Doctor Who Series 7: My Thoughts

Well here we are, at the end of my marathon recap of Series 7b. Before I get into 'The Day Of The Doctor', I thought I'd share some thoughts on what I feel about the latest Season. Basically episodes 1-5 (the final hurrah for Amy & Rory) were mostly superb with the exception of 'A Town Called Mercy' and the ending to 'The Power Of Three'. They had excellent production values, fantastic characters, a cracking pace and truly lived up to the whole 'blockbuster a week' mantra showrunner Steven Moffat had hyped about the Series, and let's not forget they sent Amy & Rory off in style!. Then we got the 2012 Xmas special which was fun (although it had nothing blockbuster-y about it) and the remaining eight episodes which ranged from terrible to great. 

So looking at it on an episode by episode basis you could say it stands up well, right? And yet for some reason I look at it now as a whole and think of it as somewhat of a disappointment, almost mediocre in quality. Why is that?

Well for starters the fact that we've had one series split over two years meant that expectations went naturally through the roof (the classic 'we get less but it'll be better' argument) and yet with the exception for 'Rings Of Akhaten' and episode 'The Name Of The Doctor' I can't really name any stand-out episodes in the larger second half. Don't get me wrong 'Cold War', 'Hide' and 'The Crimson Horror' were good but they didn't advance the main mystery of the season and were pretty simple adventure of the week episodes, you could rearrange them in any order and they'd still fit into the second half of the season. And episodes like 'The Power Of Three' and 'The Angels Take Manhatten' could have really benefited as a two-parter, and feel too compact for cramming in too much story into the relatively short running time. So I guess the segmented 'blockbuster a week' theme this series has also been it's downfall, because it made every episode feel separate and detached from the whole. And honestly there was nothing blockbuster-y about Series 7b, granted there wasn't any cheap episodes but nothing on-screen rivalled the movie feel of 'Asylum Of The Daleks' or 'Dinosaurs On A Spaceship', it's clear that more money was spent per episode on 7a than on 7b, probably because 7a was shorter so they had a bigger budget individually. It also stunted any character development with Clara, I mean her mystery goes NOWHERE until the last episode which means most of her character development is shunted because she's basically been a series-long cypher. That's a shame, because it's clear JLC is an excellent actress, playing three different versions of the same character in one series is a tough job but she did an amazing job. 

Meanwhile this is Matt Smith's last series and it's sickening to think that all the build-up of Series 5 & 6 ultimately lead to nothing in Series 7. It's almost as if Steven Moffat forgot the event's of Series 6 entirely! Oh wait, didn't I say the same thing for Series 5? Hmm... As a result nothing has been tied up in a nice neat bow and again Series 7 feels fragmented from the rest of his run. Series 5 & 6 (barring some unanswered questions) complemented each other like one big story whereas Series 7 ditched Amy & Rory half way and went off to do it's own thing for a while with Clara. You see what I mean? It's almost they realised half way through the season that MS was leaving and decided to drop everything they had been planning and give him at least one other companion before his era was over because otherwise it would have been as much the Amy & Rory era as it was his. Why couldn't they have kept Amy & Rory for the rest of the season and introduced Clara with the new Doctor in Series 8? That way we would have got full closure on them (rather them being written out abruptly in a single episode) and finally finished up the plotline about the Silence, the TARDIS blowing-up AND River Song? Make Matt Smith's era one giant self contained trilogy of interconnected story arcs but NOPE, you had to go this route didn't ya? Instead at the very end 'The Name Of The Doctor' abruptly goes back into the arc but no matter how good the episode was it didn't match the build-up at the end of Series 6. So the Silence tried to blow up his TARDIS AND kill him permanently at Lake Silencio just to stop The Great Intelligence from invading his time stream? Slightly anti-climatic I must say, and resolved in five minutes by Clara. Dorium's prophetic final word's 'DOCTOR WHO?' sent a shiver up my spine at the end of 'The Wedding Of River Song' but here the question is posed as more of an afterthought. I mean is this really it? Years of speculation all leading to that one moment? I really hope Moffat has got more up his sleeve for the 50th...

Listen I can't complain much about individual episodes, but as a whole several flaws are glaring. Even the great episodes have missteps, and yeah I really think 'The Power Of Three' could have been amazing if not for that lackluster ending. And let's not forget the villains! The bad guys have been severely lacking this season, they had no real menace or sense of threat. Even the 'big bad' of the season was basically Richard E Grant putting on a steely voice for a few minutes. Mrs Sweet from 'The Crimson Horror' did more than The Great Intelligence, and he's technically the MAIN bad guy of the series! 

If I were to pit this season up against others, I'd say this was the worst. It walks a fine line been okay and good, but I'm leaning more towards good: 7/10. 

Positives:

+ Fantastic send-off for Amy & Rory
+ First five episodes were consistently great
+ Very cinematic, one of the better looking seasons
+ Blockbuster-a-week format is a challenging experiment
+ Multiple Clara's, and great resolution to that arc 
+ Great, fan pleasing finale
+ Weeping Angles, Dalek's
+ Best episodes: 'The Ring's Of Akhaten', 'Name Of The Doctor', 'Asylum Of The Dalek's, 'Dinosaur's On A Spaceship', 'The Angels Take Manhatten', 'The Crimson Horror' 
+ Good episodes: 'The Snowmen', 'The Power Of Three'
+ Solid episodes: 'Cold War', 'Hide'
+ New title screen, TARDIS

Negatives:

- A lot of rushed adventures
- Clara's character goes nowhere until the finale
- Richard E Grant's character sucked
- Too much sonic screwdriver
- Oswin
- No progression of the Series 5/6 arc!
- Bad episode: 'A Nightmare In Silver'
- The ending of 'The Power Of Three' 
- Weak villains
- A few mediocre episodes as well: 'A Town Called Mercy', 'The Bells Of Saint John', 'Journey To The Center Of The Tardis'
- Amy and Rory's divorce, why can't the Doctor go back and see them again?

Series Rankings (2013):

1) Series 4/The 2009 Specials
2) Series 6
3) Series 5 
4) Series 3
5) Series 1
6) Series 2
7) Series 7

Let's hope the next series will ditch the one episode formula and go back to two-parters...

Doctor Who: The Name Of The Doctor

Wow. That was rather good wasn't it ? As finale's go 'The Name Of The Doctor' wasn't nearly as bombastic or an SFX driven affair as previous Series ender's, but was still ridiculously epic just thanks to it's subject matter alone. Moffat promised that this episode would 'change the history of the show forever' and he wasn't wrong, the show's timeline has definitely been altered considerably thanks to that cliffhanger ending. It's a great episode packed with fantastic idea's and one that rather nicely leads into the 50^th Anniversary Special.

For starters how amazing was that opening sequence? Openings to Steven Moffat episodes are always a joy to behold, often cutting between multiple different points in time and space that really give off a feel of grandeur and excitement (look at the openings for 'The Pandorica Opens' and 'The Wedding Of River Song', amazing stuff) that no other TV show can really produce. This one however tops them all, heck I could barely contain myself after that first magnificent shot of Gallifrey. If you were to go through a checklist of MUST DO'S for the 50^th Anniversary I'd say multiple Doctor appearances ranks pretty highly for your average Who fan. This would be akin to getting all your Xmas presents a few months before then, because we're treated with cunningly edited clips of the first 8 Doctor's AND WE'RE NOT EVEN PAST THE TWO MINUTE MARK! Of course as with all Moffat eps there's still a wonderfully heavy dosage of WTF going on, what with Clara seemingly being present in all the adventures of past Doctors. As a side note: how amazing is it to see William Hartnell's face plastered all over the nation's TV screens again? We're in 2013, this man has been dead since 1975 and has basically been rendered immortal thanks to a lead role in a cheap BBC science fiction show from the early 1960's! 

OMG IT'S GALLIFREY! IT LOOKS AMAZING! MORE! 

After that incredible opening we cut to Victorian England and I'm delighted to say that Vastra, Jenny and Strax are once again back and just as fun as ever. After an ominous message from a raving lunatic concerning the Doctor Vastra decides to meet up with River Song and Clara by having a weird shared dream that (somehow) manages to traverse time & space. Ten minutes and some kidnappings later The Doctor and Clara are finally at Trenzalore, the prophesied planet spoken by Dorium at the end of Series 6. Turn's out it's the home of The Doctor's grave on the site of a massive battle, and in a nutshell the Great Intelligence from the Xmas special needs the Doctor's name in order to open the doors to his tomb, a giant TARDIS. Why? Well...so he can invade the Doctor's personal time stream and turn every single one of this victories/adventures into defeats, effectively killing him a million times over...that's why. So Clara goes in after him, splintering herself across every single one of his adventures (which explains the multiple Clara's) and thus saving him from the Great Intelligence a million gazillion times. She also get's the first Doctor to pick the right TARDIS, which is a nice touch. Cue the Doctor ALSO going into his time-stream (at this point it might as well be a revolving door) and saving Clara, BUT before they leave they encounter what (for now) is only known as 'The Hurt Doctor'. SURPRISE!

Aesthetically speaking this was a very dark episode, filled with mist and gloomy backgrounds. While it gave everything a funeral air that permeated through the episode (this is another finale that focuses on the Doctor's death) all I can remember is those dark backgrounds so visually it's the most uninteresting out the entire season. The damaged console room was wonderful though, it must have been hell for the production team to transform things back afterwards. And let's not forget the flashback sequences, which let's face it are kind of fake looking when you look back at it. It's obvious that Clara has been photo-shopped in quite a few instances. Again this isn't an episode that rely's on spectacle, and when you think about it comes off as looking quite cheap compared to other finales. 

By far the worst aspect of the episode was (like the Xmas special) Richard E Grant's pantomime villain The Great Intelligence, who's so cliche he might as well be twirling a moustache. The episode never explains to us what he has been doing since the 1800's and states his sole motivation as 'revenge', a motive so paper thin that any past Doctor Who enemy could have filled his shoes and still would have fit perfectly. There's no attempt to make him menacing either, the only emotion on display is 'bitter'. His ghostly allies the Whispermen are creepy though, and share more than a passing resemblance to the Silence from Series 6. Just what were they though? The Great Intelligence seems to imply that they're a part of of him, but we're not even sure who 'he' is now as the last time we saw him he was basically telepathic snow, right? *SIGH* I'm confused, this bad guy is a fail.  

Counteracting the badness of 'The Great Intelligence' is the return of River Song! It's always been fun to work out where she is in her timeline but here it's explicitly said that this post-library for her so chronologically this is her last appearance, even if she's already died at this point. How she's still alive as an 'echo' I don't know but it felt oddly sad when she had to say goodbye to the Doctor at the end, almost like this is her last appearance...

Richard E Grant *LOOKS AT SCRIPT*: 'Why did I sign up for this again?'

If this is her last episode on the show, and it would make sense to end it here because it's definitely the end of her story, then I'm very sad indeed. River's character has basically been a constant in Steven Moffat's era and has defined the show just as much as Matt Smith has. This will be her last episode with Matt Smith as the Doctor (unless she's in the 50th or Xmas episodes) so maybe the VERY DEFINITIVE goodbye scene was just a way for her character to say goodbye to the 11th Doctor and not the series in general? I do wonder though, as bringing her back again from a point after her death would just dilute things a bit too much. Judging from recent interviews Moffat hasn't made his mind up if he wants to continue the character or not, and this episode was intended to cover all bases making it enough of an ending for her arc for viewers to feel satisfied but also leaving it open for future appearances. I hope she does come back, but her story does feel complete now.
     
Besides a resolution to River's storyline, Clara FINALLY got her mystery explained! So much of this season has been treading water til' the big reveal, and despite losing interest in the main mystery half way through it's a really neat resolution that I didn't see coming (not that we could have, no 'clues' as such were given beforehand), and it basically means she is present in every Doctor Who story ever constantly saving him as a different version of herself! That's...kind of interesting, leaving the possibility for her to come back after she leaves as 'another' Clara. They could have dealt with this a lot sooner and moved onto something else though, like Series 6. Imagine Amy's mysterious pregnancy lasting the whole season and getting 'A Good Man Goes To War' as the last episode, it would have dragged things out and caused far too much filler in-between with little to no evolution to keep things interesting. That's the second half of Series 7 in a nutshell, filler. Mostly good filler, but filler nonetheless. Thankfully the pay-off is great, it's just a shame it took so long to get here. 

Aside from the leads, River Song and the baddies this was another quiet episode as far as the cast was concerned, the supporting roles here are once again Vastra, Strax and Jenny. This is their third episode back since 'A Good Man Goes To War', so saying that the Patternoster gang is awesome is pretty much routine now. Along with Matt Smith I have trouble writing about them in these blogs now because there's nothing really to write about apart from how good they are, and that get's repetitive after a while. I take issue with Jenny being 'murdered' and brought back to life so quickly though, I mean what was the point? Death is pretty much meaningless in Moffat's Who, heck everyone's died and come back to life now. 

Okay, let's talk about THAT cliffhanger. John Hurt's appearance at the end was the second most amazing moment of the episode, the idea that the Doctor has a forgotten incarnation (presumably during the Time War) that went against everything the name of 'The Doctor' stood for is a powerful one. I also like that he chose this name as a 'promise', something that represented the values he adhere's to (like 'The Master' for example, who wants to rule over everybody). The guy who did the whole 'Introducing John Hurt as the Doctor' title card clearly hasn't read the script, because the Doctor clearly stated that this incarnation in no way, shape or form deserves the title of 'The Doctor'. Text issues aside, this is a perfect way to hype up the 50th Anniversary, something that radically changes the show and our perception of the Doctor. We're basically talking about a new forgotten Doctor here, folks. And John Hurt is playing him! Think of that for a second, John Hurt as the Doctor! Amazing, just amazing. 

Both stars are left stunned after that reveal...

Undoubtedly a great episode to finish off the uneven second half of Series 7. It may have a crap bad guy and be rather downsized compared to what we're used to with DW finale's but I for one can't wait to see where the show goes next after all this Clara business had been resolved: 9/10. 

Positives:

+ Great opening, ending
+ Lot's of great idea's
+ Past Doctor's!
+ Clara's arc is finally resolved!
+ The patternoster gang are back!
+ River Song is back!
+ John Hurt!

Negatives:

- Villain is weaksauce, motivation lacking
- Very gloomy in look, LOTS of black backgrounds
- Jenny's supposed 'death'
- Could have been a bit more epic
- River's last appearance?

Doctor Who: Nightmare In Silver

Well this is surprising. After one of the best episodes this season, ‘The Crimson Horror’, I thought we were in for a home run with this one. When Neil Gaiman, the legendary fantasy writer who wrote Series 6's ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ was returning this year to script another story featuring the Cybermen, I got quite excited. ’The Doctor’s Wife’, whilst not a classic episode like some fans are claiming (it felt far too rushed for that, should have been a two-parter), it was nethertheless packed chock full of idea’s and it was a uniquely weird adventure that felt original in every-way. Gaiman is known for doing darkly weird fantasy stories, so you could say he is perfect for Moffat's version of DW. He’s also a massive fan, and has said on numerous occasions that he isn’t doing it for the money (apparently English drama’s don’t pay writers for rewrites, while the American industry does, so basically writing for DW doesn't pay well) and writing for the show is something of a ’childhood dream’ for him. He also said, after the Doctor’s Wife, that he’d only ever do another episode of Doctor Who unless he could ’do something that can only be done once‘. So in short, he loves writing for Doctor Who but will only write an episode that lives up to his own standards. PERFECT. Gaiman has shown time and time again that he’s a fantastic writer, so how could an episode of his possibly suck, especially with his stated convictions? Well…

I haven’t seen an episode this sh*t since the 2011 Xmas special! Holy crap was this a disappointment! It’s been a while since the last good Cyberman episode, most of their Moffat-era appearances were either too brief or too dumbed down to be of any importance. Their last episode ‘Closing Time’ had them defeated by the power of love for christ sakes! I was hoping that Gaiman could make them a credible and scary threat again, in fact he’s said numerous times in interviews that he really wanted to get the scare factor out of them this time, but nope. There might be a good Cyberman episode somewhere in here, but it’s been mostly diluted to the point of them ONCE AGAIN being an ancillary threat to what is really the main part of the episode.

This episode has four MAJOR downfalls:

1) THIS ISN'T A CYBERMAN EPISODE, ONCE AGAIN! As far as NuWho villains go, the Cybermen haven't exactly had the best track record. While 'Rise Of The Cybermen/Age Of Steel' brought them back almost perfectly, in the Series 2 finale 'Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday' they were pretty much Dalek cannon fodder and mostly served an accompanying role. Their next appearance in the 2009 special 'The Next Doctor' was really good though, giant robot be damned! Then we got a rather creepy scene in 'The Pandorica Opens' but that was merely an extended cameo. They had another good cameo role in 'A Good Man Goes To War' in Series 6, but that was then followed up by one of the most bullsh*t endings I have ever seen in 'Closing Time' which quite frankly demoted them down from a fearless DW baddie to...well...wimps! So in comes Neil Gaiman in Series 7, saying his intent for this episode was to make them more powerful AND scary again! YAY! Or so I thought...you see this episode isn't really focused on them as much as it is their Cyber-planner, a malevolent AI fighting for control of the Doctor's body. Most of the screentime for this episode is given to the Doctor fighting an evil version of himself, the Cybermen are just an ancillary threat to all of this, they're basically robot pawns controlled by the AI, which is fine as long as the Cyber AI vs Doctor fight is really compelling. But unfortunately....

Oh look it's Borg Doctor!

2) The Cyberplanner vs the Doctor fight doesn't work. Firstly, the Cyberman AI doesn't act anything like a Cyberman, whose whole M.O is that they're unfeeling, unemotional cyborgs who used to be like you and want you to be like them. Their scare factor has always been induced by their origins, and one of the reasons why 'Rise Of The Cybermen/Age Of Steel' was so good was because they really played up that body horror aspect to them, to the point where when you saw a Cyberman you didn't see the robotic shell but in fact you saw the person INSIDE that robotic shell and what it had become. In this episode the physical Cybermen are basically robots, which sucks because you've once again dumbed them down from what they were originally supposed to be. And to add to that the real villain of the episode, the 'Cyberplanner' acts NOTHING LIKE A FRIGGING CYBERMAN! It's quite literally an evil Doctor, emotional thought processes intact. WHY NEIL GAIMAN WHY??! And to make everything worse, Matt Smith does a cringe-worthy job at trying to convey two opposite sides of his character. Yes you read that right, he was overacting to the extreme and made his character seem like a cartoon! THIS EPISODE WAS SO SH*T IT MADE MATT SMITH LOOK BAD! Now granted, playing against two different versions of yourself is a tough job for any seasoned actor, but Smith hams it up so much that it's resembling comedy at points. It's like he took all of the zany quirks in his doctor and amped it up to 11, basically a the 11th Doctor as a cartoon. And all of this could have been averted if they had just gone in a different direction with the Cyber-planner and downplayed the evil zanyness of it all! So in short we have an episode that doesn't focus on the Cybermen and what it does focus on (while a neat idea I suppose) is SH*T! Great.

3) The Cybermen aren't scary, and their new powers are inconsistent. What was that again, Gaiman? You WANTED to make the Cybermen scary and powerful again huh? Well you botched that up didn't you! It's hard to be scared of something that acts like a cartoon villain (the AI), and the actual Cybermen don't really do a lot as far as the 'we are sooo powerful and we kill lots of people' thing is concerned. Sure they try, the whole 'we can upgrade ourselves constantly' idea is cool, so they basically get more powerful with every encounter and learn from their mistakes, but we don't really see that in action. And the super-speed thing was cool but why didn't they use that for EVERY situation? Later on they're plunking about at a slow pace again (it takes forever for them to get to Clara), and its clearly better if they are all in super-speed mode, so why not? Well obviously because they'd win outright with no contest, that's why, so why introduce this ability in the first place if you can't use it! NOTE: NEVER give a DW villain super-speed again! Oh, and the detachable hand/head thing? Laughable, not scary. In fact it makes them even more like robots! Yet again the Cybermen are underpowered and about as scary as a toothbrush. Why didn't they just follow the formula that was laid out by 'Cold War' and 'Dalek'?        

4) THOSE KIDS OMG I JUST WANT TO KILL THEM!!!! Worst kids in DW ever. I felt rather unnerved about the unexpected twist at the end of 'The Crimson Horror', mainly because the child actors hadn't exactly showed a lot of promise in their previous appearances with Clara. And yep, here they're absolute brats, moaning about everything and being generally incompetent to the point of frustration. And they also seemed to be completely pointless, not to mention adding nothing plot-wise to the episode. Again it begs the question: WHY? In addition to those two awful brats everyone else in the episode are poorly written two dimensional cardboard cut-out's with no time given to imbue them with any sense of dimension. Which I assume is because of that horrible Doctor vs AI story taking up half the episode...

About the only cool shot of the Cybermen in the entire episode...

So what did I actually like you ask? Well it wasn't all bad, I mean the new Cybermen designs are cool, and the idea's, concept and setting for the episode could have been better with a fully fleshed out two-parter I suppose. And Warwick Davis was slightly charming as Porridge/The Emperor so there's that...yep I got nothing, this was quite simply a sh*t episode that lacked any decent execution due to rushed storytelling, not to mention it failed at what it was trying to achieve, in fact I'd go so far as to say that it couldn't have been any further from it's goals. It's 'The Doctor's Wife' all over again. Shame on you Gaiman, and let's hope the show-runners don't F*CK up the Cybermen again: 3/10.  

Positives:

+ New Cybermen design looks good
+ The concept of 'The Cyber Wars'
+ Warwick Davis
+ A few good idea's, but underdeveloped

Negatives:

- Matt Smith delivers his first bad performance
- Cybermen aren't scary and appear weak
- The AI Doctor is a cartoon
- The children are annoying, THEY MUST DIE
- Clara feels like a completely different character
- Other characters are card board cut-outs
- The Cybermen's new powers are laughably bad
- Cybermen are basically robots now
- Rather ugly looking episode
- Feels rushed
- WTF that ending was pure Deus Ex Machina!

This episode was utter porridge...

Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror

As a DW viewer and an avid fan, I've never seen a Mark Gatiss episode that I haven't liked, but I have still yet to see an episode of his that I've really liked. 2005's 'The Unquiet Dead' was terrifying for me as a child (aged 8, I was only three episodes into the new series and already it was one of my favourite shows), where Gatiss let his love of horror deliver a truly chilling adventure set in Victorian london with Charles Dickens in tow. His next episode, 2006's 'The Idiot's Lantern' was okay, and benefited greatly from it's 50's setting. His Series 5 episode 'Victory Of The Daleks', weird Dalek designs aside, was another fun episode that suffered from a severe case of TMSGO (To Much Sh*t Going On). And finally his two most recent episodes, 'Night Terrors' and 'Cold War' were both solid episodes but not anything to really write home about. So yes, when it comes to his script's, Mark Gatiss's episodes seem to sit in a sort of purgatory between 'okay' and 'good' that he can't seem to escape from. Until now, that is, because I frickin' ADORE 'The Crimson Horror'! Seriously, this episode is one of the best episodes this season, packing more style and goofy goings-on per square minute than I thought was ever possible. And add to that a certain freshness that is rarely seen in the overall mediocrity that was Series 7B.  

What makes 'The Crimson Horror' unique is the fact that the Doctor and Clara only show up half-way through the episode, leaving most of the screen-time to Vastra, Strax and Jenny, the paternoster trio from the Xmas Special and 'A Good Man Goes To War'. Jenny in particular is the main character here, as she starts investigating the mysterious goings-on at Sweetville (a thinly veiled homage to Cadbury's Bournville) an idyllic community run by Mrs. Gillyflower and her never-seen partner, Mr. Sweet, apparently as a home for the chosen few to help them survive the coming apocalypse. Suffice to say, dead bodies found in the river near Sweetville with glowing red skin is hardly normal, and some crazy ass things are definitely going on in that place. Catrin Stewart is finally given a bigger role here and her performance is definitely a highlight. I'd go so far as to say that when she is re-united with Frankendoctor she makes a better and more interesting companion than Clara, who's only in the episode for ten minutes. I'm not saying that Clara is bad, but she comes off as dull when compared to Jenny's karate kick moves. Plus, she has one HELL of a music cresendo! Anyway the good news is: Vastra, Strax and Jenny get a lot to do, and aside from that awful Tom-Tom joke (REALLY? HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE????) they're still awesome and I relish every moment they're on screen.    

Meet your new Frankenstein!

And speaking of performances, let's talk about Diana Rigg's bat sh*t insane turn as Mrs Gillyflower, one of the most unabashedly camp performances I've seen. To say she eat's up the scenery is a an understatement, it's more like DEVOURING it. And it's GLORIOUS. Now DW was never high art, and I'll be the first to admit that, but with performances like these I don't want it to be. And thank the gods, we FINALLY get a properly evil villain who doesn't hesitate to whip out a gun and let off a few rounds. Even her plan is wonderfully barmy, if anything she resembles a Bond villain more than your traditional Who baddie (the climax to this Ep is over-the-top to the extreme)! Miss Gillyflower's daughter Ada (played by Diana Rigg's real life daughter) is the emotional heart of the episode and while she doesn't quite reach the acting heights of her mum Rachel Stirling still puts in a fine performance. Damn can she use that walking stick! 

Everyone is on A their game here, and Saul Metzstein's direction ('Dinosaurs on a Spaceship', 'A Town Called Mercy', 'The Snowmen') continues to impress. I loved the grainy black and white flashbacks, effectively making this episode a two part adventure wherein they don't need to show the first part while also adding some much needed back-story and a unique visual style to the episode. More DW episodes with a cramped story should try this method, as rushed story elements are far too present in this series. The Ep is also infused with a wonderful B-movie horror vibe, full of smoke and macabre imagery. The scene where the Doctor is being lowered into the vat of red poison was definitely straight out of a camp hammer horror movie, and it somehow fits. It's important to note just how funny this episode is as well, Gatiss's script is full of black humour and cockney Victorian accents. Matt Smith continues to be a great comedic actor and it occurred to me just how much his massive forehead resembles Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, if hollywood is making another Frankenstein movie they should seriously consider giving him a ring! 

Welcome to Bornville! Wait, I mean Sweetville...

I clearly love 'The Crimson Horror'. In any other episode of the show I'd be quick to criticise the insane plot, severe overacting and barmy proceedings but it's exactly what the episode is trying to achieve so therefore it, and the audience, revel's in it. Now granted I don't want every episode to be like this, but there's something undeniably awesome about 'The Crimson Horror': it's a cheesy, camp, B-movie style Doctor Who episode filled with insane characters and with more than a passing resemblance to the old Hammer horror films. In short, it's everything that Mark Gatiss has been wanting to achieve with DW since 'The Unquiet Dead', and if this episode was made into cheese, you can be sure I'd eat it: 9.5/10:

Positives:

+ Wonderfully barmy, camp script
+ Diana Rigg's scenery chewing performance
+ Neat black and white flashback sequence
+ Matt Smith's cockney accent!
+ Great setting, look and style
+ More Vastra, Strax and Jenny
+ Jenny in particular

Negatives:

- Clara doesn't get much to do

Doctor Who: Journey To The Center Of The TARDIS

Aside from 2011's 'The Doctor's Wife' which showed off some fancy corridors and the two latest control rooms we've never really got to explore the TARDIS in detail, have we? You'd think that in the entire 50 year history of the show that there would have been an episode that delved a bit deeper into the TARDIS wouldn't you, I mean it's not like it isn't ripe for story material, as the TARDIS is within itself an entire dimension filled with an infinite number of rooms and (judging from this episode) an equally infinite number of corridors all leading to places that viewers can scarcely imagine. Sure we've heard a few references to the swimming pool and the library here and there but COME ON this space has infinite potential for great sci-fi idea's (sadly, the show hasn't exactly got an infinite budget to demonstrate these infinite idea's). So when they announced this episode fan-boys all over the word shuddered in excitement. 'Will we finally get to see the infamous swimming pool?' they asked. 'Ooh, and what about that library the Doctor keeps going on about?' 'Ah, but let's not forget the Eye of Harmony, the miniature black hole that powers the place! I bet that would be a cool visual!' So yes, most Whovian's were pumped for this, including me. Unfortunately my hopes dampened a little when I saw the writer for this episode: the much reviled Stephen Thompson, who arguably wrote Series 6's worst script 'The Curse Of The Black Spot'. But having said that, between 'Curse' and this episode he did write 'The Reichenbach Fall', the last episode of Sherlock Series 2 which was (without exaggeration) THE BEST EPISODE OF EVERYTHING THAT HAS EVER BEEN AIRED ON BRITISH TELEVISION FROM NOW TIL' THE DAWN OF TIME. Soooo...maybe we should give this guy a second chance?

Thankfully what we got as a finished product was NOT another repeat of 'Curse Of The Black Spot'. Instead it was 45 minutes of the Doctor & Co being chased through corridors (remember people, budget) with a few quick glimpses at some of the iconic rooms that have been stated before but never actually seen until now. It was a perfectly fine 45 minutes but I could have done with some more imaginative idea's being thrown around, but perhaps my expectations were getting the better of me. Ultimately what we got to see was two blink or you'll miss it CGI cameo's of the swimming pool and the observatory, a brief detour into the library, a sequence with the eye of harmony, some weird machine building tree (similar to the one from 'Avatar') which to it's credit was a neat idea and a quick shot of the engine room that was sadly destroyed so we didn't actually see the engine room...oh and let's not forget, a TON OF CORRIDORS. So yeah it was a tad disappointing but I suppose we have to be realistic on what the production team can fit into the episode coupled with the budget constraints. But still, it's a shame that they never came close to the kind of impossible wonderment that the TARDIS ought to convey, I mean it all felt very ordinary, where's some of the more alien stuff? *SIGH* Anyway everything TARDIS aside, what about the actual story to the episode?

WHAT. A. TEASE.

The story starts with the Doctor teaching Clara on how to pilot the TARDIS after both 'Hide' and 'The Rings Of Akhaten' clearly established that the two weren't getting on well. The Doctor disables the TARDIS's shields (to enable 'basic mode') and the TARDIS is intercepted by the magnetic tractor beam of a space salvage ship owned by the Van Baalen brother's, causing many of the TARDIS's systems to fail. In the resulting chaos the Doctor is somehow thrown outside and Clara is lost in the depths of the TARDIS. With the help of the Baalen brother's the Doctor must now rescue Clara and stop the TARDIS from exploding, all the while being chased by severely burned 'ossified' monsters. 

It's a pretty simple but intriguing set-up, and episodes like 'Cold War' and 'Dinosaurs On A Spaceship' this season have shown that thanks to compelling characters and witty scripts you can still make an entertaining episode. Unfortunately, Stephen Thompson's script doesn't really do anything interesting with the premise. Again I don't think it's 'bad' by any means, it just lacked imagination. I do have some rather serious nitpicks though, as the 'lava' monsters were rather weak, and when it was finally revealed what they were it didn't make a lick of sense (why would a horribly burned Clara decide to kill people?), they were literally there just so the episode could have some sort of threat (NOTE TO DW WRITERS: not EVERY episode needs a villain or monster), while the impeding threat of the TARDIS exploding was more than enough incentive to warrant a quicker pace. And the Van Baalen brother's are hideously one dimensional and rather dull, almost as if the episode needed a few supporting characters so the writer haphazardly wrote some in. See what I mean? It's almost like Thompson had a checklist and half heatedly wrote in a bunch of stuff, like the scene where the metal girder's started popping out of the walls for some reason. 

The episode wasn't without it's moments though, like the Doctor FINALLY telling Clara just why he came looking for her. It's well acted by Matt and JLC (duh), even though they've repeatedly introduced the same narrative threads for 4 episodes without any development, which means that if this isn't resolved soon then the audience will quickly lose interest. Also the scene in the Library, with Clara finding out the Doctor's name, while one MASSIVE tease was still rather exciting for the hardcore Who fans like myself. And the ending, while a bit too much on the nose was nevertheless a clever way of solving things. Oh, and technically the episode didn't even happen in the first place, so there is that. *SIGH* So much for that ground-breaking conversation between the Doctor and Clara, talk about back to square one.

Hmmm, seems the TARDIS has a built-in quarry...

So to summarise it was an occasionally bland episode that was saved by a few choice moments and doesn't do anything with the premise. While we did technically see more of the TARDIS than ever before this Week the script (in general) just needed more imagination and felt like it lacked something: 5/10. Thompson should really get back to writing more Sherlock, and leave DW alone.

Positives:

+ It wasn't bad like the writers last effort, just ok-ish
+ We did see a bit of the TARDIS
+ Lot's of teases

Negatives:

- Come to think of it, that ending was bullcrap
- The supporting cast were terrible, lifeless
- We didn't see MUCH of the TARDIS
- Nothing interesting done with the premise, unimaginative
- Clara plotline hasn't gained any traction whatsoever
- Monsters were weak

Doctor Who: Hide

I was really looking forward to 'Hide'. The marketing behind this episode hyped it up to be a genuinely creepy haunted house tale with writer Neil Cross helming the script. Cross's previous episode 'The Rings Of Akhenaten' has proven to be real marmite among fans but I personally thought his episode was the one of the best yet, managing to really stand out from the pack. That, coupled with some really intriguing photo's being posted online beforehand depicting the Doctor at various points in time made me think that this episode was more than just your average ghost story. And what do you know? I was right! But it wasn't exactly the scare-fest that was promised. What we got instead was a fairly atmospheric tale that tells more of a love story than a ghost story.

In this episode Clara and the Doctor arrive at the haunted Caliburn House, set alone on a desolate moor. Within its walls, ghost-hunting professor Alec Palmer and gifted empathic psychic Emma Grayling are searching for the fabled Witch of the Well, a ghost which has appeared throughout the history of the house. Once the Doctor starts investigating though, not everything is as it seems... 

Neil Cross starts his story out by setting up some spooky goings-on but quickly establishes that there's something more science-fictiony in play, which should be expected because having something entirely supernatural and left unexplained is hardly DW's forte. But still, it would have been nice to get a few more spooky scenes because Jamie Payne's direction is really effective in the first few minutes when he's handling the scares. As I said the atmosphere is incredibly well handled throughout the episode as well, there's lots of dark stormy nights and frantic chases through smoke-filled woods to contend with. 

'Oh, you thought this would be a scary episode, didn't you?'

As far as the plot goes it starts out fairly simple but it quickly accelerates into something more original (and totally welcome), a bit like 'The Rings Of Akhaten'. And while I kind of saw the twist in the middle coming (as I said, the ghost HAS to be alien orientated or at least futuristic) the bit before that was startlingly good, where in the span of two minutes the Doctor travels to several moments in Earth's timeline. Once again I LOVE the constant popping back and forth between different time-zones in the show, it gives the adventure more scale. I also liked the way Clara questioned the Doctor's perception of her, wondering if she was considered a ghost to him or not. That coupled with Emma's slightly out of left field remark about the Doctor having 'a sliver of ice in his heart' adds another shade of grey to the Doctor's already infinitely complex character. Tension escalates in the final third with a really atmospheric chase through a pocket dimension and an effective use of really creepy monster design. Cross appears to be a fan of making you think that one thing is the villain but revealing the threat to be something else in the last act. It's a good trick, and one that keeps things interesting but I don't want it to get too overused. It also pulls the trick of making you think that everything is over but doling out one last little revelation before the credits role which I'm still debating whether that was a good move or not because it completely undermines any established threat or tension in repeat viewings. But then again, it does change your perception of the episode so...yay? Overall though it was another solid script with a few inventive idea's sprinkled in to keep things interesting. 

Once again the leads do excellent jobs, but Matt Smith was perhaps a bit too wacky this time, almost like he was doing an impression of his character. Thankfully this excess of the Doctor being a bit too much of a wacky genius largely dissipated when the scenery changed from the haunted house to the woods, so perhaps new writer Neil Cross was just getting adjusted to writing the character (chronologically this was his first script before 'The Rings Of Akhenaten', which had some fantastic moments with the Doctor in it). One of the things that Matt Smith is great at is really layering his performance, and he often switches from wacky to deeply serious in a heartbeat (I'm personally appalled when someone says his Doctor acts far too silly, as they're clearly not paying enough attention) but seeing him in full on 'zany' mode whipping his sonic screwdriver out (no sexual pun intended) and making funny quips ALL the time doesn't do justice to Matt or the character. But as I said he mellows out a bit more in the last half so it ultimately wasn't a serious issue I had with the episode.

These small snippets were the best part of the episode.

Clara continues to be genuinely likeable companion, and while she doesn't get much in the way of character building or an arc this time she at least gets a lot to do, for example her conversation with Emma (Clara calls whiskey the "11th most disgusting drink ever invented") coupled with her humorous exchange with the TARDIS's holographic version of herself was handled well by JLC. And her piloting of the TARDIS, while debatable (but technically she was piloting because she was the cause of the TARDIS de-materialising so yeah, it counts) was a nice touch as well. By the way I love the idea that the only real reason the Doctor is taking Clara with him is so he can uncover the mystery surrounding her, as if she is simply an enigma for him to solve and not because she makes for a good companion. This is the same thing that happened with Amy in Series 5, where the Doctor said the reason why he came back for her was because there was a lot of unknowns surrounding her and the crack in her wall. But the difference between Series 5 and Series 7 is that this time that mystery (which was more of a background element in Series 5) is now at the forefront of the story, and so much of Clara's character is based off this mystery to the point where the audience watching the episode also views her as an enigma rather than a person in her own right, just like the Doctor. It almost feels like we're biding time, waiting for this whole multiple Clara's thing to figure itself out so we can actually get on with developing her as a character and advancing the series arc. But for now at least she remains likeable, and JLC is really charismatic in the role so it isn't to much of an issue, yet.

The supporting cast this episode was once again strong, Dougray Scott's Professor Palmer and Jessica Raine's empathic psychic Emma are a good match for the episode (and with each other as it turns out). While I am getting a bit sick of romantic subplots (especially since we KNOW that they're going to get together at the end but perhaps I'm missing the point), especially in NuWho when the resolution to literally every plot is 'love and/or emotion wins the day with the help of the sonic screwdriver' but at least these characters are defined enough to make you want them to get together. Professor Palmer is probably the most interesting of the two though, his talk with the Doctor about the effect the Second World War had on him may have been a tad cliche but it was still effective thanks to Scott's performance. 

So another good episode then. Hide is full of atmosphere and a lot of good, isolated moments that I wasn't quite expecting. It also had a solid supporting cast (although one character really is just a plot device and barely gets any lines in the entire episode) and the leads remained compelling. Nothing as spectacular as 'The Rings Of Akhenaten' but Neil Cross continues to impress with his scripts, as he simply 'gets' Doctor Who. I hope he comes back next season because I can't wait to see what he'll do next time. 7.5/10.

Positives:

+ REALLY great atmosphere
+ Supporting cast is again great
+ Lot's of transdimensional/timeline hopping
+ Enough twists and turns to keep it interesting

Negatives:

- The Doctor is a bit too wacky at the beginning
- The final twist kinda ruins any tension on repeat viewings
- Once character is merely a plot device again
- Slightly disappointed that it wasn't very scary

Talk about nightmare fuel....

Doctor Who: Cold War

A nice solid episode this. 'Cold War' is another good example of how to update and bring a classic Who villain into the modern world without diluting anything that made the monster great in the first place. Just like Season 1's 'Dalek' in fact, which pretty much wrote the mathematical formula for how to bring an old DW nemesis back: it was a self contained story that focused on ONE of the aforementioned species (a case study if you will) and focused on the core concept of what made them great in the first place and not only brought them back effectively but also built on what had came before. 'Cold War' copies this formula to the t, and it's why it's so successful in my opinion.

'Cold War' is essentially your classic base under siege story, one that Doctor Who is very familiar with. The episode is set in a very defined, often claustrophobic space (in this case a submarine set in 1983, at the height of the Cold War) and features a band of survivors either a) trying to escape or b) stopping whatever is after them from getting in and picking them off one by one. In this case it's b) with the monster in question being the Ice Warrior, and boy does it kick some ass. The claustrophobic interior of the submarine is a great setting for the episode (and light on the budget as well I expect) and is packed full of steamy vents, water leaks and flashing lights. Writer Mark Gatiss, an avid horror fan takes advantage of this and uses it to full effect, making the Ice Warrior 'Grand Marshall Skaldak' come out of his shell (literally) and cause mayhem all over the sub, slaughtering crew members in a manner not unfamiliar to that of a horror slasher villain and threatening to start nuclear war. Sure you can compare the scenes where the Ice Warrior is scurrying around in the air vents to be a DIRECT rip-off of the Alien series, but if you're going to steal from something then you might as well steal from the best right? Besides, it's a good and effective trick that caught everyone off guard at the time (it was genuinely one of those 'Oh...F*CK! moments for me) and made for some good Saturday night viewing so what's not to love? They use this trick well and I was actually surprised to see how many deaths there were in this ep. 

He's behind me isn't he? *SIGH* Of COURSE he's behind me, they're ALWAYS behind me.

Going back to one of my main criticisms with Moffat's Who, the element of threat has been rather downplayed this era with nary a death shown on-screen. Sure the villains talk big but when do they actually kill somebody nowadays? One of the reason's why 'Dalek' was so successful in it's revival of the titular pepper-pots was that it established how deadly they were, in fact that episode must have one of the highest body-counts in the show's history (the death per minute ratio was waaaay up). Mark Gatiss knows DW, and a deadly villain = an effective one so he makes sure a few crew members get slaughtered along the way. One scene in particular had rather gruesome implications, with the Doctor implying that the Ice Warrior had killed two of the submarines officers and tore them apart to inspect their insides. While Clara's reaction to this afterwards was oddly muted (I get she was disturbed seeing a dead body for the first time but come on, THEY WERE LITERALLY RIPPED. TO. SHREDS! LIKE JACK THE RIPPER RIPPED. TO. SHREDS. EMOTIONS PEOPLE!) it was certainly a horrible implication and definitely reinstates the Ice Warriors as a deadly foe. 

Another thing that's important when it comes to a revived monster is it's look. An updated design should preferably keep as much of the original design intact bar a few aesthetic changes here and there. And as far as the design of the costume goes, it looks great and I'm happy to say it doesn't differ too much from the original design (unlike the Silurians, although I can get behind that decision to change them so much), with the only real difference between the old series and the new series being that this Ice Warrior doesn't have Lego-like pincers. The new voice, done by Nick Briggs (who also does the voices for the Daleks, Cybermen and the Judoon!) loses the unique whispering sounds of the old Warriors (but he does put emphasis on the 'ssssss's' at least) and goes for a more loud Judoon-like voice, but I'm not really bothered about that one, because they were barely audible in the old series and a whispering voice does not match the 7 foot gargantuan shown on-screen.

Typical British weather...

While I've spent most of this review rambling over the Ice Warrior (which is to be expected as it's the focus of the episode) what about the other aspects of this ep? 

Well the plot isn't exactly the most complicated thing I've seen on TV but this is a base under siege story and they're not normally the most complex affairs when it comes to story. So yes, it's pretty much 1. monster breaks loose and 2. tries to end the world but that's not necessarily a bad thing as long as it's executed well, which it is. As far as the cast goes Matt Smith is still great as the Doctor and Clara gets a bit more to do so the leads are still on top form. I liked David Warner's performance as Professor Grisenko, he provided some much needed light heartedness to affairs (and I was SO sure he would die by the end!) and Liam Cunningham turns a rather bland character into something more memorable. Everyone else on the sub were unfortunately red shirts but there's only so much you can do in a 45 minute episode and developing a few supporting characters while letting the rest be cannon fodder is ultimately for the best. As for the special effects there wasn't a lot to go on but the outside shots of the submarine looked nice (all model work) and the Skaldak's CGI face was well done so yeah, everything was solid. The only real thing that seemed a bit naff in the entire episode was the cheap claws that came down from the vents to grab people, it didn't match at all with Skaldak's CGI face but whatever this is nitpicking at it's finest and could contribute it to being part of Doctor Who's charm. 

It's nothing new or ground breaking but that's ultimately why 'Cold War' works, it sticks to what it knows is an effective formula and executes it brilliantly. It's a solid base under siege story that successfully does to the Ice Warriors what 'Dalek' did to the Daleks i.e make them awesome again. Now after this fairly self contained episode can we get a proper, full on Ice Warrior story full of high stakes and drama next time (akin to 'The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood') Mr Moffat? Cos' that would be amazing. 8/10.

Positives:

+ Solid base under siege story
+ Successfully brings back the Ice Warriors
+ Atmospheric set design
+ A few good supporting characters
+ The villain is deadly

Negatives:

- Really fake looking claws!
- Kind of an alien rip-off 

Nothing like a classic model shot!