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Tag: Series 7

Nu-View #23: Time Marches On

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The Time of the Doctor (Christmas Special; 2013)
Viewed 24 Apr 2018

Doctor/Companion: Eleven, Clara Oswald
Stars: Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman
Preceding Story: The Day of the Doctor (Eleven, Ten, War, Clara, Kate Stewart)
Succeeding Story: Deep Breath (Twelve, Clara)

I don’t know what others’ families are like, but in ours obsessions come and go in waves. We’ll get all excited about something and dive in head-first, only to get derailed somewhere along the way for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s a scheduling issue that throws us off our groove, or sometimes something else piques our interest and supersedes the current passion-of-the-moment.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Such is the way of the girls’ run through modern Doctor Who. Once we got on a roll, we were powering through episodes at an incredible rate. With only twenty-one left to get them up-to-date on the entirety of the modern era, we hit one of those bumps in the road. It’s now been more than a month since we last watched Who, having for the time being move on to the MCU.

All this is by way of explanation that my recollections of the girls reactions to this (and the following) episode have already been blurred by time. I have my notes, but they’re spare, and lack of temporal proximity makes them more difficult than usual to interpret. Besides, the girls did more watching than openly reacting. But there are a few key moments in the Eleventh Doctor’s last story that made an impression on them, and therefore on me.

Moffat threw everything but the kitchen sink at us here. There are Daleks, Cybermen, Silence, and the Crack. In fact, there appears to be a message coming through the Crack that no one can interpret. But the Doctor conveniently has something that can help his new “friend” Handles the Cyber-head decode that message: the Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey. “Nicked it off the Master in the Death Zone,” he explains, and the girls bark a laugh. We’ve only recently watched The Five Doctors, and they understand the reference perfectly.

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Nu-View #22: Taking Satisfaction

The Angels Take Manhattan (Series 7, Ep 5; 2012)
Viewed 16 Apr 2018

Doctor/Companion: Eleven, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song
Stars: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston
Preceding Story: The Power of Three (Eleven, Amy, Rory)
Succeeding Story: The Snowmen (Eleven, Clara)

This coming weekend, I get to take my daughters to their first Doctor Who con—in fact, their first con of any sort since becoming fans of the show. As you may recall, the three members of the Paternoster Gang were slated to be the guests of honor, and I was trying to figure out how to give the girls enough background to appreciate said guests.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2012 BBC

Since then, Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra)—the first of those guests to have been announced, as I recall—has had to cancel, and my kids have blown through so much Doctor Who that they’ve now seen not just one, but every extant episode in which the Paternoster Gang appears. I’m no longer worrying about their excitement for meeting these actors; now it’s a matter of which Doctor do we watch next (and next, and next…).

Not only are we watching lots of episodes together, but it’s also been a ridiculously long time since the Ladies have gotten together to watch anything other than the most recent series (scheduling can be a real bear). And since a commenter suggested it might be fun to read more about what my daughters think about these new-to-them stories, I thought I’d choose a few during which to record their reactions and reboot the NuViews section of the blog in earnest.

At the time I made that decision, we were in the middle of Series 7A. A Companion departure story seemed like a really good one to capture, so when it was time to watch The Angels Take Manhattan, I got out my clipboard and—with the girls’ permission—started taking notes.

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That Turkey Never Did Quite Get Cooked

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Review of The Time of the Doctor
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I suppose my expectations finally sank to the cellar when the first “nude Doctor” promo pics hit the Web. You’d think there would be no room left for crushed hopes after that, but apparently you’d be mistaken. It seems I had an iota of optimism left that Moffat could tie shit together coherently—I really ought to know better.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Usually I enjoy Moffat’s episodes in the moment; it’s not till later when I have time to think about the plot that I realize how riddled it is with holes and other offenses. Most times he manages to catch me up in the emotion of each scene (which is, after all, his strong suit) and I can take an episode as it was intended on that first viewing.

Not this time.

Maybe it had something to do with all of the interruptions (mine were familial rather than commercial, but I’m sure the effect was much the same for those who watched on BBCA). Or maybe it was the painful running “gag” about nudity (which just… No.). At any rate, from the very first chirping tones of the message—the Question—and the Mother Superious’s droning voiceover, I was a detached observer, uninvested (at least in a good way) in the proceedings. I was pissed at Clara for not listening when the Doctor said he was in danger, I was pissed at the Doctor for blatantly ignoring human social mores (with which he is damn well familiar), and I was pissed with Moffat for thinking that “for kids” and “juvenile” were interchangeable.

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Reader Poll Roundup

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You may have noticed that every week there was brand new Who, I posted a reader poll inviting visitors to the blog to rate the latest episode. It’s been fascinating to see the results, watching the overall trend toward high or low score – often away from my personal rating – and the distribution of votes. I had so much fun playing with the data, as a matter of fact, that I decided to share some of my findings publicly. (You can always go back to the poll archives to check my work yourself, if you feel so inclined.)

To start, I’m going to present the chronological list of ratings for all the Series 7 stories (7A, 7B, and the Christmas Special). These are the average (mean) ratings over all votes received. In other words, I took each star rating and multiplied by the number of votes the rating got, then added all those results and divided by total number of votes. This is how it panned out:

As you can see, the season overall was very uneven. I find it interesting that Series 7A yielded an inverse bell curve, with A Town Called Mercy being the nadir according to the sampled voters. In 7B, there were several dips, but the low point of the entire series – again, according to the votes received – was The Rings of Akhaten.

For those of you already trying to figure out how they all stack up against each other, try this on for size:

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What’s in a ‘Name’?

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Review of The Name of the Doctor
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

So many conflicting emotions. Parts of this finale were brilliant, and I really wanted to love the whole thing. I’m afraid I’m going to have to admit that I’m turning into something of a curmudgeon, though; this show is not entirely for me anymore.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

I’m betting there are few Moffat fans (perhaps more specifically “River fans”) who didn’t adore this episode. For my part, as someone who has been a Doctor/River denialist rather than a shipper, the otherwise lovely bits of the story were somewhat tarnished by the saccharine (Brits would say “twee,” I suppose) farewell between them.

I’ll admit the way River was used through the rest of the episode was clever, and overall I like her. I’ve just never bought that there was a strong, romantic love between them (at least, not reciprocated by the Doctor), so while I was completely caught up in the “you can see me?” conversation, as it ground inexorably toward a big, wet smoochie, I found myself thinking, “Oh, no. Please don’t. He’s gonna – aw, damn!”

One thing that really gets me about this new, post-Library River (who knew that was even possible?) is the fact that we’re left to conclude that she has literally been haunting him for years. I’m not sure I care for that idea. Makes him rather a jerk to ignore her that whole time, doesn’t it? Is she less “real” – does she “count” less – because she’s in the mainframe, and so it’s OK for him not to think about her feelings at all? Way to respect the person you supposedly love, Doctor.

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Don’t Wake Me

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Review of Nightmare in Silver
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’ve read (OK, skimmed) a fair number negative reviews for this episode, but I have to say I just can’t relate at all.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

This series more than any other, I’ve observed a vast array of opinions among fans. For any given episode, there seems to be a “best thing since sliced bread” camp and a “disastrous blight besmirching the face of Our Show” camp. Occasionally, there’s a “Weeeeell… It wasn’t awful, but it sure could’ve been better” contingent, too. As best I can tell, the residents of these camps don’t all stay together as they switch campgrounds, either. I’m not sure if it’s really this series, or that I’m a little more connected these days than I used to be that’s responsible for my observation of the effect, but nearly every episode has been divisive to some degree.

I’m all for every fan having (and voicing) their own opinion, and I know no one’s line up exactly with anyone else’s – heck, things would be boring if they did. I like to believe that most times I can wrap my brain around the differences enough to say, “I don’t agree with you, but I can understand why you feel that way.” But this time I just don’t get it.

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Invasion of the Leeches

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Review of The Crimson Horror
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I can’t help but wonder if the Doctor isn’t doing some universe-hopping with Clara on board. After all, it would explain both her comment that her current home “looks different” when she comes back to it and some of the nonsensical parts of their adventure this week.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Despite the fact that bad science often irks me when I see in in Who, something about the way Mrs. Gillyflower’s rocket was the epitome of steampunk allowed me to put a perception filter on the whole thing and take it in stride. (Even if I can’t buy that this “prize-winning chemist and mechanical engineer” could devise both a viable preservation process and a functional rocket with only the help of a millions-years-old leech.) I know others were bothered by the flurry of anachronisms (and I also don’t believe that Vastra, Jenny, and Strax can work unmolested in Victorian London, but that’s another issue), but somehow – while other episodes this season have really put me off – I was mostly able to roll with this one.

I can’t honestly say I was over-the-top thrilled, though. After all, I’ve never really been a fan of the “penny dreadfuls” (or Hammer Horror films, to which I understand there were a great number of references). So the genre wasn’t my thing. That means the bodies that had succumbed to the Crimson Horror grated on me, the all-around nasty old lady put me off, and Mr. Sweet was simply 100% icky.

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Like a Box of Chocolates

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Review of Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I think that nearly every fan, upon hearing the title of this episode, felt their heart skip a beat. Indeed, Moffat himself has indicated in interviews that his own fannish disappointment with the results of similar hype surrounding the end of The Invasion of Time (the pursuit “through the labyrinthine corridors” consisting primarily of tromping through the same stretch of an abandoned hospital building) was the inspiration for Doing It Right, so to speak.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Well, at least they tried…

I find myself weirdly ambivalent about this one – so much so that I was hard pressed to make myself sit through a second viewing. Even though there was a lot I liked – pretty much anything that had to do with the TARDIS herself I loved – there were so many parts that didn’t work for me that I’ve had a tough time mustering any enthusiasm for the episode as a whole.

Let’s go with the uncomfortable bits first so we can go out on a high, eh? Starting with the social commentary, I was rather disturbed to realize it took me till that second viewing to realize that we’d finally got some people of color in key roles, but they were depicted as the baddies. That troubles me.

What troubled me more, though, was those characters’ story. I found it horrific – I suppose from a storytelling point of view, that’s good. After all, it was small anomalies that proved out over the course of the episode without being heavily telegraphed. Good stuff, right? Maybe, but it just made my skin crawl, and not in a good way.

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Obvious Quality

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Review of Hide
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

So close. So close! It was almost another top-notch episode – filled with nods to the pre- and post-Hiatus eras both – but it tripped at the finish line.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

I will admit that those last two minutes didn’t bother me quite as much the second time through, but I was also pausing the recording at regular intervals to make notes. That tends to break up the action in a way that prevents one from getting pulled into it.

What did work for me was practically everything else in the episode. It was wonderfully atmospheric, providing the perfect ambience for a ghost story. I absolutely loved the way that the shots in the main part of the house were all done to give a strong impression of sepia tone photography, down to the brown costumes.

With the exception of the cringe-worthy entrance of the Doctor and (especially) Clara, the seriously spooky tone is well maintained throughout, with the occasional light comic relief to allow a break in the tension. Most of that is courtesy of Clara, or of her relationships with the Doctor or the TARDIS, as when the Doctor tells her that her “pants are so on fire.”

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Chillingly Good

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Review of Cold War
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Hallelujah – finally, an episode I actually liked!


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2013 BBC

Though the pre-credits sequence didn’t grab me quite as much as it did the poor sailor, it was not a bad way to start (and narratively necessary). Where the story really got rolling, though, was immediately after the credits as the ship was heading down. It had an extremely Das Boot feel, and was incredibly tense as a result. And I thought they largely managed to maintain that tension throughout.

I’m not sure how much of my love for this episode comes from the fact that I could utterly relate to the Doctor’s declaration: “hair, shoulder pads, nukes – it’s the ’80s. Everything’s bigger.” It certainly didn’t hurt that I remember the political climate of 1983 so clearly. The episode definitely gave me that rock-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach feeling that “mutually-assured destruction” always did. It was something we lived with daily; the threat of nuclear war hung over the heads of even middle school kids like me. So suffice to say I thought they nailed the feel of the era.

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