Review - Heaven Sent

The Doctor deals with his grief at the loss of Clara by working his way through a labyrinthine castle, whilst avoiding the embodiment of one of his earliest nightmares in Heaven Sent.

Season 9, Episode 11 - Heaven Sent

After a mysterious hand throws a switch and crumbles to dust, The Doctor arrives, having been teleported away from Earth at the end of Face the Raven. He lets us know that despite his promise to Clara not so seek revenge, he will likely be doing just that.

Before long we see the castle he is in has video screens scattered around it. These screens show monster vision from a creature which is slowly lumbering its way closer to The Doctor. Backed into a dead end, The Doctor reveals that he is afraid to die. Surprisingly, following this revelation, the creature freezes, and the castle begins to rearrange itself, allowing him to escape. As the creature returns, The Doctor realises that it resembles a dead body covered in veils and flies that gave him nightmares as a child.

Understandable.

As The Doctor devises an escape plan, we are introduced to the little gimmick of the episode that allows The Doctor to explain stuff to someone even though he is alone. He goes to his happy place. As he continues to explore the castle, and prompted by questions from his own sub-conscious masquerading as Clara, he works out that the castle is a torture chamber designed to get truths out of him.

There are quite a few clues that kinda telegraph the ending a bit. The Doctor seems to determinately fail to address them though. Perhaps that's the point. He knows what is going on deep down, but is still fooling himself. That said, there are a couple of inconsistencies, like the clothes. I suppose it probably works out somehow. 

At least one naked Doctor.

I don't want to spoil the ending of this one just in case, but it was awe-inspiring. It really was a perfect episode, with a complex mystery, a creepy monster (even if it is another zombie-like one) with a few jump scares too. They managed to make Clara present, but at the same time remain absent. I do feel that her protracted goodbye last week was lessened slightly by showing her again. Her appearance towards the end probably would have had more impact had she either been absent for an episode or two first, or if her demise had been more sudden. 

None if that detracts from this episode in itself though I simply cannot fault it. It is blessedly free of any of the issues that usually irk me, wonderfully paced, and a top-notch ending. Definitely the best episode in at least three seasons. 

10/10

Can we fix it?

Not at all. Perfection. 

Review - The Zygon Inversion

The events of The Zygon Invasion come to a head in this story's quite brilliant conclusion, The Zygon Inversion.

Season 9, Episode 8 - The Zygon Inversion

After last week's missile-laden cliff-hanger, we pick up this week with Clara trapped in her own mind watching helplessly through the Zygon mind link as her duplicate, Bonnie, tries to shoot The Doctor's plane down. Of course, Clara is made of stronger stuff, and is able to hijack Bonnie's body through sheer force of will. Not only does this allow her to foil the initial missile attack, giving The Doctor and Osgood time to escape, but eventually she also manages to blind-text The Doctor.

As The Doctor and Osgood determine that Clara is still alive, Bonnie begins fostering conflict between the humans and the Zygons. To this end, she forces a Zygon to revert to his natural state in front of humans and uploads video of the event to the web. She then sets about trying to secure the Osgood Box which as we learned last episode, is the ultimate sanction should the Zygon treaty fail. Having learned from The Doctor that Clara knows where the box is kept, Bonnie uses their mental link to interrogate her. Despite Clara's best efforts at double-talking around the questions, Bonnie learns the box is in the Black Archive.

Bonnie threatens to kill Clara, but is warned that she will soon find out why it's called the Osgood Box, and will then want to talk to her again. Clara's pod is packed up and Bonnie trots off to the archive, but not before telling her freshly returned US counterpart, now disguised as Kate, to deal with The Doctor.

The Doctor and Osgood have meanwhile found the place Bonnie filmed her video. Here they discover the Zygon she reverted who is now terrified he has destroyed all hope of a peaceful life for Zygons on Earth. In a scene that reinforces the opening of the previous episode, we see a good and peaceful Zygon just wanting to live his life in his new home. Unable to live with what he may have done, the poor bloke elects to kill himself.

Kate catches up with The Doctor and Osgood, taking them to the Zygon base. When they get there they realise that Clara's pod has been removed. Kate's UNIT guards transform and advance menacingly only to be cut down by Kate, who turns out not to be a Zygon. She reveals she escaped by the excessively complicated method of blowing the attacking alien away with the gun she was shown to have on her earlier. Crazy, I know. At least she apologised to The Doctor for killing them.

It's not Sonic, but it gets the job done.

The real meat of this episode comes in the final act as Bonnie enters the Black Archive and finds not one, but two Osgood Boxes, each with two activation buttons. Turns out this is The Doctor's plan all along. The buttons of one box will either revert all Zygons on Earth to their natural forms, or make their human forms permanent. The other box will either release a Zygon-specific nerve gas, or detonate a nuclear warhead large enough to destroy England.

As both Bonnie and Kate struggle to decide which buttons to push, The Doctor tries to convince them not to push either. Capaldi delivers a fantastically impassioned speech, which could have been made directly to the heads of most terrorist organisations worldwide (and a few governments too) with barely a changed word. 

Of course it all works out in the end, and as a bonus twist, The Doctor reveals this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. Bonnie, now reformed of her radical ways, takes the place of the missing Osgood and the pair get on with the business of keeping Earth safe.

All whilst rocking some epic cosplay.

This one was pretty much a near perfect episode. I seem to recall one small In-Who-Endo at one point, but it obviously wasn't bad enough for me to remember what it was (EDIT: Oh that's right, it was the winking thing. Fairly harmless I suppose). The pacing was perfect, the resolution was wonderful, and it really gave Capaldi time to shine with a solid monologue to sink his teeth into. 

The one thing that didn't happen which I hoped would, was some kind of justification for changing the Zygon rules last episode. With a big room full of people in pods, it seems like there is no solid explanation about when they do or do not need to keep the humans alive. I really feel like this change was made so that we could be faked out about characters being dead when they weren't. Previously we would know they were still alive somewhere if there was a Zygon version of them.

Despite that, I'm ranking this one the best of the season, and definitely the best from Capaldi's run.

10/10

Can we fix it?

Nope. Nothing to fix here.

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 - The Day of the Doctor

Well there was a whole bunch of hype leading up to this momentous event. It could have gone either way, but I'm glad to say it lived up to the hype, and I very much enjoyed The Day of the Doctor.

The 50th anniversary Special - The Day of the Doctor

Starting with the original credits and a reference to both Coal Hill Secondary School and the I. M. Foreman scrapyard where we first encountered the TARDIS in An Unearthly Child, right from the off you can see we are set for a whole flood of references to the past 50 years of Doctor Who. We had a couple of references to Omega, a big scarf, some nice bits and bobs in the Black Archive, and to my great pleasure, a reversal of the polarity. Sure, it wasn't of the neutron flow, but obviously The Doctor has sharpened his physics knowledge in recent years.

Nostalgia ahoy!

The Moment was sort of interesting, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it choosing Rose/Bad Wolf as it's interface form. This essentially boils down to getting Billie Piper into the episode somehow, really, but that's fine. It would have been good to see the Interface shift a few times to take on other forms using file footage. Maybe just flicker between them at times, or when first settling on a form.

When Ten and Eleven get together the interplay between them is truly awesome. Matt Smith and David Tennent have a clear chemistry on screen that gives a wonderful energy to the episode. I was worried John Hurt's War Doctor would end up being all dour and sombre and kill the buzz, but he only made things better. I loved every second of Hurt's interplay with the other two Doctors. In a way he was an in-show avatar of me expressing confused bewilderment at where Doctor Who has ended up, commenting on everything from the age of the other Doctors to the use of the phrase "Timey wimey".

They're scientific instruments, not water pistols!

Despite making fun of many of the things that usually irk me, we still had a whopping great In-Who-Endo added when Ten and Eleven compared Sonic Screwdrivers. We had plenty of other bits of funny banter between them without resorting to a tired old dick joke, thanks very much.

Hur hur hur! Willies.

Some of the scene transitions seemed to be a bit weird. I recall one wipe came in far too soon, whilst Kate Stewart was still talking, which seemed a bit sloppy to me. That said, the morph effects on the Zygons were awesome. Really smooth and natural looking. The 3D paintings looked really cool too. I imagine seeing it in 3D would have been quite the treat at that point, but I feel it would have been wasted throughout most of the rest of the episode.

The episode did have some pretty glaring continuity issues though. I'm still struggling to see how this whole thing fits with the events of The End of Time. The Doctor is clearly now looking to find Gallifrey and restore it to the galaxy, but he was previously determined not to let the Time Lords return because they planned to destroy reality. Is the Time Lock the same thing as the Stasis Cube, or are Rassilon and the other Time Lord high council trapped somewhere else? Hopefully subsequent episodes that build on this story and fill in the gaps, because I am rather confused at the moment. I may have to re-watch The End of Time again and see if that helps. It would have been awesome if they got Timothy Dalton back in to play Rassilon though.

There were also some internal story issues with Elizabeth and the Zygons. She would have had to be remarkably quick thinking to be able to replace the Commander and subsequently find out all of the details of the Zygon's plans without arousing suspicion. Overall I found that to be a tad clumsy even with the offhand "they never considered I would survive" line. It was fun to see the gap in Ten's life just previous to The End of Time filled in there. Of course you have to feel bad for Liz because you know she's going to end up bitter and hateful towards The Doctor. I'm also left feeling The Doctor is a bit of a dick for following through with the wedding when he wasn't actually interested. And how is he able to tell Ood Sigma about it? Doesn't he forget? Either way, John Hurt made that little bit of Hunka hunka burning Doc tolerable.

Is there a lot of this in the future?

It does start to happen, yeah.

The Zygon plot was sort of left unresolved. I don't think it would have taken too much to make mention in the closing scenes of whatever resolution they came up with. It felt a little unfinished, or that Steven Moffat decided it wasn't important any more, as we'd moved on to resolving the Time War plot, which was far more interesting and important. In a way it was always just a secondary plot that provided the vehicle for plot exposition as well as the final solution, but it got so much screen time that I feel it deserved more of a resolution than it received.

Throwing Capaldi in there at the end was inspired. I only wish that was the first reveal of him in the role of Twelve. The fan reaction would have been insane, especially if it was just that short flash of his eyes. There would have been so much discussion about who it was. Such a missed opportunity.

Do you recognise these eyes?

Overall I'm excited about how things were left, even if I was a bit annoyed at throwing Tom Baker in there with a weak "reusing old faces" line. Seeking out and freeing Gallifrey is a great way to go, assuming the aforementioned plot confusion is addressed. Most excitingly it gives us an opportunity to resurrect a sorely wasted foe.

The Master is waiting!

10/10

Can we fix it?

No. All we need was a bit more exposition on some of the minor plot points and the removal of a rogue wang reference. It was a perfect homage to the 50 years, encapsulated in that epic final shot.

Review - The Doctor Dances

The Empty Child drew me in and put me on the edge of my seat, and now it's time for a good, hard, emotional kick to the guts with the story's conclusion, The Doctor Dances.

Season 1, Episode 10 - The Doctor Dances

The dialogue between Jack, Rose and The Doctor is a particular highlight. Say what you (or I) will about Steven Moffat as show runner, the man can write great dialogue. We learn a lot about Jack and get some interesting hints at the Time Agency. Jack really had a lot of potential as an ongoing companion. Again, I didn't watch Torchwood, but Jack was a lot of fun when he showed up in Doctor Who, and I think he set a nice dynamic with The Doctor and Rose.

"Well, I've got a banana and, in a pinch, you could put up some shelves."

The In-Who-Endo continues this episode with Mr Lloyd exposed as "having it off" with the butcher, Algie is confirmed as gay and we have The Doctor's revelation of humanity's future pan-sexuality. Taken in isolation, this story is almost entirely about sexual tolerance. Not only do we have the aforementioned In-Who-Endos which juxtapose each other through how the same behaviour is tolerated across time periods, but Nancy's status as a teenage single mother and the apparent social pressure to lie about it was the cause of a lot of the trouble.

Using the euphemism of Dancing was a good choice, as it keeps the show family friendly whilst at the same time subtly introducing that theme of acceptance and inclusiveness to all audiences. As great as this message is to get out there, it doesn't need to happen all the time, Steven. I'm going to look at this episode in isolation of the future occurrences and not judge it harshly because of the In-Who-Endo.

Not Safe For Work

There's a lot of interplay between Jack and The Doctor about the Sonic, and the general consensus is that it's a fairly useless tool. Of course that's from the perspective if it being a weapon, which is fine. The Screwdriver itself is a bit inconstant throughout this story. We saw it being used as a scanner and to open locks in The Empty Child, but in this episode, whilst it can seemingly be used to reattach barbed wire (apparently by growing it), The Doctor can't use it to cut through the window bars, instead having to try to create a "resonance pattern" in the concrete.

The creepiness keeps coming, as does the witty banter, but this episode is injected with a healthy dose of heart-wrenching drama too. Florence Hoath's performance as Nancy is fantastic, and she is a huge part of the reason that this is the first (of many) Doctor Who episodes to bring a tear to my eye. The penultimate scene was masterfully crafted, with the performances, music and effects all working together to hit me right in my sense of parental protectiveness.

I've just got something in my eye.

This is yet another classic. The story as a whole is second to Dalek only because it doesn't have Daleks. Everybody loves Daleks.

10/10

Can we fix it?

As I said, there's a lot of sexual innuendo in this episode, but I'll ignore the future trend and look at that as the theme of this episode. If I was going to focus on anything here it would be the use of the Sonic Screwdriver. I'd have liked to see The Doctor explain that he was trying to create that resonance pattern in the concrete because it would be quicker than trying to cut through the bars. I'd also have liked to see the Sonic reattach the barbed wire by fusing or welding it together, rather than the wire regrowing to fill the gap. One looks like science, the other looks like magic. It's best we stay away from magic.

Either way, these are just nit-picking, and I'm happy to ignore them because the episode didn't really give me time to focus on them.

Review - The Empty Child

Season one continues to dish up the gold with the first installment of its second two-parter, The Empty Child.

Season 1, Episode 9 - The Empty Child

Of course in this, the first episode to feature Captain Jack Harkness, we have to expect a certain level of In-Who-Endo. I'm not sure, however, that all of it was necessary. That bit about red being camp? Could have done without that.

Jack's interaction with Rose is pretty full-on. We get a very clear indication of Rose's romantic intentions. I'm starting to understand her on this front a bit more as we go along. She's like a backpacker with a boyfriend back home; quite happy to put it about when she can, but still wants to keep Mickey on the bench.

Sure, we can hook up. But nothing serious. I'm fruit picking in Mildura next week.

We see the Sonic Screwdriver used quite a bit. The Doctor opens a lock with it, but then uses it to scan the patients. I suppose it could be a kind of Ultrasound maybe, but it's getting a bit Deus Ex Screwdriver.

Whilst in the hospital, we had another neat little hint at The Doctor's past and The Time War when Doctor Constantine says, "Before this war began I was a father and a grandfather. Now I'm neither, but I'm still a doctor," with The Doctor replying "Yeah, I know the feeling."

I've gotta say, "Are you my mummy?" is quite possibly the scariest line of the series. The reveal of Jamie is masterfully played out. Short and distant glimpses at the start followed by lots of voice (that line) and then when we do see him up close, he looks sort of normal. Just a boy in a mask. Sure he's creepy as hell, but still just a boy. Things only get really scary in the Hospital when we see the boy is not the whole problem, but the "plague" he is spreading.

A creepy, creepy plague

The music seemed to stand out a lot to me in this episode. Could be because there was a fair bit of tense wandering about with not a lot of dialogue. The music really helped amp up the already considerable tension.

There is something inherently disturbing about a gas mask. The blank glassy stare of the eye holes. The way the rubber meets the skin. It's entirely alien but at the same time familiar. Put one on a kid, and it evokes all kinds of terror.

Abject, pants-soiling terror

I think what I'm saying is that this episode hits horror spot on. At the same time it supports the creepiness with some nice light-hearted comedy around Rose and Jack. We are introduced to Nano Genes early and naturally, meaning the ending of The Doctor Dances is not telegraphed.

This one's a definite favourite.

10/10

Can we fix it?

Not much to do here. The only small issue is that little gay joke at the start, but other than that, it's golden.

Review - Dalek

A classic and much loved foe returns in Dalek, an exemplary episode from season one which is, not to put too fine a point on it, everything Doctor Who should be.

Season 1, Episode 6 - Dalek

Here we have the first real attempt to globalise the New Who, bringing the setting out of England to a "near future" (at least then) America in the year 2012. The episode ticks along nicely with well constructed plot exposition. We learn that Henry van Statten is the typical eccentric billionaire genius who views people as disposable tools for him to use towards his goals. His torturous examination of The Doctor seemed a little unnecessary considering all he did was scan his chest and see he has two hearts, but hey, maybe that's just how he rolls.

"No, it doesn't HAVE to hurt, but where's the fun in that?"

The Doctor's initial contact with the Dalek in the cage was one of the finest moments in the history of the show. Eccleston shifts fluidly from concern upon his initial contact with the as yet unidentified creature, to sheer, abject brown-trousers-time terror upon discovering what it was, and then to seething hatred when he realises it is harmless. This scene is not just testament to great writing by Robert Shearman, but to Eccleston's totally under-rated portrayal of The Doctor as a broken man still haunted by untold horrors.

The Dalek is a fantastic enemy because it is quite clearly a real danger. First of all, if The Doctor is that scared, we should be too. Then we see it absolutely destroy a small private army with zero damage. Of course then we get a nice little play on the old stairs gag where we think a weakness is found, only to have our hopes dashed with a single word.

E-LE-VATE!

Of course in the end the unstoppable killing machine is destroyed by itself. Or more precisely, by absorbing those weaknesses Davros had tried so hard to remove. There was something a little bit War of the Worlds about it.

After all the previous deaths caused or at least not prevented by The Doctor in the past five episodes, here's one we can understand him pushing for. And yet, here we finally see Rose stand up in moral outrage at The Doctor's behaviour. She had a couple of halfhearted attempts to stand up to him in The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead, but here she finally manages to turn the mirror on The Doctor and let him see what he's become. I think this becomes a turning point in their relationship.

Rose finally gets some hand.

The Doctor and Rose seem now to have decided that they are not romantically attached, but sadly Rose immediately latches on to a new bloke. Poor Mickey. Again.

I can't praise this episode enough. It has all of the classic elements of a good story with none of my usual gripes. If I wanted to get really picky I could complain that the Bad Wolf reference was a bit ham-fisted but hey, I can totally ignore that.

10/10

Can we fix it?

No. There is nothing to fix.