Review - Kill The Moon

The Doctor reaches a pinnacle of patronising crankiness as Clara faces the truth about just how different he's become in Kill The Moon.

Season 8, Episode 8 - Kill The Moon

The cold open drops us right into the action here, building a hook to suck us straight in. Unfortunately Clara's message to Earth just struck me as a bit forced. We're then flung straight back to the real beginning of the story, where Courtney Woods is insinuating herself on The Doctor, aiming to go on further trips through Time and Space.

Here's where we run into the first thing I found odd about this episode. Despite his new crotchety demeanour, I still don't buy The Doctor telling someone they're not special. Despite his regeneration, this is still the same man who once said "You know that in nine hundred years of time and space I've never met anybody who wasn't important before." Of course The Doctor is now claiming over 2,000 years of life, so perhaps he's gotten a bit more jaded since then. Or maybe it was supposed to be another lesson.

Like "don't listen to men in polka-dot shirts."

The overall concept here was fairly sound, I suppose. The Moon being an egg was an interesting idea, but some of the details seemed a little glossed over. Lots of questions remain unanswered, or at least not suitably answered to keep me suspending my disbelief.

The Germs were suitably scary, but why did they look like spiders and spin webs if they were supposed to be single celled organisms? A bit of a redesign would have helped here, making them appear more simple. Another option could be to refer to them as parasites rather than germs. I'm not sure how (if at all) that would affect the scene where Courtney started floating or using the spray to kill them, but neither of those really made much sense either, so maybe the whole lot could just go. Whatever the solution, I can't buy a "unicellular" organism having such an advanced structure.

Even a basic knowledge of biology says this is not a germ.

Why had the creature growing in the Moon only begun to distort gravity relatively recently? The moon has been there for millions of years, presumably with the creature growing inside the whole time. Why then does the weight gain only start causing issues on Earth some time in the next 30 years? Was it dormant until recently? How exactly does the creature fit inside the moon, but have a greater density than it?

How exactly were the astronauts planning on using the nukes to destroy the Moon? They had no idea it was a living thing inside the moon that was causing the trouble, and they have no drilling equipment to get the nukes sufficiently deep in the crust. Hell, they don't even have a lander, so couldn't evenly space the bombs to get maximum effect without manually hauling them across the lunar landscape.

And the biggest question of all, how the hell did the creature manage to lay an egg? First up, how did something that just came from inside the moon manage to lay another egg the same size as the moon? Is the creature growing within the new moon simply non-sexual, or is this some kind of immaculate conception?

Biologically possible, but probably VERY uncomfortable.

Putting all this aside, the episode had good pacing and handled the morality issue reasonably well despite the flaws in the voting system (only half the world could vote and governments could rig it by cutting all power grids). It was entertaining despite the plot holes, and it had a total lack of my usual gripes, with bonus absence of a blatant Season Arc reference. Still, I think a slightly different angle could close those plot holes and make this episode a beauty. 

7/10

Can we fix it?

As I said, yes we can, and all it takes is a rethink of the egg concept. Rather than an egg, I think a better solution would be a nest.

First up though, we need to clear up the whole spider = germ thing. Rather than rebadge what they have as a parasite to make it biologically more accurate, I'd rather go with a redesign of the monster.  Instead of legs, it has flagellum. We can even give it eight of them so that in dim lighting we get the impression of a spider. Instead of a toothy maw, we have a mass of pili which, again, in poor light appear to be teeth. The webs could be explained away as some kind of excretion like a snail trail which aids mobility. All of this allows us to initially play on that all so prevalent arachnaphobia whilst retaining some semblance of biological realism.

With that sorted, we can tidy up the issues surrounding the gravity and the new moon. I reckon I can fix that all up with a couple of tweaks to the creature and how it breeds.

I see this creature as something inter-dimensional. The moon is part egg, part nest. Within the shell of the moon is the opening to a pocket dimension where the foetus grows. As it matures, it begins emerging from the pocket dimension, causing the seismic activity and a huge leakage of amniotic fluid with it's accompanying bacteria. The huge creature begins to cause gravity to increase quickly as it shifts more of itself into this dimension.

Upon emerging fully from its extra-dimensional egg-sac, the creature's first instinct is to build a new nest from the scattered remains of the old one. First it fabricates a new pocket dimension, then covers it with the pieces of the moon, tying it all together with silk-like strands. Then it flies off to find a mate, destined to return who knows when and somehow deposit it's fertilized egg safely in the pocket dimension through the moon.

Who knows how many times this cycle happened before recorded human history. It could even be tied in to the extinction of the dinosaurs.The creature that emerged then didn't manage to catch all of the pieces of the moon when making it's new nest.

Much of the first part could be explained by The Doctor upon his return from his little amniotic swim. The rest would layout to some explanation as they watch from Earth.

An interesting twist would be to have humanity's interest in space exploration kindled by a desire to protect this extremely rare breeding ground.

Closing those couple of plot holes would elevate this episode from an entertaining episode that makes me cringe at the poor science, to a near perfect story.

Review - The Caretaker

Clara's two worlds combine as The Doctor does a bit of moonlighting at the Coal Hill School in The Caretaker.

Season 8, Episode 6 - The Caretaker

This episode begins with a montage showing Clara struggling to live two lives at once, her "normal" life as a teacher with Danny Pink, and her life adventuring in time and space as The Doctor's Companion. This whole montage draws the parallel of a woman cheating on her partner, and in that it succeeds reasonably well. We get the distinct impression that something's going to give pretty soon.

After The Doctor leaves Clara behind to go "Undercover" She appears to have time to focus on Danny, but naturally The Doctor is going undercover at Coal Hill School as John Smith, the temporary replacement Caretaker. Hilarity ensues.

I love a comedy dust-coat

The Threat of the Skovox Blitzer is fairly minor, which is fine, because The Doctor straight up tells us he can handle it easily. There is no discovery of the threat, as The Doctor already knows about it. There is no investigation, as The Doctor already has a plan, and even when that goes wrong he seems to figure out a fall-back plan with minimal fuss. Sadly, if the majority of screen time doesn't even involve the monster of the week in any way, the focus of this episode becomes Danny's discovery of Clara's life with The Doctor.

Pictured: minor sub-plot

This all puts the episode squarely in the category of The Companion Show Featuring The Doctor. In retrospect this has been a bit of a trend throughout the season, particularly in Listen, but so far it's not taken up the majority of an episode. I thought (or hoped) we'd gotten past this issue once Clara stopped being The Most Important Person In The Universe™. Once the mystery of her origin was solved, she could become just another travelling companion for The Doctor. Hopefully the resolution of the Danny situation will reduce the focus on Clara and allow The Doctor more time in the limelight.

The scene with The Doctor mistaking Adrian for Clara's boyfriend was strange and has left me feeling a bit annoyed. There's two ways to take this. One, general arrogance from The Doctor that Clara would want someone who looked like he did, because that means she still wants him; or two, a fairly obscure kind of paternal feeling where The Doctor would only approve of someone who was somehow like him. I'd like to think it was meant to be option two, but something tells me that's not really what they were going for here.

The Doctor's irrational hatred of soldiers outlined in Into The Dalek was clearly designed to work with this episode, but despite this not fitting with established canon (The Doctor has been friends with several soldiers), Danny's response to The Doctor was actually pretty awesome.

Yet again we are treated to a scene in the Nethersphere, but this time Missy seems to have her cranky pants on and is reportedly "too busy" to deal with the poor dead policeman. For the first time since the Promised Land arc began, I am actually intrigued. I still don't really care who Missy is, but my interest is piqued as to why she would be annoyed.

Maybe ask for that raise another time

Overall, this is a pretty nothing episode. It does well enough considering it's entire point is to get The Doctor and Danny introduced to each other, it's just I like my light science fiction show about aliens and time travel to focus a bit less on a single character's love life and more on, you know, the aliens and time travel.

6/10

Can we fix it?

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was impossible to fix this one, but it would take a lot. The threat of the Skovox Blitzer would need to be somewhat enhanced to start with. More needs to be made of The Doctor discovering it and deciding to get the job at Coal Hill. It would also be good to find a way of pushing the Clara / Danny thing to the background a bit.

First up, The Doctor would not refuse Clara's help. She would refuse to help him. The Doctor discovers the Skovox is around, and comes to Clara asking for help. Before he is able to explain the threat or how she is needed, Clara refuses on the grounds she needs to concentrate more on Danny, telling The Doctor she's sure he can handle this one alone.

What we don't learn immediately is that The Doctor wanted Clara's help to place the devices around Coal Hill, which he has determined is the best place to displace the time vortex because of a weakness in the space / time etc. When Clara refuses to even listen, he is forced to assume the position of Caretaker in order to follow through with his plan.

When Clara berates him and he reveals what the threat is, The Doctor can then throw Clara's own words back at her, telling her he can handle it himself. This would also add another dimension to the negativity towards Danny. The Doctor is jealous, but not in a romantic way, just that Clara's attention is elsewhere. Why is spending time with him more important that fighting alien robots? The Doctor could even specifically ask her that, only to be answered with Clara's revelation that she loves Danny. There's really not much you can come back with at that point.

So in true Doctor fashion, he just throws a tantrum at Danny and blames him for the failure of Plan A. The rest would probably have to play out in a similar manner, except have Parent Teacher Night held in the same hall the Time Vortex is set to appear in, increasing the threat to innocent bystanders. They think things will be okay, but when the Vortex begins to appear earlier than The Doctor calculated, they resort to pulling a fire alarm or something to get everyone out.

It wouldn't be great, and would still suffer from being focussed too much on Clara's relationships, but it would have a more solid set-up and make slightly better use of a deadly alien robot.

Review - Robot of Sherwood

Our new Doctor really beings to hit his straps as he takes Clara to meet a legend in Robot of Sherwood.

Season 8, Episode 3 - Robot of Sherwood

This episode gets us back to basics, with The Doctor and Clara resolving to simply do a bit of adventuring in time and space. Clara chooses to go and meet Robin Hood, and despite The Doctor's claims that he is nothing but a myth, meet him they do. After a brief duel and a mild In-Who-Endo (seriously, I don't think they can help themselves), Robin takes The Doctor and Clara to meet his Merry Men.

What follows is a very condensed retelling of the Robin Hood story as we are introduced to the main villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who is swiftly shown to be a nasty piece of work. Then we bounce straight to the archery contest for the golden arrow. Things take a sharp turn away from the norm here, as The Sheriff's knights turn out to be robots, and The Doctor and Robin take some time to get really stuck into a phenomenal comedic double act. It really was very entertaining.

Historically accurate

Interestingly it is Clara who gets to take the lead in coaxing out the Villain Monologue and securing a bit of back-story from the Sheriff. It's always good to see the Companion adding practical value rather than just being a warm body to explain things to or as an emotional foil for The Doctor.

The season arc tease was a little less offensive this episode in that Missy herself was blissfully absent, however it still seemed clumsily shoved in. We don't need the arc referenced in every episode. Let's just enjoy a standalone episode for once.

The Doctor works out the Sheriff's plan and why it won't work, revealing a flaw that will prove fatal to half the country. And here's where it all falls apart for me. Somehow, hitting the side of the ship with a golden arrow will give it a surge in lift and get it clear of the atmosphere. If the gold just needed to be in contact with the ship, why were they bothering to melt it down and forge those huge circuit board things? If a bit of extra gold on the outside would have got them clear, why didn't they use the stuff the peasants were escaping with, or the huge vat of Sheriff-infused gold that was still in the dungeon?

Hasta la vista, Sheriff.

Ignoring all of that, I liked that the three of them had to work together to pull it off, and the overall resolution of the episode was nice, especially Robin's words to The Doctor.

And today's team-building exercise is...

Overall, the episode ran a little short, making the whole thing seem a bit rushed. I can forgive The Doctor and Clara happening to materialise right next to Robin, thereby getting things moving quickly, but the Robin Hood legend is so rich that it's always going to be tough to get it into such a short space of time. We move straight from introducing characters to a major point in the legend. Add to this that (amusing as it was) a lot of time was chewed up on the banter between Robin and The Doctor and things just seem a little Go, go, go, Geronimo!

I have to say that I still found this episode to be great fun, and would totally re-watch. I have to give it extra points because my wife actually enjoyed this one, and she's not really a fan at all.

8/10

Can we fix it?

Just a couple of things to fix with this one, all related to the eventual solution. I think we needed a bit more explanation about how the Gold Matrix™ works, which could hopefully make me a bit more comfortable with how shooting a gold arrow into the side of the ship would result in a power surge.

I'm thinking that the Gold Matrix is installed on the exterior of the ship. We specifically see shots of the circuit-like panels as the castle crumbles away when the ship is taking off. The panels would appear to somehow feed energy into node points on the sides of the ship, which in turn power the engines.

The issue then is not that the ship cannot clear the atmosphere, but that it is unstable and will explode, but the robots aren't trying to clear the atmosphere, they are still following through with the Sheriff's plan of attacking London. They are doing this because the Sheriff is still in charge. Even without the beheading, seeing the Sheriff stumble into the control room covered in gold could be a good reveal that he is already mostly robot.

The Doctor would point all this out, indicating a direct infusion of gold into one of the node points would overload the matrix flight controls and cause the engine power to temporarily spike, sending the ship clear of the atmosphere. The rest of the scene would play out the same, only they would be much closer to the ship, because flinging a solid gold arrow that far taxes my suspension of disbelief no end.

Review - Time Heist

Season 8 continues to showcase the potential for story diversity, as The Doctor and Clara pull a bank job in Time Heist.

Season 8, Episode 5 - Time Heist 

Wow! This episode was just spot on for me. It really highlights the way Doctor Who can remain solidly rooted in science fiction, whilst at the same time playing off other genres and tropes. This episode uses the classic heist movie formula in the tradition of Ocean's 11, Sneakers or the Australian classic Malcolm.

Things start off quickly, with The Doctor and Clara (and us of course) thrown in the deep end along with a pair of specialists. The memory wipe is a great way of bypassing the discovery phase and getting straight into the action. Sadly I think it went some way to telegraphing the identity of The Architect for me. Not that it really mattered all that much.

On that note, I understand they were setting up The Doctor figuring out who The Architect is, but it just seemed out of place to hear him come out with "I hate him," with no real motivation behind it. The Architect hadn't done anything specific to harm The Doctor or anyone else. They all heard themselves willingly submit to the memory wipe. It was just out of place.

The entire caper was very enjoyable, playing out with perfect pacing, and despite the quick start, didn't suffer from Go, go, go, Geronimo!, most likely because it didn't waste time with the set-up. The only element to the plan that seemed a bit strange was the "exit strategy". I'm unclear how Psi and Saibra managed to return to the planet and insinuate themselves into the guard staff when the place was in lockdown. The thing is, the quality of the rest of the episode allowed me to suspend disbelief at that point.

They teleported directly into the guards' locker room

The Teller was a nicely creepy monster, very alien and clearly threatening. The whole "soup" thing was really cool, and looked creepy enough. I'm not sure detecting random guilt is particularly foolproof when the punishment is encephalous liquification. There's no real room for appeal after that. The flaw in that method was already highlighted nicely in the Red Dwarf episode Justice. That said, it's their bank, and they can police it as harshly as they want, I suppose.

The prison orange jumpsuit and restraints really clinch the look

The budding Clara / Danny relationship took up very little of the episode, but disappointingly, despite all his apparent confusion at Clara's primping at the start, The Doctor ends the episode with the very jealous sounding line of, "beat that for a date." We are confusing the situation again here. If the sentiment is "Why would you go on a date when you can do this?" then I get it, but this phrasing makes it sound like, "I'm better than him, so you should love me."

All up, this was my favourite episode of the season so far. Solid, entertaining, and oh so cool-looking. I think we have our first perfect score for the new Doctor.

10/10

Can we fix it?

Not much to fix here. Maybe a slight tweak to the way The Doctor gets on to his "hating" The Architect. If we heard more of the reasoning The Doctor comes out with at the end spouted earlier on, his hatred may have seemed more natural.

Other than that, I'd just tweak his wording of the whole Date line to, "Robbing a whole bank! That beats any date," or something along those lines.

Those are just me being picky though. It really is a top episode.

Review - Listen

The Doctor deals with some of his own personal monsters and we learn a bit more about Danny Pink in Listen.

Season 8, Episode 4 - Listen 

We begin with The Doctor proposing a theory that just as nature has produced perfect hunters there may also exist a creature which has evolved to be the perfect hider. He suggests these creatures are the cause of a dream shared by all people where a hand grabs you from under the bed.

Using a telepathic link with Clara to direct the TARDIS, The Doctor hopes to find a point in her life when she had the dream, and therefore discover the creature. Unfortunately, Clara gets distracted by the embarrassing aftermath of her fairly disastrous first date with Danny Pink, and things don't go according to plan.

This was an interesting concept for a story and I think overall it was executed quite well. Initially I felt a bit short-changed after there was no confirmed monster, but it is actually quite a refreshing change. There were several hints that indicate there was no creature at all, with each bit of evidence for it being paired with a rational explanation, but at the same time we just can't be sure.

I think it's a testament to the concept and the writing that there is already heated debated raging online about whether there was or wasn't a creature. I've said it before and I'll likely say it again, Steven Moffat can write. Where he falls down is his insistence on pushing these grand, overarching stories and tying everything together. Which leads into my one real issue with this episode. The connection to Day of the Doctor. It just seemed a bit gratuitous to me.

The only way I could not be excited about seeing The War Doctor again

On a similar note, is Gallifrey not time locked any more? How was the TARDIS able to get to that point in The Doctor's timeline? Perhaps it was just a special quirk of Clara's because she has been spliced throughout The Doctor's timeline, but it feels like they are forgetting some important canon there.

In the end, this whole episode felt like a bit of a nothingness. We got some interesting insights into both The Doctor and Danny Pink, and it was yet again Clara's knack with kids that won the day, but overall it was a much slower pace than we've seen recently with not a great deal of excitement. Not that that's inherently a bad thing, but we maybe need a bit more to hook the audience. And with no definite resolution, we are left without so much a story as a collection of things that happened and some unanswered questions. As I said, not everything needs to be answered, but this kind of felt unfinished.

6/10

Can we fix it?

I'm not really sure we can, at least not without completely altering the whole thing. As I said, there is a good concept here, but I don't think it's actually a story. There's a bit of value around discussing this episode and it's implications on the wider Whoniverse, but it's just not that entertaining in and of itself.

Getting rid of the in-your-face reference to Day of The Doctor could have helped. I'm pretty sure some clever people would have made the connection with the barn at some point. If not, I'm certain that Moffat would have taken the opportunity to tell people that was his intention in some interview or another.

What this episode really needs is a solid ending. A good story needs to be structured in such a way that we have Introduction, Investigation, Escalation and Resolution (More info on what I mean here). This episode shows the first three to varying degrees, but there is no real Resolution phase, at least not from The Doctor's perspective. I can't fathom The Doctor abandoning his theory without knowing for sure.

This episode is blissfully free of my other major issues, but without a definite story, it will always just feel like filler.

Just an afterthought...

I know everyone is debating whether there was a monster or not, but to me there is another more interesting question; was the kid really The Doctor? I like to think it was actually The Master. The boy appears to have similar dark hair and could be crying due to his experience looking into the Untempered Schism. That all depends on at what point in the initiation into the Academy the youngsters are made to face the Schism though.

Crying is the first sign of hyper-insanity

Either way, I hope my theory that Missy is actually The Master regenerated and gender-swapped is true and she whips out Dan The Soldier Man at some point. That'd be ace.

Review - Into the Dalek

Capaldi settles into his version of The Doctor and Clara sets her sights elsewhere as an old enemy returns in Into the Dalek.

Season 8, Episode 2, Into the Dalek.

Things start with a bang, as we see yet another large scale cold open which shows off the special effects budget. This one worked considerably better than the dinosaur at the start of Deep Breath though, in that it was better integrated into the overall story. We pick up where we left off (sort of) as The Doctor has picked up the coffee Clara demanded at the end of Deep Breath.

From there things are set up solidly as we are introduced to a magic shrink ray and The Doctor gives a nod to the obvious inspiration for this episode, the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage (or was it 1987's Inner Space?). Of course I'm seeing a few things in this episode that I've seen before. The Doctor's initial encounter with the titular creature is very reminiscent of Nine's meeting in the Season 1 episode Dalek. Once we get inside the Dalek, we see robotic antibodies again, much like in Season 7's Let's Kill Hitler. The sets were nice though. They seemed somehow realistic and delightfully cheap at the same time.

Things play out as you would expect with miniature people running around inside a cybernetic alien killing machine, culminating in a fairly predictable result once their goal is achieved. The Doctor's little mind-meld took a wonderful turn, playing nicely into the "am I a good man?" theme they seem to be setting up for this season, and was hammered home with one line from Rusty.

You are a good Dalek.

Ouch! You need some aloe for that burn, Doctor?

One thing I didn't really appreciate was being taken out of the story so abruptly just to wave the whole Missy season arc in my face again. It seems they are going to handle it in a similar way to the Madame Kovarian tease from Season 6. I don't recall the Kovarian tease being quite so jarring though. Generally she peered through the hatch during slower parts of the story. Throwing from a tense climax to the "heaven" bit just felt wrong. Perhaps that was the point. Either way, I think I like my season arc hints a bit more subtle than this.

Please stop.

We see more of a shift in dynamic between The Doctor and Clara this episode too, which is summed up neatly when she refers to herself as his "carer". That was actually pretty funny, but very telling at the same time. Is she bitter about his apparent aging? Now that The Doctor is off the table, they are setting up some kind of clumsy relationship with Clara's co-worker Danny Pink. And what was with all the sexual innuendo around Danny? It made no sense to me.

But why does The Doctor have a hatred of soldiers now? The Brigadier was a soldier, and The Doctor was all set to call on him in A Good Man Goes to War. I sincerely hope they are not setting up some reason why The Doctor can dislike Danny just so he can appear jealous of Clara. If it plays out more paternally, it would be okay, but even paternal feelings for Clara would feel a bit out of place in the face of the detached alien coldness we've had the past two episodes.

Overall it was a thoroughly entertaining episode, and I think it tops most of what we've had for the past few seasons. I wouldn't call it exactly perfect, but certainly close.

9/10

Can we fix it?

This one just needs a couple of tweaks, and not even to the main story. Both the Danny Pink set-up and the Missy scene caused pacing issues for me. We were thrown into a pretty hectic start only to be swept off to a hum-drum day at work for Clara and Danny, and I've already mentioned the jarring affect of the Missy scene.

These abrupt gear changes were disconcerting and could have been either removed (the Missy scene) or shortened (Danny's introduction), but I'm not entirely sure what you would fill the time with. There's not much else I can think of that could cause issues for the group inside the Dalek without just rehashing those antibodies again.

Danny's introduction also seemed a bit ham-fisted. They are clearly hinting at a tragic past for him, but the set-up was clumsy. He's obviously supposed to have taken a civilian life at some point, and I'm strongly suspecting all the innuendo about him being a bit of a player was just there to set up the line about him being a "lady killer." In this case, I feel we are going to find out this is quite literally what he is.

Without knowing for sure what the plans are for Danny, I couldn't guess at how to tighten this up, but maybe some more on why people may think he's a ladies man would have given their comments more context and made it all seem less strange and, quite frankly, creepy.

One other small tweak would be to not have Rusty talk about destroying the Daleks until after he gets a does of The Doctor's brain. At the start he should be talking about how the Daleks needed to be stopped, that what they were doing was wrong and futile. This would be enough to stop the resistance killing it, and to get The Doctor interested. In the end, by trying to restore that attitude, he actually pushes Rusty too far back the other way. I think that would have worked well.

Review - Deep Breath

The Doctor suffers the usual regeneration confusion in the first episode of Peter Capaldi's run, Deep Breath.

Series 8, Episode 1 - Deep Breath

Sorry for the delay on this one, but I've posted some initial thoughts over on Geek-O-Rama.net. Below is the same review, with my suggested fixes as always.

Much like previous regeneration episodes of the New Who, we spend most of the time seeing the doctor getting his head around who he is now. He spends much of the first half of the episode being confused and forgetful. At the same time Clara spends the first half of the episode not knowing how to handle The Doctor's change to an older form.

We touch again on the theme of Companion abandonment, both physical and emotional, as Clara comes to terms with The Doctor's wholesale change and later when he runs off, gets a taste of that "what now" feeling we've seen companions deal with before.

It's made clear fairly early on that there will be no hanky-panky with this Doctor, leading to the final scene in which he makes it emphatically clear that he is not Clara's boyfriend. Early on, Vastra lays it down wonderfully, putting Clara, and by proxy certain segments of the audience, in their place.

For all her protestations, much of Clara's issue with The Doctor's regeneration does seem to relate to physical looks, so that whole scene is quite gratifying in many ways. On the other hand, Clara's implication that she's into older blokes could be a worrying indication that we've not seen the end of Hunka Hunka Burning Doc.

But how could he possibly have adventures in space and time when he's so... grey?

Bringing the Clockwork Men back was an odd choice and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I always thought more could have been done with them, but this felt a bit ham-fisted. Why did they need to be from a sister ship? In The Girl In The Fireplace it was established that it was the destruction of the mission computer that caused the maintenance droids to start cannibalising the crew. Are we to believe this happened twice? I'd have rather seen this as the same group of droids that had all come through a time window and become trapped. I'd hesitate to file this under Needlessly Recurring Monsters as this was only their second outing, but they were clumsily brought back, which is a characteristic of that particular problem.

Sure, I could have harvested a whole face, but where's the fun in that?

The dinosaur was a bit of a nothingness though. It served almost no purpose in furthering the story, apart from a very public immolation. I suppose it did bring the Paternoster Gang there, but I suspect a blue box crashing into the middle of Victorian London would probably have done the same thing. Not exactly a Too Many Monsters type situation, but more of a red herring.

Don't look at me. I'm irrelevant.

This episode went to great lengths to show the parallels between The Doctor with his multiple regenerations and the Clockwork Man with the constant replacing of its own parts. The broom analogy was a good one, which coincidentally I had seen used only recently as I read Terry Pratchett's I Shall Wear Midnight. I'm not sure if the silver tray scene was taking this too far or not. I think I liked it though. I do worry that this "who am I" business will become a sub-plot that takes up too much of this season.

There are a few choice In-Who-Endos between Vastra and Jenny, but nothing excessively crude. I even chuckled at a few points. Sadly, by involving Clara in these, Vastra and Jenny's relationship is somehow marginalised. The cool thing about Vastra and Jenny's relationship was not that is was a cross-species same-sex one, but that it was seemingly strongly monogamous. By showing that Vastra is into other girls too, really ruins what was a lovely duo.

Please ignore my wife and get nekkid.

And finally The Doctor thinks to ask the question he should have done in The Bells of Saint John. Who gave Clara his number? This really is all the tease for the season arc that we need. Unfortunately that's not spoon-feeding us enough, so they elected to have an entire epilogue scene introducing Missy, the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere. In a far more tragic turn of events, she refers to The Doctor as her boyfriend. Goddamnit!

A couple of other minor concerns, I noticed The Doctor said "that's not the question" a couple of times. I'm not sure if that's just a one-off for this episode, or if it will become his Annoying Catchphrase. If it does, it's not as bad as it could be, although I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it used a few more times. There was also a touch of Deus Ex Screwdriver with the revelation the sonic is voice activated now.

And I just need to take a second to comment on the new opening credits. Do. Not. Like. There's a hint of something interesting there, but all the cogs and clocks is just a bit too clichéd for me. There's nothing wrong with the good old time vortex with flying names. It's a classic for a reason.

As nice as it was to see Capaldi take on the mantle of The Doctor (and I think he did it well), this episode was just too riddled with issues to score particularly highly from me.

6/10

Can we fix it?

First up, some easy fixes. We dial back the innuendos from Vastra and Jenny a bit, and remove any hint that Vastra is hot for Clara. There's enough comedy in this episode without it. Also, completely remove the final scene with Missy. It was unnecessary and the episode was already significantly over time.

I've already alluded to some of the changes I'd make to the whole Clockwork Men thing. Replace the reference to them being from a sister ship of the SS Madame De Pompadour. It didn't help The Doctor to learn this, and was only there to explain their reappearance to the audience. I'd make them from the same ship, but they got caught outside a time window (or even halfway through) when The Doctor shut things down. This would mean they were hanging around, not for thousands of years, but only a century or so. Enough time to wear out and begin the process of replacing their own systems with human parts, but still retain some clockwork.

Their origin could be revealed during The Doctor's dialogue with the Control Node, removing the need for the naming of any ships. If it was scripted well enough, things could be relatively obscure, whilst at the same time making the audience aware of the link to the previous episode.

"We were seeking replacement parts to repair damage to our ship. Our time windows were destroyed, but our ship still awaits us. We determined to wait."

It makes little sense for the clockwork robots to harvest human parts to make anything when they are trapped in a resource-rich environment. It worked when they were trapped in space, but on Earth in any timeframe they would have access to raw materials they could fashion parts out of. By highlighting that they are attempting to remain hidden until such a time as they can return to their ship, they sort of justify this behaviour again.

This would also mean the Control Node would have to have a whole face. If he absolutely needed to have half a face to show his mechanical nature, he should have a reason for that such as damage to the skin, as well as try to conceal it. To this end, I'd have his first on-screen victim be shown to claw at his face tearing some of the skin off. After that he would be seen wearing a Phantom of the Opera style half mask, which would harken back to the original appearance in Season 2.

With some further explanation from the Control Node about how over time they found their systems began failing. They originally manufactured mechanical replacements but started using human parts in order to blend in. Stories had begun to circulate amongst the lower classes about murderous and ghoulish nobles who would steal your flesh and couldn't be killed. At this point they fled France, but it didn't stop the revolutionaries cutting the heads off of a lot of nobles. But the human bits have a short lifespan, and need more regular replacement., leading to the harvest restaurant.

Everything else could play out the same way, even the flying escape pod and the cheesy impalement on Big Ben.

Honestly though, these guys better not show up again. They are supposed to be unique enough to make The Doctor geek out over them. Let's keep them that way.

Annoying Catchphrases

The Doctor has had a catch phrase or recurring idiosyncrasy off and on throughout the entire run, such as Two's recorder, Four's constant offer of jelly babies, or Three's scientifically impossible recurring suggestion to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. I suspect this is a way of giving fans something else to differentiate the Doctors. In much the same way as Roger Moore's first outing as James Bond in Live and Let Die saw concerted efforts to distance him from Connery, such as different clothing and swapping the Vodka Martini for a bourbon, each Doctor has his own unique costume, Sonic and sometimes catchphrase. This gives the fans something to discuss when comparing these Doctors, and conveniently opens the door to merchandise licencing for sonic screwdriver toys and official bow-tie / fez combos.

This is a thing that exists.

It seems to me that recent seasons have made a big point of ensuring The Doctor has a catchphrase. "Allons-y" seemed particularly forced from the mouth of Ten. Its introduction in Army of Ghosts was awkward, and the fact that The Doctor made such a big deal about it and how he should say it more often speaks volumes. "Geronimo" for Eleven was slightly more tolerable, perhaps because, for me at least, it was a more familiar term that worked in the context it kept appearing.

Of all the recent Doctors though, Nine had the best "catchphrase" with Fantastic! When I say best here, I mean the most flexible. It is able to be worked into conversation relatively easily especially as most of the stuff The Doctor deals with can be described as fantastic. Allons-y and Geronimo on the other hand are limited by their rather contextually specific natures. Just check out this video:

Season 7 not shown

Nine uses "Fantastic" in a variety of situations and delivers it in a variety of different ways.  Some of them I would hesitate to include as examples of catchphrase use because they fit so naturally. You can also see that relative to the number of episodes they appeared in, Ten and Eleven pulled out their catch phrase far less than Nine did. I'm not sure if they actively eased off this or just found it difficult to work it in. They even gave Eleven a second catch phrase of "[Nouns] are cool." This one was far more annoying than Alons-y and Geronimo combined, requiring a lot of work to jamb into the script. But it sure gave the fandom something to work with.

A catch phrase is all well and good, but it's best if it is used sparingly and can be worked in naturally. As shown above, a general or flexible exclamation is best. Something like "Great Gallifrey!" could work well, as it would fit equally for shock, frustration, awe and numerous other emotions. Rather pessimistically though I expect Twelve to be spouting "Whoopty-doodle" or some other meme-friendly sound bite at semi-regular intervals.

Season 2 wrap-up

With my reviews of Season 2 complete, it's time for another season wrap-up.

My scores

Episode 1 - New Earth                         5/10
Episode 2 - Tooth and Claw                 8/10
Episode 3 - School Reunion                  9/10
Episode 4 - The Girl in the Fireplace   8/10
Episode 5 - Rise of the Cybermen         8/10
Episode 6 - The Age of Steel                 8/10
Episode 7 - The Idiot's Lantern             8/10
Episode 8 - The Impossible Planet        8/10
Episode 9 - The Satan Pit                     8/10
Episode 10 - Love & Monsters             5/10
Episode 11 - Fear Her                          7/10
Episode 12 - Army of Ghosts               9/10
Episode 13 - Doomsday                       8/10

                              Season Average = 7/10

After a poor start with New Earth, we settled into a fairly solid season until Love and Monsters sends it all crashing back down. We didn't quite get any 10/10 this season, although School Reunion was very, very close.

Yes!

No!

Ongoing problems

How does this season stand up with regards to my pet peeves? Well, Season 2 saw:

• 2 episodes featuring instances of Hunka hunka burning Doc
• 2 episodes with In-Who-Endos
• 3 episodes that resorted to Deus Ex Screwdriver
• 1 episode that veered into The Companion Show Featuring The Doctor territory

We see a continued reliance on the Sonic, with three episodes using it in silly ways or having to specifically lock it out. However, this was balanced by several episodes where The Doctor used other devices to achieve a goal that I feel in more recent times he would have used the Sonic for, so that was nice.

Overall, the instances of these problems seemed to be less frequent this season, which could have contributed to the fairly consistent high scores I've given them. The main fixes I applied to these episodes have been tightening up the story and closing plot holes.

Season Arc

The Torchwood arc started off rather subtle, but like the Bad Wolf arc, the hints sometimes felt forced.

Subtle is good.

All up, the concept of Torchwood was probably a little easier to work in to the various stories than the phrase "Bad Wolf". References to Torchwood all seemed relatively natural, apart from maybe The Captain's reference in The Satan Pit. I suppose it also helps that Torchwood is an organisation that can have an impact on many aspects of The Doctor's adventures.

References to the series arc were far more sparse this season, with just under half the episodes featuring a reference (6 out of 13), compared to nearly all episodes in series 1. The first mention of Torchwood in Season 1 could go unnoticed, but its impact in The Christmas Invasion makes it clear that whatever it is, it's powerful and possibly dangerous. Our first reference in Season 2 proper outright states what it is, so although we are yet to see what Torchwood becomes, we already know from the outset broadly what it is.

Could this have been handled differently? Maybe. If the origin reveal had come later in the series, the references would have been a bit more mysterious. Swapping Tooth and Claw with Fear Her could help a lot, meaning that by the time we see Torchwood's origin, we have already been teased with multiple Torchwood references. We would also jump straight from that origin to the modern organisation in Army of Ghosts.

Either way, easing up on the number of references and making them feel less forced improves the series arc tease immensely, and makes it feel a lot better integrated into the individual stories.

The Death of Sexy Doctor

All hail Peter Capaldi. I've read two articles recently that have given me strong hope for an end to some of my major peeves, and Capaldi has a strong hand in it.

The first article reported on a Radio Times interview where Peter Capaldi is quoted as saying:

“There’ll be no flirting, that’s for sure. It’s not what this Doctor’s concerned with. It’s quite a fun relationship, but no. I did call and say, ‘I want no Papa-Nicole moments.’ I think there was a bit of tension with that at first, but I was absolutely adamant.”

Clearly Capaldi himself recognises the problem of Hunka Hunka Burning Doc. The fact that he sensed some tension at his ultimatum speaks volumes as to how deep-rooted this issue is. I hope the fandom, and let's be honest, it's largely the new female fans I'm referring to here, can accept that The Doctor can be just as engaging, heroic, and entertaining without being a love interest.

Nope. Just not doing it for me.

Me either.

That article also quotes Capaldi as saying:

“I didn’t want to be Doctor Who in a Doctor Who I didn’t like. I had to be convinced the show was going in a direction I was interested in.”

And as a well-known Whovian from way back, this is very reassuring to me (despite him referring to The Doctor as "Doctor Who.") I get the feeling he and I would have fairly closely aligned views here.

The second article that gave me hope was from Empire Magazine. In it, Capaldi comes out with this gorgeous insight:

"It can become a kind of franchise where it's not a real character at all, but just an amalgam of elements that people think are Doctor Who: a scarf, a bow tie... I wanted to be the actual Doctor Who."

This succinctly sums up the cause of many of my issues. I think both the writers and fans are guilty of this to varying degrees. By focussing on the small group of elements which are popularly seen as quintessentially Doctor Who to the exclusion of new or forgotten ideas, the show quickly becomes stale. The same monsters, themes, supporting characters, even jokes, churned out over and over, making it one big meme.

Yes, well, there may still be some work to do.

This is also true of The Doctor himself. We've had seven seasons of "Kooky Doctor" with six of those seasons getting "Sexy Doctor" as well. It really is time for a change. To that point, Capaldi mentions that Twelve will be more enigmatic and alien.

"He's more alien than he's been for a while. He doesn't quite understand human beings or really care very much about their approval."

Yes! This is exactly what comes to mind when I think of The Doctor. An alien exploring the universe, trying in his way to make things better but never truly fitting in. Human emotions and motivations should be completely foreign to him, and a perpetual source of confusion and frustration. I've already touched on this when discussing Capaldi's costume reveal, but The Doctor should constantly look out of place, because he always is.

Jenna Coleman adds to this point, saying:

"With Matt's Doctor [Clara] felt quite safe, really. She knew she'd be caught if she was in danger, but this guy is a lot less human-friendly and a lot less patient. He's more removed and inaccessible. You can't quite access him in the same way."

Maybe you could just stand over there, out of the way.

All of this points towards a wonderfully old-school Doctor, constantly cranky, snappish and frustrated with his comparatively ignorant companions. I'm hoping for something with touches of One and Three in equal measure, but of course with something new from Capaldi too.

Here's hoping.

Review - Doomsday

It's double the classic foes as Daleks and Cybermen clash with humanity trapped in the middle in Doomsday.

Season 2, Episode 13 - Doomsday

This episode picks up where Army of Ghosts left off, just as the Daleks escape the Void Ship. Rose and Micky stare them down as Rose postpones their inevitable slaughter by showing she has a strategic use. Meanwhile, the Cybermen begin their conquest of Earth as The Doctor stands by helpless. Of course our old friend Angry Doctor shows up again briefly as he explains why humanity is resisting.

I'm a bit cross!

As the Daleks extract Raj's brainwaves for intel, desiccating him in the process for some reason, the Cybermen move in to investigate. The resulting confrontation is one of the funniest moments in New Who. Two supremely confident murderous races in a stand off refusing to back down. Some of the lines delivered by the Daleks in this verbal fracas are a little off base. A little too blusterous and even witty. This is a bit off-putting until later when we learn from The Doctor that these Daleks are special.

The Cult of Skaro is an interesting concept, and works quite well despite being very un-Dalek. Most large militaries have similar units for, well, I suppose it's R&D. Whilst the Daleks are supremely confident of their might, it makes sense even they would want to work out better ways to EXTERMINATE! It also makes sense that such deviant behaviour be kept secret, regardless (or even because) of the benefits it offers.

After discovering The Doctor is on the scene, the Daleks begin powering up this episode's MacGuffin of choice, the Genesis Ark, as Rose and Mickey try to work out both how to get out of their predicament and why they aren't yet dead. Turns out the Daleks need a time traveller to activate the Ark because it it Timelord tech. Here's the major flaw in the Dalek plot. If Rose and Mickey weren't there, how were they planning on doing this? Fly around the Universe hoping to find a time traveller?

I was sure there was one here last time we visited.

The Doctor is held for questioning as Jackie and Yvonne Hartman are marched off for Upgrading. The Doctor is freed by a squad of dimension-jumping commandos led by some old friends from Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel, and gives a bit more plot exposition about the Void and how all this dimension jumping is irreparably damaging both universes. Hartman marches bravely to her doom, claiming she "did her duty for Queen and Country", before the death of the Cyber Commander allows Jackie to slip away.

Just as Rose is about to capitulate and touch the Genesis Ark, The Doctor rolls up, but not before Rose has a chance to drop some proper bad-assery on the Daleks, referencing the Bad Wolf arc and revealing she killed the Emperor Dalek. The Doctor rescues Rose and Mickey, managing to get a little joke about the Sonic in while he's at it.

Doesn't Kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. But I'll tell you what it does do.It is very good at opening doors.

But Mickey messes up and accidentally starts the Genesis Ark opening. This leads to a significant battle between the Daleks and the remaining Humans and Cybermen as the Daleks attempt to exit the building. Long story short, an entire Time Lord prison ship's worth of Daleks spew forth from the Ark and begin to EXTERMINATE!

After a rather uncomfortable reunion between Jackie and Dave, The Doctor reveals his plan to suck everything back into The Void. This relies on the fact that everything that's been through The Void is covered in "void stuff." This is particularly grating, because The Doctor has already gone to great pains to describe how The Void has nothing in it, not even time. So what is the "Void Stuff" then? Also, why do Cybermen who have been upgraded in this universe also have it?

Quite apart from that, the plan works, and all of the invaders are forcefully ejected from the universe. However Rose almost gets sucked out too, only to be saved last minute by a dimension-jumping Dave, leaving The Doctor alone on this side. This leads to the scene voted the greatest moment in Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy. The emotion is turned up to 11 as The Doctor says farewell to Rose via a projected image. Despite being slightly over the top, it's a brilliant close to Rose's time with The Doctor.

This one's not exactly a favourite, but pretty re-watchable.

8/10

Can we fix it?

I'm not sure there's a lot to do here. As I said previously, making Yvonne Hartman a bit more officious would have improved her final redemption. If it was made clearer early on that duty is her main drive, her ability to retain that after upgrading would work a little better. I'd also like to have seen her more deflated when she realised there was no winning against the Cybermen.

I'm not sure if a bit of pleading would have been too much before the final acceptance, but I think a little exchange with the Cybers on doing her duty could fit nicely.

Y: I did my duty for Queen and Country. I always did my duty.
C: And that will not change.

And a slight tweak to her repeated phrase from "I did my duty" to "I will do my duty" reinforces this. It gives us a little bit of doubt on why she retained control. Was it pure willpower, or some kind of programming loophole. The tears would just add to the fuzziness.

The only other thing that needs clearing up is the Cybers created in this Earth. I think a quick line during The Doctor's epilogue in Bad Wolf Bay could tie up that loose plot thread. Something along the lines of "There were a lot of humans who had been upgraded using components from the alternate universe. It was... messy."

A good season ending and a great way to send off a companion.

And introduce a new one.

Season 8 full length trailer

The BBC have dropped the first full length trailer for Season 8. Check it out below:

First off, YAWN! Leading with a Dalek. I know they have to put them in every year for licensing reasons, but come on. That said, I don't think I recognised any of the other monsters or villains that appeared. Glad to see the Paternoster Gang in there, although they are also verging on overused now. But then there was this:

Someone better be riding this thing

I'm guessing that will be a part of the same episode as the Paternoster Gang, with the Dinosaur rising from the depths of the old Silurian Empire. We also get glimpses of a cybernetic guy, a robot knight and some sort of bug-eyed alien, so the creature diversity seems to have stepped up a bit.

The trailer seems very much focussed on the "what type of Doctor is he now" question. I recall when David Tennant first came on the scene, we had the same quandary, but it was well and truly resolved by the end of The Christmas Invasion. I kind of hope all of that is from the first episode of the new season, because it's not a theme I think has much longevity to it.

Either way, fun times ahead.

Review - Army of Ghosts

The season finale stakes are raised as not one, but two old enemies return to plague The Doctor and Rose, starting with the first instalment, Army of Ghosts.

Season 2, Episode 12 - Army of Ghosts

Right from the cold open we see this is the end of Rose. Not only does she lets us know we are about to see how she died, this is rammed home with a rather blatant shot of The Doctor asking how long Rose will be staying and her answering, "For ever." Having Rose narrate this opening gives it a touch of The Companion Show, featuring The Doctor. Of course, the reboot started very much from Rose's perspective, so her departure using that perspective is fairly natural.

The Doctor and Rose arrive back in London in time to witness an appearance of the now commonplace Ghosts. Jackie believes one of the Ghosts to be her long dead father, but The Doctor immediately brings her back to reality, theorising that something is pressing itself into our world. The Ghost's origins are rather quickly spoiled for us viewers with some cutaways of Torchwood doing their thing, complete with a familiar face

Hello, I'm Totally-Not-Martha

Of course, they could still be actual ghosts, even if Torchwood are responsible for it, right? Well, no. We get a pretty clear shot of a Cyberman early on as they attack Totally-Not-Martha. I feel it could have been better if this was left a bit more mysterious, keeping the blurry silhouette behind the plastic. Of course the ear buds could be a bit of a give away, but all the workers are wearing them, and if subtly shot, it would work quite well as a tease for the quicker viewers.

Add to that another of Torchwood's toys, The Sphere. It has a nice chunk of exposition which was delivered reasonably well and is set up as nicely menacing. The science doesn't really work, but that actually works to its advantage.

"As a scientist, nothing scares me more than poor science."

The Doctor manages to use some doohickeys (again, not the sonic) to follow the ghost energy back to Torchwood. Having him take Jackie and pass her off as Rose was quite funny but did highlight the Hot Young Things Only Policy he seems to have. 

Their introduction to Torchwood plays out well and all of the "showing off" manages to introduce some key elements for the resolution of the story in a relatively natural way. The Doctor's reaction to the sphere, now identified as a Void Ship, shows us this is something to fear perhaps more so than the ghosts themselves. And I actually love Yvonne Hartman's reaction to The Doctor here.

Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the rights of Man.

And that's it, isn't it? It's fine when The Doctor messes about with something just because it's there, even if he doesn't know what he's doing. Nobody else is allowed to though. They are all too stupid.

Rose manages to sneak off to do some investigating on her own, psychic paper in hand. Apparently that stuff seems to work on ID card readers now. That was a bit annoying, but easily explained away, I suppose.

There's a brain in every door. 

And although things don't go exactly as planned for Rose, we get a nice little surprise with the return of Mickey, now with even more badass skills. God I love Mickey. The poor bloke had is so hard for so long. It was good to see him develop far beyond the joke he was at the start.

Anyway, as things start to predictably go wrong, we see the ghosts are in fact an army of Cybermen invading from the alternate universe seen in Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel. Mickey assumes the occupant of the Void Ship is some kind of Cyberman Leader, but in the closing moments we find out it is in fact...

Yep. Those guys again.

Overall, this has some good pacing. As I've said before, pacing is usually less of an issue in two-parters though. Apart from going a bit too early on the full Cyberman reveal we are brought through what is essentially a whole bunch of plot exposition and set-up for part two with no real padding or boring bits.

It was fun to see The Doctor put in his place a bit. He's always interesting when he's on the back foot. Yvonne was a bit weak as a pseudo villain though. Seems they tried to make her more of an officious manager than the domineering head of a secret alien-hunting task force. There were glimpses of that character there, but not really enough.

A good beginning of the end for Rose, and definitely worth subsequent viewings.

9/10

Can we fix it?

Only a few tweaks needed here. Simplest change is to lessen the initial Cyberman reveal to keep them secret a bit longer. A bit of classic monster-vision could have worked, or just the close up scream shot. The first time we should see any bit of an actual Cyberman is when they burst through the plastic sheeting in classic Tomb of the Cybermen style. This means watchers who haven't guessed from the earbuds or the sounds of upgrades are still reeling from this reveal as the invasion happens only to have that compounded by the emergence of the Daleks from the Void Ship.

Mostly I'd like to see a bit of a change in Yvonne Hartman. I feel she would have been better played as a bit of a cold-hearted bitch who slaps on the friendly façade as a "management tool". I reckon she may have been written like that but it didn't come through in the performance.

The dual personalities could easily work with little to no change in script. When Yvonne asks for hospitality to send Raj something she sounds friendly, but when she specifies "not alcohol" it's delivered as a bit of a joke. I think changing the delivery of this line to be more mean spirited would change the time of the character entirely. It goes from "get him something to cheer him up, but no booze because that could make him worse LOL!" to "get him something to distract him from the tedium of his task because that's bad for productivity, but not booze because we can't have too much fun."

There are points where Yvonne seems to drop the friendly exterior, such as when Jackie talks about using the gravity clamps to carry shopping, and when The Doctor demands they return the sphere to the void. Sadly she only gets a little condescending or snappish. It would be good to see this happen with the staff too. Maybe being a little more catty when Adeola and Gareth go off for their little liaison.

It would be nice to see that friendly mask slip more and more as the episode progresses. Eventually she is left ineffectually fuming at her loss of control, showing her as one of those bi-polar office tyrants that are your best mate when things are going well but go insane when things don't go their way.

Imagine someone like that in charge of a secret paramilitary alien hunting organisation.

Terrifying.