ELEVENTH DOCTOR
The Eleventh Hour
Likes: The idea of meeting a companion first as a child and then later as an adult is yet again a fairly interesting use of time travel in the show that hadn’t quite been done before (except for the similar idea of Madame de Pompadour in the new showrunner’s previous episode). The shot of the door in the background being shut as she walks by and then suddenly after she walks by again is pretty cool. The moment of Patient Zero disguised as a mom and kids accidentally having the child speaking as the adult is also nice. I am not as enamored with the Doctor’s “earth is protected” speech as some but it is a nice moment when they count up visually through all the Doctors and have him walk through the last image of the tenth thus underscoring his place as the eleventh. Indeed, there’s very much a different directorial style throughout.
Dislikes: And so begins the era of the manic Doctor. It really put me off Matt Smith at the start with the episode getting started as he did with all the awkward body motions and blathering about food and fish and custard. The teenage humor didn’t help. His breathless breakneck rushing about would become more normalized over time but definitely is something hard to adjust to at first. I also just find the Atraxis eyeball ships really cheaply designed.
The Beast Below
“The impossible truth, Doctor. We’re travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.” – Queen “Liz” X
Likes: There’s a suitably eerie atmosphere to the episode with the frowning faces. (Indeed, I’m not sure if it’s entirely a like but there’s definitely an overall different feel for this new era of the show altogether.) I guess I am impressed with the Doctor playing at being Sherlock a bit in his observations on the station—I didn’t catch those explanations the first time watching but they are indeed logical.
Dislikes: It didn’t take long for the over-moralizing to start again. Why is the Doctor so disgusted with Amy for her attempts to deal with such an impossible situation and decision? Of course, it’s also a bit farfetched that she figures out what the Doctor can’t. The police state aspect doesn’t quite hold up once they start softening the characters behind it—why do children get punished for their bad grades, for example? It also muddles the queen’s role a bit and leaves things a bit confused.
Victory of the Daleks
“If Hitler invaded hell, I would give a favourable reference to the Devil. These machines are our salvation.” – Churchill
Likes: The first time I saw this, I thought it was going to be a direct copy of Power of the Daleks and that the Doctor would spend most of the episode trying to convince everyone the Daleks were evil and no one would believe it until too late. So it was a nice surprise when he fairly quickly gets them to turn and then we have the very surprise twist as to what they were trying to achieve. The sight of a Dalek in camo green with a Union Jack sticker should look ridiculous but it actually kind of works. I’m a little more on the fence about whether the spitfires in space might be a bit too silly but it’s kind of nice image.
Dislikes: Although it’s always been enjoyable to have the Doctor name drop all of these historical figures that he pals around with, seeing it in action with Winston Churchill just calling up him across space and time up for a chat kind of stretches believability. The hunchbacked rainbow brigade otherwise known as the new paradigm Daleks are a famous fail that caused embarrassment for the show runners—they looked so bad we pretty much never hear about them again. I don’t like that the ‘love conquers all’ conclusion—it doesn’t make sense why his attitude should affect a physical device countdown.
Re-introduced: I think the first time they’ve mentioned the TARDIS being a Type 40 in the new series?
The Time of Angels
“There’s a difference between dormant and patient.” – The Doctor
Likes: This episode along with its second part is by far my favorite story of the Matt Smith era. They do a fairly good job transitioning the Angels from annoyances that shift you in time to menaces that can kill you and adding odd layers to their mythology that have immediate payoff. It’s truly heart-racing as we realize they are everywhere and we see them move closer and closer in their disfigured crawling state. While you can’t really think too much about River Song’s messaging method without it becoming a bit nonsensical, this story is where her character suddenly really takes off to good effect and the complicated nature of their relationship becomes interesting. A good tense story, especially with Amy’s growing problem.
Dislikes: There are of course several small things that don’t make sense that get glossed over or you just have to accept to get the story going—especially the Doctor and River’s oversight about the statues supposing to have two heads or the Angels’ unclear motivations. Some of the delightful banter between Amy and River gets ruined in retrospect with future revelations too.
Flesh and Stone
“When the Doctor’s in the room, your one and only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home” – River Song
Likes: The Doctor’s big speech at the cliffhanger does actually lead to a innovative and totally unexpected lateral thinking solution; the image of them all up on the hull of spaceship and the Angels gathered below reaching up is pretty cool. The graphics of the Angels turning and moving while Amy can’t see them are absolutely awesome. The scenes with the soldier suddenly forgetting the existence of his fellow soldiers is very eerie and Amy’s walk is definitely tense. (Also Moffat is just good at some great throwaway dialogue: “There’s no way to override them. It’s impossible” “How impossible?” “Two minutes”)
Dislikes: I’m still a little offput by the driving force and solution to the problems in this episode being part of a bigger season-long mystery—it feels like it makes the individual story a bit incomplete. I also don’t really like Amy suddenly trying to come on to the Doctor at the end.
Interesting: After years of the RTD era just splashing alien invasions across the globe over and over as life on earth just seemed to carry on as normal, Stephen Moffat steps in to correct course by having lots of it be ‘re-written’ due to the cracks in time. Of course this brings up bigger issues: did that mean all these events never took place? What does that mean for the Doctor and companions who were a part of them? They remember (as time travelers) and have all the consequences (ie, Rose in the alternate dimension, Donna mind locked) but the rest of events didn’t affect anything?
The Vampires of Venice
“Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn’t actually mind us thinking it’s a vampire.” – The Doctor
Likes: This episode feels like familiar format for a fan of classic Doctor Who: take an old horror story trope like vampires but have them turn out to be aliens with many aspects of folklore explained by technobabble (in this case their reflection not showing because the brain doesn’t have the ability to adjust to the perception filters that disguise them when mirrored and thus just blocks the image). What really marks this story, however, is its beautiful filming location in an old village in Croatia—that and rich costumery really do give an old world feel for this episode supposedly set in sixteenth century Venice.
Dislikes: For some reason, this story doesn’t come across feeling very consequential—I don’t know if it’s because things resolve too quickly (the leader just gives up at the end) or the danger never feels that extreme (the supposed city-ending storm seems like nothing more than just a heavy rain without a sense of dread that the dialogue implies). The subplot of the Doctor trying to rekindle the romance for Amy and Rory is kind of dull too.
Interesting: They keep scattering images of the old Doctors throughout this season—the first Doctor on a library card in this case—it seems as if to slowly work towards reintroducing them to new fans
Amy’s Choice
“One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Take two and call me in the morning.” – The Dream Lord
Likes: I like the drama brought to the story each time as the characters realize the birds are chirping again and they struggle desperately to finish what they are in the middle of doing as they fall asleep. I also feel like we get to know Rory a little bit better. Amy’s deadened “Save him” to the Doctor when Rory dies is nicely played, conveying her depth of emotion by the absence of it.
Dislikes: I don’t know why they made the future version of Amy and Rory’s lives so ridiculous that we already knew one choice wasn’t real. (It seems like it might have been a far more interesting story if they had two versions that seemed equally likely to us the viewers to be true.) I also don’t quite agree with the naming of this episode since it implies the driving drama of it will be Amy’s choice (which life/man she wants) but I feel like that doesn’t really snap into focus until the very end. Instead, it feels very much more an episode about the relationship of all three characters for most part. Plus the final plot twist at the end centers more on the Doctor’s character. The explanation for the cause of the whole thing being the dream pollen is such a throwaway line at the end that I missed it on first viewing.
Interesting: I suppose there’s a bit of mystery added wondering who the Dream Master might be (I remember at the time people hypothesizing it would be the Master or the Valeyard or something like that).
The Hungry Earth
“I’ll gladly die for my cause. What will you sacrifice for yours?” – Alaya
Likes: Funny how drilling and mining always lead to major problems in Doctor Who! This is a fairly decent episode at creating a sense of dread as we watch and wonder what the heck is coming. It’s even interesting to see the Doctor unusually floundering and at a loss for what to do as Amy gets taken away and he forgets to watch the little kid. The episode signals very strongly (almost too strongly) what the themes will be in the story to follow and, though I was initially a little unhappy with the updates to the Silurians, it was nice to see yet another old foe being re-introduced.
Dislikes: Again the ‘moral Doctor who never uses a gun’ is over-played with his condescending attitude towards Ambrose who gathers a rifle and other things that they can use for defense. They could have had the Doctor much more understanding—there is no question that was the reasonable thing to do when you’re told that something unknown that snatched your husband is coming up from the ground to get the rest of us—and just had him explain that he always tries to find non-violent means first, not act like she should have known better.
Re-introduced: The Silurians are back! (Although up until they are revealed, everything about the episode would have made you think it was the return of the Tractators.) They definitely look more updated and modern though I was a little miffed by them taking the classic face of the Silurians that we know and implying that it was mask all along—but I guess they also give us an out that this is a ‘different branch’. Nevertheless, the reintroduction of another foe from the classic series was an nice sign that they were finally acknowledging and integrating the two.
Cold Blood
“The first meeting of representatives of the human race and Homo Reptilia is now in session. “ – The Doctor
Likes: I like that they put into play the themes and dynamics from the original Silurian story of mistrust and attempts and connections on both sides and how all that interplays, but I would have liked it if they’d foreshadowed the mother killing the hostage a little less so there was some surprise to it. It is interesting to see the warrior so trained not just in battle but obviously psychological manipulation as well. The scene in the lab is surprisingly frightening considering the Mo reveals that they had performed vivisection on him and Amy is within seconds of the same. (Though this should also have come up in conversation to counter the Doctor’s moralizing to demonstrate that the humans had every reason to be afraid and want to fight back too.) The episode title is also nice—referencing the reptilian but also evoking the Sulurians’ dispassionate attitude towards experimenting on the ‘lesser’ race.
Dislikes: I am not a fan of voiceover for the episode and especially when it’s yet again used to seem to imply one stated fact at the start and then we find later that it wasn’t quite true just a strange way of phrasing things. The thought that the Silurians are going to wake up in a thousand years and share the earth is a bit ridiculous anyway and irritating brushes earth history away in another “time can be re-written moment”. We also enter the strange world of Rory’s existence (dead, not dead, not real, huh?). It yet again ends up overshadowing the conclusion of the story (though I do have to admit that it’s a striking scene when Amy suddenly has no memory of Rory). I’m glad it at least didn’t interfere as much with the story itself this time.
Re-introduced: The history of the Silurians (suspended animation at the approach of the moon) is reconfirmed as well as the events with the first group encountered by the Third Doctor.
Vincent and the Doctor
“Can you see how they roar their light? Everywhere we look, the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes.” – Vincent Van Gogh
Likes: I’m not a huge fan of episodes centered around historical figures but, like the Agatha Christie episode before, this one is a little more entertaining if you enjoy the game of it showing paintings you recognize or the (fictional) sources of inspiration for some of them. I especially like when Amy seemingly influences him to paint ‘Sunflowers’ but we also see that they are notably on the coffin of the young woman killed by the creature and one can imagine that he would have originally done it because of this anyway. (Though of course without the ‘for Amy’!)
Dislikes: I have to admit that I had no idea that the British pronounce Van Gogh differently from Americans (‘gof’ not ‘go’) so I was sitting through the whole episode wondering why the heck they kept mispronouncing it! It did kind of pull me out of enjoying the episode, especially since I thought it was just the writer being pretentious. Also, the creature’s role in the story feels a bit hollow—invisible creatures already feel a bit of a cheap cheat but here it’s also because it is not meant to be the center of the story anyway. Van Gogh’s emotional journey and battle with depression are much more the point—but that is another reason I’m not a fan of this being getting touted as one of the “best Doctor Who episodes ever” since it doesn’t really center on the TARDIS crew.
The Lodger
“Less of a young professional, more of an ancient amateur” – The Doctor about himself
Likes: I guess it’s interesting to see how the ship lures its ‘victims’ with different faces and I like the Doctor’s delivery of the line about not touching the rot.
Dislikes: Deliberately silly and overly contrived—I am not a fan of this episode at all. Just to show a ‘how would the Doctor handle real daily life’ scenario, it dreams up a ridiculous situation and then plays the whole thing for a wacky laugh. (It’s already hard enough to take James Cordon seriously now that he’s become a much bigger personality!) I hate when they introduce some random ability of the Doctor to fit the story (transferring memories and knowledge with a head butt?) never to be seen again. But meanwhile the whole ‘perception filter’ thing is starting to get way overused at this point. (And not at all consequential to the story, but what the heck is with the creepy clown picture in the hallway!?)
The Pandorica Opens
“You have been scanned, assessed, understood, Doctor.” – The White Dalek
Likes: Most of this story feels like the closest Doctor Who has gotten to an adventure movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark or National Treasure—deciphering clues that lead to race on horseback to a mysterious underground passage replete with cobweb-covered gigantic doors and torches and such while spooky orchestral music plays. (Not sure I like the retroactive “look what Cybermen can do now” moment of the pieces trying to find a new body but the visual of the skull suddenly appearing definitely fits with the adventure film motif.) Though it seems ridiculous to imagine all the creatures the series has ever known all assembling at once, the shot of all the spaceships in the night sky over Stonehenge is pretty impressive. Rory’s appearance is a big mystery of course and just as what we thought as very sweet reunion suddenly becomes very sinister the seeming hopeless fates of the Doctor and River before our eyes is a huge shock.
Dislikes: Though some might think it clever, I’m not a big fan of the ‘greatest hits tour’ of all the previous episodes that tries to link everything from the past year into one story in a way that they were never intended. Plus another of River Song’s over-the-top messages that doesn’t make sense when you think about it. I have to ignore the whole opening of this episode to enjoy the story.
The Big Bang
“You know this is all just a story, don’t you? You know there’s no such thing as stars.” – Amelia’s psychologist
Likes: Despite the obvious self-congratulation, Amy’s presence in the Pandorica is definitely an interesting and unforeseen surprise. The Doctor’s back and forth in time and creating the situations we just saw are definitely an interesting jigsaw puzzle. And River becomes more of a gunslinging badass, especially in her showdown with the Dalek.
Dislikes: The big ideas here—a universe reduced to just the earth, remembering things into existence, the Doctor creating his own future, rebooting existence itself—while unique, don’t really stand up to much logic. As dramatic as the problems seemed at the end of the last episode, they get tied up rather too quickly and easily. It’s also irritating that the story arc keeps seeming to confuse loss of memory with absence from existence. Indeed, they have to cheat a bit and create dialogue to explain their own rules (somehow the crack makes Amy’s memory ‘special’?). It’s why things are very confusing in the end—is the new ‘rebooted’ reality the same as before? If the Doctor doesn’t exist because of his sacrifice, how did Amy still have him as an imaginary friend when younger. If the events of the TARDIS explosion and cracks in time didn’t happen, then how does the Doctor meet her since there was never a prisoner zero event? Paradox on paradox if you start to examine things. They also really miss a trick with Nestene Rory—having noted the mental and physical danger of choosing to follow Amy in the box for two thousand years, it would have been cool to see a battered and world-wearied Rory appear to her rescue underscoring the sacrifice he’d made.
A Christmas Carol
“Fish that can swim in fog—I love new planets.” – The Doctor
Lilkes: The flying fish designs are beautifully done. Even though it doesn’t work logically, the twist on the Ghost of Christmas Future is definitely a well-played surprise. And I like how the Doctor delivers the line: “Nobody important. Blimey, that’s amazing. Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important before.” Seemingly lighthearted like a simpleton but we know there’s an incredible disdain and sizing up of his opinion of Sardick within it.
Dislikes: The Doctor’s supposed inability to go back and change events he is involved in definitely gets ignored here. He keeps altering the events of Kazran Sardick’s life in real time to a point that it doesn’t make sense by the end. (His younger self does or does not become bitter by early adulthood? Why does the young adult not remember these events and behave differently?) And it’s definitely the slowest ‘crash landing’ ever!
The Impossible Astronaut
“A lot more happens in 69 than anyone remembers. Human beings. I thought I’d never get done saving you.” – The Doctor
Likes: There was always a certain amount of unused potential of the twists and turns that could take place with the time travel component of the show and this season opener is definitely the start of Moffat exploiting it to the extreme. The feeling of disorientation it creates is well-done, from Carter showing up out of nowhere at the exact moment the Doctor to the confusion in the diner. Indeed, dies to the effect of the younger Doctor’s suddenly walking in seeming like a cruel joke (leading to a satisfying slap from River) and the nice moment of the Doctor forlornly asking Rory why everyone seems so angry with him. The Silence are definitely a startling foe and an interesting idea. It’s also kind of nice just to have a new landscape (Utah) introduced. River is definitely fun here with her cowgirl aesthetic
Dislikes: I hate the opener of the Doctor having wacky adventures inserting himself in history. It’s also a bit odd to have the Doctor in the Oval Office setting though it’s played straight just enough that it at least it doesn’t wreck the story. Though the interplay of River and the Doctor’s timelines and histories are interesting, it’s not at all the progression that she describes which undercuts some of the pathos in her explanation to Rory of the day she fears coming (and with the Doctor in the next episode).
Day of the Moon
“We are not fighting an alien invasion, we’re leading a revolution.” – The Doctor
Likes: The resolution of what seems the desperate dead ends for our main characters is certainly a surprising and clever twist. So too the way the Doctor defeats the Silence. The sudden switches in perspective (sometimes seeing aliens with the character, sometimes only experiencing the missing time) is pretty cool—especially the jump when they look at their arms and suddenly have tally marks from all the encounters.
Dislikes: An episode full of red herrings and misdirection, they do start to feeling a bit overly used by the end. The convoluted nature of everything becomes a bit too contrived and everything rushes through to get to the Doctor’s final solution. It leads to them introducing many new concepts to move along the story and then suddenly changing the explained reasons for them to move to the next thing. I almost would have preferred this to be three parts without much added—just taking things a big slower so the ideas have time to sink in and be interesting before being resolved.
Curse of the Black Spot
“She can smell the blood on your skin. She’s marked you for death.” – Captain Avery
Likes: The opening with the crew morning the ‘lethal injury” of a burly pirate with a little cut on his pinky is a good jarring introduction to the story. Amy being a swashbuckling pirate for a minute is kind of fun.
Dislikes: So much of this story is either poorly conceived, badly paced, or just cliched. The CPR revival of Rory is the most egregious example of this–it feels like something from high school drama and it doesn’t make sense that the Doctor would just stand there waiting for Amy to do everything. Indeed, there’s several moments in the story where they don’t seem to know what to do with his character and have him just standing waiting. Also, the ending ultimately feels like a rehash of the twist from ‘The Doctor Dances’. A lot of things in the script are illogical (breaking a mirror or glass doesn’t end its reflections—you now just have thousands of tiny pieces reflecting instead; the pirates somehow able to just fly off into space together in a spaceship are suddenly all fine and not at all shocked). Everything about it just feels off.
The Doctor’s Wife
“You know I’m not constructed that way. I exist across all space and time, and you talk and run around and bring home strays.” – Idris/TARDIS
Likes: There’s a level of cleverness to this story I didn’t see the first time as I was just trying to catch up with the rambling of all the characters (and was put off by the cheating title). It felt like pure fantasy the first time I saw it but the explanations for what was happening made more sense this time around. I could even appreciate the character of Idris/Tardis a bit more this time around. The run around in the TARDIS showing different perspectives and styles of hallways is actually pretty good—not to mention trippy with Amy’s false visions. The idea of the passwords being memories you have to evoke in your mind rather than just saying the words is pretty cool too.
Dislikes: The complexity of the TARDIS gets a bit minimized by making it just a platform that the Doctor can somehow cobble together. And surely Gallifrey would have done something about so many Time Lords and TARDISes disappearing. This is the problem with the back and forth characterization of the Time Lords that the show can’t quite seem to get down–just a few episodes prior River says that the entire universe would be threatened by people getting one cell with their mighty DNA; now several hundred can be easily lured and way-laid and hacked into pieces.
Re-introduced: The thought cubes from The War Games, jettisoning rooms in the TARDIS for thrust, discovering old control rooms
Interesting: The Doctor refers to one of the old Time Lords and how he had been a man sometimes and a woman others. I didn’t realize they’d already introduced this idea this early in the series.
The Rebel Flesh
“You poured in your personalities, emotions, traits, memories, secrets, everything. You gave them your lives. Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?” – The Doctor
Likes: Another good opening where the characters’ reactions to the situation of their friend drowning in acid are confusingly not at all what we would expect. For the most part, there’s a good horror movie “trapped in a castle with monsters” tension throughout with a bit of “invasion of the body snatchers” vibe and jump scares. There’s a very cool effect at one point where the ganger bangs her chest and we see the subtle switch in her skin color with each beat. The final march of the gangers in their armor is also a cool shot. I like the idea of this odd technology that scientists use without really understanding it (especially when we see that it has a kind of sentience they ignore). There are definitely moments where it’s really not clear who is going to be the copy, and it even hints at the complications with the Doctor’s philosophy of letting everybody live and just get a long when the one Ganger suggests his memories of and love for “his” son gives him just as much right to be with “his” family as the original. (Surely the Doctor wouldn’t go on to advocate that they should share!)
Dislikes: A lot of good suspense is ruined by some stupid effects decisions like the goofy stretchy arm and neck of the Jennifer-ganger or the backwards head twist of the leader. Rory’s protector feelings for Jennifer seem to come on a bit strong out of nowhere.
The Almost People
“I’ve reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow.” – The Ganger Doctor
Likes: The opening of the Ganger Doctor in crisis repeating old lines of dialogue seems like it would be comic but it’s actually fairly dramatic. They continue to explore some of the oddities of these copies that have full memories and even that carry over some of the mental defects of the originals. The added element of the cruel and unusual treatment of the Ganger rejects adds another interesting layer to the story, even giving us some sympathy for the Gangers. The Jennifer double copy is a good surprise that was hinted in a way but not telegraphed in to be obvious.
Dislikes: Meanwhile, the Doctor having switched with his Ganger would also have been a cool if rather obvious choice to make, but I don’t like that they cheat by making him act out of character (violent) so we’re sure it must not really be him. Not only is this a bit of a cheat in storytelling but it also undercuts the stated reason for his switching which is to test Amy’s ability to discern the difference. I also don’t like that they have to paper over some of the ethics of the ganger taking over for his original’s his wife and son with some gobbledy-gook about the TARDIS stabilizing them to be ‘really’ human. How come the crew didn’t know Amy was a Ganger when they scanned her at the start of the story? I was more irritated by the reveal than amazed—questioning how long it supposedly went back, wondering if that undercuts her involvement in past episodes as ‘not real’.
A Good Man Goes to War
“I wish I could tell you that you’ll be loved, that you’ll be safe and cared for and protected. But this isn’t a time for lies.” – Amy to baby RIver
Likes: If nothing else, you have to give this episode credit for being grandiose and able to evoke emotion. Intense worry for little baby Melody, surprise at Rory’s steely demeanor as Cyberships explode in the background, pride in Lorna’s loyalty to the Doctor and sorrow at her death, a sigh of relief at the sight of Rory with the baby undercut by horror for Amy’s cry at her sudden loss. I suppose the ‘re-introduction’ of some characters (not the actual ones we met but ones like them) makes for an interesting crew, some interesting surprises at who might pop up in the Doctor’s plan and what role they’ll play. There’s also a bit of suspense in knowing it’s a trap but not being sure how until the end.
Dislikes: Yet another, “let’s bring everyone from the past season or two back even if it makes no sense” round-up which I’ve come to just about hate in these seasons for Doctor Who. Plus more of Moffat playing around with which “he” is Amy describing like he hasn’t already done that time and time again before. And here it’s especially a cheat because Rory is not known as the Centurion in this reality, nor is he the last of his kind, nor can she know that he’s reclaimed that title looking for her. These kinds of games made the story a lot less interesting for me and made it hard to forgive yet another one at the end with River Song’s name—had it been the only surprise word twist and misdirection, I might have enjoyed it a lot more. But really, it’s just another example of them having made the Doctor too big and grandiose overall as he is literally a legendary figure to those involved. (I guess it’s supposed to be an acknowledgement of that having overstepped the bounds in River’s speech but I’d rather of them have just written the episode different.)
Re-introduced: The state of ‘temporal grace’ for the TARDIS (or the actual lack thereof)
Let’s Kill Hitler
“It was never going to be a gun for you, Doctor. The man of peace who understands every kind of warfare, except, perhaps, the cruelest.” – River Song
Likes: I suppose the Doctor and River’s constant one upping about the guns is kind of funny (especially after I read something that made me realize the reference to Mrs. Robinson that I missed though I’m a huge fan of The Graduate.)
Dislikes: “What if we had a character that had been with Amy and Rory throughout the series and could then suddenly reveal that they were River Song all along? Too bad we don’t have one. But hey, let’s just retrofit one in for the start of an episode and then make it a big to-do as if it has the same effect!” This is my opinion of this episode. Lots of random ideas and retroactively changed ideas (River’s back story! Body copying spaceships! The Silence is a religion! Hitler!) all crammed into one episode that are supposed to have the emotional impact of a long journey of viewing. The same for the confusing timing about River’s arc—if Mels was with Amy and Rory since being young after having regenerated from one young girl to another, at what point did she learn all her supposed assassin skills and knowledge of her role and become the psychotic killer that we see? (Was it while they were initially travelling with the Doctor perhaps?) How is her supposedly weaponized mind changed so easily to help him?
Night Terrors
“Whatever’s inside that cupboard is so terrible, so powerful, that it amplified the fears of an ordinary little boy across all the barriers of time and space.” – The Doctor
Likes: This episode has some of the most gorgeously artistic establishing shots of an recent episodes—the flat face of the multicolored apartment block, the reflection of the TARDIS in the water puddle. There’s an interesting design in the antique dolls even though it doesn’t quite make sense that a modern-day child would have them. It’s also a bit amusing that Rory like the audience immediately thinks that he and Amy might be dead or on a different time track because he (like the audience) recognizes that those particular plot device have popped quite too often.
Dislikes: It’s really a rather thin story in terms of plot and resolution—and one that is a bit rehashed from Fear Her. (How many aliens races drifting around aimlessly in space actually are there?)
The Girl Who Waited
“This is a kindness. Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness.” – Handbot
Likes: I kind of like the two different time streams in the same place idea, especially with it being that you enter the same room but differently based on pushing a different button. (Though I don’t see how it prevents the illness from acting quickly since a day for the person speeded up is still a day? It would make more sense if that time stream was slowed down comparatively.) Pretty amazing make-up effects for Old Amy.
Dislikes: I don’t quite get why Old Amy is so insistent for time not to be re-written—seems like she would be relieved and not worried about time resetting having seen it happen multiple times before?
The God Complex
“There’s a room here for everyone, Doctor. Even you.” – Joe
Likes: I don’t know if it just came across too weird or what the first time, but I liked the majority of this story much better on the second watch. The old hotel set design is quite good and there is definitely a lot of tension created. The crazed eyes and calm talking of the possessed gambler is especially well-played. The bored clown on the bed and the angry PE coach are both great random things to throw in. (Building the much bigger world of fears than if they had just shown the ones related to the immediate characters.) That the Doctor’s “no one else is going to die today” pronouncement fails miserably is definitely disheartening and sets up his emotional breakdown at the end.
Dislikes: Ultimately, the main storyline kind of fizzles. The plastered over explanation of how the Minotaur dies is really unsatisfactory as is the reveal of the actual space they are in. The whole narrative switches to a focus on the Doctor and Amy’s emotional reckoning (severing her dependence on him, acknowledging his need to feel needed, and emphasizing that she is a grown up married woman). This sudden shift in gears solves problems that had not really been presented as problems before—kind of retroactively creating the need to resolve them.
Re-introduced: The Nimon (in mention as cousins to the Minotaur species) with
Closing Time
“No, you’ve noticed something. You’ve got your noticing face on. I have nightmares about that face.” – Craig
Likes: I was excited at the re-introduction of the Cybermats (though not too thrilled about the silly teeth). I appreciate that they at least try to carry over one theme (Doctor realizing the danger he puts people in) from the last episode and move it forward (the Doctor realizing his need for people) into this one.
Dislikes: Another slapstick “domestic Doctor” with Craig. This might be fun as a brief scene but now two episodes of it. And yet again they introduce the random abilities for the Doctor (and even more outlandish abilities for the sonic screwdriver) just for laughs. And Amy suddenly a supermodel or something? Of course it’s another ‘love overcomes all’ ending which they even make fun of in the dialogues.
The Wedding of River Song
“Nothing happened. And then it kept happening.” – The Doctor
Likes: At least it wraps up some loose ends with the storyline I guess? Rory’s holding back showing his agony while defending Amy is actually pretty cool.
Dislikes: Where to start? Yet again an alternative timeline (well, not really an alternative timeline because it’s just random bits of history all happening at once which make no sense if you try to analyze it). So tired of those. They are also desperate to create a clever legend that they keep introducing the irritating verses and rhymes trying to make it sound like something we’ve known all along and how amazing is it that the story is falling into place around it. Then they set up at the end for even more. The Doctor and River getting “married” makes no sense—it’s not a necessary step in the story, they’ve shown zero emotional connection. It seems to be done just because they’d been hinting all along that she was his future wife so they had to insert it into a story somewhere. They actually retro-explain a lot. How does River not know about Amy when she meets her on the Byzantium or doesn’t know what’s about to happen to the Doctor at the lake? Oh, she was just pretending all this time.
The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe
“It’s funny, isn’t it? One can’t imagine being a forest, then suddenly one can. How remarkable.” – Madge
Likes: I guess the story at the end is a little more coherent than I remembered (the pilot didn’t just get saved by ‘the power of love’ but rather was pulled into the same time vortex because of his wife’s mental/emotional connection to him) so I need to give some credit for that. Despite myself, the reunion of the Doctor with Amy is a tearjerker and it’s such a nice tie back to the Doctor’s earlier amazement about it being so ‘humany’ to cry when happy that when we find him dong it that it confirms his humanity as well. It’s a surprisingly good graphic of the spaceship to start (thought constantly catching the Doctor in the middle of a madcap situation is again wearing thin from overuse.)
Dislikes: I know it’s a Christmas special but the silly and sentimental switch is cranked to eleven here. It’s less Narnia and more Mary Poppins in the way the Doctor fulfills his role as “Caretaker” by having dancing chairs, balloons, hammocks, and a clockwork Christmas tree to dazzle the kids. All very silly for the sake of silliness.
Re-introduced (sort of): We meet a team from Androzani Major, obviously evoking the famous Adrozani Minor for fans. Not much else to do with the episode that comes from. Also, the Doctor references
Asylum of the Daleks
“Run, you clever boy. And remember.” – Oswin
Likes: I remember that this was one of the more interesting times in the Moffat era when the new companion played by Jenna Coleman had been announced and yet she appeared as an entirely different one-off character in an episode before her introduction. No one could quite figure out why. It was definitely startling to then learn the likeable Oswin was already ‘dead’ by conversion. There’s a lot of good tension in this episode.
Dislikes: Amy’s sudden fashion model career is ridiculous and the idea she would have never mentioned her problem of why she was divorcing Rory to set him free just doesn’t not seem realistic. The fact that they start with both of those events put me off the story from the start. They really missed a trick here—they should have had the Doctor asking Oswin where she got her eggs the whole time, skipped the silly use of the pun eggs-terminate for Rory, and instead had Oswin alone saying it because it truly would have been a build up and surprise for her to suddenly switch from discussing the eggs to saying exterminate.
Re-introduced: Definitely cool to hear the familiar names of all these planets from the classic era suddenly rattled off.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
“Lizard people herding dinosaurs onto a Space Ark? Absolute tommyrot.” – Riddell
Likes: As little as I like this episode, I have to admit they found a way to cut through the ridiculousness a few times with the surprise shootings of both Rory’s dad and the dinosaur by the villain. His lack of hesitation or feeling is well-played. Meanwhile, I really do like the moment where Rory helps his dad with his little nursing kit and they bond over their similarities despite the differences. That, as opposed to everything else, feels like a realistic interaction.
Dislikes: Who greenlit this? The level of madcap silliness is off the charts. It makes Doctor Who seems like a ridiculous show when the Doctor just runs around grabbing random people out of history to pal around with and encountering alien situations that are obviously just to be funny and mixed up for no reason. Plus there are tons of contrivances that make it feel like a made up story—the Doctor accidently picks up Rory’s dad and it just so happens there’s a space ship that needs related people to drive (why would that exist?) to allow them to save the day, etc.
A Town Called Mercy
“Make peace with your gods.” – The Gunslinger
Likes: I suppose suddenly finding out someone who has helped you greatly has a dark past is an interesting dilemma to explore and it’s interesting the Doctor is on the condemning side of it at first. It’s nice scenery (and turns out to be Spain).
Dislikes: The cowboy town feels a bit cliché and that it’s combined with scifi also makes this feel like a cheap copy of Firefly. The Doctor’s emotional outburst seems a bit overwrought. It’s a nice morality story overall but just doesn’t feel particularly like Doctor Who.
The Power of Three
“I’m not running away from things, I am running to them before they flare and fade forever. “ – The Doctor
Likes: Kate Stewart was a wonderful addition to the roster of great recurring characters and shines very well here as the ultimate result of the Doctor’s influence on her father. (It’s just a shame her debut story is a boring one like this.)
Dislikes: Ugh—so many things I can’t stand in this one: the domestic lives of companions, companion voiceover, silly set-ups for jokes, stupid-looking aliens. Plus the storyline is pretty much nothing—there’s a bunch of strange objects, then they suddenly do something, the Doctor finds there source and reverses it, and done. Poor Brian—an episode after trusting the Doctor to take care of his son and daughter-in-law, they disappear forever and the Doctor likely never visits him again.
The Angels Take Manhattan
“But you don’t believe that statues can move. And you’re right, Mister Garner. They can’t. Of course they can’t…when you’re looking.” – Grayle
Likes: There’s definitely a tension in this story that the several stories before had been missing. The chittering ‘baby Angels’ lend a lot of menace and there are a lot of nice directorial touches in the way this is presented. While the “here we die again” is overused, the Ponds sacrifice is nicely moving. (I did wonder at the time what would happen if it turned out that they just died.)
Dislikes: Once again, to make a dramatic story Moffat suddenly introduces new ‘rules’ that don’t make any sense. Why should reading something ‘written’ make a difference in whether it can be changed or not (and when has it ever before)? And why does not being able to fly the TARDIS to New York prevent the Doctor from seeing Amy and Rory ever again? Why can’t he just park in New Jersey and take a bus over? And I was really hoping the Statue of Liberty (not a stone statue by the way!!!) as an Angel was just going to be a figment of River’s novelist imagination—no such luck.
The Snowmen
“Carnivorous snow meets Victorian values and something terrible is born.” – The Doctor
Likes: As usual, the Victorian period design is very nicely done and the effects throughout the story work very well. Having the expected companion Clara suddenly die is again pleasantly confusing. The pace of the story moves quite well and while There are still a lot of madcap hijinks at least most of them serve the plot this time. There are definitely a lot of clever and well-timed funny moments {“Hello, I’m a lizard woman from the depths of time and this is my wife.”) and it’s hard not to like the indomitable Clara the barmaid and governess hiding her ‘funny voice’. Nice to bring back an iconic villain but…
Dislikes: Why, why, why did they make it that the Doctor didn’t even remember his encounters with the Great Intelligence? The implication seems to be he’s just done too much and forgot maybe? But those were such major events for him and his companions (and for us as viewers) that it doesn’t make sense—and is totally unnecessary to the story. It would have been much more satisfying for the Doctor to suddenly see it all coming together and realize that he is in the midst of the origin story for something he faced earlier. It makes no sense that the Doctor would set up an invisible staircase on a cloud to hide away (obviously just something fanciful to enhance the fairytale wonder of the story). And of course human emotion saves the day yet again (nice but overused).
Re-introduced: The Great Intelligence and its connections to the snow (and thus the Himalayas?) and the London Underground. (But the writers do understand that the original snowmen in Doctor Who were furry robot Yeti, right?)
New canon: The ‘Pater Noster Gang’ – a bit irritating in their sudden prominence and overtly comic presence in the show but they are admittedly at their best here, especially Strax suddenly in his element assessing and analyzing the threat they are facing and reporting to the Doctor.
Side note: I was so excited to see Matt Smith’s face in the opening—a return to trope of the classic era!
The Bells of Saint John
“I do love London. So many cameras.” – Kizlet
Likes: There’s definitely a different and modern feel to the direction of this episode (the opening graphics, London setting, fast pacing) that makes it stand out and makes Clara feel like part of a new era. The rolling shot of her entering the TARDIS and then the TARDIS to the airplane are beautifully done, you could even say choreographed down to the cup in her hand. The ability of the lady to follow the Doctor around talking through other people definitely gives a creepy Matrix vibe. The re-appearance of the Great Intelligence was a surprise even on the second viewing for me since I had forgotten about it. It’s a natural progression for it to have ended up in the internet and makes more sense than humans having just invented this advanced ‘soul-downloading’ technology somehow. I really like the dread in her line about how long he’d been whispering in her ear as she reverts her history and the effects we see of that.
Dislikes: The opening of the Doctor as a monk was both overdramatic and silly. They are obviously trying (unnecessarily) to rehash the emotion of the Doctor’s move from brooding to hopeful that was already established in the previous episode—but here it just comes across as an unreasonable switch in tone from serious to goofy. (Plus I’m just tired of this Doctor always ‘going into isolation’.) And why did they choose one throwaway part of this unrelated scene as the title of the entire episode? It’s a bit confusing. Anyway, the rest of the episode is a little ligh It’s a little hard to believe a young modern city woman would be as clueless about computers and the internet as they make Clara at the start. It actually put me off her character the first viewing. (Maybe they could have covered this with a dialogue about her parents being anti-modern technology or something?) The breezy direction and interactions do make the episode feel a little light.
The Rings of Akhaten
“The soul’s made of stories, not atoms. Everything that ever happened to us. People we love, people we lost. People we found again against all the odds.” – The Doctor
Likes: The street market scene was definitely some of the most ambitious alien costuming of the show ever in terms of scope. And I do like the unique idea of trade being in objects with psychic value according to the memory and attachment they hold. Clara’s easy willingness to sacrifice her mom’s ring to save the girl is a touching way to show her heart and morals.
Dislikes: This was apparently the budget episode as there are lots of very poorly done graphics interspersed with awkwardly shot physical scenes (the Doctor and Clara on the scooter comes to mind.) The progression of what danger entails keeps switching—I think it’s intended to be clever with red herrings but it really for me comes across like cheating by misdirection of tones. I wasn’t a fan of the whole ‘leaf’ saga the first time—yet more focus on the past and family of companions that the era is full of.
Cold War
“My world is dead but now there will be a second red planet. Red with the blood of humanity!” – Skaldak
Likes: I was very excited when this episode first came out after hearing that it would mark the return of the Ice Warriors. I had some disappointment with that (as noted below) but on this second watch I was able to concentrate a bit more on how beautifully shot much of this episode is—the lighting, the framing, and more. Clara in the oversized officer’s coat is adorable. I also appreciated the philosophizing in this episode; there were some very thoughtful pieces not just in discussion but in action and displays of emotion.
Dislikes: I had a hard time with this episode the first watch because I was sorely disappointed with them trying ‘fix’ the lumbering appearance of the Ice Warriors by giving them CGI faces and making them a different speedy creature out of their armored shell. I also disagree with the decision to have the Russian crew without any accents. I’m sure some would argue with the logic that if Clara is hearing everything translated then she would hear things in straight English not accented but they also have to recognize that it undercuts the entire feel of the episode. The whole point of the setting is to recall cold war submarine movies and much of that is lost by making them sound like proper English gentleman. Moreover, even the dialogue is very polished British and doesn’t evoke anything of Russian culture. This could have been a much more phenomenal episode if had had more of that vibe.
Reintroduced: The HADS system returns (though it’s a bit of a coincidental contrivance just to not have the TARDIS around to quickly solve the plot).
Hide
“So I am a ghost. To you, I’m a ghost. We’re all ghosts to you. We must be nothing.” – Clara
Likes: Though it’s not quite applied evenly across the episode, the idea that the still image ghost is actually views of someone moving in a parallel dimension along a much slower timeline is actually pretty cool. The fact of the Doctor going from the start of the Earth to its end to capture the movement is also pretty cool. And I guess his casual ability to do that and Clara’s horrified reaction to it is also pretty cool.
Dislikes: As noted, the differing rates of time so important to the story in the beginning suddenly disappears as a concept halfway through. Maybe they could have added something in the dialogue as to why? The tacked on monster love story is just silly. It would have been time better spent to tighten up the main plot a bit more—it kind of falls through in the end.
Re-introduced: Metebelis 3 crystals and even the Eye of Harmony (why?) get a mention.
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
“Don’t get into a spaceship with a madman. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that?” – The Doctor
Likes: The wandering around the TARDIS is nice (though a bit showing off as Clara mentions) and there’s an eerie claustrophobic atmosphere for a lot of it that fits the tone of the story.
Dislikes: Yet another events-never-happened re-set episode. And the TARDIS tree is a bit of an out-of-the-blue concept to throw in a junk episode.
Re-introduced: Lots of past events referenced in sound bites here.
The Crimson Horror
“The bright day is done, child, and you are for the dark.” – Ms. Gillflower
Likes: The desperation and story arc of Ada are quite striking and I’m glad she gets to take out the creature violently at the end with the Doctor not being morally superior about it.
Dislikes: It was hard to follow the plot of what was happening to the victims the first time (it was hard not to be distracted by the bright red Doctor!) so it took the second watch to understand. Despite all going on, I just don’t find the story that intriguing—partially because of it’s overly comic tone like in the Doctor’s recap of events. And then they go and make it even worse by tacking on the bit about the kids Clara is babysitting finding out about her travels like some kind of children’s sitcom.
Re-introduced: They namecheck Tegan and the attempts to get her to Heathrow but by way of calling her a ‘gobby Australian’ which seems a bit dismissive of her character.
Nightmare in Silver
“Hail to you, the Doctor, Saviour of the Cybermen!” – Cyber-Webley
Likes: The updated cybermats/cybermites are very nice (very creepy as they swarm up Webley’s arm) and the Cyberman are at least treated more as serious menace than in their more recent appearances in comic-tinged episodes. It makes no sense from what we know of the Cybermen’s function but the borg-like design on Webley and the Doctor is pretty cool. I also like the Doctor’s good news/bad news interaction with Clara.
Dislikes: Is this them trying to truly make it a kids’ show by having kids travel with the Doctor? I did not appreciate the trend at this point of the show seeming to have just having any random person hop on the TARDIS for a ride. I am not sure I find Matt Smith’s double acting (back and forth at the Doctor and Cyberplanner) that compelling either.
Re-introduced: The vulnerability of Cybermen to gold is revisited. And it’s even explained that they are constantly upgrading which is why they aren’t still susceptible to those things we’ve seen in the past.
Interesting: I didn’t even remember the Porridge/Emperor character so I was surprised on rewatch to discover Willow on Doctor Who.
The Name of the Doctor
“Sometimes it’s like I’ve lived a thousand lives in a thousand places. I’m born, I live, I die. And always, there’s the Doctor.” – Clara
Likes: Though the movie that follows is bigger and longer, this definitely feels like quite an epic episode. It finally wraps up the mystery of the many Clara Oswalds in an interesting way and has several quite tense and emotional moments (Jenny’s death, Strax reversion to his old self, the Doctor revealing he can hear River).
Dislikes: Moffat continues his invention of big new norms just to make the episode work—the way Timelords die, the end of TARDISes, and such—which do still feel a bit contrived. I was not a huge fan of Clara being with the First Doctor or any of the others. The Whisper Men are wasted not doing much. The final reveal of the additional Doctor was rather confusing at the time (and is still confusing when trying to reason about where they physically are) and I still feel the ‘introducing…’ unnecessarily breaks the fourth wall…
Reintroduced: Lots of visual references to the past here!
The Day of the Doctor
“Time Lords of Gallifrey, Daleks of Skaro, I serve notice on you all. Too long I have stayed my hand. No more.” – The War Doctor
Likes: I have to admit it was exciting to be part of an era when Doctor Who reached such (re)prominence as to have a feature film debut in theaters which I enjoyed along with many other cheering fans. As multi-Doctor stories go, this one is pretty good about bringing the three together and having the traditional snide remarks and poking fun at history that was started in the original Three Doctors. (There’s precedent for that, as Kate notes.) I was also excited at the return of an underused but fan favorite alien race and I feel like they did a fairly good job in representing the Zygons. There was cleverness to the story, surprise cameos, and other things needed in a big anniversary special. It’s also interesting to realize that the Doctor never actually burned Gallifrey and the Daleks as he believed all along and that it inadvertently explains why he kept running into Daleks that survived the war. (It also confirms the unsaid all along that the earlier Doctor never remember these multi-Doctor interactions when he crosses his own timeline.)
Dislikes: I disliked the unnecessarily silly opening with the helicopter and there were some odd ‘artistic’ editing cuts in the Doctor’s memories. There’s still a bit of the overwrought moralizing as Clara seems sit in judgement at the choice the Doctor has to make or as the Doctor condemns Kate’s actions. I wish they would have played it more sympathetic—the Doctor understanding why Kate is making that choice but earnestly wanting to show her that it’s not as hopeless as it seems rather than sounding tetchy. Also not sure why the Zygon in the form of Oswald suddenly became so nice. I totally hated the Curator the first time—it seemed like to me they were mucking about with established canon of the Fourth Doctor’s death and that he had instead grown to old age. Even the idea of him having returned to a previous face in a regeneration seemed ludicrous—except now it’s canon with the return of Tennant as the fourteenth Doctor so I’m now more willing to accept that in this story. (And people cheered when they had a cameo of the Doctor-to-be but it actually doesn’t make a lot of sense to the timeline crossing rules stated.) I also was a bit irritated that the big build up at the end—the Doctor finds new purpose to seek out Gallifrey—is pretty much immediately forgotten in the continued series.
Reintroduced: The Zygons! And so many references to the past in the Black Archives. And Clara teaching at Coal Hill School—a nice opening with the old intro and the policeman in black and white as in the first episode.
The Time of the Doctor
“In time, the Doctor seemed to forget he’d lived any other life.” – Narrator
Likes: There’s very, very little I can see good about this one. I guess the special effects are a little bit bigger and better—much of it still feels like the big budget movie that came before. I also think I might have liked some of the twisty wrap up of all the story lines of the Eleventh Doctor (noted below) if they had not tried to cram them all in at the last minute. I guess I was most glad at the time that it at least meant we were finally moving on from them!
Dislikes: This episode contains just about everything I hate from the era: quirkiness, convoluted retro tying in of plotlines, sudden and conflicting changes in characterization, legends, Clara hopping on and off the TARDIS like a bus, self-congratulatory references to earlier episodes, and even voiceover narration yet again. It starts off badly with the ‘oh so funny’ idea of the Doctor running around naked—a silly childlike playfulness that again undercuts the character. I also hate how Then there’s a sudden rapid fire origin story for all we’ve seen in the last several years that tries to show that “it all makes sense now” and might even have been cool if it had been introduced as part of the original story arc instead of feeling tacked on. The worst offense of the story is the idea that the Doctor arbitrarily suddenly decides to stay and spend almost a thousand years on one planet—like we’ve ever seen him willing to settle down for even a day?—growing to a withered old age and forgetting his past life. That just does not at all fit in character with the Doctor we’ve seen before. (Nor was it his only option—he could have evacuated the village.) It also makes us the viewers feel cheated—like we’ve invested all the years following the Doctor but then he settles down and spends all these years thereafter that we don’t see and his whole life and personality changes. Even the regeneration cheats—let’s make it dramatic by suddenly counting regenerations before to say he’s run out and it’ll be cool to show him all aged and ancient but we also want to have a moment with the young Doctor we know saying goodbye so let’s just suddenly de-age him and says it’s the regeneration process making things reset halfway through.
Interesting: Blink and you’ll miss it but apparently the arc goes something like this: The Time Lords find the crack in time on Trenzalore and set up a trap to bring the Doctor there to free them which will happen when he verifies his identity by answering their question ‘Doctor Who’ by giving his true name. Because their return will restart the time war, the universal church “army” that we first met on the Byzantium proclaims its new faith and mission to hold the Doctor to silence from speaking that name. They and their priests (who are genetically engineered to have parishioners forget what they confessed upon leaving) thus become the Silence. The Doctor stays on Trenzalore to protect it from the enemies coming to destroy him and it thus become the battlefield we see later as his grave. Meanwhile, a splinter group of the Silence breaks off and instead seeks to kill the Doctor by creating a super-soldier to assassinate him which fails. They also blow up the TARDIS which creates the cracks in the first place that they are trying to prevent him from using to help the Time Lords return.