Rose - Series 1

I've decided that during this huge lull before we get new Doctor Who episodes, I'll write about some different new series companions, because they're the ones who I first met, but I may throw in some classic series companions as well.  However, we only just got up to Wheel in Space, so I'm limited in who I can really discuss.

Rose is the person who introduces/reintroduces us to the Doctor.  She's young, has no ambition, and leads a boring, monotonous life.  Like all companions, she meets the Doctor completely by accident and has no idea who he is, which is perfect, because people who never watched the classic series (like me) really didn't know who the Doctor was, either. 

From what I can tell on the various Doctor Who forums, you either love Rose or hate Rose.  I love Rose, but again, she introduced me to the series, so I had zero expectations of what a companion was or should be.  I think a lot of the flak that Rose gets is unfair, especially after watching the first few series of classic Who, in which most companions are stupid (Dodo) or do nothing but run around screaming (Susan).  Some companions are fantastic at times, but at others, are completely helpless (Victoria).  And yet, these are all still beloved characters (well, maybe not Dodo).

Here are Rose's episodes from Series 1, and a brief look at her strengths and weaknesses in each.

S1E1 Rose:  This is where we meet Rose and Nine.  She is confused by the Doctor, but takes the initiative to research him on the Internet.  She is bewildered when Mickey is replaced by an Auton, and the interior size of the TARDIS is shocking, but she still jumps right in.  She is responsible for saving the Doctor from the Nestene Consciousness, even if it is the ridiculous and over-played "I was a gymnast!" resolution.  Hell, I was a gymnast, but I doubt my skills would ever come in handy to save the Doctor, or knock out a velociraptor.  Still, she shows bravery and innovation.  She also berates the Doctor for not caring whether Mickey was alive or dead, so she clearly isn't going to have trouble speaking her mind.  However, when the Doctor offers her a trip in the TARDIS, she initially turns him down, but then changes her mind when he says it's a time machine.  I think it's terrible that she's willing to leave Mickey, but at the same time, this is probably the most exciting thing that's ever happened to her, and let's face it - we would all do the same thing in a heartbeat.  At the time, she didn't know they'd be going on lots of adventures - they were going on one trip, so I'm sure it didn't occur to her that she was abandoning her boyfriend.

S1E2 The End of the World:  The Doctor takes Rose to see the destruction of Earth, but they discover that something strange is going on.  Rose investigates Cassandra, and ends up being knocked out and in danger of being fried up from the sun's rays.  While the Doctor does have to save her life, Rose again shows quick thinking by preventing Cassandra, who orchestrated the whole problem, from leaving Platform One.  As a consequence, Cassandra dries out and ruptures.  So, instead of giving up and crying, Rose has the presence of mind to not only call the Doctor to tell him she's trapped, but she also captures the villain.

S1E3 The Unquiet Dead:  The Doctor and Rose end up in Cardiff.  Rose is kidnapped, but then saved by Charles Dickens and the Doctor.  Nothing really spectacular happens with Rose in this episode, but she does show a lot of compassion and empathy towards Gwyneth.

S1E4 Aliens of London/S1E5 World War III:  Rose is returned twelve months after she leaves with the Doctor to find that she's been reported as missing.  I do like this, because in the classic series, there is no mention of the strange fact that these companions just go missing.  It hasn't been an issue (up to the point I'm at, anyway) and in retrospect, I like that it forces Jackie to become part of the Doctor's world.  A spaceship crashes into Big Ben, and the Doctor and Rose end up at 10 Downing Street with Harriet Jones.  Again, Rose demonstrates that she can handle tough situations - she and Harriet discover the Prime Minister's body, after all.  Though Rose, Harriet, and the Doctor are trapped at 10 Downing Street, Rose is able to contact Mickey and tell him how to hack into UNIT and help destroy Downing Street (and the Slitheen).  The Doctor invites Mickey to join him, but he declines.  Rose, however, decides to continue traveling with the Doctor.  Again, Rose shows her resilience and the ability to take danger in stride. 


S1E6 Dalek:  Rose's ability to show sympathy to aliens results in her resurrecting a dormant Dalek.  We see the Doctor fall apart when he discovers its existence, and it becomes clear why he needs a companion, and Rose specifically.  She really can't be fazed, even in the face of the complete unknown.  Also, she can stop the Doctor when he's gone too far (a theme that is repeated with, of all people, Donna).  Yes, she is trapped again, but it is really her empathy for the Dalek that saves her, and not the Doctor.  It's becoming clear that Rose is far from helpless.

S1E7 The Long Game:  This is really one of my least favorite episodes, so I don't have much to say about it.  Plus, nothing really interesting happens with Rose.  The new companion, Adam, does some really stupid stuff and ends up being forced off the TARDIS after just one trip.  Hey, at least he didn't die, like so many companions did in the span of just a few episodes towards the end of the First Doctor's run.

S1E8 Father's Day:  This is the episode that really makes Rose seem like a moron.  She convinces the Doctor to take her back to the day her father dies, but she intervenes and saves his life.  This creates a paradox that makes time go all crazy (pay attention, Moffat!) until Pete dies as he was meant to. After the Doctor tells Rose not to touch Baby Rose, she stupidly lets Jackie put Baby Rose into her arms, creating another paradox.  Really, this entire episode just discounts all the smart decisions she made in the previous episodes.

S1E9 The Empty Child, aka the episode that still gives me nightmares/S1E10 The Doctor Dances:  Rose ends up hanging from a barrage balloon (yes, another ridiculous idea), but it results in her meeting Captain Jack Harkness (swoon).  Because the Doctor doesn't really fit into her idea of what a time traveler should be, she calls Jack a "professional".  It's a bit bratty, but I think it's more funny than anything.  Realizing that Harkness is responsible for the object they were chasing through space, Rose cleverly gets Jack to meet up with the Doctor.  Rose continues to be impressed by Jack, which annoys the Doctor to no end.

S1E11 Boom Town:  The Slitheen are back, this time in Cardiff.  Meanwhile, Rose has asked Mickey to meet them there - it turns out she's missed him.  I think it's a really sweet moment when she tells him that, as it shows that she hasn't just completely abandoned him.  Yes, life with the Doctor is more exciting, but she does care about Mickey, just maybe not as much as he'd like.

S1E12 Bad Wolf/S1E13 Parting of the Ways:  Rose is kidnapped by the Daleks (okay, I agree, her being held prisoner gets old).  Rose comes up with a way for them to beat the Daleks, and while the Doctor initially says it won't work, he changes his mind and sends Rose into the TARDIS.  As soon as she enters, he sends the TARDIS back to London.  She arrives and completely freaks out about being sent home.  She realizes that being with the Doctor hasn't just been exciting, it's helped her discover that she has potential, that she can be a better person.  Mickey and Jackie help to remove the panel in the control room and she looks into the heart of the TARDIS, then flies it back to Satellite 5.  She destroys the Daleks, but to save Rose, the Doctor has to absorb the power from the TARDIS by kissing her.  This almost seems ridiculous, except that you have to remember that Christopher Eccleston didn't want to continue with Doctor Who, and they had to make him regenerate somehow.  I'm not saying it couldn't have been done differently, but I like it.  Anyway, Rose is terrified by the regeneration, but she doesn't scream or faint, she just takes it all in.

Personally, I think that throughout the entire series, Rose does show weakness, but she also shows that she is very strong.  She can reel in the Doctor when he goes too far, she can think on her feet, she doesn't lose her head in a tough situation.  She possesses the empathy that the broken Doctor lacks.  She's human, and the Doctor is so detached after the Time War, he needs someone to keep him grounded.  I can absolutely understand why some people hate her, but I think that in some ways, the criticism that the character receives is unwarranted.  I know a lot of the problem is that she is in love with the Doctor, and honestly, the Doctor changed Rose's life so much, of course she's going to hero worship him.  I think that no matter who had been the next companion, there would have been a lot of people unhappy, just like a lot of people hate Christopher Eccleston, even though he's my second favorite Doctor.  No one will like every character.  I mean, look at Amy.  I think she's a vapid moron, and yet there are classic fans who love her.  It's all really a matter of taste, isn't it?

Oh, and by the way, in case you didn't realize:  I'M A GIRL.

Well, time to say goodbye to Nine, and move on to Series 2.

Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

I LOVE Sherlock.  If it weren't for Sherlock, I'd probably be burning effigies of Steven Moffat (not really, I'm just being dramatic).

I also LOVE the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre.

And, I do not like the new Doctor Who (you may have noticed).

Put all those together, and what do you have?  The funniest 4:55 I have seen in a long time.  I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt, and I had to keep rewinding the video (rewinding? WTF, Lynette, is this 1985?) to catch bits that I'd missed.

If you like it, PLEASE go to their YouTube channel and follow them.

2011 Christmas Special: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

 We start out in space - and apparently, there is sound in space.  Take a lesson from Joss Whedon, Mr. Moffat.  There is no sound in space!  Okay, the Doctor runs through the exploding spaceship - very exciting!  I do love this music.  But wait!  He's now hanging off of the spaceship, breathing, groaning, talking, yelling.  Why does he need the space suit?  I guess for reentry?  Are spacesuits built for reentry?

But I'm deviating away from my normal "let's save the nasty comments for the Dislikes section".  Maybe I should start over.

So the Doctor is on this exploding spaceship.  He ends up on the outside, and as he lets go of the ship, he spies a space suit.  He and the suit both hurtle through space, and he crash lands somewhere in England.  Madge, a housewife, finds him, but because he put the helmet on backwards and now it's stuck, she doesn't see his face.  She helps him get to the TARDIS.  Back home, she discusses the impending war with her husband.  A few years later, he is a pilot in World War II, and he disappears over the English Channel.

Madge receives the news at Christmas, but she promises Cyril and Lily, her children, that their father will be coming home.  They all go to their uncle's mansion in the country, apparently to escape the bombing.  They are greeted by the Doctor, who calls himself the Caretaker.  He has specially prepared the house for them in a ridiculous display in an attempt to cheer them up (though we don't know yet that he knows about their father's death).  Madge sends the kids out of the room and tells the Doctor that their father is dead.

The children find a giant Christmas tree downstairs and equally giant present, which glows eerily like the TARDIS.  That night, Lily wakes up and starts to sneak downstairs to look at the present, but instead, she wanders into the Doctor's room.  She starts flirting with talking to the Doctor about the TARDIS, which he calls a wardrobe.  Meanwhile, Cyril does go downstairs and open the present, which is really a doorway to Narnia a mystical wood.  Of course, he enters the wood.  Lily, however, tells the Doctor that her brother is in bed asleep.  This eases the Doctor's mind, because now he can get some alone time with Lily he can continue to work on rewiring his wardrobe.  But then an alarm goes off, and he knows that Cyril has gone into the wardrobe present.  He then pulls Lily into the magical wood as well, and tells her that it's a dimensional portal thingie.  She smiles alluringly innocently at him.  They start following Cyril's footprints; Cyril, in the meantime, is following ever-growing footprints.

Cyril ends up at the witch's castle a tall tower which has a lion's face in the door handle.  He goes inside, where a statue of a treeman sits in a throne.  He decides then to climb up the tower, and as he does so, the statue blinks (I actually was typing that as a joke, and then the statue blinked).  As Cyril climbs the tower, there are flashing lights in the sky, and some kind of transport vessel lands in front of Madge, who'd been following all the footprints.  Some entirely irrelevant soldiers climb out to provide some comic relief.

Back at the ranch tower, Cyril finds a room with a treegirl standing over a throne, holding a crown.  The Doctor and Lily enter the tower and he tells her that the entire building is a group of trees disguised as a building.  Lily holds the Doctor's hand (for the second time, I might add).  Bow chick a wow wow.

Back to the soldiers for some more comedy.  They aren't going to shoot Madge for trespassing, and they lower their guns.  But Madge pulls one out and tells them she's looking for her children.

In the tower, the treegirl is trying to put the crown on Cyril's head, and the Doctor and Lily try to get into the room.  Lily notices that their are stars coming out of the forest, and the Doctor says it's life.  The treegirl places the crown on Cyril's head, and the king statue starts climbing the tower.

Madge is in the transport ship - the soldiers tell her that the entire forest is about to be burned with acid rain to make battery fluid.  The soldiers evacuate the ship.

Cyril tells the Doctor that the trees are evacuating.  Lily goes to the window and the Doctor explains that the life forces are trying to evacuate to leave the planet.  He holds her shoulder.  How creepy is this?  The crown is a relay, it's an escape plan for the trees.  The treepeople tell the Doctor that Cyril is weak, and the Doctor is weak, but Lily is strong.

The acid rain starts, and the Doctor tells them they have to go.  But then Cyril throws a temper tantrum and says he has to wait for his mummy.  She then comes crashing through the forest in an AT-AT.  She enters the tower, and the treegirl puts the crown on Madge.  The life forces start pouring into her brain until she has the entire forest in her head.  Turns out that Madge is strong because she's a woman and all she's good for is popping out kids she's a vessel for life.

The top of the tower takes off because it's a spaceship, and they enter the time vortex.  They have to go home, and the only way for that to happen is for Madge to think of home.  She then climaxes pictures home and her husband, but then says she doesn't want to see him die.  We then cut back to the plane, but then Reg sees a brilliant light and decides to follow it.  How he can follow that blinding light is beyond me, but whatever.

The ship lands back home at the mansion in the country.  The children are very upset, though, about Madge saying that she didn't want to watch him die.  She decides she has to tell the children the truth.  The Doctor leaves to give them privacy, but as she starts to tell the children about her father, the Doctor starts calling to them very excitedly.  They run outside and their father's plane is parked outside the mansion as well.  Apparently, Madge's having a tree inside her head led her husband home.  It's so very heartwarming.

Madge visits the Doctor up in the attic and says that she knew it was her spaceman.  She convinces him to go home to see his friends and tell them that he's still alive.  He goes to see Amy and Rory.  Amy shoots him with a water pistol.  They hug.  It's incredibly charming.  The Doctor wipes the water from the water pistol - or is that a tear? - from his cheek.  Hang on, I have to go barf.

Narnian references:

What do they teach you in schools these days?
Time moves differently across dimensions.
World War II/going to a mansion in the country to escape the bombing in London
Magical wood
Calling the TARDIS a wardrobe
The trees are talking to each other (even some of the trees are on her side)
Trying to crown the children

Likes:

1)  Madge takes him to an actual call box.

2)  Madge asks if he's the new caretaker, and he says, "Usually called the Doctor, or the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet, though strictly speaking, that probably isn't a name."

3)  Madge really is strong.  She doesn't freak out about the whole affair.

Dislikes:

1)  How is he talking and shouting in space?  IN SPACE!

2)  How did falling from space NOT kill him?  Apparently that's an "impact suit".  But from SPACE?!

3)  Haha, Madge keeps hitting things with her car.  Women can't drive.

4)  The back of the Doctor's space helmet has breathing holes.  Are space helmets supposed to have
holes in the back of them?

5)  The "repairs" to the house are ridiculous.  This whole thing is ridiculous.

6)  He's being over the top again.

7) When the Doctor rushes around like a deranged clown shows the children their bedroom, I feel very much like Madge - just STOP TALKING!

8)  Relationship between Lily and the Doctor = CREEEEPPPY!

9)  Too many Narnia references

10) These kids are STUPID.

11) "Mummy, is Daddy dead?"

12) What the hell was the Christmas present for?  He's just going to take them into this other dimension, la dee da?

13) Did they have to put the loudmouth red head Amy back in? 

14) Humany-wumany.  It works with timey-wimey.  It doesn't work when he does it with other things, and this is the second time in this episode he's said something like "timey-wimey" that wasn't timey-wimey!

15) If she saved her husband, why did she still have the telegram? 

16)  Seriously, I think Lily was trying to get in the Doctor's pants.

17)  I just realized - the Doctor showed up because Madge made a wish.  A WISH!  Since when does the Doctor hear and respond to wishes?!?

I dislike Moffat's tenure so much.  He has completely crushed me, he's destroyed this show that I so completely embraced.  I feel cheated now that I came to it so late, that I only had one real season to watch in real time.  So quickly did Doctor Who enter my life, make it a bit more enjoyable, and then exit.  Thankfully, I have a few dozen seasons of the classic series to watch, because god knows, I'd rather watch the most horrible reconstruction than Matt Smith.

I so wish David Morrissey had really been the next Doctor.

S6 Episode 13: The Wedding of River Song

Finally, the episode we've all been waiting for!

The Doctor is resigned to his fate, but first, he wants to know why he has to die.  Moffat makes things even more ridiculously complicated by having Dorium tell him some crazy-ass prophecy.  The Silence wants to avoid this prophecy from coming true, so their solution is to kill the Doctor.  Because apparently, if he lives, the universe will end (for what, the 6,000th time?)  He gives the Teselecta the invitations for Amy, Rory, River, Canton, and himself to deliver because he can't cross his own time line (this week).

He goes to Lake Silencio and, sure enough, the Impossible Astronaut is River Song, who just found out that she's the one who kills him.  But then, shockingly, the Doctor doesn't die!  River somehow stops the suit from killing him!

And now time is screwed up.  All of time is existing at once (but selectively, there's not a dozen Prime Ministers running around).  People can't remember the way it was before, and time is always stuck at 5:02.

The Doctor finds Amy, who is wearing an eyepatch.  She doesn't seem to know that Rory is Rory, and she tells the Doctor that she's looking for him (but she thinks he looks like someone else - is that drawing supposed to be the other guy from The Eleventh Hour?)  Anyway, she takes him to the pyramids, there are a bunch of Silence and Madame Eyepatch imprisoned, Rory is a guard, and River is there ... because ...

But wait!  It's a trap!  The Silence "escape" by making the eye patches malfunction; the Doctor and Amy get out, but Rory insists on staying behind to save Amy.  However, just as the Silence are about to kill him, Amy saves Rory.  They leave Madame Eyepatch to die.

So if the Doctor touches River, this time will be undone, and they'll be back at Lake Silencio.  But the Doctor insists on fixing things, so he and River get married, and time reverts back to Lake Silencio.  The Doctor dies.

Some time after this, River shows up at Amy and Rory's house.  She has a chat with Amy, wherein she tells her that the Doctor is still alive.  And, sure enough, he is.  Because the thing that "died" was the Teselecta.  But now everyone thinks he's dead, so everything will be okay and no one will come after him.

Dang.

Dislikes:

1)  Well, I hated just about everything in this episode.  Where to start?  I guess, first of all, I am really tired of all these characters coming back and coming back and coming back.  During the RTD era, everyone who didn't like RTD complained about characters showing up all the time - I just cannot wrap my head around why it's okay for Moffat to do the same thing, and the RTD haters have no problem with it.  Personally, I don't have a problem with characters coming back, except for the fact that it was an issue with RTD haters!

2)  So ... the Doctor has to save the universe again?  Once again, this was an issue with RTD haters.  I don't see all of them shouting about how ridiculous is it for the Doctor to have to save the universe at the end of every series now.

3)  The Doctor says, "I hate rats" - please do not tell me that this is an Indiana Jones reference ("I hate snakes").  I guess that's my only issue with the line ...

4)  Again with the Rose and Jack references - they drive me crazy.  I'd be okay with him never mentioning them, since previous Doctors don't seem to mention former companions.  But I have a hard time believing that he'd send letters to Amy and Rory over Jack.  So shut the f*&# up about him.

5)  Since when does the Doctor care about crossing his own time stream?  Seriously, I'd appreciate a bit of consistency in the rules.

6)  Silence = still not scary, especially since it looks like they're all farting in their little water prisons.

7)  How did River rewrite time?  Is it because she's a magical TARDIS baby?

8) Why is the Doctor trying to get Amy and Rory together?  Rory is so much better without her.  Oh, probably because without Rory, Amy would be trying to rape the Doctor.  Yeah, I'd try to set her up with someone else, too.

9)  So much of this episode doesn't make sense - it seems like Moffat did certain things, like Amy not recognizing Rory, just to have a gag.  Honestly, why does Amy remember River, but not Rory?

10)  Overall, I hate the structure of this entire episode.  I'm not sure what I meant by that statement, but I don't really want to watch it again, so I'll leave that to you, Dear Reader, to figure out.

11)  If Silence will fall when the Doctor dies, and it's the Silence orchestrating the whole thing, then why do they want to destroy themselves?  Are they that stupid, that they don't understand that silence = Silence?  (Although, I still think that "silence" and "Silence" being the same thing is ridiculous.  I still maintain that the "silence" spoken of in the last series was referring to the crack obliterating the universe.  Why would the fishy vampires be running from the Silence?)

Likes:

1)  How did I forget about the Teselecta?  I should have realized then that he would have them assume his appearance.  This was cool, and I don't think anyone expected it.

2)  I believe that when the eyepatch viking falls into the pit, that's the first time this Doctor has tried to save his enemy (as opposed to Ten, who almost always tried to save his enemies).

3)  When Amy leaves Madame Eyepatch to die, she says of her coldness, "River didn't get it all from you, sweetie."  That was pretty cool.

4)  Hot damn, I think Karen Gillan has finally learned how to act.  I love the look on her face when she says that she's the Doctor's mother-in-law.

5)  I really enjoyed the scene between Amy and River at the end, when Amy says that she got them a bottle of wine.  It was the first moment where I really gave a crap about their relationship.  It was a genuine moment, and it was such a relief to see that after two series where so much seems forced.

Curiouser and Curiouser:

There were a few things in the "Dislikes" section that belong here, but they bothered me so much that I put them in the earlier category.  However, let's explore this whole "dead Doctor" idea, and the problems it presents.

1)  The Teselecta know that he's not dead.

2)  If his "not dying" made the world all funky, but he didn't die, then why is the world all funky (because Moffat needed a reason to do something SO SUPER CRAZY!)  His death, or at least, the appearance of his death, was a fixed point in time.  Unless River shooting him is the fixed point.  But wait, why was she able to not shoot him?

3) How can he go on any more adventures if he's "dead"?  And since he's a Time Lord and can do things out of chronological order, then how do the Silence know that killing him on April 22, 2011 will prevent the future event from happening?  Shit, can everyone time travel?

4) The whole universe just keeps resetting, Amy has all these memories of other time streams.  She is seriously going to end up in a mental institution.

5)  On a separate note, we are led to believe that the Doctor is actually 200 years older than he was when he left Amy.  I have a very hard time believing that out of all of his companions, Amy and Canton are on his Top Four Most Trusted list.  What about Jack?  Martha?  Sarah Jane (sniff)?  And I guess we have to assume that he's been courting River this whole time, including time in her own time line before she was forced to kill him?

So, at the end of Series 6, we're left with more questions, more convoluted problems, and very few real answers.  I'd like to see River Song leave for good.  I don't think that she and the Doctor have any chemistry, and I didn't feel like he "married" her because he loves her.  I don't feel any of the chemistry between River and Eleven that we felt with Rose and Ten, or even Rose and Nine.  I don't know if it's the directing, the writing, or the huge age gap between the two actors, but I just don't buy the Doctor/River relationship.  And since Moffat has thrown the whole "my past is his future" concept out the window, we have no idea where we are in either of their time lines.

And I'm so done with Amy.  I can't imagine what use she is to the Doctor anymore.  He's used her, the Silence have used her - let her just go and live her little life with Rory.  Or, you know, that handsome guy from The Eleventh Hour, so Rory can go off and have adventures with the Doctor.

We won't have any new episodes of Doctor Who until next fall, and it really, honestly pains me to say this, but I don't care.  I don't care what happens to any of these characters.  I'm not on the edge of my seat the way I was after watching the first three series back-to-back, then having to wait an excruciatingly long time for series 4 and the specials.  I don't feel that way anymore, and it makes me really sad.  I'd love to see Eleven break out on his own for a while, or hang out with Sally Sparrow.  I'd love (as mentioned above) for Amy to have an affair and dump Rory so he can tool around the 'Verse in the TARDIS.

Since there will be no more Eleven to write about for a while, I'll pop in here every once in a while to discuss other things that bother me about Doctor Who.  For instance, when I read forums and Facebook groups, I often think that these people must be watching a different series from me, since they interpret things so differently.  I'll pick out the things that I disagree with and write about them here, rather than start a flame war.

Until then, this is for both Amy and River:

S6 Episode 12: Closing Time

This is totally my favorite episode of this entire series so far.  Wow!  I LOVE Craig!

So the Doctor pops in on Craig to say hi, kind of like the Tenth Doctor went around and said goodbye to his former companions before he regenerated.  So all the people who think that was crappy can SHUT UP now!!  Craig and Sophie have a son now named Alfie, although the Doctor says that his name is Stormageddon (he speaks Baby).  The Doctor notices that the lights are flickering, and against his better judgment, he decides to stick around and figure out what's going on.

Craig insists on going with the Doctor to investigate, hilarity ensures.  It turns out that a Cybermat is draining energy, and Cybermen are taking people and converting them.  The Doctor finds the Cyberman space ship, is captured, Craig tries to help, almost gets turned into a Cyberman, but then they hear Alfie crying and Craig is able to reverse the conversion.

The episode ends with River Song investigating the Doctor's "last" appearance on Earth.  Then Eyepatch Lady and the Silence show up, stick River in a space suit, and put her at the bottom of Lake Silencio.

Likes:

1)  The exchanges between the Doctor and Craig are fantastic, just like last time.

Doctor:  You've redecorated!  I don't like it.
Craig:  It's a new house!

Craig:  You know what to do if he cries!
Doctor:  No, I don't!
Craig (OS):  Me neither!

2)  Okay, this baby is totally reminiscent of Stewie from Family Guy.  While I don't like another baby being a character on the show, he is MUCH better than wet old Melody Pond.  Also, I don't believe that the Doctor actually speaks Baby - I think he just speaks for the babies the way "speak" for our pets.  He's just having a good time.

3)  I love the Doctor's reference to K-9 when he's playing with the robot dog.  "Not as fun as I remember".

4)  I liked the Cybermat - it was very reminiscent of Tomb of the Cybermen.

5)  Craig:  Metal rat with a mouth!  Metal rat with a mouth!


Dislikes:

1)  Didn't like the baby.  Why does everyone have babies?  Best thing about Rose, Martha, and Donna - NO GORRAM BABIES!

2)  I didn't like when the Doctor pretended he was going to kiss Craig.  It wasn't funny at all, insinuating that even Craig might be a little bit in love with the Doctor.  Everyone shouldn't be in love with the Doctor!  Again, a HUGE complaint about the RTD era, and I have yet to read anything online about people having an issue with it now.  Cause Moffat is such a gorram god to so many people.

3)  I don't like Matt Smith tossing his hair around all the time.  Can't they bobby pin it down or something?  Hair spray?  Something?

4)  I didn't like the Ponds showing up.  And suddenly she's a model.  Of course, we have no idea how much time has passed.  However, I have a very hard time believing she's a model.  Not only that, but she's modeling Petrichor (the smell of dust after rain) and the tagline is "For the girl who's tired of waiting".  So apparently she has control over the entire line of perfume.  So is she a model or did she develop the perfume?  That kind of career takes years to develop, and her only experience is being a Kiss-O-Gram.  On the other hand, what did I expect her to do, become a rocket scientist?

5)  Again, the solution to the problem is LOVE.  Gag me with a spoon.

6)  The Doctor says that his "shhh" power only works once, and only on those with underdeveloped brains, thus making it a big joke that it works on Craig and the girl in the shop.  Haha!  But then he uses the "shh" trick on the shopgirl a second time.  Wait a minute ... what happened to it only working once?  Oh, right, no one gives a shit about any kind of continuity these days.


Curiouser and Curiouser

1)  These Cybermen lack the Cybus Industries logo, and the Doctor says that they've been buried there for centuries.

2)  We finally get an explanation as to why River never remembered anything about her past - Eyepatch Lady says that they were "far too thorough" with her "dear little head".

Enjoy this little exchange between Craig and the Doctor:

S6 Episode 11: The God Complex

Well.  I'm not really sure how I feel about this episode.  I've been thinking about it for a week, and I still don't know if I like it or not.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive at a hotel, every room of which contains a fear - clowns, mean girls, marionettes, etc.  Each person has their own room, a room which houses their greatest fear.  After seeing the thing which they fear, the person stops being afraid and utters the phrase, "Praise Him", which prompts a minotaur to hunt him or her down and eat their - what, their souls?  Anyway, the people all end up dead.  They get picked off one by one.

Of course, Amy opens a hotel room door and finds her fear, so the Doctor now has to race against time to save Amy.  Must be Tuesday.  He saves her, the Minotaur ends up dying after uttering some cryptic words, and the Doctor realizes that he needs to take Amy and Rory home.  He leaves them at their house (with a new car for Rory), and Amy tells Rory that the Doctor is saving them.

Curiouser and Curiouser:

Amy's fear lies behind Door 7.  The Doctor's fear lies behind Door 11.  This is the 11th Doctor, but Amy is by no means the 7th companion, even in the new series.  So what does Amy's door number mean?

Likes:

1)  Not sure if I like this or not, but it was the first thing that sprang to mind, so I'm going to go with my instinct:  I liked that we didn't see what either Amy or the Doctor feared.  I feel that Moffat is leaving too much up in the air since he took over the show, but at the same time, I liked that we didn't have anything concrete.  We may eventually find out, but I don't think it's necessary.

2)  Rory was, as always, brilliant.  It turns out that he never found his room because he doesn't have faith.  Faith in what?  Religion?  I talked about this with my husband this week, and we decided that he has no faith in Amy since she kept her pregnancy from him.  I quite agree with that; however, I still don't understand why Rory would have ever had faith in her from the beginning.  Even now, after all they've been through, I feel like she couldn't care less about him.  I don't know if they just don't have chemistry or what, but the Amy/Rory relationship seems so forced to me, and even when they're embracing, Amy is so cold towards Rory.   But I digress.

3)  I loved how Rory said to the Doctor, "that's my favorite car, how did you know?" and the Doctor replies, "because you showed me a photo and said, 'that's my favorite car.'"  I thought the exchange was hilarious.

4)  Howie, Rita and Gibbis were some of the most developed characters that we've seen so far.  They reminded me a lot of Craig and Sophie (incidentally, Craig returns to us next week!)

5)  You knew this was coming - AMY'S GONE!!!  I have to say, though, that I doubt that this is the last we're seeing of the Ponds.  But I almost did a little dance of joy.  However, I DISLIKE that there will be no more Rory if they actually are gone.


Dislikes:

1) Again, the callbacks to other characters bothered me.  I'm still not really sure why it bothers me so much when Moffat recalls Hartnell or other characters/aliens, but every time it just leaves me feeling highly uncomfortable.

2)  Why does the Doctor give Rory a car?  Rory doesn't need to be convinced to leave the TARDIS; he hasn't wanted to be there - well - EVER.  Maybe it was a way of saying "thank you".  I don't know, but I do know that for as hilarious as their exchange regarding the car was, I found the whole concept to be tasteless.  Like a consolation prize or something.  "You've lost all of time and space, but you did win this fabulous gift!"

3)  When the Minotaur was talking with the Doctor at the end, why wasn't his language being translated?  (I feel like this has happened before, too, but I can't remember which episode it would have been.)  The TARDIS should be translating everything that the Minotaur says - I'm sure it was done on purpose to show how the Doctor is clueless, but still, little stuff like this really bothers me.

4)  When the Doctor makes Amy lose her faith in him, I couldn't help but think, "Really?  That's all it takes?  She must not have had much faith in him to begin with".

5)  I didn't like Amy and Rory's exit.  First of all, I have a hard time believing that Amy is willing to just let him go so easily.  However, he's left them a few times before, so maybe she thinks that he'll be back (and I'm sure he will be, those short skirts are like a Siren's call).

6) What was the point of the Weeping Angels?  It couldn't have been Gibbis's fear, as he never turned to Minotaur-worship.  I don't like how Moffat just throws something in for the sake of throwing it in.  It's very frustrating.

7)  I wish that Rory would leave Amy and travel with the Doctor.  Arthur Darvil and Matt Smith remind me very much of Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton.  I think it would be brilliant if Rory ditched the ungrateful bitch and took off with the Doctor.  How much fun would they have?

8)  The thing Amy fears is waiting for the Doctor?  That he'll never return?  God, could this girl be any more obsessed?  She needs to get over herself.  On the other hand, it's possible that because this fear is now "cured" by the Minotaur, that is why it's so easy for Amy to let the Doctor go?

9)  I'm adding this in late because I've been doing some more thinking about this episode, and I've come to the conclusion that it makes no sense.  The Minotaur feeds on faith.  So it shows them what they're afraid of, and suddenly they're saying "praise him".  Exactly HOW does this change occur?  It makes no sense, and now I think I have to say that I don't like this episode.

Hey, this literally just popped into my head - during The Impossible Astronaut, River, Rory and Amy are all called to the Doctor because they're the people he trusts the most.  Really?  He's letting them go now, he has (presumably) another two hundreds years to live, and after less than two years, THESE are the people he trusts the most?  River I can understand, since they apparently have this amazing relationship, but Amy and Rory?  He hasn't met ANYONE in two hundred years that can compare?  I guess you can argue that he trusts them the most because they already know what's going on, but still ... that wouldn't be trust, that would be called HEY YOUR DAUGHTER THAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT YET IS GOING TO TRY TO SHOOT ME IN THE FACE AND SET OFF ALL THE EVENTS THAT WOULDN'T HAPPEN IF YOU DIDN'T COME HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE - OOPS.

My husband and I were having a discussion about River Song last night, and I mentioned this in an online forum as well; I am so disappointed with what Moffat has done with River.  He could have made her into a much more interesting character.  Mels was fantastic, and instead of having her regenerate into Alex Kingston, she should have regenerated into a different actress.   Every time he meets her in the future (from this point on) she could be played by another actress, or at least, several actresses.  He could have continued this storyline for so long, and have the River he has a relationship with be one actress for a long time.  Mels should have been a character from the beginning, and Alex Kingston would still have been able to appear up until Let's Kill Hitler (as this is the end of her life, though she doesn't know it).  But, by making Mels regenerate into Alex, he now has to throw her into as many stories as possible because of her age.  How can the Doctor and River get together now when Alex is clearly aging?  She already looks much older than she did in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.

And with that, I'm not sure I have much more to say about The God Complex.  Yes, the Doctor has issues.  Blah blah blah.  We know this, it's been explored already in the last few episodes of the Tenth Doctor.  Do we need to go over this again?

Here's your palate-cleaner (and a shameless plug).  I made this video last weekend after hearing a brilliant Paul and Storm song.  Enjoy!

S6 Episode 10: The Girl Who Waited

I hope you're ready for my scathing review of The Girl Who Waited.  Let's jump into it, shall we?

I loved it.  Well, at least, I loved it compared to all the other episodes this series.  It's definitely one I would willingly watch again.  I'm sure I'll still find plenty of problems with it, though.  However, I'm a little worried that if I watch it a second time through, I might stop liking it, since last series when I watched an episode for the second time, my feelings about it flipped 180˚.  Although, I usually went from disliking to liking an episode. But again, that could just be because there was so much about Series 5 (and the first part of 6) that I vehemently didn't like.  But I digress.

The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to Apalapucia.  Due to Amy needing to get her camera phone, they get separated.  It turns out that the planet is suffering from a plague which only affects those with two hearts - like the Doctor.  It kills them within a day, but they are placed into "kindness centers", which allow them to live out their entire lives in the span of one day.  There are magnifying glass-looking mirrors that let their loved ones watch.  Therefore, even though they only have one day to live, the dying person does get to live out a long life.

While Rory and the Doctor entered one of the "watching" rooms, Amy accidentally entered one of the containment rooms, so she is on the "fast track", as Madame de Pompadour would call it.  The span of a few seconds for Rory and the Doctor is a week for Amy.  The Doctor says he'll get her out of there immediately, and he and Rory head back to the TARDIS.  Because the Doctor is susceptible to the plague, he outfits Rory with glasses (which my husband promptly declared would become the new "Rory" costume) through which the Doctor can see.

Meanwhile, Amy has been wandering around the facility and discovered something called Interface, which I'm still not really sure about.  I guess it's purpose is to give people information?  There are also Interrodroids - I mean, Handbots - that distribute medication which would be fatal to humans.  To escape from the Handbots and wait for the Doctor, Amy finds a mechanical room and writes "Doctor - I'm waiting" in lipstick.

The Doctor sends Rory out into the facility to find Amy, and when he does, he finds that they have gone into the wrong time stream, and she's aged 36 years.  And she's not happy about it.  She's been alone this whole time with only Interface and a disarmed (literally) Handbot that she's named Rory.  The Doctor and Rory want to find the younger Amy, but Older Amy doesn't want to help.  If she helps them rescue younger Amy, she'll have never existed.  The Doctor finds younger Amy's correct time stream, and he instructs Rory to use the magnifying glass to speak with her.  The two Amys have a conversation (which Older Amy remembers having 36 years ago) in which Older Amy refuses to help younger Amy.  However, she reconsiders for Rory's sake, but says that they need to take her back in the TARDIS as well.

The Doctor agrees to this, saying that the TARDIS will be able to handle the paradox, so he sets about getting the two Amys into the same time stream.  Rory, Amy and Amy head back to the TARDIS, but they are assaulted by Handbots.  Older Amy shows off some more of her fighting skills, but Amy is brushed by one of the Handbots, and Rory picks her up and carries her into the TARDIS.  The doors slam shut behind them.  Older Amy disables most of the Handbots, and she begs the Doctor to let her into the TARDIS, but he refuses.  He tells Rory that he lied about the paradox, and that only one Amy can exist.  It's Rory's choice.  Older Amy decides to sacrifice herself, and she bids Rory an emotional goodbye, telling him not to let her into the TARDIS, just before she is touched by a Handbot and (we assume) goes to her death.

In the TARDIS, Amy wakes up (she'd only been knocked out) and the first words out of her mouth are, "where is she"?

Repeat Ideas:

The whole time stream thing was just done in The Doctor's Wife, so I wasn't pleased with it popping up again.  I know it wasn't real in The Doctor's Wife, but it was the same basic concept.  However, it was pulled off successfully in The Girl Who Waited.

Dislikes:

1)  I don't understand why Amy didn't just try to go back to the TARDIS in the week that she waited in the other room.  And shouldn't she be severely dehydrated by now?

2)  I don't understand why 36 years later, not only is she wearing the same clothes, she's wearing the same nail polish.

3)  They could have really attempted to make her hands old.  I kept noticing how her face was beautifully aged, but then she had the hands of a 24-year-old.  It's just too bad that they can't do reverse aging to make River look less a grandmother.

4)  I'm not sure I like the Doctor's new coat.

5)  I would have preferred for Older Amy go back with them.  Just Older Amy.  She's a lot more interesting and sympathetic than Amy.

6)  Amy makes a sonic screwdriver.  Let me repeat that:  Amy makes a sonic screwdriver.  I have a very hard time believing that anyone can just "make" a sonic screwdriver.  I'm going to just pretend it's like when you're a kid and you "make" binoculars out of two empty toilet paper rolls.

Likes:

1)  Wow.  Karen Gillan has more than one acting style other than wide eyes!  It's so nice to know that the reason her acting sucks is because of the writing and directing.  Because she knocked it out of the park in this episode.  I really believed she had aged 36 years.  She was worn, she'd put up walls, she had a kind of quiet bitterness.  Brilliant.  And I seriously cannot believe that I just said that about Karen Gillan.

2)  For the first time this series, I was absolutely riveted.  I was totally invested in what happened to these characters.  I cared about them - I was crying like a baby during the entire exchange between Amy and Rory at the TARDIS.  I hated to see Amy left behind - she didn't want to stay with the Doctor and Rory, she wanted to go off on her own and have a new life.  She was absolutely a sympathetic character, and I was rooting for a way for both Amys to be able to go on.

3)  Rory had brilliant lines, and he just keeps getting better and better all the time.  I so wish that it was just the Doctor and Rory.  I have a feeling that I'd like Doctor Who about 10 times as much if Amy were out of the picture.  Seriously, I find I actually really like the Doctor when he's not around Amy.  After watching several stories from the Second Doctor, I feel like Matt Smith and Arthur Darvil have a very similar chemistry to Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines.  And Amy is just the annoying Victoria who you'd wish would just get eaten by one of the Abominable Snowmen.

4)  I liked how the Doctor blatantly lied about the TARDIS being able to manage a paradox for a short time.  We knew he was lying almost immediately, and at one point we see things are starting to go wrong in the console room.  It just makes the audience wonder exactly how much the Doctor lies about.

5)  I'm sure there are all kinds of issues that I could have with the two time streams, but the fact that this episode was just so fun makes me not care about details.  It made me feel like (most of) the RTD Doctor Who episodes did - yes, there are some plot holes, but they're not really critical to the story that is being told, so they're easily ignored.  Plus, it's a lot easier to ignore the badness when there are more good things than bad things.  And yes, I won't deny that there are many RTD episodes that I pretend never happened, like all the BS with the Master.  (See, I'm critical when necessary, I don't just blindly love the RTD era!)  God, he could have done such fantastic things with that storyline ... sorry, I'm off on a tangent again!

Let's wrap things up with a little bit of Karen Gillan on playing Older Amy.

S6 Episode 9: Night Terrors

Overall, I did not like this episode. Yes, I know that you're shocked.

The Doctor gets a message on the psychic paper, and he and his Companions show up at the estate where the message is coming from. They split up to search for the sender, and the Doctor meets Georgie, a little boy who is terrified of everything. When something scares Georgie, he puts it in the cupboard.

While Amy and Rory are searching, they get into a lift which seemingly falls out of control. When they land, they find that they are in a house, and no one else is around.

Meanwhile, an old lady on the estate as well as the landlord disappear; the old lady gets sucked into a pile of garbage bags, and the landlord gets sucked into the floor. They both also end up in this house. Some terrifying, nightmare-inducing life-sized dolls grab the landlord, and he turns into a doll as well. And then, guess what? Amy gets turned into a doll, too!

Back at the ranch, the Doctor is working with Georgie's father to try to figure out what's going on. Suddenly, both the Doctor and Georgie's dad get sucked into the cupboard and also end up in the house. Because it's actually the dollhouse that's inside the cupboard!  But Georgie faces his fears and everything turns out okay. Except for Georgie, who is really an alien who got himself adopted by his Earth parents and changed their memories slightly so that they thought he was really theirs.  And he doesn't know it.  I dunno.

Repeat Ideas:

1)  Really?  The Doctor saves another child from a scary monster?  I suppose this isn't a shock, as Doctor Who is (supposedly) a children's show, but haven't we had enough of this from Moffat for a while?

2)  I'm not really sure why I'm putting this next item here, but instinct says it goes here: Amy and Rory are miniaturized and put into the dollhouse.  So weird ... why would I think this is a repeat?  That time when they got miniaturized and transferred into the head of that robot thing was like forever ago - what?  OH MY GOD!  THAT WAS ONLY THE LAST EPISODE?!?!

3)  The idea of planted memories of children has been done before - anyone remember Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead?  Seriously, does Moffat just have a list of plots that he goes over every time he gets a story pitched to him and says, "that's great, but instead of an original idea, why don't we use this one?  We haven't used that storyline in four episodes.  Let's just change one or two things and people will think it's totally original".  (And yes, he absolutely says that just like a Valley Girl.)  Look, I understand that there are what, two or three basic plots in the world that just keep getting used over and over and over, but those are simple ideas.  Moffat keeps reusing very specific plot devices.  Oh, and also, this reeked of Dawn.

Dislikes:

1)  I didn't like Georgie.  To be specific, I didn't like the actor.  And I feel bad about that, because he's just a kid.  I think I've been spoiled by Amelia Pond.

2)  Wow, they could have really done a fantastic job with the dollhouse idea.  I LOVE the concept, but it was so half-assed.  With the exception of the doll's eye and the copper pot, everything else was scaled to Amy and Rory's size, NOT to dollhouse size.  Have the set designers ever seen a dollhouse?  Unless it's Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle (the weeping willow cries real tears!) or the Thorne Miniature Rooms, most dollhouse furniture is NOT to scale, especially a cheap dollhouse like Georgie would have.  Yeah, that dollhouse as a whole was way too elaborate.  I love the idea, and I'd love to see it done well, but then it would have to move to the top section of the blog ...

3)  Since when does the Doctor knock on doors?  Something about that really irritated me.  I supposed it shouldn't, but it did.

4)  The second hand of the clock in the kitchen doesn't move.  Normally this stuff doesn't bother me, but that's because it's not noticeable.  During the entire scene in the kitchen, I was staring at the clock and actually had to rewind to see what had happened.

Likes:

1)  Psychic paper!  I love the psychic paper.  I can't remember where I read this, but apparently Russell T. Davies invented the psychic paper to cut out all the explaining that the Doctor has to do so often.  Just - here ya go, this is who I am, doesn't it look official?  Also, I cannot stress enough how happy I am that Georgie didn't call the Doctor.  I love it when psychic paper is used as a message board.

2)  I loved the Doctor in this episode - more proof that I like him when he's not with Amy.  I love the exchange he has with Georgie's dad about opening and not opening the cupboard.

3) When Rory and Amy tumble out of the lift, Rory says something like, "we're dead - again!"  I love that he hasn't actually died for a while.

Here ya go:

S6 Episode 8: Let's Kill Hitler

I don't know why I do this to myself.  I am really not enjoying the new series at all.  I suppose there are tons of fans who suffered through Doctors that they didn't like.  There's a ton of people who absolutely hate Russell T. Davies, his stories, and his Doctors.  So maybe if I just keep suffering through all this bullshit I'll be rewarded with a new Doctor and better companions. 

The episode begins with Rory and Amy driving through a cornfield - the TARDIS appears in the center of the field, and the Doctor is standing there holding a newspaper that shows a crop circle with the word DOCTOR.  There's a line through the center of the word, and Amy and Rory tell the Doctor that they didn't do that part.  Suddenly, a car comes plowing through and a black girl jumps out and points a gun at the Doctor.

It turns out that she is Mels, who has been a friend of Amy and Rory since they were small children.  Of course, we'd never heard of her before now, so they had to go and show us a montage of Mels interacting with Amy and Rory.  Seems Mels is a bit of a trouble maker, and she's on the run from the police, so she makes the Doctor take her into the TARDIS.  She fires her gun at some point and sends the TARDIS out of control.  It happens to land in Hitler's office.  Surprise!

In the meantime, there are little miniaturized people inside of a robot thing that can assume the shape of anyone.  They are there to kill Hitler, but realize that they're not at the end of his timeline yet.  Well, Hitler attempts to shoot the robot, but hits Mels instead.  And you'll never guess what happens?  She regenerates!  Into River Song!  Holy crap!

Yes, it turns out that Mels is Melody Pond (which I'm sure no one saw coming a mile away).  Amy explains that she had named Melody after her good friend Mels (whom we'd never heard of before, remember?)  She attempts to kill the Doctor several times, but each time, he outsmarts her.  Oh, except for the whole poisoned lipstick thing.  So he's poisoned, River/Mels gets away, and Rory and Amy leave the Doctor to apparently die on the floor and go after her, and the robot with the tiny people goes after them.  After all, River Song is wanted for killing the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Doctor lays dying inside of the TARDIS and attempts to activate the voice interface.  It first flashes to an image of him, but he says, "show me someone I like!"  We then see Rose, followed by Martha and Donna, and the Doctor keeps saying that he feels guilty.  He says that there must be someone he hasn't messed up, and Amelia appears.  She tells him that he has 32 minutes to live.

River/Mels crashes a party and steals everyone's clothes.  Amy and Rory find her, and so does the robot, who now looks like Amy (and is actually called a Teselecta).  It miniaturizes them, they almost die, and then I'm not really sure what happens next.  The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS, now dressed in a tuxedo, and Amy prevents the Teselecta from killing River.  However, they are still determined to kill her, so Amy turns the robot against itself.  All of the tiny people dematerialize, and the Doctor convinces River to fly the TARDIS into the Teselecta and rescue Amy and Rory.  The TARDIS tells her what to do - it teaches her in a millisecond because she is "the child of the TARDIS".

The Doctor whispers something into River's ear and then apparently dies.  River asks Rory and Amy why they keep calling her River.  The Teselecta then takes on the physical appearance of River, and she is so moved that she saves the Doctor by pouring the rest of her regenerations into him.  They take her to a hospital and leave her there.  Back in the TARDIS, we see that the Doctor has downloaded all of the information from the Teselecta and has learned the date of his death.  The last scene is River declaring that she wants to be an archaeologist.

Curiouser and Curiouser:

1)  Why doesn't the Doctor just regenerate?

2)  In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that she and the Doctor are living their time lines in reverse order - her past is his future.  I can't remember which episode it is, but at one point she also says that when she first met the Doctor, she was a little girl and he knew everything about her.  Also, if her past is his future, then we shouldn't be seeing any more of River Song, we should be seeing more of Mels, and that doesn't make sense.  So make up your mind, Moffat - I don't care if they're going in opposite directions or if they can pop up all over the place in different orders, but be consistent.

3)  How did Mels get from 1969 to the 1990's?  How did she find a family to adopt her?  Because she tore herself out of that suit and was wandering around by herself, remember?  I have a hard time thinking that the Silence or Eyepatch Lady came back to get her and deposit her in bonny ol' England.

Dislikes:

1)  First of all, when Amy and Rory were carving out the name "Doctor" in the cornfield, they made too many turns.  Also, what the heck was written all over that paper that Amy was looking off of?

2)  When the Doctor is dying, he gives Amy his sonic screwdriver.  She uses it in the Teselecta, and it really looks like Amy is holding a glowing green penis.  Seriously, I hate this new screwdriver.

3) Could they smack us in the face with River Song any more?  Moffat spends so much time not telling us anything, and then he gives us almost her entire backstory in about 10 minutes.  It seems so forced.  It is time for River to go away.  This soap-opery story is just getting ridiculous.  It's now the Amy and River Show!  I bet Moffat is kicking himself for killing River off in Forest of the Dead - he could have made her regenerate into Amy!  TIMEY-WIMEY!!

4)  Mels should have existed before now.  Moffat had no idea that there was going to be a Mels, did he?  To work her into the story now like this is insulting.  Also, did anyone else notice that the first time Moffat introduces an important black character, she gets killed off almost immediately?

5)  When the Teselecta replicates the German, he is able to replicate everything except the guy's glasses?  What sense does that make?

6)  I hated seeing Rose, Martha, and Donna.  First of all, their appearances were simply publicity shots - they couldn't find any live footage?  Second, this is the first time that Eleven has ever acknowledged their existence - he's constantly throwing around photos of himself as the First Doctor, but he never shows any of his previous companions.  Was this really the time? I feel like this was just another slap in the face by Moffat - he wants to shut up the people who don't like Amy.  Well, I will tell you something.  There are a lot of people on fan boards who say that people who don't like Matt Smith or Karen Gillan need to get over David Tennant and Billie Piper.  I'm sorry, but it IS possible to not like a character without being upset that another character is gone.  I'm over it.  I bet most fans are over it.  It is highly insulting to suggest that I don't like an actor because he's not an actor that I DO like.  It's not impossible to simply just NOT LIKE that person/character.  The fact that Matt Smith isn't David Tennant has nothing to do with my dislike for him.  The fact that Amy isn't Rose has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like her.

7)  Moffat loves fucking with our minds about "is [x character] dead?"  This is the third time that we think that the Doctor is dead.  Enough already.

Likes:

1) Wow, Rory has balls!

2) No surprise here - I loved Amelia.  The lines that she had in the TARDIS were fantastic - "for 31 minutes you will be fine.  In 32 minutes you will be dead".

Since Moffat smacked us in the face with Rose, Martha, and Donna, here is a fantastic fan video I found on YouTube.

S6 Episode 7: A Good Man Goes to War

Well, I'm not sure where to begin with this one. It seems so disjointed to me, but I'll give it a shot.

The episode starts out with brief looks at various characters who have appeared in (I can only guess here) classic Doctor Who episodes. Each of their stories ends with the TARDIS appearing - the Doctor has come to collect his debts.  He is clearly amassing an army to storm the castle and rescue Amy.  Meanwhile on Demon's Run, Amy is talking to her newborn daughter, telling her not to worry because The Last Centurion will come to rescue them.  Somewhere in space, Rory shows up on board a Cybership.  He says he has a message and a question - "where is my wife?"  When the Cybermen ask what the message is, there is an explosion in the background, as several Cyberships are blown to smithereens.  Rory says, "shall I repeat the question?"

So Melody is taken from Amy; meanwhile, the Eyepatch Lady and her troops are mustering forces against the Doctor.  Among them are the Headless Monks.  I'm still not really sure why they're even in this, as they don't really serve much point.  A young soldier named Lorna comes to Amy's room with a present of a prayer leaf with Melody's name stitched in the tongue of the Gamma forest people.

The Doctor shows up on Demon's Run disguised as a Headless Monk, and with him are all his buddies who are going to help him.  They seem to take over Demon's Run quite quickly, saving Melody and giving her back to Amy.  Now, instead of getting on the TARDIS and flying Amy and Rory and Melody off somewhere safe, they all just lark around in the big ol' empty place.  The Doctor brings out a cradle for Melody and says it was originally his (which I don't believe for a second).  He tells Amy that he believes that she was taken shortly before America, (which I have a hard time believing, too).  The lesbians call him to the control room, and it is there that they tell him that the people who had stolen Amy were scanning Melody, and that she was part Time Lord.  Cause Amy and Rory did the nasty on the TARDIS.

Just then, the Headless Monks attack and almost all of the Doctor's buddies are killed.  During this, the Eyepatch Lady gets on a video link with the Doctor and says something about how fooling him once was super cool but fooling him again in the same way was like the epitome of awesomeness.  Well, as the Doctor rushes to Amy, we see that the baby has melted into plastic goo - the baby was an avatar, just like Amy had been.  So they have Melody after all.

Lorna dies after seeing the Doctor, and then River shows up.  She brings the Doctor over to the cradle and says, "can't you read"?  He gets all weird and mentally challenged again and then pops off into his TARDIS and quite irresponsibly leaves them all there.  River shows Amy the prayer leaf from Lorna, and since it takes the TARDIS sooooo long to translate the written word, we now see that it says "River" on one side and "Song" on the other.  Wow.  River is Amy and Rory's daughter.  Who'dve guessed?

Curiouser and Curiouser

1)  So Moffat is supposed to be this brilliant writer, yet he knocks us on the head with the whole "River Song" thing.  Apparently, he didn't think we were smart enough to figure it out from the name "Melody Pond".  And River saying, "they don't have a name for 'pond' in the Gamma forests, the only water in the forest is the river".  Again, WHACK!  Beating us over the head with it.

2)  While we're on the prayer leaf (which is actually a pretty neat little concept), let's talk about this whole TARDIS translation thing.  According to River, it sometimes takes a little while to translate the written word.  Yet, it had no problem translating HELLO SWEETIE on the side of a cliff the second they opened the door last season.

3)  It makes no sense that Amy would have been taken before America.  She thought she was pregnant.  Then they separated, and months later she tells the Doctor that she's better - no pregnancy.  It makes soooo much more sense for them to have grabbed her while she was on her own running across the USA, not before.

4)  When Rory comes to River at her cell to ask for her help, she stares at him like she's never seen him before.  She gets this look of awe and wonder on her face.  It's almost sickening.  She has to have known in all the previous episodes that Amy and Rory are her parents, so why has she never stared at them like that before, especially when she says that they've already met?  Or did she lie?  It's so messed up.

5) If Melody was taken from Amy so quickly, how on earth were those pictures of the girl and Amy in the orphanage?  I have a hard time believing that Amy would have posed for such a nice picture at Demon's Run.  Also, if Melody is River and is also the girl in the astronaut suit, then I will ask again - how does River not know what is going on?

6)  My husband pointed this one out to me - the Cybermen in this episode don't have the Cybus Industries mark on them.  Are they another type of Cybermen?  Do they have a different origin story?

Dislikes:

1)  What a strange way to discuss Rory.  Moffat clearly wants us to think that Amy's talking about the Doctor - can we please be done with the love triangle?  It's soooo tiresome.  And seriously, she thinks that Rory has the ability to rescue them?  Since when does she have any kind of confidence in Rory?  Not to mention that he's NOT older than he looks, if, "in this reality", as the Doctor says, the universe has been rebooted.  Also, the Doctor is the one who said that they were going to come get her, not Rory.

2)  I can't believe the Doctor blew up an entire Cyber Legion to make his point.  Since when is killing so easy for him?  It really bothers me.  I suppose it's to make their point about how the Doctor has become synonymous with "warrior".  However, we already went through all of this at the end of David Tennant's reign.  He was starting to act like God, etc. etc.  I feel like we're just rehashing all of that.  Not to mention the fact that Davros made a huge point about how the Doctor makes people dangerous, he turns them into soldiers.  Well, here's the Doctor forcing them into that role, and half of them die.  Does he even care?  No, he just gets all giggly about River and prances off to his TARDIS, tra la la.

3)  River Song is starting to look really old and puffy.  I hope they get rid of her fast - and that's not likely to happen.  It's going to become the River and Amy Show, isn't it?

4)  When the Doctor and his buddies descend on Demon's Run, it really took me aback.  One criticism of Russell T. Davies was that he was always bringing back companions and other characters.  It's almost like Moffat said, "WWRTDD?"  And seriously - Danny Boy?  I'm sure that all the Moffat fans LOVED it, though.  Had RTD done it, there would have been nothing but whinging.  What constant, f-ing hypocrites.

5)  The Doctor is so mean.  He wants the Colonel to be remembered as "Colonel Runaway".  Yes, this is something that Ten would have done (remember, "doesn't she look tired?")  However, Eleven is such as ass about it.  He cannot be angry without also being a total douche.

6)  Again, why don't they just get in the TARDIS where they'll be safe?  No, they have to skip around like they're on holiday.  Idiots.  I get that the Doctor wants to know what's going on, but Amy would still be safer in the TARDIS than anywhere else.

7)  The hug between the Doctor and Amy goes on for so long, it's completely awkward.  They're having a conservation in the midst of a hug.  WTF?

8)  When River tells Amy and Rory that she's their daughter, it so reminded me of a soap opera.  And that's essentially what Doctor Who is now.  Amy and Rory's daughter, who was stolen at birth, is really River Song, their best friend's future wife - we think - who all this time has been sharing adventures with them before they even knew they would have a child.  BARF.

Likes:

When the Sontaran is dying, Rory tells him that he'll be okay, he's a warrior.  The Sontaran replies, "I'm not a warrior, I'm a nurse".  This is quite a reflection of Rory, who is also a nurse, and maybe not the warrior that he is pretending to be at the moment.

Speaking of Cybermen, I just watched this episode the other day - Tomb of the Cybermen - and this scene made me laugh so hard!

S6 Episode 4: The Doctor's Wife

Well, this was the first decent episode since Vincent and the Doctor. Let's get to it, shall we? Short and sweet.

The Doctor receives a distress signal from a Time Lord, they arrive somewhere outside of the universe and find Auntie, Uncle, Nephew, and Idris living on House, some kind of asteroid thing (I never really figured out what House was). The soul of the TARDIS is stolen and transferred into Idris. When she meets the Doctor, she starts talking apparent nonsense, kisses him, etc. The Doctor finds out that House has been killing Time Lords and cutting them up to remake Auntie and Uncle, Dr. Frankenstein-style. And, he eats TARDISes.

Amy and Rory get trapped inside the TARDIS, because being in life-and-death situations is what they do best. House messes with them, the Doctor and Idris, or "Sexy", as she says he calls her ("only when we're alone") build a TARDIS console from dead TARDISes and save the day. Well, Sexy saves the day because she is ANGRY.


Repeat Idea:

This is the fifth time that Rory dies.

Episodes in which Rory has died in some manner:

1)  Amy's Choice:  Rory dies in the dream, so he's not actually dead
2)  Cold Blood:  Rory actually dies
3)  Day of the Moon:  Rory doesn't actually die, but we think he does
4)  Curse of the Black Pearl:  Rory temporarily dies, but is brought back to life by Amy
5)  The Doctor's Wife:  Rory appears to have died after waiting for Amy for thousands of years, but it's just House messing with her mind

Likes:

1) For an episode with very little plot, there were tons of fantastic lines.

2) For as much as I hate Moffatt messing with time, I loved how Sexy (yes, I'm going to call her that because I think it's hilarious) had trouble with tenses and talking about things that hadn't happened yet. Because it's different when it's the TARDIS talking about it versus the Doctor doing whatever the frak he pleases - plus, she says that she exists in ALL of time and space simultaneously.

3) I don't know if this is a like, but there was something about Sexy's facial expression that reminded me of someone the first time through. Now I know who it is - she keeps doing Hermione Granger's "worried" face!

4) Suranne Jones was brilliant as Sexy. I LOVED her. It was so nice to see a character with real depth and emotion. We have not had a character like that since Vincent.

5) When Nephew gets atomized (or "displaced", as the Doctor says), the Doctor wryly observes, "another Ood I've failed to save". I literally laughed out loud. Every once in a while, Matt Smith just pulls out a perfect delivery.

6)  Uncle was another great character - he is creepy, yet funny, and he is played to perfection by Adrian Schiller.


Dislikes:

1) There is no real point to this episode, other than the Doctor meeting the TARDIS. I guess that's okay, because it's about time we have a real character story. Vincent and the Doctor was a character story, and so was The Lodger, and I really liked them both. So maybe this shouldn't be a dislike. Hmm.

2) Captain Jack is bisexual, Eleventh Doctor is bipolar (I know, I know, Jack is actually omnisexual, but it didn't flow as nicely). Angry Doctor again. He gets mad at Auntie and Uncle and says, "You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it'll do to me". He looks like he's about to lose it. I know some people go on about David Tennant's angst, but holy crap. This guy needs to go to Anger Management or something. He's got two emotions: super-happy-monkey and pissed off.

3)  I thought the entire concept of Amy and Rory being locked in the TARDIS was ridiculous.  They just keep running down the same corridor over and over.  What a brilliant opportunity to show us other rooms in the TARDIS, and it was totally wasted.  I really Do. Not. Care. about the relationship between Amy and Rory's anymore.  Why, oh why do they keep hitting us over the head with it?  And while I normally love Arthur Darvill, he does NOT look like he's running for his life when the doors slam shut.  Both times that he gets separated from Amy, he looks like he's out for a casual jog.

4)  The first time I watched the episode and Amy and Rory stepped into the Ninth and Tenth Doctor console, I felt violated.  Watching it the second time through a few months later, I still feel violated.  I literally have a visceral reaction to it, like someone has punched me in the stomach.  It's just wrong, wrong, wrong.

5)  Amy says, "you can't say it, you have to think it" and then proceeds to put her hands up to her temples as if she's trying to read a mind and SAYS, "crimson, eleven, delight, the smell of dust after rain".  It would have been sufficient for her to make that ridiculous mime and then have the montage of thoughts, she didn't have to verbalize it, especially since she just said that you can't say it!

Here's a little bit about another of the Doctor's wives ...

S6 Episode 3: Pirates of the Caribbean 5 Curse of the Black Spot

Surprisingly, I don't have too many issues with this episode. I should rephrase that: I have less issues that I expected I'd have, considering I LOATHE Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon. A lot of reviews that I've read or listened to heavily criticized the graphics. I had zero problems with the graphics - that's about the only thing I had zero problems with.

The Doctor and his Companions are off on a storyarc-less adventure on the high seas! They arrive on board a pirate ship whose crew is slowly being taken by a Siren-like creature. Once they are injured, even in the slightest way, they are marked with the black spot; she appears (I almost wrote "Apparates") and sings to the sailors, enchanting them. At her touch, they apparently explode. The crew get picked off rather quickly, despite having been becalmed for eight days. At one point, Rory gets a superficial cut, but Amy and the Doctor prevent him from being taken by the Siren. Pretty soon it's just the Captain, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, Toby (the Captain's stowaway son) and two other pirates. After discovering that the Siren can get in through water, they barricade themselves inside the armory.

The Doctor and the Captain make their way to the TARDIS, who is also becalmed, and disappears (or "Disapparates", if you prefer) as they watch. One of the crew members leaves the armory to pilfer the loot, and he is taken by the Siren. It is then that the Doctor then realizes that it's not water that calls the Siren, but reflections. And, OH NO! The Captain's pendant is gone! They rush back to the armory just as Toby starts to polish the pendant. The Doctor starts breaking out all the windows and throwing all the treasure overboard, but the Captain secrets a crown inside his coat. He LOVES treasure!

Well, then a huge storm whips up, and as Toby brings his father his coat, the crown rolls out and Toby is taken by the Siren. Then Rory gets knocked overboard. The Doctor, Captain, and Amy all cut their hands so that the Siren will come take them. She arrives, and they all reach out to her.

They all wake up on the floor of a space ship. All of the crew members are lying on beds, hooked up to machines. The Doctor figures out that the Siren is really some kind of hologram, and the space ship had been becalmed just like the pirate ship. And reflections were a way for the hologram to get through. She was rescuing all of the people who were injured, even if it was minor. However, she doesn't know how humans work, so she can't actually heal them, just keep them in stasis. Amy wants to take Rory back to the TARDIS, so she gives her consent to the hologram. Before unhooking Rory, he wakes up and tells her that she'll have to do CPR, which Amy says she doesn't know. But he trusts her. So she unhooks him, they get back to the TARDIS, and Amy performs CPR. After a minute, though, she gives up. And then, miraculously, Rory spits out water and is okay.

Before they leave, the Captain says he's not leaving his son. So, he decides to fly the space ship away (a ship is a ship, after all). All the crew members (that we'd met) and Toby all stand around his chair.


Repeat Ideas:

Hmm. I couldn't come up with any repeat ideas, as this is the first time we've seen a watery tart charming things with her singing ... hang on a minute ...

1) A watery tart charming things with her singing. We JUST watched Abigail charm the shark and control the fog with her singing. Yes, it was a few months prior to this episode, but it was only FOUR episodes ago!

2) A medical specialist who didn't know how to heal its patients? I have four words for you - ARE YOU MY MUMMY?

3) When they find the aliens in the space ship, the Doctor makes a comment along the lines of, "have you ever looked in a mirror and thought you were seeing a different world?" This is a bit too similar to the line in Family of Blood, "He trapped her inside a mirror ... If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you just for a second, that's her. That's always her.

4)  In case you haven't been keeping count, this is the third time that Rory dies.  Fourth, if you count his fake death in Day of the Moon.

Dislikes:

1) The crew gets picked off so fast. Seriously, are there THAT many injuries on a ship? At the rate that everyone is getting injured, the whole crew should have been gone days ago.

2) The Siren doesn't come for Rory until he realizes that he's been cut. That's convenient.

3) The original concept, that the Siren could travel through water, was a MUCH better concept than traveling through reflections.

4) How does the Captain knows that Toby is his son? He's clearly never met him, as Toby says, "[Mother] told me all about you, I should be proud to know you".

5) When the Doctor and the Captain leave the armory to go to the TARDIS, the Captain slips and almost cuts his hand. I have a hard time believing that a man who spends his whole life at sea could be that clumsy.

6) When they first enter the armory, there are two crew members besides Amy, Rory, and Toby. But, a few minutes later, there is only one. Where did the other crew member go?

7) Why did the Siren take the TARDIS? I understand that the TARDIS is alive, unlike the ship, but is there something wrong with the TARDIS besides being becalmed? I doubt it. They only made the TARDIS disappear so that they could get Rory onboard. If it was going to disappear, it should have happened before this.

8) If there are all these pieces of reflective treasure laying around, she would have total access to the ship. But, because you have to see a REFLECTION, then the treasure would have been fine being kept locked up somewhere. There was no need to throw it all overboard.

9) The Doctor calls the Siren to them by opening up the barrel of fresh water during the storm. DURING. THE. STORM. I've never been on a ship during a storm, but I'm guessing that the water isn't exactly reflection-friendly when the ship is being tossed about and there is no moon.

10) When the Siren takes the Doctor, Amy, and the Captain, they wake up on the floor of the space ship. Why aren't they in a bed like everyone else?

11) They find the aliens, and the Doctor touches them, then exclaims, "ew, alien bogies!"  Wait a minute ... if the ship was becalmed for eight days, then the alien space ship must have been there for at least eight days, too.  The aliens must have died pretty soon after landing there, since they're all still strapped in to their seats, and, if the Captain was able to fly the ship away, it wasn't becalmed.  So why are their bogies still fresh?

12)  How did the Doctor get consent from the Siren to take the TARDIS away?   And how was Toby sitting up with the Captain when he flew the ship away?  And all the other crew members?  Did he give his consent?  Is there some kind of long extension cord stretched between the bridge and the sick bay that's keeping Toby alive?  I'm so confused.

Likes:

1)  I did like how the Captain kept saying, "a ship's a ship".  I love it when people from the past are able to grasp modern concepts.  After all, they weren't stupid, just had no exposure to modern technology.  It drives me crazy in books and movies when someone time travels to the past and everyone is terrified of technology.  Overall, the Captain was a really good character.

Bottom line: most of this story didn't make sense, but it was kind of fun.

And now, Davy Jones has a question for Rory:

S6 Episode 2: Day of the Moon

Here we are with Part 2 of Moffat's two-part series opener.  When last we left our heroes, Amy had just shot at the little girl in the astronaut outfit.  But now, surprise!  It's three months later and Amy is running through the desert.  Canton appears and pulls out a body bag.  He apparently shoots Amy, who falls to the ground and we see that her arms are covered in black marks.  Canton then corners River, who is writing marks on her skin as she counts the Silence.  She then jumps out of a building.  He also hunts down marker-covered Rory.  Amy and Rory are taken in body bags to the Doctor, who is tied in a straight jacket out in Area 51.  Soldiers have built some kind of magic box around him, and as Canton closes the door, Amy and Rory burst out of their body bags.  The Doctor leans against the invisible TARDIS, and they rush off to save River, who plunges into the TARDIS's swimming pool as she dives off of the building.

Reunited in the TARDIS, the group discusses the Silence, whom they have discovered have been on Earth for thousands of years - it's not an alien invasion, it's been complete domination and no one knows.  Well, except for the Doctor, Rory, Amy, River, and Canton.  No one else remembers after seeing them except for these guys.  WTF.  They've been traveling the US for three months counting how many Silence they see.  Also, Amy tells the Doctor that she's not pregnant after all.

Moving on.  The Doctor injects a little red light in each of their hands - it's kind of a recorder, in which they can leave themselves messages.  If the light is blinking, they've left a message, which is usually "holy crap, the Silence are here!"  In X-Files style, Amy and Canton apparently travel from orphanage to orphanage looking for the missing little girl.  I'm not really sure how they came to the conclusion that they had to go to orphanages, but there you have it.  They find an orphanage that closed down in 1967, but the guy who runs it thinks it's not 1967 yet.  He's clearly messed up.  Amy explores and finds a bunch of Silence hanging from the ceiling sleeping.  She runs out of the room, but forgets right away that there was something there, and she continues to explore.  As she approaches a door, a slot opens in it and a lady wearing an eyepatch looks through and says, "I think she's dreaming".  Amy enters the room and finds a child's room with lots of pictures of the little girl.  She also finds a picture of herself holding a baby.  Ooh.  The astronaut/little girl enters the room, followed by the Silence, and Amy starts screaming.  Canton finds a Silent, too, and when he hears Amy screaming, he shoots it.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has been tinkering in Apollo 11.  He is taken into custody, but Rory and Nixon walk out of the TARDIS and convinces the guards to release him. 

The Doctor shows up and they find that Amy is missing, and the blinking light is laying on the floor.  They can hear Amy through the light, but they don't know where she is.  They find the astronaut suit, which is empty - the girl clawed her way out of it, so she must be super strong ("my kind of girl", the Doctor says.  ::Shudder::)  The Doctor tells them that the Silence are implanting thoughts into people's minds, giving them ideas, advancing the culture (I'm still not seeing the problem with the Silence).  The reason that man decided to go to the moon was because the Silence needed a space suit.  Apparently the Silence are lazy and didn't feel like building one themselves.

Back in Area 51, Canton and Nixon walk out of the super secure bunker thingie to the surprise of everyone.  Inside, Canton uses Amy phone to record the Silent, whom they took hostage, saying "you should kill us all on sight".

The Doctor discovers Amy's location and takes the TARDIS there.  Just as Neil Armstrong starts his famous line, "one small step for man - " the Doctor interrupts the live feed with the video of the Silent saying "you should kill us all on sight" over and over and over.  He tells the Silence that they just ordered their own demise.  The Silence try to give them the Dementor's Kiss, and River opens fire.  They all escape, but only after River's cheesy totally awesome gun skills, where she spins around while firing her gun, take out the rest of the Silence.

The Doctor takes River back to her prison, where she snogs him.  She's shocked and horrified to discover that it's the first time the Doctor has kissed her.  One step closer to death, River dear!  The Doctor then runs a full-body scan on Amy to see if she's pregnant, and the scan keeps oscillating between POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.

The final scene shows us the little girl six months later as she regenerates.  Ta da.

Epic Entrance

At first, you're all like, "whoa!  Why is Canton hunting them down?"  Amy pleads with him, "don't you remember the warehouse?"  River asks him, "why are you doing this?"  And the Doctor is all tied up.  So wow, what made Canton do this?  We don't know!  We never find out!  There is no point to this entrance, other than to demonstrate how awesome Moffat is.  Seriously, there is no reason whatsoever.  It's not like anyone really knew that the Doctor and his companions existed.  No one else certainly knew about the Silence.  Did something happen while they were going all over America looking for the Silence?  Is it just a way for them to be reunited?  What, they couldn't say, "look mates, we'll all reunite back on this spot on July 15"? I think this is not only an unnecessarily epic entrance, it's STUPID. 

Repeat Ideas:

These aren't my typical I-have-beef-with-this repeat ideas.  Just something that I've noticed has been mentioned before.

1)  River says "There's always a way out" - this is what the Doctor says in The Time of Angels.

2)  When Canton is hunting down Rory, he says, "I'm waiting for you to run.  It would look better if I shout you while you were running."  This is very similar to what is said in The Time of Angels about River Song:  "Wait til she runs.  Don't make it look like an execution."

Dislikes:

1)  The writing all over them.  It's creepy, it's shocking, but when you think about it, it's totally unnecessary.  They know that there are countless Silence - do they really think they need to keep a tally?  What are they going to do, take a census?

2)  The flashing red lights in their hands.  Umm ... why didn't the Doctor just give them, I don't know, a journal?  Really, the only answer is to inject the flashing red light?

3)  The Doctor's prison is comprised of zero balance dwarf star alloy.  It's completely impenetrable; the blocks fuse together as they're placed on top of each other, and nothing can get in or out.  Okay, cool.  Wait - WTF?  We haven't even been to the MOON yet - where did they get this supers awesome material?  Again, it's completely ridiculous and its sole purpose is to add to the EPIC ENTRANCE.  I'm more irritated the more I think about it ...

4)  Nixon travels in the TARDIS.  So, he's a companion now?  Just like ALLLLLLL the other characters who have casually traveled in the TARDIS over the last season.  It's like some kind of freaking taxicab.

5)  The Doctor tells Nixon to tape everything that happens in his office.  Sigh.

6)  Since when does the Doctor encourage people to kill?  And again, what did the Silence really do that was so bad?  I feel like we don't have a good reason to get rid of them except they kill people who look at them too long.

7)  I really feel like this whole Silence thing was pulled out of Moffat's rear end.  The Silence clearly was connected to the Crack.  Silence fell.  SILENCE FELL.  There are flashbacks when the Doctor learns what the Silence are called to people in Series 5 saying "Silence will fall" ...  Okay, so are they telling him that the Silence will fall because of the Doctor?  But then the Silent says himself, "and the Silence will fall!"  Does "fall" have another meaning of which I'm unaware?  I feel that the whole concept of the Silence being connected to the Crack is a real stretch.  They could have been called something else and still had the same premise.

8)  When the Doctor broadcasts the Silent saying, "you should kill us all on sight", it interrupts Neil Armstrong saying, "that's one small step for man -" but then picks up again with, "one small step for mankind".  The video of the Silent clearly plays several times (it's not just being repeated for effect, to show that everyone around the world is seeing this).  So what was Neil Armstrong saying in the interim?  Seriously.  It's a LIVE FEED.  Also, you'll notice that after the Silent says that line, everyone turns around to see the Silence.  Wait ... how did they know that the Silence were standing behind them?

Likes:

::crickets::

Okay, fine.  I like Canton.  Actually, to be more specific, I like Mark Sheppard.


Repeat Ideas:

1)  Amy's ghosting.  Yes, that's right, the only purpose for those little red lights are so that Amy can ghost, a la Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.  Oh, and kind of Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.  It just really aggravates me that he can't come up with a new device.

2)  River lands in the swimming pool.  Just like she flew out of that space ship in Time of Angels and the Doctor caught her.  This is aggravating to me because if he can just go back and catch her, then no one can ever truly be in peril.  And seriously, is the Doctor going to keep catching her?  Yawn.

Curiouser and Curiouser:

1)  In The Impossible Astronaut, River tells Rory that the Doctor "dropped out of the sky".  When Amy is ghosting, she says, "you dropped out of the sky", and "my life was so boring before you".  We think she's talking about the Doctor, but it turns out she's talking about Rory.  Come on, no she's not.  She's totally talking about the Doctor, exactly in the same way that River was talking about the Doctor when he dropped out of the sky for her (when she was a little girl!  Fancy that!  I'm shocked!  The Doctor visiting one of Moffat's characters when she was a little girl?  Who'd have guessed?  Seriously, though, is Moffat screwed up or what, that this is a running theme in all of his story lines?)  Anyway, I'm so glad that the whole Amy/Doctor/Rory thing has been cleared up.  Right.

2)  The Doctor talks to Rory about when Rory was the Last Centurion.  He asks if Rory remembers that.  Wait ... how could Rory remember it?  The whole universe got rebooted.  How would he remember that if he wasn't plastic anymore?  Is this a setup for what happens later in the series?

These two episodes have me so mad, I kind of wish that every time I looked away from them I'd forget how much they infuriate me.



Ahhhh ... Ianto ...