Who Reviews Pyramids of Mars by Tom Clarke

Ah, the classic era. Before the long, convoluted plots and the Doctor and Companion romances. This story actually really puts across the message to New Who that you don’t need the Doctor and the Companion to have a tragic romance (*ahem* Ten and Rose) to have a really good friendship between the two.

The Pyramids of Mars first broadcast on the 25th of October, 1975, long before I was born, and it to this day probably the most memorable for older fans of the show, and when people mention Tom Baker, this episode along with City of Death, Robot and Logopolis spring to mind as his best. This serial featured the 4th Doctor and Sarah Jane taking on Sutekh, a member of an alien race called the Osirians. The TARDIS arrives in the Scarman family home, after a mental projection of a jackal looking creature appears in the TARDIS, and the Doctor, Sarah and the Scarman’s look around for what could have caused this, and soon find these mummy creatures. Of course, they’re actually robots. The episode continues and was broadcast in 4 separate parts as they find Sutekh and all that stuff, of course I’m not going to spoil this episode.

But this episode is a fine example of the brilliant writing from the Classic era. Of course you have cheesy dialogue and special effects, but the actual plot and the acting and the threat are all legitimate. Sutekh is a brilliant villain, one of my favourites and I wish he would return to face off against Capaldi. I know that he has appeared in one or two audio stories through the years, but pulled off right and you could have a brilliantly scary modern episode. The episode has so many brilliant parts it is hard to pick one. One of the best bits I can think of right now is when Sarah talks about “just leaving 1911 in the TARDIS, as the future has and will always happen because she’s seen it.” The Doctor proves otherwise and takes her to 1980, and opens the doors to an empty wilderness of thunder and rain and lightning, which explains to Sarah that they have to stop Sutekh, or the future they know will never happen. Although it was only a short 5 minute sequence in Part 2, it was the part that stuck with me in my mind and I don’t really know why.

I don’t really want to go into a ton of detail with this episode, as it is a classic and I highly recommend you hunt it down for yourself and take a look if you haven’t seen it yet. It will probably be shown on the Horror channel in the UK and perhaps U.S too, but, if you really can’t wait then I suggest you take a look at the Sarah Jane Adventures Boxset, as all 4 parts of this serial are on one of the discs, and is listed as a bonus feature. Considering that the boxset on Amazon.uk is only about £30, you are getting a brilliant 2 hour long Doctor Who classic, and 5 whole series of the brilliant Sarah Jane Adventures. Just a recommendation.

So all in all, taking into account this was a classic episode with cheesy effects and dialogue but overall a memorable episode with a faultless plot, brilliant acting and a fearsome enemy, I cannot find a single valid flaw with the episode.

10/10

Who Reviews Dinosaurs on a Spaceship by Tom Clarke

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is what it says on the tin. A nice, basic episode with no complicated plot threads, just the Doctor, Amy and Rory, and three other characters to add to the gang, Brian Williams – Rory’s Dad, Queen Nefertiti and John Riddell.

So this episode follows the Doctor, Amy and Rory who have been alerted by the Indian Space Agency about a strange spaceship headed towards the Earth. As they arrive on the Spaceship/Meteor Hybrid, they find the strangest cargo you could find on a ship. Dinosaurs.  On the trip to pick up Amy and Rory, the Doctor also decides to bring along two friends, the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti (portrayed by Riann Steele), and a big game hunter, John Riddell (portrayed by Rupert Graves) and accidentally brings along Rory’s Dad too. So the gang must stop Indian Space Agency from firing missiles towards the ship, and stop the real actual villain who is piloting the ship, Soloman the Trader (David Bradley, known to Doctor Who fans as the First Doctor in an Adventure in Space and Time.  Also known to many as Filch from Harry Potter or the old dude in the first few episodes of Broadchurch.)

But what do I think of the episode? It’s a fun romp, not to be taken seriously; it’s basically Robots of Sherwood - enjoyable, but not the best episode ever. The main crew are brilliant as ever and the guest cast are great too. Although, while I loved Brian and I wanted to see more of him, he was really only in the episode as a plot device. And I’m not one to jump out and point out plot holes in Doctor Who, but I do find it strange that the Doctor is friends with a game hunter, you know, someone who goes out and kills animals. I’ve seen a few people wondering about why the Doctor would associate himself as a friend of someone who kills animals for sport. Then again, he is from 1902, and the Doctor knows that people had different attitudes back then, so I suppose its best left to the imagination.

Back to the topic of positives, the episode was great, and the episode relied a lot on CGI and I didn’t find the CGI to look strange or fake at any points, and I know Doctor Who is sometimes hit and miss with the CGI, so yeah, it’s nice to look at. The episode is probably the most fun I’ve had while watching an episode in some time, it was really nice to see all the characters enjoying themselves, riding dinosaurs and saving a spaceship.

I suppose the only other negatives I really have follow the end of the episode, the way the Doctor deals with Soloman just wasn’t like the Doctor at all. It was light-hearted but also very dark and there were a few points it could have transitioned from happy to dark a bit better. But really other than that, this episode was enjoyable. Will it be an episode remembered in the future as a classic? No, but it is a nice one to watch every now and again.

Who Reviews Power of Three by Tom Clarke

This episode was very different and I wasn’t expecting it to be what it was. Basically, for those who haven’t seen it, the episode follows Amy and Rory and the real world’s reaction to these strange, black cubes, popping up all over the planet. So that part was interesting but the episode falls down in one part, and its one crucial part - the ending. I felt this episode would have benefitted much more as a two parter, because the ending was rushed. But other than that this episode was great and a real breath of fresh air.

I loved the cubes, I loved the story, I loved the final seconds and how they lead into Amy and Rory’s final adventure in the next episode, and when you know what really happens to them it makes Brian’s final lines so much more impactful.

This episode explains a lot about what I love about the show. The episode is here as a lead in to Amy and Rory’s goodbye, it is a filler episode that adds a tiny bit to the plot and extends the series out. But a lot of filler episodes in a lot of shows are just not that interesting, but this episode was really well handled.

So yeah, it is hard for me to put into words how I feel about the episode, it is one you have to watch for yourselves if you haven’t seen it. I tried to explain it as best I could, and although I thought it was brilliant, with UNIT and the villain and the introduction to one of my favourite characters of all time (Kate freaking Stewart) I knew it would let me down a bit from the start because I was looking forward to it. I never try to have high hopes for films or shows because I know I’ll be let down in the end if I do, but looking past that, this is easily one of my favourite episodes of the show.

It was brilliant, humorous, and tense. The ending let it down slightly, but other than that, I gotta give this episode a solid 9/10.

Who Reviews: A Good Man Goes To War by Tom Clarke

Written by Steven Moffat

Broadcast 4^th June 2011

The year is 2011. My family and I are crowded around the television screen, knowing that this is it, weeks of waiting, who is River Song? Well guys, this is the episode we find out.

This episode continues on from the previous episode's (The Almost People) cliff-hanger, Amy has been kidnapped and is pregnant. Anyway, the Doctor finds that Amy is being held hostage on Demons Run, and in order to rescue her and the baby, he must get together a team of soldiers to fight with him on the Battle of Demons Run.

I actually enjoyed this episode, because it showed the dark side to the Doctor, and whenever someone tells me that "I don't like Matt Smith, he's too childish and not serious" I show them this episode. He is provoked enough to raise an entire army. Plus, I loved the characters, Jenny, Vastra, Strax (one of the few episodes I really like Strax in) and Lorna Bucket, the girl who met the Doctor and never saw him again until now.

This episode was a proper, blockbuster, action packed Sci-Fi, with a gripping and emotional storyline that served as a truly epic mid series finale. It opened on a high note ("Would you like me to repeat the question?") and never dropped down from there. It had brilliant set design, the script was top notch and so was the character development. Not only brilliant character development, but the acting was absolutely brilliant, and kudos to Smith for bringing that anger and pain that comes with being a near-immortal alien, who has lost so much. Outstanding stellar performances!

And this is the episode that keeps on giving. We get development on the Eye Patch Lady, and who she really is, and we learn the true identity of River Song. I loved this twist, it was one of the few that is so obvious and I never really thought of this as a real thing.  My theory was that she was the Doctor's wife, or hell, even the Master. Well, she was the Doctor's wife, but that is another episode completely. But the whole story behind the Melody Pond name and how it fits in, without spoiling anything, oh my god.

One problem I had was with the Headless Monks, who weren't really seen a whole lot and weren't given a whole lot of background, and didn't really do a lot until the final act of the episode. However, that aside, and the occasional rushed scene, this was the episode that made the 11th Doctor for me. Yes, he had his grand speech in Pandorica, but this is where he shines. My favorite Series 6 episode, my favorite Matt Smith episode, one of my favorite episodes of all time, I could go on. But I won't.

A Good Man goes to War gets my highest commendation of a rating, 10/10.

Who Reviews The Long Game by Tom Clarke

Episode Written By: Russell T Davies

Director: Bryan Grant

I seem to fall into the small category of people who actually remember this episode, whenever I mention the Jagrafess or heck, even Simon Pegg being in Doctor Who, not many people remember it. I’m gonna get the negatives for this episode out the way first, and though I do like this episode, I have some...problems with it. First of all, the episode felt rushed. I believe it could have done with being a two-part episode, give some character development to Adam (He was only introduced the episode before and we don’t know a whole lot about him. I get that we find out he isn’t as nice or as clever as he first seemed, but we could have got some detailed character development in there) and the Editor, despite being one of my all time favourite villains in Who, he could have had some character development.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Jagrafess either, but hey, the story wouldn’t have worked without it either.

So that’s all the negatives over now, now on to some positives. I love this episode for many different reasons, and one of those is that it isn’t a big, blockbuster type episode. It is very similar in structure to the Classic Who episodes, to me it brought back some of the elements of Tom Bakers era. The mystery behind the episode, the horror (the skeletons they find are pretty reminiscent of Classic Who), and things like that. Another brilliant thing about the episode for me is the great Simon Pegg, who portrays the villain in this episode, the Editor. Well, not the main villain, we’ll get to that in a minute. Pegg is known by many for his role in the TV series Spaced, or the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, consisting of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the Worlds End, who he also starred alongside future Doctor Who guest Nick Frost (Santa Claus, a minor role at the end of Death in Heaven and a main role in Last Christmas).  Pegg brings along his trademark humour and act, while also being menacing and quite evil, despite not even being the true villain of the episode.

(SPOILERS BEGIN ) No, the main villain is the CGi monster who resides on the ceiling, the Jagrafess. Or, to give his full title, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. We’ll go with what the Editor calls him, Max. Max isn’t even in this episode for a lot, and yet it is still one of the most memorable villains of modern Who. Maybe he isn’t remembered for all the reasons I remember him for though, many people pointing out that he is a bit pointless and is just a pile of goo with a mouth, and okay, the CGi isn’t brilliant, but I still found Max to be a menacing foe for the Doctor. Max is the true controller of Satellite Five, and is practically the boss of the Editor.  He is defeated rather quickly, but the surprise twist of Max being the true evil and not the Editor was rather commendable. (SPOILERS END)

So there we have it, a well written, well directed, well acted episode of Doctor Who which I think will be remembered in the future as being a “modern classic”.

8/10

Who Reviews The Ark In Space by Tom Clarke

Broadcast 25^th January 1975

Good old classic Who, from the days where people didn’t complain about silly monsters or plotlines. Anyway, this episode features the 4th Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan visiting an old Space Station, as they face off against the Wirrn. They meet a few people on board the station, Vira, who is revived from suspended animation, and the Ark’s leader, Lazar, who is given the nickname of Noah. The Doctor tells Vira that the Ark's inhabitants have overslept by several million years, due to the insect visitor that destroyed the control systems. Noah and the visitors clash, and Noah accuses them of murdering a crewmate who has gone missing.

Noah inspects the control room and is infected by an alien which is hiding in the station. The Doctor realises that the alien in the station is the missing crewmate who has also been infected by another alien. Noah slowly gets consumed by the creature, and he says that they should destroy the creatures while they are still in a dormant, pupal stage. It’s up to the Doctor, Sarah, Harry, Vira and Noah to stop the creatures before they all get infected. There are some noticeable similar elements to the film Alien, and its often joked about that Alien is based off (or got most of its ideas) from this episode, which would be pretty cool to think that a British Sci-Fi show could influence one of the greatest and classic films in history.

Anyway, I really like this episode, the tension is high and the episode really stands out to other Doctor Who episodes at the time. The Wirrn are pretty cool creatures, and despite them not having top notch special effects, it’s overlooked because of how well the station is designed, so the production money probably went into that.

The story is well written and gives Baker a lot to do in a short space of time, and with this being Baker’s second story on the show, he pulls off the role of the Doctor fantastically. It’s one of my personal favourite Baker episodes along with City of Death, and is also regarded as one of the best episodes of the show as a whole. I guess the only problem with the episode is the occasional bit of dodgy acting and comical/cheesy death scenes, but like the best of Doctor Who, it's witty, clever and doesn’t take itself seriously, and the special effects and creatures are wonderfully dated.

Beyond The Hub Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY by Tom Clarke

Writer: Based off the book of the same name by Judith Viorst,

Screenplay: Rob Lieber

Director: Miguel Arteta

Date of release: October 10^th 2014

So, this film sort of surprised me. I assumed it would be a family film that appeals to kids more than adults, but no. I saw the trailer and Steve Carell was in it (I like Steve Carell) and I thought “Meh, that might be OK.” So I went to see it when there weren’t any other good films out.

So what exactly is this film about? The film follows a young, eleven year old boy, the titular Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) and the worst day ever that he shares with his family; his Mum, Kelly (Jennifer Garner), his Dad, Ben (Steve Carell), his older brother, Anthony (Dylan Minnette), his older sister, Emily (Kerris Dorsey) and his younger brother, Trevor (Elise and Zoey Vargas). The film starts the day before Alexander's twelfth birthday, he wakes up and finds gum in his hair and clips it off with a pair of scissors. Kelly is working for a publication company that is currently publishing a new children's book, Anthony is trying to earn his driver's license so he can drive his girlfriend (Bella Thorne), to the school prom, Emily is rehearsing for the title role in her school play of Peter Pan, and Ben, who has been unemployed for several months, has got a job interview as a game designer for a video game company.

Then everything goes wrong. Alexander wishes on his birthday cake that everyone would have a bad day, like him. And, spoiler alert, they do. I’m not going far into detail with this film with the story. But anyway, what did I like about it? The humour. It wasn’t like, rolling around the floor trying to stop laughing, but I did laugh a lot in this film. The film had a lot of adult humour and innuendos, a lot more than you would expect from a PG family film, so I have to congratulate it for trying to reach out to the parents who are probably watching this with their kids. Another thing I liked in this film was the way the characters interacted with others. Mainly Alexander. There was a lot of social awkwardness and I found that really, relatable and it makes you feel for the character. My favourite film of all time is Scott Pilgrim VS The World, and that film has a lot of social awkwardness (from Scott). So maybe I can just relate to that sort of thing. I guess the things I didn’t like about the film was probably the story, it didn’t feel rushed, but it just sort of jumped from one scene to another. Some of the dialogue was pretty cheesy, but the film isn’t all that terrible. It’s not the film I would rush out to buy on DVD, or watch on Sky Movies. It could have been a lot worse, but it could have been better as well.

But wait! This review is not finished. As the thing that surprised me with this film was one of the guest stars. Torchwood’s own Burn Gorman (Owen Harper) plays the straight faced drama teacher in the film. He’s only in a few scenes about 45-60 minutes into it, but he is really good in the film. I’d like to see him in a few more big screen things.

And thus ending the review. The film is great for kids, teenagers can relate to it and it has some sort of charm in it (and some of the humour) to appeal to adults.

6.5/10

Who Reviews PS... The Wedding of River Song by "Doctor Boo" Toaduff

Written by Steven Moffat

Now, as a person who found River to be a slightly overused character, I was unsure of this episode when I heard the title. Granted, I still think that she was used a little too much but this episode was good! Like, really good. So, in this episode,   The Doctor attempts to escape his death at the hands of the Silence. River, whom the Silence had programmed to kill the Doctor, refuses, and they end up in an alternate timeline where all of time is running simultaneously and beginning to collapse. The Doctor tries to restore the universe with the help of River and the alternate universe versions of Amy and Rory.

This episode sort of, moves along the Doctor Who continuity quite well, finishing off the Series 6 storyline of “The Doctor’s Death” and it’s a well written conclusion. None of that “none of this happened and everyone forgot” sort of thing. Well, sort of. But it happened. Sort of. It was a touching episode and had its emotional moments at some points in the episode. It reminded me of Star Trek with all this alternate universe stuff.

This episode also has Amy being as badass as Rory was with his “WHERE IS MY WIFE?” line in Good Man goes to War. She uses a machine gun! Against the Silence! Karen Gillan was again, brilliant in this episode, along with Arthur Darvill, who isn’t married to Amy in this episode, alternate universes and all. Alex Kingston is a fantastic actress, she does play River very well, and she was great in Arrow but it still doesn’t change my opinion that River is/was overused and should have only appeared in a few episodes. I know she’s Amy’s daughter, but still. Speaking of that, is she Amy and Rory’s daughter in the alternate universe? Because they aren’t together. So I dunno where she came from in that. Or maybe I just didn’t pay attention and she may have mentioned something. Matt Smith, infact, all the actors were great in this episode, but this is the sort of episode that if I was going to show a friend who had never seen the show before, I’d show them this, because of the acting, the story etc.

My only problem with the episode is the ending where the Doctor *spoilers* isn’t really shot but it’s the Teselecta, I thought that was a bit of a cop out. Sure, I couldn’t think of a better resolution to save my life, but to me it just felt like “Oh no, 5 minutes left of running time. Quick, remember the teselecta? Yeah, use that.”

On the whole, great episode, great acting, 9/10.

Who Reviews: P.S (Doctor Who Minisode)

THE FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS!!!

On a serious note, I shed a man tear during this. Don’t judge me, but I did. I wish this hadn’t been cut from the actual episode.

There isn’t really much to talk about this, but basically, after the events of Angels take Manhattan, a man appears at Brian Williams’ door. He gives him a note, written by Amy and Rory, given to this man to give to Rory’s dad in the future. Turns out, they adopted a child called “Anthony” and he is the man at the door now. The note basically says that though they will be dead by the time he gets this, they want him to know that they still love him and think about him and stuff like that. Brian and Anthony embrace each other.

*Sniffle*

Articles Welcome to Issue 18 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Issue 18

Contents Guide

Who Reviews

 Destiny of the Daleks – Tony J Fyler

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-reviews-destiny-of-daleks-by-tony.html

Night Terrors – Tom Clarke

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-reviews-night-terrors-by-tom-clarke.html

Terror of the Zygons – Jeffrey Zyra

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-reviews-terror-of-zygons-by-jeffrey.html

Angels Take Manhattan – DJ Forrest

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-reviews-angels-take-manhattan-by-dj.html

Time Heist – Jeff Zyra

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-reviews-time-heist-by-jeffrey-zyra.html

Target Zone – Cave Monsters – Simon Mallinson

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/who-reviews-target-zone-cave-monsters.html

Kill The Moon - Jeffrey Zyra

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-reviews-kill-moon-by-jeffrey-zyra.html

The Caretaker by Jeffrey Zyra

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-reviews-caretaker-by-jeffrey-zyra.html

Mummy on the Orient Express – Jeffrey Zyra

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-reviews-mummy-on-orient-express-by.html

Flatline – Jeffrey Zyra

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-reviews-flatline-by-jeffrey-zyra.html

  

Locations

Utopia, Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/locations-doctor-who-season-3-utopia.html

Profiles

Toclafane

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/profiles-toclafane-by-dj-forrest.html

Francine Jones

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/profiles-francine-jones-by-dj-forrest.html

Clive Jones

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-clive-jones-by-dj-forrest.html

Tish Jones

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-tish-jones-by-dj-forrest.html

Lucy Saxon

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-lucy-saxon-by-dj-forrest.html

Tom Milligan

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-tom-milligan-by-dj-forrest.html

Professor Alison Docherty

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-professor-alison-docherty-by.html

Blowfish

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-blowfish-by-dj-forrest.html

Captain John ‘Vera’ Hart

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/profiles-captain-john-vera-hart-by-dj.html

Interviews

Jâms Thomas

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/interviews-jams-thomas-with-dj-forrest.html

Colum Sanson-Regan

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/interviews-colum-sanson-regan-by-dj.html

The Coffee Shop

Captain John Hart in One Word

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-coffee-shop-captain-john-hart-in.html

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Caption Comp

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-coffee-shop-kiss-kiss-bang-bang.html

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in Two Words

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-coffee-shop-kiss-kiss-bang-bang-in.html

Beyond the TARDIS

The Fly Guy Promotion

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/beyond-tardis-fly-guy-by-dj-forrest.html

The Mothership

Maggie Stables Tribute by Simon Mallinson

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-mothership-maggie-stables-tribute.html

Articles

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Episode Breakdown

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/articles-kiss-kiss-bang-bang-episode.html

News

Happy Birthday Claudia Lindner

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/news-happy-birthday-claudia-lindner.html

Happy Birthday Saskia Deck and Steven Savile

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/news-happy-birthday-saskia-deck-steven.html

Happy Birthday Tony J Fyler & Derek Jacobi

https://projecttorchwood.blogspot.com/2014/10/news-happy-birthday-tony-j-fyler-derek.html

Editor’s Note

One of the things I love about this job is that no matter how quiet the start of the month might be, you can bet that by the launch of the new Issue we’re snowed under with work because something has come up in social media, a news report, a programme or a film featuring one or two of our favourite people, whatever it is, there will be something worth crowing about.  So as much as people might state that Torchwood is dead...it’s not...for us, it’s very much alive.

This month saw the passing of a wonderful actress who played a Doctor Who companion in Big Finish audios.  Maggie Stables passed away on 26^th September after a long illness.  Our Target Zone and Big Finish reviewer Simon Mallinson has written a short tribute to her on the Mothership Page, be sure to look out for that.

Also this month I had the opportunity of a telephone interview with Jâms Thomas.  (My first phone interview) it was wonderful, and I wish I’d had more questions, it was like catching up with an old friend. 

This month also saw us interviewing Colum Sanson-Regan, who you may remember played David Tennant’s double in Doctor Who.  Colum has written a novel which is out next year but can be pre-ordered from Amazon – see links on article.

So, this leaves me with one final thing to say.

Welcome to Issue 18 – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!

~Jack~

Who Reviews Night Terrors by Tom Clarke

Series 6 Episode 9.

Written by Mark Gatiss

Possibly one of the creepiest episodes of Who, next to Blink and the more recent episode Listen. So, let’s delve into the story of this episode.

The Doctor travels to a small apartment block to make a house call after his psychic paper receives a message from a young boy named George, an 8 year old who is terrified of...well, everything. So, after the Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive at the council estate, they go separate ways to try and find George quicker. After finally finding the right flat, the Doctor, taking the guise of a social worker, meets Alex, George’s father, while Claire, his mother, is on Night Shift at work. The Doctor soon learns that little George has been scared all his life, but handles it by “metaphorically” putting the fears into his wardrobe.

Meanwhile, Amy and Rory, fall unconscious in a lift, but soon wake up in a strange house, which looks like it was from the 18th Century. They soon discover that the props are wooden, the pans, cutlery, everything, as if they were in a doll house. They see some of the council estate residents in the house, but they are shortly turned into human size creepy Peg Dolls. Amy and Rory witness another transformation and try to hide behind a door, but Amy is taken and transformed into a Peg Doll, joining the hunt for Rory.

Back in the flat, the Doctor opens the wardrobe, to find its contents are just toys and clothes. The Doctor tells Alex that in the pictures leading up to George’s birth, Claire wasn’t pregnant,  which in turn caused Alex to remember the fact that Claire was unable to have children, and thus, how could she have a child? Plot Twist? Well, luckily, the Doctor is here to explain it all.

 The Doctor asserts that George is a Tenza child, an empathic alien who took on the form of Alex and Claire's desired child through a perception filter and has the ability to literally lock away his fears within the wardrobe. George panics from this revelation and sends the Doctor and into the dollhouse. As the dolls descend on the three, the Doctor calls out to George and tells him to face his fears; George is finally able to open the wardrobe and appears in the dollhouse, but right in the middle of all the dolls. After the dolls turn and ascend on George, The Doctor realises that George is frightened that Alex and Claire plan to send him away, though he had misinterpreted a conversation they had earlier that night between Alex and Claire.  Alex rushes through the dolls to embrace George as his son, and tells him he will never let him go. This seems to free George, and everyone appears back where they belonged, Amy and Rory in the lift, and The Doctor, Alex and George in the flat, all happy and safe. Claire returns to find George happy and not scared. The Doctor meets back up with Amy and Rory, and they all set off for their next adventure.

The writing in this episode is great, and the tension of the fact that Amy and Rory could become dolls at any point, and they have no idea what that means. If they were turned, could they turn back? Or were they dead forever? Another great thing about this, is that it’s more of a companion episode, where Amy and Rory can take the spotlight. The Doctor isn’t in danger until the last 10 minutes of the episode where he is sent into the dollhouse. The Doctor’s adventure in this episode was finding out what scared little George, and why. I also have to praise the actor who played George, and did it wonderfully, and he makes me wish that he could return for a future episode. The last bit of conversation between the Doctor and Alex hinted at the fact he could return, maybe during George’s teenage years, maybe to see how he’s doing.

There are a few problems with this episode; the fact it adds nothing to the plot of the series, and it was just a standalone episode (though this is a great example of showing how great a standalone episode should be), and the fact that this episode was meant to be Episode 4 instead of Episode 9 of the series, but was delayed as it felt “too dark” this early in the series. That is fine, but the hinting towards the death of the Doctor at the end of the episode felt tacked on and just didn’t feel right. The episode had no foreshadowing to the death of the Doctor and it just felt...out of place, and finally, though I praised the actor who played George, I wish he was in the episode a bit more. The episode had three focuses: The Doctor and Alex, trying to find out what is up with George, Amy and Rory in the Doll House and George being scared, and having a few lines. Those few lines in the episode were great, and whenever he interacted with any other character, you could feel the terror going through him. But if there was a bit less Alex and Doctor, and a bit more George, that would have made the episode even better.

A great episode written by the ever great Mark Gatiss, who has written for Doctor Who before, and co-wrote the brilliant BBC One series Sherlock.

7/10

Who Reviews Last of the Time Lords by Tom Clarke

The thing I love about this episode, in my opinion, is the time gap between this episode, and the previous part of the “Utopia Trilogy”, The Sound of Drums. (I like this episode, but I wouldn’t put it in my top 10 for a few reasons, but we’ll get to them later. For those of you that haven’t seen the episode, don’t worry, there won’t be major plot spoilers and I won’t discuss the end of the episode in great detail.)

It takes place an entire year after that episode. It gives the characters like Martha to travel around the world without wasting much episode time. Even then, this episode is slightly longer than the others. Only by about 5 minutes, and there is a shorter 45 minute version of the episode, but I prefer the 50 minute version. See, the 45 minute version doesn’t miss any major plot points, it doesn’t miss out large chunks of story or any great, action packed moments. It does, however, miss out a scene where the Master dances with Lucy, and I like that scene, because it sort of gives Simm’s Master some more character. He doesn’t care about what is going on and that he is destroying the world. Speaking of Simm, he stole the show, he is by far my favourite Master, next to the classic Delgado Master.

Martha has travelled the world in the year that the Master was taking control, sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. This is, however, where my problems with the episode come in. The story of the episode was fine, but it was mainly the other characters that I didn’t like, mainly because they didn’t do much or I just don’t like them. I can’t say much about Martha, because I just find her boring as a companion. She’s the main focus of the episode as well, like “How is she going to stop the Master?” and such. Captain Jack does absolutely nothing in this episode except *spoiler* destroy the Paradox  Machine. The Doctor didn’t need to be aged. I guess it adds a certain suspense, and we would be missing a great scene from about 20 minutes from the end, but in the end, it added nothing to the story. Also, speaking of “the older Doctor” something that happened at the end of the episode I didn’t like, and I’m not really spoiling much here, and the word is “Faith.” When it’s used correctly, it’s great, but the way it was used at the end of the episode, sort of ruined it. Didn’t ruin the scene, I just found that part a bit disappointing. Those are the main problems I have with this episode, and another thing I did like is the “cliff-hanger” if you could call it that, that relates to The End of Time (Part 1).  I liked the Toclafane, and the nice little story as to what they really are, and finding out Captain Jack’s ultimate destiny was great, but it left me wanting to know more, and we (as of August 2014) still don’t know.

But anyway, I disagree with (most) of the reviews online calling it “a waste, terrible, boring, anti-climactic, etc”. I found it to be enjoyable for the most part, with only a few little gripes and nitpicks here and there. In my opinion, it is the worst of the Utopia trilogy, but it’s still not terrible, it’s not un-watchable.