Peter Capaldi confirmed as the 12th Doctor

Well, it's official. In a change of the way it normally goes the bookies were right and Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It, In The Loop, World War Z, The Hour etc) has been announced as the 12th Doctor stepping into the shoes of Matt Smith.

It's an interesting choice and one that has been circulating on the internet for a while now but mostly as tongue-in-cheek idea (much to Den of Geek's chagrin who now have to write a 3000 word review of the new One Direction film).

"@denofgeek: If Peter Capaldi is cast as the 12th Doctor tomorrow night, we will commit to a good 3000 words on the One Direction movie."

So is it a good choice? To me, yes. He's going to have a challenge winning over those who only know him from his work as foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker from the Thick Of It, but for those who've seen his other work - including his role in Torchwood - can attest to his suitability.

Though cut out of context, this snippet from his appearance in series two of The Hour attests to his ability to say lots with so little.



There will be a few issues to overcome - namely he's already been in 'The Fires of Pompeii' and the aforementioned Torchwood spin-off, something new for an actor in the role of the Doctor, forgetting assistants - but to have an older Doctor, an established actor and someone with a good range in charge - will be good for the show.

I look forward to seeing him in action from this Christmas.

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Peter Capaldi for Doctor Who?

The bookies have stopped taking bets on Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It) being the 12th Doctor, with the identity of the next Time Lord being revealed for certain tonight live on BBC One at 7pm. Though talk about suspended betting suggests it's a done deal, this isn't the case as a similar thing was done about Paterson Joseph prior to Matt Smith being announced as the 11th Doctor.

I don't think Peter Capaldi will be announced as the new Doctor but I think he would make a good one. Anyone who saw his performance in series two of 'The Hour', especially the unspoken scene with Anna Chancellor that brought his storyline to an end, will attest to his acting talent. There has been a lot of negativity towards the suggestion he could be next to waggle the Sonic Screwdriver but I think that's more down to his strong association with Malcolm Tucker from 'The Thick Of It'. I doubt his spin on it would involve cursing at the Daleks or running spin against the Cybermen.

In fact, the only thing Capaldi has running against him is his strong and impressive appearance in Doctor Who spin off 'Torchwood' and whether this could correlate with him then appearing as the Doctor. We've had assistants appearing as different characters in the show before - Karen Gillan and Freema Agyeman - but never the Doctor as far as I know.

I'd be quite happy with Peter Capaldi taking the role of an older Doctor - he'd certainly bring the emotion to the role. However, my favourite choice is still his 'The Hour' co-star and James Bond actor Ben Whishaw, though the 'Black Mirror'-starring BT advert-featuring Daniel Rigby seems to be tipped on Twitter with rumours of a Fringe show set for tonight featuring him has been cancelled.

But we won't truly know until tonight. Who will be Who? Find out on BBC One tonight at 7pm.

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Goodbye Matt Smith, Hello Who?

Goodbye Matt Smith, Hello Who?

Yesterday it was revealed that the eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, from BBC TV show ‘Doctor Who’ will be leaving after this year’s Christmas special, meaning we have just two episodes in the company of Smith before he regenerates into a new, as yet unknown, actor.

Rumours of Smith leaving – just like Tennant before him – have been circling for eighteen months now – rumours mostly generated by a news-hungry tabloid press, but they have now been confirmed in elements that could have been classed as a self-fulfilling policy from our media obsessed with the show.

As the lead of the sci-fi show, Smith did have his work cut out for him. Following a very popular Doctor in David Tennant, he was always going to be a tricky act to follow. However, combined with the, then new, show runner Steven Moffat, proved himself to be, arguably, the best New Who Doctor.

In fact, I feel it’ll be the next actor to play the Doctor that will have the most difficult job, following Matt Smith who, to me, outclasses David Tennant in the role. That’s not to say that Tennant is not a good actor – he was great in the series and subsequent roles such as ‘Broadchurch’ have proven him to be versatile – but he never quite felt as alien as Smith, who embodies the eccentricity of the Doctor perfectly, and, I am prepared to be trolled by this, much of Tennant’s following comes from his looks and attractiveness rather than his abilities as a good Doctor. Though you can’t say that Smith is not a handsome man, he is classically less so than his predecessor.

Tennant, in a nutshell, was a great Doctor but Matt Smith was just that little bit better, also helped by the writing. Russell T Davies should be acknowledged as a hard worker in bringing ‘Doctor Who’ back and for setting up four strong series, each with some great building arcs, but his writing, and his time as a show runner, was marred by rushed endings, and deus ex maschina here there and everywhere, and by the time Tennant exclaimed ‘ I don’t want to go’ I was glad RTD was moving on as episodes of 40-minutes of set-up and 5-minutes of rushed resolutions were getting tiring. That said, there were some cracking set pieces during this time – Bad Wolf, The Master etc – but I was glad when Moffat came onboard following episodes such as ‘Blink’.

Moffat and Smith have been a good partnership of writer and actor. If there are two accusations you can throw at series five to present, is one that there has been the law of diminishing returns, with series five being incredible – from its strong closing few episodes, to “that scene” in ‘Flesh and Stone” to the feeling that it all pulled together – series six great but not as exciting, to series seven that balanced moments of brilliance with a lack of a cohesive arc, something that the series does need to hold it together. Secondly, Moffat plays his ‘timey wimey’ elements too much, wrapping the plot in knots. But, in terms of my knowledge of the show, it has never been in better hands.

Smith has also had some great companions to work with in the forms of Amy, Rory, Clara and River Song and for the first time in ages I’ve felt that there is some proper plotting going on and Moffat and Smith knew where they were heading all along, and I enjoyed that.

It’ll be a shame to loss Smith. In terms of fan base, I think he is ‘my Doctor’. He captured the eccentricity and alien-ness of the character perfectly and, combined with some strong writing, had lots to make of the character. I was hoping for at least series eight from him but, if his quote is correct, we’ll be staying on the fields of Trenzalore for two more episodes to perhaps, if the fall in the TARDIS wasn’t that, the fall of the eleventh.

Favourite episodes during the Matt Smith era

10. Flesh and Stone (Series Five)

The second episode of the new two-parter featuring the Weeping Angels, this episode stood out as the first real example of Moffat’s clever plotting with a scene that shouts out continuity error, until you see the last episode of the series…

9. The Eleventh Hour (Series Five)

Matt Smith’s debut was immediately grabbing, showing him making the character his own almost immediately, full of energy.

8. The Girl Who Waited (Series Six)

A heart-breaking episode about the perils of time travel with Smith, Gillan and Darvill all bringing the script to life.

7. Let’s Kill Hitler! (Series Six)

Possibly the weirdest title you could imagine, but an episode full of brilliant lines, twists and turns and the only time that a break mid-series made plotting sense.

6. The Lodger (Series Five)

I’m not a big fan of James Cordon at all but he was brilliant in this episode, and this was where Matt Smith brought the funny side of the Doctor to life with some cracking, well delivered lines.

5. The Name of the Doctor (Series Seven)

The most recent episode we’ve seen, it was a brilliant conclusion in what has been a sub-par series with the use of some locations brought vividly to life, great use of stock footage and a multi-facetted performance from Smith.

4. The Angels Take Manhattan / P.S. (Series Seven)

Though some of the plotting doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, this was a touching and shocking episode with some great set pieces, and then a really sad extra scene not included in the piece.

3. Vincent and the Doctor (Series Five)

Possibly the saddest episode in Smith’s run, this was less about the monster of the week but about the artist himself.

2. The Wedding of River Song (Series Six)

I love this episode for the playing with time as all of history happens at once. A great concept portrayed well on screen.

1.      The Big Bang (Series Five)

Rounding off a strong season, this pulled everything together you’d seen before in a timey-wimey plot that ticks the boxes.

My Ideas for Successors

Ben Whishaw

Most famous for playing the new Q in ‘Skyfall’, I know him more from his role as Freddie Lyon in ‘The Hour’. His series two performance shows he can tackle a great range of emotions and he looks like he could slip into the Doctor’s bow-tie quite easily.

Andrew Lee-Potts

Having already experienced the world of sci-fi from Primeval, Lee-Potts will be at home with the world of green screen, and his mixture of child-like enthusiasm and the ability to also hit home emotionally would work well as the Doctor, plus he’s from Yorkshire!

Olly Murs

He’d pull off the braces look well… OK, maybe not…

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Why Does Nobody Die Anymore?

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness; Iron Man 3; Doctor Who; and Primeval.

I’ve noticed an increasing trend recently in movies and television that is starting to annoy me, and that is how main cast members are no longer being killed off, instead being saved by a random deus ex machina that is undermining everything that comes before it.

Now I appreciate that me criticising movies and television shows involving hyperspeed space travel, a man who builds robotic suits, and a bow-tie-wearing time travel as being unrealistic is possibly a stupid statement, but these shows also need some grounding to keep you involved in the show.

Take some recent examples. When Rory first died in ‘Doctor Who’ it was touching and emotional but, as it kept happening, this effect wore off pretty quickly. We’ve seen in recent films the seemingly inability for writers to kill off cast members. In the trilogy of Spider-man films by Sam Raimi, as one randomly picked example, they were not afraid to kill off key characters to get some emotional impact from them, and this is done in a lot of films, but recently it feels like they don’t bother anymore. In ‘Iron Man 3’ Pepper Potts looked to have died in a fireball, which would have had a huge impact on the character of Tony Stark but, no, she just happened to have been experimented on with the Extremis technology so survived.

In ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Captain Kirk heroically climbs into the reactor to restart it and save his crew but dies of radiation poisoning because of it, dying in front of colleague and friend Spock. But does he stay dead, thus adding a new element to the series not afraid to turn perceptions on their head? No, he’s saved by Khan’s magic blood that previously brought a Tribble back to life.

Even in this week’s ‘Doctor Who’ closer ‘The Name of the Doctor’ several characters died and were brought back to life, namely Jenny and Clara. Any emotion that would come from these deaths has gone now as you think ‘Oh, they’re dead now, but they’ll be back alive soon’.

This sort of thing isn’t just a modern phenomenon. TV shows have been doing it for years, from ‘it was all a dream’ shower sequences, to Dirty Den walking back into the Queen Vic, but it just feels like recently they’ve been over-doing it, especially when the twists of ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ felt very similar as if someone has been comparing scripts.

I’m a big fan of Primeval and that’s one show that was never afraid to kill off characters and Nick Cutter’s death scene was all the better for it. They even had the opportunity to quite easily write Stephen back into it after his death in series two, using the cloning technology, but chose to make that a purely superficially visual thing rather than bringing him back as a person.

I’m not saying I want all characters in films and shows to now die; it’s disappointing when a favourite cast member is written out, but I feel we’re becoming desensitized to it, so much so that touching scenes involving characters breathing their last are overshadowed by the nagging voice in the back of your head that they’ll be coming back.

But if scriptwriters insist on doing this then I’d at least expect Bambi 2, where the young deer finds out his mother was alive all along…

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Doctor Who – The Name of the Doctor [Review]

I’ve made no secret through these recent reviews that I’ve not been a big fan of series seven. Compared to the two that came before it it’s lacked the over-arching feel and stand-out episodes I’ve come to expect from the otherwise superior Moffat era. Though it would be an almost gargantuan task for one episode to reverse my feelings on a series, concluding episode ‘The Name of the Doctor’ makes a pretty good stab at it in one of the best episodes of New Who.

Much has been made about the potential early reveal of the plotline through DVDs in American being dispatched early and other spoilers from the Sun, with that in many ways devaluating some of the revelations here, but it was the BBC trailer that spoilt the opening reveal though at least it didn’t damage the enjoyment too much. I was just worried that there would be a new twist after the announcer talked about a man that has had us hiding behind the sofa for all these years, and that someone from Operation Yewtree would appear…

‘The Name of the Doctor’ enjoyed one of the best openings of an episode I’ve seen and, even though I’ve only seen the show from the Tennant era, felt brilliant and I imagine older fans would have enjoyed it more. The composition of Clara into the old footage was very well done in the most part and helped tie New Who in with the classic series.

As we got into the bulk of the episode it was obvious that there would be a lot to juggle, but the forty-five minutes saw a well-balanced menu of humour, emotion and pathos. Strax was, once more, one of the big stars of the show with some great one-liners scattered throughout the piece, helping break up the darker sides, even if Anglo-Scottish relations may not be as good now.

The Conference Call scene was well composed with the Whispermen being successfully scary villains, more so than the similarly-styled Silence. The line by Jenny of ‘I think I’ve been murdered’ was a shocker and delivered brilliantly, with Matt Smith’s eventual appearance continuing the funny lines amongst all the emotion.

As the Doctor and Clara headed to Trenazlore we got a look at where a lot of the series’ budget must have gone, with a very atmospheric and detailed landscape built up around them, the apocalyptic scenario emphasised by the great weather mapping and Murray Gold’s tense, creepy score. The only two questions I found myself asking at this point is how many people knew of Trenzalore and why have no other baddies gone there before? And how much of Harry Hill’s TV Burp would be taken up with ‘Poetry Corner’ segments from this episode if it was still screening?

With the re-introduction of the Great Intelligence in the guise of Richard E Grant’s ‘Dr Simeon’, one of the few arc-strands adopted by the season outside of the central mystery of Clara, we got to enjoy a fun, pantomime performance that was tinged with genuine scares. This section in particular was a joy to watch, drinking in the detail of the landscape and wondering who Clemency Burn and Commander Lavante might be, from looking at the gravestones. Musically excellent with great visuals, this section was only spoilt by the show’s refusal to kill off characters. Like several films in the cinema at the moment, Jenny’s death was temporary and easily resolved and, ironically, killed off most of the emotion built up there.

Richard E Grant enjoyed a strong monologue about just how good the Doctor is – when a fan-based reference to the Valeyard, which may or may not be significant come November 23^rd – alongside a very strong CGI face-ripping effect.

Through the Doctor and Clara’s travel up through the TARDIS tomb – why is it the same style as the current TARDIS – shouldn’t it look different? Did budgets restrict them from building or CGIing a new control room? – we got some tying links to the other episodes, in particular ‘Journey To The Centre of the TARDIS’, which helped bridge the series together and perhaps emphasised that the arc this time around was more subtle and less ‘Bad Wolf’ obvious.

The time came, of course, for the subject of the episode title to be discussed and, as expected, the Doctor’s name wasn’t heard. It could have been a bit of a cop out but it was handled in the best way it should have been without revealing it, but quite why River Song would open up the tomb and threaten the entirety of the Universe instead of just seeing four people die I’m not sure.

Whilst Matt Smith continued to cover a wide range of emotions in this episode – and seemingly plan a parody song of ‘From Gallifrey to Trenzalore’  - we got more references back to the older series, cementing the feeling that this feels like the 50^th anniversary special but earlier. Though the composition was mostly good – not quite as well done in this section as at the start – the repeated use of the same stock footage over again felt a little tired, something that stood out to me when they could have introduced a few new elements.

As the episode neared its conclusion we continued to get some great treats, especially with the first doctor, and the original TARDIS design rocking through the vortex like in the opening titles. We got a very well written and acted scene between the Doctor and River Song and lots of nods to other doctors in Clara’s final room, though in my excitement at pointing them out shouted ‘It’s Chris Tarrant’, rather than Ecclestone, which would have perhaps been a twist too far.

Naturally the final revelation of another Doctor was a talking point and, though spoilt by the press recently, was still powerful, especially with the coded conversations between both Doctors. The on-screen captioning was something different for the series and, though a little cheesy, ramped up the drama. Who is John Hurt’s character? Is he the Valeyard from the future? Is he the Doctor who ended the Time War with destruction, therefore being the black sheep of the family, cast out for his actions? We’ll find out in November, I imagine.

Overall ‘The Name of the Doctor’ was a strong episode that stood head and shoulders above what we’ve had so far. Emotional moments stood alongside funny passages and fan-pleasing nods to the past. The plot doesn’t really hold up to much scrutiny with paradoxes laid on paradoxes, but it was an enjoyable ride. Musically and visually the episode was one of the strongest in a long time, with a strong cliffhanger at the end.

‘The Name of the Doctor’ was promised to wrap up everything so far, and though lots of things were answered, some things remain unsolved: what caused the TARDIS to explode in series five? At Trenzalore silence was supposed to fall when the question is asked – was that the galaxies once more going out? (This wasn’t really signposted and, in some ways, the arrival at Trenzalore felt a little bit anti-climatic). And was the voice in series five saying ‘Silence will fall’ the Great Intelligence? Maybe we’ll never find out?

But, anyway, a thoroughly enjoyable, amibitious and well created episode. 9/10

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Doctor Who – Nightmare In Silver [Review]

I’m going to say something now that will lead to a chorus of disapproval from those of you reading this, but I’ve not been that impressed by the work of Neil Gaiman so far with Doctor Who. I thought ‘The Doctor’s Wife’, hailed as one of the best episodes of New Who so far, was an OK episode in my eyes, full of fan service but not the touching, geek fest it has been labelled to be.

And last night’s ‘Nightmare in Silver’ was less enjoyable. Coming after last week’s brilliantly constructed episode I was hoping for an upturn in the series but we’re back to the lower points of the last few weeks.

The concept was certainly an interesting one, with the Cybermen able to upgrade on the fly to become an unstoppable machine, with the politics of blowing up planets to destroy them, all wrapped up in a fun idea of an intergalactic fairground. Unfortunately, cemented around these ideas, was the difficult to portray battle of a Cyberman in the Doctor’s head and though Matt Smith tried valiantly with two styles of voices, it just became an unwatchable mess of words and, at times, confusing as to what was going on.

The episode was supposed to see the Cybermen back at their scariest but, aside from the spun-out possibilities of them being able to combat whatever it was you were throwing at them, didn’t feel particularly threatening. The detachable hand move and the distracting removal of a head to threaten someone, alongside the bullet-time rush forward, were great ideas, just not particularly scary, though the new ‘Cyber-mites’ had a certain creepy nature to them.

‘Nightmare In Silver’ was an average episode in an average series so far. It had seeds of some great ideas but ultimately at times felt too confusing. Clara got time to shine, though, away from the over-shadowing figure of the Doctor and Warwick Davies as Porridge made for a strong guest cast member, even if a lot of the other introduced figures felt underused.

However, with the finale ‘The Name of the Doctor’ next week looking like a corker, hopefully things can only get better.

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Doctor Who – The Crimson Horror [Review]

After a few weeks of sub-par ‘Doctor Who’ stories in a poorer series than we’d usually expect, we finally get a great story, written by Mark Gatiss.

Set in Victorian Yorkshire, it tells of a factory called Sweetville where something strange is going own, referred to by the mortician as the catchily titled ‘Crimson Horror’ of the episode name. Mrs Gillyflower (Diana Rigg) is the elderly lady in charge, with her blind daughter by her side and the mysterious Mr Sweet mentioned but hidden from proceedings. As the returning investigative trio of Jenny, Strax and Vastra look into the mystery, just where is the Doctor?

‘The Crimson Horror’ is certainly one of the strongest episodes of this run. I am, perhaps, a little biased as it’s great to see Yorkshire represented on screen in all its stonework and mill glory, with even a mention of my adopted home town of Bradford. The recreation of the county and the era was done with a keen eye and the Yorkshire accent, though perhaps a little stereotypical, was great to hear and Matt Smith did a cracking hilarious version of it. With an eye to steampunk in the episode – the rocket was well done – it felt at times like a live action version of a ‘Wallace and Gromit’ episode; all that was needed was for Smith to shave off his hair and add a pullover to his bow tie and the journey would be complete.

This episode was one that certainly stood out from a filmography point of view and writer Gatiss and director Saul Metzstein need to be acknowledged in creating a refreshingly different episode, full of wide panoramas, tight shots, eerie corridors and a great steampunk feel to many elements. The old-meets-contemporary feel, further emphasising the ‘Wallace and Gromit’ vibe, really added to the episode with the gramophone speaker system and rocket being particularly stand out. The montage sequence one third in which tells the story of the Doctor and Clara arriving in Yorkshire was a stroke of genius, told like an old-time film, and really made the opening. Even the absence of the Doctor for the first fifteen minutes didn’t bother me as the engaging trio of detectives carried the episode perfectly.

There was so much to enjoy in this episode it’s hard to include them. The recurring joke of the fainting man, Strax’s insistence on weaponry (familiar and done before, but still fun here) and the brilliant moment with young urchin Thomas Thomas all great inclusions, and they made Vastra and Jenny all the better for emphasising them as two great detectives not afraid of a bit of action without having to resort to crude camp lesbian jokes that they’ve been lumbered with in the  past.

The episode did have a few moments that didn’t quite work as well, such as the slightly confused reason as to why Mrs Gillyflower wanted to manufacture an apocalypse and the sleight reason for – as next week’s trailer shows – getting Clara’s charges in contemporary times along for the next mission (would they really stumble across photos of her on the internet in past adventures and would their father actually believe their blackmail if they said Clara was a time traveller?) but these small points can be forgiven because elsewhere it was such a strong episode.

Compared to previous ones, the plot felt like it fitted well into forty-five minutes, the Sonic Screwdriver finally felt as if it wasn’t the solution to the plot device and the ending was rounded up nicely and made sense, and wasn’t rushed. Plus the Doctor felt more fallible in this episode, the trio of Vastra, Strax and Jenny were a great team, and the adventure, humour and plot were all fed to the viewer in good, equal amounts, whilst also being wrapped up in some beautiful scenery.

Cast-wise, credit should definitely go to Rachael Stirling for her role as Ada, carrying the emotional context of the episode very well and Diana Rigg made a strong lead baddie.

The best episode since Christmas? Actually, I think it was.

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Doctor Who – Journey To The Centre of the TARDIS Review

This hurts me to say but I’m losing faith with the new series of Doctor Who. I’ve loved the Moffat / Smith era more than the previous DW era so far with a strong series five and six but I’m just not feeling series seven.

Pre-Christmas there were some really strong episodes and the episodes all worked well together, from the ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ through to the touching departure of the Ponds. But since then the series has been average at its best.

The opener ‘The Bells of St. John’ was a fun romp but the second episode was possibly the worst since Steven Moffat took over. ‘Cold War’ and ‘Hide’ have been fun but unremarkable and this ‘meh’-factor continues onto this week’s episode, a promising run around the inside of the Doctor’s famous craft that, until the final fifteen minutes, felt forced. It wasn’t quite as bad as the Photoshopping on Matt Smith’s grabbing-on left hand in this week’s filmic poster, but it still wasn’t that marvellous.

The plot saw the Doctor remove many of the protections of the TARDIS to allow Clara to bond with the craft that appears to be rejecting her, but as he does the ship gets targeted by a magnetic lock from an intergalactic scrap merchant and three space scrap dealers decide that it’s not worth the effort it took to haul it in. But, with Clara trapped somewhere within the TARDIS, the Doctor has to convince them to join him on a journey through his bigger-on-the-inside phone box to rescue her, chased as they will soon be by strange, deformed creatures.

‘Journey To The Centre of the TARDIS’ isn’t a bad episode. The concept is fun and the set design varied and interesting, with a neat nod to the library and the swimming pool, plus the recently revealed title of the last episode of this run. However, the opening plot contrivances to get the concept off the ground feel forced and perfunctory and the first thirty minutes of running and chasing proving to be boring. The sets are great, the exploration fun, but ultimately the plot was shallow and tedious.

The episode improved in the last fifteen minutes with the concept of just who the zombies are but then the ending gets confused and muddled and, aside from a welcome return from the cracks in time after a two years absence, the finale quite literally presses the big reset button, which is either hideously clichéd or a nod towards the limitations of wrapping up sci-fi stories.

The episode gave us a little more development into Clara as a character and explored the TARDIS more with nods to many previous episodes, the Eye of Harmony and the Time War whilst also looking forward, and the set design was mostly varied and interesting, and the continued concept of the TARDIS being a living being, continued on, most recently, from ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ was well done. The creatures themselves were also kept fairly mysterious, filmed as they were in a constant haze, and their origins a little shocking and scary. It’s just a shame these elements were wrapped up in a samey chase plot and big reset ending, with a sub-plot about the scrap dealers and their true origins not really making up for it.

I’m hoping there’s going to be a great ending to this series that makes everything we’re seeing jump up a notch in an ‘aha’ moment, because at the moment I’m really finding this series of Doctor Who, in particular this half, rather average. And that’s a shame.

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Doctor Who - Hide

'Hide' is the fourth episode of Doctor Who in this second half of the series. It tells the story of two paranormal investigators analysing a house and a ghostly presence that appears in photos but always in the same position. They are soon joined by the Doctor and Clara, with a quick name-check to 'Ghostbusters', who help them investigate.

After several episodes that have been average at best, 'Hide' is another episode that is perfectly enjoyable but not one of the all time best episodes. Like last week's 'Cold War' the director nailed the atmosphere perfectly and the scary nature of the ghost was captured well. The images of the ghost in photos were nicely created and, alongside the monster in the latter part of the episode (which was, like the best monster films, effective through never been fully seen) were well done, though the mirrored panel less so which looked too false.

The biggest surprise of the episode is how it was written be the same writer that did 'The Rings of Akhaten' two episodes ago. Whereas that was a dragged-out disappointment, this was far, far better with some sparkling dialogue and some neat references back such as the orange fire-suit and the Eye of Harmony.

The story itself flowed well and felt more cohesive than previous episodes, with no immediate resolution and some neat twists and turns, with the conclusion nicely spaced out and lacking the rushed and questionable ending showcased on the last two pieces. The sequence of earth through the ages and the blossoming relationship between the two paranormal investigators were particular highlights and it all gelled well, and the additional ending was a sweet addition, that was handled well by Matt Smith who, alongside Louise-Coleman, shone in this episode. The arc-plot of the TARDIS re-acting to Clara was mentioned again and there was an intriguing scene with the phone box's automatic speech hologram which suggests something more unusual about Clara.

After a handful of average episodes this stands up above them, though the lack of a really strong sense of arc is still disappointing. It's not a classic but was an enjoyable, atmospheric piece of film that shows the writer Neil Cross can do a great piece of drama.

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Doctor Who and the Fiftieth Anniversary

There's a lot of talk and discussion going on on the Internet at the moment about the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special and how, it looks like, it's never going to live up to the expectations of the fan community.

We already know that David Tennant will be returning with Billie Piper - and I imagine this will be as the half-doctor and Rose - but the thorny question of how many of the other doctors will appear is being batted around time and cyber-space like a game of Cybermen tennis.

I'm not a massive fan of Doctor Who - I watch it but wouldn't consider myself a fanboy of it - but I feel the demand by fans to bring back the previous actors who played the Doctor into the series wouldn't work. Aside from the fact three of the actors are dead and the rest appear much older, with the exception of McGann and Eccleston, the time needed to properly introduce them and do them justice would be at the expense of a better plot. The article revealed today about including the past doctors digitally (http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/past-doctors-to-appear-digitally-in-50th-47994.htm) feels more fitting and, if done right, will keep the doctors looking as we imagined them (though the black and white of the first two doctors might be problematic).

There are a few things I'd like to see in the series. If it's a celebration of the fifty years then the Daleks and Cybermen - as the two most iconic villains - need to make an appearance and it would be great to see the Master worked in, though they also need to make the episode appear cohesive. I would hope not to see the return of Captain Jack Harkness, though, and I hope Billie Piper's lips and voice have returned to normal.

I think it would be a missed opportunity not to include the previous doctors in the episode but digitally is the best way to go in my opinion, but I have every faith in Steven Moffat who, aside from a bit of a flat series so far, has made the series the best it's been since it returned this millennium.

What would you like to see from the 50th episode?

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Doctor Who - Cold War

Sorry about the delay in this review but it's been a long week!

'Cold War' saw the Doctor face off against a classic enemy - The Ice Warrior - aboard a Russian submarine at the height of the cold war. Though the episode was rather derivative of many other works - not only the many submarine war films but the relatively recent episode of Primeval which covered many of the plot points but with a raptor instead of an Ice Warrior - it was a vast improvement on the previous week's divisive episode.

If there was one thing the episode had it was atmosphere in bucket loads. The set was well done and the stalking elements through the submarine were well handled. Even the CGI of the Ice Warrior out of the suit was very good and added to the piece.

The ending was a little on the weak side - like the previous week it came down to the doctor talking the creature down - and the explanation about the TARDIS' disappearance a little expositional, but overall it was an above average episode that made up for the episode before.

The script remained punchy and witty. Louise-Coleman's encounter with the creature was well handled and there were many tense moments.

Here's hoping that 'Hide' is a good episode, written as it by the same writer behind 'The Rings of Akhaten'.

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Doctor Who: The Rings of Akhaten [Review]

I suppose it’s a case of timey wimey timing that yesterday I saw the latest episode of Charlie Brooker’s ‘How TV Ruined Your Life’ which focussed on love and how television facilitates the myth that love at first sight exists and couples rarely share an emotional introduction that doesn’t involve rain. Naturally, this week’s ‘Doctor Who’ ticked both those clichéd boxes, but in a sweet, actually quite touching montage, that signalled a strong start and end to an episode but nothing particularly exciting inbetween.

In fact, the opening felt like a live action, less emotional sci-fi remake of the opening of Pixar’s ‘Up’, mixed with the ‘Paperman’ short from ‘Wreck It Ralph’. It didn’t have me in tears but I felt a slight lump in my throat. The ending also continued the theme well, from the moment Clara defeated this week’s big bad to the two-way conversation in the TARDIS at the conclusion.

Outside of these story arc-based elements the episode was actually pretty, and I dare to say the word, tedious. ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ excelled with its costume design and CGI, especially in the planetary system and giant sun (even if it did feel like the concluding imagery of ‘The Matrix Revolutions’) and we’ve seen very little on television that perhaps could surpass such a spectacle on such a budget. But elsewhere, other than Clara building as a character and coming across as genuinely three-dimensional and feeling like she is more than just a plaything for the Doctor, the plot dragged on, whether it was a lacklustre chase around the market place to a religious song ceremony that just went on for far too long, something which was then repeated.

In fact, many of the set pieces felt rushed and missing something and aside from a few stabs at emotion and pathos about losing people, it felt like one long trailer for religious criticism in lieu of a decent plot, though arguably there were lots of issues tackled in the episode in a dramatic fashion, though it didn't really compensate for the lesser moments. Even an overdone reference to Indiana Jones felt uninspired.

I’m possibly being a little harsh on the episode and looking back might be rosier, but after last week’s rip-roaring adventure that, though not without its faults, felt like an adrenaline rush, this week’s felt just boring and sub-par.

We’ve been spoilt with Moffat’s era so far – I can’t think of an episode since ‘The Eleventh Hour’ that I’ve not enjoyed – but this was hopefully a minor blip.

An episode with a great start and end, just a shame about the middle bit. Next week looks better though.

(4/10)

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Doctor Who - The Bells of Saint John [Review]

‘Doctor Who’ returns for another run of episodes with this mid-season opener. The Doctor is back in 1207 trying to work out the mystery of Clara Oswald whilst the latest iteration of the character is in contemporary London, babysitting for some children and coming up against problems with the internet.

In an opening seemingly stolen from his own ‘Blink’, Moffat starts by fleshing out the story of aliens capturing people and trapping them in a computer and though there is a fun initial twist it’s pretty obvious.

What follows is a surprisingly packed episode with some cracking, cheesy jokes and a funny solution to the episode title, even if it feels that the title was set up just for one joke. Which sort of sums up this episode: it feels like a collection of small parts but not much of an episode as a whole.

There are some brilliant set pieces that make up the forty-five minutes: the crashing plane looked amazing and dramatic on the budget; the use of the London skyline into the cinematography and plot well done; and the concept of the aliens and the turning of something as familiar and pedestrian as wi-fi into something evil inspired. However, for every great bit such as the mention of Amy Pond’s book, the witty moments in the script such as the Doctor relaying the phone messages he took whilst Oswald was knocked out and a well constructed dig at Twitter, and the far better ten-minute denouement, there is as much that seems stilted. I’m yet to be a big fan of Oswald as a character, whose dialogue with Smith’s Doctor often seeming out of sorts.

The ‘Doctor Who’ conversation bit was obviously tying into the overall plot arc but seems forced and he knows Oswald is in danger, so why not just let himself into the house as he eventually does?

‘The Bells of Saint John’ felt much like a lot of great ideas hastily assembled on a piece of paper and put together as a plot. That’s not to say these elements were not great – the plane scene, the motorbike scene, the triple-bluff of the robots (even if it smacked of familiarity of the previous series’ big twist) were all great, as were the many jokes scattered throughout the piece – but it felt like scenes were put in just for laughs or their visual spectacle rather than contributing much to the story.

But the episode did set up some interesting plot points. Who gave Clara the Doctor’s phone number? (I’m guessing River Song) How does Richard E Grant’s ‘The Great Intelligence’ fit into the overall series arc and November’s 50^thanniversary special? And will this version of Clara survive longer than the others, and how do all her iterations work together?

The visual spectacle of the episode was impressive and the CGI never looked less than convincing, with a genuinely creepy plot concept, it’s just a shame it never felt like anything more than a collection of sketches.

Though I felt the episode a little lukewarm, it’s still a far better episode than we enjoyed in the RTD era, with a conclusion that didn’t feel rushed or illogically, with some cracking set pieces and jokes. I have to say next week’s trailer didn’t sell the rest of the series to me but we’ll judge that next week, and the episode did find itself overshadowed by the news of Tennant’s return in November (yay!) alongside Piper (Not so yay), though chances are to fans that they’ll be returning then as the half-doctor and old assistant, rather than the previous version of the doctor.

(6.5/10)

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A Few Thoughts On Christmas Day Television

Yesterday was Christmas Day and always a good day for things on the box even if yesterday was perhaps not the most exciting line-up we’ve had recently.

The Top of the Pops Christmas Special (BBC1, 2pm) was as fun as usual and once more cements that it should be on a weekly basis to showcase the music now we have some more interesting artists than the tedious in-studio acts of the late noughties. Granted the artists on show weren’t the most interesting – Robbie William’s ‘Candy’ was up first and the highlight of the show with diminishing returns – but did at least cover a good range of the year’s big hitters. Carly Rae Jepsen, in front of a set seemingly stolen from ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ sounded disappointingly off and Coldplay, who got a pretty good trailer for their live DVD, couldn’t be bothered coming into the studio. The X-Factor finalist proved he could sing live but wailed on at the end and the Christmas number one was a VT as pulling together all of the artists would have been tricky. Gangnam style made a brief appearance as did many covers, including the beautiful ‘The Power of Love’ by Gabrielle Aplin and the average ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ from Paloma Faith, chosen over her other, far better, original singles. Girls Aloud proved to be morphing into each other with two camps seemingly set away from Cheryl. Overall not a bad hour of mostly live music but the lack of the usual annual karaoke option, a few odd song choices and the lack of any cheeky Savile jokes from the hosts knocked it back a bit.

The Queen followed (BBC1, 3pm) with her first annual broadcast filmed in 3D. We don’t have a 3D television but it was hard to see what impact the third dimension would have had on the broadcast. I wanted the Queen to at least punch the screen or throw Prince Harry a Bacardi Breezer to off camera but there was no trickery like that. I’m not sure if the VTs of the damp flotilla were also in 3D to see the rain, gloom and impending bladder infection from Prince Philip, but it was a nice enough speech covering the Olympics, Paraolympics and Jubilee, but was lacking the Queen riffing on how Cheryl Cole couldn’t sing at the concert, Boris Johnson couldn’t dance in the Olympics and any visual 3D diagrams of extreme morning sickness.

Later we had Room on the Broom (BBC1, 4:35pm) a delightful CGI animation from the people behind the last two year’s Gruffallo shows, and the writer behind the books. It told the story of a witch and her cat who stumble across a series of animals as she loses various possessions like a careless extra from Harry Potter. The show reaches its dénouement as an evil, and rather podgy, dragon attacks the team but is stopped by team work. The story is very similar in theme to the Gruffallo – child-friendly repetitive rhymes, meeting animals, tricking a monster – so has a sense of over familiarity about it – and they even re-use the model of the squirrel and snake – but it was an enjoyable, extremely well animated tale with some great voice actors and set-up. Plus, it employed many excellent visual jokes that you’d blink and miss and was great not just for kids, but bigger kids. The ending was sudden but was another great slice of animation this Christmas after ‘The Snowman and the Snowdog’ with a few similarities: familiar, recreating an older idea but with some fresher elements.

It was then time for the next episode of Doctor Who (BBC1, 5:15pm), this year entitled ‘The Snowmen’ and introducing the next companion played by Jemma Louise-Coleman. The festive specials are usually the weaker episodes in the run and this year was not that different, but compared to the other entries in this series which weren’t as big and fun as the excellent series five and great series six, it was nearly up to par. Outside of the plot we got new opening credits which were much more like the classic Who titles. They looked great, the music was as fun as ever in their tweaked state but didn’t feel as long or as dramatic. The TARDIS interior got a paintjob as well and looked good, but with no explanation as to why.

The plot itself was fun. A child discovers he can project his thoughts into intelligent snow and starts building up an army of killer, scary snowman, waiting for the frozen body of a children’s nanny that fell into a frozen pond to come to life so they can replicate human DNA and create an army of snow clones. This is set aside by an investigation from a reluctant Doctor, still hurting from the deaths of the Ponds, in conjunction with a Sontaran and a lesbian double-act of a Silurian and human detective team, who it’s revealed through a conversation with successful baddie Richard E Grant, that they’re the inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes character, a moniker that the Doctor later adopts briefly complete with Deerstalker. I think writer Stephen Moffat must have been drunk over the summer and got his franchises confused.

If that brief summary sounds confusing you’d be right. The plot in the special speeded ahead at such a pace that it was difficult to keep up with at times. The Sontaran guard was the best character in the special with some great funny lines but his appearance once more showed Moffat’s lack of care for realistic explanations – even in Sci-Fi – with only a brief mention as to why he’s no longer dead after being killed earlier on in the run. Matt Smith was great once more as the Doctor, and Jenna Louise-Coleman promising in her second appearance as the assistant, and her death at the end and realisation that her character is scattered through time is an interesting twist, as the Doctor recognises her voice and traits from the ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ episode. She seemed to know more than she let on and at the beginning it seemed the Doctor recognised her – even though he never saw her in the first episode, something he does mention in the episode – so it all seemed rather confusing.

The CGI was impressive in the piece as were most of the cast, and the spiral-staircase up to the TARDIS on the cloud appeared magical and fitted in with the Christmas Special. It was a confusing episode to follow and the destruction of the big bad at the end twee and overly sentimental but the twist at the end somewhat made up for it. It was difficult to keep up with the episode with some lines hard to follow, necessitating a quick rewind of the action, and there seemed an overall lack of surprise when people were approached by a lizard woman. That said, though the one-word conversation seemed forced between Coleman and said Silurian, the ‘Pond’ word was a neat bit of writing.

Not the worst Christmas special but not the most exciting ever, but the filmography and imagery was great and the Sontaran general well written, but it’s the final plot twist that will keep the series going.

Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 6:15pm) came straight after and saw six dancers taking part in a variety of, well, dances. I don’t watch SCD that often but it was an interesting way to wile away sixty minutes in the company of cheesy jokes from Bruce Forsyth and a funny montage at the start of Bobby Ball’s dance. The bloke from JLS won it, no one else embarrassed themselves. Anne Widdecombe and Russell Grant made the briefest of brief appearances so didn’t have time to add some comedy factor. An OK festive special with a nice performance from Rod “Screeching Scotsman” Stewart.

Our final watch of the night, outside of watching the repeat of ‘The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff’, an amazing short-film, was The Royle Family (BBC1, 9:45pm). I never really consistently watched the show when it was on properly but have watched all the Christmas specials over the past few years. This one seemed the most surreal of the lot with an opening fifteen minutes that saw plenty of crude jokes in the direction of erectile dysfunction that seemed to be dealt in a weird way by the cast suggesting it was a misunderstanding, but it wasn’t. The best plot strand was neighbour Joe going on a series of first dates in the Royle household with a series of great characterisations and some blink-and-you’ll-miss-them visual jokes as their names are crossed off a list (Chinese lady lives on ‘Great Wall St’, a suspiciously butch woman on ‘Tranny Ave’ etc). The individual threads of ‘Dragon’s Den’, Joe’s dipsy Irish date, Dave’s problems downstairs, the borrowed drill and a sneaky win by Jim on a scratchcard all came together nicely in the final meal at the end, a neat tying up of several disparate plotlines. It was perhaps the crudest episode I’ve seen and it felt, at times, a little desperate for humour with the Christmas Pudding / Breasts montage near the end a little cringey, but it had some great laugh-out-loud moments and plenty of innuendo and was worth a watch, plus included a brief mention to actor Geoffrey Hughes who we sadly lost this year.

So, not a bad day of television overall. But, as you can see, dominated by BBC1. What happened to the other channels on this most festive of days?

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Doctor Who - The Angels Take Manhattan (Review)

So far I have been quite negative of the latest series of Doctor Who, with only ‘A Town Called Mercy’ and, more so, ‘The Power of Three’, stepping up to the plate as being worthy of the excellent first two series that saw Matt Smith step up to the plate as the Doctor.

But I’m glad to say that mid-series conclusion ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ was the strongest of the five episodes so far and an almost perfect end to the story of Amy and Rory Williams that began two-and-half years ago.

Before I get to the nature of the plot the cinematography is what needs the most acknowledgement in the episode. 1930s New York has never looked so beautiful and the periodic detail of the time, from the buildings to the clothing, were spot on. Michael McShane – Dr. Vaabit from the under-rated comedy ‘Lab Rats’ – was a great character as a gangster-style crime boss and fit the scenes perfectly, and the opening ten minutes before the credits rolled was an incredible atmospheric and scene-setting trip around depression New York that set up the story and featured not only a precursor to later events as the private investigator met himself but also a great denouement with a living Statue of Liberty, this twist damaged only by the spoiler trailer used by American TV last week and ‘Conspiracy Keanu’ on Twitter asking the question six months ago ‘What if the Statue of Liberty was a giant weeping angel?’ This twist in itself was a nice addition to the mythology of the creatures, creatures that were almost back to the scariness they commanded in ‘Blink’ that was almost missing from the two-parter of two series ago.

After a fittingly atmospheric credit sequence we returned to modern day New York to find the Doctor, Amy and Rory engaging in some fun and reading from a book, a novel that would form the crux of the episode. With Rory being zapped back to 1930s New York while on a mission to find coffee, the book turned out to be written by River Song in a well composed mechanic, built around the effective use of a typewriter overlaid over shots, equally located in the pre-war time period, in the ultimate example of written-down spoilers. Back in the 30s the angels are rife, using the building ‘The Winter Quay’ as a prison and feeding ground to ‘consume’ the time energy created by sending people back in time, a method that the angels have not used since the excellent ‘Blink’ back in the David Tennant era of the show.

With the Doctor and Amy finally finding a way to return to the 1930s, the episode continued as a tense mystery-solving and angel-avoiding adventure, taking in death, danger and plot twists. The flickering lights – alluded to throughout this first half of the series – ramped up the tension, as did the reading ahead in the book to discover their own futures. Here Matt Smith, as the Doctor, portrayed the character once more brilliantly, showing his fear at the creatures and his apprehension of what would be upcoming. Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillian were on top form, as was Alex Kingston as River Song, playing a much more muted character than we expected for it.

The episode climaxed to a roof-top scene between Amy and Rory that felt like the end with emotions running high, already building on elderly Rory’s earlier death, and felt like a touching end to the story but not before the tension was relieved by their deaths creating a paradox and thus saving them.

But just as we felt it was going to be a happy ending, albeit a cheated one with yet another RTD-inspired big reset switch, the grave with Rory’s name still present on it was spotted, unlike the angel behind him which wasn’t, leading to a heart-wrenching scene played beautifully by Gillian and Smith, and I’m not afraid to say that, between that and the excellent episode score, I found it very tearful and a sad end to the episode, perfectly rounding off the story, and emotions that continued as the Doctor rushed to read the last page of River’s story and once more the feelings came back. Yes. I cried. Sue me!

The episode ended on a touching conversation between the Doctor and River Song, rounding off the strongest episode of a previously-weaker series, and then another tear-jerking shot of a young Amelia Pond awaiting her raggedy man.

It’s difficult of me to think of points were the episode fell down. I suppose it would have been nice to have seen some scenes of Amy and Rory living out their life together and perhaps, as was suggested on the net, seeing River grow up when she was in New York previously, but it’s difficult to pick fault with what seemed a packed forty-five minutes, but one that seemed to be slow and atmospheric at times, that’s slow in a good way.

With the excellent atmosphere of 1930s New York successfully created in the episode and the well-constructed story, ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ was the perfect way to round off the two-and-a-half years of stories and was both exciting, tense, touching and well-acted by all those concerned.

I look forward now to the Christmas special having enjoyed a story that redeemed the series so far, including the fun idea of the Statue of Liberty being a weeping angel; the inability of the Doctor to change time when it’s a fixed event; and the emotion of saying goodbye to two characters we’ve followed for two and a bit series. Well acted, well plotted and very atmospheric. I don’t think we could have asked for a better mid-season finale.

9/10

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Doctor Who: The Power of Three (Review)

After two episodes in the new series that I could really take or leave and a better third one, we finally get to a corker of an episode that successfully balances drama, comedy and the feeling of an approaching threat, creating a strong forty-five minutes of Saturday night drama.

The episode, picking up many years in the chronology of the Ponds, sees them balancing their domestic and working life with that of their life with the Doctor, all against the backdrop of small cubes appearing over the world, shown through RTD-era news bulletins and CCTV footage. The Doctor, with the Ponds, has to work out what this slow invasion means before it’s too late.

So why did I enjoy this episode? Well it’s the first large-scale episode we’ve had in a while with a global impact, reflected well in their choice of locations. There is also plenty of humour scattered through the episode from cameos from Brian Cox and Alan Sugar’s Apprentice team – both well inserted in – alongside a very ‘Cabin In The Woods’ style situation under the Tower of London as UNIT also investigate the cubes, and find that each one has their own unique personality including one very musical one. In fact, I would have liked to have seen this idea explored more but there is only so much you can compress into one episode.

Matt Smith was as excellent as the Doctor once more, flipping between emotions, even if the hammy acting after one of his two hearts stopped was a tad unrealistic. His scene with Rory’s dad – played by Mark Williams in a far better and more enjoyable appearance than his last episode – was very touching and hints at what could be to come in next week’s Angels-focussed episode. Plus, he had a more rounded personality throughout the episode and added lots to the piece.

It was also nice to see the Pond’s life expanded upon and we finally get to see Rory working and that Amy actually has a job and the episode balances the normal with the abnormal well.

Then there was the scene with the Doctor painting, mowing and hoovering, alongside Rory's Dad and his log, and some creepy grill-mouthed men to add to the mix.

That’s not to say the episode isn’t without its flaws. Though the CGI of the cubes was mostly impressive some of the moving shots broke the illusion, and there were a few too many convenient plot strands, such as one of the wormholes to the “big bad” being present in the hospital where Rory works and the rushed conclusion to the episode with a motivation for the events of the slow invasion still a little bit muddy in my memory after a first watch. Again, like the other episodes, there is scope for at least getting two episodes out of each story to allow things to develop, but this mostly succeeded in its self-contained one episode.

Throw in a neat throw-back to the Brigadier, lots of clips of older episodes, the tear-jerking musical theme near the end and the nice little scenes of how the cubes are taken in by the humans, and you get an enjoyable, funny but also foreboding episode that is my favourite of the series so far, though that’s not saying much in a series that has yet to really make a huge impact on me.

(7/10)

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Doctor Who – A Town Called Mercy [Review]

Well that was a bit better. After two episodes that I didn’t think were the best of Moffat’s era, we got a story that improved on what was lacking in the last two: proper time to get to know characters and emphasise with them; an interesting baddie; and a well-developed moral dilemma for the Doctor, even if it did get a bit wibbly wobbly timey wimey with Matt Smith’s Doctor flitting between his opinions.

In ‘A Town Called Mercy’ we got a beautifully realised American West town under bright blue skies and an interesting set of characters, even if the arrival of them at the town was glossed over quite quickly with a oh-by-the-way moment of the TARDIS going wrong.

The opening Terminator-style shots of the robot killing the man was well done and the Cyborg itself well realised and realistic in an episode where real effects were done instead of CGI – though the creature of the week – Kahler Jex – was clearly just human with an elaborate tattoo - though the slow disappearing and re-appearing of the Cyborg approaching the town was quite creepy in its effect.

The moral dilemmas of the episode was where the episode excelled with The Doctor, seemingly becoming more and more the justice-giver like a geeky Judge Dredd, with Amy this time acting like his moral conscience. The exploration of morals and how characters can be grey rather than black and white was well realised but it did get a bit samey as the Doctor kept changing his opinions.

The final third of the episode was perhaps not as strong as the opening but overall it was my favourite of the three episodes thanks to its interesting plotting and more time given to explore the characters and feel for them – characters such as the Marshall and the young lad keen to stand up to make a decision, in stark contrast with the hefty introductions of last week’s episode.

Hopefully next week’s episode will continue this trend of increasing returns.

7/10

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Doctor Who – Dinosaurs On A Spaceship

In what is possibly the best Doctor Who title since ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ was announced last year, how could an episode that sounds like a sexed-up version of cult movie hit ‘Snakes On A Plane’ not work? Well, if it’s a little bit messy in its structure.

As a big fan of series five and six and its improvement over the nicely plotted but poorly written Tennant era, I feel a little let down by series seven so far. Last week’s ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ was an episode that improved with each viewing but wasn’t the best of the three openings but this week’s episode, though full of some great characters and equally great CGI, it just felt to be missing something.

And it’s the inherent problem with these episodes, creating mini-blockbusters in forty-five minutes: there isn’t enough time to set the episodes up properly.

In the Chris Chibnall written ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ (affectionately called ‘In space no one can hear you roar’ on the net) the Doctor heads to space with Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, whom he is seen having a dalliance with at the start of the episode, and a big game hunter from the African planes, to investigate a spaceship heading to earth that is about to be blown up by the stereotypical Asian accent unit, or the Indian Space Agency as it’s perhaps known. On board the ship the Doctor – now with Amy, Rory and Roy’s dad – investigate the cargo to find its home to ankylosaurs, a Triceratops, some baby T-Rexs and some raptors. Oh, and that guy from Harry Potter who killed off the previous owners of the ships – a neat cameo from the Silurians – to get hold of the dinosaurs, only to find himself injured and unable to pilot the ship away from a crash course with earth and the stereotyp… I mean, ISA missles.

If that seems a lot of plot to cram into a paragraph imagine the amount of set-up required before the green-tinged credits roll (now with a dinosaur-skinned logo, confirming my thoughts that last week’s was styled like a Dalek – neat idea, but I hope we get the other logo back soon). Though it’s been done before it’s never felt this rushed or compressed and, though I understand the need to keep the episodes peppy and exciting compared to the older four-part serials to keep those with wandering attention spans happy, the lack of slowly establishing key plots and characters is absent so it’s hard to feel anything for them, a bit like the rushed breakdown of Amy and Rory’s marriage of ‘Pond Life’ and last week’s episode, which seems to have been brushed aside now with no mentions.

This isn’t to say the episode doesn’t have its moments. The CGI is fantastic and the dinosaurs very realistic. The net has been a buzz with how they made such good dinosaurs on a budget. Perhaps they borrowed at least the raptors from Primeval, with the Mill doing CGI work on both. In fact, at many times it does go a little Primeval – and Jurassic Park – with dinosaurs, electronic stun guns and even several mentions of the word ‘Arc’. I was half expecting Douglas Henshall to walk through a door as Nick Cutter and when asked why he’s not dead he answers, in a thick Scottish accent, ‘It’s all timey wimey’ before wandering off down a corridor asking for ‘Helen’ before realising she’s dead too.

The character of Solomon was a particularly good villain in this piece and got the most character development of the lot of them with some good motives for his action and played with delicious evilness by David Bradley. He was supported by two robots – voiced with some campness by comedians Mitchell and Webb – who were great characters but felt shoe-horned into this episode and under-developed, competing as they were with every other plot development and new character. As I mentioned earlier, it seems like three stories crammed ineffectively into one.

Elsewhere Mark Williams did a cracking turn as Rory’s father with some great comedy moments and a beautiful scene – the highlight of the episode for me – where he sits on the ‘doorstep’ of the TARDIS looking down to space. That said, him and Rory seemed to have some sort of relationship issues based around Rory being a nurse and not the trowel-carrying “man” that his dad is, but they are brought together at the end to pilot the ship thus bonding them back as a family. It’s just a shame that their relationship and its difficulties didn’t have more than a scene on a step-ladder to set it up.

Rupert Graves was an interesting addition as the big game hunter, channelling Jurassic Park’s Pete Postlethwaite character, but was cut from the classic misogynistic character role. He was also responsible for one of the two big scene-crashing did-they-really-say-that innuendos which, I found funny, but they did seem at odds with the style of the show. Having already heard Williams talk about the balls in his pocket – golf balls that is, matron – we had to sit through Graves glinting suggestively at Nefertiti with no hint of irony, cocking back his gun and saying something along the lines of ‘what you need is a good man with a big weapon’. Kenneth Williams would be proud. Ooh. Matron. All we needed was Amy, who took a very Doctor-like role in this piece, hacking into computers and generally helping out, to push back and her bra flies off to complete an episode that should be called ‘Carry On Jurassic Park In Space’.

Of course these comedic and camp elements did compete with the darker Doctor sending Solomon to his death and the sombre mood growing between Amy and the Doctor, developing in this episode, and these were better parts of the episode.

Overall ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ had its moments. It’s showcased Amy and Rory being much more useful in the fight against space evil; there was touching family bonds between Rory and his dad; some top-class CGI from the Mill on the dinosaurs and the spaceship; and some decent comedy from the robots. It wasn’t the strongest episode I’ve ever seen and the introduction of all the characters seem to be just to make plot points make sense – the baddie needs the sexy Nefertiti as a bargaining tool; the ship needs two people of the same gene line to operate, quick get Rory’s dad in; we need someone to stalk dinosaurs on a ship with a big gun, let’s get him onboard before we even know there are dinosaurs on it.

Though there is much to enjoy in the episode and the dinosaur elements including the Pterodactyl chase and the race on the triceratops are well done and make it great for younger viewers, It feels like a rushed episode. Given two episodes to build it up and give more screen time to the relationship of the two Williams, the comical robots; and the setting up of Nefertiti and the game hunter, it would have been a stronger piece. I’m all for big blockbuster episodes but, on the strength of these two so far, they seem to be substituting development for spectacle and setting up key plot points quickly and then resolving them even quicker, and I’m not sure whether I like it.

(6/10)

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Doctor Who – Asylum of the Daleks (Review)

*** Warning: contains spoilers ***

So here we are with series seven of Doctor Who, following on from the short five ‘Pond Life’ films, and we find the Doctor being called upon by the Daleks to save them from the breakout of dangerous, insane, Daleks from their asylum.

There have been a few changes since the end of series six. The Doctor Who titles have been tweaked slightly with a green tinge, nothing wrong there, but also have been given a change in logo which is, frankly, boring compared to the graphically clever previous one which was itself a vast, vast improvement on the RTD era logo.

Elsewhere Rory and Amy have split up – as hinted in the final ‘Pond Life’ short – and Amy has become a glamour model, which finally explains how she makes money and doesn’t just rely on Nurse Rory to bring home the bacon.

‘Asylum of the Daleks’ is a rip-roaring fifty minutes of sci-fi with many, many Daleks and many instances of danger and threat. The CGI used in the episode works well from the burnt out Skaro to the Dalek-human hybrids, and the twist of the Dalek’s in disguise as human’s works well, though whether it could become used in the same way as the Teselecta from series six remains to be seen. The opening scenes on Skaro were atmospheric and set the tone for a dramatic episode.

The Asylum planet of the Daleks was nicely realised with the snow as were the dingy, deteriorating corridors. Jenna-Louise Coleman was a surprise early appearance as a confused Dalek and unless she, like Karen Gillan and Freema Agyeman before her, is playing a different role, which I highly doubt, she obviously comes back in the Christmas special as a human. That was nicely weaved in though, to be honest, I didn’t realise it was her until the credits rolled so I missed that ‘ah’ moment and I’m not sure how many others would have twigged, or whether it would be better not twigging. To be honest, I hope her character adapts when she’s in properly as she was written like a younger River Song – though I like that character, we need something different – unless that’s intentional and I’m guessing future plot lines.

The erasing of the Daleks’ knowledge of the Doctor was a neat trick that, I’m assuming, leads into the big twist at some point of the oldest question in the Universe (Doctor Who?) or maybe it’s just another big reset switch; time will tell.

Overall it was an enjoyable, fast-paced re-introduction to the Doctor and his companions with highs lows and a cinematic break-neck speed. Matt Smith was on top form as always with his portrayal of the Doctor and Gillan and Darvill had their moments as the companions whose characters they seem comfortable now in portraying.

The break-up, potential divorce and re-connecting of Amy and Rory was emotionally done and the break-up of their relationship was handled as it would most likely play out, though the reunion was a little bit false but acted brilliantly considering, but was so quickly set-up, establishing and then dismissed it felt like an afterthought to the episode, unless it has further repercussions down the line. If you’re going to tackle something as serious and non-light-weight as a much-loved couple splitting up because the woman is infertile then you need to give it the justice of being properly built up. I know this is sci-fi and we don’t expect Alan Bennett levels of emotional drama, but neither is it Holby City.

The Daleks were given something interesting to do and the new Dalek-human hybrids were interesting, especially with the walking skeletons, though again these ideas have been recycled a little from previous stories and were a little underused in this episode. Moffat has said he is going for five big action-packed episodes and that they cram into one episode what the classic series would do in four, which is perfect for those with shorter attention spans, but I feel the ideas displayed would have had more breathing room in a two-parter.

But I am a big supporter of Moffat’s stories so far and it’s hard to judge a series on one episode, when he does have a tendency to weave threads in to come back later, but I enjoyed ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and am interested to see how it will connect with future episodes. It had emotional scenes, action scenes, suspense scenes and a neat little twist, though it was pretty obvious from the get-go that there was something about Oswin that wasn’t at face value, even if you didn’t get the actual twist, which I didn’t.

Not too shabby for a return episode and it had its fair share of comedy moments and emotional outpouring but could have been a better two-parter and, though the intention was this from what Moffat has said, it didn’t have the feel of a new series like the episodes that kicked off the last two had, rather more like the one-offs that David Tennant took part in in the twilight of his role.

(6.5/10)

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A Quick Review of Christmas TV Part One: Christmas Day

Up there with family, presents and food is television on Christmas Day, a day when the television networks bring out their big guns with one-offs, festive specials and big budget versions of their hit shows. But how did this year’s Xmas shows stand up?

Obviously between unwrapping presents – 12:30, eating dinner – 3pm, and falling asleep – 11pm, it’s impossible to watch everything but, hey, I managed to catch most of what I wanted to see, starting with the Top of the Pops Christmas Show, the now annual look back at the preceding year’s music after the mainly weekly show was axed by the BBC several years ago. Though to be hypocritical and say that I rarely watched the show, I think it was a massive shame for live music that the show was dropped but I can understand their reasons as more acts are now American or are DJ based and require a bit of, er, assistance in the live department.

It was always well known that TOTP used to have the artists lip-synching but didn’t in its noughties shows but it was difficult to tell what was or wasn’t live in this show. I’m not convinced it was all live but it could have gone either way. ‘Rizzle Kicks’, performing ‘Down with the Trumpets’, certainly were as they changed some lyrics to Christmas ones, and did it well, also excelling on their appearance out of two presents on Olly Murs ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ which was equally live, Murs recreating the DJ effects of skipping well live.

Appearances by Example, Pixie Lott, Noah and the Whale and Jessie J, an earlier recorded acoustic version of ‘Price Tag’ sung beautifully, were all welcome, a tedious performance of the tedious ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, not a patch on the great ‘Lego House’, less so. ‘Little Mix’, this year’s X Factor winners, also dropped in to perform ‘Cannonball’, thankfully not the festive number one, and it was as average as you expect. And then, much to Radio 1’s annoyance I imagine, TOTP got to reveal this year’s Christmas chart topper with the promo video for ‘Wherever You Are’.

Overall a welcome return for the TOTP and aside from a few dodgy acts and some countdowns of the big tunes of the year which including songs that were so big I’ve never heard of them, it was well worth watching. They even managed to throw in a fitting tribute to Jimmy Saville. Now then, now then.

After a lovely Christmas dinner – thanks mum! – and with the power of Sky Plus we watched The Queen, helpfully revealed at the end to be a Sky News production, possibly their first of the year that doesn’t include ticker tape banners or phone hacking. Ooh.

Her speech was as great and rousing as usual and for an 85-year-old woman she can still hold the screen and stand for a considerable length of time. Obviously this year it was backed with the knowledge that her husband was in hospital having undergone a heart operation whilst she continued on with life as usual, so the message of family being important might not have been as strong as it would have been. At least she had Mike Tindall there for all her dwarf-tossing needs.

As I said to my parents, not everyone is lucky enough to have a Phil with them at Christmas dinner this year.

After the Queen’s speech it was a break until the next programme, a break I filled with Milton Jones on one of my Christmas DVDs and a scout around the music channels, one of which was showing ‘Queen at 3’ against her majesty with him Mercury. But, at 4:50 it was time for Ratatouille.

Being the penultimate Pixar film I had to see to complete the set – just Cars 2 to see now – I was eager to watch it. ‘Up’, one of their most recent efforts, is one of the best films of all time and I hoped that ‘Ratatouille’ from a similar era would be up to it. Sadly, it’s not one of their best films. The premise and animation are as clever and well implemented as ever, and the last half-an-hour of the film was an exciting mixture of chases, emotion, drama and a fitting conclusion to the story. It’s just a shame that the first hour wasn’t as exciting as it could have been and was just missing some sparkle that I can’t put my finger on. We’ve been spoilt recently with some cracking CGI films – ‘Arthur Christmas’ being the most recent example – and this seemed to be missing something. The premise seemed to take a while to set up and it took a while to care about the characters.

Still, it was an animated film well worth watching but not up there with ‘Up’ or ‘Toy Story 2’ from the Pixar stable.

With telephone calls to family members filling up the next half an hour, it was next onto Doctor Who and the Christmas special ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’, a loose – very loose – take on the Narnia story.

It’s well documented on my blog that I much prefer the Steven Moffat / Matt Smith era of ‘Doctor Who’ over the RTD / David Tennant one. However, I didn’t much enjoy last year’s Christmas special even if it had one of the most sad, touching ends to the story ever. I think the combination of a flying shark, Michael Gambon’s shockingly tedious acting (ala his work in Harry Potter) and a so-so story did it for me. Though I do admit to sobbing a little at the fate of Katherine Jenkins’ character.

This year’s special was still very much tugging at the heartstrings. Starting with the Doctor blowing up a spaceship and landing on earth in an ill-fitting space-suit to be rescued by Claire Skinners’ war-time mother and taken to the TARDIS was a funny opening including getting the wrong Police Box, but seemed a waste of CGI with blowing up a spaceship that was only in for less than a minute. Following the Doctor’s departure we learn that her husband, played by Alexander Armstrong, has died three years later whilst in a bomber over the English Channel, but she hasn’t yet told their two children.

So, at Christmas, off they go to their uncle’s house which is deserted, apart from the Doctor as the Caretaker, who has turned the house into a magical playground with moving furniture, a kids bedroom stuffed with toys, tricks and, of course, two hammocks, and a Christmas tree with a mysterious blue parcel under it.

A special Christmas treat for the kids, Cyril, the young boy, opens it early and finds it takes him to a planet where decoration-covered Christmas trees grow naturally and there is a mysterious tower in the centre with strange wooden men in it. It’s not long before the Doctor with the daughter in tow find out where he’s gone and, instead of the safe forest he’d planned, there’s something remiss and they find the tower with none of them suitable to carry the spirits of the forest, who are to be killed by an extreme form of deforestation about to occur with acid rain, a plot stand found out by the mother who stumbles across the group of deforesters (is that even a word?) led by Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir who bring some great comic relief to the piece and are sadly underused in the story. I could have watched Bill Bailey all day in this story.

With the family all reunited in the tower the mother is found to be the perfect carrier for the souls and seemingly a lot of hair to hide the gold ring which quickly disappears from her head in possibly a prop malfunction and they head off through the time vortex to save the forest and get back home and, in a piece of lucky serendipity, become a guiding light for her husband in the fighter who survives the journey home to be reunited with the family. All that is left is for the Doctor to realise the importance of family and head over to the Pond household to join them for Christmas dinner, a tear coming to his eye.

Now, I’m going to be the first time to say that the storyline of this year’s Doctor Who wasn’t the best. Moffat once more refuses to kill off a character again and brings him back in a rather contrived way; it’s very sickly sweet in how they save the trees; and there’s a lot of tears. That said, however, I found the story very touching and a tear did come to my eye just like the Doctor’s. God, I must be getting more sentimental as I get older, but the combination of storyline, music and acting got to me.

Sure, it wasn’t the most original storyline ever and Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir deserved more screen time, but the locations and eye to detail were beautiful. Matt Smith was as spot-on with the Doctor as ever during the spacesuit sequence and the house-tour sketch, and managed to cover a whole range of emotions throughout the piece, cementing him as my favourite Doctor so far. Steven Moffat is proving to be a good writer of the series and though the storyline did once more hit the big reset button that plagued RTD’s era as well as his, there was a fair bit of emotion in it.

Now from one end of drama to the other and we come to Coronation Street. Now I’ve not watched this soap regularly for eight years now so I only really watch it when I’m seeing my parents or for big occasions like last year’s impressive fiftieth anniversary train crash plotline. This year’s big storylines involved a Nativity-birth parallel (tres original!) and the evil Tracy Barlow once more cooking up some lies, this time that Becky pushed her downstairs causing her to miscarry. This plotline also led to Becky almost killing herself in a drink-fuelled fire and her swearing revenge on Tracy, whilst Tracy’s mother knows that the truth that she lost the kids before meeting Becky.

It was quite a good episode of Corrie but there are several things to note. Firstly it started with the musical accompaniment of Shakin’ Steven’s ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ over a montage of happy and sad scenes. Since when did it become ‘Home and Away’? Secondly, is Steve an idiot? Tracy has already murdered her boyfriend, served time for it, tried to take Steve’s daughter off him and done all sorts of other unhinged things. Why would he get back with her? And thirdly, are all the men in soaps stupid? Why is Peter Barlow having an affair with Carla? Does he not learn after the whole bigamy things years ago?

Surely me criticising the reality of soap operas is an insane thing to do but the characters seem to change so wildly in their actions and motivations?

Coronation Street’s Christmas Day show wasn’t a patch on last year’s human drama, but it was never going to be. However, it is slowly turning into Eastenders with far less of the humour it once enjoyed and far more miscarriages, fires, hospital-isation, affairs and all that malarkey. Ho ho ho indeed.

After a trip to Manchester, which was covered in snow according to Corrie when nowhere in this part of England has had anything more than a light covering, it was back to the PVR to watch Strictly Come Dancing, a one-off light-hearted version of the show featuring Simon from Blue, Charlie from Eastenders, Barry the boxer, Debra the impressionist (not sure who she was dancing as), and my favourite Su Pollard. Now I didn’t see all the show as I was doing other things but what I did see was some pleasant Christmas Day night fun, with Craig dressed very well as the Grinch, some cheesy jokes from Bruce and a poor, but funny, dance routine by Su “You Rang M’Lord?” Pollard. It’s not a show I regularly watch but it was amusing to dip-in and –out of.

Earlier in the night we’d also taped The Gruffalo’s Child, a sequel to last year’s CGI adaptation of the first kiddies book. Worried that this was going to be a shameful cash-in of taking the original story and shoe-horning a sequel out of it, I realised at the end it was based on a second book. Having never read the Gruffalo as a kid – it’s 1999 release meant it was well out of my childhood – there was no emotional connection to watch either the first or the second film – and also being about twenty years too old for its target market, it would be a strange thing to watch but, like the first, the slow, pedestrian delivery of the story mixed in with some gentle humour and beautiful animation make it a joy to watch.

It’s often the little things that make these short animations and in this case it was bits like the hedgehog’s two cute appearances, and the detail of the footprints in the snow. The voice acting, style and detail were as impressive as last year and though, yes, it’s not the most dynamic of short films, well stretching out how long it should last for, it was a fun piece of story for kids and “big kids” too.

Last but not least was the festive edition of Have I Got A Bit More News For You and, thankfully, not a hastily cobbled together compilation of best bits as I thought it would be. With all fresh material, Christmas decorations and a great lead from one of the best guest presenters Martin Clunes, it was forty-minutes of great topical laughs, showing how great the programme is as it enters its twentieth year on air.

Overall, Christmas Day 2011 was a good day for television programmes with a good cross section of shows, and I didn’t even get a chance to re-watch Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ or McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow but hopefully will soon!

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