Doctor Who - The Ghost Monument Review

The Ghost Monument, is a thrilling episode with some great character driven plot. Series 11 of Doctor Who is on a role!

Warning, this review will contain spoilers.

The Ghost Monument is the first adventure for the newly formed TARDIS team, in much the same way as End of the World or Beast Below was. Action, adventure, robots, spaceships, alien planets, scares, and mystery. What more do you want from an episode of Doctor Who! Well as with last week, this episode also had very compelling characters too.

The 13th Doctor is awesome! Jodie Whittaker delivered another stellar performance. She just utterly is the Doctor. There’s just so many traits about her that are completely who the Doctor is and should be. I also like that the Doctor’s using Northern colloquialisms like “Let’s get shift on.” After the 12th Doctor it is refreshing to have an empathic Doctor again, one who cares about people, for me that’s a core character trait of the Doctor.

It’s great having a team of companions again. Ryan, Yas and Graham all bring something new to the show. I think it feels like the right balance has been struck for having multiple companions, they’re a team and they’re working together. They feel like different people, but they have each other’s backs, and they’re bringing their individual mindset and skillset to their adventures.

It’s always a sign of bad writing when a significant death doesn’t have any lasting impact, so I like that Grace’s death still has a resonance. Graham is still going through the grieving process and trying to be there for Ryan which is really interesting to watch, very human and very emotional. I know there was some doubt when Bradley Walsh was cast as a companion, but I think - as with the casting of Billie Piper and Catherine Tate – any doubt was unfounded.

Aside from the main TARDIS team this week’s supporting characters, Angstrom and Epzo, were also compelling. Angstrom in particular was an interesting character, resourceful and initially closed off but opening up once she started to trust the Doctor.

This episode perfectly got that zone of scary but not too dark that Doctor Who excels at. Those cloth creatures (whatever they were) were genuinely unnerving. The scares in Doctor Who should be like that, unnerving but not so terrifying that they’ll traumatise the kids who might be watching.

Who else was surprised at the mention of the Stenza? The reveal that the Stenza were responsible for what happened to the planet Desolation, cast a mysterious and ominous shadow over everything that happened. Even in their absence the Stenza are a threat. I’m wondering if that’s why there’s no Daleks this year, because the Stenza are going to be a lurking, and possibly reoccurring big bad. I hope that might be the case because it’s about time Doctor Who had some new big bad monsters, and the Stenza are certainly deeply unpleasant.

Speaking of possible arcs and reoccurring stories, what is the ‘Timeless Child’? I suspect that’s going to become important later on.

This week also gave us our first look at the new TARDIS. Personally I really like this design. We only really got a glimpse of it but I like it. It has elements that sort of feel like they echo the 9th/10th Doctor TARDIS and the 11th Doctor TARDIS. This is a TARDIS that feels like the perfect fusion of organic and mechanical which is what the TARDIS should be. My only complaint is that no one uttered the words “It’s bigger on the inside.”

So to sum up, The Ghost Monument was another entertaining instalment in what promises to be an excellent series of Doctor Who.

New Doctor New Look

It’s been too long since I wrote something about Doctor Who so in light of the BBC releasing the first official image of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor I thought I would just share a few thoughts about Doctor Who Series 11.

Image BBC©

Series 11 seems like it is going to be a near complete relaunch for Doctor Who. I think that this will work similarly to the transition between the David Tennant and Matt Smith eras of the show. There were some aspects of continuity between the two of them but for the most part it was a change. More or less everything from the TARDIS (both inside and out) to the Sonic Screwdriver changed. That’s the level of change I expect we will be seeing by the time Jodie Whitaker is on our screens as the Doctor.

Based on the newly released image Jodie Whitaker looks very much like she is the Doctor. The whole ensemble of her new outfit just looks very Doctor-ish. I'm glad that they haven't done anything sexist and cringey like putting the Doctor in something pink or making her wear heels just because she's a woman (I was slightly worried they might do that). I'm also glad that once again the Doctor will be wearing a long coat.

In the background of the newly released promotional image of Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor we got our first look at her new TARDIS. To me the Police Box now looks a lot like the version that was used back in the 70s by the 3^rd and 4^th Doctors. I wonder if that’s a possible hint as to what the interior is going to look like. Will we finally see a TARDIS which has “the round things” again?

The Doctor is also going to be travelling with a team of companions in Series 11. My main thought about this is that it reminds me of the very first Tardis team with Ian, Barbara and Susan. I wonder if that's going to be something that's referenced. Perhaps giving her a full team of companions is a way of legitimising Jodie Whitaker as the first female Doctor by echoing the early years when multiple companions were the norm. I'm going to be reserving judgement until we know more because we literally know nothing about them right now! And remember people dismissed Billie Piper and Catherine Tate when they were initially cast yet no one (or at least no sensible person) would dismiss Donna Nobel and Rose Tyler now.

One of the main things that Series 11 is going to have to do is recapture the family audience. Doctor Who should never ever get too dark. Dark stories belong in the expanded universe and in adult spin-offs like Torchwood. There’s no denying that throughout the Capaldi era Doctor Who has struggled in the ratings and mainstream popularity. A part of why Doctor Who was such a massive success back in 2005 was because it aimed at the family audience. Jodie Whittaker needs to connect with the younger audience in the same way Christopher Ecclestone, David Tennant and Matt Smith did. Doctor Who needs to re-attract the 9 year old kids that will then read Doctor Who Adventures magazine and hunt down the action figures of their favourite characters. If the show if to survive beyond Series 11 it needs to bring in a new generation of fans.

In conclusion, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of Doctor Who. I really want Series 11 to be the smash hit success that Doctor Who deserves. So far I haven’t seen anything to make me nervous about the future of the series but I hope that my faith will not turn out to be misplaced.

Doctor Who - The Eaters of Light Review

I’m honestly not really sure what I think of this episode which makes it a bit of a difficult one to review!

The Doctor, Bill and Nardole arrive in Scotland to find what happened to the missing Ninth Legion and of course there’s a monster on the loose which is why the Ninth Legion vanished. This series has given us a couple of historical episodes which is good to see again because historical episodes might not have the spectacle of space episodes but they can be just as interesting. The monster this week was spoken about more than we saw it. I think this was a wise choice as the glimpses we saw of it were not that scary but when it’s just spoken about as something that’s lurking in the shadows it suddenly becomes a much more interesting creature.

Bill was great once again. I think I’ve said this every week but week after week Bill has been one of the strongest parts of each episodes. Her academic curiosity kick-started this week’s adventure, the scene where she figured out how the TARDIS translates other languages was fun, and she showed just how competent she can be when she took charge of the Ninth legion. Once again this week her sexuality was referenced. I like the way it keeps being brought up every few episodes because it reminds us that it is an important part of who she is but at the same time it does not define her.

I like how the Doctor and Bill brought the Romans and the Picts together in order to start to resolve this week’s conflict. Communication is important in resolving issues and getting on with saving the world. I think possibly this episode had some of the strongest supporting characters that we’ve seen this series. The Ninth Legion for example actually felt like they were well rounded characters rather than just stereotypes of roman soldiers, though I struggled to believe that they were meant to be 18 and younger. However whilst I liked the part with the Picts and the Romans coming together I’m really not that impressed with the conclusion to this week’s episode. I understand what they were aiming for but to me it just felt rushed and left the episode on a somewhat unsatisfying note.

Also the part with Missy at the end just felt weird and tacked on at the end unnecessarily. This whole arc about Missy potentially reforming is just a bit weird because even if she does reform are we seriously meant to believe that the Master – one of the most persistent Doctor Who villains – has become good for good?

I think overall The Eaters of Light was a likeable episode with some good moments. However I honestly don’t think it was that strong an episode and I don’t think it was that memorable. I liked it but it could have been just a bit better.

Doctor Who – Thin Ice Review

The first trip into the past for Bill delivered yet another solid Doctor Who adventure.

I compared last week’s episode to 2010’s The Beast Below, however with a creature being held captive for the gains of the human characters Thin Ice managed to echo The Beast Below more in some ways!

Peter Capaldi once more shines as the Doctor. This series is just proving that – as I know some people have said – he was always going to be an amazing Doctor if he was just given good scripts. There’s a speech that the Doctor gives in this episode that I feel is going to end up ranking right up there amongst the very best of the Doctor’s speeches.

Thin Ice managed to balance how to show the Doctor’s guilt and shame over killing with the optimistic hero that he should be. I really don’t like it when the Doctor is written as a tortured hero, that’s not who he is! Yes he can get grumpy and angry but at the end of the day he is always a hero and an optimist. I know the counterargument is that because he’s lived so long and fought in the Time War he should be tortured however I think Thin Ice showed perfectly how to get the right balance.

Doctor Who has always been at its very best when the companion is allowed to shine and show off their strengths. Bill continues to be an interesting character to watch and a refreshing change after Clara Oswald’s more smug tendencies. She has some great one-liners that made me genuinely laugh out loud, however I think her strongest traits are her enquiring mind and her strong sense of compassion. It was interesting to see a companion actually struggling to deal with the fact that the Doctor’s adventures often involve death. I might be wrong, but I think this is one of the first times we have ever seen a companion be shocked at a death in Doctor Who.

Another thing that was refreshing to see in an episode of Doctor Who was an acknowledgement that racism is a thing that existed in the past. This episode wasn’t defined by dealing with racism but it was referenced and acknowledged. It makes sense to at least address racism in the past given that Bill is a black woman in Regency England.

Episodes where it’s the humans who are the real monsters are quite common within Doctor Who, 2008’s Planet of the Ood or the various Silurian stories being a couple of examples of that type of story. Thin Ice certainly falls into that bracket. This style of episode can either be really well done or come across as too heavy handed in its message, fortunately Thin Ice managed to do this story well. However I do still hope that soon we get an episode with a proper big bad monster.

The way that this series is all set around (or keeps referencing) the university that the Doctor is teaching at feels quite reminiscent of the way that UNIT kept reoccurring throughout the 3^rd Doctor era to me. In the 3^rd Doctor era the Doctor worked for UNIT as their scientific advisor and many stories would partially revolve around UNIT. This similarity to the UNIT era of Doctor Who is further heightened with Nardole’s frequent appearances and the way that Smile and Thin Ice followed on from each other. I personally am all for this sort of grounding and connectedness between the episodes.

I think that Thin Ice was another solid episode for this series that delivered on the emotional potential of its context and managed to rise beyond being just another historical episode.

Doctor Who – The Pilot Review

Doctor Who is back, and it’s good!

Last night the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who aired and it was good, it feels like the show is back on track where it should be. I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed by The Pilot.

Peter Capaldi is the Doctor! After two seasons of doubting him I finally feel like Capaldi has become the Doctor that he should have been from the start. I won’t go into detail this time about all my problems with the 12^th Doctor, I already talked about that in my Return of Doctor Mysterio review and my pre-Series 10 post. However I felt like in The Pilot we got to see the full range of who the Doctor can and should be instead of just some grumpy guy moping around which is what he has been for the past couple of series. This is finally the 12^th Doctor as he should be, someone who is strange but funny and also compassionate. I particularly liked the little touch of having a picture of River Song and Susan on his desk, it helped to make the Doctor feel like he was still a part of what has come before him.

Setting the episode in a university was a brilliant idea. It just makes so much sense to see the Doctor in that environment. The scene were the Doctor was lecturing at the university was great, that speech felt reminiscent of some of the epic speeches that Matt Smith used to give. I think I agree with the Doctor’s summation that being a student is about texting, snogging and vegan wraps! (Even though I’m not out snogging!)

I liked how this episode was setting up some of the later series. The Doctor was at the university because he is protecting something that is hidden in a vault, it wasn’t specified what was lurking in the vault but I bet that whatever it is will become relevant later on in this series. The brief appearance from a Dalek was good. I hope that was it for the Daleks in this series. I don’t want them to be a big bad in yet another series but it was good to see the Daleks briefly appear as a reminder that they are still lurking out there.

Let’s talk about Bill Potts now. This was the first episode for her she shone as the new companion, I’m looking forward to getting to know her more over the coming weeks. To me it feels like there is something about Bill that is reminisicent of both Rose Tyler and Donna Nobel. I think Bill is going to be a welcome addition to the TARDIS. Bill is particularly notable as the first LGBT companion, I thought her sexuality was well handled in this episode as part of the plot revolved around her having a crush on a woman. Bill is definitely a lesbian, it is part of who she is however – at this point - it’s neither being ignored or defining her. Also she got even cooler when it turned out that she’s into sci-fi!

Tonally I think The Pilot was closest to 2008’s series opener Partners In Crime. In some ways it was a fairly standard new companion episode. We had the glimpse into her life, then the weird thing happening, the meeting with the Doctor and of course the ‘it’s bigger on the inside moment’. But most importantly this episode was about the Doctor meeting his new best friend.

A New Series of Doctor Who is Coming

As you probably know a new series of Doctor Who is starting soon. This is the 10^th series since Doctor Who returned back in 2005 and the last series for Peter Capaldi’s 12^th Doctor. I became a Doctor Who fan back when I was 8 and saw the episode Rose when it originally aired. However I have been getting increasingly cold on Doctor Who since the mess that was Series 8 aired. I have been a very loyal fan for a large chunk of my life so this isn’t just me spewing out negativity. I really want this new series to be good.

This series is bringing us a brand new companion, Bill. I’m still trying to make my mind up on Bill however in terms of personality it looks like she is going to be a distinct departure from Amy Pond and Clara Oswald. Also Bill has a girlfriend! This is tremendously exciting to finally be seeing a full time LGBT companion in the TARDIS, especially an LGBT Woman of Colour. LGBT characters in sci-fi/fantasy are rare and LGBT Women of Colour are even rarer, so long as her story is well handled I think we should be applauding the BBC for this move.

From a story point of view it’s also a very promising sign that Bill already has a partner when she meets the Doctor. Part of what made the Russel T Davis era of Doctor Who so good was that Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Nobel all had people they cared about. The companions having lives outside of the TARDIS was a new development when Doctor Who came back in 2005 but it was something that helped make the new series even richer. In this way I hope that Bill will follow the mold set by Rose, Martha and Donna.

Another element that I hope is revived from the 2005 series for this new series is the way that story arcs are handled. The Bad Wolf and Torchwood arcs from Series 1 and 2 are perfect examples of how a story arc should unfold within Doctor Who. Week by week there were little hints which built towards the finale. If you missed them it didn’t matter but if you went back and viewed the whole series you could see the arc being foreshadowed. This is how a story arc should be done as opposed to the mess of unanswered questions and needlessly complex back and forth plotting that has become the norm since 2010.

The Ice Warriors are back! This has me excited as the Ice Warriors rank pretty highly amongst my favourite Doctor Who monsters. The race of warriors from Mars are arguably one of the most complex alien races in Doctor Who. They are a military race who have a strong code of honour – not unlike the Klingons in Star Trek. However what makes the Ice Warriors so interesting to me is that they are allowed to be morally ambiguous, some of them are pacifistic scientists whilst others are completely evil warmongers. The trailers for the new series also seem to be teasing that the Ice Warrior story is going to be set on Mars. This is a new take for the Ice Warriors as they have never had a TV episode set on Mars. In the Doctor Who expanded universe there have been many Ice Warrior stories that have delved into the culture of their home world I hope we get to see this on TV.

I’m disappointed that the Daleks are coming back, however I am intrigued by the return of the Cybermen. The Daleks have become overused and in my opinion they need a significant break before they next return. The Cybermen have also been overused in recent years, let’s be honest the last good Cyberman story was 2006’s Doomsday. But what I find interesting about them retuning this time is that the production team has decided to bring back the very original designs of the Cybermen from their 1966 debut. Bringing back the original Cybermen allows for a fresh start and provides a convenient excuse to drop the mess of continuity and bad storylines from the past decade of Doctor Who.

Basically at the moment I’m expecting the best but preparing for the worst. I really want this new series of Doctor Who to be good but I am worried that it might let me down again.