Doctor Who Series 11 Overview

I need to clarify something, I’m not angry.

I’m disappointed.

I’m going to start this overview with the characters, move on to the episodes and then sum up with my hopes for the 2020 season. So with a lot to get through we best get started with The Doctor.

Having time to reflect is a good thing. It takes us away from the immediacy of a moment and can often give us a better sense of the whole picture. A great example would be that when I first saw Jodie Whittaker in the role (during The Woman that Fell To Earth) I felt there was some good potential there. The joking rename of the villain to the unimpressive Tim Shaw is perfect Doctor. The irrelevant moments, the idle easy humour that off sets the violence. That’s again very Doctor and I wanted to see more of that.

We didn’t. What we got was a very generic version of the character. When this version should have done something outrageous and clever, just because they could, Whittaker just seems to stand there. Where one incarnation would rage loudly, another would become cold and calculating Whittaker simply stands around. There’s no urgency, no passion and no real joy to the character here. Somethings do work, but not quite in the right way.

Having seen Jodie Whittaker in other roles, and some what enjoyed her acting to be honest, I’m left wondering if she’s sleep walking through the part. I can’t see any passion in her performance. She’s not been given much in the way of material to work with and I doubt she even understands the role. There’s more to the Doctor than just pulling the same funny face once or twice an episode. 

There’s more than a few concerns in the writing. In her first episode the Doctor cobbles together a Sonic Screwdriver, you’d think that means this Doctor is an engineer and a tinkerer. Someone who builds things for the sake of the plot. In her defence she does, twice more, but it’s not really in her character. It feels out of place every time she does it. At one point she derails an entire story, slamming on the narrative breaks, for a speech about some technology they come across. This is a one off, we don’t see this side of her again really. It’s all horribly inconsistent.  

It takes a while for some actors and writers to home in on the personality of a Doctor. We’ve seen it happen before. Capaldi flip-flopped his Doctor’s traits several times, Sylvester McCoy’s first season was a disaster, however his second alone makes him one of the best Doctors in my opinion.

With a season as short as this one I don’t think anyone’s gotten a grasp of this Doctor yet. So the generic grab bag handful of half baked traits they’ve bolted together to make Doctor 13 still needs time to mesh right. I am convinced that the potential is still there, but it needs something more to bring it out. More episodes, more focus on the Doctor. Most importantly more interesting and better villains.

A hero is defined by their opponents and Whittaker’s bad guys so far have been a collection of weak, half baked and ineffectual parodies. With the notable exception of the New Years Special. The new villains don’t have any depth to them and no real weight. In any other season they wouldn’t have even registered as filler.

Doctor Who Series 11 Special Resolution Review

Did Chris Chibnall get a book on how to write a horror story over Christmas?

Now I know this was probably recorded back sometime around August, but the joke works. I’m just not that funny. So what did I think of the episode?

It felt like a season ending adventure, a lot more than The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos was. It was a strong story, with some really exciting moments. Good timing, both comedic and dramatic, and worked very well over all.

It’s not a perfect adventure. There are flaws, and I’ll look at them in a moment, but there are serious strengths. We really saw the threat of a single Dalek. Last time we saw that’s with Dalek, back in 2005, since then it’s been whole armies. Now a single Dalek is a threat again. We saw just one annihilate an army here, even taking on a tank and winning. This is powerful stuff. We also got some nice body horror, with the Dalek taking control of a human body for transportation early on.

We also got a limited car chase, a nice little bit of romance for our guest characters and while predictable in places I can’t really complain about that this time around. Rather than lifting sections wholesale from other, better, stories Chibnall seems to have figured out what he’s supposed to be doing. 

After the shear incompetence he showed during the season proper this is a refreshing change. I honestly found myself wondering if it really was just Chibnall who did this, and he wasn’t helped by a ghost writer. Someone with experience in writing Science Fiction and horror. I think he was.

One of the things that helped convinced me of this is the way the subplot about Ryan’s dad appears at odd thematic points. Only to bring the story to a crashing halt when they did. One scene we get a Dalek murdering a couple of police officers, the next a tender moment between Ryan and his previously absent father. The tonal whiplash almost gave me a neck injury.

Another part of the theory came about because this time around Chibnall actually knew something about Doctor Who history, with references to the Black Archive and even UNIT. Of course that brings us to UNIT. According to what we are told UNIT is currently disbanded due to budget issues. On the one hand this is a good thing, forcing the Doctor to solve this without their help. On the other What the absolute hell? UNIT has been a steadfast ally to the Doctor since the 60’s and now they’re just gone like that?

The last Doctor (Twelve) negotiated a colony of Zygons on earth, with UNIT policing them. What’s happened to that? It just doesn’t make much sense, the reason given is it’s budget has been cut because alien invasions aren’t that common anymore. I question that logic, just about every alien race passing by has tried it in the last dozen years, but alright. Maybe after the Dalek’s killing spree, and knocking out the entire communications infrastructure of the UK, they might get their act together.

Speaking of getting their act together. That is what this special sort of feels like. Chibnall and team got it right. Series 11 had growing pains. It tried really hard, but just didn’t quite work. With this special it did and it’s not quite the good news you think. The next season isn’t due until 2020, a long year away and whatever the good will this special earns might not be enough.

One or two great episodes in a season do not make up for a mediocre greater whole. I’m going to be posting a full season review in a couple of days, but this special was indeed one of the highlights. If Chibnall did pull someone in to shadow him for this one, understandable given the amount of episodes he did this season, then I hope he keeps them. If not and this was just a case of a good story done well, then brilliant. More please.

In fact more like this in general. Social commentary was never the problem, it was the bad stories that couldn’t justify it. More creative, entertaining episodes like this was would address that problem and bring both newer and classic fans back together again in the love of good story telling and staying true to Doctor Who.

10 out of 13

Would be better, if not for the tonal whiplash at points. A good start to the year though. See you in 2020 Doctor.

Doctor Who Series 11 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos Review

Well that was technically the season finale and er… 

It took up 50 minutes. The effects were decent. The direction was solid, nothing too spectacular but not too pedestrian either. Bradley Walsh’s Graham was a star, deadly serious but funny with what I’m convinced have to be ad-libs done on the fly. Tosin Cole’s Ryan talked sense for a change and did a good job of grounding Graham, showing how much he’s grown since we met him.

Yaz was… there I guess. I’m sure she had a point A good one, and not entirely useless as she’s been from most of the series. I just need someone to try and prove it.

And I can’t put it off any longer. He did it again. Chris Chibnall read the wiki entry on a Classic Adventure, thought it sounded interesting and made a complete mess of it. This time he cribbed (Chris Crib-nall? Is that too obscure a joke to make) stole from Douglas Adams’s The Pirate Planet. Telepaths with near unlimited power, stolen planets crushed into the size of a small basketball and the Doctor having to fix it all. All done so much better in the Classic Tom Baker Story.

Throughout Jodie’s Doctor’s confrontation with the main bad guy I just wanted her to break out in a Tom Baker like response. Mocking the “surprise” villain. Sarcastically praising their “incredible ingenuity” and admitting:-“Very rarely have I come across a plan so ambitious, so incredible in scope. Tell me, are you challenging for the throne of the kingdom of morons, or have the other contenders simply given up in awe of your brain melting stupidity?”

Doctor Who Series 11 They Take You Away Review

I’ve tried to be fair about Who in these reviews. Sometimes I’ve been a bit too critical and others I’ve been willing to over look things I really shouldn’t have. There are reviewers out there that have just been praising the show and I’ve been left wondering just what they saw I haven’t. There are other reviewers that lay into the show and have nothing good to say about it. I think all three groups, the overly critical, the soft touch and the middle ground can agree on something:-

Bradley Walsh is a fantastic actor.

In every episode both his character and his performance have been a highlight. This time he really proved it. Considering he did this while also filming a nightly general knowledge quiz show and from all reports being the joker of the cast I’m in awe.

It’s worth noting this isn’t his first time in Who, well not technically. Walsh played a villain in the Sarah Jane Adventures, The Pied Piper. An evil alien that disguised itself as a clown and kidnapped children to feed off the fear doing so generated. Look it up if you have a chance because it too is a really good performance.

I say all this knowing my previous prediction. Now that Ryan has called him Granddad I fear the characters days are numbered. Still that’s the future, right now I’m looking at the ninth, and penultimate, episode of the season.

And I don’t know what to say.

Honestly this episode has left me stumped. It’s not entirely unique in Doctor Who. The Planet of Evil, for example, is a 70’s adventure where the Doctor visited an anti-matter universe. Same happened more recently in Hide and the Doctor’s Wife. Both involved micro universes just outside our own.

However, in many ways it’s not Doctor Who. At least not standard Doctor Who. There was no villain to conquer, or really a threat if I’m honest. It was an adventure and had a high concept science fiction plot at heart. Without a major villain the antagonist is an sentient aspect of creation that was banished somehow in order for the universe as we know it to exist.

Doctor Who Series 11 The Witchfinders Review

“Pendle Hill is a prison for intergalactic criminals!”

It was at that point I lost it, totally, and collapsed on the floor in hysterics.

Going into this one I had a very bad feeling it was going to turn out like Rosa. You see the Pendle Witch Trials were a nightmare. If anyone was even thought of being a “Witch” they were tried and quickly executed with very little defence. Superstition and fear ruled. People carved symbols to ward off the evil they were sure stalked the good folk of the villages.

The truth was a little more complicated. Put very simply Pendle was home to a number of small villages all of which had local healers. Often women, but not always, who knew how to cook certain herbs and other plants to fight infection and other such things. However, a good number of people didn’t understand diseases at the time, attributing them to demons in the blood rather than bacteria. The result was these healers were seen to be commanding the demons out of people.

If they could command them out, who’s to say they couldn’t command them in? As a result superstitious people began to fear the knowledge these people had. Blaming them for whatever bad luck befell a person or area. Naturally when someone fears something they don’t understand it’s easier to attack it that to try and learn.

Hence the hanging of witches.

This is a summary and leaves a lot of important detail out, which makes it a difficult topic to go into and explain in the confines of a 50-odd minute show. With no clear solution. In the case of Rosa they messed up historical accuracy in favour of delivering a heavy handed message. Given I actually live in Rawtenstall, a town not 15 minutes from Pendle, I feared that, once again, historical accuracy would be thrown by the wayside in favour of some sort of ham fisted lesson. Fortunately this didn’t happen and the Pendle Witches became a backdrop to a far more traditional Doctor Who story rather than the entire focus.

Doctor Who Series 11 Kerblam Review

Really, was that the whole point of the silly name? That gag at the end? Was it worth it?

Yes, yes it was.

I can say this is the the first truly good, not great but good, episode of the season. Somebody behind the scenes seems to have woken up and realised Doctor Who can be good and doesn’t have to be mediocre. 

Which is ironic because any other time this far into the season it would be a filler episode, the one that doesn’t really mean anything. It’s far enough along to have established everything, but not close enough to the end to need to ramp up the tension. So freed from Chibnall’s greasy grip, just told to try and be a fun and entertaining episode we got just that. They even were able to throw in a rather surprising, if only at first viewing, twist I don’t really want to spoil.

Unfortunately mentioning that there is a twist is sort of a spoiler, but you can’t review the episode around it. So if you’ve not seen the episode yet just take it on faith, it is worth watching.

Doctor Who Demons of the Punjab Review

As much as I don’t want I’m going to split this review in two. Set up a boarder between the sections and then look at them apart before fitting them back together. 

It’s a metaphor, go with it.

In part A I’m going to look at the plight of Yaz’s grandmother and her family. It’s a terrible time that in many ways appears to mirror the troubles of Northern Ireland. A boarder is being enacted dividing India and Pakistan, this devision is religious as much as political. Separating Hindu and Muslim as much as the two peoples. Unfortunately Yaz’s grandmother is marring a hindu from across this new boarder and her soon to be brother-in-law has been radicalised by extremist propaganda…

The result is a tragedy. Just one more in a time where they are all too common. What was politically expedient at the time proves to be a terrible burden for decades and generations to come.

It’s a moving, powerful, tale that really pulls on the heartstrings. Strong performances and instantly relatable characters. Some likeable, others not so much, but all together well written and enjoyable. A solid drama I can’t really fault, made all the more poignant knowing that this was all together too possible. This not only could have happened you’re left with the heartbreaking certainty that it probably did, and more than just with this single family.

The story highlights one of those sad parts in human history the is often skipped over or out right missed in most summaries of our long past, not least because it happened so far away and there were other things going on. 1947 was the first moves in what we know now as the cold war. With Europe still reeling from the deviation of the second World War and the slowly descending Iron curtain about to cut the continent in two. The history books at this time are kinda full and there’s no room for anything more in schools.

So this period of India / Pakistan really does deserve something out there to raise more awareness of it. What makes this stronger than Rosa is we’re not following this one iconic figure. It’s so much smaller, dealing with just one family, but has such a greater impact for that. So I give this part of the story a solid score of 10 out of 13. Easily the strongest I’ve seen this season.

In Part B we’re actually going to look at the part of the story that is Doctor Who, because it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story. 

The time travel with Yaz crossing her own time line was utterly wasted. It even missed the otherwise pointless revelation at the end that the Grandmother should have recognised Yaz or the Doctor. It could have been anyone in that aspect and while I appreciate the rebellion in not going with the typical cliche, leaving Chekov’s gun unfired as it were, it isn’t exactly fulfilling.

The aliens were your typical fare. The basic idea of assassins and warriors that have given up their killing way was hardly original, but once again no threat what so ever. In this case though they weren’t supposed to be, so I won’t complain. What I will complain about is the psychic whatever flashes that gave the Doctor a headache a grand total of twice. Done just to build some tension, but that’s about it. 

A lot of the more science fiction elements just feel bolted on to the main plot and it doesn’t fit. In many ways they weren’t needed and should have just been removed. Focusing more on the main story.

That said there were a couple of nice moments. Yaz finally getting some much needed character development in a talk with Graham being one of them. but this side of the story rings hollow. Especially with the shear weight of what I’m calling part A.

Taken as a whole, which you have to do, this is still one of the strongest episodes so far. Even with the plot holes and dull aliens there’s enough here to enjoy and a serious message is in there as well. I wish the Doctor Who elements were better integrated. In another season this would have been incredibly out of place and have felt wrong. This season it’s some of the best we’re going to get.

8 out of 13

Doctor Who Season 11 Mid-season overview

Half way through this truncated season and I feel it’s necessary to take a metaphorical step back and look at the big picture.

I was looking forward to this season. I really was actually. Look, lets be honest here Steven Moffat had run out of steam by the end. Season 10 was an improvement over the previous two, but nowhere near as great as season 5. I blame Sherlock, it’s difficult enough to run one epic series, let alone two that become that amazingly popular and that ingrained into popular culture.

Both shows suffered because Moffat was torn between them. Still, I’m not here to go into that right now. We’re looking at Who. Now Chibnall cleared house behind the scenes as well as in front. This was going to be a fresh start for them. And Doctor Who needs to do that every so often. The show's been around for fifty five years, to keep up with the times it needs to change.

If it didn’t it would become stagnant. It would die off, much like Star Trek did in the early 2000’s. If you don’t innovate you lose viewers to those that do. Without viewers you fail and your show is gone. Especially in Science Fiction TV where they can cost more than smaller programs and the audience often demand more.

So with a new, fresh, show runner and a new Doctor things were looking up for the program. I was actually quite excited when I saw we were getting our first female Doctor. Of course there were people who didn’t like the idea, there’s always people objecting when the Doctor regenerates. I thought it was worth a chance.

There were also people at the time that called Chris Chibnall a hack writer, I didn’t particularly agree with them. I was never that impressed with Chibnall’s previous work on Doctor Who and Torchwood, true, but he was brought on as staff. Shackled by the guidelines imposed on him from the screenwriter. Now he was captaining the ship he could set the course. 

So we’re half way through the first journey on this captaincy. Where do we stand? Well the important thing to remember is it’s never too late to improve. You just have to know what the problem is. That said I announced in my last review that the gloves were off. I’m not going to be polite here. Chibnall has proven to be an incompetent, mediocre and stagnant writer.

Doctor Who The Tsuranga Conundrum Review

Wha…

I don’t know how to begin this review, because I truly am in two minds about this episode. On the one hand it was an utterly pointless waste of my time that I want to bill the BBC for to get my money back. On the other it was a whimsical piece of dada-ism in film making that deserves some kind of award.

I want to love Doctor Who. It’s important you know this. I want to be screaming from the rooftops about how brilliant it is. I want to argue with people that they are truly missing something of real importance by not watching it. Then I’m confronted with an episode like this. An episode where, after watching it, all you can do is ask questions that you know there isn’t going to be an answer to.

What was the Doctor and team Tardis looking for in the scrap pile? Why the hell was there a mine hidden in a pile of otherwise useless junk? Who called the medical transport?

But no time for that… Suddenly the ship is attacked by a space gremlin! and OH NO! It eats metal and feeds off energy! We’ve never seen that before… Oh wait I’ve lost count of how many times that nonsense has been tried! For the sake of, the Transformers Cartoon did this in the 1984 and it was a long long way from original. It’s right up there with the “What if it’s the MAN that becomes pregnant?” cliche. And will you look at that. Whats more he’s not ready to be a single parent, oh the tragedy! Will he keep the child, or give it up for adoption?

Here’s a hint, whichever one is the most cliched, and the most cowardly from a writers perspective. (I don’t want to belittle real life single parents that feel they can’t take care of their child and forced to give them up to adoption, but this pat solution is pointless) Speaking off we also have the pilot that’s suffering from a degenerative condition and their brother that they lie to because they want to maintain their perfect image. Whoopee bloody doo! 

These are all ideas that have been done by Red Dwarf, back in the 90’s. And back then they were a bad joke! The Dwarf boys were laughing that it was old hat two decades ago! Now what is meant to be the premier Sci-Fi show of the era, the trend setter that has redefined Science Fiction for more than fifty years, does this? You can’t make it up. Is this supposed to be so retro that it’s new or something? Is it supposed to be a new take on the old ideas? Because believe me its really neither.

Doctor Who Arachnids in the UK Review

Think I’d better mention that I don’t like spiders. 

They have the effect of creeping me out. Too many legs, eyes and fangs. Don’t forget the fangs. Then there’s the webs wrapping you up, covering you, suffocating you. Being mummified alive. Trapped in tomb no bigger than yourself, screaming silently as you slowly die… 

Anyway Arachnids in the UK was meant to be a horror story. Back in the day Doctor Who was legendary for scaring people, the joke being the viewers often hid behind the sofa to het away from the terrifying things they had to see. Horror has been a staple of Doctor Who since it’s inception and it’s always been that The Doctor taught children it was alright to be scared. That fear was good and bravery wasn’t the absence of fear, but doing what had to be done despite it.

It was one of the best lines in the Curse of the Fatal Death (a comic relief skit on Doctor Who from the 90’s) when the Doctor was thought dead that summed it up wonderfully:- “…It will never be safe to be scared again.”

This is why we needed a horror story, specially around halloween. We needed to be scared. To be terrified. To be brave. So, were we?

Kind of, yes.

I would actually describe Arachnids in the UK as a tribute to shlock horror movies. There’s a whole sub-genre of horror films that feature some aspect of nature grow wildly out of control. Films like Night of the Lepus. Usually these films feature morally questionable experiments going awry or Nature fighting back against mankind’s often selfish actions.

In this episode we got a morality tale about (wo)man’s science messing with nature and things it shouldn’t trifle with. How the quick solution isn’t always, or ever, the best one. We also got to see the real monster, as always, is the worse excesses of humanity. Which all worked in a way and all straight from classic monster horror movies.

Doctor Who Rosa Review

Well that was… Horrific. On many different levels.

Trying to review this episode is difficult because its a difficult topic. They try to address it in a ridiculously short amount of time. 50 minutes is not long enough to go into any real detail. Add in the pointless time criminal sub plot (seriously what was the point of that guy?) and we have even less.

The problem is I don’t feel like I’m qualified to comment on it. Being English, from the hills of Lancashire and born long after the events in question, it’s not something I have the context to address. Certainly not in a short written review of the Episode in question

Yes I know who Rosa Parks was and yes I know why she was famous. I have the morals to say the very concept of segregation appals me. It’s a vile practice from a time I hope has long since past, but unfortunately still effects people to this day. It is something I would hope to have the courage to have fought against, were I there at the time, and would stand up against today should I be in a position to do so. I didn’t need the episode to tell me this. I most importantly didn’t need this episode to make me feel guilty about it! 

But I wasn’t the audience for this episode of Doctor Who. The audience was the people who are only just learning about this stuff and that’s alright. There are people in this world that don’t know about Rosa Parks just yet that could have watched it. That needs to learn that one woman’s bravery, and her anger, was important.

The problem there is that, again, it was and remains a complex issue that 50 minutes can’t do justice.

Doctor Who The Ghost Monument Review

Can I talk about Enlightenment. I want to talk about Enlightenment. No, I’m not taking a sudden right turn into philosophy and using the tile as clickbait. Enlightenment is a Classic Doctor Who adventure from the Peter Davidson (5th) Doctor’s run and in all honesty is one of my favourites of his time in the TARDIS. 

In it the Doctor lands in the middle of the final stage of a vast intergalactic boat race. It’s goal? Enlightenment. Ultimate knowledge. It’s all part of the never ending conflict between two Guardians, the Guardian of Light and the Guardian of Dark. Paired forces of elemental creation so powerful they have developed their own wills and personality. 

Whoever wins the race would have the freedom to do what ever they chose. If they did “good” with it they would tilt the scales in favour of the Light Guardian. “Bad” well then the Darkness gains in power. That is how the Guardians work, though proxies. Choosing champions to represent them across time and space, sometimes without them even knowing they have been chosen. Other times…

Doctor Who The Woman Who Fell To Earth Review

Well that was... Not what I expected. I guess pretty much all of my predictions were wrong. I honestly don’t know what to make of that. Is it better than my idea… Not sure really.

Spoilers ahead.

The story goes as follows; an alien hunter arrives on Earth, looking for a randomly selected human to take as trophy back home. Proving themselves to be a capable hunter is the final act needed to become the leader of their people. The only rule, he’s not supposed to use technology. Meaning no advanced weapons, it’s supposed to be a test of skill. 

He breaks that rule, using an array of tech that is both illegal and highly unethical to track down this poor sod and kill anyone that happens to witness him. Only the Doctor happens to fall (quite literally) into the middle of it all and takes umbrage at the hunter, nicknamed Tim Shaw in a mispronunciation of his true name, and his people's right of passage.

Meeting up with an unusual group consisting of a warehouse worker, Ryan, a police officer he went to school with, Yas, as well as his Grandmother, Grace, and her second husband, Graham, the five of them race after Tim Shaw and try to stop him the hunts for good.

Situation normal, but The Doctor is still recovering from a particularly traumatic Regeneration. Can she pull herself together in time to face this casual evil or will she be too slow to stop more cruel, ultimately pointless, deaths? 

The Companions in “New” Doctor Who Part Two

The Companions in “New” Doctor Who

Part Two

Here, at long last, is the second half of my New Doctor Who Companions retrospective. With this one we enter the era of Moffat. It’s hard to remember today but when Moffat took over from Russell T. Davis the fandom was overwhelmingly positive. Moffat had a good track record behind him, with some of the best episodes of the new series so far being penned by him. Including Blink, which introduced us to the Weeping Angels, and the Girl in the Fireplace, as well as others. Lots of people were expecting good things. 

But before we jump into that just remember two things. The first is that a character is a Companion if I say they are and the other is that I’m addressing the Companion only. We’re not looking at the Actors and anything I say is about them, not the person performing them.

On with the review:-

The Ponds

11/10 (see what I did there, Eleventh Doctor… 11 out of 10…) 

No I’m not separating them. No I don’t care what you say. It’s Amy and Rory. It will always be Amy and Rory. Throughout time, space and however thousands of years either of them will have to wait for each other it is Amy and Rory. The idea of a young couple in the TARDIS has been done before, but not since the very early days of the classic seasons and never with this much passion. The two of them are inseparable and wonderfully individual at the same time.

I could take up this whole article with little moments between the two. From an otherwise pointless aside of playing darts in the TARDIS to the flashback where Amy points out Rory must be gay because all he ever does is hang around her all the time. The big moments though. The sacrifices, the way the pair were with each other, the way they grew and changed. It was a wonder to watch. Alone either one would be fantastic, together they are the best New Who has to offer. Amy’s fire was so welcome. As was Rory’s courage. The humour, the moments you cheered, those where you cried. Amy’s final goodbye and Rory’s constant deaths. It was the best of times. 

And it only gets better

River Song

10/10

This one won’t earn me many friends and you know what I don’t care! River Song was a creation of Steven Moffat and was both a warning of things to come and one of the best things he ever did with the show. A mysterious woman from the Doctor’s future, so not even he knows the full story until it’s too late. Jack Harkness was very much a dry run for some of the character traits here, but this time we got a whole lot more. The out of time relationship these two had really worked and while a lot of people felt there was too much of an emphasis put on her early on it was necessary in the long run. She was quick with a gun, flirtatious, just as quick witted and not even the Doctor knew where he stood with her. Even when you were certain you knew as the audience what was going on River was that wild card that changed the whole game.

Throw that card in with the Doctor and the Ponds you have one of the greatest sagas in the fifty plus years. 

The problem started here though when she started taking over. River was such an interesting, fascinating character that she started to eclipse the Doctor. A good number of fans couldn’t accept that, but we weren’t the only ones to notice. Moffat pulled things back form the brink. Showing time and again no matter how far you thought River was ahead The Doctor still had enough push at the end to regain his throne.

While controversial River was necessary. She was a risk, something new. For years Doctor Who has been too comfortable with the same format and this sort of risk needs to be taken.

The Companions in “New” Doctor Who:- Part One

Well we’re looking at a new season of Doctor Who on the horizon and I’m getting around to a project I’ve waned to do for a while. Look at the Companions in Doctor Who since it’s relaunch in 2005 and try and put them into some sort of perspective.

A lot of my opinions have actually evolved and changed over the 13 years since this restart began. Characters I saw as fairly inconsequential, or irritating, in retrospect either aren’t really, or are for a completely different reason. I want to look at those reasons. 

Before start there’s two things I have to address, first of all there’s going to be some vitriol. I’m not going to be nice on occasion here. The gloves are most defiantly off and because of that I need to make sure the blows are going to land in the right places. I’m only looking at the characters, not the actors themselves. I don’t know them. Do know the characters and I have to be fair to them and those that came before.

Now here’s the tricky one, what do I class as a companion? I could make up some arbitrary rules, but to be honest that would be me looking for excuses to include or not include certain characters. A companion is a Companion if I say so. It’s my list so that’s my reasoning!

Doctor Who Series 11:- Predictions

Well, with something of a trailer coming this weekend. Either a proper trailer, something shot special for it, or just footage from the first couple of episodes string together, we’re going to finally see something more than a brief snippet at the end of Twice upon a Time. So before we get to that I want to make a couple predictions

Now I know about the leaked footage and the behind the scenes photos and the rumours but I’ve kept clear of them. I’m trying not to have the show spoiled for me. At the same time I have so many ideas of what I want to see and what I think we’re going to see. So I’m putting this out there. This way I can crow if I’m right, or be surprised when I’m wrong and have some evidence one way or the other.

Prediction number One. At the beginning of the season the Doctor will have already been in the “present” (as it were) for a while. She will already have established herself and will be more or less stable (at least as stable as the Doctor gets…)

Prediction Two. She’s already going to have established her team, it will be through them that we are introduced to this version of the Doctor rather than the now traditional introduction to the characters through following the Doctor.

Now we get into specifics; Prediction Three. The Doctor will be practically homeless when we meet her. Without the TARDIS she will be living in the streets, or as close to it, as she is working on a way to summon her vessel. The difficulty being that she has not got access to any sort of technology to do it.

Prediction Four. It will be a failed attempt to bring the TARDIS to her that sparks off the adventure, with the Doctor being the only one that can stop whatever’s coming and the friends she has made during her time there helping out.

Prediction Five. The Doctor will have been seen as this relatively harmless mad woman… right up until whatever happens to kick start the plot. At which point the friends she has made will be in awe of just what she is capable of.

Prediction Six. The TARDIS will arrive in the last act, giving the Doctor everything she needs to defeat the enemy of the week.

Doctor Who:-The Bells of St John

Alright, I might as well write a review about this episode. I've tried to write reviews for all the episodes recently but got nowhere with time being a problem. Still this episode deserves an in-depth look. Or at least as in depth as I can get.

First things first, the so called bells of StJohn. Yes it was the TARDIS phone ringing. Next. Well not quite, lets look at this point for a second. The Doctor has retreated to a 13th century monastery and taken up the role of a monk in an effort to find Clara, the woman twice dead. When you have a TARDIS, something that has access to pretty much all the information in the universe, it might take awhile but just throw the TARDIS randomiser on and travel. If you're going to bump into her you will. I love Steven Moffat's run on Doctor Who, but these pointless asides are getting grating.

The whole point was the phone call and the line "Some woman in the shop gave it me, supposed to be the best helpline in the universe." Fan theories are ten a penny as to who gave Clara the number to the TARDIS. Most people betting on River. Me, I'm leaning in the direction of either Amy or Rose. But I'm fairly sure that it's a dead end. It won't effect the overall mystery of who, or how Clara is who she is. Speaking of which, neither will this episode. Other than the Doctor meeting her I highly doubt what happens here is going to have more than a tangential impact on the overall story, much like the giant floating Eyeballs in Amy's first episode. Still they are the focus of this episode so that's what I'm going to look at

Miracle Day.

A quick update on my past opinion of Torchwood:-

The first series was pure character assassination. Simple. While RTD was trying to make them diverse and flawed the end result was no one came out of that with an ounce of likability. The acting was nothing to write home about either. Heck, half the time it even seemed like Barrowman, a man that could give Shatner a challenge chewing scenery, was phoning it in that year. We had so much sex, gay innuendo and pointless bodily fluids that it came off like three teenage boys giggling behind the bike shed. It wasn't grown up, wasn't adult. Just some kid that found their dad's copy of FHM and thought it was the most graphic thing since Lemon Party . Org.

The second series approached things as if the first hadn't happened. We had reasonably adult humour, a few good storylines and the characters were the well rounded and down to earth, flawed, people they were supposed to be. We got some good back story and development for the team and opened up the can of worms that was Jack's backstory for the overall plot. It could have been a lot better, and I found killing off two of the gang rather pointless, but they were niggling doubts all in all it was leagues ahead. If the first year was scored one out of five, the second was a solid three.

Then came Children of Earth. This was a deal braker for me. Quite simply it had a lot of promise and would have made either a nice three parter all on its own, or an arc for a series. They knew these aliens were coming back, people all over the world would be beginning to panic and it was up to Torchwood to try and stop it from happening again. Jack could have been wracked with guilt over what he was forced to do and it could have been a nice Torchwood on the run against the conspiracy thing. The once proud, secret, organisation that had influence at the highest levels reduced to the end of it's rope. Old favours vanishing and allies turning on them. A real draconian menace from a corrupt and desperate cabal of officials trying to hide mistakes made fifty years earlier.

Unfortunately what we got was a disaster. An over bloated arrogant mess that needed someone with the guts to tell RTD to scale back, and stop trying to rewrite the end of New Doctor Who's third year

I've already outlined how I would have fixed this Here. Much to some people's dislike.

Now comes Miracle Day. It's either going to be a carbon copy of Children of Earth with some of the bad bits iron-ed out, some more development and a bigger punch to it. Or it's just going to be a damp, predictable, squib that lasts five more episodes than CoE. Dragged out to the point where even the most avid fan throws their hands up in disgust.

I've seen two episodes so far, and I have to wonder if it was written by a first year script writing student. A director that's qualifications were that they watched Twilight one time and an editor that has a YouTube account. I might be a bit harsh here, but it really feels like a Mickey mouse operation. The villains would be better hidden if they had top hats, moustaches and capes. Along with a neon sign flashing "smarmy gits" and their own marching band.

There is no real drama here. The acting is on par with the first year and it just feels like everyone with any acting skill are just working for pay checks.

Including Dichen Lachman, Dollhouse's Sierra. Just one of the many guest stars they've got coming.

Unlike Transformers 3 I have an open mind for this one, please RTD don't disapoint

Doctor Who Mid season

Okay, I hate to say this but that was predictable.

Every twist and turn I could foresee easily. I'm not going to give any spoilers here but come on, give me a break. There are still a lot of questions, and I'm going to ask one in a moment, but at just about every point I rolled my eyes.

It was well acted, produced and written, but sadly predictable.

That wasn't the only disappointment here. I was really looking forward to the Doctor going to war. Serious war, pulling out the weapons he used in the Time War. A Gauntlet, or a Rod. Hell something, He's peeved, seriously, can you thing of a better time to show that sort of thing off? It would be interesting, show just how deadly the Doctor could be. We know how dangerous he can be with just a screwdriver, imagine him armed! See what I mean by disappointing?

Okay, here we go. The real problem. Why? What was this all for? A war against the Doctor. First of all that's really, really stupid. Then again one man's hero is another's villain I get that but why go to war with him? That's more than poking a bear, its sticking your head into the Lions mouth, kicking it in the nuts and then blaming the bear. What could they possibly, possibly do that makes him that big a threat?

The big point of the Doctor is that he only comes after those that deserve it. He's not some psychopath that obliterates planets for a laugh. There has got to be a reason for this. Something. The bad guys (or should I say woman) even admit's that he's a good man. For fucks sake, no one wants to be the bad guy. Kidnapping pregnant women and stealing children from them my god in heaven, there is no moral right in that. Why were they so afraid of him?

I hope we find an answer to that. Another question I hope we get some sort of answer to is why the Doctor didn't check. It would be the first thing I would have done. Hell I'd have torn the computers and the child's DNA appart looking for the smallest thing. They had the child a month. A freaking month, not to mention the whole pregnancy. They could have done anything. Heck why not just plant a bomb, or a black hole, or something on the asteroid to kill everyone.

It's not that difficult. It's only the fact that these priests are militantly stupid, arrogant and so enamoured of a ridiculously complex and overwrote plan that they forget Occam's Razor (the logical idea that a straight line is the most likely path between to points). Just kill him. It's not that hard. As powerful as a Time Lord is it's not like he just regenerate in a god damn vacum. Detonate the whole asteroid and kill everyone. Leave the Doctor afloat in space, but no they have to be over complicated and make this predictably complex mess a solution.

Then again "Let's Kill Hitler" looks intersting, shame we have to wait four months

Season 6 of Doctor who, and so it begins...

Holy....

Alright, we all remember the Slitheen, right? Those pathetic farting monsters that were about as threatening as a small field mouse going squeak? Good

We also remember Moffat's last epic monsters, the Weeping Angels? The galactic leap in scary they were? Good again.

These new guys are another leap forward. We've all seen them and they look brilliant, well they're written even better! I was honestly stunned at how these things looked, moved, hell even their existence is beyond what you expect. There is the old joke that children hide behind the sofa, this time around they'd be too scared to look away! I won't be surprised if, these things alone, cause concerned parents to complain. This isn't just nightmare fuel, its Industrial strength sci-fi horror.

This is Doctor Who as it should be!

Then, on top of the single most terrifying, original, monster in the last forty years of the show, we get the rest of the story. I can't go into it, not without spoilers, but I'm still wrapping my brains around the twists and turns made during the last half hour alone. Last season I praised everyone involved. It was fantastic, this time we don't just hit the ground running we're at the speed of sound and leaving safety far behind.

This episode alone shows us one important thing though. Under the banner of Russel T. Davies Doctor Who was a children's show. Little boys and girls liked the funny, silly, man in a blue police box. Now he can still be silly, funny and bonkers but at the same time this is the Doctor their family knew, and he's not someone to take lightly. One of my favorite classic adventures is The Curse of Fenric. In it the Doctor defeats the source of all Evil with a game of chess. For the first time in the new show I've seen that Doctor here. Matt Smith and Steven Moffat have conspired to pull the whole thing up by it's boot straps.

Wellcome back to Classic Who, Lady's and Gentlemen!

Come on next week! please! Come on!