Just realised I didn’t post a review of last weeks Doctor Who episode and there is a new one due later today!
Flesh and Stone was the conclusion of the Weeping Angels storyline (my 3 year old daughter calls them the Peeping Angels which seems so much nicer). It gave us information on what the Crack is or could be, what River Song is up to and moved on the Amy Pond is getting married in the morning story. However, it also raised more questions. I’ll get to them in a bit.
The wrap up of the Weeping Angels was handled pretty well, but the suspense from the previous episode was missing. The Crack in Time was interesting and sad when the soldiers went to investigate and were forgotten by their team mates as they were erased from time. This also explained why Amy could not remember the Daleks. The fact that the Doctor kept mentioning that time coule be rewritten means he may well have a go himself somewhere down the line. Why is the Crack following Amy?
The most intriguing bit was when Amy had to keep her eyes closed and the Doctor headed off with River to sort out the ship. The Doctor when he left was without a jacket (the Angels got it earlier). The camera stayed on Amy and the Doctor was back within seconds and told her to remember when she was seven – If you recall in the first episode you see young Amy sitting outside and then the sound of the TARDIS, but it hasn’t been mentioned since – The Doctor was filmed close up, but you could tell he was wearing his jacket. The next scene saw the Doctor with River and he again had no jacket. You can see what I mean in the clip below – starts round about the 1:45 mark.
I put it to you that the Doctor with the Jacket was from the future and he came back to speak to Amy at that point (the previous episode showed that the TARDIS can materialize without the distinctive sound – see clip below) and means we are having a great big weaving through time storyline. It could also explain how Amy has been so helpful in previous episodes. Maybe she keeps getting told spoilers.
All just a theory of mine, but you never know.
River Song’s character was fleshed out and we learnt she was in prison as she had killed a man, the greatest man she ever knew. Does that mean she at some point kills the Doctor? When it is Matt Smith’s time to regenerate will it be because of River Song? Is she going to be his Wife or is that misdirection?
The death of Father Octavian was very well done and rather emotional. Great acting by Iain Glenn.
All things to ponder on. Matt Smith gets better with each episode and I love the fact he doesn’t know what his plans are going to be until he finishes speaking. I get the impression his brain is full of so much stuff that he talks to focus it all on the matter at hand. Karen Gillan as Amy was great, but the bit at the end when she came onto the Doctor seemed a little forced and didn’t seem to fit with the characters we have seen so far.
However, the Doctor realises that she is at the centre of all the cracks and that the time explosion which created them occurs on the day of her wedding.
To sum up. Not as good as the previous episode, but great that it moved the whole story arc forward. What did you think of it all?
Episode Four of Matt Smith’s Doctor Who and things took a turn to the spooky with the return of the Weeping Angels. Spoilers ahead.
Blink was one of Steven Moffat’s great episodes from the David Tennant era. The Weeping Angels, creature that cannot move if you look at them, are genuinely chilling and a great monster.
Now they are back along with River Song who is literally the Time Traveller’s wife. Her and the Doctor have an ongoing relationship that he discovered back in the silent library. The only thing is the Doctor is still at the early days of the relationship.
Song’s return was a great start to the episode, which also had a small part for The Street’s Mike Skinner. She was all Catwoman thief style and leaving a message for the Doctor to read 12,000 years in the future was fantastic and I love the way Moffat uses the whole concept of time travel in his stories as opposed to many who just have the Doctor turn up in whatever time and that is the end of it until the story runs its course.
Other great bits from the start were finding out the Doctor likes the TARDIS to fly without stabilizers as it is more fun and the iconic sound of the TARDIS materializing is simply because he leaves the breaks on (Matt Smith doing the sound of the TARDIS was rather funny).
Before too long we are with the Weeping Angels – great bit finding out that whatever has the image of an Angel becomes an Angel. Having the image move on a repeated 4 second segment was nice and chilling – lots of dark tunnels, soldiers of the Church with guns and people getting killed one by one, all while the Doctor and River Song bicker like an old married couple. Luckily companion Amy Pond manages to hold her own and you get her feeling of excitement as she journeys to another world.
Moffat used a similar concept from the library story. Both the Weeping Angels and the Vashta Nerada used people they had killed to speak to the Doctor over a com-link. Not sure if there is anything in that apart from Moffat likes to use that for dramatic effect.
All in all a great episode and probably my favourite of the series so far. Matt Smith’s Doctor finally seems to be in control of the situation- I like the fact his Doctor usually knows exactly what to do, it just takes a minute for him to focus on that thought. Alex Kingston as River Song is a great character, mysterious and all knowing which makes a change from most people the Doctor encounters. Karen Gillan again shows her companion is clever, brave and a boon to the Doctor.
All that topped off with the Weeping Angels. Great stuff and looking forward to the next part of the story.
What did you think of the episode? Post your thoughts, theories, rants in the comments below.
Third episode of Matt Smith’s adventures in the TARDIS and this time he is back in war torn London helping Winston Churchill fight the Daleks. Spoilers ahead.
Mark Gatiss (The Leage of Gentlemen) wrote the episode. It was good, but did have some faults. Mainly that it was all a bit quick. They were no sooner in London, then zip, zoom, zam it was over.
Still we did get to see a new generation of colourful Daleks (all the better to make kiddies buy each version). Nice to see them changing as well, but I am not sure of the new look. They’re taller so as to match Smith and Karen Gillan’s height, but they just seem a bit too bulky and sleek. The various colour schemes are a good nod to Peter Cushing’s Doctor in the old movies – wonder if they will try and tie that in to continuity somehow.
I liked the idea of the Brit scientist who wasn’t actually human. Would be nice to see him crop up again in some way.
My biggest bugbear is the fact that, like last weeks episode, the Doctor didn’t really do much and that Amy Pond again saved the day. Always cool that the companion does stuff, but it is the Doctor you tune in to watch each week.
Still, lots of foundation building for future Dalek episodes (was each one given a name? I missed that bit when they were introduced) and what is the deal with Amy not knowing about them? Did the Doctor pick her up from the early 1990s so they had not yet invaded? As we know from the first episode the Doctor has taken her on board for a reason that involves the cracks in the universe – when young Amy heard the TARDIS did she have an adventure with him that she has forgotten?
Looking forward to next weeks episode, The Time of Angels, with the return of the Weeping Angels and Alex Kingston as River Song.
Things to ponder. Now over to you. What did you think of the episode and the ongoing plots developing in the series?
We are now two episodes in to Matt Smith’s run as the Doctor and Steven Moffat behind the scenes.
So far I have been impressed with Smith. He is more like a mad professor and the character’s scary intelligence comes across more than it did with Tennant.
Karen Gillan as Amy Pond is also a great actress and could well be a classic Companion.
Story wise the bad guys have been a bit week though, but early days. However, there does appear to be a bit of an increase in the budget or at least with what they are doing with it.
That’s all from me. Now over to you. What do you think of the show so far?
Discuss in the comments below.
Here is the trailer for next weeks episode.
Wouldn’t it be great if they could cross it over with the Empty Child episodes from Christopher Eccleston’s turn as the Doctor.
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games has been produced by a team drawing on the very best talent from TV and gaming. The four interactive episodes are executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis, along with Anwen Aspden (BBC Wales Interactive) and Charles Cecil – one of videogaming’s most revered creators.
The games are being developed by Sumo Digital, one of the UK’s best game designers. Stories and scripts are from Phil Ford (co-writer Doctor Who ‘Waters of Mars’) and James Moran (Severance, Torchwood Children of Earth). The project has been commissioned for BBC Online by the Vision Multiplatform team, headed up by Simon Nelson, and is being driven by BBC Wales Interactive.
Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have been digitally recreated in-game, and have provided full voice-overs. Music has been provided by TV series’ composer Murray Gold. An additional cast will portray original characters and classic enemies.
“Children don’t just watch Doctor Who – they join in. They make up games, invent their monsters, create their own stories,” says Steven Moffat, Head Writer and Executive Producer, Doctor Who. “Now, there’s something else – now they can be the Doctor in brand new episodes. Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will offer fans of the Doctor a unique opportunity to enter his world, face his challenges and grapple with his deadliest foes.
“By developing these games alongside the new TV series, we’ve been able to weave exciting narrative strands with the very finest game design to create a new kind of Doctor Who, which can be enjoyed by the whole family.”
“There aren’t 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year,” adds Piers Wenger, Head of Drama, BBC Wales and Executive Producer, Doctor Who. “There are 17 – four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe: we’ll be taking you to places you’ve only ever dreamed about seeing – including locations impossible to create on television.”
Simon Nelson, Head of BBC Multiplatform in Vision, continues: “A few years ago we couldn’t have dreamt of commissioning such an innovative form of drama. By integrating the creation of these ‘interactive episodes’ with the development of the TV series, we’ve been able to create amazing two-hour dramas in which you control the action. We’ve all imagined what it would be like to come face-to-face with some of the universe’s most terrifying monsters – now viewers can find out for themselves. “Establishing new forms of drama is exactly what the BBC should be doing. By aiming these ‘interactive episodes’ at the broad audience of TV show – unique in British television, in that it encompasses at least three generations – we’re aiming to encourage the family to gather round the PC or Mac in the same way they do the television. Driving computer literacy is a keystone of the BBC’s public service remit and we expect Doctor Who: The Adventure Games to be hugely popular in the homes of Britain this year.
“Only the BBC could produce such an innovative slice of new drama. We’re offering two-hour original Doctor Who episodes to production standards on a par with the TV series, working with the very best creatives within the UK. We’re hugely proud of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, which will establish new standards in interactive drama and allow families the country over to enjoy Doctor Who stories in unique and innovative ways.”
“Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will offer the chance for Doctor Who fans to visit places they’ve only dreamed off, facing off against monsters they’ve previously had to imagine,” concludes Anwen Aspden, Executive Producer, BBC Wales Online. “Players will visit places which have never been shown on television – and these will go on to define the look and feel of future TV episodes.”
The exact titles of the four free episodes are being kept secret for the time being, but the four original stories will take players on a journey throughout time and space, including one location from the Doctor Who series which has never been seen before on screen. Players will encounter new and original monsters, in stories which form part of the overall Doctor Who canon.
The first episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will be available to download for PC and Mac from the BBC website in June 2010. Its title will be revealed at a special press event on April 21st 2010.
As you know Matt Smith is the new face of Doctor Who. The TARDIS is also getting a face lift (after Tennant almost destroyed it when he regenerated) and here is our first clear look at the new interior. It is good and bad. I like the staircases and the sense of scale they give something that has been missing in the past few series – where does that one on the left take us in the photo at the bottom?
It all looks a bit disco though, but that could just be the lighting. What are your thoughts on it all?
Source: io9
I can see Lion-O’s sword,Mjoilnor (sp?), sonic screwdriver, Star Trek OS phaser, lightsaber, Blade Runner gun, Noisy Cricket, Harry Potter’s wand and I’m not too sure on the grapple gun and swords – Conan’s and Aragorn’s maybe?
Call me Ish and hopefully Fearless Leader Phil will be back on the posting game tomorrow as I’m burning out after just a few days.
Just realised I didn’t post a review of last weeks Doctor Who episode and there is a new one due later today!
Live for Films 