Oh dear. I feel like I really have to drag myself through these episodes and writing this blog. I know what's coming up in Series 6, and I so don't want to go there again. But, in the meantime, here is my review of A Christmas Carol.
The episode starts out with a space ship crashing because of some crazy cloud covering the planet below. Amy and Rory are on board; they are apparently on their honeymoon, and they have sent a distress signal to the Doctor. Just as they are about to give up hope, a message flashes on the screen: "Come along, Pond ..."
The Doctor lands on the planet and pops down the chimney of Kazran Sardick, who owns a machine that controls the clouds. As the Doctor arrives, Kazran is acting scroogey towards a family who want their family member unfrozen for Christmas. The Doctor asks Kazran to help save the ship, but he refuses. The Doctor leaves, but as he's outside, the fog lowers and little fish start swimming around the lamppost. A Christmas carol is playing in the background, and the Doctor gets a great idea to play the Ghost of Christmas Past. Because, obviously, the only way to make Kazran care is to go back in the past and change him. Back in Kazran's lair, a video of Young Kazran starts playing, and who should show up but ... The Doctor!
As the Doctor starts interacting with Young Kazran, Old Kazran's memories start to change and he remembers his past with the Doctor. It turns out that Young Kazran wants to see the fish, but his father won't let him, so the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver as bait for the fish. And, sure enough, he attracts a little fish. Unfortunately, the little fish attracts a huge shark, which promptly eats the sonic screwdriver and attempts to eat the Doctor and Young Kazran. The Doctor manages to recover part of his screwdriver, but the shark somehow gets hurt and is dying, and the only way to save him is to get him back into the fog cloud. Young Kazran has a great idea to save the shark. He takes the Doctor to cold storage, where thousands of people have been frozen by Kazran's father as a kind of collateral.
Young Kazran wants to vacate the freezer of Abigail, a lovely blonde whom he has a crush on. Abigail wakes up, the shark attacks, she sings to the shark and calms it down, they put it in the freezer, and release it back into the cloud. Before restoring Abigail to her freezer, Young Kazran tells her that the Doctor visits every Christmas Eve.
The next scene is the following Christmas Eve, and the Doctor literally harnesses the shark and takes Kazran and Abigail for a ride in the clouds.
We see subsequent Christmas Eves, and they apparently go on all kinds of adventures.
Suddenly, one Christmas Eve, Kazran is all grown up, and Abigail takes notice of him. They fall in love, but then Abigail tells Kazran that she only has one more day to live, and he gets upset with the Doctor and tells him not to come back. Kazran becomes a scroogey old man after all. He refuses to help the plummeting space ship.
So, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows up in the form of Amy. She tries to convince him to save the ship by showing him the passengers singing Christmas carols. It doesn't work.
The Doctor shows up again. At this point, Kazran tells the Doctor that Abigail only has one more day to live, and how is he supposed to choose which day that is? The Doctor says that he's the Ghost of Christmas Future, and Young Kazran appears. He's just witnessed Kazran's bitterness, and the Doctor says, "do you want to end up like that?"
Kazran then changes his mind and decides to save the ship after all. However, he has changed so much that the isomorphic controls no longer work. The Doctor tells Kazran that he has to let Abigail out so she can sing, and she does. Her singing stabilizes the cloud and the ship is able to land safely. The Doctor leaves Kazran and Abigail, and they harness the shark again and go for another ride. Because once wasn't enough.
Repeat Ideas:
1) This isn't a repeat idea in the sense that Moffat has recycled some of his previous ideas, just something that really bothers me. The phrase "Come along, Pond" is right up there with, "Hello, Sweetie". It's getting very tired. I mean, it was funny the first time, but this isn't the 80's, the Doctor isn't Steve Urkel and Amy and River aren't Stephanie and Michelle Tanner. Do we really need these catch phrases?
Dislikes:
1) Amy talks to the Doctor via some kind of walkie talkie. What the heck? How come all of a sudden everyone can communicate with him easily? Is this something that happened in the classic series? I don't know, I'm only up to the first few stories of the Second Doctor, but I find it very annoying that the Doctor is suddenly at everyone's beck and call (and Marilyn Monroe calling him at the end? Seriously. How is everyone contacting him?)
2) Driving the shark? Are you KIDDING me? This is literally the most ridiculous thing in the entire series so far, and that's saying a lot.
3) How does the Doctor not notice the countdown? How thick is he? I'm getting really tired with this Doctor being stupid.
4) Let's say that Abigail is 20. Let's also assume that the first time we see Young Kazran he's 12. Abigail gets eight days out of the freezer before she dies, right? So the first time we see Slightly Older Kazran, he's got to be about 17. But then they have several more Christmas Eves together! I had a really hard time trying to figure out how old he was!
5) The portrait in Kazran's lair changes from his father, to Abigail, to his father again. I thought this was really unnecessary. Since the past has already happened, even though Kazran doesn't necessarily remember it yet, there is no reason that Abigail's portrait would be up there. Even if Kazran at that time believes that he'll be with Abigail, the fact is that the end result is that Abigail gets returned to her freezer for good. So, the portrait of his father should have ALWAYS been of his father, and NEVER changed to Abigail. There is no reason that Moffat should have ever shown us that portrait again.
6) At one point, Kazran pulls out photos of Slightly Older Kazran, Abigail, and the Doctor on their adventures on Christmas Eve. There are dozens of photos. How many places did they go each time? It makes no sense.
7) Are Kazran and Abigail considered companions now? They spent a lot of time with the Doctor. As a matter of fact, as we'll see in Series 6, this Doctor sure doesn't have a problem bringing anyone and everyone into the TARDIS.
8) How is Hologram Amy able to interact with Kazran? She can't actually see him. Conversely, when he's a hologram, how can he see them? I get touchy about technical details like that ...
9) And here's my biggest issue with all of this - Moffat is really screwing with time. Not only is the Doctor crossing time lines, introducing Young Kazran to Kazran, he is completely changing this man. Not only is he changing Kazran, he is theoretically changing the other people who come into Kazran's life, too. How do we know it's all for the good? I mean, he's doing this for a very selfish reason - to save these 4,000 people. For instance, yes, Kazran's feelings for Abigail make a difference, but then losing that love could have potentially made him even more bitter. How do we know that these actions won't create a worse future in some other way? I guess my time travel rules have been defined by Doc Brown. But I'm really concerned about how free and easy this Doctor is with time. Also, because Young Kazran meets present-day Kazran, won't that change all of his memories when he's with the Doctor later on?
10) Okay, the concept of harnessing the shark is so ridiculous that it warrants a second mention. HARNESSING THE SHARK IS RIDICULOUS! Also, I think this officially means that Doctor Who has jumped the shark.
11) Edited to add: I totally forgot about this - when the Doctor appears in the video with Young Kazran, Kazran is watching. Well, throughout this entire first encounter with Young Kazran, present-day Kazran watches. WHERE is the camera? I get that when they're in the bedroom, they're on camera, and they also brought the computer into the closet with them. But Kazran's watching while they go down to cold storage and everything. HOW is he watching this?
Likes:
1) As always, when the dumbass ginger is out of the picture, the Doctor is much more tolerable. He is downright funny throughout this entire episode. The whole gag about isomorphic controls was hilarious (although I don't like the constant theme that the Doctor is ignorant). I also loved that he was accidentally engaged to Marilyn Monroe and then apparently went off and married her. I thought that the Doctor giving Slightly Older Kazran advice on kissing was brilliant.
2) Michael Gambon is really good at playing angry old men, isn't he? Angry Dumbledore, Angry Kazran ...
3) Young Kazran was fantastic. I may not like some of the adult actors in this show, but they've done a brilliant job of casting the young actors.
I guess that's all of my likes. But, the fact that I liked Matt Smith in this episode is huge, so really it should count as at least three likes ...
And now for a palette-cleanser - I toyed with something from A Christmas Carol and Fonzie jumping the shark, but I'm going to go for something else. Happy Christmas from the First Doctor!
And because I couldn't resist ...
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
S5 Episode 13: The Big Bang
Finally, the long-awaited series finale! Let's get on with it, shall we?
Epic Entrance:
We have another one! Amelia is praying to Santa - again - except this time, things don't go the way that they did originally. She gets a note, she goes to the museum, she sees the Daleks, she runs away from her aunt and opens the Pandorica, and there's Amy! While it's fantastic to see Amelia again, I just hate these epic entrances. Seriously, can Moffat be any more in love with himself? This is total fan wanking, and he's his own biggest fan.
Likes:
1) I absolutely LOVE Amelia Pond. I don't know if I stressed that enough in The Eleventh Hour. Not only is she a brilliant character, but Caitlin Blackwood knocks it out of the park again.
2) Rory is amazing. Arthur Darvil does not miss a beat. His comedic timing is unmatched.
3) At one point, the Doctor says, "that's when everything changes". I only "liked" this because I immediately thought, "someone's been watching too much Torchwood".
Dislikes:
1) I know that most people love how Moffat messes with time, but I don't like it. I feel like he does it just to show off. Like so many of Moffat's devices, it's great the first time, but then after the second or third time he pulls this stunt, you start noticing all the problems that this kind of thing presents. Again, it seems like Moffat's only got so many tricks in his bag.
2) Amy meeting Amelia should have caused a huge problem. Or does the Doctor just not care because the universe is already screwed?
3) It's pretty convenient that Earth is the last thing to go out, isn't it? And that it happens to take 2000 years, just enough time to get to Amelia? And that's not the sun, it's the TARDIS exploding? I don't think that science works like that. Exploding TARDIS does not = sun.
4) OH NO! THE FUTURE DOCTOR IS DEAD! Let's mark this down as the first time that the Doctor "dies".
5) The whole "unwinding" thing was really strange. However, I did get a kick when he said, "I hate repeats", considering I have a whole section on this blog dedicated to Repeat Ideas.
6) Amy so wants to rip off the Doctor's clothes at her wedding. She seriously tries to kiss him again!
7) At the end of the episode, the Doctor says, "the silence is still out there". To me, that comes out of left field. In the previous episode, it was very clear that the silence was tied to the whole exploding TARDIS thing. When I heard that line, in my head I heard Moffat going, "huh, I've run out of ideas! Maybe we can somehow drag out this whole 'silence' thing."
And here's a little something to remind me why I love Doctor Who, because I seem to need a lot of reminders these days:
Epic Entrance:
We have another one! Amelia is praying to Santa - again - except this time, things don't go the way that they did originally. She gets a note, she goes to the museum, she sees the Daleks, she runs away from her aunt and opens the Pandorica, and there's Amy! While it's fantastic to see Amelia again, I just hate these epic entrances. Seriously, can Moffat be any more in love with himself? This is total fan wanking, and he's his own biggest fan.
Likes:
1) I absolutely LOVE Amelia Pond. I don't know if I stressed that enough in The Eleventh Hour. Not only is she a brilliant character, but Caitlin Blackwood knocks it out of the park again.
2) Rory is amazing. Arthur Darvil does not miss a beat. His comedic timing is unmatched.
3) At one point, the Doctor says, "that's when everything changes". I only "liked" this because I immediately thought, "someone's been watching too much Torchwood".
Dislikes:
1) I know that most people love how Moffat messes with time, but I don't like it. I feel like he does it just to show off. Like so many of Moffat's devices, it's great the first time, but then after the second or third time he pulls this stunt, you start noticing all the problems that this kind of thing presents. Again, it seems like Moffat's only got so many tricks in his bag.
2) Amy meeting Amelia should have caused a huge problem. Or does the Doctor just not care because the universe is already screwed?
3) It's pretty convenient that Earth is the last thing to go out, isn't it? And that it happens to take 2000 years, just enough time to get to Amelia? And that's not the sun, it's the TARDIS exploding? I don't think that science works like that. Exploding TARDIS does not = sun.
4) OH NO! THE FUTURE DOCTOR IS DEAD! Let's mark this down as the first time that the Doctor "dies".
5) The whole "unwinding" thing was really strange. However, I did get a kick when he said, "I hate repeats", considering I have a whole section on this blog dedicated to Repeat Ideas.
6) Amy so wants to rip off the Doctor's clothes at her wedding. She seriously tries to kiss him again!
7) At the end of the episode, the Doctor says, "the silence is still out there". To me, that comes out of left field. In the previous episode, it was very clear that the silence was tied to the whole exploding TARDIS thing. When I heard that line, in my head I heard Moffat going, "huh, I've run out of ideas! Maybe we can somehow drag out this whole 'silence' thing."
And here's a little something to remind me why I love Doctor Who, because I seem to need a lot of reminders these days:
Sunday, June 5, 2011
S5 Episode 12: The Pandorica Opens
Well, we start off with another EPIC ENTRANCE as we see Vincent Van Gogh having some sort of fit, then Winston Churchill examining a painting, and finally, River Song as she receives Churchill's phone call, which was meant for the Doctor. River escapes her cell and obtains both a vortex manipulator "off the wrist of Time Agent ... I said off the wrist!" and the painting, which depicts the TARDIS exploding. Meanwhile, the Doctor decides on a whim, apparently, to take Amy to the first written words on Earth, and is astonished to find that they translate into HELLO SWEETIE. He travels to Stonehenge based on coordinates that River also left.
River has used her hallucinogenic lipstick to make the Romans think that she's Cleopatra. Why, I don't know. It doesn't really make sense. She tells the Doctor about the Pandorica, which supposedly contains that biggest threat in the universe, and the Doctor again claims that it's a myth. They go to Stonehenge, and surprise, surprise, the Pandorica is located beneath.
As they enter the cavern below Stonehenge, the camera reveals the twitching head of a Cyberman.
They find the Pandorica and examine it, and discover that it's sending out a signal. Amy makes a comment that "Pandorica" is similar to "Pandora's Box", which was her favorite Greek myth. Also, she thinks that Romans are hot. River finds that there are at least 10,000 space ships in the sky above them, containing Daleks, Cybermen, and a ton of other enemies that the Doctor has encountered over the years. They go to the Romans for help, and River goes to the TARDIS with the intent to bring it back to the cavern. However, the TARDIS doesn't cooperate, and takes off with her.
Meanwhile, the broken Cyberman terrorizes the Doctor and Amy, and just as Amy is about to be captured by it, she is rescued by - Rory? Yes, that's right, Rory is a Roman soldier, and Amy doesn't remember him at all. He tells the Doctor that he died and woke up as a Roman soldier! It's so weird! The Doctor encourages him to go talk to Amy to try to get her to remember him.
The TARDIS brings River to Amy's house, where she enters Amy's bedroom and finds all the Doctor and Amy toys, as well as a book about the Romans and the tale of Pandora's Box. She relays this all to the Doctor, who realizes that this whole thing is a trap created out of Amy's memories.
The cavern is suddenly overrun by the Doctor's arch nemesis-es gather in the cavern and capture him, placing him inside the Pandorica. See, he's the biggest threat in the universe! It turns out that the Romans are all plastic Autons, which we last saw in Rose. He tries to tell them that the TARDIS is the thing that actually explodes, and it's happening right now, on June 26, 2010.
Well, Rory is an Auton, too, and just as Amy remembers who he is, he starts to act all robotic. Amy tries to convince Rory that he can be human if he can feel human, but just then, he unwillingly shoots her.
And, in 2010, the TARDIS explodes. TO BE CONTINUED ...
Repeat Ideas:
1) Oh no! Amy might be dead - AGAIN! This is what, the third time this season? 1) Flesh and Stone, she'll die if she opens her eyes for more than a second; 2) Vampires of Venice, she appears dead when Isabella saves her; 3) Hungry Earth, she disappears under the ground and is presumed dead; 4) Amy's Choice, she kills herself in the dream. Nope, sorry, this is the fifth time that it appears that Amy is either dead or in mortal peril. I think Moffat has some deep psychological issues that need to be dealt with.
2) Amy tries to help Rory overcome being a plastic Auton by filling him with his human memories, just like the Doctor convinced the android scientist Bracewell that he could be human by making him remember his false memories (Victory of the Daleks).
Dislikes:
1) Why is the Cyberman head there? River just said that Stonehenge is already thousands of years old by this point - if they left the Cyberman there as a guard and the Celts destroyed it, as the Doctor surmised, wouldn't the head have either been taken or destroyed by this time? I guess it depends on when the Cyberman was posted there. Anyway, I don't feel like it works. If they wanted the destroyed Cyberman to be there, the whole thing should have been inside the cavern.
2) The Doctor tells Amy that something which can be remembered can come back - but Rory died before he was absorbed by the Crack's energy, so if he came back, why would he come back alive?
3) I don't understand why the Daleks would be erased from Amy's memory and nothing else. I've been paying attention this time around, because last year everyone was talking about "all the things" that Amy couldn't remember. There's been nothing else besides the Daleks, and there's no reason why they would be erased out of her memory!
4) The Doctor absolutely freaks out about the Pandorica and gives a psychotic speech to the space ships. I guess he thinks that they're all there to claim whatever is inside as their weapon, but still - he acts so freaking crazy. How is this different from the Tenth Doctor acting like he was a God during that interim season?
5) Okay, so say that all this stuff WAS gleaned from Amy's memory. When River goes to Amy's house, she finds the following: one book about Roman soldiers, one book about Pandora's Box, and one photo of Roman Rory and Amy. WHAAAAA? First of all, how do those things just happen to be lying around? Second - why is there a picture of Rory? Rory doesn't exist! He was never born!
6) Once again, it is reiterated that on 26/6/10, silence will fall. This is important to remember.
7) River says that the Doctor taught her how to fly the TARDIS, but in another episode (I can't remember if it's in The Time of Angels or at some point in Series 6) she says that she learned from a better man than the Doctor.
8) The statement "only the Doctor can fly the TARDIS" is a red herring. I think it's solely in there to make people think that River is somehow an incarnation of the Doctor.
Likes:
1) The mention of the Time Agent. River is currently in jail in the 52nd century, which is right after Captain Jack Harness's time (51st century), so the Time Agency should be going strong at this point. Some people have theorized that the vortex manipulator was taken from Captain Jack, but this is impossible, as he wouldn't be anywhere near the Time Agency so as not to cross his own time line. And, if it was prior to him traveling with the Doctor, then there wouldn't be a wrist inside the box (insinuated by the "I said off the wrist" statement, because Jack wasn't immortal at that point. (My own theory is, and has been for a while, that River is a former Time Agent herself.)
2) After Amy is knocked out by the Cyberman's sleeping draught dart, she walks up to the Doctor and says, "ahhhhh" and he looks in her mouth and checks her out to make sure she's okay. I thought that was hilarious!
3) When hearing the Daleks, the look on the Doctor's face plainly reads, "not again."
4) The Doctor interacts with Rory, not realizing that Rory shouldn't be there. The exchange between him and Rory is hilarious!
5) Rory is responsible for "killing" Amy. I'd kill her, too, ungrateful bitch that she is.
Enjoy, before we get into the f*%#ed up, crack-inspired finale of Series 5.
River has used her hallucinogenic lipstick to make the Romans think that she's Cleopatra. Why, I don't know. It doesn't really make sense. She tells the Doctor about the Pandorica, which supposedly contains that biggest threat in the universe, and the Doctor again claims that it's a myth. They go to Stonehenge, and surprise, surprise, the Pandorica is located beneath.
As they enter the cavern below Stonehenge, the camera reveals the twitching head of a Cyberman.
They find the Pandorica and examine it, and discover that it's sending out a signal. Amy makes a comment that "Pandorica" is similar to "Pandora's Box", which was her favorite Greek myth. Also, she thinks that Romans are hot. River finds that there are at least 10,000 space ships in the sky above them, containing Daleks, Cybermen, and a ton of other enemies that the Doctor has encountered over the years. They go to the Romans for help, and River goes to the TARDIS with the intent to bring it back to the cavern. However, the TARDIS doesn't cooperate, and takes off with her.
Meanwhile, the broken Cyberman terrorizes the Doctor and Amy, and just as Amy is about to be captured by it, she is rescued by - Rory? Yes, that's right, Rory is a Roman soldier, and Amy doesn't remember him at all. He tells the Doctor that he died and woke up as a Roman soldier! It's so weird! The Doctor encourages him to go talk to Amy to try to get her to remember him.
The TARDIS brings River to Amy's house, where she enters Amy's bedroom and finds all the Doctor and Amy toys, as well as a book about the Romans and the tale of Pandora's Box. She relays this all to the Doctor, who realizes that this whole thing is a trap created out of Amy's memories.
The cavern is suddenly overrun by the Doctor's arch nemesis-es gather in the cavern and capture him, placing him inside the Pandorica. See, he's the biggest threat in the universe! It turns out that the Romans are all plastic Autons, which we last saw in Rose. He tries to tell them that the TARDIS is the thing that actually explodes, and it's happening right now, on June 26, 2010.
Well, Rory is an Auton, too, and just as Amy remembers who he is, he starts to act all robotic. Amy tries to convince Rory that he can be human if he can feel human, but just then, he unwillingly shoots her.
And, in 2010, the TARDIS explodes. TO BE CONTINUED ...
Repeat Ideas:
1) Oh no! Amy might be dead - AGAIN! This is what, the third time this season? 1) Flesh and Stone, she'll die if she opens her eyes for more than a second; 2) Vampires of Venice, she appears dead when Isabella saves her; 3) Hungry Earth, she disappears under the ground and is presumed dead; 4) Amy's Choice, she kills herself in the dream. Nope, sorry, this is the fifth time that it appears that Amy is either dead or in mortal peril. I think Moffat has some deep psychological issues that need to be dealt with.
2) Amy tries to help Rory overcome being a plastic Auton by filling him with his human memories, just like the Doctor convinced the android scientist Bracewell that he could be human by making him remember his false memories (Victory of the Daleks).
Dislikes:
1) Why is the Cyberman head there? River just said that Stonehenge is already thousands of years old by this point - if they left the Cyberman there as a guard and the Celts destroyed it, as the Doctor surmised, wouldn't the head have either been taken or destroyed by this time? I guess it depends on when the Cyberman was posted there. Anyway, I don't feel like it works. If they wanted the destroyed Cyberman to be there, the whole thing should have been inside the cavern.
2) The Doctor tells Amy that something which can be remembered can come back - but Rory died before he was absorbed by the Crack's energy, so if he came back, why would he come back alive?
3) I don't understand why the Daleks would be erased from Amy's memory and nothing else. I've been paying attention this time around, because last year everyone was talking about "all the things" that Amy couldn't remember. There's been nothing else besides the Daleks, and there's no reason why they would be erased out of her memory!
4) The Doctor absolutely freaks out about the Pandorica and gives a psychotic speech to the space ships. I guess he thinks that they're all there to claim whatever is inside as their weapon, but still - he acts so freaking crazy. How is this different from the Tenth Doctor acting like he was a God during that interim season?
5) Okay, so say that all this stuff WAS gleaned from Amy's memory. When River goes to Amy's house, she finds the following: one book about Roman soldiers, one book about Pandora's Box, and one photo of Roman Rory and Amy. WHAAAAA? First of all, how do those things just happen to be lying around? Second - why is there a picture of Rory? Rory doesn't exist! He was never born!
6) Once again, it is reiterated that on 26/6/10, silence will fall. This is important to remember.
7) River says that the Doctor taught her how to fly the TARDIS, but in another episode (I can't remember if it's in The Time of Angels or at some point in Series 6) she says that she learned from a better man than the Doctor.
8) The statement "only the Doctor can fly the TARDIS" is a red herring. I think it's solely in there to make people think that River is somehow an incarnation of the Doctor.
Likes:
1) The mention of the Time Agent. River is currently in jail in the 52nd century, which is right after Captain Jack Harness's time (51st century), so the Time Agency should be going strong at this point. Some people have theorized that the vortex manipulator was taken from Captain Jack, but this is impossible, as he wouldn't be anywhere near the Time Agency so as not to cross his own time line. And, if it was prior to him traveling with the Doctor, then there wouldn't be a wrist inside the box (insinuated by the "I said off the wrist" statement, because Jack wasn't immortal at that point. (My own theory is, and has been for a while, that River is a former Time Agent herself.)
2) After Amy is knocked out by the Cyberman's sleeping draught dart, she walks up to the Doctor and says, "ahhhhh" and he looks in her mouth and checks her out to make sure she's okay. I thought that was hilarious!
3) When hearing the Daleks, the look on the Doctor's face plainly reads, "not again."
4) The Doctor interacts with Rory, not realizing that Rory shouldn't be there. The exchange between him and Rory is hilarious!
5) Rory is responsible for "killing" Amy. I'd kill her, too, ungrateful bitch that she is.
Enjoy, before we get into the f*%#ed up, crack-inspired finale of Series 5.
Friday, June 3, 2011
S5 Episode 11: The Lodger
This was another one that I thought was well done, though Matt Smith was back to his characteristic over-the-top portrayal of the Doctor in several scenes.
The basic premise is that the Doctor is stuck on Earth while Amy is stuck on the TARDIS, which refuses to materialize. The first several moments of the episode are very confusing, as we don't know why the TARDIS leaves. I do wish that had been explained a bit earlier. The reason that the TARDIS can't materialize is that there is something in the second floor flat above our protagonist Craig's flat. The Doctor moves in with Craig to figure out what's going on.
The story really has nothing to do with aliens, just like Vincent and the Doctor was barely about the alien. This episode is actually about the relationship of Craig and Sophie, and secondarily about the Doctor trying to pass as a human. Craig and Sophie love each other, but neither has told the other. It's very sweet. Obviously, they finally figure it out, and that's what saves everyone from what is in the second floor flat: a spaceship with a perception filter.
Dislikes:
1) The Doctor shows up Craig while playing football. Craig obviously cares about impressing Sophie, but the Doctor is just so good at football that he steals Craig's thunder. I just didn't like it.
2) Again, I wasn't thrilled with Matt Smith's acting at some points. He's just too over-the-top, he acts too big.
3) I really didn't like how the Doctor head-butted Craig and transferred all his memories to him. Really? First of all, I feel like it's a cheat. Second, does he just go around doing this to anyone?
Likes:
1) Despite Matt Smith being, you know, Matt Smith, I really liked the storyline with the Doctor masquerading as a human. He drinks wine, only to dribble it back out of his mouth, he discovers that he's great at playing football, he kisses everyone on both cheeks because "that's how you greet each other, right?"
2) I liked how this episode was also a stand-alone. The giant mythology arc of the crack is getting so tired. I like how in both Vincent and the Doctor and The Lodger, it is gently referenced without them hitting us over the head with it.
3) One of the reasons that Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead was so good was that the disrespectful, annoying, loud-mouth ginger was barely featured. That same reason is why The Lodger is good. I often wish that Amy could get permanently killed off and just have the Doctor and Rory go whooshing around the universe together. Neither of them deserves to be stuck with that witch.
4) The wallpaper in Craig's kitchen was very similar to the opening credits of Coupling, Steven Moffat's Friends rip-off show.
Let's cleanse our palettes with a little football talk before diving into The Pandorica Opens, because that is a tough one for me to get through!
The basic premise is that the Doctor is stuck on Earth while Amy is stuck on the TARDIS, which refuses to materialize. The first several moments of the episode are very confusing, as we don't know why the TARDIS leaves. I do wish that had been explained a bit earlier. The reason that the TARDIS can't materialize is that there is something in the second floor flat above our protagonist Craig's flat. The Doctor moves in with Craig to figure out what's going on.
The story really has nothing to do with aliens, just like Vincent and the Doctor was barely about the alien. This episode is actually about the relationship of Craig and Sophie, and secondarily about the Doctor trying to pass as a human. Craig and Sophie love each other, but neither has told the other. It's very sweet. Obviously, they finally figure it out, and that's what saves everyone from what is in the second floor flat: a spaceship with a perception filter.
Dislikes:
1) The Doctor shows up Craig while playing football. Craig obviously cares about impressing Sophie, but the Doctor is just so good at football that he steals Craig's thunder. I just didn't like it.
2) Again, I wasn't thrilled with Matt Smith's acting at some points. He's just too over-the-top, he acts too big.
3) I really didn't like how the Doctor head-butted Craig and transferred all his memories to him. Really? First of all, I feel like it's a cheat. Second, does he just go around doing this to anyone?
Likes:
1) Despite Matt Smith being, you know, Matt Smith, I really liked the storyline with the Doctor masquerading as a human. He drinks wine, only to dribble it back out of his mouth, he discovers that he's great at playing football, he kisses everyone on both cheeks because "that's how you greet each other, right?"
2) I liked how this episode was also a stand-alone. The giant mythology arc of the crack is getting so tired. I like how in both Vincent and the Doctor and The Lodger, it is gently referenced without them hitting us over the head with it.
3) One of the reasons that Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead was so good was that the disrespectful, annoying, loud-mouth ginger was barely featured. That same reason is why The Lodger is good. I often wish that Amy could get permanently killed off and just have the Doctor and Rory go whooshing around the universe together. Neither of them deserves to be stuck with that witch.
4) The wallpaper in Craig's kitchen was very similar to the opening credits of Coupling, Steven Moffat's Friends rip-off show.
Let's cleanse our palettes with a little football talk before diving into The Pandorica Opens, because that is a tough one for me to get through!
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