Reilly2040's Blog

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

There’s no doubt there had been a lot of expectation here. Series openers and finales had been the sole territory of Russell T Davies since Doctor Who returns, and Moffat knocked his first series opener out of the park with The Eleventh Hour. So, what would he give us for a finale?

In many ways, Steven Moffat has stuck to quite an established format for the finale. The stakes are raised to “end of the universe” levels and there’s some big fanservice thrown in, be it Dalek fleets, Cybermen versus Daleks, or a massive Companion team up, RTD always new how to please the fans with spectacle. In that way, Steven Moffat has stuck to what people know, with a mammoth alliance of the Doctors old friends and enemies revealed towards the end of the episode, having joined forces in light of the oncoming universal extinction.

However he has also woven his own series feel in amongst this, with the fairytale theme of the series again present, in the form of a story about The Pandorica. An ancient box supposed to hold the most dangerous warrior in existence, having been tricked into it by a good wizard.

The destruction of the TARDIS and the crack, obviously take centre stage in this story, as we open with a brilliant sequence in which the high profile guest stars of this series all feature in which Van Gogh has a vision of the coming destruction, and his painting of it is passed down through the years, before finally retrieved from Liz Ten by River Song. It was a fantastic opening to the episode, that immediately showed the level of planning that’s obviously gone into this story arc. Previously RTD always focused more on hints and teases rather than actual story arcs (and understandably so – you don’t want to scare off casual viewers), but I think this opening showed that we’re not just dealing with a 2-part finale that’s been teased, but rather the culmination of a story arc that’s been carefully planned throughout the run.

From there, we get a superb build up to the final scenes, as River, Amy and the Doctor find the Pandorica surprisingly quickly. Instead Steven Moffat wisely uses the slow unlocking of the Pandorica to ratchet up the tension, adding in a Cyberman attack for good measure.

And talking of the Cybermen, while they look the same (and refer to “all universes” being at threat, implying they’re definitely the Cybusmen), they’ve been updated slightly to be more in line with the originals. The Cyberhead trying to attach itself to Amy, and the reveal of the rotting skull inside it was a great horror moment, and shows they’ve evolved from the “brain in a box” Lumic originally designed. Personally I’m very glad by this, as I always thought that made them too robotic, versus the body horror aspect of the Cybermen (and so well captured by Star Trek’s Borg).

By this point, Matt Smith seems pretty comfortable with his take on the Doctor, and as always was a joy to watch as he scrabbled around trying to figure things out. His Doctor immediately drawn the mystery of the Pandorica, a thing he previously thought only a myth (in a similar way to how the Tenth Doctor was drawn to the mystery of the Satan Pit). It made a heck of a lot of sense that the alliance knew this would be how to ensnare him, and those final scenes of him being dragged into the Pandorica, as he desperately tries to argue that only he can stop the TARDIS exploding made for a powerful ending.

And to wrap everything off, we’ve got the much-speculated return of Rory, but with one heck of a twist. Obviously, something related to the crack allowed him to be reborn into this Auton version of his body, but the reveal that that’s what he was, as he struggled to stop himself killing Amy. Wow.

The only downside I can see to this awesome first part, is how part 2 must now live up to it. These two-part stories tend to be better judged as a whole, and traditionally part 1 tends to be an excellent setup. The trick is in coming up with a believable way out of the universe-threatening peril. However, Steven Moffat has been responsible for more than his fair share of quality 2-parters throughout the show’s run (most recently, the superb Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone), so my hopes are high that Saturday could well be one of the best series finales we’ve had.

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.

This week’s Doctor Who episode saw the eleventh Doctor’s first face off against the Daleks, but more than that, it turned into a relaunch for the Daleks themselves, to setup a new status quo for them in this new era of the show.

The premise for the episode was definitely a strong one.  The opening 10 minutes was deliberate homage to Power of the Daleks, with the Daleks back to being sneaky for the first time in ages, posing as robots invented by a human professor to help Churchill win the war.  Of course the Doctor knows the truth, but no one believes him.

Those opening scenes were hugely effective, and its been a while since the Daleks were this effective, looking quite freaky as they casually rolled around the background in the war-rooms, always keeping an eye on the Doctor and what he was doing.

If I had a complaint about the episode, it’d probably be that it all felt a bit too quick, and these opening scenes could’ve easily been played out more.  I wonder what this story would’ve been like if it had been stretched to two episodes, instead of the hurried reveal of the Daleks’ plan on Earth.

The plan itself was pretty straight-forward.  These three Daleks are the sole survivors of Journey’s End, with their ship having managed to escape back in time.  However, they also stumbled across the last remaining progenitor.  A device from the original Dalek Empire that will recreate those original Daleks and return them to greatness.  However, as these Daleks are “impure” the Progenitor won’t work for them, unless they offer it the Doctor’s expert witness as to their identity, hence their ruse on Earth.

As to why these Daleks are impure?  Well, we know they’re pureblood Kaled Daleks, as Davros himself created them from his own cells, but I guess he must’ve been tinkering with them again (as seen in Rememberance of the Daleks).  The Daleks are, as in that story, big fans of genetic purity, going so far as to have the new Daleks destroy these three survivors as their first act (tactically, surely a bit of a dodgy move given their limited numbers, but that’s Daleks for you).

And so the Daleks are reborn.  But not quite as their original selves, with the Progenitor obviously deciding bringing them back as 60s balsa wood wouldn’t be the best idea (especially with the Doctor standing right beside them).   The redesign definitely stood out to me as the one duff note about the episode.  I’m just not a fan.  The bright colours I thought were less effective than the metallic bronze we’ve been used to, but I could live with them fairly happily.  However, the physical changes I’m definitely not keen on.  Being taller makes them look a lot more imposing, but the midsection with the gun and plunger is a bit too bulky.  And that then pales in comparison to the bizarre new hump they’re sporting.  The lines of the design don’t flow nearly as well as previous models as a result, and I’m really confused as to why they were changed in this way.  I’m hoping there’s going to be a reason for the change revealed at somepoint, be it in the show, or a practical production reason.    I dare say the problems will be less obvious when the new models next appear, but for this story, standing next to the previous models did them no real favours.

However, while I wasn’t keen on the revamp at all, some dodgy Dalek props are never enough to derail a whole episode, and so I was still a fan of this episode overall.  It had a great setting and once again Matt Smith shone as the Doctor.  There were some great set pieces with the Spitfire attack on the Dalek ship as well.

Of course, the most interesting thing about this episode, is that its really just a setup episode.  While The Eleventh Hour was about introducing the new Doctor, and The Beast Below allowed Amy to shine, this episode was focused on re-establishing the Doctor’s nemesis.  And that leaves me quite excited.  No more do we have the Daleks being completely and utterly wiped out only for a couple to have miraculously escaped when a return is needed.  The Daleks are properly back, and are out there biding their time and building their forces.   I hope this means we’re going to see a different take on the Daleks in the future.  More of the cunning they exhibited here, and less of the “throw fleets and fleets of Daleks on screen”.

For me, the Daleks best appearance in the new series remains their first.  In Dalek we got a proper showcase for them.  That Dalek was intelligent, cunning, lethal and scary as heck.  While having hundreds of Daleks onscreen at once does make for a great “oh %$#&” moment, it lingers less in the memory than that one Dalek, slowly working its way through Van Statten’s museum, killing everyone that it comes near.  I hope Steven Moffat’s view of the Daleks will bring more of the cunning we saw in the cabinet war rooms to their next appearance as well.

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.