Review: Doctor Who, Series 10, Episode 12: The Doctor Falls (Into Another Awful Finale)

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

After watching the finale of Doctor Who, Season 10, I felt compelled to write something about it. Steven Moffat’s finales have seen diminishing returns since he took over as showrunner seven years ago. After a cracking Season 5, the finale ‘Big Bang’ was a major disappointment. Things never improved from there. Moffat fell in love with his own mythology. He didn’t appear to care much about story or logic. Just watch ‘The Doctor Falls’ for a depiction of everything wrong with Moffat’s reign as Doctor Who showrunner.

Review: Doctor Who, Series 9, Episode 12: Hell Bent (On Irritating Me!)

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

“Nothing’s sad ‘til it’s over…then it is”

Is it just me, or does Steven Moffat have little consistency in the realm of quality? Last week’s ‘Heaven Sent’ was superlative and left scope for a great finale to a very good Series 9. The Doctor had found Gallifrey…what was going to happen next? What actually happened only concerned Gallifrey for the first quarter of the episode, and even then as something of an afterthought. It was secondary to the main thrust of the episode (SPOILER ALERT!): a farewell to Clara! Wait, haven’t we already said farewell to her? Yes, we have, and a fitting farewell at that. But her second farewell came at the expense of a finale. As the credits rolled, I shrugged my shoulders and thought the whole charade was pointless.

Review: Doctor Who, Series 5, Episode 13: The Big Bang (It Ends With A Whimper?)

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

“Okay kid, this is where it gets complicated”

Amy may well have been talking to us, the viewers, when she said that line at the start of the episode! I’ve watched ‘The Big Bang’ more than a few times, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near fully comprehending it. My fault or Moffat’s? Was there any logic to really comprehend, or was it another logic-free, emotion and jargon filled Doctor Who finale?

Review: Doctor Who, Series 5, Episode 12: The Pandorica Opens (What’s The Meaning Of Stonehenge?!?!?)

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

“I need to find The Doctor…and I need to show him this”

Unfortunately, I know how ‘The Big Bang’ resolves ‘The Pandorica Opens.’ I watched them both several times. ‘The Pandorica Opens’ is one of Moffat’s best episodes, showing lots of promise, confidence and quality story-telling. There are a few questions answered, a lot more left unanswered, and even more posed by the cliffhanger. To say ‘The Big Bang’ is an underwhelming conclusion is something of an understatement. But, watching ‘The Pandorica Opens’ for the first time, I couldn’t wait for the finale! What I’d just watched was simply a great piece of television.

Review: Doctor Who, Series 5, Episode 11: The Lodger (The Doctor Meets James Corden!)

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

“Frankly, I’m an absolute dream!”

So, the antepenultimate episode of Series 5 includes James Corden and The Doctor as his lodger…not exactly a winning recipe on paper. Since Series 3, the antepenultimate episode has been part of the two-part finale. ‘Utopia’ revealed that The Master was still alive, and ‘Turn Left’ revealed that ‘the end of the universe’ was near. So, how did the Lodger measure up? Did it surpass my low expectations?

Review: Doctor Who, Series 5, Episode 10: Vincent And The Doctor (The Doctor Meets Richard Curtis!)

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

“Carving colours into shapes”

After watching ‘Vincent And The Doctor’ more than a few times, I’m still not sure of how I feel about it! Not a good sign for a review, is it? I don’t love it, and I don’t hate it…somewhere in between, maybe? It was an intense character piece, no doubt, but I found the beauty in the scenery, rather than in the writing or characters. Seriously, this is the most stunning Doctor Who episode to date. Forget worlds conjured by CGI; this episode almost matched the beauty of Van Gogh’s paintings. Maybe I was too entranced by the beauty to distil the true nature of the episode? Or maybe I thought that Richard Curtis and Doctor Who should never meet…

Review: Doctor Who, Series 5, Episode 9: Cold Blood (Reptilian Dysfunction?)

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

So we were left at the end of ‘The Hungry Earth’ with Amy about to be dissected, and the realisation that there was a massive Silurian civilisation underground. A quite impressive cliffhanger and very different to the usual cliffhanger as well. Okay, there sometimes it did seem like an episode of Torchwood (as this episode did at time!), but it was still an overall decent episode. Of course, the proof of a two-parter is in the second part; they have to be equally good. ‘Cold Blood’ delivered the goods, in a pretty good episode! And what we got was an old-style Doctor Who, full of chasing, running, and ‘diplomacy.’ And the end, oh the end…but we will get to that.

Review: Doctor Who, Series 9, Episode 9: Sleep No More (Yawnsome?)

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

“You must not watch this!”

Mark Gatiss, as a writer in Doctor Who, has always come up with decent science fiction ideas. However, his execution has rarely (if ever) lived up to the potential of said ideas. This definitely applies to his offering for Series 9, ‘Sleep No More.’ A found footage episode of Doctor Who, it is replete with nifty science fiction ideas (regardless of their originality!), but stutters and falls over itself repeatedly. It’s not as awful as ‘The Girl Who Died,’ but it’s on that same level of quality. After the great ‘The Zygon Inversion’ of last week, ‘Sleep No More’ was a massive step down in entertainment.

Review: Doctor Who, Series 9, Episode 8: The Zygon Inversion (Turned My World Upside Down!)

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

“I’m going to set you free”

‘The Zygon Inversion’ was the best episode of the current series of Doctor Who, and it was also one of the best episodes of Doctor Who. Period. It’s brave and stunning in equal’s measures. Compared to the globetrotting nature of ‘The Zygon Invasion,’ ‘The Zygon Inversion’ feels like a normal episode of nu-Who; almost wholly London based. However, the themes explored in the confines of London are universal and timeless. I watched it after the minute’s silence on Remembrance Sunday, and it gave me more food for thought about war and peace than any minute of reflection could do. The script, plot, and pacing were immaculate. Peter Capaldi has never been better, especially in the last fifteen minutes of the episode. It’s rare that everything works in modern Doctor Who, but there was nothing less than brilliant in ‘The Zygon Inversion.’

Review: Doctor Who, Series 9, Episode 5: The Girl Who Died (All About The Ending!)

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

“I’m not actually the police. That’s just what it says on the box”

‘The Girl Who Died’ was the wrong kind of fluffy, historical jaunt that Doctor Who creates every so often. It was more ‘Robots Of Sherwood,’ than, say, ‘The Shakespeare Code.’ A poor enemy, a rushed resolution, mostly awful acting from the non-core cast, cringe worthy attempts at comedy…there’s not a lot that this episode did right. It wasn’t truly terrible, just a little offensive in its inanity. The last ten minutes or so of the episode are all it will be remembered for by the time this series is over; or indeed, by the time the story is concluded next week. Welcome to the most disappointing episode of Doctor Who so far in Series 9…