Episode #257 : The Caretaker

"You want to know what's in that box? I'll tell you what's in that box! It's a Time Machine! It also travels in space! And it usually contains a man who just wants to get on with his work of preventing the end of the world — but keeps on getting interrupted by boring little humans!"

Episode #257:      The Caretaker.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              27th September 2014.

The Doctor's decision to use Clara's school as the centre of a trap for a wild Skovox Blitzer results in revelations in her personal life. Meanwhile, the Doctor's mechanical quarry, which has enough firepower to decimate entire planets, is running amok in the halls of Coal Hill.

The Caretaker is one of those episodes where I can't help but think that the writing team were running out of ideas. It is a story that makes minimal sense and does little but be a progression from one scene to another with no real plot behind it. Essentially the Doctor disguises himself as a janitor at Coal Hill school in order to locate and deal with an alien robot monster capable of destroying everything. By itself this is a fair premise but we get no real explaination as to how the robot got there or why it was drawn here. Instead we get nearly an hour of the Doctor being a grumpy old so an so, shouting at or being rude to Danny Pink and not all that nice to Clara either. We get it. The Doctor doesn't like soldiers but Danny isn't a soldier anymore. The episode feels like a family squabble with a side plot of a killer alien robot.

That being said, I just don't find this a very good episode. It has some funny moments but not enough. There is too much of the Doctor being a big old grump and it gets old fast. It isn't the worst by far but  A better way of handling the episode would have been to have the Doctor and Clara arrive at the school that find that something was up, team up with Danny and the school girl, and they have a chase/fight encounter through the school on parent teacher night. What we got was a wasted potential and a bit of a mess.

It is episodes like The Caretaker that make me so hearken back to the good old days of classic Who. I am sorry to say it but from here on, it feels like New Who has lost it's way somewhat. 

Episode #256 : Time Heist

Psi: I still don't get why you're in charge.

The Doctor: Basically, it's the eyebrows.

Episode #256:      Time Heist.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              20th September 2014.

The Twelfth Doctor and Clara receive a mysterious phone call, and find themselves in a maximum security bank, memories wiped clean and two more recruited strangers to accompany them. Their mission: to rob from a bank that lives up to the reputation of impregnability, but will they be able to find out what they've been recruited to steal and why before they get captured?

Essentially, Time Heist is a take on the Hollywood heist movies like Oceans 11. This time it is taken further and the heroes must break into a science fiction bank with extreme defences including an alien creature, the Teller, which can detect guilt and liquefy brains. It is a very odd story and at first glance doesn't seen very Doctor like but as we all know it gets explained near the end.

I'm not especially fond of this one. In fact I think it is quite forgettable. I obviously remember it but unlike nearly every other episode I couldn't recall the details when re-watching it for this review. It wasn't good enough to be memorable. No classic references although it does feel like the sort of adventure the 6th Doctor might have found himself involved in so I guess there is some sort of throwback.

I suppose that it just isn't well put together. The characters that the companions meet are okay but are only there for the story and they have little to pull you in to them. The episode itself is a mixture if scenes that seem slotted together and the overall twist at the end isn't all that surprising even if you don't work it out. It isn't the worst or most boring episode I have ever seen but sadly Time Heist falls short of what I expect from modern Doctor Who.

Episode #255 : Listen

"What's that in the mirror? Or the corner of your eye?

What's that footstep following, but never passing by?

Perhaps they're all just waiting, perhaps when we're all dead,

Out they'll come a-slithering from underneath the bed."

Episode #255:      Listen.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.


Air Date:              13th September 2014.

The Doctor has been pondering a question: have people ever been truly alone? Does something lurk unseen beside us all? With Clara at his side, the Time Lord will find himself delving into familiar pasts and eerie futures. Just where does the answer to the old man's unanswerable question lie? Will he find the answers he's been searching for, or will his quest cost him his life this time?

Listen is a bit of an unusual story as it isn't really an adventure in the traditional sense of the show. Despite first appearances there are no enemies or villains for the Doctor and Clara to defeat. Instead it is a mixture of showcasing Clara's growing relationship with Danny Pink and a strange jaunt through time with the Doctor having a rather overactive imagination one day.

It tries to be a horror story of sorts and although it doesn't actually play out that way, Listen is an amazingly well written and suspenseful episode. Definitely one of the best of recent years and of the 12th Doctor's era of the show. Very clever. However, even though I happily grant Listen a 5 star rating, it has it's issues. They just are not worthy enough to ruin the enjoyment of this episode. Primarily, as I say above, there is no real story to this episode. Our heroes bounce through time in search of whatever the Doctor thinks is lurking under the bed and it doesn't reveal anything other that a possible for future for the family of Clara and Danny. Also, we don't get any answers to anything put forward in this episode - what was at the door of Colonel Pink's time ship at the death of the universe? Who or what was under the bed sheet and what promoted this strange adventure in the first place? Listen is great but I prefer these sort of episodes to give us some sort of answers.

One very interesting scene in this episode was not expected at the time of viewing. The TARDIS takes the travellers back in time to Gallifrey to a certain barn we saw in The Day of the Doctor, which turns out to be the childhood home of the Doctor and we encounter him in his first incarnation as a small boy having nightmares about something under the bed. Clara has this nice little speech that I guess is meant to show her setting him up for his journeys and adventures. It doesn't add anything to the actual episode but it is a nice addition that fits in well with Clara being the Impossible Girl.

This is probably my favourite episode of the first 12th Doctor season. Well written, good dialogue and a perfect edge of your seat feeling that more episodes of Doctor Who should have.

Episode #254 : Robot of Sherwood

"You stop bad things happening every minute of every day. That sounds pretty heroic to me."

Episode #254:      Robot of Sherwood.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:              6th September 2014.

Clara is offered the chance to choose the next destination for herself and the Twelfth Doctor. They go and meet the English folk hero Robin Hood, much to the Doctor's disbelief in the existence of someone who's supposed to be a mere folk story character. Travelling through Sherwood Forest in 1190, they soon realise that something is amiss, as the cruel Sheriff of Nottingham and his malevolent robot knights set in motion a plot that could rewrite the course of history for the worst.

Here we have another historical story with a science fiction twist - that of Robin Hood, robot knights and a spaceship disguised as a castle. Perfect Doctor Who material and in that respect the story does quite well. We can easily accept any historical inaccuracies by counts of the Doctor's interference. It even has a bit of a The Time Warrior vibe what with robot knights and all. 

However, the reason I give this episode a 2 star rating rather than the average 3 star that it probably deserves is down to the some of the dialogue. Quite frankly the constant bickering between the Doctor and Robin Hood gets on my nerves and ruins an otherwise good episode. The 12th Doctor can come across as mean and grouchy a lot of the time but in this episode, where it is obvious he dislikes being proven wrong about the existence of Robin Hood (even though in the real world we know he was based on various true accounts to create the legend), it seems taken too far. Maybe I'm just not getting it but it spoils the episode for me.

Robot of Sherwood, as I mentioned above, does carry some good classic elements. Sometimes the new era of the show seems to forget it's roots but here we have a good example of an episode that would have fitted in well as an episode of classic Who. Maybe because it does feel a bit like The Time Warrior, I could easily see the 3rd Doctor running around in this story and wouldn't feel out of place.

There is a brief mention of the Promised Land, as we have heard mentioned before, but it is a passing remark. Not every episode needs a large tie in to the series arching plot. 

Not one of the best of the 12th Doctor's adventures but the first series of a new Doctor always has a couple out of sorts stories where the actors and writers settle into the new character. After this, the rest of the first season gets better in my book.

Episode #253 - Into the Dalek

                 The Doctor: This is Clara. Not my assistant. She's… er… some other word.
                 Clara: I'm his carer.
                 The Doctor: Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to.

Episode #253:      Into The Dalek.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Air Date:               30th August 2014.

Surrounded by his greatest enemies, the newest Doctor will journey into the most dangerous place in all of the universe. With the limits of his compassion being tested, the Doctor will be forced to ask a question about himself that he doesn't know: "Am I a good man?"

In this adventure, the Doctor and Clara find themselves being shrunk down and inserted into a supposedly "friendly" Dalek which has come to hate it's own kind. Once inside they must repair the damage effecting it and in hopes that it will remain friendly. Basically this story is quite reminiscent of the classic 4th Doctor adventure The Invisible Enemy, which itself was based upon the science fiction movie The Incredible Journey.

Into The Dalek is a good adventure as we get to see something new that we haven't seen before. It may not be the most original story but we've not see the inside of a Dalek before. If it has a downside it is simply that the story just goes from point A to point B to point C... and so forth. It's just far too linear with little get up and go. But by the stands of modern Who it's fairly typical in that regards. It just doesn't provide an all that interesting story.

One element that I really do like with this one and it is a staple of the Capaldi era is how the writers continue to play with the Doctor in ways that help us understand him more, especially the post Time War him. In this instance it's that despite being our hero and wanting to help, the Doctor is consumed almost by his hatred of the Daleks. Nothing new there but it is perhaps handled better in this story than it has in other previous ones. There is also a sudden and previously unseen mentality where he doesn't like soldiers. This may just be a part of this incarnation but previously he never had an issue with his friends from UNIT. Just seems a bit odd and part of the emerging storyline for Clara's new love interest at Coal Hill school, Danny Pink.

We also have another snippet with the mysterious lady in black and we have a name now, Missy. There was much internet debate about this but I think we all worked out who is was very quickly. For spoilers sake I won't give it away here just in case you haven't seen the episodes for the rest of this series.

This incarnation of the Doctor grew on my very quickly and the dialogue between him and Clara is especially witty. The quote at the top of this page is one of my favourites and I think sums up all regenerations of the Doctor very well.

Episode #252: Deep Breath

"I'm the Doctor. I've lived for over two thousand years, and not all of them were good. I've made many mistakes, and it's about time I did something about that. Clara, I'm not your boyfriend."

Episode #252:      Deep Breath.
Companions:        The 12th Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date:              23rd August 2014.

Shortly after his regeneration, the Twelfth Doctor arrives in Victorian London, and Clara Oswald struggles to embrace the new man the Doctor has become. All the while, they reunite with the Paternoster Gang to investigate a series of combustions that have been occurring all around the city.

And so begins the 12th Doctor's era on the show and what a great start it is. Deep Breath is a bit of a rather odd story though. Since the end of The Time of the Doctor, somehow he and Clara ended up back in the Mesozoic, swallowed by a dinosaur (and that is enormously incorrect in it's size) and somehow time travels with it to the Victorian era where robots are stealing body parts. By Doctor Who standards it's probably just another Saturday.

The Doctor's new persona is quite similar to that of the 1st Doctor, in that he is rather a grumpy grandfatherly figure. A bit rude perhaps but also funny. I had wondered whether this was intentional as this is a brand new reset of regenerations. I don;t know whether that was the case but it seems to fit the new personality.

The new element of this story is that the robot body part thieves aren't just a random villain for a one off post-regeneration story. They are in fact connected to a previous story The Girl in the Fireplace. You may remember that one as the story where the 10th Doctor, Rose and Micky fought time travelling robots using body parts to fix their ship. While not from the SS Madame de Pompadour, they are from the sister ship SS Marie Antoinette. It's a nice tie in to a previous story.

Part of the story that doesn't really work for me is Clara at the beginning of the episode. In her recent adventures she has had to deal with the concept and actuality of Time Lord regeneration and yet she seems to not understand it now where the Doctor is concerned. The writers try to make this seem about her being in love with the 13th Doctor and wanting him back over an old man, but it doesn't come off that way to me at all. It takes a final moment of the episode to reconcile this which it does to an extent.

The adventure is a good one. It has adventure, action, excitement, humour and a slight bit of horror. It has some great dialogue too, from Clara's logic about torture to the final unanswered confrontation between the Doctor and the half-faced robot. Even the phone call from the 11th Doctor is a good emotional ride. Eventually it ends with a bizarre twist involving a mysterious woman named Missy in some sort of "afterlife". An interesting set up for later in the series.

A great start to the new series and a new Doctor.

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.