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S5E10 - Vincent and the Doctor

★★★★★

Hands down one of my favourite episodes of TV. Ever. This is one that I've rewatched plenty of times so I'm excited to share my thoughts on it.

Tony Curran was an excellent Vincent. Not only the physical resemblance, but he conveyed van Gogh's hesitation and self-doubt with such sensitivity that you just felt awful knowing how little the real artist estimated himself. It's beautifully set in Provence, with starry nights and fields of sunflowers. Vincent takes a liking to Amy which is bittersweet, knowing Rory has long left her memory.

The Krafayis is the alien that only Vincent can see, driving him mad and making him bear the brunt of all the darkness that happens in this village - it's a clever take on Vincent van Gogh's well-known psychosis and how he was treated by others at the time.

But let's unpack the final scene. Seeing it is like a moment of vindication where we can fantasise about a poorly treated person in history being shown the legacy they left, if only to give them some hope and happiness. As Vincent looks around at his exhibition at the Musee D'Orsay in awe, Bill Nighy realising he gave a lecture on the greatness of van Gogh's works to van Gogh himself, Chances by Athlete soaring in the background, you desperately hope this is enough for him.

But as the Doctor says, sometimes that's not enough. Life is indeed a pile of good things and bad things. It's a saying that's resonated with me in my own life. And if we can add to someone's pile of good things, then we've done more than most.

QUOTE: "To me, Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular great painter of all time. The most beloved. His command of color, the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world. No one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange wild man who roamed the fields of Provence, was not only the world’s greatest artist but also one of the greatest men who ever lived."

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S5E8 & S5E9 - The Hungry Earth & Cold Blood

★★★☆☆

I have no recollection of watching this two-parter before, but I found it so interesting, having never seen the Silurians (apart from Madame Vastra) as an entire race before.

This seems to be the closest metaphor for colonisation that the revised series gets to. An ancient indigenous race living off the Earth amongst themselves. Humans coming in and extracting resources to the detriment of the Silurians. Retaliation. Attempts at brokering a treaty so they can co-exist. An uneasy balance.

The parallels between Ambrose and Restac were interesting. Ambrose's father, son and husband are being held hostage by the Silurians, Restac's sister Alaya is being held hostage by the humans on the surface. Ambrose kills Alaya in a fit of anger. Restac tries to overthrow her leader and order that all humans be killed in revenge. Both of their actions are rightfully condemned. Were either somewhat understandable though?

As the Doctor, Amy and Rory run back to safety, Restac emerges and kills Rory before he can reach the TARDIS. It's all Amy can do to watch in horror as Rory dies and his body is consumed by the crack in the universe. The Doctor desperately holds her back, telling her thing only thing she can do is to remember him. We know it's not forever. But in the short time Rory was on the TARDIS, he absolutely made his mark.

QUOTE: "Oo! Lovely place. Very gleaming." "This is our court. And our place of execution."

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S5E7 - Amy's Choice

★★★★★

Everything I said in my last post about Rory is utterly demolished with this emotional rollercoaster of an episode.

The Dream Lord, a dark iteration of the Doctor's consciousness, forces Amy to pick between two realities, one where she is travelling with the Doctor, and the other where she is happily married to rat-tail Rory and pregnant in quaint Leadworth. Much like Sophie's Choice, the act of making a choice seems impossible. Death is inevitable in both scenarios but still, in picking, someone is going to get hurt regardless.

We've just come from a string of episodes where Amy is delaying getting back to her wedding, trying to see if there's something with the Doctor. She was, understandably, hesitant about whether married life with Rory was what she really wanted for her future. Was there more for her out there?

In the end, the choice is made clear for her. When Rory is killed in the Leadworth reality, she chooses the TARDIS reality where Rory is still alive. Some might say her hand was forced and it wasn't a 'true' choice. Maybe that's fair. But she still had to make a sacrifice without being certain of the outcome. That is powerful.

And so while there will always be in jokes of Rory doubting whether he's the first man in Amy's life, what is clear is that no matter where and when in time and space, Amy will choose Rory. It's the Ponds first, with the Doctor. I think that's rather wholesome.

QUOTE: "Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don’t ring true." "Okay, well we’re in a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside than the outside."

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S5E6 - The Vampires of Venice

★★★☆☆

Oh dear. A good Dracula-esque vampire episodes could've been so good in a Doctor Who universe. Instead, we get fish aliens masquerading as vampires so that they can recruit wives for their fishy sons in the canals. Eeeehhhhh.

Don't get me wrong. This was a beautiful episode to watch, a suitably macabre tone, Venice was done justice. But the payoff just didn't land. Was I supposed to feel sorry for Signora Rosanna Calvierri, who ultimately committed suicide when she realised her plan of saving her kind was doomed? Cause I kind of didn't...

But who cares. The importance of this episode is we finally properly see Rory, aka Mr Amy Pond, in action. He's brought along for the ride as an earlymoon and yeah...turns out he's the Mickey of the group again. The incapable tin dog. The psychic paper says he's a eunuch. He has to pose as Amy's brother, because no one believes he's her fiance and he can't win a fight. Not to forget, that just an episode ago, Amy was trying to jump the Doctor's bones.

In an episode that so heavily leans on sex, seduction and power dynamics, it's almost as if Rory is made to look like...a bit of an ick.

We know Rory becomes a much better companion, character and frankly a more capable person in later episodes. But I really did forget just how they screwed him over initially. It's lucky that he had such a sweetness about him because I could really see this characterisation derailing, much like Mickey's angsting over Rose got old really quickly. Welcome to the TARDIS, Rory. You're in for a journey.

QUOTE: "Blimey. Fish from space have never been so… buxom."

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S5E4 & S5E5 - The Time of Angels & Flesh and Stone

★★★★★

Inject these brilliant two-parters straight into my veins. Honestly, Steven Moffat excels at these - I rate his written episodes much higher than his tenure as a showrunner - and these episodes are no exception.

The Weeping Angels have been brought back and River Song returns. We learn much more about both of them - Weeping Angels can still be lethal in imagery and River Song has still met the Doctor more times than he's met her at this point in their relative timelines. He finds out from Father Octavian that she's killed someone...

The Angels this time don't just zap people out of their time streams anymore; they've moved on to murdering people and reanimating their consciousness to communicate. It is a bit much and kind of takes away from the mystique of what we previously learned about them in Blink; they're less psychologically terrifying and more...bloodthirsty?

And so with the image of the Angel burned in Amy's mind, she has to keep her eyes shut and trust the Doctor as she makes her way through an Angel-infested forest to reach the safety of the Byzantium. The Angels sabotage the ship and in doing so seal their demise as they get sucked in through the crack, a sufficiently complex event that shuts the crack permanently. That little arc is now resolved. And oh yes, Amy wants to shag the Doctor.

Apparently this two-parter was the first lot of episodes Matt Smith and Karen Gillan filmed for this series. It's wild to me that with such heavy storyline and big stakes, they were able to effortlessly portray their characters and their dynamic together as if they had been filming for seasons. Amazing all around.

QUOTE: "Amy. You need to start trusting me. It’s never been more important." "But you don’t always tell me the truth." "If I always told you the truth I wouldn’t need you to trust me."

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S5E3 - Victory of the Daleks

★★★☆☆

Every series of Doctor Who requires a solid Dalek episode. Dalek involvement in World War 2 doesn't seem altogether that outlandish - they are a racial cleansing machine which isn't that novel of a concept during the Second World War... - but to see them decked out in camo, taking orders from Winston Churchill to defeat the Nazis is somewhat ironic.

I do feel we're at a bit of a point of over-reliance on the Daleks for some humanity-ending tension with the Doctor. We only just saw them in the Series 4 finale Journey's End with the crescendo of the Tenth Doctor dismantling the reality bomb and destroying the Daleks. There's a feeling that if we encounter them pretty frequently, we become a bit more immune to them, taking them less seriously.

That being said, this Dalek episode stands out for being one that shows the capability and successes of the Daleks. In the past four series, the Daleks have always underestimated the Doctor's capacity for empathy, his love for Earth and its inhabitants and they have been undone for their mistakes.

This time, however, we see the Daleks take advantage of the Doctor's compassion, forcing him into a situation where he has to make a choice whether to save Earth or destroy the Daleks. And he makes the same choice he always has and the Daleks claim victory. I'm glad we got to see them written in a way that shows they are fairly deadly and strategic villains.

What we're left with now, until the next Dalek episode, is some colourful Lego Daleks and an ''am-I-a-real-boy?' android professor. Could be worse.

QUOTE: "Listen to me. Just listen. The Daleks have no conscience. No mercy. No pity. They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You can not trust them." "If Hitler invaded Hell I would give a favorable reference to the Devil."

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S5E2 - The Beast Below

★★★☆☆

As is tradition with a new companion, their first proper space journey is to the distant future because the Earth is inhabitable/about to be destroyed. Here we visit the Starship UK, a floating mega metropolis of a space city that is powered by a tortured Star Whale and monitored by Orwellian Smilers.

But that's not the horrifying part. It's that everyone on the ship knows and have chosen to forget.

I don't think I fully understood why the Star Whale was needed after they had floated far enough from Earth. So what if the Star Whale left them? They'd still be safe in their floating city, it's not like there was a particular destination they needed to head for. I'm left scratching my head as to why the moral dilemma they were faced with, even was one in the first place.

But even so, we get a feel for who this Doctor is. He relates so well with children, making them feel heard. It's quite heartwarming to see this side of the Doctor. But at the same time we also see where his moral compass points to. He doesn't think the humans have what it takes to do the right thing. But it's Amy who realises that instead of lobotomising the Star Whale, maybe stop torturing the poor thing and it might actually want to help you? She somewhat solves the ethical conundrum and proves herself to the Doctor that she is able to make the right calls.

It's a pretty decent episode if I stop questioning the premise of the plot, but it was fun.

QUOTE: "Well the difference being the computer doesn’t accept me as human." "Why not? You look human." "No. You look Time Lord. We came first."

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S5E1 - The Eleventh Hour

★★★★★

Geronimo! We have a new Doctor, a new TARDIS and new companions to start of the Moffat era of Doctor Who and what a fun introduction that was.

I remember when Matt Smith was introduced as the Doctor and some of the concern that he might be too young to portray the gravitas of an almost 1000 year old Time Lord who's seen things. Well this first episode puts those doubts to rest. What we have a very alien-like Doctor, much different from the past iterations, who has a childlike keen sense of curiosity and a need to be the smartest person in the room.

In the most positive sense I can portray, he has a fairly neurodivergent perspective that works so so well. He doesn't pretend to understand or relate to humans and social situations, and is often just fascinated by them, much like we might at a zoo enclosure marvelling at just how human-like the primates are.

Amy Pond is fascinating. As a child she developed a sort of fixation on the Doctor which never really abated when he disappeared and she grew up. Now she's an adult, with a boyfriend and when the Doctor reappears in her life, you can see how the Doctor breaking his promise to her all those years ago as ingrained a deep sense of distrust that she tries to fight when offered the opportunity to travel with him. It'll be interesting to see how she navigates this while being with Rory.

This is an perfect start to a new series and era, and holds much promise for the rest of the series.

As an aside, I tried the fish fingers and custard combo and it low key slaps. Not even joking, would 100% eat it again if I had nothing left in the fridge at home.

QUOTE: "Amy Pond, there’s something you better understand about me ’cause it’s important. And one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a mad man with a box."

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Series 4 - Recap

This series was much much better than I remembered it being. The platonic chemistry between the Doctor and Donna was phenomenal and you really got to see what happened when someone, not romantically interested in the Doctor or wanting to please him, stood their ground and held him to account.

The Tenth Doctor grew very cocky towards the tail end of the series. The 'little people' around him started to mean less for him, and really, Donna's job for the most part was to keep him in check and remind him why he was doing the things he was doing. Despite her not being my favourite companion, she grew on me so much by the end of the series. Having her memory completely wiped of all memory of the Doctor and their adventures in time and space has really tipped it as being the most tragic end to a companion so far (yes, even more so than Bad Wolf Bay...).

But despite his many faults, the Tenth Doctor remains the most human-like Doctor for me. He is just as fallible, prone to emotional outburst and full of brimming curiosity as I remembered him and the contrast between the war-affected Ninth Doctor and the alien-child like Eleventh Doctor is refreshing. His exuberance will be sorely missed.

And so comes to the end, the Russell T Davies era of campy Doctor Who. The first time I watched these series, was when I was between 15-19 years old. I'm glad to say that for the most part, it has held up on my rewatch.

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S4 Special 4 - The End of Time

★★★★☆

After three full seasons with the Tenth Doctor, we join him on his final journey to meet the end he was so desperately running away from.

The Master is resurrected and manages to clone himself into every single person on Earth, as a means of helping the Time Lords escape the Time Lock. The Doctor is focused on stopping the Master and saving Earth from the Time Lords, who we realise are really just another corrupt power-hungry race that happened to be better at beating their enemies. They are not the good guys.

The Doctor was brought low and humbled following The Waters of Mars. He gets frustrated and whiny with Wilf when he realises what he has to do to save him. It is so human which is a side of the Doctor we don't really see after this regeneration. But even so, it's fitting that the end of the Doctor comes by one last selfless act. To take on an overdose of radiation poisoning to save Wilf. He's come full circle and ultimately does want to do good by people.

This is not just the Tenth Doctor's farewell. It's an ode to this era of Doctor Who and the companions, all who we will leave behind after this series. Much like the finale of Series 4, this is fan service at its best. We've travelled with Rose, Mickey, Martha and Donna for the last four seasons. So one last visit to check in on them is a very nostalgic and heartwarming end.

And so the Tenth Doctor goes, having reassured himself that the lives he touched, changed for the better. They explored the stars with the Doctor and they will be alright. Vale Decem.

QUOTE: "What year is this?" "Blimey, how much have you had? 2005. January the first." "2005. Tell you what. I bet you’re going to have a really great year." "Yeah?"

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S4 Special 3 - The Waters of Mars

★★★★★

It's incredibly difficult for me to capture every aspect of why this was masterful storytelling in a short review. The concept of waterborne parasitic monsters is horrifying and I genuinely felt terrified when the water began leaking throughout the base and each worker succumbed to it. Doctor Who horror at its best.

But the central theme here (arguably) is whether the Doctor can cheat death. Can he cheat a fixed point in time? At the end of the previous episode, he was told he would hear four knocks. His journey is coming to an end - and he is going to find any way around it.

So when he ends up on Mars, another base-under-siege situation, this is a test run for him. He knows beforehand that Captain Adelaide Brooke's death on this day is not only a fixed point in time, but so pivotal for the future of the human race and their migration to the stars. He knows that but he also needs to know that he can cheat his way around that.

What follows is a prolonged and profoundly depressing sequence of events from the base - where worker by worker succumbs to the Flood, the remainder desperately trying to pack and leave in their rocket, only for the virus to have found its way there. The alarms are blaring and the water is seeping through the cracks and a decision is made to blow the whole thing up to quarantine the infection.

The Doctor saves Captain Adelaide and the few other survivors and brings them back to Earth. He is triumphant. He is cocky. He can cheat death. Time and space bends to his will. He is the Time Lord Victorious and no one can stop him.

Captain Adelaide relieves the Doctor of his arrogance almost instantly. She is horrified by what he's done, and more imprtantly, what he's prevented by his insanely self-serving actions. No one should have that kind of power, she snaps at him. And so she kills herself as a fuck you to the Doctor. The vainful, arrogant Doctor that he has become has to face the reality that no one is greater than time and space itself. His hubris has caught up with him.

QUOTE: "...And everything starts with you, Adelaide. From fifty years ago to right here. Today." "Who are you? Why are you telling me this? Doctor? Why tell me?" "As consolation."

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S4 Special 2 - Planet of the Dead

★★★☆☆

Okay so yeah that was an episode of Doctor Who. Had all the critical elements - alien fly monsters, terrified humans, impending death. I just didn't really enjoy this episode. Maybe it suffers from being just before The Waters of Mars (a fantastic episode I can't wait to review) that it just doesn't land as impactfully.

What is interesting though, is the way the Doctor relates with Lady Christina. He seems to take a liking to her and I can't see why. Yes she's intelligent, she's strategic and resourceful. But she's also incredibly self-serving and arrogant (I steal things because I'm rich and bored!).

Are these traits the Doctor sees in himself now? Is that the Doctor he has slowly become over the course of the last three series? He seems to reflect her attitude of being tired of the burden he has to carry as one of the last Time Lords that he's just wanting to do things for shits and giggles.

But it's also worth mentioning the Doctor's speech to the other bus passengers when they're stranded in a desert and terrified. He tells them to focus on what was waiting for them and inspires hope and it's actually kind of beautiful? Makes me want to remind myself that every 'insignificant' journey I think I take actually is leading me to something worth waiting for.

QUOTE: "I’m registering an oscillation of 15 Malcolms per second." "Fifteen what?" "Fifteen Malcolms. It’s my own little term." "You named a unit of measure after yourself?"

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S4 Special 1 - The Next Doctor

★★★★☆

The Doctor is in his hot boy summer farewell journey - no companions, no friends - just time to really find himself before the inevitable four knocks he is dreading.

I actually have no memory of watching this special before so it was a pleasant surprise. The 'Doctor', Rosita and a hot air balloon TARDIS in Victorian London seem to have the alien problem under control and all the actual Doctor can do, is grin and come along for the ride.

While it might have been fun to explore the possibility of a mirror Doctor and Co working alongside the Doctor, the truth of Jackson Lake's identity is pretty horrific. Watching his wife be killed and his son abducted by the Cybermen was so traumatic that his mind went fugue and Jackson Lake believed he was the Doctor.

The CyberKing herself was a novel concept - you can read between the lines to see this was a woman who was exploited in Victorian London, she was desperate to overcome the oppression that she considered being the CyberKing was her selfish way of remedying that. It's a sad indictment on what a woman of her standing, in that time period, considered was the only solution to grab back some of the power that was perhaps systematically eroded from her.

The Doctor recognised this. And while he had some pity for her, ultimately the greater good prevails.

QUOTE: "There she is! My transport through time and space. My TARDIS." "You’ve got a… balloon." "TARDIS. T-A-R-D-I-S. It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed in Style. D’you see?!"

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S4E12 & S4E13 - The Stolen Earth & Journey's End

★★★★☆

This is like Doctor Who: The Greatest Hits and I bloody love it. The Doctor? Check. Companions past and present? Check. Torchword? Daleks? The universe about to blow up again? Check, check and check.

Is this the strongest two-parter finale? No. While The Stolen Earth builds up a very horrifying tension with a decent cliffhanger, in Journey's End there's a very rushed resolution that seems unsatisfying - Donna flicking a couple of switches ends the entire Davros strategy and reality bomb? After entire planets were blinked out of existence? But this is is less about plot and more about character fan service. So I'm reviewing how they ended up.

Jackie and Pete 2.0 - they are together and expecting little Pete 3.0. Cute. 5 stars.

Sarah Jane and her kid - safe at home with K9 and Mr Smith. Love that for them. Sarah Jane got her proper goodbye with the Doctor, finally. 5 stars.

Captain Jack and the Torchwood gang - they live another day to keep saving Wales from more sex aliens. Class. 4 stars.

Martha - fuck you RTD for pairing her up with Mickey the Tin Dog. What happened to being engaged to hot Lucifer doctor?? My girl Martha always with the thankless job. 1 star.

Rose - as if Rose hadn't suffered enough heartbreak on a beach, here we are again. The real Doctor is there and dangled in front of her, but here's his Metacrisis human version that she has to settle for knowing that the real Doctor is going to continue on his adventures again and not with her...again. She gets to fix a man, yippee! It's not the happy ending I remember it being when I watched it as a teen. 2 stars.

Donna - oh Donna. You grew on me so much this season and to have your memories wiped in this way is beyond cruel. Hers is the ending of the series that we mourn. All those adventures in time and space that basically never happened. Because you know she's going back to her dull life in Chiswick where her self-esteem drops and her mum berates her all the time. It was painful and so 4 stars for that.

QUOTE: "I just want you know there are worlds out there safe in the sky because of her. And there are people living in the light and singing songs of Donna Noble a thousand million light years away. They will never forget her. While she can never remember. But for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe." "She still is. She’s my daughter."

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S4E11 - Turn Left

★★★★★

Wherever the Doctor goes, death and destruction inevitably lay in his wake. It sounds harsh, and we usually don't focus on that because the 'good guys' are saved. But maybe if he stayed away, things would be different. So here we have an opportunity to see what does Earth look like if the Doctor never met Donna and actually died on the day of the Racnoss invasion.

The answer is pretty grim.

All the companions we met die. America dissolves into Adipose babies. The world chokes on ATMOS gas. The Titanic spaceship crashes into London killing millions of civilians. People are forced to seek refuge in outer towns but in the humanitarian crisis, Britain becomes just for the British and goes full blown Holocaust on non nationals. What's left, a nuclear explosion? Oh wait that happened when the Titanic crashed.

It's a pretty dire state of events and it would take something pretty remarkable to fix the glitch and restore the original timeline.

As much as Donna is not my favourite companion, boy does she show up when it's required. She is probably the most courageous companion so far. When she realises she has to die to force events, she does it, without actually knowing who the Doctor is or why her turning left that morning is so important. She trusts Rose and saves Earth.

With Rose starting to move the pieces on the board to get to the Doctor, you can't help but get excited. There's a sense of nostalgia with the Bad Wolf warning everywhere and we're about to see all the companions team up with Doctor for an epic showdown. Bring it on.

QUOTE: "But if he was so special, what was he doing with me?" "He thought you were brilliant." "Don’t be stupid." "But you are. It just took the Doctor to show you that, simply by being with him. He did the same to me. To everyone he touches."

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S4E10 - Midnight

★★★★★

We are continuing a run of absolute bangers here. The Doctor is just minding his own business, trying to enjoy a solo vacay to the sapphire waterfall, but of course, the universe will not let him just be.

We don't need a visible alien monster here. This is psychological horror at its finest. Something's out to get the group. Is it one of them? We watch the group become so irrational, hysterical and untrusting of each other as they begin to turn on one another, convinced self-preservation outweighs basic consideration of each other's lives.

You want to get mad at them, but I have to remind myself - how would I behave in such a situation? Would the groupthink really pressure me into agreeing to kill someone for the sake of the group?

And of course, an uglier side of the Doctor's arrogance comes to the surface here. He tells the group they should trust him because he's clever. But he's not clever here. His greatest asset - talking his way out of a situation - has been completely neutralised and used against him. Not only does he not know what to do, he is making the situation worse and getting angrier at the group for not just listening to him. It's a side we don't often see, but this is where Ten's journey has been leading him to, for some time.

QUOTE: "Ah! Taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight. What could possibly go wrong."

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S4E8 & S4E9 - Silence in the Library & The Forest of the Dead

★★★★★

Count your shadows. Because you never know just what's lurking in the dark...

Ooof. What a two-parter. There is so much to unpack. I could go on about how sinisterly brilliant the Vashta Nerada are, hidden among the pages of the books that were harvested from the forests they lived in. Or how eerie it is to hear the dying thought patterns of someone who has just been killed. Or the concept of the Library itself, and the little girl CAL whose computer mind is so powerful that she can 'save' the Library patrons in a simulated world. Or the disappointment when Donna's simulated husband looks for her in the real world and misses her by moments. It's utterly brilliant.

But at the heart of this story is the real tragedy of time travelling. We meet River Song for the first time, a character we will become more familiar with in the Eleventh Doctor's time. She's a time traveller too. But she's going the other way. This is the first time the Doctor is meeting her. And so it is the last time she will see the Doctor.

There are so many questions when we meet her. How does she have a sonic screwdriver? A squareness gun (referred to in S1E9 The Doctor Dances)? A TARDIS themed diary? What sort of life has she led with the Doctor? He is as confused and bewildered as we are. And I wonder if it's the first time he has ever felt this way.

River sacrifices herself to make sure the Doctor gets a chance to meet her in the future. The only thing the Doctor can do is to 'save' a copy of her in CAL's simulated world. It's a bittersweet ending to a story that opens up so many possibilities for the Doctor's future.

This is a masterpiece in telling a story of science fiction time travelling and moving emotions. I cannot find a single fault here.

QUOTE: "River you know my name. You whispered my name in my ear. There’s only one way I would ever tell anyone my name. There’s only one time I could." "Hush now. Spoilers."