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.

Episode #224: The Doctor's Wife

"I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough."

Episode #224:      The Doctor's Wife.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              14th May 2011.

The Eleventh Doctor receives a message from an old Time Lord friend. The message brings him, Rory Williams and Amy Pond to another universe where they meet an alien who eats TARDISes.

One of the better and more enjoyable stories of the 11th Doctor. Having received a message from another Time Lord, the Doctor and his companions find themselves trapped in a pocket universe with an asteroid monster that feeds on the Artron energy. The TARDIS itself is forced into a human body and her and the Doctor must rescue Amy and Rory, recover the TARDIS and escape back into the real universe.

What makes this story so good is the interaction between Idris (the TARDIS) and the Doctor. Famed author Neil Gaiman does such a magnificent job with this story. We get some great back story from Idris about who exactly stole who on Gallifrey all those years ago. The only thing that prevents me from giving this story a 5 star rating is that I just don't like the villain nor the chase sequence through the TARDIS. I dislike it enough that I can't give this one more than 4 stars.

Back in the SJA episode Lost in Time, there is a character who has been canonically named as the Corsair, and he (or she) is mentioned in this one. Now definitely deceased. In passing the Doctor mentions that the Corsair was once a female which has kicked off the silly (in my opinion) idea that Time Lords can regenerate into different genders. I don't like that idea myself.

There is a lot to like in this episode and it certainly goes on my list of episodes that everyone should watch.

Episode #219 : The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

"The universe is big, it's vast and complicated, and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory. Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me."

Episode #219:      The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              19th to 26th June 2010.

A Van Gogh painting ferried across thousands of years offering a terrifying prophecy, a message on the oldest cliff-face in the universe and a love that lasts a thousand years: in 102 AD England, Romans receive a surprise visit from Cleopatra. Nearby, Stonehenge hides a legendary prison-box. As it slowly unlocks from the inside, terrible forces gather in the heavens. The fates are closing around the TARDIS. The Pandorica, which contains the most dangerous threat in the Universe, is opening. Only one thing is certain: "The Pandorica will open... Silence will fall".

The season ends with a fantastic culmination. We learn that everything we have experienced since the start of this season has been orchestrated by an alien coalition who fear the Doctor and blame him for the destruction of the universe. The full explanation won't become apparent for some time though. This two parter is a complete edge of your seat type entertainment with surprises and enough cool moments to be hugely memorable.

We have the unexpected return of Rory William although at this stage as a plastic Auton facsimile of a Roman soldier. He somehow manages to retain his personality even as the other Auton's revert to their "evil" selves. Rory always struck me as a bit of an odd character but has grown on me as his time on the show went along. Strange how that happens.

The first half of the story focuses on the Doctor's discovery and investigation of Stonehenge and the Pandorica. Once entrapped and the universe changes we have our companions struggling in a shrinking universe to reset things, hence the title The Big Bang. Now is this new big bang the thing that alters history to erase events such as the giant Cyber King?

The end of the adventure is rather cool as well. The Doctor slides back along his own timeline through his adventures with Amy before he ceases to exist, and we see certain scenes from previous stories this season which now make more sense. A well written and ingenuous plot element. The final scene of Amy and Rory's wedding where Amy restores the Doctor's existence sends a chill up my spin.

All in all a fantastic piece of Doctor Who in the modern era.

Episode #215 : Amy's Choice

The Dream Lord: If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality.
Rory: What happens?
The Dream Lord: You die, stupid. That's why it's called reality.

Episode #215:      Amy's Choice.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              15th May 2010.

It has been five years since Amy Pond last travelled with the Eleventh Doctor. However, when he arrives by accident and they have a reunion, Amy is left questioning what is real. Is she actually living with her husband Rory in Leadworth, 2015, or is she still travelling with Rory and the Doctor in the TARDIS? Which is real and which is fake? Dream or reality? Only one thing is clear: it's Amy's choice.

Amy's Choice is a filler episode that does nothing to further the season plot. There is no reference to the Silence nor is there a crack in the universe this time. The entire episode is totally self contained. Instead we have a confusing story about dream and reality which is somewhat mediocre.

The villain of this story is an entity calling itself the Dream Lord. The first time I watched this episode I was really hoping that he would be a previous villain, the Valeyard or the Celestial Toymaker. Instead we have a one use villain playing the role of the Doctor's darker side (hence the thought that he may be the Valeyard). Played by the wonderful Toby Jones, the Dream Lord is a fun villain with the perfect sarcastic responses to the Doctor.

I don't have much to really review this episode. It's fun if you take it the right way but I dislike filler episodes intensely.

Episode #175 : Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel.

 

Rose: [surprised] They're people.

The Doctor: They were, until they had all their humanity taken away. That's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body, with a heart of steel. All emotions removed.

Rose: Why no emotions?

The Doctor: Because it hurts.

Episode 175:   Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel.
Companions:   10th Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Air Date:         13th to 20th May 2006.

On a parallel Earth, a deadly new version of the Doctor's old enemy is about to be reborn. The Cybermen take control of London and start converting the population, and the Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith become fugitives.

An explosion in the vortex drops the TARDIS and crew on to a parallel Earth where things a tad different from our own. In this one there are airships everywhere and everyone is connected to everything via an earpiece. The time travellers arrive to find that Rose's father Pete is still alive and rather successful which causes Rose to go off looking for him. Unfortunately this is the same time that the Cybermen of this universe come into being and start upgrading everyone.

I'll start off by saying that I'm not a fan of the new Cyberman designs. I find them far too clunky and robotic, but I do prefer the 1980's look and they will always be the Cybermen for me. But fair play and things change. The BBC have better ways of showing these creatures now. If only they hadn't added "delete" as a catchphrase. It is far too cheesy. Even more so than before these Cybermen remind me of the Borg from Star Trek for their conversion of people into Cybermen, which you do see through this story.

John Lumic, who becomes the Cyber Controller, is played by the late Roger Lloyd-Pack who is more famously known for the role of Trigger in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.

Just as with the 3rd Doctor story Inferno, the fun aspect of this story is seeing how our regular characters are different in an alternate universe. Pete Tyler is a respectable and rich business man, and Jackie Tyler isn't so different just stuck up. Rose doesn't exist. Instead the Tyler's have a dog named Rose. Mickey has an opposite called Rickey who is a braver more criminal (number 1 for parking fines!) version of himself.

When all is said and done, Mickey decides to remain here because his gran is still alive in this universe and he feels he can help deal with the remaining Cybermen in other parts of the world. I find Mickey an annoying character at times. Far too clingy towards Rose. In hindsight though perhaps he wasn't that bad.

Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel is a good story for introducing the Cybermen to a new generation. I just wish that they weren't the only ones we see for a long time.

Episode #111 : Full Circle

"Why can't people be nice to one another, just for a change? I mean, I'm an alien and you don't want to drag me into a swamp, do you... You do?!"

Episode 111:     Full Circle.
Companions:    4th Doctor, K9 and Romana.
Air Date:           25th October to 15th November 1980.

The TARDIS falls through a CVE into E-Space and arrives on the planet Alzarius. There the inhabitants of a crashed Starliner and a group of young rebels called the Outlers, led by a boy named Varsh and including his brother Adric, are being terrorised by a race of Marshmen who emerge from the marshes at a time known as Mistfall.

This story starts the short E Space story arc. These are three unconnected short stories that detail the adventures of our time travelling companions in an alternate universe called E Space (Exo Space). I don't know that the story arc actually makes any difference but at least it's something different.

Full Circle introduces the new companion of Adric, an inhabitant of the planet who after helping the Doctor and Romana, stows away on board the TARDIS. Adric is a mathematical genius, he even has a star for excellence, and this gives us another companion who is almost a match for the Doctor. Many fans hate the character of Adric but I really cannot see why myself.

The story itself deals with a fifty year cycle on the planet Alzarius when the native fauna awakens and evolves. The inhabitants of the starliner find themselves under attack by the native inhabitants for reasons they don't quite understand. The story is quite good although some of the fauna (the spiders) look terrible.

Romana gets some interesting screen time when she is infected by the genetic material of the local wildlife and is almost transformed into one of them. Because of her the marshmen manage to gain access to the starliner. The story then transforms from one of investigation into something more action and survival based.

Episode #65 : The Three Doctors

"Well Sergeant, aren't you going to say that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside - everybody else does."

Episode 65:   The Three Doctors.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, 2nd Doctor, 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 30th December 1972 to 20th January 1973.

Time itself is in peril! The Time Lords find themselves besieged by a mysterious enemy, the legendary Time Lord, Omega. Omega has been inhabiting the anti-matter universe on the other side of the black hole from which the Time Lords draw their power.
They enlist the Doctor in his first three incarnations to battle this foe, who turns out to be a legend from the Time Lords' remote past.
But vital cosmic energy is draining into a black hole and the Time Lords are under siege. The Doctor is their only hope but, trapped in the TARDIS, he's powerless. The only way out is to break the First Law of Time to let the Doctor help himself - literally.

The first of the multi-Doctor stories and a rather good one to boot. Although called The Three Doctors, it is primarily Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. William Hartnell was rather unwell at the time of filming so he is shown only on the TARDIS display screen giving advice to his other selves. Sadly, he would pass away only a few months after this episode. It does however set up the possibility of other stories where multiple Doctors can meet and interact. Other than the presence of multiple Doctors, what makes it work so well is how their interactions together are written and how you get the impression that different incarnations don't really get along with one another.

The villain of the piece is a former legendary Time Lord named Omega. He has been trapped in an anti-matter universe since giving the Time Lords the ability to travel through time and space. Driven somewhat mad by his isolation he wants to return to our universe. Although defeated, Omega will return much later during Peter Davison's time as the Doctor in The Arc of Infinity.

The Brigadier shows his usual lack of thought in this story, refusing to believe anything the Doctors tell him, and insisting that the anti-matter universe is in fact somewhere near Cromer in East Anglia. While it may work for the story it does make his character seem awfully thick.

Upon the completion of this adventure, the Time Lords forgive the Doctor his transgressions and free him to travel in time and space once more.

The Three Doctors is a great piece of entertainment that every fan of the show should watch.

Episode #54 : Inferno

"Listen to that! It's the sound of the planet screaming out its rage!"

 

 

Episode 54:    Inferno.
Companions: The 3rd Doctor and Liz Shaw.
Air Date:        Seven episodes. 9th May to 20th June 1970.

 

UNIT is providing security cover at an experimental drilling project designed to penetrate the Earth's crust and release a previously untapped source of energy. Soon however the drill head starts to leak an oily green liquid that transforms those who touch it into vicious primeval creatures with a craving for heat.
The Doctor is accidentally transported by the partially repaired TARDIS control console into a parallel universe where the drilling project is at a more advanced stage. Thwarted by his friends' ruthless alter egos, he works to save both universes.

Inferno is an excellent story that keeps you fixed throughout. The story deals with two elements: a drilling operation that has gone too far and threatens to destroy the world, and an alternate dystopian Earth where the drilling has gone too far allowing the Doctor to learn how to avert disaster.

The story deals with a mining operation led by an unscrupulous man named Stahlman who seeks to drill down into the core of the Earth looking for something he has named Stahlman's Gas. Unfortunately all he finds initially is a strange green goo that transforms those who touch it into weird green furred primitives called Primords. The effects for these look awful and remind me far more of the old werewolf effects from the 1930's wolfman movies.

From there an accident sends the Doctor sideways in time to an alternate Earth where Great Britain is a dystopian society. Much like the classic mirror universe Star Trek stories there are evil versions of the characters from the Doctors universe, including an evil version of the Brigadier and Liz Shaw. On their world the drilling has punctured the core and the release of energy has set the Earth on the path to fiery death. The Doctor must find a way to travel back to his universe and save the Earth.

Although the story is really good elements don't make much sense. Why does the green go create Primords and why do they want to bring about the end of the world? That never gets explained. Also, considering that later on in the show we learn that Torchwood managed to drill down to the Racnoss ship at the centre of the Earth, why didn't they encounter the problems presented here? Think too much and there are continuity issues here.

Unfortuantely this is the last time we see Liz Shaw. No goodbye. She just doesn't return in the following season. The character of Liz is another strong female role and I wonder if she was replaced because it is easier to have a screamer type companion who can ask questions and needs to be rescued.

Episode #45 : The Mind Robber

"We're nowhere. It's as simple as that."

 

Episode 45:    The Mind Robber.
Companions:  The 2nd Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot.
Air Date:         Five episodes. 14th September to 12th October 1968.

 

To escape from the volcanic eruption on Dulkis, the Second Doctor uses an emergency unit. It moves the TARDIS out of normal time and space. The travellers find themselves in an endless void where they are menaced by white robots.
Having regained the safety of the TARDIS, they believe they have escaped - until the ship explodes. They find themselves in a land of fiction, where they are hunted by life-size clockwork soldiers and encounter characters like Rapunzel and Swift's Lemuel Gulliver.

The Mind Robber is one of those early classic stories where after the first viewing you sit back and wonder what on earth that was all about. I certainly did. A couple more viewings and you come to see that it's not as strange or poor as you first thought. This really was what The Celestial Toymaker wanted to be. Had that story been similar to this in it's telling it may have been far better than it was.

The over all plot is a bit strange. It follows straight on from the end of the prior tale with the Doctor being forced to shunt the TARDIS into another reality to escape the encroaching lava. The companions are dropped into a strange cerebral world where anything that is fictional can exist. Throughout the story we encounter fictitious characters such as Gulliver, Rapunzel and Cyrano de Bergerac as well as robots and clockwork soldiers.These are all controlled by a figure called The Master (not to be confused with the villain to come in later stories) who is an English writer abducted from 1926 and set here to control the fictional universe. He in turn is controlled by some computer called the Master Brain whose plan is to draw all of humanity into the fictional world so that it can take over. Hopefully it isn't just me who sees plot holes in that. Who created the Master Brain in the first place?

I really enjoyed Patrick Troughton's portrayal of the Doctor in this story. I almost get a sense that he was channelling William Hartnell in places. Zoe however, just spends most of the story screaming and calling for help.
There is an odd part to Jamie's story here though. In one episode he is turned into a life size cardboard cut-out of himself but without a face. When the Doctor recreates his face wrong, he is restored to played by a different actor. It fits the story, but the truth was that Frazer Hines was ill for a few days with chicken pox.

The Mind Robber is a good story but it may take more than one watch to hook you.

Episode #24 : The Celestial Toymaker

"Make your last move, Doctor. Make your *last* move."

Episode 24:       The Celestial Toymaker.
Companions:     The 1st Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo.
Air Date:           Four episodes. 2nd to 23rd April 1966.

The travellers arrive in a strange domain presided over by the Celestial Toymaker – an enigmatic, immortal entity who forces them to play a series of games, failure at which will render them his playthings for all eternity.

This story is missing apart from the final part and a few bits here and there. I have seen it however made from production stills with the audio overlaid. I am sorry to sayit but I was very very dissapointed with this story. Throughout my childhood this seemed to be one of those stories that was often talked about and the villainous Toymaker was made out to be an excellent opponent. Sadly neither was true and the whole thing was a bit of a let down for me.

The Toymaker himself, played by the late Michael Gough, seems a very two dimensional entity. There is no real reason why he snatches the TARDIS and the Doctor away except to just play games with them. I do hope that at some point we see the Celestial Toymaker make an appearence in the current run of the show and that the the writers can do something with him.

It is a shame about this story but it just goes to show that you can't always accept the hype around anything. You have to make your own mind up.

The end of the story runs into the following one, with the Doctor developing toothache and needing to find a dentist.