Blog Archives

Doctor Who: Listen Review

doctor-who-listen-headerSteven Moffat has two tricks that he really likes to use when writing episodes. The first is creating and/or solving problems through wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey time paradoxes. I’ve lost count of the number of times that we’ve seen that. The second is trying to scare little children of everyday things. We’ve done statues, shadows and this week, we’re supposed to be scared of being alone in the dark.

Moffat decided to hybrid timey-wimey with everyday horror in Listen. In many ways, it’s a spiritual successor to Blink, the first time we met the Weeping Angels. Maybe it was a bit too familiar, though.

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Doctor Who: Into the Dalek Review

doctor-who-into-the-dalek-headerSince Steven Moffat has taken over as executive producer of Doctor Who, the Daleks have been used sparingly. There have only really been two Dalek episodes, 2010’s Victory of the Daleks and 2012’s Asylum of the Daleks (which was more a Clara episode than a Dalek episode). This is in stark contrast to the Russell T. Davies era (which I have more than this issue with) which had eight Dalek episodes in four seasons and generally made them look like chumps in all but one of those stories.

For the second episode of the Capaldi era, we’ve already got ourselves a Dalek episode. There’s no better way to throw a Doctor head first into the chaos of the universe than pitting him against his arch-nemesis.

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Doctor Who: Deep Breath Review

doctor-who-deep-breath-headerGiven the recent explosion in popularity that Doctor Who has seen on this side of the pond, it seems as though that Deep Breath might be the greatest test of the revived Doctor Who. Sure, this is the fourth incarnation of the series but it with Doctor Who becoming more and more popular during Matt Smith’s tenure at the controls of the TARDIS, this will be many fans’ first regeneration.

While Deep Breath won’t go down as the greatest Doctor Who adventure ever, it certainly worked well at showing that the show is changing pace and themes with the new man in the blue box.

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Doctor Who: The Time of The Doctor Review

doctor-who-the-time-of-the-doctor-headerThe recent Doctor Who Christmas special marked a couple of milestones for the series. Not only did The Time of The Doctor mark Matt Smith’s final appearance as The Doctor and Peter Capaldi’s first appearance in the titular role but it was the series’ 800th episode dating back to 1963.

Given the hit or miss nature of many of the 11th Doctor’s adventures, would his final story at the helm of the TARDIS be another Moffat classic or would Eleven go out with a whimper rather than a bang?

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Sherlock Season 3 Teaser Drops

Because there wasn’t much news this weekend, here’s the teaser trailer for Season Three of Sherlock. It doesn’t tell us anything new but all your favourites are in it so I’d imagine that you’d be kinda interested to see it if you haven’t watched it a couple of dozen times already.

Doctor Who – The Bells of Saint John Review

doctor-who-bells-of-saint-john-posterSteven Moffat loves that little catchphrase that he wrote back in Season 3’s Blink. When Moffat writes, you get the sense that wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey will be involved at some point. (That or Weeping Angels.) With new companion Clara Oswald, we got our fair share of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey fun. There just wasn’t that same Moffat writing that we come to expect from his episodes in The Bells of Saint John.

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BBC May Have Big Plans for Doctor Who’s 50th

doctor-who-the-eleven-doctorsA report in the Birmingham Mail (via Airlock Alpha) says that Christopher Eccleston will once again don his leather jacket and man the helm of the TARDIS as he returns for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special.

Not only did the Mail say that Ecclestone was returning as the Ninth Doctor but would be joined by all actors who played one of Matt Smith/The Doctor’s previous incarnations. This includes deceased actors William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee who played the first three Doctors. Read the rest of this entry