Schedule for Series Five Blog Posts

Hi faithful readers,

This is the schedule for the reminder of Series Five and its REWINDs that will join them:

1. The Hungry Earth
2. Cold Blood
3. REWIND - Doctor Who and the Silurians
4. Vincent and the Doctor
5. The Lodger
6. REWIND - Dalek by Juilan Barber
7. The Pandorica Opens
8. The Big Bang
9. REWIND - The Tomb of the Cybermen
10. Review of Series Five

Hope you are all enjoying the blog and continue to read and enjoy it as much as I like writing it.

P.S If anyone would like to review any of the episodes on this list please feel free to message me or leave a comment. (Only Matt Smith episodes will be re-reviewed by me and REWINDs will stand on their own unless people really want to hear my opinion on the episode).

NEXT TIME: THE HUNGRY EARTH

REWIND - The Edge of Destruction

The Edge of Destruction is the only time (previous to Amy's Choice) that a whole episode is set within the TARDIS and its stars only the regular cast at the time. While not a shinning example of the Hartnell Era, it does provide more character development for the regulars and give us the first hints that the TARDIS is actually sentient in some way. Join me as we look at the third-ever episode of Doctor Who, The Edge of Destruction.

For the REWINDS regrading Classic Series stories, I will be giving a brief synopsis of the story along with my favourite moments from the regulars at the time with a brief bit of show history from the time.
At the time, the TARDIS crew consisted of four travellers:

         1. The Doctor as played by William Hartnell

         2. Susan Foreman (The Doctor's Granddaughter) as played by Carole Ann Ford 

         3. Ian Chesterton as played by William Russell

         4. Barbara Wright as played by Jacqueline Hill
Both Ian and Barbara had entered the TARDIS by accident so they became unwilling travellers on the Doctor and Susan's adventures. For their first two stories, they travelled back in time to 100,000 BC and were introduced to the Doctor's greatest enemy, the Daleks. 

So, for their third-ever adventure we have a story set entirely inside the TARDIS but this is necessary from a production standpoint. Doctor Who was only originally commissioned for 13 half an hour episodes and as An Unearthly Child was four episodes with The Daleks taking up seven episodes that left only two episodes to fill the original production block. So, that's how the Edge of Destruction came to be, now is it any good. Well yes and no. 

The episode is a fairly mediocre affair to say the least as it details the TARDIS being taken over by a mysterious force and it's journey towards destruction (the big bang) with the Doctor and his companions becoming increasingly more violent towards each other as the episode unfolds. This episode helps to dispel the contention between the travellers that had existed between them since the first episode and to allow the travellers to get along with each other from now on. The biggest development in this episode is that the Doctor finally accepts both Ian and Barbara as his travelling companions while he still does get annoyed at Ian occasionally.

So, while The Edge of Destruction is by no way a defining and shining example of the Hartnell years. it is nevertheless an interesting two-parter that develops the relationships of our main characters while somewhat soften Hartnell's harder grandfather edge. The Edge of Destruction gains a 4 out of 10 only just missing an average mark as it takes a long time for the Doctor and crew to determine what is happening although it is saved by Hartnell and his companions convincing portrayals of their respective characters.

NEXT TIME: THE HUNGRY EARTH  

Amy's Choice

Amy's Choice is completely different to anything that appears this season or in fact, anything that has appeared before. Simon Nye, a fantastic comic writer makes his only writing credit for the show and what an episode it is dealing with dreams, darker sides and the relationships between the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Join me as we take on the Dream Lord and discover what is real and what is fake. This is Amy's Choice.

Our story begins five years after Amy and Rory have stopped travelling with the Doctor. Amy is pregnant and living in Upper Leadworth with Rory who is now a Doctor. They hear the sound of the approaching TARDIS and run outside to greet the Doctor. They joke about Amy's size saying "you swallowed a planet" and "Your huge!", after which they take a stroll down the main strip of the town. They hear the sounds of birds chirping and awaken in the TARDIS. The Doctor initially thinks that the Leadworth scene was just a dream which they all shared. Rory states that he really enjoyed the supposed dream as you could hear the birds chirping just as they reawake in the Leadworth scene. The Doctor summarises that you shouldn't trust what you see and that this is gonna be tricky.

After the title sequence, we are quickly introduced to the villain for the episode; the Dream Lord. Toby Jones plays this enigmatic and creepy villain to a tee spouting delightful one-liners and creating an air of suspense and intrigue around who he actually is. It's here in the TARDIS that the Dream Lord divulges the particular conundrum that our heroes find themselves in. One world is real, the other fake and our heroes have to decide which is which. So it's time to sleep or are we waking up as they awake in Leadworth.

It's here in the Old Folks home that we reach my favourite exchange in all of Doctor Who. The Dream Lord describes the rules of this challenge that "if you die in the dream, you wake up in reality ask me what happens if you die in reality". Rory replies with "what happens?" "YOU die stupid, thats why its called reality". I don't know why I love this exchange but the way Toby delivers his lines really makes you laugh at the absurdness of it all. He tells them that they have to figure it out which is which and says to the Doctor "One reality was never enough for you Doctor, take two and call me in the morning" before disappearing.

From this point in the episode after everything is established, it's up to our protagonists to figure out which world is real and which is fake. Throughout the remainder of the episode, it's our heroes banter that keeps the episode engaging and entertaining especially their interactions with the Dream Lord. Once the Doctor figures out who the Dream Lord is, we are kept in further suspense with only one clue that "there is no one in the universe who hates me more" from the Doctor. 

Our heroes are to decide between two scenarios one in which the TARDIS is disabled and floating towards a star that is burning cold with only 30 mins till impact, while the other is in Leadworth with killer old people possessed by the aliens known as Ecknodine. The episode continues periodically switching between the two scenarios until the Dream Lord separates Amy from the Doctor and Rory to discuss her feelings. This is where the Doctor-Amy-Rory relationship is further developed with the Dream Lord questioning Amy's feelings for the Doctor which she rebuts outright. She eventually rejoins the Doctor and Rory in Leadworth just in time for Rory to be killed by the Ecknodine. It's through this action that Amy finally makes her choice that the Leadworth scenario is a dream and both her and the Doctor enter a van which Amy drives directly into the house. They awaken in the TARDIS with Dream Lord admitting defeat and leaving the occupants of the TARDIS be. The Doctor precedes to blow up the TARDIS because he knows who the Dream Lord really is.

They reawaken in the TARDIS with the Doctor roaming around the central console column. Amy asks how did he know that the cold star was a dream and who the Dream Lord was. He says that "the Dream Lord was me because no one in the universe hates me more". The Dream Lord represented the Doctor's darker side amplified by psychic pollen which had fused itself to the column and the Doctor quickly disposes of it. With the threat eliminated and the entire episode set within the TARDIS, both the Doctor and Rory want to set off for an adventure but it's Amy Choice to decide where they go but not before the Doctor's reflection morphs into the Dream Lord on the TARDIS console.

Amy's Choice is an episode I can't find fault with, I love the writing and direction as well as the interplay between our main characters and the Dream Lord. This episode is easily my favourite episode this series tied with a future instalment from a new writer from the show. I just wish that Simon Nye would return to write another script for Doctor Who as is debut effort was a joy from start to finish and thats why Amy's Choice receives a 10 out of 10 for being one of the most out-there and entertaining episodes of Doctor Who in a long time.

NEXT TIME: REWIND - THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION 

The Vampires of Venice

The Vampires of Venice marks a return to Doctor Who for the ever comparable Toby Whithouse who previously wrote School Reunion for the David Tennant run and will return to pen a story for every subsequent Matt Smith Season. His first outing for the Eleventh Doctor is somewhat of a mixed bag but it is nowhere near the worst of series five. Join me as we take a trip to one of the nicest cities in the world and deal with some sexy vampire girls. This is The Vampires of Venice.

The episode begins in Venice in 1580 with a man trying to gain his daughter enter into the Calvierri girls school. She is accepted and ushered away with a shot facing towards Francesco who bares his fangs as it cuts away to Rory leaving a voicemail on Amy's phone. Rory is at his stag party the night before his wedding when the cake rolls in and out pops the Doctor who has replaced the stripper. He informs Rory that his fiancé tried to kiss him and that she used tongue. Rory's mates don't look pleased as the titles come crashing in. 

The Doctor gets both Amy and Rory into the TARDIS and offers to take them anywhere in time and space at which point he asks Rory what he thinks of the TARDIS and he says that "it's transdimesonally transendental" to which the Doctor replies "I like it when they say its bigger on the inside". This scene shows that Rory was skeptical of the Doctor in their initial encounter and researched various theories and scientific facts to try and discover if these things are possible. 

They arrive in Venice surrounded by a throng of people, none of whom realises that they just arrived in a police box. They head to the city centre to seek out the Calvierri house and its mysterious patron, Rosanna. They watch from afar as the man from the opening tries to find his daughter within the bunch of Calvierri girls. He is greeted by a swarm of vampire girls and leaves dejected with the Doctor disappearing from Amy and Rory's side to investigate. He catches up with Guido and discovers that something changes about the girls once they enter the school and this piques the Doctor's interest in the matter. He manages to sneak in, with a distraction by Guido to be greeted by a collection of vampires in the basement. He tries to get them to "tell him the whole plan" and says "one day that'll work". He quickly escapes and rejoins with Amy and Rory screaming about Vampires excitedly at the top of their lungs. Matt Smith's utter excitement at the discovery of vampires goes to show how even though the Doctor is a centuries old Time Lord, he can still gain some enjoyment out of his travels.

After the regroup, the decide to let Amy enter the school to get some undercover information and to let the Doctor and Rory in to extract Amy and Isabella, Guido's daughter. Amy successfully enters via use of the physic paper and meets with Isabella. Before long she is taken away and discovers the true identity of the vampires, Saturnyians water aliens from the planet Saturnya which have used a perception filter to appear normal. The use of the perception filter creates an interesting plot point as it tries to translate the entire appearance of the creatures but when they show anger, the fangs remain to ward off enemies. Also, the perception filter doesn't know what to do about mirrors so leaves the reflection blank creating the appearance of vampires. They manage to escape but not before losing Isabella to Francesco who is left to drown by Rosanna for treason. In reality, she is eaten by the thousands of male Saturnyians who are living in the water.

After the execution, the Doctor sneaks into Rosanna's main chamber to have a discussion with her. During this he discovers that they ran away from the Silence and escaped through the crack in the skin of the universe. While this does further the series arc and tell us that people and objects can pass through the cracks, this is the first time this series that no physical cracks have appeared. While leaving, the Doctor informs Rosanna that he is doing his cause she didnt know Isabella's name. This shows how the Doctor stands up for the little people who even though normally don't win, will with him on their side. The group reconvene at Guido's house when they are attacked by the vampire girls. Guido sacrifices himself to stop Rosanna's fish girls and her plan to put Venice underwater. The Doctor manages to put a stop to her plan while Amy and Rory battle with Francesco and manage to kill him by redirecting sunlight.

The Doctor tries to convince Rosanna (whose perception filter has malfunctioned) to not kill herself, but to no avail. She tells the Doctor that "can his conscience live with one more dead race" before throwing herself into the water and being devoured by her own kind. The episode ends with Rory joining the TARDIS on a full-time basis as the Doctor notices that nothing but Silence has fallen on Venice.

The Vampires of Venice is an entertaining and somewhat diverting story that emerges the viewer into the world created and gains some sympathy from the lead villain. All in all, The Vampires of Venice receives a 7.5 out of 10 for strongly building on the series theme and for furthering the Doctor-Amy-Rory relationship that will become pivotal in a few episodes time.


NEXT TIME: AMY'S CHOICE 

Meanwhile in the TARDIS - Scene Two

This specially commissioned scene takes place between the ending of Flesh and Stone and the beginning of The Vampires of Venice. It shows Amy's continuing attempts to seduce the Doctor until he sorts her and Rory's relationship out in the next episode.

The minisode begins with the Doctor leading Amy into the TARDIS after the final moments of Flesh and Stone. Amy continues to try and seduce the Doctor into sleeping with her saying that "he looks like an ordinary bloke and blokes need to still 'Do Things'". The Doctor is repulsed by Amy's stance and refers to himself as Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and also that little green one from Star Wars. 

This shows that this new Doctor while more youthful in appearance, is actually much older at heart trying to stay away from romantic entanglement with his companions. The scene continues in the same vein with Amy questioning the Doctor on whether or not he has had previous companions travelling with him. She tries to get the TARDIS to show previous in habitants but it's voice locked so the Doctor would have to say "Show me all previous TARDIS inhabitants". The TARDIS then shows all previous female companions with a particular emphasis on Leela, who was a savage and companion to the Fourth Doctor. This doesn't deter Amy and the Doctor sets course for Rory's stag party to put right what went wrong.

Both of these minisodes allow the Doctor and Amy relationship to be fleshed out more and create an interesting dynamic between them as throughout the first five episodes, the Doctor and Amy are discovering more and more about each other which will lead to Amy affectionately calling the Doctor "Raggedy Man or Raggedy Doctor". While these scenes aren't pivotal to the story arc or even specific episodes from the series, they allow for some nice character moments between our two series leads and both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan play them fantastically.

NEXT TIME: THE VAMPIRES OF VENICE  

REWIND - Blink by Julian Barber

REWIND is a segment of this blog where either a fellow reviewer or me will review an episode of Doctor Who from before Matt Smith's era. These REWINDs will relate to the episode that is occurring in Matt's time and will discuss either a similar theme or an introduction to a specific monster from the series. For our first inaugural REWIND, Julian Barber will be reviewing the first Weeping Angel adventure, Blink starring David Tennant and Freema Agyeman. 

Blink was the tenth episode of the third series of the revived series of Doctor Who. This episode is best remembered for the introduction of new recurring enemy, the Weeping Angels and for the Doctor and Martha to hardly appear at all in what was this series Doctor-lite episode.

The Doctor and Martha were sent back in time to 1969 by the Weeping Angels and they had to communicate to a woman in the present time named Sally Sparrow to help her send the TARDIS back to them so they could escape the past.

When I first watched this episode, I was divided on it. While I praised the great plot and the acting of the cast, I didn’t think that the episode would be popular because of the limited appearance of the Doctor. The last episode that was Doctor-lite was series two’s Love and Monsters. Love and Monsters was an episode many others and I didn’t enjoy and I believed that Blink would follow suit in being a cheap and boring episode. However after watching it again, I came to praise as one of the best episodes of the revived series.

What I found interesting about Blink is that its plot was really interesting and engaging and it explored more of the Doctor’s effect on ordinary people and their lives. As a viewer, I found myself constantly having to second-guess what was going on to try and solve the mystery. The twist of the Easter Eggs on Sally’s DVDs being the medium through which the Doctor was able to communicate was something that I originally didn’t believe have a lot of importance but came into play beautifully in the climax.

The episode marked the first appearance of the Weeping Angels, which would later become recurring monsters once Steven Moffat took over as head writer and executive producer in 2010. The Weeping angels are quantum-locked so they are statues when you look at them but when you don’t, they can move and advance on you. The Angels feed off people’s energy by sending back in time and feeding on the remaining time energy from the time they would have spent in the present. Spooky.

I found that the Weeping Angels brought something new to Doctor Who. The Weeping Angels were the first villains on the show to scare me which to me made the episode more thrilling and enteraining.

I found the acting of all the cast especially Carey Mulligan (Sally Sparrow) to be outstanding, which is understandable since she has now gone on to be a famous Hollywood Actor. When I first watched this on TV, I thought I was watching

another show. Even though Mulligan only appeared in one episode, I found her performance as Sally Sparrow to be flawless and impeccable. To me, her performance was one of the best acting performances on the entire revived series of Doctor Who.

I loved the twist at the end, when the Doctor’s message regarding the Weeping Angels was directed at audience. It’s designed to spook people out and question the way they look at statues and their everyday world. I sure did. I never looked at the statue in my house for the same way for a while.

Overall I will give this episode 10 out of 10. I found the acting of the cast, the plot of the episode along with its twists and turns to be sensational.

NEXT TIME: THE VAMPIRES OF VENICE

P.S. Feel free to message me if you would like to review an episode or if you have an idea for a REWIND review that you would like to see done. 

Flesh and Stone

Flesh and Stone serves both it's own story well as an effective finale but also the overall series arc as the cracks in the universe become even more tightly plotted with the lives of our time-travellers. It delves deep into the cracks affect on the universe and how the Doctor seems to be at the heart of this phenomenon. This is Flesh and Stone.

Our episode begins where The Time of Angels left off with the Doctor shooting the gravity globe that was keeping the angels at bay. They find that the ships artificial gravity is still working and that they are now on the underside of the ship. They enter the bottom hatch and are on the ship. While the first part of this episode resembles the previous one, its at this point that the episode becomes much lighter in a visual aspect but still remains a deep and dark tale.

Steven Moffat is still building up tension with the Angels as they slowly make their way towards the Doctor, Amy and the Clerics. With the group just managing to escape, they enter the secondary flight deck and discover the bio-system used by the crew to survive the long journeys. This bio-system contains tree-borgs which are a form of artificial intelligence used to circulate oxygen throughout the ship. This forest setting creates a different atmosphere to the previous episode while still managing to scare the viewers though an effective use of the Weeping Angels.

Two-part episodes allow the writer to create an immersive and engaging world which they can immerse the character and the viewers in. It's in this world that Moffat has created that he brings to the forefront the series arc of cracks in the universe. The Doctor discovers the crack in the side of the Byzantium flight deck and investigates it. While the Doctor in the TARDIS still doesn't know the true extent of the damage that these cracks have done, he does learn that these cracks erase the existence of anyone or anything that goes near them explaining why Amy didn't remember the Dalek attacks on Earth.

Throughout the episode, Amy has began counting down from ten which leads directly from the Angel incident in the first episode. We discover that the Angel has entered her eyes and slowly the angel will come out and engulf her. The Doctor instructs her to keep her eyes closed to keep the angel at bay while he, River and Father Octavian try to reach the secondary flight deck to access the ships systems. Amy has to wait behind with the remaining clerics as a gigantic crack appears in the distance and it's during this part of the episode is where we discover how the cracks affect the people around them. One by one, a cleric goes to inspect the crack and disappears, forgotten by the rest of the clerics expect for Amy who as a time-traveller remembers all of the different versions that can and will possibly happen.

During this time, the Doctor comes back to comfort Amy and asks her "to remember what I told you when you were seven" before disappearing again. This seemingly random interplay forms a major part of the series finale so I won't spoil it now, you just have to wait and see. The Doctor, River and Octavian have reached the secondary flight deck but not before Octavian is captured in a head lock by an angel. He informs the Doctor that "she killed a good man, a hero to many" before both the Doctor and Octavian put aside there differences and realises that they are both good men who longed to be recognised. The interplay between Matt Smith and Iain Glen (Octavian) is really what sells this two-parter for me as both men gradually get to know and respect each other more and realise that they are both working towards a common goal. Matt Smith's acting throughout these early weeks shows great promise of the things to come when he is given a great script and guest cast to work off. The Doctor tries to help Octavian but to no avail, to which he asks him to let him die which the Doctor does.

Now being the only person left as all the other clerics have been erased from time, the Doctor instructs Amy that she has to "walk like you can see" because the angels are focused on escaping the ever growing crack. While this works for a while, it leads to Amy tripping in a field of angels in which we see them move for the first time. River manages to transport her to the flight deck just in time for the Doctor's big speech to Angel Bob. Then, the ships engines fail as the angels had finally drained all of the energy and the artificial gravity is turned off leading the angels to fall to their doom while closing the cracks.  

The remaining trio escape and River foreshadows her and the Doctor's next encounter when the Pandorica Opens. Amy still wonders about the mysterious Doctor Song and asks the Doctor to take her home. It's here that she shows the Doctor her wedding dress and that it's the night before her wedding. She also tries to seduce the Doctor and not in a romantic way as a play on the perception of companions we are used to in the revived series who were only interested in the Doctor in a romantic way where Amy sees the Doctor as a sexual partner after he has meddled in her timeline so much. It's good to get this scene out of the way early in Matt's run as a cloud doesn't hang over our main characters heads and the audience's as we decide whether they like each other or not. The Doctor tells Amy that we are going to sort this out as they re-enter the TARDIS as the camera zooms into the clock depicting the date of the cracks originating: 26/05/2010, Amy's Wedding Day.

Flesh and Stone is a fantastic ending to an engaging first half and introduces more concepts into the series arc while tying up some plot threads present within the first couple of episodes. So Flesh and Stone gets a 10 out of 10 for being a effective and subtly woven finale for the weeping angels, let's hope they return soon and can deliver some great scares and fantastic characterisations with them.

NEXT TIME: REWIND - BLINK by Julian Barber