#39: The Time of the Doctor.

The Doctor is asked a question...

1 episode. Approx. 64 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Jamie Payne. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.

THE PLOT
"On the fields of Trenazalore, at the Fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked - a question that must never, ever be answered..."

A mysterious message leads the Doctor to a seemingly peaceful planet that is surrounded by all his old enemies: The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Weeping Angels, and more. They have all come because of the message, which despite being indecipherable fills them with dread. None of them can reach the planet, which is surrounded by a force field erected by The Papal Mainframe, the church having been the first to arrive. The force field keeps the peace, and the terror among those surrounding the planet keeps them from committing their forces to breaching it.

The Doctor secures the agreement of Tasha Lem (Orla Brady), the church's leader, to go down to the planet. With Clara in tow, he discovers a village named Christmas, a quaint town in which it is impossible for anyone to say anything other than the truth. The source of this "Truth Field" is the same as the source of the signal - An all-too-familiar Crack in Time. The message is from the Time Lords, who were recently saved by the Doctor. It is a question that only the Doctor can answer - and if he does, then the Time Lords will return, and the gathered fleets will unleash terrible destruction, effectively re-starting the Time War.

The planet is Trenzalore; the question:

"Doctor Who?"


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Doctor is at his most fatalistic. Once he learns that he has come to Trenzalore, he doesn't even try to change his future. He can't bring the Time Lords through - That would lead to the very kind of war he did so much to end. He can't leave the village to the surrounding fleet - That would mean sacrificing innocents to the monsters, something that isn't in his character. So he stays and defends the village, counting each life he saves as a victory, even as he knows that he is moving toward the very end he has already seen. Matt Smith is fantastic throughout the episode; and though it's not his best Doctor Who story by any means, a strong argument could be made that this is his best Doctor Who performance.

Clara: Jenna Coleman is also excellent. Clara is mainly on the sidelines. She represents our point-of-view, us spending anything more than a quick moment with the Doctor only at the three points in which she is able to reach him. We see Clara react slightly differently to each version of the Doctor she sees: her normal, flirty banter with the young Doctor; quieter and more thoughtful, but still ready for fiery banter, with the middle-aged Doctor; compassionate and almost tearful with the elderly Doctor at the end. Coleman remains a naturally likable screen presence, and by making Clara's absolute loyalty so tangible and believable, her emotional appeal to the Time Lords at the end feels effective and even earned.


THOUGHTS

"We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives. And that's okay, that's good. You've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me."
-The Eleventh Doctor's farewell.

My review of The Time of the Doctor is much-delayed. I first viewed this straight after reviewing The Day of the Doctor, the triumphantly entertaining 50th Anniversary special. My plan was to plow straight on, to finish reviewing Matt Smith's television era in one go.

Then I watched it, in all its moody, ambitious, unevenly-paced glory. I loved bits of it, didn't much like other bits, and was left incapable of articulating an overall opinion. So I punted and decided to revisit it down the road.

I am happy to report the episode plays vastly better the second time around. I still think this should have been a two-parter, as so much is packed in here that it feels overstuffed, with some particularly bumpy transitions from one Act to the next. But in between the bits that don't quite work are some wonderful individual scenes, sustained by an effective and welcome tone that isn't so much regret as it is reflection.

The best part the episode is the middle Act, with the middle-aged Doctor. Particularly good is the scene in which he watches the dawn with Clara, musing about how "everyone gets stuck someplace eventually," but not seeming sorry for his choice to stay. He talks about how every life he saves is a victory, and how that makes remaining in this one place worthwhile. It's a scene that works on every level, from the beautiful framing of the shots to the terrific dialogue to the outstanding performances of Smith and Coleman. If the entire episode was at the level of this scene, it would rate a "10" with room to spare.

Unfortunately, not everything works. There's a "nudity" gag near the beginning that isn't particularly funny, and is dragged on to the point of ridiculousness. Tasha Lem is so clearly a River Song substitute, I'm left wondering if her bits in the script were originally River bits and had to be redone when Alex Kingston wasn't available. The sexual banter between Lem and the Doctor, and lines about how she has always fought her inner psychopath, would make vastly more sense applied to River than to this one-shot guest character.

Moffat tries to use the plot to wrap up all the running plotlines of Matt Smith's era. Some of these work - Notably, the crack in the universe being used by the Time Lords to send their message. Others don't. We now know exactly why Madame Kovarian and her group of Silents tried to arrange the Doctor's death, and the new context for Series Six is appreciated... But Kovarian's actual plan remains nonsensical, and I'm not sure such a complex episode really needs to remind us of Moffat's most convoluted and least successful season arc.

The regeneration scene is terrific, with the dying Doctor's reflections on how we all are different people throughout our lives resonating. Clara's plea to him to please not change, and the brief appearance by Amy Pond as both child and adult, are wonderful. Unlike some, I also quite like the fast regeneration effect. After the lengthy goodbye speech, we didn't need a lingering effects scene - The sudden pop to the new face was much more effective, in my opinion.

While I'm excited to see what Peter Capaldi does with the character, I still have a sense that Matt Smith should have stayed one more season. Nevertheless, his exit is a strong one. And while the episode itself isn't without some problems, particularly some bumpy transitions, I feel the quality of the performances, the ambition of the narrative, and the handful of truly outstanding moments outweigh the bumpiness of the ride.

In interests of full disclosure, I would probably have given this a "6" on first viewing. But with the benefit of a second viewing - from which this episode particularly benefits - I'm bumping that up to a much more satisfied:


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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#38: The Day of the Doctor.

The War Doctor (John Hurt) makes a choice
that will shape his future lives.

1 episode. Approx. 79 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Nick Hurran. Produced by: Marcus Wilson. 


THE PLOT

The Doctor finds himself working with UNIT once again, called in by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave). Housed in the National Gallery is a vault of forbidden alien art, inlcuding 3-D Time Lord art - not so much paintings as moments of frozen time. Something has broken out of several of these artworks, with figures missing from the paintings and broken glass showing that something escaped from inside the art.

As the Doctor investigates, he encounters a fissure in time, one that connects him to his Tenth incarnation (David Tennant). The Tenth Doctor is romancing Queen Elizabeth I (Joanna Page), but his overtures are a ruse to expose a Zygon infiltration. He is only just starting to deal with the Zygons when he encounters his future self, much to his irritation. Almost immediately thereafter, they are joined by a third self: The incarnation they never acknowledge, the War Doctor (John Hurt).

From the War Doctor's perspective, he has just stolen the Time Lord weapon known as "The Moment" from Gallifrey. He knows that using it will destroy his own people as well as the Daleks, but he is ready to do so to end a war that threatens all creation. But The Moment has a conscience, and will not allow him to make this choice without seeing what he will become. Their time together will lead to a choice - and a change that may not affect the Doctor's past, but will certainly alter his future!


CHARACTERS

The Eleventh Doctor: Gets noticeably less focus than his predecessors. That's not to say he gets sidelined. He gets plenty of screen-time, the scenes with him looking at Gallifreyan art in the National Gallery used to seamlessly work in exposition involving both the War Doctor's decision and the Tenth Doctor's zany Zygon adventure. But the Time War story is primarily the War Doctor's, while the Zygon story is primarily the Tenth's. Eleven is largely left to react and comment on the other two. Within this framework, he's extremely entertaining; his wry asides about the Tenth Doctor kissing Queen Elizabeth's Zygon doppelganger are particularly funny. But it's only in the last 10 - 15 minutes that Smith's Doctor truly claims the spotlight.

The Tenth Doctor: David Tennant recaptures his Doctor effortlessly and instantly. His Doctor comes so effortlessly and completely to life that when we first cut to him it feels like we've switched over to a Series Four episode. The Tenth Doctor comes across as much slicker than the Eleventh, particularly with women. He charms both Queen Elizabeth and Clara with full self-confidence; indeed, his initial plan to expose the Zygons rests on his confidence in being a suitor for Elizabeth. The Time War is still vivid in his mind, with even a full incarnation's separation insufficient to dull the pain. He is appalled when he sees that his own successor has "moved on," and demands to know if a few hundred years is really all it takes to get over something so unspeakable. Tennant and Smith make a terrific double-act: Their Doctors are similar enough to be believable as the same man, and different enough for both comic and dramatic contrast between them.

The War Doctor: Was teased as an ominous figure in The Name of the Doctor and The Night of the Doctor, but is revealed here as... Well, really as just a different incarnation of The Doctor. John Hurt is fantastic, and I think the piece is strengthened by having an actor so much older than Smith and Tennant. It heightens the War Doctor's weariness as he makes his desperate decision to use The Moment, and it lends an extra dimension to his interactions with his successors. I enjoyed his disgust at the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor's more juvenile tendencies. "Do you have to talk like children?" he demands of them. "What makes you so ashamed of being grown up?" The way they both look back at him gives all the answer needed: The intense guilt over the "grown up" decision to wipe out two entire civilizations for the greater good has led them to reject everything they see his incarnation as having stood for. 

Clara: Jenna Coleman apparently ditched the "Louise" between Series Seven and this special. Aside from that, nothing has changed: She's still a winning screen presence, but still struggling against a character who feels less than fully-formed. At least she gets some good moments. Clara is able to move quickly to avoid a Zygon trap and to rescue the Doctors, and her bemusement that none of them even thought to try to the (unlocked) door to their cell at any point is quite funny. Unlike the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, she recognizes that the War Doctor has yet to use The Moment, observing that his eyes are "so much younger" than her otherwise youthful Doctor's eyes are; the War Doctor may be haunted by many things he has seen and done, but he is not yet haunted bythat. Her key moment comes at the end, when she appeals to the Eleventh Doctor - her Doctor - to find another way. "We've got enough warriors, and any old idiot can be a hero... Be a Doctor."

Rose Tyler:I groaned when I heard that Billie Piper would return (yet again) for The Day of the Doctor. It seemed like too many returns from a character who had already returned at least one time more than was welcome. Steven Moffat is nothing if not clever, though. By using Rose Tyler's image as the face and voice of "The Moment," he nods to the significance of the New Series' first companion and her place in the Doctor's life, and does so without undermining her exit (as I felt happened in her Series Four return). She works also to give voice to the War Doctor's subconscious, giving us a look at this more taciturn Doctor's viewpoint without having to resort to labored monologues.

Zygons: I suspect all viewers have a few "fan favorites" that leave them a bit cold, and Terror of the Zygons is one of mine. The design was terrific, though, and has been wisely left intact. Their shapeshifting is heavily drawn on, used for both humor and suspense. Their plot is largely a "B" story, but the script makes sure to tie it into the Time War story. In plot terms, the Zygons are invading Earth because their own planet was destroyed by the Time War; in thematic terms, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart prepares to make the same decision for Earth (sacrifice many to save more) that the War Doctor made for the universe. As a piece of a larger whole it works - and the Zygons work well enough that I wouldn't mind seeing them again in a story properly their own.


THOUGHTS

So much has been written about The Day of the Doctor that I won't even try to add anything new. Instead, I'm simply going to review it as what it is, first and foremost: a Doctor Who story. A big one: Feature-length running time, a much bigger budget than the average episode, and a full 3-D presentation (a rather good one). But for all of that, it's a story first. I wouldn't hesitate to call it a good one.

All the strengths of the Moffat era are here in force. The script is clever, spending its first portion establishing three different time zones with three different problems and then weaving those together into one big plot. We even get a signature Moffat flourish, as a minor aside early in the episode pays off late in the episode thanks to the magic of time travel. Moffat likes things to be large-scale, and we certainly get that here: A glimpse at a key battle in the Time War features exterminations, big guns, the War Doctor using said big gun to write a big message, and a Dalek killed by a charging TARDIS. There is an abundant amount of humor, with gags and one-liners dominating the Elizabethan portion and making the interactions of the three Doctors a joy to witness.

Some of the weaknesses are here, as well. The dialogue is fast and funny, but occasionally too self-aware for its own good. The climax is big and bold... maybe a bit too much so to feel as dramatically earned as it would have dialed back just a bit. It doesn't quite spin out of control, but there's a minute or so where it feels ready to. 

But if there are a few blemishes, what of it? The Day of the Doctor is a tremendous amount of fun. Smith and Tennant are terrific together, and John Hurt is so utterly perfect that I can't find it in myself to regret Christopher Eccleston's absence - I actually think the story works much better with the War Doctor than it would have with the Ninth! There's more separation, both in years and in acting style, between John Hurt's melancholy incarnation and the extroverted Tennant and Smith, and Hurt's gravelly voice is a perfect match with his character's weariness. Plus, I always viewed the Ninth Doctor as a reaction to the Time War, having regenerated right after pushing the button, and this maintains that characterization.

As much as I liked this story, I can't give it full marks. It's fun, but I find it far more successful in its lighthearted moments than in its more dramatic passages. Still, as a celebration of 50 Years of Doctor Who, and of the past eight years of New Who in particular, I found it delightful viewing. 

Finally, since some comment on the ending is required, I'll give a very brief one: I don't have an opinion yet.  What's done here could turn out to be a good thing, opening up new dramatic avenues for the series; it could turn out to be a bad thing. It all depends on what happens next.

Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#37 (7.14): The Name of the Doctor.

The Doctor confronts the Great Intelligence.

1 episode. Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Saul Metzstein. Produced by: Marcus Wilson, Denise Paul. 


THE PLOT

"The Doctor has a secret... One he will take to the grave. And it is discovered."

With these words, convicted murderer Clarence DeMarco (Michael Jenn) hooks Madame Vastra into arranging a meeting on an astral plane of the Doctor's closest allies: Herself, Jenny, Strax, Clara, and River Song. But when Vastra reveals the exact wording of the message, River warns that they have fallen into a trap. Clara is able to wake in time, but the others are captured by the Whisper Men, avatars of The Great Intelligence (Richard E. Grant).

The Intelligence takes his hostages to Trenzalore, the planet the Doctor must never visit - the planet that is home to his grave. To save his friends, he pushes the TARDIS into a crash landing, voluntarily walking into the snare that's been laid. Here, the Intelligence waits. Here, the mystery of Clara will be solved and the Doctor will be confronted with a question.

Once that question in answered, the Great Intelligence will take its revenge - a revenge that will not only destroy the Doctor, but potentially the entire universe!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor has generally been characterized with enormous energy. He is always running, always moving, always racing even in his manner of speech... Which means that you really sit up and take notice when he suddenly becomes still. From the instant Clara says the word "Trenzalore" to him, the goofiness that is this Doctor's armor drops away. He recognizes the danger of going to the site of his future death, but he cannot stay away. As he explains to Clara, he has a duty to his friends and he must at least try to save them.

Clara: This episode answers the question: How can Clara be the Doctor's "impossible girl," whom he has met in both past and future and seen die in both, and also be the "ordinary girl" Emma described in Hide? The answer is satisfying enough, fitting within the story and addressing Clara's other aspects. It also wraps up that story thread, which should allow Clara to simply be treated as a character rather than a puzzle in future episodes.

River Song: This feels like a final episode for River, and I think it should be. Alex Kingston's strong chemistry with Matt Smith remains, and the farewell (that isn't quite a farewell) between her and the Doctor is a strong emotional moment. Strong enough that it should stand as a final word. I'd have no objection to her having a cameo in Smith's final episode, to acknowledge what a big part of his tenure she's been - but other than that, I think it's time to close out her story, so that the next Doctor can start fresh with stories of his own. River's story is told - and as the Doctor himself says in this episode, it's time for her to sleep.

Madame Vastra/Jenny/Strax: These three have practically become regulars themselves, featuring heavily in three of the past nine episodes. They remain a welcome presence, the actors and characters instantly engaging. Strax has found the perfect way to relieve his yearnings for hand-to-hand combat: By visiting a pub in Scotland. Vastra "invites" Clara to their meeting in the astral plane by arranging to have a letter delivered in the distant future that will be laced with a soporific... and coming from Vastra, that actually doesn't seem forced or far-fetched. Jenny is back to being Vastra's sidekick, but she gets what may be the episode's most memorable line at the moment she is snared by the Whisper Men. 

Great Intelligence: When the Great Intelligence was teased in The Bells of Saint John, I expected more of the season's stories to tie in. I can't say I was terribly disappointed when they didn't, as it was rather nice to have a season of stories that actually stood (or in rare cases, fell) on their own merits, but I do think we should have seen one more appearance. Then again, maybe not - The Great Intelligence ends up being the least interesting part of this episode, a fairly generic "evil" existing to justify the revelations about Clara and the Doctor. The Whisper Men are genuinely sinister, though; I don't much care if we see Richard E. Grant's Intelligence again, but I would love to see the Whisper Men at the center of a nice, creepy Who story of their own.


THOUGHTS

The Name of the Doctor has a lot in common with Steven Moffat's Series Six finale, The Wedding of River Song.  Much like that story, it's a single-episode finale that's packed with dazzling ideas and gorgeous visuals, all coming at you at such a pace that it's only later that you really stop to think about any dots not connected, any plot threads not tied up.

As an episode, I'd rank it about even with Wedding. It's not quite as much sheer, exuberant fun, but that's deliberate: Everything about The Name of the Doctor carries a funereal atmosphere. Trenzalore is a destroyed landscape, with an engorged TARDIS standing over it like a bloody monument. Matt Smith's performance is his most subdued in a while, his Doctor behaving like a man walking to his own graveside... which is exactly what he's doing! Everything in script, performance, and production combines to make this a tangibly ominous experience, and that elevates it significantly.

As a finale, I think it works better, if only because the arc it's resolving is much simpler. The episode has three tasks: Resolve the Great Intelligence hook from The Bells of Saint John; resolve the mystery of Clara; and set up the 50th Anniversary Special. It achieves all three of these goals, with the important ones - the revelations about Clara and the Doctor - particularly successful. There remain a couple of dropped threads: The friction between Clara and the TARDIS, for instance, something which seems to have been conveniently forgotten; and the identity of the woman who gave Clara the Doctor's number to start with. But these are relatively minor loose ends, ones that I have no problem simply accepting.

The Name of the Doctor is also an exhilerating exercise in fan service. In addition to return visits from the recurring characters of the Steven Moffat era (River, Vastra, Jenny, Strax), we also get clips of many of the past Doctors. Some Forrest Gump-style editing even allows Jenna-Louise Coleman to directly interact with William Hartnell at one point. It's clever and pleasing - and it does so in a way that's in service to the story, rather than the story being fitted around the clever touches. The episode is dazzling, in a very subdued and morose way, but it's also surprisingly disciplined.

The final note is meant to leave us eagerly awaiting the anniversary special. For me, that's its biggest success. The final lines and the final shot leave me eager to see what happens next, and very happy that I get to move onto the enxt show instead of waiting months for a follow-up.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#36 (7.13): Nightmare in Silver.

The Doctor is possessed by the Cybermen!

1 episode. Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Neil Gaiman. Directed by: Stephen Woolfenden. Produced by: Marcus Wilson, Denise Paul.

THE PLOT

The children under Clara's care, Angie (Eve de Leon Allen) and Artie (Kassius Carey Johnson), have found multiple photos of her online with the Doctor - all in different places and times. When they confront her with them, she gets the Doctor to agree to take them on one trip to keep them quiet. He takes them to the logical place for children: An amusement park. Specifically, to Hedgewick's World of Wonders, the greatest amusement park in the universe!

Unfortunately, he gets his dates wrong. The park is closed, its only occupants a punishment platoon of misfit soldiers and Webley (Jason Watkins), who houses a collection of waxworks and oddities from across the galaxy. Webley shows the Doctor and the children the prize of his collection: The shell of a Cyberman, made to play chess by his diminutive assistant, Porridge (Warwick Davis).

But the Cyber-shell isn't quite as dead as it seems. Tiny metallic insects, which the Doctor dubs "Cyber-mites," have infested the park. They reactivate the Cyberman, which takes Angie and Artie hostage. The Doctor goes to their rescue, of course - but he falls right into a trap, the Cyber-mites infecting him with the goal of making him their new Cyber-controller!

CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Smith gets to play a true double role, being both hero and villain, Doctor and Cyber-controller. In my opinion, he does a lot better as the Doctor, though a large part of the reason is the script. The Cyber-controller is too manic, egotistical, and sarcastic to be convincing as an unemotional being. Perhaps the script's goal was to showcase the Doctor's darkest qualities divorced from his virtues, but it doesn't work in this context because the Cybermen are meant to be emotionless. I will say that Smith does a fine job of separating his characterization so that we can generally tell when he's the Doctor, when he's the Cyber-controller, and when he's one character pretending to be the other.

Clara: Very protective of the kids in her charge, even referring to them as "my children" at one point. she trusts the Doctor to get them back - at least, she trusts him a lot more than the captain (Tamzin Outhwaite) who seems a little too eager to blow up the planet with all of them still on it. She knows the Doctor well enough by now that when he begins complimenting her beauty and intelligence, she instantly knows that it can't be him. Even if he truly did feel that way, which she knows he doesn't, she knows that he'd "rather die than say it."

Cybermen: This latest variant of the Cybermen is most effective in the episode's early scenes. The visual of the Cyber-mites, running up a victim's body to "upgrade" him, is just the right level of ghoulish, as is the idea of children's minds being used to create a Cyber-controller. "A child's brain, with its infinite potential, is perfect for our needs." Less good is the self-upgrading that the Cybermen do at many points in the story. They upgrade themselves any time they encounter an obstacle. A good story idea, if that updgrade shows them absorbing some resource to make it happen. But these upgrades just occur out of thin air. They might as well be using magic, for all the basis their self-upgrades are given by the story.

THOUGHTS

Neil Gaiman's Doctor Who debut came with The Doctor's Wife, my pick for best episode of Series Six. Nightmare in Silver is his second episode. While it's still an enjoyable piece, with some excellent atmosphere and imagination in its first half, the second half squanders a lot of those virtues.  It's entertaining enough, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Nightmare in Silver continues Series Seven's trend of visually strong episodes. The realization of the Doctor's battle for control of his own mind is particularly well-done, as the Doctor and the Cyber-controller fence verbally in a virtual landscape, with visuals looming between them: first of Clara, then of the Doctor's past selves, finally of the Doctor's current self. In one shots, the Doctor stands against a yellow/orange background that resembles the time tunnel of the opening titles. The Cyber-controller stands against a visually colder background colored black and metallic gray.

The early scenes build up a lot of atmosphere. A standout moment sees Porridge telling Clara about the last war against the Cybermen. He walks her out to a view of outer space, pointing out a void and telling her: "It used to be the Tiberion Spiral Galaxy. A million star systems, a hundred million worlds, a billion trillion people. It's not there anymore. No more Tiberion Galaxy, no more Cybermen. It was effective." This lays out the stakes: The Cybermen became such a threat that collateral damage on a massive scale was deemed acceptable to stop them. It also tells us that the society we are visiting is one that will engage in such practices. The scene, well-performed and beautifully realized, ends on a haunting note as Porridge observes that he feels sorriest not for the dead, but for the man who had to push the button that made it happen.

While the setup is wonderful, the story begins to weaken from the second the Cybermen make themselves visible as a threat. One problem is that there are too many of them. If the situation was this desperate against a handful of Cybermen, that would emphasize what a threat they are while not straining credibility that they could have been hiding on this world without discovery. With an army, the threat of a single one is de-emphasized: The threat is one of numbers, and I have difficulty getting past the question of where they were all hiding.

Make no mistake, I fully endorse Neil Gaiman returning to Doctor Who. He has a strong feel for the Doctor's character, and his imagination and style lend themselves well to this series. Even when things get silly in the second half, the story remains fast-paced and enjoyable. But I think Gaiman's imagination is best-suited to more atmospheric stories with smaller casts (horror/fantasy pieces), not to large-scale action epics. The moment this episode shifts from atmosphere to action is the moment that the story spins out of control.

Overall Rating: 5/10.

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#35 (7.12): The Crimson Horror.

The Doctor becomes a victim of "The Crimson Horror."

1 episode. Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Mark Gatiss. Directed by: Saul Metzstein. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.


THE PLOT

When Mr. Thursday (Brendan Patricks) comes to Yorkshire to retrieve his brother Edmund's corpse, he is shocked to find the body bright red. Edmund has an image captured in his lifeless eyes: The face of the Doctor!

That image is enough for Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her assistant Jenny (Catrin Stewart) to take the case. They learn that Edmund was a reporter. He had infiltrated Sweetville, the private community of the fervently religious Madame Gillyflower (Diana Rigg). Gillyflower will only take the best, the most flawless and intelligent of people, into her utopia. Vastra sends Jenny to join Sweetville, with instructions to "ignore all keep-out signs, go through every locked door, and run towards any form of danger that presents itself."

Jenny locates the Doctor fairly soon after arriving. But he is bright red, unable to speak, and moving in barely-controlled spasms: The only living victim of the Crimson Horror!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Fumbles an attempt at an explanation of Clara's presence after Madame Vastra and Jenny saw her die. He tells Jenny that she's not the same woman, but his body language says that he's still not convinced. He finally just gives up and, in response to the accusation that he hasn't explained, admits that no, he hasn't. He recognizes that Madame Gillyflower is insane, but cannot keep himself from trying to make her realize that her daughter, Ada (Rachel Stirling) should be precious to her... but even as he does so, he makes sure Ada is listening so that she can realize how callous her mother truly is.

Clara: While she's more in the standard companion role here than in past episodes, she is observant enough to pick out the way in which Madame Gillyflower plans to spread her poison. Her banter with the Doctor is quite enjoyable, their partnership seeming more relaxed here than it has. When the opportunity to destroy Gillyflower's equipment presents itself, Clara doesn't wait on the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. She takes the direct approach and smashes it with a chair - which, the Doctor admits, works.

Madame Vastra/Jenny/Strax: The engaging detective team from the Victorian era return, in their first appearance in an episode not scripted by Steven Moffat. Surprisingly, Mark Gatiss does these characters proud. Jenny gets the most screen time, giving Catrin Stewart a chance at the spotlight when she's previously been just a sidekick. She comes across well, showing quick thinking and a useful facility at lock-picking. Strax gets a fun scene in which he prepares to execute his horse for getting them lost, until a young boy is able to give him directions. Vastra gets the least amount of screentime of any of her episodes to date, but her Silurian background is used to painlessly provide exposition about the "Crimson Horror" itself. With the first third of the episode entirely in their hands, this feels even more like a backdoor pilot for a series than their past appearances did - and it's the most persuasive in making me think that these three could actually carry a series, if it ever came to it.


THOUGHTS

Anytime I review a Mark Gatiss Who episode, I feel like I need to put up a disclaimer: I have never liked any Gatiss Who script for television (and very few of his audios). At this point, I go into a Gatiss Who story actively expecting to dislike it and daring him to prove me wrong.

With The crimson Horror, he finally proves me wrong.

This is a terrific episode, one where almost everything works. The Doctor's delayed entrance (almost a third of the way into the story) heightens the tension, as we are enter Sweetville with Jenny. Following the most apparently vulnerable of the detective guest characters into danger makes that danger feel more real, and allows a character who was previously just Madame Vastra's assistant to show herself a smart and resourceful individual on her own.

By opening in the middle, getting into the story through the eyes of recurring guest characters, we also dispense with a lot of exposition. We open with sinister events already in progress, and see just enough of Madame Gillyflower and Sweetville to make us want to know more. Just as that's threatening to wear thin, Jenny locates the Doctor and, once he's restored, we're filled in on the backstory through a montage cleverly presented in the style of an old movie, complete with faded color and reel jumps. At this point, the Doctor steps back into the lead role and retains it until the end - but with the script still allowing Vastra, Jenny, and even Strax key moments at the end.

Guest performances are exceptional. Diana Rigg is the unsurprising standout as the insane Madame Gillyflower, but Rachel Stirling also makes a strong impression as Gillyflower's damaged daughter, Ada. It's hard to believe these characters, who feel alive and distinct, came from the same pen as the man who scripted the generic submarine crew in Cold War.

Given that Gatiss' previous best episode was The Unquiet Dead (which was mis-paced, but at least reasonably engaging), I'm beginning to think he's best-suited to this particular historical setting, the setting in which you could picture Sherlock Holmes and Watson rounding the corner.

Whatever the case, this is the first episode he has written that has not only been competent, but a genuine joy to watch. Knowing he's capable of this will make me a tiny bit less likely to dread his name in future episodes... Though it will also make me even less forgiving of generic runarounds when this proves he can do so much better.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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#34 (7.11): Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.

The Doctor prepares for a perilous journey -
to the core of his own timeship!

1 episode. Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Steve Thompson. Directed by: Mat King. Produced by: Marcus Wilson. 


THE PLOT

Concerned about the lack of trust between Clara and the TARDIS, the Doctor decides to let his new companion pilot the ship for a bit. To make it easier for her, he turns off the shields... at the exact moment that the salvage ship run by Gregor Van Baalen (Ashley Walters) detects them. Reading the TARDIS as an object rich in salvage, Gregor activates an illegal magnetic beam - which, with the TARDIS shields off, massively disrupts the interior of the timeship.

The Doctor is thrown clear, waking in the salvage ship. Clara is still trapped inside. As she tries to catch her bearings, the Doctor bluffs Gregor, his brutish brother Bram (Mark Oliver), and android Tricky (Jahvel Hall) into going into the TARDIS to rescue her. But once inside, all Gregor can see is the salvage of a lifetime - While Clara discovers that she is not alone in the ship, as burned zombie-like creatures pursue her through the maze of rooms and corridors!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: "The Doctor lies." Well, he certainly does a lot of lying in this episode. He lies to the salvage crew in order to get them to help search for Clara. He lies to them again when he sets a fake self-destruct to motivate them in that search. He lies to Clara about the nature of the burned creatures stalking the corridors. "Secrets protect us," he insists to Clara, "Secrets make us safe!" But the more dishonest he is, the more Clara reacts to him with fear. He can't quite make himself trust that she is only what she says she is - And whether he remembers the events of this episode or not (which is left vague), I doubt he'll have properly learned that lesson.

Clara: Clearly remembers Emma's warning from the last episode, not to trust the Doctor. After being pursued by the creatures, practically her first words to the Doctor are: "Good guys do not have zombie creatures!" She may like him, and she may enjoy their adventures, but she's not entirely convinced that he's "a good guy." 


THOUGHTS

I'm torn in reviewing Journey to the Center of the TARDIS. Regular readers of my reviews know that I'm a sucker for stories that have a certain "unreality" to them, a hint of being surreal or at least a bit removed from reality. This story has a lot of that. 

The labyrinth of TARDIS corridors rearrange themselves to impede the characters' progress. Games with time, as the creatures stalking the characters are revealed to be... well, I won't spoil that for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I certainly enjoyed watching that plot point slide into place at just the right moment for the two creatures who were fused together. And the suspended explosion, with the debris floating in mid-air as the Doctor and Clara walk through it... All wonderfully realized, all of it the exact sort of thing I love in this sort of show.

Then there's the moment of pure fan service. As Bram tears open the TARDIS console, we hear overlapping voices from the show's past: Susan, revealing the TARDIS' name; Ian, expressing disbelief at the suggestion of a police box being able to travel through time and space; the Third and Fourth Doctors, discussing dimensional transcendentalism; the Ninth Doctor, gloating over how "the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through those doors, and believe me they've tried." I rewound and rewatched that scene multiple times, just to try to pick out as many of the voice-overs as possible. 

But... Well... These are good moments. But that's all this episode has: A series of moments. You could argue the same of The Bells of Saint John, which was structured as a series of set pieces. But in that episode, each set piece was tied to the central story and advanced it. Here, the scenes just seem to exist at random, a collection of "cool stuff" designed to keep you from looking too closely at the plot.

I enjoy "cool stuff" as much as the next viewer - but eventually it comes time to get on with the narrative, and that's when the episode falls apart: There isn't much narrative to speak, and most of what we see in the episode has little to do with the thin story that does exist. Had it been structured around the them of mistrust, they might have had something. After all, the Doctor doesn't trust Clara and refuses to believe that she's just a normal girl. Clara doesn't fully trust the Doctor, and is a little afraid of him (probably with good reason). Clara also doesn't trust the TARDIS, which in turn doesn't trust her. 

There are a few scenes that make overtures in this direction, but not nearly enough. For this episode to work, it needs a core. The notion of mistrust among the regulars and their sentient vessel seems like the best potential core for this story. Instead, the Doctor/Clara issues only get a few minutes of screentime, and the Clara/TARDIS issues are barely mentioned at all (in an episode that seems like it should have been designed specifically for them). What we get are just a bunch of moments, very few of which actually feed into the next. 

The guest characters are also the most forgettable of the season. Yes, even moreso than the Soviet submarine crew in Cold War. There's nothing really wrong with the actors, who do a reasonable enough job with what they're given. What they're given, however, are thin sketches: the greedy one, the dumb one, the android who's more than he seems. None of them really move beyond those sketches until it's time for the greedy one to reform completely and unconvincingly in the space of about two minutes.

To add insult to injury, it all ends with a reset button, putting this firmly in Star Trek: Voyager territory. The plot never really happens, the characters never really learn anything. It's just... there. Enough of the individual pieces work to make it quite watchable, but it's very far from good.

A pity, because this was one I had been looking forward to.


Overall Rating: 4/10.

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