As has been its way this year, the BBC has released a little prequel scene for the upcoming return of Doctor Who. Its a cracking scene, that doesn’t spoil anything, but does start to get me excited for the show coming back (not that it takes much).
Best part is the Doctor’s answering machine message 
Recently I was made part of the staff on Doctor Who fansite, Outpost Skaro. As a result, one of the things I’ll be doing on the site is posting up reviews from time-to-time of various Doctor Who and sci-fi bits and pieces (so largely what I do here, but with probably less Green Lantern).
So in the spirit of shameless self-promotion, and for any of my readers who care, I’ll make sure I post links up here to any Skaro reviews I do.
First up is the latest installment in the Doctor Who Adventure Games series: TARDIS, now available for free from the BBC website.
This year was always going to be a big deal for Doctor Who. RTD had been show runner since it came back, and David Tennant was an amazingly successful Doctor. So the prospect of a new series, with a new show runner, a new vision and a new Doctor was a daunting one. Would audiences accept the change? And how noticeable would Steven Moffat’s vision be in the final product versus RTD’s?
Up until this year, I would probably say series 4 was my favourite. David Tennant had playing the 10th Doctor down to a fine art, and in Donna there was a companion who I found a much better match for Tennant’s Doctor than either Rose or Martha. The episodes by and large I found consistently good and the return of Davros, the icing on the cake.
So Steven Moffat certainly had a lot to live up to. And straight from the Eleventh Hour, the new series hit the ground running, with possibly the best series opener yet.
For me, the real stand-out thing of the whole series was undoubtedly Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. The youngest actor in the role, and pretty much an unknown (not that David Tennant was really a household name prior to getting the role) there had been a fair amount of worry in fandom about how he would be in the role. But it quickly became obvious why Steven Moffat had had so much confidence in him. The initial scenes with Amelia won me over quickly, and over the course of the series he continued to impress, pitching his Doctor as much more of a mad professor than his predecessor, this portrayal really struck a chord with me, aided no doubt by the great quotable lines Steven Moffat kept feeding him, and his brilliant delivery of them. “Its a fez, I wear a fez now. Fez’s are cool.”
This series also showed a willingness to experiment a little, obviously a sign of the new production team finding their feet. The arc plot was greatly expanded in comparison to previous years, with the scene in Flesh and Stone that was later revisited in the finale, and the cracks appearing throughout the show. The overarching threat of the Silence was left unresolved, and instead set things up for next year. However we also had the Van Gogh episode. An episode that could’ve so easily been a pure historical, focused solely on Van Gogh and his mental issues. These were brave moves, and for me paid off. Whether the more general audience bought into it I don’t know, but at least with the overarching plot, they’re promised a resolution next year, so don’t have too long to wait.
In Amy and Rory, again Steven Moffat took what RTD had done previously and built on it. In some ways you can easily draw parallels to Rose and Mickey in the Christopher Eccleston series, but here things play out very differently. Rose was obviously not as attached to Mickey as Amy is to Rory, and where the former couple ended up separating over Rose’s travels with the Doctor, here the Doctor gets actively involved in trying to help the couple, bringing Rory onboard the TARDIS and taking them away for a romantic getaway (how was he supposed to know there’d be evil fish-vampires there?). This provided the middle of the series with a nice boost, and gave Amy a strong character arc for the series as she realises how much she loves Rory, only to lose him again in Cold Blood. All this means that when he comes back in an Auton body, only to near-fatally wound Amy and then spend 2000 years guarding her in the Pandorica, its all the more powerful, and it all culminates nicely in their wedding.
Not just the actors and writers changed this year though, with various pieces of design getting make overs as well. The new TARDIS console room went down very well with me. I’m not a huge fan of the actual console itself (I’ve never been a massive fan of the bric-a-brac look), especially the central column which I think looks too cluttered making it hard to make out features like the blown-glass sculpture at the centre. However the room is brilliant. I love the multi-level aspect that’s been increased from the previous version, and it was really nice to see a return of the big viewscreen that was completely absent in the Eccleston/Tennant console. The fact there’s various corridors and doors heading off really leads me to hope that at somepoint we’re going to finally explore more of the TARDIS in the new series.
The one makeover though that didn’t work for me, was the new Daleks. They’ve been discussed to death in most places, but suffice to say, I greatly preferred the RTD versions. I do though like the idea of the specific Daleks in certain roles marked out by their colour, and what role the Eternal will come to play should be interesting (my assumption is that it’ll end up like the Cult of Skaro, working separately from the others on its own projects to ensure the Dalek race continues and thrives).
Overall, this series has definitely been a big success for me. I’m actually slightly surprised at just how much Matt Smith has won me over so quickly. If I were doing a “best Doctors” list, he’d almost certainly be near the top. Steven Moffat’s ambitious scripting paid off massively for me, and the high points of the series (The Eleventh Hour, Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang) probably, for me, were even higher than those set by previous series.
I find myself eagerly awaiting the Christmas Special and series 6, but in the meantime we’ve got Matt Smith’s appearance in Sarah Jane Adventures to look forward to. Sure to be interesting as Sarah and Jo meet the new Doctor, but also as we have Russell T Davies scripting the Eleventh Doctor for the first time, something I’m very much looking forward to.
So, last we saw, Rory was an Auton, Amy had been shot (by Rory), The Doctor had been locked in the Pandorica by pretty much every alien ever and River was trapped in the TARDIS as it exploded, destroying pretty much everything. The big question being, how the heck do they get out of this one?
Steven Moffat had certainly held true to RTD’s template for the first part of his finale. All of reality at stake and lots of returning faces and everything screaming EPIC! However for his finale, things suddenly get scaled back to become much more intimate as the focus is brought squarely on the TARDIS crew (and River) as they try to restore the universe and the TARDIS.
The opening was particularly effective, re-using the opening from Eleventh Hour, but with the twist that this is now the universe as seen at the end of The Pandorica Opens, where all other worlds have been wiped out, and the Doctor never crash lands in the back garden. Given how popular the Amelia/Doctor scenes were in the series opener, it was great to see her back, and the reveal of Amy being the one in the Pandorica was really nicely done.
Steven Moffat indulges his love of time travel here to great effect. With the Doctor popping in and out throughout the story to help arrange his own escape, Amy’s resurrection via Amelia and the Pandorica and finally the resetting of the universe, all via the vortex manipulator seen last episode. Its played with great fun, as the strangeness of the Doctor suddenly appearing in a fez and with a mop (fez’s are cool) sits wonderfully with Matt Smith’s take on the character.
As the Doctor takes a hit from a partially-restored Dalek, the story shifts to the Doctor, badly injured and having realised the only way to restore the universe is to use the Pandorica and risk trapping himself in the void on the other side of the cracks. These scenes are where Steven Moffat brings back some of the emotion people have claimed has been missing from his run, as the Doctor, living his life in reverse, carefully figures out the way he can be restored, finding Amelia waiting for him in her garden, tucking her into bed, and telling his story of the old, yet new, borrowed box in the most brilliant blue.
It all built up to a brilliant “punch the air” moment, as the wedding day arrives and the Doctor’s story triggers Amy’s memories of him, allowing her imaginary friend to reappear slap, bang in the middle of the meal. The Doctor emerging already dressed in his top hat and tails for the wedding was great, and it all built wonderfully towards giving us the great final moments of the Doctor, Amy and Rory all together in the TARDIS, heading off towards the Orient Express and the Christmas Special. The fact the old, new, borrowed, blue had been so expertly woven into the Doctor’s story worked beautifully, allowing the viewer to suddenly twig what the Doctor (and Steven Moffat) had done just as Amy’s figuring out herself.
I don’t think we’ve had an ending that upbeat since the series came back, as they’ve always had to deal with a main cast member leaving (9th Doctor, Rose, Martha and Donna), so it made a welcome change in pace, and allowed Steven Moffat to end the series in such a brilliantly happy way that RTD was always denied. But then, in fairness, RTD was exceptionally good at those emotional wringer endings, so this isn’t really a complaint, just a very nice change of pace.
Despite that however, I’m very tempted to say this was the strongest series finale we’ve had. Both parts held up as great episodes on their own, and Steven Moffat expertly weaved in finale aspects people were used to, while also allowing it to draw in things that had been setup throughout the series.
And there’s setup in place for next year as well. The Silence and whoever orchestrated everything by controlling the TARDIS remain to be revealed. Likewise, we’re teased that we’ll be finding out River Song’s story soon too. I like the fact neither of these reveals have been rushed, but I’m also glad its being indicated they will be revealed next year. I like the setup going across series, but this isn’t, and should never be Lost, so I’m glad we’ve got lots of good stuff to look forward to next year with the promise that it’ll actually be resolved.
Christmas can’t come soon enough
Returning monsters seem to be a bit of a theme in this series of Doctor Who, with the Daleks and Weeping Angels having already made appearances, and the Cybermen having been trailed for the series finale. However for this two-parter it was the return of a villain not seen since the 80s, in the form of the Silurians.
The Silurians have long been one of my favourite groups of Doctor Who monsters, and their return had been rumoured for a while. The concept of a monster that’s not actually an “alien”, that previously was the dominant life form on Earth and wants it back is a strong one. And with the advent of the Sea Devils, the idea of different types of Silurian was introduced, making them easy to be re-invented for the modern series.
This two-parter was interesting in how much it felt like a love letter to the Pertwee era. The drilling project evoked memories of Inferno, and nicely used that same idea as a way to explain this group of Silurians waking up. Part 1 also felt a lot like build up, with the Doctor’s net of cameras providing a great “A-Team moment”, but ultimately proved to be so much padding when it was immediately rendered useless. A bit more successful in that regard was part 2, which provided the payoff for much of the setup, but then this is a common thing in 2-parters (most recently, The End of Time is a great example of a part 1 that was probably lacking when taken on its own, but part 2 brings everything together).
For the Silurians themselves, I found them incredibly well realised. While I was initially disappointed that they looked more human than previous incarnations, their characterisation was spot on, and the lack of a full-head mask (as previous Silurians and Sea Devils had) certainly allowed the actors to shine more. Indeed some of the emotion of the second part would’ve probably been lost if the actors’ faces had been buried under a tonne of latex. The idea of the battle mask though I thought was a nice compromise in this regard.
A staple of the Silurian stories, the morality, was also present. Be it the Doctor’s rage at the Brigadier blowing up the Silurian base, or Davison’s “There should’ve been another way”, the Silurians and humans meeting never ends well, and the same is true here, as the desperate mother is goaded into killing Alaya on the surface, while Alaya’s sister Restac is desperate to wipe out humanity even before she finds out about her sister’s death. Neither side is in the right here, with the Doctor stuck in the middle, and that’s something that rung very true for a Silurian story. Unlike previous stories though, this tries to end on a more hopeful note, with the Silurians due to reawaken in 1000 years to try again with the hope that both sides will be more ready to live together.
Outside of the main Silurian plot though, we find the main arc of the series moving on as well. The crack’s sudden appearance initially felt quite forced (although it does seem consistent that the crack only turns up after the Doctor and Amy have been in a certain place for a period of time – save the initial crack in Eleventh Hour) but it became vital to what happened next, as Rory was killed by Restac and then absorbed by the crack, wiping him from history. It all felt incredibly quick and brutal, as the characters were also running from the gas, and the follow up scene with the Doctor forcing Amy to remember him was powerfully acted by both of them.
That said, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Rory. The idea that time can be rewritten is integral to the crack, so I suspect he’ll be seen again at the end of the series. That the Doctor’s pulled what appears to be a piece of the TARDIS from the crack could point to things being changed. Does that mean the TARDIS got destroyed? I can’t see that happening in the finale. So either that gets changed, or the piece of the TARDIS is a red herring (or the outer shell is damaged but is restored). My money would be on the cause of the crack (TARDIS destruction) being changed though, which could have interesting side effects on the rest of this series (its been suggested before that we’ll revisit key points in the series in the finale causing us to see events in a new light). Time changing is a big part of what’s going on here and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
With the mini-arc of Amy and Rory’s relationship raised in the previous episodes, this episode brings it square into focus.
The TARDIS crew are presented with two scenarios. In the first, its five years later. Rory and Amy have left the TARDIS and settled down to start a family when the Doctor drops back in for a visit. In the other, they’re still onboard the TARDIS, but its hurtling towards a cold star, threatening to kill them all. And a mysterious stranger called the Dream Lord says they must correctly figure out which is reality.
Episodes like this always have one major falling down point. When faced with the two realities, of course the one in the TARDIS leaps out as the more likely to be real. It seems unlikely that the writers would leave the companion pregnant for the rest of the series after all. So straight away I was wondering about a twist. Surely Doctor Who won’t leave it that straight forward?
And so I was immediately put in mind of an Outer Limits episode that stuck in my mind. The episode was Tempests and featured an astronaut jumping between two realities. One in which the mission of mercy they were on was a success, and another in which while on that mission they’d crashed and he and the crew were trying to survive. Eventually its revealed both are fake, the astronauts all having been captured by spiders which inject their victims which a hallucinogenic venom.
So oops, a pity that stuck in my head, since that was actually the twist here as well. But anyway 
This episode worked for me as I enjoyed how it helped resolve the Amy/Rory relationship (for now anyway). By having Amy face Rory’s death (albeit only in one of the dream realities) it gave her the jolt she needed to realise how much she actually cares for him. I mentioned before that I was glad to see this relationship being tackled head on, and so for me, this was very satisfying. For now, the couple seem content to continue their TARDIS adventures before returning for their wedding, however I can’t help but feel that there’s a more permanent resolution looming in the future. After all, Rory actor Arthur Darville isn’t in the opening credits, whereas Karen Gillan is. So I assume the question of their relationship and the wedding is not quite finished yet. However for now, this has formed a nice little mini-arc to help boost the mid-season of the show.
The other nice thing in this episode was the Dream Lord. The Doctor recognises him for who he is straight away although isn’t in a hurry to share the information. Its a nice touch that the Doctor puts it together so quickly, playing to both his intelligence, but also his experience. The Dream Lord is revealed as a projection of the Doctor’s darker side, and this is something the Doctor knows only to well, whether it was recently terrifying himself when he went over the line during The Waters of Mars, or more interestingly, his dealings with the Valeyard during Trial of a Time Lord. Like the Dream Lord, the Valeyard was a projection of the Doctor’s dark side. However back then the Doctor didn’t recognise him for what he was. Here he’s perhaps been able to recognise himself in the Dream Lord that much more quickly as a result. The Dream Lord forms one of those nice characters that can be treated as a standalone villain, but also gives the fans a lot to discuss.
This was definitely a nice, and important episode. It sees the relationship between the three TARDIS companions develop as Amy realises she doesn’t want to lose Rory, and allows Matt Smith’s Doctor to shine, showing off his intelligence, and drawing on the character’s darkness as well.
Oops. I’ve managed to get quite behind here. Must catchup before I get any further behind…
Anyway, so a much anticipated double episode, with Steven Moffat bringing back two of his own popular creations, River Song and the Weeping Angels.
Here’s the Doctor and River’s relationship has clearly progressed since Silence in the Library. It seems to be established now that they’re meeting each other in reverse order, (so River will gradually know the Doctor less and less with each appearance) however most interestingly, from the Doctor’s interactions with River, we can assume that Doctor #10 must’ve had at least one if not several off-screen adventures with River. This is a neat trick to allow the script to pick up the characters without having to worry about the Doctor dealing with having seen her death the last time they met.
We also see the Doctor’s distinct discomfort with River. He deeply dislikes meeting someone from his own future and you can’t help but feel its partly down to genuine concern about the time lines, but also a clever play on the Doctor’s arrogance. He’s used to being the smartest one in the room, and when he’s paired up with River, he’s constantly on the other foot, as she teases him about “spoilers”. This is summed up with the great scene where she perfectly lands the TARDIS (having been taught how to fly it by someone other than the Doctor, intriguingly – my personal reaction was to wonder if it was maybe Jack), admonishing him for always leaving the brakes on when he complains that it doesn’t make “the noise”. From a fanboy point of view though, while it didn’t make the signature “wheezing, groaning”, we did get the return of the landing chime commonly used throughout the 80s which was a nice touch.
We also get a couple of hints about River. That she’s already been there for the Pandoric opening (so we can expect to see her again in the finale), and that she’s in jail for murder. The hints seem to point to her killing the Doctor, but I wonder how that would play out. Perhaps in her first adventure she killed the Doctor, providing a nice symmetry to her dying the first time the Doctor meets her. Of course, I don’t believe that she’s actually killed the Doctor. I’d expect it to be just her believing that she did. On the other hand, it does seem pretty obvious that it could be the Doctor, which would make me wonder if that’s what Steven Moffat wants you to think, while he prepares something else entirely. There’s also the issue that a storyline like that would be so long term, its probably not practical. So I’m expecting more twists when we next meet River.
The Angels were I suppose an obvious monster for Moffat to bring back. Easily the most popular of the new monsters since Doctor Who returned, I had worried that bringing them back might detract from the superb Blink. I’d need not have worried though, as they’re superbly used here. The new wrinkles Moffat added just added to the terror, with the Angel emerging from the video recording, and culminating in the incredibly tense scene where Amy has to walk, with her eyes closed, through the forest of Angels, as they start to move when they realise she can’t see them. Creepy, creepy scenes, and you’ve got to admire Moffat for making such a successful monster based around such a huge limitation of them being statues.
I also loved (if that’s the right word) the personality Angel Bob showed. It was truely nasty and malevolent, getting Amy to count down for example, just for fun. A monster that straight out nasty is not something we’ve seen a lot of in Doctor Who.
Of course, we were also treated to another surprise in the form of the crack reappearing, but also being explained to some degree. It had been, up until this point, treated in the same way as the kind of teases we’d had in previous series (like Bad Wolf). With this episode, Steven Moffat brings the crack front and centre, making it a big part of events going forward. Its also intriguing to see that its causing time to be rewritten, but also more interestingly, the Doctor’s almost happy realisation of this.
From a plot point of view, Steven Moffat seems to be using the crack to clear the remaining decks, removing public knowledge of the various alien invasions and the like, to allow him to reset the Doctor’s world into something more like our own (albeit with UNIT presumably). I really hadn’t expected this, but it raises up interesting questions for future episodes. How much of what we’ve seen previously has been reset for example? Would this mean that certain elements (such as Harriet Jones, Prime Minister) could make a return? It certainly allows a degree of flexibility in continuity in the start of this new era.
Easily the strongest story since the Eleventh Hour (and possibly even stronger than that), what makes this story so amazing is that it was the first one filmed, yet you honestly couldn’t tell from watching it, with both Matt Smith’s Doctor and Karen Gillan’s Amy as confidently played as they have been from the start of this series.
After the stonking opening of the Eleventh Hour, could the new Doctor Who keep up that level of greatness?
Well for me the answer was yes.
With the new Doctor firmly established in The Eleventh Hour, focus with this episode switched slightly more towards Amy, allowing her to firmly earn her place in the TARDIS by piecing together the clues of what’s going on. Indeed, the Doctor encourages this in the episode, getting her to go after the girl on her own to ask her about what’s been going on. Karen Gillan rises to this challenge ably and is definitely shaping up well as the new companion.
This episode was filled with great moments. The Smilers, while perhaps not as scary as some were expecting, I still thought were quite freaky. Liz 10 was a lot of fun, and the reveal of the secret behind Starship UK was actually incredibly dark (did the video also contain the fact that those who protested were fed to the Star Whale? I have to hope that part of things was omitted from the general populace).
Matt Smith continues to shine as the Doctor, here showcasing a completely different side to his take on the Doctor. While the Eleventh Hour contained a Doctor still quite reminiscent of his 10th incarnation, here he’s much more like a mad professor, with definite hints of Troughton coming through. Its a take that I really loved, and I hope we continue to see more of this as the series progresses and Matt and the production team settle into who the Eleventh Doctor is. Matt Smith brings a look of physical awkwardness to the role that plays into this fantastically as he spins around and jumps both mentally and physically from one thing to another. I’ll be interested to see what the Doctor is like in Saturday’s Victory of the Daleks to see how the portrayals differ, but the feeling I got between the two episodes was very much an actor and a production team trying out slightly different takes. In an interview with SFX, Mark Gatiss has described Matt’s Doctor as being very “boffiny” and that was very much the feeling I got from this episode. Its a take that fits the Doctor perfectly, but it’ll be interesting to see if it ends up toned down at all or if its what the production team will run with.
That being said, mention has to be made of the superb “Nobody human has anything to say to me right now!” moment. He may be a mad professor, but he’s still not to be crossed and had a nice echo of the 9th Doctor (to pick just one) there. I could really hear Eccleston in that line.
And talking of the Daleks, I was very surprised to see them teased in this episode. That was a nice surprise, and adds to the feeling that the Doctor is just having an incredibly bad day. Steven Moffat raised the point in an interview, that since landing on the Planet of the Ood in End of Time part 1, events have flowed straight from one to the next. Although looking at the preview for next week’s episode, both the Doctor and Amy have at least grabbed five minutes to quickly change their clothes. Which makes sense really. Don’t want to meet the Prime Minister still smelling of Star Whale vomit if you can avoid it.
This new series is so far going from strength to strength, with Saturday’s Dalek episode looking to be an absolute corker. The tease and trailer in this episode, coupled with the interviews and clips available online look brilliant. The Daleks are not just back, but they’re being sneaky in a way we haven’t seen them do since Power of the Daleks. So far in the new series, they’ve usually relied on sheer numbers, or just being more powerful than everyone else, so to see the Daleks using some cunning should be fun indeed.
Its been like 2005 all over again.
I think its fair to say that fandom probably hasn’t held its breath this long since they awaited the first airing of Rose. A new production team, a new Doctor, a new companion, a new everything. And all hanging under the weight of the success of Russell T Davies and David Tennant.
Of course, Steven Moffat was a known quantity. His episodes in the past had been uniformly excellent, so not much to worry about there. But what would Doctor Who under his stewardship be like? And after being so used to David Tennant in the role, would Matt Smith be able to win everyone over?
Well, much like when Christopher Eccleston left, there really wasn’t much to worry about. Like David Tennant, after about 10 minutes in the role, Matt Smith had everyone convinced. He played the zaniness of the opening scenes well (not just the fish custard scene, but clambering out of the TARDIS with the aid of a grappling hook as well, which I thought was a brilliant gag), only to turn it around to become someone not to be taken lightly when challenging the Atraxi at the end.
Steven Moffat’s first series opener was an absolutely corker as well. Of course, the underlying threat of an escaped alien being hunted by its guards has been seen before countless times, but what really mattered here wasn’t the threat, but instead introducing us to the new Doctor, companion and new era in general. And that he pulled off brilliantly. Instantly recognisable to anyone who loved Russell T Davies’ era, but subtly different as well. While many aspects of the traditional series opener runaround were present and correct, it also felt there was a bit more to this. Amy’s introduction was beautifully put 
together, with her backstory interwoven with the Doctor nicely. By having the Doctor first meet Amy as a young girl he has a profound, and not entirely positive impact on her life. And by the end of the episode, he’s possibly derailing her life again, turning up 2 years later on the eve of her wedding (not that he knows this). This has bound the Doctor and Amy in an interesting way.
Something that is made even more interesting by the closing scenes of the episode.
A crack similar to the one in young Amy’s house appears on the TARDIS scanner, and the Doctor switches the screen off before Amy can see it. He also says he made a quick hop to the Moon and back to test the TARDIS, while we saw the young Amy Pond react to the TARDIS’ materialisation. Now its possible that the last of these may have not been a literal scene, however it certainly looks like at best the Doctor is hiding things from Amy, and at worst outright lying to her.
Overall, I couldn’t be more excited for the rest of this series. After the gap year its really nice to be looking forward to weekly episodes again, and the opener was so brilliantly strong its set the bar high for what comes next. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are off to a great start as the Doctor and Amy, and I can’t wait to see how their characters develop over the next 12 episodes, and what surprises Steven Moffat has in store for us.
Well, today saw the press release to accompany the start of filming of the new series of Doctor Who. Of course, this was a significant one as it signalled the first look at Matt Smith in costume.
There was some excitement this morning with the first official picture, however it soon became eclipsed when the candid shot of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan went into second place behind the shots from the actual filming grabbed by the paps. As the new shots gave us variety, but also featured the new TARDIS exterior and a surprise guest star, who I’ll not name here for now.
Matt’s look had been widely speculated about for a while, but no one seems to have expected what we got.
Its a surprisingly retro look. The 11th Doctor looks like a geography teacher (and indeed, comparisons have been drawn to what the human Doctor, John Smith, wore during The Family of Blood 2-parter). There’s also a slight feel of the 60s Doctors, Hartnell and Troughton about the look. Or even the fourth Doctor if you took away his hat and scarf would’ve been wearing something similar.
What completes this 60s feel for me is the TARDIS exterior. Its a surprising 
return to the exterior from the Hartnell era, especially the first series with the white window borders, and the St John’s Ambulance badge on the right-hand door.
I’m still very much digesting this new look at the moment, but while it was a big surprise, there’s definitely something of the Hartnell and Troughton Doctors about it that attracts me to the look. Especially the picture on the right. There’s something just very “Troughton” about it.
