGAIN! So basically it's a never ending cycle of pain all Week long, yay. I'm THIS close to locking myself in my Room and not coming out when the day of the annual Cross Country Race arrives, because if this is just a warm up for that then I'm most definitely going to DIE. Guh, you feel so depressed Tuesday morning because it's like the School is punishing you both mentally and physically with all this Homework, endless Tests and bloody Sport. I can really see why 50% of all suicides happen during the middle of the Week, because I'm this close to it myself! AND I'M STILL ONLY AT WEEK THREE!!? I think 3eme is going to kill me you know. I might as well just blow my brains out now. 


History: And yet it's subjects like History that make it worth living. At least for the time being this is a subject were I can relax knowing that there's been a ton of people in this world that have had it worse than me. *PHEW* So what did we study in History last Monday you ask? This: 

Oh, well what a nice painting. I love how the piles of guts just all merge together in a nice heap at the bottom there, very colorful. Clearly the guy that painted this thing, Otto Dix, was a really happy chap. Not at all scarred by his days fighting in World War I then. We also studied French propaganda in the wartime, and how the French brought their kids up on story's of how the French mercifully killed the Germans, for the glory of winning or something. Basically they were trying to brainwash people into thinking that the Germans were evil, when on the other side of the fence the Germans had nothing against the French and just saw killing as a way of defending their country from the allied threat. But if this WAS true, then how come the Germans were first to attack when the war broke out? Anyway History was interesting and was generally not a bad lesson to sit through *AHEM* endure apart from the fact that I got a 6/10 on my essay just for making a few spelling mistakes and featuring a large introduction about the war that ultimately had nothing to do with the subject matter that I was supposed to be writing on. Oh...well there's two hours and a half I spent on Sunday night wasted then. And the Teacher even had the audacity to ask us to rewrite it ALL OVER AGAIN, just because the corrected version she outlined to us was far more 'polished' or whatever. Well okay, but do you have to be so harsh on our work? We're trying REALLY hard here!! And yes, this (although technically being my first Test in the subject this year) is the worst History Test Result I've had in a while, and it will hurt my (hopefully) near perfect score in History for this Trimestre but I'm still warming up remember. Seriously though, 6/10? It's not bad but even for me, ouch. 


Church: On Tuesday morning we all had to go down to the local Church and do the annual School Year comeback celebration or whatever. Despite going to a Catholic school we don't really ponder a lot on Catholicism, but these ceremony's are Religious to the point of being cheesy! The priest was all like 'Praise Jesus and the Lord!' and he got us all to stand up and do prayers ect... At one point he even said that God was looking down at us and wishing us all well in our Tests BLAH BLAH BLAH. We also had to think about all the people dying in Africa from starvation and then give a passing thought to everyone that's perished in Afghanistan. Each class then had to present a paper dove and we all had to right something nice down on it like 'Respect your Classmates' or some other over-sentimental cripe. And of course they played crappy religious songs over all of this, and by crappy I mean we couldn't hear any lyrics because the Speaker was so bad! So yeah, all in all, it was a boring and over sentimental hour and a half but at least I didn't have to endure Maths because of it.


Maths: You know I think I'm doing really well in Maths for the time being. Sure I find it boring but I'm getting everything right in Class and don't seem to be making any real errors. Alot of it is just learning a simple formula and repeating it again and again til' it's been hard wired into your brain I suppose. Once you learn it it's easy. Still, despite being a 'pro' in Class the first Test (not the Homework Test but another one) didn't really go to what I was expecting. I did it and for the most part it seemed easy-peasy at the time but turns out that in one of the questions I forgot to add a simple number that a) was bleedingly obvious at the time and b) was crucial to getting the question right! It cost me over SIX points! I felt pretty miserable seeing a 8,5/15 Test result when I was SO sure that I'd nabbed at least 12,5/15! And I had got the Maths and History Test Result on the same day as well so I felt pretty rubbish throughout Thursday! *SIGH* It's so crap when a Test you thought you did well in turns out to another mediocre stinker. Add into the fact that in Class I got EVERYTHING right and that makes it even worse!


S.V.T: Not as boring this Week as last time and rather good Overall. It was saved by the fact that we actually got to study something for once: a group of human cells under a microscope:

   
We're now studying the method of 'Cloning' were you take the nucleus out out of a white rat and put it into the cell of a brown rat (without a nucleus) and the resulting baby turns into this weird hybrid of the two. This study lead to the Class asking whether or not we've cloned humans before and more importantly if Justin Bieber (yes he exists in France) is a clone. Props to the Teacher by the way, because she answered all the questions seriously and didn't laugh once. The latter half of the Week was us studying Chromosomes and how just because one kid had an extra Chromosome in his cells he developed a birth defect or whatever. Anyway kinda-interesting-but-not-really-ish stuff from S.V.T this Week.


English: I was a bit bored by English this Week. It's either getting too easy for me or perhaps it's just because it's always on first thing the morning? I don't know, it just fell flat. I miss the old Teacher (who is still around but not with our Class unfortunately), he was always funny. We basically spent two hours on this stupid video clip from an American T.V show called 'Teen Kidz Watch' about a group of underage pop-stars called 'Clique Girlz' and another hour on this depressing song 'Creep' from Radiohead (which featured the word 'so Fucking Special' twice, yeah I counted. Twice). Bit random isn't it? Still at least I had a good time poking fun at how stupid the 'Clique Girlz' were, I mean it literally looked like their life was made up of either shopping or make-up! 


German: Not boring, just passable. The Class is so noisy now that it's getting hard to even hear the Teacher let alone understand what she's saying. Mme Guillermic is one of those nice Teachers that just let's the Class walk all over her, because she hasn't got a sense of authority about her at ALL. Often when she's giving us orders or trying to explain something she just gets trampled on by the dozen OTHER loud conversations going on in the Room. Heck half of us didn't even hear her say 'Test next Thursday' because we barged out of the door the moment the bell rang in sheer ignorance. Well at least they're all going to fail when the Test comes next Thursday! 


Science: Mostly interesting stuff this Week. We've moved on from metals to Atoms and what they're composed of (electrons, positive and negative charges ect...). So far it's all easy and apart from having to learn all these different types of Atoms I should be fine:

Technology: All very business like this Week. And by business like I mean I had to write a letter to the Communite Des Communes asking if a) they could fund our project and b) advertise it and hand out questionnaires for people to fill in. Aided greatly by French spell check and two French advisers (who at least HAVE a sense about what the heck French Grammar is all about) I think we just about did it. The hardest part was actually to do with the presentation of the letter, because it WILL be sent to the Commune and has to look professional and serious.

D.P.3: Now we have to pick a Lycee in an area and do a small brochure on it detailing all the different things you could do, what it would cost to go there ect... My Team chose the one in Ploermel called 'La Touche'. You can check out their Website HERE.  


Art: I've decided to go with the long corridor illusion for my project. I just have to draw it from two different angles, in which case I'll draw one were the doors loom above you like towers and another in which you're looking down on them from above like a forced perspective sort of thing. Having the idea to do it is one thing, but being able to draw it is another thing entirely. How am I going to draw this when the best thing I can sketch is a stick man being held inside a plain see-through box?  

So I think that's all the main subjects covered for this Week. And yes, I did try to keep it short this time, I really did! One thing I would like to note is that I am under a LOT of pressure during School Days now seen as this Year is so important, and don't worry I am trying my hardest to the umpteenth degree, even if my first few Results have hardly been spectacular. And yes Dad, I am going to sleep early (for me anyway) and am revising almost every single night now.  

Doctor Who: The God Complex

Another excellent Episode from the Doctor Who Team, and somehow they continue to manage all these different ideas and thoughts and still make it work not just as an entertaining Saturday night programme but also as a layered and complex 'fantasy' science fiction Series. Whereas the last Episode was your classic Sci-Fi tear-jerker affair, the infinitely flexible format of the show has allowed this one to be described as a Stanley Kubrick meets Greek mythology Episode with a strong theme on faith and religion. Or you could call it another nice little Doctor Who Episode I suppose.  

The Episode is set in this creepy 1980's hotel (but it's not really a hotel, and why it's default setting was '80s hotel' in the first place isn't at all explained), with creepy corridors that are almost a rip-off/homage to The Shining, to the point were any minute I was expecting Jack Nicholson (or some unamed guy) to show up welding an axe and scream 'Heeerees Johnny!'. When the main trio show up (still on great form by the way) things go from funny to surreal to bat-crap insane in under five minutes. I love how casually Amy and Rory react to all this stuff, like they've seen it all before: I mean this hotel has everything from creepy puppets to Weeping Angels (whose appearance felt completely phoned in and unscary) to walking Gorilla costumes not to mention a massive Minotaur alien stomping around the place killing anyone who's been properly 'cooked' (details I won't explain). The people who have already been trapped in the hotel for a while are intriguing and a bit surreal as well, giving us one of the best supporting casts this year with the exception of A Good Man Goes To War of course. Amanda Karen plays an unfazed medical student who right from the start has a bulls-eye aimed straight at her head, David Walliams plays Gibbis, a cowardly mole like alien with a penchant for being invaded who starts out very funny and likable but turns into something far more sinister, Dimitri Leonidas is a conspiracy geek/nerd Blogger with a fear of girls and Daniel Pirrie chews the scenery (but in a good way) with Joe, who has quite literally lost his god-damned mind. Yes the setting and cast are all really good, but it's a shame that the idea of all your darkest fears being held behind one of the hotels doors felt underused and tame. I mean an angry sports teacher? Oh please... 
Still it retained a creepy atmosphere throughout, and even without that corker of an ending the Episode would have been MORE than just 'good'. The Minotaur looked great and although was a bit unoriginal 'seen it all before' in the ideas department I couldn't help but love it's execution (minus the Spaceship, which was an awful parody of Tron) and I wish we see more of his race in the future. But what about that ending eh?            

Well add this to the increasing amount of 'I didn't see this coming...' twists that has plagued new Who recently. Events in the hotel has caused the Doctor to come to his senses and basically drop Amy and Rory off at their new house. For good. Yep, if this Episode is correct, we won't be seeing Amy and Rory again any time soon (yeah right!). The final chat that Amy had with the Doctor was an emotional climax that has been slowly churning away this Series. The last few Episodes of the David Tennant era saud that without any companions to restrain him, the Doctor could eventually lose himself to his many hidden demons while this Series has been a case study about the fact that even when the Doctor has a companion, all he really does is 'eff up their lives massively. I mean look at Amy, who because of the Doctor barging his way into her life has not only lost her boyfriend/husband several times, but has also has herself died quite a bit not to mention being brought up without any parents thanks to a really messed up timeline! And let's not forget the fact that she was pregnant on a distant planet for nine months breeding a baby that would become a murdering, brainwashed psychopath for most of her life... Point is, any longer with them and the Doctor will end up either having killed them (not directly of course) or make them quite loopy over how weird, complicated and crazy this disjointed family has become. I mean come on Amy's life is all over the place, from different time lines to evil daughters and several altercations with an over-arching enemy that has yet to be fully explained or revealed. Anyway, while this is an interesting point to make about the Doctor, does it really fit in with this Episode? I mean can we believe that the stuff with the Minotaur and the 80s hotel really did push him over the edge? I would have thought the events of A Good Man Goes To War or Let's Kill Hitler would have been pushed more buttons than anything this Episode could have had to offer. Nonetheless, it was a surprising end to another great Episode, albeit one that was a tad unjustified not to mention (and I'm being really picky here) a bit rushed. And the Weeping Angels? So not scary any more.... 


So next time is the return of Craig and the Cybermen eh? This could be alot of fun...     

This Week In School: Maggots and Pudding

Bit pressed for time this Week (I seem to have got more Homework than usual...) so I'll make it short and sweet by just doing a list of all the different lessons and what I thought of them:


Sport: *SHUDDERS* Sport on Monday was a complete and utter leg breaker, literally. I don't think I've had legs that felt this sore since the Cross-Country race from last year! We started off with Ping-Pong, which was pretty much business as usual. It's very simple: if you lose a match then you go down a table, win a match and you go up another table. Well I started at the Top and by the end of that hour I was all the way down at the bottom! And I STAYED there for the remainder of the time. And that blasted Ping-Pong ball kept zizzing around all over the place, going underneath tables and then being accidentally kicked to the other end of the Sport's hall...it was hell trying to catch that thing, let alone find it. I would find a lot of pleasure just burning an entire factory full of those stupid balls. So then after Ping-Pong we had to jog for 10 minutes without stopping (and I was already pretty sweaty after Ping-Pong), which was MURDER for my legs no doubt because it had been a few months since I had actually used those things (Summer Holidays are for sleeping in, not walking!). Then once I was relieved of (what felt like) an eternity of endless jogging I had to collapse on the floor and do F*CKING press-ups and muscle exercises! HELLO, MY LEGS ARE KILLING ME!!!!!! And then after that we played Football for another 15 minutes! The stamina these people have are quite simply law-breaking,  nobody except me and a few other Frenchies (all of them girls sadly) seemed to be at all worn down, gasping for air or even showing any SIGNS that they were in deep pain! Unbelievable...oh and on Friday's lesson (also Ping-Pong) someone in my Class got out their Sports shoes, gave them a real good shake and I KID YOU NOT like 100 maggots fell out of them! That's right, hidden in one of their shoes was an entire ARMY of wriggling maggots and filth!! WTF? I had never seen anything quite like it to be honest. First of all, how the hell did they get in there and secondly, JESUS CHRIST THEY'RE ALL OVER THE F*CKING FLOOR! I'm surprised the Sports Teacher didn't come in and just blowtorch the place! So yeah, apparently he left it outside one night and one of his sisters found it and put maggots in it or something. Either way it was one of funniest things I'd seen all Week. Now if only my legs weren't about to collapse I'd have probably liked Sport this Week.


History: A most interesting subject this Week: World War 1. The Teacher described (with much detail) what life was like in the trenches for those brave soldiers and just what got Europe into this mess in the first place. One thing I have yet to understand is why it was called a 'World War' because only Europe and (later on) America got into the fight. What about Japan? Australia? Canada? They didn't join the war and yet we seem to call it a 'World War' anyway. Perhaps I'm missing something here? Anyway it has been a most interesting few lessons (full of gory descriptions and the hellish life in the trenches) dampened only by the fact that there's been crap loads of Homework to do. For Monday I even have to write a twenty line essay on what life was like in those times *GRUMBLE* *GRUMBLE*  


Art: I didn't actually do any Art this Week, it was mainly just an hour of the Teacher talking to us about how perspective and the utilization of space will factor in majorly this year. Our first task is to (with a pencil and a piece of paper) represent a 3-D object from two different angles/perspectives. How I'm going to accomplish this I have no idea, and I'm currently out of idea's as what I'm going to draw. I did think about doing a cube or a maybe even a rectangular table but that does seem rather unoriginal. How do you draw in 3D anyway?  


Science: We did an experiment and found out that granny what's-her-name's statues are most definitely NOT made out of bronze. The Teacher then made us write a paragraph on how each metal is different and can combined to make several other metals BLAH BLAH BLAH. We did do some interesting stuff though, like start a new chapter on Atoms and what they're made up of. This lead to a most interesting question posed by the Science Teacher (who was a bit puzzled) about what exactly was an English 'Pudding'. You see one of the first Scientists that studied the Atom was a guy called JJ Thomas if I remember correctly and he was a British guy who compared the structure of an Atom to a 'Pudding'. Of the course the French couldn't comprehend the idea of 'Pudding' so after several attempts from both me and the other English girl in my Class trying to explain  just what this mysterious desert was we eventually gave up. Obviously the French mind does not compute well with English subject matter, which is probably why I'm the only person in my Class that understands anything coming from the English Teachers mouth!    


French: Oh I HATED French this Week! It was all just Homework, Homework, Homework. Oh and two Tests, one of which I fared pretty well in, and another which I'm pretty sure didn't go down ALL that well...weirdly enough the one where I got 6/6 was a Grammar Test, but it was based solely on revision skills and no actual thought was required. Unfortunately I've got another Test coming next Tuesday, so here's hoping that my half-luck keeps up eh? Oh and Wednesday was SUCH A BORE! Pure Grammar for two hours, I'd rather have suffered more Sport than this terrible fate!    


Technology: We had to write a letter to the Communite des Communes requesting for funding and help with our project (which we're inheriting from the 3eme's last year). It's basically going to be a few signposts dotted around the lake identifying all the different species of animals residing there and the different types of trees. What it has to do with Technology I don't know, but apparently we're going to be working side by side with the new Marie and the community. I hope it won't be to hard to accomplish. Making signposts is NOT my thing! 


D.P.3: Well we finished our Diaporama on this mysterious place known as the MFR, which is basically a school for all those who want to do Agriculture (aka farming) as a job. The presentation in front of the Class went well, but when the Teacher posed us questions it kind of all fell apart. I'd say our Team was the best though out of all of them. Hopefully we get a good mark?  


Maths: It was okay for the most part. I think the stuff we did in the first Week was confusing, but I'm really getting the hang of what we're doing now. Or at least I think I am, if that makes any sense? Anyway the Test is on Monday (just like everything else) so here's hoping it goes well. PLEASE GOD LET IT GO WELL!!!! (It went well)


German: Was okay this Week. Mme Philippe has cracked down hard on the people who were being silly during the lessons (see last Week if you're not up to date) and sent them all to detention for 'Criminally Misbehaving'. The few of us who were left enjoyed the serenity of a peaceful Classroom and we just mainly learned stuff like the days of the Week in German. To be honest I liked it when the Class was misbehaving, at least it was something to laugh about after School. As 'criminal' as the German Class is, you can't say you were bored watching them winding the Teacher up. *SIGH* Nobody misbehaves for long when Mme Philippe is the head though... 


S.V.T: *YAWN* Second most boring subject of the Week, apart from French. Mainly looked at how Humans have evolved, and how we are each share distinctive yet share similar traits...just stuff like that which doesn't peak my interest at all. Can we move on? There's nothing to talk about here.


English: I didn't find English boring but it could have been a lot better. We're mainly doing the same thing as last Week (about cliques and all that). Plus my group pulled in a 18/20 Overall Score which was very good (although not up to my standard, next time better be 20/20!). I did most of the work though, unsurprisingly. The Class just seemed a bit bored Overall.


Final Verdict: This Week was okay I suppose. It was tough in some places (Sport, French...) and the endless amounts Homework has become much more of a annoying issue. How I'm going to get through the load for this Monday is anyone's guess (Two Maths Tests, One History Test, S.V.T exercise, French Test...). It wasn't entirely void of humor though, the Maggots and the discussion on 'Pudding' was all very entertaining. Til' Next Week, fellow Readers (gettit?)...

Torchwood Miracle Day: Episode 10

Miracle Day concluded worldwide on Thursday night with 'The Bloodline', and while it wasn't exactly the best Episode I've seen all year, I think it's certainly one of the better Episodes of the Season (for a Finale it started out pretty 'meh' I thought but picked up alot of speed as it went along).


Lets start with my many nitpicks with the Episode first shall me? Just to get them out of the way? So it turns out that Jack's blood has been important all along, even though he's been defiant against it for like the past three Episodes. Wow, big shock there. Like NOBODY saw that coming! And yes, the Miracle was being transmitted by a morphic field, which has been Jacks only theory since Episode 2. You'd think that they'd at least had the brain cells to not go with the most obvious answer since Day One, wouldn't you? Thirdly, Esther's death was completely pointless and a complete waste. She didn't even have a final line or a last heroic stand, it was all like 'Poof, you're dead!' After a minute the characters didn't even remember her! WTF?! Even I was starting to warm to her by now and you just killed her for (seemingly) no reason? It's almost like you introduced her just so you can say that one of the Teammates died at the end...and speaking of pointless characters what the hell happened to Oswald Danes? Yes I liked the fact that they didn't redeem him but what was the point of his character in the end? He made a few evil sneers and blew himself up in some bat-shit-crazy fueled speech! THAT'S IT!!! Where's the awesome pay-off to his character? THERE WASN'T ONE, IT WAS JUST AN EXCUSE FOR ANOTHER BIG EXPLOSION! How can two main characters basically amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things? THESE ARE BIG ERRORS GUYS! And the Blessing? Generic alien plot device No 163. No explanation given, no real resolution, NOTHING. ZILCH! Oh RTD I've come to expect better from you. AND the Families are still at large! Couldn't you have just left it open? Now we KNOW that they're coming back for the next Series, which sucks as they're basically your classic Illuminati VE VANT TO TAKE OVER ZE WORLD! stereotypes that aren't really that interesting. *SIGH* At least they're getting rid of Esther and Rex....wait WHAAA! Rex is immortal now? Well okay, Rex is redeemed I suppose, FOR THE TIME BEING. 

And yet despite all my ranting and ravings I did still like alot about this Episode:
Even I have to admit that the last twenty minutes of the show was some really entertaining T.V. You couldn't blink without characters being killed off, explosions, epic speeches played against this epic crescendo score and even a few surprising twists thrown in for good measure. If only the nine hours before it had been chock full of this stuff and this would have been a wildly entertaining ride. Gwen's speech at the beginning was inspired and the character arcs do get a lot of healthy material (excluding Esther and Oswald, of course). Captain Jack was on fine form as well, sacrificing himself for the greater good of humanity and further proving the fact that it's Gwen and him that have made this Series for me. Take out the two lead characters and we'd have had a far worse series for sure. Other stand out moments, like John De Lancie's perfect curse-word-at-exactly-the-right-moment and Rex being suddenly brought back to life (didn't see that one coming!) were also appreciated. The positives only just outweighed the negatives at the last minute, so although it was full of script problems and plot holes you could at least say you had a fun time watching it.

What about the Series as a whole, though?
Well it hasn't been bad, but I can't say that it was great either, just very mediocre. When RTD started working on this show he had just finished riding off the success of David Tennant's last few Episodes and the masterpiece of television that was Torchwood: Children Of Earth. Now he had a great premise in hand, and had all the right tools to do it with but I think he's tried so hard to make Miracle Day like Children Of Earth that he's forgotten just what made that mini-Series so great: Minute by minute escalation (as bleak an outlook as you can get) and NAILBITING tension that just continued to build for five consecutive nights. With Miracle Day, the storyline and characters were just too thin to warrant Ten Episodes. Let's face it, you could have cut out the entirety of Episode 2, merge Episodes 3 and 4 together as well as Episodes 5 & 6 and 8 & 9, add more mystery and suspense, give the characters a overhaul to make them more appealing (like give Esther at least SOMETHING to do!), rewrite the Families and turn the Blessing into something more awesome than what we got and completely eradicate Oswald Danes as one of the main Characters. Maybe bring him in for an Episode or two but that's it. Also give it a sense of escalation as things get more and more out of control with the Miracle slowly turning planet earth into a complete free for all. I mean what happened to the whole of humanity starving in four months? Or the religious repercussions like those funny people in the white masks? Angelo's character and the whole thing about the Miracle cancelling metal plate was never brought up again as well. Maybe even make the villains more prominent from the get go, give us a face to pin all of this madness on? I suppose when you come down to it it's all been wasted potential. Not that Miracle Day was awful, there's just not alot to recommend! It's like half good, half boring. 


Miracle Day gets a 5/10 from me Overall. A real disappointment, but it wasn't anywhere near to being 'bad'. Hopefully next Series will be better than this half-assed attempt. Well okay maybe not completely half-assed but compare one scene of Children Of Earth to the entire Series of Miracle Day and you'll get what I mean: 

And no I don't think the major decline in quality is anything to do with it being mainly set in America!

   

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited

I think everyone can agree that the latest Doctor Who episode 'The Girl Who Waited' was pretty darned good. In short, it was one of the most heartbreaking Eps yet, and finally gave Karen Gillian's and Arthur Darvill's characters (Amy and Rory respectively) the material they deserved.

The Episode started off with the Doctor, Amy and Rory landing on the planet of Apalapucia, which is suffering from a fatal alien plague called Chen 7 that kills off anyone with two hearts in a day (so that's the Doctor of the Episode out then). The native population has created 'kindness centres' where those infected by the plague are placed in one of several thousand accelerated time streams, allowing them to live out their lives while in communication with their loved ones through special glass lenses in waiting rooms. Amy (after pressing the wrong button) accidentally ends up in one of these accelerated time streams and by the time Rory finds her she has aged by 36 years. As you can imagine, 36 years is a looong time, and old Amy is quite pissed off with both Rory and the Doctor when they show up late. The problem now is whether they should save the 'Original' Amy or the 'Old' Amy, which seems like a simple dilemma but if they were to save the 'Original' Amy then 'Old' Amy will be wiped out of existence (effectively killing her). Rory has to now basically choose between his two wives, and that type of scenario doesn't end on a happy note...   

This is Doctor Who on a complete high. We've had three solid Episodes in a row now, ranging from the wonderfully barmy 'Lets Kill Hitler' to the spooky gothic atmosphere of 'Night Terrors' and the heartfelt approach to this episode. Here the directing, cinematography, acting and scripting are all top notch, and I think it's one of the finer examples of Doctor Who at it's best. Special mention should go to Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill for their outstanding acting ability in this Episode. I think one of the negative things about Steven Moffat's approach to Who now is how he seems to hide the characters behind all the intricate and complicated plotlines. He just never seems to give the characters a chance to breath, to chat or maybe even have a normal conversation with each other, it's all just been GO, GO, GO! right from the start you know? It's almost like he is so busy trying to construct his next big plot twist that he leaves the compelling characters behind, maybe referencing their feelings once or twice with a line of dialogue but not really going in deep you know? This Episode did the characters justice, finally cemented our believe in Amy's love for Rory (and vice-versa) while throwing in a few cool action scenes (that slow-mo scene near the end with the Apple/Hand-bots was pretty kick ass) and pristine (clearly made by Apple) interiors to stop the viewer from getting bored. It's like the previous show-runner RTD (famous for perfecting the art of the tear-jerker) came back for an Episode, and did his classic 'Rose/David Tennant' scenario that made us all fall in love with the characters. I suppose in a lot of ways for me it was like the only missing piece in the recent Who puzzle (lack of real human emotion and character reactions) has been found and snapped into place. God dammit I loved this Episode.    

To quite my Mum after seeing 'The Girl Who Waited': 'This is one HECK of an Episode!' 

This Week In School: A New Start

Yep, after a Nine Week hiatus School is back! And sadly it marks another milestone in my life: my last Year in this College. Oh it's been a good four Years, full of Homework, stressed fueled Tests and early morning starts. But in ten months time it'll all be over, and I'm having trouble deciding if that's to be seen as a positive or a negative...Oh never mind! June 2012 is still ages away, I suppose. Not to mention the fact that we could all be dead by then, Apocalypse an' all. Let's just start with the first Week shall we? A Week that's always difficult in the School calender:   


Okay, so we start with Tuesday, my first day in 3eme B. Initial reaction? Well as far as first days go, it went along smoothly all things considered. First thing I'm relieved about is my Class, as they have seemed to have put all the young offenders from last year in one Class and all the relatively stable people in another (I count myself lucky to be one of these). So far the new Class has been spotless, not one Teacher has had to tell anyone off for chucking an egg at the wall yet! Secondly, my new timetable is good at diversifying lessons alot more (with the exception of one day but I'll get into that later): 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday:                Tuesday:        Wednesday:                      
                                                                                             
S.V.T                     English       French                                                             
German                 Music             French (2 hours)                
Sport                     Technology    Maths 
Sport (2 hours)      Maths             Vie de Class/ Maths (2h)
Lunch                    Lunch            
Maths                    History            
History                   German 
D.P.3                     French
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday:                 Friday:
                     
English                     French
Science                    Technology
Art                            History/S.V.T 
D.P.3                        D.P.3 
Lunch                       Lunch
Maths/French           English 
History                      Science
German                    Sport
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        
The new batch of Teachers aren't as bad as I thought they would be (at least as human beings go), but that doesn't particularly mean that I like any of them because they're going to make my life hell for the next Year. The first three hours of the first day are the same with any Year in this School: Boring as Hell! Literally, it's all rules and regulations, along with more rules! We're in our fourth year in this College now, we know the rules off by heart now! Why do we have to spend THREE HOURS going through them all? I mean sure finding out about the new Timetable and Teachers is kinda interesting but most of it is just the School basically saying: 'You better be f*cking perfect and follow the rules!' B-O-R-I-N-G. Besides, I think we're all smart enough to know what's allowed and what isn't by now. And the rules have gotten waaay more strict, you can't even pick up a pencil without asking the Teacher if you can preform such an action. Mme Philippe is back I see.  
My new 'head' Teacher is Mme Le Merlus, who couldn't be more of a Teacher if she tried. Oh, and she's also our Maths Teacher, great. She's got this strict-ness down to a tea, completely emotionless and not to mention brutal efficiency in her work. She HAS to be a Robot in disguise, or something. Maths was next on our timetable after the three hours of boring regulations, so we had four hours (the entire morning) with ONE Teacher, which got a bit tiring. As of yet, Maths is just a revision on last year by going back to the basics. Which is handy, because I can't remember a thing about Maths from last Year, it's like it's all been vacuum cleaned out of my head during the Summer Holidays. It's like starting Maths for the first time again, and I found it frustrating to find out that things I would have once found easy are now deemed 'hard'. I'm sure it will all come back to me in due time of course (hopefully), but for now it's pretty much: HEAD. BLOWN. 
After lunch was History, which in my mind was a total breath of fresh air. The new Teacher is very much the excessive Homework giver and she sure as hell did her best to make us scared about the Brevet (it was literally like: 'Welcome to 3eme children, now your life is going to END') but I found her much more interesting and involved when trying to sell us her subject. So yeah she made History seen interesting again. This Year in History is pretty much going to be about everything we've done before with the new addition of the First and Second World Wars (not to mention the 'Cold' War era) so that should be quite nice to work on. The mid-1900s is quite juicy, history-wise. Next up was German, and boy was it easy: The Class has completely taken advantage of this new Teacher, who hasn't got one strict bone in her. In fact she talks so calmly that with all the chaos that was surrounding her you wondered how she never raised her voice. As Teacher's go she was quite nice. The Class was doing everything to agite her though, like throwing bits of paper, refusing to work, saying that everything was hard ect: they took advantage of the two and a half month absent Teacher from last Year, using this as an excuse by claiming that they didn't even know ONE sentence in German because she was never around to teach us ANYTHING, which was a big fat lie. I mean the other Teacher was away for half the year but at least she taught me something that is still stuck inside my head, unlike most of the other subjects from last year where I've kind of forgotten about them completely. The entire lesson was just easy-peasy, because the Class played dumb and the Teacher was spending ten minutes on saying the word 'Hello' in German! 
After German was French, in which we straight up received our first Test. Yes, that's right: a Test on OUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! WTF?!! A TEST! AND WHY DOES IT SAY BREVET AT THE TOP!!! OH MY GOD DOES THIS MEAN I'VE JUMPED AHEAD IN TIME BY TEN MONTHS?!! OH GOD HELP ME!!!!
Now don't worry, turns out it was an extract from the real Brevet Test (a text comprehension Test), that doesn't count in our overall score for this Trimestre and would give the Teacher an indication of where we were skill wise so when it comes to the actual Test we'd know what to expect, which isn't such a bad idea I suppose. Unfortunately, nobody told us this so we thought we were getting a proper Test on our first day that we would surely fail on miserably. Which was a bit nasty, because I came home from School on Tuesday thinking I had already failed a major Test on my first day! Thank's alot for that, Mme Thomas. 


Wednesday was sufferable, but I can imagine it (as a School day) getting really boring in the future. Want to know why? Because its two hours of French back to back, and every other Week, two hours of Maths back to back as well! That's TWO hours of Maths and French that take up an entire morning! SHOOT ME NOW!!!!! Okay seen as it is a new year and it's been a while since our last French lesson, it wasn't that boring but my god is it going to get dull later on! I can barely stand awake as it is with these lessons, do I really have to endure a whole morning full of them EVERY Week?! Wednesday is like the timetable from HELL! Anyway Maths was pretty the same as Monday, basic revision yadda yadda yadda, and French started with a dictation (yes, that's right, ANOTHER Test in French on my second day! What the hell is the school playing at?) and us studying (of all things) how to read a Test properly. Yep, we're deconstructing you're average Test. One of the main things I've learnt from this lesson is that in a text comprehension (where you have to answer questions about a short story you've read or an extract from some book or something), it's best to read the questions BEFORE you read the text because the questions can help you on understanding the story better. So when one of the questions ask 'What are the prisoners in the concentration camp feeling?' (and yes, that WAS a question they asked me in the Test on Monday, pretty depressing subject for a Test isn't it? ) it does give you a pretty good indication of where the story is set. It's a shame that even with the questions offering hints as to what the Story is about, I still couldn't understand a word of that blasted text! And neither could anyone else, because according to the Teacher the Test we did on Monday had horrifying results, with only three people in the year getting a score higher than 7,5/15. I suppose that's what you get for giving us a hard Test and completely freaking us out on the FIRST day, eh? 
So all things considered, Wednesday wasn't TOO bad and the new French Teacher (although technically my old one from 6eme B) could have been a LOT worse. 


Thursday was okay Overall. English was interesting, because  Mme Rouxel (our head from last year + my old Teacher from 6eme) has shaked things up a bit by putting the entire Class into groups and the group that does the best (i.e participates...good students ect) gets the most points. So everyone is all of a sudden scrambling like dogs to say something, ANYTHING in English so they can get 20/20 every Week! It worked brilliantly, I must say. It's basically encouraging everyone to participate, and if they don't or mess around in Class then they get punished and get points knocked off their Test. Science next, and we've only just started studying metals. Not alot to comment about, just your routine Science lesson. Art was one hour of the Teacher scaring us about the Brevet, mainly on the Histoire Des Arts subject were you have to pick a painting or a piece of music or maybe even do a biography on someone from a list and then do a presentation on said subject in front of all the Teachers (yippe) that lasts about 15 minutes and they ask you questions afterwards. That's 15 mins of talking pure French remember, and you can't slip up. First of all, how am I going to do this? I can barely say a full sentence in French let alone 15 mins! HOW AM I GOING TO DO THIS???!!! And the way the Art Teacher is phrasing it you'd think it would be tomorrow let alone in ten months time! They're clearly trying to scare us into getting our act together now. We're barely a Week in and ALREADY they're cramming the Brevet down our throats like scare
-mongerers! The last lesson of the morning was D.P.3 or Future study's which is centered on what you'll be doing after this College. For the first lesson we made a list of all the places you can go to after this place (i.e Lycees, MFR's, CFA's, Lycee Pro ect...) and we were each split into groups and had to pick the topic of our choosing and research it (everyone wanted to do MFA for some reason).                        
French started the afternoon (oh great French AGAIN?) and it went pretty poorly all things considered. First thing the Teacher did was give us our Tests from Monday (a big fat 2,5/15!) and then spent the rest of the hour ridiculing us about how easy the entire thing was. Thanks for making me feel miserable, Teach. Now don't get me wrong, it was easy...if you UNDERSTOOD the Text! But seen as I'm not as well developed in French reading comprehension than I am in English I didn't really get the jist of it. And as far as the questions go, I knew what to write but didn't have all the 'correct' French words in my head to formulate them, if that makes any kind of sense. In these Tests you have to place your words correctly, be detailed in your replys and to the point. My lack of French grammer and wording skills just may well be the death of me when it comes to the Brevet. But if that's MY excuse, then how come the rest of the Class failed so miserably as well? I guess that's a mystery that will never be answered, but knocking it out on the first day DOES NOT HELP! History next, and it was a big talk about the empires of the early 1900s and how they slowly ceased to exist by the end of it. We also spent a brief while discussing terrorism and Al-Qaeda, which was all very interesting. Thursday finished with German, and the Class was just as obnoxious and rude towards the new Teacher as they were on Tuesday if not more so. Not once did the Teacher raise her voice again, which is pretty impressive considering. If that was me then I'd have chucked them all out of the window, they were THAT annoying! The Class was basically having enormous fun at the Teacher (and lesson's) expense!


Friday was good, and I can't say I was bored once during it. French was the only real weak link, because a) the subject was boring and b) I got 1,5/6 in Wednesday's dictation (which mercifully doesn't count but my two lives are up now). Technology was cool, we basically just spent the entire lesson chilling out and being sorted into groups while deciding which 'project' we should do for this year (we're doing ONE big project instead of lots of little projects now). Nothings being set in stone yet so we'll have to wait until next Week to see which project we'll tackle. S.V.T was meh, we started comparing Human physiology to other animals and what separates 'us' from 'them'. Interesting to some, but I got bored half way through. D.P.3 was me and my group starting research on our topic and I don't know what the heck it ('MFR') means! But I suppose that's probably why we're researching it...English after lunch was good, the new group dynamic again offers an interesting competitive streak to the lessons. The table with the English guy on (me) is bound to win though, and can hardly be classed as a 'fair game' really. I haven't helped them too much though, and I'm confident that my Team is the best. In Science we had to come up with theories on how we could test these brass statue things to see whether or not they were 100% bronze, it was kinda interesting but I think we could be doing better things, like studying Atoms or something? That's always cool. 
The Week ended with Sport, and M. Radenac (of charmingly strict fame) made us do the bane of my life: Ping-Pong...AGAIN! *SIGH* It's been three years now, and I'm NOWHERE close to improving on this shitty sport. If I have to do Ping-Pong in the Brevet then I'm F*CKED, plain and simple! 


So that was the end of Week 1, and it was okay I suppose. The Teacher's are doing their utmost to put the fear of god in us, making the Brevet seem like an insurmountable mountain to climb, which I'm pretty sure won't be as bad as all the hype about it (Les Epreuves Communes made me wet my pants with stress but that turned out quite easy in the end). Besides, the Brevet is still months away, so I haven't got anything to worry about...yet. Til' next Week then.         

Torchwood Miracle Day: Episodes 8 & 9

Torchwood, Torchwood, Torchwood. Just when I think that you’ve finally hit your stride, you throw in a few more 'meh' Episodes.

Judging by the end of the fantastic ‘Immortal Sins‘ I thought that the eighth episode of Miracle Day ‘End Of The Road’ would have at least answered a few questions, but what we got was an episode that merely speculated, and while contained a few moments of greatness, just generally fell flat on it’s face by it’s mediocrity.

Remember Angelo from the last Episode? I was hoping that his character was given a bit more than just a passing epilogue of an old man in a coma who eventually died. Could he at least have been conscious for a while? Maybe a line of dialogue? Nope, straight to the morgue for ye. His granddaughter did no better either, never has a woman said so much that meant so little. This was basically ’Exposition: The Episode!’ for the first half. Then the jolly fat guy came in (why did they hire THIS famous actor for THIS part, I look at him and just cannot buy his character!) pointed a few guns and then blew himself up for no reason. What was the point of reintroducing his character anyway? I had forgotten all about him! Then even MORE exposition! Captain Jack might as well be sprouting phoney lines from the script right in front of us. I don’t mind exposition, but it just seemed a bit bland what they was explaining. Doctor Who could have solved these questions with one line of dialogue and get on to but Torchwood? Let’s just waste an entire Episode for this crap!!

*TAKES A DEEP BREATH, CALMING HIMSELF*

Okay, so after my frustration about how mediocre and boring Torchwood has gotten, what did I like about this Episode? Well it had some good character moments, Oswald Danes was brought back, John De Lancie’s Chapiro was really entertaining and it had a good cliffhanger ending (Jack is soooo not dead by the way). So I suppose 50% of this Episode was good. But the other half felt tedious and dull. Well seen as the next Episode IS the penultimate one I hope we can finally pick up the pace and end this on a high note, right guys? 

Well…not really. While I admit that I did like this Episode a lot, I think it’s hardly penultimate episode material. It starts a few months later and the Torchwood team are each tackling their own missions. Gwen has to hide her father from the authorities (being finally caught by the stereotypically evil ‘new-app!‘ guy), Rex is tracking down ‘family’ members and Jack and Esther are somehow now in Scotland with Esther nursing Jack back to health. Why Jack and Esther are in Scotland and how Rex has escaped from smuggling Jack into the car (last Episode) is beyond me though. Surely the CIA aren’t that dum? Meanwhile, Jilly Kitzinger is being transported to Shangai to see the great ‘Blessing’ everyone is talking about. Anyway due to some magical script editing all the major characters (including Oswald, who still crosses the line between unlikeability and likeability so perfectly) are reunited in Gwens home to finally crack down and find the location of the so called ’Blessing’. What they find out in ONE evening is more than what they’ve solved in every single episode put together! God damn, did it have to take them soooo long? FINALLY WE GET SOMEWHERE!


Okay, now I can believe in this Torchwood team. Rex is the charmingly cool asswipe, I’m FINALLY warming to Esther, Captain Jack and Gwen are as good as they’ve ever been and Oswald is intriguingly fascinating. If ONLY they had come to this conclusion five episodes ago! Although the stuff with the ’Blessing’ was still a bit meh, I finally have confidence in these characters and I can’t wait to see what the finale to Miracle Day holds in store. And judging by the trailers, it’s going to be one eck’ of an Episode! Can one Episode redeem an entire Series worth of (let’s face it) mediocrity? We’ll have to wait another Week to find out…

      

Doctor Who: Night Terrors

I thought ‘Night Terrors’ by Mark Gatiss was another solid Doctor Who Episode. It had chills, thrills, a few twists and above all, a nice heart warming ending. It was perfect family fare, for the most part. The Episode introduces us to George, an eight-year-old who lives in a housing estate near London and is quite simply terrified of everything. He thinks the old lady a few stories down is a witch, the lift makes this weird breathing noise that creeps him out, he’s scared of the local landlord who has this big fat scary bulldog that keeps terrorising his Dad and the thought of his parents rejecting him seems almost too horrible to consider! He’s so scared in fact, that his parents are thinking of calling in a therapist. What they get though is this weird twenty-six-year-old wearing a tweed jacket and a bowtie just barging in and quite literally saying: ‘You’re right, the monsters in your cupboard ARE real! Be scared!’ I’m sure that there wasn’t one six-year-old kid out there that watched this program and refused to turn the lights off that night. What ensues is quite a suspenseful half an hour, with more than just a few twists thrown in for good measure.    

 

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Unfortunately for everyone in the counselling estate, George is an alien who has the ability to wish away all of his demons into his bedside cupboard and through this magical telepathic ability of his (yeah it’s kind of sketchy at best) can even make his nightmares become a startling reality. Whether George is aware of this or not isn’t properly explained but his creations, these giant zombie rag-doll puppets are pant-wettingly terrifying! The worse thing about them isn’t their sing-song voice of children’s nursery rimes or their unnatural appearance (oh my god those black eyes!), it’s the ability to horribly transform you into one of them! The scene when Amy is grabbed by a doll and then horribly mutated into one of these things is really, really unnerving not to mention scary as sh*t. And when the landlord gets it oh boy does he get it bad! I don’t think I’ve seen a transformation on Doctor Who that graphic before (with the exception of that guy turning into an Ood a few years back)! The costume and the design department gets a A+ in this Episode, the mood is suitably dark and gloomy and those dolls were horrifyingly simple but effective. Apparently this was a budget episode (it does show a little in area’s) but for what it’s worth I say congrats for doing so much with so considerably little. The special effects were okay-ish as well apart from that one scene when the landlord was sucked into the carpet, the CGI looked quite frankly cringe worthy. The actors on show are mostly good, but the companions weren’t really given much to do apart from scream and hide from the monsters. The little boy George did some brilliant I’m scared acting but that was mainly it. The plot is simple but executed brilliantly for the most part, I call bullcrap though on the explanation about the boy being an alien the entire time, it felt rushed and was explained by Matt Smith in a way that was too fast to comprehend, I had to watch it at least twice to tell what he was saying. The Doctor and George’s father (played wonderfully by Daniel Mays) made a brilliant double act, and the tension was brilliantly set-up to boot. In fact they held the tension so long that I was starting to wonder if it was a two-parter. The ending pulled a few heartstrings as well, but it did feel a tad rushed and there were several gaping plot-holes that weren’t really explained, which probably went down to lack of time. If I have one major criticism about this Series it’s that there seems to be so many cool idea’s scurrying around and little time to successfully tell them all without the viewer feeling that a great opportunity for an Episode was wasted. This Episode just about managed to do none of that, but glaring holes in the writing are still present.

So apart from a few issues with the script, ’Night Terrors’ is brilliantly executed, wonderfully spooky and just all round good telly. So what’s on next? Oh great, the X-Factor. Put a gun to my head and kill me please, or at least get a time machine so I can see next Weeks episode N-O-W!