DOCTOR WHO 7.05 - The Angels Take Manhattan

Scanners indicate an absence of spoilers

So then, here we are at the mid-series finale, or rather the the mini-season climax as I think of it. After this, there's no more Doctor Who until Christmas. But what a fine choice of adversary for this final episode! Following in the footsteps of both the Muppets and Jason Voorhees, the most iconic of monsters that new Who has spawned, the Weeping Angels, return for a third momentous outing!  

Now I must confess, in what seems to be a somewhat traditional fashion for this series, the title did give me pause for thought. For this isn't the first time, that the TARDIS crew has visited the Big Apple. However the last time was the less than fondly remembered Daleks in Manhattan. Of course, considering their previous appearances, Blink and The Time of the Angels/Flesh And Stone, some the better adventures the series had delivered since its triumphant return in 2005, I really shouldn't have worried. 

Well, not about that at least...

...What I should have been fretting about is how in the name of Sutek am I going to review this without spoilers! For, of course, this final episode sees showrunner Steven Moffat returning to scripting duties. And as long-time readers know, his episodes always give me a headache reviewing sans spoilers! 

So then what can I tell you? Well, the Angels are on top creepy form as per usual, New York looks fantastic, the performances are great and the scripting is Moffat on good form... And that's it, thank you and goodnight! 

What you want more? Who do you think you are? An extra in Oliver! ?

Oh alright then... but be warned....

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HAS SUCKED BACK IN TIME BY ANGELS, IMPRISONED ON A PYRAMID ON MARS OR OTHERWISE BEEN OBLIVIOUS OF WHAT IMPORTANT EVENT THIS EPISODE CONTAINS

Still with me? Ok then...

 ...*deep breathe*...

... This episode sees the return of River Song! 

Right that'll teach you to skip ahead, oh impatient one! 

ABSO-FLIPPIN -UTELY LAST SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL THOSE LIVING IN A CAVE WITH THE TRIBE OF GUMM AND HAVEN'T SEEN A SCINTILLA OF WHO NEWS IN THE LAST NINE MONTHS

Right then, no messin' about, in this episode we bid the Ponds a fond farewell. And this departure has been billed by all concerned as 'heart-breaking'. And indeed, judging by the amount 'ahm fine... I jus' got somefink in mah eye...' style twitterings on my time-line, I think it's fair to say that this was no mere hyperbole! 

Of course, the big question is HOW they go and one I won't answer here. However what I will say is that I thought is was a very satisfying departure. It's a very fine, and yes rather touching (look I jus' got somefink in mah eye...), conclusion to the whole of Amy and Rory's story arc. Definite thumbs up (and hanky in the other mitt) from me. 

And I also think it's fair to say, that in that light, it does seem like that this has been a little complete series on its own, rather than a half-season. Furthermore, having got the conclusion, I do think my initial suspicions were correct - namely, that this set of stories are as unconnected as we were lead to believe. 

Now then I know many of you have been missing the spoilerific second reviews I've done for series past of Doctor Who and so therefore I've having a marathon rewatch of this quintet of adventures in the coming week and will deliver a suitably epic, no spoiler left unturned, end of season round-up, and test the above hypothesis... probably to destruction! 

But for now, I'll round this off by saying that this series has been a rather strong run. It may not have been biggest, or best, and it may have been rather light-weight much of the time, but it's certainly been fairly solid, without a single episode I've not enjoyed. The show's been ticking along nicely, and while some may feel it's been idling, I would point out that next year is the big 50th anniversary and I suspect they are saving the really big guns for then...

DOCTOR WHO 6.13 - The Wedding of River Song Spoiler Zone (or Jim'll Fix it)

Shh! Spoilers sweetie!

My giddy aunt! There's been alot of toys chucked from prams over this one hasn't there! So before we get going - and note I speak as a life-long fan, one of whom's earliest memories is seeing the Sea Devils rise from the waves - I'll say this: 

Calm down dear! It's only Doctor Who! 

And to use Mr Danny Davies' wonderful phrase, a good blast from the Perspective Cannon is in order here! Yes, it's time to practise that ancient and noble, yet seemingly dying out, art of getting a frakking grip!

Now then in the interests of full disclosure, let's rewind to last Saturday night. The credits have just begun to roll and as per usual with a Moffat scripted episode, I wonder how the name of Azal am I going to review that with out letting slip the dogs of spoiler. However this time, I have an additional problem because I'm somewhat conflicted on the now infamous resolution, namely that the figure we saw die on the shores of Lake Silencio was not actually the Doctor, but our favourite Time Lord driving a Teselecta.

You see, I'm feeling disappointed as I was expecting the big reveal to be something I hadn't considered, and so there's an aura of 'oh, what that  it?' floating in the air. However I am of certain of two things - firstly that overall I rather enjoyed this episode but secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I really like the position Moffat has left the character pointed in.

While I'm trying to sort out and generally weigh up this mix of different emotions, I notice that the internet is already beginning to flame, with with all manner of folks screaming 'Cheat!' and some even transforming into the Comic Book Guy, and without a shred of irony, shrieking 'Worst. Finale. Evah!'. And this crowd saying  'Boo! Teselecta! Rewind!' also annoys me, and not just for reminding me of Craig Bloody David but for for reasons we'll get to later.

Anyhow, I pen my spoiler-free review basically saying 'fun episode, divisive end I'm not sure about yet' and leave it at that. Then I make another large pot of Earl Grey and sit down to start pondering this business properly...

Mr Jim's reasoning goes like this...

Sip 1 - As soon as they mentioned the Teselecta in the Previously montage, the thought occurred that this was probably how the Doctor was going to cheat to death.

Sip 2 - Though as the episode progressed and built towards the end, I was still wondering whether Moffat was going to the Doctor actually die... Now obviously he has to survive somehow as we know he's coming back for the Christmas special. But I had concocted a dubious theory - I'd read somewhere Moffat had said that this year's Yuletide special would be riffing on another classic Christmas story and as he'd done a Christmas Carol last year, the next obvious choice would be It's A Wonderful Life. And this tale concerns a fellow being taken out of time at the point of his death, I wondered whether Moffat would have something similar in store for the Doctor i.e. the Doctor would die but in the Christmas special a Clarence analogue would restore him to life...

Sip 3 - I quite liked that idea... that would have been brilliant! Stupid Teselecta!

Sip 4 - But it's not a cheat is it? Cheating would be altering how that death scene played out or making it not happen - but it does play out how we first saw it. Admittedly with a Time Crisis occurring within a split second we hadn't seen the first time, but  it IS the same - the difference is that now we know that the event has effectively been mislabelled - the Doctor only appeared to die or rather a decoy Doctor died. The fixed point happened, and the real Doctor was actually present too, but it's only historical archives that have wrongly recorded that he didn't survive.

Dunks biscuit - And of course that was the point - really like the way now the Doctor is set up to have small adventures - no more Lonely God hyperbole and everybody knowing who he is. Yes, back to being a mysterious man in a box. Me likee.

Sip 5 - And he did set it up too! It's perfectly in line with Chekhov's Gun isn't it - he introduced it five episodes ago and 'fired' it in the final act. Plus there was the business with the Gangers as a red herring. Yes, I did rule out the Teselecta as the solution originally (see here) as it wasn't exactly brilliant at mimicking natural behaviour... But I had considered what if a Doctor was driving it... And honestly as for all this blubbing about beginning of a regeneration means it can't have been the Teselecta, Moffat did deliberately shown us this android turning into a Nazi on a motorbike, so obviously some orange fireworks aren't stretching it's abilities very much at all. Especially with the Doctor at the wheel!

Sip 6 - So not a cheat - and it's not a rewind or reset either. During the Time Crisis, there's plenty of dialogue to confirm that all the events of this season have happened - the Silence's taunt to Rory was very cheeky but most explicitly the scene with Amy and Madame Korvarian... And how she deals with Madame, blimey that was COLD! Still in the words of the legendary Adham Fisher 'the bitch had it coming!'  Damn, she looked hot firing that machine gun... Do I have time for... No, moving swiftly on...

Dunks biscuit again - How does Amy not remember the Time Crisis before this episode though? Hmm... No, got it! It's a case of Who's Time-line Is It Anyway. And the defining time-line is the Doctor's naturally. At the start of the season, Amy meets Future Doctor and see his Teselecta gambit play out. What I'm calling the Time Crisis happens, but it's resolved and every one's none the wise. Her Doctor appears and the season unfolds, so then when he enters the Time Crisis the Amy he meets in that alternate world has shared all those adventures. And so Amy can only remember the Time Crisis after it occurred, which for her happens after at some point after The God Complex. More simply put - the Doctor's time-line sets the continuity for every one else as he's the focus of the Time Crisis!

None of that is probably very important... I should get out more... Where was I?

In the kingdom of Inferno, the one eyed Brig is king!

Sip 7 - Oh yes! Speaking of eye drives, very nice tribute to dear of Nick Courtney. I mean, aside from the lovely scene with the Doctor discovering the Brig has passed away, the whole business with an alternate world and everyone wearing eye patches was a very subtle tip of the hat to the old fella. He used to love telling that tale about the filming of Inferno, in which he played an evil version of the Brig who sported an eye patch and one day on set every one else donned on to surprise him...

Sip 8 - Yes, there was alot to enjoy in this one - live chess, Churchill, Area 52 - but it was not quite as triumphant a finale as usual. This prophecy about the fall and the fields of Trentzalore is intriguing. Now looking at the series timeline, effectively we've got one more series before hitting the 50th anniversary in 2013. So is this the middle section in a Silence trilogy to take us up to the big event? Yes, I think it could be - certainly would fit the tone of this finale... a moody one like the end of Empire Strikes Back!

Dunks biscuit again - Bloody hell! Just realised something - that shot from the 'Coming Soon' bit at the end of A Good Man Goes To War - you know the skeletal hand holding a dying sonic? Obviously that was NEVER any thing to do with the events at Lake Silencio... Is that yet to come?

Sip 9 - But what about the answer to the oldest question in the universe apparently being 'Doctor who?' Can't decide whether that's daft or just rubbish! Surely the oldest question would be something like 'Is there a God?' or 'Why are we here?'... But hold up matey! It's only the oldest question according to the beliefs of the Silence! And they're blatantly Doctor-obsessed nutters! So that does work... and on several meta-levels! You cheeky git Moffat!

Sip 10 - Still a bit disappointed by the Teselecta though. I'd thought of that one! It should have been something I didn't anticipate dammit!

Sip 11 - But I bet alot of other folks didn't see it coming, and most heavily I guess in the general audience... You know those millions poor sods outside the hallowed halls of nerdom, who are either wheeled out as victims of cruel scriptwriters and their complex plots, or the despised element that's making the show is now being crap because it's writing down for them.

Sip 12 -  Hang on! In that case, shouldn't I be patting myself on the back for being a clever dick rather than whinging? Me guessing and the set of expectations I cultivated aren't exactly Moffat's fault are they?

Drops biscuit in tea! - Thank Rassilon I didn't charge onto the net and start shrieking like a twat!

Sip 13 - We're a right pack of gits sometimes aren't we? We can't just say 'I didn't like that one' and move on, we have to make out it's an apocalypse event. And in doing so we're often missing important points. Just because we may feel let down that we guessed, we're too quick to accuse Moffat terrible writing, and  yet screaming 'cheat!' and 'rewind!' shows us to be guilty of the same sloppy thinking we're claiming he's guilty of.  In the case of this episode, the plot mechanics of the Doctor's survival aren't actually the most important thing. The fact is we've been mass debating his apparent death for so long, nitpicking over the scifi bullshit - and I stress I'm guilty of this too - we've forgotten to pay attention to the proper content of the story.

And that's partly why genre work isn't taken more seriously, why there's a split between art and pop culture. Because we're always claiming our favourite scifi deserves to be taken seriously, but when people from the other side of fence pay us a visit they find us squabbling over the specs of spaceships and what abilities androids have built in rather than discussing the themes and character development...

In this season, the real story has been the Doctor coming to terms with the consequences of his actions, of what he has actually become through blithely flying through time and space and helping out as he sees fit. And it has ended with the Doctor deciding to let the cosmos think he has gone and be far more circumspect in what he does...

 And I rather suspect that future Who fans, who will come to this season without the blinkers of expectations over the Doctor's death, will judge this set of stories on the above basis. And they'll find all this hullabaloo rather foolish and somewhat embarrassing, in much the same way we look back at the tantrums, or should that be fantrums over The Three Doctors which was absolutely despised for the heinous crime of making the Time Lords look a bit doddery.

Last sip - One of the great delusions of being in a fan is thinking we know better. However what we often forget is that Doctor Who isn't our show, it a god-damn British institution. And furthermore it's probably the most difficult program on television to write these days. Now there's no brief for the series at the BBC, but in the ruins of the Death Zone on Gallifrey - and yes, yes, I know it's not there any more but don't go missing the point again - there is an ancient prophecy carved into the primordial rock. And it reads thus...

For those who would chronicle the adventures 

Of the One they called the Doctor, 

Beware the legions of the Howling Halls,

For if it is too simple they shalt carp,

If it be too complex they will bleat,

If you recount tales in isolation

You will be accused of pandering to fools,

Yet if thou constructs a serial

They will complain said fools cannot follow it!

Should thou be witty in your tellings

Bile and venom shall follow,

Be thou serious, and kickings will descend,

Show a heart and thy name shall be soap,

And if it be terrifying, they shall bitch

'Won't some one think of the children!'

Yes, as Our Lord truly said "There's no pleasing some people!" (Brian 6 v2). And although I am undoubtedly an obsessive Who, there are still enough corners in my brain not stuffed with Daleks and wooly scarves to realise that I really wouldn't relish being in charge of the show and having to somehow balance these multifarious polarities and try to please millions of people. And obviously you can't please all of the people all of the time and sometimes episodes do falter. 

But more importantly, far too often we forget the fact that both Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have managed to pull off this Herculean feat on many many occasions. And as we always claim the Doctor is a great role model, we therefore should act with a little more grace when we perceive they do drop the ball...

Right, I'm putting the kettle again on, anyone fancy a cup? I've got a whole season to rewatch and some Jammie Dodgers...

DOCTOR WHO 6.08 - Let's Kill Hitler Spoiler Zone

So then somewhat belatedly - it's been one of those weeks folks! - here's the Spoilers Zone for Let's Kill  Hitler! The spoiler free review can be found here

Shh! Spoilers sweetie!

Well, the first thing to address is probably that title Let's Kill Hitler... Now contrary to expectations, this wasn't an episode exploring the age old time travel questions as the moral implications of killing a young Adolf before his rise to power or the consequences of messing about with historical time lines. Indeed, this story is actually rather Fuhrer-lite, and on reflection this is probably a good thing. 

For while there's acres of decent potential material for stories here, Doctor Who perhaps isn't the right arena for them. Certainly it would be ideal for a Big Finish audio or the old Virgin/BBC novels, but on the box on a Saturday tea-time not so much. Being a family orientated show and having an eccentric and often funny lead character, it would be difficult to explore the material properly, doing justice to the moral complexities and the horrors of the Third Reich without either appearing to make light of the very serious historical events or being accused of getting too dark and intricate for the younger viewers. 

So then, I think Moffat chose wisely to keep Hitler in the cupboard, and instead delivering a tale which nicely touches on the concepts of using time travel to right historical wrongs but mainly is about a very different time criminal, River Song. It's very much her origin story and surprisingly Moffat actually gives us a ton of answers. In the course of the episode we learn who the Silence actually are, why River doesn't regenerate when she died in Forest of the Dead, who taught her to fly the TARDIS and what may be truth about a very old fan bugbear temporal grace. And there's more tidbits revealed too but we'll get to them later.

So then alot of reveals here, tying up a great many dangling threads, which should please all those fretting that Series  6 has been getting rather continuity heavy. Now the second half looks to be clear to build up to concluding the question of what really happens with the Doctor's apparent death at Lake Silencio. 

Of course, this being Doctor Who, a show whose format allows it tell many different sorts of stories in diverse tones, as always you're not going to please all of the people all of the time. For while some will applaud the batty cocktail of thrills, drama and comedy packed into Let's Kill Hitler, others will be left cold by the romping nature of the story. 

Now personally, I tend to think that new Who has tended to over-egg the comedy pudding, something that Moffat has largely reined in a bit. However, not always and this episode is one of those occasions, hence some will love it as a return to the over the top shennigans of the RTD era, and other loathe it for precisely the same reasons. 

And I must to confess to being slight conflicted on the matter myself. On one hand, if you're going to be a romp, you might as well really let rip and be outrageously daft as Let's Kill Hitler. For example, I loved the Teselecta which managed to be both a sly dig at the pompous moralising of some incarnations of Star Trek and also a homage to  The Numbskulls a comedy comic strip about a man who was piloted by the titular little fellas living in his head, appearing first in The Beezer and later The Beano. And quick-fire quippage from all the regular cast was comedy gold. All in all, if you're going over the top, do it in style!

Now largely Moffat managed to keeps the balance pitched so that the fun didn't detract from the drama and keep the plotting tight. However on the downside, there was a few instances where I felt the writing was so hurried that key plot points weren't explained enough. Now after a second watch, I'm convinced this isn't a case of Moffat taking a soiled leaf out of RTD's books and papering over plot holes and logical gaps with some big shiny spectacle. I think it's more a case of shoving so much into the episode, a couple of issues didn't quite get enough dialogue or screen-time to give them the correct dramatic weight. 

Firstly, I'm thinking specifically of the climax, where River decides to switch sides and/or break her Silence conditioning and the business of how she saves the Doctor. For although her change of heart was seeded, I don't think there was enough on screen for her change of heart to be properly convincing. Or alternatively, there was enough there but it was smothering by everything else the plot was doing. 

As for her giving up her remaining regenerations to save our hero, I can buy that in her post regenerative state she could channel the energy into the Doctor to heal him. However I honestly think we needed a line or two more to make this seem at little less than a deus ex machina. Just having River say 'I'm still regenerating you know' after she says 'I'm trying to help' would have made everything clearer and more credible.

Now all of this did have me wondering whether it was wise to try and cram so much into the episode. However I can forgive these missteps as on the whole the story was just so much fun and so bold in it's storytelling. Highly enjoyable but the niggles do mean it misses the classic adventure mark. 

But while we're on the subject of regeneration, there's been much speculation that just as River could shrug off the Nazi bullets, this is how Moffat will get the Doctor out of his death by Astronaut. Well, this theory doesn't actually work as this super healing only occurs AFTER a physical regeneration - it's a feature of the post regenerative cycle as The Christmas Invasion makes clear. Hence the Doctor would have had to transformed into his 12th body and the new incarnation be 'still cooking'  to be able to negate damage in this way.

Furthermore, the crew of the Teselecta state that the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio is a fixed point in time - it cannot be changed and hence would suggest that there can be no contradiction of the death as we've seen it. In last week's Radio Times feature, Mr Moffat himself writes in the introduction to the coming batch of adventures -

We all saw it happen - his final moments, the failed regeneration, the body in the burning boat. No hope, no escape, no excuses: we have seen the future and the Doctor is not going to survive it.

 And you what, I think he means it!

Now obviously the Doctor is going to survive by some means... but how? Is that chap we saw die the Ganger Doctor? Unlikely as he didn't dissolve to white fleshy goo. Is it the Teselecta? Also unlikely as despite its powers of mimicry, this time traversing Numbskull vechicle wasn't exactly adept at acting naturally - this robot had trouble not moving in a jerky mechanical fashion, so it's hard to believe it could replace the Doctor convincingly enough to fool Amy, Rory and River... Hang on, could it be the Teselecta piloted by the Ganger Doctor?!?

Well that's a possibility! However considering this series is the second chapter in a story line that started in Moffat's first season, and what next year's series is going to be is shrouded in mystery but certainly appears that it will be building up to the big 50th anniversary in 2013,  I suspect that there won't be a simple get-out to the Doctor's impending death.

So then we know that the Doctor will die as we've seen. And this episode tell us that River is indeed wanted for his murder. However is that why she's in prison in the Stormcage Facility? And is it her younger self in the space suit that rises from the Lake in Utah?

However as Moffat has shown in this outing, he's not adverse to giving out answers before the very end. And no doubt he's got more surprises still stuck up his capacious sleeves...

DOCTOR WHO - A GOOD MAN GOES TO THE SPOILER ZONE

So then the battle for Demon’s Run is over, and at last I can remove the spoiler gauntlets and reveal some more detailed thoughts on this first ever mid-season finale. Now as I’ve already stated in my spoiler-free write-up, this was a great episode, fast paced and full of action, drama and humour. It was a thrilling and fun way to round off this first half of the season, with many great moments and fascinating elements.

First off, I was highly delighted that the inclusion of the Sontarans, Silurians and Cybermen did not herald anything as prosaic as the Alliance from the end of last season reforming. I had a sneaking suspicion that Moffat was going to subvert such expectations and feature a very different alliance, one formed by the Doctor...

And indeed this was the case. From the somewhat sentimental point of view of an old fan, it was a real pleasure to see the Doctor and the Silurians working together at last, after all those past clashes where his attempts to establish a detente had come to naught. Neve McIntosh, with previously played Alaya and Restac in last season’s Silurian two parter, gives us another memorable performance, and shows she could easily carry a series of her own - and I’m guessing I’m not alone is wishing for a spin-off series for Madame Vastra and Jenny.

The on-going adventures of a Silurian lady in Victorian London has great scope; not only do we have rich characters and a vivid setting but there’s also room for some classic fish-out-of-water antics as Vastra comes to terms with living in a completely alien future society like a Jurassic Adam Adamant. It may sound something of a far fetched concept, but the Victorians were quite as stuffy as we believe them to be *; theirs was a society based on cutting edge technology and delighted in new sensations, and many differently abled persons turned their physical misfortunes into success and celebrity in this culture that sought the shock of the new. Hence Madame Vastra could easily integrate into Victorian society by claiming she was afflicted with an unusual skin condition.

Equally pleasing for dyed-in-the-scarf Who fans was Commander Strax, played with aplomb by Dan Starkey. The concept of a Sontaran doing penance as working as a nurse was a delight to behold, and aside from providing some very fun lines, the idea itself is exactly the kind of intelligent inversion that the race’s creator and legendary Who scribe, Robert Holmes revelled in. And while Strax’s statements did produced some great laughs, these funny to human ears pronouncements give us an insight into an alien society who view things very differently. Too often in the show’s past, the Sontarans have been written as the run of the mill intergalactic warmongers, and so far the new series has gone to the back to basics established by Holmes in their first appearance The Time Warrior; that this race is not evil per se, but just hold different values to us.

I do have on very minor quibble here though, where Moffat missed a trick. When Strax is dying, he objects to Rory referring to him as ‘a great warrior’, countering that he is just a nurse. Now personally I’d have had The Last Centurion gently reply ‘So am I...’ Feel free to add that to the fan edit that runs in your heads.

Moving swiftly on, the Cybermen’s appearance was brief but spectacular. The scenes of mayhem in the Cyber Legion’s HQ was truly cinematic and also delivered perhaps my favourite moment of the episode - Rory facing down a room of silver giants and saying ‘Do you want me to repeat the question?’. As well as air punching all round, sharp eyed viewers may have noted that these Cybermen appear to be native to our universe, rather than those from Pete’s World, for if you look closely they do not have the Cybus logo on their chest plates.

But enough of remarking on the little details, what of the big reveal that River Song is Amy and Rory’s daughter? Well, I have to say that I did see it coming, although to be honest I can’t claim a right guess here. You see the thing is, I’ve read, heard and indeed indulged in so much speculation as to the truth about River Song, I had hit on the idea she was Amy’s child. But with so many other possibilities for my imagination to play with, I’d never selected it or any other theory as my best guess. After all this is Moffat story line, and he’s good at weaving plot threads in unexpected ways, so I was content to speculate without reaching a firm conclusion and just enjoy the ride.

However in the opening scenes of this episode when Amy named her baby ‘Melody’, I became fairly sure that River was her child. And when River told Rory that she could join the battle for Demon’s Run until the end, I became certain that not only was this was the case but also that little Melody wouldn’t be safe with her family.

And why? Well in the Doctor Who universe there is a thing called the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. The exact nature of this law of Time, first mentioned in Day of the Daleks is uncertain, but what we do know is that it is extremely hazardous to cross one’s own time stream. Remember how Rose was instructed to stay away from her baby self in Father’s Day, this is because if they touched there would be an explosion of time energy, potentially opening a rift in the space-time continuum. And we have seen this in the show before, firstly in Mawdryn Undead in the classic series, but also last year in The Big Bang. In the latter we saw the Doctor test to see if the multiple sonic screwdrivers were the same item and there a resulting ‘pop’ – now I know it didn’t look terribly serious but remember that at that time the Universe had all but collapsed and so the energy discharge was tiny.

But what of all those Doctor team-up stories, you say… Well, apparently as Time-sensitive species, they are at least partially immune to the effect but still it’s generally considered bad form to go messing about in your own time stream. As Time Lord or not, there is the possibility of creating damaging paradoxes and time loops, not to mention risking attracting the unwelcome attentions of the denizens of the Time Vortex like Reapers, Chronovores and continuity obsessed fanboys.

Therefore as a time traveller, and indeed as an associate of the Doctor, River no doubt realised that appearing early would be temporally risky. Plus she probably already knows the story of the events surrounding her birth, and therefore she can’t appear until the allotted moment without rewriting time.

But anyhow all that’s beside the point (what were you saying about continuity obsessed fanboys, hmm? Mr Kettle meet Mr Pot… - Ed. ), back to the reveal proper. Now, the big problem was setting up big mysteries is that now matter how well you execute them there is always the risk that when you finally lay the cards on the table, it’s going to be a let-down. Of course, you are on better ground if you have planned your story arc out properly from the beginning for cobbling something to fit at the last minute is rarely successful (looks disapprovingly at Battlestar Galactica), but even then it is a bit of damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. If you lay down clues and allow your audience a decent chance of guessing, some will be disappointed even though they were right, while if you pull something out of left field in a sneaky fashion, other will cry cheat.

Now personally, I was just a tad underwhelmed by the reveal as I’d put the clues together beforehand. But I stress just a tad, for I didn’t get there until this episode. But all the same it was beautifully played, and actually the more I think about it, the more questions it raises. River being Melody isn’t the final answer, it’s just another piece, albeit a big one, to a larger puzzle.

To begin with, if River is Melody why doesn't see remember being in the spacesuit and killing the Doctor? Could this be down to Silent-generated amnesia? Or are we barking up the wrong tree in assuming that the little girl astronaut who later regenerates is River Song?

Remember we have already seen River die in Forest of the Dead and there was no regeneration then… Of course, the incident at the core could be one of those sudden fatal events that not even regeneration can save. Or possibly she has lost this Time Lord ability in later years.

And there is also the mystery of why their time lines are running in opposite directions. Of course skipping about the whole of history is going to lead to meeting folks out of sequence, but it seems mightily suspect to me that every River we met is at an earlier point in her time line. Surely sometimes they’d managed to meet in the right order? And when you consider that in the classic series, there appeared to be some mechanism which ensure Time Lords always met in the right sequence (i.e. the latest incarnation of the Doctor always encounter the latest version of the Master), the fact that River and Doctor’s time lines are running in opposite directions suggests there’s something very unusual going on here.

And there’s an even bigger question looming over us - we still don’t know who ‘the good man, the best I ever knew’ she killed is…

However, as she takes the name River Song, this could suggest she ends up spending part of her early life in the Gamma Forest. Certainly the scene when the Doctor and Lorna Bucket finally, and tragically, meet again could be read as indicating that the meeting with child Lorna has yet to occur. Yes, I know he claimed to remember her but after her passing he does ask Madame Vastra who she was and also bear in mind River’s First Rule About The Doctor - he always lies. So then, could we be set for a trip to the Gamma Forest in the second half of this season where maybe the Doctor will meet the young Lorna?

On firmer ground, River being at least part Time Lord certainly makes more sense of their future relationship. Aside from being exactly the Doctor’s kind of woman (see here for a previous discussion of this), being as close to one of his own race as is possible in the cosmos certainly, and understandably, adds to the attraction.

Now also we should assess how well this reveal lives up to Moffat’s claim that it would be ‘a game changer’. Now this statement has generated a lot speculation over the last few months and while this episode was heaps of fun, some have rightly questioned whether it delivered all that was expected.

Firstly, in the story line itself we were built up to to the Doctor ‘never rising higher’ only to tumble into ‘his darkest hour’. Quite a claim to live up too, as the Doctor has pulled some massive strokes in his time, such as saving the entire cosmos on more than one occasion not to mention giving beings with the powers of gods a good drubbing to boot. Therefore at first glance, the battle for Demon’s Run was pretty much business as usual.

But perhaps we should remember that the only person saying this is River Song; it’s not an ancient prophecy but a personal interpretation of events. So then, from her perspective, from what she has seen the Doctor do in her lifetime, her assessment of the battle for Demon’s Run, could well qualify for the zenith and nadir of the Doctor. Plus this is her story, so there is bound to be some bias, particularly as her foreknowledge most likely comes from her parents.

But that said, his battle at Demon’s Run is notable for two reasons. Firstly we have him allying with old adversaries and win without bloodshed. But secondly, and more importantly, this victory is fleeting. Not only are there causalities, but actually the Doctor ultimately loses. Not only does he fail to rescue Melody, but Madame Kovarion has tricked him twice and he has badly let down Amy and Rory.

And all this has come about becomes of his own hubris. And it’s not just in the confident jokey business-as-usual manner he tackled the rescue operation but in the general way over the last several incarnations he has unthinkingly become oblivious to the consequences of his actions. As River Song points out he is now so feared that Kovarion and co. are waging a war against him and this chain of events stem from his recent grandstanding.

Now in a comment to my spoiler free review, Mr Lee Medcalf of The Black Dog Podcast, wondered why the Doctor was in the main so causal in his reaction to this assault on his loved ones. Was this misjudged writing, direction or performance? And indeed I must admit to wondering the same. But having reflected on the matter, it becomes clear that this wasn’t a dramatic misstep but the final act of a man who has begun to believe in his own legend too much. For it is precisely because he believes he can outfox anyone or anything in the universe that he fails to notice that his victory is, as Dorium points out, ‘too easy’.

Now then the Doctor being defeated is indeed a rare thing and equally uncommon is a whole situation being his own fault. So then, while he has tackled far bigger threats, such as would-be universe devourers like The Beast or Sutekh, this truly is a very personal dark hour.

But is it really game-changing? Well, at first glance no. But considering the implications, it certainly changes all the key dynamics between the regular cast. But also we should remember that the story is far from over, and I suspect there are further troubles to come and the dark hour may not have concluded yet. For example, consider the final post credits sequence - the caption ‘Time is running out..’ and a skeletal hand clutching a dying sonic screwdriver. So then I’m guessing that we don’t yet realise the full consequences of this episode. It could well be a pivotal point in the Doctor’s history.

And the title for the next episode - Let’s Kill Hitler - while hinting at a monstrously cheeky story line also has more sinister undertones. For while it seems to promise another venture to World War Two, complete with Churchill, spitfires and possibly more ‘ironsides’, we should note that this could be reference to that old time travel moral dilemma - if you could go back in time, would it be ethical to kill Hitler as a child? Now bearing in mind, we have a theme developed in this story about the consequences of the Doctor’s actions, this reference to that classic moral maze becomes somewhat ominous...

Certainly it would appear that Moffat has a plot line in mind that is going to change the way the Doctor’s operates and possibly redefines the character itself. And while the cliff-hanger to A Good Man Goes To War might seem a little in the shadow on the climax of The Almost People in the leaving the audience in suspense stakes, the more you consider what it may be leading too the more the speculation engine overheats... Which is the ideal place to leave the series for the break; an open door to new adventures that a bouncer called ‘summer’ won’t let us through yet... Roll on autumn, dark nights, and more Doctor Who!

* Interested readers should check out Matthew Sweet’s Inventing the Victorians, a fascinating tome which demonstrates how wrong the popular image of this period is.

DOCTOR WHO 6.07 - A Good Man Goes To War

Scanners indicate an absence of spoilers

Yesterday morning, just for a change, the British weather actually deigned to deliver an archetypal summer’s day rather than the usual rainy drivel it increasingly fobs us off with. So then, there were blue skies, high temperatures and blazing sun. Across the land, parks and gardens filled with folk working on their tans and the scent of barbeques filled the air. Workers sought the flimsiest excuse to run unnecessary errands and get outside and into the sunshine, while yet others indulged in the ancient and noble British traditions of drinking to excess and projectile vomiting onto the statues in the town centre…

However for Doctor Who fans none of this summer goodness mattered not one jot, for they knew a storm was on the horizon, a dark day was coming and good man was going to war…

…But while we were all looking forward to this grand finale of the first half of Series 6, there was the heavy burden of knowing that without a doubt, Moffat and Co. were doing to leave us with a massive cliff-hanger and a long wait until autumn.

And for this humble scribbler, there was the certain knowledge that this mid-season finale would prove to be an absolute nightmare to review without leaking any potential spoilers. And indeed it is! But I'd have to say in the best possible way...

So then, firstly let’s address what is already common knowledge, that this episode features the return of three classic villains and weigh up how these members of the League of Famous Monsters fare in this story…

SONTARANS… are glorious in battle! And spouting some of best lines since The Time Warrior

SILURIANS… are back on en masse and a certain warrior, ‘Madame Vastra’ is destined to be a fan favourite.

CYBERMEN… Rather than being terrified of the implacable silver giants, I was actually scared FOR them in this adventure...

But this motley crew weren’t the only returning faces. For also back on our screens was Dorium (AKA The Big Fat Blue Bloke) who we first saw in the opening scenes of The Pandorica Opens and in the prequel to this episode…



But you don’t want to know about him do you? No, you want to know about a certain female who keeps appearing…

I refer of course to THE EYEPATCH LADY – yes, this episode we finally get to meet her properly and discover something of who she is…

What you do mean that wasn’t who you were talking about?

Well, enough teasing – I’ll leave that to the master of such shenanigans, Mr Moffat. Yes, RIVER SONG is back. And yes, we do finally learn who she really is. Now as there has been so much speculation over her real identity, among all the wild theories I encountered one indeed was right. So some of you will be patting yourselves on the back for guessing correctly, while many more will face palming and shouting ‘of course!’. However be warned, whether you guessed right or wrong, the answers will probably spark a few more questions!

As for the regular cast, Amy is top form again; she has a wonderful line, beautifully delivered in the pre-credits sequence that’s worth the price of admission alone. Of course Matt Smith is excellent as always, seen his running the gauntlet of emotions from good humour, to cold rage to absolute heart break. And we get to see the Doctor absolutely tongue-tied. But I ain't saying about what obviously!

But Rory... well Rory simply rocks. Last review I remarked how I’d been slow to warm to his character but this series he was finding a place in my heart. Well after tonight’s episode, he’s got the deeds! Massive props to Arthur Davrill.

And finally then to the last question on your lips – how maddeningly cruel is the cliff-hanger? Well, it’s pretty big; there’s enough revealed to be satisfying but plenty left up in the air to get the autumn return off to a flying start.

Over all, there’s only one word for this episode and that is ‘epic’. There are surprises galore, plenty of explosions, and the new characters, the Headless Monks are very creepy. But as well as action, the high drama and touching emotional moments, there are more than a few laughs along the way too. It's fine way to wrap up this half of the season. What unfolds at Demon’s Run is, if you’ll pardon the pun, one hell of ride…

DOCTOR WHO Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon Spoiler Zone

Shhh! Spoilers!

Well, it certainly was a wild way to open your new season! The Doctor it would appear is dead, killed by the mysterious astronaut, River Song definitely seems to his (future) wife, there’s an enigmatic little girl would may or may not be in the space suited figure that slays our Time Lord hero, and Amy would appear to be potentially pregnant (and I’ll explain that later). Last summer, Moffat promised us that the mid season finale would be a “a game changing cliff-hanger that will change everything” and Series 6 of new Who has clearly begun with the kind of almighty set-up that such an epic storyline would need…

Now first of all, let me nail my colours to the mast (Getting ahead of yourself there Mr Jim, the pirate ship’s next week! – Ed) – this brace of episodes really impressed me. Cunningly plotted and equally packed with scares and wit, this opening stories hits all the right marks for what I want from Doctor Who. But aside from all of that, I have nothing but admiration for the Grand Moff for kicking off the new season at the level most other series only climb up to for the closing episodes.

For example, the final cliff-hanger in Series 4 was the Tenth Doctor seemingly exterminated by the Daleks. However being an RTD story there was a convenient deus ex machine suddenly popping up in the form of some hitherto unknown wrinkles in the regeneration process to quickly tidy it up. However Moffat has significantly raised the stakes – the Eleventh Doctor is dead with no hope of regeneration and, more to the point, rabbit-from-the-hat solutions just aren't his style.

So therefore, I wasn't at all surprised that the Doctor’s demise wasn’t reversed by the end of Day of the Moon. However from sampling various reviews here and there across the net, it would seem a fair few were somewhat disgruntled that everything wasn't neatly tied up. Well sorry folks, we’re in a new age of Doctor Who now where’s there’s going to be proper story arcs, with episodes linked by a lot more than just dropping in a token reference here and there. And this is a good thing! No, honestly it is! Let’s address the various concerns…

The one I'm hearing the most is that “it’s going alienate causal viewers”. Well despite the now annual exercise in lazy journalism that claims that Doctor Who is falling in the ratings, if you visit the Doctor Who News page which regularly reports the stats, you’ll see that the figures are actually very, very healthy. Yes, the guesstimated overnight numbers are lower than usual but that is a combination of hot weather and both episodes falling in Bank Holiday weekends. However the properly calculated figures are a different matter demonstrating that the show is respectably holding its own, competing with those ratings heavy weights, the soaps, gaining a large share of the viewing audience and scoring very high on audience appreciation.

And all of this despite being screened after the TV train wreck that is Don’t Scare The Hare - if you are looking for a show that is really is well and truly failing, seek no further!

Plus The Impossible Astronaut is well on the way to breaking the record for most watched/downloaded show in iPlayer history and Day of the Moon in just fours days has clocked up over a million plays – and that’s nearly double the hits the Royal Wedding has got.

So can we finally put this one to bed? Next time some idle fuckwit at the Daily Mail or whatever starts bleating about how Doctor Who is dying, just remember there’s more chance of finding a Yeti in the loos at Tooting Bec than discovering a true fact in such vacuous scare-mongering rags!

But the figures, which you can check for yourselves, also effectively counter the other most heard complaint about Series 6 “that it’s getting too complicated for ordinary viewers”. As I stated in my review of Day of the Moon, we forget that the general public like serials; those oft despised reality TV shows only succeed because they are edited to make an on-going story line. And soap viewers are used to dealing with the kind of labyrinthine continuities that rival the complexities of the Marvel and DC Universe. So I doubt that more closely linked stories in Doctor Who are going to prove too much of a problem.

And it’s also worth paying close attention to what Mr Moffat says in the interview linked above. He clearly says that the epic cliff-hanger he’s planning is possible because of the two halves structure of Series 6. He understands very well that setting up big mysteries that don’t get resolved for ages is a sure way to alienate viewers.

For this whole business of long story lines in genre shows causing the ratings to haemorrhage like an impaled Cyberman in The Five Doctors isn't down to the general populace being too thick to appreciate scifi or any such nonsense, it’s due to shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica treading water and testing even genre fans’ patience by not developing the on-going plot lines swiftly enough. Now I'm not saying they were terrible shows here, but I can understand why viewers drifted away after being kept dangling for so long at certain points in their histories.

Rather there’s a fine balance between developing a satisfying story arc and telling individual stories, and Moffat understands this well. Consider, for example, how the last season played out – instead of the Cracks just being a repeated visual equivalent of past seasons’ catchphrases like ‘Bad Wolf’ or ‘Mr Saxon’, we actually continued to learn more about them and what they signified steadily throughout the series. So it’s safe to say that more will be revealed in the coming weeks and there will be some answers to the big questions by the June break rather than a big reveal in the final episodes in the autumn.

Now with all of that out of the way, let’s move onto the meat of the episodes themselves. Now to address another common issue, quite a few folk have remarked on the swerve Day of the Moon opens with – we rapidly jump from the cliff-hanger to ‘Three Months Later’. And naturally this has prompted a good deal of head scratching. Yes, the episode does give you enough detail to work out that Canton hunting down the Doctor and his friends is a ruse to fool the Silence, however many have felt that it was insufficiently explained.

And initially this was my reaction too. However having seen the rest of the episode and discovered exactly what is resolved, I’d have to say that why this start is a little jarring, it’s fairly clear that this missing chunk of time is going to be revisited later in the season. Remember how in the Weeping Angels story last year, we had the mystery of the Doctor’s reappearing jacket and the revisiting of those scenes at the conclusion? Well I think Moffat is doing much the same here as there is a lot still to be explained that we can’t pick up from Day of the Moon…

…The big one being the Doctor’s Area 51 cell being made of dwarf star alloy. Now this is an alien material and there are questions therefore on where it came from. Viewers with long memories may recall that the Tenth Doctor chained Father Of Mine with chains made from this substance in The Family of Blood, but long-time Who watchers will be thinking of the Tom Baker era tale Warriors’ Gate…

Now in this story featured a race called the Tharils, who could cross time lines at will, and also looked like contemporary popster (and later urban reformer) Daryl Hall … Well, it was the ‘80s!

Daryl Hall

A Tharil

But aside from cheap gags, the point of mentioning this tale is that it might have a clue or two for the current story line. You see the Tharils could cross time lines at will, and where being enslaved to use their innate abilities to power spacecraft across hyperspace. And they were being contained by dwarf star alloy which inhibited their abilities to cross into different dimensions of space-time. Furthermore this whole adventure took place in another universe called E-Space. Now obviously all of the above raises some interesting possibilities for resolving the Doctor’s apparent death…

…But of course it might not! It could just be one of Moffat’s call-backs to the classic series – the Doctor’s mention of being present at the Fall of Rome wasn't just a bit of showing off; he was there and we saw this in the William Hartnell adventure The Romans. But certainly there will more detail on the dwarf star alloy I'm sure. Moffat plays a long game!

Amy’s pregnancy is a case in point. Of course, there’s the obvious possible foreshadowing in Amy’s Choice in which one of the dream realities has her with child (quick aside: the mysterious Eyepatch Lady in Day of the Moon says “she’s still dreaming” - does this signify the hand of the Dream Lord at work?). But there’s another more sneaky reference in The Hungry Earth - if you care to recall the Silurians had sucked Amy down to their city and then scan her… And this is what results…

Yes, that is a heart beat appearing when they scan her stomach! Now I clocked this at the time and expected it was setting up getting her out of harm with the old “we will not hurt you as you have young” alien cliché, but the story didn't belabour that old saw and I promptly forgot about it… until last week that is!

You see, looooooooong game! Therefore the missing three months in this opening tale isn’t sloppy writing like RTD resurrecting the Master with a load of never to be explained smoking potion hugger mugger, it’s a deliberate omission; a piece of narrative sleight of hand.

Now I'm not going to speculate on the many mysteries this story presents. There are endless theories online as to what the regenerating child is, who River Song is and how the Doctor will escape – my favourite is the tongue in cheek suggestion made by Mike in the Bigger on the Inside podcast that River Song is the TARDIS - but as the wonderful Nuts4r2 sagely remarks in his own reviews of these episodes, it’s almost pointless to speculate as we don’t have enough pieces on the board yet. However I do think it’s worth mentioning the fact that the TARDIS scanner can’t seem to decide whether Amy is Pregnant or not. And this would suggest that perhaps the time-lines are currently in flux…

Similarly I'm not convinced we’ve seen the last of the Silence. For a start on a technical note, just having the Silence turn out to be just some skull faced aliens in suits is too much of a let down. Admittedly they were superbly scary but not quite big or bad enough to justify the previous season build up. And I'm not sure they are the Silence – they may be part of it but they are not the full deal. Remember what they say to Amy - “You are Amelia Pond…We do you honour…. You will bring the Silence….”

Perhaps we should be calling them the Silents… And also bear in mind that we never did discover what their plan was. And certainly they didn't build the mystery ship we saw in The Lodger or the dwarf star alloy – they definitively state that they use the technology of other races.

It’s an intoxicating brew alright! But the big questions aside, I’ll wrap this rambling up with a final point. If you have any doubts about Moffat’s plotting, consider how clever the resolution to Day of the Moon was. An on-going problem in the Doctor Who universe is that present day Earth has to remain very close to our own real-life continuum yet you have to wonder after all the invasions why the world in the series hasn’t become an alternate universe where every one knows that aliens are real. Yet for this most virulent infestation presented in this tale, Moffat has a very intelligent twist – we repelled the Silence but because of the way they operate no one remembers doing it. It deftly presents a global threat without destroying credibility or continuity, and is also wonderfully ironic dramatically.

Now next week, it would seem we have something of breather with a high seas adventure featuring “a stroppy, homicidal mermaid”. But I’m not ruling out a few more clues surfacing amid the cutlasses and tricorne hats! And if not, who cares – it’s the good Doctor tangling with pirates and Lilly Cole! All board? Yes, indeed!

DOCTOR WHO 5.12/13 - The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

Spoilers will fall!

(Apologies for any typos but this was written at high speed after the credits rolled! And I'll probably revise this after I've had some more time to reflect on it...)

Well it’s been a glorious three and a bit months, but all good things must come to an end. This series of Doctor Who has had many mountains to climb; a new production team and, more importantly, a new Doctor have all had to win viewers’ hearts. And for my money, Moffat and Smith have largely succeeded; we’ve had a season that has been the most solid yet – true not every story is a gold plated classic, but across the board the stories have been stronger, the writing tighter and the budget better spent. However the final test remains – can this series deliver a truly satisfying grand finale?

Previously the pattern generally has been a great set up followed by an irritating conclusion. And largely this has been due to Russell T Davies being on script duties; while he has many strengths as a writer, delivering proper conclusion that make sense has always been something of a weak spot for him. Even before he landed the job of bring back Doctor Who, his previous work showed this; indeed my main reservations on hearing he was going to take the wheel of the good ship Who was that I’d found the endings to Queer As Folk and The Second Coming deeply unsatisfying affairs that didn’t do justice to the exemplary scripting of the rest of the shows. And unfortunately his Who finales have been more of the same, hammering the reset button with a huge deus ex machine and serving up sentiment and spectacle in lieu of any proper narrative sense.

However Steven Moffat is a very different kettle of Saturnyians, and this can be clearly seen from the way in he has approached not just the finale but the plotting of the series’ on-going storyline. While the Cracks appearing in most episodes (and in the real universe too it would seem) has been similar to the old RTD method – i.e. drop in a reference (e.g. ‘bad wolf’, ‘torchwood’) and call it an story arc – there has been a lot more going on to that ties all the episodes together and to brings us to the finale. To begin there have been other recurring motifs; the talk of perception filters and the appearance of the First Doctor, but more importantly there has been a greater sense of continuity between the stories, with the consequences of the previous adventure visible in the next.

All in all, rather than the anthology of adventures that have a few hints of the series end we have previously received, this series actually possesses a proper over arching plot. The extended opening sequence of The Pandorica Opens makes this clear – and I’m sure that like myself, many of you readers took the hint and have been rewatching the previous episodes this week. And what a rewarding experience that has proved to be – there are lots of clues and thematic goodies to pick up on; we have numerous references to fairy tales, the Doctor and boxes, how time may be rewritten and a running thread that there is something very wrong with Amy Pond’s life.

Now, true to form, the opening part of the finale was a cracker, full of surprises and building up to a massive three pronged cliff hanger. When the credits rolled we have the Doctor imprisoned, Amy dying and all the stars in the universe going nova. Better still though, there was no ‘Next Time’ trailer and the teasers that surfaced later in the week consisted solely of shots from what we had already seen. Fan speculation on the interwebs went crazy with all manner of bizarre theories being debated – is River Song a future incarnation of the Doctor? Or is she the Doctor’s daughter now grown up? Or does Amy grow up to be River Song? Plus everybody has been wondering about the mysterious voice heard in the TARDIS – is it Davros, Omega, The Beast, Sutekh or some other big bad from Who history or just an echo of Prisoner Zero?

But although it’s been fun to explore such speculations, another running theme of this series has been misdirection and so when the credits for The Pandorica Opens rolled, the only firm prediction I was willing to make would be that The Big Bang is going to deliver surprises that few will have seen coming… However having rewatched several episodes, I was fairly sure that we would be revisiting some scenes for a second time and I was praying that the issue of the returning jacket in Flesh and Stone wouldn’t just turn out to be a continuity error…

Right then so how did everything pan out in the end? Well for me, The Big Bang nicely resolved the situation that The Pandorica Opens had set up. While some may say the concept of rebooting the universe from the restoration field is a little on the rabbit from the hat side of plotting, but really we knew he was going to do it somehow and it would have to involve a plot device that verges on the magical. But the arcane properties of the Pandorica technology are neither here nor there, the key thing is how it was utilised in the tale itself. And on that front, this finale gets a pass, for rather than a quick reset button at the end that undoes everything that has gone before - Last of the Time Lords I AM looking at you - as this particular restoration is carefully worked up to throughout the episode. Everything that has happened, stays happened, and it comes at the cost of the Doctor’s place in history.

Of course he doesn’t get erased, and the solution to this other dilemma had been seeded throughout the preceding dozen episodes. And this is why this finale was so satisfying - it wasn’t just a last big, high octane adventure to end on, it was the conclusion of the entire series, of all the hints and motifs that had been built up over the last three months.

As I’ve said before this has been a very solid series in terms of quality, but as it turns out this run of episodes actually fits together beautifully into one huge narrative. It has been so dexterously plotting that I’m really looking forward to watching it all in sequence now, as there will be lots we missed or didn’t realise were as relevant as they’ve turned out to be. For example, I’m seeing the end of Victory of the Daleks - namely the power of Bracewell’s memories - in a whole new light now.

Alright we didn’t the answers to the questions of who River Song actually is or the enigmatic Voice and Silence, nor was there anything about perception filters or the First Doctor. But I half expected that some things would be left unsolved - the level of detail in the plotting of this series led me to believe that some of the hints in this series would be Moffat laying down the beginnings of future plot lines. After all, in many ways the plot arc of this series actually begins in Tennant’s last series with his Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead episodes.

But this series has been more than just a story arc, for as well as the plot points, there has been character development and an almost literary approach to the themes in the stories - Moffat hasn’t just been telling stories but reflecting on their importance, on the value of fairy tales and fables, of imagination and on the stories we chose to tell ourselves.