The Time of the Doctor

And so we bid goodnight and goodbye to Matt Smith as the curtain also comes down on 2013. ‘Time of the Doctor’ finishes my marathon too, begun back in February and I have to say, if you ever want to get to a point where you are partially ‘over’ your favourite TV, for a short while at least, then try watching 800 episodes of it in one year. In fact, try it in 11 months. That’s something like three episodes a day on average. So yeah.

The Oswald Christmas

‘Time of the Doctor’, like Moffatt in general, is dividing the Doctor Who ‘community’ with a very clear between those that think it (and he) is brilliant, and those who loathe it all. There are very few in the middle there. ‘Time of the Doctor’ for me is full of fantastic stuff, with equally as much stuff that made my eyes roll like some cantankerous old man who thinks only the Lambert era had anything of value yet watched the following 48 years of the show complaining all the way. And I really don’t want to be that guy. Honestly.

Clara and 'Handles' - the Cyberhead.

So. I really loved the last fifteen minutes, and I adored the way that this Doctor, now the 13^th as David Tennant regenerated into David Tennant officially according to the extrapolation in this episode using up a regeneration and counting John Hurt’s Doctor, died of old age. This consisted of two makeup jobs on Matt Smith, one to age him a bit which was very unconvincing, and

Orla Brady as the curious Tasha Kem.

another for right at the end which was superb, and very Hartnell-esque. Matt Smith deserves kudos for his portrayal as much older as well.

The way that he was given a new life cycle, to use the regeneration energy to destroy the Dalek fleet, also, was much better than I feared it was going to be. Something given to save his life through the crack on the wall because Gallifrey was on the other side of it and without the Doctor they will be stuck there forever. So it made sense.

Inside the Papal Mainframe.

Clara’s father, as he is now, was seen for the first time with little impact as was her grandmother and presumably father’s girlfriend. They were treated as mostly irrelevant. The Christmas stuff didn’t work so well, and you’d think the episode would have been much darker had it not gone out on the 25^th of December. So I guess we have to make allowances but really, a town called ‘Christmas’. What I wanted to see was it play out over a longer period of time, for the Doctor’s relationship with this town to develop as a little love affair.

Karen Gillan makes a fleeting appearance.

There was a lot of attempts at humour that for me simply fell flat I am afraid. The Doctor being naked essentially for the sake of it, wearing holographic clothes which Clara’s family couldn’t see. Just to show that after all this time, and Matt Smith’s Doctor is supposed to have lived for many hundred years, he still doesn’t get social skills to the point of utter stupidity. I don’t buy it for one second but I also for one second do not blame Matt Smith for it either.

There’s so much I could analyse and

A Hartnell-esque farewell to Matt Smith's Doctor.

say why I didn’t like it, but at least the big questions on my mind were answered, if pretty much in an expedited paragraph of dialogue somewhere in the middle. The Silence and its purpose, Madame Kovarian, the exploding TARDIS. Bit odd to wrap up stuff that hadn’t been mentioned for two series, but hey, that’s the way the Moff rolls.

The change from Doctor to the other was lightning quick and we get to see Peter Capaldi in a very impressive 15 seconds as the Doctor. More traditional? Looks that way. Hopefully a better bunch of eccentricities than we’ve seen from Matt. I liked his Doctor for the most part, but at times he went too far for me. C’est La Vie. I am more excited by the new than upset by the leaving!

5.5/10

The Rings of Akhaten, Cold War & Hide

The Rings of Akhaten

‘The Rings of Akhaten’ is clearly not a fan favourite. Maybe it’s because people don’t like ‘singing’ in Doctor Who – it’s not the first time singing has featured mind you, we heard singing in ‘Planet of the Ood’ for example and ‘Gridlock’, but it does feature perhaps most prominently in this tale by Neil Cross.

To be honest, my main criticism of ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ is simply that it appears to be more ‘style’ than ‘substance’ as it were. It looks rather nice, with the exception of the creature which is basically the sun that the asteroids are circling. A face appears in the sun and it is a little dodgy to be honest. But the planet itself looks rather splendid with a nice assortment of aliens on it. This is the real Clara’s first journey in the TARDIS, so in true ‘The End of the World’ spirit, we get a cavalcade of aliens to suggest to Clara what she will be in store for in the future.

Emilia Jones

The story starts with the Doctor, a little creepily, visiting moments in Clara’s past. We see where the leaf that Clara gives to the monster comes from and why it’s significant – without it, her parents would never have met. But perhaps they needed a bit more on this leaf which saves the day in the end.

We also see now just how much of an obsession Clara has become for the Doctor – again a little creepy I guess. We have a little girl – Mary

Gejelh, played by Emilia Jones as a main character who is supposed to keep the monster asleep with her song. As annoying as kids may be, they always seem to cast well. She does a good job. The story tends to drag a bit and loses a good portion – 5 minutes at least at a guess, to nothing but singing. But I don’t get the hatred for the episode either, I rather enjoyed it despite its issues.

6.5/10

Cold War

Liam Cunningham.

‘Cold War’ sees the much anticipated return of the Ice Warriors to Doctor Who in an episode set inside a Soviet Submarine Captained by Zhukov, played by Liam Cunningham – of ‘Game of Thrones’ fame. Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Douglass Mackinnon, this story is much improved from Gatiss’s previous Doctor Who outings, the last of which was an incredible snooze-fest in ‘Night Terrors’. Obviously Mr Moffat and Mr Gatiss are good buds. God help us if he ever gets to write a two-part story!

Whilst there is a lot to like about the tale – it is stylishly directed, the Ice Warriors (albeit just one) return, some great acting by Cunningham and David Warner as Professor Grisenko, I failed to experience the ‘wow’ that many fans did it seems. There’s not much to the tale. They find the Ice Warrior in the ice at the north pole and decide to take it back to Moscow, it comes to life, kills, escapes from its suit, returns to its suit, decides to destroy Earth but gets

beamed up to an Ice Warrior ship.  That sums up this 45 minutes of Doctor Who in a nutshell.

And that’s 45 minutes of Doctor Who. I question what they are doing with Clara – she gets a bit to di here but I am not sure of its significance, being sent into to talk to the Ice Warrior. It’s a pity that Nicholas Briggs decided to completely change the voice too. I rather liked the hissing!

An Ice Warrior unmasked.

It is a bit derivative. It’s basically ‘Dalek’ on a smaller scale. Plus I wasn’t convinced by the Ice Warrior out of the armour with long and spindly fingers and hands. That didn’t quite ring true for me. The armour, however was a very true to the original modern interpretation. That liked. Not so much the voice. It’s not a bad story by any means, but it kinda felt like – ‘time to bring an old foe back, hmmm why not the Ice Warriors! We also should set an episode in a submarine! In the 80s! With some Duran Duran!’. I’m not sure of the point of the episode I guess. It doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with the 7B arc.

6.5/10

Hide

Jessica Rayne.

‘Hide’ is well.. ok. It’s not very special, but it’s not dreadful either. It’s not very exciting or action packed, there’s a nice twist at the end with the strange tree-creature (which I’m sure had a name) being in love with another such creature stuck in a different dimension. It’s light-hearted in places. Dark in others.

We have a Professor Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott), living in a house, trying to track down ghosts because he’s haunted about what he did in the war. We are in 1974 by the way.

With him is Emily Grayling, played by Jessica Raine (who portrayed Verity Lambert in An Adventure in Space and Time incidentally). She’s sort of physic – she has some link to the ghosts, but it seems they are also secretly in love with each other.

I liked the idea of the first human to travel through time being stuck in a different dimension where time is moving much slower than ours, which is part of the plot. I didn’t like the opening where the Doctor and Clara arrive and declare themselves ‘Ghostbusters’, as if once wasn’t more than enough! There’s your Moffat again I think, he loves those lines before the opening titles roll! shame on him!

Dougray Scott.

Neil Cross wrote the episode, and it’s clear he’s not the man to turn to for a high paced adventure! However it is nicely directed (Jamie Payne) and shot. Very creepy, very moody, but probably not as scary as they were hoping for. Jenna Louise Coleman gets a decent crack in this one and does very well. Matt Smith is as mad as ever and I keep wishing he’d tone it down a little, or mature just a little. It’s all very matter-a-fact and there’s not a lot of concern for the lives of Grayling and Palmer when he decides to use Grayling to connect to the other dimension. Which is reminiscent of Eccleston and Hartnell in some ways. But both changed during their time and found more compassion. Smith has compassion, but it seems a very selective compassion in some ways.

6/10

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

A Christmas Carol, The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon & The Curse of the Black Spot

A Christmas Carol

Katherine Jenkins

The 2010 Christmas special was easily the most Christmassy of all thus far, taking it’s tale from the classic story by Charles Dickens. Sure it’s set on another planet with a space ship about to crash into the planet and kill a lot of people, and it features songstress Katherine Jenkins. Not only that but we have (the second) Dumbledore himself, Michael Gambon as this story’s ‘Mr Scrooge’ –  Sardick . So what more could you want?

It really feels like an episode outside of cannon in a lot of ways. All the Christmas episodes feel separate from the rest of the series in some ways with perhaps the exception of ‘The End of Time’, but this seems to elevate the Christmas special to another place entirely. As it stands it’s a pretty good piece of work, written by Steven Moffat, the first time the special has not be written by RTD.

It’s not very fast paced, and it has a bit of singing which wouldn’t have been so bad but to be honest it was clearly to make the best use of Catherine Jenkins. The music sadly, lovely though it is, is clearly pre-recorded and so it almost doesn’t seem to belong. There is an art to making songs sound like they belong in the world of the movie, or in this case TV show. Look at the Buffy Musical. Now this is not a musical, I must stress that, but when Jenkins starts singing it is blatantly obvious it is not live.

Gambon as Sardick

The look of it all is rather superb though, even if it is all very blue! It’s also kinda sad I guess, another love story taking centre stage in a Doctor Who adventure. Clever use of time again. It’s a little slow, and it would have been nice for Amy and Rory to have more to do. I thought I was going too hate it, so I am glad you know, I didn’t.

7/10

The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon

Silence.

For the first time a series starts with a two-part episode, setting up what appears to be a series arc as well and perhaps giving us the most impressive story visually in the show’s history. Steven Moffat makes a big statement here at the start of a 7 episode run, series six is the first season to be ‘split’ into two, airing in 2011 from April and then September.

It’s certainly epic, and that in part could be an issue going forward. When you start the series with an epic two-parter, where do you go? Can you lift it another cog or two? Is it actually possible? The story is set and filmed (location stuff at least) in America, and involves Richard Nixon (wonderfully played by Stuart Milligan) so again another figure from history. Moffat carefully is not very judgemental on the guy apart from a couple of comments.

But it all starts in Utah where Amy, Rory and River see the Doctor being killed by an astronaut, or at least a person in an astronaut suit. That evening, after they have burnt the Doctor’s body, they see the Doctor again! It seems the doctor that died, still Matt Smith looking pretty much the same, is the Doctor from 200 years in the future. Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey!

Milligan as Nixon.

The alien menace in this one is the ‘Silence’ or ‘Silents’ as I have seen some people write. They look excellent, very creepy indeed but that are very similar to the Ood. In fact I would say somewhere between the Ood and the gentlemen, from the Buffy episode ‘Hush’. The idea is wonderful – that they can erase themselves from your memory the second you don’t see them, and it presents some clever solutions too.

We begin the second episode months after the first, and to be honest I don’t think it made a hell of a lot of

sense. Everyone has split up and is found in different areas of the USA, gathering information on the Silence. Except they really don’t know anything new. Rory and Amy appear to spend a very long time inside body-bags as well which wasn’t very convincing. The Doctor is being held as a sort of mad prisoner, it seems like Moffat had a series of images he wanted to include in the story.

Then there is the little girl, because it’s

Rory and Amy share a moment.

all about her. She’s been calling Nixon, she is found in Florida in a space suit, and was apparently put there by the Silence. In the second part she forces her way out of the suit, rips it to get out. It’s full of wiring, has it been keeping her alive.

Who is the little girl? Is it Amy’s baby? Because big hints are dropped that it might be! We are setting up a big series six here it seems. Series Five had a spooky voice calling ‘Silence will fall’ a lot. Is this the Silence from this two part story? I am presuming it is.

Some wonderful, creepy images by the director too, Toby Haynes. Amy especially will the marks she makes to signify she has seen a Silent. Have to say they have used mostly if not entirely American actors this time for American characters which really helps (as compared with ‘Daleks in Manhatten’). Can they find another  gear through Series Six? We will have to see. But a very strong opening.

7.5/10

The Curse of the Black Spot

The Siren rises.

Arggghhh!

The third episode/second story of the series was always never going to match the opening for grandeur this time, and so taking it back to a simple, self-contained episode was the logical thing to do. ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’ starts off as a bit of fun, with Matt Smith being suitably awkward before the threat of the Siren reveals herself. Are we falling into clichés? Sure, but that’s ok. I liked the episode, although it does sag in the middle.

What’s haunting the pirate ship becalmed on the ocean? In fact it’s another space ship in a different dimension occupying the same space. The Siren appears at the first sign of illness, injury or blood and whisks the pirates back to her space ship and puts them into stasis. It’s a rather nice idea that probably wasn’t played out as well as it could have been.

The guest cast are very good, and the pirates leave Earth in the space ship although I

Patients in stasis. 

am a little confused as to how the little boy will survive out of stasis. I guess the Siren takes care of that. The biggest issue is continuing on from ‘Day of the Moon’ – with a bunch of questions left unanswered such as who killed the Doctor in the space suit and who is the girl. Oh, and why did Amy think she was pregnant and then say she is not?

To just go ‘let’s have more adventures’ in the wake of that seems unlikely for the characters and proved frustrating for this viewer. Moffat has set up a list of questions we may well have to wait a further 11 episodes to understand. But hey, no-one’s perfect, right?

7/10

Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, The Pandorica Opens & The Big Bang

Vincent and the Doctor

From the bland to the sublime, this is the series that never fails to surprise. To think that an episode so simple could be so perfect, this is without a doubt the best new series episode I have seen so far. It deals with depression as a topic, and Vincent Van Gogh as an inspiration. It has lighter moments, sad moments, and a great deal of empathy. It is gloriously shot, it looks superb on the screen with a wonderful mix of colours akin to that in Van Gogh’s paintings.

Tony Curran - brilliant as Vincent Van Gogh.

We start some time after the previous episode, so we have conveniently bypassed the affects of losing Rory (for the Doctor at least as Amy has forgotten) and we start in Paris with a lovely guest appearance by one of Britain’s finest actors, Bill Nighy. Some lovely bi-play between him and Matt Smith concerning their bow-ties mostly. Then we are transported back in time and meet Vincent Van Gogh himself, and Tony Curran gives an amazing performance as the tortured painter.

Bill Nighy.

And here’s the rub – what makes this episode so special. Other than it was written by the amazing Richard Curtis of course. When we saw Churchill, Dickens and Shakespeare they were somewhere near their best. Lively, amazing characters, but with Van Gogh we see a sadder side. A truer side you might say – going from highs to lows, the extremes of his bi-polar condition. The monster in the story is as much a metaphor for his condition than any real monster, which shows an incredible subtlety and care in the writing which elevates the episode far beyond the ordinary tale.

The climax, when Van Gogh sees the future and how his work is regarded today is an emotional high point of the story, I challenge anyone watching not to be incredibly moved by that moment. Then the sadness that all that happened didn’t prolong Van Gogh’s life juxtaposes emotional highs with grim reality.

Is this a traditional Doctor Who episode? Far from it. The plot is actually very thin to non-existent, but we see that when handled with care we can get an amazing 45 minutes from little to no plot, but a lot of love. And yes, apparently by this stage Van Gogh should be missing an ear. Can’t say that affected the story for me at all though…

9.5/10

The Lodger

James Corden guest stars as Craig Owens.

‘The Lodger’ is a bit of fun. A lot of fun actually. A very different story to the previous episode, this one really highlights the emphasis on comedy that has been a feature of series 5. Karen Gillan takes a back seat in this ‘companion-light’ tale, interestingly the Doctor-light stories appear to be a thing of the past. Probably for the best there’s only so much that could be done with that format.

We are introduced to Craig Owens, played by James Corden who apparently is well known in Britain for ‘Gavin and Stacey’ (I think that’s the name, a sitcom, again I think). And it all works very well thanks mostly to Matt Smith who really gives a fantastic comic performance. Being really ‘alien’ seems to be what distinguishes Matt Smith from David Tennant, who I think is the most human of all the Doctors. When Moffatt replaced Tennant with Smith, he still had a young actor in the role and so

they needed to differentiate the two in some way. Smith still runs around a lot, relies on the sonic screwdriver for everything and speaks very very fast, especially when explaining things. All these things Tennant did too. But Smith’s Doctor seems to understand humans a lot less than Tennant’s. He easily becomes a fish out of water when he doesn’t understand things.

Here we have him confusing football with cricket at one point, interesting as the Doctor has in the past been a huge cricket fan, especially in his fourth and fifth incarnations. Anyways, the misunderstanding (he offers up 3000 pounds for rent at the start for example) is where in lies the interest for this story. Yes, we have an alien spaceship on top of a stair case in the house, but that’s by the by. It’s more about watching the Doctor trying to infiltrate and appear like a human (as the TARDIS can’t land until the space ship is dealt with) as anything else. And it’s about Craig’s life too, about him falling in love, not wanting to leave where he lives.

We even have a scene where the Doctor plays football and is brilliant at it. Interesting choice. Oh well, we’ve already seen him be brilliant at cricket. Is there much to the tale? Not really. It doesn’t move the series on as a whole, it’s almost a place holder as we build for the big finale. But the episode is highly enjoyable, and next to ‘Vincent and the Doctor’ we see that the show can be many things, side by side.

8/10

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

River Song impersonates Cleopatra. 

The first series ‘finale’ under the new regime. It’s a hard story to rate. Firstly,  I’d rate it as better than any of the RTD series finales. There’s no question there. It was suitably big enough, interesting enough, and packed a punch. It mostly made sense, BUT it did fall straight back into the trap of solving everything with a big ol’ reset button. AND the ending is either confusing or just a plain fairytale, devoid of any science fiction type of explanation.

The Cyberman comes back to life.

So where does that leave us? Well we start with a look back at some of the guest stars from the season as Winston Churchill (Ian McNiece) makes a reappearance and then Liz Ten (Sophie Okonedo). River Song (Alex Kingston) said they would meet again when the Pandorica opens in ‘Flesh and Stone’, so we can presume that this one is going backwards in time for her.

Rory is back.

The first episode is fantastic in many aspects. Rory (Arthur Darvill) is back as a Roman soldier – turns out as an Auton. There is a host of the Doctor’s enemies in this, although this is not a story about fighting off an invasion or the alien hordes. They see the Doctor will be responsible for destroying the universe, that his TARDIS is responsible for the cracks and the universe destruction. So they trap him in the pandorica. Rory shoots Amy because he’s an Auton, but then all the baddies disappear and he becomes his own man.

The Doctor goes with a Fez.

Amy is kept alive by being put in the Pandorica, opened by the sonic screwdriver as the Doctor from the future gives it to Rory. There’s a lot of playing with time in the story. Meanwhile River Song is trapped in the TARDIS as it is exploding, presumably what destroys the universe and makes the cracks. Why is it exploding? No explanation is offered. HOWEVER Amy, Rory and River are talking in the first episode of series six (spoilers) saying that the Doctor shouldn’t meet himself, last time he did, the universe was nearly destroyed. Well the Doctor does meet himself in the museum in the future where the Pandorica is being held. He is using River’s vortex manipulator, he gets shot by a Dalek, ends up in the Pandorica, uses the Pandorica to reboot the universe by moving it to the TARDIS and the original atoms of the universe explode through the TARDIS recreating the universe.

Amy inside the Pandorica.

However, the TARDIS was at the centre of the explosion with the Doctor on board. River says the Doctor will die. The universe is reborn, it’s Amy and Rory’s wedding day, they have all forgotten the Doctor. But seeing River’s TARDIS diary sparks a hidden memory for Amy and she remembers him, and then the TARDIS reappears with the Doctor dressed for the wedding. So Moffatt seems to be saying the Doctor was saved because Amy remembered him. Also, the base

The Daleks rises.

code of the Universe has been mentioned as being the date of the wedding – but it’s never actually intimated as the significance of the date. Was the Doctor always destined to return on  that day?

To me this was a well made episode, with several questions left unanswered. It is possibly the most confusing Doctor Who has been since episode one. Are these questions which will get answered? I doubt it now. And thus it was made a

very difficult episode to judge. I loved the stone Dalek, I loved the timey-wimey stuff, but I find ‘remembering the Doctor’ a weak way to bring him back, and why was the TARDIS exploding? That’s the biggest question mark of all and no-one seems to have a good answer for that!

PS. Caitlin Blackwood returns also as young Amy and again is brilliant!

7/10