Doctor Who Review: The Angels Take Manhattan

So this is it. After two and a half years on the job, it's finally time for companions Amy and Rory to leave the Tardis. This is a big moment. They're the longest running companions of NuWho, it's the first farewell written by Steven Moffat and it's the first change of the cast since the Eleventh Doctor era began. But the question isn't 'is this an important moment?' but rather 'is it any good?'. And I'm pleased to say, yes it is.

First before this review gets overshadowed by talking about the departure, let's look at the episode's plot itself. And surprisingly, it's actually pretty good. Most of the recent 'leaving' episodes have been emotion heavy, plot-thin, but this one seems to walk the line quite well. The 1930s detective setting is stylish and effective, giving this episode a lovely period feel to it. And, of course it looks fantastic. That's something I've said every week, like "it's a bit rushed", which for once, I won't say. It was fast-paced, but not to excess. It pacing worked well with the race against time story it was telling. Of course this meant that the supporting characters weren't very well fleshed out, but they were enough for this story's need, seeing as it isn't really about any of them. Fast paced stories also aren't the best for the Weeping Angels, but while this lowered their scare factor, their plans were creepy and at points it seemed like they were specifically created just for the Ponds' exit. But, the less said about the Statue of Liberty and how the Angels built a big hotel, the better.

So yes, not a perfect episode, a few plot holes and the Angels weren't on their top form, but with a face moving story, great performances and a very tight and witty script, it would definitely be a 4/5 effort. But what really pushed it to the big 5 for me was the ending. Obviously, if you hate Amy and Rory, you won't like it. But that's not really the way you approach a review. Also, I love them. So this really is a heartbreak. From Rory's sacrifice and last minute i-always-die jokes to River's stoicism to the Doctor's face to Amy's note. If you loved it, you know. If you didn't, there's no way to explain it that will move you as much as it did the ones who loved it. So yes, I would boldly claim this is the best leaving story of NuWho, which I expect is a statement I shall receive harsh criticism for, but I stand by. Very good, slightly flawed story, but with an ending to end all endings, the show's definitely in tip-top form.

5/5

Review: Resident Evil:Retribution/The Campaign

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION THE CAMPAIGN

Review: Katy Perry: Part of Me/Savages/House at the End of the Street/Killing Them Softly

KATY PERRY: PART OF ME SAVAGES HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET KILLING THEM SOFTLY

Doctor Who Review: The Power of Three

When I heard that Chris Chibnall was writing two episodes this series; I was a little worried. His writing efforts before this had resulted in the first two rather mediocre seasons of Torchwood and two not-so-good stories in Doctor Who. And while Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was a lot of fun, it was still a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. This week however, the man really delivered. The Power of Three harked back to the Russell T Davies era in the sense of location and scale, but for the most part kept the feel of the newest series. It also managed to be its own story when it shared a central idea with The Lodger from two years back, of the Doctor coming to stay.

There are two main reasons this story works so well and they are very connected. The idea of the apparently harmless cubes and their forcing the Doctor to stay is inspired. They provided a nice slow mystery that we haven’t seen in a while and kept the plot very subdued. This allowed the other reason this story works to shine, the relationships between the Doctor and his companions. Without going into too much detail this is the best episode for Amy and Rory so far this season and their dilemma is one that’s never really come up in the show before and was therefore really interesting. The scene with Amy and the Doctor sitting on the side of the river is one of the best scenes of Matt and Karen’s time on Doctor Who, full stop. For the characters, this episode is brilliant. For the plot, the cubes are very interesting and a good mystery, but it all falls apart at the end. As I’ve said most weeks, the show should be longer, maybe an hour each episode instead of 45 minutes, because the ending of this week was far too rushed. The villains were poorly defined and their plan was poorly reasoned and the Doctor’s fixing of the plan took so little time, it really deflated the tension. A classic case of great build-up and a rushed ending.

I would say the episode is a just a bit over mediocre in plot, but the characters really push it into being good. And the little extra details make it very good. Kate Stewart, while not given a time to shine, seems like a character with great potential, and also appeared in spin-off books before the series, so is a nice nod to those who like the extra worlds of that. The other nods to the Zygons and a possible reference to the K-9 spin-off show really make this a nice treat for fans. And to top it all off, although I’d sick of saying this by now, it looked fantastic. While this week didn’t have the scale of a blockbuster movie, it really had the look of one. So, although the ending is a bit of a let-down, the rest of this episode is top notch stuff and a really enjoyable watch.

4/5

Doctor Who Review: A Town Called Mercy

I watched this episode and at first I was a bit confused as to what I thought of it. I enjoyed it but there was something that was nagging at me. And now I think I know what it was. This episode should have been longer. Normally the new 45 minute length of episodes is fine for the stories they’re trying to tell, even when they’re almost too fast paced like last week but this week we really could’ve done with a bit more time.

The western setting is inspired, not because it’s particularly original, but just because it allows the production team to make a truly beautiful episode. This series has been billed as movie quality, and while the other weeks have been good, this is one that really shines. It also allowed us to meet what could have been some really interesting characters. I really think that if this had been a two parter, while the plot might have been a bit slower, we would have got to know the preacher, the barmaid, the guy who almost shots the Doctor and especially Isaac a lot better. It’s not that I didn’t like any of these characters the way they were, but more that I barely even knew them. Isaac’s death in particular lacked the amount of feeling that it should have had. With more time we could also have seen quite an interesting twist on Amy and Rory with them disagreeing on the Doctor’s actions. Oh well, if the main problem that an episode has is that I didn’t think there was enough of it, it must be doing something right.

Matt Smith is on top form here, as we finally get a pay-off to the darker Doctor plotline, and you really feel his anger. It’s always nice to see the Doctor being pushed into new directions and it’s surprising that there are still new things to do with such an old character. The best scenes though are those between him and Adrian Scarborough’s Jex, the alien Doctor. Scarborough gives the best guest performance we’ve seen all series and gives an intriguing moral dilemma to the Doctor. After the episode we were still chatting about it. It’s hardly Sophie’s Choice, but it’s definitely the sort of thing that Doctor Who needs more of. The connection between Jex and the gunslinger is another high point with their brief chats really showing Jex’s inner workings. The gunslinger himself is, while not terrifying in a behind the sofa sense, very intimidating and a villain with a few dimensions to him.

Strangely with the lack of completely wild sci-fi elements, the music and just the general look and feel of the episode, it seemed far more like a western than an episode of Who but it had an interesting premise and three great characters and some cracking dialogue. Not as good as the writer Toby Whithouse’s last effort The God Complex, which was possibly my favourite series six story, but definitely a great story. Just wish there was more of it.

 4/5

Also, 11 in (basically) the Eighth Doctor’s coat. This was amazing.

Review: Hope Springs/Para-Norman/The Sweeney

HOPE SPRINGS PARANORMAN THE SWEENEY

Review: Cockneys vs. Zombies/Lawless/Anna Karenina/That's My Boy/Dredd

COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES LAWLESS ANNA KARENINA THAT'S MY BOY DREDD

Doctor Who Review: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Last week’s Dalek story was absolutely brilliant, so how do you follow that up? Well, this week’s wasn’t a terrible way to do it, but it definitely didn’t reach the highs of the Asylum. Why is it not as good? Well, because it doesn’t really seem to know what it is.

I liked most of the aspects of this episode. I thought Rory’s dad, the silly robots and the humour in general very funny. It was a nice example of a Doctor Who story that knew how to have a bit of fun. Much as I complain if it goes too silly, this episode was a good romp. And that is kind of a problem. Not because I didn’t enjoy all of that, but when your silly bit of fun contains genocide, murder and the truly nasty character of Solomon as well, then it doesn’t fit. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the Silurians story and Solomon was a great villain and the continuing darker Doctor actions really appeal to me, but you can’t have these two totally different tones in the same episode. It just makes the whole thing seem a bit disjointed. It’s like having a lovely meal while on a rollercoaster, both are enjoyable, but they just don’t work together.

Also, the whole “gang” thing, I didn’t see the need. Except for a few unnecessary jokes, Nefertiti and Riddell just didn’t seem to achieve much. The jokes were funny, but did they need to be in the episode or could their time have been better used building on Solomon or Brian? Even the titular dinosaurs seemed a bit surplus to requirements in points. Although it was cool to see the dinosaurs running around, would it really have changed the story much if they’d been frozen? Not really.

Now, I may seem a bit negative here, because if you look at this story objectively, it’s basically a mess. However, if you just look to see if it was fun to watch? Well then it’s a completely different story. It’s fast paced, the jokes come thick, fast and funny and the darker moments shock you. So basically, if you’re looking for the best thought out episode, you’ll be disappointed, but just for a bit of a laugh then, you could do a lot worse.

3/5

Doctor Who Review: Asylum of the Daleks

So Doctor Who is back, and it’s about time. After being away for 8 months with only a rather nice miniseries about the comedy exploits of the Tardis team to keep us going, could the series return with a bang, especially after the disappointing Christmas special. Well there were certainly enough elements in play here: insane Daleks, divorcing Ponds, creepy zombies and a surprise appearance and disappearance of a certain new companion. The question is of course, is it any good?

The answer is yes… but. Because I love it, but there are a few little niggles that in all fairness, after bashing other stories for similar problems I can hardly overlook. Firstly though, what worked? I love the new Dalek slaves/servants/Robomen or whatever you want to call them. The gun out of the hand in the early scenes seemed a bit silly, but the eye in the head is a brilliant piece of design. They are gloriously creepy and to be honest I’ll be surprised if the BBC doesn’t receive a shed load of complaints about the sequence with the walking dead. I absolutely loved it, but if I was a kid? I don’t think I would’ve had the balls to finish the episode. This new Dalek technology also creates another creepy part where Amy imagines the Daleks as people, which just has you on the edge of your seat worrying. Not to be outdone though, the Daleks themselves are probably as scary as we’ve ever seen them. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Daleks, but more because I thought they were really cool than actually being scared by them. But here? They are terrifying. There are so many parts, especially Rory’s “egg” jaunt and the Doctor being menaced by his past defeated foes that just chill to the bone. But maybe that’s my not-so-secret Dalek fan popping up there.

The story boasts great performances from all the regulars, with Matt Smith continuing his darker Doctor that I’m really loving more and more every time I see him and Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill showing why they’re two of my favourite companions with some proper acting. It’s also nice to see with the Pond’s revelations that the Doctor’s travels have consequences and that Moffat isn’t afraid to bring in issues that might seem a bit deep for a family sci-fi show. Nick Briggs is great as all the various Daleks, especially the one that everyone will be talking about, who’s also played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. Wait though, that’s the new companion isn’t it? Well, why’s she in this? And why’s she a Dalek? And why does she die? Well, these questions will have to wait for now, all I can say at the moment is that I liked her performance, but I hope she gets a bit toned down as I can very much see her getting irritating fast. Here though, she’s great and the twist, well I often boast I guess twists in Who, but not here, and I was both shocked and enthralled.

But here we come to the bit where I have to have a moan, because we must always have that bit. The publicity for this story told us we’d see all these different Daleks and we just, didn’t. It’s just a minor problem, because at least they’ve realised how bad the new Daleks were and downgraded them, but when there’s a list of planets from the classic series and a bunch of Daleks from them, it’s a bit disappointing not to see the Dalek variants from those stories. Also, I don’t like the Dalek Prime Minister and the Parliament of the Daleks, the Daleks just don’t seem like very democratic aliens. Also, Skaro was destroyed in 1989, so does the fact it’s restored here mean that the book War of the Daleks is canon? Oh, my head hurts from fanning around. These are all rather minor issues though and although they annoyed me later, they didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the show.

So, all in all, I loved this story. I loved the bit it paid homage to The Last Man on Earth, I loved the jokes at the expense of ‘the nose’ and ‘the chin’, I loved the creepy vibes, Robomen and Daleks, I loved the direction and how it really did feel like a big Dalek movie so I wasn’t being lied to by the interviews I saw before it, and I loved the mysteries. Whether making the Daleks forget the Doctor works out, well we won’t know until their next appearance, same with if Oswin is the Doctor’s next companion and how that works, but for now, all I have to say is that this is one of the best, scariest and impressive series openers and Dalek stories yet, and I loved it.

5/5

If you’re looking for more Doctor Who reviews, click on the Doctor Who tag below. (Basically I did some over the summer which I want read)