Last time it was a spooky castle and Frankenstein motifs and doppelgangers going to war with their human originals, but this week on Doctor Who, the war comes to end, in which “The Rebel Flesh” become “The Almost People” and we’re left hanging from quite the narrative cliff…
Last week it was the third three episodes of the current season of Doctor Who, with a planet called America and the moon landing and Richard Nixon and aliens you completely forget about once you turn your back and then pirates and alien medical Sirens and this week it’s dead spaceship graveyards and the creepy disembodied voice of Michael Sheen and a mad woman who’s bigger on the inside and who might just be “The Doctor’s Wife” and also the guy who brought you The Sandman is writing the words…
This is a Doctor Who post.
So, a very, very, very long time ago, there was this massive explosion. It’s just a cosmological theory, but it’s also been accepted as fact. Our universe was so incredibly hot and dense for a finite time, and it just exploded and expanded and it was bigger than anything ever, because it is everything and it’s always expanding and cooling…
…and it happened. How do we know? Because you’re sitting there, right there, right now, in your comfy chair, or on your couch, or perhaps laying in bed, or wherever or however you read your friendly neighborhood Counterforce. Well, or so we think. It sounds nice. Exploding into being, from essence to existence by way of KA-BOOM! That sounds good, right? But this thing, which we can call “Event One,” it happened, and because of it, the universe as we know it was created.
And then something happened. A serious of events that lead to the total and utter collapse of the universe and all reality. Well, they didn’t just collapse, but they began a severe process of collapsing. But the universe is big and vast and this took a little bit of time. How long? Well, roughly 2,000 years in theoretical time, but in subjective time, about 45 minutes or so.
And all of that happened, and then happened again in tonight’s season finale of Doctor Who’s fifth series, “The Big Bang.” Following last week’s ridiculously intense episode, the universe collapsed, or rather, began the process of collapsing until there was a second big bang, and everything was re-created again.
…are these:
Last week on Doctor Who we got James Corden and low fi crazy roommate drama and this week, but this week as “The Pandorica Opens,” we got possibly one of the biggest, craziest episodes of the show ever.
Somehow the stakes are even higher than they were in “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” and all the teases from this past season and from across time and space start to coalesce into something, like a puzzle assembling itself. Much like the Pandorica itself, a nasty puzzle box that was dreamt up in the mind of a little girl and can unlock itself from the inside…
Last week the original inhabitants of the planet – homo reptilia – came up to the surface of the Earth as a prelude to a war and to kidnap our loved ones, and a challenge was left to the human race, to be the very best example of what they could be…
…which is easier said than done we discovered this week on Doctor Who in “Cold Blood,” the concluding two parter of the return of the Silurians.
Last week we were five years in the future of our dreams and being attacked by the alien elderly from our nightmares, and this week we’re ten years into the future, humans are drilling into the ground, drilling deeper into the planet than anyone has ever drilled before, but little do they know that someone or something else is under there, and that something or someone is drilling up…
And that’s this week’s episode of Doctor Who, “The Hungry Earth,” which is the first part of a two parter.
The episode itself was solid, as everything this series has been, but with not too much in the ways of frills and thrills. We’re in Wales (again, of course), and Amy’s got a good reason to be in short skirts (again, of course). “Something for the dads” in the audience, they call it. It’s an episode that has a concept that fills Moffat’s proclamation that each episode’s premise should make a good feature film, of course, but it just feels… lacking, in a way. Somewhat rushed, perhaps. Not complete, basically. Personally, I blame this all on Torchwood‘s Chris Chibnall, and I’d suggest that you do the same.
The cast is solid enough, especially Meera Syal, who was fantastic fun in Moffat’s brilliant Jekyll, but who is just kind of there here. There’s a lot of ideas bouncing around, so hopefully she’ll get a little more play in part two, which looks a vastly more interesting, but at least she got to take a ride in the TARDIS this week. Technically, I think that means that she’s a bit of a companion, right?
As for the Silurians, I don’t know much about them other than what I read in other people’s reviews, but they’re an intriguing concept for a “villain” of a species. Seemingly they’re not considered all that “classic” by old school Doctor Who standards, but they certainly seem to be more exciting than the fucking Sontarans, right? Unless you’re the type to find Mr. Potato Head just terrifying. Who wouldn’t want to see homo reptilia transformed into femme fatales? The prosthetics there are certainly impressive, as they usually are, and the captive Alaya’s assurance that not only will there be a war, but that it’ll start with her death in captivity at the hands of the human apes was fascinating and intriguing. And her “I know which one of you will kill me” was incredibly chilling. I want to start saying shit like that just to freak people out. I’m assuming that’s why Jesus said it, you know, just to fuck with people’s minds.
from here, What if Doctor Who were a Disney movie?
Two things. The first: Is it me or does it seem like Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor spends quite a bit of his time asking and pleading for people to trust him? Is that because he feels so young (and looks it too, certainly) and feels that people don’t take him seriously? It’s an interesting character flat, possibly, especially when you stack it up alongside David Tenant’s Tenth Doctor’s constant need to tell everyone he met that he was sorry, so sorry.
The second: Amy and Rory in the future come to see themselves landing in the past with the Doctor and wave? That seems interesting, but only in the sense that it has to be a terrific red herring, right?
Especially since, and this is just my theory, mind you, but I think that something bad is going to happen to Rory next week. There seems like there’s quite a bit happening in part two and I wouldn’t surprised if Rory gets lost in the mix. Perhaps fatally. At least until the two part (“The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang”) finale.
from here.
What do you think? And I feel like the lack of Amy Pond in this episode was really felt, so it’s easier to examine Rory on his own. Do you like Rory, regardless of his lack of chemistry with Amy or not, and want him to stick around or would you rather he fell off the surface of the Earth?
Oh, and this is a bit spoiled from being in so many trailers, but is still brilliant dialogue…
Little kid: “Are you afraid of monsters?”
The Doctor: “No, they’re afraid of me.”
It’s similar to the line the Doctor says to the young Madama De Pompadour in “The Girl In The Fireplace,” but that’s okay because it still just works, you know?
Oh, and I should add: Loved the spooky graveyard stuff, but thought it was wasted terribly. And I really liked that last image.
Above is a nice tease of a picture, featuring Richard Curtis (who writes the Van Gogh episode this series), Steven Moffat, and Neil Gaiman, who is holding up the finished script for his episode next series. Notice how he is of course keeping the episode title obscured, but it was originally “The House Of Nothing,” which features nicely into old Gaiman mystique. You can also find Gaiman writing about Ray Bradbury, and meanwhile,
I’ll still be crossing my fingers at the idea of Phillip Pullman writing an episode next series. Or maybe Warren Ellis. I’d love to see his take on the Doctor, who would most likely go around shouting at his companions for being stupid, ordering them to get him some tea, and then bonking things and people over the head with a cricket bat. But that sounds genius to me.
Last week we were in the past and in the dark with vampires from an alien ocean and now we’re trapped both in the here and now in the freezing cold and in the future, in a dark and nasty happily ever after. Two realities, two dreams, and an impossible choice between the two with the wrong one leading to certain death…
After having waited for what has felt like an eternity, here’s just a few thoughts on tonight’ s episode of Doctor Who, “The Eleventh Hour,” the first new episode of series 5, and the first to properly feature the new Doctor, the new companion, the new TARDIS and new sonic screwdriver and new titles and themes and new everything!
Actually, I don’t want to say a whole lot about this episode. Partly because I’m still in shock from it, of sorts, and part because I want to reserve thoughts for next week’s episode. But what I can tell you about tonight’s episode is that it’s good. Really good. A bit cheesy and silly in places, but also dark and epic in other places.
It literally starts moments after where we last saw the Doctor, having just regenerated from David Tennant/The Tenth Doctor into Matt Smith/The Eleventh Doctor, and now the TARDIS, which is wild and out of control and on fire is spiriting over London at ludicrous speed! And the Doctor is hanging out the side, clinging for dear life!
From there he eventually crashes in the back yard of a little Scottish girl in an English village, Amelia Pond, the girl who has a name like something out of a fairy tale. Boy, does she ever. The fearless little girl helps this strange man sort out his cravings (apples, yogurt, bacon, beans, and toast don’t work, but fish sticks dipped in custard do) and then he helps her investigate the only thing that does scare her: the mysterious ever growing crack in her bedroom’s wall.
From there, the Doctor heads into the TARDIS, needing to fly it five minutes into the future to sort out it’s damaged engines, but doesn’t return til 12 years later. Amy Pond’s all grown up and hot, but has suffered from years from the damage inflicted on her by her “imaginary friend,” the Doctor, and the potential adventures she never got to share with him. Oh, and now Amy’s a kissogram girl, which is both exactly what it sounds like, and also cutesy Brit talk for a stripper.
I’ll stop there, but the story proceeds in classic opening season style for Doctor Who: There’s an alien prisoner on the loose in the house, and a hidden room in Amy’s house. The Doctor’s TARDIS is broken, and soon so is his sonic screwdriver. He’s still going through the pangs of regeneration, still unaware even of what he looks like, and on top of it, he was 20 minutes to save the Earth from being incinerated.
The episode reminded me quite a bit of series 3′s “Smith And Jones” in that the story was good, but not great, but it was a proper romp of an adventure, and the interplay and introductions between the characters were fantastic. Amy goes off for adventures in time and space with the Doctor on the eve of her wedding to her male nurse boyfriend, and you can tell that that’s going to have dark consequences as the season progresses. Nice cameo by Patrick Moore, as well. The “arc words” seeded into this series will seemingly be “Silence will fall” and something called “the Pandorica.” How gloriously sci fi. I like how Moffat is firing on all his own cylinders, but also keeping the things from Russell T. Davies’ tenure that really worked.
…except for the new title/credits sequence. The visuals aren’t terrible, but what they’ve done to the theme song is fucking atrocious. The bombast is gone. The excitement and thrill of that music smashing to life has been replaced with… a casio demo for something not terribly interesting. Glad that they didn’t actually go with the old school giant image of Matt Smith’s head floating there in the vortex.
As for Matt Smith’s Doctor… Not bad, not terrible at all. He’s still growing on me, aided by the fact that I think that Matt Smith genuinely appears to be a weird and awkward person and the writing that supports him is still pretty amazing. The sequence in which we’re reintroduced to the character of the titular Time Lord himself only to have Smith literally burst through and take his place among his predecessors worked as beautifully as it should’ve. I’m sure I’ll have more to say as this series floats on.
from here.
But before I go… My crazy theory about the “new spin” on the Doctor/companion relationship this year: I believe we’re going to see the Doctor, for the first time ever, develop an unrequited crush on Amy Pond. I know I certainly would were I in his suspenders/braces and bow tie.
Next up: The future, the Smilers, and all aboard the Starship UK!
