The Angels take Manhattan, The Snowmen & The Bells of St John

The Angels Take Manhattan

Amy and Rory fall together.

Mike McShane

It’s time to say goodbye to Amy and Rory in this sad and scary story. Back in America to film – that’s America and Spain within three episodes! It looks beautiful, the story is a little lightweight but then it is about Amy and Rory’s goodbye and Manhattan and the Angels are almost just backdrop. Alex Kingston returns as River Song as well and we have a special guest star in Mike McShane from ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ as well as Grayle.

It’s creepy, and despite what I have read many fans say, I liked the use of the Statue of Liberty as a giant angel. Rory and Amy jump off a rooftop together to change history and save the day, another reset button but at least a clever one. I feel New York back in the day was captured well too. Following Amy and Rory via a book written about the events was very clever by the writer, Mr Steven Moffat.

At the end of the day this story has its moments, but the one moment you leave the episode with above all others is the end. Rory and Amy sent into the past – to New York in 1938, and the Doctor unable to reach them. I guess it’s a sad way to end if I am to be honest. We know they were happy together, but what about Rory’s Dad and the families of them both?

We also know that at some point River visited them to tell Amy what to write in the book which feeds the first half of the story. So how come River can visit them and the Doctor can’t? And if it’s the TARDIS, what’s to stop the Doctor using River’s Vortex manipulator. Is he saying he can never visit New York between 1938 and 2013 again? That’s a big call we will see if that holds true. What’sn to stop him landing somewhere else and going by land to New York? Unfortunately it’s not a resolution that works. It’s a very big plot hole. And sadly, it does taint what is otherwise a very good, stylish, scary episode of Doctor Who. Amy and Rory have really worked wonderfully well in the TARDIS. The writing lost its way for them a little bit from the second half of series six, and I miss the continuing adventure of the Doctor and his companions, as the Doctor would just return to Earth and pick them up for the ride whenever the moment took him, and that wasn’t as satisfying for me as a viewer, but all in all, I think they made excellent characters. Maybe should have left earlier.

8/10

The Snowmen

Richard E. Grant.

Madame Vastra, Jenny, Jenna Louise Colemann and Strax (Dan Starkey) return for this Christmas adventure, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not only that, the return of the Great Intelligence, not seen since ‘The Web of Fear’, returns as well, with guest appearances by Ian McKellan (sadly just his voice) and Richard E. Grant.

It’s not as swept up in Christmas as the previous Christmas engagement thank goodness, and as such sets a much faster and entertaining face.

Strax is back (Dan Starkey)

We have a new console room which I like, however, I thought the previous one which lasted only 2.5 seasons, was the best of the new series console rooms and therefore miss it. This one is darker and simpler, in some ways more reminiscent of the original console room, without the bright light. Perhaps it’s both smaller and simpler to erect as well, the previous one was huge, but really a thing of beauty. If they were trying to save

money, then rebuilding a set they already had doesn’t make a lot of sense, but maybe it will save money and space in the long run.

‘The Snowmen’ has something a traditional Doctor Who plot, special snow that can copy molecules is trying to give physical form to the Great Intelligence. There aren’t a lot of sets, but they are well done. The TARDIS is parked in the clouds with a ladder down to Earth via a spiral staircase. It’s a very nice idea. And we get Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Louise Coleman, who made an appearance as Oswin Oswald in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and is the new companion. But actually… this isn’t the companion either as she dies at the end as well.

Deepening the mystery. She’s very plucky and adventurous, I think THIS Clara would have worked well in the series. Strax is back – the Doctor says a friend of his brought him back to life, and that’s about all he says. I’ve been racking my brains but I can’t work out who it might have been. Anyways, it’s full of wonderful comedic moments featuring Strax, which is possibly the highlight of the piece. It is a Christmas episode after all, we can’t expect it to be too deep or dark.

As monsters, the Snowmen aren’t up to much really. Not likely to make the 10 deadliest Doctor Who monsters at any rate. The Doctor is played as moody, not wanting to help people because he gets hurt in the process – what he’s just learning that now? To be honest he comes across as a spoilt brat. Those are my two principle negatives. But we’ve got a good episode here, full of life, and Dan Starkey and Jenna Louise Coleman being brilliant.

8/10

The Bells of Saint John

The Doctor is a monk. Why? No idea!

Series 7B kicked off with ‘The Bells of St John’ in April 2013. We get the ‘real’ Clara introduced to us as a pretty normal sort of a gal from present-day Earth, a plot that feels somewhat recycled, the reappearance of the Great Intelligence, and killer wifi.

New console room (first seen in 'The Snowmen')

So ummm… I enjoyed this less that I had hoped to to be honest. It starts off like series 6 with the Doctor in some bizarre situation. He’s been hiding out back in time presumably somewhere as a Monk. This seems to be a very ‘Moffat’ thing to do. It seemed a bit pointless to me, this one more than the previous times (the Doctor being locked up as a Soothsayer in ‘The Wedding of River Song’ was at least justified and part of the story). Maybe there’s a minisode I didn’t see online.

Clara calls a helpline to hook up to the internet and gets connected to the phone in the box on the TARDIS which isn’t supposed  to work, and when the Doctor works out who she is he zooms to present-day London to find her. Why she was connected to the phone, I’m not sure. Another cheap gimmick?

With his previous two encounters with ‘Clara’ the Doctor is now obsessed with who she is. Amy was the girl who waited, Clara is the impossible girl. it’s important to have tag lines. So it is evident from here on that the rest of the series is about finding out who Clara is. The writers will need to be careful to write her well otherwise when the reveal comes they may be in trouble with what to do with her afterwards.

The story is rather derivative of the Cybermen two parter of Series Two, instead of using the mobile ear-pieces to control people, this time they are uploaded into the internet. I must I really didn’t buy into the storyline all that much. A couple of nice moments, when the robot (spoonhead) Doctor reveals himself to Celia Imrie, playing Miss Kizlet the main villain of the piece. And it’s revealed that the Great Intelligence is behind it all, presumably he’s the big bad who’ll be returning throughout the next few episodes. Aside from that it was all a bit hum-drum for me.

5.5/10

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy & The Power of Three

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Riann Steele

Another highly entertaining story, with a gruesome guest appearance by the perpetrator of the ‘Red

Wedding’ himself – David Bradley, as Solomon. It’s a wonderfully mad mix in a story by Chris Chibnall. The title says it all – ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’. This mini-series seems to have a lot of money pumped into it, the dinosaurs are noticeably better than ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’! Well, you’d hope so, right?

The Doctor's 'Gang'.

And we have an eclectic mix of guest characters appearing, starting with the very alluring Queen Nefertiti, play by the equalled alluring Riann Steele. We have Rupert Graves as the explorer Riddell, and we have Rory’s Dad along for the ride, played by Harry Potter veteran Brian Williams, again perfect casting.

Is there much to the plot? No, of course not! But it was written by Chris Chibnall. But not every story

David Bradley as Solomon.

has to have 125 plot twists and new questions asked to be good. We have a whacky collection of characters, dinosaurs, the Indian Army in space! And we have two robots who are rather sarcastic, stupid, but above all very funny! It’s a 45-minute romp with dinosaurs on a spaceship. The title is very honest. The story is VERY enjoyable.

9/10

A Town Called Mercy

The Gunslinger. As if you couldn't guess!

Ok. This one left me feeling a bit ‘meh’ to be honest. I can’t admit to being excited or interested all that much with it, so much that I saw it a few days ago and had to go back to the internet to check the title which completely slipped my mind.

We have a Cyborg Gun-slinger in a western town who’s gunning for a dude who committed a whole bunch of war crimes on a distant planet including killing a whole bunch of people trying

to create Cyborgs to win the war. Let that be a lesson to all you would be geneticists! There’s a bit about human nature, perhaps a bit about ethics, some bits and bobs where the Doctor becomes the Sheriff (always going to happen I guess).

It looks very good – they went to Spain to shoot it which must have cost a packet. Well, they filmed in America

for series six and in Italy for two episodes of Series Five, I actually find it hard to grasp that between the Moffat and RTD eras there’s a loss of budget. But that’s apparently what happened! These three series 7 episodes have all looked fantastic, but this is the first that I didn’t feel excited about. It’s a bit slow in places and really isn’t up to much.

To be honest, I much prefer ‘The Gunfighters’.

And that’s the truth!

4/10

The Power of Three

Brian Williams returns.

‘The Power of Three’ sees the return to Earth for a rare present-day story for the Moffat era, where the main cast is once again joined by Brian Williams as Rory’s Dad. It’s a slightly comedic episode - Moffat has been increasing the comedic element it seems, and that’s not a bad thing, involving lots of little boxes as some sort of consciousness decides that humanity should be destroyed.

It has some great moments, but I wonder if Matt Smith is allowed to push the whole comedy angle too far. Either that or this Doctor is the least connected Doctor to reality of all. Getting bored in a heartbeat, running around like a kid with ADHD (especially in this one but certainly not confined to it). Even the first Doctor matured during his three years, but now in Matt Smith’s final full series and he seems to be making the Doctor more childish than ever.

As a portrayal in any given episode,  it’s not a big deal, but over a period of time it becomes tiresome as a viewer I think. When Tom Baker got angry, because of his frequent brevity, it added weight to the anger, but not so much with Matt Smith who sometimes comes across as throwing a tantrum. It’s not that I don’t like Matt Smith’s Doctor, but as we head towards his end-game this Christmas, I would have hoped that he’d be calmer and more measured at this point. He’s a very talented actor and the most physical of all Doctors, especially in his humour. He brings a lot to the role and perhaps it’s also the writing that is letting him down. If it was just the odd episode – ‘The Lodger’ is a perfect example of how well it can work, and so is ‘The Power of Three’, I wouldn’t mind so much.

Jemma Redgrave.

The episode builds very nicely, and sees the re-introduction of UNIT with Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge Stewart as the brigadier’s daughter and now head of the scientific part of the organisation. That was very welcome. I struggled with the ending, that was a bit disappointing, and rushed. But all in all I enjoyed most of ‘The Power of Three’.

7/10

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe & Asylum of the Daleks

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Bill Baily guest stars, albeit briefly.

Awesome spaceship at the start, it's downhill from there.

You know, Christmas specials. They are kinda Christmassy, right? And sometimes, not much else. This story was very average in my opinion. In fact, after a brilliant opening with the Doctor jumping off a space ship and some humorous back and forths between the Doctor and Madge Arwell,(played by Claire Skinner who does do a fantastic job) it teeters out into some sort of Christmas kids’s film. ‘A Christmas Carol’ was heading that way, but was still solid and I liked it. This time I have to admit to be very bored.

The highlight is Bill Bailey’s guest appearance. Pity it was so short and he did so little. It was Narnia-inspired and that’s pretty much what we got. Maybe for the youngest viewers it hit accord. But even the mention of ‘Androzani Major’ didn’t gain my interest. Crawling through boxes to get to other worlds because basically the Doctor is a magician. and yes, sure sometimes he is. And

the ending where they have saved the father, well that was rather emotional and well played. But the rest is an hour of kids and boredom. Sorry. Fail.

2/10

Asylum of the Daleks

Jenna Louise Coleman in a surprise appearance.

That's a lot of Daleks!

The seventh (new) series of Doctor Who begins with a major BANG! with ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, an

action-packed, Dalek-packed adventure which sees the Doctor, Amy and Rory sent down to a planet where the Daleks keep all the crazy Daleks in an asylum underground. It is also where nanobots are programmed to reconfigure people into ‘sort-of’ Daleks – where little eyestalks appear in their foreheads.

It’s very enjoyable and lots of fun, and also features Jenna Louise

A Dalek shaped building on Skaro.

Coleman as Oswin Oswald, trapped as a Dalek, the future companion of the Doctor in the biggest surprise that Moffat has manufactured yet, and kept spoiler-free somehow which was a major coup. Jenna is fantastic as Oswin, snappy, funny and looks to have the makings of a great companion, whilst Rory and Amy start the story by signing divorce papers as Amy is in the middle of a fashion shoot, which is frankly odd. Of course, love saves the day and

Wasn't so sure about this special effect.

they are back together by the end. And that works nicely, but the stuff at the start, it just doesn’t seem like Amy and Rory at all and when I saw it I thought it must be either a dream sequence or an alternative world to be honest.

Nevertheless. The story is really wonderful, exciting, and features a hell of a lot of Daleks. It’s a pity that most of the classic Daleks, especially the Special Weapons Dalek, don’t do anything. But Series 7 – or Series 7A is off to a cracking start and it looks very expensive. Which is always nice.

8.5/10

The God Complex, Closing Time & The Wedding of River Song

The God Complex

David Walliams (right) with others trapped in the hotel.

To me, ‘The God Complex’ felt similar in tone to ‘Night Terrors’, although it was much better, much scarier and much creepier. It still left me feeling a little unsatisfied, mostly at the way the Doctor saves Amy, which is a repeat of the end of ‘The Curse of Fenric’ when Amy has to lose her faith in the Doctor. There’s a Nimon-like creature in a maze which looks like a hotel. It feeds off people’s faith, and they eventually start to say ‘praise him’ before he devours them. In reference to the creature. Amy’s faith is in the Doctor, and as in ‘Curse of Fenric’ it’s amazing how a couple of words and she loses faith just as Ace did.

The Nimon-like beast hunted those in the hotel.

So this was perhaps the most unsatisfying part of the episode. David Walliams guest stars as a creature from a planet where everyone longs to be subservient. It makes for a few funny lines, and it is no fault of Walliams that to be honest, the character is nothing more than a comic caricature. However it does seem to belong in a sketch comedy show rather than Doctor Who.

Having said all that, the story is not ^th Doctor is more child like at this point than when he started out.

Even the Angels make an appearance.

short on creepy images including clowns and a room full of ventriloquist dolls. And then at the end the illusion is broken as the creature slowly dies, which is quite sad. Matt Smith has a bit more gravitas to the part in this one, thankfully as he has been getting more childlike with every passing adventure. It does distinguish him more from his predecessor I guess, but at the end of the day I feel like the 11

6.5/10

Closing Time

The Doctor pays a social call.

The Doctor and Val (Lynda Barron)

‘Closing Time’ is a sequel to ‘The Lodger’ seeing James Corden returning as Craig Owens. It’s not as good to be fair, but still a decent episode, without Amy or Rory apart from a fleeting moment which reveals that bizarrely Amy has become a fashion model. Go figure.

It sees the return of the Cybermen, stuck in a spaceship trapped under a big department store. The Doctor is aware now that he is supposed to die in the future, as witnessed in the first episode of series six, and he’s trying to delay it all. He decides to catch up with Craig who now has a baby called Alfie, but the Doctor speaks baby and Alfie prefers ‘Stormaggeddon’.

Yes, there’s a lot of brevity and humour in this one and it works well. The Doctor takes a job in a toy store in the department store (where Val, played by Lynda Barron (‘Enlightenment’) also works which is lovely) to investigate strange drains on the electricity. Val sees a Cybermat (yes they are back, with vicious teeth this time!) and the Doctor captures it. Some great physical comedy in this one too by Matt Smith. Craig is turned into

Craig Owens with Alfie.

a Cyberman but reverts to human after hearing Alfie’s cries. He beats the Cybermen with love – their heads all explode.

It’s a pretty meh way to resolve a tale, but in this one it’s quite fitting I think. I actually rather like the character of Craig Owens and would be happy to see him again. The only bit I really didn’t like was the Doctor speaking ‘baby’. A bit infantile and a step too silly for me to be honest.

7/10

The Wedding of River Song

The first time a season finale hasn’t been a two-part adventure, ‘The Wedding of River Song’ is as equally barmy as ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’, answering one question, asking more and leaving an awful lot of stuff unresolved. So in a way, it’s typical Steven Moffat.

Amazing vision, good CGI.

We are presented with a world where time has bled into itself and everything is happening at once. An original concept in many ways, and the CGI looks amazing of London with steam trains running on magical bridges through buildings, Winston Churchill (Ian McNiece) is backas Emporer, looked after by a Silurian. There’s a heap of stuff there and it’s a great idea. The time is always 5:02pm as well – the time where the Doctor is shot at Lake Silencio (yeah I groaned too). And this is purpose of the whole episode  - to resolve if the Doctor was really shot or not. He’s been kept a prisoner by Churchill, who he calls his soothsayer. (Churchill calls the Doctor that)

The Skulls devour...

We see the events that led up to the creation of this strange world where it is always 5:02. In the series we were treated with two possible ways the man shot might not have been the Doctor. Firstly, he could have been a ganger, or secondly the Tessalector from ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ could recreate a person. And it’s the second (sorry for the spoilers).

It’s very interesting. This Doctor is supposedly 200 years older than at the start of the series. Most of the 200 years occurred after ‘The God

Complex’ with the Doctor travelling alone. We have the return of the brilliant Dorian (as a head!), River, Madame Kovarian, Amy and Rory and others. It’s a packed episode, which ends in the Doctor showing River is the Tessalector, they kiss (she was refusing to kill him in another reality). OK no I’m not going to tell you the plot anymore. The Universe returns to normal. River tells Amy and Rory the Doctor is not dead.

Some wonderful elements in this barmy episode, including the skulls of the Headless Monks that kill. Madame Kovarian – well she is killed, but in aborted timeline so presumably she is still alive now. But we learn nothing about her which was annoying. I expect she will return sooner or later. We get a lot of intentionally cryptic messages from Dorian about ‘the fall of the Eleventh’ – is this Moffat’s plan for the 11^th Doctor? We will see. Yes sir we will.

So it’s an awful lot of fun. Amy and Rory don’t really know who each other is in this story, and that plays out brilliantly. There’s a lot to enjoy, it could have been stretched to two parts easily, and that’s the main disappointment – that and lack of resolutions. I think Mr Moffat should have shelved ‘Night Terrors’ and made this two parts. But that’s just my opinion.

As a conclusion to the series it certainly packs a punch, but as a whole I felt the series lost its way at ‘A Good Man Goes to War’. It never really got back on them, although ‘The Girl Who Waited’ was a good episode and I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’. But the arc was really a series of questions, and I preferred the ‘what’s coming’ arc of the Russel T Davies era, which worked well in series four and brilliant in series 3, albeit with a dreadful final episode.

7/10

Let's Kill Hitler, Night Terrors & The Girl Who Waited

Let’s Kill Hitler

Mels.

This is a seriously barmy episode. It’s full of plot holes and questions and some of the more unlikely turns the series has seen ever. River Song is actually Mels, a rebellious friend of Amy’s and Rory’s? Yet they never worked out who she was. Now River’s real name is Melody Pond. So I think that surely something would have twigged despite Moffatt’s clever idea that they named Melody after Mels. As the Doctor says, ‘You named your daughter after… your daughter.’ Whatever floats your boat.

Mels has had the idea to kill the Doctor implanted in her mind. This is Kovarian’s plan apparently. Remembering that Melody was also the girl in the space suit. That’s important I guess. Really. It’s most confusing.

So what I recommend to any viewers of this one. Don’t try to understand ANY OF IT. Enjoy the episode, because it really is a lot of fun once you strip away all the River Song stuff. I mean, they shove Hitler in a cupboard. The pre-credits line is ‘I’ve got a gun, you’ve got a time machine’ – these lines appear to be important to Moffatt, he’s using more and more catchphrases as the show goes on.

But forget the negatives, because there are plenty but for one rare time I was

able to put them aside and just enjoy this whacky story with the tesselector – a robot with tiny humans inside that goes through time eliminating bad people just before they die, the whole business with Hitler (interestingly in Doctor Who Germans always have German accents – has anyone else noticed that?) and Melody Pond regenerating, becoming Alex Kingston, and spouting lines like ‘I was just thinking the Third Reich’s a bit rubbish’.

It looks fantastic, the HD is brilliant for Doctor Who and the production standards have lifted since it went HD to match the medium. Despite its faults, ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ is an incredibly enjoyable romp. And a key moment in the character River Song.

Inside the Tessalector.

Well, she gets shot by Hitler as ‘Mels’ (played by the freakin’ awesome Nina Toussaint-White), regenerates, puts on killer lipstick – which let’s be honest is RUBBISH. How could anyone wear killer lipstick without killing themselves? Kisses the Doctor who is slowly dying. Because the Silence and Madame Kovarian have screwed around with her brain. In the end she starts to see the truth of it all and uses her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor’s life. So this plan has already proved a bit stupid. As big as the Doctor is, to create River Song to destroy just him, and she was already able to fix her mistake, is a bit… ummm… to coin a phrase, ‘rubbish’.

Still, we see an interesting birth of River Song, as a distinct character from ‘Mels’ or Melody Pond. She’s taken to a hospital to recover – presumably far in the future and to recover from her psychopathic tendencies. That’s how the story finishes. Yes it’s barmy. Yes there are big question marks over what’s going on. But on an enjoyment scale, this one is a ten. I do need to balance that with the issues so…

8/10

Night Terrors

‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ was an awesome romp, full of fun and adventure at break neck speed. ‘Night Terrors’ is the opposite of that. It is fair dinkum dull. I’m surprised I made it to the end. I haven’t enjoyed the past few offerings from Mark Gatiss and this was no exception at all. In fact, this was the worst of the lot.

Amy and Rory have continued their travels with the Doctor. So ok ummm… but what about their daughter? Yes I know it’s River Song, but they have missed bringing their child up, it’s kinda the Doctor’s fault, and that’s apparently easy enough to put to one side and get on with travel in the TARDIS. Apparently the previous episode resolved it all. Which it didn’t. Yep.

I found it all a bit disturbing, some of ideas here. That the kid is an alien. He’s a bit of a weird kid too. You know it’s tough enough being a kid these days when you’re different. So I’m not sure what message Gatiss is sending about being a strange kid (God knows I was one) but it’s nothing particularly positive. Why not have the popular kid that everyone thinks is awesome turn out to be the alien? Then there are some disturbing undercurrents that made me think at one point the father was abusing his kid. I’m sorry, I don’t think Doctor Who is the show for dealing with those issues.

And then everyone’s in a sort of dolls house and changing into wooden dolls. But it’s just dull. DULL. DULLDULLDULL. And it’s all ok because the Dad hugs the kid. It’s like ‘Fear Her’ part two. Both have freaky kids. I think keeping freaky kids out of family shows is a good policy. Don’t want to make viewers feel self conscious. 

Did I mention it was dull?

2.3/10

The Girl Who Waited

This story picks up a bit of pace, which is an achievement because it really only features the three regulars of the Doctor, Amy and Rory. It’s a very clever idea and a nice job on the script by Tom McCrae. The idea of two concurrent time streams running side-by-side at different paces. In one, Amy waits 36 years for Rory to come and save her, even though for Rory it’s an hour or less. A beautiful idea, slowing down or speeding up time to let people dying of a disease to live longer. Sadly, no-one is left in the facility.

We see Amy very angry at Rory and especially the Doctor. Well, it is kinda his fault after all. They age Amy pretty well I think (make-up), and the sets and effects are really good. Even the Doctor takes a back-seat for this one, it’s Amy’s show, with a bit of help from Rory. The resolution is a little baffling but I guess makes sense. There’s a good mix of humour mixed with the grim reality of the situation, and Karen Gillan gives her finest performance.

7/10