I feel I should say, just to clear up the confusion from the past blog; I have completely enjoyed this series of Doctor Who. It seems to have grown up a bit; with it being that slight bit darker (despite the odd cheesy bits) and I have enjoyed this series the most so far. I never really got into Ecclestone and Piper's series. Tennant and Piper seemed all a bit fake. Tennant and Agyeman never really worked. Tennant and Tate worked well, but not for a Sci-fi series; maybe a comedy drama. Smith and Gillan seem to have worked the best since it's revival in 2005. The idea of the stories have been fantastic too, and of course a lot of them ideas have come from the head of Moffat, but what my point was in the last blog, was that I did prefer the episodes that were not written by Moffat, but not in any way saying Moffat was 'shit'. I hope that is now clear.
The way I'm going to do this is a ‘short’ paragraph about each of the episodes, giving my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me - they are only my OPINIONS.
Health Warning: Make sure you rest your eyes regularly as this is a long blog. Sorry.
Episode One: The Eleventh Hour.
As opening episodes go, it was actually rather good. Infact, I may go as far as to say 'fantastic'. As an episode on its own, it worked very well, and Moffat done a very good job at writing it and introducing the new Doctor and new characters. In terms of setting up for the rest of the series and the series finale, it was great; without us even knowing, we are told of all this information which helps us as the audience piece together throughout the episodes. Great skill in my opinion. Also, casting Karen Gillan's cousin to play the young Amy Pond was actually quite a good idea, and we are introduced to her, so we recognise her character in later episodes. It is a real introduction into what we can expect.
Episode Two: The Beast Below.
In terms of it being the first episode with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan being away from Earth and fighting something unknown, it wasn't great and a bit disappointing. This episode too was written by Moffat. Again, I cannot quite fathom what it is about it I do not like. I personally think the idea was not big enough to be Amy Pond's first adventure. It was a great idea and quite thought-provoking about how us as human's think we're superior. It was good for us learning about Amy's character, but the idea just was not big enough.
Episode Three: Victory Of The Daleks.
Well, it was a waste of an episode really in terms of storyline. It was the first episode of the series not written by Moffat, and instead by Mark Gatiss. I absolutely LOVED the idea of Winston Churchill wanting to use the Daleks to win the war, it was just a shame it didn't play a bigger part in the episode. I did enjoy it though, I am just being negative and cynical, but there is more of that to come. Fighter Jets being able to fly into space and attack the Dalek spaceship? I did think that was a slightly silly idea. Inventive, but silly. Also, new Doctor means new Daleks (apparently). These Daleks seem to resemble the new sleek and colourful cars we see, and if you put a Dalek and Ford KA together, they would be hard to distinguish. They may be bigger and fierce, but they have essentially been made plastic and colourful to make them more commercial, so they can be made into little toys like Thomas the Tank Engine. I did enjoy the episode however - although you wouldn't believe it by this paragraph.
Episodes Four & Five: The Time Of The Angels & Flesh And Stone.
The first two parter, and it was written by Moffat. With the return of the Weeping Angels and River Song, it was an amalgamation of four of his previous best episodes into one story. Just to prove I am not negative towards Moffat, I did nearly like these two episodes. However, the Weeping Angels are considered to be the scariest aliens of the new era of Doctor Who, with them being everyday objects which attack when people blink or cannot be seen. 'Blink' was one of the scariest episodes for children, and yet in this episode, it was not used to its full potential. However, as episodes go, it still was actually quite good, despite the first episode being ruined by a cartoon Graham Norton. Those little banners are incredibly annoying in any television show, so doing it in the final, dramatic scene of the episode is 'a travesty' and ‘Why don’t the BBC just wipe shit all over the screen during the final scene of Dr.Who next week?’ to quote Charlie Brooker.
Episode Six: The Vampires Of Venice.
Okay, I liked this episode greatly because of Rory. His introduction and development during this episode I actually really liked. However, remember this episode was not typed from the fingers of Moffat, but instead by Toby Whithouse. The introduction to the episode was pure brilliance, with The Doctor jumping out of a cake during Rory's stag do, and just fumbling around the place. It was a shame that Doctor Who has joined in with the recent hype of Vampire's, but as usual, they put a different twist on the whole idea; fish creatures from another planet coming to Earth to find women to help reproduce their species. It was a fine example of Doctor Who explaining something that was unexplained in human history.
Episode Seven: Amy's Choice.
My second favourite episode of the series, and guess what - it wasn't written by Moffat, but instead by Simon Nye, a comedian who has history in Doctor Who. 'The Dream Lord' was a great idea, and also the thought of coming from the dark impulses of The Doctor, which it was suggested as being, was pretty clever. Swapping between two life-threatening scenarios, in which they had to decide which was real. One included the TARDIS crashing into a freezing star, the other with a pregnant Amy and being chased by Old People. I actually LOVED the idea. Also, for you fact-fans reading this blog, if you recognised the voice of the Dream Lord, it was because the actor Toby Jones, does the voice for Dobby the House Elf in Harry Potter. Cool aye?
Episodes Eight & Nine: The Hungry Earth & Cold Blood.
The second of the two parters, and this one was not written by Moffat, but instead by Chris Chibnall, who is the head writer of Torchwood. I enjoyed these - actually a lot, and I was truly gripped. The Silurians returned from the original series, and these were creatures that live in the centre of Earth, that once ruled planet Earth. They are great 'aliens' and I love the idea. This too was a good example of Doctor Who reflecting a mirror to the attitudes of the Human Race and us hating any form of change. Two clever episodes, and I think they were absolutely great. Also, I rather like the idea of us sharing the Earth with creatures of similar intelligence in 1000 years... Was a shame about Rory dying, but because it had no build up, it was predictable that he was going to return.
Episode Ten: Vincent And The Doctor.
It was my favourite episode of Doctor Who - possibly ever! Helped by the fact it was written by Richard Curtis, God of the cheesy comedy writing and one of my writing 'inspirations'. Anyway, there are not many things on Television that can bring me to tears, but, and I am not ashamed to admit it, I had a tear in my eye during the final scenes with Vincent in the art gallery. I have a prejudice towards Doctor Who episodes meeting famous historical characters like Agatha Christie, Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, so I was expecting to hate this episode, so the surprise of me loving it, was brilliant. They could have taken it further with the monster, with this episode being mainly about Gough and his torment, but it really did work. The scenes with Matt Smith fighting an invisible alien were also quite good.
Episode Eleven: The Lodger.
I liked and it wasn't written by Moffat, but instead by Gareth Roberts. I did love the idea of The Doctor becoming stuck on Earth and having to interact with normal everyday day-to-day life on Earth, by moving into a flat and playing football. It was a humorous episode, but lacked the sci-fi edge; that was thrown in for the last 10 minutes of the episode. The episode bumps off the recent popularity around James Cordon, and has the classic storyline of two best friends being in love, which always makes me laugh. However, like I said, it didn't really focus on the alien and Sci-Fi element of the show until the final 10 minutes, so as a storyline for Doctor Who, was kind of weak.
The Finale: Episodes Twelve & Thirteen: The Pandorica Opens & The Big Bang.
We return to Moffat's writing, and as Moffat's writing goes, this wasn't 'alf bad. My liking of this episode can be explained by the fact he didn't write it entirely on his own however. With the first episode being set in Roman times and around Stonehenge, I really liked it. Obviously, because Moffat wrote it, River Song returned yet again, and as I predicted, so did Rory. As I said earlier, I love the episodes of Doctor Who when they give an explanation for an unexplained phenomenon, and Stonehenge is a prime example. Loved it, and I never expected the Pandorica being for him. It was a fantastic build up with lots of alien action - including the Cybermen, which happen to be my favourite Doctor Who aliens.
The second episode was also fantastic, but if I am brutally honest, and I am going to be disliked for this, but I was disappointed. I loved The Doctor flitting between two different times in the episode, and it was great recognising him later in the episode. Rory was great, as were the two Amy's and Matt Smith was really good. The faults for me were them not making a bigger thing out of 'Nile Penguins' and 'Himalayan Pharaohs', in which you probably won't be aware of unless you watched Confidential. The idea was that the stars changed reality, so penguins lived in Egypt for example. That was a great piece of the story. Also, I was disappointed with the INCREDIBLY cheesy ending of the Doctor being brought back by a memory. There are probably poor children desperately trying to remember their grandparents to bring them back thanks to that. Anyway, I disliked the cheesiness of it. Forgetting that, I thought the episode itself was brilliant, and Matt Smith's dancing made it worthwhile.
I am also, slightly disappointed by the lack of any new aliens or brand new planets. The Weeping Angels episode, which was easily filmed in a quarry and a British Spaceship in the second episode, were the only episodes not based on Earth. There were no big, impressive CGI planets and sceneries. Also, there were no new, big aliens which required imagination. Apart from changing the design of the Daleks and Silurians, there were no new, impressive aliens. An alien that is invisible for a huge majority of an episode? Well, that's imaginative.
However, I love it when Doctor Who makes everyday objects scary for children. Essentially, that has made up for the lack of big aliens and planets, by imaginatively making everyday objects scary. Kids have had Statues, Cracks in walls, Old People and even the ground to be scared of after this series. Small ideas which are great. I feel sorry for any children that go on a day trip to an old castle with their parents this summer. Old castles generally have cracks in walls, statues, Old people walking around and are surrounded by lots of ground.
Something else I haven't quite liked is the return of River Song. I find her character just too complex. Why can she not just have a normal timeline like every other character? I spend episodes trying to work out at what point in her timeline with the Doctor we are at. I just find her far too complex. What race is she? We don’t know, and in my head, the fact that she is a time traveller, makes me wonder if she too is a Time Lord... I just don't know, and I don't like not knowing. I do not doubt her returning in the next series, because there are many questions still unanswered, for example: Does she marry the Doctor? Does she kill the Doctor?
My problem is that I don't just sit down and enjoy TV, but I am constantly ready to negatively criticise, which does annoy me, but despite all this negativity I seem to have against this series of Doctor Who and Moffat's writing, I honestly have loved this series! Matt Smith WILL shape up to be the best since Tom Baker.
As for the Christmas Special, not much has been released so far. All we know is that it includes Amy and Rory’s honeymoon, Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins. I assume that’s good. Anyway...
Long live Matt Smith!
P.S. If you have just read this entire blog, the next website you visit should be Vision Express to book an appointment to get your eyes checked. I am so very sorry! http://www.visionexpress.com/book-eye-test/
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