Day 888 - The Power Of Three

This picture pretty much summed up my feelings towards this episode. Of all the episodes so far from season 7 (season 33 for those of us who like to be pedantic) this would seem to be the weakest. I still don't really understand what is going on.

Some cubes arrive all over the world and do pretty much nothing for about 7 months and then all of a sudden they open and stop peoples hearts until the Doctor works out a way to reverse it and people magically come back to life again. Utter tripe.

However amongst this thinly stretched plot are some great moments. Essentially this episode is here to show what happens to Amy and Rory when the Doctor is not there. We see them in their normal lives. It's also here that they realise it's time to choose between what kind of life they want. Do they want to keep travelling with the Doctor or settle down? Interestingly it's apparently been 10 years since they started travelling together. Lots of nice gaps there for the Big Finish audios to fill in one day when they get the licence to produce stories with the modern series Doctors.

Rory's father, Brian, also makes his return appeance. I've probably already raved about how awesome Mark Williams is but I'll say it again here. He can do everything from the humourous moments right down to some superb moments of pathos. At one point he confronts the Doctor as to what happened to all the other people who travelled with him. The Doctor grudgingly admits that some of his companions died.. *sob* Adric...

After this conversation it's quite touching that at the end of the episode it's Brian who persuades them to continue travelling with the Doctor. "It's you they can't give up Doctor...and I don't think they should." Knowing that this is their penultimate episode, these words also feel somewhat ominous. Maybe they should have stayed at home after all.

The final gem of this episode is the introduction (or reintroduction if you consider Down Time to be canon..and I don't) of Kate Stewert or given her full name of Kate Lethbridge Stewert. When she first introduces herself simply as Kate Stewert, now leading UNIT as one of their chief scientists I must admit I completely did not make the connection between her and the Brigadier. So when the Doctor makes the link later on it caught me really off guard and it's such a beautiful tribute to the character of the brig that he lives on in a way through his daughter.

The best part of this whole episode for me is the scene between the Doctor and Amy where she admits to thinking its time to stop. And he tells her that he knows they will soon stop travelling with him but that he essentially keeps returning to them before they fade away from him forever. It's quite sad and moving but this is what the Doctor's life is. He will always outlive his companions one way or another and there will always be times to say those file goodbyes..

Day 887 - A Town Called Mercy

This picture just seems so wrong. The Doctor wielding a gun and threatening to shoot a man. After cold heartedly allowing Soloman to die in the previous episode it seems the Doctor is continuing down a very dark path.

The location for this episode is fantastic. In Doctor Who's first western since The Gunslingers (braced for fan rage should I be wrong on this!) the production team filmed this story in Spain in a location which I believe has been used for many a feature film. Over the last few years, there have been a few stories set in America and I'm all for that to be honest. It makes sense that the Doctor wouldn't always visit England. And it's probably a good way of boosting the shows appeal in the states which I'm happy to say is doing incredibly well. I've been watching a fair few videos on YouTube recently and it's amazing to see how popular the show is across the world now.

So basically the town of Mercy is protecting an alien Kahler-Jex from a cyborg which is trying to kill him. What the town don't know is that Jex is actually the creator of the cyborg and the creature is after revenge for the experiments that were performed on him and the countless people who died on Jex's operating table at bodged attempts to create the perfect weopon. When the Doctor finds out the truth he goes mental and forces Jex out of the town at gun point. Amy calls the Doctor up on his actions and tells him this is what happens when he travels alone. Over the last few episodes, Amy and Rory have been wanting to be dropped off back at home for a few months rather than to continue to travel with the Doctor. It must be quite sad for him as he sees his friends drift away from him.

As Amy confronts the Doctor I love how the he rages back at her that he's sick of trying to understand people. He's always trying to be the merciful person but the bad guys always come back. I also get a little shiver at Matt Smith mentioning The Master. Surely he's due a come back soon!

I really enjoyed this episode. I hadn't watched it for a good while and I don't remember rating all that highly when I first saw it but watching it now that the excitement of it being a new episode has died down I can really appreciate it for the awesome episode it is. I mean it's the Doctor in the Wild West for goodness sake! What more can you want...All it's missing is a jaunty tune played after every single scene....I want to watch The Gunfighters now. 

Day 886 - Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

I'm on to the final two weeks now! Feeling scared!

I don't really feel like I need to explain much about this episode as it's pretty much summed up in the title itself. A Silurian Ark is slowly drifting back to Earth but unfortunately all the Silurians have been massacred by a ruthless pirate/trader called Soloman who wants to steal their precious cargo of rare dinosaurs.

First of all I have to say that the dinosaurs in this episode look a hell of a lot better than the dinosaurs Invasion Of The Dinosaurs but then that wouldn't be hard to be better than them! God I really want to watch Invasion Of The Dinosaurs now! What the hell is wrong with me??

Another interesting thing is that this episode stars David Bradley (as Soloman) who is now more familiar to me as playing William Hartnell in the Doctor Who biopic which was released last year. He'd already voiced a character in The Sarah Jane adventure but it's cool to see him properly in the series. And he plays a complete bastard too! In fact he plays such a bastard that the Doctor has no problem in leaving him to die at the end of the episode. I must admit that this seems a little out of character for the Doctor. In the classic series, the Doctor occasionally resorted to violence (wasting Ograns and throwing guards into acid baths "accidentally") but in the new series they have been pretty careful about the Doctor's morality and views on violence. Therefore it seems odd that the Doctor redirects the missiles from Earth into destroying Soloman's ship. This is at least acknowledged in later episodes that this is what the Doctor will turn into if he travels without companions to hold him back, something which was touched in way back in The Runaway Bride where it is Donna who is there to tell the Doctor to stop.

Another thing I love about this story is Brian, Rory's father, played brilliantly by Mark Williams (someone else has been in both Doctor Who and Harry Potter for those of you still paying along with my little game I started during my review of Vampires In Venice). Brian is swept along in the story when the TARDIS materialises around him, Amy and Rory whilst he is changing a bulb at Amy and Rory's house. After first being unsettled by what is suddenly happening to him (to be fair, he went round to fix a light and all of a sudden he is on a spaceship...with dinosaurs) he soon is willingly joining in with the gang and it's hilarious how he seems prepared for every eventuality and admonishes Rory for not being so. "What man doesn't carry a trowel in his pocket? Put it on your Christmas list."

Now for the thing I didn't like. Mitchell and Webb voicing the two useless robots. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm so familiar with these two comedians but I just could not accept them as the robots. I'm tempted to say that it was almost as bad as Hale and Pace appearing in Survival....I'm not sure. But it was pretty bad.

Two weeks and counting...

Day 885 - Asylum Of The Daleks

The thing about the latest seasons of Doctor Who is that they insist on sticking in mini episodes and prequels all over the place! Now that is obviously excellent as it gives us more content but did nobody thing how that would affect my challenge?? I think not.

Before watching this episode I watched the five mini episodes called Pond Life. The first four are very funny and it lulls you into thinking that they are nothing but amusing but unimportant fluff. As such the fifth episode hits hard when you realise that Amy and Rory's relationship is on the rocks as we see him storming out of the house.

Meanwhile in the prequel to the actual episode we see the Doctor being given a message to meet a mysterious woman on Skaro. Now I have two issues with this. First of all...is this technically a prequel? Surely it's a prelude. To me a prequel is something which is released after the episode that it comes before. Secondly, I thought Skaro was blown up. I'm sure the seventh Doctor tricked Davros in Remembrance Of The Daleks into destroying his own planet. Oh well, I'm sure it's explained somewhere and it does make for a pretty exciting "prequel".

At the start of the episode itself we see the Doctor back on Skaro and I love how they've gone to the effort to make the buildings look just like those in the original Dalek story back in 1963.

So the basic plot is that the Daleks have an asylum where they throw all the Daleks that have gone mad. Now they are worried that these Daleks may be on the verge of escaping which utterly terrifies them. In fact it scares them so much that they don't want to be the ones to go down to the planet to sort it out so the enlist the Doctor's help along with Amy and Rory to sort things out for them.

Whilst on the planet the Doctor makes contact with a young woman who has been stranded there for a year when her ship crashed. This character is called Oswin Oswald and her appearance is a pretty massive twist. At this point we knew that Amy and Rory would soon be leaving the series for good so the new companion was revealed to the world as being played by Jenna Coleman. And she is here right away as Oswin Oswald. It's so unusual for the new series to be able to keep secrets but this one was kept magnificently.

Amy starts to lose the plot a little when a wrist strap is taken from her which was the only thing from stopping a nano cloud from converting her into a Dalek puppet. There is one particular scene which sticks with me where she starts to hear music and walks into a room to see people dancing slowly or standing around looking at her. It kind of reminds me of a The Shining as it has that really unsettling tone to it. She is actually looking at Daleks who are inmates in the asylum.

The side plot of Amy and Rory's relationship breaking up is also handled really well. Amy is angry at the Doctor's attitude that he can fix anything. Her relationship is beyond fixing. It's later revealed that the breakup was because of Amy's inability to have children. In her mind she is letting Rory go. This is what I love about Doctor Who. For all the craziness going on around them, with Daleks going mad all around them, there is still this very real scene played out between a couple who are having the same relationship problems that any normal human couple could have.

So we assume we have met the new companion and that somehow the Doctor will later meet up with her again for many adventures to come. Therefore it all becomes even more confusing when she "dies" at the end of the episode! In a fantastic scene we discover that Oswin is in fact a Dalek. She was once a human who has been converted and she has created this fantasy world for herself in order to survive.  When she realises the truth she is obviously a little upset. There's something so weirdly touching about hearing a Dalek cry. Hearing a Dalek emotionally asking the Doctor why he they hate him so much is brilliant.

Another cool thing about this episode is the inclusion of old style Daleks from the entire history of the show. I even spotted the heavy weapons Dalek! To be fair though I didn't feel like they were included enough. This episode had been highly marketed on the fact that it was going to contain all these old Daleks but for the most part they were kept very much in the background. The most unforgivable part is when the Doctor is walking through "intensive care". As Oswin reals off the names of the planets that these specific Daleks were recovered from the Doctor realises that these are the Daleks who survived direct encounters with himself. The planets listed are all planets featured in old stories. But they use the wrong Daleks! They all look like modern Daleks. If they were going to make the effort to bring in old Daleks at least put them in the right place. Nerd rage rising!!

Day 884 - The Doctor, The Widow, And The Wardrobe

Well this actually a bit of a milestone for my challenge! This is the first episode I have watched in my quest that was actually broadcast after the quest had started... If that makes sense. My Doctor Who marathon started on 23rd November 2011 and this episode was broadcast on 25th December 2011 so therefore during the challenge itself! Completely from memory I believe I was watching an episode of The Sensorites on that day, it was Christmas so it sort of sticks in my head. Saying that I have no memory of which episode I watched on Christmas Day 2012 or 2013 but I do remember watching The Sensorites in 2011. It's quite a scary thought actually that this challenge has been going on for the last three Christmas Days!

After the magnificent Christmas Special preceding this one, A Christmas Carol, then I'm afraid to say that this one is a monumental let down. That's not to say it's all bad, it does have some good qualities to it but I think it could possibly be my least favourite Doctor Who Christmas special...unless you count The Feast Of Steven as a first Doctor Christmas Special!

The funny thing I've just realised about the Chrismtas specials is that they very rarely feature a regular companion and this one is no exception as Amy and Rory don't appear until the very end of the story when the Doctor is persuaded to turn up at their house after two years to reveal he wasn't dead after all!

Instead of the normal companions we have Madge who the Doctor meets a couple of years before war breaks out. You know I'm not even sure if it's the first or Second World War...I was paying attention I promise. She helps him out and in return he comes back to visit her family a few years later when Madge has just learned that her husbands plane has been lost somewhere over the channel. She keeps this a secret from her two children and I love how she steadfastly refuses to let it spoil Christmas for them. She occasionally snaps at them and can't understand why until the Doctor brilliantly surmises that it's because seeing them happy only reminds her of how sad they will be later and it is breaking her heart.

Pretty much the story starts well and ends well. But in between there is a bit of a run around in a Forest and some acid rain and tree alien type things which are deathly dull! And a Bill Bailey. No offence to Bill Bailey (as if he reads this!) but it stinks of stunt casting! Luckily he is only in a few scenes. He's funny but he's not really a great actor.

Alexander Armstrong plays the father of the family. I wonder if it was confusing for the children as his voice is so recognisable as Mr Smith, Sarah Jane's computer. It's nice that he finally gets to appear in the series. And I suppose if John Leeson, the voice of K9, can appear in the series then I don't see a problem with it!

Not only is this a pretty dull story but I think I resent it a little. My mum and dad very rarely watch Doctor Who but I remember on Christmas Day 2011 they actually sat down to watch this with them and I was so upset. I wanted to scream "it's usually so much better than this!" But they probably went away judging the whole of Doctor Who from this piss poor Christmas special. I'm actually getting quite angy now. In fact this is the first time I have actually watched this story again since that day. And it's still shit. Not quite as shit as I remembered it being but still pretty poor. 

Wow! This turned negative quickly. I must be in a bad mood today!

Days 879 to 883 - The Sarah Jane Adventures (Season 5)

This is quite a sad day for my quest as the final episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures are now behind me. The fact that a television show has finished is not something to be overly upset by in of itself but the reasons behind the ending of this series are tragic to say the least.

Back in 2011 the news broke that Elizabeth Sladen had passed away at the age of 63. This news was so shocking as there had been no indication at all that she was ill. A few months prior to this, Nicholas Courtney had also died, but he was an old man so the news, although sad, was no where near as shocking. 

With the passing of its main star mid production then instead of the usual 6 stories, we instead have just three to talk about.

The first story introduces a new member of the team in the form of alien child, Sky, who Sarah Jane soon decides to adopt as her daughter. I'm not sure what the eventual intention was to do with her character or is she was simply a replacement for Luke but I have to say she's actually a really nice character so it's a shame we didn't get to see what was planned for her.

The second story has to be one of the most hard hitting stories that the series had attempted. When Cyde is cursed by a totem pole he finds all his friends and family turning against him until he is forced to live out on the street. I would imagine this was in someway intended to educate children about homelessness and it's actually quite upsetting. Clyde and his mum have a really good relationship so when she suddenly turns on him and kicks him out of the house it's pretty horrible to see. It must have affected me quite badly anyway as it actually gave me nightmares where all my family turned against me! 

The final story revolves around the release of the latest computer tablet and it's charming and persuasive designer. The tablet turns out to be a load of crap and the designer is actually a hologram programmed to hypnotise people into buying it. I guess it wouldn't be The Sarah Jane Adventures without one last bout of hypnotism! Saying that the story is actually pretty good and funny in places and I loved the scene where Sarah Jane is trying to subtlety expose the hologram by asking him to shake hands or pick up her pen etc.

So that's it. No more Sarah Jane, no more Torchwood. From here on its Doctor Who all the way to the finish line. Just one last thing to say on this blog entry and that's....

Day 877 - Closing Time

After saying a "final" goodbye to Amy and Rory, the Doctor knows his time is running out so goes on one last farewell trip around the universe it seems. We catch up with him here as he decides to revisit Craig who he first met in The Lodger in the previous season.

Gareth Roberts again writes a fantastic script full of funny moments. I really think he captures the strangeness of Matt Smith's Doctor brilliantly. It's hard to say who comes up with some of the more physical aspects of the comedy. I particularly enjoy the moment when as the Doctor is chatting to Craig in his kitchen he casually picks up a piece of green chalk and goes to eat it before realising it's not something meant for eating. He just seems so much more alien again when compared to his tenth and ninth incarnations.

Craig now has a baby son and has been left alone for the first time to look after him. It's quite fortunate therefore (or unfortunate depending on your point of view) that the Doctor turns up to help. It was hinted in a previous episode that the Doctor could speak "baby". Whilst this doesn't make much sense it does create some humourous moments in the story, especially when the Doctor informs Craig that his son Alfie prefers to go by the name of Stormageddon Dark Lord Of All. Alfie refers to Craig as "not mum" and to everyone else as peasants "which is unfortunate".

The Cybermen are also back in this episode. In a ship buried beneath a department store, they are awakened by the laying down of new electrical cables. We also see Cybermats again for the first time since Revenge Of The Cybermen. You just know when they brought them back that they knew what a brilliant marketing device they would be for toy replicas! One character even mistakes them for a toy within the episode itself!

The Doctor investigates the department store by taking a job there in their toy department. I was eagerly checking the shelves to make sure there were no Doctor Who items on the shelves because that's the sort of geek I am. Fortunately I don't think I spotted any.

It's a really good episode but I must admit that the resolution whereby Craig defeats the Cybermen using the love he has for his son made me want to vomit. It's just such sentimental garbage. At least the Doctor tries to give a more scientifically accurate explanation as to how they were defeated before giving up and admitting it was effectively through love.

As the Doctor leaves to go on his final journey to Lake Silencio where he knows he will die there is brief moment where he speaks to three young children who happen to be playing near the TARDIS. As he does so the scene cuts to the future where River Song is reading testimonies from these three children about their meeting with the Doctor. Now one thing has always bothered me about this. Attached to each testimony is a picture of the child who gave it. And the picture is taken in the exact position where they just met the Doctor and they are wearing the exact clothes. Who took that picture?? Surely it would make more sense that someone spoke to them later in life about their experience of meeting the Doctor and took their picture for the files then! It's a small thing I know but it always annoyed me a little.

As Madame Kovarian appears to River and positively identifies her as Melody Pond, she is once again forced inside the space suit and position below the lake for her appointment with the Doctor.

"Tick tock goes the clock, he cradled and he rocked her. Tick tock goes the clock till River kills the Doctor"

Day 876 - The God Complex

"Praise him"

The Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves trapped in what seems to be an old hotel. Along with a few other people who are also trapped they discover that each room holds a fear for each person and it's only a matter of time before they are driven to open the door of their own room where their greatest terror awaits. Meanwhile a Minotaur-like alien is stalking the corridors waiting for the right moment to take each survivor as the fear becomes all to much for them.

I've never really liked this one all that much but it does have some moments that really stand out as excellent. The first of these being the character of Gibbis as played by David Walliams. Gibbis is from a race of aliens who are the most conquered in the universe due to their nature of simply allowing people to invade their world and oppress them. He even mentions near the start of the story that he works in town planning and his most recent job has been to organise the planting of trees along the roads so that advancing armies can march in the shade "which will be nice for them". It's hilarious. But what makes this character even better is that, as the Doctor discovers, this cowardice is not just a funny character trait but it's also quite sly. Gibbis isn't the nice character you would expect him to be and he would sell out any of the others to save his own skin.

The Doctor soon discovered that the creature is not feeding off fear but from peoples's faith and the fears in the bedroom have been designed to force people to fall back on their core beliefs. At the conclusion of the story we find ourselves in Amy's room where she comes face to face with her younger self who is till waiting at the window for the Doctor to return. It is Amy's faith in the Doctor which is making the creature come for her and the only way to save her is to break that faith. This is another one of my favourite moments as the Doctor seems to come clean with her that he brought along because he was vain and wanted to be adored "I'm not a hero. I really am just a mad man in a box, and it's time we saw each other as we really are." It's actually a repeat of an idea from The Curse Of Fenric and I'm not sure which one is more successfully executed. I think the scene in The God Complex are more emotional but the similar scenes in Fenric feel more believeable. I could really imagine the seventh Doctor using Ace as opposed to the eleventh Doctor using Amy.

By the end of the episode, the Doctor has decided that enough is enough and he can't carry on risking Amy and Rory's lives. As such he takes them back home and carries on his travels alone. It's a bit odd because I knew they weren't leaving but it makes for a nice little twist I suppose.

"Praise him"

Day 878 - The Wedding Of River Song

Okay, time to spice things up a little I think. For this blog entry I will be recording my thoughts and feelings "live" as I watch the episode instead of trying to think of something to put several days after the episode as has mainly been the case so far. So here goes. Time to press play!

A recap of the series so far. Well it's nice to be reminded of what I've already seen. Seems strange though that they are showing me the Teselecta, the robot that can change its appearance to look like any other person. Well technically it's not a robot I suppose as it's crewed by miniaturised people. If it were to be a robot, then I guess it's sort of like Kamelion and we all know what happened to him! No...you don't...because he was shit. Anyway, too much writing and the episode hasn't even properly begun yet!

Those opening scenes were awesome! So as I've seen the episode before I know what's going on so I can explain it a little better. Basically all we know so far is that time has got seriously screwed up. Time is no longer moving and all of history is happening at once. So we have train tracks suspended in the sky with old steam engines going along them, cars being hoisted into the air by hot air balloons, pterodactyls as vermin the parks and Charles Dickens appearing on BBC breakfast news to talk about his latest Christmas tale. Brilliant. It's also great that Dickins is once again played by Simon Callow who played him in The Unquiet Dead.

Matt Smith's first appearance is a little..I don't know if cheesy is the right word..but basically I don't like it. As Ceaser Churchill (yes Winston Churchill is back and he's some kind of Roman Emporer) begs the "soothsayer" to explain to him what is happening to time, the soothsayer raises his head slowly to reveal he's the Doctor and simply says "a woman" and then it cuts to the opening titles. I don't like that. It makes me cringe a bit.

He's fully redeemed immediately after though as we seem him approaching and mocking a dying Dalek before dismantling it to gather any information it may be holding about the Silence. Also I have to say that I love the new green coat that the Doctor has taken to wearing. I actually have a replica of it which is pretty cool. He only really wears it a few times in this season and after this story it is never seen again but I quite like that because it means it's not too recognisable so when I wear my replica in town I don't get people staring at me thinking "look at that knob in his Doctor Who coat"..they probably just think "look at that knob in his surprisingly stylish green coat" instead. Anyway I'm straying from the story again. I better get going with it otherwise I won't finish it before midnight!

The Doctor sits in a bar and reads "knitting for girls". I approve of this.

Sometimes Steven Moffat just comes up with some brilliant ideas that aren't important to the plot but are brilliant nevertheless and the "live chess" scene is one of them. A game of chess played as if some kind of blood sport, with baying crowds etc. The twist with this game of chess is that each piece has an electric charge running through it and each time it is moved the charge increases meaning that a piece that has been moved several times can give a lethal shock should you try to move it again. I think it's an idea that could catch on! Maybe a suggestion for Dragons' Den?

The Doctor meets Dorium again, now just a head in a box and he gives up a bit of an info dump as to why the Slience want the Doctor dead. But it's an awesome info dump so I can forgive that.

"You're a man with with a long and dangerous past, but you're future is infinitely more terrifying. The Silence believe it must be averted!"

"On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall the of the eleventh, where no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never ever be answered."

The Doctor finds out what the question is (still unknown to us) and goes a little mental as he now knows why he has to die. He explains that with a time machine he can run away from it all and carry on forever but it's after a phone call to a dear old friend that the Doctor realises that he can't run forever. This was a moment that took me by surprise on my first viewing. The Doctor is told by a nurse that Brigadier Lethebridge Stewert has passed away. The Brigadier had been such a long standing recurring character in the series, right back to the 1960s that to hear he has gone in a real shock. It's also a touching moment as Nicholas Courtney who played the character had recently passed away so this was obviously written in as a nod to him. But it works as part of the story itself to as it is what makes the Doctor finally realise that his time is up.

So here's something cool that I've only just noticed in this episode. River is trapped in a space suit and is being controlled in order to short the Doctor. She is begging him to run away but he tells her that this must happen. She says "time can be rewritten" to which he responds "don't you dare!" which is the exact exchange that took place between them at the end of Forest Of The Dead where River dies except the lines are swapped around between the Doctor and River. That's quite clever mirroring.

Amy shows where her daughter gets some of her ruthlessness as she completely wastes some Silents with a machine gun and then forces Madame Kovarian to put her eyepatch back on which is electrocuting her. This would seem to be a little to much really but these are stressful circumstances and Amy at least shows some remorse later on for actions. She's not a woman to be messed with. That's cool too.

So River has sent a distress call to the whole universe asking them to help save the Doctor's life. It makes quite an emotional punch when you realise that the so called solar flare interruptions are actually the replies from thousands of civilisations answering the call to help the Doctor.

Then for reasons that still confuse me. The Doctor marries River in a rushed ceremony. It seems the only reason for it is to make her kiss him which helps make time move again and also allows him to whisper something very important in her ear...his name...except he's lying and what he's really telling her is that this is not the real Doctor and it's just the Tesalecta which is going to take his place on the beach thus faking his own death. Given what we've been told about fixed points in time etc it feels like a bit if a cheat. It's further upsetting that we have had to wait pretty much a whole year for this rather disappointing resolution. 

And just what is the question that must never be answered. Well this is pretty awesome actually. The question really has been staring us in the face this whole time..Doctor Who?

Day 874 - The Girl Who Waited

After accidentally finding themselves in a facility to home people suffering from the "one day" plague (I.e you die in one day), the Doctor and Rory decide to make a swift departure. Unfortunately Amy has found herself trapped in a different time stream where time is moving faster so by the time they catch up with her she has been living on her own in the facility for 36 years. Yeah...that's got to piss you off big time!

Obviously old Amy is slightly bitter towards the Doctor and Rory for seemingly abandoning her but you you've got to think she's maybe being a little ungrateful when Rory once spent 2000 years guarding the Pandorica to make sure Amy was safe inside it and Amy is being all angry after just 36 years. To be fair she is on her own whereas Rory would have had some kind of company so there is that I suppose.

In many ways this is a bit of a Doctor-lite episode as he is constrained to the TARDIS as the plague only affects beings with two hearts like himself he cannot risk stepping outside. However he is constant radio contact with Rory and so he doesn't feel like he's missing from the action too much.

After the Doctor comes up with a plan by which they can save Amy in the past meaning she would never have been stuck there then you would think that the episode was coming to an obvious conclusion. Brilliantly though there is a sting in the tail! Old Amy refuses to help save her younger self as from her point of view by saving her younger self she will be killing the person she is now as she would never have existed. I'm not quite sure of the logic of this one. If I had lived 36 years on my own in what is branded by Amy as "hell" and I was given the opportunity to erase that from ever happening them I think I'd snap your hand off but I guess women are complicated at the end of the day! It's fine that I say things like that because no one is reading this blog and if they are then they are certainly not women!

After promising old Amy that the TARDIS would be able to sustain the paradox of taking both Amy's along then old Amy agrees to help. And that's where the highlight of the episode appears. As old Amy sprints towards the TARDIS to follow Rory and her younger self, the Doctor slams the door shut I'm her face. As we should know by now, the Doctor lies and there was never a way that both Amy's could come along. After being screamed at by an upset Rory, the Doctor places Rory's hand on the lock of the door and ultimately leaves it up to him to decide which Amy to take with them. It's an odd one because deep down I think you would know that by saving the younger Amy then the older Amy would never have existed so that is the obvious choice. But that is easier said than done when you have your wife banging on the door of the TARDIS begging to be allowed inside. It's a dark decision to make and it feels wrong in a way that the Doctor puts Rory in such and awful position. As Rory says "this isn't fair, you're making me like you!"

A very good episode overall. Unfortunately I must admit to being in a pretty terrible mood again so I probably did not appreciate it as much as I should have done. I really could not be bothered to watch Doctor Who on this particular day but no matter how down I'm feeling I certainly can't miss a day now that I'm so close to the end!

Tomorrow will explain the few gaps that have appeared in my blog as I talk about the final season of Torchwood, Miracle Day!

Day 872 - Night Terrors

Urgh! Creepy dolls! Really freaky looking dolls actually!

So just a quick note before I talk about this episode. You may have noticed that some days have been skipped on the blog recently. Well don't start thinking I've screwed things up at the last minute. All will be explained in due course.

Mark Gatiss returns to writing for the show after the pretty disappointing Victor Of The Daleks in the previous year. I have to say that this episode isn't all that great either I'm afraid. Not to blame the kid in this story but I just think that episodes which centre around a child in some way just tend to be pretty terrible. Actually I've just thought about how brilliant The Empty Child is so I've proven myself wrong straight away there! But unfortunately for every Empty Child there is a Delta And The Bannermen.

So the the young lad in this episode, George, is terrified of everything and somehow manages to send a message to the psychic paper in the TARDIS asking for someone to come and save him from the monsters. It's alright he turns out to be an alien which somehow explains how he is able to send a message to the Doctor. All the things that frighten him are put in his cupboard and it's not long before his own dad and the Doctor are soon sucked inside the cupboard too.

And that's about it really. The rest is a bit of a run around a spooky doll house with the aforementioned creepy dolls singing even creepier tunes and turning anyone they catch into similarly creepy dolls. I've said creepy a lot there. Did I mention they were creepy?

This isn't a fantastic story but it does have some good moments. I particularly like some of the scenes between the Doctor and George's father as they both start to realise that the monsters inside George's cupboard are real. I think there is something so terrifying in that. Kids look to their parents for reassurance so to have them turn round and tell you your monsters are real is pretty damn scary!

Yeah can't really think about much more to say about this one, except kids in Doctor Who irritate me a bit. Still at least it wasn't Fear Her.

Day 870 - Let's Kill Hitler

First of all I have to say I bloody love that title! 

I remember the first time I watched this episode as I was in Australia at the time. I had never been abroad before and all of a sudden I found myself on the other side of the planet. It was an awesome time, and thanks to the wonders of technology and internet piracy I still got too see my Doctor Who only a day after it was broadcast in the UK.

It's one of the more popular ideas of what time travel could be used for. Go back in time to kill the Nazi leader before he can commit his terrible hate crimes. In fact the usual story goes on along the line of "could you kill a baby if you knew he was going to grow up to be Hitler?". This was something that had already been explored in Doctor Who way back in Genesis Of The Daleks when the Doctor has the chance to kill the Dalek mutants at the very beginning of their lives in order to prevent the terrible evil they would eventually go on to spread throughout the universe. The Doctor has to debate with himself whether he has the right to do that.

Anyway this is not Genesis Of The Daleks and the title is actually a bit of a cheat as the story does not really develop in the way you expect it to. The role of Hitler is in fact fairly minimal, after Rory locks him away in a cupboard fairly early on in the episode. "Okay I'm putting Hitler in the cupboard". It must be awesome to be a time travellor.

Amy and Rory call the Doctor back to Earth to check on his success in locating their kidnapped daughter. He still has not found her but explains that as they know she grows up to be River Song then they at least know she is save. It's a this point that we are introduced to an old school friend of Amy and Rory called Mels who turns up in a stolen car with a gun (not quite sure where she got the gun from) and demands that the Doctor take them all away so that she can escape from the police who are chasing her. It's Mels idea as to the destination, "you've got a time machine, I've got a gun. What the hell, let's kill Hitler"

Arriving in Germany in 1938 the TARDIS accidentally prevents the assassination of Hitler! It's pretty funny to see their reactions when Hitler tells that that he thinks they have saved his life. As the Doctor puts its "believe me, it was an accident".

This just about sums up why this episode is so bloody amazing. The writing is just fantastic and the ideas are awesome. The assassination attempt is being carried about by a robot replica of a German officer. This robot is called the Teselecta (I may have spelt that wrong), it is crewed by tiny miniaturised people and can take on the form of any other person it comes into contact with. The purpose of the Teselecta is a genius idea. It travels through time and punishes those people who committed terrible crimes and got away with them. In order not to interfere with history it intercepts them at the final moments if their life and then "gives them hell". Unfortunately the timing of Hitlers punishment is not quite right as they have arrived far to early. Instead the find themself facing another criminal, Mels.

As she is accidentally shot by a stray bullet she begins to regenerate. The penny drops with Amy and Rory that in fact this girl that they have grown up with is their daughter! As the regeneration completes we see River Song arrive in the form we know her as now. I did not see this coming! My friends, Lee and Travis who happened to be in the room when I was watching this (I won't delude myself that they were in anyway interested in what I was watching) looked on a little bemused as I nearly fell off the sofa.

This what the story is really all about. The development of Melody Pond, from psychopath who wants to kill the Doctor (and succeeds!) to River Song who realises she loved the Doctor and uses all her regeneration power at once to bring him back to life. 

As a teaser for future episodes we also learn a little more about the mysterious Silence. The Silence is apparently a religious order whose core belief is that "silence will fall when the question is asked. The first question, the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight". Intriguing. Unfortunately the actuall question itself is not revealed in the episode but if you think about it long enough it pretty obvious...despite the fact that I didn't work it out.

I love this episode. It's incredibly witty but also moving at the same time. It ties up some loose threads as we see the birth of River Song. It's quite refreshing that it's now the Doctor's turn to tease River with "spoilers" rather than the other way around!

Days 863 to 869 - Torchwood: Miracle Day

Also Days 871, 873, and 875. Yes this one got complicated. In my desire to watch everything in the order it was broadcast I've caused myself a bit of a headache for the blog. The last four episodes of this Torchwood season were broadcast at the same time as the second of season 6 of Doctor Who (or season 32 if you want to be pedantic) meaning that this gets a bit confusing. Anyway enough of that. It's time to talk about the final season of Torchwood!

Torchwood is back! After the success of the fantastic Children Of Earth we now have a co-production between the BBC and Starz in America.

Attempting to follow on from the success of the last season, Torchwood again tackles one single story spread across the entire run of episodes. The story in this case being, what would happen if everyone suddenly stopped dying. It's an interesting idea and over the 10 episode of this season the various repercussions are explored. 

With only Jack and Gwen surviving from the previous series, it's also time for some fresh blood for the Torchwood team and these come in the form of Esther and Rex from the CIA (that's the American Central Intelligence Agency, not to be confused with the Celestial Intervention Agency on Gallifrey!). I really liked these two characters and it's fun to see them spark off the old Torchwood gang. Saying that there was one particular episode where it got a little tiresome to hear constant jokes about things like crisps vs chips or mobile phone vs cell phone etc.

There are some fairly gruesome scenes in this season as well. Considering people are not dying but still getting sick or injured then this leads it moments where normally someone would be dead but are still very much alive despite the fact they are only half a body for example! Immortality would seem a good thing but when you still get old and sick etc then really it's more of a curse.

The guest cast for this season is really impressive. I particularly need to mention Bill Pullman (yes, the president from Independece Day!) who plays a great character, Oswald Danes, a convicted poedophile and murderer who was due to be executed. Luckily for him the day of this execution is also the day the "miracle" begins and so he survives the lethal injection. Throughtout the season he has moments where you believe he genuinely feels sorry for his actions and that he's not all bad but really it seems to be all a ploy and really he is rotten to the core.

Whilst this season certainly has some interesting ideas in it I can't say its as good as Children Of Earth. I think the main problem with it is simply it's too long. The story is to thinly stretched over the 10 episode run. This results in some fairly weak episodes. I think it's episode 2 which focuses pretty much entirely on Gwen and Jack on a plane to America. Whilst there is some jeopardy introduced int he fact that Jack is one the only mortal man on the planet and whilst he's on the plane he is poisoned, it just feels a bit like padding to me.

Also the reveal of what caused the miracle also seems a little bit of a let down and it isn't really explained in a satisfactory manner. I was left scratching my head a little I'm afraid. 

So that is that. The final episode of Torchwood that I will watch on this quest of mine. Yet another chapter has come to a close as the final end approaches!

Day 862 - A Good Man Goes To War

The Doctor:- "I want you to tell your men to run away. Those words, I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Runaway, I want children laughing outside your house because they found the home of Colonel Runaway. And when people come to you and ask if getting to me through the people I love is in anyway a good idea..then I want you to tell them your name."

I love that scene! The Doctor starts off like he's having a bit of a joke and by the end he is screaming with rage and anger. Do not piss the Doctor off!

So Amy has given birth to her baby and named her Melody Pond. In order to rescue her the Doctor pulls together a team of allies, including the Silurian, Madame Vastra (with her "very close" human companion, Jenny) and Sontaran, Strax. These three characters will go on to appear in many future episodes and they are fantastically realised in their debut episode. I particularly like Strax who has been forced to work as a nurse as punishment for his crimes. The ultimate humiliation for a Sontaran!

The only ally who fails to heed the Doctor's call is River Song. She explains to Rory that she cannot interfere as this is the day the Doctor finally finds out who she is. Exciting!

Madame Kovarian steals Amy's baby in order to bring her up and train her into being the ultimate weopon against the Doctor. Melody is part Time Lord, having been conceived on the TARDIS whilst it was in flight through the time vortex. I love the Doctor's dawning comprehension as he puts together the date the baby "began" by explaining that Rory wasn't there to begin with, then he was dead, then he didn't exist, then he was plastic meaning that the first night they were in the TARDIS together..was on their wedding night.

The final revelation comes when all seems lost. Melody has been kidnapped and they have no idea where to start looking for her. River finally turns up to meet the Doctor's rage at her for not being there to help. The truth is that the Doctor has made everyone so afraid of him that it was only a matter of time that some thing like this happened. River even suggests that we get the word "doctor" from him. We developed to know that as a term for someone who will help. Similarly the soldiers in this story interpret the word "doctor" as meaning a mighty warrior. 

The truth about River is revealed when Amy looks down at the cloth patch that has been sown for her baby with the baby's name printed on it. The young girl who made it comes from the gamma forests so the name "Melody Pond" is written in her language. The TARDIS translation slowly works on it until Amy can read it. The people of the gamma forests do not have name for pond as the only water in the forests is the River, so instead the patch says "River Song". River is the daughter of Amy and Rory. OMG! 

The final thing I have to mention about the episode is the very end. This episode saw the season into a mid season break but a caption tells us that "The Doctor will return in....Let's Kill Hitler" What a title! 

So that's the end of Doctor Who for a little while. Tomorrow will see me making a start on the final season of Torchwood called Miracle Day. It's a season I have only seen once before so I, quite looking forward to revisiting it.

Days 860 to 861 - The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People

Well I failed again. Not in my challenge (that would be terrible beyond words!) but in my attempt to keep track of just what is going in in this story. 

The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive on an island where a group of humans are mining acid. Can you mine acid? Well they are gathering acid anyway. Now this is obviously a pretty dangerous job but luckily for them they use the Flesh which imitates their body and is controlled by them whilst hooked up to a machine. The Gangers (as the flesh kind are called) are an exact replica of the humans but with no life of their own beyond the controls being fed to them by the humans. After a solar tsunami hits the island, the Gangers become their own separate entities and it's not long before the humans are turning against these Gangers who share the same thoughts and emotions as them.

It's not a bad two part story but my problem with it is keeping track of who is human and who is a Ganger. I swear I've watched this about 5 times and I still get confused. Hopefully that confusion is an intentional part of the story and is not just bad direction. 

After the Flesh scans the Doctor we soon have two of him wandering around too! As the Ganger gets used to holding the mind of a Time Lord we get a great moment where he thrusts his hand forward and Tom Baker's voice comes out of his mouth asking if anyone would like a jelly baby. The first time I saw it I nearly fell off the sofa in excitement.

At the end of the story, in a great little twist, it turns out that the Amy that has been travelling with the Doctor for this season is in fact a Ganger too. The real Amy has been kidnapped and hooked up to a machine to control her Ganger duplicate. Several times in this season so far she has witnesses a woman with an eye patch sliding open panels in the wall and staring at her. This is the real world bleeding through as she discovers when the real Amy wakes up in some kind of chamber to see the eyepatch lady looking at her. As if that wasn't enough to shock her system, the real Amy is pregnant and about to give birth!

A short review this one I'm afraid. Been a pretty stressful few days but I need to keep up with the blog so getting this one out there sooner rather than later. Maybe one day I'll come back and revisit these entries where I don't feel like I've said enough....I probably won't but it's nice to think I will!