Episode #248 : The Night of the Doctor

"Four minutes?! That's ages! What if I get bored, need some books, a television? Anyone for chess? Bring me knitting."

Episode #248:      The Night of the Doctor.
Companions:        The 8th Doctor.
Air Date:              14th November 2013.

Still trying to skirt around the edges of the Last Great Time War, the Eighth Doctor is forced to fully join the conflict by the mysterious Sisterhood of Karn. Killed while trying to save a woman who hates him simply for being a Time Lord, the Doctor gets to choose what his next incarnation will be like. He arranges for a warrior... but makes the darkest sacrifice of his life in order to be reborn.

So this is a short, the first of two, to serve as a prequel to the 50th anniversary special and it brings with a special treat for us fans, we finally get to the see the 8th Doctor regenerate. Sort of. For some time now the fan base had been discussing what had happened to the 8th Doctor after his one appearance and then countless audio dramas (and whether they were canonical or not). At last we learn what happened.

We also get a reappearance of the Sisterhood of Karn, not seen since the 4th Doctor story The Brain of Morbius. While that may mean nothing to the casual modern view to us old school fans of the show, it's an exciting element. I do think we need more references to the days of the original show. I've said quite a few times on this blog and I don't expect to not keep saying that. The Sisterhood hasn't changed much from what we see and they are ready to intervene in the Time War. They do this by saving the Doctors life and giving him the opportunity to choose his next incarnation. So perhaps the fault is not with the War Doctor but with the 8th incarnation. He chooses to be a warrior and regenerates into a younger version of the War Doctor, meaning that he has been fighting the Daleks for some time.

The Night of the Doctor is only a short film running seven and a half minutes but it is really well done and helps cement where we last saw the Doctor prior to his 9th self appearing in Rose.

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Episode #247 : The Name of the Doctor

"You didn't listen, did you? You lot never do. That's the problem. The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered. He wasn't talking about my secret. No, no, no, that's not what's been found. He was talking about my grave. Trenzalore is where I'm buried."

Episode #247:      The Name of the Doctor.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              18th May 2013.

A prophecy is coming true. The Eleventh Doctor is summoned to Trenzalore where it was said he would fall. But what does the alleged site of his final battle have to do with the mystery of Clara — or is it Oswin — Oswald? Can the Paternoster Gang help him avoid his apparent destiny? And most of all...Doctor who?

What a fantastic ending to this season of the show. We get a host of the Doctor's friends together, the return of the Great Intelligence, the final revelation of what and were Trenzalore is and at last the resolution to the impossible girl story line.

It is difficult to explain how good this story is because it isn't any one thing. It's the emotion, the perfectly written scenes and dialogue and the awe moments when everything starts to come together. I have said it before and I'm repeating it now, when Stephen Moffat really puts his mind to it we get some phenomenal episodes. The Name of the Doctor has it all whether you are a modern fan or a classic one. The brief flashes of the old incarnations really gives me the giddy feelings watching this one.

But who is the mysterious Doctor not spoken about? And what a coup getting esteemed (now late) actor John Hurt in for that role is just a masterstroke. That all gets explained soon enough as well. You have to remember that this was leading up to the 50th anniversary episode and we're in for a wild ride.

Anyway, getting away from the excitement, the final set up for the overarching plot this season brings us finally to Trenzalore. This planet was mentioned by the headless Dorium during his "doctor who?" prophecy at the end of A Good Man Goes to War. The Great Intelligence has planned all this to get his revenge on the Doctor for thwarting his schemes. His plan being to enter the Doctor's time stream and cause his adventures to fail although this will destroy him. Clara realizes that the "impossible girl" is her existing in all the Doctor's time lines helping him out and stopping the Great Intelligence. Quite clever really although it does in my mind cause a few little paradoxes not to mention that this future for the Doctor and Trenzalore will never come about.

The Name of the Doctor is a great ending to the story arc and is a nice stepping stone to what comes next.

Episode #246 : Nightmare in Silver

"No need to panic, my young friends. We all know there are no more living Cybermen. What you are seeing is a miracle. The six hundred and ninety ninth wonder of the universe, as displayed before the Imperial court, and only here to destroy you at chess."

Episode #246:      Nightmare in Silver.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              11th May 2013.

The Eleventh Doctor takes his companion, Clara Oswald, and her wards, Angie and Artie, to the biggest amusement park, Hedgewick's World of Wonders. The theme park is empty, occupied by a "punishment platoon" and a lone impresario with empty Cyberman shells as exhibits. The Doctor decides to stay a while, however, to investigate strange insect creatures that are roaming the park. But these insects are really machines seeking to convert the life forms on Hedgewick's World into the newest generation of the ever-upgrading menace.

Watching this again has been only the third time I've watched this episode. Two of those times was on TV or the BBC website. Back then I really was not impressed by what I saw. Neil Gaiman, who wrote the fantastic The Doctor's Wife really lost the plot here. This time round four years later it has grown on my a little bit more. But not by much.

Nightmare in Silver fails for me purely in how it treats the Cybermen. In this adventure they have became a rip off of Star Trek's the Borg. They had been like this for some time and it never bothered me but I feel here that element of their existence is pushed too far. They don't just assimilate other humans to increase their numbers but are also able to upgrade themselves in a matter of seconds to adapt to weapons and conditions otherwise dangerous or difficult for them.

I'm also not so much a fan of how the children were treated in this one. Angie and Artie, the two children that Clara looks after, are just used to be hostages to the story. They have appeared once or twice previously in the background and despite this episode giving them a little air time they are just used as plot scenery. I'm sure something better could have been made of them.

Lastly, I didn't like the strange back and forth Doctor and Mister Clever double dialogue moments. Might have sounded clever on paper but it was just silly on screen. Why would the collective mind of the Cyber race sound and act like the Doctor? Didn't work for me.

Enough grumbling. What did work in this episode. Mainly it is Warwick Davis has Porridge ( aka Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI ). I'm sure I don't need to remind you of his many screen roles. It is nice to see that as the show goes on we continue to get well known actors and actresses popping up here and there.

I am sure that somewhere I am being extremely harsh on this episode but I truly feel that they missed something cool with the Cybermen here and it could have been a much better adventure. Perhaps Nightmare in Silver is another adventure that may have worked better as a two part story.

Episode #245 : The Crimson Horror

"Them new manufacturers can do horrible things to a person. Horrible. I've pickled things in here that'd fair turn your hair snowy as top of Buckden Pike."

Episode #245:      The Crimson Horror.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              4th May 2013.

In 1893, the Eleventh Doctor's old friends, Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax find an optogram of the Doctor on a victim of the mysterious "crimson horror". They head for Yorkshire, where Jenny infiltrates Mrs Winifred Gillyflower's community of Sweetville to find what has happened to him.

A good old Victorian gothic horror. The Paternosta Gang investigate a strange series of murders in Yorkshire which leave red-skinned bodies floating in the canal. The Doctor and Clara have got their first but both need rescuing before the villain of the piece can be stopped. It's nice to see the old Victorian gang getting some centre stage again but half way through it becomes the Doctor and Clara show once again.

For it's nice gothic storytelling it isn't a great episode mainly because it jumps around a bit in the middle explaining what happened to the Doctor and Clara before the episode even starts but also because once it does get going the ending feels all too rushed just to get to a rather unsatisfying climax. The Crimson Horror is one of those stories that if fleshed out a bit could have done better by being a two part story rather than being crammed into 45 minutes.

The actual villain of the story isn't very inspiring either being an old lady with a prehistoric leech stuck to her. Both are defeated way too easily and the story just ends. Even the leech, while creepy crawling across the floor, just seems a weak adversary.

There is a continuation to the Clara mystery but it doesn't go anywhere as the Doctor refuses to inform his Victorian friends about what is going on, leaving them just as much in the dark as the rest of us were at the time.

I really do like Clara has a companion. For a time I would have said that Amy Pond was my favourite modern companion but I have come to appreciate Clara more. She is a good strong female role model who knows her own mind and isn't just on screen to be a screamer. She is part of the story, leading from the front with the Doctor. That she isn't living on the TARDIS and has her own life away from time travel feels better than the later Pond stories where they lived at home. I think Clara has, at this point, become my favourite Doctor Who companion.

It is with her that the story ends on a lead in to the next adventure with the children she looks after finding some rather random photos online of Clara during her recent adventures. Some of them I'm not sure how they could have been taken but that doesn't spoil it.

Episode #244 : Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.

"She's going to die if you don't help me. Don't get into a spaceship with a mad man. Didn't anyone teach you that?"

Episode #244:      Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              27th April 2013.

The Doctor's TARDIS is captured by brothers running a salvage company in space. In the process, Clara gets lost inside the time machine. To save her, the Eleventh Doctor promises the brothers they can have the TARDIS if they'll help search for his missing companion. They agree, only to find that what lies at the centre of the TARDIS can kill them all.

This adventure breaks the usual mould by confining the characters to the inside of the TARDIS as opposed to running around an alien planet or a starship. In a way it reminds me of the 1st Doctor short story The Edge of Destruction which did something similar. The difference here is that rather than the companions going slightly mad, time has ruptured and now potential "time zombies" are running lose in the TARDIS corridors seeking to transform their real selves into their zombie selves.

As much as this episode is a cool adventure racing through the dangerous insides of the TARDIS, it is more the references that give me a big geek smile. Mostly though I was pleased that unlike the 4th Doctor story The Invasion of Time, which quite frankly was almost too awful for words, we have a decent showcase of what the interior of the TARDIS is like. In that older story the BBC just used random real rooms rather than making them appear as though the characters were running through the TARDIS. This time they have done a much better job of showing us what the inside of the machine looks like while keeping it in keeping with our expectations.

Although everyone forgets by the end of the episode, the Doctor and Clara have a revelation together that he has met her twice before and each time she has died. Just who is she? We'll find out soon enough.

I rate this one a 4 because while it does little to further the season plot arc, it is a really enjoyable adventure and one different from the usual fare. It has something for the classic era fans as well, which will usually help bump the rating as well.

Episode #243 : Hide

"In the seventeenth century, a local clergyman saw her. He wrote that her presence was accompanied by a dreadful knocking, as if the Devil himself demanded entry. During the war, American airmen stationed here left offerings of tinned Spam. The tins were found in 1965, bricked up in the servants' pantry, along with a number of handwritten notes. Appeals to the Ghast. For the love of God, stop screaming."

Episode #243:      Hide.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              20th April 2013.

Clara and the Eleventh Doctor arrive at the haunted Caliburn House, set alone on a desolate moor. Within its walls, a ghost-hunting professor and a gifted empathic psychic are searching for the Witch of the Well. Her apparition appears throughout the history of the building, but is she really a ghost? And what is chasing her?

Hide is one of my favourite episodes of the new show. We have some classic tropes expertly written and put together in a 40 minute slot. To start with we have a classic haunted house story that looks the part perfectly and reminds me a lot of the classic British ghost stories of the 1970's television. Add on to that time travel, a a multi-level love plot and some great thought provoking exposition from Clara.

I think what makes it work for me is the nostalgia element. As I mentioned above the haunted house elements remind a lot of the old television supernatural dramas of my childhood. That and the fact that I love a good ghost story. All the elements are there to give the story a suitably creepy feeling even before we get to see the "crooked man" Everything there to make this haunting work. fabulous work by the Doctor Who crew.

But Hide isn't just about a haunting. It's also a love story. That's the undercurrent of the whole thing. Whether we are talking about the two ghost hunters in the house or the "crooked people" separated in different worlds but longing to reunite. As a secondary story element it binds the whole story together and thankfully doesn't feel too contrived.

Clara's observations are also very well written and very much in keeping with the tone of the piece. Her view that we are all ghosts to the Doctor is quite apt. To him we haven't been born, are living and are already dead. We are ghosts. It is another great insight into the character of our hero. Such insights are rare-ish in the show now but when they come up I do tend to get goosebumps and that conversation certainly brings them up.

Lastly we get another take on there being something wrong about Clara as the TARDIS won't let her in without the Doctor. The TARDIS either doesn't trust her or senses that there is something wrong with her.

We get a reference back to the days of the 3rd Doctor with a crystal from Metabelis III although Matt Smith fails to pronounce it correctly ("Me-TEB-eh-lis" instead of "Met-a-BEE-lis").

I am giving this a rare 5 star rating. Hide lives up to the expectations and if there are any flaws in it - and I'm sure there are if you really want to go looking - they aren't immediately obvious. Hide is atmospheric and fun. Perfect Doctor Who viewing.