Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "The Name of The Doctor"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

So this is it, a journey which began last September with "The Asylum of The Daleks" when The Pond's were still knocking around with The Doctor and we first encountered the impossible girl. Trapped in a Dalek who implored our hero to run and remember, causing knotted brows across the country as fans tried to work out how Jenna-Louise Coleman, just announced as The Doctor's new companion, was going to end up in The Doctor's company if she was in fact a Dalek. With this episode there was a feeling of coming full circle but just how we were going to get there was a mystery. Surely Moffat wouldn't actually reveal the greatest secret of The Doctor? After all, it's the whole premise of the show, it's Doctor Who with a question mark, despite him being a part of our lives of 50 years what do we really know about him?

What we got in the form of "The Name of The Doctor" was a true treat for the fans as the impossible girl Clara, born to save The Doctor over and over again, visited our hero through his various incarnations. While some people without a degree from the University of Wholigans may have missed out on some of the more obscure references the broader parts would have hit home just as strongly. What I found suprising about the episode as a whole was it's more somber than usual tone. It reminded me in some ways of the final Tom Baker serial "Logopolis", that story feels like a funeral for the Fourth Doctor and fits in with the Eleventh visiting his final resting place at Trenzalore. There was some nice comedy business as always from Strax and the rest of the Paternoster Gang, I really enjoyed Vastra knocking out Clara via a spiked letter. This feeling of joviality quickly disappears as the shadows quickly gather around The Doctor's friends. Special praise must be given to Catrin Stewart's Jenny, he delivery of "I'm sorry, but I think I've been murdered" was truly amazing and let the viewers know that there was no messing around in this story. Seeing The Doctor's reaction to the news is actually one of the most shocking moments of the episode. Beautifully played by Matt Smith seeing The Doctor burst into frightened, worried tears was remarkable. We're all so used to The Doctor's zany, wacky persona that to truly see the behind the veil was something new and another signal to us that this was serious business. One of the constant criticisms of Smith's Doctor is that he's too comedic and the stories too childish and cartoon like, well here is the rebuttal.

That's not to say that this episode was perfect, the relationship between The Doctor and Clara doesn't feel well established enough for her sacrifice to make the maximum impact with the viewers, by the time we got round to this episodes spiritual predecessor "The Wedding of River Song" we'd been with River, Amy and Rory for the best part of three years. The chemistry they had together throws the lack thereof between Clara and The Doctor in sharp relief. I think that will change significantly in the series to come as the characters stop holding each other at arms length, in fact I think we got a hint of that in the episodes closing moments. Another problem was The Great Intelligence and his minions The Whisper Men, while Richard E Grant was chillingly imperious as Doctor Simeon his appearance again lacked some impact, another constant criticsm of Moffat's tenure has been that the stories were to complex, interlinked and the constant reminders of the overarching narrative of the series rankled. However I feel here that by going to the other extreme and hardly seeing our Big Bad at work diminished his impact, I think there is a happy medium between the two. As for The Whisper Men although nice and creepy I would have rather seen a return of The Silence, after all their whole religious order was built around the events at Trenzalore.

In this cynical day and age it takes a lot to shock most seasoned genre fans but I think all of us that managed to remain unspoiled by the early release of the Doctor Who series 7 blu ray and the machinations of our tabloid press are still picking our collective jaws off the floor after that ending. The wait for November 23rd seems even more agonising. Overall for me this was a cracking piece of Doctor Who, an unashamed fan pleaser and despite some flaws it was a beautifully put together piece of television that will live long in the memory.

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "Nightmare In Silver"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS 

To say that this episode was highly anticipated by fandom at large would be an understatement, after all Neil Gaiman delivered perhaps one of the finest episodes of post 2005 Doctor Who in "The Doctor's Wife" and given the brief of making The Cybermen scary again (although I'd argue they've never been particularly frightening), you'd feel safe betting that if anyone could do it, Gaiman could.

Like 2005’s "Dalek" and this terms "Cold War", the episode does its best to refresh a familiar monster, and most of the tweaks are excellent. Their tighter, more streamlined armour, croaky voices, odd, blank faces, and more mechanised movements.. The nasty, bug like Cybermites are a clever spin on the slightly too cute and cuddly looking Cybermats, and the slow-mo sequence where a Cyberman zooms across a room to abduct a child is a thrilling moment straight out of "The Matrix". Unfortunately some of the other modifications, such as the reliance on a central Cyber Planner working with the hive mind, the fast adaptation to weaponry and their fondness for side of the face implants recall rather too strongly The Borg of Star Trek fame. I also found it a little disappointing that having set up the disturbing notion that The Cybermen snatch kids now the idea is put on the back burner in deference to our favorite Time Lord battling the Cyber Planner inside his own brain case.

I think how much you enjoy this episode will largely hang on how convinced you are by Matt Smith's performance, many I think will find it too cartoonish and broad where it maybe should have been more dark and disturbing. There have been more than a few hints in the past that The Doctor's head is not the most pleasant place to hang out and I would have loved to see some more of The Doctor's nasty side come out to play. I really like the design choice made in portraying The Doctor's mind, the blue Cyber text vs the orange Gallifreyan script was extremely cool looking. Alongside a strong Matt Smith performance guest star Warwick Davies was excellent as someone who obviously knows something he's not telling. 

Despite these two good performances the real let down of this episode for me was the rest of the performances. Jenna-Louise Coleman who is normally great was acting oddly out of character, much more like departed companion Amy in my view. I wonder was Amy originally who Gaiman was writing for? The kids in Clara's care, Angie and Artie were simply awful, to the point of killing all the momentum of the story every time Eva de Leon Allen's Angie said "I hate you!" for no reason yet again. The punishment unit lead by Tamzin Outwaite's Captain which is just a collection of every cliche going, fat bloke, speccy ginger nerd, scaredy cat skiver and over zealous jobsworth, are pretty inconsequential with not enough to do to really justify their presence. 

Despite the gripes I have about the performances this was a fun, knock about romp, perhaps not what we were expecting from a writer with a reputation of the macabre and esoteric. It also opened a new frontier for the Cybermen, just as The Daleks have been given another lease of life by a radical rewrite in "The Asylum of The Daleks" you hope the same might be true of the big guys in silver. 

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "The Crimson Horror"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

If you were to ask most fans what the single best thing about Doctor Who is I think most would say "the flexible format." Doctor Who is a show that can literally go anywhere and do anything but if there's one setting that is beloved by writers through the ages it is the Victorian age. From some of the earliest stories right through to the very end of the show in the 80's the lure of setting stories in the gas lit streets of the 1890's seems to be irresistible. So it was of little surprise when Mark Gatiss, in his second story of this series chose to once again exploit the time of the Penny Dreadful and Jack The Ripper. This is the second time that Gatiss has visited the period himself, the first time was with "The Unquiet Dead" but with this story he's taken a different approach as "The Crimson Horror" takes a hefty pinch of camp and mixes it with a big dose of black comedy.

"The Crimson Horror" is Doctor Who at its most knowing and arch, it goes right to the edge of self parody but doesn't tip over, the dialogue is some of Gatiss' best yet, from Ada busting out some top quality Victoriana swears ("you perfidious harpy!") to some brilliantly quotable lines from Strax ("horse! You have failed in your duty!") the whole thing just jumps off the page. I really enjoyed the different ways they found of telling the tale to the audience, I loved the sequence of The Doctor telling Jenny the story of how he ended up in Sweetville bright red and chained up was done in sepia toned, blotchy film with an nice, wonky soundtrack, it was a massive wink and nudge to the audience and struck just the right tone between bonkers camp and some seriously grim happenings. I mentioned in my review of "Cold War" that I was waiting for Gatiss to deliver a truly killer Doctor Who script and I think he might have finally cracked it here. Mixing a North Korea-esque bonkers cult (complete with a missile of dubious effectiveness) with the dirty underbelly of the Victorian age and some pitch black comedy (Ada pulping Mr Sweet with her cane anyone?) he's been allowed to write to his strengths with total freedom and it shows.

Along with an ace script the praise must go to the guest cast in this episode, the very welcome return of the Paternoster Gang of Strax, Jenny and Madame Vastra. Jenny steps forward into the limelight here and Catrin Stewart seizes the opportunity with both hands. In full Mrs. Peel of "The Avengers" mode she expertly infiltrates Sweetville then at the first opportunity sheds her prim dress and gets down to her leathers ready to kick some serious butt. That's not to say that Vastra and Strax don't get a chance to shine, Vastra, in between rolling her eyes as her visage prompts another fainting spell, is cracking and Stax might be the best comedic foil in Doctor Who history. It's a full 14 minutes into the episode before The Doctor and Clara show up and you don't really mind at all, I'm seeing whispers online that this may have been a backdoor pilot, to see if a spin-off series has legs, on the evidence here I sincerely hope so. The Paternosters weren't the only treat as the real life mother and daughter combo of Diana Rigg and Rachel Stirling were absolutely outstanding. Diana Rigg obviously reveled in playing pious harridan Mrs Gillyflower, using her native Doncaster accent on screen for the first time she embraces the camp to the fullest, I mean how can you go wrong with lines like "kindly do not claw and slobber at my crinoline!" Rachel Stirling injects some lovely pathos into the story as the unfortunate Gillyflower Junior, her line of "she does not want me monster" is beautifully delivered and stops the story flying off into complete farce.

There were some very nice fannish moments on display too as The Doctor recounts his experiences with a certain mouth on legs. Gatiss tackled something I'd always wondered about in post 2005 Doctor Who as Clara is caught out as a time traveller by a couple of savvy kids with an internet connection. You wonder why that doesn't happen more as The Doctor and his companions more often than not find themselves at the centre of history. This also set up some intriguing future storylines as Clara sees the picture of Clara Oswin Oswald from "The Snowmen", whatever will she make of that? I guess we'll have to wait and see but with just two more stories remaining of this series perhaps time is running too short?

For me "The Crimson Horror" was a load of silly, camp fun, just what Doctor Who needs from time to time and perfect fodder for a jolly Bank Holiday weekend. Oh and can someone get me a tshirt with "I'm The Doctor, you're nuts and I'm going to stop you" as soon as possible?