Episode #233: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

Madge: Are you the new caretaker?
The Doctor: Usually called "The Doctor." Or "The Caretaker." Or "Get off this planet." Though, strictly speaking, that probably isn't a name.

Episode #233:      The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor.
Air Date:               25th December 2011.

Christmas Eve, 1938. Madge Arwell comes to the aid of an injured Spaceman Angel, the Eleventh Doctor, who promises to repay her kindness – all she has to do is make a wish. Three years later, Madge escapes war-torn London with her two children for a dilapidated house in Dorset. Crippled with grief at the news her husband has been lost over the English Channel, she wishes to give her children the best Christmas ever. The Arwells are greeted by the Doctor, who acts as their madcap caretaker. However, a mysterious Christmas gift from him leads them into a wintry, magical world. Madge must learn how to be braver than she ever thought possible... and that wishes can come true.

Another Christmas special and a better one than recent years. Although set at Christmas the season of good will is not the centre piece of the story which immediately boosts it for me. But saying that the episode features a nice amount of Christmas spirit which does raise a little smile even now watching well past Christmas itself.

The episode itself does not tie into any of the continuing plots and is nicely self contained. The only reference to the previous show is the future setting of Androzani Major. The foresters are from that system but it isn't clear whether the story takes place there or not. If it does, it doesn't resemble anything from 5th Doctor story The Caves of Androzani.

Like previous Christmas stories, this one seems based on a piece of literary work. In this case, as I am sure you can tell by the name, it is The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Thankfully there isn't too much of a correlation between the two. Other than a play on the name, it is only the strange "magical" box which takes them from the old country manor in 1938 to an alien forested winter planet in the distant future.

While the build up is slow and there isn't an actual villain to the story, what I enjoy most about this is the emotional aspect that builds up in the second half. First off by building on the love of a mother for her children, and then the revelation of her husbands death and finally the union of the family on Christmas morning... even I had a lump in my throat watching it. Whether I had that the first couple times I watched this I don't recall but it hit me this time.

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe is a good story but it does suffer from both slow pacing and a lack of any real story. It just starts, flows along and then ends. Not to mention, once again, that is a little too fairytale for me. I suppose that is fine from the point of view of a basic Christmas episode for the family but it isn't what I would like to see from a special episode like this. Still, enjoyable.

Episode #227 : Let's Kill Hitler

"Well, I was on my way to this gay gypsy Bar Mitzvah for the disabled when I suddenly thought, "Gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish. I think I'll kill the Führer." Who's with me?"

Episode #227:      Let's Kill Hitler.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, River Song, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              27th August 2011.

In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crash lands in Thirties Berlin. The Doctor comes face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. And Hitler. Old friendships are tested to their limits as the Doctor suffers the ultimate betrayal and learns a harsh lesson in the cruelest warfare of all. As precious time ebbs away, the Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities. And he must succeed before an almighty price is paid.

After a short hiatus the show comes back with a bit of a corker. In this story the Doctor meets Amy's childhood friend Melody who turns out to be a bit of a bad egg. She hijacks the TARDIS and takes them back to kill Hitler. Melody turns out to be a previous incarnation of River Song, one brainwashed to assassinate the Doctor by the Silence. It isn't a particularly serious episode being very much comedic although it does explain a lot of what happened in the previous half of the season.

Outside of the comedy elements, the point of this story really is to explain the back story to the current series from who River Song is and why she is prison, who are the Silence, to the death of the Doctor in the first episode of the season. It's a clever twist and not one that I would have thought of previously. I really enjoy the back story to River Song in this episode. From killer to the Doctor's future lover in one short story.

The episode title is a bit of a ruse really. Hitler only features in about five minutes and spends the rest of it locked in a cupboard.

I won't spoil anything, so it's going to be a short review really, but this story is well worth watching although it probably won't make much sense if you haven't seen the previous episodes/

SJA #23 : Lost in Time

"The tapestry of time is a fragile thing. Apply the slightest pressure, and the threads of history can unravel. But you understand that, don't you, Sarah Jane?"

Episode #23:        Lost in Time.
Companions:        Sarah Jane Smith, Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer.
Air Date:              8th to 9th November 2010.

A harmless investigation turns into an epic quest across time and space. Sarah Jane and the gang are separated by the enigmatic Shopkeeper to find themselves in three different time-zones throughout history – doing battle against ghost hunters, Nazis, Tudors and a mysterious parrot called Captain!

Along comes another Sarah Jane Adventures episode that I thoroughly enjoyed. Recruited my a mysterious shopkeeper and his parent, the adventurers are split up and sent into different time zones to recover pieces of a temporal artifact, the chronosteel. Clyde arrives during the second world war, and helps thwart a Nazi invasion. Rani finds herself in service to Lady Jane Gray in her last hours and Sarah Jane helps a 19th century ghost hunter save the lives of two children in the 21st century.

I like this story because it brings home the time traveling historical stories of the early days of Doctor Who. Although I wasn't a fan of them the modern stories can be done so much better even in just a brief hours worth of television. In particular the life and death of Lady Jane Gray, an historical figure I had never heard of prior to watching this episode when televised. Having watched it, I was moved to read up on the actual events.

As for the mysterious shopkeeper we never learn who he or his parrot companion are but according to The Brilliant Book 2012, and a blog post from Neil Gaiman, Gaiman and Russell T Davies were both of the personal opinion that the Shopkeeper was in fact the Corsair, a swashbuckling Time Lord friend of the Doctor's mentioned in the television story The Doctor's Wife.

I do like this particular adventure a lot and it shows what the show could do when the writers put their minds to it. More like this would have been preferable to the overly basic children's stories.

Episode #212 : Victory of the Daleks

"YOU! ARE! MY! ENEMY! And I am yours! You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you. Time and time again, I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I AM THE DOCTOR AND YOU ARE THE DALEKS!"

Episode #212:      Victory of the Daleks.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor and Amy Pond.
Air Date:              17th April 2010.

Receiving a call for help from his old friend Winston Churchill, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond head for World War II to assist the Prime Minister. Once there, though, the Doctor reunites with his greatest enemies, the scum of the universe — the Daleks. But why are these survivors passing themselves off as man-made weapons? And why don't they recognise the Doctor? What could these "Ironsides" have planned?

Victory of the Daleks is a pseudo-historical story with a science fiction twist. It doesn't use the second world war to teach like the old historical adventures but more as just a setting, in which to tell this story. Into it we find the Daleks working for the British armed forces to take down incoming German aircraft. The Doctor recognises them for what they are this triggers the actual story, that the Daleks are seeking to rebuild their forces and their creation needs proof that they are pure Daleks. The name of the episode is very apt as in this story the evil Daleks do indeed win. Yay!

Despite some rather witty dialogue this episode unfortunately is really just another filler. The entire point of this episode is simply to set up the return of the Daleks later on. I really hate it when shows do that as it feels like a waste of an episode. I like plot stories but I like them to be mostly self contained and workable.

I hate to be negative yet again, but there is one thing in this adventure which really irks me. The Daleks' plans are slightly defeated by space flying Spitfire aircraft. It just bugs me as once again we have an element of silly. It's meant to be a good sci-fi story and then they through that in there.

TW #12 : Captain Jack Harkness

"He would have been so proud that you took his name. 'Cause here you are, saving the world. To Captain Jack."

Episode 12:   Captain Jack Harkness.
Companions: Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper and Ianto Jones.
Air Date:       1st January 2007.

Investigating reports of ghostly music, Jack and Toshiko find themselves stranded in a packed dance hall — in 1941. As Gwen, Owen and Ianto work to rescue their colleagues, Jack and Toshiko meet a handsome young American squadron leader by the name of Captain Jack Harkness.

In this episode we learn something of the back story behind our captain Jack. Drawn to strange reports in an abandoned dance hall Jack and Tosh find themselves back in the 1940's at the height of the second world war. There they encounter the real Jack Harkness whose identity was taken by our protagonist as well as a strange man named Bilis who seems able to time travel at will between the 1940's and modern day.

For an episode where nothing really happens this is an excellent and entertaining story. The two sides of Torchwood in different years trying to contact each other so theat Jack and Tosh can get home is well written and again it leads to dissension in the ranks as to how to get them home which comes to blows between Ianto and Owen. The brief romance between the two Jack's is also a nice touch. I know a few people who complained that it was Russell T Davis pushing the gay agenda once more but really I don't understand that attitude.

The character of Bilis Manger is introduced here in preparation for the following story. The actor portraying him does a wonderful job of showcasing a strange and disturbing figure with unexplained powers.

Ultimately as good an episode as this is it is purely a set up for the final episode of Torchwood's first season.

Episode #167 : The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

"Are you my mummy?"

Episode 167:   The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances.
Companions:   9th Doctor and Rose Tyler.
Air Date:         21st to 28th May 2005.

Chasing a metallic object through the Time Vortex, the Ninth Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, arrive in London during the Blitz. While Rose meets "Captain Jack Harkness", the dashing Time Agent responsible for bringing the object, the Doctor finds a group of homeless children terrorised by Jamie, an "empty" child wearing a gas mask.

I love Doctor Who when it attempts horror, and with the production values of the new series the BBC can do some absolutely fantastic ones. This particular adventure is the first horror themed story of the new series and it is a gem of the first series. What makes it work is the strange psychological reaction we have towards something disturbing that involves children. The repeated cry of "are you my mummy?" certainly sends a chill down the spine.

This adventure introduces Captain Jack Harkness, a former time agent now working as a con man throughout time. He starts off as a criminal type with a heart of gold and grows to be a braver man and future companion. As we know he will eventually go on to lead the remains of the Torchwood institute but for now he is a great new companion, probably my favourite of all the new series companions.

As well as being a scary story, we also get a lot of humour in this one which at last actually begins to feel right. New Who certainly likes to be more amusing than it's classic predecessor. At the time of transmission I found this somewhat odd but have grown to see it as a necessary addition for modern family audiences. But this is the first adventure where it fits perfectly.

The Empty Child episode does not contain a Bad Wolf reference. Instead, it appears in the second part, written in German on the side of a bomb dropped during the air raid.

Episode #157 : The Curse of Fenric

"We hoped to return to the North Way, but the dark curse follows our dragon ship... The Wolves of Fenric shall return for their treasure, and then shall the dark evil rule eternally."

Episode 157:   The Curse of Fenric.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Ace.
Air Date:         25 October to 15th November 1989.

The TARDIS materialises at a secret naval base off the coast of Northumberland toward the end of the Second World War. Dr Judson, a scientist there, has created the Ultima Machine, an early computer designed to break German codes. The base's Commander Millington plans to let a Russian commando unit led by Captain Sorin steal the Machine's core, which he has booby-trapped with deadly toxin. Judson uses the Machine to translate some ancient runes from the crypt of the nearby St Judes church and this leads to the release of Fenric, an evil entity from the dawn of time whom the Doctor trapped seventeen centuries earlier in a Chinese flask by defeating it at chess.

The Curse of Fenric is an exceptional story that covers multiple story lines and wraps up a number of plot lines that we perhaps didn't even notice were there. Mainly the story deals with the return of Fenric, a Great Old One, sealed away by the Doctor in a much earlier untelevised adventure. We learn that the Doctor beat Fenric at chess in order to do so. The chess game we saw previously in Silver Nemesis, was part of Fenric's scheme, and we learn that the time storm that snatched Ace away from home to deposit her on IceWorld was also his doing. Fenric had been planning things for a very long time.

The script for this is perfect. There isn't anything wrong with it and combined with excellent production values gives us a chilling atmospheric tale of ancient horror set to a backdrop of the second world war. If only the late 80's could have had this level of writing and production value all the way through then no one could have complained.

The celebrity guest star in this tale was Nicholas Parsons, a household name in the 1970's and 80's for the game show Sale of the Century. In this story he plays a priest who has lost his faith because of the horrors of war.

This story is very much a return to classic Doctor vs the monsters but with some of the best writing of the classic show. You cannot go wrong with The Curse of Fenric.