Review: Doctor Who - The Name Of The Doctor

Let’s talk about the DOCTOR WHO Series 7 finale shall we?

No, I’ve not been reviewing anything from the strangely titled Series 7b (THE BELLS OF ST. JOHN to NIGHTMARE IN SILVER), and that’s really (sadly) come down to an enjoyment level. When I used to watch RTD’s DW I was EXCITED to post about it, to talk about it with friends, and gush over what I liked. When Moffat took over in Series 5, I was excited-ish throughout (nothing reaching the levels of my RTD-era love, but excited enough)…My feelings on the entirety of Series 6 are pretty well known (Read: I loathed it more than any whole series since DW came back in 2005). Series 7 has been “meh”. The only truly standout eps for me were Neil Cross’ HIDE, and the Xmas special THE SNOWMEN…everything else could be easily swept under my WHO-rug and forgotten about. It should, therefore, speak volumes that the ONLY thing that’s been able to rouse me out of my review-malaise concerning this show is to pontificate on what I felt was a relatively disjointed and ultimately pointless Finale for Series 7.

THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR, written by showrunner Steven Moffat (a man whom Chris and I used to look upon with wonder for his TV writing), is not a mess persay (at least not like 2011’s A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR), but it’s a straightforward thought essay on the Doctor.

Again.

For the 3rd Series finale in a row.

History Check: Series 5 – The Doctor must solve the mystery of the Pandorica (a box designed by his enemies to keep him from his future), and stop the TARDIS from exploding in the future.

Series 6: The Doctor has gotten to big for his britches, and his very “name” has caused an entire religion to be crafted around capturing him, and killing him…to keep him from his future. This time we get the mention of that future in Trenzalore, where the question cannot be asked “Doctor Who?”

Series 7: We go to Trenzalore, and proceed to go through 45-odd minutes of that journey and what happens there.

The issue? That for the third series running the show isn’t about the Doctor saving a planet, or people, or the universe…it’s instead all about the Doctor. Hell, it’s not even really about his companions.

This inward looking Doctor Who is about as far from the original series and mythos as it gets…but it’s also about as far from the storytelling that RTD gave us that you could get.

So we go to Trezalore. Does the “name” of the Doctor get said? Yep. But like all Moffat’s “This will happen, and it will change the Doctor forever!” proclamations…it’s all bullshit, a fake out. The name gets said, by River Song, off-screen. And there is no clever story (as was eluded by David Tennant in the Library when he said to River “there was only one time he COULD tell someone his name”) associated with her knowing of it. She literally found out “Because she badgered him about it”.

You get that? She badgered him about it. A Time Lord…scratch that, the Runaway Time Lord who for over a thousand years has kept the secret of what his name really is…gave in because his (briefly) wife badgered him about it.

Wow. Just wow.

And that’s just for starters.

So, “name” thing aside what happens on Trenzalore? Well, it’s a battlefield. “Sweet!” you say “Tell me more!” Err…well nope. It’s an old battlefield, and is “supposedly” where the Doctor died. His tomb is his TARDIS which is “leaking” it’s bigger onto the outside. So his tomb is a giant TARDIS. Cool. What’s inside? Well this kind of Swirly Light Tree thingie…and it’s basically the remnants of the Time Lord…a map of his life through time leftover as some kind of echo (I guess?).

Enter our villain. The Great Intelligence (a creature from another universe trying to get into ours VIA proxies) in the form of THE SNOWMEN’s Doctor Simeon and his Whispermen (beings that ominously whisper, and who’s powers are the ability to become incorporeal enough to squeeze your heart so you die) has shown up at the Doctor’s Tomb, and wish entrance, and after threatening the Doctor by saying he’ll kill his friends if he doesn’t speak his name and open the door to his tomb. River helps him avoid this, and everyone trundles inside where they find the light tree thingie. Then the villain does the DW Villain equivalent of a filibuster and tells everyone there his plan is to go into the Doctor’s Light Tree and screw up his every success throughout his timeline and thus undo all he has done. This would be really interesting if he had:

A) Not SPELLED OUT his plan to his enemies in the room, like a hackneyed Bond villain.

B) Found some way to close the Doctor’s Light Tree timeline map thingie after he goes into it so no one follows him…because…

C) …seconds after he goes into it, Clara decides to sacrifice herself and follow him in to “correct” all that he screws up. Negating his entire (stupid) plan in seconds.

I’m serious. The Great Intelligence, a villain whom the Second Doctor fought, and who has been tipped as the “big bad” since the Christmas episode and has been pretty much behind all the stuff that’s occurred since then…the creature that you want to see a showdown with…spells out his plan and has it foiled in less time than it would take a Dalek to say “exterminate”. The Whispermen (his lackeys on this plane) had more teeth than he did.

Okay, now let’s leave aside the silly and toothless villain. Let’s deal with Clara’s reveal. It turns out that because she chases The G.I. into the Light Tree she essentially “dies” and “scatters herself” across the Doctor’s Timeline, which is why he keeps meeting her and why she keeps dying and seemingly is resurrected in different times and places. Cool. I can totally buy that, and it’s MUCH less messy than any other Moffat-ism “timey-wimey” thing he’s chucked at us in recent seasons. If it weren’t for the idiocy of the villains it would be a very elegant solution to the “impossible girl” that actually echoes Rose and Bad Wolf.

“So what’s the problem then?” you ask.

Well, it’s in the emotional resonance of her sacrifice. She literally says she will die to save the Doctor from this fate. River actually tells her that she will cease to exist and what is left will be scattered pieces across time saving the Doctor…that the person she is, will no longer be.

Okay great. Gotcha. Poignant, and even though I’m not as emotionally invested in her as I was Rose and Donna, I’m quite fine with that. But the Doctor almost immediately goes into his own timeline (paradox much? But nevermind) to rescue her. He actually breaks the rules of the show…rules which (for example) disallowed two Amy’s, one younger and one older, into the TARDIS at the same time…an arguably WAY lesser paradox than crossing your OWN timeline…to save the girl who just had an emotional scene “rescuing” him. So we decide to steal ANY emotion I had for the scene by reversing it almost right away. That such things are happening on DOCTOR WHO is baffling.

I mean how do you even associate this Moffat-written moment with stuff like “Everybody Lives” from THE DOCTOR DANCES, or Sally Sparrow saying goodbye to a dying old man who moments before was young and hitting on her at the end of BLINK, or even the tear-jerking letter that Madame De Pompador left for Ten in THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE? How? The answer is that you can’t. They don’t even exist in the same universe.

Refer to my old post: Steven Moffat CAN be a brilliant writer…when someone else is in control…but when he’s in control of the show as a whole his writing becomes something unrecognizable.

Lastly we have to talk about John Hurt.

So at the tail end of the ep, when The Doctor goes into his own timeline to rescue Clara from her rescue (don’t get me started on why this doesn’t UN-DO her rescue…) and there are various incarnation of the Doctor walking by her…we see the back of an unrecognizable man staring out into the rain…and he is revealed (quite brashly in text on screen…cause apparently we are all dumb and need it spelled out?) as “The Doctor”…and Eleven says that he’s not really allowed to have that name cause of “what he did.” And Hurt’s version says “I only did what I had to do” Speculate as you will. I’m cool with Hurt playing some lost or evil version of the Doctor’s past (even if it renumbers the Doctors) if only because I’m sure whatever it is, won’t stick. Whatever happens with the character in the 50th Anniversary will be timey-wimey’d out of existence, and things will settle back to the status quo. As far as the reveal is concerned, I like that he was in it, to link the finale up with the 50th…but I REALLY could have done without the big, bolded text on screen. It’s almost like Moffat and Co. were like “See, look what we did! Ain’t we tricksy? What’s going on?! You must watch to find out!”…when in my mind, just having Hurt turn around and deliver his line ominously with no reveal about “what/who” exactly he is and running the credits would have been MUCH better as a cliffhanger-y moment. It’s typical of Moffat’s “tell don’t show” approach to WHO…which is the opposite of good storytelling.

Think David Tennant in years past finale epilogues.

Bride in TARDIS: “What? Whot?! WHAT?!”

The hull of the TITANIC: “What? Whot?! WHAT?!”

…it was always some visual cue, and that’s it. Imagine if RTD had put text on the screen saying “There is a BRIDE in the TARDIS?! What the?!” or “The Hull of the TITANIC? What has the Doctor gotten himself into?!”

But no, instead we get the equivalent of Moffat telling us that our attention spans are SO short that he feels the need to type out on the screen what we are seeing.

Did I like the episode in the end? Yeah, the opening nods to past Doctor’s and the like was fun, if short. The Clara reveal appeased me…if making me realize that for whatever reason Moffat needs to make his companions always be a “mystery” for the Doctor to solve…instead of just letting them be…you know, people. How can Clara grow organically as a character if all we (and the Doctor) are doing is trying to “figure her out” from ep to ep. Sad really. I miss Donna…the temp from Chiswick, and Wilf, her dreamer, stargazing grandpa. Seriously.

I liked it, and it’s SCADS better than last years ridiculous finale…but it’s not remotely close to Series 5 THE PANDORICA OPENS / THE BIG BANG, and isn’t even in the same ballpark as RTD-era finale’s like DOOMSDAY or THE LAST OF THE TIMELORDS.

Lacking doesn’t cover it, and I’m more inclined to talk about what didn’t work for me, if only because what DID work for me in the episode is very little.

And that all makes me sad.

Doctor Who - Crackpot Theory: Is Clara Oswald actually Romana IV?!

Been a while. What with these sporadic mid-series breaks in the show (don’t get me started), DOCTOR WHO news has been slow to leak out. However, we have had two; count ‘em, two episodes which feature (versions) of the new companion Clara Oswald (played exquisitely by Jenna Louise-Coleman). The first of which was in the Series 7 opener ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS, in which she was the disembodied consciousness of someone who was once called Oswin Oswald (whom had once worked aboard a starship) and had since been mutated and turned into a Dalek…but had no idea what she is and had been placed in the Asylum’s (by presumably the Dalek high Command) “Intensive Care” unit, where the Daleks who survived great battles reside, weaponless. This is where Oswin is, locked in a room on her own. This will be important later in the post. Stay tuned.

The next time we see her is in the most recent Christmas Special THE SNOWMEN. She is now Clara Oswald, Victorian barmaid and secret governess to a wealthy family’s children. With the help of Silurian ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Madame Vastra, her wife Jenny, and the Sontaran Nursemaid (now Butler) Strax, the Doctor is in hiding, refusing to save the universe any more. Then Clara comes along and mucks things up by getting him involved. She’s quick, she’s clever and nine times out of ten in this episode she is smarter than the Doctor, or at least on par with him mentally. They spar back and forth and it all... sounds very familiar.

CRACKPOT THEORY time!

During his 4th Incarnation (Tom Baker), The Doctor spends an entire series on a quest for the various pieces to the Key To Time. On this quest (given him by the mysterious White Guardian) he is joined by another Time Lord, one fresh out of the Academy on Gallifrey. Namely, Romanadvoratrelundar (Mary Tamm), or Romana for short (though she prefers Fred). At less than 100 years old she is still a raw recruit, but being a Time Lord she can spar with the Doctor on his level. In fact he’s initially very unsettled by how much she knows. She’s a strong character, and one I really enjoy watching. Now, after the various pieces of the Key To Time are found and then re-dispersed (I’m not telling you why, go watch THE KEY TO TIME), Romana regenerates into Romana II (Lalla Ward). Romana II stays on board with the 4th Doctor for a long time (nearly until his regeneration into the 5th), but when she finally takes her leave, he gives her K-9 and off she goes.

Now that’s where vaguely the TV story of Romana ends. Thankfully the books and Audio drama’s continued her story (most especially in the political drama series from BIG FINISH called GALLIFREY). It turns out that some years after leaving the Doctor, Romana II returned to Gallifrey and ends up as its President. She and K-9 have to jump through a myriad of political hoops and nefarious plans to unseat her for many years.

And that is where some Dark Times occur during which we know very little. We only know that at some point down the line the Lord President becomes Rassilon, and the Time Lords engage in a large scale war across many systems with their most hated enemies the Daleks, in the Last Great Time War. The Doctor (in his Eighth incarnation at this point) sees many things that unsettle him about his own race. Having lived through them being stagnant, unbending, and basically arrogant…he then sees them descending further and further into madness and violence. In the final days of the Time War the Doctor time-locks it so that it doesn’t tear reality itself apart and dooms his own race and planet to eternal torment.

But what happened to Madame President Romana II? Well the books tell us that she regenerated into a third incarnation prior to this, but they never tell us how she lost the presidency, nor what happed to her during the Time War. We know that a Rival Time Lord tried to unseat her and kill her after the Second Great War In Heaven…but Eight stopped this.

The Crackpot theory part is about what I think COULD have happened. What if Romana III objected to the Last Great Time War (having survived the Second War In Heaven, and assassination attempts), and the CIA (the Gallifreyan Celestian Intervention Agency) found a way to unseat her and put Rassilon on the seat. Might she have been imprisoned for her views? What if while in prison (and in the still current locked state of the Time War) she found a way to project herself outwards. Used regeneration energy to get through the Time Lock and offworld into…a passing Starliner perhaps? What if a human aboard that ship was converted into a Time Lord, and the official 4th incarnation of Romana allowing her to escape? Her old body imprisoned on Gallifrey would die, but she would go on in a stolen human body effectively regenerated into a Time Lord. Then travelling back through time and basically BEING these other versions of her new self, on a skipping loop that repeats when she dies. She DID have a TARDIS when we last saw her, so it could be disguised as something very small. What if Oswin Oswald was that human? It would explain both her variations so far (neither of which is the main one we will be introduced to in THE BELLS OF ST. JOHNS on March 30th) being so terribly clever (smart enough to spar with a genius Time Lord who is over a 1000 years old), and seemingly un-phased by the alien nature of the plight of the Doctor against the Snowmen.

I add to this a few nuggets from things we hear in the trailer for the second half of Series 7.

1. She is referred to as the girl twice dead. So she is somehow the same person over and over again even after dying. Sounds like regeneration but the switch is stuck and instead of changing to a DIFFERENT body she’s being given new same ones instead. This could be explained by the fact that Romana needed to steal a human body.

2. The Doctor clearly says, “She’s not possible.” To me this could be a big pointer at the fact that it’s Romana IV…since her being out of the Time War would seem next to impossible. But where Rassilon failed at unlocking the Time War as a whole…perhaps One Time Lord could survive. After all, Dalek Caan rescued Davros from the Crucible and brought him across the Lock barrier. One could interpret the Doctor’s statement as simply being that she’s died twice, how can she exist a third time in the same “look”…but that’s a little too simple for DW in my eyes.

A variation on this theory (which I've seen around), with the same results is based on something talked about in THE SNOWMEN. A specific story about being "born behind Big Ben" and how this accounts for her impeccable sense of time. What if, Romana III wasn't imprisoned, but rather escaped BEFORE the Last Great Time War...but needed to hide. Enter the Chameleon Arch (the Fob Watch) that Time Lords use to hide their identities disguising themselves as human. What if Big Ben is her Fob Watch? And not only that, what happens when a Time Lord disguised as a human VIA a Chameleon Arch dies? Do they regenerate normally? Or is it possible they continue to regenerate but into the same form over and over again since that's the form they took when disguised? She keeps telling the Doctor to "Run" and to "Remember". We know from John Smith and the Master's use of the Fob Watch that little bits of their time lord personality leak out form time to time when disguised. This would explain her smarts, her ease with the decidedly alien events, her seeking out of the Doctor, and her treating him like an old friend. So this is another way that Romana could have survived and become Clara.

So that’s my theory. Clara is not only a Time Lord, but she is the 4th incarnation of the prior Lady President of Gallifrey, whom has travelled with the Doctor before. She is likely some 700 years of age and escaped the Time War. What a boon that would be going into the 50th Anniversary events storywise. The avenues and story aspects that could lead to (including multiple Doctor appearances) begin to boggle. But to be quite honest…I’d just like to see Romana make an appearance in NuWho. She is just such a great character with a lot of depth, and I think she deserves to come back.

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - 2.3 Brave New Town

Contrary to his Series 1 outing (IMMORTAL BELOVED), writer Jonathan Clements Series 2 outing BRAVE NEW TOWN didn’t leave me with the same warm fuzzies. This is not to say that it was bad, more than it was just a step down from his previous script, as well as from the two preceding Series 2 stories. Instead of coming in at Great, or Solid, I think it just kind of succeeds by the use of a classic villain in an interesting way...and Is.

Nitty Gritty. The Doctor takes Lucie to a seaside town in 2008, just not the one she thought it was going to be (she was thinking of her home, Blackpool). The town has a few anomalies though. It’s seemingly not by the sea (though it is called Thorington-on-Suffolk), and instead rests at the center of what looks like a dried up lakebed. The people who inhabit the town think it’s Sunday Sept. 1st 1991…everyday. Brian Adams is annoyingly still #1; there is no food, no gas in the cars, and no electricity. So what exactly is going on?

Enter Classic Who villain the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons. More importantly Autons that look and act VERY realistic because instead of merely being remote controlled by the Consciousness, they have a small piece of it inside them.

Now, while the Autons work fine on Audio (something the producers at Big Finish revealed initially being leery about), the telltale arm gun sound is pretty much all you need. It’s about as recognizable as “Exterminate” and “Delete”, so there was really now worry there. However, because of the nature of the tale, one in which these Auton’s don’t really KNOW they are Autons, and aren’t really doing any kind of attacking, they come across as far less scary than they could/should. I get that we are seeing the Audio Drama equivalent of the TV episode DALEK in which we take a Classic villain and put them in a situation that humanizes them…but where DALEK still maintained the scare-factor of the villain, the Autons all but have their teeth removed by being too humanized. So in the end the Doctor is simply working against the connection to the consciousness VIA the control box that gives them orders, and That’s. About. It. If there is anything scary about the episode, I’m not sure what it is. That’s obviously not a prerequisite to a DOCTOR WHO story, but it is nice. My fave thing about DW is the running, and the action, mixed into a good story. There is little of that in BRAVE NEW TOWN.

That’s not to say there is nothing good. It’s a rather compelling mystery to begin with before the Auton’s are introduced. It’s just afterwards that it becomes a bit plodding. Or at least it did for me. McGann, Smith and their co-stars (Adrian Dunbar, Derek Griffiths, Lorna Want and Nick Wilton) all do an admirable job of performing the script, and Lucie especially gets some plum funny lines (“Where does plastic come from?” “Taiwan!”), but overall that’s the only thing I come away with having enjoyed. The tale itself was probably one of the more mundane ones I’ve listened to since I stared the EDA’s.

So all in all, I think my experience with BRAVE NEW TOWN comes down to match the final line by Lucie.

Doctor: I saved a brand new race from certain destruction!
Lucie: With a little help from me.
Doctor: …
Lucie: You’ll never admit it will you? Never in a month of Sunday’s.

So yes, that’s a bad pun on the fact that it’s always Sunday on Thorington, and that’s the final flavour I walk away from this story with. It’s decent enough, but is about as entertaining as a weak pun.

NEXT TIME: We skip 2.4 SKULL OF SOBEK (mostly because I don’t have it yet) and move onto 2.5 GRAND THEFT COSMOS.

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - 2.2 Max Warp

As much as the Series 2 opener (DEAD LONDON) was an irreverent and yet mostly effective (if odd) way to start the 2nd series of Eighth Doctor & Lucie Adventures…the second episode, MAX WARP, makes up for that by being pretty much everything we love about DOCTOR WHO in any medium.

The story begins with the Doctor and Lucie attending a Motor Show. Well, it’s technically a very popular Spaceship Show. If you’ve not already guessed it from the title and that small description, this really is TOP GEAR in space. Strangely, or perhaps not-so-strangely, this premise fits into the DW mythos and story-style like a leather driving glove (yeah, I went there). From the multiple, and varied hosts talking about the newest, sleekest spaceship, to the Doctor behaving like a proper Ship-Enthusiast like a gleeful 12-year old, to Lucie calling it all boys-with-their-toys and making jokes at the Doctor’s expense, this is everything you love about TOP GEAR transferred into DOCTOR WHO.

So where does the intrigue come from in this episode? Well that’s an easy one. The show Max Warp is filming live from the Sirius Inter-G Cruiser Show, which was installed as an event to bring two previously warring worlds (the Varlon Empire and the Kith Oligarchy) together, and is set in a station orbiting nearby. The two hosts, smarmy, sexist Geoffrey Vantage, and spaceship enthusiast, Vantage-whipping boy O’Reilly are seen commenting on their fellow Max Warp member, and hotshot pilot Timbo “The Ferret” just before his ship malfunctions and plows into a nearby moon. The intrigue and investigation (launched, of course by our intrepid Doctor and Lucie), begin in earnest with Lucie attempting to guess whodunit, and the Doctor trying to methodically interview people. Because Timbo was clearly murdered, and the uneasy peace between the Kith and the Varlon is at risk.

Lucie is absolute, 100% pure gold in this episode. Sheridan Smith just nails the comedy in Jonathan Morris’ script. I kept laughing at her comments as she gets most of the plum lines, up to and including her final line (which I won’t spoil for you, but it’s hilarious!). Her verbal sparring with Eight (one of the best bits about their relationship) is in fine form in MAX WARP. Not only do we get Paul McGann doing a proper fanboy excitement about the fastest and the sleekest ship (listing off features like he’s read multiple magazine articles about it), but we also get a wonderfully diverse secondary cast. Graeme Garden is suitably nasty, sexist, and just deliciously horrible (read: hilarious) as Geoffrey Vantage. I seriously could not believe some of his script beats (‘It’s a mans spaceship! Literally fuelled with testosterone! Ladies bring a toothbrush and a spare pair of knickers!’ or ‘Just smile and stick out your bits!’ to Lucie), but I adored how well Lucie sparred with him and put him in his place without him really catching on. Further still to the sexist angle we are given a different, but no more unwanted bit of that with mousy O’Reilly attempting to get Lucie to go to his room with him, and she kind of beats around the bush to let him down easy, but even he doesn’t get it and she has to end up rather sternly telling him “No.” I loved that aspect of the script as it showcases that sometimes even the nicest of guys can say and do the wrong things without realizing they are, and they need to be told they are out of line. It’s an attentive moment that I noticed and enjoyed, because Lucie really does give him a second to realize (and he’s just totally oblivious) before getting more direct with him.

The mystery/motive is fairly well hidden amongst a few red herrings and plot twists, added to by Lucie throwing out suspect after suspect and giving Sherlockian reasons for their guilt. The SpinDroid (a politician’s assistant / crutch) is wonderfully whimsical when he is on scene and sounded suspiciously like the droid from RETURN OF THE JEDI who tells R2 that he “has need for him on the master’s sail barge, and that he’d soon learn some respect”.

The political machinations at work are light, but given gravity due to the instability of the two world governments, and add tension to the proceedings of the investigation.  The whole thing (the event, the crash and the murder) begins to stink of an elaborate scheme and it's up to the Doctor and Lucie to sort out what and why. It's quite satisfying on that end when all is said and done, and that's really all you can ask of a DW mystery. I should not be able to guess the final outcome, and I think in MAX WARP, this is achieved well. But it's more than likely going to be how fun and hilarious this episode is that will sit with you afterwards. It's pure enjoyment for 50 minutes.

The aspect of envy on the part of the Doctor, who adores his stolen TARDIS, towards these super sleek, fast spaceships was palpable and entertaining. It’s always funny to think of it, since the TARDIS really does trump every other mode of transport, but the Doctor can’t help but feel a little envious. But it’s like owning a Smart Tank than can roll through anything and survive (and travel in time and space), but being jealous of a Ferrari, which is shiny, fast and nice looking, but could be ripped through like tin foil (BTTF reference intended).

Big Finish has their first big hit of their second Series with MAX WARP, as entertaining as some of the best from Series 1. The comedy and action are both spot on, and character interaction is tops. I’d ALMOST want to say if you were thinking about giving Series 2 a go and were wondering if it was worthy, that you should put DEAD LONDON off (briefly) and hit up MAX WARP first, as I feel it’s probably more entertaining to the casual listener.

NEXT TIME: The Doctor and Lucie visit a seaside town, in the middle of nowhere in 2008 that is seemingly stuck on a Sunday in 1991 and so are its inhabitants, in BRAVE NEW TOWN.

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - 2.1 Dead London

 The 2nd Series opener for the Eighth Doctor Adventures is a bit of a gamble. We start things off in DEAD LONDON with the Doctor and Lucie Miller separated. Considering how solid their bond was by the end of Series 1, it's quite a bold choice to begin the second Series this way, but it pays off as far as I am concerned. It only pays off though because the story is such a clever spat of time shifting.

Basically this episode drops our TARDIS team into a very strange London where a parking violation in 2008 can earn you a hanging in the 1800's. Time is seemingly shifting around both Lucie and the Doctor, and there are only a few connecting threads that allow the two to sniff out the trail of what is going on. The Doctor, charged with parking the TARDIS in the wrong place, links up with a fellow lawbreaker in Victorian London named Spring-Heeled Sophie. The two eventually find Lucie and attempt to sort out what exactly is going on and why the Judge in one time looks like the chief of police in another time who looks like a hangman in another time. In any other tale it might seem convoluted, but in DOCTOR WHO it's par for the course for our intrepid Time Lord.

The best bit about this opener is the rivalry between Sophie and Lucie. It's only slightly there as Lucie is too proud to actually comment on it aloud (ala Rose Tyler), and instead just tries her very best to trump Sophie in the companion category at every chance. It's incredibly fun to watch as Lucie really does trump Sophie for me...Sophie is interesting, but she just can't match the sassy, strong nature of our companion.

The story in DEAD LONDON is a great little diddy. It's interesting without being over the top. It's got different timelines, scattered characters, and crazy alien connotations. Great voice acting form the guest stars, and a really, solid opener to the series. Is it great exercise in Doctor / Companion relationship and it is really just a good DOCTOR WHO story at the end of things.

There's not much more to say. It's not as good as some of the previous stories in the range, but it certainly is a cool, irreverent choice as an opener for the 2nd Series and for that I applaud Big Finish.

NEXT TIME: Stay tuned for one of the most fun DW Audio Drama's in the EDA range, MAX WARP!

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - The Human Resources Part 1 and 2

Big Finish should be exceedingly proud of what they accomplished with Series 1 of the Eighth Doctor Audio Adventures, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. It was a well-wrought and thrilling ride through the Eighth Doctor’s Era that I was sad to see come to an end. Not for long obviously, as the Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDA's) continue through 3 more Series and are still going today thankfully.

The Series finishes the same way it began - another two-part story, with another Classic Fan favoruite villain. And as such an outing it almost succeeds more than the Series opener does, there is a hardy and ingrained quality to the Doctor and Lucie by the time the finale rolls around and it helps in making the story utterly engrossing.

THE HUMAN RESOURCES PART I & II, chases upon the last few minutes of NO MORE LIES, in which the nefarious “Headhunter” (played by Katarina Olsson), who has been menacing and following our Lucie since Ep1, finally catches up with her and steals her away from the Doctor. This episode begins non-chalantly enough though; seemingly in an ordinary office building. But appearances are deceiving. Naturally.

On the day Lucie was to have met the Doctor she had gone for an interview in London to work at an office. Well, in this story she finds herself on her first day of work at such an office building and doesn’t have anything but very scattered, fuzzy memories of her time in the TARDIS. The Doctor is simply a name that she sort of recalls, and those around her begin to help her integrate into cubicle life instead which she hesitantly allows. The Doctor, distraught after losing his companion, is visited by Straxus (whom some may recall is another Time Lord from Gallifrey), who tells him Lucie is very important and allows him to go rescue her. Straxus gives him a Time Ring which can get him to where she is without being discovered. Once he agrees and arrives at the office he quickly finds that things aren’t what they seem. The office isn’t really an office and the people who run it are actually being manipulated to do something more far-reaching and evil.

Spoiler: Enter the villains of the piece, the Cybermen (the Mondasian Cybermen, BEFORE they eventually settled on Telos in the Classic WHO story THE TENTH PLANET), who…for at least part of the narrative are on the defensive against mercenaries in possession of tech they shouldn’t have.

I won’t talk more story, but sufficed to say these two episodes are an absolutely humdinger of a finale. And both Eps are less about the Cybermen, than they are about politicking and war. I honestly could not have asked for a better story to end on. It has action, intrigue, comedy, mystery, twists and turns, and even some arc-wide plotting resolutions. It neatly spends the first hour establishing the bizarre events and setting with enough nods to keep you moving along and understanding while still keeping you relatively in the dark. The reveal at the end of the first hour is very interesting and the subsequent hook for the next half is well played indeed. The second hour gets to the meat of solving the problem, which puts the Doctor’s wits VERY much to the test, and simultaneously allows Lucie to shine herself in that same category. The two spend time both apart and together solving various issues, but what seems to come out most overall is that this is the episode where the bond between them is solidified. It’s at this point you realize “come hell or high water” these two are now the very best of friends and anything that threatens that bond is going to pay dearly. You will notice this from the outset since the Doctor is willing to leave his TARDIS (a vehicle he is well known to have stolen) in the hands of his people (whom he rejected years ago), and use only the Time Ring to go rescue Lucie. That’s friendship.

We also come to the resolution of WHY Lucie was placed in the TARDIS under the Doctor’s care, and just what the Time Lords were up to when they did that. It’s a resolution that I particularly liked to be honest. They could very well have chickened out on the reasoning behind her appearance and this whole business of the “witness protection program” and chalked it up to nothing much…but the writers go out of their way to make it a compelling reasoning, and tie it into her personality and the rest of the arcing story. It’s believable, because it is believable. Which seems like a copout statement, but you’ll have to listen to know what I mean by that. Trust me, it works very well.

One thing I always liked about RTD’s Era of DW on TV was his skill at wrapping up arcing plotlines while still allowing some parts of them to organically move forward still (example: Sealing Rose off on Pete’s World at the end of S2 [making way for Martha and Donna], and then letting her story loop back into S4). The same is true here, in that at the tail end of THE HUMAN RESOURCES the slate is wiped clean for The Doctor and Lucie. They now get to choose what they do and where they go, because they’ve dealt with the “How she got in the TARDIS and Why” plotline…but it allows other things (like the “headhunter”) to move forward on their own headed off in their own directions. I like seeing that knitting up of arcs that doesn’t also cut off all ties to what came before…but still managed to give me the standalone “ending” aspects I was looking for to feel satisfied the Series had a beginning, middle and an end. We don’t have to say goodbye to Eight and Lucie, but we close out their first chapter and look forward to the second.

I’ve loved, loved, loved my time with Eight and Lucie and feel that McGann and Smith deliver an impressive TARDIS team that I will be overjoyed to continue following through the next few Series (of which I have the entirety of S2, and the first ep of S3…with an eye to purchasing more when the time comes).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Big Finish team (casts, crews, and everyone involved) are delivering DOCTOR WHO to the fanbase on a level that I can only describe as sparkling. If you think the TV show is all there is, I think you may owe it to yourself to seek out these Audio Drama’s (and if Eight isn’t your cup of tea there are also Audio’s for the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Doctor’s as well) and treat yourself to the hidden gem of DW fandom. I can’t praise the quality enough and I look forward to many more hours of enjoyment!

NEXT TIME: We start Series 2 with Eight and Lucie being shifted around time in the wonderful opening story DEAD LONDON!

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - 1.6 No More Lies

Editorial Note: This review may contain trace amounts of minor spoilers…and peanuts…but mostly minor spoilers. You have been warned.

There are a few things I absolutely love in my fiction, and writer Paul Sutton’s script for the 6th Episode in the Eighth Doctor's Audio Adventures, NO MORE LIES, has two of them in spades, and it even tickles at a third of them.

It has, in no particular order:

1. It begins In Medias Res. Which means that it starts midway through a story as opposed to at the beginning.

2. It concentrates on character first and foremost and story second. Though it allows neither to languish, but rather finds a way for them to work in a wonderful harmony.

3. This is the tickler one…it has a monster which is being manipulated by another monster or set of monsters.

Basically, when this one started I actually pulled out my iPhone, paused it, and double checked I’d started it at the beginning. We are thrown headfirst into the deep end and understand nothing of the situation which The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller find themselves in. There seems to be a criminal of some kind that they are attempting to stop, they are aboard some sort of time ship, there is a race of beings called the Tar-Modowk (who seemingly exist only in the Time Vortex) who ride pterodactyl type creatures called Vortisaurs. It is literally chaos from moment one. In those first 10-15 minutes of the tale, those are the few things I grasped. Well, Zimmerman (the criminal) escapes with the time ship, leaving the Doctor and Lucie to chase him down…only to find themselves on earth at a posh evening garden party, where it looks to be as if Zimmerman has been settled for 30 years and is married to a woman named Rachel. Huh? "What's going on?" you ask.

How this connects to the chaotic beginning of the story is what Sutton spends the second half of the script revealing. And boy does it work well. The characters absolutely pop through your headphones. We can start with the guest stars. The wonderful Nigel Havers (who would go on later to star in the DW spin-off THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES in THE WEDDING OF SARAH JANE SMITH) plays Zimmerman and the equally stellar Julia McKenzie plays his wife Rachel. Both are in middle-to-old age and have spent 30 years together. The chemistry they share is absolutely one of the shining moments of this episode. They act as close to a married couple of their age would be. It’s very realistic and believable and both actors sell each line they deliver. One of the nice things about these Audio’s is that you get to imagine a lot of the visuals yourself. Monsters, spaceships, lasers, battle, villains, planets ect. It’s all up to your thinkymeatz to discover…but when it comes to character interaction and depth, that’s up to the actors alone to sell you. So when both Havers and McKenzie emote through voice alone, it just locks the narrative in and you are invested, and that was something I was pleasantly surprised by. Well done across the board.

By this point The Doctor and Lucie have had a few adventures together and their relationship is growing and the bond they are forming is becoming a little more solid. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith continue to prove to me, with each subsequent outing, that they are a TARDIS Team to be reckoned with. Not only that, I am (at episode 6 of the 1st Series) totally 100% a fan of Eight and Lucie. Call the papers; we can now add them to the master list in my head: Ten and Rose, Ten and Donna, and now Eight and Lucie. They just work so bleeding well together, and I find myself self-consciously grinning at their various scenes of clever back-and-forth. And the key here is a gradual growth, Eight and Lucie start out totally wrong footed, and through their own set of trials and tribulations they begin to not only trust each other but form something of a bond. That bond is not totally there just yet, but it’s getting there and in NO MORE LIES, a tale which showcases such character acting, it’s on display. It's nice to see we dind't make any logic jumps from "snarky, untrusting Doctor and Companion" immediately to "Bosom buddies Doctor and Companion". There's a number of steps involved and this one seems to have them on the cusp of that final solid relationship.

Not to be undershadowed (a word?...not a word), the story itself in NO MORE LIES is wonderful. It’s clever and well executed, and the In Medias Res thing works to its advantage. It takes your eyes (or in this case ears) off the things which might reveal end-plot to you and leads you astray for a bit. When it comes back in and you begin to have your end-plot revelations…well then they hit you like a ton of bricks. It might seem a small tactic, but it truly works here. There are many plot strands at work in this episode, but the ones that need to shine…are allowed to shine properly by the end. It left me very contented when it finished and the credits ran. To me it’s the best of the 1st Series so far. But then again, I love character episodes, and this is definitely a character episode.

Sidenote: It’s probably a little weird to admit this, but in the wonderful "CD Extra’s" included after each disc/episode (interviews with the casts and such) when Nick Briggs, in a monster voice, says “CD EXTRAS”…it always makes me laugh and usually I repeat it in my own monster voice out loud...even on the subway. It gets weird looks. As well it should I suppose.

NEXT TIME: A two-fer review for a Two-Parter. I look at the Series 1 Eighth Doctor Finale, 1.7 and 1.8 THE HUMAN RESOURCES Part’s I & II.

Doctor Who - Big Finish Audio Adventures - 1.3 The Horror Of Glam Rock

This is going to be a shortish review, if only because while I enjoyed THE HORROR OF GLAM ROCK, there is not oodles of meat to it to discuss. I’d call it a character / relationship building episode.

Following the harrowing, darkish events of Lucie Miller’s first trip / adventure in the TARDIS with the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann) (BLOOD OF THE DALEKS PI & II: See Review) it seemed like time for a little lighter fare. And that is exactly what writer Paul Magrs delivers in THE HORROR OF GLAM ROCK.

Realizing that they’ve been manipulated by the Time Lords (see Ep I &II) to have Lucie in the TARDIS for “witness protection”, the Doctor attempts to take her home to Blackpool in 2006. Sadly, because of the machinations of his race, the Doctor can only get to 1974 and miles away at a service station on the M62 Motorway. Lucky for him (or unlucky I guess?) there are nefarious things going on in and around that service station. Something is killing people, rending and tearing them into pieces. The latest victim is a glam rocker. The two find that another pop group, The Tomorrow Twins (played by Clare Buckfield, and Stephen Gatley), their manager (the always amazing Bernard Cribbins…who would go on to play Donna Noble’s father Wilfred Mott on TV in Series 4) and a couple of employees at the place (Una Stubbs and Lynsey Hardwick) are being besieged by bearlike monsters and they have no idea why. Something sinister is definitely at work, but what is it, who is orchestrating it, and what does it have to do with this new Pop band and their manager?

I won’t spoil any more of the plot, but it’s certainly a lot of fun. Like I said, compared to the opening two-parter, this one allows for a lot more comedy and I think that’s a nice breather to have. Is it groundbreaking DOCTOR WHO? Nah, but it’s still well written, solidly acted and paced splendidly. The hour was over before I knew it. Cribbins kind of steals the show in this one. He’s just perfect in the role. It’s not hard to see why we ended up loving Wilf in later DW Series 4 on TV…Cribbins just steals your heart (even here where he is technically playing a nasty guy). McGann and Smith get a few moments to begin the fleshing out of their characters and the relationship. It’s not deep or anything, and there are only a few moments of it…but you can see that each writer is giving a little bit more to these two. It’s hard starting out how they did, being totally suspicious of one another, to build a friendship, so it happens in fits and starts in this script and I liked that.

The last thing I want to note is that the one character (Pat) turns out to be Lucie’s future Aunt Pat…and in any other story that would seem too much of a coincidence. That said, since this particular Doctor/Companion Arc has Eight attempting to bring Lucie home and not getting too close (time-wise or location-wise), it made immediate perfect sense to me that the TARDIS brought him to a place where a member of her family who shares her DNA would be. I thought it a nice touch, and I like that Lucie doesn’t pretend this is not the case, she immediately tells her Aunt Pat who she is.

THE HORROR OF GLAM ROCK is quite a fun tale, and while it’s not necessarily the best of Eight’s Adventures, I still had a blast listening to it. Oh and the included Glam Rock rendition of the DOCTOR WHO theme is just wonderful and kitschy, glad it was included!

Next Time: Ep 1.6 NO MORE LIES

Series Note: You might notice that we are going from 1.3 to 1.6 and that is because I don’t yet own 1.4 (IMMORTAL BELOVED) or 1.5 (PHOBOS) …I hope to get them at some point in the future and review them, but for now we’ll move on.

Doctor Who: The Snowmen (review)

I was waiting. The boy who waited, if you will...for THE SNOWMEN.

DOCTOR WHO’s 2012 Christmas Special.

When last we left the Doctor, he was stuck in THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN...his best friends had slipped away through a plothole you could drive a mack truck through, in an hour where that wasn’t even the biggest plothole or script gaff. Bottom line: He was in rough shape. So he moved...to Victorian England where old friends Madame Vastra, Jenny and the Sontaran named Strax (reconstituted after his death in A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR [thus removing ANY sentimentality you had about how heroic his death was...but nevermind eh?]by some process known only to Vastra) protect him and allow him to be a grouchy old miser who refuses to save the world, let alone be bothered by it...

...Sorry. Are we watching DOCTOR WHO? The man who always saves the world starts refusing to...

Nevermind eh?

So. That’s pretty much where we stand as the episode opens. But not to leave him alone in his grouchyness and Victorian hat, the universe has other plans in the form of nasty snowmen who seemingly feed off bad thoughts. Er...yeeaaahh...okay...


Never.
Mind.
Eh?

Brass tacks.
There are some significant changes to the show that appear in this episode. They appear to stem from the 50th Anniversary coming up in November. These are, I should note, the things I REALLY liked about the episode. The opening sequence and title song are new...and the former even shows the Doctor’s face in the vortex (which hasn’t been done since the 7th Doctor), the later has some nice audio ticks and clicks to hearken to Classic Who. The biggest Classic Who nod here though is most certainly the new TARDIS interior. It’s stark, mainly metal, cool toned (blues, silvers, greens) and is not even a shadow of the warm, scatterbrained, yet inviting interior from his time with Amy and Rory. My feelings on that are that this new interior mimics his own new grumpy exterior, and perhaps even hearkens back to the look of the 5th Doctor’s TARDIS as something he KNOWS, something that comforts HIM....if no one else. Bottom line, I like it and it feels RIGHT for the 50th as a nod to days gone by. He also has new gear, a Victorian look that I’d say probably hits up the style of the 3rd and 8th Doctor’s gear (prior to the 8th Doctor's gear changing recently)...and the glasses-he-doesn’t-need have made a return appearance, which I always liked on Ten, so I’m cool with Eleven adopting them as well.

The last change, but biggest is the addition of the newest companion Clara Oswin Oswald (even though TECHNICALLY this version from the Xmas special isn’t the one he’ll travel with...yeah, I’ll get to that). Jenna Louise-Coleman is a wonderful, heartfelt actor whom I know from previous shows and love her (she can act circles around Karen Gillan). If anyone has a chance to be a really great companion to Eleven, it’s her...now if Moffat would just let her be the caliber that Rose and Donna were on an emotional level...anyways...

The episode’s actual story is totally beside the point. No honestly, it’s not even really there. It’s a by-the-numbers ep that requires nothing much from our intrepid Time Lord to deal with. It’s here only to introduce the new features I mentioned above...and present us with a big bad for Series 7.5 (don’t get me started on him breaking seasons up into pieces)...in the form of Yog Sothoth, otherwise known as The Great Intelligence...a creature from another dimension who can’t exactly enter ours...so uses proxies to do so instead and carry out his will / do his bidding...ah yes, in the from of the eponymous snowmen! So yeah, we’ve not seen TGI since the 2nd Doctor battled it many years ago. And again, part of me sincerely hopes that TGI is a cover and the real villain leading into the 50th will be Omega (another baddie from another dimension, but one with far greater connotations to the Time Lords). I digress. Either way, TGI is voiced by the stellar Ian McKellen and he does a wonderfully menacing job at the role. In the end though the doctor doesn’t really even defeat him and sort of sends him on his brief way from infecting Snowmen and terrorizing children. What astonished me is Eleven doesn’t immediately recall fighting TGI. He just mulls the name over and over saying it "rings a bell". I’m fine with that as TGI is definitely a cool villain and will make for something interesting down the line. But I wonder at his overall arc and how it will tie into the 50th.

But yeah, as fun as the episode actually is, that fun has nothing to do with the story itself, and much more to do with the introduction of all this new stuff. If you go in looking for the new shinies, you won't be disappointed. If you go in looking for a meaty Doctor Who adventure, this isn't really it. It’s like a new show now, and I can’t help but hope that it’s a sign that things will be getting better.

Oh, and Clara.

SPOILERS!

Yes, the Victorian Clara dies at the end, but it’s shown that she is linked to Oswin Oswald (from the future who was a Dalek in ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS) and apparently to a modern day version who will likely be the companion (she is briefly shown in modern day clothes at the grave of her “ancestor” at the end). The trailer talks of the girl who dies twice ect. I’m not buying that she’s another Rory. I think she’s either a Time Lord (possibly Jenny, the Doctor’s Daughter), or perhaps even my theory about her being a regeneration of The Master will pan out. Either way, there is no way she’s a normal human. I don’t know who she is, but I suppose we’ll find out...in APRIL! Again, don’t get me started on Moffat breaking up the seasons...just don’t, it will only end in tears.

THE SNOWMEN is a blast to watch, but it’s not the most substance-filled of episodes. It’s also not Timey-Wimey (I’m actually glad of that to be honest). It DOES, however, have the briefest moment near the end where the Doctor is trying to get Clara to hang on and he promises to save her...the emotion that passes between the two in that minute or so is probably the MOST I’ve seen Eleven bond with anyone since regenerating from Ten. I’m not kidding, that little moment gave me a LOT of hope for the dynamic Matt and Jenna have. I'm hoping for a Ten and Rose style relationship...and if not that, then at least a Ten and Donna caliber one.

So, bring on April now and let’s see if we can’t make this show sing again!

Doctor Who: Big Finish Audio Adventures - 1.1 & 1.2 Blood Of The Daleks

After finishing and thoroughly enjoying my first Big Finish DOCTOR WHO Audio Drama (the 8th Doctor’s latest series, DARK EYES), I decided to go back to the beginning of the 8th Doctor’s main line of episodes (can I call them episodes?).

And I got to meet the indomitable Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith)!

BLOOD OF THE DALEKS is a two-part story set around 2006 (Lucie’s earth-based time) and produced by Big Finish at the end that year, and stars the amazing Sheridan Smith as the 8th Doctor’s latest companion. It’s technically considered the first two episodes of a series (1.1 and 1.2 respectively) which runs 8 episodes.

I just want to get something out of the way first. I actually can’t truly describe the joy I get from listening to these Audio Drama’s; they are an absolute treat, and I hold myself back from listening to each episode in a row so I can savour them.

So this story begins much the same way that the 10th Doctor’s Series 2 Christmas Special (THE RUNAWAY BRIDE) did, with a random human woman appearing in the TARDIS, defying all logic and TARDIS defenses. The difference here being that it’s not some nefarious ploy by an alien race which causes it, (wait, maybe it is!) but this time the Time Lord High Council have put Lucie Miller in the Doctor’s TARDIS as a sort of Witness Protection Program to a mysterious event she witnessed that was otherworldly, and locked her there. The Doctor is taken totally by surprise by her and decides to immediately take her home (2006 Northern England)…but the Time Lords have thought of that and the two end up shunted onto a world called Red Rocket Rising. The planet has recently been struck by an asteroid and is experiencing a sort of nuclear winter, REAL acid rain is falling and the people who remain on the planet are furiously attempting to get off but being stymied by a lack of governmental coordination. Said government, in the form of a woman named Eileen Klint, have sent out a distress call and had it answered by a race of beings who have promised rescue. There is only one problem…those rescuers are a fleet of Daleks. Further interesting is that a local, recently deceased, scientist has created his own versions of Daleks and his apprentice has taken up his work at trying to make them the new form of dominant life on the planet.

It’s a really interesting tale all told, and explores things like the Dalek’s TOTAL ethnocentric personality. They view these new Daleks (created with the remnants of the people of Red Rocket rising) as abominations, impurities of the Dalek pure bloodline. In that vein, the Doctor has to switch sides a few times to defeat both the real Daleks and the new Daleks, but for him they are both enemies. Again it’s interesting to see a pre-Time War Doctor tackle the Daleks. He’s not QUITE the 9th Doctor level of hatred for them…but you can see it building here. As far as the Daleks go, they are still in “conquest” mode as opposed to their later “destroy the universe” mode, so I’m curious to see when that transition happens, and maybe even why.

Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are absolutely on game here. While their relationship begins rather rocky, with each one spitting barbs at the other due to a mutual mistrust (brought on by the Time Lords secrecy to both of them), by the end you CAN see the hinting of the relationship to come, the friendship. Perhaps that’s why they work so well together, she’s full of fire and vigor, and he’s full of energy and drive. I mean you really come away thinking there’s nothing they CAN’T accomplish. I love this Doctor/ Companion relationship…it’s just so easy to get on side with them. The peripheral actors are no slouches either, Anita Dobson (as Eileen Klint), Kenneth Cranham (as Tom Cardwell), and especially Haley Atwell (as the scientists’ apprentice Asha) all do a wonderful job at filling out the cast.

As a DOCTOR WHO story goes, this one is easily right up there with anything on the TV series. Classic villain, Doctor and Companion in a really complex situation that neither fully understands, and a whole world and its people at stake. What’s not to like? This is how I like My DW. The production is stellar as per usual, creaking doors, pulsing rain, space ships, TARDIS beeps and whistles, and (my personal favourite) the TARDIS in the middle of a road crashed into by a car and not getting a scratch! That was a great moment on an "audio" level for me. Fun stuff!

I find it endlessly impressive that Audio Drama's can really bring these stories to life to this degree. I mean they must have it tough getting across what's happening, script, sound effects, acting...all has to happen without the visual. Well, not only do they pull it off, but they pull it off splendidly in a way that makes me proud to display the discs next to my TV Series DVD's and BluRays.

I love this series and as soon as the Christmas Gift Buying season is over, I will be buying and reviewing a bunch more. So please stay tuned, and I hope you are enjoying these reviews for the Big Finish Audio Drama’s

Note: I have the first part of the Series finale (THE HUMAN RESOURCES) already and listened to it (couldn’t help myself!), and I also have an episode from the 2nd Series (DEAD LONDON, ordered VIA Amazon with some Xmas gift orders…again couldn’t help myself), which I’ve not listened to yet…

Trivia: When is a form of genre media an addiction? When you listen to the same Audio’s more than once and revel in the special feature interviews…yeah…that’s what this is like.

Doctor Who: Big Finish Audio Adventures - DARK EYES

Let's begin with a small bit of history on my experience:

My DOCTOR WHO fandom stretches WAY back to being probably about 5 years old and having PBS on while my mum made dinner and watching the 4th Doctor battle Daleks or the Master. That familiar time vortex visual, the blue box, the spooky theme music, the scarf, the jelly babies. It always takes me back to that time. The DW-related phrase “watched hiding behind the sofa” definitely applied to the 5-year old me. That fandom never ended and though my knowledge and viewings of Classic Who are rusty at best, I watched it till it went off the air in the late 80’s. At the time there was no internet and all I could be was a little baffled that my show was off the air.

In 1996, at the age of 19, the BBC and FOX (of all networks) I saw that they were going to air a new TV movie. I still recall being over the moon excited. Here was this icon, one a lot of my friends here in Canada didn’t have the foggiest clue about at the time, coming back to TV for one night only. I was not only home to watch the event, but I think I may have had it on tape for a while. In retrospect, it’s has a LOT wrong with it: The Master being on trial on Skaro (the Dalek homeworld), the Daleks (the Time Lord’s mortal enemies) apparently trying a human (something they’d never do, you know... as a conquering genocidal race) and then allowing him to leave in chains escorted home to Gallifrey for death by none other than their very worst enemy The Doctor. Yeah, add to that the nutty, overacting of Eric Roberts (overacting a character who is KNOWN to be over-the-top and overdoing THAT) and you have the makings of a canon-istic DOCTOR WHO nightmare that is still argued over by fans to this day.

What they don’t seem to argue over is the canon of the 8th Doctor. Portrayed in that 1996 film (the 8th Doctor’s only TV appearance...so far) by the wonderful, adept Paul McGann. He has always been undoubtedly the 8th Doctor. It doesn’t really matter that the 1996 film itself is argued over...HE is canon.

He is canon not just because his performance was so good in that film (though it certainly was), but also due to the existence of the company known as BIG FINISH, and the fact that they set out (probably around the same time as the 2005 re-launch of the TV show and the 9th Doctor’s adventures were getting underway) to continue the adventures of DOCTOR WHO. In 2006 they broadcast the first of the 8th Doctor’s Full Cast Audio Adventures...and the series has been a hit ever since. Now I say all this in hindsight, since I’ve only as of (...*checks watch*...) just last week discovered BIG FINISH and the Doctor’s Audio Adventures (which also include adventures with the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Doctor’s) for the first time. My route there was a little superficial I admit. I’ve been excited since it was announced about the 8th Doctor’s new outfit (which he had designed, the sonic even was done by WETA) about the prospect of McGann appearing in the 50th Anniversary, as I loved him in the 1996 movie. My favourite thing about the 8th Doctor is the fact that technically, historically he would have been the Time War Doctor, and the new outfit (a shorter haircut, a leather Naval Pea coat, a shoulder bag and a brand new Sonic Screwdriver) just suits that. So it was in my frequent DW Google Image searches I came across the image you see at the top of the post for the latest 8th Doctor Audio Adventure from BIG FINISH (DARK EYES) and was blown away. Wow, does he look great! So it was that I decided that the DARK EYES boxed set (4 episodes and a 5th hour of bonus behind the scenes features) would be my first DOCTOR WHO Audio Adventure.

I listened over the course of two days on my way to and from work. And when I finished listening, I put it on one more time to give it an immediate second listen. Yes, this means it was THAT good. I was in fact, so impressed after hour one, that I tweeted about it to fellow DW fans who may not have heard about it, I shouted about it to local friends and scared people at work, and I immediately began considering purchasing more. Imagine what it is like to be a fan of something and assume you’d seen or read the majority of things to do with that subject, that there was simply little more to consume and it was a wait for each new episode of the TV series...only to discover that there were YEARS worth of the series, simply in another media format. It was like Christmas and my Birthday occurred at once. That’s probably going to sound a tad obsessive....but have you MET me? I like to frighten my cat with my remote control Dalek. I own 3 sonic screwdrivers and umpteen gajillion t-shirts. I’m a DW nerd, through and through. This is what I do!

DARK EYES
I realize that my first 8th Doctor Adventure should probably not be one that’s the most recent, and especially tailing on apparently big events (TO THE DEATH), but I’m rectifying that now. After I finished DARK EYES, I bought 3 more 8th Doctor Adventures from BIG FINISH beginning at the beginning, so don’t scold me too much. DARK EYES caught my eye, so it was the one I purchased. From the very beginning, McGann makes himself the center of the story. He’s just such a commanding presence. Always has been. Even on BBC’s LUTHER I can’t take my eyes off him, he’s simply wonderful. If there is an actor who belongs next to the likes of the other men who have played the roll, it’s him. I’m convinced i could listen o him talk for hours (he narrates a few Bernard Cornwell Sharpe Books I have). In DARK EYES, the Doctor is still reeling from some pretty heady, disturbing loss and is out to search for some “hope”. He’s despondent, scatterbrained and broken. From the very first scene before the theme plays you can feel that this man is in a bad place. Enter another Time Lord (Straxus), as the Doctor attempts to go to the end of the universe to look back upon it and see how it turned out, the other Time Lord stops him telling him it’s forbidden by those that make the rules (his fellow Time Lords and the High Council of Gallifrey), but offers him hope in another way and sends him on a mission instead.

Said mission takes him to the First World War and to find the woman known as Molly O’Sullivan, though you don’t find the specifics of the mission till the second episode, it’s clears from the outset that she’s important. I don’t want to go too much into the content of the 4 episodes that comprise DARK EYES, but sufficed to say that they include the Daleks and the Time Lords in equal measure, and the story is a rip-roaring, time jumping adventure you won’t soon forget. It’s literally brilliant. Writer (and voice fo the Daleks) Nicholas Briggs has done a wonderful job of crafting a tale that is at once VERY DOCTOR WHO and at the same time emotionally resonant and compellingly interesting. I adore the tone of the story. This is the 8th Doctor and this is presumably one of the events that starts the slow and agonizing road to the eventual Last Great Time War. It’s a disassembly of this man. The 9th and 10th Doctor are absolutely, guttingly broken by the events of the Time War, the (as I’ve frequently mentioned) PTSD Time Lord. Well, at some point Eight needs to be broken. We know those events will happen slowly over time and that the Time War will be the last few straws that do it. It’s really nice to see attention to that detail happening in DARK EYES. He’s already damaged as the Time Lords continue to show their disregard for life and their machinations here are just one more example to him of how that corrupt power will feed the eventual conflict. You can see how Rassilon will eventually become the desperate man we see in the 2009 special THE END OF TIME. Eight is not fracturing yet, but the strain is beginning to show and I LOVED that aspect here. There is also plenty for Classic fans to sink their teeth into with this story arc. There are nods to previous companions (Lucy foremost amongst them obviously), and events that have occurred. When the Doctor speaks of the Daleks (for example) he says how they were created by a madman for one propose and one purpose only, and later on mentions the Kaleds. It was a small moment that for any Classic Who fan brings to mind the 4th Doctor and the GENESIS OF THE DALEKS. There’s plenty of running (which I always love) and oodles of time jumping.

The acting is wonderful across the board. Everyone brings their A game and I swear to you that if I didn’t know better and I closed my eyes I could have been just been watching episode on TV with the visual. And I suppose that’ the point isn’t it? Well, Briggs and Co. have totally pulled it off. Paul McGann and Ruth Bradley especially make this just a great outing all together. I relished every moment I got to spend with the Doctor and Molly (not to mention Straxus, the Dalek Time Controller and even the villainous Kotris). On par with any of the episodes of the Re-launched TV series, BIG FINISH Audio Adventures are an absolute joy for the casual fan and a dream come true for the die-hard fans. DARK EYES was a wonderful experience and obviously it was one that caused me to begin buying the other Audio Adventures. You don’t have to start this far into the series and it’s probably a good idea to go back and start at the beginning of Eight’s Adventures...BUT, if you are at all on the fence about the ideas of the format, then give DARK EYES a go.

The Audio’s are assembled and edited with such a splendid eye as to be seamless from track to track. The music is lovely, bombastic when it needs to be and emotional when it needs to be, and is again seamlessly integrated with the special effects and the dialogue. It’s worth noting that the post production is damn near flawless as I never felt that I was listening to something with “tracks” and always felt like the whole hour was one large chuck with no dividers. These people know what they are doing and this speaks highly of the post-production team involved who do just a stellar job!

As for myself, like I mentioned earlier I’ve gone back to the beginning of Eight’s Adventures now. I’ll be listening to the two-part BLOOD OF THE DALEKS this coming week and will be reviewing that as well when done. So stay tuned for that!

And if you’ve not discovered them yet, please go to the BIG FINISH website and have a gander at the DW Audio’s they offer. There’s an entire library of them and any DOCTOR WHO fan would think they’d died and gone to Valhalla. They are reasonably priced, offered in CD or Download format (Collector Note: buy the CD and you get the Download as well) and buy purchasing them you will be assuring that they will continue bringing us the Doctor’s Adventures in this format and keeping us entertained.

Podcast: The Giggle Loop #11 - Daleks, Walkers, & Musicals

It's been a while, but here is the long awaited 11th episode of The Giggle Loop where we discuss everything you are interested in. EVERYTHING. don't miss out another second, just click play or download the MP3 for your iPod machine listening earhole pleasures.



Download MP3 HERE
Running Time: More than an hour. But it's like more beer, more beer is good.

Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 5, The Angels Take Manhattan

After watching the mid-series finale of DOCTOR WHO (THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN) I find myself wanting to be congratulatory and kind to Steven Moffat’s written swan song for the Ponds, but I’m just too conflicted. So I’m going to lay out what I liked and what I didn’t like and why, and hopefully you can make up your own minds.

The story on the outside is pretty simple. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory visit New York City, and while sitting in Central Park and Rory goes off to get some drinks, the Doctor discovers that Amy is reading a pulpy detective novel that all of the sudden features Rory in the 1930’s and River Song. The novel ends up being a kind of future history of the events that will follow and the Doctor quickly scolds Amy for reading ahead as she’s technically creating “fixed” points in time by doing so. He tells her not to read ahead...but chapter titles might be okay. It’s not long before they sort out that Rory has been touched by the nefarious Weeping Angels and sent back in time. After sorting that out and establishing that going back to save him is too tough because New York of 1938 is so time-addled that they can’t get back there. Luckily River Song is there to establish a homing beacon to follow back to 1938 with the TARDIS. What follows is a progression of events that lead to the heroes finding out that a tenement building called “Winters Quay” is being used as a sort of battery farm for the Weeping Angels to send people back in time from to drink their energy, including the metal (not stone) Statue Of Liberty.

It all SEEMS very cool from the outside but if you dig at all into the narrative the thing falls apart like a house of cards. My immediate issue is what exactly is River Song doing there? It’s never explained, and it seems totally out of nowhere...and worse none of the characters questions her presence! Aside from the Doctor’s teasing “Shouldn’t you be in prison?” no one says boo about why River is there. One might argue that she knew of her parents’ need of her in that time and place, but I’d wonder where she got the info. (NOTE: I've been duly informed by a friend that it's set out that River is studying the Angels and that's why she's summoned there by the collector. I find that beyond convenient, but whatever, I'm willing to concede that point.) Anyways, lets gloss over that her presence makes no sense and move on. So Rory sees older Rory (who was sent back in time) there in a room showing that in this timeline he gets caught and stays in Winters Quay till his eventual death. His way of escape? Jumping from the roof, killing younger Rory, therefore depriving the Angels of their battery source and breaking their hold on the building. How, you ask? Don’t ask. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. I fail to see how Rory’s escape (one amongst however many folk have been imprisoned there to be sent back in time to create the energy) breaks their hold. But nevermind. Oh and The Statue of Liberty is there, fangs out as an Angel on top of the building. While menacing, two things immediately jump into your head. One: no one in New York in the vicinity sees that Lady Liberty is missing, nor Two: the huge statue standing in the street and menacing the roof of a tenement building? Okay, I’m going to dismiss this as having Liberty as an Angel is endlessly cool. How about the fact that she’s made of metal and not stone (as the Angels are described)? Ssshhhh. Nevermind. There is some offhanded remark about the Angel’s possessing statues...thus kind of changing them from being villains who turn to rock, into some sort of spiritual form that actually possesses statues instead. What? Did Steven Moffat just screw with his own invented creature’s origin? Ugh. Nevermind? So Amy and Rory create their paradox by jumping from the building and this wipes out that whole timeline, freeing Winter’s Quay from the hold of the Angels and they end up back in the graveyard they were in when this started. Again, I’m not sure how Rory’s specific sacrifice removes this whole bit of timeline, but I’m willing to hand wave it because here we go...here is the ending of the Ponds. Here is the (aforementioned) last day of the Doctor and the Ponds. Break out the Kleenex! Even though I have been very vocal about not caring much for the Ponds, I’m still sad to see the Doctor so distraught. So what happens? Ready for spoilers? One Angel is still in the graveyard (convenient that location!) and touches Rory sending him back to an indeterminate moment in time. So Amy freaks out and tells the Doctor to go back and help him, and the Doctor refuses saying that it would rip New York apart to try to do so. Hmmm. So Amy makes a sacrifice and decides to go back as well. The Doctor gets upset and tells her he will never see her again! It’s poignant and sad and I’ll freely admit made me emotional. It’s not emotional because of the Ponds, it’s emotional because of the Doctor. In essence Amy is 11’s Rose. In that vein he wants to do everything to save her, to stay with her and to keep traveling with her. His best friend. On that front it’s absolutely heart-jarringly sad. At least it was, until I thought about it for more than a moment. Wait. So the Doctor can’t go back to her time because it would rip New York apart. Okay, so if the episode is to be believed, it’s the constant time flux in NY causing this fact that he can’t take the TARDIS back there. Add that River says she can freely go back with her stolen (from Jack Harkness) vortex manipulator and it doesn’t cause the same issues that the TARDIS does, thus allowing her to give the book to Amy to publish in the past and create her epilogue for the Doctor to read and you have the makings of a plot hole. Then if you really break it down, then Amy and Rory can simply go outside the city to a different place (Buffalo maybe?) where the Doctor CAN travel to....hell they even have a vortex-manipulated Daughter to bring the message to do so. This is not just a plot hole; it’s a giant, fabulously over sighted writing mistake (paraphrased from another viewer). Let’s not just say that though, let’s look at it logically with historical evidence. Rose Tyler got stuck in an alternate universe. The walls closed and the universe was sealed off from ours otherwise it would rip ours to pieces. Doctor can’t go to her. In fact it’s only a need to create further rips in the universe that he DOES see her again, afterwards re-sealing those gaps to make sure things go tickety boo. Donna Noble, part of a Human /Time Lord metacrisis, she took the Doctor’s mind into her head and became the Doctor Donna, had to have her mind wiped and she would never remember any of the great things she did otherwise her mind would burn and she would die. The Doctor could never visit her otherwise he risks her remembering and subsequently dying. Fast forward, the Doctor can’t visit or save Amy and Rory from the 1930’s New York...and instead of finding a way to visit them or save them VIA another place they could travel to or another time a year or so later....he GIVES UP? Wow. That sucked almost all the emotion out of that scene in the graveyard. It smacks of a weak, weak plot device. Moffat seemingly didn’t know how to write them off the show. It’s the only thing I can come up with. Say what you will about RTD and melodrama, but I can’t believe that Moffat wrote a great and emotional end to the Ponds and totally robs it and the thing falls totally apart under the slightest scrutiny. I’m sad because I’m the guy who dismisses that kind of thing when it comes to DOCTOR WHO. The Sontaran Eps in S4 are pretty rough on common sense and plot holes, but they are scads better than this stuff. I WANT to handwavium the bullshit science and plot holes for story. I want to do that, but in this episode it was just so damn blatant.

Was it a good episode? Yes, indeed. Does it require Kleenex as promised? Yes it does. But afterwards when you begin to actually think about the ending you will most likely get annoyed. Especially in comparison with heartbreakers like Rose’s goodbye in DOOMSDAY and Donna’s goodbye in JOURNEY’S END, Amy and Rory’s goodbye is treated almost like a “we have to do this, so here you go. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s sad enough.” And that felt flat to me. It’s got a number of decent ideas and scenes and has some kickass DOCTOR WHO moments, but it never adds up to a solid whole. Again falling victim to Moffat’s trademark cobbling of a narrative AROUND his own clever plot devices instead of writing a half decent story first and then adding in his plot devices after. I’m actually a little pissed off by how this happened.

Nick Hurran’s direction and Murray Gold’s score ought to be lauded as both were spot on in this ep. Hurran’s direction really does hearken to 1930’s noir in a perfect way and Gold’s score as usual these days, was lovingly rendered and presented throughout. The acting was also quite well done throughout with Matt Smith (the Doctor’s) performance standing out most. Karen Gillan (Amy) brings home a solid performance, while Alex Kingston (River) does a decent enough job, but for me she’s never reached the heights she did in her first appearance in the library eps.

Is it a solid mid-series finale? Yeah, if you can handwavium the absolute MYRIAD of things wrong with the notions in it and add the fact that the Angels don’t come across remotely as frightening as they did in S5 (let alone BLINK)...at least the Cherubs were creepy and did a lot with sound only. You will likely enjoy it. I did. It was only after I thought about it that everything really began to leap out at me. Is it a solid ending for Amy and Rory? No. Not remotely. In fact it’s probably one of the weakest “companion(s) leave” episode in relaunched DW. I’ll add the fact that we spent two eps with Rory’s dad Brian and he gets no info on what happened to them? How about Amy’s parents? Their many friends? There is liiterally NO EPILOGUE explaining anything to anyone. This robs the episode of a further set of emotional beats that I think the audience deserved, especially Brian. Why spend two eps with him if he was only going to be left in the dark? Travesty.

So yeah. That’s where I am with it. I enjoyed it on some level, but more of me is upset at how nonsensical it was, how scatterbrained and how I feel that even the emotional moments end up not really being earned. When Rose left I cried. When Donna left I sobbed like an un-consoled kid. Now when Amy and Rory leave I shed a tear or two when during the graveyard scene and the epilogue scene, but felt utterly robbed afterwards.

This just further illustrates to me how much RTD’s era affected me. He knew characters and interaction. He paid attention to story first and plot after. Moffat’s continued failure in that department leaves us with stuff like this. Serviceable DOCTOR WHO, but it’s a far cry from what it was and what it COULD be.

Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 4, The Power Of Three (Review)

I'm going to start this week’s review of DOCTOR WHO by listing the things I liked. Why? Because there was a lot I either was so-so on, or outright bothered by, so let’s start with nice stuff.

THE POWER OF THREE (Things I liked)

-The nod to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, in positioning his daughter Kate as the new head of UNIT, was a lovely, lovely touch.

-Amy and the Doctor’s serious and heartfelt chat on the banks of the Thames was poignant and allowed Smith and Gillan to show how they interact best.

-Brian had two solid moments in the episode. One was when he asked the Doctor what happened to his past companions. The second was near the end when he convinced Amy and Rory to accompany the Doctor on another adventure.

THE POWER OF THREE (The rest of my opinion)

I always used to complain that A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR was the biggest scatterbrained, kitchen sink episode in Moffat’s tenure as showrunner. I take that back now. Chris Chibnall (the writer of tonight's ep. Note: he also penned DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP) has successfully stolen that crown. And what’s funnier is that everything happens in this episode at the exact same time as nothing. It’s kind of an aggravating episode to watch actually.

Let’s break it down.

We have the Ponds (acting a little un-Pondish) trying to decide between their real lives and their traveling lives with the Doctor. I don’t like this aspect of the plot as I feel that the Ponds (Amy especially) have used the Doctor for adventure in the past, but when he needs them they start to question whether they want to stop or not to just live human lives? Blah. Rose, Martha, Donna, Jack, Mickey, Sarah Jane, and any of the one offs always expressed interest in “staying with him forever”. Even when their family and friends missed them they didn’t stop. Now I know this is KIND of rectified in the ending of the Ep and Rory’s dad’s speech...but it still felt as if we spent a whole episode watching the Ponds be uncharacteristically selfish.

Rory’s Dad Brian is given the most pointless busy work of any companion’s family yet. He is asked to watch his cube. So he does so for nigh on a year (even videoing the thing when he sleeps and reviewing the tapes)...but the cubes all come to life at once (and only for 47 minutes) so I ask the writer what was the point of having Brian watch it all that time (I’m serious, for 20 minutes we keep flipping back to see Brian watching this thing)? I’ll tell you what the point was, they wanted to have Brian in the episode for other moments, but could not think of anything for him to do in the time while they were away and the world waited the year for the cubes to activate. That’s bad writing IMHO. Luckily, like I said above he is given two bits of dialogue that make his time on the episode worthwhile. But I mean come on, at least RTD had Jackie Tyler DOING stuff if she was on any given ep.

The villains. The cubes VIA alien boogeyman custodians bent on eradicating the human race before they reach the stars, seeing them as a plague. Okay, for one: the Doctor views them as a bedtime story told to keep young Gallifreyans in line, and two: they apparently exist somewhere out of time as well as in all of time too. Right. Good. But the Doctor has already seen humanity reach the stars in NuWho, Examples: THE WATERS OF MARS, the 4th Great and Bountiful Human Empire, and any number of classic eps. So why on earth does this worry him at all? Surely if he wasn’t concerned that Amy and Rory’s baby would turn out okay because the evidence (River Song) was right in front of him (S6), then why would he fear these custodial universe police when he knows very well humanity reaches the stars? Oh and where the hell is the Shadow Proclamation or the Judoon in all this? The whole episode is one giant plot hole in the established mythos and canon of the series. And that aggravated me to no end. But let’s ignore that for a second and imagine that part doesn’t bother me. What happens to solve this horrific quelling of humanity Via cardiac arrests? Well a quick wave the Sonic on board the alien ship at the control panel should reverse things nicely. Yep. Wow, that was...easy don’t you think?

It never felt like anyone important was in peril, and UNIT was CRIMINALLY treated. Other than the lovely nod to Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT themselves are given terribly dodgy dialogue, have little to really do, and wear no red berets. At least the winged logo is present (if only visible in one scene). Sadly, when you compare this to the very BEST use of UNIT in NuWho (easily THE PLANET OF THE DEAD with fan favourite Malcolm! How many Bernard’s is that?) or even the moderately dodgy use of them in the Sontaran eps from Martha’s Series...it’s just SO pale in comparison that it stands out a mile. A weak shot at fanboy nostalgia that falls on deaf ears to real supporters of UNIT in DW.

All in all the WEAKEST ep of the Series by far. I found myself bored in the first 20 minutes which was mostly filler and bizarre disconnected exposition scenes, and then I found myself entertained but annoyed by content and execution of the latter half of the ep. So yeah, probably the most scatterbrained and ill-conceived ep of DW this Series. Chibnall seems to always have these great ideas, but I rarely see him with the chops to properly set them out, let alone execute them with any verve or interest. I mean a slow invasion by little black cubes could have been SO cool, and VERY Day Of The Triffids-esque. And instead we get something that is just this side of the Manhattan Daleks episode.

The credit sequence continues to experience crazyness. Again darker, this time with violent purple colours as well and scattered bolts of that crazy lightning breaking into the time vortex...the mystery continues and keeps me intrigued!

Really looking forward to next week’s ep for three reasons.

1. The Weeping Angels in NY!

2. The Ponds FINALLY say farewell (I won’t miss them too much if I am honest)

3. Hopefully a trailer for the Christmas ep with Jenna Louise-Coleman’s full proper intro to DW as companion!

Doctor Who: Series 7 Ep. 2: Dinosaurs On A Spaceship & Ep 3. A Town Called Mercy Reviews

Since I was attending TIFF and doing a multitude of reviews for that I didn’t get a chance to properly do my weekly review for DOCTOR WHO (namely episodes 2 and 3 which aired during TIFF), both of which I watched.

So, consider this a two-fer review for both DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP and A TOWN CALLED MERCY.

Without further ado…

DINOSAURS ON A SPACESHIP

This episode is a little more bombastic and less introspective (at least initially) than the Series opener ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS was. I mean let’s run down the list of things in the ep:

- Huge planet sized spaceship? Check.

- Dinosaurs running around on said spaceship? Check.

- Evil megalomaniacal pirate bent on collecting everything? Check.

- Two giant henchman robots with silly dialogue? Check.

- Nefertiti? Check.

- Big Game Hunter reminiscent of someone from a Wilbur Smith novel? Check.

- Amy and Rory post-marital strife? Check.

- Rory’s Dad? Check.

- Angry Doctor? Check.

- Indian Space Agency defense force threatening to destroy the ship and dino’s to save earth from collision? Check.

So yeah, a bit of a dogs breakfast with all the bits in. What makes it actually succeed is the clever writing and the acting across the board. This is not to say that it doesn’t contain things that are odd (Rory’s dad seems to take about 15 seconds to drink in the fact that not only is he in space but also that his son and daughter-in-law have been traveling with a man in time and space saving worlds…which kind of bothered me a bit), but that it contains enough good old fashioned adventurous DW to make it well worth your time.

First up, the side character the Doctor calls on for help, Nefertiti and Riddel are worthy of the temporary companion roles, and a big notion here that will jump out at the informed (AKA those who know that Amy and Rory’s time in the TARDIS is ending with Ep 5) is that the Doctor (who has been without regular companionship for roughly 300 years by the time that last Series CLOSING TIME aired) is starting to show the wear and tear of travelling on his own (which always seems to produce an angrier, and more unrepentant Doctor…like the 9th in DALEK or the 10th in THE RUNAWAY BRIDE) and seems to be at least attempting to supplement the frequent absence of Amy and Rory in his life. That’s a good thing, and it is the reason that both Nef and Riddel are present, but it’s not really working that well. The Doctor shows his unrepentant side on the pirate Solomon and allows him to basically die. It’s a telling moment, but for those speculating that this has never happened before and think the Doctor is not acting like himself… you are quite wrong. Throughout his history (in relaunched Who if not older Classic Who) the Doctor has showcased unrepentant anger, and vicious retribution on people when he’s not travelling with companions. Heck, 11 showed it early on with Amy (THE BEAST BELOW). It’s part of what makes him who he is. The companions temper him, and without them he can become cold and distant. This is what has happened, and I’m happy to see this particular personality trait return. It shows that Moffat and Co. haven’t forgotten it. It also seems to show us how unwilling The Doctor is to let the Ponds go, whereas when other companions have gone on to other lives (willingly or unwillingly) in the past he usually accepts it and moves on. With the Ponds it’s like he clinging to them, and that’s interesting considering how aloof he can be.

DINOSAURS ends on a bleakish note with the Doctor’s anger on display, but it was a fun, and adventurous episode all told and a great way to spend an hour. It’s certainly showing that Series 7 is already kicking Series 6’s ass in the entertainment dept. The standalone nature of the eps (with teeny tiny arc threads) is truly brining us back to a more solidly grounded, uncomplicated DW. And that’s a good thing.

A TOWN CALLED MERCY

This one I liked. I liked it a lot. But my reasons for liking it aren’t the old west town with the anachronistic tech, or the cowboys, or the gunslinger cyborg, or even Ben Browder.

No, my reasons for liking it stem from the alien doctor named Kahler Jex. And more over what he did.

You see Kahler Jex is essentially a war criminal, though he is not thought of like that by his own people. He stopped a war on his planet that was killing millions by experimenting on a number of the inhabitants (under false pretenses) and creating killing machine cyborgs, who eventually stopped the war by virtue of being unstoppable. Though the war was stopped, Jex was ashamed of what he had done and he fled to earth and took residence in the town called (you guessed it) Mercy. There he gave them electricity and running water, and cured Cholera and basically tried to forget what he had done while at the same time pay his own penance for his crimes against those experiments. Well, of course one of them comes look for him and wants to kill him, but doesn’t want to harm the other inhabitants of Mercy.

It’s compelling because once the Doctor learns what Jex did, out comes the angry Doctor again…no less angry than he was on the last episode, but no further. That is until Jex talks about how similar they are to one another. And that hits home for the Doctor who has been told (most recently by Davros in S4) that he crafts weapons out of his companions to do his killing for him. The Doctor tells him that he doesn’t get to choose his own form of punishment, that’s not how this works. He needs to answer for his crimes, even though they stopped a war.

But what really rocks the Doctor back and sets his anger to overload is when he realizes that he really IS NO different from Jex in that facet. The Doctor locked the Time War out of reality, resigning two entire races (the Daleks and the Time Lords) to an eternal state of hell. He essentially (to stop the aggression that threatened to destroy the universe) made the decision to do this on his own, and that falls on him. It’s almost a worse act of war crime, and what’s worse is he KNOWS it. So he snaps and manhandles Jex out to the edge of town past the barrier that the Gunslinger won’t cross and points a gun at him to await his death at the hands of his creation.

WHAT?! You say…The Doctor and a gun? Yes.

Probably my favorite thing about the episode is this moment. And Amy even comments on it (“You see? This is what happens when you travel alone for too long!”). The Doctor, (the man who never would) hasn’t held a gun up to someone since he was at his wits end in THE END OF TIME PART II and Rasillon was threatening to bring the Time War out of the lock and bring about the end of time. So couple that with this moment where Jex has reminded him of his own digressions against not just one but two races of people. It’s poignant and is the likes of which we’ve not seen since RTD gave us the PTSD Doctor (9th Doctor). Being brought so entirely low it is only Amy firing off a gun that brings him back. But not after he tries to defend his actions by mentioning his “mercy” of the Daleks, the Master ect. It’s a key point for him to do so. It shows that the Time War was exactly what he was thinking about (since both the Daleks and the Master were heavily involved in that era of his life) when he was railing at Jex.

So in the end A TOWN CALLED MERCY ends up being a great standalone, with a darker yet still entertaining story…but the core of it is this interaction between the two doctors and their crimes…and then you have Amy telling him he’s traveled too long alone…and finally the parting shot of Amy (when asked to keep traveling) turning him down and talks about their friends might start to see them age faster. The Doctor’s face is priceless in that shot. He knows the trips are getting less frequent with the Ponds and that a time will come soon when he is utterly alone.

And that’s what makes A TOWN CALLED MERCY so compelling as an hour of TV, but especially as an hour of DOCTOR WHO.

As a final note: Hopefully everyone has noticed that the titles sequences (aside from being slightly different with the logo being tailored to fit the theme of the episode)  started slightly murkier than past years and have been getting slowly darker and murkier with each episode. The running theory is that this will continue to happen until Ep 5 (THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN, and the Ponds exit) where it will pretty much be just a murky black screen with the music playing and white titles. Or it could be leading to something more ominous down the line. Either way, I think it's a nice little mystery.