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..
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