Well after a fairly disappointing series Moffat redeems himself with a fantastic episode that answers a lot of the questions he had left hanging over the last couple of series and really makes me excited for the 50th anniversary episode in November.
Moffat, who has spent the last year saying that multiple Doctors will not appear in the 50th episode, proves once again that he, like The Doctor, lies. Or at least manipulates the truth, this wasn't the 50th anniversary, but featured every (or at least most of them - I didn't see Paul McGann or David Tennant, but am prepared to believe I missed them) previous Doctor. He claimed there would be no two-parters this series, but this was totally the first half of the fiftieth anniversary episode. In an age where every spoiler is revealed months in advance this was a huge coup!
Isadora Duncan had a penchant for floaty scarves. Back in the late 19th Century the American dancer had made quite the name for herself in Europe, as she reclaimed dance and movement as high art. She was exiled from America due to her Soviet Union sympathies and resided in Europe until her dramatic and tragic death. In September 1927 Isadora was holidaying in Nice, France. In the seat of a convertible next to her lover who could have known her long and delicate accessory (scarf, not man) would be the cause of her demise?
Of all the episodes this series this one, perhaps, had the most to live up to.
Neil Gaiman's previous episode, The Doctor's Wife, was one of the best episodes the show has ever produced. Unfortunately, while his return episode was entertaining it was also very flawed and featured as many moments of idiocy as it did genius.
Firstly the positives. The new look Cybermen were fantastic - a brilliant melding of the new series Cybus Cybermen and the original series Mondasian Cybermen. Gaiman was also pretty successful in his attempt to make the Cybermen scary again - the moment where one moved at super-speed was a fantastic reinvention of an enemy that usually gives you days' worth of warning as they slowly clank towards you.
I'm a sucker for a bad pun, so Tits 'n' Giggles started off on a positive note with me. A night of comedy to raise money for breast cancer awareness - really, what's not to like in that sentence?
Well, when I first heard about CoppaFeel! the charity - the gig was raising money for - last year, I wasn't so sure. I've known people who have had breast cancer, and my day job occasionally involves working with people who have or had cancer, and the advertising campaign I saw didn't sit well with me. It used young women, in what seemed like sexualised poses. Is that really relevant to the average person with breast cancer when the usual age of diagnosis is over 50?
After a fairly middling series filled with poorly realised monsters and plots that don't quite feel finished, Mark Gatiss returns with his second episode of the series - and it is a another classic. Between this and Cold War Gatiss has proven to be the strongest writer this series and he makes the best of the annual Doctor-lite episode.
And, to be entirely honest, the episode is much more interesting before The Doctor turns up (about 15 minutes in, probably the longest we've ever gone without him making an appearance). A Gothic mystery set in Victorian England, although set in Yorkshire rather than the more usual London (The Doctor has previously visited on The Evil Of The Daleks,The Talons Of Weng-Chiang, and obviously Gatiss's own The Unquiet Dead).
With riding crop, Ms Meller
Any fan of Poirot, courtesan history or 1920s buff would be horrified to realise a case such as that of Princess Fahmy Bey had passed them by. Centring on a French courtesan turned princess who shot her Egyptian prince husband at the Savoy, it is the mystery of the 3 shots and the not guilty verdict. it smacks of Agatha Christie at her most lavish.
Channel 4's documentary Edward VIII's Murderous Mistress (rather like The Spice Girls you have to nickname them all to tell them apart, Murderous Mistress, Married Mistress, Divorced Mistress...) lifted the lid on both the playboy prince's sexual preferences (let's just say from Wallis Simpson's fondness for exacting neatness and scolding letters she might have been nicknamed Mrs. Grey had she lived now) and the lengths the establishment will go to to avoid scandal. Making you wonder if public nudity is the least of Harry's misdemeanours.
After last week's one note musical episode Doctor Who returns to form with an ice-cold classic Who episode. Ice Warriors and a secluded location under attack? That's a Patrick Troughton episode right there.
Mark Gatiss(sssssssssss) continues to be one of the most consistently entertaining of the new Who writers and this is probably his most accomplished episode to date. He's clearly a fan of the show and introduced a vintage foe to a new generation of fans in a tense, occasionally terrifying, Alien inspired episode.
The episode was on a much smaller scale than last week, pretty much a bottle episode filmed on a single set, but what a bottle it was! The submarine set was incredible, down to the sound effects and the constant dripping water. I've seen films with less impressive set design. Doctor Who may have had a massive budget cut but it isn't showing on screen.