Well that was huge disappointment of an episode. Without a doubt the biggest misstep of Moffat's era and on a par with Fear Her orLove And Monsters as a contender of the worst episode of new Who.
Most disappointingly it starts so well. The opening five minutes showing how Clara's parents met were beautiful. This was followed by Doctor Who's valiant attempt at a Star Wars Cantina scene, which really showed off how good costumes and CGI can be on a (reduced) TV budget. Sadly all the imagination and care that went into the visuals were wasted on a bland, pedestrian episode with a nonsensical dull plot.
Most disappointingly it starts so well. The opening five minutes showing how Clara's parents met were beautiful. This was followed by Doctor Who's valiant attempt at a Star Wars Cantina scene, which really showed off how good costumes and CGI can be on a (reduced) TV budget. Sadly all the imagination and care that went into the visuals were wasted on a bland, pedestrian episode with a nonsensical dull plot.
Despite this Matt Smith continues to captivate as The Doctor, a role he seems born to play, and Jenna-Louise Coleman was great as Clara even though she was given very little to do. Clara is really growing on me as a character - it is nice to see a companion who isn’t in love with the Doctor, doesn't worship him and is just along for an exciting adventure. Her touching scene with the young Queen was one of the few high points of a very poor episode.
As I mentioned before, the episode looked amazing. The costumes were of a high-standard and gave the feel of a vibrant alien world - one of the biggest complaints against Who is that its alien worlds are often rather sparsely populated. Here it felt like they'd actually left planet Earth. The CGI was also very good even if the (extremely) big bad guy looked like the offspring of the Boogie Man from Nightmare Before Christmas and the sun from the Teletubbies planet.
As I mentioned before, the episode looked amazing. The costumes were of a high-standard and gave the feel of a vibrant alien world - one of the biggest complaints against Who is that its alien worlds are often rather sparsely populated. Here it felt like they'd actually left planet Earth. The CGI was also very good even if the (extremely) big bad guy looked like the offspring of the Boogie Man from Nightmare Before Christmas and the sun from the Teletubbies planet.
| However, as I've said the plot was nonsensical. Nothing that happened made any real sense. The Doctor vanished for most of the episode, there was a whole bunch of pointless scenes where they tried renting Flash Gordon's old bike, despite the fact that (as The Doctor mentioned on several occasions) the TARDIS is a fully function spaceship... | the steam-punk style soldiers...may as well not have been in the episode...hardly enough time to give the kids nightmares |
None of the villains were very well developed. Properly introduced the steam-punk style soldiers searching for the Queen have the potential to become a recurring villain - they looked amazing and sounded really creepy. Sadly they were so sparsely served by the script they may as well not have been in the episode at all, hardly enough time to give the kids Who style nightmares. Everything about this Who episode lacked development in fact - despite looking fabulous the races introduced hardly registered. It truly was a case of spectacle over substance.
And was the ultimate enemy seriously defeated by the Doctor rambling on how great he was and Clara's magic leaf? Their dialogue could have been the most moving, beautiful speech ever, but sadly I’ll never know - it was utterly drowned out by all the bloody singing!
Let’s hope that Mark Gatiss's episode next week, featuring the long awaited (by me at least) return of the Ice Warriors (my favourite villain ever), helps get things back on track.
On reflection though, the episode lived up to Moffat's description of it as a "blockbuster movie episode" - it looked amazing, had a couple of nice action scenes and a plot so bland and poorly written that it'll be largely forgotten in a year or two...
Gareth
And was the ultimate enemy seriously defeated by the Doctor rambling on how great he was and Clara's magic leaf? Their dialogue could have been the most moving, beautiful speech ever, but sadly I’ll never know - it was utterly drowned out by all the bloody singing!
Let’s hope that Mark Gatiss's episode next week, featuring the long awaited (by me at least) return of the Ice Warriors (my favourite villain ever), helps get things back on track.
On reflection though, the episode lived up to Moffat's description of it as a "blockbuster movie episode" - it looked amazing, had a couple of nice action scenes and a plot so bland and poorly written that it'll be largely forgotten in a year or two...
Gareth
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