Doctor Who S05E05-Flesh and Stone

Even though The Doctor has moved himself and his dwindling group of survivors up to the Byzantium, The Weeping Angels are right on their tail and multiplying. Making matter worse, not only are the Angels growing stronger, but one of them is manifesting itself inside of Amy. And as if things weren’t tough enough, a new yet oddly familiar threat, one worse than the Weeping Angels themselves has appeared within the ship. As the heart pounding race to the end begins, who will survive this dual onslaught of terror?

The terror factor was amped up tremendously is week on Doctor Who. I will say that as compared to my blink and you’ll miss the episode attitude from last week, this week is was hooked and truly frightened for everyone on the ship. It sucks that Father Octavian (Iain Glen) had to bite the big one this week and his final scene with The Doctor, who stayed with him even though he knew he couldn’t get him out of the Angels grip, was a emotionally gripping one. You really feel for The Doctor this week. Between the return of the crack in the wall and The Weeping Angels he is being pushed to his limit trying to figure out how to stop both before everyone is killed. The scene where he shouts at River because of a lack of ideas really nailed this and Matt Smith did a good job delivering the fear and frustration needed to pull off such a performance.

After her encounter with the digitized Weeping Angel last week, we all knew something was going to happen to Amy in some kind of way. In fact it may have been Amy who had it worse than The Doctor this week. She had not only two foes to face, but three, the third of course being the darkness as she had to walk around blind through a field of Weeping Angels and listen to the remaining Clerics wander off to the light and never return. The poor, poor girl.

And when all was said and done by episodes end, there was the final scene, the other big highlight of the episode. Amy finally revealed to The Doctor that she was getting married…then tried to get him to sleep with her!!! Whoa. I don’t think we’ve ever seen this kind of an attitude in a Doctor Who Companion before. I mean Rose was in love, but she never tried to do that. Still it’s understandable. Amy has loved The Doctor for the better part of her life and to be honest, we all knew she was going to kiss him at some point. The Doctor, however and sadly, does the right thing and says that Amy needs to marry her fiancé, revealed to be Rory. But first he needs to solve the mystery of the crack in the wall and how it is affecting Amy, all by June 26, 2010, which is as I double checked, the date of the Season Finale, nice.

This was a great episode, arguably the best of the series thus far. It has terror, action, suspense and a lot of sexual tension between The Doctor and two women, lucky guy. This is how Doctor Who should always be done. I’m sure we’ll see River Song again, possibly before the end of series five as she hinted to events that might happen then. Plus there’s always the onboard tension in the TARDIS. Now that Amy has tried to openly seduce The Doctor, how will that affect their relationship in the future? Special cudos should go out to Steven Moffat, who has put a lot of the fear factor into his episodes thus far. This week however was when he did it at its grandest and most effective.

Next Week: It’s off to Venice with Amy and Rory. But wait, girls with sharp fangs, pale skin and no reflection in the mirror? To quote The Doctor, “Oh you have got to be kidding me?”

Rating-10/10

Doctor Who S05E04-The Time of Angels

River Song lands onboard the TARDIS and orders The Doctor to pursue a strange ship, which crashes on the planet Alfava Metraxis. Turns out, River was tracking the last of the Weeping Angels along with a team of Church Soldiers. However, once in the catacombs of the planet, things take a turn for the worst. The “Maze of the Dead” holds an army of dormant Weeping Angels waiting for the right snack to return them to power. On top of that, a disasterous encounter with a Weeping Angel leaves Amy in a bad psychological state. Trapped in the dark and surrounded by the deadliest creatures in the universe, if there were ever a time for The Doctor to have a brilliant idea, that time is now.

This weeks episode had a lot of material to cover and in a way it did so effectively. But then again was it just me or did this episode go by lightning fast? It felt like the episode had reached the halfway point by the end and I don’t mean the obvious end of part one but the end of the first half of part one. Maybe it was just me, but I will digress and get into the actual episode.

Alex Kingston is back as River Song this week. Obviously this is an earlier version of the woman we saw in the brilliant Series Four Steven Moffat two-parter “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead”. Even so Ms. Kingston still brings that very flirtatious and adventurous flair to the character. Her introduction to the story is both sexy and brilliant as she walks around the Byzantium in red high heels (a lot of shots of her shows for some reason) in order to get a message out to The Doctor. And when she meets up with him, it’s like no time has passed. Ms. Kingston and Matt Smith play their scenes together brilliantly, bickering like an old married couple (it’s so obvious by this point) then working together with almost linked minds the next.

The Weeping Angels were a truly fierce foe when they were originally introduced in Series Three’s “Blink”, also written by Steven Moffat. Giving them a planet of their own and a darker scarier environment all together was the perfect way to up how dangerous these creatures can be. Moffat gives the Angels more upgrades by revealing their ability to become alive even in a looped video recording. Scarier is the fact that the Angels are getting more violent this time around. They are not time displacing their victims anymore. No now they’re just snapping necks…time to be really afraid. And as for what they are doing to Amy, screwing with her head and all, one has to wonder just how bad it is going to get for her next week.

Aside from the sheer quickness of the story, this was a pretty good episode and a good bounce back from last weeks sort of Dalek downer. River Song is always a good character to have on screen and the Weeping Angels are deadlier than ever. Plus it was a nice bonus to have Iain Glen (Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction) playing the bishop commander of the Church squadron. Here’s hoping he makes to the end of Part Two. But then again, with the Weeping Angels as your enemy, when it comes to survival all bets are off.

Next Time-The battle goes up to the Byzantium…and the Angels are awakening everywhere.

Rating-9/10

Doctor Who S05E03-Victory of the Daleks

The Doctor and Amy land in the middle of London during WWII to answer a call from PM Winston Churchill. Churchill reveals his newest hope to win the war, a new breed of iron men who look exactly like The Doctor’s old enemies, The Daleks. The Doctor knows something is wrong and that the whole world is playing right into the hands of the Daleks. And if The Doctor can’t stop them, he faces the horrific rebirth of one of the deadliest empires in the universe.

Victory of the Daleks had some very exciting action set pieces, cudos to the visual effects team for going all out on this one. But somehow I just felt it was more of a step back from the outstanding last two weeks of stories. This could be because it’s the first episode of the season not written by Steven Moffat. But the episode moved fast and even felt like it was leaving several loose plot threads along the way.

I always knew the Daleks were never gone for good, even when they were all seemingly destroyed in Series 4’s Journey’s End. It is a nice test for Matt Smith as The Doctor as I’m sure fans have been waiting for his oppourtunity to face off against classic Doctor Who villains. And while I felt that some of Mr. Smith’s acting was a bit over the top, particularly in the scenes where he is banging a Dalek with a wrench to expose its wickidness, The Doctor’s feelings are understandable. His worst enemy working along side a desperate human race during one of the darkest periods in human history, it does sound too good to be true. I felt that the plan was exposed too quickly and the appearance of “old school” color coded Daleks was both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because the new old look harkens back to how the Daleks first appeared way back when on Doctor Who. It’s a curse cause I just feel they could have done more to show how ruthless they are. Although I must admit their killing of their three non pure upgrades was pretty shocking and a nice close out to the Dalek model we’ve seen since 2005.

While the Dalek story moved at a rapid pace, some of the characters were still given plenty of attention. Ian McNiece was finely cast as Winston Churchill, the man who sheltered England from the Nazi’s during WWII. As aforementioned in my Dalek story analysis, his wanting the Daleks to be a true blessing is understandable considering what is going on around him. But even after he learns of the Daleks true intentions, Churchill is still a man of action rallying his troops to combat the new threat. It is a fine performance by Mr. McNiece I think. Also there is the Dalek built Dr. Bracewell, a man trying to deal with the revelation that he has been a tool for destruction all along, that he wasn’t even real. His scene with The Doctor and Amy as they try to disarm the bomb on his chest is a great scene with Bracewell finding his peace and humanity and Amy revealing some not so subtle hints towards a potential more than just friends liking to The Doctor.

Of course, we got some Top Gun esque action with WWII fighter jets going head to head with a Dalek battleship. It’s fast, it’s furious, it’s a ridiculous concept but nonetheless a fun Doctor Who ridiculous concept. I’m just curious how they got those fighter up and running so fast. Eh, oh well.

Overall, this episode had some great moments and great hints of stuff to come regarding Amy not remembering the Dalek invasion of Earth during Series 4’s The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End. Plus those pesky cracks in time are popping up at the end of every episode now and one can’t help but wonder how Amy is connected. Series 5 is doing a lot of this right, the most important being producing the need in our minds to see more and try to piece together whats coming. This wasn’t a truly fantastic episode like the last two weeks, but is was still fun and interesting nonetheless.

Next Week-Professor River Song returns to the TARDIS with a heart stopping warning…The Weeping Angels are back…don’t blink.

Rating-7/10

Doctor Who S05E02-The Beast Below

Far off in the galaxy, long after the sun roasted the Earth, the United Kingdom floats across the stars as a humongous colony ship. Here, the choice to support or forget is the same as choosing between life and death, especially when something lurks in the deep below the streets of London. It is on this island on a ship that Amy Pond will have her first off world adventure with The Doctor. And it is here that she will learn just how much he needs someone to occasionally stop him from making the worst decision imaginable.

Well Series 5 is now in full swing and going at a mile a minute with its momentum. Most, if not all of this momentum, is thanks to the powerhouse team that is Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. In the span of two episodes, Matt Smith has managed to dispel all fears of his tenure as The Doctor. The manic energy he burst onto the screen with in The Eleventh Hour is still here and it looks like he is having a blast delivering the lingo and going from one thought to the next in seconds. He kind of reminded me of Christopher Eccelston’s Ninth Doctor with some of his scenes, especially the more dark ones. As for Ms. Gillan, well she continues to amaze me. In several scenes I could see her channeling The Doctor’s persona as she ventured almost fearlessly into the unknown. But it was her tender scenes with The Doctor that made this episodes latter half work. The scene where Amy works out what needs to be done and defies The Doctor is exactly what an older, more experienced version of The Doctor would have done and by reminding him of this, Amy Pond earns more of The Doctor’s respect as well as my own. They really are as great a team as Steven Moffat hyped them up to be and it will be heartbreaking if they have to split up so soon at the end of the series.

Our hero’s aside, the rest of the episode was a lot of fun to watch. The mystery of the titular beast was fascinating and the revelation of it being a selfless space age whale with a past similar of that to The Doctor’s was a fun twist. I also like the “Empire Strikes Back” omage when The Doctor and Amy were trapped in its mouth and had one of those, “this is no cave” realizations. The Smilies I thought were kind of annoying with the turning of the faces from happy to sad to grrr. Sorry I didn’t feel freaked out by them as I probably should have been. Of course we also had another companion in the form of Liz 10, the sexy gun totting Queen of England. It was also kind of fun to hear her talk about The Doctor’s long…er…history with the royalty of England, including a reference to Series 2’s “Tooth and Claw” where The Tenth Doctor and Rose were knighted and then banished from England. Liz’s story was as sad as the rest of the people onboard the ship who had to forget to stay alive. It’s just more of the great drama the Steven Moffat is good at writing.

As icing on the cake, we got some more hints at what is to come later on in the series. A crack similar to the one in Amy’s old room popped up again on the ship as the whale headed off on its course. I should also take a quick second to say the Space Whale looked amazing, my hats off to the special effects team for a job well done. Oh and the appearance of Ian McNiece as Winston Churchill being watched over by an old enemy, my blood is boiling with excitement for next week. Again to those who might be reading this and not watching cause David Tennant’s not there, Get off your butts, dry your tears and turn your TV’s back on cause the best is yet to come. I’m sure even Mr. Tennant is proud.

Next Time-You can never keep them down for good. THE DALEKS ARE BACK!!! Let’s see how Number Eleven fares against an upgraded version of his oldest foes.

Rating-9/10

Doctor Who S05E01-The Eleventh Hour

Amy Pond once met a man who fell into her backyard in a tiny blue box. He promised to take her with him five minutes after they met. Years later, this mysterious stranger storms back into her life…but not to make good on him promise, at least not yet. Barely holding on after his latest regeneration, The Doctor must convince Amy to trust him if he is to save the world in twenty minutes from a vicious escaped convict. The price of failure is the roasting of Planet Earth. The new adventure has begun.

Four months ago, many of us shed a tear when David Tennant uttered his final words as The Doctor, “I don’t’ want to go.” Then we watched him regenerate and we got an all too brief yet interesting first look at Matt Smith, a.k.a The Eleventh Doctor. As we watched him falling to Earth in his burning TARDIS screaming, “Geronimo,” we were left to wondering if this young hotshot could continue the role whose bar had been raised considerably. I am here to announce that one full length episode later, I think we have a winner folks.

While I am sure there are still many people out there, myself included, who will always miss David Tennant and remember him as “our Doctor,” Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor is everything his predecessor was with a bit of a twist. After crashing into the backyard of young Amy Pond, he bursts forth running around with manic energy (granted this could still be attributed to his still regenerating state). It’s the same guy with a new face and a somewhat more…sure of himself personality. I like Matt Smith and think he will carry on The Doctor’s legacy well. It was also a nice proper introduction at the end when we see his previous ten incarnations flash on screen before he steps forward in his new threads. Most Badass Entrance Ever!!!

Of course we must touch on Amy Pond. Ever since I first saw the first images of her in Doctor Who Magazine I’ve fallen head over heels for her character. And now having seen her in action I have more reason to like her. Amy, played by Karen Gillan, is a breath of fresh air for The Doctor. She’s a feisty Scottish red head who’s got a lot of spirit and has a great take charge attitude. Her questioning The Doctor at every turn will definitely be a nice spin on the usual Doctor/Companion relationship. Like everyone else she’s a bit unsure of traveling with The Doctor but after a couple of episodes I think we are going to see a nice bond form between the two. I did think it was a nice story twist to start their friendship off when she was a child, a nice nod to Steven Moffat’s Series 2 story “The Girl in the Fireplace”.

Speaking of Steven Moffat, I should touch on his first story as head writer for the show. Mr. Moffat gives Matt Smith’s first story a proper injection of energy with all the running around. I did think that some of the spots where we simply stopped for introductions to the other characters kind of killed the pacing a bit. But once it picked back up with the running again it worked fine. The introduction of (Amy relative?) Jeff and Amy’s Boyfriend Rory establish that we will visit present day Earth again every now and then as with previous companions. Rory I felt was kind of a Mickey knock off, but it’s still to early to tell with him. Oh and Prisoner Zero…a python that can take the form of others. Not as formidable or memorable a villain as some of Moffat’s other creatures but still you’ve got to love its interactions with the new Doctor.

So now we have a new Doctor, a new TARDIS, a new Sonic Screwdriver, a new companion (whose going to get married?) and a new set of adventures to look forward too. I have been hesitant to say this for months. But now that I’ve seen the first episode of SERIES 5, I can’t wait for the fun to continue. The Doctor is back and so is the adventure we all love. Let the new era begin.

Next Time-It’s Amy’s first trip in the TARDIS with The Doctor. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Rating-8/10

Doctor Who S04E18-The End of Time Part Two

It has all come down to this. The Master is once again in control of humanity and seeks an answer to the mysterious drumming in his head. The Doctor, with Wilfred at his side, contemplates the end and the shocking revelation of the return of his own people. With the whole of time and space at stake, The Doctor engages his most desperate gamble yet. It’s the final adventure of The Tenth Doctor…and the start of a new one for The Eleventh Doctor.

The End of Time Part Two…we’ve finally come to the end of the road, for now anyway. So there are questions aplenty I’m sure going into this the most prominent being: how was David Tennant in his final appearance as The Doctor? WHOA WOW AMAZING!!! David delivers several different sides to The Doctor that we have seen before but with much more power and emotion than ever before. Sure he is brooding and sobbing over the end of his existence (in a way we all are) but there’s still plenty of that gung ho cowboy gusto and smart quirky attitude that have made him such a cool and amazing character from scene one after his regeneration from Christopher Eccleston to David Tennant. His tearful final words echo our own thoughts and it brought a tear to my eye when the actual regeneration occurred. But more on that later. For now I’ll just say David Tennant sir, I’ve said just about all I can say on your acting in several reviews before this one and my thoughts haven’t changed. You are MY DOCTOR and thank you so much for the last four years of amazing adventures. Au Revoir mon amie.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, on to the rest of the episode. Where to start? The Time Lords, led by former James Bond Timothy Dalton, finally return and show their true colors, justifying why The Doctor had to fry them along with the Daleks at the end of the Time War. Wow what a bunch of douche bags; that is save for mystery woman who guides both The Doctor and Wilf through their big trial. We never find out who she is. I kind of thought she was Romana (a character from the old Tom Baker adventures). Another mystery to be explored another day I guess.

The Master. He finally got the answers he was looking for all of this time and finally made his choice on where he stands in the end of the episode. Sure he vanishes without a trace, but I hope we see John Simm again one day as a new and improved Master, minus the magic powers even though they did come in handy at the end of the episode. If he does return one day it will be interesting to see how he fares on screen against Doctor number eleven. It’ll be hard to top though, John Simm and David Tennant had great chemistry in all of their scenes.

Wilfred. The heart and soul of this story gave his best performance yet and got to get in on the action in a Star Wars esque action piece. Again, Bernard Cribbs plays the sadden fan that is all of us as The Tenth Doctor’s end draws near. His tearful breakdown as he tells The Doctor he wants him to survive was a tear jerking moment worthy of an Emmy Award in the right universe. Possibly sadder than The Tenth Doctor’s end is the sense of finality brought to Wilf’s story. I get the feeling we may never see this character again or if we ever do it will be quite some time. Still, Wilf got quite the send off, even provided the smack to the face answer to the infamous “He will knock four times warning”. GREAT STUFF!!!

After The Doctor sacrifices his life to save Wilf, he gets some time to go see his other companions one last time. Here we get brief glimpses of the current states of some of our favorite: Luke Smith almost gets run over by a car only to be saved by The Doctor at the last second; Captain Jack Harkness is drowning his sorrows in a bar following the events of Torchwood: Children of Earth, only to link up with a familiar sailor from Voyage of the Damned thanks to The Doctor; the descendant of Joan Redford (from Human Nature/The Family of Blood) gets a visit from The Doctor, a tender scene; and The Doctor pays an “in the shadows” visit to Rose Tyler on New Year’s Eve 2005, the year she met his Christopher Eccleston incarnation. Oh and apparently Mickey and Martha got married? Yeah that was the only little tidbit I could get over, I mean really? Alien hunting partners maybe, but MARRIED? Sorry I can’t process that one just yet. Oh and also Donna survives her burn out with no real side effects, I wish they would have cleared that up a little bit better.

And then we finally have the regeneration we’ve all been both dreading and looking forward too. What is my verdict on Mr. Matt Smith as The Eleventh Doctor? Eh, too early to tell. But judging from the trailer that followed this episode he is going to a bit more of a proactive and action oriented Doctor, harkening back to Jon Pertwee’s karate infused Third Doctor. Again it’s too early to tell, we’ll see what he can do when the series returns later this spring with a new Doctor, new Tardis interior (and slightly redesigned exterior), new drop dead gorgeous companion and even a new title logo.

So aside from one character revelation that doesn’t sit to well with me, the rest of The End of Time Part 2 gave us all the drama and emotion we expected to see in David Tennant’s final Doctor appearance (for now hopefully anyway) What more is there to say at this point? The future lies ahead, so in the immortal words of The Tenth Doctor…”ALLONS-Y!!!!”

Next Time-Daleks, The Weeping Angels, sexy female vampires, gravity defying swordsman, guns, explosions, mayhem…The Eleventh Doctor arrives on Earth Spring 2010.

Rating-10/10

Doctor Who S04E17-The End of Time Part One

The people of Earth are having terrible dreams of a man with a menacing laugh. The Doctor returns to Earth to find his greatest fears realized…The Master has been resurrected. However, the resurrection has gone wrong and The Master is now more powerful and more insane than ever. It all comes down to the biggest game changer ever, where The Doctor and Wilfred Mott witness the fall of the human race and the rise of The Master. And elsewhere, a new and unexpected development occurs. For the rise of The Master Race heralds the return of a race once thought dead forever.

Well, here we have it: the beginning of the end for the Tenth Doctor. The End of Time Part One was a somewhat sluggish start to a grand story but there were definitely plenty of good scenes, particularly towards the end, but we will get to that in a moment.

First, while I know there are those out there who feel Russell T. Davies is running out of ideas since he is returning to the Noble Family once again, I can safely say that star companion Wilfred Mott is great as The Doctor’s companion for this story. And to be honest, Wilf was such a great character in Series 4 that he deserved every right to get at least one trip with The Doctor. Bernard Cribbs is fantastic as always playing the old granddad who is totally understanding of The Doctor’s current state and can’t bring himself to ever hate him, even after what happened to Donna and The Doctor recounting the events of The Waters of Mars. The café scene between the two of them is well acted and well written. Wilf is the fan we all are, almost in tears along with David Tennant as they contemplate the world without this version of The Doctor. Wilf man, you are the man.

And at last, after much hype and many a fan girl scream, The Master returns, badder and more disturbed than ever. It is always a treat to see John Simm back in the saddle. However, the new powers he obtains through his disasterous resurrection were a little disappointing and even a little cheesy. The transparent skull visual was creepy and good, but the lighting bolts and the jumping like Neo through a trash site were not as satisfying as they could have been. Visuals aside, The Master is still a great villain who may or may not bring about the end of The Doctor if the prophecy has been interpreted correctly.

Lots of new and familiar faces this time out. Obviously since Wilf is involved we had to see Sylvia and Donna Noble again although their involvement is rather limited, a possible letdown for fans of Donna. David Herewood (the kick ass Friar Tuck from Robin Hood) makes a guest appearance as the mysterious Joshua Naismith but again his involvement in the story is simply just to be there just for sake of one plot point. He is sorely underused which is very disappointing since he’s such a great actor. Oh and they’re two “cactus” characters present who may or may not play a bigger role in Part 2. Doesn’t really matter though I didn’t really care for them anyway.

Arguably the biggest and best moments of the episode came in the last ten or so minutes when The Master enacts his grand plan and turns the entire human race into The Master. Oh and James Bond Timothy Dalton is the President of the Time Lords who make a surprise return to the Doctor Who universe declaring the titular End of Time. As far as cliffhangers go, this one pretty much tops the list. Never before since the infamous cliffhanger of Star Trek The Next Generations “The Best of Both Worlds” have I been this scared and anxious for the next part. How is The Doctor ever going to get out of this one?

So aside for a fairly slow pacing, the rest of the story set itself up nicely in the last quarter with the return of some great characters and some great interactions between those characters. This wasn’t the best of the 2009 specials, probably the weakest. Here’s hoping January 1, 2010 is the send off we all hoped David Tennant would get.


Next Time-The End is only the Beginning. The final adventure of The Tenth Doctor January 1, 2010
Rating-7/10