Doctor Who S05E12-The Pandorica Opens

The Doctor and Amy land in the year 102. A.D. where they encounter a Roman legion and River Song, who delivers a message to The Doctor, one that has taking thousands of years to reach him. The haunting image of an exploding TARDIS leads the trio to Stone Hedge, where they find the mysterious Pandorica. Whatever is housed inside is attracting every single enemy The Doctor has ever faced. But even with this vast army of villainy surrounding him, The Doctor doesn’t realize until it’s too late that the greatest threat to him may not be an enemy at all.

It has been a while since Doctor Who has had several consecutive good episodes in a row leading up to its finale. Both “Vincent and The Doctor” and “The Lodger” reminded us why Series Five has been such an astounding success up until this point. And now we get the one episode we hoped would never come, the beginning of the end. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it just feels like last week that we saw the TARDIS crash into little Amy Pond’s back yard. Eh, enough of that, onto the review.

What a fantastic opening. It was great to see all of these fantastic characters from throughout the season realize the importance of Van Gogh’s painting and work to somehow get it to The Doctor. Even if they were only in it for a couple of minutes, it was good to see Churchill, Bracewell, Van Gogh and Liz 10 once again. I don’t think the show has done something like this yet and I hope they do it again in future series. Oh and we get a reference to a “handsome Time Agent” whose vortex manipulator is passed on to River Song. Sigh, I hope we get to see a Captain Jack Harkness/Eleventh Doctor team up one day.

The mystery of the Pandorica kept me guessing right up until the end. When the entire rouges gallery of Doctor Who showed up, I was beginning to guess that the person trapped inside was the only guy missing from the party…but then again I think it would have been too much to have John Simm return as The Master this soon. And sadly, outside of Daleks and Cybermen (great to see them again btw), my knowledge of the old villains is very limited, so I couldn’t fathom a guess as to who would be inside the Pandorica. But I’ll cover that in a moment.

RORY’S BACK!!!! I always had a feeling that he would return in some shape or form during the season finale and even though he did end up being an Auton and ended up shooting Amy at the end, it was great to see him back in the story again. I would have never thought I would care about Rory when he was originally introduced as a sort of Mickey 2.0, but his character has literally gone through so much this season and has earned the respect of The Doctor and his fiancée that he has truly shinned as a great companion. Arthur Darvill did a great job dealing with all of Rory’s conflicts and sadness. Watching him break down when he realized Amy couldn’t remember him was heartbreaking and you really felt bad for the guy.

The end of the episode had me so freaking baffled. The Pandorica was meant for The Doctor? The Rouge’s Galley (or the Alliance, I guess) deciding to save the universe? Amy’s mind being used to create the trap? My head was spinning. And then there’s The Doctor, powerless to do anything as he is sealed away. Matt Smith worked his magic once again, forcing The Doctor to realize that there was no way in hell his enemies would ever listen to his pleas, no matter how true they were in regards to the universe’s impending collapse. Then…Rory was found out to be an Auton, Amy gets shot, River is trapped on an exploding TARDIS and the universe gets erased. Now THAT is how you do a cliffhanger. What a fiend/genius Steven Moffat would have been if he had just left it at that for the seven month hiatus? So many questions to be answered, the most prominent being HOW THE HELL ARE THEY GONNA GET OUT OF THIS ONE???? Here’s hoping Moffat delivers on one heck of a finale, cause I don’t think the bar has ever been raised this high to deliver one.

Next Time-No preview for next week…so who knows.

Rating-8/10

Doctor Who S05E11-The Lodger

In a tiny two story flat in Colchester, strange things are going on in the upstairs flat: flashing lights, loud crashes and the occasional small scream as well as the black mildew building up in downstairs flat of Craig Owens. Poor Craig has other problems to worry about, such as telling the girl of his dreams how much he loves her and finding a new roommate. While one of those problems needs careful planning, the other finds a solution when a mysterious and odd man called The Doctor turns up at Craig’s doorstep with the offer to room with him.

After last weeks surprisingly good Van Gogh episode, I was a little worried that “The Lodger” would be a big letdown. Thankfully, this clever little piece of unusual Doctor Who, penned by Gareth Roberts, was a very fun episode to watch. This is thanks in no small part to the companions du jour (sort of) with The Doctor this week. Craig Owens is a very likable human character with very human problems and even though The Doctor tries to help out he ends up outshining poor Craig every time. In a just as bad state is Craig’s friend Sophie, who clearly wants to hear Craig profess his love for her but is too shy to admit it herself. Both characters make for great one off characters in the Doctor Who universe and I kind of hope we see them again in the future. BTW, was it just me or did Sophie look a lot like Yvonne Hartman, the former commander and chief of Torchwood One we saw back in Series Two?

If there was one theme to best subtitle this episode with it’s “being human”. This week we saw a lot of normal human problems and woes with Craig and Sophie but we also saw The Doctor tasked with the duty of blending in as a normal human. Surprisingly enough, even though he may not realize it, from making a killer omelet to “bending it like beckham” to succeeding as a customer service caller, The Doctor shines in every human activity he attempts. Granted there is still that awkward yet lovably fun Matt Smith touch added to each scene which proves even more why Mr. Smith is continuing to be one of the best Doctor’s out there.

The mystery of upstairs was actually a little less interesting and I found myself wanting to see more of The Doctor’s interactions with Craig and Sophie, the normal humans. I almost thought that Craig and Sophie would have ended up traveling in the time machine upstairs. However, the fact that they did hook up and decide to do more of their lives on Earth was a nice ending for them. Like The Doctor once said, “That’s the one adventure I could never have.” It was an even better moment when Craig let The Doctor keep his keys to the flat, good times.

All in all, it sucks to realize that this is the last episode before the big two part finale. Despite some rocky episodes in the middle, Series Five has surpassed all expectations and then some. And while this episode may have had a rather disappointing underdeveloped “monster of the week story”, we still got a great story out of great one off characters. Forwards and onwards to the finale.

(On a quick note. The review for “The Pandorica Opens” will be one week late since I will be on vacation in a place with poor internet. So I’ll probably end up reviewing the final two episodes of the series, “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang” at the same time in two weeks.)

Next Week-The return of River Song and the appearance of The Pandorica. The final arc has begin.

Rating-8/10

Doctor Who S05E10-Vincent and The Doctor

Upon spotting a strange image within a famous painting, The Doctor and Amy travel to Arles, France 1889 to meet with the man who created the painting, Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent is a man hated by the public, whose paintings go unnoticed and his eccentric attitude scoffed at. However, he is also the only man who can see a dangerous creature invisible to others that is on the loose. It’s up to The Doctor and Amy, the only people who believe him, to give Vincent a reason to fight and prevent more tragedy, in both the lives of the villagers as well as himself.

“Vincent and The Doctor” was a very rare and totally amazing episode, probably my most favorite of the series thus far. It’s nice to see that things have not exactly gotten back to business as usual in the aftermath of last weeks events. The Doctor is clearly feeling guilty for the death of Rory and subsequent erasure from Amy’s memory and is trying to cope with it without letting Amy in on why he is being so nice. It was odd, almost frightening, to see Amy so chipper. Makes the absence of Rory all the more painful and I can’t wait to see how that little plot element is tied up in the next couple of weeks. But we should focus more on the meat of this week first, shouldn’t we?

At last, The Doctor has met a man who is willing to believe things only he himself could possibly believe in. Tony Curran plays Van Gogh brilliantly, switching back and forth between visionary and troubled soul at the drop of a pin. His interactions with The Doctor and Amy were fun to watch, waxing philosophies and wackiness with one and flirting with the other. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan gelled very will with him. Curran also has most of the episodes best lines and just listening to him belt out Van Gogh’s thoughts and visions of the world around him were simply inspiring. It’s only now that I think of Rutger Hauer’s infamous line from “Blade Runner”. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe” is an excellent subtitled description for Vincent Van Gogh.

But luckily, Van Gogh wasn’t 100% visionary but more like 90%. The other 10% was the man of action. Seeing him spar with the “invisible” enemy was well done. Actually, every character’s interaction with the Krafayis was well choreographed. The Krafayis was nicely designed, the parrot and polar bear images The Doctor first gets a scan of fit the creature perfectly. I liked the end revelation/parallel of Van Gogh and the Krafayis. The fact that the creature was blind yet could be seen by a man who could see everything was both touching and sad especially when the creature was killed in the end.

After the death of the Krafayis, I was curious as to how they were going to spend the last ten minutes of the episode. The last ten minutes of this weeks adventure were the most spectacular moments of the series since it’s resurrection in 2005. The Doctor and Amy taking Vincent Van Gogh to France 2010 to see his works was a real tear jerker, not just for Vincent but for myself as well. Not only did Vincent get to see that everyone didn’t hate his work was made even more emotional when The Doctor got the museum curator, played by big time British actor Bill Nighy (who, if your up on your scifi cinema, also stared with Tony Curran in Underworld: Evolution (good movie)). It’s moments like this Doctor Who has rarely done and probably won’t for some time since it worked this well. The series has had so many dark moments in the last few weeks that it needed a scene like this. And yes, Amy was sad when she returned to the present, expecting to see several new paintings by a clearly inspired Van Gogh, only to learn that he still committed suicide. But The Doctor’s speech to her about the good times and the bad times was very heartwarming. The final image of the painting made for Amy by Van Gogh was icing on the cake and a sign of a well done episode.

I know I’ve bragged about how good certain Doctor Who episodes are, either because of their production design, visual effects, or their acting (Series 3’s “The Shakespeare Code” comes to mind). But “Vincent and The Doctor”, earns a spot in my list of Top Ten Doctor Who episodes EVER!!! With big named guest stars, a spectacular creature and all the usual Doctor zaniness and zen, this was a bright and vibrant episode the series needed to have. This is an episode that needs immediate re watching and praise. You’ll come away from your TV or computer with a smile on your face and a possible tear in your eye. If you ever have a really bad day (kind of like I have the last couple of days) find this episode and you’ll have a reason to look on the bright side.

Next Week-Issues with the room upstairs…and guess who’s just waiting to become the new flat mate?

Rating-10/10

Doctor Who S05E09-Cold Blood

The Doctor heads down to the center of the Earth to meet with this new tribe of hibernating Silurians and negotiate the return of Amy and the other human hostages. Hostility is high on both sides. The female guardians of the city are thirsty for a war and Rory’s small band of humans is desperate for the return of their loved ones. It all comes down to one epic battle that will decide the future of both species for years to come. And while it looks like smooth sailing for humans and Silurians alike, The Doctor’s future yields some unexpected new developments.

After last weeks fairly slow plodded episode, “Cold Blood” continues to run with the same pace but amps things up towards the end for a fairly spectacular ending. Now I know I gave good reasons for each of the members in Rory’s group to kill Alaya. But come on, was there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Ambrose was going to be the one who killed her? Plus, to top it all off, she convinces her father to enact a failsafe should things go wrong AND she continues to threaten hostilities. If there was any character to not feel sorry for in this whole 2-part affair, the award goes to Ambrose. Even her son resented her action. That’s when you know you’ve really dug your own grave there.

We got to see plenty of Silurians this week, or rather only two or three of them and multiples of one (Restac and Alaya came from the same genetic code). Malohkeh the scientist was my favorite and was a proper foil to the more militaristic Restac. Eldane the politician was another favorite of mine. But his scenes with Amy and Nasreen negotiating Silurian settlement of the surface were kind of boring, hell even Amy looked bored as the proceedings went on. Luckily though they got all of that stuff done before the halfway mark so we could get to the meat of the episode, which was the result of Restac’s coup d’etat and Ambrose’s murder of Alaya.

The last twenty minutes of the episode were very exciting, filled with lots of running and quick solutions to the laser carrying lizards and the gigantic drill. Tony’s decision to stay behind was nice and I liked how he forgave Ambrose for her actions before he went into stasis. Nasreen also got a great send off, deciding to stay with her man and the discovery she made. She and The Doctor made a good team and it kind of sucks we won’t see her after this since she’s going into that uber long thousand year hibernation with Tony.

I had a feeling that Rory was probably going to die sometime soon. However, I didn’t expect his death to be so sad and well done. Sacrificing himself to save The Doctor from Restac’s final laser blast showed his devotion to both the man and Amy. But then he got touched by energy from another one of those pesky cracks, erasing him from Amy’s mind. Karen Gillan played the scene beautifully, showing her helplessness and general sadness over the loss of her fiancé and the fact that The Doctor could do nothing to do about it. The fact that Rory is now erased from Amy’s mind makes Rory’s death even harder to bare. Although I can imagine that he might return in some form or another in the season finale, which is only four weeks away (wow how time flies).

Oh and then there’s that shattered piece of the TARDIS The Doctor pulled from the crack. So that explosion either originates from the TARDIS or the TARDIS get caught in the blast. Either way, it was a heart stopping moment seeing that fried chunk of TARDIS in The Doctor’s hand. The next few weeks can’t come soon enough.

Next Week-Teaming up with Vincent Van Gogh to fight off a deadly foe.

Rating-8/10

Doctor Who S05E08-The Hungry Earth

The Doctor, Amy and Rory land in the year 2020 and run into a group of people attempting to drill deeper into the Earth’s crust than any human in history. However, once the drill hits 21km, mysterious holes begin appearing in the drilling facility. Something is drilling upwards and claiming human hostages, including Amy. With only Rory and a small village of scared individuals to help him, The Doctor must race to unravel the mystery of the somewhat familiar creatures causing this havoc before fighting breaks out and all hell breaks loose.

Like “Vampires in Venice” to “The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone,” “The Hungry Earth” felt like a step back in quality after the amazing “Amy’s Choice”. That’s not to say that this was a bad outing, but this is the first of a two part story and we had to build momentum this week before the fireworks go off next week.

I was a little surprised at how “Amy lite” this episode was. Amy has been such a driving force for many of the episodes thus far, last weeks episode was even an Amy centered story for example. I never thought they’d cut back on her story time or her overall screen time for that matter. Amy is quickly captured and only seen two more brief times before the episode ends. Again, a little shocking but her absence works to build on the other character filtering this story. Nasreen was my favorite character of the bunch. At first she was a little skeptical of The Doctor (honestly, who isn’t really when they first meet him) but then her sense of adventure kicks in and she eventually follows him to the underground to confront The Silurians (more on them in a second). I like her but I can’t help but feel there is some “hidden” quality we haven’t seen yet that will be revealed next week. The other pivotal characters this week were Tony and his daughter Ambrose. Tony was a good sidekick for Nasreen but Ambrose, while understandably concerned for the safety of her son, came of as annoying. If anyone is going to do something stupid next week that ignites a war, she is at the top of my list (again I’ll continue on this point momentarily).

This week saw the return of another old villain of Doctor Who lore. The reptilian Silurians design wise reminded me of the Draqs seen in 1983’s Enemy Mine (starring Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossitt Jr., great movie btw). We only got to see one of them clearly this week and that one is the strangely attractive warrior Alaya, wow cute with a pretty name to match. Alaya, as aforementioned, is a fighter and I was fully sold on her claims that her people would bring the fire to eliminate mankind no matter what. Her chilling foresight as to how that will come about had me guessing like crazy. Alaya claims someone will kill her and thus ignite the war. At first I was sure it would be Ambrose, but then again Tony has been infected by some sort of Sullarian sting and needs a cure and Rory wants Amy back (that bit with the wedding ring makes me think he might bite it in the end next week), plus Ambrose wants her son back but seems more keen on pulling the trigger now. All have legit reasons for wanting to kill Alaya and next week we will find out who does.

I should also take a quick moment to note that this little two parter is courtesy of Chris Chibnall, head writer for another little series called Torchwood. He is an outstanding writer who has written many of Torchwood’s best episodes so far and I’m really looking forward to how his massive build up this week pays off next week. Again, “The Hungry Earth” wasn’t a lame episode, I really want to see next weeks episode so badly because of the last ten minutes. Plus, you got to see The Doctor fire a slingshot of all things and wear his sunglasses at night, nice. This week was all about the build up and next week is sure to give us all a proper payoff for sitting patiently through it.

Next Week-Stop the Silurians, prevent a war, have a beer (ok maybe that last one is stretching it).

Rating-7/10

Doctor Who S05E07-Amy’s Choice

The Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves floating back and forth between two different worlds: one is set on the present day Tardis and the other is set five years in the future back on Earth with a happily married Amy and Rory awaiting the birth of their first child. Complicating matters is the appearance of the mysterious “Dream Lord” and his dangerous game for the trio. Together, they must decipher which world is real and quickly before one specific crisis on each claims their lives. And with opinions divided on how real each world feels, this isn’t going to be the easiest game ever.

Series Five continues to deliver the goods with expert storytelling and lots of adrenaline inducing excitement. And this weeks episode continued with those praises. “Amy’s Choice” was a terrific outing that presented us with a very unique scenario that makes for the best Doctor Who material. The jumping back and forth between worlds could have become tedious and annoying after a while but writer Simon Nye gives the story the balance needed to keep the story moving flawlessly from one point to the next without loosing any momentum. I think it was obvious to any viewer which world was the obvious choice, but then there was that slap in the face realization that everyone was wrong, even the viewer. Just goes to show that if you think you know this show real well, you haven’t seen anything yet.

I’ve been bragging about the story so far. What about our time traveling trio and the villain du jour? I have to give a quick cap on the Dream Lord. For a while, just watching him on screen tormenting our heroes I could help but think of Michael Caine’s famous quote from “The Dark Knight”, “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn”. Up until the big reveal of his true identity, I figured the Dream Lord for the kind of guy who tormented just for amusement and interest rather than personal gain. But again, the big reveal at the end (which I will leave spoiler free for a change, you really should watch and see for yourself) threw me for a loop and gave it a bit more of a darker edge to the character. And hats off to Toby Jones, who was amazing in the role of the villain.

The title of the episode is the key to the story as a whole. Torn between The Doctor’s scientific analysis and Rory’s personal desires, Amy is the one who has to make the final call in this dangerous game. Maybe it was just me, but I was totally convinced the five years later world was the definite fake just because it seemed to perfect and quiet, something this show doesn’t do a lot of in terms of the latter and occasionally on the former. Rory wants the quiet life and The Doctor the louder, more exciting one. Both Matt Smith and Arthur Darvill were good with their performances and were very convincing playing the defense of their choices.

I kind of feel bad for Rory and Amy. Even when Amy realizes how much she really loves Rory and wants to be with him, I can’t help but feel that it is always going to be The Doctor she loves truly (like Rose with Mickey and The Tenth Doctor or, better example, Gwen Cooper with Rhys and Captain Jack Harkness on Torchwood). Still if Gwen could make it work with Rhys now that I think about it, it could work out with Rory. Plus, The Doctor seems to not want to belittle Rory, but do his best to keep Amy off of himself and more attached to her fiancé, which is a very good call in this case. Still, just as with last week, I don’t think this is the last we’ve heard of Amy’s romantic woes, not by a long shot.

“Amy’s Choice” was a fun episode from beginning to end and I can’t remember the last time I honestly bragged this much about an individual episode of Doctor Who (really not since I saw Series Three’s “The Shakespeare Code” for the first time , I should post a review for that now). Series Five is well past it’s half way mark and is doing an amazing job most people thought would be impossible to accomplish after David Tennant’s departure. This show is still as awesome as when it first came back on the air and this episode is plenty evidence of that.

Next Week-Drilling to the center of the Earth should be a straight shot down. Then why is something drilling upwards to the surface?

Rating-10/10

Doctor Who S05E06-Vampires in Venice

In order to get Amy back in love with her fiancé Rory, The Doctor decides to take the two of them on a romantic getaway to Venice, Italy in 1580. But romance is not the main course of the day as all three travelers on separate occasions encounter mysterious girl, robbed in white with sharp fangs and a strong distaste for the sun. There are vampires in Venice, or at least that is the initial belief. But once Amy infiltrates the mysterious Calvierri School for Girls, she learns that these mysterious bloodsucking females may be the least of everyone’s worries when she discovers the full scope of their plans for the city.

Vampires in Venice is a decent episode for the new series, decent being the word of choice since it comes nowhere near as amazing as the last two weeks two part story. The dual opening is interesting choice to start off with a bit of horror in the form of the vampiric Calvierri girls claiming another victim and the awkward humor in the form of The Doctor party crashing Rory’s bachelor party to get his attention. To be honest, I liked the second part of the opening better. It was awkward and funny and was a better place to start off after Amy’s Doctor seduction session last week.

I was a little worried to see Rory on the TARDIS even though I knew it would happen eventually. But cudos to The Doctor for choosing to do so as he doesn’t want to screw up a companions life back home because of her adventures with him. Rory ended up being a pretty good character, even if he is kind of a Mickey knock off. I’m finding it difficult to figure out how his new companion status on the TARDIS will affect the already awesome dynamic between Amy and The Doctor. At the end of the episode, it looks as though Amy chooses Rory and convinces The Doctor to let him tag along, but I’m not convinced this is the end of the subject with this new love triangle.

The villains du jour were the reptilian/vampiric Saturnynians, led by the lovely Rosanna (played by guest star Helen McRory, who, if your up on your Harry Potter alums as I am, played Narcissia Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince). I couldn’t help but feel that this group of bloodsuckers were a bit like the characters in 1987’s “The Lost Boys”. The exclusive club meant for chosen ones, ones that every guy wanted to get with but couldn’t. Still, I liked Helen McRory’s Rosanna and her characters interactions with The Doctor. The two big conversations they have in the episode were well written and played out. Plus, she was a sympathetic character. Sure she was trying to drown Venice, but then again she was also trying to repair the damage done to her race by those ever pesky cracks in time. It was a sad ending for her and it sucked to see her meet her fate. A character I was totally Unsympathetic towards was her “son” Francesco. From the moment I set eyes on him I couldn’t wait to see him get his butt kicked, amusingly enough by a double team effort by Amy and Rory. Whereas Rosanna was a cool and calculating opponent, Francesco was just flat out annoying. Although, the “what’d you say about my momma?” look on his face when Rory taunted him was priceless.

I also have to take a second to applaud the Production Team for its work on a very nice looking Venice. After just recently playing Assassin’s Creed II, which is set in Venice, I thought the city was well recreated and it didn’t feel small scale, similar to the work the crew did on Series Four’s “Fires of Pompeii”. The money spent of the production of this show is spent very well indeed, just check out the visually stunning real versions of the Saturnynians.

So what now? Rory’s on the TARDIS and we get our first real glimpse of “the silence,” which to be honest scared the crap out of me. This wasn’t a great follow up to “Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone”, and to be honest that was going to be a tough one to top. But “Vampires in Venice” was still a lot of fun with Doctor wit (Best Line: “Oh this is Christmas!!!”), decent action, and a sense that things are definitely going to get worse for the Time Lord as the series goes on. Series Five continues to roll on strong and show no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Next Week-Trapped in a dream world with a pregnant Amy, even The Doctor has to admit, “This is gonna be a tricky one.”

Rating-8/10