Episode #251: The Time of the Doctor

" We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives. And that's okay, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me. "

Episode #251:      The Time of the Doctor.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              25th December 2013.

Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe's deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars - among them, the Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his companion must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.

At the end of Matt Smith's time on Doctor Who we nice big Christmas special that not only wraps up a number of open mysteries but sees him regenerate into his 12th/13th incarnation in the form of Peter Capaldi. We finally see the outcome of the crack in the universe that appeared in his first season, the question hidden in plain sight and the answer to just how many regenerations does a Time Lord actually have. All wrapped up in a nice package.

While it starts off in the usual way of Christmas specials being set on Christmas it thankfully does not stick to it like previous specials did. It moves away from that to being set in a small town called Christmas instead which although strange doesn't feel like the Christmas element is being shoved in your face. Just for that immediately it gets a thumbs up.

The story shows us what is supposed to have happened to make Trenzalore look like it did when we last visited it with The Great Intelligence. A mysterious message is cast through all time and space through the crack in the universe which when translated turns out to be a question that only the Doctor can answer - his name. Hence I suppose why the show is (retconned here) called Doctor Who I guess. When the assembled alien menaces attack the town of Christmas is saved by the Doctor and his tenuous allies from the Papal Mainframe - the Silence - over and over again through the centuries until the Doctor is an old man at the end of his life. Although since events played out differently than we saw in The Name of the Doctor does that mean that The Great Intelligence is not dead after all and could return? Good question.

Importantly we learn that a Time Lord does indeed just have 13 lives and the rumours of that going around since the latter years of the 4th Doctor are true. Thankfully the Time Lords intervene and present our hero with a whole new set of lives. They promised the Master the same thing in The Five Doctors had he been successful. Speaking of which, we see once again the seal of the high council that the 5th Doctor took from the Master in that story. Nice bit of throwback there.

The story itself is good, exciting and emotional at the end. It is fun which is what I would expect from a Doctor Who special at Christmas. However it does get a little silly in places again. Wooden cybermen and sontarans reduced to a cheap laugh especially did not sit well with me. It seems that the Sontarans haven't been given a serious appearance since the reappeared in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky under the 10th Doctor.

It is a shame to see Matt Smith go as although I was not convinced when he was first announced he grew on me very quickly. His first few moments in The Eleventh Hour really enamored me to his character. Even now I do miss him. He is probably my favourite modern Doctor to date. The end of an era. Let's see where we go from here.

Episode #238 : The Angels Take Manhattan

"You are creating fixed time. I will never be able to see you again!"

Episode #238:      The Angels Take Manhattan.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song.
Air Date:               29th September 2012.

A simple trip to New York in 2012 goes horribly wrong when the Eleventh Doctor's companion, Rory Williams, is sent back to the 1930s by the Weeping Angels. There, he finds that his daughter, River Song, is investigating the Angels, as Manhattan has become their hunting grounds. The Doctor and Amy Pond must find Rory before it is too late, but they soon find that not every point in time can be changed. And here, the Doctor must face the one thing he has been dreading — a final farewell to the Ponds.

After a nice run on the show we finally say goodbye to Amy and Rory. Amy grew on me immediately but it took the better part of two seasons before I came to like the character of Rory. Sometimes you click with a companion and sometimes you don't. Either way it was a shame to see them go and that final moment has some nice emotionally charged scenes that almost bring a tear to the eye.

The story itself is fairly ludicrous and has some fairly obvious plot holes. The Angels are on Earth feeding on the energy of people they send back in time. This bunch of angels are sending them to an old apartment building forcing them to remain trapped within for the rest of their lives. How do these people eat then or get repairs done, if they can't leave? The building itself is said to be part of the trap but I don't see how. We also have the paradox that destroys the building and resets everything. It takes the Ponds throwing themselves to their doom but no one in the history of the building tried to do something similar just to escape a life trapped in the tower? I am sure that I am reading too much into it but if I can see these issues then I'm fairly certain the writers did.

There is one other annoying issue to this episode that I simply hate. The Statue of Liberty is a gigantic weeping angel? One that walks but is observed constantly by locals and tourists a like? Nice idea but doesn't hold up under logic.

The Angels Take Manhattan despite it's obvious plot holes and failings is still a better Angels story than we've had since their original appearance. This time at least we get that creepy feeling again that served so well but has been lacking in other stories.

All in all I consider this one to be one of the more typical of modern Who episodes and it should be viewed in that light.

Episode #213 : The Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone

"Didn't anyone ever tell you? There's one thing you never put in a trap. If you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap."

Episode #213:      The Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Amy Pond.
Air Date:              14th April to 1st May 2010.

The enigmatic River Song hurtles back into the Eleventh Doctor's life, but she's not the only familiar face returning — the Weeping Angels are back! Following River's calling card, the Doctor is recruited to help track down the last of the Angels, which has escaped from the Byzantium starliner and into the terrifying Maze of the Dead.

The Weeping Angels and River Song return in a rather good story that continues the lore of the Angels. Most of the time the episodes that feature the Angels are rather naff but this one adds something to it. We learn a little more about them and what they are capable off. Blink barely touched the surface. As for River she is a very different person than when we last saw her. We are going backwards though as the Doctor and River do keep meeting in the wrong order.

This is also a major revelation episode where the crack in the universe is concerned. At the end of Victory of the Daleks the Doctor points out that Amy should remember the Dalek invasion that recently moved the Earth but she doesn't. In this adventure the Doctor realises that something is changing or rewriting history as, and I pointed this out a while back, no one remembers the giant Cyberking marching across Victorian London. Something is a foot and the Doctor is on the case.

The best bit about this adventure is that pretty much from the get go we have a suspense filled romp through an ancient maze and a crashed space ship. Most adventures are quite exciting but few are truly suspenseful. This is one of the few and it's worth it.

Episode #190 : Blink

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but, actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff."

Episode #190:   Blink.
Companions:    The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:          9th June 2007.

In an abandoned house, the Weeping Angels wait. The only hope to stop them is a young woman named Sally Sparrow and her friend Larry Nightingale. The only catch: The Weeping Angels can move in the blink of an eye. To defeat the ruthless enemy — with only a half of a conversation from the Tenth Doctor as help — the one rule is this: don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink!

Blink is in my opinion one of the best adventures in Doctor Who. Just as with The Empty Child, this episode shows just how well Doctor Who can be when the writers come up with a proper freaky story and with the creation of the Weeping Angels we have that perfectly here. It is also story that barely features our time travellers, instead we see the events unfold from the point of another character, Sally Sparrow.

The new villains are the Weeping Angels. They are ancient creatures who exist in a sort of quantum state where they become stone statues when observed by another living thing. Although for some reason this also applies to their own kind. The Doctor sees this as the perfect defense mechanism but they could still be smashed by a mallet surely? But we won't dwell on that. In Blink these creatures are at their best. They do make occasional reappearances in the show but never portrayed as well as they are in this story.

It is interesting to see that Blink has quite a hefty paradox. These are bad and we have seen creatures like the Reapers turn up when such events take place. So why don't they here? The paradox in Blink is a circular one with no beginning or end. Sally gives the Doctor the information she has at the end of the story but Sally gets that information from seeing the wall the Doctor wrote, watching the DVD the Doctor made and so on. The information never really "starts" anywhere — the Doctor knows what to say in the conversation because he's reading Larry's transcript, which Larry made thirty-eight years later by watching the conversation. The information is in an endless loop.

Blink is truly one of the best episodes of modern Who and if for some reason you haven't seen it, go do so. You won't be disappointed.