Would you like to do a review? (Book Excerpt)

Would you like to do a review of my latest release, The Gift of the Songbird?

Since the holiday season is fast approaching, I thought why not "gift" my Thanksgiving short story to my readers who are willing to write a short book review for me?  If you'd like to write a review for Amazon, Goodreads or any other book review site, email and let me know so I can send you the e-format file of your choice. (cynthianna@hotmail.com )

A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  :)

The Gift of the Songbird
by Cynthianna
https://www.devinedestinies.com/978-1-4874-2753-5-the-gift-of-the-songbird/

Hannah has the chance to sing for the richest family in town, but is it worth disappointing Daniel, her childhood friend, who seems to expect more of her?

Hannah Cummings has big plans for her future. An invitation to sing at the mansion of the dashing Elisha Spielman on Thanksgiving Day promises to launch her music career and help her raise funds to receive further vocal training. It’s a most fortuitous invitation, and Hannah is grateful and excited to accept. However, one man seems to stand in her way.

Daniel March won’t have it. Hannah has always sung for their village’s Thanksgiving festival to support the orphanage, and this year should be no different.

Friends since long before the terrible war separated them, Hannah feels there is more to Daniel’s determination to change her mind than simply his need to get his own way.

Can a songbird help them count their blessings and come to see each other in a different light?

Excerpt from The Gift of the Songbird

Daniel raised one dark eyebrow. “I do want something, but it’s not a hot beverage. I want you to say you’ll help us at the Thanksgiving feast for the orphanage and give up this non-sense of entertaining our town’s wealthiest citizens. They own the mine and the miners’ souls. They don’t need to own yours, too.”

How like Daniel March to get straight to the point! He’d displayed this annoying habit ever since they were first introduced as children. Hannah felt like sticking her tongue out at him but wisely thought the better of it. She sat on the settee instead and frowned.

“You’re like a dog with a bone, and you just won’t let it go.” She sighed loudly for effect. “I told you that I’ve made my decision. I’m not going back on my word.”

“But you’re going back on your word to the orphans. You’ve entertained them for many years, and you’ve helped Eustace and I raise a lot of money with our Thanksgiving dance and auction. Folks come from miles and miles around to hear you sing.”

Hannah looked heavenward and shook her head. “Hardly. They come from the next valley over possibly, but that doesn’t qualify as any great hardship in this day and age of rail travel.”

Daniel harrumphed. “Lucky for them, I didn’t blow up any train bridges in these here parts then.”

Hannah clenched her fists in her lap. It didn’t bode well to remind war veterans of their time of service. Many suffered nightmares and drank heavily to deal with their pain. Daniel was more fortunate than many, as he had returned home soon after his injury and had been nursed back to health by his older brother and his wife. Still, any mention of the war brought on a dark mood she’d never witnessed in Daniel growing up.

Hannah cleared her throat and smoothed her skirt. “Let’s change the subject, shall we? What are you and Eustace thinking of making for the festivities beside that awful fruit punch?”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “What’s so awful about my brother’s award-winning recipe? It’s an authentic wassail.” 

“It’s authentic, all right. That’s the only thing that could be said for it.” She chuckled. “Good thing Carrie always brings a couple of her delicious cakes. No one really cares what they’re drinking as long as they have enough sweets.”

“And no one really cares what they’re eating if they’re with their friends enjoying an operatic concert courtesy of our resident entertainer.”

Hannah would not be persuaded. “I’m not the only entertainer. There’s Mr. Cletus and his fiddling. Miss Bucket can bang that tambourine and warble pretty good, too. It’s time you encourage a few others to perform. I won’t be here forever, you know?”

A dark cloud descended over Daniel’s expression. “Are you really thinking of leaving us so soon after your father’s passing? Can’t wait to leave this holler behind you and live in the big city?”

The hurt in his voice stabbed at her heart. Could Daniel’s brusqueness hide his true feelings?

The Gift of the Songbird
Available now from Devine Destinies Books (and soon from other fine ebook retailers).
https://www.devinedestinies.com/978-1-4874-2753-5-the-gift-of-the-songbird/

The Doctor As Show Man and Space 1889 Cosplayer

The Doctor As Show Man and Space 1889 Cosplayer
(Spoiler Alert!)

It's been a busy two weeks, so when I finally sat down to catch up with Doctor Who, I had two episodes to watch. The first episode, The Lie of the Land, is actually part three of the two previous episodes which I found to be mediocre as best. 

Was I expecting anything better for this storyline's finale? No, not really. The Lie of the Land didn't disappoint on that respect. It was mediocre in script and well-done in acting and execution. Bill is still a strong, sympathetic character willing to lay down her life to save others, Nardole is still a loyal aide-de-camp willing to go the extra mile to help out, and the Doctor is... Well, he's a show man of sorts, selling the evil monks' "new history" to the unsuspecting public through slick commercials. Why the evil monks ever go to the extent they do to take over the world is never satisfactorily explained, including the gigantic statues of their mummy-like visages. They should have taken a lesson from the Daleks and Cybermen. Good ol' fashioned firepower and metal suits work just fine to invade Earth in Doctor Who.

Missy is seen once again in The Lie, but her cameo doesn't seem particularly necessary to the plot, as the Doctor should be able to figure things out himself with his abilities and resources. She's incarcerated in a TARDIS-styled vault and seems content to be locked up. There's hints she's not as sociopathic/psychopathic as she once was, but she's still not portrayed as a positive middle-aged female image, but rather as a figure of ridicule/hate. Actress Michelle Gomez could do better and deserves a stronger role.
 
The Orwellian overtones of "He who owns the past owns the future" are good in The Lie, but the overall arc of the trilogy of episodes isn't quite pulled off.  A good script editor could have helped cobble these three disparate episodes together in a more coherent and effective manner and brought out the strengths in each. As is... nice try, but it's very sad how this trilogy falls flat. At least Bill has a decent hairstyle this time out, and I enjoyed the "Maoist China" style of bland/uni-colored clothing of the populace as well as the Doctor's "worn" jacket.

Empress of Mars is a stronger episode in that it doesn't try to be anything it isn't.  The Doctor meets his old foes, the Ice Warriors. They've been updated a bit without losing their lovable "monster of the week" look about them that they've sported since the Patrick Troughton era. My husband was pleased to see the Victorian-era military men on an expedition on Mars, very reminiscent of the characters one takes on in the role playing game Space 1889. (The military costuming was accurate historically according to hubby who is an expert on such things, too.)

Why there is oxygen underground on Mars is never explained, especially since the surface is dead and there's no obvious plant life left.  The frozen/hibernating Ice Warriors are very similar to the Patrick Troughton series Cybermen who were hibernating on Mondas in a pyramid-like set-up. 

Hmm... Pyramids and spacesuits seem to be returning images in this season, as the Doctor and Bill have been seen in spacesuits in Empress of Mars, Oxygen and in underwater diving suits in Thin Ice. The evil monks have a spacecraft (I assume that's what it is since it "flies") that's pyramid-shaped in Nemesis, The Pyramid at the End of the World,  and The Lie of the Land. Is there some kind of connection we're suppose to make with the reoccurring imagery? I have to say, Peter looks great in a form-hugging spacesuit. I hope the hoodie look has been put to rest for good.

With only a few more episodes to go in Peter Capaldi's last year as the Doctor, fingers crossed we get another Mark Gatiss-written story. What's your take on these last episodes? Please write your comments below. Thanks.

 Can't get enough of the man in the spacesuit, can you? :)

Coming Soon... The Loving Who series from Devine Destinies Books!

Doctor Who Review: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

 Doctor Who Review: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

I haven't written a TV episode review in some time, so I thought I'd dust off my reviewing skills and dive in once more with a very short critique.  

The Return of Doctor Mysterio was, on the whole, much better than I'd thought it would be. First off, it wasn't one of those "I hate Christmas!" holiday specials that Moffat seemed to enjoy writing in recent years. In fact, other than a brief allusion to the Doctor possibly being Santa Claus in the opening act, there was nothing Christmasy about the story. That's a good thing, in my opinion. It's best to stay away from a subject you don't like as a writer, especially with Steven Moffat's hang ups.

The tone of the tale was upbeat and positive throughout, and we were introduced to a pair of very likeable characters in Grant and Lucy. New York as a location was fine, although it could have been written to take place in any large city, really. Why not Chicago or Denver or Cleveland or St. Louis next time? It's nice to get out of London and the British Isles occasionally, but there are other cities in the U.S. besides New York, you know?

The evil aliens who are invading Earth this time around were very cool. Zipper heads? Replaceable brains? Aliens substituting themselves for government leaders and getting away with it at the people's expense? I find it a plausible enough premise after our recent election, so I'm all in for this sort of monster-of-the-week.

I wasn't too sure about Matt Lucas' character of Nardole in the script at first. (When did he join the Doctor and how?) But since he didn't detract from the action or the growing romance of Grant and Lucy, and brought about some genuinely funny moments, I was okay with his addition. 

The whole "superhero comes to life" humor and sub-plot was very entertaining. Who doesn't want to see "Clark Kent" woo "Lois Lane"? Who doesn't like watching a little boy fly about the skies of Manhattan in his pajamas? It was a storyline that younger family members could understand, follow and enjoy as well as us old-timers. The special effects and costuming were all superb as usual, and I loved seeing Peter wear a more classic Jon Pertwee-styled outfit with a velvet jacket minus the hoodie. Very dashing!

I hope the upcoming series keeps this episode's upbeat and positive focus, avoids the "teenage soap opera angst" of the Clara years (yawn!) and stays with emphasizing the Doctor's good traits of being hopeful and helpful to mankind. The moody, sometimes mean-spirited, Doctor didn't work well for me in the past season. I greatly prefer Peter Calpaldi's Tom Baker-like performance in The Return of Doctor Mysterio. No more endless crying over lost girlfriends--the classic era's dictum of "No hanky-panky in the TARDIS" worked much better for character and story development.

We need to see a return of strong  and intelligent female companions such as Leela, Sarah Jane, Liz Shaw and Donna Noble. It would be nice to actually like the Doctor's companions instead of cringing over them as we've done in recent years, so perhaps Grant and Lucy can make a reprise later on in the season? Nardole might even grow on me given time and decent writing.

My British husband, who gave up on Doctor Who after viewing the "Mary Poppins Master" (Missy) episodes, dared to watch this show. The verdict? He said he enjoyed it. Considering he has watched Doctor Who since the William Hartnell era, that's a good sign it has improved in quality.

What do you think of The Return of Doctor Mysterio?

Book Reviews: Y.A. books with a difference!

Since it's getting very close to when our first Y.A. SF book Olivia's Escape debuts, I thought I'd share some reviews of recent Y.A. books I've read. Enjoy! 

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solomon Reed is an agoraphobic with a panic disorder. In middle school while suffering a panic attack, he stripped and dived into the school’s fountain. Three years later, he’s being homeschooled and hasn’t stepped a foot out of his family’s home since that fateful day. His parents have tried therapy and drugs but nothing has worked. Sol has convinced them it’s better for him just to stay put. As long as he remains inside their home, the world outside can’t harm him.

Enter Lisa Praytor, an overachiever who has set her sights on attending a prestigious college on a full scholarship to study psychology so she can leave their small California town for good. Her plans include writing an essay about her “personal experience with mental illness.” Who better to write about than the kid who jumped into the fountain? Lisa decides to find him and “cure him” and write that winning essay. Of course, she won’t tell him what she’s really doing. She doesn’t want him to think she’s using him, right?

What Lisa doesn’t account for is becoming Sol’s best friend--and then introducing Sol to her boyfriend Clark, a super nice guy and water polo athlete who enjoys Star Trek: The Next Generation every bit as much as Sol. The three become a tight-knit group and genuinely enjoy each others’ company. Solomon comes to feel perhaps the world outside isn’t such a bad place after all. When he asks for a swimming pool, his parents are overjoyed that their son can at last step into the backyard, and they are grateful for Lisa and Clark’s help. But trouble arrives in paradise when Sol realizes he’s fallen in love with Clark and Lisa begins to doubt Clark’s sexual orientation.

Highly Illogical Behavior is a touching story of three teenagers who learn it’s who you’re with that’s more important than where you are.


The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s not easy being a Greco-Roman god--particularly when you anger your father and he hurls you to earth into a garbage-filled dumpster. But that’s not Apollo’s worst problem at the moment. Great Olympus! He’s been transformed into a mere mortal and lost all his god-like powers and portions of his memory. To add insult to injury, he’s now a sixteen-year-old, acne-riddled kid named Lester. He must have really ticked off Zeus!

So begins The Trials of Apollo: Book One The Hidden Oracle. Apollo may be trapped in a mortal teenager’s flabby frame, but he’s still got most of his wits about him. He knows Zeus has sent him on a quest to do great deeds in order to redeem himself and save the world. The real trouble is he’s not got the powers to do it alone, so he has to swallow his over-sized ego and search for help. A street waif named Meg rescues him and reveals herself to be a demi-god like Apollo’s good friend, Percy Jackson.

With Meg and Percy’s help, he gets to Camp Half-Blood where he discovers not all the demi-gods and goddesses are happy campers. Some have disappeared into the woods where the trees seem to be talking, driving them insane. Visions of a malevolent force named the Beast and prophecies from the ancient earth goddess Rhea reveal what Apollo’s quest will be. But without his godly powers, and with his over-inflated sense of importance, can Apollo inspire others to join his fight and face certain death?

Fast-paced and loaded with action scenes and memorable characters, The Hidden Oracle is a strong start to yet another great Y.A. fantasy series by Rick Riordan. Can a movie treatment be far behind?

View all my reviews

Keep it tuned here for news of the release of Olivia's Escape -- from Desert Breeze Publishing.  http://blooddarkbooks.blogspot.com

Book Review -- Boy Erased (A Memoir)

Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A life spent questioning one’s self-worth, one’s faith, one’s sanity is not a life worth living. In the coming out memoir, Boy Erased, Garrard Conley boldly shares his inner and outer struggles of dealing with his homosexuality, his fundamentalist upbringing in Arkansas, and his parents’ expectations of him becoming the perfect son.

Young Garrard realizes that he’s different from other boys-- he likes to look at men in a different way than others--but his family’s strict Missionary Baptist religion prohibits such sinful thoughts, let alone actions. To make matters worse, his father begins a second career as a preacher, and to openly confess his gay nature would destroy his family’s good name in the church. Going off to college to study English literature, Garrard is haunted by his feelings and finds himself in a difficult situation when he is raped by another student who then turns around and tells on him to his family. The rapist claims it is all Garrard’s fault, and so as a victim he is further persecuted and questioned.

Garrard’s parents fear for his immortal soul and enroll him into an “ex-gay” program, Love In Action, a place that is anything but loving. There he is subjected to amateur brainwashing techniques in the guise of a twelve step addiction program. If he will only take the first step and admit he is wrong and admit he is “addicted to being gay”, then he will be “cured” according to LIA. But Garrard eventually sees through the doublespeak and self-loathing his ex-gay instructors try to instill in their clients. He realizes somewhere deep down that God would not have made him gay to lead him into self-destruction and despair. He knows his parents love him and will come to accept him, and so he walks out.

Boy Erased is a poignant story that will touch many who struggle with being “different” and who question their existence in the face of prejudice and ignorance.

View all my reviews

Book Review: The Case of the Fickle Mermaid

The Case of the Fickle Mermaid: A Brothers Grimm Mystery by P.J. Brackston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gretel (yes, that Gretel) of Gesternstadt is off on another case. This time she travels far from her home in Bavaria to help Captain Tobias Ziegler of the “cruise ship” Arabella and solve the mystery of his missing sailors. A mermaid’s song has either scared off these superstitious nautical types for good or the siren has lured them to their deaths. Whatever the cause of the Arabella’s missing mates, Gretel grabs the chance for a luxurious cruise and a bit of much needed cash to boot. She packs her numerous clothing trunks, personally carries her most divine and expensive wig, and forces her brother Hans to act as her porter and bodyguard.

Alas, the Arabella isn’t the glamorous cruise ship Gretel thought it would be. She and Hans are forced to share a cabin no bigger than a closet with a smelly “mer-hund”. Hans is tormented by his “old love” Birgit who still has it in for him. Captain Ziegler looks vaguely familiar to Gretel in a nefarious way. And what’s up with the proper and grim quartermaster Herr Hoffman? Gretel wonders if the rival cruise line owner, Thorsten Sommer, isn’t behind the mysterious mermaid’s song. Why oh why does her own fancy, the dashing Uber General Ferdinand Von Ferdinand, have to be aboard the Fair Fortune with the stuffy Baroness Schleswig-Holstein cruising nearby? When the Arabella’s chef is found murdered in a lifeboat aboard the Fair Fortune, Gretel senses perhaps it isn’t a business rivalry or a mythical creature behind these crew disappearances.

The Case of the Fickle Mermaid is the third book in P.J. Brackston’s “Brothers Grimm Mysteries” and is part cozy mystery, part comedic-masterpiece and part fairy tale. Gretel uses her sharp wits and her voracious appetite for both food and life to sift through a cast of suspects who will make you split your sides with laughter. There’s the fickle mermaid, of course, along with the bird-obsessed Dr. Becker, the inept henchmen Cat’s Tongue and Pustule, the drunken culinary genius Frenchie (who takes Hans under his wing and teaches him even more about food), and a naughty sea sprite that no one but Gretel can see or talk to. This is the perfect book for the mystery lover who enjoys a happily ever after tale along with a little murder and mayhem along the way.


View all my reviews

Romancing the Doctor (On New Doctor Who)

Old lovers can still be friends.

Romancing the Doctor (On New Doctor Who)

by Cynthianna 

***Spoiler alert!***

One wonders why the current producers of Doctor Who feel it's necessary to do a "Christmas special" (since the Doctor isn't human nor professes to be a follower of Jesus) but every once in a while it's nice to see an episode slightly out of the ordinary. This season needed a break from the soap opera angst of the Clara story arc, so anything to take our minds off of it is a good thing.

Even my husband agreed with me on this point concerning The Husbands of River Song. Less teenage angst and lots more humor--and Alex Kingston to boot. It's nice to see an actress who's equal in charisma to Peter Capaldi playing opposite him. River Song is a fun and mischievous character who is always up to something, so the lighthearted jaunt to sell off a pilfered diamond to a race of genocidal alien one-percenters aboard a space cruise liner is just the mindless entertainment we needed.

It's not a perfect episode of course. The threat of killing River's "husband" the cyborg king with a human head and then crashing a ship full of passengers (no matter how heinous their crimes) is a downer. Fortunately, the excellent performances of and the magical chemistry between Capaldi and Kingston pretty much drown out that tinge of nastiness that always seems to be a part of a Steven Moffat script. The unneeded nastiness really could have been edited out, but this season pretty much proves script editing is not of importance to the show runners.

See? The Twelfth Doctor can smile. And it fits his face just fine.

Ah, but to stare into the handsome face of Peter Capaldi and admire the beautiful radiance of Alex Kingston on screen for an hour! Now, that's a holiday gift worth the wait.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below, and check out my reviews of earlier episodes of this season of Doctor Who:

Hell Bent 
Heaven Sent
Face the Raven  
Sleep No More
The Zygon Inversion (or Inversion of the Zygons)
The Zygon Invasion

The Woman Who Lived

The Girl Who Died    
  Before the Flood

Under the Lake

The Witch's Familiar

The Magician's Apprentice

Classic Who on Retro TV

Retconning the Doctor (on New Doctor Who)

 Retconning the Doctor

by Cynthianna

***Spoiler Alert!***

"Am I supposed to understand anything you're saying?" -- Clara in the Matrix on Gallifrey

Take all the cool and interesting things that a multitude of writers have created for Doctor Who since its inception--the Time Lords, Gallifrey, the TARDIS, time travel, the Matrix, the cloister bells, those odd cardinal-like robes and funky head/shoulder gear the bigwigs wear--toss into a big pot, forget all about series canon, and stir. Upturn pot and pour out onto the page. Ta-da! You have the season finale, Hell Bent.

Of course, since this is Moffat's Who script you have to add in his creations--Clara and Ashildr (Me)--and plenty of creepy bits of his Blinking Angels and a Dalek stuck in a haunted-house-like data collection device known as the Matrix. (Google the Tom Baker episode The Deadly Assassin to see how different the original Matrix on Gallifrey is from this new incarnation. Yeah, it's that different!) There are some funny bits tossed in as well, such as Time Lords now regenerate without much of a hangover, changing gender/age/race simultaneously. Tack on a relatively satisfactory ending after a lot of head scratching and feet dragging.  Ta-da!

This time it's the Doctor who gets the mind wipe and not the companion (see Donna Noble) so he can move on. The undead Clara gets to have some "girlfriend time" with Ashildr in their own fifties diner-shaped TARDIS with a pure-white classic interior. How either of these young ladies know how to pilot a TARDIS isn't explained. Neither is the previous "rule" given that only a Time Lord could manage a TARDIS because of their psychic link. 

Is it good to violate the TV series canon? Nah, who cares! Nobody will notice.

Even for new Whovians who haven't a clue that Leela lives somewhere on Gallifrey, this "word salad" of a script seems to be missing something vital: emotional connection. Even with a script jumping all over the place like a hyperactive kid on a Christmas candy rush, you'd think it would be able to settle down long enough for the characters to connect with their audience. But therein lies its weakness: the emotions are telegraphed for you. 

You don't have to think or feel for yourself when you're told pretty much what is going to happen up front, similar to what happened in an earlier episode this season. (See my review for Before the Flood.) You know that Clara is going to "live" again, and the Doctor is going to forget all about her since we start out in a scene at the diner where this is made painfully obvious. I suspect the current show runner feels he has to spell everything out because he believes Doctor Who's viewers have IQs to match their shoe sizes, and we all have tiny feet.

I think my husband, a long time Whovian, said it best: "The show has gone from good scripts and wobbly sets to good sets and wobbly scripts."

All the lovely photography, location shoots, costuming, special effects, musical score, etc., do not a strong story make. (Just ask George Lucas.) Not even a classic character like the Doctor can withstand all the retconning that's happened to him in the Moffat era and come out for the better. He's been diminished somehow, made into a permanent fool, a pale shadow of the strong action character he used to be. 

Peter Capaldi reminds me of Pierce Brosnan when he finally got the part of James Bond after many years. Pierce made a great Bond, but unfortunately he got stuck with the weak scripts of that period and left early. If only the great writer Robert Holmes was around to give Peter's Doctor the shot in the arm he so badly needs after this season. A great actor like Peter Capaldi deserves the best!

We have the Christmas special with River Song to look forward to in a couple of weeks, and it appears to be a comical tale. That's good. After all the forced drama and tears of the Clara years, it'll be nice to see the Doctor relax and enjoy himself a bit with a mad romp. Fingers crossed!

What do you think? Please leave your comments below, and check out my reviews of earlier episodes of this season of Doctor Who:

Heaven Sent
Face the Raven  
Sleep No More
The Zygon Inversion (or Inversion of the Zygons)
The Zygon Invasion

The Woman Who Lived

The Girl Who Died    
Before the Flood

Under the Lake

The Witch's Familiar

The Magician's Apprentice

Classic Who on Retro TV

Waiting for Godot with the Doctor (On New Doctor Who)

Waiting for Godot with the Doctor

by Cynthianna

***Spoiler Alert!***

Heaven Sent is mistitled. Moffat obviously hasn't done his research into Roman Catholic tradition. His story is set in Purgatory, the place between life on Earth and eternal life in Heaven, and the Doctor is being punished for his sins, or at least he's being tortured until he makes a confession. Of course, we won't know who is doing the punishing until the very last scene, so let's hope his torture chamber is at least an interesting place to spend an hour, right?

Alas, this simply isn't the case. With a beautiful setting of a Baltic-styled castle that can rotate its rooms and floors about like a gear-work clock and the dapper Peter Capaldi--dressed elegantly once again without the black hoodie under the velvet jacket--you'd think you could spend an hour gazing into the Doctor's handsome face easily and not grow bored. How I wish I could say this was true. The predictability of the inevitable ending only brought back memories of boring theater coursework in college and being forced to sit through a performance of Waiting for Godot. If you've never seen the play, don't worry. You have much better things to do with your time.

So, we have a Time Lord all by himself who can "live forever" taking an eternity to figure out what needs to be done to get out of his own personal hell--designed with his childhood phobias in mind. As a short story, the premise might have had more punch, but as an hour-long television program the energy lagged almost from the start. The over-orchestrated soundtrack gave an early clue to the story's weaknesses of pacing and tension. The music seemed to say, "Stay awake! This is supposed to be exciting!" But how exciting can something be if you have to be hit over the head with loud music and told that it is?


The entire season seems devoid of emotional connection that one felt in the RTD days. (Who didn't cry when Donna Noble had to have her memory of the Doctor blanked?) Heaven Sent comes across more like a video game with the Doctor being your "first person shooter" as he goes from room to room or level to level. When your shooter "dies" of course you can always continue on with the game--you have more "lives" saved up, right? Dramatic tension is pretty much not expected or needed in video games, and if you get stuck on a level oftentimes you can hit a button to give you verbal or printed helpful hints to help you get to the next level. Sound familiar? (The faceless Clara at the chalkboard is playing the hints giver.)

So, like a video game, I give points for the lovely photography and intriguing sets, and points to the gorgeously photographed Peter Capaldi as the Doctor who gives it his all, but not many points to a weak script lacking in emotional resonance. Last season gave us the stronger scripts of Flatline, Mummy on the Orient Express and even the enjoyable frivolity of Robots of Sherwood. This year we're stuck with the dust in which the Doctor scribbles clues to himself in his haunted castle. Let's hope the season finale isn't any drier.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below, and check out my reviews of earlier episodes of this season of Doctor Who:

Face the Raven  
Sleep No More
The Zygon Inversion (or Inversion of the Zygons)
The Zygon Invasion

The Woman Who Lived

The Girl Who Died    
Before the Flood

Under the Lake

The Witch's Familiar

The Magician's Apprentice

Classic Who on Retro TV