Doctor Who Review: Twice Upon a (Mediocre) Time

Twice Upon a (Mediocre) Time

a Doctor Who Review

Warning: *Spoilers*

We were fortunate this holiday season to be able to see the Doctor Who Christmas special on the night it broadcast in the U.S. I'd like to say we were fortunate to have seen a first rate send-off for Peter Capaldi's Doctor, but sadly we did not. 

First thing I have to mention is that I can't stand the sheer amount of commercial interruptions BBC America incorporated into the episode. Possibly there was a decent story hidden somewhere in between the copious amount of ad breaks, but they were enough to zap any interest either one of us had in the show from one scene to the next. And that says something for itself right there--if there had been a engaging storyline, then no amount of commercial interruptions would have caused us to channel surf and lose interest.

While David Bradley's portrayal of the First Doctor is superb, was his character really necessary in the story at all? Was the character of Bill necessary? Essentially, the premise is about the Christmas Truce of 1914. We have an English captain, played by screenwriter/actor Mark Gatiss, come along for a ride in the TARDIS, but there is surprisingly little mayhem or shooting.  There is a lot talking, however, and most of it could have been said and done within ten minutes tops, end of story.

The Christmas Truce is not a bad idea for a Christmas special. Can the Doctor bring a little "peace on Earth" during the Great War? But it's not a big enough story idea by itself for an hour show, so there was a lot of padding added, and the story's pacing slowed to a crawl. The preponderance of talking scenes didn't really make us feel all that nostalgic about Peter Capaldi's last time on screen as the Doctor, either. We were looking for more "action" and less "chatter."

The "atheists' heaven"--with dead companions walking around like spirits--came across as maudlin and an all-too-convenient plot device for the Doctor to say good-bye to his companions and deal with his fear of "death". While the recreation of the First Doctor's TARDIS interior was fantastic, we wished we could have seen more of it or had it worked into the plotline more. Once again, if you're going to add characters to flesh out a thin plot, perhaps you could have used them for greater affect? Otherwise, the viewer feels cheated. The promos tricked us into thinking there was going to be more to the story.

So, essentially in Twice Upon a Time we have a great actor in Peter Capaldi (and a great Who fan himself) who has been given a rather mediocre send-off after some rather mediocre seasons of Doctor Who. What a shame.

Somehow, I wasn't surprised to see the writer of this episode was Steven Moffat. His writing has really suffered since he took the helm as showrunner. (Is this the same person who wrote Blink?) Perhaps it's good he's retiring the gig and moving on.

Speaking of moving on, we were expecting to see a lot more of the new Doctor, Jodie Whitaker. She appears in the very last minute of the episode and promptly tumbles out of the TARDIS. As classic Who fans, we long for the more dignified regeneration scenes (such as the First Doctor experienced) instead of the showy pyrotechnics the modern Who series goes in for. Blowing up your time ship every time you regenerate gets messy--and predictable now that it's been done four times since 2005.

Let's cross our fingers for a better run for the "lucky thirteenth" Doctor!

We didn't see her in this outfit at all. It was a let down.

Available now--Book 3 in the Loving Who series, Losing Who. And coming in January--a short and sweet story featuring John Smith and Cici from the Loving Who series. All available from Devine Destinies Books and wherever fine ebooks are sold.

 

The Doctor as U.N. President

 

 

The Doctor as 

(Possibly Unsuccessful) 

U.N. President

(Attn: Spoiler Alert) 

 

When does a television show "jump the shark" and become a sad parody of itself? Is it possible "to unjump the shark" and redeem itself ever? That's the question playing through my mind after watching the second part of a two-parter storyline, beginning with Extremis and ending with The Pyramid at the End of the World. 

 

Perhaps the question is more along the lines of "Has Doctor Who finally given up on being original, fresh or even half-way intelligent and instead gone for the bleeding obvious?" The wonderful special effects, sets, costumes and mood lighting notwithstanding, it's hard press to tell you of anything of the actual plots of these two episodes, simply because there's not much of any actual plot. It seems to be a series of well-photographed scenes with little true emotional connection between them. One if left scratching his/her head and saying, "What was all the fuss about then?"

The stakes are high since Missy is back--or is she? The stakes are high because the Doctor is still blind after saving Bill--or is he, since he has those groovy sunglasses? Sometimes he seems able to see just about everything he needs to in a scene, and then in the dramatic moment in The Pyramid he can't seem to see the combo lock on the door. Even those with just the basics in fiction writing can understand why such contradictory plot points make for an unsatisfying resolution.

 

The "monks" (which seems to be a common term for most DW alien/baddies in recent years) are predictably ugly, evil and controlling with their Matrix-like program of optical wires that is running a simulation of all life on earth. (Where have we heard something like that before? Oh, yeah, in the Matrix movie trilogy!) The Doctor and others find out about the program by reading a dark magic book called the "Veritas", eerily similar to this season's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Darkhold" book of evil spells and power. So, the world is all fake and we're being watched by aliens--what's new about that even in the Whovian universe?

 

After the build up of Extremis, we were really looking for a satisfying ending and a tying up of strings, but The Pyramid didn't deliver on any promises. It sticks us back in "reality" (out of the Matrix) and sticks a pyramid in the middle of Central Asia where three great military powers are standing off, but no warfare ensues. Cool SFX of landing a B-52-like a Harrier jet, but that's about it. The end of the world is coming we're told, but not by falling nukes or the tiny hands of Donald Trump it seems.

 

A separate story line gradually develops, and we're told the great disaster  to end all life in the world is because of a Monsanto-clone and its evil GMO and biochemical meddling. (That made me smile actually since it's more than likely will be the case.) Generals die because their "consent is not sincere" enough for the evil monk-aliens to stop this from happening somehow. Only the true-hearted Bill can give consent because of her love of the Doctor and concern for his safety. Earth is or isn't safe at the end, but who really cares? The Doctor can see again.

I guess it helps if one is blind to the possibilities of science fiction and to the great acting abilities of Peter Capaldi and company to think these two stories were anything more than mediocre. Peter and the entire cast and crew deserved better scripts. After trying so hard to keep an open mind about Steven Moffat's scriptwriting ability this season, he's done it again in my opinion--butted into the show mid-season and put in the two weakest episodes so far. If I were the showrunner, I'd fire him. 

 

Oh, yeah, he's not about to do that, is he? On to next week and hopefully a much stronger story. It wouldn't take much to top this last pair.

What do you think? Too harsh or not harsh enough on Moffat's latest escapade? Leave your comments below.

P.S. I have a tentative release date of August for my novel of fan-filmaking gone wild, Loving Who. Yeah! Something to look forward to in the Who universe!

 

The Doctor as Labor Leader

 

The Doctor as Labor Leader

(Attn: Spoiler Alert!)

We're just back from Marcon 52 and trying hard to catch up with things, so this week's review wasn't the first thing on my to-do list. I put off watching the latest Doctor Who episode for a few days (so I could make myself finish several projects first), and now I wish I hadn't. 

I find it amazing how my "day job" of being the editor of Our Revolution Continues dovetailed nicely into this week's episode, Oxygen. Both blogs are on the topics of worker/employer -- or more accurately slave/master-- relationships. To see what I mean, check out my piece at the O.R.C. blog, How to Build a Better Slave, er Worker. The fact that most human beings don't recognize how they're being manipulated and used by the oligarchy isn't a new concept, but seeing it portrayed in an effectively sinister way on Doctor Who really surprised me. Kudos to writer Jamie Mathieson, known for penning the better scripts in Peter Capaldi's first season, for once again writing a worthy episode for Peter's Doctor.

 Oxygen is quite a unique screenplay. The overt theme of the story is particularly intriguing, considering the accusations the BBC head  made thirty years ago against the producers of Doctor Who for  putting on a "leftist show." It got the show cancelled, so is this "leftist bent" made during the Theresa May leadership going to result in the same thing, or is the Beeb more interested in ratings rather than politics this time around? I think they're in it for the money, so a story theme about how human life is cheap and easily disposed of by those with the power and wealth is even more poignant.


But it wasn't all just politics--the "spacesuit zombies" were pretty creepy. You don't expect something that's supposed to protect you like a spacesuit to try and kill you. Nice touch linking the capitalists' greed to overtly killing their workers/slaves. At least the worker/slaves at the Chasm Forge understood they had a limited supply of oxygen, but they expected their masters to provide more. Too bad, so sad their corporate masters felt the workers weren't worth giving the "benefits of breathing."

There was definitely more "meat" to the plot this time out, and more Nardole as well. I've been wondering if Matt Lucas was going to get more lines, and this story featured him well. He's a loyal and conscientious companion, and he's trying to keep the Doctor on task--which we all know isn't an easy thing to do. How Nardole as a character will develop in subsequent episodes intrigues me and will keep me watching.

Bill in this episode plays the innocent in space, trusting that the Doctor and a spacesuit will protect her from the evil of the "zombies" and the faceless corporate oligarchs. The Doctor risking his own sight to save her--and then seemingly risking her life to save her again later--was quite dramatic. It's great to see Peter Capaldi playing a heroic Doctor who is willing to lay down his own life/health for the safety of his companion without hesitation. We've had enough of the "darkness" Steven Moffat tried to infuse into the first two seasons of Peter's tenure. 
 
Let the Doctor be a hero and his companions worthy aides in his fight to save humanity against the evils in the universe. Please, Doctor, come to Earth and be our labor leader! Save us from the blind greed of our corporate masters who take and take from the working poor to fill their bloated off-shore bank accounts!

What do you think of Peter Capaldi's Doctor and  the episodes so far? Leave your comments below.

P.S. It's sometimes uncanny how you can predict the future, even if you're not a Time Lord... While I was doing some edit work on my upcoming re-release of  Leaving Who, I realized I'd coin the term "The Mistress" many years before Steven Moffat had. Maybe I time traveled and didn't realize it?

Smile: Isn't that the name of a Chaplin song?

 Smile: Isn't that the name of a Chaplin song?

A very quick review of episode two, Smile, because I've lost my notes, and I'm coming down with a cold. Achoo!

I had big expectations for the second episode after The Pilot, hoping that we'd see more of the Doctor in action making the world a better place and not wearing that dreadful hoodie again. In a way, Smile fulfills some of those expectations and in another way, it doesn't. The hoodie with the Doctor's velvet coat returns (ugh), but it's the least of my worries. The title Smile is the name of a classic song written by the great comedian (and violinist) Charlie Chaplin (and also the name of a funny movie about beauty pageants), but it doesn't bother me really. There's something else nagging at me from my long term memory unaffected by spring allergies.

The story premise seems overly familiar. Where have we seen "inanimate objects" come to life and kill/harm humans before? Another one word title comes to mind: Blink. Instead of Weeping Angels, we now have killer Emojibots. The little robots are adorable, but I wish they could have been more noble in their actions and not quite so predictable.

Another overly familiar Doctor Who plot scenario--colonists in cryogenic status in danger of  waking up and not making it. Remember Tom Baker's The Ark in Space? Okay, so you can't always avoid repeating some set-ups in sci-fi, but could we at least see some more original twists in the set-up?

The setting and SFX photography are fantastic (to coin the Ninth Doctor's catch word) in Smile, and I really felt the Doctor and Bill were on an alien world and inside a futuristic building. The chemistry and camaraderie between the Doctor and Bill works well (in spite of her awful hairstyle and both their poor fashion sense). One would hope with good acting and great production values the script-writing would live up to these high standards, but it's not quite there. Yet.

I live in hope of episode three. Will the story quality match the quality of execution? We'll see.

What is your opinion so far of Doctor Who this season? Leave a comment below if you like. Thanks.

P.S. I'm finishing up my edits for the re-release of Loving Who. Can't wait for you to see it--all the adventure, comedy and romance a Whovian craves in one novel!

Sherlock: This is The End?

Sherlock: This is The End?
(Caution: Spoilers)

I thought I'd write a quick review of Sherlock: The Final Problem since my Doctor Who reviews get quite a few reads. I have enjoyed this mystery series loosely based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories over all, but this last (and it seems to be the very last) episode was quite a let down on many levels.

I realize that the leads, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, are very busy actors and very much in demand these days, but it's not that fact which was a let down for me. It was the fact that, since this was probably the very last episode for the duo as Holmes and Watson, it should have been of higher quality to match their terrific performances over the years.

What to really say about The Final Problem? It was simply... a problem for me. It didn't come across as a mystery worthy of the great detective, but a gimmicky, cheap shot at trying to hook an audience with gratuitous violence and silliness. Previous episodes were based on the classic Sherlock Holmes short stories or novellas, and they seemed to work fine with their 21st century twists. This time, there was none of the charm of Conan Doyle's original characters coming through in the writing. 

Instead, we were presented with the portrait of an adult female with mental illness that was less than flattering. Somehow she is Sherlock's older sister that he never knew he had, which, of course, is not canon. Misogynistic portrayals of women characters is a problem area for producer/co-writer Steven Moffat.  It has been written about by yours truly (see my Doctor Who reviews from a year or so back) as well several other feminists. 

Why Mr. Moffat comes across as "tone deaf" when it comes to writing female characters is a mystery in itself, but it is a consistent problem he has in most of his scripts. He views women as objects to be used to further plots, but they have few, if any, positive characteristics. Psychopathic and sadistic Euros is the winner of  "The Universe's Worst Woman of All Times Award." She has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. (Correction: My husband reminded me Euros is an excellent violin player. She does have one redeeming quality.)

Other female characters aren't depicted much better in this script. Poor Molly, who has had a crush on Sherlock all these years, is shamed by Euros's trickery and made to feel bad about her love for Sherlock. He, in turn, is ashamed of his affection towards her. How "unromantic" and "un-gallant" is that?

Shooting and drowning unarmed and tied-up hostages is Euros's idea of fun. She's supposed to be related by blood to Sherlock, Mycroft and their seemingly very gentle parents? (I guess the violin playing ability demonstrates the shared genetics?)  If we had never met Sherlock's parents before in a Christmas story and seen them as "human," maybe we could have believed they spawned a she-demon in Euros. But we have seen their parents, and they came across as "normal." So, there's no real satisfactory explanation of how Euros's psychosis came about and why Sherlock and Mycroft are not also insane. 

Five year olds don't usually become "The Bad Seed" all on their own. It takes quite a lot to drive any person to those types of behaviors. Children who are physically, mentally and sexually abused over and over again can suffer a mental break down and act out violently. Are Moffat and Gatiss in their co-authored tale implying all three of the Holmes children had a horrific and abusive childhood?

Yes, it's a real let down of a story. To be fair, I'm looking at it as a professional writer and a person with a psychology degree and some knowledge of what abuse can do to the individual. But honestly, there was nothing particularly uplifting, redeeming or even accurate in any of the character portrayals as written. This lack of logic in the story wasn't enjoyable.

I really do enjoy Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman's Dr. Watson and Mark Gatiss's Mycroft Holmes. They are superb actors. I was  looking forward to a better send-off for all three characters. Let's hope they have the time and energy to make at least one more positive and hopeful Holmes-like mystery so I can forget this episode as easily as Sherlock can forget his young friend whom Euros chained to the bottom of a well. 

(However did a five year old girl  managed this physical task is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Holmes helped her dispatch and chain up the little boy, and they truly are monsters? Ugh.)




 

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?

Resurrecting a Classic Who Monster (on New Doctor Who)

Resurrecting a Classic Monster (on New Doctor Who)

by Cynthianna

***Spoiler Alert!***

You gotta love those suckers! I’ve been a big Zygon fan since the early days, so I had great expectations for The Zygon Invasion. Fortunately, some of those expectations were delivered.
The Zygons have not gone through a “make-over” for the hundredth time like the Cybermen—and for this I’m glad. How can you improve upon a ruddy, sucker-studded, walking-squid-like humanoid creature which can act like a chameleon and become any person you know and trust? You can’t really, can you?  They are Doctor Who monster perfection at its finest.

But you can change their back story a bit, and for this I’m not quite as pleased. The intrepid Osgood in her Classic Who accessories is dead—she was sucked out of an airplane at 30,000 feet. We weren’t very happy about that bit of  wanton cruelty in last season’s episode, and apparently the fans got very vocal and protested her treatment to the BBC. Lo and behold, Osgood’s alive! Or is she? Zygons in classic Who could only change themselves to look like a living human, so is this Osgood the Doctor meets the real thing? She won’t say, but she hints that Zygons aren’t limited by keeping their originals alive to copy anymore, and they are all hybrids now. Hmm, if you take away their Achilles’ heel, you sort of take away the best way the Doctor can conquer them. Perhaps not such a good plotting choice in the dramatic sense, but we’ll see in part two.

The locales this time out are a breath of fresh (desert) air: a fictional ex-Soviet central Asian republic and Truth-or-Consequences, New Mexico? Well, if you lived in a dryer part of the world (like I have), you’d probably want to get out and invade the planet eventually, too. So, good marks for settings outside of London, but bad marks for sending the Brigadier’s daughter out on her own. Uh, it’s called “back up." We both couldn’t visualize the Brig ever going anywhere far away from UNIT headquarters without at least his two right hand people—Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates—to watch his back. But Ms. Lethbridge-Stewart doesn’t seem to have much training in tactics, so she goes off to New Mexico alone where, of course, she’s going to be captured by the Zygons. Doh! With all these good women, and all the main UNIT positions are now filled with females, you'd think she could have had picked the cream of the crop to come along with her? (How progressive the U.N. has become! Or are all these actresses cast as intelligent, authority figures to make up for the less-than-feminist characters Moffat has been accused of writing in previous episodes?)

The idea that the Zygons numbered twenty million (whew!) and were allowed to stay on Earth after their last run-in with humanity seems a bit far-fetched as well. Twenty million? Uh, if countries in Europe are currently having conniptions over thousands of refugees pouring across their borders, then how do you think twenty million aliens would be handled and kept quiet throughout the world? Not very well! This logic gap is bigger than the Grand Canyon (to stay with the desert analogies) and needs filling in the second part.

Clara acts particularly acerbic in this episode, and it is revealed at the close why her behavior has been “off." One wonders if this hasn’t been the reason why she’s seemed disconnected from her emotions in earlier episodes, or if this was just tossed in to explain her actions in this particular episode. Either way, a countdown seems to have started for her character. Is her final departure nigh?

Peter Capaldi’s performance is spot on again with his Tom Baker-like Doctor. He’s mischievous yet involved, cautious yet not afraid to take action. The way the story opens, we’re not sure what his relationship with Clara is since she’s not there—she’s not a “Sarah Jane” who lives in the TARDIS between adventures. He’s more of a David Tennant-loner type of Doctor who comes and goes more than stays all the time with his companion. Possibly this is the reason behind his dark character? But why take the airplane when you have a TARDIS, Doctor? Surely you remembered what happened on board to Osgood last time?

Over all, The Zygon Invasion is an enjoyable adventure with a few niggling plot points that don’t take away from its overall entertainment value. We can't wait to see what those sucker-critters get up to next week.

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

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

Style Over Substance in (New) Doctor Who

Style Over Substance in (New) Doctor Who

By Cynthianna

***Spoiler Alert! You may want to watch the episode first before reading this review.***

Which came first—the chicken or the egg? In Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who universe the answer is of course “both.”

Before the Flood starts out with a scene in which we see the Doctor by himself in the TARDIS. He breaks the “fourth wall” by talking directly to the viewer as he peers directly into the camera lens. In spite of Peter Capaldi’s engaging performance, this is still considered a very poor writing technique. Dumping information into the viewer’s lap upfront means the writer doesn’t trust that the viewer is intelligent enough to discern it for himself or herself simply by watching the episode. 

As in all strong writing, the principle of “show not tell” should be adhered to. The “wink-wink” of actors talking knowingly into a camera should be avoided, as it indicates to the viewer that the character of the Doctor realizes he’s a fictional construct and the episode is all just so much make-believe. Instantly, all tension and wonder at how the Doctor will survive this week’s dilemma evaporates. Why should we continue watching if we know how it’s all going to end?

But under the current producer’s guidelines it seems that the series protocol is to write down to the lowest common denominator of viewer intelligence. So, the Doctor starts out by telling us all that he believes in time paradoxes (even though this form of time travel has been forbidden in the past). He, essentially, is going to rewrite his own history, and he knows full well that he’s going to do it. Okay, this paradox of time travel was used to great comic effect on Futurama when Fry goes back in time and accidentally sleeps with his own grandmother, impregnates her and becomes his own grandfather. But why does Doctor Who feel it needs to repeat this particular sci-fi cliché?

With a thin plot about a time paradox that’s been done many times before (and often to provide comedy), there’s not much else to enjoy in Before the Flood other than the very nice underwater base set and the very interesting Cold War 1980s military training village the Doctor and two others travel back to in order to save Clara. Of course, he has to save Clara at the cost of the others’ lives. Saving other characters isn’t important, as their function is to serve as cannon fodder to create “tension” in an episode that has no inherent tension. (And why do they travel in time to the Soviet-style village in Britain anyway? Couldn’t it have been just a normal Scottish village built near a massive dam? No explanation is given, and it’s a shame, as it looked like a very unique place to set a Ten Little Indians type of tale.)

To sum up, we’re given the entire episode’s plot premise in the first few minutes, and to fill in the remaining 45 minutes we have lots of running around on well-constructed sets and a few explosions and SFX. Well done. A couple of the survivor side characters express love and admiration for each other. Nice enough. The handsome Peter Capaldi smiles some at the camera and shows off his awesome guitar-playing skills. Fan girl “squee!” 

All of these things are done well, but you're left with a hollow feeling inside. You feel that nothing really has happened of any consequence for the Doctor, and nothing was ever at risk since we know how it all will end in the first scene. A true triumph of style over substance. If we know the “punch line” from the start, why tell the joke at all?

Which came first—the chicken or the egg? Does it really matter if they’re both cracked?

What do you think? Please leave your comments below. And check out my reviews of earlier episodes of this series of Doctor Who:

Under the Lake

The Witch's Familiar

The Magician's Apprentice

Classic Who on Retro TV