Doctor Who The Time of the Doctor Review

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Clara Oswald, Cybermen, Daleks, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Christmas Special, Jenna Coleman, Matt Smith, Orla Brady, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, Tasha Lem, The Doctor, The Silence, The Time of the Doctor, Trenzalore, Weeping Angels

The Time of the Doctor

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The 50^th Anniversary of Doctor Who draws to a close as Matt Smith takes his final bow and hands over the key of the TARDIS to his successor, Peter Capaldi, in the 2013 Christmas special: The Time of the Doctor. The 2013 Christmas special, the ninth since the series returned in 2005 is also the programmes 200^th episode, and it’s a seasonal spectacular packed with monsters and adventures where the Time Lord must face his darkest hour.

The fall of the eleventh is nigh and the clock is already ticking twelve’s as the Doctor (Matt Smith) arrives to whisk Clara (Jenna Coleman) away from her family Christmas diner for one last adventure, to answer the call to a distant backwater world, where the Doctor meets his old friend Tasha Lem (Orla Brady), and his deadliest enemies have also arrived having been drawn to this planet by a mysteriously indecipherable signal echoing through the depths of space.

The Doctor must discover what this signal heralds for his fate, and that of the universe itself, as their journey takes them to the planet below, Trenzalore, the place where it is foretold the First Question will be asked and the Doctor will ultimately fall. The snow covered streets will lead to the Doctor‘s final battleground. Soon the trap is sprung, as the Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and the Silence, begin to attack, the Time Lord stands defiant and becomes a hero to the people of this small town. The Siege of Trenzalore has begun and the Doctor; his many lives now all but spent, must make his final stand and confront the inevitability of his own mortality…

The Time of the Doctor is the third adventure in a broadly linked trilogy of stories, that began with The Name of the Doctor, and then continued spectacularly in the 50^th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. The Time of the Doctor also marks a return to Trenzalore, the planet first mentioned in The Wedding of River Song (2011), which has since often been spoken of in hushed whispers and dark prophecies. We know Trenzalore is where the Doctor will die, his body is buried there, and in the Name of the Doctor he even saw his own tomb in the future. Dorium Maldovar told of the question that must never be answered, a religious order called the Silence are determined to ensure this never happens, and even the Great Intelligence knows the Doctor’s time was almost up.

Having linked a severed Cyberman head “Handles” to the TARDIS console to decipher the signal coming from the unknown planet, that has left half the universe in terror, the Doctor is first confronted by the Daleks before being attacked by Cybermen and escaping in the TARDIS as the Cybership attacks, when the he suddenly gets  a call from Clara on Christmas Day. She needs help cooking the Christmas dinner for her family, so the Doctor makes a quick detour to lend a hand. After helping with lunch and meeting Clara’s family: Dad (James Buller), Linda (Elizabeth Rider), and gran (Sheila Reid), the Doctor offers Clara a respite from the festivities while the turkey cooks, and together they set off to investigate the signal coming from the planet where his enemies ships are gathering, which Handles bizarrely identifies as Gallifrey. The TARDIS is intercepted by a giant vessel of The Papal Mainframe, where they are taken aboard and greeted by the Doctor’s old friend, Tasha Lem, and her troops, Colonel Albero (Mark Brighton) and Colonel Meme (Sonita Henry). At the behest of Tasha Lem, the Doctor and Clara set out to explore a town called Christmas on the planet below, which is blanketed by a truth field, where they encounter Abramal (Rob Jarvis) and Marta (Tessa Peake Jones), and a young boy called Barnable (Rob Jarvis).

Some of the Doctor’s most feared enemies have also heeded the call to Trenzalore, gathering together on this remote world to oversee the demise of their greatest adversary. The Daleks are as formidable as ever, stalking the Doctor until the bitter end, while the Cybermen introduce a wooden upgrade to counteract the effects of the Time Lords defences. The Weeping Angels are more ruthless than ever, lurking in a snow storm, they will stop at nothing to prevent the Doctor’s escape, and  we will finally lean why the Silence is so determined to ensure that the question they have protected so incessantly is never, ever answered.

The issue of the Doctor’s remaining regenerations is also tackled in The Time of the Doctor as he approaches the end of his natural lifespan. It is well known fact that Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times, a rule established by the 1976 story The Deadly Assassin, which over the course of a number of stories, has subsequently become so engrained in the mythology of the series that it is now the one, indefatigable rule that cannot be ignored. However, as well as the 10^th Doctor’s somewhat truncated regeneration in Journey’s End (2008), since the events of The Day of the Doctor, it is the quandary posed by the introduction of the War Doctor (John Hurt), an incarnation that existed during the Time War between the Doctor’s 8^th and 9^th regenerations, that has now actually made  Matt Smith’s 11^th Doctor the Time Lords final incarnation.

The Doctor and Clara teleport to the planet, they arrive in a town called Christmas, where the Doctor discovers a crack in time, the same one that originally featured in Season Five, where the message is being transmitted from. The message is the same question repeated over and over: “Doctor Who?” It is the question that must never be answered, it is from the Time Lords of Gallifrey – who were transported into a pocket dimension in The Day of the Doctor – and if the Doctor speaks his name they will know this is the place where they can try and return.  But if this should ever happen the alien forces circling the planet will burn this world, a world Tasha Lem informs him is Tranzalore, and that the Time War will start all over again. The Siege of Trenzalore will begin and untold chaos and destruction will be unleashed throughout the universe. The Doctor then tricks Clara and sends her back home in the TARDIS, while he remains to defend the town and enforce the stalemate.

The Time of the Doctor starts out as a fun Christmas adventure for the Doctor and Clara, before events quickly take a darker turn, when the Doctor explains to Clara that he has no more regenerations and his time is almost up.  There are some fun moments to be had though, especially with the Doctor helping Clara to cook Christmas dinner, and meeting her family, but once the TARDIS arrives on Trenzalor a brooding air of menace begins to pervade this bizarre winter wonderland as the Doctor’s enemies prepare to strike. Tasha Lem is a very intriguing character, a being with an uncanny knowledge of the Doctor, played by  Orla Brady who gives a great perforce as the strange alien. We discover that Tasha Lem is the supremely powerful Mother Superious of the Papal Mainframe, an old friend of the Doctor, she knows him very well and is extremely loyal to him.. However, her friendship with the Doctor later proves crucial, as her will alone is strong enough to resist Dalek conditioning, especially with a little help from the Doctor and Clara after the Dalek reinforcements have arrived.

Fortunately with Clara Oswald around, the past, present, and future never  seems to be set in stone, as the Impossible Girl stubbornly refuses to be sent home, gripping the sides of the TARDIS, she forces the Time Machine to return her to the Doctor, now an old man, who has been defending Christmas and its population for over three hundred years. The Doctor explains to Clara that he has reached his final regeneration. They are transported back to the Papal Mainframe, where they learn the Silence are really genetically engineered priests, and that it was the Kovarian chapter who broke away from the Papal Mainframe to prevent the Doctor ever reaching Trenzalore by destroying his TARDIS (The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang) and engineering a child, who would grow up to be River Song (The Impossible Astronaut / The Day of the Moon / A Good Man Goes To War / Let‘s Kill Hitler / The Wedding of River Song), to assassinate  him. It seem that the Daleks have returned, Tasha and her crew have been taken over and transformed by the Daleks, but she manages to resist and helps the Doctor and Clara escape, before Clara is tricked again by the Doctor into going home for a second time.

Back in her flat with her family after Christmas lunch, Clara hears the TARDIS return. She rushes out only to find that it was Tasha flying the TARDIS, she does not want the Doctor to die alone, and together they return to Trenzalore where Clara is reunited with the Doctor, now extremely old and facing the end of his life. He still refuses to release the Time Lords, only the Daleks now remain to oppose him, and the Doctor has been fighting them with the aid of the Silence. As the Doctor goes to the Clock Tower to face the Daleks attack, it is then that Clara desperately appeals to the Time Lords of Gallifrey through the crack in the wall, she begs them to reach out and help him as she speaks his name.

The crack in time vanished from the wall before suddenly reappearing in the sky above Trenzalore as The Time Lords bestow the Doctor with the energy of a new regenerative life cycle, which he then unleashes on his enemies to destroy them as his 13th regeneration begins. After the battle Clara goes back inside the TARDIS to find the Doctor is young again. He begins to see images of the young Amelia Pond as he waits for his regeneration and new life cycle to begin. The adult Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) appears to greet her raggedy man in his final moments. Clara watches in awe as the Time Lord rapidly regenerates into the new Doctor (Peter Capaldi), who quickly says “kidneys, I‘ve got new kidneys!” before turning to her as the Time Machine lurches in flight and asking her is she knows how to fly the TARDIS.

Matt Smith is superb as the Doctor in this story, looking positively Troughtonesque in a new variation of his costume, delivering a show stopping performance that is simply brilliant. You get a real sense of the Time Lords plight as he is faced with the certainty of his impending death as he begins to age over the course of the episode. This time there is no more running, and nowhere to hide. Ever since Matt Smith’s gangly tweed clad, fez loving, 11^th Doctor burst onto our screens with a cry of “Geronimo” he has charmed us with his carefree spirit of adventure, bow ties, jammy dodgers, and fish fingers and custard. His adventures have been some of the most complex and timey wimey in the shows history. The companions were many, Amy and Rory, River, the Paternoster Row gang, and finally Clara, were all swept up in the Doctor’s adventures. Matt Smith also managed to convey the Doctor’s great age and more alien eccentricities, enthusiastic and almost frivolous one moment, his steely gaze held centuries of wisdom that belied his youthful appearance.

Jenna Coleman is also excellent as  Clara Oswald, her journey as the Doctor’s companion has seen her life become entwined with the very fabric of the Doctor’s time line, she has meet all of the Doctor’s incarnations at one point or another, saved him on many occasions, and played a significant role in helping the Doctor remember the promise he made when he took his name so he could find another way to save Gallifrey during the Time War. I have really begun to warm to Clara as a character now, to begin with it sometimes felt like we were always meeting Clara for the first time, only to have her snatched away again before we could even get to know her. Fortunately when Clara became a full time companion in The Bells of St John (2013), we finally got to know the Impossible Girl a lot better. Jenna Coleman also had great chemistry with Matt Smith’s Doctor, her character still has plenty of potential, and it will be interesting to see how Clara adjusts to Peter Capaldi’s new Doctor.

Steven Moffat brings the 11^th Doctor’s era to a rousing, if highly complex, close with The Time of the Doctor, bringing together various plot threads, some of which reach as far back as The Eleventh Hour (2010) itself, including revelations about the Silence, the Seal of the High Council which he took from the Master in the Five Doctors, as well as revealing what the Doctor saw in The God Complex (2011) when he looked into room 11, and even the question that must never be asked is finally revealed. Director Jamie Payne skilfully balances the darker elements of the story, interspacing them with a couple of very funny moments – when the Doctor and Clara have to cook the turkey and when she later finds him naked in the TARDIS – as well as some particularly emotional scenes for the Doctor and Clara, and the final showdown is explosive and shocking. I do feel that The Time of the Doctor is a tad overlong, the regular episode length would have probably been sufficient, and the story effectively reboots the series – paving the way for an entirely new era of the show to being. Peter Capaldi also makes a strong debut as the new Doctor, the rogues gallery of monsters bring added menace to this Christmas episode, and Matt Smith’s heartrending final moments as the Doctor will resonate long after the credits have rolled. The Time of the Doctor is a brilliant Christmas special, it rounds off the 50^th Anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who in fine style, and provides a triumphant finale for this youngest ever incarnation of the Doctor.

Images Belong To BBC

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The Day of the Doctor : Review

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Billie Piper, Daleks, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Doctor Who 50th Anniversary, Gallifrey, Jenna Coleman, John Hurt, Matt Smith, Steven Moffat, The Day of The Doctor, The Time War, UNIT, Zygons

The Day of the Doctor

Review by Paul Bowler

It’s Saturday evening and a strangely familiar theme tune rings out as the day draws to a close, a policeman walks past a gate, the sign reads I.M. Foreman, and suddenly we are standing before Coal Hill School… Right from its opening moments, the 50^th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor instantly transports us back to the shows origins, drawing on the programmes rich mythology and subsequent rebirth in a new millennium for a record breaking simulcast event as fans around the world celebrated fifty years of adventures in time and space. This special feature-length episode of Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor sees Matt Smith’s 11^th incarnation of the Time Lord teaming up with his predecessor, David Tennant as the 10^th Doctor, and John Hurt as the War Doctor –  a mysterious new incarnation of the Time Lord who came into being during the Time War.

Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), now a teacher at Coal Hill School, receives a message from the Doctor, and rides her motorbike to meet him in the TARDIS. Moments later the TARDIS is intercepted by UNIT and airlifted by helicopter to Trafalgar Square where the Doctor and Clara are greeted by Kate Stuart (Jemma Redgrave) and scientist Osgood (Ingrid Oliver). They go to the National Gallery, where the Doctor opens a sealed message from Queen Elisabeth I (who it transpires was once married to the 10^th Doctor) that holds instructions which entrust the Time Lord to curate some very special paintings; including a piece of Time Lord art depicting The Fall of Arcadia during the Time War – a single moment of time locked inside a 3D painting – that has become known by two ominous names: “No More” and “Gallifrey Falls”.

Matt Smith gives a terrific performance as the Doctor in this special anniversary episode. His Doctor is right at the heart of the action, I thought the opening moments were the Doctor was suspended below the TARDIS as it was flown over the London skyline was fantastic, and later Matt Smith really gets to run the gauntlet of emotions as the Doctor’s actions during the Time War  return to haunt him. Jenna Coleman is also terrific as Clara, now a teacher at Coal Hill School, the impossible girl now seems all grown up and even more confident than before, and  the scene where she rides a motorbike into the TARDIS is great fun.

The painting offers us a glimpse into that darkest hour on Gallifrey during the last day of the Time War, as the Dalek armada encircles the planet and launch a devastating attack. The War Doctor emerges from the shadows after using a gun to blast the words “No More” into a crumbling wall to leave a message for the Daleks, before escaping in his TARDIS as Arcadia, Gallifrey’s second city, falls. The Time Lord War Council are shocked to discover the War Doctor has taken a sentient weapon of unimaginable power know as The Moment, a galaxy eater created by the ancients of Gallifrey, which he intends to use to destroy his own people and the Daleks to end the Time War. Travelling to a remote location, the War Doctor attempts to activate The Moment, but the devices interface, or conscience, assumes the form of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and tries to convince him to choose another path…

The special effects used to depict the final day of the Time War, with Gallifrey surrounded by a vast fleet of Dalek warships, are absolutely magnificent. The Day of the Doctor is about as epic in scope and scale as Doctor Who has ever been. To see Gallifrey in ruins is also quite shocking; this once majestic world, now torn apart by Dalek firepower, with the city burning as the population flee in terror as Daleks close in to exterminate them is chilling.

John Hurt is magnificent as the War Doctor, a new incarnation of the Doctor that existed during the Time War, and was responsible for unleashing the Galaxy Eater and destroying his own people to end the war. This dark secret is one that the even the 11^th Doctor is loathed to speak of, yet fate will force him, and his 10^th incarnation, to confront this aspect of his existence, and ultimately work together to find another way to end the Time War. John Hurt gives a commanding performance as the War Doctor, painting a weary, tragic figure, who is forever condemned by the impossible choice he was faced with as he witnessed the fall of Arcadia.

Billie Piper makes a welcome return to Doctor Who as Rose Tyler, but not in quite the way we might have expected. She appears as The Moment, the sentient conscience of the Galaxy Eater, which has taken the form of Rose Tyler to communicate with the War Doctor. Billie Piper is excellent as the mysterious and somewhat playful “Bad Wolf” girl as Hurt’s Doctor calls her. It’s great to see Billie Piper return to Doctor Who, her role as The Moment/Bad Wolf was crucial to brining all of the Doctor’s together to change history. I also liked how The Moment got Clara to help the Doctor’s find another way to end the war, immersing them within Arcadia‘s final moments, with Clara finally appealing to her Doctor to “be a Doctor” and make the promise of his name a reality that would save his people from destruction.

Meanwhile, in Elizabethan England 1562, the 10^th Doctor and Queen Elizabeth I find themselves under attack by a Zygon, a shape-shifting alien, who tries to confuse the Doctor by assuming the form of Queen Elizabeth I. Before the 10^th Doctor can figure out who is who, three portals created by The Moment open across space and time and draw both the 11^th Doctor and the War Doctor to 1562, where they meet the 10^th Doctor and are promptly arrested by the Queens troops and taken to the Tower of London. The  Zygons are using a stasis cube to travel into the future, where they have been stored inside the paintings held within a secret chamber in the Under Gallery, where they start to emerge and quickly attack Kate Stewart, and scientists Osgood and McGill (Jonjo O‘Neill). The Zygons duplicate their captives and, with their leader posing as Kate Stuart, get the unsuspecting Clara to accompany Kate to the Black Archive at UNIT HQ beneath the Tower of London.

With some guidance from the Moment, who only the War Doctor can see or hear, the imprisoned Doctor’s attempt to escape from their cell by using the software in their sonic screwdrivers to calculate a solution that would take centuries to complete individually. The computation is eventually completed on the 11^th Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, which is four hundred years old, but in the meantime he has also inscribed the code of Captain Jack’s Vortex Manipulator onto the wall of their cell, and it is this message to the future which enables Clara to snatch the Vortex Manipulator from the Black Archive and prevent the Zygons from using it.

The Day of the Doctor has a great supporting cast, with Jemma Redgrave returning as UNITS’s chief scientific officer Kate Lethbridge Stewart; she gets some great scenes with the Doctor and Clara, and has to confront the Zygons as well. Ingrid Oliver is also good as the scientist Osgood, a really fun character, who quickly figures out what the Zygons are up to, and helps Kate escape and reach the Black Archive to stop the Zygons. There are so many references to the history of Doctor Who in The Day of the Doctor: far to many to mention here, some of my favourites were the opening scenes with the original theme and titles from the very first story in 1963, An Unearthly Child, the sign outside Coal Hill School where the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan, once attended tells us Ian Chesterton is now the chairman of the school governors, the time of the very first episode also feature on a clock face as Clara goes to meet the Doctor and the date and time is also the code for the vortex manipulator, Osgood wears a scarf just like the 4^th Doctor’s, there are a number of references to the Doctor’s old friend Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, as well as the 10^th and 11^th Doctor’s eras, but I think some of the best nods to the past are in the Black Archive, were we see a notice board covered in pictures of the Doctor’s previous companions, and its great fun trying to identify them all.

The scenes set in Elizabethan England were also a lot of fun. This is the point in the story were the 10^th Doctor becomes involved with Queen Elizabeth the I, he even ends up marrying her, and there are some great scenes as he has to confront the Queen and her Zygon double. Joanna Page was also really good as Queen Elizabeth I, especially when Tennant’s Doctor thought she was really a Zygon, and it was clever how the story gives us an idea of why the older Queen later hated the 10^th Doctor when she appeared in the Shakespeare Code. This is also were all three of the Doctor’s were finally united in the episode, another fantastic moment, and I loved the witty banter between them. Matt Smith and David Tennant were brilliant as they tried to out sonic each other and later, as they continued to wind each other up, with John Hurt’s Doctor getting all the best lines as he wearily tries to keep up with his future selves and their youthful exuberance. It was fun to see the TARDIS interior changing when all the Doctor’s stepped inside, from the 10^th Doctor’s “grunge” phase, the classic roundels then appeared in the Ward Doctor’s console room, before shifting to the 11^th Doctor’s TARDIS interior, with the 10^th Doctor saying Patrick Troughton’s classic line from the Three Doctors: “You’ve redecorated… I don’t like it!”

There were also some very serious moments, especially when The War Doctor asks them if they ever counted how many children died on that terrible day on Gallifrey. The 10^th Doctor immediately states that is was 247 billion, and is aghast to think the 11^th Doctor has seemingly forgotten and moved on over the last four hundred years, which of course we know he hasn’t, not really, but it makes for a wonderful scene that takes place in that most tried and trusted staple of Doctor Who, a prison cell, and one which ironically isn’t even locked! One could say this scene is perhaps the most serendipitous moment ever for the Doctor, as it illustrates how he has become imprisoned within the grief of the impossible choice he made as the War Doctor, condemned by his own hand and lost in a universe without hope for the salvation that was always waiting to be found.

After Clara travels to 1562 to team up with the Doctor’s and Queen Elizabeth I against the Zygons, Osgood rescues Kate Stuart and together they enter the Black Archive. Kate activates a nuclear device to stop their Zygon doppelgangers using the alien artefacts stored in the secret facility, but her Zygon double keeps overriding the countdown. With the TARDIS unable to breach the UNIT bases defences, the War Doctor gets them to use the stasis cube to transport themselves through the painting of Gallifrey Falls, which the 11^th Doctor has managed to have moved to the Black Archive by making a time warping phone call from the TARDIS to McGill in the past. The Doctor’s emerge from the painting and uses the Vaults own defences to wipe the memories of all the humans and Zygons present so the countdown can be stopped and a peaceful solution reached.

I really enjoyed the inclusion of the Zygons in The Day of the Doctor. This is the first time they have appeared since their first and only television story, Terror of the Zygons in 1975. The new look Zygons are even more menacing than the originals, although their appearance hasn’t really changed that much here, they do dribble copious about of slime now and the human/ Zygon transformations are much better, but obviously it was a case of if it isn’t broke don’t fix it by the production team. It was also good that they played a significant role in the story, rather than being some token monster, and I hope they return again soon.

Still convinced he was right, the War Doctor returns to the point in time where he is about to activate The Moment. The ethereal form of Rose Tyler manages to delay the War Doctor long enough for the 10^th and 11^th Doctor’s arrive, and they stand with him so that he does not have to do this terrible thing alone. Clara is horrified by what they are about to do, the Warrior, the Hero, and appeals to her Doctor to find another way, and with The Moment also gently exerting her influence, the 11^th Doctor changes his mind and summons all of his previous incarnations, including his future self (Peter Capaldi), and each Doctor uses their TARDIS to freeze Gallifrey in one moment of time, just like the painting, causing Gallifrey to vanish and the Daleks to be destroyed in their own crossfire.

Ok, now here is the bit where total fangasim hits, I can’t tell you how exciting it was to see all the Doctor’s unite to freeze Gallifrey in one moment of time. I had a feeling that Steven Moffat might find a way to included a few clips of the past Doctor’s, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect them all to turn up and play such an important role in the story. While it may seem like a bit of sci-fi cliché, or reset switch to do this to Gallifrey, but it is entirely plausible as we saw Time Lords from Gallifrey trying to escape from a pocket dimension to destroy Earth in the 10^th Doctor’s final episode The End of Time. Seeing the Doctor’s team up to save Gallifrey in The Day of the Doctor was the icing on the cake for the 50^th Anniversary, it opens up a wealth of possibilities for the future, and of course let’s not forget we were also treated to a glimpse of that future. Yes, Peter Capaldi, the next incarnation of the Doctor, also showed up to help save the day!

Afterwards the War Doctor, and the 10^th and 11^th Doctor’s return to the National Gallery to say their goodbyes, it’s a parting tinged with sadness as they all know they will have no memory of these events once they return to their own time. Once the War Doctor leaves in his TARDIS, he begins to regenerate, and the 10^th Doctor departs after hearing about Trenzalore from the 11^th. Sensing that the Doctor wants to be alone with the painting of Gallifrey Falls, Clara steps inside the TARDIS, just as an old man, the curator approaches.

Now this is the moment that totally blew me away, as the 11^th Doctor looks up as the curator wanders into view… and it’s Tom Baker!! This incredible scene, were the curator tells him the painting is actually called Gallifrey Falls No More, and hints that Gallifrey might have been saved after all, is just magical. Whether the Curator was really the 4^th Doctor or not, it was an incredible moment and this was the highlight of the entire episode for me.  Tom Baker is simply wonderful in these scenes with Matt Smith as they discuss Gallifrey’s fate, this made the episode even more special, and then later in the TARDIS, as the Doctor describes a dream he has, were he is reunited with his former selves amongst the stars, and resolves to find Gallifrey and return home…

I thoroughly enjoyed The Day of the Doctor, it was a fantastic celebration of Doctor Who, and I loved every moment of it. Steven Moffat delivered an incredible story that provided some of the most exciting scenes ever seen in Doctor Who, director Nick Hurran ensured The Day of the Doctor was a visual spectacular, and Murray Gold’s musical score was phenomenal. Best of all was the fact that fans around the world could watch and enjoy this episode together, on TV, or in the cinema. The Day of the Doctor was a brilliant story for the 50^th Anniversary of Doctor Who; it lived up to all the hype, and exceed all my expectations.

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Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Title & Programme Schedule Revealed

Tags

50th Anniversary, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Jenna Coleman, John Hurt, Matt Smith, The Day of The Doctor

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Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Title & Programme Schedule Revealed

Today the BBC revealed a brand new poster and the title of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode as The Day of The Doctor. This 75 minute special will be shown on the 23rd of November, staring Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor, Jenna Coleman as Clara, as well as Smith‘s predecessor David Tennant as the 10th Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose, and John Hurt as another – as yet unspecified – incarnation of the Doctor. This celebratory story will also feature some of the Time Lords most deadly enemies from his adventures in time and space, including The Daleks, and the Zygons.

A whole raft of programmes have also been announced to support the programmes 50th Anniversary, as detailed by the BBC…

The countdown starts here as the BBC reveals its plans to take over TV and radio to mark the Doctor’s 50th anniversary.

With special programmes planned across the BBC, the celebrations will peak on 23 November with the anniversary episode, revealed as The Day Of The Doctor. Starring Matt Smith, David Tennant and Jenna Coleman with Billie Piper and John Hurt, the special for BBC One has been confirmed as feature-length, with 75 minutes of adventure.

Matt Smith, who plays the Doctor, says: “The Day Of The Doctor is nearly here! Hope you all enjoy. There’s lots more coming your way, as the countdown to the 50th begins now.” Each channel will be home to unique content, celebrating the wealth of history and talent from the last 50 years.

BBC Two will broadcast a number of new shows, focusing on telling the story behind the programme. For one night only, Professor Brian Cox will take an audience of celebrity guests and members of the public on a journey into the wonderful universe of the Doctor, from the lecture hall of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1×60 minutess). Drawing on the latest theories, as well as 200 years of scientific discoveries and the genius of Einstein, Brian tries to answer the classic questions raised by the Doctor: Can you really travel in time? Does extra-terrestrial life exist in our galaxy? And how do you build something as fantastical as the TARDIS?

In an hour-long special, BBC Two’s flagship arts programme The Culture Show presents Me, You And Doctor Who (1×60 minutes), with lifelong fan Matthew Sweet exploring the cultural significance of the BBC’s longest running TV drama, arguing that it’s one of the most important cultural artefacts of modern Britain. Put simply, Doctor Who matters. He’ll examine how the show has become a cultural force in its own right and tell the stories of some of the unsung cultural heroes, who pioneered its innovative music, design and storytelling.

BBC Two wraps up its coverage with the previously announced An Adventure In Space and Time (1×90 minutes), which will tell the story of the genesis of Doctor Who and the many personalities involved. Written by Mark Gatiss, the drama stars David Bradley (the Harry Potter films); Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Identity), Jessica Raine (Call The Midwife) and Sacha Dhawan (History Boys, Last Tango In Halifax).

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, says: “Fifty years has turned Doctor Who from a television show into a cultural landmark. Personally I can’t wait to see what it becomes after a hundred.”

BBC Four will introduce audiences to the first Doctor, William Hartnell, with a special re-run of the first-ever story, which marked the start of 50 years of history. The four episodes are being shown in a restored format, not previously broadcast in the UK.

There will also be programmes across CBBC with 12 Again (1×30 minutes) bringing together CBBC’s super-fan Chris Johnson, impressionist Jon Culshaw, Tommy Knight (Luke Smith), Warwick Davis (Porridge), Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Dan Starkey (Strax) Louise Jameson (Leela) and the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, to share their memories of watching TV’s top Time Lord when they were young.

Blue Peter will launch an exciting new competition giving viewers aged between six and 14 the opportunity to design a new gadget that will become part of the iconic science fiction series. Two live Blue Peter specials will see presenters Barney, Lindsey and Radzi joined by aliens and monsters, with viewers challenging Matt Smith to answer their Doctor Who questions.

BBC Three will be home to several exciting entertainment commissions. Audiences will be encouraged to get involved and vote in Doctor Who: Monsters And Villains Weekend, as we countdown to the top Doctor Who monster. For those less familiar with the show, Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide will introduce fans and viewers to a wealth of archive material and act as a guide to all things Who. A further exciting commission to be announced later this year will see the celebrations finish with a bang.

Danny Cohen, Director of BBC Television, says: “Doctor Who is a titan of British television and I’m incredibly proud to have it on the BBC. It’s an astonishing achievement for a drama to reach its 50th anniversary. I’d like to thank every person – on both sides of the camera – who has been involved with its creative journey over so many years.”

It’s not just TV where audiences will be able join in the celebrations; programming across Radio 2, Radio 1 and Radio 4 Extra will also mark the 50th.

BBC Radio 2 will ask Who Is The Doctor? in a 90-minute documentary featuring newly recorded interviews and exclusive archive material. The programme will look at the lasting appeal of Doctor Who and ask how much of its continued success can be attributed to its basic formula.

In The Blagger’s Guide To Doctor Who, David Quantick will give the iconic Doctor the Blagger’s treatment. He’ll be finding out the answers to questions such as, why do Americans think Tom Baker is still Doctor Who? How many Doctors have there really been? Were the Daleks really named after an encyclopaedia?

Finally, Graham Norton will be broadcasting his weekly Radio 2 show live (Saturday 23 November, 10am) from the Doctor Who Celebration in London. In a special three-hour show, Graham will take a ride in the TARDIS and will also be chatting with some of the series’ stars and fans.

Music is a key part of Doctor Who, from the famous theme tune to soaring melodies, but the show has also inspired a whole new phenomenon – Time Lord Rock (TROCK). Radio 1 will look at this genre of music inspired by the Doctor and his journeys through space and time with a 60-minute documentary.

Meanwhile, Radio 4 Extra travels back to 1963 with a three-hour special programme, Who Made Who?, to look at the world that inspired the television series. Doctor Who may have come from other times, but his roots were very much in the present of 1960s Britain. This distinctive programme combines audio from the archive, new interviews and extracts from audio versions of Doctor Who. Additionally, the station will broadcast readings and dramas featuring the great Doctor.

There will also be special content across the official website bbc.co.uk/doctorwho and on BBC iPlayer.

Doctor Who Live : Peter Capaldi Is The 12th Doctor!

Tags

12th Doctor, Bernard Cribbins, Colin Baker, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Live, Matt Smith, New Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, Peter Davison, Steven Moffat

Doctor Who Live: Peter Capaldi is the 12th Doctor!

 

The actor who will play the 12^th Doctor was announced tonight during BBC One’s special Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor programme, as Peter Capaldi! The special live show, hosted by Zoe Ball, was a celebration in which The Thick of It actor Peter Capaldi was officially announced as the 12^th incarnation of the Time Lord. The 55 year old Scottish actor, who is a also a life long fan of the series, is the oldest actor cast in the role of the Doctor in the modern version of the show. Peter Capaldi  will take over as the 12^th Doctor when Matt Smith’s 11^th incarnation regenerates at Christmas.

The live show featured appearance by former cast members and celebrity fans. Peter Davison (The 5^th Doctor) was there in person as well, and Matt Smith, Steven Moffat, Jenna Coleman, and Colin Baker (The 6^th Doctor) also contributed via video clips. The wonderful Bernard Cribins (Wilfred Mott) was also there in person, and there were contributions by some of the Doctor’s pervious travelling companions including Anneke Wills (Polly), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Janet Fielding (Tegan) and Bonnie Langford (Mell). Celebrity fans on the show included Rufus Hound, Liza Tarbuck, and Outnumbered’s Daniel Roche. There were also special video contributions from Professor Robert Winston, Jo Whiley, Professor Stephen Hawkins, Bruno Tonioli, and Professor Brian Cox (who appeared in The Power of Three).

Matt Smith and showrunner Steven Moffat spoke about the 12th Doctor, before Zoe Ball introduced Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor and interviewed him about his new role as the 12^th Doctor. Peter Capaldi has appeared in Doctor Who before, in the Fires of Pompeii with David Tennant’s 10th Doctor, and he was also in Torchwood Children of Earth. Recently he played a WHO doctor in the film World War Z.

Speaking to the Official BBC Doctor Who Website, Peter Capaldi spoke about his role as the 12th Doctor: “Being asked to play The Doctor is an amazing privilege. Like the Doctor himself I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight. I can’t wait to get started. “Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer says : “It’s an incendiary combination: one of the most talented actors of his generation is about to play the best part on television. Peter Capaldi is in the TARDIS! ”Doctor Who companion, Jenna Coleman says “I’m so excited Peter Capaldi is the man taking on the challenge of becoming the Twelfth Doctor. With Steven’s writing and his talent I know we’ll be making an amazing show with an incredible incarnation of number 12. I can’t wait to start this new adventure!” Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One said: “Peter Capaldi has all the genius and versatility…This special programme was simulcast live on BBC America, which made it an extra special event for Doctor Who fans.

Check out the BBC Doctor Who Website for all the latest news about the 12th Doctor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/

12th Doctor To Be Announced Live on BBC1, This Sunday

Tags

Doctor Who, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, Zoe Ball

12th Doctor To Be Announced Live on BBC1, This Sunday

After several weeks of intense speculation Doctor Who fans will soon know who will be taking over from Matt Smith as the Doctor. Yes, that’s right, the BBC will soon announce the name of actor who will be playing the 12^th incarnation of the Doctor. The news will be announced live on BBC 1 this Sunday, 4^th August, at 7.00 PM in a special programme hosted by Zoe Ball, along with Matt Smith and showrunner Steven Moffat.

This long awaited announcement will also be backed up by specail guests, including old Doctors, companions, and celebrity fans as they recall their favourite Time Lords from the series 50 Year history. The current Doctor, Matt Smith, and showrunner Steven Moffat will also give interviews.

Zoe Ball will interview the actor who has been cast as the new Doctor, who the BBC have been code-naming “Houdini”. Over the last day, The Thick of It actor Peter Capaldi – who is incidentally a Doctor Who fan himself – has now emerged as the bookmakers hot favourite to take over from Matt Smith as the Doctor. Although we wont know for certain until Sunday.

The secret will be simulcast live on BBC America
The Official BBC Doctor Who Website issues this press release…

Back in June we confirmed that Matt Smith would be leaving Doctor Who and since then there’s been intense speculation about who would be taking over the role of the Doctor. But the guesswork and conjecture end this weekend… The BBC will reveal the identity of the next Doctor during a live BBC One show that begins at 7pm on Sunday, 04 August.
The news about the announcement has been delivered in the following press release:
Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor
In a special one-off live television event on BBC One this Sunday 4th August at 7pm, the next Doctor will be exclusively revealed to the nation.
Widely regarded as one of the most hotly contested roles in British television, the show’s host Zoe Ball will unveil the 12th Doctor in the first ever interview in front of a live studio audience set against the backdrop of a swirling vortex, amongst Daleks and the TARDIS.
The half hour show will include live special guests, Doctors old and new, as well as companions and celebrity fans. Excitement will reach fever pitch as they speculate and recall their favourites, plus feature clips and moments from across the show’s 50 year history.
Current Doctor Matt Smith and lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat will both give interviews about one of the biggest roles in TV and set out just what it takes to be the Doctor. Steven Moffat says: “The decision is made and the time has come to reveal who’s taking over the TARDIS. For the last of the Time Lords, the clock is striking twelve.”
Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One says: “BBC One is the home of big live events and this special live show is the perfect way to reveal the identity of the next Doctor and share it with the nation. The Doctor is a truly iconic role and I’m more than excited about the booking.”

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning says: “We can’t wait to unveil the next Doctor with everyone live on BBC1 on Sunday night. Amongst all the speculation and betting, there has been lots of fun and intrigue at work as we’ve been using the codename Houdini as a decoy! It’s the biggest secret in showbiz, even those working with the new Doctor on other projects at the moment have no idea they are in the presence of the 12th incarnation.”
Keep up to date with all the latest news about the show and special guests as we build to the big climax over the next few days and follow http://www.facebook.com/BBCOne, @ BBCOne and @bbcdoctorwho and bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
The special live show is made by BBC Entertainment and Events for BBC One, Guy Freeman is Executive producer and Pinki Chambers is Executive Commissioning Editor. Commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One.
The show will be simulcast live on BBC America. Doctor Who is produced by BBC Cymru Wales.
Before the announcement we’ll bring you lots more exciting news, including how you can be part of the big reveal!
The next Doctor will be revealed on Sunday… More news soon!

Matt Smith announces he is leaving Doctor Who

Tags

50th Anniversary Special, Christmas Special 2013, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Matt Smith, Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who

New Series New Doctor!

Matt Smith announces he is leaving Doctor Who

 

Today the official BBC website has announced that Matt Smith is set to leave Doctor Who after four amazing years in the hit BBC TV series. Matt Smith took his first trip in the TARDSI in 2010 and he will relinquish the role of the Doctor as the end of this year after staring in the 50^th Anniversary special in November, regenerating in the 2013 Christmas Special. Matt Smith has been an incredible Doctor, his incarnation has reached over 30 million unique UK viewers, and during his time in the role the show has achieved global success. He was also one of the first actors ever to be nominated for a BAFTA in the role.

Matt Smith soon won over fans of the series to be voted Best Actor by readers of Doctor Who Magazine for the 2010 Season. He was also noted for his first series at the National Television Awards, before going on to win the most popular Male Drama Performance award in 2012. Matt Smith has been involved in some of the programmes most exciting episodes, making the role of the Doctor his own, with over 77 million fans in the UK, USA, and Australia!

Speaking to the official BBC Website, Matt Smith said: “Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show. I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realise all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years. Having Steven Moffat as show runner write such varied, funny, mind bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career.” Reflecting on his time as the 11^th Doctor, Matt Smith spoke of his admiration for show runner Steven Moffat. “It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor. The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special! It’s been an honour to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys. Matt”

Head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, said: “Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he’d turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next. The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently. And even better than that, given the pressures of this extraordinary show, he is one of the nicest and hardest-working people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Whatever we threw at him – sometimes literally – his behaviour was always worthy of the Doctor. But great actors always know when it’s time for the curtain call, so this Christmas prepare for your hearts to break, as we say goodbye to number Eleven. Thank you Matt – bow ties were never cooler. Of course, this isn’t the end of the story, because now the search begins. Somewhere out there right now – all unknowing, just going about their business – is someone who’s about to become the Doctor. A life is going to change, and Doctor Who will be born all over again! After 50 years, that’s still so exciting!”

The 11^th Doctor’s adventures in time and space has seem him accompanied by three different companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and then Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Matt’s Doctor has battled against the  Daleks,  Cybermen, and Ice Warriors as well as the terrifying Weeping Angels. Professor River Song (Alex Kingston) has also played a significant role in the 111^th Doctor’s life, appearing in many of his adventures. His Doctor is also famous for his love of fish fingers and custard, bow ties and hats, and he would often shout the catchphrase ‘Geronimo’ in the face of extreme danger.

The exact nature of Matt Smiths departure from the show has yet to be revealed, and it is being kept tightly under wraps for now. He will return to BBC One for the unmissable 50th anniversary episode on Saturday 23rd November 2013, in what is sure to be one of the most spectacular episodes ever seen!

Doctor Who The Name of the Doctor : Review

Tags

Alex Kingston, Clara, Doctor Who, Dr Simeon, Dr Who Season 7, Great Intelligence, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jenny, Madame Vastra, Matt Smith, Richard E Grant, River Song, Saul Metzstein, Steven Moffat, Strax, TARDIS, The Doctor, The Name of the Doctor, Trenzalore, Whispermen

The Name of the Doctor

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

He is revered and feared in equal measure, this Time Lord who has worn so many faces, gathering friends and enemies after centuries of adventures that have shaped the destiny of the universe. From the majestic splendour of Gallifrey, to a junkyard in 76 Totter‘s Lane, the Doctor’s exploits have touched countless lives and planets. When the Time Lords perished in the Time War the Doctor endured the torment of the carnage he had witnessed, he came back from the edge of destruction, finding hope with new companions and even greater adventures.

But like any time-traveller ever journey the Doctor takes has caused ripples throughout time and space. These gaping wounds in the fabric of the cosmos now threaten to undermine everything that the Doctor stands for. The mystery of the impossible girl, Clara Oswald, has somehow become linked with paradox upon paradox to filter back through every moment of the Doctor’s life. All paths now lead to Trenzalore, the one place that the Doctor should never visit, where legend foretells of the fall of the eleventh.

Someone is kidnapping the Doctor’s friends to bring him to Trenzalore. The impossible girl may hold the key to his salvation, but with his past, present, and future selves in danger, Clara will need the help of Professor River Song if she is to save the Doctor from the Whispermen and the old adversary who has returned to witness the Doctor’s downfall. The end is nigh, this is the Doctor’s darkest hour, and his greatest secret will be revealed at last…

Matt Smith’s Doctor faces his greatest challenge yet as the enigma of Clara Oswald begins to unravel in this incredible season finale. Jenna-Louise Coleman is as outstanding as ever as new companion Clara Oswald, the impossible girl, who keeps bumping into the Doctor across numerous time zones. The Name of the Doctor finally reveals that Clara is the girl who was born to save him, meeting him throughout all his incarnations, reaching right back to the very moment where the legacy of Doctor Who began on Gallifrey itself.

The eleventh Doctor has never faced a threat quite like what he must confront in The Name of the Doctor.  From the moment the Doctor is bound for Trenzalore the bleak tone of this episode turns jet black as the Time Lord faces the threat of the Great Intelligence and the Whispermen. Nothing really comes close to what Steven Moffat has orchestrated here, it provides one of Matt Smith’s most defining moment as this eleventh incarnation makes his stand at Trenzalore.

Several familiar faces also return for the season finale to help the Doctor in his hour of need. The Paternoster Row gang are back: Silurian warrior Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her companion Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and their Sontaran butler Strax (Dan Starky) are drawn together for a psychic conference call with River Song and Clara also in attendance – but they receive some unexpected visitors. The vivacious Professor River Song (Alex Kingston) returns with a dire warning, her involvement brings her story full circle at last; her fate having becomes inexorably linked with he fall of the eleventh and Clara’s ultimate destiny.

The entity behind the insidious plot to destroy the Doctor is the Great Intelligence, played once again by Richard E Grant, with his incorporeal from assuming the physical manifestation of Doctor Simeon. Having suffered a crippling defeat in The Snowmen (2012), the Great Intelligence returned in The Bells of St John (2013) to feast on the minds of people it absorbed through the Wi-Fi networks. When the Doctor found the base in the Shard, the Great Intelligence ordered his servant Miss Kislet (Celia Imrie) to sacrifice herself to prevent it being discovered. Now the grand design orchestrated by the Great Intelligence is revealed, to discover the name of the Doctor and use it to destroy him.

The Great Intelligence also has some new allies to do his bidding, the terrifying Whispermen. Clad in black, wearing top hats, these featureless creatures with their rotten teeth are like ghoulish undertakers. Their powers are hauntingly effective, stalking their victims with rhyming chants, before their heart-stopping touch transports people to Trenzalore. The Whispermen are in fact just another extension of the Great Intelligence, faceless pawns in his grand design. Richard E Grant makes a superb foil for Matt Smith’s eleventh Doctor, their epic showdown brings together many of Steven Moffat’s long running storylines, leading to one of the most emotional acts of self sacrifice ever seen in Doctor Who’s 50 year history.

The Name of the Doctor is like a love letter to the series past. With the assured direction of Saul Metzstein (The Snowmen, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy, The Crimson Horror), the finale of Season Seven heralds a voyage through the life of the Doctor quite unlike anything we have ever experienced before. Steven Moffat has crafted a momentous epic which manages to encompass every era of the show. Each incarnation of the Doctor makes their presence felt in The Name of the Doctor as the barriers of time are swept aside by the events unfolding at Trenzalore.

After the Whispermen capture Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, the Doctor resolves to rescue them from Trenzalore, the place where his body is buried on a planet in the future. He forces the TARDIS to land on the desolate planet, which turns out to be a huge graveyard where the Doctor’s final resting place dominates the horizon. This gigantic tomb is a future version of the Doctor’s own TARDIS, now a dying shell with its internal dimensions leaking; the Police Box exterior has grown into a huge monolith that towers over everything.

Professor River Song is waiting for them by her own gravestone, but only Clara can see her. She explains how she kept the line to the conference call open so she could help. This version of River is like an echo that should have faded long ago; she says that the Doctor cannot see her, so it is up to Clara to help him. Using the hidden entrance concealed beneath River’s grave, the Doctor and Clara enter the TARDIS tomb, braving the warped interior, where Clara begins to remember what the Doctor told her in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.

On reaching the tomb the Doctor and Clara are reunited with Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. Together they make a valiant stand against Doctor Simeon but the Whispermen overpower them as the Great Intelligence demands that the Doctor speaks his name to open the tomb. River steps in and opens the tomb to reveal the console room, overgrown with vines, the central console now just a gleaming wound of energy caused by the Doctor’s adventures. The Great Intelligence enters the energy beam and begins to rewrite the Doctor’s lives, undoing all his victories.

Clara instinctively knows there is only one way to save the Doctor. She steps into the scar in time and becomes splintered across the Doctor’s time line, encountering his previous incarnations, becoming the paradox that will ultimately provides the Doctor’s salvation. After a touching farewell to River Song, where the Doctor reveals that he could always see her, he steps back across time to save Clara from oblivion, but one last incarnation of the Doctor is waiting in the shadows…

The Name of the Doctor offers some tantalising glimpses from the past as Clara encounters the Doctor’s previous incarnations in her attempt to save the Doctor. These sequences are superbly shot, with  Jenna-Louise Coleman being superimposed with images of the classic Doctor’s, it’s a technological and nostalgic marvel, spliced with snippets of dialogue, that helps complete this spellbinding adventure as the Doctor’s best kept secret threatens to bring all of creation to its knees. There is a sublime moment where the impossible girl meets the first Doctor on Gallifrey, where she advises him on which TARDIS to take, that is wonderful to behold.

Alex Kingston gives a lovely understated performance as River Song; her final scenes with the Doctor were incredibly moving. The Paternoster Row gang are placed in mortal danger when the Whispermen hijack their conference call. There is a real sense of creeping dread as the Whispermen attack, which quickly turns to horror when Jenny realises she’s just been murdered. After she is revived by Strax on Trenzalore, the damage inflicted to the Doctor’s timeline by the Great Intelligence causes Jenny to fade away and Strax to turn on Vastra. Neve McIntosh is brilliant as Vastra, her Silurian make up conveys every moment of heartbreak as she watches her comrades being altered by the paradoxes. Catrin Stewart is also really good as Jenny, and Dan Starky continues to impress as Strax. Here’s hoping these characters get a spin off series of their own.

The cliff-hanger ending to The Name of the Doctor, where John Hurt is revealed as another incarnation of Doctor, is sure to send rippled thought the cosmos as Steven Moffat sets the scene for the 50^th Anniversary Special. This fantastic revelation will no doubt play a significant role in the Anniversary Special and may have far reaching implications for the future.

John Hurt is a brilliant actor and I’m sure he will make a fantastic Doctor. Ironically for an episode all about the Doctor’s greatest secret it is the identity of John Hurt’s incarnation of the Doctor that holds the key. He could be any version of the Doctor, past, present, or future. Perhaps he is a dark shadow lurking at the end of the Doctor’s lifespan, like the Valeyard was, or even an older version of the 8^th Doctor from the Time War that was responsible for the demise of the Time Lords.

The Name of the Doctor provides a rousing climax to the Seventh Season of Doctor Who. Overall I think it’s been a terrific season. While it was sad to say goodbye to Amy and Rory, I’ve really enjoyed the mystery of the impossible girl, Clara Oswald, and have been impressed by diverse array of episodes and themes present in the second half of this season. I’m looking forward to the 50^th Anniversary in November, where this story will continue, and to the eighth season and beyond.

Doctor Who Nightmare In Silver : Review

Tags

Clara, Cybermen, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Hedgewick’s World, Jason Watkins, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Matt Smith, Neil Gaiman, Nightmare In Silver, Stephen Woolfenden, Tamzin Outhwaite, The Doctor, Warwick Davis

Nightmare in Silver

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

Now that Artie (Kassius Carey) and Angie (Eve De-Leon Allen) know about Clara’s time travelling adventures, Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) talks the Doctor (Matt Smith) into taking them all on a day out. The Doctor decides to take them all to Hedgewick’s World, one of the most spectacular theme parks in the universe, a quarter of a million years in the future. He has a golden ticket that will get them all in for free; it also gives them free ice cream, and will allow them to get to the front of all the lines for the best rides.

The TARDIS arrives in the middle of a ride that resembles the surface of the moon, but it turns out that the theme park has been closed for some time. They discover that the facility is now being used as a training camp by the military to discipline their troops. The Doctor and his companions meet a small team of soldiers, led by Captain Alice Ferrn (Tamzin Outhwaite), who is also here for disobeying orders. An old showman called Mr Webley (Jason Watkins) and his henchman Porridge (Warwick Davis) have also made their home here, having arrived in their spaceship after the park closed, and they run a small museum that has seen better days. The Doctor learns that the park was closed down some time ago after people started disappearing from the rides and attractions.

Only a small collection of wonders from cross the galaxy now remain on display in Mr Weebley‘s World. One of the exhibits, the 699^th wonder of the universe, is a Cyberman, a race who were defeated by humanity over a thousand years ago in the last Cyber War. As the Doctor ponders the fate of his old enemy, now reduced to little more than a fairground attraction playing chess, he is unaware that strange insect-like creatures are monitoring their every move.

It would seem that Hedgewick’s World is not as deserted as it appears. When Mr Weebley and the children are infected by the Cybermites, the Doctor tries to rescue them, only to be infected by the tiny robots as well. The Cyber Planner attempts to take over the Doctor’s mind, forcing the Doctor into a deadly game of chess to save Artie and Angie. They manage to get away and join Clara and the soldiers at a castle in the middle of the park. Clara and the soldiers must protect the Doctor while the chess games plays out, but a new race of super intelligent Cybermen are emerging from their tombs and attack the castle. The Doctor manages to defeat the Cyber Planner, freeing himself of its influence, but if they are to escape Porridge will have to make the most difficult choice of all or the Cyber Race will spread throughout the galaxy once more.

Nightmare in Silver has been one of the most eagerly anticipated episodes this season. Written by best selling author Neil Gaiman, writer of the critically acclaimed sixth season story The Doctor’s Wife (2011), Nightmare in Silver also marks the long awaited return of the Cybermen. Having been asked by show runner Steven Moffat to make the Cybermen scary again, Neil Gaiman has crafted a wonderfully creepy story that is sure to become another fan favourite. Nightmare in Silver features many references to classic Cybermen stories from the 60’s, particularly the Moonbase (1967) and the Tomb of the Cybermen (1967). The design elements from those stories also feature strongly, especially on the Cyber Ship, and the history of the Cyber Race permeates every aspect of the story – detailing the legacy of the Cybermen and some of their weaknesses.

After their last appearance in Closing Time (2011), the Cybermen have been given a sleek new look for Nightmare in Silver, which also incorporates many design elements from the past. One aspect that is strikingly effective is the way their faces seem better proportioned now, which makes them look more like their 60’s counterparts. Their armoured forms are now far more agile than the clunky modern version that has remained virtually unchanged since they appeared in Rise of the Cybermen & the Age of Steel (2006). The Cybermen now have weapons built into their arms, a bright glowing chest plate, they possess the ability to move incredibly fast, their limbs are detachable, and they have also developed a horrific new way to upgrade their victims. A new variation of the Cybermats also features in this episode, the insect-like Cybermites, which assist in the Cybermen’s new upgrading process.

Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman continue to impress as the Doctor and Clara face the threat of the Cybermen. The Doctor puts his complete faith in her in A Nightmare in Silver, entrusting her to look after the children, as well as leaving her in charge of a squad of soldiers as the Cyber Invasion begins. Matt Smith gives a stunning performance as the Doctor, even playing opposite himself for the bulk of the episode as he confronts the full horror of Cyber Conversion in his attempt to save everyone from the Cybermen.

Nightmare in Silver also features a superb guest cast. Jason Watkins is great fun as the world weary Mr Webley, who foolishly tries to bargain with the Cybermen. Tamzin Outhwaite is also really good as Captain Fern, who has to make a fighting force out of her undisciplined troops if they are to fight off the Cybermen’s attack, and Warwick Davis is great as Webley’s affable henchman, Porridge, a man with a secret past who just wants to leave the planet. Kassius Carey and Angie Eve De-Leon Allen are also very good as Artie and Angie.

This action packed story is directed by Stephen Woolfenden, who really captures the epic scale of Neil Gaiman’s brilliant script, and its great to see the Cyberemen back in force again in Doctor Who. There are some obvious comparisons between Neil Gaiman’s new Cybermen and the Borg from Star Trek, particularly their hive mind, and the way they try to assimilate the Doctor into  their Cyberriad. Matt Smith is brilliant as he portrays the conflict within him, and this is undoubtedly one of his best performances yet, even though it does mirror Captain Picard’s transformation into Locutus in Star Trek The Next Generation. Nightmare in Silver is a brilliant episode, full of exciting set-pieces, and there is even a stunning homage to the Doctor’s past incarnations as the Cyber Planer vies from control of the Time Lords mind. The new Cybermen look amazing and I hope we get to see them again soon.

Doctor Who The Crimson Horror : Review

Tags

Catrin Stewart, Dan Starky, Diana Rigg, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jenny, Madame Vastra, Mark Gatiss, Matt Smith, Mrs Gillyflower, Neve McIntosh, Rachel Starling, Saul Metzstein, Strax, Sweetvill, The Crimson Horror, Yorkshire

The Crimson Horror

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Crimson Horror sees the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) teaming up with their old friends Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and Strax (Dan Starky) to investigate Sweetvill in Yorkshire, 1890. It seems like an idyllic place, this enclosed factory community with its happy workforce, but ghastly secrets are concealed here and no one ever leaves. People have come to Sweetvill to work in the factory, where they are offered absolution from their sins, and protection against the imminent apocalypse foretold at The End of Days.

While the streets may be spotlessly clean and the people beautiful, dead bodies covered in red wax are being washed up in the river, and a terrifying secret is brewing behind the doors of the Sweetville Mill run by Mrs Gillyflower (Dame Diana Rigg), along with her blind daughter Ada (Rachel Starling), and their mysterious business partner Mr Sweet. When the Doctor and Clara go missing at the mill Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are informed of the strange goings on at Sweetvill. They set out to investigate, with Jenny infiltrating the shadowy building, where she finds the Doctor locked in a room.

After being captured by Mrs Gillyflower, the Doctor was lowered into the steaming vat that houses the Crimson Horror, but because the Doctor is an alien the process fails. Instead of disposing of his body in the river, Ada took pity on him, and locked him away to keep him for herself. When Jenny finds the Doctor his skin is red and he can hardly move. She helps him reverse the process and rescue Clara, just as Vastra and Strax arrive to fend off Mrs Gillyflower’s henchmen.

It transpires that Vastra knows of the Crimson Horror, she informs the Doctor that it is really the venom of a prehistoric parasite which once affected her own race, the Silurians. The parasite is really Mr Sweet, a slug-like creature that has bonded itself symbiotically to Mrs Gillyflower’s body. She has been milking its venom so she can launch it from a rocket inside the mills chimney stack. The Doctor and his friends must stop Mrs Gillyflower from launching the rocket, or the entire world will be poisoned by the Crimson Horror.

Fortunately the Doctor and Clara are able to save Ada from being shot by her mother, while Vastra and Jenny remove the venom from the rocket before Mrs Gillyflower can launch it. A well timed shot from Strax’s gun sends Mrs Gillyflower tumbling to her doom. The parasite detaches itself and tries to crawl away, but Ada finds it, and swiftly kills the creature. The Doctor and Clara say their goodbyes and he takes Clara back home, where he departs for now, but it would seem that the two children Clara is a nanny to have found out about her time travelling adventures…

This story by Mark Gatiss features the welcome return of Madame Vastra, Jenny, and the Sontaran Strax. These characters became fan favourites after they banded together to help The Doctor and Rory rescue Amy Pond from Madame Kovarian’s base on Demon’s Run  in A Good Man Goes To War (2011), and they returned to help the Doctor and Clara (The Governess) fight the Great Intelligence in the 2012 Christmas Special: The Snowmen. It’s great to see the Silurian Detective Madame Vastra and her loyal companion Jenny solving mysteries again, while Strax is as hilarious as ever and together they make a brilliant team as they explore the Sweetvill Mill.

The Crimson Horror is a comparatively Doctor-Lite episode, with the Time Lord and Clara not really featuring much until the midway point of the story. Instead we discover what is happening in Sweetvill as Vastra, Jenny and Strax carry out their own investigation as they attempt to rescue the Doctor and Clara from the mill. Neve McLntosh gives a sublime performance as the Silurian detective, Catrin Stewart plays a pivotal role in the action as Jenny, and Dan Starkey is absolutely hilarious as Strax. The banter between Vastra, Jenny and Strax is really good, with the Sontaran getting all the best lines. This trio of characters work brilliantly together, at times this episode almost feels like a pilot for their own spin-off series.

Indeed, if the onscreen camaraderie between Vastra and her friends in The Crimson Horror is anything to go by, then as spin-off featuring Vastra, Jenny, and Strax solving mysteries and fighting strange alien menaces in Victorian England would be an absolute delight.

Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman are really settling into their roles now. The relationship between the Doctor and Clara is really starting to evolve into something very special, they seem to share a unique bond, and this episode really highlights just what a good team they make. With the Doctor wearing a new variation of his costume, sporting a bowler hat, and with Clara dressed in a Victorian outfit reminiscent of the one she wore as the Governess in The Snowmen, their initial role in the story is told mainly through a series of grainy old film-style flashbacks. There is also a nice reference back to one of the Doctor’s pervious companions, Tegan (Janet Fielding), who travelled with the 5^th Doctor (Peter Davison), when the 11^th Doctor talks about Tegan and says to Clara: “Brave heart Clara.” It’s these nice little touches that have really made the second half of the season so special.

The Crimson Horror also has some fantastic guest stars, with Diana Rigg and her daughter Rachel Stirling appearing on screen together here for the first time ever. Incidentally they play mother and daughter as well in The Crimson Horror, with Diana Rigg as the wickedly evil Mrs Gillyflower, the owner of Sweetvill Mill, and Rachel Stirling as Ada, her poor daughter – who was blinded by her mothers cruel experiments. Mark Gatiss’ wonderful script really plays to their strengths, they have some fantastic scenes together, particularly when the truth about Mr Sweet is revealed, and it’s a joy to see Matt Smith and Diana Rigg working together in this episode.

After his fabulous work on The Snowmen, director Saul Metzstein returns to bring the same distinctive gothic atmosphere to The Crimson Horror as he did with the 2012 Christmas Special, having also directed Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and A Town Called Mercy for first half of the seventh season. The attention to the period detail is as impeccable as we have come to expect, as are the costumes, and the blood red venom being created in the mill is a really sinister concept. I like how the deadly wax-like venom turns people into Mrs Gillyflower’s slaves, it’s quite horrific to see the Doctor infected as well, although the parasite creature is strangely cute for something so disgusting.

This episode also marks something of a landmark for Doctor Who, as it is the 100^th episode to be shown since it returned to our screens in 2005. So far Mark Gatiss has written six stories for Doctor Who, and I think his contributions to Season Seven have been some of his best episodes so far. The Crimson Hand is a good old fashioned mystery, with the Doctor’s images captured uncannily in a dead man’s eye, a laboratory full of bubbling test tubes, some brilliant action for the Paternoster Row gang, and a thoroughly macabre sense of fun with plenty of horror clichés thrown in for good measure. The scene with the young street urchin called Thomas Thomas, who gave Strax some very precise directions to the mill, was a really neat twist on Sat Nav by Mark Gatiss. There are some nice references back to The Snowmen as well, especially as the Doctor tries to explain how Clara is still alive to  Vastra and Jenny, and a funny  closing scene where Clara realises that the children she looks after have found out that her secret “boyfriend” is really a time traveller.

The Crimson Horror is another great episode by Mark Gatiss, it’s full of dark humour and cheeky double entendres, and it’s great to see the Doctor working with Vastra, Jenny and Strax again. The plot involving Mrs Gillyflower and her bonneted assistants as they ensnare their unwitting workforce in their scheme is really chilling, transforming them into her mindless puppets, so she can launch a rocket full of the red venom and infect the entire world with the Crimson Horror. The period setting is a bizarre amalgamation of steam punk and fantasy, with some foreboding gothic undertones, that work together with the terrific ensemble cast to make The Crimson Horror one of the most entertaining – if slightly silly – stories of the seventh season.

Doctor Who Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS : Review

Tags

Baalen Brothers, Clara, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Dr Who Season 7, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, Mat King, Matt Smith, Michael Pickwood, Stephen Thompson, TARDIS

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

After the TARDIS has a nasty encounter with a salvage vessel, the time machine is dragged into the ship and dumped onto a scrapheap where it starts leaking time. The space faring Van Baalen Brothers think they have just stumbled upon one the of the greatest hauls of they‘ve ever made, a unique space time machine like the TARDIS could make them a fortune, and they intend to break the TARDIS up and sell it to the highest bidder.

Naturally the Doctor is not prepared to let the TARDIS be plundered without a fight, especially when Clara becomes lost in its corridors, so he puts the TARDIS into lockdown mode and activates the self destruct system – giving them just 30 minutes to find Clara before the ship collapses in on itself and is completely destroyed.

The Doctor and the and Baalen Brothers must find a path through the infinite labyrinth of TARDIS corridors to save Clara, encountering bizarre anomalies and echoes within hidden depths of the malfunctioning time machine, unaware that sinister monsters are also tracking them through the ship, growing angrier as they prepares to attack. While the Doctor and the Baalen brother’s battle to stay alive, Clara makes her way through the TARDIS, she finds many amazing rooms, and stumbles upon one of the Doctor’s greatest secrets…

The title of this episode is enough to raise fan expectations to fever pitch, and for the most part, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS lives up to its thrilling premise. This episode is written by Stephen Thompson, who also penned the 2011 story The Curse of the Black Spot, and he takes us on a tantalizing adventure right to the heart of the TARDIS itself. The Doctor’s time machine has been explored many times during the shows history: the Doctor and Sarah Jane found a new wood panelled control room in The Mask of Mandragora (1976), in The Invasion of Time (1978) the Sontarans broke into the TARDIS and chased the Doctor and Leela through a vast number of rooms, a majestic cloister appeared in Logopolis (1981), and the healing properties of the Zero Room played a vital role in stabilising the 5^th Doctor’s regeneration in Castrovalva (1982). Since the series return, only the Doctor’s Wife (2011), has really featured the interior of the TARDIS to any great degree, after the time machine was taken over by the parasitic entity House who tortured Amy and Rory with nightmarish visions as they fled through the corridors.

Indeed, The Invasion of Time was the last story to really explore the TARDIS interior in 1978, but due to industrial action, location filming at an old Victorian asylum had to double for the ships vast network of corridors and rooms, hardly creating the desired effect that would have been created by more ambitions studio sets. Fortunately there are no such problems here, and Stephen Thompson’s action packed story has given designer Michael Pickwood, the man responsible for the new TARDIS console room that debuted in the The Snowmen (2012), and director Mat King a field day as the TARDIS corridors and rooms are explored like never before.

There is a real sense of depth and scale as the long TARDIS corridors lead to some amazing rooms: there is an enormous swimming pool, a grand library steeped in shadows, the architectural reconfiguration chamber, an observatory, the Eye of Harmony, and a vast chasm which leads to the incredible splendour of the bizarre void that awaits the Doctor and Clara at the centre of the TARDIS itself. We experience the immense beauty and wonder of the TARDIS in this episode, as well as the dark terror that can be lurking around the next corner, and it’s also quite a shock to see the TARDIS and the console so badly damaged.

This is a very claustrophobic story that really pushes the Doctor’s and Clara’s trust issues to the limit. Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman are constantly developing new aspects to the Doctor and Clara’s relationship; it makes for some really intense scenes, especially as the imminent destruction of the TARDIS forces them to confront their innermost doubts about each other. The zombie-like monsters are also very creepy as they stalk the corridors, their charred bodies move with unnatural speed, making them incredibly menacing.

As the Doctor and Clara make become trapped the identity of the emaciated monsters – their slightest touch burns horribly – is revealed. They seem to have a link to Clara, as if they are some kind of echo from the future, one where the Doctor has failed to save her again. Later when they are faced with a bottomless abyss, the Doctor confronts Clara, revealing his past encounters with Oswin and the Governess to his companion, an emotional moment which leads to them taking the greatest leap of faith of all. Once inside the centre of the TARDIS the markings burnt into Clara’s hand at the start of the episode help he Doctor find the time rift that was caused when the Baalen Brothers captured the TARIDS. Knowing that the memory of these events may be erased when the Doctor enters the rift, Clara asks the Doctor about his true name, the one she read in the book she found in the library about the Time War. The Doctor stops her from saying his name, before leaping into the rift, travelling back to the beginning of the adventure to prevent the TARDIS being captured.

The Baalen Brothers, Gregor (Ashley Walters), Bram (Mark Liver), and Tricky (Jahvel Hall) are a motley bunch of intergalactic rag-and-bone-men, who take great delight in assessing how much money the TARDIS will make them, but unwittingly find themselves trapped inside the very prize they thought they had just captured. There are some great moments as we see them exploring the TARDIS, using their computer to put a value on everything they find, and it’s an interesting concept to imagine this incredible time machine being broken up and sold as scrap. It’s also quite disturbing how the Baalen Brothers made their younger brother, Tricky, believe he was an android after he was injured in an accident. The Doctor is rightly appalled by their actions, deeming it just a cruel trick played by the Brothers to alleviate their boredom. Events inside the TARDIS force the Baalen Brothers to admit the truth to Tricky, which leads into a nice coda at the end of the episode.

Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS is another really good episode. We get to see many new areas of the TARDIS, some of them quite unexpected, and Clara’s voyage to the centre of the time machine also leads to her discovery of the Doctor’s name. Although the conclusion to Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS may seem a little bit rushed, it leaves us wondering if Clara really has forgotten everything, possibly foreshadows even darker things to come. There are also plenty of references to the history of Doctor Who, we hear several familiar voices from the past  as time leaks from beneath the TARDIS console, and there are some really exciting action sequences as the monsters run amok which makes Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS one of the most exciting episodes this season.