Doctor Who: A Good Man Goes To War

OH. MY.GOD. A Good Man Goes To War was undoubtably the best Doctor Who Episode of Series Six. With the only weak link being Curse Of The Black Spot, this Series has so far been some really good telly. Much better than that Britains Got Talent crap, if you watched that instead of this I'm completely ashamed of you. It was a hoot from start to finish, indulging in a bit of fan-service mixed in with an epic tale. And the revelation at the end, although I think we all saw it coming, was nonetheless thrilling. We now know that there has DEFINATELY been a force at work for quite some time (albeit one that still hasn't been revealed, but the eye-patch lady certainly hinted at it), and one that needs Amy's baby so it can use her as a weapon of some sort. Not forgetting that we know who River Song is (FINALLY!)....

So the Episode started with lots of explosions, time-zones and many recurring monsters returning (Sontarans, Judoon, Cybermen, Silurians...) which was all a bit reminiscant of the RTD era of the show but that's no bad thing: it was exiting and epic, really giving a sense of scale and OOMMPH to proceedings. It was telling us that this was no normal episode of Doctor Who, this was a proper Finale! Oooh, I do love my 'everything BUT the kitchen sink' blockbuster stories! Or at least this Episode was, until the last twenty minutes which was basically one big build-up to several revelations (each one of them shocking and genuinely intriguing) that was basically an acting tour-de-force from everyone and provided several WOW! moments. This is Doctor Who at its finest, and the climax of the episode really nailed the answers to the big questions. I mean COME ON! Who ISN'T excited for Series Six Part 2 in the autumn? This Series has the potential to make fantastic television, and if the actual finale is ANYTHING as good as this I think Steven Moffat should receive a standing ovation! 

The acting in this one was brilliant, Matt Smith should be rewarded for going through a range of emotions in just under 7 minutes (panic to arrogance to anger, and then to joy all in one scene). River Song/Alex Kingston had the best moments though, and the fact that Amy Pond and Rory Williams now have a frigging BABY to look after was well handled, in just over one season and a half they have probably had more character progression than any other new Who companions so far. Poor Amy, so much has happened to her since the Eleventh Hour and I'm surprised she hasn't left the Doctor yet! Another great thing about this Episode was the big Monster-fest, and I think all of the side characters were very good and would LOVE to see an entire Episode based around them. Dorium, the Sontaran and the lesbian duo (what the hell was going on with that?!) provided some very happy grins emanating from my brothers mouth (I don't think he got the lesbianbit though). The Cybermen were poorly used though, barely having a cameo for seemingly no other reason than to just have them in it! And by the way, I thought that the whole 'He will rise higher than ever before, and then fall so much furthur' crap was far too over hyped. The Doctor didn't rise particulary high and didn't really fall either. Load of Bullcrap to get us excited for nothing. Anyway, aside from that horrible epic speech the Episode was fantastic. FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC! I haven't included many spoilers in this post just in case some of you haven't seen the Ep yet  (I'm looking at you Grandma), but trust me, it was the BEST thing on T.V this Saturday night. 

So what did I think of the Series? Its been great so far, offering up genuis plot twists and crazy fan speculation (don't even get me started on the fan theories related to this past season!). But if I had to rank them it would probably go like this:

1. A Good Man Goes To War (Excellent)
2. The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People (Brilliant)
3. The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon (Very Good)
4. The Doctor's Wife (Good)
5. Curse Of The Black Spot (Alright)    

So look's like this will be the last DW related post until the autumn then, see you then! Now if only I had a TARDIS, I could just whisk to Episode Eight right now....