I haven't vanished. Work has just been rather busy in the run up to Christmas. Reviews will return in the new year.

Hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Episode #231 - Closing Time

"Hello, Stormageddon. It’s The Doctor, here to help. Be quiet. Go to sleep. No, really. Stop crying. You’ve got a lot to look forward to, you know. A normal human life on Earth. Mortgage repayments, the 9 to 5, a persistent nagging sense of spiritual emptiness. Save the tears for later, boyo. Oh, that was crabby. No, that was old. But I am old, Stormy. I am so old. So near the end. But you, Alfie Owens. You are so young, aren’t you? And you know, right now, everything’s ahead of you. You could be anything. Yes, I know. You could walk among the stars. They don’t actually look like that, you know — they are rather more impressive. Yeah! You know, when I was little like you, I dreamt of the stars. I think it’s fair to say, in the language of your age, that I lived my dream. I owned the stage. Gave it a hundred and ten percent. I hope you have as much fun as I did, Alfie."

Episode #231:      Closing Time.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor.
Air Date:               24th September 2011

Craig Owens is having enough trouble trying to care for his child. The last thing he needed was the return of his old friend, the Doctor. And it looks like he's not alone; trouble seems to have once again followed the Doctor to Colchester, with a silvery shine.

Closing Time is a disappointing story. It feels like any instance where the writers ran out of ideas. Rather than be a Cyberman threat story, it's the Doctor trying to stay away from anything interesting but getting caught up in things. The Cybermen are just an afterthought to the Doctor's search for self. Even the return of Craig Owen (last seen in The Lodger) does little to make this a better story.

Another part of what spoils this is the silly elements that the Matt Smith era includes. Things such as being able to speak baby and the shop staff thinking Owen and the Doctor are lovers just doesn't work. It's all too forced and isn't actually funny. It is more cringe worthy than anything. The Doctor Who writers have shown that they can do better this and it makes me wonder how this made it through to completion.

We do get a new form of Cybermat however. The special effects department have given us a creepy new shape complete with real flesh mouth with teeth. A much better upgrade for these than we have seen previously. Again, nice to see something from the classic show making an appearance.

Closing Time is also an episode which is companion lite. Rory and Amy do make an appearance in the episode but they don't interact with the story. Instead it looks like Amy has become model or something, as she is advertising a new perfume -  "Petrichor." Would it have been better with them? I don't think so. There isn't enough going on in the episode already to include them. Nice to see them getting on with their life though.

Ultimately, Closing Time is just another poor attempt at a filler episode. Not the worst the show has had in recent years but another case of could have done better.

Episode #230 : The God Complex

" I can't save you from this. There's nothing I can do to stop this. I stole your childhood and now I've lead you by the hand to your death. But the worst thing is, I knew. I knew this would happen. This is what always happens. Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain. Because I wanted to be adored. Look at you. Glorious Pond. The girl who waited for me. I'm not a hero. I really am just a mad man in a box. And it's time we saw each other as we really are."

Episode #230:      The God Complex.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:               17th September 2011

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory investigate a hotel of horror where repeat business is low but the body count is high, where a mighty monster stalks the corridors and the rooms hold visions of angels, apes, and creepy clowns. Who — or what — has brought them to this place? Can the Doctor solve the mystery before the residents check out in grisly style?

The God Complex is a much enjoyable and well written adventure than the recent few. It deals with a mysterious hotel which seems to be abducting people from different planets and forcing them to face their fears, which results in their death at the hands of a powerful monster. It is a much more cerebral story but doesn't push it too far. Instead it features just enough weirdness and fun Doctor moments to make it enjoyable.

In The Girl Who Waited we saw character development for Rory and Amy. This adventure gives us some time for the Doctor. It builds upon the foundations that New Who has build with the Doctor being much more aware now of how his adventures affect his companions. He knows that his time is almost over and it is on his mind. He also has to destroy the faith that Amy has in him, much like he did to Ace in the Curse of Fenric, so that he can save her. He knows what his adventures could mean to his companions and at the end of his life he is beginning to understand the threat he is to them. Maybe I care more for the Doctor's character development than for his companions, but it seems to work for me more when it deals with the main hero.

It isn't all doom and gloom however. This episode has a lot of humour as well. David Walliams makes a great appearance as an awkward alien from a world which has been invaded more times than any other in the universe. Even the planet's national anthem is a welcome song to any invading empire.

It is nice to see a tie to a classic episode again. The monster behind this horror mystery is connected to the Nimon faced by the 4th Doctor. I've said it before and I'll probably repeat myself again, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of New Who when it does these little tie ins to the classic show.

Definitely a great episode and one worth watching.

Episode #229 : The Girl Who Waited

"Right, okay, this is big news. This is temporal earthquake time. I'm now officially changing my own future. Hold on to your spectacles. In my past I saw my future-self refuse to help you. I'm now changing that future and agreeing. Every Law of Time says that shouldn't be possible."

Episode #229:      The Girl Who Waited.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:               10th September 2011

The Eleventh Doctor, Rory Williams and Amy Pond land on Apalapucia in the middle of a plague. Amy is left behind, and the Doctor and Rory must save her...but time for Amy is running at a different speed.

Every season of modern Doctor Who seems to have that one episode that just doesn't work. In the past we had Fear Her and Love & Monsters, for example. This time around this is that one story. The Girl Who Waited is one of those stories where rather than being action, excitement and strange aliens, it is all about repercussions and choices. The problem is that it doesn't even do it in a good way which is why it doesn't work for me.

Science fiction normally does well when it gives us something to think about. In this case we are looking again at the repercussions of travelling with the Doctor from Rory's point of view. He sees travelling blindly through time and space as dangerous and that the Doctor puts his companions at risk. Unlike previous episodes where we see the repercussions of his travels in this one we don't get the chance to say that what the Doctor did was right or wrong. Everything is seen the point of view of an angry Rory and two versions of Amy separated by thirty odd years.

It is nice character development for Rory after all this time but it lets the episode down being just full of exposition with nothing else to it. It is nice to have a companion who sees things differently than everyone else has. Even Tegan who left because of things that she saw and experienced never failed to see the wonders of time travel. It took me a long time to like the character of Rory and in this episode I go back to how he was he first appeared and I just don't like the portrayal.

Future Amy is also unlikeable in this one. The troupe of the future self who won't save their younger self and has become angry and bitter, is just overdone in science fiction. Amy in this story has become that troupe. It is old and clichéd. It doesn't work and it doesn't do anything to expand her character.

I'm sorry to say that I just don't enjoy this one.

Episode #228 : Night Terrors

"Through crimson stars and silent stars and tumbling nebulas like oceans set on fire, through empires of glass and civilizations of pure thought, and a whole, terrible, wonderful universe of impossibilities. You see these eyes? They're old eyes... and one thing I can tell you, Alex: monsters are real."

Episode #228:      Night Terrors.
Companions:        The 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams.
Air Date:              3rd September 2011.

The Eleventh Doctor receives a distress call, bringing him, Amy Pond and Rory Williams to Earth. George is a young boy terrorised by the monsters in his cupboard. Are they imaginary, or are they real?

With Night Terrors the show goes back to the good old horror stories. This one is good but doesn't quite go creepy enough for me. The time travellers get drawn to Earth due by the psychic fears of a little boy to find that all his fears are now "alive" and  hidden in the bedroom cupboard. Most of the story is the set up and it takes too long to get to the scary bits but when it does it's not too bad.

The resolution of the story is a little too much like the Isolus from the episode Fear Her. In fact is almost like the writers couldn't come up with something different. The story worked well enough without needing an alien explanation for the little boy and his fears. The fears themselves would have worked just as well.

It is also another story which just ends. While the story has a resolution it isn't a very satisfying one. Had the set up been swifter and the story given a better ending rather than one which feels rushed I would probably have given it a 4 star rating but as it stands Night Terrors is fairly average.

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/

TW #27 : Miracle Day

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. So many times. And that’s just today. It’s been about seven hundred years since my last confession."

Episode #27:         Miracle Day.
Companions:        Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams and Rex Matheson.
Air Date:              8th July to 9th September 2011.

When C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy, he finds himself unearthing a threat which challenges the entire human race. One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next. People keep ageing. They get hurt and sick, but they never die. The populace of the planet dub this "Miracle Day" for the immortality they now seem to have. However, this leads to a negative result: a population boom, overnight. With all the extra people unable to die and continuing births, resources have become limited. It’s suggested that in four months’ time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can’t be a natural event – someone must have caused "Miracle Day". It’s a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking “What is Torchwood?", he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever.

I have to be very very honest here and just outright say that hated the "Miracle Day" mini-series. Had this been a one off show of it's own unconnected to the Whoniverse I might have enjoyed it more. There is a lot to like really as it features things that I rather enjoy in my science fiction and horror. The story is very dark and nihilistic, and is rather gruesome in some places. It does make you thing about things too. How would you or I react if we woke up tomorrow and these events were playing out?

The problem is that Miracle Day just does not fit into the Whoniverse very well. Other than it being too dark even for Torchwood, it is one of those major events that would have been mentioned before in passing. I know that isn't possible but it feels shoehorned in. I also find it hard to conceive that an event this massive would not have drawn to the Doctor to it. Again, different show, but it is a major event and yet it just stands alone too much. On a side note it is also far too American in style which may also go some way to explain why I have a hard time with it.

Another problem is that the series just ends with a strange swap of immortality between Jack and agent Matheson. So far this has, canonically, gone unresolved and with no new Torchwood on our screens in the foreseeable future I doubt it will ever get resolved.

So what is the big horrible thing at the centre of the Earth between China and South America? How does that fit in with subterranean Silurian cities and the Racnoss at the heart of the planet? Again, we have no revelation and it just feels like the very notion of tying it into the canon has been chucked in the bin.

I really don't have a single good thing to say about this series of Torchwood and I would avoid it if I were you. Pretend it never happened and carry on watching the rest of the Whoniverse.